The first Sundance Film Festival since the death of founder Robert Redford began in Park City last week, marking the final time the event was held in the mountains of Utah.
Hollywood names including Olivia Wilde, Natalie Portman and Ethan Hawke were expected to walk the red carpet at the snowcapped Rocky Mountain resort, alongside emerging filmmakers, at one of the most influential gatherings in the global film calendar.
Amy Redford, daughter of the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid star who founded the festival in 1978, described the edition as an emotional one, coming just four months after her father’s death.
“Very proud”, she said when asked about his legacy.
“He was somebody that created from the field, not from on high”, she said, stressing that the focus of the festival was always meant to be storytellers rather than its founder.
Among the many films screened was The Invite, directed by and starring Wilde alongside Seth Rogen and Edward Norton, based on a script co-written by Rashida Jones. Jon Hamm and John Slattery reunited in Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, while The Gallerist featured Natalie Portman and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in a dark satire set around Art Basel Miami.
Highly anticipated non-celebrity titles included John Wilson’s The History of Concrete, an unconventional take on selling a film about building materials. The international lineup featured Molly Manners’ debut Extra Geography from the UK.
Other films included Hanging by a Wire, which followed a race to rescue schoolboys stranded in a Himalayan cable car, Cyprus-set drama Hold On to Me and Kenyan documentary Kikuyu Land, examining land dispossession through corruption.
The festival was set to move next year to Boulder, Colorado, after outgrowing Park City. Programmer John Nein said leaving Utah was bittersweet, noting that the town’s remoteness and cold helped shape the festival’s unique atmosphere.
Festival director Eugene Hernandez said the Sundance Institute would maintain roots in Utah, but described this year’s programme as memorable.
“There was laughter, there were tears, there was joy, connection and community”, he said. “Those are the things that make a festival”. — AFP
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