The 12th Manhattan Short Film Festival will run in 173 cities (across five continents) - including Tupelo, MS - from Sept. 20 to 27.

The screening of 10 short films will start at 7 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Tupelo Commons Malco, and the event will last about two and a half hours. Viewers will be handed a scoring card and will score all the films. Local votes will be tallied with about 100,000 others from North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The winner will be announced Sept. 29.

The competition will feature films from the U.S., Sweden, Mozambique, France, Italy, Australia, Israel and the United Kingdom. There are two entries from Spain. The $6 tickets are available in advance at the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau or at Malco beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 24.

The Times-Picayune posted the full line-up of the New Orleans Film Festival, which will run Oct. 9-15. Festival sites include the Canal Place Cinema, the Prytania Theatre and the Contemporary Arts Center. The festival celebrates its 20th anniversary this year!

On Friday, August 21, there will be two free screenings of the 15 minutes of Avatar footage with a special introduction from James Cameron himself at 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. in about 70 participating IMAX 3D theaters. The tickets are free, but you have to secure your tickets ahead of time by going to www.avatarmovie.com on Monday, August 17, starting at 3 p.m. EST.

The free tickets will be distributed on a first come, first served basis so get those mouse fingers ready. There are no further details yet, but it's expected that there will be a limit on the number of tickets per person.

Here's the official press release.

No, I don't have a long conversation with Neill Blomkamp (unfortunately). But Lev Grossman of the Nerd World blog at TIME.com does.

And in honor of the movie's debut this weekend at theatres,we talk about our favorite low-budget films during this week's HeSaid SheSaid Movie Mashup.

Aug. 20 - Crossroads Film Festival membership meeting, 5:30 p.m., The Commons, Jackson, MS (followed by a screening of Paris, Texas). Need more info? Email info@crossroadsfilmfestival.com

Trailer for The Blind Side

Vanity Fair's piece on Heath Ledger and Imaginarium

 

Listen to the HeSaid SheSaid Movie Mashup from last night. Our topic of conversation was favorite childhood movie. SheSaid: Pete's Dragon, HeSaid: Secrets of N.I.M.H.

We talked about Jennifer Anniston's new movie that will be set in Mississippi. We also ran down some movie news from ComicCon, reviewed Watchmen (and Confessions of a Shopoholic), delved into the Twitter Effect on movies and visited Kevin Spacey's Twitter page.

Join us every Thursday at 10:30 p.m. CST for the live show. Our call-in number is (347) 633-911.

 
Austrian director Michael Haneke poses next to the president of the jury French, actress Isabelle Huppert, after being awarded with the Palme d'Or for his movie "Das Weisse Band" (The White Ribbon) during the Closing Ceremony of the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. Valery Hache / AFP / Getty

It was a blood-and-guts year for the Cannes Film Festival, but in the end, indie art films won the show. A complete list of winners is available here.

A recent study said that Facebook melted students' brains - and now perhaps there's further proof. Marc Price, a low-budget filmmaker from Britain, used Facebook, MySpace and YouTube to recruit volunteers for his zombie movie, "Colin." Because of the free help, he was able to make the movie for $70. (Price says the money went for a crowbar, some tapes, and tea and coffee to “keep the zombies happy.")

It recently had a showing at the Cannes Film Festival and is in talks with distributors in the U.S. and Japan.

Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation films are now hitting the Web. The films the foundation restores each year will now be available online through www.theauteurs.com, a Web site that calls itself a “virtual cinematheque.” Many will be free, and soon they will also be available through Netflix and iTunes. Until now, the foundation's work was only on view at the Cannes Film Festival.

On Friday, as part of his announcement of the new program at the festival, Scorsese included a premiere of a restoration of The Red Shoes, the 1948 British film directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

If director J. J. Abrams accomplished nothing else in his attempt to reboot the Star Trek franchise, he at least achieved his main goal, which was to drag a stalled and stagnant, yet iconic franchise, out of the depths of mediocrity and give it a chance at new life. Is Star Trek (2009) a great film? Not really. Will it win any awards for acting, directing, or script? Probably not. (But perhaps it will get a special effects nod, depending on what the rest of the summer blockbusters deliver). Does it satisfy the hardcore fans, yet successfully enlighten the uninitiated? Nope. Star Trek is just a solid delivery with some fresh faces, an element of time travel to explain the changes from the original series, and some special effects upgrades to appeal to the “next generation” of fans. And you know what? That’s exactly what this franchise needed.

