Ex-film commissioner tied to bringing Sundance to Colorado sues over termination

DENVER (CN) — Six months ahead of the Sundance Film Festival kicking off in Boulder, Colorado, the state’s former septuagenarian film commissioner, who says he secured the event’s relocation, sued his former employer claiming age discrimination and defamation.

After playing a role in negotiating the relocation of the Sundance Film Festival from Park City, Utah to Boulder, Colorado, 79-year-old Donald Zuckerman said his supervisor at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade fired him and replaced him with a younger employee when he refused to take the fall for three-quarters of a million dollars that were mistakenly given to his department.

“Plaintiff made a good faith disclosure when plaintiff’s office identified and documented an approximately $747,816 miscredit to the Film Office account,” Zuckerman wrote in a 16-page complaint filed in Denver County District Court Wednesday evening.

In addition to the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Zuckerman named his former supervisor Eve Lieberman and replacement Arielle Brachfield as defendants.

Zuckerman sat as film commissioner from May 2011 until Sept. 15, 2025. Toward the end of his tenure, he worked to bring the Sundance Film Festival to Colorado, which is scheduled to open in January 2027.

Leading up to his termination, Zuckerman said in his lawsuit, Lieberman placed him on a performance improvement plan, which he completed within two weeks.

Throughout the time they worked together, Zuckerman said Lieberman regularly asked him when was would retire, to which he said he intended to remain working until the Sundance Film Festival made it to the state.

When the film office unexpectedly received the $747,816 credit in April 2023, Zuckerman said he immediately reported it and learned from a state budget analyst it had been transferred as a “legislative whoopsie.”

Even though he followed up for an “accurate correction of the accounting error,” Zuckerman said the director of operations for the Office of Economic Development and International Trade wrongly reported him to the Governor’s Office Controller, “painting a bullseye on [his] chest.”

After Zuckerman said he faithfully disclosed all of his non-conflicting projects to the controller, Lieberman accused him of lying, asking, “who is paying you? Someone must be paying you,” he says in the complaint.

The office fired Zuckerman after he refused to resign, then replaced him with a younger employee.

After he was fired, Zuckerman said Lieberman notified all his contacts, hindering his ability to find new employment.

“The email stated, ‘Donald Zuckerman is no longer employed at OEDIT,’ publicly indicating that he was terminated and implying that it was for cause,” Zuckerman wrote in the complaint. “Other similarly situated members of OEDIT’s leadership did not have their terminations publicized via email in this manner.”

In addition to claims against the government for age discrimination, Zuckerman said Lieberman defamed him by leading “people to believe that [he] had committed acts so heinous that she could not repeat them.”

In the context of the MeToo movement, Zuckerman claims Lieberman’s message “gave the impression to several community partners that [he] had been embroiled in some sort of sexual controversy."

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Zuckerman is represented by attorney Maxim Belovol of the Denver firm Volya Law.

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