Once upon a time in the far away mountain resort of Park City, Utah, the Sundance Film Festival was a place where many an unknown, first-time filmmaker could get his or her first big break. While it still happens (see Jared and Jerusha Hess with 2004’s “Napoleon Dynamite“), these days Sundance is populated by low-budget films backed by divisions of Hollywood’s major studios and featuring huge stars. Robert De Niro, for instance, is in this year’s “What Just Happened?” from director Barry Levinson.

    Irish actor Colin Farrell is here at the 2008 festival for the first time starring in opening night movie, “In Bruges,” and while he noted the changes in the festival, he told reporters Friday that the independent spirit remains alive and well.

    “I know it has changed throughout the years and I know anything that has had any semblance of success will evolve, garner media and industry attention. And this place becoming a marketplace, having the aspects of buying and selling, that goes with the industry, that is inevitable. But the ethos of it remains the same, the original intention of it being an atmosphere where artists can get together and create. That’s an amazing thing.”

    But he is already a star. Tell it to the wannabe filmmaker in Omaha, Nebraska or Des Moines, Iowa or Los Angeles or New York, for that matter, who longs just to get in, but thinks he or she can’t get past Hollywood. Some say the star power has hurt Sundance. Others, like Farrell, think it has been a natural evolution. Still others see it as a good thing because, in fact, the movies here have become better, and better movies means a better experience for moviegoers.

 (reporting by Mary Milliken, writing by Bob Tourtellotte)