Gov. Cox says Sundance leaving Utah would be "death knell" for annual festival. 

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• Laura Seitz | Pool Photo
• Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks to reporters during a televised press conference on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2024.

UNIVERSITY—One week before the 2025 Sundance Film Festival is set to begin, and with the annual event's future home still undecided, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday that organizers would be foolish to abandon The Beehive State.

"I think it would be a huge mistake—for Sundance themselves—to move," Cox said. "I think it would be, really, a death knell for Sundance."

A combined Salt Lake City/Park City bid is among three finalists—and the presumed frontrunner—to host future editions of the festival, alongside Boulder, Colorado, and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Speaking to reporters during his monthly televised press conference at PBS Utah, Cox described Sundance as a major economic driver and a hub of artistic creativity (while noting that he doesn't enjoy all of the films that are screened). But he added that Utah's economy would be fine without the festival, and compared its potential exit to the experience of the Outdoor Retailers show, which decamped to Denver in 2018, only to repent of that decision and crawl back to the Wasatch Front in 2023.

Other, potential host states may be willing to offer larger tax incentives to Sundance, Cox said, but it wouldn't make up for the benefits and community support that exist in Sundance's longtime home.

"If it's only about chasing money then they can do that," Cox said. "That’s what outdoor retailers did and the money wasn’t worth it."

Sundance organizers have been tight-lipped about their future plans, including when a final announcement will be made. And festival representatives did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

The festival was founded in Utah in 1978—originally named the U.S. Film Festival—and each of its annual editions have been held around the Wasatch Front, with the quasi exception of an all-virtual festival during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cox said he spoke with acquaintances in the Los Angeles-based film industry after it became known that Sundance was courting new host sites. He said they were "dumbfounded" that organizers would even consider a relocation.

"I would be surprised if they didn't’ stay [in Utah] but I don’t get to make that decision," he said. "Sundance is Utah and Utah is Sundance—you can’t really separate those two."

Cox's comments came on the same day that Salt Lake City released a new "comprehensive safety plan," largely focused on homelessness and stemming from the pressure of state leaders, who warned they would intervene in city policy if conditions—as they see them—don't improve. Asked about the plan, Cox made a point to thank Mayor Erin Mendenhall and her team for taking a thoughtful and collaborative approach to the new plans, which call for an increased policing presence in the city and expanded shelter options and resources, among other initiatives.

"What we ultimately want is a plan that we can all work on together," Cox said. "Salt Lake City is our capital city, and it’s where the state government resides as well. There’s always going to be a unique relationship—always has been, since the beginning of our state."

In a prepared statement on the safety plans, Mendenhall noted that crime, broadly, is down within the city (virtually every metropolitan area saw spikes in crime during the COVID pandemic, but longterm trends remain on a downward trajectory from a peak in the early '90s). But she added that when residents and visitors feel unsafe, there is more work to do.

“Despite our efforts to lead the state in affordable housing investment, homelessness resources, additional police officers, temporary shelter, overflow shelter and microshelters, it is evident every single day that on-street camping is still a challenge, the shelter system which exists today is not sufficient to address the ongoing, year-round demand, and that drug sales and use infest many of our communities,” Mendenhall said.