Amy Redford, daughter of the late Hollywood icon Robert Redford, gave a touching speech on Tuesday night to mark the beginning of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
The actor was a founding member of the iconic festival, alongside film producers John Earle and Sterling Van Wagenen, in 1978. It was named after the “Sundance” plot of land that Redford owned, which was in turn named after his formative film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Redford died on September 16, 2025.
Amy Redford’s Tribute To Her Late Father
Holding back tears in an emotional tribute to her father, Amy Redford used her opening speech to highlight the importance of elevating new, fresh, creative voices through Sundance. She confessed that her father’s “favorite part” of the festival had been “to seek the unknowns and find out who they are.”
Sundance is the world’s leading independent film festival, with countless debut features and previously unheard voices making themselves heard every single year. In 2025 alone, acclaimed movies such as Twinless, Train Dreams, and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You had their premieres at the festival and immediately cemented themselves as some of the year’s best.
Redford shouted out these “shivering filmmakers who you’d never heard of…who might be the next one who will change the world” in her speech, claiming that her father truly believed “everyone has a story.”
Sundance Moves To Boulder, Colorado
In 2023, it was announced that Sundance Film Festival was going to be moving to a new location for the first time since it put down roots in Park City back in 1981. The festival had outgrown the small town, and its contract would be running out in 2026 regardless.
Negotiations went on for over 18 months, with cities including Atlanta, Cincinatti, and Santa Fe all mentioned at some point. The decision was ultimately made in January 205 that Sundance would be moving to Boulder, Colorado for a period of at least ten years from the 2027 edition onwards.
Redford used her speech to discuss this transition, drawing attention to the cinema spirit that has fueled Park City for so many decades, and urging audiences to appreciate the small town for the festival’s final year there: “I invite you to look out and up when you can, these mountains have a funny way of adding perspective.”
Redford also looked to the future, expressing her excitement to move to a larger, more commercial location such as Boulder: “This festival has found a new iteration, that will be exciting and imperfect and might feel like our beginnings 40 years ago. We will ground our next chapter in the founding values Dad articulated on a single sheet of paper; if you’ve read them, they are simple and strong.”
