Art and Commerce: Redford on Sundance

Jan. 25, 2008 — -- In between the lackluster press conference replacing the not-so-Golden Globes and the open question of whether or not the Academy Awards will even take place, there emerges a festival with an entirely different take on the work of creating and celebrating films.

Robert Redford's annual Sundance Film Festival, which runs from Jan. 17 through 24, marks the biggest week for the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of independent artists and their work. Artists from around the world submit their videos to be viewed and critiqued by international film aficionados.

For the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, 122 feature-length films were selected from a record 3,624 submissions, including 88 world premieres and works by 55 first-time filmmakers. And though it is the mission of the Sundance Institute to inspire novice and risk-taking artists, the festival holds cachet with the Hollywood studios. Andrew Fleming's "Hamlet 2" debuted in the out-of-competition premieres section, and has since scored a $10 million deal with Focus.

As the creator of Sundance, Redford felt the need to forge a path away from Hollywood and toward the independent filmmaker who had previously lacked funding or support. In an interview with Peter Travers for ABC News Now's "Popcorn," Redford said, "To me, the magic of story … and families communicating their history by telling stories was a big deal. With new technology overwhelming storytelling, I thought, let's put our emphasis on storytelling."

And Redford's purist philosophy finds a home in the rugged landscape of the Sundance Festival. When selecting Park City, Utah, as the locale for the Festival, Redford asked, "What if you put it in nature? What would that do to the process of these filmmakers coming and having nature as part of the equation? Maybe that would affect them in a spiritual way." But Redford admits there were logistical factors as well. "I had no choice. If I had wanted to do it somewhere else, I don't think I could because of the expense."