On January 27 , 2011 the festival sent 9 filmmakers to 9 cities across the US to screen and discuss their films . The cities and films included : Bob Tourtellotte of Reuters wrote " Sundance 2011 has proven to be exceptionally strong , audiences and filmmakers seem to agree . " Tourtellotte reported that Robert Redford said that three years ago the Sundance Institute " set out to get back to its roots of supporting alternative voices in cinema and he felt like this year that strategy paid off . " Redford said " This year , what has excited me , is I think the quality is increasing in diversity and is increasing in depth . " The AP reported that Redford said it 's " always a relief " when the festival ends because " it 's really exhausting . " Kenneth Turan , film critic for the '' Los Angeles Times '' , wrote " though the festival has gotten ever bigger — and ( thankfully ) more efficient in moving its close to 50,000 attendees in and out of its far-flung theaters — it still retains the scrappy , antic spirit that has animated it from the start . " Turan wrote " One of the paradoxes of Sundance is that the quirkiness and charm around the edges of the festival are not always fully appreciated because so much of the media focus is on the premieres section and the U.S. dramatic competition " which he said " are , frankly , often the weakest parts of the festival . " Turan said " Sundance 's insistence on giving equal weight to documentaries and dramas has made it into as important a nonfiction showcase as any festival in the world ; witness the fact that four out of the five Oscar-nominated docs this year debuted at Sundance last January . " He also wrote that the foreign language film competition " is a strength at Sundance , and yet that field is given even less popular attention than the documentaries . " Peter Knegt wrote that this year 's festival " probably wo n't replicate last year 's Oscar record . " He said " Despite a huge surge in sales , this year 's Sundance slate looks like it might be the least Oscar-friendly in some time . " He noted that the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winners have been nominated for Best Picture for two years ( referring to '' Precious '' and '' Winter 's Bone '' ) . Knegt speculated on films that might be nominated for the Oscars . Films he deemed " most likely to succeed " at being nominated included : '' Like Crazy '' for Best Picture , Michael Shannon of '' Take Shelter '' for Best Actor , Elizabeth Olsen of '' Martha Marcy May Marlene '' for Best Actress , Felicity Jones of '' Like Crazy '' for Best Actress , Jessica Chastain of '' Take Shelter '' for Best Supporting Actress , '' Project Nim '' for Best Documentary Feature , '' Page One '' for Best Documentary Feature , and '' The Interrupters '' for Best Documentary Feature . He wrote " It 's reasonable to feel assured that at least one of Sundance 's docs will end up an Oscar nominee , if not two , three or four . " Jada Yuan of '' New York '' magazine wrote " perhaps the biggest highlight of the festival is just how ripe it 's been for acquisitions , with nearly 30 films getting picked up , the most at any Sundance ever . " On " why everyone is suddenly so bullish on independent film " , Owen Gleiberman wrote that the " energy and optimism at Sundance this year was n't just hype . " He said the factors he thought were driving a new evolving vision of the indie film world included : " The deals have n’t gotten cheaper — they 've gotten smarter " , a belief that last year 's new festival director John Cooper and director of programming Trevor Groth " have re-energized the festival , heightening its quality and organizing the movies with a tempting new shape and vision " , video on demand gives distributors a safety net and more confidence , and the audiences for Sundance movies are not going away , saying " The Oscars ... have become a testament to the central place that Sundance movies now occupy . " Redford was happy about the success of the festival , with about 45 films being sold vs 14 in 2010 , an increase of about 220 % . Redford said studios are realizing " there are audiences " for indie films
Sundance last January
2010 Sundance Film Festival
2011 Sundance Film Festival