PSIFF 2009!

It's here! On December 27, the schedule for PSIFF 2009 is announced on the site.

What films are you looking forward to? What are you curious about? Which Awards Gala honorees are you excited about?

The 20th anniversary fest is ready to shake up the desert!

Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon has earned Golden Globe noms for Best pic, Best director (Ron Howard - a PSIFF Awards Gala honoree for Director's Lifetime Achievement Award), Best actor (Frank Langella), Best screenplay (Peter Morgan) and Best original score (Hans Zimmer).

What did you think?


Rancho Mirage resident Attorney Fred L. Leydorf talks about his experience with Nixon and the famous interview.

The Wrestler

Mickey Rourke gets back into the ring in Darren Aronofsky's latest film, The Wrestler.
Watch the NYT slideshow.

How did he do?

Doubt

Doubt went from Broadway to Palm Springs to examine the certainty and truths that we can believe without proof. PSIFS held its member screening of the film last night.

What did you think?

PSIFS v. Golden Globes

The Golden Globe nominations are in...


PSIFF 2009 BLACK TIE AWARDS GALA HONOREES:

Amy Adams - Best supporting actress (Doubt)
Clint Eastwood - Best original score (Changeling); Best original song (Gran Torino)
Anne Hathaway - Best actress (Rachel Getting Married)
Ron Howard - Best director (Frost/Nixon)
Revolutionary Road cast - Best pic; Best actress (Kate Winslet); Best actor (Leo DiCaprio); Best director (Sam Mendes)


MEMBER SCREENINGS:

Burn after Reading - Best comedy/musical; Best actress in comedy/musical (Frances McDormand)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Best pic; Best actor (Brad Pitt); Best director (David Fincher); Best screenplay (Eric Roth); Best original score (Alexandre Desplat)

Defiance - Best original score (James Newton Howard)

Doubt - Best actress (Meryl Streep); Best supporting actress (Amy Adams & Viola Davis); Best supporting actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman); Best screenplay (John Patrick Shanley)

The Duchess - Best supporting actor (Ralph Fiennes)

Frost/Nixon - Best pic; Best actor (Frank Langella); Best director (Ron Howard); Best screenplay (Peter Morgan); Best original score (Hans Zimmer)

Happy-Go-Lucky - Best comedy/musical; Best actress in comedy/musical (Sally Hawkins)

Milk - Best actor (Sean Penn)

Revolutionary Road - Best pic; Best actress (Kate Winslet); Best actor (Leo DiCaprio); Best director (Sam Mendes)

Slumdog Millionaire - Best pic; Best director (Danny Boyle); Best screenplay (Simon Beaufoy); Best original score (A.R. Rahman)

The Wrestler - Best actor (Mickey Rourke); Best supporting actress (Marisa Tomei); Best original song

You say you wanna Revolution?

It can't be said that the member screening of Revolutionary Road didn't stir up debate amongst members. Director Sam Mendes' film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio got the audience talking after the show.

What did you think?

Defiance

Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Glory) directs another historical underdog story with Defiance, starring Daniel Craig (Quantum of Solace), Liev Schreiber (The Painted Veil) and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot).

Did you attend the member screening? What did you think?

Curiouser and curiouser

Tonight's member screening is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and with few screenings and a wide release not until Christmas, there is much buzz about David Fincher's latest project with Brad Pitt (Se7en, Fight Club).

What did you think?

Got Milk?

PSIFS is excited to show an advance member screening of Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, James Franco and Diego Luna.

Are you looking forward to it? Did you see it?
Do you remember the events surrounding Harvey Milk's life?

Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle's latest film, Slumdog Millionaire, has been getting massive buzz on the fest circuit.
Did you catch the Winner of the Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award? What did you think?

Who wears short shorts?

ShortFest attracts not only emerging directors, previously unknown to the world, but glam actors and actresses trying their hand at a new aspect of filmmaking.

In our Shooting Stars program, we have been honored to feature films resulting from Glamour Reel Moments, created to entice more women behind the camera. In the past we've had films directed by Kate Hudson, Kirsten Dunst, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jennifer Aniston.

This year's GRM participators include Demi Moore, Courteney Cox and screenwriter Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith (The House Bunny, Legally Blonde).

Maybe Ashton will be sneaking into the front row next year instead of JT.

Happy-Go-Lucky

Did you skip the mudslinging of the debate (or at least Tivo it) for the happiness that oozes from Mike Leigh's latest film and our latest Special Member Screening of Happy-Go-Lucky?

