the American Film Institute's annual AFI Fest remains mired in a long-running identity crisis. Is it an important local showcase for the best recent offerings of world and American independent cinema? The lap dog of Hollywood, a staging ground for black-tie premieres of soon-to-be-released Oscar hopefuls? Or a gathering of global film-industry professionals on a par with the world's leading film festivals?

Almost none of the best offerings from the recent festival season are here ? Hong Sang-Soo's puzzle-box romantic drama, Tale of Cinema; Singapore director Eric Khoo's Be With Me, an audience favorite at Telluride and Toronto; Philippe Garrel's Regular Lovers, which won the best-director prize at Venice; and Cristi Puiu's razor-sharp gallows comedy The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, which collected the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes. And that is to say nothing of the great films of 2004 and even 2003 ? Marco Bellocchio's Good Morning, Night; Claire Denis' L'Intrus; Theo Angelopoulos' The Weeping Meadow; Lisandro Alonso's Los Muertos ? that have yet to receive so much as a single Los Angeles screening. The reasons are legion, and no doubt the AFI Fest organizers would be quick to reply that they have sought out some of these very films only to be rebuffed by distributors and/or sales agents. Granted this is a clear and present dilemma, but so is that of a festival that continues, against all reason, to put quantity ? its total number of world and North American premieres ? ahead of quality.

This whoring-for-premieres syndrome can bedevil the best of festivals. But while the big boys (Berlin, Cannes and Venice ? and, for American indies, Sundance), through a combination of longevity, reputation and positioning on the calendar, can rest assured that they'll always have a ripe crop of titles to choose from, AFI Fest ? owing to its relative youth and its early-November timing ? serves as little more than a runoff gutter for films rejected by larger outfits. No filmmaker with any knowledge of the festival circuit would turn down an invite to one of those festivals in favor of AFI Fest. Nor does that situation look to change anytime soon, barring some sudden shift in the cabin pressure of the festival universe.

I fear this may be a rhetorical discussion, in that local audiences seem pacified by AFI Fest ? at least if festival attendance (which has steadily risen since the event relocated to the ArcLight Cinemas in 2002) is any indication ? suggesting that the Los Angeles moviegoer is little more adventurous than the international traveler who heads straight for the nearest McDonald's rather than sampling the regional cuisine.

More on that later. For now, here's our guide to the good, the bad and the ugly of AFI Fest 2005. Films are listed chronologically, based on the date and time of their first screening. Recommended titles are preceded by an asterisk. Films not premiering until the festival's second weekend will be reviewed in next week's issue.

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