Film Festivals for the Rest of Us

By Lisa McLaughlin

If watching the stars at Cannes has made you long for a red-carpet experience of your own, you don't have to fly to the South of France. The number of homegrown film festivals has exploded over the past decade, from about 100 in the early 1990s to more than 600 today. --By Lisa McLaughlin

BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL

The pedal-friendly festival of shorts and features celebrates the glory of the bicycle. Now in its sixth year, it's expected to draw 40,000 fans in each of 10 venues, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Minneapolis, Minn. Among the more than 50 films to be screened is Lucas Brunelle Video.

CLEVELAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Presented by the Cleveland Film Society each March, this Ohio cinefest is renowned for its diversity and inclusiveness. Specializing in foreign films and shorts, the lineup this year includes family features, independents, documentaries and gay and lesbian movies.

CUCALORUS

Wilmington, N.C., may be better known in show business as the location of TV's Dawson's Creek, but this annual festival could change that. For four days this November, the focus is on rebellious underground film. At this festival, unlike others, there are no prizes awarded; the ruggedly independent event celebrates the pure love of filmmaking.

MOONDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

For six years the mountain setting of Boulder, Colo., provided a scenic backdrop for this intimate festival, which gave audience members a chance to rub shoulders with the stars of tomorrow. (Three Moondance winners have gone on to be nominated for Academy Awards.) This year the stars won't have as far to travel: the seventh annual Moondance festival will be held later this month in Hollywood.

SCREAMFEST L.A. HORROR FILM FESTIVAL

Fittingly in October, this ghoulish fall festival celebrates the horror genre in all its gore and glory, with frightening features, parties to network at and a scream-filled-screenplay contest.

SIDEWALK MOVING PICTURE

The September fest in the theater district of Birmingham, Ala., is an industry favorite, named a MovieMaker "film festival worth the entry fee" and one of Chris Gore's "best film-festival vacations."

BEST OF QT FEST

Austin, Texas, is home to three standouts. In October more than 100 short and feature films are screened at the Austin Film Festival. SXSW Film is an offshoot of a music festival held every spring. And in April the Best of QT Fest draws die-hard Quentin Tarantino fans to the Alamo Drafthouse.

WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL

The artsy New York State town is famed for the rock festival, but all the arts are celebrated there. Each September the place fills with filmmakers and celebrities. Some 125 films are screened, and yes, there is good music as well.

ROGER EBERT'S OVERLOOKED

If you want a critic for a guide, this may be the festival for you. Each April in Champaign, Ill., the TV and Chicago Sun-Times film reviewer selects movies--from the famed to the obscure, like U-Carmen eKhayelitsha--that he feels have fallen through the cracks.

FIRST GLANCE FILM FESTIVAL

What began in a small Philadelphia theater company as a one-time opportunity for friends to show their films on a rented video projector has grown in five years into a big bicoastal event, with festivals in Los Angeles in April and Philadelphia in June.