What did you think??

The Secret Life of Bees

The pun is so obvious, it has to be said.

After watching tonight's Special Member Screening, what is the buzzzz on The Secret Life of Bees -- the adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's novel about a girl (Dakota Fanning) who escapes her father when taken in by the independent Boatwright sisters (Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Alicia Keys)?

Cin-E-File poll: Fall buzz films

PSIFS members will be invited to fantastic Fall Special Member Screenings including The Secret Life of Bees, Happy-Go-Lucky, Slumdog Millionaire, Defiance, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Revolutionary Road and The Wrestler.

What films are you looking forward to this Fall?

Cin-E-File poll: Political films

PSIFS staffers weighed in on their favorite political films in the latest Cin-E-File.

What political films get your vote?

"Palm Springs is supposed to be nice, so says the word on high."

So says the troubled Frank Whitaker in Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven, the spot-on homage to Douglas Sirk films and the perfect penultimate screening in our melodramatic Drama Queens series. Did you attend? What did you think?

We'll take it one step further by visiting Haynes' rarely seen but highly regarded 1995 film, Safe. Winner of the Seattle International Film Festival's American Independent Award and nominated for numerous Independent Spirit Awards, this is a unique opportunity to view a film presently unavailable on DVD.

On top of that, we will be joined by guest speaker and film critic John Anderson. His reviews regularly appear in Newsday, Variety and the New York Times, and he should provide fantastic insight on our final Drama Queens film.

Please join us on Oct. 8 at the Palm Canyon Theater!
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From PSIFF to Emmy noms

Autism: The Musical -- Tricia Regan's 2008 Palm Springs International Film Fest winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature -- was nominated for not one, not two, but FIVE Emmy Awards in Outstanding Nonfiction Special, Cinematography, Picture Editing, Sound Editing and Directing categories.

The film WON two: Outstanding Nonfiction Special & Nonfiction Editing at the Creative Arts Primetime Emmys.

Learn more about the film & support The Miracle Project.

The life & times of a ShortFest director

Steve Dildarian -- director of the Hard C Hi Five to Lo-Fi Award at the 2006 ShortFest for his film, "Angry Unpaid Hooker" -- has broke onto the small screen with "The Life and Times of Tim" (based on "AUH").

The series hits HBO on September 28 at 11pm.
Support a ShortFest alum & tune in!

The Duchess

Beauty and scandal surround Princess Diana's ancestor Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire in the 18th century.

Did you attend our Sept. 18 Special Member Screening of The Duchess?
What did you think of the film?

Get your film on!

Wednesday, September 10, PSIFS will offer not one, but TWO fantastic film screenings!

Start the evening at 5pm with the 1956 Douglas Sirk classic, Written on the Wind, as part of our Drama Queens series. Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone...so much soap but not enough to get these tortured souls clean.

Then make a mad dash over to our Member Screening of the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading at 7pm. Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton get wacky with a misplaced CIA memoir.

Be sure to come back here and give the scoop to the poor lost souls who were unable to attend!

Day 6: The short & long of it

The awards have been announced, the drinks have been served and the photographers attacked.

ShortFest 2008 comes to an end with the Best of the Fest extravaganza on Wednesday. Start working on those entries so that we may relive the chaos in 2009!

Day 5: Come dancing

ShortFest has been full of great films with great stories. There are the three Italians (and their hats) who came all the way to Palm Springs to volunteer (...and to push their marketplace film). There is Israeli filmmaker Khen Shalem ("On the Road to Tel Aviv") who, based on his work on this short, will be creating a film concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a United Nations conference in February. There is the Australian short that was a colaboration of Aussie filmmakers who met at last year's ShortFest ("Cane Cutter," whose actor-director Dustin Clare has been acting as roving party pirate). But as the fest comes to a close and the filmmakers have gotten to know one another, it's really about the dancing.

Day 4: Filmmakers on a mission

Sunday found ShortFest going strong with a packed day of film. One of the evening programs was "Boy Meets Girl," where it became apparent that the attending filmmakers had created a very supportive group based on the howling applause for each film (not that the rest of the audience wasn't lovin' the films, but you know how rowdy filmmakers get). Directors Casey Stangl ("CU@ED'S"), Chuck Rose ("Side Effects"), Jasmine Kosovic ("Kate Wakes") and a rep from "No Parking" entertained the audience with a Q&A following the show (pictured above).

