The 2025 edition of Utah’s cherished Sundance Film Festival is three months away.
Several ticket packages and passes became available to the public Wednesday, enabling different levels of access to festival offerings slated to run at select theaters in Park City and Salt Lake City next year. Two of those ticket packages cater specifically to young adults ages 18-25 — the Ignite Package presented by Adobe, and the Salt Lake City Young Adult Pass.
“We are all so excited to be bringing another edition of the festival back to Utah,” said Basil Tsiokos, a senior programmer for Sundance. “We really encourage younger people to come and see the films.”
“We really think Sundance is for everyone and we want to make sure that students in particular are able to see films,” he added.
The Ignite Package
The Ignite Package, which is offered by Sundance in coordination with Adobe, comes with 10 tickets to in-person screenings as well as five tickets for online screenings.
The package provides attendees the opportunity to select their tickets to in-person screenings before individual tickets go on sale in January. The package includes additional boons which may appeal directly to aspiring filmmakers at Salt Lake Community College.
Besides early selection of individual tickets, the Ignite Package will provide access to special Ignite events and gatherings where students can speak with professionals about the work that they’re doing in film.
“It’s a way to try to bring in younger people, college students, emerging filmmakers, et cetera,” Tsiokos said. “It’s definitely a fantastic opportunity for college students to be able to check out [more of the] offerings of the festival.”
The Ignite Package presented by Adobe is on sale now for $275.
The Salt Lake City Young Adult Pass
As opposed to the Ignite Package, the Salt Lake City Young Adult Pass offers unlimited access to screenings at the two theaters where Sundance will host films in the Salt Lake Valley this winter, the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center and Broadway Centre Cinemas.
Besides the ability to attend as many films as they want at the Rose and the Broadway for the duration of the festival, Salt Lake City Young Adult Pass holders also benefit from priority access, meaning if they arrive by a certain time, they get let in the theater before normal ticket holders.
Tsiokos said that professional filmmakers tend to show extra support for Sundance screenings that take place in Salt Lake, often appearing for pre-screening film introductions and post-screening Q&As.
“We hear from filmmakers all the time that … they really love going to Salt Lake screenings and interacting with the audiences there,” Tsiokos said. “We very much encourage new filmmakers who have not been part of the festival [before] to go to those Salt Lake screenings.”
Tsiokos said that, because programmers at Sundance are still reviewing films and deciding entries, there will be more information about the screenings and filmmaker appearances at screenings coming by at least December.
“[We’re] still working on the program right now, so we will make announcements of the selections in December into January of which films will have filmmaker introductions and Q&As,” he said. “The first couple of screenings, typically, filmmakers are definitely around, so that’s something to keep in mind.”
The Salt Lake City Young Adult Pass is on sale now for $300.
Sundance in Utah
The breadth of attendance at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025 may help determine whether the festival remains in Utah past 2026.
While Tsiokos said that the festival will officially take place in Utah for the next two years, the Sundance Institute announced in April that they were conducting a search and review process to find a “viable” home for the festival from 2027 onward.
Initially announcing six total applicant cities, the institute has since narrowed down the list of potential future festival hosts to three cities: Cincinnati, Ohio; Boulder, Colorado; and Park City/Salt Lake City.
“We love Utah, it’s a big part of our background … we’re excited to be back for the next two years,” Tsiokos said. “We’re excited that Utah is still in the mix, and we’ll see where things come out in the end in terms of the search process.”
For now, Tsiokos said Sundance is focused on bringing at least two more years of the historic festival back to audiences in Utah. In addition to attending festival screenings, whether in-person or online, he mentioned other ways for residents to get involved.
“We love working with Utah locals, so there are volunteer opportunities and seasonal positions that are available as well if people want to check that out,” Tsiokos said. “We really encourage people to come check out what we’re doing both in Park City and Salt Lake [this winter].”
Visit the Sundance website for more information on ticket packages and passes, festival volunteers, and seasonal positions.
