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The festival annually draws an estimated 20,000 people to this mountain resort town east of Salt Lake City, but festival organizers said ticket sales this year are well ahead of expectations after a low-key 2002 event.
'Some of that is just a comeback from last year where there was this trepidation about the Olympics, and a sense that public events were targets' after Sept. 11, said festival director Geoff Gillmore.
But this year's Sundance also seems to have more big-name celebrities like Dustin Hoffman and Mel Gibson making the rounds, and a crush of companies ranging from Microsoft Corp. to Skyy Vodka hoping to catch the eye of audiences.
The packed house in Salt Lake City's Abravanel Hall
where the opening night event was held gave festival
backer Robert Redford a standing ovation ahead of
the film that stars Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter and
Billy Bob Thornton.
Freeman and Hunter were there, but Thornton missed the evening due to a case of laryngitis.
Redford, known for his political activism as well as his award-winning career in movies, talked about his vision for the festival and its sister organization, the Sundance Institute, as a place where filmmakers can be free of commercialism.
'(It is) a place for artists to work free of commercial dogma and maintain artistic independence', he said.
In recent years as the festival has grown, however, it has come under fire for the number of stars in the movies, which causes some to questions the films' independent roots.
Many observers believe that this year, the biggest players at the Sundance Film Festival can be found on the small screen.
HBO produced two Sundance features, while Showtime Networks produced five and the Independent Film Channel has a stake in four films. Meanwhile, PBS holds sway over the documentary category this year with a record nine films.
Unless the independent theatrical market stages a significant recovery, these numbers stand to grow in the years to come. Independent film financing has never been easy to come by, but in recent years, the more reliable sources of funding have withered or dried out altogether.
'Far From Heaven' director Todd Haynes , who won Sundance's Grand Jury Prize for his 1991 movie 'Poison', believes the festival has grown too big. But he is careful not to criticize, because Sundance helped put his name on moviemaking's map.
'It was pretty much the pivotal point of my career, and I still admire what they do in the screenwriter and filmmaker labs', he told Reuters.
Festival organizers defend the star-filled lineup, saying it draws more media to the event, which in turn provides greater exposure for the unknown filmmakers.
Organizers also note the radical changes in independent film in the 1990s, and the fact that more and more celebrities view independent film as a venue for them to truly express themselves, free of Hollywood's star-making studio machinery.
Oscar winner Kevin Spacey , for instance, has produced and stars in, 'The United States of Leland', a film that explores how a random killing effects the lives of two families and is in the festival's dramatic competition.
'That was not a film that was easy to get made, and in fact it took a long time to get made', said festival director Gilmore. 'Mel Gibson is producing and acting in drama 'The Singing Detective' because it's something he had to do on his own, outside the studios'.
Sundance also features several actors mounting comebacks, such as Tatum O'Neal in 'The Technical Writer' and Macauley Culkin in 'Party Monster', as well as directorial debuts for Salma Hayek ('The Maldonado Miracle'), Matt Dillon ('City of Ghosts') and Thomas Haden Church ('Rolling Kansas').
Summit Entertainment president Patrick Wachsberger remembers that it was different even two years ago.
''Memento' was pre-sold foreign well enough that we covered the budget of the movie', he said. ''Bound' was totally pre-sold foreign. We were already in profit'.
'Today', he says, 'it's much more difficult'.
This year, Summit will premiere 'dot the i' starring Gael Garcia Bernal ('Y tu mama tambien') as a festival premiere. Going into Sundance, he's done a few foreign presales but the film is not yet in profit.
Wachsberger also points out that, until recently, European pay television once provided the most significant overseas market for American independent films. Today, that market no longer exists. That's created an opportunity for domestic cable networks that want to create exclusive premium programming for their channels.
Showtime's 'Soldier's Girl' and 'Good Fences' will screen in Sundance's Premiere section, while 'The Mudge Boy' is in the dramatic competition. 'The Maldonado Miracle' is in American Showcase and 'The Boys of Second Street Park' is in American Spectrum.
Of those titles, 'The Mudge Boy' and 'Soldier's Girl' have a window that allows their producers to shop them for theatrical release. Films that want to be eligible for the Academy Awards (news - web sites) must premiere in theaters. However, buyers voice a common complaint that the theatrical window is glued shut. They say the demands of Showtime make it impossible to reach an agreement.
Matt Riklin, Showtime Networks' executive VP of program enterprises, says that isn't the case. He points to Sony Pictures Classics' 2000 release of 'The House of Mirth' and Lions Gate Films' release of 'Gods and Monsters' in 1998.
The rise of television network-backed film productions may siphon the available pool of product, but it doesn't taint it. Although television has often been derided as a purveyor of lowbrow entertainment, buyers have no complaints about the merit of cable networks' productions.
'The quality is terrific nowadays', says Paramount Classics co-president Ruth Vitale. 'There's no shame attached to it. I'm just happy that it looks like there's a lot of good movies here'.
The festival reaches its climax on Saturday, Jan. 25 at an awards ceremony where prizes are handed out for best dramas and documentaries, performances, directing and other categories. The festival's final day is Sunday, Jan. 26.
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