"The festival, which is free, draws enormous crowds who bring along blankets, cushions and box lunches, and cover the vast field at Lake Shore Drive and Monroe, in Grant Park... Every film this year will be preceded by a Mickey Mouse cartoon," Roger Ebert reports.

"TriBeCa clearly has a number of ambitions, not all of them necessarily congruent with one another. It wants to be a flagship in the transformation of the western edge of Lower Manhattan from a Wall Street bedroom (and a scene of recent atrocity) into a cultural mecca," A.O. Scott gives his impressions.

"The only way for him to continue his career was to forge a new one in the United States, Forman told Reuters at the recent 47th San Francisco International Film Festival, where he received a lifetime achievement award for directing," Michael Kahn reports.

"Touching the Void," Kevin Macdonald's doc which is being released by IFC Films, has topped the $4 million mark in grosses, making it the among the top ten doc releases ever. According to IFC Films, the doc top ten are: (1) "Bowling for Columbine"  $21,576,018; (2) "Truth or Dare"  $15,012,935; (3) "Winged Migration"  $10,764,402; (4) "Hoop Dreams"  $7,830,611; (5) "Tupac"  $7,718,961; (6) "Buena Vista Social Club"  $7,002,182; (7) "Roger and Me"  $6,706,368; (8) "Spellbound"  $5,728,581; (9) "Stop Making Sense"  $4,949,438; (10) "Touching the Void"  $4,090,821.

“Becoming a filmmaker in Europe” is the theme of the day on May 18th, which will being with an open discussion uniting the 25 Ministers for Culture and some great industry professionals, gathered around Milos Forman, guest of honour. Stephen Frears and Jean-Claude Carrière, who will facilitate the event," visit their site for more details.

"Looking for Fidel - a documentary by Oliver Stone about Cuban leader Fidel Castro has been panned by his critics for not being objective," Go to the article.

"Rarely has a media outlet lost pace with the needs and wants of its audience and been more in denial about it than PBS [...] This is essentially what PBS is now: A channel for people who don't get cable." Tim Goodman offers an anniversery present to PBS affiliate KQED. [via MetaFilter]

"In the film, made by Mexican director Alfonso Arau ("Like Water for Chocolate"), Zapata is depicted as a mystical warrior descended from Aztec gods." Go to the article.

"Members of the San Francisco International Film Festival's young people's auxiliary, many of them single, packed the Kabuki on Monday night for the French romance "Love Me If You Dare.'' Onstage after the movie, star Guillaume Canet -- young and irresistible in a "Breathless'' Jean-Paul Belmondo way -- got asked the inevitable question," Ruth Stein reports.

"Filmmaker Guy Maddin relates how he first met Isabella Rossellini, the star of his film, 'The Saddest Music in the World.'" Go to the interview.

"'A Hole in One,' which will have its premiere on Sunday at the TriBeCa Film Festival, is a resolutely absurdist critique of 1950's conformism that has few aspirations to appeal to a mainstream audience," Randy Kennedy reports.

Richard Ledes narrative film, A HOLE IN ONE, which will be premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, stars a woman (Michelle Williams) in the 1950's who seeks a lobotomy to provide emotional relief after troubles with her boyfriend (Meatloaf.) New York Times reports.

With over 250 films, including numerous panels, parties, and other events, the Tribeca Film Festival has it's hands full as it prepares for a busy 9 days. Fortunately, they have plenty of help, including over 100 employees and 2,200 volunteers. New York Times reports.

Nikita Mikhalkov will serve as the president of the Jury for the Short Films in Competition and the Cinéfondation at the Festival de Cannes. Joining him will be Nicole Garcia, Marisa Paredes, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Pablo Trapero. Mikhalkov will award three Cinéfondation Awards on May 20th and the Palme d'Or for short films during the on May 22nd, 2004.

Four U.S. films will screen in the Director's Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival. Set to show are Jacob Aaron Estes' "Mean Creek," Jonathan Caouette's "Tarnation," Nicole Kassell's "The Woodsman" and Asia Argento's "The Heart Is Deceitful...Above All Things." Twenty features will screen in the section.

NewFest, New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival (June 3 - 13), is heading uptown this year, moving its annual event to Loews 34th St. It will open with Angela Robinson's "D.E.B.S." and close with Ian Iqbal Rashid's "Touch of Pink."

Organizers of the annual Cannes Film Festival have launched Cannes Classics, a new section of the festival aimed at showcasing favorites and restored movies in a theater and on the beach in Cannes. Among the films set for the sidebar this year are works from Brazil, docs about filmmaking, movies by Buster Keaton, and restored classics including Antonioni's "Blow Up," Milos Forman's "Hair," Gillo Pontecorvo's "The Battle of Algiers."

Roman Polanski is taking on "Oliver Twist" with Ben Kingsley as Fagin and Barney Clark as Oliver, according to Variety. The film is set to begin production in mid-July in Prague, with distribution in a number of territories (France, U.K., Italy) already set. Summit is selling the movie internationally.