Rose revealed that his short raised money for a relief fund for those involved in the writer's strike. All services were donated (with hefty help from the "CSI:NY" crew) and the actors worked for free, and Rose reflected on the great community that this project created. The film and others will be available next month on StrikeTV.

Stangl and Kosovic had also been part of a unique experience as graduates from the AFI's Directing Workshop for Women. Out of the 8 women selected to participate in the program, 5 were accepted to ShortFest. Quite impressive for few having any film experience outside of a 3-week crash course (granted, many work in theatre or production). Below are three of the talented women: Devi Snively ("Death in Charge"), Chris Sanagustin ("Fleece") & Casey Stangl ("CU@ED'S").

The filmmakers let loose at a party at Azul, and it was quickly discovered that Prince speaks the international language of filmmakers when the entertainers belted "Purple Rain" and everyone joined in.

Cute directors Brian Crano ("Official Selection") and John Irwin ("Banditos") rocked the plaid vibe. Irwin just launched SmallDreamsTV, a site that develops original short films.

Day 3: The stars at night...

The Camelot Theatre was packed for an evening of star-studded shorts on Saturday night. Jessica Beil and Kirsten Dunst garnered the spotlight before the show, with Beil's beau Justin Timberlake sneaking into his front row seat so as not to distract from her moment.
CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS

Dunst sat in the middle of the theatre, accompanied by the producer of her ghost story film, "Welcome," starring Winona Ryder and Jason Clarke (and featuring a nice little remake of "Happy Together" by pal Jason Schwartzman). Her first foray in the director's chair was compliments of the Glamour Reel Moments series, which brings readers' stories to film and allows actresses a new role in an attempt to up the minuscule 7% female population of the Directors' Guild. At last year's ShortFest, GRM put Bryce Dallas Howard behind the camera with "Orchids" and Jennifer Aniston co-directed "Room 10." This year also witnessed Kate Hudson's first writing and directing experience with the charming GRM film, "Cutlass" (co-starring dad Kurt Russell in a wicked 70s 'stache).

Ric Halpern and Justin Wells, directors of the Tony Shaloub-staring short "LA Actors" about the fake world of Hollywood, revealed that it's a good idea to keep contacts close so that they may scratch your back later (Halpern helped Shaloub out with a previous project). Halpern plans to co-direct Commander and Chief, a film that allows a future George Bush to frustratingly reflect on how his presidency was ultimately written into history.

Beil produced and co-starred in "Hole in the Paper Sky," a moving film about an intellectual introvert (Jason Clarke, again) whose shell is broken by a lab dog. Director Bill Purple revealed that all of the actors devoted their services for free, but the dog (previously seen in Bruce Almighty) had the only paying role. Proving once again that it's a dog's life.

ShortFest Day 2: Ending to begin

Today the fest began in full force, with more films, more filmmakers and more good times. One of the evening's unique programs was Odds & Endings, a batch that ranged from the final page to the final breath and contained a good share of World Premieres.

Directors Kevin Acevedo ("The Last Page"), the Salto Brothers [Jesse & Louie] ("Finding"), producer & Ryan Goebel ("Confinement")

•"The Last Page" (WP) comically teases about the drama of a tortured prisoner that is in fact taking place inside the mind of a tortured author attempting to find the perfect ending to his novel. In order to clear his head, our literary hero sets out for coffee, only to find himself in absurd situations that still fail to provide inspiration. The director, who made the short as his thesis film for Chapman University, attended with co-writer Matt Akey and actress Mekenna Melvin. When asked about his favorite director, Acevedo replied that it was himself, because otherwise no one else would root for him -- to which Jesse seconded the motion.
•"A Small Silent Film about Death" (WP) plays off of a joke about the worst thing that could happen when an e-mail mistakenly gets sent to a widow.
•"The Last Thing to Go through a Fly's Mind" follows the reincarnation of a crude Brit who never seems to get it right as he transforms from cat to crustacean.
•"The Weight of Sunken Treasure" cleverly unfolds the memory of a man consumed by a life long past in such a way that all is far from what it seems. Tragedy finds no comfort in the passing of time.
•"Confinement" won the local Palm Springs Student Film Fest and concerns a boy who finds himself part of a tragic countdown. The Corona High School filmmakers said they were inspired by a friend with the same affliction as the central character.
•"Finding" is an impressively polished film that, like "Sunken Treasure," prefers to reveal the full picture pixel by pixel, building anticipation to the conclusion. Jesse said the secret was to make the film conclude just as the audience would prefer, yet without them being able to anticipate that desire. Tricky business. The directors revealed that they are working on creating a feature-length version that expands the short's ending, making the fact that this was the short's World Premiere all the more exciting.
The internationally-raised brothers with parents of Swedish, Polish and Dutch ancestry revealed the importance of language in film. When later speaking with Louie, he claimed that though the film takes place in Paris, it had to be in English, just as other comic videos they've made had to be in French. Expanding from dramatic sensibilities, each language expresses far more than a country's culture. He would love to do a film in Brazil or some other country where he didn't speak the language in order to tap into that unique state of mind.
•"Lightborne" is a remarkably gentle telling of a mother's final night, as her son attends to her medically while her daughter-in-law recognizes the need for a peaceful release. The film focuses on a very short period and yet alludes to an entire lifetime. An absolutely beautiful film, there were few dry eyes left in the house. Jesse complimented the film by stating that it takes a long time to start but rises like a soufflé.

