Travel thousands of miles to Sundance or Cannes if you want, but there are plenty of classy, provocative film festivals in your own backyard if you’re a New England resident. Last month, Imagine profiled three June film festivals: Nantucket, Newport and Provincetown. Now, a peek at two more just around the corner: The 3rd Annual Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) in Waterville, Maine, which runs July 7th through the 16th, and the Ninth Annual Woods Hole Film Festival (July 29 - August 5) in Woods Hole on the Southwestern tip of Cape Cod.

A project of a non-profit organization Friends of Art and Film in Central Maine, MIFF audiences "can expect about fifty of the best American independent and international films," according to Festival Director Joan Phillips-Sandy. She adds, "There will also be several documentaries, some shorts, works in progress, animation—something for everyone." At press time, the schedule was still being finalized, although confirmed films for this year’s festival include the American premiere of Tony Gatlif’s JE SUIS NE D’UNE CICOGNE, the Abbie Hoffman biopic STEAL THIS MOVIE, French Documentarian Chris Marker’s ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF ANDREI ARSENOVITCH, THE WISDOM OF CROCODILES (starring recent Oscar nominee Jude Law), Ildiko Enyedi’s SIMON THE MAGICIAN (MIFF showed a retrospective of the Hungarian director’s films last year) and many others (check out www.miff.org for a detailed schedule).

Beautiful, serene Central Maine, the site for the 3rd Annual Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) Dates are July 7th - 16th. Audiences can expect about fifty of the best American independent and International films. Screening venues in Waterville are the Railroad Square Cinema and the historic Waterville Opera House.

Highlights of last year’s festival included a lifetime achievement award presented to Dutch filmmaker Jos Stelling; The 2000 SEEN BY... series, which included Hal Hartley’s THE BOOK OF LIFE; the New England premiere of the locally shot DARK HARBOR; a restored print of the 1920’s German animated feature-length THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED, with live musical accompaniment; and screenings of films as diverse as Takeshi "Beat" Kitano’s SONATINE and a newly restored version of The Beatles’ A HARD DAY’S NIGHT.

Screening venues in Waterville for MIFF include Railroad Square Cinema, a two screen theater that specializes in showing independent and foreign films year round, and the historic Waterville Opera House, a turn of the century proscenium theater. Phillips-Sandy says, "For a small-sized town in a sparsely-populated state, Waterville is really taking some big steps to becoming an active cultural center. There are many artists and filmmakers in our area; for some it’s a hobby, for others it’s a way of life."

When selecting films, the qualities MIFF looks for are "emotion, sincerity, integrity, originality, honesty, (and) beauty," according to MIFF Co-Program Director Ken Eisen. Phillips-Sandy added, "Oftentimes we are drawn to films that defy description. We consciously select films that represent a variety of cultures and points of view."

In two short years, the festival has grown rapidly. Attendance increased about 15% from the first year to the second, and Phillips-Sandy says that MIFF is projecting another 15% increase this year. She also notes, "The quality as well as the quantity of unsolicited film submissions improved considerably this year. Our first two years we showed hardly any unsolicited entries. This year we will be showing several of them."

Cinematographers Craig DiBona and David Quaid at a special creening of THE SWIMMER the 7th Annual Woods Hole Film Festival in 1998. Dates this year are July 29th - August 5th. Festival Director, Judy Laster, has added stage readings again this year, workshops and an additional venue at Otis Air Force Base.

For Phillips-Sandy, MIFF is not only a means for people to see films unlike any they’ve seen before but also an outlet to encourage the filmmakers of tomorrow. She says, "Perhaps some Waterville teenager is going to come to the festival and be inspired to pick up a camera. That’s our hope, anyway, and I definitely think it will happen."

About two weeks after MIFF winds down, the 9th Annual Woods Hole Film Festival will be in full swing just a few hours drive away. Woods Hole was started nine years ago as "the East Coast equivalent to Sundance" by Festival Director Judy Laster and Co-Founder Kate Davis. It is a showcase for New England-based and first time filmmakers as well as cinematographers. With help from Program Director David Kleiler (who joined in its third year), the festival grew, in Laster’s words, "exponentially in size and spoke", from one day and five films in 1992 to enough films and events for eight days and three screening venues this year.

Last year’s festival included screenings of Bert Stern’s THE ROAD TO PARK CITY, Tina Goldlist’s MOVING DAY, and Paul Ryan’s THE LIST, plus a staged reading of Maggie Renzie’s screenplay CHRISTINA THE ASTONISHING. In previous years, Woods Hole has hosted such landmark New England-based films as Brad Anderson’s THE DARIEN GAP, Maureen Foley’s HOME BEFORE DARK, Alan Piper’s STARVING ARTISTS and a tribute to Cinematographer David Quaid which included a screening of THE SWIMMER.

At press time, this year’s schedule is not yet completed (look for it at www.woodshole.com). However, Laster was able to disclose some general information. As in years past, there will be plenty of staged screenplay readings. These readings give "filmmakers the chance to see their work directed by someone else," says Laster. "It’s a chance for them to get feedback before committing to shooting it." One will also again have the opportunity to attend a variety of workshops for acting, animation and sound, screenwriting, and directing for film. The workshops are sponsored by Boston Film and Video Foundation and Falmouth Community Television and are alternately one, two, or four days long.

New wrinkles at Woods Hole this year include a third screening venue (Otis Air Force Base, in addition to the Old Woods Hole Fire Station screening room and the Hoyt Nickelodeon Cinema in North Falmouth); an evening dedicated to several documentaries about issues surrounding commercial fishing as a way of life on Cape Cod; and most significantly, the advent of Internet-DVD based distribution for films chosen to screen at the festival. Sponsored by Liberty Post, a New York-based company, this feature at the festival will "get people to see work projected on digital video and bring the format more into the public eye, " according to Laster. As a prelude to this year’s festival, WGBX-TV will be airing films that comprise "the best of the fest" from years past in the upcoming weeks.

Laster says that the festival has expanded so dramatically that they can only screen one-third of the films submitted. In selecting films, she looks for engaging "storylines, production values, sensibilities—films that are interesting to watch and push the envelope in terms of technology and content." She describes the festival’s goal as not only to "create an institute for film art on the Cape" but also to "bring a filmmaker together with an audience (and enable him/her to) connect with people seeing their work in order to shape (his/her) future work."

She adds that Woods Hole itself is a "technologically savvy, artistic-oriented community" that is home to many of the country’s major scientific institutions (such as the Oceanographic Institute and Woods Hole Research Center). The film festival not only enables people to "watch something that they could never get to see otherwise" but by virtue of location, also encourages and convinces many moviegoers to understand and respect the environment and exposes many scientists to all kinds of films.

Tickets for most Woods Hole screenings are $7 ($8 at Hoyt Nickelodeon Cinema screenings); four day workshops are $225. For prices on one and two day workshops and for directions to Woods Hole, go to www.woodshole.com or contact Laster either at 617-232-4722 or by e-mail (woho3@aol.com). For ticket prices and directions to MIFF, go to www.miff.org, or contact them by phone (207-861-8138) or by e-mail (info@miff.org).