Park City, Nov 16, 2007–‚ÄîThe 2007 Sundance Film Festival announced today that the Opening Night Film for the upcoming Festival is the world premiere of CHICAGO 10, written and directed by Brett Morgen. CHICAGO 10 is an innovative documentary that combines historical storytelling, archival footage, interviews, animation and music to tell the story about the 1968 anti-war protests around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that resulted in the famous Chicago Conspiracy Trial in 1969.

Critics often like to find a dominant theme in the program of a major festival. Such was the case of the 2006 Festival de Cannes, where at leats a dozen film deals with various isses of sex and seuxlaity. However, in Toronto Festival this year, the prevalent issue seems to be politics, or rather movie about American and foreign politics. This line is reflected in both the fictional and nonfictional fare.

Celebrating the work of the prolific Spaniard director Pedro Almodovar in a series called “Viva Pedro,” Sony Classics is releasing theatrically eight of its sixteen films, which will tour from city to city until his new, highly acclaimed picture, “Volver,” opens, in late October. It's an interesting idea, and hopefully the series will be embraced by large audiences, since many of the films shown were made in the 1980s, when Almodovar was just beginning to leave his imprint on the American and international cinema.

At its exact midway point, with only five more days to go, the 54th edition of the Cannes Film Festival registers as a solid but not particularly exciting programme. No major discoveries, no artistic breakouts, not many commercial hits — not even real controversies or scandals to stir festival watchers into heated debates and galvanise what has been a low-key event so far.

Rome, July 23, 2006–The world premiere of Brian De Palma's James Ellroy adaptation “The Black Dahlia” will open the 63rd Venice Film Festival in competition on August 30. The Venice Horizons section will open with “Infamous,” the Douglas McGrath-directed Truman Capote biopicture.