ShortFest Day 1: Let the dogs out

The dogs and ponies broke out of the ShortFest gates with an impressive award-winning lineup in the Opening Night ShortSplash. The energy was evident in the sold out theatre, as the audience dove into high comedy and beautiful imagery.

•"Procrastination" got everyone in the mood with deceptively simple-looking art and stop-motion animation illustrating tactics for putting off anything and everything. The audience roared through examples such as color-coordinating book shelves, creating an elaborate teabag dipper and imagining playing a computer game with your furniture.
•"Life's Hard" finds a thief choosing the wrong woman to carjack. As he becomes a backseat driver, she turns the tables.
•"The Wednesdays" found fans through its hilarious story about an elderly couple who gets over Hump Day and onto Bingo Thursday with the help of "disco biscuits." It's actually a very sweet story about getting through the final day-to-days.
•"Tadeo Jones and the Basement of Doom" spins an Average Joe Indy into an animated quest to save pets from becoming burger patties.
•"Manon on the Asphalt" is a lovely film about a woman's final thoughts about friends and family as she lay dying in the street. A very careful reflection of moments past and the small details we associate with our loved ones.
•"Sikumi (On the Ice)" is a visually arresting film about a seal hunter who happens upon a senseless murder, the blood bold against an endless snowy landscape. It is the perfect one-act, needing no more or less information to explain the hunter and murderer's relationship or the dilemma of divulging the situation to the community. According to the film's web site, it is the first film spoken entirely in the Iñupiaq language.

Fans got their first introduction to the filmmakers at the Hilton party that followed.
•Brian Crano returns to Palm Springs with his film, "Official Selection," after bringing his comedy hit, "Rubberheart" to last year's fest.

•The fellas from "The Cousin" (producer Alex Castillo, actor Manny Montana & producer Stephen Mann above) were happy to add Palm Springs to their wild ride of 8 fests in 8 weeks. Manny recalled his excitement at first attending ShortFest two years ago. Alex teased that the film delivers 1 cup of gay in the closing credits. I'm curious to see what that measurement looks like.
•Jeremy Brunjes, the Minnesota-by-way-of-New York director of "No Parking" laughed it up with "Premature" director Rashaad Ernesto Green (below at left with ShortFest staffers Emily and David), who stated that even though HBO's American Black Film Fest provided door-to-door transportation, they failed to serve food like ShortFest. So we win.

Matthew Modine shout-out

While being interviewed about his short, "I Think I Thought" [featured in the Shooting Stars program on Saturday], Matthew Modine referred to ShortFest as "the Super Bowl of film festivals."

It's good to have him on our team. Check it out.

Viva la French Film!

French directors François Truffaut (Day for Night) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) first cut their cinematic teeth on short films. Who is to say the next great Gallic filmmaker will not make an appearance at the 2008 ShortFest? This year's French submissions created such a stir that the festival programmers chose to highlight the country's 30 best short films, second in representation only to the United States.

The idea of French cinema may produce images of café romances, but recent offerings suggest that Cupid has taken a vacation. That does not stop mere mortals from seeking love on their own.

