Month: October 2025

The Utah Jazz announced a new practice facility today.

Like it says in the video, it will be next to the Utah Mammoth practice facility and the SEG corporate offices. In the video, Ryan Smith mentions this will be an opportunity to build something from scratch. It gives them a chance to build something really cool.

Being next to the Mammoth facility gives the Jazz organization an opportunity for collaboration. I don’t know what that means, but I imagine there may be some amenities that both teams could take advantage of.

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There was also a groundbreaking with speeches from the team and Ryan Smith.

It’s not clear when it will be officially complete, but according to Andy Larsen, it sounds like at least a year from now and possibly more.

It’s another nice addition by Ryan Smith for this team and, in some ways, the community. The better the facilities and experience for these players, the more likely they’ll be to enjoy their time playing with the Jazz. That type of treatment helps keep players here longer, which can help fans build stronger connections with the players. That connection can help grow the popularity of this team with a community that is ready for future success.

The Sundance Film Festival’s swan song in its longtime home of Park City, Utah is lining up to be a true banger, past and present.

“Make your plans now, because I’ll say the number of folks, filmmakers, artists, industry, folks who want to be part of this year’s festival is amazing,” Sundance Festival Director Eugene Hernandez tells Deadline today. “This culmination in Utah, this culmination in Park City, is going to be awesome.”

To that, instead of shifting over to its new home base of Boulder, Colorado for 2027 with a whimper, the festival founded by the late and truly great Robert Redford is leaving the Beehive State resort town and nearby Salt Lake City with a tribute to the Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid star and a series of screenings of some of Sundance’s greatest hits.

Along with Park City and SLC celebrations of Redford’s life and work, like a screening of 1969 ski movie Downhill Racer, the January 22–February 1, 2026 SFF will fill its usual more low key second week with sparkling new digital restorations and accompanying panels of alums.

Among the titles announced today, to run from January 27-30, with more likely to come, are Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris), House Party (Reginald Hudlin), Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck), American Dream (Barbara Kopple), Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki), and Saw (James Wan). Additionally, with various throwback and legacy events set at the 100th anniversary celebrating the Egyptian Theatre on upper Main Street, an archival screening of Lynn Shelton’s Humpday, which debuted at SFF 2009, is on the calendar too.

See a full listing of the newly unveiled legacy programs below.

With all that, and more to come, including the final selections and programming categories of world premieres and more, Hernandez chatted with me about what Sundance is planning for 2026, the loss of Bob Redford, and what’s in store for the big move to Boulder, CO for the 2027 festival.

DEADLINE: This is going to be the last year in Park City, which is a big deal for Sundance, but it is also going to be the first year without Bob Redford. What is that like for you?

EUGENE HERNANDEZ: It’s been an emotional few weeks.

It was already an emotional time.

This is a significant change and significant shift for our festival, culminating 40-plus years in Utah, right? What’s grounding for us is that we’re still rooted in Utah.

DEADLINE: Really?

HERNANDEZ: Yes, a third of our staff live there. We have tremendous legacy of programming that will continue in Utah. But with the festival itself leaving Park City in 2027, and then the passing of Mr. Redford a few weeks ago, it’s been really grounding and also really, at the same time, really clarifying. Mr. Redford shared this phrase, “everyone has a story” with us earlier this year, Dom, and it was very meaningful to carry that idea forward. It’s been very clarifying and really, for lack of a better word, helpful, in framing for us, really, and reminding us what, what this festival is, what is Mr. Redford’s legacy.

DEADLINE: Well, let’s get a little personal then – In terms of personal poignancy, what is Sundance, what is Bob Redford’s legacy for you?

HERNANDEZ: I went to this festival in 1993 for the first time, I was just coming out of UCLA, I didn’t know what Sundance was at the time, Dom. I grew up in Southern California near Palm Springs in Indio. I’d never been on a plane, never been in snow, and I kept hearing about these movies. So, for me, Sundance was like Paris Is Burning by Jenny Livingston, or Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino.

DEADLINE: That’s what it was and still is for a lot of people …

HERNANDEZ: (LAUGHS) Yes. So, I went to the festival in Park City. I’d never been to a festival. didn’t know what a festival was. Went in 1993 and, lo and behold, my very first Sundance Film Festival, I encounter Robert Redford.

I get invited to this private event, a director’s brunch, still happens every year. We’ll do it again this year at the Sundance Mountain Resort, which is the home of where Sundance started, but where the labs happened and everything else. So, I’m invited up to this brunch, and very casual, no press, just like it’s just the artists and a few friends.

And there’s Mr. Redford welcoming people, greeting people, talking to the artists, moving very casually around the room.

This is like a big movie star that, you know, I knew his movies as a kid growing up, but, guess my encounter was just, oh, wait, this, this is something different This is like, we’re in his home, Sundance Resort, place where he lived, the place where he passed. We’re at this place that is this embodiment of Sundance, and the place where Sundance the institute was created, and he’s just casually greeting people and welcoming people and having some remarks at the brunch. So, I think that for me was really eye-opening Dominic, because I had not encountered movie stars in my life. And so for my first encounter with a real movie star to be, to be him, in that environment. I think it changed. It changed my world. It changed my life. It changed my world, opened my eyes.

DEADLINE: I hope you told him that story later in life, like when you became festival director three years ago.

HERNANDEZ: (LAUGHS) I did.

