PARK CITY, Utah — They are self-professed word nerds. Their numbers include former President Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, the folk-rock duo Indigo Girls and New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina. Their idol is a guy named Will Shortz.

Crossword puzzles and the people who love them are the subject of the lively documentary "Wordplay," which premiered last weekend at the Sundance Film Festival. Shortz is the pastime's key figure, the New York Times crossword puzzle editor heard on public radio.

"He's the ambassador of the crossword puzzle world. He's really the pinnacle of this community," said Patrick Creadon, a cinematographer making his directing debut with "Wordplay."

"Wordplay" proved to be a crowd-pleaser in its initial Sundance screenings, with potential to capture the sort of commercial audience that made hits out of such documentaries as "Spellbound" and "Mad Hot Ballroom." It uses Shortz's career as a focus, from his love of puzzles as a boy, to the creation of his own academic major — "enigmatology," or the study of puzzles — at Indiana University, through his professional work and his shepherding of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament each year in Stamford, Conn.

Creadon and his wife, producer Christine O'Malley, also feature rank-and-file puzzlers, colleagues who help Shortz create the Times crosswords and lovably fierce tournament competitors.

Shortz said the film has left him pleasantly puzzled at how crosswords resonate emotionally with people.

"Crosswords are such a cerebral thing, you don't expect it to have so much emotional connection with people. But this movie is funny, you laugh a lot, there are touching moments, people crying. It's exciting."

The passion is captured with everyday players. "The Daily Show" host Stewart is seen assaulting the Times crossword, shouting "Come on, Shortz! Bring it!" Indigo Girls Emily Saliers and Amy Ray say they felt they had truly arrived when they were included in a Times crossword.

Clinton relates how the Times crosswords would give him a moment to relax and take his mind off his White House job.

"Wordplay" recounts the Times' clever clue — asking for tomorrow's headline — on the eve of the 1996 presidential election. The puzzle was constructed so it could be solved as either "Clinton elected" or "Bob Dole elected."

Creadon interviewed Dole for "Wordplay" and Dole told him "Bill Clinton called me a month ago and said, 'Bob, you've got to do this crossword-puzzle movie. It's fantastic.' "

While Shortz said crosswords are a way to give people a mental workout, it's their fun quotient that makes puzzles so worthwhile.

"I like entertaining people, and crosswords are sort of a quiet way to entertain people," Shortz said. "I don't stand on stage and tell jokes or sing or do a magic act."