Film society festival director's passion is no act.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: EXECUTIVE edge

Toss a bunch of questions at Britta Erickson, newly named director of festivals for the Denver Film Society, and she ticks off responses as if the paparazzi are flashing photos on a Hollywood red carpet.

All-time favorite movie? "Breakfast at Tiffany's." "It's Audrey Hepburn--a wonderful classic." First movie you remember seeing as a child? "The Red Balloon" at age 5. Favorite character in "The Wizard of Oz"? The Tinman. Proudest achievement since joining the film society in 1999? Landing the U.S. premier of Academy Award winning "Ray" for the Starz Denver Film Festival in 2004. Most gracious celebrity? Francis Ford Coppola. "I spent an afternoon with him in the press suite at the festival. He said, 'Let's have a chat;' and he didn't want to talk about himself."

Coppola attended the festival in 2003 to accept the Mayor's Lifetime Achievement Award--arriving in Denver wearing shorts and flip-flops and lamenting during the limo ride from the airport that he'd forgotten to pack a hairbrush.

"He spotted a Walgreen's, asked us to stop and ran in. We'd offered to go in, but he bought his own brush," Erickson said. "That was one of my favorite moments."

And there have been plenty of celebrated moments since the 39-year-old Erickson joined the staff of the festival as a publicist in 1999, became director of marketing, media and industry relations, and last fall was tapped to fill the shoes of founder Ron Henderson when he stepped down after 30 years.

"We'll always have the glitz and glamour--that's what lifted and elevated the film festival to a new audience," said Erickson, who has seen film festival attendance grow from 15,000 to a record 41,000 last fall. "But we'll also be refocusing on the emerging filmmaker. Denver is a super-savvy audience, so by giving the filmmaker an experience, we see a relationship starting to build. He remembers...