A REAL `PLAYER' AT SUNDANCE FEST.

Even Griffin Mill, the conniving studio executive who gets away with murder in ``The Player,'' has been rumored to have been spotted among the cell-phone-toting talent scavengers at this year's packed-to-bursting Sundance Film Festival.

So said actor Tim Robbins at a sold-out event at which he was presented with the festival's annual Piper-Heidsieck Tribute to Independent Vision.

Robbins, who played Mill in that movie and starred in a host of others, including ``The Shawshank Redemption,'' ``The Hudsucker Proxy'' and ``Bull Durham,'' demonstrated his talent for satire at the Saturday tribute, when he claimed that Mill actually exists and that he, Robbins, had come across the studio shark's private diary.

Robbins then began reading excerpts, which described Mill's fall from grace when a ``critic-proof'' action movie he has produced called ``Renegade Man'' rolls out in 3,500 theaters and promptly bombs.

Beset by debts and paranoia, Mill hits bottom, then decides that what he really wants to do is ``find a kid with a dream'' and tackle the independent arena.

Not that he particularly likes offbeat movies, even though he christens his new company Iconoclastic Films. ``To be honest, I don't get these films,'' Mill, nee Robbins, says in his diary. ``But I've figured out where I'm heading. I hear there's money to be made at Sundance.''

The remark, which got big laughs in a house that included actresses Glenn Close and Sally Field (both Sundance Institute board members) but not Robbins' longtime companion Susan Sarandon, pretty much sums up the underlying theme of this year's festival, which continues through Sunday.

The huge profits enjoyed by a few recent independent films, including last year's Sundance award winner ``The Brothers McMullen,'' have put industry interest in the event at a record high and pushed crowding past the limit.

While party chatter in past years was about movies, this year it's about how hard it is to get tickets.

Veteran Sundance attendee Mark Litwak, an entertainment attorney and author, said he resorted to hiring a Park City resident to stand in line at the box office for him the day tickets went on sale locally, and he still came up with only six tickets to movies during the entire 10-day event.

At screenings this week, many filmgoers are reporting they've stood on line in Utah's frigid outdoor weather for two hours, only to be turned away.

``I won't be back,'' Litwak said. ``This festival has become a nightmare.''

For all the activity, only one major deal had closed by early this week, the $2 million sale to Miramax of first-time director Mark Waters' wicked black comedy ``The House of Yes.'' Many other deals are reportedly in progress, and activity is expected to intensify in the festival's closing days.

Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford said Saturday that he's ``not so interested in seeing more and more people come'' to the festival. ``We're busting out the seams of Park City as it is,'' Redford said.

At the same time, he has no plans to relocate the event to a larger, more accommodating city.

``This kind of small, collegiate atmosphere is important for networking and communication,'' said Redford. ``I want to keep it intimate.''

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Photo: Tim Robbins showed off his wit at Sundance by reading from what he called the private diary of his conniving character from ``The Player.''