Sundance Film Festival has announced that its annual fundraiser will centre around Celebrating Sundance Institute: A Tribute to Founder Robert Redford, and will take place on Friday 23 January 2026 at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Utah.
The evening will honour Sundance Institute’s founder, Robert Redford, and his legacy, vision and enduring mission to support independent storytellers.
In paying tribute this year, the inaugural Robert Redford Luminary Award will be established and presented to Ed Harris and Gyula Gazdag, two artists “deeply dedicated to the Sundance Institute labs and committed to elevating bold storytellers”, the organisation revealed.
The Luminary Award recognises and celebrates individuals who have, “in a visionary way, used their resources, insights, and reach to create possibility where there wasn’t, thus doing their part to make the world a better place”.
Harris and Gazdag will be acknowledged for their decades-long contributions as creative advisors for the Sundance Institute Directors Lab, where they offer guidance to artists as they develop and refine their projects and skills as writers and directors in a nurturing, immersive environment.
“This will be a profoundly meaningful year for Sundance Institute as we honour our founder, Robert Redford,” said Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute Board chair.
“This special evening supports the mission that he built this organisation upon. This annual event enables the nonprofit Institute to continue to launch and uplift the work of independent artists from all over the world through labs, grants and public programmes.
“We look forward to our guests joining us in honoring and celebrating the vision that we will carry forward.”
“We are immensely honoured to recognise the legacy of Robert Redford through this annual event,” added Amanda Kelso, acting CEO of Sundance Institute.
“We are pleased to introduce the Robert Redford Luminary Award to Ed Harris and Gyula Gazdag, who have played crucial roles in the Sundance Institute labs for over two decades and strongly exemplify the mission that Mr. Redford set for the organisation.
“By dedicating their time to mentoring artists and collaborating with the fellows who have come through the labs, they have been influential in the development of generations of filmmakers. We are proud to continue this important work with them.”
Four-time Academy Award nominee Harris revealed he was “eternally grateful to Robert Redford for his vision and passion”, while Gazdag, creative advisor for the Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs since 1994 and artistic director for the Directors Lab since 1997, said the award is “extremely precious, since it is coming from the place that I cherish and admire”.
The 2026 Sundance Film Festival will be held from 22 January to 1 February 2026, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with the at-home programme available online from 29 January to 1 February 2026 for audiences across the US.
