Lloyd Kaufman’s campy TromaDance is crashing Sundance’s Boulder debut (with a middle finger) ...Saudi Arabia

Boulder will host two new film festivals in 2027: One backed by decades of prestige, celebrity panels and multimillion-dollar distribution deals, and one that once screened a movie called “Surf Nazis Must Die.”

While the first is the Sundance Film Festival, of course, the second is TromaDance, a free-to-attend, free-to-submit festival created by quirky filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman, co-founder of Troma Entertainment, the gleefully grotesque and shamelessly subversive studio behind nearly 50 years of low-budget, high-havoc cinema.

Troma was launched in the 1970s by Kaufman and his producing partner Michael Herz, and quickly became synonymous with blood-soaked cult comedies like “The Toxic Avenger” (’84), “Class of Nuke ’Em High” (’86) and “Tromeo and Juliet” (’96). If you’ve never seen one, expect radioactive goo, crude humor, heads exploding, and plenty of scenes that wouldn’t stand a chance in a modern studio’s PR meeting.

Troma’s legacy isn’t just measured in fake blood and radioactive sludge, though there’s plenty of that to go around. The studio has also been a launchpad for future Hollywood heavyweights, including James Gunn (DC Studios CEO) and the University of Colorado Boulder’s most chaotic alumni, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

In fact, the very existence of TromaDance traces back to a now legendary Sundance snub. In 1994, Parker and Stone submitted their feature debut, “Cannibal! The Musical,” to the Sundance Film Festival. The submission was ultimately ignored. Undeterred, the duo rented a room in Park City and screened the film during the festival anyway. The guerrilla-style premiere helped kickstart their careers and caught the attention of Kaufman, who, inspired by their DIY ethos and frustrated with the exclusivity of mainstream festivals, created TromaDance.

“Michael Herz and I have always wanted to support up-and-coming filmmakers, giving them opportunities they wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere, all while putting our middle finger up to the blood-sucking elites,” Kaufman said. “The circle jerk that is Sundance, who bring their bougie posse of Hollywood vampires, suck these small towns dry. So, in an act of both protest and idealism, the Troma Team took to the land of Mormonism, reached out to genuine indie artists, and made history.”

Kaufman added: “There is nothing else like TromaDance. Filmmakers who can’t get past all the gatekeeping from every other festival out there, for their strange experimental work to be shown, can find a home in TromaDance. We are the squires of lost causes, because, as Congressman Jimmy Stewart said, ‘Lost causes are the best ones worth fighting for.’”

Sundance’s move to Boulder after 40 years in Utah, a big move announced in March, includes a 10-year agreement to remain in Boulder and a not-so-small chance of citywide gridlock once a year in January. The main festival will sprawl across venues near the Pearl Street Mall and CU Boulder, and TromaDance, true to form, plans to set up nearby in its usual makeshift traveling carnival of sorts.

The idea to bring TromaDance to Boulder came from Mathew Klickstein, a writer, pop culture historian and former Colorado Daily reporter who said he has worked closely with Kaufman and Troma for years. According to Klickstein, he reached out to Troma as soon as Sundance’s relocation became public.

“I am excited that we can bring a truly independent — in all meanings of the word — film festival to Boulder while Sundance is going on,” Klickstein said. “Our festival is free to enter, free to attend and is therefore not merely wholly independent, but truly egalitarian and inclusive, the way Troma and Lloyd have always been.”

Although TromaDance originally started as a kind of counterprogramming to Sundance, Klickstein sees the Boulder edition differently. He described it not as opposition, but as “parallel programming,” a festival that can attract Sundance-goers looking for something offbeat while remaining accessible to the community at large.

“Everyone is invited to TromaDance. Everyone is welcome. That’s part of its magic, as with the magic of Troma itself,” he said.

Klickstien said TromaDance’s arrival will also bring Kaufman’s larger legacy directly to new audiences.

