Redford says there are too many film festivals

By Matthew Belloni

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off in Park City, Utah, on Thursday, is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

But festival founder Robert Redford's involvement actually goes back to the late '70s with the Utah/U.S. Film Festival (which was taken over in 1984 by his Sundance Institute).

Because the festival has become America's top launching pad for independent films, Redford knows this year's acquisitions market is being watched closely as a barometer of the ailing indie business. But, as always, the 72-year-old filmmaker is more interested in the movies themselves.

ARE THERE NOW TOO MANY FILM FESTIVALS?

Robert Redford: Yeah. That's a tricky thing for me to be saying -- it could look pretty selfish -- but I do think there's such a thing as too much of certain things. Look, I think there's now festivals for neighborhoods. If that satisfies people and they continue to grow and everyone's happy, so be it. My gut says there's such a thing as too much information, but I don't know.

When we started there was very little out there; now, there's a lot. My feeling is when the day comes when we're no longer providing the mission we started with -- not creating something new for audiences, not creating opportunities for new artists to have a place to come and develop -- then we shouldn't be here, and we won't. As long as we continue to create new advantages, we will continue, but not just to be continuing.

WHAT'S CHANGED MOST ABOUT THE FESTIVAL IN ALL THESE YEARS?

Redford: Well, the first year I was standing on the street trying to get people into the only theater that we had, the Egyptian. It was like a guy standing outside a speakeasy or something. People would say, "What are you doing here?" And I'd say, "Well, there's a thing we're doing."

It wasn't until (Columbia Pictures exec) David Putnam came up our second or third year, and he bought "The Big Easy." That was the first turning point, and "sex, lies, and videotape" (1989's audience award winner) was the second. Then it kinda grew from there. It was about five years before I even knew we would succeed and stay alive.

WHAT HAS YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT BEEN AT THE FESTIVAL?

Redford: It's a collective moment. We're nonprofit, we're not going to gain anything financially out of this and I've taken a lot of time out of my own career to try to make this thing work. So when a filmmaker comes up to me and says, "Thank you for this; it wouldn't have happened without you," that's a big reward.

HOW HAS THE ECONOMY IMPACTED THE FESTIVAL THIS YEAR?

Redford: I don't know. Speculation gets pretty heavy toward our festival where people try to get a jump on what they think is going to happen. The thing I've always enjoyed is no one knows until it's over. Whatever the buzz is, you know, there's buzz on one film, nobody pays attention to another one, and then that one becomes "The Blair Witch Project." You don't really know 'til it's over, so I like that. I don't know how the economy is going to affect us; my guess is it will. But it's not going to affect the films we show.

WE WON'T ASK YOU TO NAME THE BEST FILM YOU'VE SEEN AT SUNDANCE, BUT WHAT FILM SURPRISED YOU MOST?

Redford: There've been so many. (But) we were pushing documentaries so hard, so when "Hoop Dreams" (premiered in 1994), suddenly you felt something happen where that moved the needle quite a bit. Up to that point there was no documentary that had really broken through.