Atlantan Pat Mitchell has been part of the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival for decades.
Mitchell joined the board in 1994 after getting to know Robert Redford when she was working on a documentary series about native Americans for Ted Turner. Redford asked her to join the Sundance board, and she served as vice chair for seven years and as board chair for about a decade until 2021.
Mitchell continues to serve on the Sundance board, and she is the longest-serving Sundance board member by far.
Sundance announced in 2024 that it was seeking proposals from cities interested in becoming the new host city for the Sundance Film Festival. While Sundance’s historic home in Park City and Salt Lake City would still be considered, the festival was exploring its options beginning in 2027.
Ninety cities expressed interest. Fifteen cities made it to the next round, including three cities from Georgia: Atlanta, Savannah and Athens. Georgia was the only state with multiple cities in the mix, causing its leaders to sit on the sidelines by not wanting to pick a favorite.
In mid-July, the field was narrowed to six.
Atlanta had made it to that finalist round along with Park City, Utah; Boulder, Co.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Ky.; and Santa Fe, N.M. The Sundance selection committee visited the six contenders, beginning with a site visit to Atlanta on July 29.
Throughout the process, I asked Mitchell if she would be willing to be interviewed to debrief Atlanta on how it fared throughout the process – including when Atlanta didn’t make it to the final three.
Mitchell agreed to sit down for an interview after Sundance had made its final pick, which ended up being Boulder. Given her incredible international and domestic work and travel commitments, we were finally able to visit in her Ansley Park home on May 7.
“These are my personal thoughts,” emphasized Mitchell, who was not part of the venue committee. “I’m not speaking for Sundance.”
She did say that Robert Redford probably would have preferred to stay in Utah because of his roots in the state, but he supported the board and the selection process.
“We were all informed throughout the process,” she said.
The relationship between the Sundance Film Festival, Park City and the state of Utah began to sour after the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“The Utah Health Department forced us to cancel the festival and make it all virtual just a couple of months before the 2021 festival,” Mitchell said. “For the first time, Sundance had significant debt because of the contracts we had with theaters. That’s when the relationship began to be troublesome, especially when the state and city did not step in to defray the expenses.”
It also didn’t help that Park City was focusing on being a ski resort, and it began to take Sundance for granted. Hotels and restaurants “started raising their prices astronomically” during the festival, making it an even more strained relationship.
During the process, Sundance was presented with attractive options.
“With some degree of confidence, the committee came into Atlanta very excited and positive,” Mitchell said. “Atlanta was the largest and most metropolitan area of the six. It would be a real shift. There was a strong contingent of the board that wanted it to be a real shift. Atlanta was a serious contender.”
Unfortunately, the Atlanta site visit on July 29 had some hiccups. For starters, it was raining, so Sundance visitors saw Atlanta from golf carts, buses, and the MARTA train rather than walking along the Beltline or Peachtree.
“Mother Nature didn’t help us out,” Mitchell said. “And there was not sufficient time on the Beltline to really appreciate how transformative the area had become.”
There were other factors, such as Atlanta being a blue city in a red state. That was the case with Park City/Salt Lake City and Cincinnati, Ohio as well.
“There was concern about the laws on the books in Georgia,” Mitchell said about LGBTQ and reproductive rights legislation. “It was the creative community that expressed concern about restrictions and limitations that might impact them.”
Sundance’s pick of Atlanta would have been a radical shift for the festival.
“Many of our conversations focused on whether we would make a move to a similar environment or do a complete shift,” Mitchell said. “Atlanta and Cincinnati would have been a complete shift. Both were seriously considered.”
The Atlanta bid proposal touted its strength as a metropolitan city.
“At the end of the day, the board voted for something that was familiar, and something we knew appealed to the people who come to the festival,” said Mitchell, mentioning the mountains, snow, skiing, a walking environment, and a small-town feel.
Boulder also had several small and mid-sized venues that could show independent movies within walking distance. And leaders in Boulder promised there would be no price gouging during the festival. “That was an important sign they were in it for the long haul,” Mitchell said.
Chris Escobar, owner of the Plaza Theatre and the Tara Theatre who also runs the Atlanta Film Festival, said Sundance picked the best choice among the three finalists. But when it came to Atlanta’s bid, he said the city was hurt initially by having several cities in the running.
“I don’t think we got the level of commitment outside the City of Atlanta that we should have gotten because there were two other Georgia cities on the list,” Escobar said. “The stakeholders didn’t take it as seriously as they should have.”
Mitchell said it’s always better when the politics of the major city are aligned with the state.
“That doesn’t exist in a lot of states, including Georgia,” she said. “We certainly can’t change the political environment overnight.”
While Georgia has had a booming film industry, its nonprofit arts and cultural sector has struggled because of a lack of public and philanthropic funding. Georgia continues to rank towards the bottom of all 50 states when it comes to per-capita public funding for the arts, a fact that Mitchell called “worrisome.”
Both Mitchell and Escobar said Atlanta has an opportunity to grow its existing arts and film community as an investment in our creative economy.
“We should invest in the arts because they create a tremendous economic return,” Escobar said. “It’s a wise use of our tax dollars.”
Mitchell said one idea that hatched out of the Sundance bid was to create a stronger arts and cultural community, centering it around the Woodruff Arts Center.
“I would love to see a more tangible arts community in the city where people could create a real arts alliance among all the creative institutions,” Mitchell said. “We can create an easily accessible place that feels you’re part of the experience.”
