With Sundance alumni like director Chloé Zhao crediting its labs for shaping their careers, the festival’s legacy of nurturing independent storytellers underscores why Robert Redford’s artist-first vision remains vital in a new era.
This article was originally published on Pat Mitchell’s weekly newsletter.
At the end of January, we traveled to Park City, Utah, for our 35th Sundance Film Festival. This one was bittersweet as it was the last to be convened in Park City, and the first since the visionary founder, Robert Redford, died.
There were many very emotional moments for me—as a long time friend and 30-plus-year board member of the nonprofit Sundance Institute, which produces the festival as well as offering labs, fellowships, mentoring and other artist-focused programs. These artist programs are the touchstone, the creative heart, of Redford’s vision to nurture and support independent storytellers. I always want to elevate the importance of this work, which is sometimes overshadowed by the success of the film festival … and to remind festival lovers that the revenues from the tickets help to fund the artist programs—some of which we are committed to keeping in Utah and hopefully at the Sundance Mountain Resort even after the festival moves to Boulder, Colo.
After half a century, a new era begins with the festival’s move, with new possibilities. I’m focused on securing the sustainability of the artist programs.
It has always been about community, courage and the belief that when those that are underrepresented or misrepresented speak or share their stories, change can follow.
It must be noted, for example, the current and powerful impact of these programs, evidenced in this year’s Oscar nominations. Ryan Coogler, whose film Sinners earned 16 Academy Award nominations, breaking the all-time record for the most nominations in Oscar history, has acknowledged publicly many times that the Sundance Labs where he developed his first feature film, Fruitvale Station, molded him into the creative he is today.
Chloé Zhao—another Oscar nominee for Hamnet and awardee for Best Director and Best Picture for Nomadland—has often acknowledged the importance of the mentoring she received and the supportive community she became a part of through the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs. There are other success stories as so many of the films, writers, directors, producers all are Sundance alums, and three of the five documentary features nominated premiered at Sundance.
Sundance has provided opportunities not available anywhere else for those working outside the studios and mainstream media with untold stories and new ideas—always the hardest to get produced. Throughout the Institute’s history, thousands of filmmakers, writers, producers and directors have been supported and nurtured there.
Several have shared their deep gratitude and respect for the Sundance labs and the awesome leader and co-founder of the programs, Michelle Satter, who has been a constant source of encouragement and insight since the beginning, and of course the visionary storyteller and founder, Robert Redford. (He always encouraged everyone to call him ‘Bob’ but for many who had the privilege to meet him and/or work with him, they admit to being unable to call him anything other than ‘Mr. Redford.’)
He was ‘Bob’ to me and our family, and we miss him in our lives and on this earth, which he devoted much of his life and work to preserving. Bob was an early environmentalist and conservationist—producing more than 100 documentaries about Mother Earth’s natural beauty and life sustaining resources. He was among the first Americans to talk about climate change and convened early conferences at the Sundance Mountain Resort, which he established in part to protect the natural beauty of Provo Canyon from developers and also to become a place where artists selected for the labs could pursue their work, experiencing the unique alchemy of art and nature.
Along with his son Jamie, he established The Redford Center to continue the conservation and environmental commitment so central to the values of all he created and supported. At this year’s Sundance, one of the most moving tributes came from his grandson Conor Schlosser, co-chair of The Redford Center board along with Dylan Redford, another grandson. They both continue his commitment to supporting environmental and conservation themed documentaries.
Several times during this festival, his daughter, Amy, reminded us, “My dad could have built an empire, but instead he built a nest.” In that nest, he created the Sundance Institute to nurture talent, welcome new ideas, support untold stories, and started a festival to introduce audiences to these stories and storytellers. Through The Redford Center and Sundance Nature Alliance and the newest initiative which he launched with his wife, Sibylle Swaggars, The Way of the Rain, the ‘nest’ Redford built will continue to nurture, to cultivate, to mentor, to create communities of shared interests.
It will perpetuate his commitment to nature and art as a catalytic force for the creative risk-taking that elevates the ideas, voices and stories that impact lives and culture. He often said, “A culture without art will die.”
As Sundance closes its story in Utah and opens a new chapter of service to storytellers and changemakers and to the audiences that support them in Boulder, it was good to gather—to pause, honor and look ahead together. It has always been about community, courage and the belief that when those that are underrepresented or misrepresented speak or share their stories, change can follow.
Robert Redford was an artist/actor/director/environmentalist, a visionary leader whose commitment to opening doors for others changed much more than the film ecosystem. He changed lives, shifted perspectives, opened minds and hearts and remains in the hearts of all he touched.
With admiration, gratitude and a commitment to carry forward the belief that is at heart of all he created: “Everyone has a story, and stories connect us and remind us of our shared humanity.”
Editor’s note: You may also like a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls. The first review—Selina Miles’ illuminating documentary, Silenced, featuring the cases of Amber Heard, Gisèle Pelicot Brittany Higgins, Colombian journalists at Volcánicas and others—drops Friday, Feb. 6.
