Overview

• Redford died on Sept. 16 at age 89, with no cause disclosed as his family requested privacy.
• He founded the Sundance Institute in 1980, later acquiring the Utah/US Film Festival in 1984 and guiding it to Park City before it adopted the Sundance name in 1991.
• Sundance became a launchpad after Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape broke out in 1989, helping propel careers from Quentin Tarantino to Ava DuVernay and Ryan Coogler.
• The festival shifted financing and distribution as studios built indie divisions to scout titles and streamers like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple turned Sundance into a key acquisitions market.
• Looking ahead, the Sundance Institute has set a 2027 relocation of the festival to Boulder, Colorado, to expand venues and capacity.