This was taken in a New York City club last night.

For the memories it conjured up of the first time I watched Come Drink With Me or Five Deadly Venoms, for both its incredible innovation in animation and its use of already honed techniques, for the most glorious animated new school action sequences I've ever seen - worthy of Luc Besson or the best of Michael Bay, for its unabashed ability to never lose steam and always be entertaining for all ages and, last but definitely not least, for its casting of Jackie Chan as a monkey, I loved loved loved Kung Fu Panda and I feel it was completely worthy of both its slot in Cannes and your entire $16 to see it in IMAX. Run, don't walk.

In continuing with a trend being utilized recently by artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, Girl Talk has released his new album, Feed the Animals, this week in a "pay what you want" internet fashion. And may I say myself that it is FANTASTIC! Check it out.

For more on the power of Girl Talk, see this fantastic real-time audience reaction video shot by indieWIRE's own Eugene Hernandez:

First item up: Submit your film to Woodstock! Seriously, we would love to consider your film for our festival. Every year, I meet a ton of talented filmmakers in November and December who say, "Man, I wish I had thought to submit to your festival. I'm hearing such good things from everyone who was there." Don't let that be you. I promise you a fantastic festival-going experience.

To submit, just follow this link. Here are some testimonials:

"I've covered and participated in many festivals, and Woodstock is unique in its combination of cinematic sophistication, user-friendly scale and down-home hospitality. It's arguably the closest thing the East Coast has to the Telluride Film Festival, the ne plus ultra of North American boutique festivals. Both have super-intelligent programming and draw a who-who' of independent filmmaking because of their reputations for collegial conviviality, yet both are small enough to all filmgoers and filmmakers to intermingle free throughout the weekend." Godfrey Cheshire, Moving Midway in The New York Times

"It was the nicest festival experience I had this year. The festival is well programmed and beautifuly run... I look forward to returning in 2008." Ted Sarandos– Chief Content Officer, Netflix Inc.

Second item of business: A lot has happened for our little production company Tiger Industry Films since we last checked in. We've launched our website. Also, our first feature, Big Dreams Little Tokyo, is getting its DVD release this summer, courtesy of Echo Bridge Home Entertainment. Presales being accepted on Amazon now. Pick up your copy and keep an eye out for more festival showings of our second feature Natural Causes this fall.

But, enough of this self-serving blogging. More "journalistic" entries to come soon as I will attempt to defend Yeast, Downloading Nancy and Eric Kohn in the coming days. Also, I'll put together some kind of Cannes report. I promise.

Thanks again for reading.

In Cannes?!

Okay, I promise I will stop doing this, but this one just seemed too stupid to not marvel over. As Karina Longworth pointed out to me yesterday, "Cannes this year might be a series of 'Really?''s." Though, a lot of the selection announced so far looks fantastic, this just feels kind of ridiculous.

So, maybe it's just me and I missed something, but it seems like everyone is blogging about the Cannes poster and no one is talking about this amazing tidbit: Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? is the closing night film in Cannes 2008. No comment on the quality of the filmmaking, but I'm sure there's a couple other people out there that are just as shocked as I.

One of my favorite moments of this week has been screening The Duplass Brothers' new comedy "Baghead" in Philadelphia The packed house was completely receptive with both laughter and screams (appropriately) and it made me excited to be presenting movies to an audience again. If you haven't seen it, you should try to catch it during the late summer theatrical release.

Mysteriously enough, I woke up this morning and the Sony Classics website had removed the title of "Baghead" from their page for the film.

Seems like Tribeca has caught on too.

Could it be that within the coming hours news will break about a legal scandal involving the title of the film? Stay tuned and respond if you have any info.

Keep an eye on the woman on the left. She has a particular misunderstanding of chromakey.

Thanks to Jason Michelitch for the link and that last beautiful tidbit.

Today is truly a sad day in chip music because tonight the glorious Sabrepulse is playing his final show in Newcastle. I think I can speak for both the Natural Causes and Blip Festival families when I say that we are all at least a little saddened by this loss. We at Natural Causes discovered him during our editing phase, listened to his music a lot and never got a chance to see him perform. Below I've included the video that the Blip Festival guys over at 2 Player Productions shot of him in the fall. If you are anywhere near that UK show tonight, beg, borrow and steal to get in. You won't be dissapointed. Peace out, Ash.

SabrePulse // Blip Festival 2007: The Videos from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

It should also be noted that in my pre-screening for SXSW, I realized that this might be the strongest year ever for narratives here. For the first time that I can remember in the years I've been doing this, I am able to say that a US festival has better narratives than docs. Way to go Matt and Jarod. I promise I will get to blogging more in detail about them as soon as I get back.

I also took some time out last night to go see the Alaskan rock band Portugal the Man. Mind blowing. Portugal is playing two free sets today and I would highly recommend discovering them for yourself.

Anyway, I can't wait to wrap up my last two days of SXSW 2008. It looks like we're going to go out with a bang . . . More on that soon.

Natural Causes screens one final time tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM at the Alamo Lamar South. I know it's hangover hour, but if you haven't had a chance to see it and you are still in Austin, we would love your presence in whatever state you see fit. Otherwise, we are hitting Sarasota and Boston soon, so get ready!

P.S.: Since I've been trying to juggle like eight things at once and haven't had a chance to see nearly as much as I would like here, if any SXSW filmmakers would like me to consider their movie for Woodstock and want to send me a screener, they can email me at lerman.michael at gmail. I'd love to catch up.

Opening Night - Young@Heart

Closing Night - Patti Smith: Dream of Life

Centerpiece Screening - American Teen

Centerpiece Screening - The Deal

Centerpiece Screening - The Forbidden Kingdom

Centerpiece Screening - Son of Rambow

Centerpiece Screening - The Visitor

Afghan Muscles

Choose Connor

I Just Didn't Do It

Mirageman

Night Train

Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America

The Sun Also Rises

Timecrimes

You can catch all those and many more great films in Philadelphia, April 4th -17th. Please join us.

Truncated Discussion:

Response:

Natural Causes screens again today at 4:00 PM at the Alamo South Lamar 1. If you get a chance, come by and check it out.

Also, I haven't had a chance to see TOO many movies because I've been super busy, but aside from the ones I've already blogged about, here are some SXSW movies that you should not miss the second or third screenings of:
Yeast
My Effortless Brilliance
Explicit Ills
Nerdcore Rising

More on that later . . .