Step out of Hollywood's bubble, urged Tony Gittens, who launched a film festival here 25 years ago as an antidote to commercial Tinseltown and watched it grow into the US capital's signature screen celebration.

While moviemakers strut down the Cannes red carpet as their media-hyped films become overnight sensations, and distributors swarm Sundance theaters to snag the next "Precious," Filmfest DC, which opens Thursday, goes about its business of pleasuring a diverse audience by screening high-quality independent world cinema.

"To limit your film-going diet to just the films from Hollywood is not healthy," Gittens told AFP shortly ahead of the festival's April 7-17 run, when it screens some 80 movies from 25 countries -- many of which will never light up a mainstream movie house in the United States -- to more than 25,000 people.

"It's a big world, and if we didn't bring the films here most of them would not be seen by Washingtonians."

And yet, 25 years and 2,500 movies later, Filmfest DC more than ever relishes its role of bringing eye-opening -- and often controversial -- films to a public that once had little but Hollywood fare to choose from.

The festival "is not driven by commercial considerations... We are not a market," he adds, which puts it apart from other prestigious festivals such as those in Berlin and Venice, which bring filmmakers and buyers together.

But that doesn't mean it is void of star-power.

Actor/director John Malkovich, production titan Sydney Pollack, and screen siren Charlize Theron are among the heavies who have presented their work at Filmfest DC.

This year's fare will include turns by Kevin Kline, who plays an American doctor teaching chess to a Corsican mother in "Queen to Play," and festival opener "Potiche," a French farce starring Gerard Depardieu and the grande dame of French cinema, Catherine Deneuve.

Other titles include "The Green Wave," which chronicles the 2009 protests in Iran; the American premiere of "Scientology: The Truth About a Lie;" "Hostage of Illusions" by Argentine Eliseo Subiela; the Egyptian film "Hawi," making its US debut; visceral anti-war film "Tears of Gaza;" and "The Hedgehog," about a precocious 11-year-old who might want to kill herself.

Gittens sounds thrilled that the festival lies outside the glare of Hollywood, and even the other major American festivals such as those in Telluride, Colorado, or Tribeca in New York.

"We've been able to bring films to Washington that normally would not have been presented," and in turn help break down barriers of ignorance and misunderstanding, he insisted.

"Film is a good way to learn about other people."

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