Actress Virginie Peignien writes and directs her first short film, "Just One Hour" ("Juste Une Heure"). When a woman approaches a stranger and suggests they have anonymous sex, the proposition is intriguing. Some women lack such daring, for example the bookish beauty in the world premiere of "Original Sin" ("Péché Originel") and the desperate wallflower in Héléne Guétary's "Animal Bloom" ("Animal Singulier") who becomes a guinea pig for a hormone injection that drives men crazy. Man is more civilized but has yet to evolve from swinging amongst the branches in Vincent Vizioz's North American premiere, "Boy in the Tree" ("La Pomme de Newton"), as the titular boy becomes ruffled by the presence of a girl with her feet firmly on the ground.

A young man cannot escape his personal oddity when it is attached squarely to his face. In Valentin Potier's "Tony Zear" ("Tony Zoreil"), Tony lives in a world too loud and judgmental for his massive auditory organs (Tony's ear, get it?), and love is a hard sell. In contrast, romance barely utters a whisper in Céline Novel's delightful, subtle comedy, "Ocean Boulevard" ("Boulevard L’Océan"). Two could-be lovers on holiday just miss each other when distracted by hobbies, but sparks ignite a careful flame.

In darker tales, love earns an expiration date. In Ronan Moucheboeuf's "Orange Juice," a wife worries when her premonitory dreams suggest that her husband will decide the beverage is not just for breakfast. With a title like "The Gravedigger" ("Le Fossoyeur"), Sylvie Benavides' short suggests an ominous end for the girlfriend of the character's soon-to-be ex-wife.

Such diverse topics find a welcome home in short films as feature films attempt to stretch French cinema and Hollywood boundaries.

"Films take an important place in France, and we are lucky that lots of producers, film companies, distributors and associations are working hard to keep it that way even if it is getting more difficult with the surge of American blockbusters," said Benavides. "I am very happy to see that these efforts are rewarded, in particular at the Cannes Film Festival with the Palme d'Or which went to a French film this year."

Other directors do not wholly share this sentiment. "Good French feature films are very rare nowadays," said Benoît Ameil. "This situation is at the same time scarring and motivating. For my short, 'A Juicy Turkey' ('La Dinde Marinée'), it helped me. There is a cinematographic area in short filmmaking that almost doesn't exist in feature films."

Expanding upon such limitations, director Marc Alepee said, "All the stories I want to tell are fantasy stories, so the problem I have with French cinema is that it does not really produce genre movies. For producers in France, fantasy is not a serious way to tell stories and express ideas. However, I think that fantasy films are the perfect way to express my point of view on the world we are living in."

Such fantasy films represent some of the more visually creative shorts of the festival. Award-winning Lorenzo Recio directs the disquieting film "Lisa" in its North American premiere, suggesting a world where Alice scurried down the wrong rabbit hole. In Alepee's film, "In the Rope" ("Dans La Corde"), a man finds himself alone on a cliff with only a rope leading to a sliver of hope. Solitude remains the theme in "Skhizein," Jérémy Clapin's 3D animated North American premiere. After colliding with a meteorite, Henry is beside himself -- exactly 91 centimeters beside himself. In a busy world, he becomes lost in the shifted shuffle.

So take note. Palm Springs may be the stepping stone for future grands directeurs.

The final countdown

ShortFest is only two short days away!

Have you planned out your schedule? Are you prepared to dig into the nitty-gritty details with the filmmakers and stars? Have you registered to shoot your own film with Kodak or practiced your acting exercises for Bill Pullman?

Let's see...3-4 programs a day...6-7 films per programs...that's about 130 films that you have no excuse not to see.

Are you ready?

Getting ready for ShortFest!

The buzz is palpable in the PSIFS office. Films are piling up, credentials are being sorted and most of all the staff and many helpful volunteers are becoming excited about the upcoming best bet of the summer -- the Palm Springs ShortFest!!

Sure, partying the night away with international filmmakers is a great reward for all of the hard work that's put into this fest, but the hard work is done to promote a great slate of films. How wild it is to think of what could become of the filmmakers who not only will have their films screened at ShortFest, but who will be there to present them. More filmmakers than ever are attending because they know that this is the place to be.

Come join them on August 21!

Brideshead Revisited

Evelyn Waugh's novel gets an update (and a trimming from the 11-part series in 1981) as Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane) directs the new version of Brideshead Revisited, starring the fantastic Emma Thompson as Lady Marchmain and up-and-coming Matthew Goode (Match Point) as Charles Ryder.

The PSIFS will hold a special member screening on Wednesday, July 30.

What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?

The July 23 Drama Queens screening is What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Put on your best white dress and practice your lines:

Blanche: You wouldn't be able to do these awful things to me if I weren't still in this chair.
Jane: But you ARE, Blanche! You ARE in that chair!

