MOVIES : Why Hollywood Still Cannes : Sure, competition has dimmed the festival’s luster, but industry insiders still find plenty of reasons to drop in for the party.

Has the glittery Cannes Film Festival, now in its 48th year, lost any of its attraction for Hollywood?

That depends on whom you ask.

This year’s festival is scheduled to run Wednesday through May 28 on a palm-tree-lined strip called the Croisette, a beachfront boulevard that faces the balmy Mediterranean. From the Ritz-Carlton at one end to the Majestic Hotel at the other, the suites will become, as they have in years past, offices for Hollywood dealmakers and their overseas rivals scouting foreign films. There will, of course, be plenty of time for partying and taking those piggybacked vacations around the South of France or across the border in Italy.

That said, many studio and independent production company executives are saying that Cannes’ luster has been diluted in recent years because of the worldwide explosion in film festivals and because virtually any business deal can now be done by phone and fax, diminishing the necessity for studio folks to travel all the way to France.

“I would definitely say Cannes has lost its zip,” says Rolph Mittweg, president of New Line Cinema’s International Releasing Division. “There is a festival every week now, either in the States or abroad. We are oversaturated. By the time you get to Cannes, the (anticipated) discoveries have usually been screened, scooped up or passed over at some other festival.

“Occasionally, you discover some odd film, say from the Middle East, that shows up at Cannes for the first time. And that’s why you go.”

This year’s festival would seem to suggest that. Among the most prominent screenings at the festival are “The Quick and the Dead,” the Sharon Stone Western from TriStar that was released Feb. 10 in the States and quickly disappeared, and “The Madness of King George,” released here late last year and already an Oscar winner.

Yet despite some of the predictable entries, Mittweg says, he will be attending as usual: “Cannes is my job. I’ve been going for 15 to 20 years. And you know what? It’s still the same five buyers who really do the business. The rest are tourists!”

Of the Americans, the most active film buyers generally include New Line Cinema and sister company Fine Line Features, Miramax Films, the Samuel Goldwyn Co. and Sony Pictures Classics. Their representatives go to screenings, watch audience reaction and wait for the buzz to build.

Some buzz has already started, in fact, on a studio release: John Boorman’s political drama “Beyond Rangoon,” which was shot in Myanmar for Castle Rock and Sony Pictures. The epic stars Patricia Arquette and Frances McDormand and opens in France on Friday and in the U.S. on Aug. 25.

“Look, there are only three major film events,” says Castle Rock President Martin Shafer, referring to Cannes, MIFED in Milan, Italy, and the American Film Market in Santa Monica. “And Cannes remains the Wimbledon of film festivals. It has the history and glamour. People may bitch about it, but walk down the Croisette and see how many of them are there. They wouldn’t dare miss it.

“For us, it is worth it to go even if it’s just the chance to sell some of our pictures in some small territories.”

Other major U.S. studio offer ings include:

* Sony’s “Desperado,” from Robert Rodriguez (a studio sequel to his low-budget “El Mariachi”), and “To Die For,” from Gus Van Sant, starring Nicole Kidman and Matt Dillon.

* 20th Century Fox’s thriller “Kiss of Death,” from Barbet Schroeder, which was recently released in the United States.

* Walt Disney’s “Ed Wood,” from Tim Burton, which also already won an Oscar this year, for co-star Martin Landau; “Jefferson in Paris,” the Merchant Ivory film starring Nick Nolte that died a quick death after its release earlier this year, and “Unstrung Heroes,” directed by Diane Keaton, starring Andie MacDowell, John Turturro and Michael Richards.

* MGM/UA’s “Canadian Bacon,” the first fictional feature from director Michael Moore.

From the independent studios, entries include:

* Miramax’s “Kids,” from Larry Clark; “The Neon Bible,” from British director Terence Davies and starring Gena Rowlands; “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead,” directed by newcomer Gary Fleders and starring Andy Garcia, and “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain,” directed by Christopher Monger and starring Hugh Grant, which opened Friday in the United States.

* Gramercy’s “The Usual Suspects,” from director Bryan Singer, starring Kevin Spacey and Chazz Palminteri, and “Carrington,” from director Christopher Hampton, starring Emma Thompson.

* Goldwyn’s “The Madness of King George,” directed by Nicholas Hytner, and “Angels & Insects,” a Victorian drama from Philip Haas.

“Even if we didn’t have films to sell in different territories, we’d show up anyway,” says Meyer Gottlieb, president of Samuel Goldwyn Co. “When you have all of those foreign-language films in one spot, particularly Europe and Asia, there is always the hope of finding that one gem.”

Miramax concurs. “Cannes is an absolute wonderful venue to choose,” says David Linde, head of Miramax International. “You are looking at the best of what the world has to offer.

“Consider ‘Like Water for Chocolate.’ All of the studios passed on it. But when it got to Cannes (in 1992), it was the buzz of the festival. We picked it up.” The film went on to become the highest-grossing foreign-language film in the United States.

“Strictly Ballroom,” an Australian film that also generated heat at Cannes in 1992, did not perform as well for Miramax. But Miramax is willing to take those chances. Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” was a midnight screening at last year’s festival and won the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ best picture award.

Fine Line Features President Ruth Vitale said she was thrilled to grab Mike Leigh’s acclaimed “Naked” in 1993. “I think you would have to liken Cannes to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”

So the gang will troop back this year and put up with the hourlong waits for dinner, the panhandlers and pickpockets, the throngs of paparazzi and stargazers, the same rich hors d’oeuvres that crop up at all of the splashy events and hotel concierges who can’t get a message straight.

“Just maybe,” New Line’s Mittweg says, “we’ll get lucky.”