PROVO — For movie buffs who weren't fortunate enough to score tickets to Sundance this weekend, another film festival in Utah Valley has a timely — and market-specific — alternative.

The 4th annual LDS Film Festival runs through Saturday at the Provo City Library and University Mall Cinemas, with screenings of four feature films from LDS directors, including the LDS boy-band film "Sons of Provo" and LDS convert Rick Schroder's directorial debut, "Black Cloud."

Numerous short films and a 24-hour filmmaking contest are also part of the festival.

Festival founder and president Christian Vuissa said organizers overlapped the star-studded Park City-based festival on purpose.

"People notice us more because Sundance is going on," he said. "We think as the festival grows, we'll show more and more films that might be of interest to the people that come to Sundance to look around."

Vuissa said the object of the festival is to help LDS filmmakers make connections and present their work.

"The goal is to promote LDS filmmakers and their films and to help them to network, mingle, get recognition and find an audience," he said. "It's also a goal of the festival to bring together a variety of voices that are expressed in film."

Vuissa said the connections formed because of the success of "Napoleon Dynamite" have bolstered the profile of LDS filmmakers.

"There's a lot of networking going on through people that worked on the film," he said.

For example, Aaron Ruell, who plays Kip in "Napoleon Dynamite," has two short films in Sundance. Jon Heder, who plays the title role in "Napoleon Dynamite," is in a new film that was shot in Utah.

"So, there are a lot of little things happening because of 'Napoleon Dynamite' that make more films possible — there's a lot of little ripple effects."

Vuissa said he's not sure if Hollywood has LDS filmmakers on its radar screen now.

"If Hollywood is interested more now in Mormon film, I don't know," he said. "They tend to look at films individually. But again, through the networking channels, the people that worked on 'Napoleon Dynamite' can help other projects succeed because they have connections, and those connections have connections, etc."

Vuissa said he thinks that as time goes on, fewer LDS filmmakers will stick to LDS-themed projects.

"Today, people really think, 'Let's make a feature film,' and not really an LDS film," he said. "It still is an important element, though, and I think people will continue to make films specifically for that market. But I think more and more, Mormon filmmakers will just make films about people."

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