‘KANGAROO,’ ‘HEAT’ ON AGENDA AT SANTA BARBARA FESIVIVAL

The second annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival offers the U.S. premieres of two films--Australia’s “Kangaroo” and Burt Reynolds’ latest, “Heat”--as its opening and closing films over the weekend, with all manner of parties and seminars in between.

The “Heat” premiere, on Sunday at 4 p.m. in Santa Barbara’s Grenada Theatre, will be followed by a gala reception at the Acapulco Restaurant, with production executives and “Heat” cast members in attendance.

Other U.S. films enjoying their American premiere at the festival are “Hollywood Shuffle” by Robert Townsend (who is attending the festival), “The Order of the Black Eagle” and Robert Snyder’s “Michelangelo: Self Portrait.”

The festival is offering a weekend-long salute to the Canadian film industry, with many screenings and workshops devoted to the theme. Four Canadian films screening this weekend--”Long Lance,” “Canada’s Sweetheart,” “The Tin Flute” and “So Many Miracles”--will be making their U.S. debuts. Canadian Consul General Joan Winser will join a number of Canadian film makers at the festival to participate in the informational seminars.

Actor James Stewart will be the subject of a retrospective today. In addition to screenings of several of his films at the Arlington Center--”The Glenn Miller Story,” “The Man From Laramie” and “The Shop Around the Corner”--Stewart will be feted tonight at 7:30 with a tribute at the Arlington Center, followed by a dinner at the Red Lion Resort.

Director Norman Jewison leads a seminar on directing, sponsored by the American Film Institute, at 1:15 p.m. today at the Victoria Theater. And the Flying “A” Studio--which produced nearly 1,200 silent films between 1910 and 1920--will be celebrated by a film montage and seminar at 10 a.m. today in the Santa Barbara Art Museum.