One of this year's most surprising Oscar nomination snubs came courtesy of Robert Redford being overlooked for his incredible performance in survival drama All is Lost - and we caught up with the star at the launch of this year's Sundance Film Festival to get his take on the nominations.
“I was so happy to be able to do this film because it was independent,” said Sundance Film Festival founder and president Redford, at the Day One press conference in Park City, Utah, when asked how he felt about being overlooked for the Best Actor Oscar.
“Would it have been wonderful to be nominated – of course. But I’m not disturbed by it or upset by it. I’m happy about the film. The rest is not my business. I’m fine.”
The star went on to talk about how J C Chandor’s lost at sea drama “Gave me the chance as an actor to go back to my roots” because of its pared down nature with minimal dialogue or effects."
But he was keen to reiterate that he didn’t want the snub to get in the way of the festival’s message,
Talking about Sundance, now in is 30th year, Redford emphasised the festival’s importance as a platform for showcasing independent cinema, reiterating that the festival’s not for profit status and ethos means they’re not in the business of business.
“We’re not interested in the money. It’s about creating new voices in independent film,” he said.
“The history and the product speak for itself in terms of independent film and the opportunities we’ve given people. [Oscar nominees] David O Russell, Alfonso Cuaron, they’ve al been through our festival.”
In addition, four of the five best documentaries nominated for this year's Oscars were screened as Sundance which prides itself on its strong documentary programme.
This year’s festival showcases movies from 37 different countries, with new strands this year focusing on children’s film, plus New Frontiers as well as the world and US independent dramatic strands and a host of premieres boasting A-List talent.
“The ambition was to create a community of like minded people to share their work.”
He said. “At Sundance we’ve provided a safe place – a place where people can find out who they are and be who they are.”
It's a modus operandi shown in full force in this year's line-up - and we've handily condensed the program into the 30 Most Exciting Movies at Sundance 2014 .
As for All is Lost , we can't help but agree his performance was pretty amazing - in fact, we included it in our list of the 2014 Oscar's 16 Shameful Snubs .
And he's not the only one weighing in on this year's Oscar nominations - we spoke to Girls star Allison Williams about Tom Hanks missing out on an Oscar for Captain Phillips . She had words...
