7/11/01

By TOM JACOBS
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

For Rene Missel, scaling back the Santa Barbara International Film Festival from 11 days to five is a matter of cutting quantity rather than quality. The festival's board of directors made that decision earlier this week.

"It's gotten to be so expensive to run a festival," said Ms. Missel, the festival's artistic director, on Tuesday. "The only way to keep up the level of excellence we have established in the last few years without an Ôabove the title' sponsor -- one who would give $250,000 -- is to cut back."

Thus the 17th festival, Ms. Missel's fifth as artistic director, will be far shorter than its predecessors. But its mix of feature films, shorts, documentaries and seminars will be unchanged.

"It's just there will be fewer of everything," Ms. Missel said.

"People from L.A. would often call me and ask, ÔWhich weekend should I come?'Ê" she noted. "Even the sponsors would say, ÔWhich weekend is better to sponsor an event?' Telluride (a well-known Colorado film festival) is five days. Eleven days is fine for a big-city festival, but it's very long for a small town.

"I inherited the 11-day (format). I wanted to maintain it. But I think this could be a solution that helps everybody."

The 2002 festival will open on Feb. 27, a Wednesday night, and close on Sunday, March 3.

"I will have a big event every night," she said. "There will be a Ômodern master' (on hand to receive his or her award). I will have a celebrity there Friday and Saturday, and maybe even Thursday night."

Ms. Missel expects to show 55 to 60 films for the next festival, compared to 110 to 120 for the 2001 event. She plans to keep the theaters open longer, scheduling repeat screenings at 11 p.m. or later.

The screenwriters, directors and producers seminars -- which have been some of the festival's best-attended events -- will continue. However, the screenwriting competition will be discontinued.

Ms. Missel said it has become increasingly difficult in recent years to find top-quality American independent films for the festival. Thus, beginning with 2001 festival, she shifted the emphasis toward foreign films. But the cost of showing such movies has grown considerably in recent years, she said.

In the future, festivals will not be less than five days. "But it could re-expand," she said. "We're very open to that. But there would have to be some sort of partnership with someone."

She also plans to continue the children's film festival in October. The emphasis this year will be on "films made by kids, for kids," she said. "That's what I'm trying to find."