Park City, UT: ‘Discovery’ was the word of the day when the Sundance Film Festival opened on Thursday and, over the opening weekend, fest-goers liked what they found among the Canadian selections to play at the famed indie fest – Sarah Polley’s Away from Her and Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes in particular.

Polley’s directorial debut, starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent, played very favorably to Sundancers on Jan. 19, opening the Salt Lake City half of the festival.

‘The film’s done really well in Canada and we’re really excited that the reception here has been equally as warm,’ said producer Daniel Iron of Foundry Films, speaking to Playback Daily at Telefilm Canada’s opening cocktail party – which has become the main gathering for Canucks at the festival. Iron added that, since the film has sold in most territories, ‘we’re here just to enjoy the potential accolades.’

That attitude would probably please festival founder Robert Redford, who in his opening address on Jan. 18 sought to draw attention away from the celebrity swag-storm for which Sundance has become known.

‘We’d like try to remind people about the core – why we’re here and what we’re about,’ said Redford. ‘We’re really a festival of discovery of new and very, very fresh work from new artists that are bringing new ideas to the screen.’

Manufactured Landscapes also played to very enthusiastic reactions Jan. 19, finding a niche among the similarly environmentally minded docs The Unforeseen by Laura Dunn and Everything’s Cool by Daniel Gold and Judith Helfand.

The feature doc is awaiting U.S. distribution this year through Zeitgeist Films. No other sales have been announced.

The festival is playing shorts from its program online (www.sundance.org) and, as of Jan. 22, selling them through iTunes at $1.99 each. Among the shorts is The Tragic Story of Nling by Canada’s Jeffrey St. Jules.

The move impressed Telefilm exec director Wayne Clarkson. ‘When you’ve got things like YouTube and MySpace out there, where do festivals fit in that?’ he said. ‘I think that’s going to come from independent cinema – it’s a mindset and independent cinema is where the change is going to happen, and we’re going to see it at Sundance. We’re beginning to see it now.’

Six other Canadian features are playing at Sundance: How She Move by director Ian Iqbal Rashid, the France/Canada copro Rêves de poussière, the Canada/Norway copro On a Tightrope, the Canada/Israel copro Hot House, S. Wyeth Clarkson’s drama Sk8 Life and Andrew Currie’s zombie comedy Fido.