DVD rental service Netflix is planning to deliver movies via the Internet starting next year. In a Reuters report (via News.com), the company confirmed its plans, with CEO Reed Hastings saying, "Our strategy is to get huge in DVDs and then expand into downloads," he added, "When we get to 5 million or 10 million subscribers, eventually what we spend on postage becomes a prize for the movie studios."

A new doc by CameraPlanet's Steve Rosenbaum, dubbed "Inside the Bubble," wll offer a peak into John Kerry's presidential campaign. The movie, according to Variety, is an outgrowth of CameraPlanet's TV show, "The Staffers."

The RiverRun International Film Festival concluded over the weekend in Winston-Salem, N.C. awarding its best feature jury award to Mark Milgard's "Dandelion" and best doc prize to Jack Cahill's "Long Gone." In the audience award categories, the feature prize went to Mani Ratnam's "A Peck on the Cheek" and the doc award went to Salome Ramras-Arktov's "The Legacy of Rosina Lhevinne."

"The Montreal-based indie distributor was not even a player in the national film sweepstakes just a few years back. But Equinoxe has been on quite a roll for the past couple of years, thanks to a trio of savvy acquisitions." Brendan Kelly looks at the impact of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," "Mambo Italiano," and "The Passion of the Christ" on its Canadian distributor.

Independent Media Artists of Georgia, Etc. (IMAGE), in Atlanta, GA, is looking for an executive director to replace Brian Newman who recently announced that he is leaving the organization. In an announcement IMAGE cited its committment "to the advancement of artistic excellence in film, video, audio and the media arts." The groups runs the Atlanta Film Festival, and Out on Film, the Southeast's largest lesbian and gay film fest. More information is available online.

"Man on Fire" from Fox and "13 Going on 30" from Sony were at the top of the box office this weekend based on estimates, earning $23 and $22 million respectively. "Kill Bill" #2 from Miramax was in third with an estimated $10.4 million.

The Tribeca Film Festival has added a group of films to its lineup for next month's fest (May 1 - 9). Joining the event are: Kelly Anderson & Tami Gold's world premiere doc "Every Mother's Son," Harry Thomason & Nickolas Perry's political doc "The Hunting of the President" (from Sundance & SXSW), Christopher Browne's bowling doc, "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen" from SXSW, the world premiere of Alan Wade's "The Pornographer" and Reverge Anselmo's "Stateside" which debuted at AFM

New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell is leaving the newspaper according to a report today in Variety and a post earlier this week on Gawker.com. The pieces indicate that A.O. Scott will be promoted to chief movie critic at the paper.

With the largest grant ever received by the organization -- $5 million -- the Sundance Institute has established theAnnenberg Film Fellows Program to support select Institute feature film program participants. The five-year initiative will combine stipends with residencies and creative support for filmmakers to help with the creation of specific film projects -- typically first features.

"Hollywood stars from Charlize Theron to Brad Pitt guarantee glamour on the red carpet at next month's Cannes film festival but they will share the spotlight with a strong line-up of young, less well known film makers," Joelle Diderich reports.

"Last month Chan called Taiwan's recent presidential elections 'the biggest joke in the world,'" according to BBC online.

Brian Dannelly's "Saved" won the $10,000 jury award for best feature at the 2004 Gen Art Film Festival, while the audience prize for feature went to Brian Herzlinger, Jonn Gunn and Brett Winn's doc "My Date With Drew."

Sony Corp. is pursuing a deal to acquire MGM for $5 billion, according to a report in the Associated Press today. The report said that Sony would partner with two private equity firms on the pact and speculated that MGM would be folded into Sony Pictures Entertainment.

18 films will screen in competition at the 2004 Festival de Cannes, including the latest from Wong Kar Wai, Olivier Assayas, Agnes Jaoui, Walter Salles, Hans Weingartner, Tony Gatlif, Michael Moore, Oshii Mamoru, Hong Sang-soo, Lucrecia Martel, Paolo Sorrentino, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, Park Chan-wook, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Stephen Hopkins, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Emir Kusturica, and Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury & Conrad Vernon. indieWIRE will publish the full lineup this morning.

Ten year old PR agency Open City Communications is closing its doors, the company announced today. Agency founder Phil Hall will pursue film journalism, including a new book entitled "Never Coming to a Theater Near You: The Essential Guide to Underground Movies on Video and DVD," while associate David Nagler is focusing on music.

Newmarket Films is planning a re-release of Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko," however this time the company will screen the film's Director's Cut. Newmarket will premiere the new edition, which is 20 minutes longer, at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 29th followed by a test theatrical release in the Seattle area and perhaps an expansion to other cities, according to company president Bob Berney.

"Of course you may disagree with me and prefer Limbaugh. I may disagree with you and prefer Stern. That is our right as Americans. What offends me is that the right wing, secure in its own right to offend, now wants to punish Stern to the point where he may be forced off the air," Ebert reports on his film web site on the Chicago Sun-Times.

