Sesquicentennial celebration will bring the top 25 iconic Colorado-connected films to independent theaters and cultural venues across the state
Switchboard Strategies and Denver Film announced The Colorado150 (CO150), a compilation of the top 150 films set, shot or featuring top-line talent and Colorado locations that includes selections from Colorado film programmers, theater managers, industry professionals and the public.
Selected and voted on from a list of nearly 800 films Colorado has contributed to American cinema since 1876, the Colorado 150 list, including brief descriptions of each film’s connection to the state, can be found here. It is the first, and most comprehensive catalog of its kind to date.
As a part of Colorado’s sesquicentennial celebration, the Top 25 films from the CO150 will be screened at more than 30 independent, community-based venues across the state beginning in June and running through late October. The official opening of the CO150 celebration is “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” scheduled for May 23 at the Frontier Drive-Inn in Center, Colo. The schedule also includes a mid-summer screening of “Little Miss Sunshine” at Red Rocks on July 13 as part of the Film on the Rocks series, and the celebration concludes in October at the Denver Film Festival with a surprise screening.
“To help Colorado celebrate its 150th birthday, we’re throwing the biggest binge-watch of the last 150 years,” says Switchboard CEO Rob DuRay. “By showing selections from the CO150 in a slew of diverse and hyper-local venues, we will open the sesquicentennial to Coloradans across the state. This once-in-a-lifetime celebration will inspire Coloradans to get off the couch, visit historic venues all over the state and celebrate together, the way movies are meant to be seen.”
Each of the events will showcase the feature film as well as a mix of short films, music videos and presentations from filmmakers, artists and Colorado film creatives prior to each screening.
Confirmed special guests include Devotchka (“Little Miss Sunshine,” Red Rocks, 7/13) Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez (“BlacKkKlansman,” Colorado Springs, 7/14), Colorado Humanities and Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry. The full schedule of screenings, locations, special events and guests is available here. Tickets for each event are available for purchase by following the outside links listed on the CO150 venues page and reserving seats with participating theaters and locations.
Participating locations
- Denver – Sie FilmCenter and locations around Denver
- Colorado Springs – Lulu’s Downtown/ENT Center/Pioneer Museum
- Grand Junction – Avalon Theater
- Durango – Multiple Venues
- Pagosa Springs – The Liberty Theater
- Cortez – Sunflower
- Mancos – Mancos Opera House
- Pueblo – Impossible Playhouse/Bloback/Sangre De Cristo Arts/Mesa Drive-in
- Boulder – Boedecker Theater
- Steamboat – Wildhorse Cinema
- Fort Collins – The Lyric
- Lamar – Lamar Theater
- Breckenridge – Eclipse/Riverwalk Center
- Greeley – The Kress Cinema
- Center – Frontier Drive-In
- Ouray – Wright Opera House
- Silverton – Powerhouse
- Flagler – Flagler Theatre
- Fort Morgan – Cover 4 Theater
- Limon – Lincoln Theater
Colorado top 25 set to be screened
25. “Ticket to Tomahawk” – A classic Western Romp about the expansion of the Tomahawk and Western Railroad, with scenes shot on what is now Fort Lewis College.
24. “National Lampoon’s Vacation” – John Hughes writes, Harold Ramis directs and Chevy Chase stars in a story of one man’s quest to visit Wally World, with scenes shot in Glendale, Pueblo, Alamosa and Hesperus.
23. “Downhill Racer” – Former CU Student Robert Redford stars in a film Roger Ebert calls the best film ever made about sports, featuring scenes in Boulder and Idaho Springs.
22. “Little Miss Sunshine” – Set here? Shot here? No, but this comic fave does feature the first film soundtrack local indie heroes Devotchka.
21. “Wargames” – This movie about the earliest supercomputers, arcade games and nuclear warheads featured scenes at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado Springs.
20. “Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade” (1989) – The third installment in the world-hopping, Nazi punching, snake-fearing archeologist’s adventures showed us how Indy got to be Indy. It features an exceptional chase scene filmed on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, along with exteriors in Alamosa, Pagosa Springs and a house in Antonito that stood in for Indy’s Utah home.
19. “In The Line Of Fire” (1993) – This Clint Eastwood-directed thriller about kooky killer John Malkovich taunting Eastwood’s veteran Secret Service agent that he’ll soon be “standing over another dead president” also showcases the Greek Amphitheatre inside downtown Denver’s Civic Center Park during a rally and chase scene.
18. “A League Of Their Own” (1992) – Penny Marshall expertly directs this ensemble comedy about a fictionalized team belonging to the real All-American Girls Professional Baseball League featuring scenes shot at Fort Collins’ Glen Morgan Field House at Colorado State University.
17. “127 Hours” (2010) – Not a Colorado-set or shot film per se, but this harrowing, Danny Boyle-directed melodrama is connected to Colorado in the form of local outdoors star and author Aron Ralston.
16. “Misery” (1990) – Stephen King returns to Colorado once again, with the late Rob Reiner helming a tautly directed tale starring Kathy Bates and James Caan, set in an unnamed (but probably Silverthorne) Colorado town.
