I've never attended the Woodstock Film Festival, but I've always wanted to be there. The festival's vibe and programming always felt like a kindred spirit to what we did at SXSW. So, it's with great honor to share the news that our documentary, Trinidad, will screen as part of this year's festival. It will be our fourth festival screening so far, but our first in this part of the country. Very exciting. We join an impressive list of films, announced this week. Plus, I'm going to be part of the Narrative Feature Jury which also includes Mark Duplass, Ted Hope, and Mary Stuart Masterson.

Check out the program of events and speakers at this year's Doc Corner at the Toronto International Film Festival. Yours truly will be available on Sunday, September 7, from 2 to 4 p.m. with Sky Sitney of SILVERDOCS. Meanwhile, Cinetic's Dana O'Keefe will be holding court on Wednesday, September 10, at 3 p.m. along with Mark Ankner from Endeavor. The discussions take place at 5th Elementt on Bay Street. The Doc Corner program welcomes "all documentary Industry delegates, sales agents, buyers, producers and directors. Doc Corner is perfect for networking and holding casual meetings."

Danny Boyle, one of the great underrated directors of this era, seems to have another excellent film on his hands. This comes in the form of Slumdog Millionaire, which had its premiere at the Telluride Film Festval over the weekend. The reviews are enthusiastic and promising, with some journalists hinting at potential Oscar prospects. Can't wait to see it.

On top of the excitement for the new film, indieWIRE reports on some brave new words that Boyle shared during a panel at Telluride. The subject was the future of film distribution, and iW's Eugene Hernandez writes:

Calling his colleagues on the doom and gloom scenarios they exhibited for much of the discussion, "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle implored his fellow panelists "to remember the younger generation". "We've got be very careful moaning about our livelihoods being taken away from us. We've got to earn them," Boyle said, later adding, "What we all fear is that we will lose our jobs."

If you're attending this year's Toronto International Film Festival, stop by 5th Elementt Restaurant (just down the street from the Sutton) on Saturday, September 6, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. That's because Janet Brown and I are representing Cinetic Rights Management, on a panel called "Alternative Distribution Update" as part of the "Meet With..." series happening at the festival. Click here for more information on the whole program of panels, which are open to all Sales & Industry and Guest Relations Pass holders. I'm also doing something at the TIFF Doc Corner, but I'll share that later.

News from Austin's annual Fantastic Fest: Kevin Smith's porn comedy, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, will open the festival on Thursday, September 18 at the famous Paramount Theatre. Plus, after the screening, the fest will host the "Air Sex World Championships" directly from the classic stage. Click here for the full announcement and details.

Our lovely documentary, Trinidad, will have its Manhattan premiere on Tuesday, September 16, as part of the 30th annual Independent Film Week (formerly known as the IFP Market). We're honored and excited to be one of the only feature films screening for the public during this event. It should be a lot of fun, and guess what: it's an outdoor screening! Here are details straight from the IFP:

Trinidad (86 min.) directed by PJ Raval and Jay Hodges, alumni of IFP's 2006 Independent Filmmaker Lab.
Premiered at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival in June, the documentary provides a fascinating look at Trinidad, Colorado's transformation from Wild West outpost to "sex change capital of the world.

(September 16th, 8:30pm, Hudson River Park, 10th Avenue between 14th and 15th. FREE and open to the public.)

Be there! And for those not attending Independent Film Week, we'll have some upcoming festival screenings to announce soon.

Speaking of festival Web sites, I'm pleased to see that the Toronto International Film Festival has re-launched their popular blogs. The ones I find myself checking often are: the Doc Blog by porgrammer Thom Powers, and the Midnight Madness Blog by programmer Colin Geddes. It's already time for TIFF 2008?

Cinemocracy, an event hosted by the Denver Film Festival, has posted its finalists for an online film competition. Why? The Democratic National Convention is taking place in Denver this year, and the Film Festival (with its parent Film Society) have taken the admirable initiative to get a politically-minded discourse going. People like you are invited to vote, and the winners receive: a free trip to Denver, a pass to the Convention, and a screening at legendary Red Rocks. Not bad. And, you get to be a part of this year's historic Presidential election. You don't have to be a Democrat to sumbit your film, but something tells me you would have a unpleasant time attending if you're a Republican and you won.

My wrap-up of this year's BRITDOC festival is now online at indieWIRE. A great year, a good time. I look forward to coming back. But that's it for now.

