Chief Out at Palm Springs Film Fest : Movies: Citing ‘creative differences,’ artistic director Darryl Macdonald resigns to head a new festival on Long Island.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival, which in just four years has emerged as a premier U.S. showcase for foreign-language movies, is losing what many consider its major asset. Artistic director Darryl Macdonald resigned last week to assume a like post at a new movie festival being launched Oct. 20-24 in East Hampton, Long Island--a favorite resort community of many Hollywood players.

Citing “creative differences” with the leadership of the annual Palm Springs event, held each January, Macdonald said his goal for the Hamptons International Film Festival is to create a showcase for first-time directors and a 25- to 30-film lineup composed almost entirely of U.S. premieres. But the timing of the new filmathon, which opens three days after the conclusion of the well-established New York Film Festival, “brings with it its own kinds of problems,” allows Macdonald.

“To some degree we’re appealing to the same industry segment and the same audience. Part of my mandate is not to repeat the things that are playing in the New York festival.” Macdonald declined to elaborate on why he decided to part ways with the Palm Springs event, but sources close to the festival say factions within the board and staff were trying to steer funding and the focus more toward glitzy black-tie events (like last year’s Frank Sinatra tribute) than on the movie program and filmmakers.

“For a lot of people in Palm Springs the festival is mostly important as a big social scene,” says one observer.

Festival founder and former Palm Springs mayor Sonny Bono, who several weeks ago reassumed the position of chairman of the board, says a greater celebrity presence is something the festival “is now in a position to go for.”

“I would have liked to have that from the get-go, but celebrities are not too excited about a film festival until it proves successful,” Bono says.

His wife, Mary Bono, has also become a board member, while festival coordinator Kim Baldwin remains in that position.

Bono says, however, there has been no contention or “hidden agenda” regarding festival leadership and makes it clear that he regrets Macdonald’s exit. “If Darryl hadn’t taken the other position I would have talked him into staying with us. I think he’s done a superior job,” says Bono.

However, he allows, “There may have been a communications breakdown that left him confused, of some negotiations that were misunderstood, and when the other position was offered, he accepted it.”

Both Bono and board member Denis Pregnolato say that while a new artistic director is sought, the festival will have Macdonald’s continuing input. “He’s helping us put together a short list of new directors and he’s going to help program it on a consulting basis,” says Pregnolato. Bono says the fest will maintain the international focus established by Macdonald.

It isn’t the first time the reins have been passed.

Launched in 1990 after then-mayor Bono led a long drive to being it to fruition, the event quickly impressed a skeptical press corps with its professionalism and substantial content. Its first-year programmer, Hawaii Film Festival director Jeanette Paulsen, was succeeded by Pregnolato, who then became an executive at Spelling Entertainment and was succeeded by Macdonald, a board member and adviser from the outset. A nearly 20-year veteran of the Seattle and Vancouver film festivals, Macdonald brought energy and focus to the Palm Springs festival, positioning it as a premiere industry showcase for European and international film in the United States.

In 1993, the 10-day January event offered 15 of the official Oscar submissions for the best foreign-language film as well as 18 U.S. premieres and several world premieres, including Miramax’s “Ethan Frome” and “Map of the Human Heart.”

Bono says he has no intention of backing away from the standard Macdonald established. “We’re going to try to take it to still another plateau. I still think we can make it as important as Cannes if we put that much effort behind it.”

Macdonald says that part of the Hampton festival’s appeal is its location.

“It’s a gorgeous resort community and there isn’t anyone who doesn’t want to come to an East Coast resort during Indian summer,” he notes. The area is home to a diverse community of artists, writers, filmmakers and bi-coastal Hollywood players, including Barbra Streisand and Chevy Chase, who attended a July 4 fund-raiser in East Hampton, and Steven Spielberg, a longtime Hamptons resident who has signed on as special adviser to the board.

Moreover, as compared to Palm Springs and the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, the Hamptons are a stone’s throw from the Manhattan headquarters of such film companies as Miramax, Fine Line Features and its parent, New Line Cinema, and Sony Pictures Classics, which make up the core of the foreign- and art-film releasing business in this country.

“For that reason it gives me a much better platform to introduce new talent into the American and international marketplaces, and that’s really been my drive,” says Macdonald.

Initially reluctant to get involved, Macdonald, who also co-founded and directs the renowned Seattle International Film Festival, changed his mind after attending the July 4 fund-raiser, which also drew such supporters as designer Donna Karan, advertising magnate Jerry DellaFemina and filmmaker Michael Cimino. Among those on the festival’s honorary board are Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin, Terrence McNally, Robert Wise, Roy Scheider and dozens of others. The festival came together very quickly, after executive director Joyce Robinson, a former film and television casting director with more than 30 years’ residence in Los Angeles, began looking for a way to make the Hamptons her permanent home.

“I tried to attend the Telluride Film Festival last year but found it was all booked up,” she said. “People were telling me, ‘Film festivals are the venue of the ‘90s,’ and I began thinking, why isn’t there a film festival in the Hamptons? It’s an ideal location.”

Drawing financial support mainly from corporations, along with some private contributions and a $10,000 donation from the town of Easthampton, Robinson has raised $400,000 of the $500,000 she estimates will be needed to stage the first five-day event in October.