Robert Redford responds to Oscars snub, questions distribution efforts

Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Not least among this year's Oscar snubs was Robert Redford, whose lonely but charismatic presence captivated critics in All is Lost.

The 77-year-old actor brushed off the slight when he was ashked by reporters at a Sundance Film Festival press event Thursday, but he questioned his distributors' reticence about the film.

“First of all, what I don’t want is for that to get in the way of why we’re here [at Sundance], because this is very important to me and to the staff here,” Redford said. "I think that first of all, the film that I made with J.C. Chandor is a film I’m very proud of. It’s independent so it confirms to why we’re here. That gave me great pleasure."

Redford said it would have been "wonderful" to be nominated.

"But I’m not disturbed by it or upset by it, because of what I just said: It is a business and we couldn’t conform to that," he added.

“When these films go before to be voted on, usually they’re heavily dependent on campaigns that the distributors provide,” Redford explained. “There’s a lot of campaigning that goes on and it can get very political, but that’s okay. Because it is a business."

"In our case, I think we suffered from little to no distribution," he added. "So as a result, our distributors [Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions] either -- I don’t know why -- they didn’t want to spend the money, they were afraid, or they just were incapable. But whatever, we had no campaign to help us cross over into the mainstream. So I suspect that had something to do with it.”

"So that's what's on my mind, is the chance it gave me, and I'm really happy about it, and I will stay happy about it. The rest is not my business, it's somebody else's business. I'm fine," he said.

Redford was last nominated for acting 1973's The Sting. He received a 1981 directing Oscar for Ordinary People and a Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 2002.

[Entertainment Weekly, HitFix]