Aspen may boast prestigious art institutions, and the Engadine Valley might tempt skiers with gallery stops between runs in St. Moritz — because who doesn’t love a little conceptual art by On Kawara with their après? But when it comes to cinema, no alpine resort can hold a candle to Utah’s Park City. Every January for the past four decades, this quaint former mining town has become the unlikely epicentre of the movie world, drawing industry insiders and film aficionados alike to the Sundance Film Festival.
In the 1860s, the silver-rich mountains lured fortune seekers from around the world, yielding US$400 million in silver and creating 23 millionaires — including the father of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Today, visitors come in search of something far less tangible than precious metal. Over the years, Sundance has launched careers (just ask Timothée Chalamet and Jennifer Lawrence), reshaped genres, and set the tone for independent film. Whether it’s the next breakout director or a documentary that sparks global conversations, Park City is where the magic happens — on and off the slopes. If only Disneyland hadn’t claimed the tagline first.
And the man to thank for this refined pairing of cinema and skiing — one of the greatest duos since Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? Academy Award-winning actor Robert Redford, who once, rather refreshingly, declared, ‘I’m not into Oscars.’ Unfazed by the razzle-dazzle of show business, Redford founded Sundance with a wholesome ambition: ‘An arts community, a recreational community, a community of people who appreciate the beauty of nature and feel the responsibility to preserve it.’
Sure enough, emerging bleary-eyed but enriched after a day of back-to-back screenings and panel discussions — not to mention the occasional party — the sight of Jupiter Peak, Park City’s highest at 3,042 metres, remains just as arresting.
My inaugural trip to Park City was for Sundance 2023. After a week of wistfully eyeing the chairlifts gliding straight into town, I finally caved — it was the perfect excuse to try skiing. A half-day group lesson with an Argentinian instructor whose assertiveness and enthusiasm ensured failure was not an option left me stepping off the slopes of Park City Mountain Resort with a rare and satisfying sense of accomplishment. How often, as adults, do we get to experience the thrill of mastering something entirely new in just a few hours?
Now, in 2025, I was back for my second Park City fix. I had it on good authority that one of Main Street’s hottest new culinary destinations was Firewood, where seasonal produce is cooked over a wood fire in a warm, industrial setting. So I rushed to make a reservation before Hollywood beat me to it — if they hadn’t already. Fortune was in my favour, but not in the way I had anticipated. The restaurant was closed for the week to host the Elvis Suite, where the ever-wise American film critic and broadcaster Elvis Mitchell would hold intimate conversations with the likes of Olivia Colman, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
On my first morning in town, I found myself being serenaded by Cynthia Erivo, fresh from her Oscar nomination (now I sound preoccupied with awards — Mr. Redford wouldn’t approve). Between her uncanny impersonations of Aretha Franklin and Walt Whitman-esque musings — ‘No one is just one thing’ — I didn’t miss out on Firewood’s fare altogether, thanks to the spread of garbanzo halloumi salad, roasted cauliflower and quinoa, burrata caprese, steak sandwiches, and poke bowls.
Whatever the critics say, this year’s Sundance was a cinematic feast. Peter Hujar’s Day was the film I didn’t know I needed: 90 minutes of the photographer (played by Ben Whishaw) — renowned for his intimate portraits of New York’s queer creatives in the 1970s and ’80s — reciting the minutiae of his day, all captured through the sensitive, sunset-drenched lens of director Ira Sachs. It was the perfect moment of escapism from this chaotic world.
Free Leonard Peltier, a documentary following the half-century effort to release the Indigenous activist from prison, felt particularly pertinent after Joe Biden, in one of his final acts as president, commuted Peltier’s sentence just a week before the film’s premiere. And beyond its dramatic soundtrack and glamorous costumes, the new adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman (starring Jennifer Lopez and Tonatiuh) encouraged audiences — who gave the film a standing ovation — to rethink binary notions of gender. It was a particularly defiant message — and a welcome relief for nonconforming folk like yours truly — amid the new Trump administration’s policies.
