Heidi Arnesen puts a twist on romantic comedy convention with Some Prefer Cake, her San Francisco-set first feature about a pair of best friends, one gay and one straight, united by their lack of judgment in matters of the heart.

Kira, an aspiring comedian by night who fills orders in a comic book warehouse by day, spends her free time hunting new sexual conquests. Her friend Sydney's stuck in a rut fixing other people's copy at the local paper, dreaming of writing restaurant reviews and sublimating her sexual insecurities with food. When the friends feud, their rift gives each a chance to lurch a half-step forward.

"I wanted to get away from the gay/straight separatism so many films take as their theme," says Arnesen. "It's possible to be friends and interact on a daily basis without the context being overtly derived from sexual preference."

Arnesen, 29, has a film degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts and has made eight shorts over the past five years. She and her girlfriend, Jeannie Kahaney, developed Cake's story, and Kahaney wrote the script. Cake has been in the works nearly three years because Arnesen has kept her day job as a video production consultant at the Palo Alto Research Center in order to fund production; a portion of the (undisclosed) budget remains on her credit cards. Arnesen was casting from an ad in the Hollywood Reporter in January '96 when Panavision called to inquire about the project. "We sent a two-scene trailer and all our storyboards and lighting diagrams and they called one day later and said, 'Tell us what you want'," says Arnesen. Panavision came through with a complete camera package under the aegis of its New Filmmakers' Program, and the filmmakers added Emmy-nominated sound woman Lauretta Moliter (The Celluloid Closet) to their team.

The 16mm color Cake shot all over San Francisco for 36 days beginning in May '96. Cake is scheduled for a late June debut at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival; all rights are available.

Cast: Kathleen Fontaine, Tara Howley, Desi del Valle, Leon Acord, Machiko Saito, Tammy Dubose, John Flaa, Mimi Gonzalez. Crew: Producers, Heidi Arneson, Jeannie Kahaney, Matthew J. Siegel; Screenwriter, Kahaney; Director/Editor, Arnesen; Director of Photography, Siegel; Sound, Lauretta Moliter; Music, Eskimo. Contact: Heidi Arneson, Up All Nite Productions, 146 Downey Street, San Francisco, CA 94117. Tel: (415) 665-7795, Fax: (415) 812-4890.

Animals - Michael Di Jiacomo
Highball - Noah Baumbach
Life During Wartime - Evan Dunsky
Long Time Since - Jay Anania
Montana - Jennifer Leitzes
Portrait-in-Progress - Marion Cajori
Some Prefer Cake - Heidi Arnesen
Sparkler - Darren Stein
A Stranger in the Kingdom - Jay Craven
Sue - Amos Kollek