Jane: I didn't bring your breakfast, because you didn't eat your din-din!

Dr. Shelby: I don't quite understand. Is this some kind of emotional disturbance you're talking about?
Blanche: Yes, she's emotionally disturbed. She's unbalanced!

Jane: Blanche, you aren't ever gonna sell this house, and you aren't ever gonna leave it, either.

Make way for Mildred

The July 16 Drama Queens screening is Mildred Pierce.
Take a nibble:

Ida: "Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young."

Wally: "Oh boy! I'm so smart it's a disease!"

Ida: "When men get around me, they get allergic to wedding rings."

Mildred: "That Ted Forrester's nice-looking, isn't he? Veda likes him."
Monte: "Who wouldn't? He has a million dollars."

Policeman #1: "Say, he says there's a dead guy in the house."
Policeman #2: "You never saw a deader."

Mildred: "You've too many sisters. They all seem to be my size too."
Monte: "I know, I like them your size."
[raises glass] Monte: "To brotherly love."

American Teen

Last night the film society held an early screening of American Teen.

The doc recorded the senior year of high school for five teens -- including the good, the bad, and the very ugly. No airbrushing here, audiences catch the teens at their highs and lows, yet their actions are very identifiable. Peer pressure, parental pressure, the hope for a miraculous change in status -- it's all there.

And so were the teens. The audience met with all five for a Q&A following the show (on the "heartthrob"'s 21st birthday, no less).

Grow those claws

In honor of tonight's Drama Queens film, The Women (1939), below are a few juicy lines. Practice your catty one-liners and be sure to grab a seat at CSUSB!

Sylvia: "Then let the story ride; it'll be forgotten in the morning. You remember the awful things they said about what's-her-name before she jumped out the window?"

Peggy: "I think Sylvia's a perfectly dreadful woman and I'm gonna tell her."
Edith: "Oh darling, she can't help it. It's just her tough luck she wasn't born deaf and dumb."

Maggie: "The first man that can think of a good explanation of how he can be in love with his wife and another woman is gonna win that prize they're always giving out in Sweden."

Countess DeLave: "My way, your marriage may not last 'til death, but it's fun while it hangs together."

Countess DeLave: "Isn't it wonderful to see all of our lives so settled...temporarily?"

Mary: "I've had two years to grow claws, Mother. Jungle red."

Crystal: "There's a name for you, ladies, but it isn't used in high society...outside of a kennel."

Animation: Not just for Saturday mornings

As they should be, animation is hitting the theatres again.

Mike Judge ("King of the Hill," Office Space) takes the Animation Show on the road (coming to San Diego & LA on June 13), featuring films that have graced the Palm Springs ShortFest (such as 2006's Hard C Hi Five to Lo-Fi Award for Best Low Budget Short, "Angry Unpaid Hooker" and Bill Plimpton's "Hot Dog" -- the animator who held a special demonstration at the 2007 fest). Where else would they mine for the best short films?

If you miss the live show, grab a DVD and get comfy with animated good stuff (the latest features ShortFest faves "Everything Will Be OK" and "Rabbit").

Madonna gets tossed

...out of her Beamer* by Clive Owen, courtesy of Guy Ritchie. Scorsese develops 3.5 pages of a mystery Hitchcock script, preserving a film that was never made (and selling a little wine in the process).

If all commercials were this much fun we wouldn't use the fast-forward button on the Tivo.

*"The Hire" series, branded entertainment by BMW Films, also featured shorts by John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Alejandro González Iñárritu, John Woo, Joe Carnahan and Tony Scott. Not bad.

Mongol

Variety agrees -- moviegoers want good foreign films and they're ready for Mongol.

PSIFS will present the Oscar-nominated film this Saturday, after which director Sergei Bodrov will receive our International Filmmaker Award.

Did you attend? What did you think of the event?

DIY DVD

Craving the shorts you've viewed at festivals past as you're getting itchy for the upcoming ShortFest? Compile your own batch o' good stuff at Short Film Central.

OK, so maybe they only have 7 shorts to choose from at the moment, but you can create a DVD with PSIFSF favorites such as "The Mantis Parable" and "Little Terrorist." The best part is that the money goes straight to the filmmakers.

If you see a film listed elsewhere on the site that is not yet available on DVD, click on "Wish List" and let them know you're interested in good films (perhaps from the PSIFSF section...).