Pendry Park City
To ensure a watertight festival schedule without redundancies, you need some activities up your sleeve, and Main Street, with its pioneer-style clapboard buildings, has plenty to offer. I whiled away an hour curled up with James Clear’s Atomic Habits in Dolly’s Bookstore, scooped up a packet of lavender Earl Grey at Atticus Coffee & Tea, and perused the 14k gold buckles, bison cowboy boots, and custom felt hats at Burns, a Western outfitter that’s been in the same family since 1876.
Whatever time of year you visit, be sure to get tickets to the Egyptian Theatre. It’s as much about the building’s extravagant lotus leaves, scarabs, and hieroglyphics — designed in homage to the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb — as it is about what’s on the screen and stage.
Mr Smith and I stumbled across a particularly curious cabinet of curiosities at Trésor, stacked to the brim with precariously arranged Ichthyosaur fossils and hand-carved mammoth tusks. When the terror of shattering 185-million years of history with a single sneeze or careless swing of a bag became too much, we fled to our dinner reservation.
A queue had already formed outside Yuki Yama, but we scored some of the best seats in the house at the sushi bar, where we had a front-row view of the artistry unfolding. Overwhelmed by the menu of fresh fish flown in from around the world, we surrendered to the experts and let founder Kirk and Matt’s team take the reins. They outdid themselves with a banquet of kimchi miso, kurodai, madai, and shima aji.
Washington School House
My final day in Park City arrived, and I still hadn’t rediscovered my ski legs in the place that hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics — criminal. I could have rolled out of bed at the Pendry Park City and straight onto the slopes where I had made my debut. But why not try someplace new, I thought.
I made my way across town to Deer Valley. The resort may sound familiar as the site of Gwyneth Paltrow’s infamous ski crash and subsequent trial. You know the one — where the actor-turned-lifestyle guru lamented to the jury that she had lost a ‘whole day of skiing’. In case you need a refresher, the trial ended in a triumphant conclusion for Paltrow, who glided out of the courtroom, not liable for the collision with optometrist Terry Sanderson. ‘I wish you well,’ she told him as he was left to pay $1 in damages — exactly as she had requested.
Utah’s powder is often described as the ‘Greatest Snow on Earth,’ and I’m inclined to agree (not that I have much to compare it to). I soon got a taste for it — literally — spending much of the morning face down in the stuff. Skiing, as it turns out, is not like riding a bike. It took a medic, three guides, and a ski instructor repeating mantras — ‘press on the left big toe to turn right, the right big toe to turn left’ and ‘you wanna be goin’ across the mountain, not down it’ — before I was finally on my way. One of my greatest achievements was making it down the 4.85-mile Green Monster run, the longest in the state.
Mid-mountain, I made a pit stop at Sticky Wicket, a time capsule of a bar tucked into Silver Lake Lodge, its wooden walls decked in retro ski memorabilia. After the morning’s exertions, I opted for something classic: a Nashville fried chicken sandwich with parmesan fries and a sinfully large glass of root beer.
On the drive to Salt Lake City airport, passing the imperious Mormon temples, I revisited my Park City checklist. There was still so much to explore — from a few nights at the Washington School House hotel to dinner at Twisted Fern. When you want to return somewhere, it helps to leave a few things undone. And with Sundance set to move to a new home in 2027 (Boulder, Cincinnati, or Salt Lake City have made the shortlist), a trip devoted entirely to Park City might just be on the cards.
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Liam Freeman is a British writer, photographer and consultant whose work has been published in the Financial Times, The New York Times and Vogue — where they previously served as a senior features editor. With a passion for immersive travel and a focus on environmental and social issues, Liam has reported on gorilla conservation in Rwanda, citizen-led restoration of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and traditional textile production in West Africa.