Santa Barbara gets Oscar glow

It’s no accident that the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is positioned between the Golden Globes and the Oscars, to take full advantage of filmmakers and stars eager to polish the fruits of their labors.

This year’s event plays host to 19 Oscar nominees, including four of the foreign-language contenders as well as George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Felicity Huffman and Heath Ledger, to name just a few.

The 11-day festival launched Thursday with a screening of Robert Towne’s “Ask the Dust.” But activities get underway in earnest tonight as Towne discusses his work as part of the festival’s “Conversations With ... “ panel. It will be followed by a tribute to Clooney, moderated by critic Leonard Maltin.

Participants in Saturday’s panel -- “Creative Forces: Women in the Biz” -- include Allison Abbate, co-producer of “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride”; Kimberlee Acquaro, director of “God Sleeps in Rwanda”; Shohreh Aghdashloo, supporting actress nominee from 2003’s “House of Sand and Fog”; Christa Munro, art director for “Good Night, and Good Luck”; and Isis Mussenden, costume designer for “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

Several Oscar nominees are scheduled to show up Sunday at “Directors on Directors” -- Hany Abu-Assad, director of foreign-language film nominee “Paradise Now”; multi-nominee Paul Haggis of “Crash”; Luc Jacquet of the nominated documentary “March of the Penguins”; director nominee Bennett Miller of “Capote”; as well as Duncan Tucker of “Transamerica”; Mike Binder, director of festival centerpiece “Man About Town,” which screens midweek; and Tom Bezucha of “The Family Stone.” The panel will be moderated by Variety Editor Peter Bart.

Another popular feature of the festival, “It Starts With the Script,” has several high-powered screenwriters lined up to discuss the backbone of their projects on Feb. 11: Judd Apatow, “The 40 Year-Old Virgin”; Grant Heslov, “Good Night, and Good Luck”; James Mangold, “Walk the Line”; Larry McMurtry, “Brokeback Mountain”; Bobby Moresco, “Crash”; Josh Olson, “A History of Violence”; and Robin Swicord, “Memoirs of a Geisha.” It will be moderated by Hollywood Reporter writer Anne Thompson.

“Movers and Shakers,” another Feb. 11 panel at which producers talk about getting their movies made, includes Sarah Green, “The New World”; Grant Heslov, “Good Night, and Good Luck”; Cathy Konrad, “Walk the Line”; Michael Ohoven, “Capote”; Diana Ossana, “Brokeback Mountain”; and J.C. Spink, “A History of Violence.” Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein moderates.

The festival also has several world premieres and a handful of intriguing documentaries. Among them:

* “Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)?” John Scheinfeld’s film looks at the life of the late singer-songwriter. It screens Saturday and Monday.

* “Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars,” Renee Sotile and Mary Jo Godges’ film about the teacher who was on board the doomed space shuttle Challenger. It screens Sunday and Monday.

* “Meth,” Todd Ahlberg’s film examining drug use in the gay community, screens Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday.

* “Three Women and a Chateau,” Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg’s film about Chateau Carolands in Hillsborough, Calif., the second-largest private home in the United States. (The Vanderbilts’ Biltmore House in North Carolina is the biggest.)

The festival wraps up Feb. 12 with the closing night film, Jason Reitman’s “Thank You for Smoking.” For a complete schedule and ticketing information, go to www.sbfilmfestival.org, or call (888) 456-2376.