Cult film star Bruce Campbell, filmmaking legend Les Blank and global warming watchdog Rick Piltz will be honored at the 2007 ashland independent film festival.

The sixth edition of the festival opens Thursday, April 12, and runs through Monday, April 16, at the Varsity Theatre and the Historic Ashland Armory in Ashland.

But the real stars are the 93 independent films that will be shown, most of them on the Varsity's five screens, including feature films, documentaries and short subjects from around the United States and as far away as India. This year's entries include three Academy Award winners and four Oscar nominees.

The movies were chosen over a period of months from screenings of more than 900 entries. That's up from 600 entries last year and 325 three years ago.

More than 13,000 tickets were sold to last year's offerings, up from 11,000 the year before and 7,500 the year before that.

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"We're lucky," says AIFF Executive Director Tom Olbrich, who recently attended the International Film Festival Summit, a trade show, in Las Vegas. "My view of what's happening is that film festivals are growing, but not necessarily mushrooming."

There are now about 1,500 film festivals around the nation. Their number no longer includes the Taos festival, which helped inspire the Ashland event but later went out of existence.

An opening night bash starting at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Ashland Springs Hotel, 212 E. Main St., will be hosted by Rogue Creamery and feature a special showing of "Grace's Visit to the Rogue River Valley," a 1914 promotional film about Medford made for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

An awards celebration is set for 7 p.m. Sunday, April 15, at the Historic Ashland Armory, 208 Oak St., Ashland, with food and potables from the valley's top restaurants. The festival's artistic achievement award and seven juried prizes will be presented based on thousands of local ballots.

Feature films include such fare as "Jindabyne," from Sony Pictures Classics, starring Gabe Byrne, about a group on a fishing trip that finds a girl's body and keeps fishing. "Ten Canoes," which won a prize at Cannes, is an Aborignial Australian film about a man who covets one of his brother's wives. "Low and Behold" is a deeply human drama about an aimless man transplanted into post-Katrina New Orleans as an insurance adjuster, made by a cast and crew of Louisiana locals.

Documentaries includes the likes of "Beyond the Call," in which three former soldiers go to some of the world's most dangerous spots to hand-deliver humanitarian aid. "The Edge of Eden: Living with Grizzlies," is about a bear expert who rescues two orphaned bear cubs and raises them. "Hear and Now" is about a couple, both age 65, who gain the ability to hear for the first time in their lives after ear surgery.

For a complete schedule of films, see the AIFF guide published by the Mail Tribune and the Ashland Daily Tidings or visit www.ashlandfilm.org, where you can download a printable guide to screenings.

For the second year, the festival held a regional student short film competition. Four winners will receive VIP passes to the festival, have their films screened and get to attend post-film question-and-answer sessions with audience members.

An event called Mojo Rising Workshop and Event Studio will present two days of digital media training with Apple and Adobe-certified videographers. Call 324-7044 or visit mojorisingstudio.com for details.

Documentary film legend Les Blank, whose influential career stretches back to 1960, will receive the festival's artistic achievement award. A retrospective of his works will be shown, including "Burden of Dreams," "Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers," "The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins" and others.

He'll also give audiences as look at his work in progress, "The Tea Film." Admission to the picture will include a cup of organic Chinese tea.

Rick Piltz, a scientist honored as a truth-teller by the National Press Club for releasing information about climate change, will answer questions after the screening of "Everything's Cool," a film about global warming.

Piltz is a whistle-blower who left his job as Senior Associate at the U.S. Climate Change Science Center when the Bush administration edited his research on climate change. He took his story to the New York Times, testified at Congressional hearings and was honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship. "Everything's Cool" will be shown at 3 p.m. Saturday.

For all its growth, the AIFF retains a strong local focus. Olbrich says 60 percent of last year's festival-goers were from Ashland, 20 percent from other parts of Southern Oregon and 20 percent from more than 50 miles away.

The festival typically sells almost every ticket for its shows and the enthusiastic crowds often stay after showings for impromptu talks and questions with visiting filmmakers, many of whom travel to Ashland for the event.

Olbrich says the festival's programming philosophy is to present high-quality independent films with a focus on regional works, which make up about one-tenth of the program. More than 100 viewers spend months screening films for the festival.

"They look at the technical quality first, then the emotional content," Olbrich says. "It all starts with quality."

Tickets to the Ashland Independent Film Festival's screenings cost $9, $8 for seniors and $5.50 for students. All tickets to the Family Shorts Program cost $5.50. Tickets to the Opening Night Bash cost $20, and tickets to the Awards Celebration cost $40.

Advance tickets will be available until noon Wednesday, April 11, at www.ashlandfilm.org or from 3 to 6 p.m. through April 11 at the aiff box office in the kiosk on the Ashland plaza. After April 11, tickets will be available at the Varsity Theatre, 166 E. Main St., Ashland.