A guide to Sundance’s 14 Boulder venues

From the Boulder Theater to a middle-school auditorium, here's what Coloradans should know about the spaces that will host the 2027 festival.

By OnScreen Staff

Chautauqua_SamanthaFish_5.28.22_KRusch-40-scaled

Boulder's Chautauqua Auditorium is being refurbished for the Sundance Film Festival. | Photo: Chautauqua - Samantha Fish

The 14 venues confirmed for the 2027 Sundance Film Festival range from Boulder’s most recognizable cultural landmarks to school auditoriums that few outside the neighborhood have set foot in. Here’s a quick orientation to the lineup.

The cinema regulars

Three venues already program film year-round and need no introduction to Boulder audiences. The Boedecker Theater and the Gordon Gamm Theater, both housed inside the Dairy Arts Center on Walnut Street, anchor Boulder’s arthouse and independent programming. Cinemark Century Boulder, the multiplex on 28th Street, brings commercial-scale screening capacity to the festival footprint.

The historic showpieces

Two venues bring the kind of architectural character Sundance has long favored. The Boulder Theater, the 1906 vaudeville house turned music venue on 14th Street, was the site of the March 2025 announcement that brought the festival to Colorado. Chautauqua Auditorium, the 1898 wooden hall at the base of the Flatirons, offers one of the most distinctive screening environments any festival could ask for.

The CU Boulder venues

Four spaces on the University of Colorado Boulder campus give the festival its academic anchor. Macky Auditorium, the 2,000-seat concert hall, will likely handle premiere-scale screenings. Muenzinger Auditorium and the Roe Green Theatre add mid-size capacity, and Old Main — the oldest building on campus — joins the talks-and-programming roster.

The music halls and community spaces

eTown Hall, the solar-powered radio and performance venue on Spruce Street, pulls double duty as both a screening venue and a talks location. The Canyon Theater inside the main branch of the Boulder Public Library District rounds out the talks venues, and the Dairy Arts Center itself will host programming beyond its two screening rooms.

The schools

The two school venues are the most unconventional choices on the list. Boulder High School Auditorium, just south of downtown, and Casey Middle School Auditorium, in the Mapleton Hill neighborhood, give Sundance additional capacity within walking distance of the central festival zone — a logistical solution that also embeds the festival in Boulder’s residential fabric.

Programming details, including which films and events will screen at which venues, will be announced closer to the festival’s January 21–31, 2027 run.

 

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