"In an irony even Mickey Mouse would find hard to miss, America is about to weigh two wildly contrasting versions of itself in theaters this weekend as the Walt Disney Co. debuts its own foray into documentary filmmaking right alongside Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' -- which the studio refused to release," John M. Hubbell reports for the San Francisco Chronicle.

"'The Corporation" is a monster movie, and nobody, faced with so much alarming testimony, would want to defend Godzilla as he smashes buildings and tramples streetcars," A.O. Scott writes for the New York Times.

"U.S. cinematographers and other film industry workers have asked the Bush administration to take action against Canadian, Australian and other government filmmaking subsidies that they say have lured away tens of thousands of jobs," Reuters reports.

Sundance Deadlines: U.S. and international short films deadline is September 3
U.S. feature films, documentaries and international feature films deadline is September 24.
AMERICAN FILM COMPETITION:
American films to be eligible for the Documentary and Dramatic competition must be world premieres.
New WORLD CINEMA COMPETITION:
There is a new jury competition for international films ( any film made outside of the US). Films will compete in two categories, World Cinema and World Cinema-documentaries. These international films must only be a US premiere to qualify, but special priority will be given to world premieres.
For more information and a submission form, visit their site.

"Sundance Institute announced the six participants selected for the 7th Annual Sundance Institute Composers Lab, which begins July 20 and runs until August 4 in Sundance, Utah.  This year, Composers Lab Fellows are Peter Fitzpatrick, Aiko Fukushima, Joseph Julian Gonzalez, Gary Louris, Raz Mesinai, and Michael Torke.  During the two-week lab, Fellows participate in workshops and creative exercises under the guidance of leading film composers and film music professionals.  The Composers Lab participants also collaborate with filmmakers from the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program to explore the process of writing music for film and to create accompanying scores for scenes shot by the Filmmaker Fellows during the Institute’s Filmmakers Lab. Visit their site for more information.

The Toronto International Film Festival will debut on September 9th with Istvan Szabo's "Being Julia". The film, written by Oscar winner Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist"), stars Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons and was produced by Robert Lantos.

IFP/New York announced today that it is expanding the IFP Gotham Awards gala to include two new awards at the ceremony on Wednesday, December 1st at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers in New York City. The IFP Gotham Awards, New York’s annual tribute and awards ceremony celebrating visionary filmmaking, will move to December from its previous September date. In addition, two new categories- Best Feature and Best Documentary- will round out the program with official endorsements from New York’s film community for the best films of 2004. A host will be announced shortly. Visit their site for more information.

"Lars von Trier tells it like this: In the mid-1970s, long before he became a famous film director -- the enfant terrible of Denmark and the co- founder of the influential Dogma 95 collective -- he was a college student interning in the archives of the Danish Film Institute," John McMutrie takes a look at "The Five Obstructions" in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The release of "Fahrenheit 9/11" will grow significantly this week, according to distribution partner Lions Gate Films. The film will expand to 1,184 theaters tomorrow, and on Friday its theater count will jump to 1,710.

The quote "Everyone in the Country should see this film!" by critic Richard Roeper has been banned by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) from use in ads for "Fahrenheit 9/11," according to a statement released by Lions Gate Films. The concern was apparently that the quote would encourage the violation of the 'R' rating. During a conference call today, MPAA president Jack Valenti spoke with Lions Gate's Tom Ortenberg, IFC's Jonathan Sehring, Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper. Lions Gate reported in its statement that Ebert & Roeper "spoke forcefully in allowing the quote to be used with the 'Fahrenheit 9/11' advertising materials but were denied by the MPAA." The distributors confirmed that they will abide by the decision.

[Statements about the decision are published below.]

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 127 people to join their organization, releasing today a complete list of those who were asked to become a part of The Academy.

[The complete list of invitees is available here.]

With final weekend numbers in, "Fahrenheit 9/11" topped the indieWIRE: BOT, tracking independent and specialty films by their per screen average. The film made a total of $23.9 million on 868 screens (a jump from the weekend estimate of $21.8). The film had a per screen average of $27,558 and has earned more than $24 million since debuting last weekend.

[indieWIRE will publish a full report on this weekend's box office grosses in Wednesday's weekly BOT article.]

"The Catholic Church has condemned a documentary linking celibacy to child abuse scandals within the clergy," BBC reports.

"The Russian film 'Svoi (Ours),' won the top prize at the 26th Moscow International Film Festival, which concluded on Sunday," A.P. reports.

Cleland — a veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam, then went on to share six years in the Senate with Mr. Kerry — expertly wove together lines from the candidate's stump speech, a tribute to Mr. Kerry's courage and his own war story. Mr. Butler, a photographer-filmmaker who has called Mr. Kerry a close friend since they met at a summer barbecue 40 years back... Jodi Wilgoren reports the New Yok Times.

