Friday film critics Rick Brough and Linda Jager, as well as Park City Film CEO Katy Wang, all had to travel to the Salt Lake Valley to see new films.
That’s because both theaters in Park City are closed. The Holiday Village theaters on Kearns Blvd. are closed indefinitely. The Redstone 8 theaters in Kimball Junction are undergoing a major renovation and won’t open until later this year.
Wang said that while this was an opportunity for the local film series to fill the gap, the agreement with Park City limited the number of screenings.
“We would love to do more films, but we are limited by the lease we have with the city for the Jim Santy Auditorium, so they are only allowed to do a certain number of screenings per year,” Wang said. “That puts a limitation on us in terms of what else we can show.”
Wang said they had to obtain special permission to show more films this summer as part of the Studio Ghibli Film Festival.
“This is an ongoing dialogue we have with the city, and of course we would like to make more films, but as an independent cinema we can only show a limited number of films,” Wang said.
“Many of the films in the summer tend to be big blockbusters that don’t quite align with our mission and the films we want to showcase,” she added. “But yes, the film exhibition industry has definitely not recovered from Covid in the same way that other art forms have, and that’s an ongoing conversation within the industry itself.”
Wang said she is looking forward to attending the 51st annual Telluride Film Festival on Labor Day weekend.
Sundance Film Festival officials are considering moving to a new venue in Park City after the festival ends in 2027. Wang is confident Sundance will stay because it offers something no other festival can.
“Telluride is a very different experience,” Wang said. “I love it and it’s fun to go there, and of course it’s a beautiful city. But it’s a much more curated experience. What’s beautiful and unique about Sundance is that there are probably three times as many films, but you’re seeing films that haven’t been in distribution yet, films that may never be in distribution. So you’re kind of seeing the beginning of the arc of some of these films, whereas in Telluride all of these films are either scheduled for release and have release dates or are about to be picked up. So it’s more of the award winners.”
Meanwhile, Park City Film will close out its summer season with two more Studio Ghibli films on August 15 and 22 at the Jim Santy Auditorium and two more outdoor screenings on the Park City Library patio on August 9 and at Kamas Town Park on August 16.
Indoor films at the Jim Santy Auditorium begin September 6.
