Sundance Film Fest could be expanding to Brooklyn

The Sundance Film Festival could be expanding to New York City. Robert Redford's Sundance Institute, which has been having “Sundance Institute at BAM” screenings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music since 2006, is in negotiations to develop facilities in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood to possibly compete with Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal's Tribeca Film Festival, the New York Post reports.

The Sundance Institute and its annual film festival, held in Utah since 1978, is one of the most important forces in the history of independent film and filmmaking. Starting in the early 1990s, the festival became, to the occasional dismay of some of its founders, something of a minor-league system feeding the Hollywood industry, with many directors and actors whose first exposure was through a Sundance film going on to become major stars. Tribeca is a smaller-scale festival, originating as an urban version of 80s Sundance, a showcase for smaller films, though it is gradually becoming a bit more mainstream as well; last year saw the festival host one of the first public screenings of “The Avengers,” for instance.

At the moment, whether Sundance's larger-scale New York expansion is for a one-time event, or a more or less permanent rival festival to Tribeca is still up in the air.

"There is no truth to rumors of plans for Sundance Institute to host a film festival in Brooklyn in the immediate future," a spokesperson told The Wrap in response to the NY Post article.

The main Sundance Film Festival in Park, City Utah kicks off January 17^th.