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The Sundance Kid and his festival

  • Story Highlights
  • Robert Redford founded Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah in 1981
  • The festival has become a global focus for independent features and documentaries
  • Tarantino, the Coens and Wes Anderson all launched their careers at Sundance
  • Redford's daughter, Amy, makes her directorial debut with "The Guitar" this year
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- It's 40 years since Robert Redford teamed up with Paul Newman to play cowboy heroes in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Yet the name "Sundance" has become synonymous with Redford, outshining his other starring roles like "The Great Gatsby," "All the President's Men" and "Up Close and Personal."

The Screening Room's Myleene Klass with Robert Redford at Sundance Film Festival

It is for this reason that when Redford founded a festival of independent film in Park City, Utah in 1981 he was persuaded to use the name "Sundance." The festival's continued success is in no small part due to Redford's charisma and vision.

In the 25-plus years since it was founded, Sundance Film Festival has become a focus for independent features and documentaries, both from the United States and internationally -- an aspect of the festival which is very important to Redford.

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"It used to be very hard to get film in to the U.S. market -- for it to break through," Redford told CNN. "We didn't have that pressure. We could show anything we wanted from other countries. So we began to show more and more, and occasionally one of those films would become commercially successful. Once that happened, we were able to bring more films," he continued.

While Redford has never won an Oscar for acting, he picked up a Best Director statue for "Ordinary People." Redford's daughter, Amy, has followed her father into the trade and made her directorial debut at this year's Sundance with "The Guitar."

Amy Redford is in good company. Many acclaimed actors and directors began their careers at Sundance -- something her father is very proud of.

"Tarantino, the Coens, P. T. Anderson, Wes Anderson, you just go down the road, it's a long list and now we're one planet, we're one world," said Redford. "I think it's great because it means we get to show work from other countries in our festival that really documents how life is and maybe it allows us to have a form of cultural exchange," he added.

Now in his 70s, Redford still ranks among the Hollywood A-list, recently directing and starring opposite Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep in "Lions for Lambs," an Afghanistan war drama.

But it is his enthusiasm for those at the bottom of the film-making ladder -- aspiring directors and struggling actors -- which has earned him global respect.

For them, Redford offers some advice: "I hope you could learn that if you want to be a film-maker it takes courage, it take perseverance and it takes passion," he said.

He is also passionate for anyone who wants to make it in the film industry to go to Sundance and see it in action first hand. "You'll see the filmmakers on the stage talking about their product, you'll see the audience participating, you'll see a better view of what it's like out there for you to step into their world," he said.

From Utah to Qatar, Hollywood to Hong Kong the Sundance Kid continues to hold the reins for the world of independent film. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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