Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, other Utah leaders and Sundance Film Institute leaders gathered Saturday for the first audience screening of “Train Dreams.”
Cox said Utah’s leaders always try to kick off Sundance.
“It's a huge deal for our state. Over the past 15 years, economically, it's brought in about $1.3 billion in economic benefits to the state,” he said. “But that's not why we love Sundance. We just love movies, and we love storytelling.”
Cox has been vocal about Sundance’s decision to solicit bids from other cities as the festival considers moving away from Utah in 2027. At his monthly news conference with reporters, the governor said he thought it would be a “huge mistake” for the festival to leave the state after more than 40 years.
Organizers cited financial pressures and a lack of accessibility in Park City as reasons to move. In the fall they said they had narrowed the list of interested cities to three finalists: a dual bid of Park City and Salt Lake City, Boulder, Colorado, and Cincinnati, Ohio.
At the screening Saturday, Cox said he and other elected officials have been looking forward to viewing “Train Dreams.” The film follows the life of Robert Grainier, a day laborer building America’s railroads at the start of the 20th century. He experiences profound love, shocking defeat, and a world transforming before his very eyes.
Joel Edgerton, who plays Grainier, said the story is a study of a man’s life.
“[The film] kind of speaks to all of us in all of our lives, in the sense that I feel like all of our lives are significant,” he said. “We all contribute to the world that we live in some way, big or small, and we'll all probably be forgotten within a generation or two. But somehow, our lives are also very important.”
“Train Dreams” will make audiences laugh and cry as it explores the life an ordinary man.
Cox said the story reminded him of a quote from Middlemarch by George Eliott, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. He said the quote speaks to who we are and to the purpose of Sundance.
“[She] wrote this: ‘The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs,’” Cox said.
Clint Bentley directed “Train Dreams.” His directorial debut “Jockey” premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Prize for Best Actor. He also co-wrote “Sing Sing” which has three Oscar nominations.
