It isn't the French Riviera, nor will there be any hopeful starlets slinking around in next to nothing.

There will be no nude beaches, no A-list stars and definitely not the swarm of reporters who travel to Cannes in the south of France each year for the world's most prestigious film festival.

Yet when the lights go down, and the 1993 Can Film Festival rolls out in Schwab Auditorium tonight, the audience will be treated to a wide variety of film projects by University filmmakers that could give those big budget films at that "other festival" a run for their money.

Maybe.

This year a committee headed by Bob Evans (junior-film) has labored long and hard to revamp the annual festival, which gives students in the School of Communications, specifically the film department, an opportunity to showcase their work.

Scott Eric Horner (junior-film) said the changes in the festival will hopefully lay a foundation for years to come.

"This is our preliminary steps and hopefully if everything works out then next years festival will build on this years," Horner said.

Although the festival has run on-and-off for about ten years, Evans said this year's will be different because there will be separate categories for the films, replacing the all-inclusive general category employed in years past. Separate awards will be given to narrative, experimental, documentary and animated films as well as for the script competition.

Festival coordinators have also ventured out and contacted qualified professionals to judge the films. Ned Faust, associate professor of communications and faculty adviser for the festival, said this will add a level of competition to the Can.

"It's going to be a 'Schwab event,' so it's a public event that is much more competitive than its been in years past," Faust said. "People are becoming conscious of the fact that although we make films for ourselves and for either craft or artistic reasons, we also make films for an audience."

An audience is what the organizers of the event are hoping for.

Since the Can is not receiving any money from the School of Communications, the festival is being partially funded by money budgeted for the Student Film Organization by the Association of Student Activities. The rest will come from the minimal $3 ticket sales. Yet those involved remain optimistic, concentrating on what the event will do for the film department itself rather than its pocketbook.

"Our department is in jeopardy sometimes around here," Horner said. "Hopefully the Can will give us the respect that will keep the film department going."