"It sounds big," says Zemrak, the president and founder. "Especially if you're from out of state."

It may be growing into the name, after bouncing around a few East Bay cities before putting down roots in Livermore the past few years. Now it's ready to take its spot among other big-name festivals in the state, moving to a larger venue — the 750-seat Orinda Theatre — for this year's 12th installment, which runs April 22-25.

"It's really come a long way," says Zemrak, who says organizers received 36 film submissions in the festival's first year — and screened 35. "This year we'll screen 75 and had a little over 500 submissions."

Many of the same independent films shown at other prominent festivals, such as those in Palm Springs and Santa Barbara, have been screened at the California festival in recent years. Zemrak, a San Ramon resident and former independent filmmaker himself, sees the move to Orinda as another step in the festival's march toward prominence, which he finds gratifying.

"This is bigger — it's another notch up," says Zemrak, who also founded the annual Danville Children's Film Festival. "It's very difficult to do a film festival. It's a lot of work and dedication. And we still have a lot of volunteers from Livermore."

The years in Livermore were good for the festival. With the local wineries, Livermore seemed like a natural (Sonoma and Napa counties also host film festivals). With screening rooms at the Vine and Bankhead theaters downtown, and in barrel rooms at Valley wineries, the festival drew featured actors such as Cloris Leachman and Diane Ladd, among others.

"Screening at the wineries was great — lots of people came up from L.A.," Zemrak says. "But we grew out of having screenings in the barrel rooms. We were at the point where we were creating this success, but we had to ask, 'Where do we want to be in 10 years? Where can we pull more people in?' "

Enter Orinda, which hosted its own film festival from 2001 to 2006 until ownership changes at Theatre Square put that festival on hiatus.

The association behind the California Festival has done a few on-off events since last year, and the city has worked with area merchants on parking, signage and film showing times.

"It's been a win-win situation all the way around," City Councilwoman Sue Severson says. "It made sense for Orinda with the situation with our (Orinda Film Festival). The community had been missing having a film festival. Even though it's only three days, hopefully it'll bring in people who will discover Orinda."

For Zemrak, it puts the California Independent Film Festival on equal footing with any other event in the state.

"It's a great venue," Zemrak says. "We have new sponsorships. BART is right there and it's close to San Francisco. When you tell celebrities you're screening in 750 seats, it's easier."

Which helped to get Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss to participate in a Q&A session after the opening night

screening of his new film "The Lightkeepers." Other notables appearing this year include Linda Gray ("Dallas"), Lainie Kazan ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding") and Olesya Rulin ("High School Musical"), all of whom star in the opening night dramedy "Expecting Mary," about a young, rich, pregnant city teenager who finds enlightenment while living in a trailer park.

"Having Olesya Rulin (on the red carpet) is great for the high school kids," Zemrak says. "It's a funny, quirky comedy."

Local 'Oscars'

One thing that won't change is the Saturday evening award show, held at the Blackhawk Museum. This year, Dreyfuss and producer Saul Zaentz will be presented with lifetime achievement awards. There also will be the usual presentation of awards to festival participants, from best picture to best animated feature.

"From day one, we've tried to do it like the Academy Awards," says Zemrak. "We do all (the categories) because everyone is involved in making a movie."

Zemrak says other highlights of this year's fest also includes "The Mighty Macs," a true story about the small, unknown school that won the NCAA's first women's basketball championship; "Logorama," which won this year's Academy Award for best animated short, and international sensation "The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner," a story about an amnesiac helped toward recovery by a motorcycle trip with his charismatic grandfather.

The festival closes Sunday with a screening of "Lovely, Still," starring Academy Award winners Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn. Zemrak says he's already watched it three times.

"I talked to Martin the other day and told him he should be winning an Oscar for this," Zemrak says. "At the end of the movie, there's no dialogue for 2½ minutes. It's so moving. That's acting. It's a wonderful film. The young kids who have seen this movie have loved it."

Saturday night also includes screenings of works from Bay Area filmmakers. It's not officially part of the festival, but important to Zemrak nonetheless. Starting at 7:15 Saturday, films include "A Race to Nowhere," "Six Sex Scenes and a Murder," "Oakland Be Mine," "Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn" and "Payback in Bolts."

lights, camera, indies