BETHEL – Hollywood came to Telstar High School on Saturday night. So did about 500 people and a handful of dogs, many of whom had bit parts or starring roles in “The 12 Dogs of Christmas.”

The movie, which was filmed in and around Bethel last winter and spring, used dogs and extras from Maine.

People like Marcey White, Mary Zurhorst and Jerry Case and his 2-year-old English sheepdog, “Bear.”

Thanks to the independent movie’s Executive Producer Ken Kragen, Bethel played host to a world premiere showing “12 Dogs,” without much of the glitz and glamour that usually accompanies motion pictures.

Halogen spotlights attracted everyone to the school, where red carpets lay unceremoniously on the ground outside the main doors. Candy canes, in between which were strung white doggy bones, lined a section of the walkway.

Julie Park, who organized and marketed the 12 Dogs gala event for her sister, Marcey White, said she kept the glitz to a minimum.

“I wanted this show to have a big-time feel to it,” she said of the spotlights, red carpet and doggy bones.

Community members, school children and businesses pitched in as volunteers, donating food and beverages for the pre-show party at 6 p.m. Children staffed the ticket table, having cast members and extras sign in.

Cast members were given simple nametags that read, “Cast.”

To the people who were in the movie, everything was just perfect.

“I’m really excited and looking forward to seeing it,” said 13-year-old Carl Zurhorst of Andover, who plays one of the movie’s bully boys.

“But I think I’ll be a little surprised to see myself on the screen.”

His mother, Mary Zurhorst, said that Carl and his brother Erich, an extra like his mom, had been looking forward to the premiere once they learned about it.

“It was a lot of fun to find out they were going to do this,” she said. “So this is a very special thing to have happen. It’s fun to see everybody and all the faces again.

A man walked up with a playbill of the movie, its face layered with many autographs, and asked Mary Zurhorst if she’d please sign it for him. He was gathering signatures of the cast.

Bear, Jerry Case’s dog, even signed the paper, with a paw print.

“Everybody wants paw prints,” said Case, of Pittston. They also wanted photos of themselves with Bear, who gladly obliged.

Bear played the role of “Yehteh,” a female sheepdog that belongs to a young boy named Mikey, played by Adam Hicks.

The movie, directed by Kieth Merrill, tells the story of Mikey, who uses dogs to teach people about the meaning of Christmas during the Depression era.

In the movie, Bethel is portrayed as the town of Doverville.

But to everyone who sat through about 30 minutes of introductions and thank-yous from producers Sean Covel and Daenan Merrill of Los Angeles, it was Bethel up there on the big screen.

As the movie opened, and the names of cast members were shown, the audience clapped or whistled excitedly.

When the camera scanned past familiar buildings, excited murmurs rippled through the darkness.

But Bear and the movie’s top dog, a large charcoal gray poodle named “Rocket,” were stretched out asleep in opposite aisles on the auditorium’s red carpeting.

The movie is to be shown again at 1 and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 5, for those who couldn’t make it to Saturday’s premiere. Tickets cost $5 at the door.

Proceeds from the showings will benefit SAD 44’s Crescent Park School’s fifth-grade educational class trip to Boston, as well as startups Bethel Youth Football and Bethel Area Trails, a Mahoosuc Land Trust committee seeking to establish a network of linked trails inb western Maine.