DEADLINE: Looking at changing Sundance’s world, the move to Boulder in 2027 – what are some of the challenges you guys are already encountering? What are the sort of surprises you’re already discovered?

HERNADEZ: Since the announcement earlier this year, we’ve been doing monthly programming in Boulder. We just had a really beautiful event with the film. Come See Me in the Good Light, a really beautiful documentary about Colorado Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson, who passed recently. So, we held a screening in in Boulder a couple weeks ago for like 1000 people at this beautiful amphitheater.

That event, I think, embodies what we’re seeing in Boulder, and the excitement that we’re seeing from the community. Every event we’ve done there so far has completely been filled to capacity, turning people away. It’s been a beautiful opportunity to get to know the community better, and that’s what we’re finding right now. So, we’re heads down on 26, that’s our focus, but we are laying the foundation for 27, and we’ll have a lot more to share on that.

DEADLINE: Okay, but right now, how do you think the move to Boulder after so long in Utah, in Park City, will change Sundance?

HERNANDEZ: I think what’s true is that we’re rooted in a mission that was established by Robert Redford decades ago.  I feel this very deeply, and you can probably understand why, given the story I just told you about how the festival, and the Institute transformed me and was so impactful for me back in my twenties, when I went for the very first time.

My job, I think, is to be a caretaker of this festival for the period of time that I’m here. So, when you ask about Boulder and the move, my job is to help figure out how we can bring that mission that Mr. Redford established to this new community.

I think the heart and soul of Sundance that Mr. Redford created will remain the same, about story. How it will express itself will be different, it will be.

DEADLINE: Why?

HERNANDEZ: Because it will look different, some of the venues might look and feel a little different from what folks are used to, but I have complete confidence that that we are able to continue sharing Mr. Redford’s mission. Maybe we’ll be able to spread our wings a little bit in a place that’s a little bit bigger and such. But I still I think that really the work that we’ll do and continue doing as we build towards 27 is just how to hold on to that heart and soul, while maybe expressing it in new ways in 27.

DEADLINE: Let’s stick with Park City a bit, how close are you guys to final selections, a final program for 2026?

HERNANDEZ: We’re on track. We’re on track.

DEADLINE: Eugene! What does that mean?

HERNANDEZ: (LAUGHS) We’re where we should be.

You know, in about a month now, we’ll have a program that’s pretty tight and pretty locked, and we’re on track. So that’s great. I’ll admit, we gave a couple extensions to a few filmmakers, so that we could look at some things that are a little bit further along, and in context.

So, we’re watching a lot of films on links. We’re getting together as a programming team. I’m in L.A. right now. Spending a lot of time in New York, but I’m in L.A. right now with the programming team so that we can meet up in person. This week, we’ll watch some films together as a group in a movie theater, we do that occasionally as well, so we’re on track with that. At the same time, what we wanted to share this week is that we’ve put together this program that was already in the works before Mr. Redford’s passing, but I think takes on an even greater significance and weight in the wake of his passing.

DEADLINE: I don’t think anyone is going to disagree with that.

HERNANDEZ: And it’s timely too, Dom, especially for Deadline’s audience…

DEADLINE: Well, we hope so …

HERNANDEZ: Passes and packages are going on sale today. We’ve already had a great response to some of the early sales and things that we’ve been doing. So, I would encourage your audience to show up, to stick around, to try to hang out a bit for a few extra days in Park City in January, and enjoy some of this legacy programming – and don’t sleep on getting those passes and packages before they sell out.

Make your plans now, because I’ll say the number of folks, filmmakers, artists, industry, folks who want to be part of this year’s festival is amazing. This culmination in Utah, this culmination in Park City, is going to be awesome. And, as I said, we’re going to have more really fun stuff to share soon.

SUNDANCE 2026 SPECIAL PROGRAMS

PARK CITY LEGACY FILMS

Park City Legacy films are archival screenings of titles that premiered at previous editions of the Sundance Film Festival, allowing new audiences to experience these stories in a theatrical setting and giving audiences the opportunity to discover and rediscover the films that have shaped the heritage of both Sundance Institute and independent storytelling.

American Dream / U.S.A.(Director & Producer: Barbara Kopple, Producer: Arthur Cohn)— When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota, are asked to take a substantial pay cut in a highly profitable year, the local labor union decides to go on strike and fight for a wage they believe is fair. But as the work stoppage drags on and the strikers face losing everything, friends become enemies, families are divided, and the very future of this typical mid-American town is threatened. Participants: Lewie Anderson, R.J. Bergstrom, Ron Bergstrom, Wayne Goodnature, Jim Guyette, Jesse Jackson.

*In attendance will be Barbara Kopple.

Half Nelson / U.S.A. (Director & Screenwriter: Ryan Fleck, Screenwriter & Producer: Anna Boden, Producers: Lynette Howell Taylor, Rosanne Korenberg, Alex Orlovsky, Jamie Patricof) — A New York City middle school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret. Cast: Shareeka Epps, Ryan Gosling, Tina Holmes, Anthony Mackie, Deborah Rush, Jay O. Sanders.

*In attendance will be Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden, and others.

House Party / U.S.A. (Director & Screenwriter: Reginald Hudlin, Producer: Warrington Hudlin ) — Kid decides to go to his friend Play’s house party, but neither of them can predict what’s in store for them on what could be the wildest night of their lives. Cast: Tisha Campbell, Full Force, Robin Harris, A.J. Johnson, Martin Lawrence, Kid ‘N Play.