15. “Stagecoach” (1966) – John Ford remakes his 1939 western, featuring plenty of pristine Nederland and Arapahoe Falls vistas, this time all shot in glorious Technicolor.
14. “National Lampoon’s A Christmas Vacation” (1989) – Believe it or not, the Griswolds are just as successful at having a quiet family Christmas as they were getting to Wally World. The film features scenes shot in Summit, Silverthorne and Breckenridge.
13. “South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut” (1999) – Oh no, they killed Kenny!
12. “Elevation” (2024) – Anthony Mackie’s family seeks refuge high above the tree line in Lone Gulch, Colo., (actually Gold Hill) from world-eating monsters, as said monsters are allergic to traveling 8,000 feet above sea level. However, a crisis sends him back down from the mountains and into Boulder—and in the monster’s feeding range. Shot and set in Colorado.
11. “About Schmidt” (2002) – Jack Nicholson returns to Colorado in Alexander Payne’s comedy drama, this time as a man reflecting on a life of quiet desperation while journeying to Denver for his daughter’s wedding. It features scenes shot in both Boulder and Denver.
10. “Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead” (1995) – An intricate story that weaves in hepcat dialogue showing what happens when five mobsters botch a hit and have to answer to their bosses in Denver. Featuring a showcase performance by Andy Garcia and numerous early ’90s exteriors of Colfax, downtown and other historic Mile High locations.
9. “Dr Strangelove, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb” (1964) – Stanley Kubrick’s evergreen story of war and madness and sex features exterior scenes of the Rockies.
8. “Badlands” (1973) – Terence Malick’s directorial debut is a story loosely based on Charles Starkweather’s and Caril Fugate’s killing spree of the late ’50s. Featuring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, Malick’s tale is told in South Dakota, but almost exclusively uses Colorado locations throughout, including Rocky Ford, Las Animas, La Junta and Pueblo.
7. “Dumb & Dumber” (1994) – The film that launched the Year Of Carrey and one of the most memorable comedies of the last 40 years also features exteriors at Estes Park, Copper Mountain and Breckenridge.
6. “City Slickers” (1991) – Billy Crystal is a Manhattanite whose midlife crisis brings him and his friends to a cattle drive in the Southwest. It features an Oscar-winning performance from Jack Palance and gorgeous photography of Durango.
5. “Hateful Eight” (2015) – The eighth film from Quentin Tarantino is a brutal locked-room whodunnit with a sterling cast and filmed almost entirely in Telluride and the San Miguel Mountains.
4. “Blackkklansman” (2018) – A rookie cop (John David Washington) goes undercover to infiltrate the Klan in early ’70s Colorado Springs. This Spike Lee Joint was one of the the most popular selections among venues and film programmers surveyed.
3. “The Shining” (1980) – Though it was shot almost entirely in England, Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about ghosts, psychic powers and sons and fathers is one of the films that’s come to be most closely identified with Colorado.
2. “True Grit” (1969) – A Texas Ranger (Glen Campbell) and a take-no-guff U.S. Marshall (John Wayne) help a young woman (Kim Darby) find her father’s murderer. Filmed almost entirely in Colorado locations like Canon City, Gunnison, Placerville, Montrose, Ouray and Ridgway. Co-scripted by the extremely prolific Greeley-raised Hollywood screenwriter Marguerite Roberts, whose father was once a Colorado sheriff.
1. “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid” (1969) – The buddy movie to end all buddy movies, starring two of the top American leading men of mid-20th century film at the height of their popularity. Charming outlaws Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) escape south from the States to Bolivia after a train heist goes wrong. It features scenes shot in Silverton, Telluride, Durango and the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad as well as the pair jumping off Las Animas’ Trimble Bridge in a famous scene.
“What’s great about this festival is that we’re not only highlighting Colorado’s historical contributions to cinema, we are also showcasing Coloradans who make our state such a vibrant, vital place to live today. We’re recruiting interesting Coloradans to attend a local showing and speak ahead of each of the top 25 films they’ll be screening: sharing anecdotes, history, perspective and expertise,” DuRay says. “We’ve also got a collection of great Coloradans on video talking about one or more of the top 25 we can send to venues too. Filmgoers will get a chance to learn more about the film and the place they live together, which is what community building is all about.”
“The films selected for the Colorado Top 20 reflect the depth, creativity and lasting influence of Colorado’s connection to cinema,” said Denver Film CEO Kevin Smith. “From beloved classics and groundbreaking westerns to unforgettable comedies and contemporary stories, these films have helped shape how audiences around the world see and experience Colorado. What makes CO150 especially meaningful is the opportunity to experience these movies together in independent and community-based venues across the state. Bringing people together in local theaters, opera houses, drive-ins, and cultural spaces creates a shared celebration of film, place, and community that feels uniquely Colorado.”
“Out-of-state visitors and in-state explorers can spend some time on Colorado byways and main streets on their way to catch the curated list of Colorado-centric cinema in historic film venues,” DuRay says. “This way, film fans from all over can visit local businesses, explore local attractions and dig into all sorts of local treasures.”
Film lovers in Colorado and beyond are encouraged to visit the CO150 website and subscribe to the regularly updated CO150 media channels here and here for film-related stories, interviews and CO150 screening details.
