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New this year will be "Directors Speak Their Minds" on Sunday, March 4 at the Contra Costa JCC in Walnut Creek. It will feature Sundance Film Festival award-winning director Jay Rosenblatt ("Human Remains," "King of the Jews") and David Bezmozgis ("L.A. Mohel," "The Diamond Nose") screening their films and offering commentary on their works.

"L.A. Mohel" won first place in the student category of the Judah L. Magnes Museum Video Contest in 1999. "The Diamond Nose" will be a Bay Area premiere. It will screen at 11:30 a.m., followed by a Q&A session with the director.

Beginning at 2 p.m., Rosenblatt will present his two short films. "Human Remains" has won more than 24 awards, including "Best American Film" prize at the BBC British Short Film Festival. The documentary will present five portraits of 20th century dictators: Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco and Mao Tse-tung.

The director said he was prompted to make the film when he saw archival footage of Hitler eating. "It was such an everyday thing, just a guy eating. But the guy was Hitler. I'm Jewish, and it gave me a chill to think of Hitler doing something we all do," he said.

Also screening that day is the documentary "Paragraph 175," at 4 p.m. The title refers to a clause added to the German penal code in 1871 that criminalized homosexuality. In the 1930s, the Third Reich used the law to imprison more than 100,000 gay men, 6,000 of whom died in concentration camps. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman are the directors.

Among the feature films slated for this year's film festival will be several Bay Area premieres, including "Aaron Cohen's Debt," "Frank Sinatra is Dead" and "Left Luggage." The latter is a Dutch contribution starring Isabella Rossellini, Maximilian Schell and Chaim Topol.

Also scheduled is a morning dedicated to women filmmakers on Friday, March 2 at the CCJCC. Speakers include Berkeley resident Faye Lederman, who will speak on her documentary, "Women of the Wall," and Israel-born director Maya Stark, who will discuss her film, "Beyond Chaos."

In addition to the CCJCC, films will screen at the Brenden 14 Theatres in Concord and Temple Beth Torah and California School for the Deaf, both in Fremont.

Major funding for this year's festival comes from The David B. Gold Foundation, the Jewish Community Foundation of the East Bay federation and the Consulate General of Israel.

Tickets are available through the mail; at the CCJCC, 2071 Tice Valley Blvd., Walnut Creek; or at the theater on the day of the screening. For information, call Riva Gambert at (510) 839-2900, ext. 253, or check out the Web site at www.jfed.org/events/filmfest01/filmstart.html.