Hollywood legend Robert Redford has been speaking to journalists ahead of tomorrow’s opening of the second Sundance London film and music festival.
The four-day event takes place at London’s O2 between 25-28 April and tickets for selected screenings and features remain available from www.sundance-london.com.
The festival’s programme includes 18 feature films and nine short films across four sections, twenty three of which will be making their international, European or UK premiere.
Highlights include documentary The Summit, Nick Ryan’s powerful exploration of the deaths of 11 mountain climbers attempting to reach the summit of K2 in August 2008, and coming-of-age comedy The Kings of Summer.
Also showing are The Moo Man, a feature-length documentary looking at the life of a British dairy farmer, Shane Carruth’s Sci-Fi/Horror Upstream Color and music feature Peaches Does Herself.
There will also be panel discussions, including with British composer David Arnold whose credits include Bond films Casino Royale and Tomorrow Never Dies and TV’s Sherlock and Little Britain.
Mr Redford, president of the Sundance Institute, will be in attendance throughout the festival, with artists Lake Bell, Mike Birbiglia, Jimmy Carr, The Eagles and Peaches also expected to attend.
Speaking today, Mr Redford said he was pleased the O2 had invited Sundance to return for a second year after a successful 2012 debut.
Discussing the genesis of the London version of Sundance, the actor said: “Last year was the first time Sundance ventured out of its home base in Utah, and we came because we were invited and we thought rather that than come in in a big way, it would be wiser to come in in a smaller way and rather than come in for a week we’d come in for just a few days.
“It was kind of a toe in the water experiment, we did not how it was going to go, we did not know how we would be received, so that’s how it started.”
Asked about a possible third year for the festival, Mr Redford said: “It is hard to declare a length of commitment until you let it play out and see how it goes,”
The actor also said there had been no discussions so far to take the festival to other cities.