“It’s a lot of why Lloyd does what he does, both as legacy but also to endow his unique and nuanced approach to filmmaking, storytelling and art creation to new generations,” he said. “He’s clearly done that for decades now with proof from his many proteges who have become massive successes.”

Klickstien added that the team is in conversation with Colorado-based organizations, including Vinegar Syndrome, Loudspeaker Studios and Colorado Festival of Horror, along with other arts and film groups across the state. The goal, he said, is for TromaDance to feel as rooted in Boulder’s culture as Sundance is expected to be. And, in true Troma fashion, he teased some of the wild ideas already on the table — from Troma-style parades down Pearl Street to custom merch designed with Boulder-based Mighty Fudge’s in-house printing press.

As Klickstien put it: “Nobody parties like Troma.”

One of the most important parts of making TromaDance feel rooted in Boulder means, according to Klickstein, teaming up with local partners who already operate with the same DIY spirit Troma has embodied for decades.

That’s where Mighty Fudge comes in.

Founded by Pat Mallek, the Boulder studio has spent 25 years making offbeat, adults-only cartoons that have screened everywhere from SXSW, Funny or Die and Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. Its credits include shorts and music videos with titles such as “My First Boner” and “The Fartbot Princess Ninja Network.”

Mallek is, unsurprisingly, a massive Troma fan. In the 1980s, while his friends went to the movies, Mallek said he was renting Troma VHS tapes from Blockbuster and rewatching “The Toxic Avenger” and “Class of Nuke ’Em High” on repeat.

“TromaDance is a perfect fit for Mighty Fudge, because we’re basically Boulder’s version of Troma,” Mallek said. “We’ve been making cartoons for grown-ups since 1999, and it’s always been outlaw, renegade, bootstrapped. We’ve always made films without caring who likes them. That was never the point. Troma and Mighty Fudge together, I’d say it’s about time.”

Mighty Fudge has two locations: a fine art gallery in NoBo and a main studio downtown at 4520 Broadway. While the studio will likely host programming and events at both, Mallek said there’s no grand plan for TromaDance in 2027 just yet.

“It’s no surprise we don’t have anything planned yet,” Mallek said. “Mat [Klickstien] never has logistics, he flies by the seat of his pants. Add in Lloyd [Kaufman] on top of that, and by default nobody’s planning anything at this point. It’s just a free-for-all.”

That loose style fits the studio just fine.

“From what I understand, TromaDance is kind of a free-for-all,” he said. “We’re here to accommodate that format. It’s usually ad hoc, throw it together and see what happens, and that’s how we tend to operate at Mighty Fudge, too.”

Mallek confirmed that Mighty Fudge will also show its own films during TromaDance.

“The question is whether we’ll show the dirtier films or the cleaner versions,” he said. “Hopefully, both. I’d love some midnight screenings to show the crazier ones.”

He added: “We at Mighty Fudge see Sundance coming here as a gift after 25 years of slugging it out in Boulder instead of moving to Hollywood. Now Hollywood’s coming our way.”

Whether it’s midnight screenings of Mighty Fudge cartoons or a Troma parade rumbling down Pearl Street, the festival is shaping up to be Sundance’s strange, messy cousin crashing the party. In a town already bracing for the spectacle of Sundance, Kaufman and company seem happy to add some chaos.

“Expect your senses to be stirred down to their very core,” Kaufman said. “May your mind, body and soul be Tromatized to the fullest extent.”

If readers are curious about Troma’s full-throttle weirdness, here’s a sampler: “The Toxic Avenger,” starring Peter Dinklage in a fresh reimagining, hits cinemas on Friday. Dinklage stars as janitor Winston Gooze, who morphs into a mutant hero to fight a corrupt corporation. It’s a somewhat more palatable introduction to Troma’s signature blend of gross-out humor and anti-establishment flair. Think of it as a gateway drug: entertaining, a bit shocking and absolutely indicative of what to expect at TromaDance.

Stay up to date on the Sundance Film Festival: Read more and bookmark it — dailycamera.com/sundance.

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