The big, promising news going into the festival was that for the first time women accounted for half of the directors in the American dramatic competition section.
HBO has two entries (on top of four in the competition section), including "The Crash Reel," focused on the snowboarder Kevin Pearce and his struggle with severe brain injury.
About 100 films — including the fictionalized Diane Arbus film, "Fur"; Mr. Scorsese's "Departed"; and Lasse Hallstrom's "Hoax" — will be shown across five different sections, with 16 films selected for the competition section.
If they get the bill passed into law, they will then quietly put the competition section of the bill into cold storage, hold back on it, until after the next election.
His new film, "Signs and Wonders," was drafted as the token independent American film in the festival's competition section, where the other contenders included "The Beach," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Any Given Sunday".
The competition section will include new work by a number of familiar faces, including Hector Babenco (with a film set in a Brazilian prison, "Carandiru"); Peter Greenaway (with the ambitiously titled "Moab Story/The Tulse Luper Suitcases -- Part I"); Canada's Denys Arcand ("Les Invasions Barbares"); and the peripatetic Chilean director Raúl Ruiz (with "Ce Jour-là," a comedy filmed in Switzerland)).
The brand will be featured prominently on the competition section of RollingStone.com, while on another section of the site that will go live on April 1, the Garnier Fructis Green Room will show behind-the-scenes videos, including stylists coiffing musicians.
"People shouldn't get too hung up on the fact that there are no British films in the main competition section - ultimately it comes down to what films are ready in time plus different trends and tastes each year for what is essentially an auteur film festival.
The opening selection for another competition section, Un Certain Regard, the movie takes its inspiration from a group of Los Angeles teenagers who in 2008 and 2009 went on veritable shopping sprees — grabbing Gucci, Chanel and Prada, and shoes, bags and jewels — in the often unlocked homes of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
The film debuted in the sixth International Animation Film Festival of Cordoba feature film competition section.
