Boulder's 2027 Film Festivals: Sundance in January, BIFF in April

Oct 30, 2026 / Oct 30, 2026 · 7 min read · film festivals arts and entertainment 80304 Boulder Colorado NoBo ·

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Two Boulder film festivals, about ten weeks apart

Sundance holds its first Boulder festival January 21-31, 2027, and the Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF) follows April 8-11, about ten weeks after Sundance wraps. One is a global festival in its first year here. The other has run in Boulder for two decades.

BIFF fills four days. Sundance runs eleven: world premieres in the first week, then at-home online screenings for viewers outside Colorado in the last four days.

BIFF's 2026 venues had 80302, 80301 and Longmont addresses. Sundance's venues are spread across the University of Colorado Boulder campus, Pearl Street and Chautauqua. For an 80304 resident, three things matter: which dates to plan around, how to reach the venues without a car, and what it takes to rent out a house during the festival.

Sundance's first Boulder year: the dates that matter

World premieres run Thursday, January 21, through Tuesday, January 26. More showings of the 2027 program continue until the festival wraps on January 31.

The annual festival gala is Friday, January 22.

For viewers outside Colorado, at-home online screenings run Thursday, January 28, to Sunday, January 31. Press and industry get online access to the at-home program one day earlier, on Wednesday, January 27. The festival's information page does not say whether Colorado residents can buy at-home screenings. A North Boulder household should plan on seeing films in person. The Ignite package described below includes five online tickets.

The four competition sections (U.S. Dramatic, World Cinema Dramatic, U.S. Documentary and World Cinema Documentary) grow to 12 films each.

The venues, from the Boulder Theater to Chautauqua

All Sundance venues sit within a radius of about 2 miles. On campus, Macky Auditorium is next to Old Main, across the quad from the Roe Green Theatre and near Muenzinger Auditorium. Boulder High School is a short walk from campus, and the Pearl Street pedestrian mall is a few blocks beyond. The Boulder Theater is around the corner from the center of Pearl Street, near eTown Hall and the Canyon Theater. A few blocks farther north is Casey Middle School. Chautauqua Auditorium is about a mile away at the base of the Flatiron trails. The Dairy Arts Center and Cinemark Century are a few minutes from Pearl Street. Century sits in an open-air mall and is the press and industry screening venue.

The four campus venues are all within a 10-minute walk: Macky, Muenzinger, Roe Green and Old Main. Muenzinger is home to the International Film Series, which has shown local programming since 1941. Macky and Roe Green have never been screening spaces. Roe Green was renovated in 2023.

Two Boulder Valley School District auditoriums join them, at Boulder High School and Casey Middle School. Boulder High is the oldest established high school in Colorado. Casey's campus kept two exterior walls from its original 1924 building.

The Boulder Theater has drawn audiences since 1936. It began as a movie house before it became a tour stop. It has new cinema sound and a new screen.

Chautauqua Auditorium was built in 1898 and showed the first motion picture ever screened in Boulder. The auditorium is adding radiant heat powered by a geothermal system.

The Dairy Arts Center was once a milk-processing plant. After it was abandoned in the 1980s, a group of local artists began imagining what else it could become. Documentaries make up roughly 40% of its regular programming. During the festival it is a screening venue and the main home of the returning New Frontier program.

Getting to the venues without a car

The city's advice for drivers is to park once. Most venues have no parking of their own, so transit, walking, biking and rideshare are the easiest ways to get between screenings. Local buses serving festival destinations, among them the HOP, SKIP and JUMP and a Chautauqua Connector, run every 10 to 15 minutes.

RTD runs enhanced zero-fare service January 21-31, 2027 on four routes:

SKIP serves the Broadway corridor and links several Boulder venue clusters. Buses run more often, from 5:15 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends.
JUMP runs east-west along the Arapahoe corridor, 5:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays and 6:15 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends.
CHAT is a temporary new route to Chautauqua Park, every 10 minutes from 8 a.m. to midnight.
BOLT links Boulder and Longmont, 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.

Other routes keep regular fares but get more buses or longer hours. The Flatiron Flyer runs until 2 a.m., and extra buses will be staged on SkyRide routes AB and AL to handle crowds. RTD asks riders to use its NextRide app for the latest connections.

Sundance tickets: packages on sale since October 15

Package sales opened at 10 a.m. on October 15. Single film tickets go on sale in early January, and the 2027 lineup will be announced in December. Sundance supporters get early access to ticket sales.

The new Ignite Ticket Package presented by Adobe costs $275. It is open to 18- to 25-year-olds and all enrolled students. It covers 10 in-person tickets and five online tickets for screenings from January 24, the fourth day, through January 31. Ignite holders choose films before public single-ticket sales open and can change a selection up to four hours before a screening.

The festival's 2027 information page does not list prices for the other passes and packages.

BIFF in April: four days, from Pearl Street to Longmont

BIFF logs more than 25,000 attendances each year from film lovers, media and industry professionals. Its office is at 1426 Pearl Street, Suite 20, Boulder, CO 80302.

The 2027 venue list is not posted yet. BIFF's 2026 venues were:

Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St, Boulder, CO 80302: the opening night and closing night screenings.
Cinemark Century Boulder, 1700 29th St, Boulder, CO 80301: screenings throughout the festival in two auditoriums.
Grace Commons Church, 1820 15th St, Boulder, CO 80302: the Adventure Film Program.
First Church, 1421 Spruce St, Boulder, CO 80302: many of the Call2Action film TalkBacks.
Stewart Auditorium, 400 Quail Rd, Longmont, CO 80501, at the Longmont Museum: all Longmont screenings. A Longmont Pass gets you into every screening there, and single tickets are also sold.

The Boulder Theater and Century are also Sundance venues in January.

Early-bird festival passes and ticket packs are on sale now. The most recent pass and ticket pack terms are for the 21st festival, March 13-16, 2025, and 2027 prices are not posted. Under the 2025 terms, ticket packs could be used for specific regularly priced films online, at the Boulder Visitor Information Center (VIC) box office or by phone. They could not be used for parties, for events such as opening and closing night, or for screenings in Longmont.

Renting a North Boulder home for the festival

The Festival Lodging Rental License lets Boulder homeowners rent out their home for 29 days or less a year during a major festival in the city. Properties that already hold a Long-Term Rental License can also be rented out during city-approved Special Festival Events. Tenants must have the property owner's consent to take part.

Visit Boulder has partnered with professional property management companies for owners who want help with the process.