PARK CITY — When the Sundance Film Festival got its start 25 years ago, it was a lot smaller, less known and much less glitzy, but actors appearing in the festival's films agree its purpose has remained true to its roots.

"It's a little more commercial, but I think in a really nice way," said Andie McDowell, who in 1989 was in the festival's "Sex, Lies, and Videotape." "The integrity is still there. It's still an artistic film festival. I think the main purpose is still there."

McDowell favors the festival's relaxed attitude and focus on film. She and other stars were at a 25th anniversary celebration dinner Monday night hosted at the Sundance Lift by Robert Redford.

Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said Sundance 25 years later is as firmly entrenched in Utah now as it was then.

"We're rooted, it's our home," said Gilmore. "The Sundance institute's home is here. If anything we're more rooted here than I think a decade ago."

Gilmore said the intimate setting of Park City helps the festival.

"It's not about trying to find some more sophisticated urban center. That would be, I think, more difficult to run a festival," he added. "Most of the major festivals of the world aren't necessarily positioned inside major urban centers."

Over two decades later, Gilmore said the Park City community continues to bend over backward to accommodate the festival.

"This community has given us a lot," he said. "I think the state has given what they can. My colleagues tell me they feel the state has been supportive.

"I don't think any municipal organization in the U.S. is supportive enough of the arts — I believe that they should do more," Gilmore added. "But that's never been, at least in American society, it's never been a priority."

Laura San Giacomo, who co-starred with McDowell in the 1989 movie, has been to Sundance at least four times over the years.

"It's changed a lot since the last time I was here," which was in 1993, Giacomo said. "It's very disarming that it has become so swaggy, cheesy, mondo.

"You know what, bills have to be paid. I get it," she added, with a caveat. "There was something really sweet about how intimate and intense it was. I'm sure that it's still that somewhere."

When the lights go down and films flicker to life, away from the festival sideshow, it feels like the festival Kevin Bacon attended in 1989 as an actor in the film "The Big Picture."

"I feel like the essence of it is still really, really similar to what it was when I was here 20 years ago," Bacon said. "Obviously it looks a lot different, but when you sit down in the theater, it feels the same."