It's all over now. The Hollywood types checked out of their condos, the discarded liquor bottles and movie-promotional postcards are hitting the recycling bins, and Park City is back to being the sleepy little ski town where one can actually park a car.

Another Sundance Film Festival has come, given us 11 days of movies and celebrity hype, and gone.

Some will say good riddance. Beyond the inconvenience placed upon Park City residents, there are always folks who see Hollywood as a breeding ground for godless liberalism -- something that has no place in a stalwart red state like Utah.Yes, there's lots of money being thrown around Sundance -- from the multimillion dollar distribution deals to the bags of swag being given to semi-celebrities. But sometimes the money goes to a good cause.

Take what happened at a screening for "A Small Act," a documentary about Kenyan Chris Mburu, who founded an educational fund to help children in his country -- an idea inspired by the Swedish woman who donated money to his education when he was a boy.

At one screening, someone in the audience gave Mburu a $5,000 check, and more donations followed, according to a publicist. Festivalgoers donated $90,000 by the time Sundance was over.

Beyond the money, though, Sundance has a profound effect on the culture at large -- even for people who wouldn't know Robert Redford from a Rototiller.

When Josh Radnor accepted the Audience Award for his romantic

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comedy "happythankyoumoreplease," he thanked "the people at my day job." That's as the star of the TV series "How I Met Your Mother."

That's just the most recent example of someone's star rising from obscurity (or worse, TV) at Sundance. Over the years, there have been many new stars -- Ashley Judd, Parker Posey, Vera Farmiga -- who got their first exposure in a Sundance movie.

Same goes for directors, starting with the Coen brothers, who brought "Blood Simple" to Sundance in 1985 (when it was still called the U.S. Film Festival). Since then, the list of new filmmakers has been an extensive one, including Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith.

And it's not just art-house directors. Take Bryan Singer, whose first movie, "Public Access," tied for the Grand Jury Prize in 1994 but was never seen again. Singer came back with "The Usual Suspects," and went on to a career in blockbuster films, including the first two "X-Men" movies and "Superman Returns." Similarly, Christopher Nolan came to Sundance in 2001 with "Memento" (and to Slamdance before that with "Following"), and went on to direct "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight."

Sundance fosters Oscar nominees, from "In the Bedroom" to "Little Miss Sunshine." Two movies likely to be mentioned in this morning's Oscar nominations (and by the time you read this, you'll know whether I'm right) will be "Precious" and "An Education," which played first in Park City last year.

Sundance is also where the new generation of filmmakers meets the Hollywood machine. Brothers Mark and Jay Duplass have made ultra-low-budget movies, like "The Puffy Chair" and "Baghead." This year they brought "Cyrus" to Sundance, with stars you've heard of: John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill.

Some have accused the Duplass brothers of selling out. I think the opposite is happening, and the Duplasses are actually sneaking their offbeat indie sensibility into Hollywood's system.

That's where Sundance may have its biggest impact. Many movies screened in Park City don't get seen by too many people once they leave here. But the filmmakers go on to make more movies, and those movies inspire the next generation of filmmakers -- who will come to a future Sundance, hoping for the same chance to inspire someone else.