CHILDREN'S FILM FESTIVAL WILL ROLL FRIDAY.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Staff Writer

BURBANK - A lemonade stand, two girls, a boy and the contests orchestrated to help him make a choice between them pretty much sums up the plot of 9-year-old Pace Paulsen's first serious film venture.

No high-concept story line, no special effects and certainly no car chases. Just a tale about how a young boy ultimately decided he would choose both girls because he didn't want either to feel bad.

``I sat down and started to think,'' Burbank resident Pace said, explaining the creative process. ``I came up with a brilliant idea, and every day I kept writing stuff down, and one day it turned into a movie.''

Pace's four-minute short is one of 15 entered in the For Children, By Children category of the Burbank International Children's Film Festival scheduled to begin Friday.

Pace's father, a movie editor for The Walt Disney Co., said he thought the festival would be a good chance to teach his son about the discipline necessary to make a film.

``It gave him an opportunity not just to grab the camera and run around the back yard with a sword,'' said Craig Paulsen, who also is a filmmaker.

Chris Shoemaker, the festival's executive director, said emerging technology, from movie-making computer software to complete film kits, is bringing filmmaking to young people like never before.

So the event seeks to provide an audience not only for adults who tell stories for children but also for children to tell their own stories.

``We felt there really aren't enough venues for children to be heard, to have their stories told from their perspective,'' Shoemaker said.

The festival will screen 65 movies at the AMC 8 Theaters in the Media City Center mall until Oct. 20. An additional 59 screenplays also will be in contention for awards.

Shoemaker established a similar event in Santa Clarita seven years ago and said Burbank was a natural second venue because it attracts aspiring filmmakers hoping an insider will see their film or read their script.

``Burbank really plays host to the creative factory of children's entertainment, from concept to production to post-production,'' he said.

The city pledged a $50,000 grant to help pay for the event; other sponsors include the Burbank Media City Center.

Patte Dee, the event's film coordinator, said films and scripts entered had to be free of profanity, gratuitous sex and violence.

The opening feature film will be ``The Dinosaur Hunter,'' directed by Rick Stevenson and starring Christopher Plummer as a dinosaur bone hunter in the 1930s who pays a teen-age brother and sister to dig for him.

Closing the festival will be ``Undercover Angel,'' a feature directed by Bryan Michael Stollar about a father and daughter who meet for the first time and try to form a bond. It stars Yasmine Bleeth and James Earl Jones.

Awards include the Director's Gold, the Bravo Award for audience favorite, as well as Best Feature in drama, comedy and animation. Best short awards will be given in each of the same categories, as well as in documentary and education. Screenplays will be eligible for prizes in those same categories, plus sci-fi/adventure.

Also scheduled through the week are free industry-related workshops for children and $15 panel discussions for general audiences. For more information, call [phone]. Excerpts of some of the films can be seen at www.burbankfilm.org.