Curtain rises on Film Festival

Young Chang

NEWPORT BEACH -- Only the little things need tending to now.

Signing on last-minute sponsors, making sure the VIPs and

globe-trotting filmmakers are well-accomodated -- these are the loose

ends Newport Beach Film Festival organizers are tying up today as the

weeklong tradition counts down to its opening screening of “The Bank”

tonight.

The big things were long-finished.

In September, organizers started screening more than 600 films. They

spent six months choosing more than 70 feature-lengths and 100 shorts --

a 35% increase in screenings from last spring.

They invited film giants, including composer Elmer Bernstein and

director John Waters, to their tribute events well in advance.

And they booked experts from every corner of the industry to share

their insider wisdom at the festival’s star-studded Seminar Series.

With the major decisions made, Executive Director Gregg Schwenk and

his staff are milling about in their nondescript Newport Beach office

this week shocked, in a good way, at the overflow of phone calls that has

been jamming their limited lines.

“I think, whenever you grow a business by 35% in one year, there’s a

certain level of stress and a feeling of accomplishment,” Schwenk said.

“People have been buying tickets off the Web in numbers we never thought

were possible.”

The third annual festival’s growth and popularity are significant

considering the celebration’s shaky beginnings in the second half of the

1990s.

An earlier incarnation run by Jeffrey Conner known as the Newport

Beach International Film Festival went bankrupt in 1999, only to have

Schwenk and zealous film-lovers raise support to resurrect it the next

spring.

Today, the festival is a separate entity from Conner’s effort and is

drawing big, as well as local, names to help celebrate the art of making

films.

Waters, director of “Polyester,” “Hairspray” and other films, will be

in town Friday for a tribute titled “An Evening with John Waters.”

Bernstein, who has scored movies including “To Kill a Mockingbird” and

“The Great Escape,” will drop in for the festival’s 50th anniversary

celebration of his career on Sunday.

“Obviously, he’s a legendary composer,” said Todd Quartararo,

marketing director. “He’s someone we’ve been keeping our eye on since the

beginning of the festival. We thought this would be the perfect year.”

This spring is also shaping up to be the most global year, with 27

countries represented through the screenings.

“Certainly we make a strong effort to program films that reflect our

community and the diversity in our community, but this year it was just

the way all the films came in,” Quartararo said.

Another noticeable trend in submissions was the presence of nonfiction

works.

“Maybe it’s the popularity of the reality-based television shows,”

Quartararo said. “Also I think the public has been hungry for nonfiction.

Sometimes those stories are even more amazing than fiction.”

Fiction or not, features are far from hoarding the attention. In

addition to shorts, a tribute to director Joseph McGinty (a.k.a. McG and

of “Charlie’s Angels” fame) will chronicle the former local’s beginnings

in music videos.

“Music videos are probably the most accessible and readily watched

form of short films,” Schwenk said. “And they also are a pathway to

feature-film making, and McG is a clear example.”

To pay tribute to all things film, the festival will also hold an Ad

Club Event to honor commercials, which organizers consider mini-films.

But ask Schwenk and Quartararo what they’re most looking forward to

and they’ll name something more personal than screenings: the seminars.

Panelists include screenwriters, production designers, costume

designers, directors, cinematographers, film music composers and special

effects experts.

“This is our gift to the community,” Quartararo said. “It’s a great

opportunity to have up and coming filmmakers meet with some industry

professionals and legends in the film industry. And our panel loves it

because they get to meet the new guys . . . the Steven Spielbergs of

tomorrow.”

* Young Chang writes features. She may be reached at (949) 574-4268 or

by e-mail at o7 young.chang@latimes.comf7 .