Paul Provenza, left, and Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller dreamed up the idea for their acclaimed documentary "The Aristocrats" -- featured at CineVegas -- over late-night decaf at the Peppermill. Writer-director Christopher Jaymes, left, joins David Austin in a scene from "In Memory of My Father," a Hollywood tale that marks its world premiere Saturday night at CineVegas.

It's Las Vegas' centennial -- and the CineVegas Film Festival joins the celebration with its lucky-seventh edition, launching a nine-day run tonight at the Palms' Brenden Theatres.

All the customary festival fixtures are in place, from world premieres to celebrity tributes; this year's guest roster ranges from Oscar-winning actors Christopher Walken and Nicolas Cage to celebrated directors Wim Wenders and George A. Romero. (The world premiere of Romero's "Land of the Dead" closes the festival June 18.)

In honor of the centennial, this year's CineVegas also salutes Sin City's cinematic heritage, with screenings of made-in-Vegas favorites -- from "Viva Las Vegas" to "Showgirls" to 2001's "Ocean's Eleven" -- chosen by locals in an online poll.

Also in keeping with the vintage-Vegas focus, CineVegas will honor "Viva Las Vegas" star Ann-Margret on Wednesday night with a Centennial Award (presented by a previous CineVegas honoree, Tony Curtis) at an official festival party. And Hollywood leading lady Rhonda Fleming, a former Folies Bergere headliner (and grandmother of Brenden Theatres' owner Johnny Brenden), will join 100 showgirls Thursday night at the Fremont Street Experience to receive the festival's Centennial Legend Award.

Because film festivals are even more about the future than the past, however, CineVegas also spotlights a wide variety of new features, documentaries and shorts -- including several with Las Vegas connections.

The festival's Las Vegas setting doesn't hurt either, insists Dennis Hopper, who chairs CineVegas' advisory board -- and serves as its chief celebrity recruiter. (His daughter Ruthanna is the festival's creative producer.)

"We had a good one last year," Hopper says of the festival that honored such luminaries as Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn, Holly Hunter and David Lynch. "And I think we'll have a better one this year."

Of course, it helps to have connections with such filmmakers as Romero -- Hopper stars in "Land of the Dead" -- and Wenders, with whom he made the 1977 thriller "The American Friend."

Then again, Hopper points out, "Everybody wants to go to Vegas -- there's something wrong if they don't want to go to Vegas."

Hopper's not the only one with connections, however.

CineVegas programming director Trevor Groth also serves as a programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, North America's leading independent film showcase.

That Sundance connection often attracts films -- and filmmakers -- to CineVegas, including tonight's opening attraction, "Hustle & Flow," starring "Crash's" Terrence Howard as a Memphis street hustler striving for rap stardom.

Or the hit Sundance documentary "The Aristocrats," which captures more than a hundred comedians telling the same classic dirty joke.

Executive produced by Penn Jillette -- the talkative half of Penn & Teller -- "The Aristocrats" premiered at this year's Sundance instead of last year's CineVegas for the simplest of reasons: "It wasn't finished."

Although, Jillette adds, Monday's CineVegas screening represents "The Aristocrats' " film debut, because Sundance audiences saw it on DVD.

"In a very real sense, CineVegas is a world premiere," he says. And because "this is the first time the film will be shown, it becomes a different thing."

Because "it has a showbizzy feel, a Vegas feel," Jillette and director Paul Provenza wanted to show here.

Beyond what Jillette calls "a nostalgia (in) the movie for that kind of showbiz" typified by many of the featured comedians, "The Aristocrats" has an even more basic Vegas connection: Much of it was filmed here.

From Don Rickles backstage at the Stardust to Steven Wright in a hallway at The Orleans, "there are 105 comics and, of the 105, every single one is filmed in a different place," Jillette notes, citing such Vegas regulars as George Carlin, Rita Rudner, David Brenner and the Amazing Johnathan among the lineup.

Not to mention director Provenza, who had just finished a Riviera run when he and Jillette met at the Peppermill for one of their regular late-night decaf discussions -- and dreamed up "The Aristocrats."

The documentary already has a distributor -- and an August release date.

But film festivals are even more important to filmmakers searching for distribution deals.

Just ask writer-director Christopher Jaymes, whose "In Memory of My Father" has a prime Saturday night slot for its world premiere.

By the time Groth saw an early cut of Jaymes' movie, it was too late for Sundance, Jaymes recalls, but he says Groth told him CineVegas was a definite possibility "if we were willing to wait." (Six months seemed like a long delay, Jaymes says, before admitting that he didn't stop working on the movie until about 10 days ago.)

In Jaymes' view, "CineVegas has worked its way into the top five of U.S. (film) festivals very quickly," he says, "and that gives you validation to the industry."

Jaymes calls his movie "a typically Hollywood story," but this year's CineVegas also showcases several Vegas-related entries, from documentaries ("Lost Vegas," "As We Knew It") to road-trip bachelor party and wedding comedies ("Standing Still," "Vegas Baby") from locally based Insomnia Entertainment.

There's even a movie set in Las Vegas, filmed in Brooklyn, N.Y., which provides the poker bar setting for "Losing Ground."

Written and directed by Bryan Wizemann, who grew up in Las Vegas ("CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker was a Chaparral High School classmate), "Losing Ground" is a screen adaptation of Wizemann's play inspired by his mother's "kind of dark four-year gambling addiction" at a local bar.

"I think Las Vegas is underutilized" as a movie setting, or "utilized in the same clich way," says Wizemann, who now lives in Brooklyn. "I grew up around pawn shops and check-cashing outlets. It's a microcosm of a universe -- and I'm inspired by that."

Although "Losing Ground" premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, Calif., "because Trevor (Groth) was aware of it and because of the subject matter, I hoped CineVegas would work out for us," Wizemann says.

Even so, because "our film has a lot to say about Las Vegas" and is "critical of gaming, I thought there might be pressure," especially in a casino, he adds. "I commend them for taking it."

Then again, in Groth's view, CineVegas' casino atmosphere adds to the festival's uniquely Vegas vibe.

"The Palms has really been one of the main elements of the success of the festival," Groth maintains. "It's really unique. No other festival I go to has a feel like that."

Beyond its unique Vegas vibe, however, CineVegas shares a primary attribute with other festivals around the world, according to Groth -- and that's the chance for moviegoers "to see films that they would not otherwise go to or have a chance to see."

Although CineVegas is also "a celebration of film and we do some great parties," Groth recommends that festivalgoers "immerse yourself -- see three or four films a day and feed off the excitement that comes from the movies."