MOVE OVER, Judy.

Joining the old guard of female impersonators - those faux Lizas, bewigged Barbras and the Chers with disturbingly large hands - is a new big girl on the block.

Baby-faced pop star Britney Spears is the model for the next generation of drag queens.

Those traditional gay icons "are all of an older generation - then here comes this pop tart," laughed 27-year-old performer Angel Benton, who, in pigtails and falsies, could be a twin of young Britney. "She just burst on to the scene, and already she has an impersonator."

Last night, Benton and a chorus line of seven other Britney impersonators kicked off the eighth annual Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival with a screening of "Britney, Baby, One More Time" (the movie also shows at 2:15 p.m. tomorrow at the Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.). Benton stars in Ludi Boeken's comic road movie as a pop-saturated impersonator who enchants and confuses everyone from schoolgirls to truck drivers with his dead-on Britney routine.

It's one of several films Ray Murray, artistic director of the festival, hopes will revitalize the annual event, which he feared was becoming a little "stodgy."

"I like shaking things up. You can't be complacent, even though attendance has been very good," said Murray, whose TLA Entertainment Group has organized the festival since 1995.

Though some might assume that a gay and lesbian film event would be, by definition, on the edgy side, Murray said he'd feared "traditional" gay-film themes like coming out and first love had come to be over-represented in the festival.

So this year's fest is more diverse, Murray said, and includes films whose gay, lesbian or transgendered characters explore issues including family, religion and politics, as well as sexual and romantic themes.

Its 55 features, 15 documentaries and 104 short films come from 25 countries. Most have never been seen in Philadelphia; seven, including a history of gay erotica commissioned by TLA, are world premieres.

The 2002 festival is the longest ever, continuing through July 23.

Organizers have also upped the star wattage of this year's honorees. Actress Jennifer Tilly, whose wide-ranging resume includes "The Bride of Chucky," Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway" and the lesbian thriller "Bound," will receive one of the festival's two Artistic Achievement Awards tomorrow. (It's the first time the festival has presented this prize to an actress.)

German-born Udo Kier, who won a cult following for his work in Andy Warhol films but is also a familiar character actor from such mainstream movies as "Blade" and "Armageddon," will accept his award on July 20.

And Steve Guttenberg, star of such family fare as "Cocoon" and "Three Men and a Baby," will speak at 7:30 tonight at the Prince Music Theater premiere of "P.S. Your Cat is Dead." Guttenberg directed and stars winningly in the black comedy as a failed actor and writer whose nervous breakdown is interrupted by a gay burglar. "We're promoting him as the new Steve Guttenberg - the indie festival Guttenberg," Murray joked.

Unlike years past, there are no new Hollywood studio films in this year's festival. Instead, Murray has peppered the program with independent productions, many shot on digital video.

"Some have a low-budget quality. They're a cut above 'underground,' " he acknowledged. But the technology has given a voice to young artists with "exceptional" stories to tell, he added, citing first-time filmmakers Robert Tutak (the romantic comedy "Nobody's Perfect") and Susan Turley (the thriller "The M.O. of M.I.").

More diverse offerings include the drag kings - women dressing as men - in "Girl King" and "Venus Boyz"; a study of bad hair in "American Mullet"; "Bob and Rose," from the creator of the Showtime series "Queer As Folk"; gay Native Americans in Sherman Alexie's "The Business of Fancydancing"; black Londoners in the '70s period piece "Young Soul Rebels"; and the Korean-American comic Margaret Cho in "Notorious C.H.O."

And, of course, there's "Britney Baby, One More Time," starring Benton (born Robert Stephens), a former Disneyland dancer, who's confident that the cheesy, teasy Ms. Spears will become the next gay icon. Why?

"In her real life, Britney Spears is this feminine, demure creature who's very down to earth, a good Southern girl," said Benton, who met Spears after beating out 30 grade-school girls in a Britney look-alike contest. "But when she gets on stage, she turns into this fierce, masculine, ball-busting performer.

"Gay men deal with that balancing act every day."