Film Cincinnati and various regional partners have spent the past decade working to transform the Queen City’s reputation into what they call the Hollywood of the Midwest. Now, that same group hopes to cement that reputation – and attract tens of millions of dollars to the local economy – by helping Cincinnati become the new home to the Sundance Film Festival.
On Friday, the festival’s operator, Sundance Institute, named Cincinnati and five other cities as finalists to become the host of the international showcase for independent filmmakers. Other finalists include Atlanta; Boulder, Colorado; Louisville and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Institute also left open the possibility of returning to the current site in Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah.
The selected city will begin its hosting duties in 2027.
“For over a generation, with consistent support from the city of Cincinnati, Film Cincinnati has positioned the Cincinnati region as a go-to community for movies,” said Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval.
The Hollywood of the Midwest
For the past 15 years, cities across the Buckeye State have fought to take advantage of the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit. Created in 2009, the program provides a refundable tax credit of 30% on production cast and crew wages and other in-state spending.
Eligible production types are documentaries, pre-Broadway productions, miniseries, video games and music videos. But where Cincinnati has truly shined is in feature-length films.
The first major film to take advantage of the program in Southwest Ohio was the 2011 political thriller “The Ides of March,” starring George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. The product originally was going to be shot fully in Detroit.
Other films brought to the region since then include a mixture of big-budget flicks, indie house films and some made-for-TV less-than-classics. Examples are “Miles Ahead,” “Carol,” The Public,” “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,” “Dark Waters,” “The Old Man and the Gun” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” Among the most recent was “Bones and All” starring Timothée Chalamet.
Other noteworthy actors taking part in these locally made films were Cate Blanchett, Don Cheadle, Bruce Willis, Mark Ruffalo, Zac Efron and Rooney Mara.
“We know how to nurture creative talent and the skilled workers behind the scenes, and we know how to celebrate them when they are on the big screen,” Pureval said.
Putting Cincinnati at centerstage
Pureval and Kristen Schlotman, executive director of Film Cincinnati – a nonprofit dedicated to attracting and promoting the region’s television and movie industry – were integral to the Sundance Film application process.
The festival, which celebrated its 40th edition last year, has grown to become the largest independent film festival in the United States. It attracted a combined in-person and online viewership of 423,234 people last year in Park City and Salt Lake City.
Today, the festival is worth $118 million to Utah’s gross domestic product, according to a report by KUTV in Salt Lake City.
Founded by beloved actor Robert Redford in 1981, the Sundance Institute aims to support the creation of new U.S. and international film works. It does so through programming such as workshops, mentorships and grants.
To help shape the festival’s future, the institute opened a request for proposal to search for a new potential host city to facilitate future growth. The application process opened in May and closed in June.
To determine the host finalists, Sundance Institute assessed each city’s infrastructure and event-hosting capabilities while also evaluating each city’s potential to support the continued growth of the festival.
Pureval described Cincinnati as a “big league city” for broader tourism, highlighting its central location which makes it accessible to “so much of the U.S. population. He also noted that Cincinnati is no stranger to hosting major events – BLINK, the Major League Baseball All-Star game, Black Tech Week, etc. – with professionalism and capacity.
Another element of the review was a look at what the institute called each city’s “ethos and equity values,” per the RFP. Each finalist had to demonstrate how they’d welcome and continue to “foster the diverse Sundance community and culture of independent creativity that is an integral part of the institute and festival experience.”
The Sundance Film Festival will return to Utah in 2025 and 2026. The selection committee’s decision will apply to the festival in 2027 and beyond.
“As we very carefully consider this important decision for our Festival, we believe these six finalists allow us the best opportunity to not only secure a sustainable future for our Festival, but also to build upon its legacy while continuing to support the next generation of storytellers and highlight bold new works of art,” Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute board chair, and Amanda Kelso, the organization’s acting CEO, wrote in a joint statement.
Next steps toward 2027
Members of the Sundance Institute selection committee will visit each of the finalist cities in the coming weeks to further explore the possibilities of hosting the Festival.
Sundance Institute will provide more information once the location for the 2027 Festival has been selected.
“Both Cincinnati and the Sundance Film Festival are on the precipice for great change and we look forward to partnering and evolving together,” Pureval said.
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