BOULDER, Colo. — Robert Redford, actor, director, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival, passed away on Tuesday at 89.
He will be remembered as a leading man in films such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Candidate,” and “All the President’s Men.”
While he was a Hollywood icon, Redford made massive contributions to independent films that shaped pop culture.
“He really started his focus on independent film and telling stories that weren't really getting told in the Hollywood mainstream way back in the really late 60s, doing his own films and then directing and then producing films and TV shows,” said Vincent Piturro, Professor of Film and Media Studies at MSU Denver.
Redford founded Sundance in 1981 as a nonprofit to support independent filmmakers through grants and mentorships.
Local
Robert Redford’s Colorado legacy: From CU Boulder to Elitch Gardens
The festival, initially small and featuring just a handful of films, has now become the largest in the country. Sundance featured 88 films this year, attracting tens of thousands of attendees and generating over $100 million annually in economic impact.
Piturro says that many iconic films and their now-famous directors became household names only after debuting at Sundance.
Steven Soderbergh made his feature directorial debut at the Sundance Film Festival with “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” in 1989. Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” premiered at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” broke through at the 2001 festival. In 2013, Ryan Coogler’s “Fruitvale Station” left the Sundance audience in tears.
These directors, like so many others, went on to produce films with monumental box office success and cultural impact.
The Sundance Institute released a statement on Redford’s death:
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our founder and friend Robert Redford. Bob’s vision of a space and a platform for independent voices launched a movement that, over four decades later, has inspired generations of artists and redefined cinema in the U.S. and around the world. Beyond his enormous contributions to culture at large, we will miss his generosity, clarity of purpose, curiosity, rebellious spirit, and his love for the creative process. We are humbled to be among the stewards of his remarkable legacy, which will continue to guide the Institute in perpetuity.”
Redford’s legacy lives on in Sundance, which will move to Boulder in 2027.
That is, coincidentally, where Redford attended college, spending nearly two years at CU in 1958.
“Moving to Boulder allows Sundance to grow because they were kind of small in Utah,” Piturro said. “They can expand the number of films and the kind of films that they will bring in.”
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.