Filmmakers and actors whose careers were shaped by Robert Redford and the Sundance Institute he founded reflected on his legacy as the godfather of independent cinema at a star-studded gala Friday night during the first Sundance Film Festival since his death.
The 2026 festival — its last in Utah, before relocating to Boulder, Colorado — is a love letter to the haven Redford established in the state decades ago for stories that didn’t fit into the mainstream.
Even as the festival heads to its new home, the piece of Redford’s legacy that his daughter said meant the most to him will remain in Utah: the institute’s lab programs for writers and directors.
“When my dad could have created an empire, he created a nest,” said his daughter, Amy Redford. “The Sundance Institute was designed to support and protect and nourish and then set free.”
She said there was no place her father would rather be than sitting with a new filmmaker at the Sundance Mountain Resort he founded, about 34 miles (54 kilometers) south of Park City.
Generations of filmmakers credit Redford for their success
The labs, which started in 1981, bring emerging storytellers to the rustic resort in northern Utah to nurture their talents under expert guidance and away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. Three of the five best director nominees at this year’s Academy Awards — Paul Thomas Anderson, Chloé Zhao and Ryan Coogler — came up through the labs.
Zhao, whose film “Hamnet” was nominated this week for eight Oscars, credited the screenwriting lab with jump-starting her career in 2012. Under the mentorship of Redford and program director Michelle Satter, she said she learned to trust her own vision and gained an invaluable community of creatives.
Other former participants, including director Nia DaCosta, shared memories of Redford riding his motorcycle on peaceful wooded paths and stopping to talk to them about their projects. He insisted each of them call him by his nickname, Bob.
“I remember once seeing him walk some of the other fellows from the directors lab, and he just looked so full of love and pride for us, for what he built,” DaCosta said. “And it was just very clear to me in that moment the depth to which he cared about this place and all of us.”
Sundance Film Festival regular Ethan Hawke recounted his first audition in front of Redford for the 1992 period drama “A River Runs Through It.” After forgoing sleep to prepare a lengthy monologue, Hawke said Redford pulled him aside to say he was too young for the part but would undoubtedly have a wonderful career.
Redford was an early champion of Hawke’s work and became one of his greatest mentors. Hawke pledged Friday to “keep the fire that he started burning” and help it spread.
“Imagination is worth protecting”
Screenings at this year’s festival were preceded by a short video tribute to Redford, which was repeatedly met with thunderous applause. Many volunteers wore buttons that read “Thank you Bob!”
Later in the festival will be a screening of his first truly independent film, the 1969 sports drama “Downhill Racer.”
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s first taste of Sundance was as a publicist for other artists at the festival. In 2012, she got her own big break at Sundance with “Middle of Nowhere.” She later spent several years as a Sundance trustee and grew close to Redford, though she said she never felt quite right calling him Bob.
“Mr. Redford didn’t just establish a festival. He modeled a way to be, a way that matters, a way that says artists matter, that imagination is worth protecting,” DuVernay said. “The door that he built is still open, and it’s up to us to walk through and to maybe even build our own.”
For the first and likely the only time, she then said, “Thank you, Bob.”
