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And, lo, there was peace in the Rocky Mountains, as the two great film festivals — Telluride and Sundance — found common ground.
The summit happened Thursday night, the first night of the 40th Telluride Film Festival, when the Colorado event mounted a tribute to Sundance's leading man, Robert Redford.
The focus was on Redford's acting career, not his directing or his stewardship of the Sundance Institute. According to The Hollywood Reporter, festivalgoers applauded lengthy clips of Redford's work in "Barefoot in the Park" (1967), "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), "The Candidate" (1972), "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), "The Sting" (1973), "The Way We Were" (1973), "The Three Days of the Condor" (1975), "All the President's Men" (1976), "The Electric Horseman" (1979), "Brubaker" (1980), "The Natural" (1984) and "Out of Africa" (1985).
Then Redford took the stage of The Palm theater, and a sustained standing ovation greeted him. Ralph Fiennes, who starred in the Redford-directed "Quiz Show," presented the actor with Telluride's Silver Medallion, with an emotional tribute that ended with "I just want to say thank you — and please don't stop!"
Redford thanked the audience for the honor, and then sat for an onstage interview with The Hollywood Reporter's film critic, Todd McCarthy.
Elsewhere at Telluride, Redford's latest movie, "All Is Lost," had its North American premiere Thursday afternoon. Redford plays a man surviving alone when his sailboat is struck by a cargo container on the open sea. Redford's performance received rave reviews when the film debuted at Cannes, and has been tabbed as an early favorite in the Oscar race.