San Diego has become a prime destination for fans and creators of pop culture, particularly in the world of film. The area has been popular with movie makers for decades, with classics ranging from “Francis in the Navy” (1955) to “Top Gun” ( 1986). But over the last decade, there has been a significant increase of interest in showcasing cinematic works, notably independent movies and short films. One of the lynchpins in the rise of cinema in San Diego is the San Diego Film Festival, taking place on Sept. 29 through Oct. 3 this year at the Gaslamp Theatre. The event began in 2002, now drawing more than 13,000 film buffs over its five days. This year, 1,200 films were submitted, whittled down to the approximately 90 that will be screened. While entries are accepted from all over the world, Robin Laatz, co-founder and executive director of the San Diego Film Festival, notes there is a large San Diego presence in the programming. “We’re doing a couple of different things,” she said. “Approximately 20 out of 90 films have some sort of relation to San Diego. We’ve got a series of shorts called Local Love, which is films that were shot in the area or done by local film makers. Some are about local people. For example, we’ll also have a documentary, ‘Des McAnuff: A Life On Stage,’ which is about the former La Jolla Playhouse artistic director.” The festival also has a partnership with San Diego State University, with about a dozen films from their students. Laatz notes criteria for inclusion includes the obvious: story, production values, action, music, sound and so on, but “there are also a lot of other factors that go into selections. As a five-day festival we don’t screen 150 to 200 films, so we have to turn down a lot,” she said. “There’s a lot of variables like how many festivals a movie might have played in, are the film makers available to come to the event and things of that nature. It’s not just about putting any movie up on the screen. It’s about finding movies that you know your community will embrace. And that’s our goal, to get the film makers exposure for their projects.” Among the works selected this year are Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman,” an overview of public education, which follows children through the system, and the much-anticipated John Lennon bio-pic “Nowhere Boy.” The San Diego Film Festival will also have a music program, Film Rocks. “In the past, we’ve done strictly music videos, but this year we have a couple of really good films that don’t have words, but use music to tell the story,” Laatz said. Even with crowds numbering in the thousands, Laatz considers one of the event’s charms to be its relative “intimate nature.” “There’s a lot of festivals that have up to 250 films and it’s really easy for a film maker to get lost,” she said. “A lot of festivals you just drop your film off. It’s a screening and that’s it. Here we build a relationship with the film makers and help them to get exposure for their projects, before, during and after they take part.” Though the event may grow bigger, Laatz is happy where the Sam Diego Film Festival stands today. “For a lot of businesses, the ultimate [plan] is to get bigger and bigger. But it’s never really been our goal to extend it beyond five days,” Laatz said. “We don’t define our growth by ‘larger,’ We define our growth by quality of the films that we bring in, of the film makers that we work with.” San Diego Film Festival WHEN: Sept. 29-Oct. 3 WHERE: The Gaslamp Theatre. 701 Fifth Ave INFO: www.sdff.org