PARK CITY, UTAH — The evening before the Sundance Film Festival kicked off its final appearance in Utah, Amy Redford stood on a temporary stage in a temporary gathering space and addressed a roomful of people.

“My dad loved this place and its people,” she said of her father, Robert Redford, and the state where, for more than 40 years, the Sundance Institute — with its series of labs for emerging filmmakers — and the festival have shaped the film industry, and to some extent American culture.

Boulder City Council approves $17.3 million incentives package for Sundance

Robert Redford died last September at 89, and his absence, as well as his vision, permeated this installment of the first festival without the Sundance Kid turned Elder Statesman. It’s hard to decide if it was fitting or a poetic injustice that Redford will not be following the festival to Colorado, a state he knew well, where Sundance will move in January 2027.

Colorado, though, is a state he knew well. Redford had, at one time, wanted to start his film festival in Colorado before heading to Utah. “Even though Bob Redford enjoyed a successful acting and directing career, he was never just content to rest on those laurels. He believed that with space to create and experiment, independent artists were poised to have a tremendous impact,” Ebs Burnough, chair of the board of trustees, told a roomful of film writers and journalists.

“And of course, he was right. To this day, artists who get their start at the Sundance Institute and at the film festival go on to shape storytelling, independent cinema, and our collective culture. And that has never mattered more than it does in this moment, when we need the empathy and inspiration and new perspectives independent storytelling provides,” he added.

Place is a funny thing. The wilderness of Utah, coupled with the intimacy of the ski town, served and shaped the festival well for decades — and vice versa. Now it moves to a new location at the foot of the Flatirons and adjacent to the Rockies. Boulder is beautiful, but as a city, it has a wholly different aura. And it has a university and a tech corridor.

Fortunately, Sundance hired the Boulder-based producer Paula DuPré Pesmen (“The Cove,” “Chasing Ice,” “Porcelain War”) to help envision the transition.

In the meantime, here are four things (there’s plenty more) to know about the globally renowned festival that concludes Sunday and the one headed to Colorado in January 2027.

Colorado represented

Colorado was represented a couple of times this year. “See You When I See You,” a Jay Duplass-directed film, premiered at Sundance. It is based on beloved Denver stand-up Adam Cayton-Holland’s 2018 book, “Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir,“ about grief and his sister’s suicide. It stars David Duchovny, Hope Davis and Cooper Raiff and Kaitlyn Dever as siblings.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – The state is planning to put new caps on paid caregiving hours, cutting care per Medicaid member in half.

11 News shared how a Southern Colorado caregiver feels about the changes and also spoke with a provider to hear about the impacts it may face.

Pikes Peak Respite Services provides at-home and community care services to those with developmental delays. CEO Beverly Seemann said it’s not uncommon for the industry to see changes to Medicaid regulations.

The new caps look to reduce how many hours a caregiver can be paid for per Medicaid member, going from 16 hours a day to eight hours a day.

The changes will take effect in the spring or summer, pending federal approval.

Seemann foresees a loss in profit from the changes and plans to hire more staff to continue meeting customers’ needs.

While Seemann isn’t fond of the new caps, she said she understands why it’s happening. The state needs to get its budget under control, and Seemann would rather see Medicaid services reduced rather than become unsustainable.

What Seemann would really like to see, though, is more consistency between state departments regulating her industry.

The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing is leading the charge on these new caps. Seemann said different departments have different regulations, which makes it hard to know if providers are in compliance.

“Agencies and families need some more guidance on this. It’s been a huge challenge trying to navigate multiple systems that are not aligned,” Seemann continued. “You’re in compliance with one system, then you can be out of compliance with another, and it’s incredibly disheartening as a business leader.”

The caps are set to start during a health care worker shortage as well. Seemann said she does see a lack of nurses and certified nursing assistants in some areas across the state.

The CEO added that there’s never a good time for change, so she is working to help her clients through the stress they may be feeling.

The state said that, along with fixing its budget, the new caps will help with caregiver burnout. Seemann said caps won’t necessarily fix caregiver burnout, though, adding that it’s a bigger, systemic issue.

“We see caregiver burnout whether there’s caps or not. We see caregiver burnout due to lack of proper support, and whether that’s because maybe a family doesn’t know about services or maybe there is a shortage in their area, whatever the case may be,” said Seemann.

11 News will continue following the latest on these caps and if the change receives federal approval.

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DENVER — Several Colorado businesses are participating in a nationwide shutdown Friday in protest of ICE operations in Minnesota.

The national strike comes after the deadly shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents in Minneapolis.

Denver7 spent the morning outside of one store in Boulder, Trident Booksellers and Cafe. The front door is covered in signs saying the store is closed Friday as they stand in solidarity with Minnesota.

While the shop will be closed, business owners will begin handing out free coffee and having conversations with the community throughout the day.

This is just one of many coffee shops closed Friday as they participate in the shutdown. Our partners at the Denver Post reported nearly 20 restaurants and coffee shops across the Denver area will close for the day.

Denver7 spoke with a clothing shop located on Colfax, Scavenged Goods, also shutting down Friday.

“We can’t operate business as usual when all this is going on, so we have to kind of change that dynamic a little bit by shutting down,” Scavenged Goods Owner Chip Litherland told Denver7.

Litherland said participating in this protest is for the “greater good,” adding it’s important to show up for their neighbors, especially those who can’t right now.

“We care about the people that are being taken from their homes, and we care about not only that, but the protesters that are out on the street fighting all of this going on. So I hope when people come to the door and it’s locked, that they understand why,” Litherland said.

Colorado businesses participate in nationwide shutdown

Litherland also noted that the revenue his business may lose Friday is irrelevant, adding he will do this again if he has to.

“There was a little bit of me I was scared to close and like, okay, are people going to freak out, or is it going to be, you know, tough on my business, because it is one of our biggest days of the week, normally. But this is super important, and I hope they just realize that I’m out here trying to just do the one small thing that we can as a business.”

Several Colorado schools are also closing Friday amid a growing number of student and staff absences in support of the protests.