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I attended BNAT3 but did not try to make this one (thousands compete for barely 150 seats). The flavor of the festival has been forever changed by the 3 screenings of Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings movies (BNAT3, BNAT4, and BNAT5 respectively, with Mr. Jackson himself attending last year). This year they added slideshows and short clips from other films. It has become that much less of a film festival (celebrating films old and new) and is a step closer to the film previews seen at larger conventions (albeit I was glad to see more revivals listed and fewer...

Hey folks, Harry here... the word from Cannes has just come in... a jubilant ecstatic phone call from a geek in Cannes ran down the winners and it seems that Michael Moore just accepted the Palme D'Or for FAHRENHEIT 9/11!!! Perhaps a political no-brainer... but my inner and outer Liberal screams "YESSSSS!," while the cautionary side worries about a jury headed by Quentin bestowing the top prize to any film that Harvey Weinstein is a producer of... BUT - at the same time I have no doubt that FAHRENHEIT 9/11 is the sort of emotional film that brands its message...

Things HARRY Learned from BNAT 5! Hey folks, Harry here... Figured I'd join in on this format of Nordling's just a bit... 1. RETURN OF THE KING is the finishing flourish on what is definitively the greatest single narrative trilogy in the history of cinema. This film gives a new meaning to scope in film. A new meaning to the term epic. Peter Jackson has honestly created a final film that absolutely just owned me for every second it played. And in the way of the world, I'm just a very small hobbit in my own little shire of Austin......

Michael Moore's Next Film.... FAHRENHEIT 911... Hey folks, Harry here... Michael Moore. KABOOM! Talkback Hell commences.... Heh. Well as a liberal in Austin, Texas, I just have to say I'm delighted to hear that after the overwhelming success of BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, a documentary that shattered all previous Box Office Records, won every major award it could possibly win... After completely stealing all the spotlight at the Oscars, and assuring that what he said would become THE topic to talk about at the water coolers and unemployment lines the next day... Well Michael Moore, the crazed fellow that wanders this...

The comment that stuck out at me was 'This is how I felt when I watched the first Star Wars in 1977.'Box Office predictors have moved their projections for the film into the 500 million dollar range.

Check out TheForce.net right at this moment :-)