The theme of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival was “Everyone has a story.” It’s a quote from founder Robert Redford, who died at 89 of natural causes in September.
The quote is a notion Redford carried throughout his life. It’s also why he started the Sundance Institute and headed the Sundance Film Festival. He said there were stories that needed to be told but weren’t given the chance.
Following the theme, the festival’s culmination event Friday, “Everyone has a story: four decades of the Sundance Film Festival in Utah,” featured a program of shared memories of the festival and of Redford’s legacy.
Redford’s daughter, Amy Redford, opened the event with a story she said she felt compelled to tell.
“I didn't know that I was going to but last night, I had a loud whisper in my ear telling me to do so,” she said. “So I want to share an origin story that dad once told me with great intention.”
Amy Redford said when her father was about 6 years old, he had what could have been a deadly encounter at his grandfather’s home in Austin, Texas.
When he walked outside one day, a man working at the property saw something the young Redford didn’t see, realizing the boy was in danger. The man told “Bobby” they were going to play a game. If the boy froze like a statue until he reached him, he’d win.
“When the man finally reached my dad, he took his shovel and severed a coral snake that was curled between my dad's feet and about to strike. That man saved my dad's life,” Amy Redford said. “Without that man, there is no dad. Without dad, there is no Sundance Resort or the institute, or any of the films he made that we have come to love, that made his vision possible. That man was a Mexican immigrant.”
She said the man was his grandfather’s longtime friend and helped build his Texas home. Community members criticized Redford’s grandfather for making this man his equal. He was told to fire him, but refused.
Amy Redford said that decision is what allowed her father to make the changes he wanted to see in the world, including protecting over 860 acres of critical wildlife habitat and vital Utah watershed and amplifying countless storytellers through Sundance programs.
“So many of us in this room make our voices heard through our work. It's also time to call your tribe. It is time for action to support the immigrant and refugee communities whose contributions will change our course for the better,” Amy Redford said to applause.
The call to action came almost a year after the Trump administration promised mass deportations and weeks after immigration crackdowns in Minneapolis began. Most recently, two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents there, sparking nationwide protests.
Opposition to the Trump administration’s stance on immigration has been a trend throughout the 2026 festival.
Around 200 people protested Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies on Park City’s Main Street Jan. 26, two days after ICE agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Then on Jan. 30, Park City students joined a nationwide day of protest.
Many Sundance attendees also showed opposition to ICE practices by wearing “ICE OUT” pins.
