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The Santa Fe Film Festival gets bigger every year. And now it seems like it's on the verge of joining the major festival circuit.

About 1,000 films were submitted for consideration, more than double the number from five years ago when the festival was regaining its footing. Festival director Jon Bowman said the number of submissions has grown by about 100 each year.

"There were a lot of titles this year that hit the cutting-room floor," Bowman said, "because there was just no room at the inn."

There will be 82 programs, which means about double that amount of feature films and shorts. Twenty jurors sifted through the entries.

Stephen Rubin, the festival's deputy director, sees this year as a major step up in class.

"Seven is a good number," Rubin said. "This being our seventh year. It also might mean an official Oscar designation for the film festival, which means all our award winners will be in the pool to be nominated."

This is the first year the major studios are turning to Santa Fe, hoping to debut their big-budget pictures, including "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" from the director of "Run Lola Run" and "Miss Potter," starring Rene Zellweger.

"Paramount called us about `Perfume,' " Rubin said. "We didn't have to solicit that one. And Weinstein gave us the North American premiere of `Miss Potter.'

"So the studios are looking at us as a major festival."

"We think the Santa Fe Film Festival is a great film festival, and the timing of it is perfect for this film," the Weinstein Co. said in a statement, referring to "Miss Potter."

"We have showcased films at the festival in the past and have always been pleased with the experience."

It helps that the festival falls during the final kick in the race for Oscar nominations.

"We're starting to see that the festival is being perceived as more than a regional phenomenon," Bowman said. "And the industry is seeing it that way, too."

For the first time, national sponsors are on board: Panavision and Kodak.

More national exposure comes from the All Roads Film Project, which is back for a second year. This time, National Geographic will present the full slate of the festival that began its tour in Los Angeles in late September.

All Roads presents the work of indigenous filmmakers. This year, among its titles, the Santa Fe Film Festival will present "Ten Canoes," which is billed as the first all-aboriginal movie out of Australia.

Rubin sees the National Geographic partnership as a coup.

"They really respect us and bring us a lot of attention and will promote us," he said. "To have them as a partner adds a sense of purpose to the festival."

On the international front, the festival will present this year's Oscar contenders from Spain, France, Germany and Turkey. Four Golden Palm nominees from the Cannes Film Festival will be screened.

The fest will pay tribute to legendary cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs ("Easy Rider," "Shampoo") and will screen his latest project, "Torn From the Flag," a 50th-anniversary documentary about the Hungarian uprising. Rubin said Peter Fonda, one of the stars of "Easy Rider" and a Santa Fe regular, will present the honoree award to Kovacs.

The festival hasn't forgotten its roots.

The locally made "Cinderellas of Santa Fe" will kick off the festival on the first night.

"It probably stars half the town," Bowman said, "so that will draw a big crowd."

Mauricio Gonzalez, a graduate of the College of Santa Fe who now lives in El Paso, will present his debut feature film, "Apostasy," said Bowman.

"The Ballad of Peter LaFarge," a documentary about the American-Indian folk singer from Santa Fe who was a contemporary of Bob Dylan, will pair with "Tangled Up in Bob," Santa Fe filmmaker Mary Feidt's homage to Dylan's hometown, Hibbing, Minn.

Bowman said Craig Serling, cousin of "Night Gallery" host Rod Serling, holed up in Santa Fe to pen "Jam" a while back. Bowman calls "Jam" a Robert Altman-like look at a chain-reaction car accident on a rural mountain road that changes the lives of those involved. (Altman had a similar scene at the heart of "Nashville.")

A Canadian documentary, "Dr. Teller's Very Large Bomb," tells a tale very familiar to New Mexicans. The youth road movie "Naked Ape" has a story line that passes through Taos.

Even before the festival starts, a New Mexico film expo will lead into it with five days of workshops and seminars at the Film Center and at the New Mexico Film Museum (formerly the Jean Cocteau theater).

Fifty titles will be screened from Dec. 1-5.

Other movies of note:

"Darkon," which explores the world of elaborate fantasy games, won the audience award at South By Southwest in Austin this year.

Bowman raved about "Man in the Chair," and he was hoping to persuade one of its stars, veteran character actor Christopher Plummer, to attend the festival.

The festival is known for a deft touch in picking revivals. Another Kovacs project, "Frances" (1982), starring Jessica Lange and written by Santa Fean Christopher De Vore, will be screened, as will "The Insider," as part of the tribute to Plummer.