On Friday evening, TV and film comedy hero Larry Charles helped close the third annual BRITDOC with a Conversation masterclass at the O'Reilly Theatre in Keble College. Popular British TV satirist Jamie Campbell moderated the discussion, which also included clips from Charles' upcoming documentary with Bill Maher, Religulous. The feature will screen at the Toronto Film Festival in September (after a sneak preview at Charles friend Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival next week) and come to US theaters courtesy of Lionsgate in October, but attendees were treated to selections from the film as well as the director's thoughts on its very controversial subject: international religion.

The film, which follows comedian Bill Maher's travels around the globe as he explores and investigates the people and places behind some of the biggest religions, is Charles' first feature since the massively popular doc/fiction hybrid, Borat. Prior to that film, Charles made his name as a TV writer and producer for shows like Seinfeld, The Tick, Mad About You, Dilbert, Entourage, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. As he discussed on the panel, it was all this work in TV comedy that finally forced him to experiment with documentary style elements.

"I think doing Seinfeld, as great as it was and as much fun as it was, the artifice of a sitcom started feeling too contrived," he told the audience at BRITDOC. "I got very tired of that. I started seeking out things that would help me find a deeper truth."

Enter shows like HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm or adapting Sacha Baron Cohen's popular TV character, Borat, to the big screen. For Curb, there is no script and the episodes are largely based on whatever series creator/star Larry David wants to do at the last minute. However, it's very different than the spontaneous real-world moments that came from placing Cohen's fictional character in front of real people.

He wants to put Larry David in real life situations with real people, but “[Curb is] a very controlled environment and even though the scenes aren’t written [beforehand] there is a structure. With Borat, we were in constant danger and there were constant threats. There were probably over 50 police incidents. It is the documentary experience, but with a fictional element.”

Now, Religulous on the other hand, is the first true documentary feature in the filmography of Larry Charles. Both he and Bill Maher found they were dealing with many of the same questions about spirituality and the institution of religion. Two like-minded trouble-makers, Charles and Maher set out to make a very funny film about some very serious realities. Among the clips previewed at BRITDOC, we saw the opening title sequence (set to The Who's "The Seeker") which includes clips of vintage religion epics. We also saw a funny look at the Holy Land Experience, a Christianity "amusement park" in Florida that features song-and-dance productions as well as a tourist-friendly crucifixion every day (as if it was the nightly Disneyland parade of lights). And, while it is a documentary and it is Bill Maher's show, the clips we saw prove that Charles has done a good job of keeping the pace brisk and using comedic editing to sustain the laughs.

On the subject of editing, one audience member asked how much we can believe the truth in his films if he's trying to go for a laugh from an unknowing subject. "I won’t violate the tenor of the conversation, to get a laugh," he responded, noting that in the case of Borat and its many lawsuits by interviewees from the film, they never misrepresented anyone's views or statements for the sake of comedy. Plus, as he noted, they're working with hundreds of hours of footage which allows for the chance to stumble upon something very raw and funny.

Asked if he would ever allow himself to be in front of someone else's camera in that way, Charles dryly responded, "I would never sign a release form. Or, at least I would read it."

More on Larry Charles and BRITDOC, and a proper wrap-up in indieWIRE, coming soon.

As the third annual BRITDOC festival starts to enter its final day, there has been much discussion and enthusiasm for the near future of international documentary. The festival is almost more about panels, pitches, and social gatherings, than it is about discovering new completed films. The weather has been terrific, while Year One was marked by a hellish heatwave and Year Two was known for a torrential downpour. Year Three has been delightfully brisk, which both Londoners and Americans have enjoyed during the days at Keble College. Some more photos:

The third annual BRITDOC Festival in Oxford, UK is at its midpoint. Films have screened, new projects have been pitched, croquet has been played. I'm saving most of my thoughts for an indieWIRE piece to come later, but I will say that I'm happy to have finally seen James Marsh's acclaimed documentary Man On Wire. "You haven't seen it yet?" was the question I got all day leading up to the screening. No, I hadn't, but oh boy what a magnificent film. Loved it. It opens in America this weekend, and the UK on August 1. See it. And, now, for some BRITDOC photos from the last day or so:

The Americans are coming, the Americans are coming. A group of us landed Tuesday morning in London, en route to Oxford, for the third annual BRITDOC Festival at Keble College. The weather is much better this year than when I attended in 2006, and a heatwave had hit the town. Mildly jet-lagged, but ready to roll, BRITDOC 2008 here we come. A few preview pieces on the festival have just been published. Among them, the Times Online looks at the rock doc theme:

A gravel-voiced man sings Coldplay’s "Fix You" as if his heart will burst. A drummer plays "Wild Thing" as if he wants to smash his kit. Young men writhe in ecstasy as a band belts out Metallica tracks. It’s a scene played out a million times in the rock era – except that the gravel voice belongs to an 80-year-old, the drummer has Down’s syndrome and the metalheads are in Baghdad, where Iraqis have been shot for speaking English. They appear in three remarkable films which have their UK premieres at the Britdoc festival next week.

