YOU ARE NOT IN CANNES OR PARK CITY LOS ANGELES HAS ITS OWN FILM FESTIVAL, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

THE IFP Los Angeles Film Festival, opening Wednesday, is beginning to reap the rewards of its more public-friendly programming with strong advance ticket sales for its premieres and novelty events.

But this indie showcase still struggles to get noticed amid the advertising din of big-budget studio productions.

``The difficulty about Los Angeles is it's tough is to bring people together,'' festival director Richard Raddon said. It is one of the region's more sprawling film festivals, with venues as scattered as the ArcLight in Hollywood, the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in the hills and the Wadsworth Theatre in West Los Angeles, so patrons are invited to take advantage of the shuttles ferrying from one point to another.

Raddon said his greatest challenge is getting the word out.

``We're on Sunset Boulevard and, standing here, I'm looking at a billboard for 'The Hulk,' one for 'Hollywood Homicide,' '' he said. ``We're like the guys on the street corner basically yelling, screaming out at the top of our lungs with bullhorns to come to the festival.

``I like those (big-budget) movies, and our audience likes those movies, but the idea is there's something else to go to,'' Raddon said. ``You can have an experience that's uniquely Los Angeles, and you don't have to wait until the next huge summer blockbuster comes out.''

Director Damon Santostefano is glad his project, ``Last Man Running,'' is making its debut at the Los Angeles Film Festival. ``It's great to be able to have it exposed in a festival in the town where the industry can come and absorb it,'' he said. ``People don't have to buy ski equipment to come and see the movie.''

A few festival highlights:

THE COOLER: The festival's opening film centers on a real loser named Bernie Lootz. As fans of ``Fargo'' know, William H. Macy is brilliant as the guy who just can't win. Bernie's life is a continuous string of bad days, which resulted in a whopping gambling debt and his current situation: repaying his pal, casino owner Shelly (Alec Baldwin), by secretly bringing his bad luck - his presence alone suffices - to any table in Shelly's casino where the players are hot and the house is not. Six years of this line of work is more than enough for Bernie, who just wants to clear his tab and move on, until he meets a sympathetic cocktail waitress (Maria Bello) and his fortunes take a turn. Lions Gate picked up distribution rights at Sundance, where the buzz was about Oscar-caliber performances by Macy and Baldwin - and Macy's nude scenes.

Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., ArcLight Cinerama Dome. (At press time, the opening and closing galas were sold out.)

CAMP: The closing-night gala film is set in Camp Ovation, a summer retreat for budding performers, and based on the experiences of writer- director Todd Graff. Teenagers who don't fit into their regular settings become part of a happy band of troupers. Here, the misfit is the boy who is actually straight. But it's still camp, with all the attendant friendships, rivalries and broken hearts.

June 21, 7:30 p.m., Wadsworth Theater.

LAST MAN RUNNING: Fans of two of the most popular entertainment forms of this summer - reality television and ``2 Fast 2 Furious'' - should check out this hybrid unscripted comedy film from Santostefano. Rick Gomez gets cold feet months before his wedding and finds an outlet for his mixed emotions in the demolition derby arena. While the film is entered in the narrative section, it defies categorization. ``I call it a fusion of reality and improvised fiction,'' Santostefano said. ``You could also call it the comedy that actually happened.'' There was only an outline from which Gomez and three other actors improvised for four months, in and around real individuals who presumed they were part of a documentary. ``Sometimes that arc for that character, or in smaller ways story elements, day to day were very much changed by what happened or dictated by reality day to day,'' the director said. ``So things had to change constantly, because reality was the much bigger gorilla in the room, and we had to move to it, and rarely could we actually manipulate reality to fit our narrative.'' All was well with Gomez's love life by the end of the shoot, and the film includes his wedding.

Friday, 9:45 p.m., and June 20, 7:15 p.m., Directors Guild of America.

PARTICLES OF TRUTH: Jennifer Elster's debut feature has generated some heat since it screened last month at New York's Tribeca Film Festival. It's an unlikely Manhattan love story between a painter (Elster) and a writer (Gale Harold of ``Queer as Folk''), she still carrying the baggage of being raised by drug-addled parents and he a reclusive germophobe who spends hours on end in his BMW SUV. (Gee, wonder which character the Los Angeles audience will relate to more easily?) With artist Lilli's insecurity about her talent and her frequent brushes with inhumanity - in a bar's back room, at a family gathering, in her own memories - and writer Morrison's anxieties and need to please his father, one might expect this twosome to tangle in a fast downward spiral. But each is uplifted in the process of supporting the other.

Saturday, 4:30 p.m., Directors Guild of America, and Monday, 7 p.m., Laemmle Sunset 5.

BUFFALO SOLDIERS: Joaquin Phoenix (``Gladiator'') stars in this black comedy as a soldier who is bored with his peacetime duties and amuses himself with no end of amoral activities, from dealing floor cleaner on the black market to running the base's heroin lab. ``It's wonderful, and it's kind of an interesting time to show that kind of movie,'' Raddon said. ``Obviously, our nation is very patriotic, and it should be, so it's interesting to explore the other side of what goes on in the military.''

Saturday, 9:30 p.m., Directors Guild of America, and Monday, 5:30 p.m., Laemmle Sunset 5.

THE GREAT NICKELODEON SHOW: It's a 90-minute family-friendly matinee - a first for the L.A. Film Festival and a rarity among all major festivals. There are clips from old-time children's movies, vaudeville acts, puppets, ``The Great Train Robbery'' and a screening of Georges Melies' fantasy masterpiece, ``A Trip to the Moon,'' shown with live narration by actors, the same way it first played in Los Angeles.

Saturday, 2:30 p.m., Directors Guild of America.

NOT NEW, BUT NOTABLE: A live punk karaoke night with ``Rock 'n' Roll High School'' (Thursday, 7 p.m., Laemmle Sunset 5); a sing-along screening of ``Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'' (June 20, 8 p.m., Laemmle Sunset 5), and a screening of ``Hollywood Shuffle'' with live commentary by director Robert Townsend (Sunday, 7 p.m., Directors Guild of America).

The IFP Los Angeles Film Festival runs through June 21. The complete schedule of more than 70 features, 90 shorts and 40 music videos from around the world is at www.lafilmfest.com. Tickets: [phone]. Regular screenings are $10, galas $50 and passes $35 to $500.

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

valerie.kuklenski(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- cover -- color) ``THIRTEEN''

``CAMP''

``SUMO EAST & WEST''

(4 -- 5) At top, Maria Bello, Alec Baldwin (center) and William H. Macy in ``The Cooler.'' At right, Rick Gomez (left) and Josh Gomez in ``Last Man Running.''

(6) Jennifer Elster in ``Particles of Truth.''