"We've seen it being used ad nauseam," Redford told Thursday's opening-night audience for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival at Park City's Eccles Theatre.

If you want real change, according to Redford, find an artist.

"Artists are really agents of change," said the Sundance Institute's founder. "They're the first responders. They document change as it's occurring in the world around us."

Redford said he is excited that many of the new voices in this year's festival come from other artistic disciplines.

"We're seeing artists from theater, music, art and poetry crossing over into the area of film," Redford said. "I'm very excited about that."

One of those new filmmakers is Irish playwright-turned-

director Martin McDonagh, whose debut feature "In Bruges" was Thursday night's film.

The dark comedy stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two Irish-born hitmen who have left London for a forced vacation in the storybook medieval town of Bruges, Belgium. Their foul-tempered boss (Ralph Fiennes) has sent them there to lay low after a botched hit - a murder that has left Farrell's character racked with guilt.

McDonagh didn't waste much time on the Eccles stage. "I'm going to be brief because I'm scared s---less," he said, before introducing his producers and stars Farrell and Gleeson.

Earlier in the day, at a news conference to welcome the world's news media to Sundance, Redford gave his annual warning: Don't believe the hype.

''I've heard a lot of stories about 'buzz' at festivals over the past years,'' Redford said at Park City's Egyptian Theatre. "Every time, the buzz evaporated and the surprise was always something that was unexpected."

Festival Director Geoffrey Gilmore concurred. "The film that people come talking about is not necessarily the film they leave talking about," he said. Gilmore pointed to two hits from last year's festival - the Irish musical "Once" and the pie-and-pregnancy comedy "Waitress" - that weren't on anybody's radar before playing in Park City.

Redford said he was excited at the number of first-time feature directors at this year's festival - 58 debut films, according to Gilmore, the most Sundance has had since the event's early days.

And this new crop of young filmmakers is eager to make its mark, Redford said. "Some of the filmmakers in the past have connected to the generation of baby boomers, trying to hang on to something of value," Redford said. ''Now there's a new group that's saying, 'We don't want to inherit what's before. We just want to do something new, so just get out of our way.' It's kind of a new spirit. I'm excited to have you all see it.''

And while Redford mostly held his tongue when talking politics, he couldn't resist one comment to the Eccles crowd. "God knows you'd have to be Rip Van Winkle the last six years not to know that this country is desperately in need of change" - a line that drew applause from the movie-loving audience.

That audience will get its fill of movies today as the festival gets under way in earnest.

Screenings will go from morning through the wee hours in Park City through Jan. 27, with more screenings in Salt Lake City, Ogden and the Sundance resort.

spmeans@sltrib.com