The Independent chats with BRITDOC honoree Larry Charles (director of doc hybrid Borat, as well as Bill Maher's upcoming religion doc Religulous):

The 52-year-old funny man is set to appear at London's BRITDOC festival, kicking off on Wednesday. He is down to talk about Religulous – a documentary about religion crafted with fellow veteran US comic Bill Maher – its title a fusion between the words "religion" and "ridiculous". The movie sees Maher travelling to numerous religious destinations, including Jerusalem and the Vatican, to interview a raft of outlandish zealots, including "Jews for Jesus", polygamists and Satanists. Its release is scheduled for the US in October, with other countries to follow.

"This has been a subject that I have been interested in since I was a child. Since then, it has variously consumed and obsessed me. As it turned out, Bill was obsessed by the same subject," he explains. "My grandfather went to temple every day and was a very pious man. Me, after my bar mitzvah, I was done with it. My father taught me how to be a jokester about it all, though. He would sit there during Passover and make jokes and puns with Hebrew words."

The Rome Film Festival has announced that Oscar-winning director Michael Cimino will attend this year's event, slated for October 22-31. Really? The Deer Hunter director has been a mystery in recent years, He was spotted at Cannes in 2007, having made a short film for the Chacun son cinéma 60th anniversary program. Before that, however, he hadn't directed a film since the bomb Sunchaser in 1996. Before that? The Desperate Hours remake in 1990, which was also a flop. Of course no flop in the 1990s met the same kind of legendary status as his 1980 disaster opus, Heaven's Gate.

Cimino has stayed relatively quiet for a number of years, so in festival programming terms, his public appearance is a coup. In a Vanity Fair article earlier this year, writer Peter Biskind also documented the filmmaker's reclusive nature. While discussing the controversy around his 1978 Oscar-winner The Deer Hunter, Biskind writes:

Cimino, who has not directed a feature since 1996, and who has been the focus of gossip concerning his alleged desire to change his gender, could not be reached for comment. (His representatives said he was in China scouting locations for a new film.)

Based on an IMDB listing, this film appears to be Man's Fate, based on a novel by André Malraux. Hopefully we'll know more after this year's Rome Film Festival.

I've attended Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival twice in my life, and will sadly miss out this year. But, my wallet will be there for a - hopefully - short time. Alamo Drafthouse owner and Fantastic Fest chief Tim League made a stop in Manhattan on his way to Montreal last night, and I happily offered him my meager sofa as a place for him to sleep. He did, it was good seeing him. Then, I get up this morning to a text message that says something along the lines of "Damn, I accidentally picked up your wallet when I left this morning and I'm already at JFK. Can I Fedex it?"

Granted, this is not the worst thing that could have happened to my wallet. I think it's pretty amusing, in that "no way!" kinda way. And, why do I bother blogging about it? Well, because I'd otherwise be at lunch right now... but I have no cash or credit cards.

The third annual BRITDOC Festival in Oxford, UK has announced its lineup of films and speakers/events. I'm attending this year for the second time since the festival's creation. I'm looking forward to seeing Keble College, enjoying some UK documentaries and meeting a bunch of filmmakers and industry. It's usually a very good time with a very doc-focused agenda that bridges North American and European interests with great ease.

The finalists for all five categories of this year's SXSWclick Festival, have been announced. You can view all the finalists (15 total) online now. Plus, you can vote for your favorite. In addition, a panel of judges will also tally their thoughts for a Grand Jury Prize winner. SXSWclick here!

New York's Asian American International Film Festival will begin on July 10. The line-up looks great, and I'm serving some jury duty on the Emerging Documentary Directors section. More on that later, but check out the site for now. The festival opens with Wayne Wang's artful Princess of Nebraska, a social experiment of a film that feels even more timely with the Beijing Olympics on the horizon.

