Sundance: Robert Redford reacts to Oscars passing on ‘All Is Lost’

PARK CITY – J.C. Chandor”s “All Is Lost” earned exactly one Academy Award nomination this morning, and actor and filmmaker Robert Redford powered through his reaction right at the top of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

On the first day of the fest, its founder called the the film a “pure cinematic experience,” and noted how “All Is Lost” bucked traditional, commercial film elements like voice-overs and special effects. However, the back-end of distributing the flick seemed to hurt the awards campaign, he said.

“In our case, I think we suffered from little to no distribution,” Redford said. “And so as a result, our distributors either… I don’t know why. They didn’t want to spend the money, they were afraid. I don’t know why. Or they just were incapable. But whatever, we had no campaign to help us cross over into the mainstream. Would it have been wonderful to be nominated? Of course. But I don’t… I’m not disturbed by it, or upset by it.”

“All Is Lost” has earned a number of industry accolades this winter, including two Golden Globes nods (and one win) for Best Original Score and Best Actor. Redford acts alone for the entirety of the movie.

The Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 16 to Jan. 25.

Here is the full transcription of Redford”s reaction to the Academy Awards passing on any nominations for “All Is Lost”:

Well look, first of all, what I don’t want is for that — I expect there will be some response and some questions about it — but I don’t want that to get in the way of why we’re here. Because this is very important to me and the staff here.

Let me just speak frankly about how I feel about it. I think that first of all, the film I made with J.C. Chandor is a film I’m very proud of. It’s independent, so it conforms to why we’re here, that gave me great pleasure. I love working with him, we premiered his first film at our festival, so there was that connection. It was so stripped down of elements that are in most films, like voice-overs, dialogue, special effects. It was for me more of a pure cinematic experience, I love that. But also, almost more than anything, it gave me the chance as an actor to go back to my roots, and the way…and where I started. And so I’m very happy about that film.

Now the fact that the film did not cross over into the mainstream, into the more commercial parts of our industry, it didn’t, and I think that probably Hollywood…let’s spend a moment on Hollywood. Hollywood is a business, and it’s a very, very good one. And I have nothing but respect for that. I have been a part of the Hollywood film industry for much of my career. I’m very happy about it, so this is not so much about Hollywood. Hollywood is what it is, it’s a business. And so when these film go before…to be voted on, usually they’re dependent on campaigns that distributors provide. 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. And so as a result, our distributors either… I don’t know why. They didn’t want to spend the money, they were afraid, I don’t know why. 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.

I don’t feel…would it have been wonderful to be nominated? Of course. But I don’t…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. So having said that, what I…what it does connect to is the fact that I was so happy to be able to do this film because it was independent. And it stood the chance of having a wider distribution had they stepped up.

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.

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