Writer Manohla Dargis has joined the New York Times as the paper's chief movie critic alongside A.O. Scott, according to Variety. Dargis, is leaving the L.A. Times, but will remain based in Los Angeles.

The 28th Frameline, San Francisco's International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival closed this weekend with Q. Allan Brocka winning the Levi's first feature prize for "Eating Out," while Jim DeSeve's "Tying the Knot" won Stu & Dave's Excellent Documentary Award. The audience award for best feature went to Rodney Evans' "Brother to Brother", while the doc audience prize went to Sonia Slutsky for "Drag Kings on Tour."

Lions Gate is estimating an opening weekend gross of $21.8 million for the debut of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," placing the movie at number one ahead of the opening of "White Chicks" (which made an estimated $19.6 million). On 868 screens, the film earned an estimated per screen average of $25,115.

"This film has played so well and so strongly in middle America, with people coming to see the film and leaving the film deeply affected," Michael Moore said this afternoon on a conference call with journalists. "Its just been an incredible thing to see."

The estimate tops the entire gross of Moore's previous film, "Bowling for Columbine," which made $21.5 million in its theatrical release.

Lions Gate Films is estimating a $21.8 million opening weekend for the debut of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11".

In Los Angeles yesterday, organizers anounced the winners at the 2004 Los Angeles Film Festival. Ferenc Toth's "Unknown Soldier" won the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature, including a $50,000 cash award. The Target Documentary Award for Best Documentary Feature, with a $25,000 cash award, went to Jonathan Caouette’s "Tarnation".

Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" expanded to 868 theaters yesterday, taking in an estimated $8.2 million on Friday, box office analyst Brandon Gray reported today. In an early estimate on Friday, Variety put the number at $6 - $8 million.

"From all indications, the numbers that are coming in are proving to be nothing short of historic," commented IFC Entertainment President Jonathan Sehring in a statement. “The results we are seeing prove that content will always win out when challenged by politics. We look forward to the final results at the end of the weekend, and plan to continue with our aggressive distribution strategy in the weeks to come."

Michael Moore's website is collecting stories from the opening night of "Fahrenheit 9/11" at theaters across the country:

The activities and ideas have ranged from street theater to buying up groups of tickets and giving them, for free, to people who are voting age but do not vote. We thought we'd share just a few of the festivities happening around the country, based on the emails you have sent us.

"Moore film fires up left and incenses right, adding cultural fuel to fight for presidency," George Younge takes a look from the other side of the Atlantic at the opening of "Fahrenheit 9/11" in the U.S.

"From 'Go Fish' to 'The Safety of Objects' to 'The L Word,' director Rose Troche stretches the boundaries of queer cinema," B Ruby Rich profiles Troche in the New York Times.

"Michael Moor's critics are turning up the temperature with a book and documentary intended to debunk his methods as the filmmaker's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' hits theaters," David Germain reports for the Associated Press.

"The 24th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival opens July 22 with "Wondrous Oblivion,'' a British film about a cricket-obsessed 11-year-old boy, and closes July 29 with "Nina's Tragedies,'' in which a 14-year-old Israeli lad struggles with his parents' divorce and a hopeless crush on his aunt," Carla Meyer reports for the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Attacked by the right as anti-military and praised by the left for its critique of the Bush administration, it is being marketed as the summer's must-see cinematic controversy, both entertaining and contentious," Felicia R Lee reports for the New York Times.

"Filipinos know all about the breathtaking shoe and jewelry collections Imelda Marcos amassed during two decades as first lady, but a Manila court is making them wait to watch a film she says makes a joke of her life," Reuters reports.

"Directed by seasoned documentary maker William Karel, the 90-minute film could scarcely be more different to Moore's Palme d'Or winner. Karel's style is sober, eschewing humor and stunts in favor of heavyweight interviews. 'Le Monde' is a scathing attack on Bush's first 1,000 days in power, and chronicles the first family's alleged links with the oil and arms industries," Shiraz Sidhva looks at the film in the Hollywood Reporter.

"A record 20,000 people who attended the fifth annual Maui Film Festival honored Zach Braff's 'Garden State' with the award for best feature film," A.P. reports.

"That Mr. Moore does not like Mr. Bush will hardly come as news. 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' which opens in Manhattan today and in the rest of the country on Friday, is many things: a partisan rallying cry, an angry polemic, a muckraking inquisition into the use and abuse of power. But one thing it is not is a fair and nuanced picture of the president and his policies," A.O. Scott reviews for the New York Times.

The MPAA rejected the appeal on behalf of "Fahrenheit 9/11," meaning that the film will be released with an 'R' rating. IFC Entertainment President Jonathan Sehring said in a statement, "IFC is disappointed and strongly disagrees with the MPAA's ruling, but we do respect the process and appreciate that the MPAA listened with open minds to our appeal." Moore issued a statement Tuesday encouraging teenagers to sneak into his new film.

