FILM/SNEAK PEEK : OFFICIAL OSCAR PARTIES BOOST WORTHY CAUSES.

Byline: - Valerie Kuklenski

You may have a cooler full of wines, brews and seltzers, a 3-foot-long sub and a king-size bag of chips, but yours will not be an official Oscar party unless it's the one fete per city recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Oscar Night America parties, all fund-raisers for nonprofit causes, are being planned in 31 cities across the country, including Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Those March 23 affairs will be the only ones allowed to use likenesses of the Oscar statuette, so if you have a mannequin and a can of gold spray paint on standby, forget it. They also will distribute official Oscar programs, the same as the ones given to Kate Winslet, Dustin Hoffman and Matt Damon at the Los Angeles ceremonies, and copies of the official 70th Academy Awards poster.

Santa Barbara festival

The 13th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival gets under way March 5 with its opening night screening of the latest offering from the Coen brothers, ``The Big Lebowski,'' starring Jeff Bridges and John Goodman.

Artistic director Renee Missel has the festival looking forward with greater emphasis on new and emerging filmmakers, and looking back with a salute to the '70s that includes films of John Schlesinger, Robert Towne and Julie Christie.

Towne's latest project, ``Without Limits,'' will make its world premiere on March 15, the festival's closing night. Like last year's ``Pre,'' it deals with the brief but spectacular career of track star Steve Prefontaine, who died at age 24 in 1975.

Organizers say the festival now attracts some 30,000 movie fans, so plan ahead for choice hotel and restaurant reservations. For festival tickets and information, call [phone].

Special award for Iwerks

Don Iwerks, co-founder of Iwerks Entertainment and a pioneer in special venue entertainment, will receive the Gorden E. Sawyer Award on Feb. 28 during the motion picture academy's Scientific and Technical Awards ceremonies.

The special Oscar celebrates Iwerks' accomplishments in 360-degree cinematography and projection, simulators, and large-screen photography and projection.

Iwerks, 68, is the son of Disney animator Ub Iwerks, who worked on virtually every animated project for that studio since ``Bambi'' in 1941. He credits his father's inventive nature and interest in photography with drawing him into the industry.

In Don Iwerks' 30 years with Disney, he says his proudest accomplishment was creating 125 projection systems in the early '80s for numerous exhibits at Disney's EPCOT Center in Florida.

He also is known for developing Disneyland's popular Star Tours ride simulator and for Iwerks Entertainment's work in the horizontally projected 70mm films that rival those shown at IMAX theaters.

``It's certainly an honor to receive an Academy Award voted on by your peers,'' he says of this, his first Oscar. ``It just boggles my mind that the 45 people who serve on that committee would vote me that award.

``I don't consider these things solo acts,'' he adds. ``They're always collaborative.''

DGA documentarians

Michele Ohayon's ``Colors Straight Up,'' about a South Los Angeles after-school drama program, has received a nomination for best direction of a documentary from the Directors Guild of America.

The feature-length project last week received an Oscar nomination as well.

The other DGA nominees for best documentary are Muffie Meyer and Ellen Hovde for ``Liberty! The American Revolution: `Blows Must Decide' '' (PBS), John O'Hagan for ``Wonderland'' (Cinemax), Peter Rosen for ``First Person Singular: I.M. Pei'' (PBS), and Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell for their theatrical release ``Riding the Rails.''

The documentary awards will be presented March 7 in New York and Los Angeles along with prizes in feature films and television.

Shooting hoops

With Japan and athletic competition still in the spotlight as the Winter Olympics wrap up in Nagano, it is fitting that Sharon Lockhart's new film, ``Goshogaoka,'' makes its Los Angeles premiere this weekend.

The documentary deals with the exercise routines of a girls' basketball team in suburban Japan. The Museum of Contemporary Art, which is screening the film, says the film is far more interesting than it sounds because of Lockhart's use of the camera.

The film shows six 10-minute takes shot in a school gymnasium with a fixed camera at court level, making it less a study of the game and its rules and more a look at individual movement and group cooperation.

MOCA, 250 S. Grand Ave., is showing ``Goshogaoka'' at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Unreserved seats are free with museum admission. For more information, call [phone].