Redford defends Sundance's record on diversity

Film: Sundance Film Festival 2016 Sundance Film Festival founder Robert Redford says the whole reason he started programming films in Utah's Wasatch Mountains was to broaden the world of mainstream filmmaking to include other voices. By Katherine Monk PARK CITY, UTAH - It used to be called an “Oscar race.” Now it’s all about race and the Oscars. It’s an issue that’s settled into the tissue of the film industry like a bad infection, threatening to throw the whole system into sepsis, and prompting a wholesale change to the way the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences functions as an organization. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced new initiatives Friday, hoping to stop the growing momentum behind a celebrity boycott, assuring the public the Academy membership would look a lot different by the year 2020, with more representation from non-white males, and more women. Even here at the Sundance Film Festival, where the mountain air and a host of new talent ...

Redford defends Sundance’s record on diversity

Film: Sundance Film Festival 2016 Sundance Film Festival founder Robert Redford says the whole reason he started programming films in Utah's Wasatch Mountains was to broaden the world of mainstream filmmaking to include other voices. By Katherine Monk PARK CITY, UTAH - It used to be called an “Oscar race.” Now it’s all about race and the Oscars. It’s an issue that’s settled into the tissue of the film industry like a bad infection, threatening to throw the whole system into sepsis, and prompting a wholesale change to the way the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences functions as an organization. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced new initiatives Friday, hoping to stop the growing momentum behind a celebrity boycott, assuring the public the Academy membership would look a lot different by the year 2020, with more representation from non-white males, and more women. Even here at the Sundance Film Festival, where the mountain air and a host of ...