Robert Redford liked to say that everybody has a story. He’s not the only person who said it, but he is one of the few who did something to celebrate it, his daughter, Amy Redford, said Wednesday evening ahead of the Sundance Film Festival’s opening day.
Thanks to her father’s vision, the Sundance Institute he founded and its year-round programs have helped shape and nurture American independent film for the past 40 years. This year’s Sundance Film Festival is a grand goodbye party: It’s the first without Redford following his death in September, and the last in Utah before the festival relocates to Boulder, Colorado.
“This is a festival of new beginnings and endings,” his daughter said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I’m going to look around and drink it up and enjoy it and just not take anything for granted.”
Robert Redford’s legacy and Sundance’s decades-long history in Utah are key themes of the 2026 festival, which began Thursday morning with over a dozen films premiering throughout the day.
Screenings were preceded by a short video tribute to Redford, which was repeatedly met with roaring 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.”
With the dust settled from Oscar nominations, the festival is in full swing with the world premieres of Amir Bar-Lev’s documentary “The Last First: Winter K2” about the changing culture of extreme mountain climbing, Rachel Lambert’s tender drama “Carousel,” starring Chris Pine and Jenny Slate, and Judd Apatow’s portrait of comedian Maria Bamford’s mental health journey on the opening day list.
Also premiering Thursday was David Alvarado’s “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez” about the legacy of the playwright and director, and Joanna Natasegara’s “The Disciple,” which delves into the stranger-than-fiction story of how Dutch-Moroccan record producer Cilvaringz found his way into the inner circle of the Wu-Tang Clan. “Too Many Cooks” creator Casper Kelly was also debuting his midnight movie “Buddy,” starring Cristin Milioti, about escaping a children’s television show.
“Tuner” director Daniel Roher teared up on stage as he introduced his film and dedicated the screening to Rob and Michele Reiner. The last time he saw the couple before their deaths was at his baby shower. He said Rob Reiner was an amazing mentor who gave him notes on the script about a piano tuner (Leo Woodall) who uses his keen ear to crack safes. The film premiered at Telluride in September before screening at Sundance.
Asked what she wanted to highlight about her father’s legacy, Amy Redford noted his commitment to environmental stewardship in Utah and beyond. One film that she said exemplifies that commitment is “The Lake,” a documentary following the fight to save Utah’s Great Salt Lake as water levels have dropped dangerously low, exposing a lake bed rife with arsenic and other cancer-causing sediments.
At the Thursday premiere, Utah filmmaker Abby Ellis described a local ecosystem on the brink of disaster but reminded viewers that all hope isn’t lost.
“Ultimately, the lake doesn’t respond directly to money or podcasts or even films. It responds to water,” said Ben Abbott, an ecologist featured in the documentary. “And so the question that’s open is, are we able to translate the feeling that we have right now of solidarity and hope into water?”
That opening day overlapped with Oscar nominations was not entirely disconnected from Sundance. All the documentary nominees premiered at last year’s festival, and several 2025 Sundance premieres had nominations in different categories including “Train Dreams,” “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” and “The Ugly Stepsister.”
Also, three of the five best director nominees — Paul Thomas Anderson, Chloé Zhao and Ryan Coogler — came up through the Sundance Institute’s lab programs, mentored by Michelle Satter.
Even as the festival prepares to head to its new home, the institute will continue to host its development labs for screenwriters and directors in Utah at the Sundance Mountain Resort, about 34 miles (54 kilometers) south of Park City.
The Sundance Film Festival runs through Feb. 1.
