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What's the difference between Canadian mainstream and American independent films?

“Essentially synonymous,” says one Canadian film executive, speaking confidentially.

Although that sentiment might surprise cultural nationalists in this country, Canadian and independent U.S. filmmakers fight a similar struggle to get low-budget, non-generic films into their cinemas.

Which may be why no one in the Canadian film industry seems particularly surprised at the record number of homegrown films this year at the Sundance Film Festival and its spinoff, the Slamdance Film Festival, both in Park City, Utah.

There are five Canadian feature films in Sundance this year, two each in the world-documentary and world-dramatic competitions, and a fifth in the “spectrum” sidebar (that's not to mention a couple of Canadian co-productions).

At Slamdance, which focuses on first-time filmmakers working with a budget under $1-million, four of the 10 films in the narrative-feature competition are Canadian, with one in the documentary competition. Even to be accepted at these festivals means the Canadian films have beaten long odds: There are typically more than 1,000 submissions to each of the international programs.

Still, even after getting a film to Sundance and paying for an overpriced hotel, Canadian filmmakers have to recognize that few Sundance films are even modest financial successes. Is it all worth it?

Stephanie Azam, Telefilm's new head of English-Canadian film, definitely thinks so. She previously worked with New York-based Zeitgeist Films, a company that distributes foreign and art titles that have included such popular Canadian documentaries as The Corporation and Up the Yangtze. She thinks the value of being at Sundance for Canadians is “huge.”

“Sundance is still the ultimate stamp of approval for indie film,” Azam wrote in an e-mail. “Getting into that festival will help open doors and will get you and your film on the radar of distributors, film critics, bookers, programmers and exhibitors – it's a great launch. In an ideal scenario, your film gets acquired by a U.S. distributor. But even if you are not able to secure a U.S. distribution deal, screening Sundance is a great way to increase your filmmaker profile, make contacts and create buzz.”

Although Telefilm isn't involved in financing all of the Canadian films at Park City this year, the federal government agency offers resources for Canadian filmmakers, including cash through its international marketing program to help with promotional materials and travel costs, and guidance through the maze of the festival.

Such hand-holding alone can be invaluable. No one really has a handle on what's going on in American independent film these days.

The scene is in tremendous flux. After a year that saw dramatic scale-backs in the American boutique studios, the mid-budget, semi-independent feature looks like an endangered species. Although this year's Sundance offers films with stars such as Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Ashton Kutcher and Michael Cera, Variety calls the festival's 25th anniversary a year of “dressing down” to reflect the economic downturn.

Paradoxically, however, the economic slump could actually help the profile of Canadian films. Charlotte Mickie, managing director of Canadian-based E1 Films (which has four movies at Park City), feels that buyers are looking for a different kind of product. “The bloom has gone off the rose for the pseudo-commercial indie movie,” she says. Too many have been burned by star-driven comedies, like last year's Hamlet 2. Nowadays, instead of looking for the next Little Miss Sunshine, buyers are interested in the next Frozen River or Man on Wire, to name two under-the-radar films from last year's Sundance that went on to acclaim and awards. Cheap and smart are in.

Filmmakers are seeing the same pattern. Ingrid Veninger, who brings to Slamdance her micro-budget film Only, about a one-day relationship between two 12-year-olds in rural Ontario, noted in an e-mail interview that “the filmmakers who can do more for less will triumph. In Canada, our films rarely have the glossy shine that money can bring, so I feel we're finally in sync with the times. Instead of bigger, stronger and faster, we can be simpler, truer and smarter. It's no surprise that festival audiences want to meet filmmakers with unique points of view, and discover gems in the rough. I think Canada is poised to dish out plenty of both.”

Ryan Ward, director of Son of the Sunshine, also in the dramatic competition at Slamdance, raised some of the funding for his $120,000 drama by acting in Evil Dead: The Musical. A believer in a “self-sustaining Canadian film industry,” he's proud not to have had public financing for the film, in which he stars as a man with Tourette's syndrome and supernatural powers.

Like many younger filmmakers, Ward rejects the notion that Canadian films should be part of publicly funded official culture, arguing instead that they should be able to attract an audience on their dramatic merits. But Mickie argues that the public/private distinction no longer means much in the international film world. Financing sources are often mixed. Americans can tap into a variety of tax incentives and, in some cases, money from government-financed European partners. As well, many American financiers don't really delve into the precarious world of film financing with the aim of making money. Companies such as Participant Productions – founded by Jeff Skoll, a Canadian who made his fortune through eBay and helped to finance such socially conscious films as North Country and An Inconvenient Truth – view making indies as a form of creative philanthropy.

Where Canadian movies often proudly stand out is in their success at offering a multicultural perspective on global – including American – issues. Marie-Hélène Cousineau's and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu's Inuktitut-language drama Before Tomorrow is set shortly after an Inuit community's contact with Europeans in the 1840s. The National Film Board documentary Nollywood Babylon, by Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal, is about the booming no-budget cinema of Nigeria. Paul Saltzman's Prom Night in Mississippi looks at the first interracial prom at a small-town high school, told from the perspective of a Canadian returning to the American South 43 years after going there as a civil-rights worker.

The same goes for two Canadian co-productions in Sundance: Amreeka, one of the films that E1 will be selling, is about a Palestinian mother who moves to Illinois after the Iraq war. Helen, starring Ashley Judd, is written and directed by German filmmaker Sandra Nettelbeck (Mostly Martha).

So what does it take for Canadian films to compete successfully in the American independent market? Michael Sparaga, an associate producer on S on of the Sunshine, released a documentary last year called Maple Flavour Films, in which he interviewed ordinary Canadians and industry figures about the sorry state of English-Canadian cinema. To compete against similarly budgeted American films, he thinks, Canadian movies need three things: more stars; more money for promotion; and, most importantly, wider audience appeal. Canadian films should offer “the same thrills, laughter and delight that U.S. films do,” Sparaga says, “and they have to actually be good films.”

At least in the indie world, that doesn't mean hiding their Canadian origins. One of the movies Mickie represents is Victoria Day, the debut feature from celebrated author David Bezmozgis (Natasha And Other Stories). Set in May, 1988, as Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers are in Boston competing for the Stanley Cup, it features a protagonist who's the hockey-playing son of immigrants, which is about as unapologetically Canadian as you can get.

Bezmozgis finished the screenplay for Victoria Day while he was living in Los Angeles, trying to make it as a screenwriter before his international success with his short-story collection in 2004. Ironically, he says, it took leaving L.A. and moving back to Canada to make the movie he wanted, although he had spent a week at the Sundance writing workshop to polish his script. What is he hoping to gain from Sundance? The same thing as any other filmmaker: “To have my movie seen by as many people as possible.”