IFC Films and Blockbuster Video hosted a party on Tuesday night in L.A., at the terrific Sunset Marquis hotel (home to the annual SXSW Music Festival L.A. party). It was a really pleasant affair, honoring some of IFC's films at the Los Angeles Film Festival (Medicine For Melancholy, The Pleasure of Being Robbed, etc), as well as uniting more familiar/friendly faces that I'd seen under one roof the entire trip. Here are some moments:

I'm now back from the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival, and it was a great time. Very busy, but really great. I was pulling double-duty: speaking on various panels about Cinetic Rights Management and keeping an eye on all things Trinidad. Somewhere in between, I took a few photos:

I had the pleasure of seeing Tomas Alfredson's Swedish vampire drama Let The Right One In, Saturday night at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Acquired by Magnolia Pictures at the Berlin Film Festival in February, the film will thankfully see an American release in coming months. I didn't know what to expect from it: is it a genre film or a Swedish coming-of-age drama? Turns out, it's both. Following the grade school troubles of young Oskar, the film takes a dark bent once a new girl, Eli, moves into the neighbohood with a mysterious older man. While Eli sleeps all day, her father figure ventures into the snow to retrieve fresh human blood for her consumption. Meanwhile, she strikes up a friendship with the equally nocturnal Oskar.

Alfredson's film is crisply photographed and precisely directed. The events play out with cautious observation, building the tension up until the amazing final scene. Eli teaches Oskar how to defend himself from schoolyard bullies, but it's familiar material handled with a fresh spin. As a viewer, you often forget that you're watching a vampire film during the more tender moments, and vice versa. Expect this one to unite fanboys and arthouse critics, not unlike what we saw with Pan's Labyrinth.

On Monday, I caught Sean Baker's third feature, Prince of Broadway, having its world premiere in the strong LAFF Narrative Competition. Baker's film follows a Manhattan counterfeit hustler named Lucky, who makes ends meet by selling imitation sneakers and handbags. One day, an old girlfriend drops an 18-month-old baby in his hands, claiming it's his son and that he must take care of him now. More than just a remodeled version of Baby Boom, Baker's film explores issues of class and race in modern America. Prince Adu (a non-professional first-timer) delivers a great performance as Lucky, an African native living illegally in New York. And, Baker captures the intensity and irreverence of the circumstances with equal parts sadness and humor. It's a tough balance, and a concept that could have easily failed. Instead, Prince of Broadway is an indie must-see.

More photos and thoughts from LAFF, soon...

CineVegas announced its award-winners this weekend, and our Jackpot Jury prize was revealed, going to Rolf Belgum's beautiful and experimental She Unfolds By Day. We also gave special jury prizes to Bill Pullman for his staggering performance in Your Name Here and to the production showmanship of Dark Streets. On a related note, SXSW favorite Beautiful Losers won the fest's documentary jury prize. And, fellow SXSW selection Ano Una won the Proxima Ola jury award. Congrats to all!!

The Los Angeles Film Festival is now in full effect, with screenings and panels and parties happening throughout Westwood Village. Anne Thompson recaps the Opening Night festivities, which had Universal premiering its anticipated actioner, Wanted. On the doc side of things, Jeffrey Wells grabbed a photo of Man On Wire director and subject, in town for their film's L.A. premiere.

I'm now back in New York for a few days, having enjoyed my busy time at the 10th annual CineVegas Film Festival. Stay tuned to see how the entire event comes to an end, as it wraps this upcoming weekend. Thanks to everyone at the festival for such great hospitality and congrats for putting on a wonderful show. Here are some more photos I took:

The 10th annual CineVegas is underway in Sin City, and the first weekend was a typically vibrant affair. As usual, the festival united an impressive array of indie film industry heavyweights for an assortment of cinema, sun, and gambling. I'm on the Jackpot Jury, so I'll save my thoughts on specific films for later, but the winners will be announced on Saturday, June 21 as CineVegas ends what seems like another great year. Here are some photos from the first few days:

Gabriel Fleming's feature, The Lost Coast, walked away with the Narrative Feature Jury Prize at NewFest this past weekend. Very exciting news, especially because we recently signed on at Cinetic Rights Management to represent the film. Coming up next, the film will screen at Outfest in L.A. and Frameline in San Francisco. Check it out!

