Ethan Hawke speaks during Celebrating Sundance Institute: A Tribute to Founder Robert Redford at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2026. Shutterstock/Courtesy of Sundance Institute Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Robert Redford loved storytellers. It's why he founded the Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival, and why he would ride his motorcycle up to the labs, often arriving a few minutes late to the sessions, to meet with writers, directors, advisors and more in a committed, decades-long effort to support stories and the people who tell them. It was perfectly fitting then that Friday night's Celebrating Sundance Institute: A Tribute to Founder Robert Redford featured more than a few notable names returning the favor and sharing stories of their own, often about the late Hollywood icon, the impact of what he created and the influence Sundance has had on their lives and careers. There were tears, cheers, a few standing ovations (for Michelle Satter and Amy Redford), a surprise performance by Patti LuPone, and a slew of awards presented during a nearly three-hour fundraiser held at Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Park City, Utah. Related Stories Movies Moon Choi and Son Sukku on Their Moving Sundance Debut 'Bedford Park': "It Was Something That I Never Saw [Before]" Movies Will Poulter and Adam Meeks Discovered Something About Addiction by Using Non-Actors in Sundance Drama 'Union County': "It Blew Me Away" "The name of the evening is Once Upon a Time," declared Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke upon taking the stage to kick off the event and briefly getting choked up. "Once upon a time, there lived an extraordinary man who connected all of us in this room. We make up part of Sundance Institute. We make up the community, and we would not be here except for the love and appreciation that we all share for Robert Redford, for the great world that he brought and that he nurtured into being. Tonight we celebrate the true leader and I hope that we can all keep the fire that he's starting burning in ourselves and burning out towards everybody else that we need as we go forward in our lives." The program was split into two parts - Act 1: The Vision and Act 2: The Legacy - and saw awards go to Hamnet filmmaker and lab alum Chloé Zhao, A Perfect Neighbor's double Oscar nominee Geeta Gandbhir, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple filmmaker Nia DaCosta and veteran labs advisers Ed Harris and Gyula Gazdag with onstage appearances by David Lowery, Woody Harrelson, Ava DuVernay, Tessa Thompson, Taika Waititi and John Cooper. Guests in attendance included Ryan Coogler, Chris Pine, Rob Lowe, Boots Riley, Dan Lin, Jason Blum, Lynette Howell-Taylor and others. Below are highlights of the awards. Trailblazer Award presented by Google Fresh from receiving eight Oscar nominations for Hamnet, Zhao touched down in Park City to accept a trailblazer honor, presented by her Sundance labs cohort David Lowery. "A lot of you in the room know this, but each story we tell marks a step in a journey, and it's not hard at all to trace Chloé's journey right back to these mountains and to the Sundance labs, which is where we first met when she and I were both fellows of the screenwriting lab and way back in 2012, along with a host of incredible writers, directors, some of whom are in the room tonight," detailed Lowery, who also revealed that they still share early drafts of screenplays and cuts of their films with one another. In accepting, Zhao recalled feeling alone and unsure in her steps as she walked a trail until she was accepted into the Sundance screenwriters lab alongside aspiring filmmakers like Lowery, Ryan Coogler and Marielle Heller. "I feel like being part of this community and also the experience of making Hamnet with everyone from Focus Features, my producing partners and my team, it taught me something very important, which is trailblazing or leadership, is not about dominance. It's about interdependence and it's about community," she explained. "Community and relationships, to give but also learn to receive as a part of the ecosystem. I want to thank Robert Redford for knowing the importance of interdependence both in nature and in human nature. And for [Michelle Satter] and everyone in the Sundance labs and the entire filmmaking storytelling community. Because of all of you, I can now walk on my trail knowing that every step I take, I trust because I know I'm being moved by something bigger." Esteemed Sundance lab alumni: David Lowery, Chloe Zhao and Ryan Coogler. Shutterstock/Courtesy of Sundance Institute Vanguard Award for Nonfiction Presented by Acura DuVernay had the task of presenting a trophy to Gandbhir, but first she took a walk down memory lane to share a story about the Sundance founder. "When I think of R