American actor Robert Redford's Sundance Channel is launching in Romania. The channel will be available locally via pay TV operator UPC.

Owned and run by AMC Networks, the Sundance Channel specializes films and television series. The expansion onto the Romanian market is part of a European push for the Sundance Channel, with a launch in Spain also announced.

“Both the Romanian and Spanish markets are key regions for the continued expansion of Sundance Channel in Europe,” said Bruce Tuchman, president, AMC/Sundance Channel Global, quoted by entertainment news service The Hollywood Reporter. The channel has also been launched in France, the Netherlands and Portugal recently.

The Sundance film festival started by Robert Redford (in picture) is a well established event for independent film makers and has featured a number of Romanian made films in recent years.

Romanian Bogdan Mustata won the Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award for his film ‘Wolf’ (Lupu) in 2011 and Cristian Mungiu's latest award winning film Beyond the Hills (Dupa Dealuri) was distributed by Sundance Select.

The Sundance Channel was launched in 1996 and is operated by AMC Networks.

editor@romania-insider.com