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Sundance kicks off in Utah with powerful
premieres and emotional tributes to Robert Redford
[January 22, 2026]
By LINDSEY BAHR and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
PARK CITY,
Utah (AP) — 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.
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Robert Redford poses on a balcony along Main Street decorated with his
Sundance Film Festival banners on Jan. 17, 2003, in Park City, Utah. (AP
Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File) |
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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 officially
begins Thursday morning with over a dozen films premiering
throughout the day.
By the time the dust has settled from Oscar nominations, the
festival will already be 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 upcoming is 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 will also
debut his midnight movie “Buddy,” starring Cristin Milioti,
about escaping a children’s television show.
The Sundance Film Festival runs through Feb. 1.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
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