The director of the Sundance Film Festival had only praise for Canadian films on Friday, describing Cancon cinema as high quality and increasingly accessible to theatrical audiences.

A strong contingent of 11 Canadian productions and co-productions is at the latest edition of the popular independent film event, which started Thursday evening with the premiere of the U.S. documentary Chicago 10 and runs until Jan. 29.

"We have eight [Canadian] features and three shorts. I'm very proud of that program," longtime Sundance Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore told CBC News on Friday morning.

"We could have programmed twice as many. The level of quality in the Canadian cinema these days is really quite high."

The Canadian projects at the festival in Park City, Utah, this year are:

  • Away From Her, directed by Sarah Polley
  • Manufactured Landscapes, directed by Jennifer Baichwal
  • Fido directed by Andrew Currie
  • How She Move, directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid
  • Rêves de Poussière, directed by Laurent Salgues (co-production Canada, France, Burkina Faso)
  • Hot House, directed by Shimon Dotan (co-production Canada, Israel)
  • On a Tightrope, directed by Petr Lom (co-production Canada, Norway)
  • Sk8 Life, directed by S. Wyeth Clarkson (who will keep an online journal about Sundance for CBC Arts Online)
  • The Tragic Story of Nling, directed by Jeffrey St. Jules
  • Ask the Insects, directed by Steve Reinke
  • God Provides, directed by Brian Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky (co-production Canada, U.S.)

The Canadian box office remains dominated by U.S. blockbusters, but Gilmore said he thinks the audience's taste is slowly evolving to make room for other kinds of cinematic fare.

"There's a sensibility here, which has been changing over the last decade. In fact, the theatrical sensibility of Canadian films has been increasing over the past several years, as you see films available in all sorts of different venues, ranging from cable television to theatrical to DVDs," said Gilmore, in his 17th year in charge of Sundance.

"I'm optimistic. I actually feel that the audiences are growing for international film, including in places where Hollywood is still dominant."

Festival expanding choices

In turn, the festival, which is overseen by Robert Redford's Sundance Institute, has also been expanding its programming choices to reflect the spectrum of independent filmmaking both in the U.S. and around the world.

"The spectrum of independent film, I think, is really quite broad these days," Gilmore said, pointing to "a growing maturity in the independent world, where you have a range of different filmmakers."

Sundance continues to seach for and showcase all subject matter and all sorts of cinematic auteurs, whether they are established or newcomers, he said.

"We certainly don't have an agenda, saying 'OK, this is what we're focused on,'" he said. "I've always described us as a festival of discovery."

Overall, Sundance organizers will screen 123 films, with about two dozen hailing from outside the U.S. In addition to the ubiquitous Hollywood stars at the festival, Park City expects to welcome more than 50,000 moviegoers.