Newport Film Festival Planned

NEWPORT BEACH â€”  A real estate developer said Monday that he plans to launch a new international film festival here in March.

Jeff Conner, 36, who is also an attorney, said the 10-day event, named the Newport Beach International Film Festival, will exhibit about 75 independent and foreign films March 21 through 31, with a competitive wing for juried and audience awards.

“I’ve been working on this for the last eight months. I’ve constantly had to drive to Los Angeles to see the kinds of films I’d like to see,� said Conner, who moved here from San Francisco in 1984.

“That’s one reason I’m doing this. Another is that the movie venues here are of such high quality and are so conveniently located in a reasonably compact area, that we can show the films properly.�

He said the opening night premiere of a motion picture, still to be named, will be held at the Edwards Big Newport Theatre.

James Edwards Sr., head of the Edwards Theatres chain, confirmed that Conner had booked the chain’s 1,300-seat flagship theater for March 21 and one or more screens for a week at the Edwards South Coast Village and South Coast Plaza theaters.

Conner would not disclose the source of the festival financing or the size of its budget but said he has several sponsors, including a car maker, a restaurant chain and a radio station.

Conner said Orange County is a top metropolitan movie market. Veteran industry watcher John Krier of Exhibitor Relations agreed, but wondered whether Southern California needed another independent film festival.

“It doesn’t make much sense,� Krier said. “We’ve already got the Independent Film Festival, the American Film Festival, the American Film Institute screenings, a film festival in Palm Springs and a lot more.�

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Conner said he expects the Newport Beach festival to be an annual event.

The first festival, he said, will include the top prize winners from Australia’s Brisbane Film Festival and New Zealand’s Auckland Film Festival, as well as independent features from 22 countries.

“We’re very excited,� he said. “After the festival we’ll be creating a Newport Beach Film Society to promote independent- and foreign-films awareness.