"They looked at the world and said, 'We can't make dark movies. We need something hopeful.' There's a lot of romance -- people dealing with love and life and relationships. What they are really concentrating on is a better sense of story -- and ones that have real emotional impact," Cooper says.

Buyers for independently financed movies say they are targeting several dramatic competition films for possible acquisition. The list includes "Big Fan," from the writer of "The Wrestler"; "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men," an adaptation of David Foster Wallace's stories by actor-turned-director John Krasinski; "Arlen Faber," a story about a reclusive author starring Jeff Daniels; "The Greatest," a drama starring Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon; and "Paper Heart," a quasi-documentary with "Juno's" Michael Cera.

Cooper says the festival's 16 competition documentaries, selected from 879 submissions, continue the nonfiction filmmaking trend toward advocacy and away from impartial journalistic observation. "They are basically telling you what to do, versus 'This is something that is going on,' " Cooper says.

Documentary competition titles include "The Cove," about cruelty to ocean mammals; "Dirt the Movie," a documentary about, yes, topsoil; "Boy Interrupted," a mother's account of her son's tragic battle with mental illness; and "When You're Strange," a look at the rock band the Doors from Sundance feature veteran Tom DiCillo.

Cooper and his staff added an additional 16 international documentaries (from 744 submissions) and 16 international dramatic films (from 1,012 submissions) to the festival slate.

In part, it's that volume of movies being made -- rather than the number getting into Sundance -- that has sales agents, distributors and producers so nervous. On any given weekend, as many as a dozen new independent movies can arrive in theaters. That makes it nearly impossible (and very expensive) for these smaller movies to get a toehold, and the economic crisis has been accompanied by a 4% decrease in movie admissions, most of which are sold for big-budget blockbusters anyway.

"Event films are recession proof, but specialized movies are discretionary," says lawyer and Sundance sales agent Steven Beer, explaining why movies such as "The Dark Knight" can sell millions of tickets while many Sundance movies go unseen. "It's a new day, a new era. The majority of people who like specialized films will see them at festivals, on DVDs, or online through streaming or downloads, but not in the conventional theatrical marketplace."

IFC Films is now distributing more movies through its video-on-demand services than in theaters. "I don't think the audience is going away at all," says Arianna Bocco, IFC's vice president of production and acquisitions. "I think they are changing how they see movies. The audience is still there, and they are still hungry. You just have to reach them in different ways."

If filmmakers come to Sundance assuming they will get a theatrical deal, they are likely to come home disappointed, says sales agent Andrew Herwitz, who sold the solid art-house hit "Waitress" to Fox Searchlight at Sundance in 2007. He fears the festival's more difficult movies may struggle to ever make it to the multiplex. "In this market," Herwitz says, "those films will not get distribution."

"Adam" producer Urdang knows the hurdles her film faces. "The costs of everything, from production to marketing, have expanded beyond what can be supported," Urdang says. But she believes her film's central story holds appeal not only to people touched by autism in its different forms but also to anyone struggling to form personal bonds. "It really illuminates the obstacles that all of us face in intimacy."

Horn is a Times staff writer.

john.horn@latimes.com