The Sundance Kid

Sundance… Sundance… Now where have you heard that name before?

As well as being one of Utah’s world-class ski resorts, it’s also the unlikely birthplace of a globally-renowned film festival thanks to one acting legend, Mr Robert Redford. (Ask your mum, children of the noughties…)

Redford is the proud owner of Sundance Resort, which sits on 6,000 acres of pristine, secluded Utah terrain. Just an hour’s drive from Salt Lake City and 45 minutes from Park City, the pace in these parts is pretty chilled – think mountain cottages, a Native American inspired spa, and classes in painting, pottery and jewellery making – until the festival rolls into town, that is.

Do you fancy combining your slope time with the chance to rub shoulders with fellow film enthusiasts? The Sundance Film Festival takes place in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, so there’s sure to be plenty of screenings close to your preferred base.

The Sundance Film Festival has been on the receiving end of heaps of critical praise since it first set up shop way back in 1985. The annual event has consistently attracted both original storytellers and open-minded audiences for its programme of dramatic and documentary films, shorts, installations, performances, panel discussions, and music events. Some of the best-known films to debut at Sundance include Reservoir Dogs, An Inconvenient Truth, Little Miss Sunshine, and The Cove. So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.

As well as a great place to wrap your eyes around the most tops indie film ever, it also presents ample opportunity for celebrity spotting – just don’t let on to Mr Redford that that’s why you’re there. He recently kvetched about how flashy the festival had become, laying the blame squarely at movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s trotters.

Redford told Men’s Journal: “He’s got a real merchant mentality; he would start to pick stuff. . .then Hollywood came.”

That’s right, people. Hollywood. Girly squeals at the ready.