Previews Fill the Bill at San Diego Film Fest

The San Diego World Film Festival opens today with David Mackay’s thriller “A Lesser Evil,” starring Tony Goldwyn and David Paymer, and closes June 11 with Des McAnuff’s film-directing debut, “Cousin Bette,” a comedy starring Jessica Lange and Elisabeth Shue.

The international movie festival will present some 80 domestic and foreign films over the course of 300 screenings, festival artistic director and co-organizer Herbert Margolis said Monday.

Among those being previewed just before they open nationally are such high-profile pictures as “A Perfect Murder,” the Michael Douglas-Gwyneth Paltrow remake from Warner Bros. of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder” suspense thriller (Wednesday); and Peter Weir’s comedy “The Truman Show,” from Paramount, starring Jim Carrey (Thursday).

“The major Hollywood studios are giving us great support,” said Margolis, a veteran producer-writer who also moderates KCET Channel 28’s “Sneak Previews Series.” Studios don’t ordinarily offer to preview their films, much less those with huge expectations, at first-time festivals.

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Staging the 10-day event will cost “somewhere in the mid-six-figures,” Margolis said. The Cinema Entertainment Alliance is producing the festival in partnership with the San Diego Film Commission and Silvervision Entertainment. Pacific Bell is the major sponsor.

Screenings are at United Artists Horton Plaza theaters and Pacific’s Gaslamp Theaters. Both complexes are in downtown San Diego.

Other pictures previewing at the festival include MGM/UA’s “Music From Another Room,” a romantic fable starring Brenda Blethyn (of “Secrets & Lies”) and Jennifer Tilly; “Henry Fool,” a comedy starring Parker Posey, from Sony; “Mixed Blessings,” with Timothy Bottoms; “Wilbur Falls,” with Maureen Stapleton and Danny Aiello; “High Art,” with Radha Mitchell and Ally Sheedy; and “Mr. Jealousy,” with Eric Stoltz and Bridget Fonda.

Margolis said Hollywood celebrities and movie-industry luminaries who are expected to attend include actor Martin Landau and director John Frankenheimer--both will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards--Sony Pictures studio chief John Calley, producer Samuel Z. Arkoff, Oscar-winning film editors Conrad Buff (“Titanic”), Dede Allen (“Reds,” “Dog Day Afternoon”) and Oscar-nominated editor Peter Honess (“L.A. Confidential”).

Actor James Brolin, who will show the new action thriller he directed, “My Brother’s War” (Monday)--in which he stars with his son, Josh--”will be here, too, with personal guests,” Margolis added.

Did that mean Brolin would be bringing his fiancee, Barbra Streisand? “I don’t know,” the festival organizer said. “I didn’t ask, and he didn’t say.”

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The festival also will host a “United Artists Retrospective” of more than 20 classics from the studio’s vault, including a James Bond marathon and Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot,” which was filmed in San Diego 40 years ago next month.

Miramax will present a re-released color version of the 1949 French comedy “Jour de F^ete,” starring Jacques Tati (of “Mr. Hulot’s Holiday” fame).

“The re-release is not colorized,” Margolis said. “The original was filmed in color and distributed in black-and-white prints for financial reasons.”

The festival will give juried awards for Best Major Studio Feature, Best American Independent Feature, Best Foreign Feature, and Best Actor and Actress.

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Audience Choice Awards will be offered in similar categories, and for Best Short and Best Student Film. The awards will be presented Saturday at a black-tie party at the Sheraton Hotel & Marina.

Besides the screenings, the festival will offer a series of panel discussions and workshops led by industry professionals, among them Arkoff, Buff, Allen and Honess. Topics range from “Getting Your Indie to the Screen” and “The Art of the Pitch” to “Editing ‘Titanic’ ” and “Navigating and Negotiating the Distribution Deal.”

* The San Diego World Film Festival runs today through June 11. Screenings are at the United Artists Horton Plaza theaters (475 Horton Plaza) and Pacific’s Gaslamp Theaters (5th Avenue and G Street), San Diego. Screenings: $7-$15. Information: (619) 558-3456.