Cinetex Still Trying to Take Root : Convention: Organizers of the annual gathering of film people in Las Vegas are considering a move to Los Angeles.

With the animated heads, plastic props and plastered posters that decorated Cinetex ’90 packed up and ready for shipment home, the people who brought the film festival/expo/market to this neon gambling resort for the third straight year are still searching the horizon for signs of a living oak.

When Cinetex was announced a few years ago, corporate founder Sheldon G. Adelson likened its first year to the planting of an acorn. In time, a mighty oak. To Adelson, who heads the Boston-based Interface Group, the mighty oak that he hoped to grow is a film event on American soil to rival that famous one held each year in France.

But two years and $7 million in net losses later, Cinetex is still just an acorn. There is talk now that it may be transplanted as early as next year to Los Angeles, where, as the home of the film industry, there ought to be plenty of fertilizer available, anyway.

Others are saying that Cinetex will likely stay in Las Vegas, at least for the two years remaining in Adelson’s five-year commitment. The original idea was to create a major event that Interface, the organizer of such conventions as the massive Consumer Electronics Show, could handle and service for years to come. The company owns a charter airline, a travel agency and the Sands Hotel, which next year will have the largest hotel convention hall in Las Vegas.

Were the event to become successful, it would need a lot of space. Sellers of territorial rights to films need hotel suites in which to host potential buyers. Hall space will be needed for exhibits, large rooms will be needed for seminars and workshops, theaters will be needed for screenings. But while participants here remain upbeat about the future of Cinetex, signs of growth are not too bountiful.

* The number of exhibitor-sellers, show officials report, was slightly down this year because of the demise of some independent film companies. Still, they claim that about 60% of this year’s 60 exhibitors represent repeat business.

* The number of buyers was up to about 600, but the number fell far short of the 1,000 that organizers had hoped for, and about 200 of those on hand were flown in and put up at Interface’s expense.

* Unofficially, attendance was up over last year’s reported total of 2,000, but apparently not by much.

* The Cinetex International Comedy Film Festival, supervised by the American Film Institute, upped its number of independent and foreign-movie screenings to 11, and--probably a first for any film festival--audiences were “warmed up” by stand-up comics.

* The number of seminars operated by AFI was also up, with workshops ranging from special effects to project pitching.

* Although expenditures continued to mount, officials looked at the bright side, saying that if the event is moved to the Sands next year, costs of hosting the event will be cut considerably.

Still, the halls of Bally’s were alive with the speculation that at least some portion of the show will move to Los Angeles next year, closer to the studio and television executives who have not bought many tickets to Cinetex.

“Within 30 days of the closing we will have evaluated this year’s show and decided if a move to Los Angeles might be a good strategy,” said Jason Chudnofsky, president and chief operating officer of the Interface Group. “We will listen to our buyers and our sellers and the press. Our advisers will tell us if a move to Los Angeles would be the right thing.”

Meanwhile, the brochure for Cinetex ‘91, circulated to exhibitors, promises a return to Vegas Sept. 20-24 at “the fabulous new Sands Expo and Convention Center.”

Wherever the next Cinetex is held, the folks at AFI seemingly couldn’t be happier with the arrangement. To produce its 42 seminars and workshops, its three tributes (honored were Elliot Gould, Garry Marshall and Teri Garr) and its assortment of films, AFI gets a $200,000 contribution from the Interface Group for its Los Angeles Film Festival and its Las Vegas Cinetex expenses covered.