Las Movies

Lights! Cameras! Action!

The Las Vegas International Film Festival has arrived, the first of two festivals scheduled to debut this year in Las Vegas. (The second, CineVegas' "Reel Las Vegas International Film Festival" is set to be held at Bally's from Dec. 10-13.)

"We're giving Vegas that shot of credibility that eveyone says we so badly need," Diane Phillips, the festival's executive director, says. "We're about more than just gambling."

What was just a glimmer in Phillips' eye when first reported by the Sun nine months ago finally comes to life on Wednesday with more than 40 films being screened through Sunday at the Orleans hotel-casino.

She and her co-organizers, including local film critic Anthony Allison, wittled 100 film submissions down to an impressive lineup of features, shorts and 16mm films that are expected to draw thousands of film buffs, industry insiders and even distributors from major Hollywood studios.

As originally envisioned, Phillips painted an ambitious picture of a festival featuring premieres of national releases, notable films with Las Vegas themes, a star-studded awards ceremony and film industry seminars.

And for the most part, what she promised has come to fruition.

The festival will start off with "Mob Law," British director Paul Wilmshurst's documentary on Las Vegas' own controversial criminal defense attorney Oscar Goodman, with a reception benefitting the endowment fund of KNPR 89.5-FM to follow at their studio.

It will close with with a banquet Saturday night for more than 500 guests, including local celebrities and stars from the screened films, such as Sally Kirkland.

George Sidney, director of the the 1963 Elvis Presley flick "Viva Las Vegas," and now a Las Vegas resident, will be presented with a lifetime achievement award, while the other filmmakers will vie for awards for best comedy, best drama, best short, and best film.

"The consensus was the filmmakers wanted a competitive festival," Phillips explained, "because it's better for them to be able to say they've won."

The festival is rounded out by seminars such as "Hollywood Sucks!" a panel discussion by filmmakers on "why mainstream moveis are so bad," and a promised poolside trivia seminar with the creators of the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" movie trivia game and book.

The films are not just your typical slew of low-budget, no-name indie flicks: Phillips has secured two Las Vegas premieres of nationwide releases: "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries," a Merchant-Ivory production based on the autobiography of James Jones' daughter, starring Barbara Hershey; and "Six-String Samurai," a fantasy film partly based in Las Vegas, where "warrior musicians" choose a successor to Elvis.

And each film, Phillips promises, will have someone involved in the production to discuss it afterwards.

A sampling of the other notable full-length films: "Wild Man Blues," a documentary on Woody Allen on tour in Europe with his jazz band; "The Only Thrill," staring Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard; and "Junk Mail," a Norwegian black comedy that won the critics' prize at the Canne Film Festival.

There is also "20 Dates" a winner at this year's Slamdance festival, about a Los Angeles man's search for love, "Digging to China," with Kevin Bacon and Mary Stuart Masterson, and "Wilbur Falls," by local film producer David Delman.

Many of the films have a Las Vegas -- or at least a "desert" theme -- such as "Believe," a film featuring Kenny Loggins, and "Border to Border," a Gen X road movie, both partially shot in Las Vegas.

Two films focus on Jewish themes: "The Truce," starring John Turturro, based on author Primo Levi's book "The Reawakening," about his liberation from Auschwitz; and "A Price Above Rubies," starring Renee Zellweger ("Jerry Maguire") as an Orthodox Jewish woman.

The festival also picked up a few films with gay themes from L.A.'s "Outfest," including "The Human Race" and "Dear Jesse," a biting work focusing on North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms.

Sitting in her office, surrounded by movie posters, festival fliers and a wall of headshots of movie stars of yore, Phillips' thoughts have already sped beyond the coming weekend to the festival's sophomore return.

"We're already planning for next year," she says. "We'd like to expand to 10 days and offer double the amount of films for double the amount of time."

The highlight of pulling together the festival?

"It's gratifying," she says with a laugh, "to show people who thought we'd never be able to do it, that we did."

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