50 Enchanting Throwback Photos From the Sundance Film Festival
Since Robert Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival some four decades ago—the free-thinking, boundary-pushing showcase that takes over Utah’s snowy, picturesque Park City every January—it 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 2025 edition of the festival, due to run from January 23 to February 2, we revisit the best throwback photos from the ’90s and early aughts, from Mariah Carey cosplaying as a cowgirl to an incredibly poised, 13-year-old Kristen Stewart.
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A floppy-haired, Four Weddings and a Funeral-era Hugh Grant at Sundance with Elle MacPherson and John Duigan, their director for Sirens.
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A 22-year-old, pixie-cropped Winona Ryder sips a drink at Sundance to celebrate the premiere of Reality Bites.
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An 18-year-old Reese Witherspoon plays in the snow at Sundance.
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Debbie Harry and Liv Tyler promote James Mangold’s Heavy at Sundance.
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A 25-year-old Gwyneth Paltrow at the festival with her father, director Bruce Paltrow.
