PARK CITY, Utah -- Second generation actors are following in their father's footsteps at the Sundance Film Festival this year, with three films featuring the children of stars.

"What excites me this year is the amount of new (independent) filmmakers," Sundance founder and actor Robert Redford said at the start of the festival, giving an unwitting nod to his offspring.

"There's a new spirit that seems to be emerging with new filmmakers," he commented. "Whereas some of the filmmakers of the past were connected with to the generation of baby boomers ... now there is a new group that is saying, 'We don't want to inherit anything before us. We just want to do something new.'"

Redford's stunning daughter Amy is stepping out of her father's shadow and into her own limelight, making her directorial debut with "The Guitar" -- based on the true story of a young woman who discovers she has terminal cancer and decides to spend her last months on a self-indulgent wish fulfillment spree.

Colin Hanks joins his famous father Tom in the cast of "The Great Buck Howard," doing a remarkable job of holding his own as a law-school drop out in search of a glamorous career in the entertainment industry, deflecting criticism from his father (played by Tom), who ironically disapproves of showbiz.

And Jason Ritter, son of late comedian John Ritter, is making his third appearance at Sundance, producing and starring in "Good Dick," about a young woman drawn from her isolated life by a doting video store clerk.

"I've gone into a couple auditions for comedies and have them be like, 'Your dad was the best comedian ever, and everything that came out of his mouth was comic gold and all this stuff. Okay. Now go.' And I'm like -- ahhhh!" Ritter told broadcaster CNN, his jaw dropped.

Amy Redford, 37, has been acting most of her life, appearing most recently on US television series "Sex and the City," "The Sopranoes" and "Law & Order."

She also has a small role in "Sunshine Cleaning," which is premiering at Sundance too.

"For me, it was a very natural evolution to become a director," she told Agence France-Presse.

"I'm grateful for the experience I've had as an actress and also I knew I wanted to get involved in filmmaking in a holistic way, examine the universe of the story as much as being one small part it," she said, sounding much like dad.

She said she planned to become a director in high school, but "got hijacked into acting."

"Now, I've come full circle," she said.

Shooting her low-budget film in only three weeks in New York proved at times challenging, she conceded, and so she sometimes turned to her father for advice.

Mostly, however, "a lot of his experiences bled through to me through osmosis, having watched him make movies for years," she said.

Even so, choosing to premiere her film at a film festival launched by her father in 1981 had nothing to do with family ties, she insists. The film just fit the festival -- which prides itself on discovering new independent filmmakers, she said.

Robert Redford, who had not yet seen her movie, when pressed told reporters: "I'm here as her dad and in support of her as her dad."

Declining to take any credit for her looming success, he said: "I've always encouraged my whole family to be independent. You take your own path and follow it and it's important. I think she's here with her own work."