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 A leading man in the 1970s and 1980s, Redford created the
annual Sundance gathering in Park City, Utah, to give an outlet
to independent film making and creativity brewing outside of the
big studios.
Speaking at his annual press conference, Redford said he did not
want the fact that he had not received an Academy Award
nomination for his role in "All is Lost" to detract from the
festival. But in explaining why the movie was not recognized by
Oscar voters, he put the blame on the studio behind the film,
Lionsgate.
"We suffered from little to no distribution, so as a result, our
distributors, I don't know why, they didn't want to spend the
money, they were afraid or they just weren't capable," said the
77-year-old Redford, who has won two Oscars. Neither was for
acting.
"We had no campaign to help us cross over into the mainstream,
so I suspect that had something to do with it. Would it have
been wonderful to be nominated? Of course. But I'm not disturbed
or upset by it," he added.
But Redford was upset by a recent article published in the New
York Times that suggested Sundance's growing crop of films that
are acquired from the festival and receive theatrical releases
are not always beneficial to the movie theater business. Redford
criticized the author of the article, saying "that person was
wrong," referring to critic Manohla Dargis.
"There was an article recently in a paper that seems to suggest
that Sundance isn't what it could be or what it was. And they
were implying that was because of box office receipts, and lack
of financial reasons. That's not who we are. It's got nothing to
do with who we are, we are non-profit," Redford said.
"We're not interested in the money of it, that's somebody else's
business."
DEATH DOMINATES OPENING DAY
Set in the snow-laden streets of Park City, the Sundance
festival, backed by Redford's Sundance Institute, is the
premiere U.S. independent film gathering, launching the careers
of many influential filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino and
David O. Russell.
The opening day of Sundance spotlights four films, one from each
of the competition categories, that highlight dominant themes
within the festival. "Whiplash," an intense drama about a young
drummer in the pursuit of perfection in his craft, will
represent the U.S. drama competition and ushers in a plethora of
movies spanning all of Sundance's competition, premiers and
spotlight categories.
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 In the world drama competition, "Lilting, a film by
Cambodian-born British filmmaker Hong Khaou, represents another
significant theme running through numerous films this year — death
and humanity.
"Lilting" is the story of an aging Chinese mother
who loses her son and thus her connection to the foreign world she
lives in as she is unable to speak English. But her late son's
boyfriend finds a way to connect with her beyond the lingual barrier
as they bond over grieving the same man.
Khaou, who moved to England at a young age with his family as
political refugees, said he mined deeply personal experiences, from
his own mother not speaking English and his father passing away at a
young age, to explore the unifying nature of death.
"I wanted to explore how (the mother's) life would be if her
lifeline to the outside world was gone, how would she cope. And that
is such a rich, fertile ground to explore, because it's all about
communication, it's all about language," Khaou told Reuters.
Other films that use death to explore existential crises include
"Jamie Marks is Dead," about a boy who dies and returns as a ghost
to visit his former classmate, and "Life After Beth," in which a
young man must deal with his dead girlfriend returning as a zombie.
One notable film exploring the topic of death through comedy is
actor-director Zach Braff's "Wish I was Here," in which a
35-year-old father suffers an existential crisis after his father
dies.
The film has already gained publicity after Braff used crowd-sourced
financing platform Kickstarter to fund the film, something that
Redford said Sundance reflects as digital platforms become more
prevalent in day-to-day life.
"Look at all the films in this festival that were financed by
Kickstarter. As these (platforms) come, I just want people to know
that we go with it and incorporate that into how we see film," he
said.
(Editing by Mary Milliken and Dan Grebler)
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