If you're going to attend the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival, stop by the Film Financing Conference, an all-day event on Saturday, June 21. Not only is it a cool program of panels and discussions, but I'm moderating an exciting session called "The Global Screen: Online Content Distribution." Joining me will be folks from Jaman, Lionsgate, Netflix, and more. The panel is described as such:

From entrepreneurial filmmakers who use the Web to self-distribute their films to online distributors who are amassing large collections from around the globe, there are multiple business models to reach a broad audience and make money on the Web. Key players in this field share their experiences on the Web and provide some insight on the future.

This panel happens at 4:30 p.m., wrapping up the Conference day. We're headlining! :)

I'll be at the 10th annual CineVegas Film Festival this weekend, as part of the event's "Jackpot Jury," watching a program of films that will surely keep us entertained in Sin City. I've attended CineVegas before and it's a great time. I look forward to coming back.

On Saturday night, New York's 20th NewFest hosted a Centerpiece screening of Tina Mascara and Guido Santi's documentary, Chris & Don: A Love Story, which Zeitgeist will release in theaters starting June 13. Afterwards, there was a fun party in Chelsea, a.k.a. my new neighborhood. It's been a sweltering weekend, so everyone was more than ready to stay indoors and enjoy some air conditioning:

Coincidentally, this CNN segment with Paula Zahn serves not as a spoiler for our documentary, Trinidad, but rather as a nice primer to get you tuned in before seeing the feature. The documentary will premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 22, and we hope to see you there. In the meantime, check out this report from last Fall, that touches upon the fascinating story:

Brian Gordon, one of the smartest festival programmers in the game, has announced via e-mail that he is leaving his post as the Artistic Director of the Nashville Film Festival. This seems to be effective immediately. Gordon developed a great reputation at the San Francisco Film Festival before that, where he ran the Golden Gate Awards competition for over a decade. No word yet, on whether or not he's staying in Nashville. Hopefully he stays in the festival industry (even if it's music festivals, which I know he wouldn't mind), because his talents would be missed. I wish him the best of luck.

Laurent Cantet's Entre les murs (The Class) rode a wave of late festival critical acclaim, to win the coveted Palme d'Or tonight in Cannes. The film is still without U.S. distribution, but you can probably expect that to change over the next few weeks. Here's a trailer for the reportedly dialogue-heavy film, without English subtitles:

indieWIRE has the complete list of winners from Cannes. Of note: Benicio del Toro won the Best Actor prize for his titular role in Che. However, as many noted, it's hard to say how his performance will be altered if director Steven Soderbergh does trim major chunks from the 250-minute biopic.

We're happy to report that the "call for entries" for Fantastic Fest submissions is open now! This year's festival is slated for September 18-25 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. As one of the founding programmers for the festival, I hope to hell I get to make it back for the event, but you better believe some amazing films are in store. Harry has the details, so all you genre filmmakers out there, start submitting!

So, the Los Angeles Film Festival has announced its schedule, and Trinidad will have its world premiere on Sunday, June 22, 4:30 p.m. at the Majestic Crest Theatre. This will be followed by two additional screenings on Monday, June 23 (4:30 p.m. at the Mann Festival Theatre) and Friday, June 27 (7:00 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Institute). Can I just give a big thanks to Doug, Rachel, and Rich at LAFF for the amazing screening slots?!? We could not be more pleased with how the world will finally see our labor of love. Click here for more on the festival, as well as information on purchasing tickets. See you June 22!

Mike Jones at Variety posted this very amusing montage from Cannes, where he works to get people on the street (and in the American Pavilion) to pronounce the title of Charlie Kaufman's highly anticipated, Synecdoche, New York.

I cannot wait to hear how this film is, and am eager to see it.

This weekend, a terrific red-band trailer for Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder was made available on iTunes. It's a free download, and it's worth clicking. This movie (opening August 15) looks hilarious and wrong, and hilariously wrong. Kind of like Borat, which I bring up because I would not be surprised if Tropic Thunder has a special, secret screening in Cannes much like Borat did in 2006. That move was a very smart way to build word-of-mouth for the politically incorrect comedy. Maybe Ben Stiller will attempt something similar with Tropic Thunder? Stay tuned for more, but watch the new trailer for now.

