AUBURN — The Lewiston-Auburn Film Festival is returning with more movies, a bigger budget and star power.
Organizers have hired singer-songwriter Don McLean — best known for the rock classic "American Pie" — to help kick off the expanded three-day 2012 schedule with a concert at the 430-seat Franco-American Heritage Center at St. Mary's.
"To be frank, we wanted to punch people in the face and say, 'We're going to be bigger and better than last year,'" said Joshua Shea, who helped create the festival. Hiring the 66-year-old McLean, who lives in Castine but still tours all over the world, filled organizers' goal of attaching a celebrity to the event.
"We didn't know if that would be a movie star, a TV star or a musician," Shea said. "But we wanted somebody who calls Maine home." McLean's songs have been used in at least a dozen films, according to the Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com, including Oliver Stone's "Born on the Fourth of July" and the Maine-made miniseries "Empire Falls."
Plans call for McLean to headline the festival's Friday, April 13, opening, which will also include a cocktail party, a sneak preview of the movies and an after party.
The opening will be followed on Saturday, April 14, with the screening of more than 100 movies at venues throughout the Lewiston and Auburn downtowns, including She Doesn't Like Guthrie's, Gallery 5, Community Little Theatre, Free Grace Church, Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce and both cities' public libraries.
On Saturday night, the festival will hold a gala dinner and awards show at the Hilton Garden Inn, with entertainment from the Maine Music Society and AudioBody, and prizes for some of the best movies.
Sunday, April 15, will begin with a VIP-only brunch at Fish Bones American Grill followed by a panel discussion and a selection of fan favorites at The Public Theatre.
Organizers announced the schedule Monday in an afternoon news conference.
"We are going to build this methodically so that over the next five to 10 years it is one of the premiere film festivals in New England," Shea said. "Last year's success told us it is a winner."
The first hints came when the evening gala sold out one month in advance. Then there were the ticket sales that came at the door.
The new operation had a payment system that sent Shea an alert on his cellphone every time someone paid for a ticket with a credit card. He suspected things were going well that morning when, during a panel discussion, his phone began buzzing nonstop.
"I'm like, 'Either somebody's dead or this thing has really taken off,'" Shea said.
Between 1,000 and 1,100 people attended the April 2011 event. Of the 180 films submitted, the festival screened 110 of them, which ranged from experimental shorts and documentaries to feature-length comedies and dramas. Filmmakers came from as close as Lewiston and Auburn and as far away as Syria.
This year, the festival has already gathered about 250 submissions
"We've had things come in from Ireland, Spain, Syria, Poland, Australia and all over the world, plus also a lot of homegrown films from Maine and from Lewiston-Auburn," spokeswoman Molly McGill said. And she expects submissions to keep coming until the deadline at the end of January.
Shea expects the submissions to surpass 400. With so many, the festival can be increasingly choosy. It should give festival-goers even greater quality in its films, he said.
The bigger festival's 2012 budget will be nine times larger than the first year's budget, with much of that riding on McLean's show.
"We need to sell it out to break even," Shea said.
Tickets for all events go on sale Thursday.
The full festival pass, getting people inside all events, will cost $145. Tickets to the concert will cost between $50 and $60 each. Entrance to Saturday's movies will cost $18. Saturday's films and the gala will cost $72. Admission to Sunday's films will cost $30.
Those are all early-bird rates, expected to increase by at least 20 percent after 60 days.
Tickets may be purchased online at www.lafilmfestival.org or in Lewiston at either Marquis Signs at 78 Essex St. or at Lewiston Auburn Magazine at 223 Lisbon St.
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