"Angry Gallic showbiz workers threatening to disrupt next month's Cannes Film Festival and other cultural events in France demonstrating their strength Monday by making a fiasco of the Molieres theater awards," Alison James reports.

"Movie director and producer Gary Winick has arrived -- in Hollywood, that is. For fans of independent film, that statement may seem odd," Bob Tourtellotte reports on Winick and his new film, "13 Going on 30."

"The $200 million movie may be a reality, but most battle-hardened production execs are anything but thrilledabout it [...] A case in point: Universal's ambitious summer tentpole "Van Helsing," which already looks a bit like a conglom in search of a movie." Peter Bart reports for Variety.

Screen Media Films has acquired North American rights to Maria Lidon's "Whore." The film is set to screen next month at the Tribeca Film Festival.

New Line has acquired North American rights to "Vera Drake," the new film from Mike Leigh. The film stars Imelda Staunton (Bright Young Things, Shakespeare in Love) alongside Jim Broadbent, Heather Craney and Phillip Davis.

"Another reason to love Sofia Coppola: She had the good sense (and stubbornness) to refuse to do any more interviews while in Japan. Judging by her news-conference comments, she is better at making her films than talking about them -- no crime, that -- so it was a smart move to delegate the explaining part to her producer, Ross Katz," Giovanni Fazio speaks with the "Lost in Translation" producer about filming in Japan and reacts to critics of the film who called it "racist."

"A copy of Rudolph Valentino's silent film "Beyond the Rocks" has been found in the Netherlands, becoming the only known existing print of the 1922 classic, the Amsterdam Film Museum said Saturday."

"What he (John Lowry) is doing will make a DVD look nearly as sharp and detailed as a 35-millimeter film print. It will produce images with six times the resolution of today's high-definition television sets. In video quality, it could turn home theater into a true rival of the neighborhood cineplex," Fred Kaplan takes a lookat the possible future for DVDs.

Moviehouse, the London-based sales company announced today that it has picked up the international rights to two films, the doc "Overnight", by Mark Brian Smith and Tony Montana, and Israeli hit "Nina's Tragedies" by Savi Gabizon. Both will be on sale in the Cannes Market next month.

Arenas Entertainment has picked up the U.S. rights to the recent Mexican hit, "Nicotina," according to Variety. The film, winner of multiple Ariels in Mexico, stars Diego Luna and will be released with 100 prints in May.

Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill, Volume 2", from Miramax, debuted at number 1 this weekend, earning more than $25.5 million in its first weekend of release according to box office estimates. "The Punisher" from Lions Gate made an estimated $14 million and was at number 2.

The Vision Forum, Inc.® has announced the first annual San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival and Jubilee Awards. The event will host independent Christian film shorts produced by a new generation of Christian filmmakers, including home educators, film students of all ages, and independent professionals. The festival will feature film screenings, cultural events, special classes, and workshops with directors and filmographers. For more information, visit the festival site.

The Roxanne T. Mueller Award for Best Feature Film (audience choice award) goes to "Born into Brothels" directed by Ross Kauffman & Zana Briski (USA). The winner of the $10,000 cash prize for the CIFF Central and Eastern European Film Competition was "The Stroll" (Progulka) directed by Alexei Uchitel (Russia). For more information, visit their site.

Marco Mueller, the new head of the Venice Film Festival (Sept. 1 - 11, 2004), announced Friday that he plans to pare down the event, cutting the number of features from 130 to about 60, according to a report today in ScreenDaily. Mueller said that the event will return to a single competition this year; the Critics Week and retrospective sidebar will remain as is.

"The LAPD has made the first arrests in California under a new state law that makes camcorder recording of movies a criminal act. According to AT&T Labs, 77% of popular movies being illegally traded online were leaked by Hollywood insiders." Ben Fritz reports.

The Angelika Film Center & Café, North Dallas‚ first art-house cinema and café, opens on June 23, 2004. The five-screen boutique cinema will be devoted to independent and specialty film. Go to their site for more information.

The Hamptons International Film Festival is accepting entries for its 12th annual festival, October 20 - 24. Eligible submissions include feature length fiction (70 minutes and over), documentaries (50 minutes and over) and short films (under 40 minutes). Juried awards include the Golden Starfish Award for Fiction Feature ($180,000 in-kind goods and services), documentary ($10,000 cash/in-kind) and short film ($5,000). Other awards include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize in Science and Technology ($25,000), The Kodak Award for Best Cinematographer ($6,000 in-kind), the Zicherman Family Foundation Award for Best Screenwriter ($5,000), the Brizzolara Family Inspirational Film Award ($5,000) and the Artbridge Best Original Score Award ($3,500). Graduate and undergraduate awards are given to six student filmmakers who receive $1,000 each. Visit their website for guidelines and an appl