Ready For Our Closeup

From “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” to “The Hateful Eight,” Colorado has long offered filmmakers more than breathtaking mountain scenery—it also offers a deep well of creative talent. But over the past few years, other states have offered more incentives to bring in the film industry. With the Sundance Film Festival coming to Boulder and a new film commissioner, Lauren Grimshaw Sloan, in place, the state is ready to build a bigger industry.

Lauren cut her teeth in the film industry, first working at a production company in New York, then serving as deputy film commissioner in Denver from 2012 to 2016. She then worked with the episodic storytelling festival, SeriesFest. We talked with her about what the future looks like for film production in Colorado.

KW: What would you say Colorado has to offer the film industry?

LGS: We have a great crew base; we have equipment rental houses, gear and cameras, beautiful locations—all of the necessary ingredients. 

KW: What opportunities do you think the Sundance Film Festival will bring to Colorado and Boulder?

LGS: It’s a very exciting time because there are eyes on us like never before. With the Sundance Film Festival moving to Boulder, it’s given us industry acknowledgment, press, and awareness, not only within the film and TV industry, but locally as well. It’s an opportunity for people to see everything we have to offer.

KW: How does Colorado compare to other states hoping to lure film production with dedicated budgets and incentive programs?

LGS: Our program is pretty modest compared to New Mexico or Utah. My priority is to ensure we are utilizing our production tax credit incentive, and people are hiring Coloradans, using Colorado locations, and bringing more work here. My goal is to make Colorado more competitive. We do have limitations. Right now, we have $5 million per year that doesn’t expire until the end of 2029. Comparatively, there are states like Georgia that have unlimited funds. 

Some states offered massive tax credits and then crashed and burned. That creates instability and becomes a target for legislature. My goal is to create something stable and long-term. We have a lot of prestigious filmmakers and talent who live here, but then they go elsewhere to work. I’m working to bring in more production so that they can live here and work here.

KW: What resources are available to filmmakers through your office?

LGS: We are currently updating the location database. There is a crew database as well. We also have 14 regional liaisons across the state who work as location scouts. So, if someone calls us and says they want to film in a particular area, we can pull location photos and connect them with a scout.

We have workforce development programs, such as the Native Lens Symposium, which supports Indigenous filmmakers. We have SeriesFest, a mobile cinema lab program that teaches kids how to film, edit, and act in their own projects. And we’re working on creating a workshop to help Colorado filmmakers understand indie finance and distribution.

KW: Are you offering anything special for filmmakers visiting for the Sundance Film Festival?

LGS: We’re organizing Fam Tours (short for familiarization), where producers and location scouts are taken around to various locations to showcase everything you can do and shoot here. The Sundance Film Festival is really creating the biggest Fam Tour possible in showing what Boulder County has. People often extend their stay after the festival and go throughout the region. We’re looking forward to capitalizing on everybody coming in.

KW: How important is it from an economic standpoint to have a thriving film, TV, and media production industry here?

LGS: The data shows we typically have an 18-to-1 ROI. For every dollar we put into this program, it comes back 18-fold in economic impact. You can see it in the audits we get. We can see how much they paid Colorado cast and crew, as well as how much they spent on hotels and catering. And there is money spent when production teams explore the area when they’re not working. There was a production that shot in Creede, and the crew found this knife shop they fell in love with. They spent thousands of dollars on knives, and that made that shop owner’s year. 

KW: What’s one thing you hope doesn’t get lost amongst all the hype and excitement around the Sundance Film Festival coming to Boulder?

LGS: I hope we can use the Sundance Film Festival to put Colorado in the spotlight to further our production program. At the same time, it inherently highlights Colorado’s film festival ecosystem. Telluride has been here for decades. We have the Boulder International Film Festival, which just saw an uptick in ticket sales because the Sundance Film Festival has created more awareness. It’s not just about one festival; it’s about lifting the whole film festival ecosystem and scheme of production in Colorado as well.