A long list of films proves how big a star Robert Redford was at the peak of his career in the 1970s, but so do the films he ultimately didn't appear in.

Just think of The Godfather. Coppola's classic would be unthinkable without Al Pacino, but as the story goes, the studio wanted a proven star to play Michael Corleone.

Who? Robert Redford, of course.

The actor, now in his mid-thirties, was such a star that the bosses would have preferred him to play the reluctant successor to the head of the Italian-American mafia rather than the more suitable but unknown Pacino for the role. He also praises Redford's insight that nothing came of it.

But what it became is still with us after half a century.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Big Bad, That's How We Were, The President's Men

– and that's just the seventies and the late sixties. And just the most memorable films.

The"reztli" from the same era looks like this:

The Candidate, The Great Depression, Jeremiah Johnson, The Great Gatsby, The Great Waldo Pepper, The Bridge Too Far, The Las Vegas Horseman

This period saw his fruitful collaboration with director George Roy Hill, which resulted in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Big Bad and The Great Waldo Pepper. It goes without saying that Paul Newman was his partner in two of the three films.

The Newman-Redford duo has long taken its place among the legendary Hollywood duos, and it is only a pity that they only worked together twice. They did not get along, they wanted to do a third film together, the closest they came to it was during the preparations for the dramedy A Walk in the Woods. The “old men hiking” movie was intended to be made in the late 2000s, but Newman ultimately felt that he could not take on the physical demands of filming. He was eventually replaced by Nick Nolte.

Redford not only formed a successful partnership with director George Roy Hill, but also had a close professional relationship with Sidney Pollack. Their collaboration began with Jeremiah Johnson, continued with The Way We Were and Three Days of the Vulture, and culminated in the romantic drama Out of Africa. The film, which also features the most famous outdoor hair wash in film history, won seven Oscars. Pollack and Redford teamed up once again, but the Casablanca-like mishmash titled Havana is not worth mentioning.

It is rather that Redford received his first and only Oscar not as an actor, but as a first-time director. In 1980, he directed his first film, Average People, which not only won him an Oscar but also marked the beginning of a successful directing career. Although he did not receive similar recognition later, nor did he innovate the language of film, he was also a true professional as a director, as demonstrated in Quiz Show , released in 1994.

Redford never won an Oscar as an actor, and this did not escape the attention of the American Film Academy, which awards the awards. In 2002, the body tried to make up for the omission with the Lifetime Achievement Award, called an honorary Oscar. Of course, this was not only a tribute to the unrecognized actor, but also to the festival founder, since by this time Redford's name had become synonymous with the Sundance Film Festival, which he founded and is considered an incubator for independent films.

It would be difficult to list how many films owe their existence to Sundance, which is not only a festival but also a workshop. Quentin Tarantino made The Doghouse at the Sundance Institute's talent development workshop, and the festival also presented the finished film. Below is Tarantino's Sundance training film:

The festival, which has been based in Utah since 1978, announced this year that it will move, and from 2027 it will have to be found elsewhere, in Boulder, Colorado.

The Sundance kid didn't wait for this, he had already moved somewhere else.