“Once upon a time, there lived an extraordinary man who connected all of us in this room,” Ethan Hawke narrated to kick off the Sundance Institute’s annual gala, fittingly a tribute to the film festival’s late founder.
“We wouldn’t be here without the love and appreciation for Robert Redford,” Hawke said.
This year’s event was emotional, not just because it’s the last hurrah in Park City, but also because it was held shortly after Redford died in September at the age of 89. The actor-turned-director, a sought-after leading man through much of the ’70s and ’80s through films such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Way We Were,” and “All the President’s Men,” founded Sundance Film Festival in 1978 as a launchpad for independent filmmakers. Friends of the filmmaker and alumni of the festival, including Woody Harrelson, Chloé Zhao, Ava DuVernay and Taika Waititi, trekked on Friday night to the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley one last time to toast to Redford.
“For some of you younger folks who didn’t live in the ‘60s, ‘70s or ‘80s, it might be hard for you to understand what Robert Redford meant to my generation,” Harrelson said. “He was part of my childhood.”
Harrelson described a sense of “unbridled euphoria” when he got to know Redford while filming the erotic thriller “Indecent Proposal” in the early ‘90s. “I admit he’s the only man on earth I’d sell my wife to,” Harrelson cracked. “And I also admit, unabashedly, that he’s the only man I’d return the money to, to take me for a night.”
Friday night’s event also honored Zhao, who just made history as the first person of color and second woman to be nominated twice for the best director Oscar for “Hamnet,” with the Trailblazer Award. Nia DaCosta, who recently directed “Hedda” and made her Sundance debut with 2018’s “Little Woods,” was feted with the Vanguard Award.
“Being part of this community taught me something very important, which is trailblazing or leadership is not about dominance. It’s about interdependence. It’s about community,” Zhao said. “I want to thank Robert Redford for knowing the importance of interdependence in nature and human nature.”
Hawke, a Sundance regular over the decades in films such as “Before Sunrise” and this year’s drama “The Weight,” shared the story of the first time he met Redford. Hawke had auditioned for the 1992 drama “A River Runs Through It” but didn’t get the role. Hawke remembers that Redford, who directed the film, told him: “You’re too young for this part. But I just want you to know, you’re going to have a wonderful career, and I can’t wait to watch it.”
Hawke’s takeaway from the exchange? “He believed in me. He followed up. He came to see me in a play. It was 99-seat theater; $10 a ticket. What the fuck?” Hawke recalled. “He championed other people. The fact that he had time to care about all of us is so meaningful.”
A recurring theme of the emotional evening was Redford’s passion for cultivating and supporting new talent, as well as his insistence that they called him “Bob.” However several filmmakers, including DuVernay and DaCosta, admitted they were uncomfortable using a casual nickname for someone they considered a hero.
“When I think of Robert Redford, I think of how frustrated he was when I never called him Bob,” DuVernay shared. “When he asked why, I’d say ‘Because you’re Mr. Redford.’ He’d said, ‘Ava, please call me Bob.’”
(That didn’t apply to Waititi, who later in the evening joked, “Robert Redford — Bob to me, not to you.”)
Before Patti LuPone made a surprise appearance to perform a heartfelt rendition of “Forever Young,” Robert’s daughter Amy Redford honored her father and said the evening felt “like a homecoming.”
“I can’t help but think of all the galas my dad had no interest in showing up to,” Amy said, “and how he might have actually enjoyed this one.”
