Generations of fans and the creative community are bidding farewell to actor, filmmaker, and activist ROBERT REDFORD, who passed away today at age 89. The epitome of a Hollywood movie star, Redford might not have been the most obvious person to provide a lifeline to out-of-the-box artists. Yet, in all likelihood, SAGindie would never have existed without Robert Redford spearheading the embrace of independent cinema into the entertainment industry and the mainstream culture at large.
After finding early acting success on the stage and in television, Robert Redford brought his talents and golden boy good looks to the big screen, winning the Best New Star Award at the 1965 Golden Globes. As an A-list actor, Redford was a nearly unstoppable leading man through the 1960s (Barefoot in the Park, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), ’70s (The Sting, All the President’s Men), ’80s (The Natural, Out of Africa), ’90s (Sneakers, Indecent Proposal), and 2000s (The Last Castle, Spy Game). He continued acting well into his eighties, both in big studio fare (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pete’s Dragon) and indie character-driven projects. (All Is Lost, The Old Man & the Gun).
To those who initially reduced him to just a pretty boy, Redford proved doubters wrong by forging a steady career as a director (Ordinary People, A River Runs Through It) and producer through his company Wildwood Enterprises (Slums of Beverly Hills, The Motorcycle Diaries). But beyond his movie star status or his impressive resumé behind the camera, it was Redford’s passion for mentoring fledgling filmmakers that differentiated his legacy from other heartthrobs of yore.
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In the early 1960s, Robert Redford was on the verge of becoming one of the biggest stars in the world when he began purchasing land in the Utah mountains. The ski resort was eventually dubbed “Sundance” after his newly iconic film character. In 1979, Redford turned his mountain getaway into a refuge for independent artists by launching the nonprofit Sundance Institute, a move that would redefine his legacy for the remainder of his life and career.
1981 was the year that solidified Redford as a bridge between the industry system and the arthouse world: In Hollywood, he won Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Ordinary People; in Utah, he launched the Sundance Institute’s first-ever Filmmaker Lab. For that first summer lab, the nonprofit brought 17 up-and-coming filmmakers to the Sundance Resort for a filmmaking boot camp overseen by Redford and other established mentors. Since that first lab (which developed Gregory Nava’s Oscar-nominated El Norte), the Sundance Labs have helped launch the careers of such (seeming) “overnight sensations” as Quentin Tarantino, Alfonso Cuarón, Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Miranda July, Taika Waititi, Ryan Coogler, Chloé Zhao, and the Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert), among many others.
With the launch of the Sundance Labs, Robert Redford’s reach within the indie film community was only just beginning. In 1984, his organization took over the nearby US Film & Video Festival in Park City and eventually renamed it the Sundance Film Festival. From that moment on, Sundance and the concept of “indie film” in the American consciousness became practically synonymous as the festival premiered such groundbreaking works as Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, Before Sunrise, The Blair Witch Project, Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine, Precious, Get Out, and CODA. From its early scrappy heyday to the big-money marketplace it became by the 21st Century, the Sundance Film Festival continues to be a global flagship film industry event year after year — one that SAGindie has proudly sponsored since our inception.
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As an actor and industry leader, Redford was fêted by his peers with the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the SAG Life Achievement Award in 1995, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2002. Meanwhile, his Sundance brand expanded into a retail catalog, film distributor, cable TV channel, movie theater chain, streaming service, and online learning platform.
In 2005, Redford combined his passions for filmmaking and environmentalism by co-founding The Redford Center with his son James. Realizing how entertainment can influence social activism, The Redford Center emboldens documentary filmmakers to pursue environmental justice through their works. In 2019, Redford announced he was stepping away as the public face of the Sundance Film Festival. And with the festival’s impending move from Utah to Colorado, the foundation that Redford laid continues to evolve.
Whether you knew him best as a handsome Hollywood star, a Marvel movie villain, an award-winning director, or indie cinema’s most famous mentor, Robert Redford will certainly go down in film history as a uniquely influential force, one to whom SAGindie and the filmmaking community are forever grateful.
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