PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- The 21st Sundance Film Festival opened this week with Robert Redford joking that the annual event has now reached the age of consent.
This year's festival takes place over 11 days with showings in Park City, Ogden, Salt Lake City and at the Sundance resort in Provo Canyon.
Redford's Sundance Institute took over what had been the Utah/United States Festival of Film in 1985. The festival has become a major showcase for independent films and this year, for the first time, offers a prize for the best international film.
Redford closed his remarks by promising filmmakers continued support, the Provo Daily Herald reported.
"How it goes, where it goes, we're there for you," Redford said.
The film shown Thursday night in a theater on the campus of Park City High School was "Happy Endings," directed by Don Roos. Roos made a splash at the 1998 Sundance Festival with "The Opposite of Sex" and decided to return to the independent world when a commercial film, "Bounce," with Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow failed to show any box office bounce.
