The End of Era. That’s the only way I can think of it. Decades of attending the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah with Robert Redford always present as its founding father. These are the memories that light the corners of my mind this year, the first since Redford’s death in September and the last in Utah as the festival packs up its tents for its new home in Boulder, Colorado. Move in date: January 2027.
It won’t be the same, of course, except in spirit. Redford had a vision for a place in his own Utah backyard where a new generation of young filmmakers, most of them having hocked everything and borrowed the rest, could come and show off what they crafted. From the Coen brothers, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino to this year’s Oscar nominees, Chloe Zhao and Ryan Coogler, Sundance remains fertile ground for growing filmmakers.
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Every year didn’t produce a bumper crop, but the excitement of launching a film at the Eccles (the largest venue) or squeezing your butt into the tight quarters of the Library never waned. The thrill of discovery is never far off in Sundance. Last year gave us “Train Dreams,” “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” and my personal favorite, “Sorry Baby.
As for this year, only time will tell which films, if any, have the stuff to last. “See anything good?”—Redford used to ask me near the end of every festival. He never told me his preferences, but if I mentioned a title he favored, his smile—dazzling till the end—was fit for a widescreen closeup. He also liked it when a film developed at the Sundance Institute’s labs for screenwriting and directing made the cut. So yes, Redford, I did see a few things this year that would do you proud. In your honor, here they are.
“Josephine”
It’s not often that a Sundance film wins both the Grand Jury Prize and the coveted Audience Award, which promises commercial viability. “Josephine” scored that enviable one-two punch, the victory made sweeter since it was developed at the 2018 Sundance labs. The film was written and directed by Beth de Araújo, the child of a Brazilian Olympic runner and a Chinese-American ballerina mother. She grew up in San Francisco where “Josephine” is set, with Gemma Chan as the mom and a terrific Channing Tatum as the father who takes his eight-year-old daughter, Josephine (the remarkable Mason Reeves), for a run in Golden Gate Park where the girl, veering off track, witnesses a sexual assault. That trauma, based on Araujo’s own formative experience, becomes the inciting incident for a powerhouse drama that means to shake you and does.
“The Invite”
This couples sex comedy is directed with mischievous nuance by Olivia Wilde, who costars with Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton. If there’s such a thing as a pot of gold at Sundance, “The Invite” brought it home, having inspired a heated bidding war that resulted in a huge sale to A24 for a wowza $12 million. Redford always believed that commercial success is nothing to be ashamed of, as long as you made the movie you wanted without compromises from studios or producers. Nothing about “The Invite” feels muted as indie rock musician Rogen and his high-strung wife (Wilde) send a dinner invite to their new neighbors, played to perfection by Cruz and Norton, unaware that they are swingers into group sex. Working from a sharp script by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, Wilde keeps springing wicked surprises you definitely don’t see coming.
“The Weight”
Ethan Hawke, having a mid-career moment with his Oscar-nominated role as Broadway composer Lorenz Hart in “Blue Moon,” gave a moving tribute to Redford at the fest. He also brought along his newest film, “The Weight,” a Depression era prison drama in which Russell Crowe costars as the merciless warden. Though “The Weight”: suggests “Cool Hand Luke” in the way the prisoners, especially Hawke, “fail to communicate” with the warden, it’s a study in greed more akin to 1948’s “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Houston in a rugged classic that Redford told me he revered above all others. It seems appropriate to show “The Weight” from first-time director Padraic McKinley at a festival that celebrates the cinema past with an eye to its future.
“Nuisance Bear”
Documentaries have always been the pride of Sundance and this year’s prize winner goes right to the core of Redford’s eco-minded, Indigenous-supportive film festival that reveres Mother Nature. “Nuisance Bear,” co-directed by Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman, focuses on Churchill, Manitoba, the so-called “polar bear capital of the world,” where the animals are forced out of their natural habitat by climate change and humans armed with cameras and sometimes rifles. The dangers of these land carnivores and predators render them as a “nuisance,” meaning they can be moved or eliminated. This film weeps for them, and you will too.
“Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! “
Redford always hated it when people would describe Sundance movies as sad, somber downers that you watch like homework or worse, “granola” movies meant to be taken as good for you. More than a few Sundance movies have been guilty as charged. The worst offender this year is the egregiously awful “In the Blink of an Eye,” correctly described as how “three storylines, spanning thousands of years, intersect and reflect on hope, connection and the circle of life.” Kill me now. The antidote to that is “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty,” from Josef Kubota Wladyka, who won the directing prize. He deserved it for this tale of Ha-Chan, a Japanese ballroom dancer (Rinko Kikuchi), who is mourning her Mexican husband and dance partner. I know, that sounds awful, too. But it’s not. It’s a wicked treat that dances past the clichés of uplift when she finds a new love and partner in Fedir (Alberto Guerra) and a romantic triangle develops between them and her dead husband, now returned to life as a giant plush-toy chicken. Trust me, it works like gangbusters and “Babel” Oscar nominee Kikuchi is some kind of goddess. Get on your feet.
"Bedford Park”
New voices always made Redford the most excited about every fresh edition of Sundance. So let’s introduce Stephanie Ahn, who won the Sundance U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature. Her film, about two adult children of Korean immigrants, has a rare delicacy of feeling that draws you in. Eli (Son Sukku) and Audrey (Moon Choi) meet when he is involved in car accident with her mother and the two strangers connect to work out the details. We soon learn that Audrey, a Manhattan physical therapist, has moved back to her parental home in New Jersey and that Eli, an ex-wrestler, works as a mall security guard. Both have experienced parental abuse and a complicated relationship with their Korean roots. Thanks to Ahn’s writing and directing and two superb performances by Choi and Sukku, a bond develops that rings true in its most intimate details: a Sundance hallmark.
“Downhill Racer”
As a tribute to Redford, the 2026 festival held a screening of 1969’s “Downhill Racer,” a ski film close to the actor’s heart. Released a year after “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” it made Redford a global heartthrob, “Downhill Racer” saw the actor play an athlete alone in a sea of snow and isolated from emotion. Over the years, Redford grew increasingly fond of this film that played against the glamor image of him so carefully curated by Hollywood. In essence, “Downhill Racer” is a Sundance film long before there was a Sundance. In 2013, Redford would give another of his best performances in “All Is Lost,” about another lone wolf, a sailor battling the elements till the end. Seeing this photo of us, with Redford wearing his Sundance threads like a badge of honor, I’m reminded of the Redford message of resistance to generations of young filmmakers. “When courage is lost,” as the saying goes, “all is lost.” At courage, Redford never lost and Sundance is his legacy.
