FILM SNEAK PEEK 'TUNNEL' OPENS GERMAN FILM FEST.

Byline: - Valerie Kuklenski

``Made in Germany,'' the second annual showcase of German cinema, opens tonight with the black-tie Los Angeles premiere of ``The Tunnel,'' the true story of an East German athlete who escaped to the West during the construction of the Berlin Wall, then dug a tunnel beneath it to bring out his sister and her child.

The film is being shown at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills on the 12th anniversary of the reopening of the Berlin border crossings.

Weekend screenings include ``As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me,'' the true story of a German soldier in World War II who escapes from a Siberian labor camp and walks some 8,000 miles in three years to return home, and ``Girls on Top,'' a romantic comedy about two high school girls aiming to experience their first orgasm, believing it will improve their volleyball playing and school exam scores.

``Made in Germany'' closes Thursday with Oliver Hirschbiegel's ``The Experiment,'' a box-office hit in Germany that will represent its country in the foreign language category of the Academy Awards. It's a drama about a journalist who goes undercover into a mock prison setting for a psychological experiment and gets far more than he bargained for.

Tickets, ranging from $5 to $10, are on sale at the Laemmle Music Hall box office, 9036 Wilshire Blvd. Information: [phone] or www.germanfilmfestival.com on the Web.

BERNSTEIN TRIBUTE: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is celebrating Elmer Bernstein's 50 years and counting as one of Hollywood's most prolific and celebrated film composers.

At 7:30 tonight is the 1956 Frank Sinatra drama ``The Man With the Golden Arm,'' which boosted Bernstein's career and garnered his first Academy Award nomination. It's followed by another jazz-influenced film, ``The Sweet Smell of Success,'' starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Bernstein chats with Cynthia Miller about his collaboration with Martin Scorsese (including his latest, ``The Gangs of New York''), followed by a showing of the lush period drama ``The Age of Innocence.''

Upcoming films in the series include ``To Kill a Mockingbird,'' ``Summer and Smoke,'' ``The Great Escape,'' ``Birdman of Alcatraz'' and ``Thoroughly Modern Millie.''

Tickets are $7 for general admission and $5 for museum and AFI members, seniors and students, and may be purchased at the museum or in advance by calling [phone]. LACMA is at 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Information: [phone] or www.lacma.org on the Web.

SEE JOHNNIE TO: Johnnie To Kei-Fung, one of Hong Kong's most prolific and influential filmmakers, is being honored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive with ``Go, Johnnie To!'' - his first North American retrospective.

Johnnie To has worked in nearly every film genre except horror, but he is credited with reviving the Hong Kong action drama in the late '90s. To himself chose the titles in the retrospective as the representative works of his directing career.

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, UCLA will screen ``The Mission,'' about a bunch of tough guys hired to protect a targeted triad boss, followed by ``Lifeline,'' described as a ``refiguration'' of Ron Howard's 1991 firefighter drama, ``Backdraft.''

The showcase also includes the Los Angeles premiere of costume farce ``Wu Yen'' and To's personal favorite, ``A Hero Never Dies,'' about two mob lieutenants who aim to recover their lost standing in a bid for self- preservation and revenge.

Tickets - $7 for general admission; $5 for students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Association members - may be purchased at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall, in the northeast corner of the UCLA campus. Information: [phone] or www.cinema.ucla.edu.

SEED MONEY: The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers and Directors Foundation has awarded grants of $3,500 to $10,000 to six filmmakers of diverse backgrounds to help them complete their student film projects.

The endowment is intended to help promote diversity in subject matter and in jobs behind the camera throughout the entertainment industry. Recipients were O. Thaddeus Frazier, John McCoy and Mike Saenz of USC; Grace Lee of UCLA; Karen Alex Pyudik of AFI; and D. Kevin Coleman of Howard University.

The caucus is the main multiguild organization representing the makers of television programming in their ongoing battle with networks over creative rights.