Describing this year's cinematic offerings from the Sundance Film Festival, Geoffrey Gilmore used such words as "new," "refreshing" and "exciting."

While that did make him sound less like a festival director than a publicist — or a soda-pop pitchman, perhaps — it also demonstrates his surprising enthusiasm for this year's slate of movies.

In fact, Gilmore said the films compare favorably with any Sundance programming in the 17 years he's been involved with the festival.

"This might sound rehearsed, or like the same old platitudes," Gilmore said by phone from the Sundance Institute's Beverly Hills offices, "but I'm genuinely pleased by the quality of our films. This is as strong a year as we've seen in quite some time."

Gilmore and other members of film-festival programming committee screened more than 4,000 features and shorts submitted by filmmakers — some 5,000 hours of film. And as he proudly notes, nearly half of those films came from countries outside the United States.

"It's always a goal for this festival to showcase as many different voices as possible," Gilmore said, adding that he has done a lot of international travel to ensure that there's an international presence at Sundance.

Only about a 20th of all the films submitted got into the festival, and one of those is the documentary "Chicago 10," which makes its debut in Park City's Eccles Theatre tonight.

The centerpiece of the Opening Night festivities, "Chicago 10" re-creates with animation parts of the 1968 Democratic Convention and the riots that followed, and employs such celebrity voices as Hank Azaria, Nick Nolte and Roy Scheider.

Salt Lake City will host its own gala on Friday in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, with the premiere of "Away From Her," a drama written and directed by Sarah Polley and starring Julie Christie and Olympia Dukakis.

The two films show that there can be very different sides to the festival selections, according to Gilmore.

On one hand, "Chicago 10" is indicative of Sundance's sense of social consciousness. "It's representative of several films in this year's festival, which are very much aware of world events and our global community and have been given free rein to voice their concerns and comments," he said. (Which no doubt pleases outspoken and socially conscious Sundance Institute President Robert Redford, who is expected to join Gilmore and other festival officials attending tonight's event.)

As for "Away From Her," Gilmore described the film as a more intimate, character-driven story. "It's a story about love that could have been gone wrong in less skillful hands. It doesn't adhere to the usual, expected formulas. It also shows there's a great variety to our programming."