With the Academy Awards over, movie lovers turn their attention to more modest red carpets that roll out at movie theaters during premieres. Three films had screenings Tuesday night.

The biggest stars and the most serious plot are in “In My Country,” with Samuel Jackson and Juliette Binoche. Mr. Jackson plays a Washington Post journalist who goes to South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, a milestone event after the end of apartheid. Helping him come to terms with the tension of the hearings is Ms. Binoche’s character, an Afrikaans poet who is covering the hearings for radio.

“Off the Map” tells the tale of an offbeat domestic journey. Campbell Scott directs, taking full advantage of the setting, the desert landscape of northern New Mexico, to recount the story of an earth-loving mother and her extremely imaginative daughter, played by Joan Allen and Valentina de Angelis.

The Disney family film “The Pacifier” had its premiere in Hollywood, with a wider net of film and television actors strutting down the carpet. The action comedy stars Vin Diesel as a former Navy SEAL charged with protecting the children of a government scientist. At the premiere, Mr. Diesel smartly gave the spotlight to the lesser-known star in the film, Gary the Duck.

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The music director of the New York Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, celebrated his 75th birthday Tuesday night with a concert and dinner at Avery Fisher Hall. The Philharmonic’s event planners are fastidious and fun in their approach to parties. The tables glowed with paprika-colored boxes bursting with charteuse Viburnum, roses, Rudbekia seedpods, Dutch Hypericum berries, and Peruvian Ixora. Mr. Maazel’s birthday meal started with roasted asparagus, continued with pan-seared filet mignon, and ended with individual birthday cakes in the maestro’s favorite flavors, lemon and chocolate.