Las Vegas is famous for a lot of things -- gambling, glitz, hedonism, cheesy stage spectaculars, miles of shopping malls, skyscraper thrill rides and cheap buffets -- but a vibrant film scene is not one of them. This year's CineVegas Film Festival, set to run Friday-June 18 at the Palms Casino Hotel, is doing its best to change that, in part by embracing Vegas-ness in all its gaudy neon glory.

Subtitled "100 Years of Las Vegas, 100 Years of Film," the festival will feature a wide range of events staged in conjunction with the city's centennial celebration, a full house of honorees and participants whose careers have intersected Hollywood and Sin City and a stack of films set in the gambling mecca.

"We don't want to be a festival that could be done anywhere," CineVegas president Robin Greenspun says. "We are about Vegas -- that's part of the excitement of coming here for a film festival. We have a lot to offer here, and if we were not to take advantage of the amazingly dynamic city that we're in, we would be fools."

The glitz and glamour of this year's fest are personified by a pair of redheads: Centennial Award honoree Ann-Margret, who will be feted Wednesday at the Palms' Skin Pool Lounge during an outdoor "Viva Las Vegas" party emceed by Harrah's headliner Clint Holmes, and "Queen of Technicolor" Rhonda Fleming, who will receive the Centennial Legend Award on June 16 at the Fremont Street Experience, surrounded by 100 showgirls from the Tropicana Hotel's Follies Bergere, for which she was one of the first headliners.

"We wanted to give the centennial award to someone who represented a perfect merger of film and Vegas, and Ann-Margret is the first person who came to mind," says CineVegas programming director Trevor Groth, also a senior programr for the Sundance Film Festival. "She's such a great actress in films like (1975's) 'Tommy,' (1963's) 'Bye Bye Birdie' and (1971's) 'Carnal Knowledge,' and she's also a huge Vegas icon. And a film like (1964's) 'Viva Las Vegas' (co-starring Elvis Presley) is a perfect marriage of those two worlds."

The darker side of Vegas will be represented by Half-Life Award honoree Nicolas Cage, who will be on hand June 16 for a Q&A session followed by a screening of 1995's "Leaving Las Vegas," which earned him a best actor Oscar for his performance as a writer who comes to town to drink himself to death.

"I think he may be in more Las Vegas-based movies than any other actor," says Greenspun, noting that Cage also has starred in 1992's "Honeymoon in Vegas" and 1997's "Con Air," in which his character lands an airplane on the Strip. "He loves Las Vegas, from what we can tell. We understand he's coming in for three or four days -- we find that happens. Last year, honorees that were going to come in for one day ended up staying for practically a week because (CineVegas is) fun -- it's like a movable party with great movies."

CineVegas' Hollywood profile has been raised substantially by the efforts of actor-director Dennis Hopper, who came to the festival in 2003 to receive the Marquee Award and was so inspired by the experience that he signed on as chairman of its Creative Advisory Board, which also includes UTA's Jeremy Barber, Sony Pictures Classics' Tom Bernard, the Gersh Agency's Arianna Bocco and Paramount Classics' David Dinerstein.

"I saw it, and I realized the potential of it," Hopper says. "I thought, 'Gee, why isn't the industry backing this and sending up films?' So I told them, 'You should have Hollywood films, and there should be films premiered -- and let me see if I can get some people to honor.'"

Hopper has proved a man of his word. Last year's lineup of honorees read like the guest list for a dinner party at his house: Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn, Holly Hunter, Dean Stockwell, David Lynch and Julian Schnabel.

"Since they all had a personal connection to Dennis, it really created this artist-family environment at the festival," Groth says. "They felt comfortable knowing that Dennis was involved, so they opened up more than they normally would have in a public forum."

Hopper's connection to some of this year's honorees is less obvious, but he has worked with each at least once -- including Ann-Margret, who co-stars with Hopper in the upcoming 3210 Films horror feature production "Mem-o-re," and Fleming, whom Hopper had a small role opposite in 1957's "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral."

How does Hopper sell his friends on CineVegas?

"I tell them it's just a really fun festival," he says. "The parties are just sensational, it's very close to Los Angeles, it's very easy to get in and out of, and I just think (the Palms) is a tremendous venue."

With a Hollywood presence all but assured, CineVegas has stepped up efforts to attract attendees from surrounding communities, offering discount passes to students and area residents and staging showcases for student films from UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada, in addition to a Nevada Filmmakers Showcase featuring short films by state residents.

"When (Groth) came onboard (in 2001), we really started to look at the direction we were going in," says Greenspun, who has been involved with the festival in some capacity since its 1998 inception. "Up until that point, we were getting people from L.A., but we weren't getting locals at the festival. We don't want to be just another Hollywood event dropped in Las Vegas; we feel we need to give back to the community that we're in."

To that end, CineVegas partnered with Hollywood HEART, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that provides education, arts and recreation opportunities for at-risk youth, to sponsor a program in which members of the Boys & Girls Club of Las Vegas worked with industry professionals for three days last month to write, direct, produce and star in a short film that will screen at the festival.

Greenspun also wants to expand the CineVegas brand by sponsoring events year-round, including screenings accompanied by filmmaker Q&As.

"We're starting to do more things locally so (that) CineVegas isn't just a nine-day festival, it's an entity that operates all year long --
visibly," he says.

Since Groth came aboard, CineVegas' fortunes have improved dramatically: Last year's festival saw 78,000 admissions, up 70% from the 2003 tally and up 240% from 2002.

But for a festival to be truly significant, it is not enough that people come in droves to party and watch movies: Distribution deals must be made, a la the Festival de Cannes, Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival. Groth admits that no film has been picked up for distribution as a direct result of screening at CineVegas but contends that it is still a young festival whose time will come.

"I think we're on buyers' radar," he says. "They're coming to check it out, and I think they're ready to find that gem that's going to be the first acquisition at the festival. But even when films don't get acquired, they're here looking for talent -- and I think we've established that we show films that, regardless of how marketable they are, show a great deal of promise and talent. So they come here looking for that, and that's a big thing: If we can get good reviews and press out of the festival for these films, then that's what we can do for them."

This year's CineVegas is scheduled to screen 60 new films (31 features, 29 shorts) and seven classics. The program is divided into four major categories: Sure Bets (advance screenings of films with U.S. distribution deals in place), Diamond Discoveries (features without distribution that have screened at other festivals), Jackpot premieres (films without distribution bowing at CineVegas) and the self-explanatory Nevada Filmmaking.

"For me, a film festival is defined first and foremost by the films it shows, and its identity is stamped largely by the world premieres you have," Groth says. "You can't match the energy of a world premiere -- it's the filmmaker's passion coming to life for the first time. It's a magical moment, and I'm thrilled with the crop of world premieres we have this year," including Christopher Jaymes' "In Memory of My Father," starring Jeremy Sisto, and Michael Aimette and John G. Hofmann's "Turning Green," starring Timothy Hutton.

This year's closing-night event will be the world premiere of Vanguard Director Award honoree George A. Romero's Universal thriller "Land of the Dead," starring John Leguizamo and (surprise!) Hopper. It's the fourth title in the Pittsburgh-based filmmaker's zombie tetralogy, which began with 1968's "Night of the Living Dead."

"(Romero) is one of the truly great independent filmmakers of all time," Groth says. "He has influenced so many people, and he (has) made his films out of pure visionary passion. To be able to close the festival with someone like that, who is such a legend, is a perfect way to go out with a bang."

Perhaps Romero's visit will inspire him to make a zombie film set in Las Vegas, with the undead pulling slot machines?

"You're on to something there because it sure seems like that's the way it is sometimes," Groth says.