The third largest movie theater chain in the world has been sold (by Onex Corporation and Oaktree Capital) to a new corporation that has been formed by Bain Capital, The Carlyle Group and Spectrum Equity Investors, according to an announcement. Loews comprises more than 200 theaters and 2,200 screens worldwide. [Interestingly, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," which will open in a number of Loews theaters this week, is highly critical of the chain's new owner The Carlyle Group, for the company's activities in the defense industry and its links to George Bush, Sr. and the bin Laden Family.]

"The Hunting of the President" from Regent Releasing, a new doc about the right-wing attacks on Bill Clinton's presidency, debuted at number one on the indieWIRE:BOT, which tracks independent and specialty films by their per screen average. The film made $23,298 on two screens, for an average of $11,649. Complete figures and analysis will be published in indieWIRE, as always, on Wednesday.

The sixth annual Provincetown International Film Festival ended on Sunday and announced the HBO audience awards. Michael Mayer's "A Home At The End Of The World" won best narrative feature, Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller's "Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train" won best doc, and best short was Kerry Weldon's "Transit."

"Mr. Moore's previous films generated a cottage industry of conservative commentators eager to prove sloppiness and exaggeration in his films; a handful of mainstream critics have also found flaws. But if 'Fahrenheit 9/11' attracts the audience Mr. Moore and his distributors are predicting, Mr. Moore may face an onslaught of fact-checking unlike anything he — or any other documentary filmmaker — has ever experienced," Philip Shenon reports for the New York Times.

"A film by a German-Turkish director that triggered a scandal in February dominated the German Film Prize on Friday, scooping up five awards in the world's most lucrative film contest. 'Head-On,' a film about the struggles of a badly mismatched Turkish couple in Germany, won five "Lola" awards in the 2.9 million euro ($3.3 million) competition, taking best film, best actor, best actress, best director and best camera," Erik Kirschbaum reports for Reuters.

"Young black filmmakers are traveling to northern Texas this week as organizers of the Juneteenth Film Festival search for the next Spike Lee," the A.P. reports.

"Not just any couple gets an Academy Award-winning director to shoot their wedding video. Then again, the Feb. 12 ceremony uniting the first ladies of the gay rights movement, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, wasn't just any wedding," Lisa Leff reports for the Associated Press.

Karan Razdan, the director of the controversial Hindi film Girlfriend, has said the debate it has provoked is healthy for India," BBC reports.

"Writer/director Woody Allen will shoot his first movie in Britain this summer with help from a who's who of local acting talent, including Kate Winslet (news), Emily Mortimer and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, the film's producers said Thursday," Stuar Kemp writes for the Hollywood Reporter.

"Playwright and film-maker Neil Labute gives 10 reasons why he'd rather direct cheap plays than Hollywood blockbusters," in The Guardian.

"Communist Vietnam is sending 13 of its best film directors to Hollywood to pick up some lessons in the world movie-making capital as the government promotes more commercial productions," Reuters reports.

"More than a thousand people turned out for the world premiere of 'The Hunting of the President,' a film claiming to expose 'the 10-year campaign to destroy Bill Clinton,'" Caryn Rousseau reports for A.P.

"The English director Mike Hodges has made so few films he should be legendary. Mr. Hodges's new movie, 'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead' (opening on Friday), is just his ninth feature in 33 years, and even that total is a little misleading," Terrence Rafferty reports on the director for the New York Times.

"'The Motorcycle Diaries,' a portrait of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara as a young romantic, was being shown in Cuba beginning Monday as the director and several of the film's actors marked what would have been the late revolutionary's 76th birthday," A.P. reports.

"McDonald's took its beef with a documentary maker who criticizes the fast food giant to Australian television screens Tuesday in a nationwide campaign biting back at suggestions its food is unhealthy," Jamie Tarabay reports in the Associated Press.

Fox Searchlight's release of "Napolean Dynamite" was the top film on the indieWIRE: BOT this weekend. The ranking of the top specialty or independent films by per screen average saw "Dynamite" in the top spot with $116,666 on 6 screens in its debut, for an average of $19,444. The complete list and analysis will be published on Wednesday in indieWIRE.

"The strong presence of works about gay marriage at Frameline28 -- the 28th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival -- illustrates how quickly filmmakers can become part of a movement," Carla Meyer reports.

"Hardline Hindus hurled stones and damaged cinema halls in India Monday to stop the screening of a Bollywood film about a relationship between two women, saying it violated Indian culture," Reuters reports.

"Filmmaker Michael Moore had footage of prisoner abuse in Iraq long before the atrocities captured international attention, but decided to stay quiet until his new movie came out. Now he's questioning that decision," the Associated Press reports.