Dniwer

The very cool 2007 ShortFest entry of Russian Roulette shown in reverse with forward-running narration, "Rewind," will become the first Indian short to release in Indian theatres.

This Friday it will play before Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind. Despite the shared title, the two have nothing in common with the exception that they are both immensely creative and entertaining.

Now why can't the U.S. figure out that showing shorts before a feature film is a great idea?

Hunting for the next big thing

Who nabbed Helen Hunt for their Opening Night film & U.S. Premiere of her directing debut, later giving her the Audience Award for Best Feature? That's right, PSIFF did.

Check out what the new director has to say to NPR about Then She Found Me, by listening to a Fresh Air interview and an All Things Considered interview.

Bite-size Brolin

Josh Brolin, 2007's combeback king, is trying his hand behind the camera after years of directing the stage. With his short, "X," he debuts step-daughter Eleanor Lambert and daughter Eden as the brood of an escaped convict searching for her murdered mama. Brolin was so nice to come to Palm Springs to dig into a little Q&A following No Country for Old Men...time to convince him to return for ShortFest.

Check out the Joshua Trees in the trailer -- that ain't Texas!

Penn returns to the valley

PSIFF Director of the Year Sean Penn implored Coachella music fest attendees to earn their frivolity by jumping on board his Dirty Hands Caravan immediately following the 3-day fest.

With a map to New Orleans, the bio-diesel buses will ultimately help Katrina-stricken areas but will also hit needy neighborhoods along the way. With this project, the Into the Wild director takes the word "action" to a whole new level.

Edging out the competition

The Edge of Heaven -- PSIFF Gala Screening & Awards Buzz film and ultimately a Best of the Fest player -- did well at the German Film Awards, receiving Best Film, Best Director and Screenplay (both Fatih Akin, who also produced another PSIFF Awards Buzz entry, Takva), and Best Editing.

Did you see it? What did you think?

Son of Rambow

Tonight is the special member screening of Son of Rambow.

If you attended, let us know what you thought of the film!

Short life

New Yorker Films has stepped up to the plate to compile a DVD of international shorts.

The World According to Shorts includes Chile's "La Perra," Australia's "We Have Decided Not to Die," Norway's "United We Stand," Poland's "Antichrist," Brazil's "The Old Woman's Step" and Germany's "Ring of Fire."

I think they're on to something.

The sexy side of film

Isabella Rossellini - daughter of Ingrid Bergman, star of creepy David Lynch films, seductive insect in the Sundance Channel shorts, "Green Porno." Why doesn't that seem so off base?

And speaking of, well, sex -- this time for humans -- have you seen the latest cover of Film Arts magazine? It features a little doc that played at last January's PSIFF, Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm. Hopefully the article's not censored, because when filmmakers Emiko Omori & Wendy Blair Slick attended the PSIFF screening they had been interviewed by a local TV station and were not allowed to say the word "vibrator"...the topic of the film. Good to know.

Another 48 hours

Think short filmmakers have it easy and want to see them work under pressure?

The 48 Hour Film Project makes filmmakers sweat under the clock. On Friday they're given a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre. On Sunday, they better have a film.

Check out the tour or watch the results online.

Noises off

Tonight is our special member screening of Noise.

If you attended, what did you think of Henry Bean's (The Believer) dark comedy starring Tim Robbins as a fed up New Yorker?

DIY Hi-Desert short fest

PAH-Fest (that's Project Accessible Hollywood) is coming to the desert with a cell phone in each holster.

Christopher Coppola (Francis' nephew, Nic Cage's brother) is arming desert residents with video-capable phones and a little guidance and then letting them go to town...literally. Given a topic and a limited time to film, his goal is to sweep the nation, leaving newly enabled storytellers in his wake.

The mini-PAH of the California Hi-Desert will take place May 2-4 in Twentynine Palms, Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley. Check it out.

Jonesin' for some shorts?

This month, tap into KCET's Festival of Student Film.

Every Saturday night in April, they'll be playing a batch of good films from students in sunny California. If your TV sits in SoCal, you're set. If not, wait until after the episode airs, and it becomes available online.

Just another reminder that good things come in small packages.

Hey, have we met?

There's no better time than smack-dab between the Palm Springs International Film Fest and the Palm Springs ShortFest to get to know one another.

Keep comin' back for film news, fest updates and to chat up our latest screening or film series.

We'll be here, and we want to hear from you!