50 Jaw-Dropping Throwback Photos From The Sundance Film Festival
Since the late, great Robert Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival some four decades ago, the free-thinking, boundary-pushing showcase has attracted some of the world’s most lauded independent filmmakers, as well as the Hollywood heavyweights who populate their releases. However, unlike its glitzier European rivals, Cannes and Venice, Sundance is gloriously laid-back – think bare faces, chunky knits and puffy coats instead of all-out glamour and floor-length ballgowns, and skiing and snowball fights in lieu of glittering galas.
Ahead of the 2026 edition of the festival, due to run from 22 January to 1 February – and the final one to be held in Utah’s snowy, picturesque Park City before its move to Boulder, Colorado – we revisit the best throwback photos from the ’90s and early Noughties, from Mariah Carey cosplaying as a cowgirl to an incredibly poised, 13-year-old Kristen Stewart.
- Tom Smart/Getty Images1/50
1994
A floppy-haired, Four Weddings and a Funeral-era Hugh Grant at Sundance with Elle MacPherson and John Duigan, their director on Sirens.
- Randall Michelson Archive2/50
1994
A 22-year-old, pixie-cropped Winona Ryder sips a drink at Sundance to celebrate the premiere of Reality Bites.
- Randall Michelson3/50
1995
An 18-year-old Reese Witherspoon plays in the snow at Sundance.
- Randall Michelson Archive4/50
1995
Debbie Harry and Liv Tyler promote James Mangold’s Heavy at Sundance.
- Randall Michelson5/50
1998
A 25-year-old Gwyneth Paltrow at the festival with her father, director Bruce Paltrow.
- Randall Michelson Archive6/50
1999
Jawbreaker’s Rose McGowan and Rebecca Gayheart promote their instant cult classic, snow cones in hand, at Sundance.
- Randall Michelson Archive7/50
2000
A 17-year-old Kirsten Dunst and 28-year-old Sofia Coppola at Sundance together a year after they first premiered The Virgin Suicides.
- Randall Michelson8/50
2000
A 25-year-old Christian Bale attends the festival for the premiere of American Psycho.
