The mumbler, the film student, the armchair critic and six other people you meet at a Sundance Q&A

Park City • One important thing that makes a film festival different than a regular night at the movies is that a festival lets you see and hear the people who make the movies.

At the Sundance Film Festival, which winds down this weekend, there’s a great tradition of staying through the credits to get to the post-screening question-and-answer session.

The Q&A is where members of the audience get to ask filmmakers and actors for the dark secrets of the making of the movie they just watched. It can be a chance to connect, one on one, even in a large theater, about the creative process and the story behind the story.

Q&A's are so ingrained in the Sundance vibe that when a screening doesn't have one — as happened at a Wednesday morning showing of director Reed Morano's "I Think We're Alone Now" — it feels like the movie isn't over yet.

But, as with any long-standing tradition, there are also familiar roles filled on both the Q part and the A part. Here are nine types of people a festivalgoer encounters in a Q&A:

The humble braggart • Modesty, false or otherwise, is a familiar pose in the Q&A. Celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred got a standing ovation after the premiere of the documentary about her, “Seeing Allred.” When she joined the filmmakers at the front of the MARC, the notoriously camera-seeking Allred played shy. “Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking,” she began, to much laughter.

The not-so-humble braggart • This is someone, usually a director, who knows he’s hot snot and isn’t afraid to show it. One example was Anthony Mandler, director of the courtroom thriller “Monster,” who when asked what challenges he faced filming the movie said proudly, “20 days, no rehearsals, no reshoots.”

The armchair critic • “I don’t have a question, really, but a comment. …” These words make most Sundancers roll their eyes, because they know they’re in for a lengthy filibuster that steals precious seconds of the filmmakers or actors getting to talk.

The film student • It’s natural that there are geeks on both sides of the Q&A, but when the questions get overly technical, much of the audience tunes out. The filmmakers onstage, however, are thrilled. Take how excitedly “Nancy” director Christina Choe reacted when someone asked about the movie’s shifting aspect ratios.

The mutual admiration society • It would be a shock, and a tabloid headline, if cast and crew openly disagreed on a Sundance stage. More common is when actors and directors talk about how great the other is. In the case of the drama “Wildlife,” the directing debut of actor Paul Dano, the conversation acknowledged that with good humor. When Carey Mulligan, who has been friends with Dano and his writing partner/girlfriend, Zoe Kazan, for 10 years, said “he’s kind of everything you want in a director,” Dano hid his head in mock-embarrassment.

The mumbler • There was a particular movie star at a premiere earlier this week, one so big that many of the people attending that screening were there solely to see and hear this star. But when the Q&A came around, the star avoided nearly every question aimed at the movie’s actors. The star did answer one question, but in a mumbling voice, holding the microphone too low to pick up more than a few words.

The process-focused actor • Some actors aren’t very articulate without someone else writing the script. But sometimes questions about the acting process can be charming. An especially cute example was Milly Shapiro, the teen actor who makes her movie debut in the horror thriller “Hereditary.” She’s the first actor I’ve heard this year who invoked the legendary acting teacher Stella Adler in a Q&A, saying one of her acting exercises involves imagining an “inner animal” and an “outer animal” for her role. “My inner animal is a snake, and my outer animal is a turtle,” she said — and, after watching her disturbing performance, that kind of makes sense.

The accountant • “What was the budget?” is the question no one answers anymore, so Sundance audiences have mostly stopped asking. Decades ago, filmmakers played a game of limbo — how low can you go? — to toot their horns about how resourceful they were with a tiny budget. The capper was when Robert Rodriguez said he filmed his 1993 debut “El Mariachi” for $7,000. After that, filmmakers started playing coy with the question, for one very practical reason: They didn’t want potential distributors to lower their bids.

The cliché droppers • Some phrases pop up in every Q&A, as if everyone is reading from the same script. Here are four of them: “I know a hundred people like [character in movie],” “[The location] is another character in the movie,” “It sounds improvised, but it’s all in the script” and “It’s a period piece, but it’s also contemporary.”