By design, summer films provide escapist entertainment to the masses. The organizers of this summer’s fourth Maine International Film Festival, a 10-day event beginning Friday in Waterville, have much more global goals.

For one, more than 50 films presented at this summer’s festival will explore such weighty topics as the lives of women in India, the struggles between ranchers and American Indians for the buffalo population, the jazz world of Cuba, high school kids filming their own milieu in Los Angeles, and the internal process of healing for survivors of a bus hijacking.

While the festival is devoted to films from around the world, and indeed 14 countries are represented in the program, the organizers also are interested in films related to Maine. The opening night screening is the East Coast premiere of “The Weight of Water,” a set-in-Maine murder mystery which stars Sean Penn and Elizabeth Hurley.

In addition to the daylong screening sessions, the festival will also be host to three filmmakers, David Gordon Green, a 25-year-old indie director of “George Washington,” a film about a group of young people in rural North Carolina; Mariam Shahriar, whose “Daughters of the Sun” tells the tale of an Iranian father who dresses his daughter as a boy but doesn’t anticipate that another female worker will fall in love with her; and Agnes Incze, whose “I Love Budapest” is an impassioned view of her native country.

“What these films can accomplish goes beyond the medium of film,” said Ken Eisen, festival programmer and film critic. “This is film not as an end to itself but as a way to get into the larger world. It brings together ways of looking at the world through different cultures, ideas and perceptions that we don’t get in everyday life. It’s a magical medium that allows us to transcend our own world but does it in a way the multiplex doesn’t.”

MIFF’s Mid-life Achievement Award goes this year to actor Sissy Spacek, who will attend a sneak preview Saturday of her newest film, the title of which was still undisclosed at press time. Three other films in which she has starred – “Carrie” (based on Stephen King’s novel), “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “The Straight Story” – will also be shown during the festival.

According to festival director Joan Phillips-Sandy, the event has grown each year by 10 percent. Organizers are expecting more than 3,400 participants. Last year, attendees were from nine countries, 26 states and 107 Maine communities.

“Our goal is to have an outstanding film festival in Maine,” said Phillips-Sandy. “We’re offering an experience that doesn’t exist in northern New England. This is not an industry event. This is an audience event. We have the global goal of exposing people to world cinema that really opens their eyes to humanity in the boldest sense.”

MIFF, which will present more than 100 screenings during the 10 days, is a project of the nonprofit Friends of Art and Film in Central Maine. The Maine Student Film & Video Festival, featuring works by Maine’s youngest filmmakers, is held in conjunction with the larger festival.

All screenings take place at the Railroad Square Cinema off Main Street and the Waterville Opera House in downtown Waterville. For more information, call 861-8138. The festival’s Web site, which lists all the films and screening times, is www.miff.org.