Three months ahead of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, the workers of the Sundance Institute are launching a unionization effort.

Over 40 staffers at the Sundance Institute are seeking unionization with Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 9003. The workers have asked management at the non-profit to voluntarily recognize the union by this Friday, Oct 31.

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the Sundance Institute for comment.

After our numerous efforts to express concerns have gone unaddressed, including multiple staff letters, we have reached the conclusion that we need the structure and power of a union to advocate for ourselves, reads the mission statement from the Sundance Institute workers. The workers are asking for fair compensation and benefit offerings, commitment to diversity and inclusion, and transparency in promotion and hiring practices. The hope, according to the workers, is to limit employee turnover and resist the erasure of institutional memory.

The Sundance Institute workers request for voluntary recognition of their union comes after years of headwinds for the Sundance Institute, which is behind the eponymous festival, as well as year-long filmmaker programs and labs. Since the pandemic, the Institute has undergone layoffs and turnover in its top posts, including the CEO. This July, it was reported that Sundance would be seeking a permanent replacement for its interim CEO, Amanada Kelso, who took over the top position after Joana Vicente stepped down from the post after less than three years on the job.

The request also comes as the Sundance Institute prepares for the next Sundance Film Festival, which will be the final year in its longtime Park City home before a move to Boulder, Colorado, for the 2027 festival.

We are the staff of the Sundance Institute that are on the ground and working face to face with our audiences and artists, said Sara Kenrick, a coordinator at the Sundance Institute in event operations, in an announcement of todays unionization efforts. We are the most valuable voices to this organizations purpose and we have slowly but surely been pushed aside. We are understaffed, underpaid, and our concerns have been overlooked. If Sundance wants to continue being Sundance they need to welcome us back to the table.