Fests to the left of me, fests to the right of me. Tribeca started last night in the Big Apple and the San Francisco International Film Festival kicks off tonight; meanwhile, three other fests have been stimulating film-goers on two different continents.

I attended the first Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles several years ago, and even in its inaugural edition it was well-run, smartly programmed, and widely supported. The sixth edition started Tuesday night with the local premiere of Amal, described by the fest as a "charming fable [that] examines the true nature of happiness in a society obsessed with speed, technology and monetary wealth." Last night's highlights included Before the Rains, a "colonial noir" set in South India in 1937.

Romantic comedy Kissing Cousins unreels tonight, as does American Movie director Chris Smith's latest, The Pool, while gangster thrills take center stage on Friday evening with Johnny Gaddar. The program is packed over the weekend, with Liz Mermin's excellent doc Shot in Bombay (which I saw at SXSW) screening on Saturday, and the world premiere of Mumbai Cutting ... A City Unfolds, featuring the the work of ten top Indian directors, closing the fest on Sunday night.

The 38th annual USA Film Festival should be better known than it is, simply because of its longetivity, but the festival's organizers appear content to stage the carefully-curated event in Dallas, Texas with a minimum of fanfare.

The schedule features only one screening slot at 7:00 p.m. during the week, which makes it very challenging to attend in this traffic-choked city if you live any distance away from the theater, as I do. The fest invites special guests for each film. Tonight, for example, cinematographer William Fraker will be in attendance to screen and talk about Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby and screenwriter Howard A. Rodman will be present for Tom Kallin's newest effort, Savage Grace.

Saturday promises to be super busy. Texas natives Rip Torn and Meat Leaf will be in town to present films. Five of the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 will discuss their work in a panel discussion, and then riff live on a yet-to-be-identified sacrificial lamb later in the evening. The fest runs through Sunday.

Many time zones away in Udine, Italy (northeast of Venice), the Far East Film Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The fest declares that it is "the largest showcase of popular films from the far east," and one look at the schedule reveals a marvelous program of audience-friendly flicks from China, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The goal is to screen a cross-section of Asian films from the past year -- beyond the type that typically play at international film festivals such as Cannes and Venice -- and showcase them for European audiences, and the fest succeeds wonderfully.

Just to give you a taste, today's program began this morning with Korean relationship drama Hellcats (pictured), continued with Hong Kong escapist fantasy Magic Boy and Japanese drama Your Friends (the latest by Vibrator director Ryuichi Hiroki), among others, during the day, and concludes at midnight with Takeshi Miike's Crows - Episode 0. Whew! If nothing else, the program serves as a checklist for Asian film fans to track down the best (or at least some of the more populist) fare from the past 12 months. The Far East Film Festival concludes on Saturday.