I'm not even gonna comment on the fact that I'm crippled with frustration about not being at the Festival de Cannes right now (missing it for the first time in three years). Oops, I guess I just did. At the end of the day, it's better that I'm in Austin (and will be in New York very soon). We're pretty stacked with things to do stateside for Cinetic Rights Management. Plus, I'm packing boxes, selling my stuff (my car and my furniture are now spoken for!), and spending time with lots of family. That doesn't mean I'm not checking sites and blogs for updates on which films are hits (I'm now dying to see Hunger, Waltz with Bashir, and Tyson) and what sort of "trouble" people are getting into. Apparently, it's raining a lot out there, but a rainy day in Cannes still beats a beautiful day almost anywhere else. Almost.

Anyway, this is one long-winded way of me getting to this interesting Cannes item by Fox's Roger Friedman. After chatting with George Lucas during the Kung Fu Panda after-party in France, Friedman more or less gets the scoop that a fifth Indiana Jones film is definitely a strong possibility and also reveals that Lucas had a hard time getting the animated Star Wars feature, Clone Wars, released by a major studio:

In August, Lucas says, he's releasing an animated 90-minute "Star Wars" movie to theaters via Warner Bros. called "Clone Wars." It will be followed in September by an animated series on the Cartoon Network and TNT.

"No one wanted it," he told me. "Every studio rejected it, including Fox, and I'm very loyal to them. They have right of first refusal. Eventually I brought it to Warners. It's the first time that three components of the studio have acted together. It's very exciting.

"But the story is that everyone said, 'No one gets this. It's just ... 'Star Wars.'' I said, 'That's right, It's just 'Star Wars.' Just like this is ... 'Indiana Jones.'"

You'd think Roman Polanski announced he was returning to the United States, with the way the media has jumped on this "Angelina Jolie confirms she's having twins" story out of Cannes. Check out the infamous segment from NBC's Today show, in which (not surprisingly, I know) the American public has a missed opportunity to understand what's going on at the 61st annual film mecca. But, instead, the segment ends up being about just one thing. And, it ain't Kung Fu Panda:

We've posted an excerpt from the documentary feature, Trinidad, up on YouTube. This is the documentary I executive produced that will have its world premiere next month during the Los Angeles Film Festival. Here you go:

I'm not attending the Cannes Film Festival for the first time in three years (I'm a little busy, you know, moving my life cross-country). But, if I was going to Cannes, you better believe I'd do my best to make a stop in Brighton, UK right before heading to the South of France. That's because the annual Great Escape Music Festival is happening May 15-17. The lineup includes: The Wombats, Vampire Weekend, Okkervil River, Iron and Wine, Black Mountain, The Hold Steady, Lightspeed Champion, No Age, The Ting Tings, The Futureheads, and many more. It's probably too late to re-route your trip through Europe, but if you find yourself in the UK, consider stopping by (and say hi to SXSW staffers Cary Caldwell and Charni Silk, who also work that fest). Or, just make the proper plans for next year's Cannes. I think I might.

I haven't really blogged about the upcoming documentary feature in which I'm the executive producer. That's partly because I was waiting for news like this to share, and I'm happy to finally share it. Trinidad, directed by PJ Raval and Jay Hodges, will have its world premiere in the Documentary Competition at the Los Angeles Film Festival (June 19-29). We're really thrilled to debut our film at such a wonderful event! Plus, we're in great company, as SXSW favorites Medicine For Melancholy and The Pleasure of Being Robbed will screen in the Narrative Feature Competition. Joining them, is the premiere of Austin filmmaker and friend Spencer Parsons' debut, I'll Come Running. Fellow Austin-to-New York transplant Margaret Brown will also screen her amazing documentary, The Order of Myths. It's a great lineup of films altogether. And, if you'd like some more information on Trinidad (formerly titled Best Kept Secret), click right here.

It was confirmed today that Fernando Meirelles' sci-fi drama Blindness will open this year's Cannes Film Festival. The project stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, and Gael Garcia Bernal. While it may seem odd to open Cannes with a genre flick (albeit based on an acclaimed novel) that doesn't feature any BIG movie stars, this selection can hopefully speak to the film's qualities rather than its quantity of celebrities. After all, the last two Cannes openers, The Da Vinci Code and My Blueberry Nights, were heavy on celebs but lacking in critical support. Besides, after watching the film's first trailer (embedded below), it looks like a film worth seeing:

Oh, and in cool trivia news: this adaptation of Blindess was written by popular Canadian actor/filmmaker Don McKellar. Besides his own directorial debut, Childstar, he also co-wrote the screenplays for The Red Violin, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, and the almost-forgotten-but-needs-to-be-revisited Highway 61.