NewEnglandFilm.com

Lacking the built-in touristic draw of a Nantucket or Newport, modest Waterville, Maine — a college town in the state’s interior — relies instead on a cadre of indie-minded aficionados to mount the Maine International Film Festival. Initiated in 1998 by local cinema lovers Ken Eisen and Alan Sanborn, who run the Railroad Square Cinema year-round, "MIFF," as it’s known, drew 4,000 viewers last year, not just from Maine, but from 26 states and nine foreign countries. "People often wonder, ‘Why Waterville?’" laughs festival director Joan Phillips-Sandy, "and I say, because that’s where we happen to be. Ken and Alan have the depth of experience in programming to be able to pull this off. Not just anyone could do it."

This year’s convocation, set for July 6-15, builds on last year’s tribute to director Terrence Malick. The honoree this time around, who’ll be on hand to receive MIFF’s Mid-Life Achievement Award, is Sissy Spacek, who first attracted acclaim in Malick’s "Badlands." She was Oscar-nominated for "Carrie" (based on the book by Maine-based writer Stephen King) and Oscar-awarded for "Coal Miner’s Daughter," both of which will be shown at the festival. The award presentation precedes the July 8th screening of the 1980 Loretta Lynn biopic at the Waterville Opera House, a magnificent 940-seat proscenium theatre built atop Waterville’s City Hall in 1902. On July 7th, a sneak preview of a new Spacek film will also take place there. Its secret identity is being closely guarded, but our money is on Ross Katz’s "In the Bedroom," filmed in Maine last year and set for release by Miramax next fall.

Several Maine-made movies dot the 50-film lineup, including the opening-night presentation, Kathryn Bigelow’s noirish "The Weight of Water," starring Sean Penn and Elizabeth Hurley. On July 7th, a panel of local directors and producers — moderated by a representative of the Maine Film Office – will address the topic of filmmaking in the state. Participants include Ephram Pottele, whose sci-fi spoof "They Came to Attack Us," is part of a Maine Filmmaker’s Showcase to be screened at the Railroad Square Cinema that same day, at 3:00 p.m. Preceding their work, at 1:00 p.m., is the awards screening for a parallel event, the Maine Student Film & Video Festival, featuring work by budding directors aged 6 to 18.

Criteria for inclusion in the festival are admittedly loose. "We watch a lot and include what we like," says Eisen. "In addition to Maine, the emphasis, of course, is on ‘international’ — 14 countries are represented this year." Iran rates two selections ("Daughters of the Sun" and "The Day I Became a Woman"); Japan weighs in with "Eureka," a lengthy 3-hour critically acclaimed saga of hijack survivors.

Many of the screenings at the Opera House segue into informal reception/discussions at The Center, a performing arts facility joined to City Hall by a skywalk. At the Railroad Square Cinema site, a mile north, post-film critiquing tends to take place at the neighboring Kafe Kino. One advantage of the decidedly non-trendy setting is that films get all the focus.