Too many times have we seen a re-boot or a re-imagining of famous films or franchises where the writers and directors come out firing on all cylinders with the hopes of producing the next Star Wars (ironically, the Star Wars franchise itself fell subject to this), only to fall well short of expectations and to deliver forgettable films at best (or outright flops in the worst of cases).

J.J. Abrams and crew played it close to the vest, developing familiar characters like Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and retaining their well-known personality quirks (Kirk’s underlying sexuality, Spock’s stubborn yet endearing sense of logic), yet gave the characters a few twists of there own to allow for future development that a cast of copycat characters could never achieve (mainly because their character's development has long since run its course). Examples: Mr. Spock now has a girlfriend, which conflicts with his emotional detachment. Kirk’s father is killed when Kirk is an infant, leaving the future Enterprise captain with a sense of guilt rather than entitlement. In fact all of the characters stray from their original origins, as it were, yet retain the traits that make them familiar to the hardcore fan. Unlike the previous feature films, you don’t have to be a hardcore fan to enjoy or appreciate this film. It stands alone by telling a new story with newly developed characters and a new hope for the future. The references to the original cast are merely homage rather than crutches that hold back the film, as was the case with so many of the previous sequels and television spin-offs.

But this movie is not perfect. It is fast…and is over before you know it. Gone are the long-winded (yet always intriguing) discussions of ethical dilemmas or seemingly impossible-odds scenarios that are so prevalent in the original series. This is an action movie. This is a marriage of Battle Star Galactica and Star Wars, starring the crew of the Star Trek Enterprise. The special effects are great, but they are, without a doubt, a rip-off of Battle Star Galactica. The plot begs many questions, like, why, in a crew of 300 of more people, are there not "combat trained" personnel on board. Or why does Mr. Spock have to be the one to blow up the giant laser attacking Earth? Is there not some sort of Air Force in the Star Trek future? Maybe not. But the movie does not bother to explain. This is strictly a showcase for a new cast of characters - a springboard to launch a new series of the franchise - and plot does not really matter that much in the big picture. (I can’t believe I just said that!) I am willing to forgive…this time…but I will expect much, much more in the future installments. And there will be future installments…trust me.

He Said: If I had my wish, instead of a feature film this would have been the first episode of a new Star Trek television series for me to drool over every week…because that’s what it feels like it should have been. Even though it sometimes felt like I was watching “Star Trek-Babies,” it is still the best installment of the franchise I have seen in a decade. Definitely worth a watch for any Sci-fi fan or arm chair Trekkie.

Jesus stories have been pious, burly, sometimes musical, occasionally comic. TIME.com scanned a century of Messiah films and picked 10 to bring inspiration (or impudence) to this Holy Week

Click on the image to see the full-size comic. Find more great Garfield comics here.

We give you our See Its and Skip Its for the weekend of April 10 at the theatres! You can also listen to the HeSaid SheSaid Movie Minute on the radio on WLEZ FM in Jackson on Fridays and Saturdays or online any time at www.wlezfm.com. For all of the Movie Minutes, click here.

In our Film Club radio spot this week, we cover films from the new Star Trek movie to a new Bonnie and Clyde film in the works - and shot in Mississippi! Also listen for a rundown of big-name stars headed to New Orleans for filming this month. Listen to the HeSaid SheSaid Radio Report during Edward St. Pe’s Film Club Radio on WLEZ FM every Wednesday at 5 p.m. You can also listen online at www.wlezfm.com.  

In honor of Monsters vs. Aliens, Branden Barker compiled his list of the Best and Worst 3D movies.

And a few more 3D movie lists for you...

• The Illustrated 3D Movie List
• Wikipedia's List of 3D Films
• The Real 3D List of Stereoscopic Movies

Blockbuster announced an agreement with TiVo today to deliver digital movies over the Internet directly to the televisions of people with TiVo digital video recorders. Blockbuster On Demand will be accessible only to the approximately 800,000 TiVo owners who have broadband Internet connected directly to their TiVo boxes.

Amazon and Netflix both have similar agreements with TiVo, but Blockbuster will also sell TiVo machines at its retail stores and the companies will launch a joint marketing campaign. Blockbuster is offering fewer films than Netflix, but the offerings are newer releases. Blockbuster already offers online rentals through the Movielink service it bought from a group of studios in 2007.

Contrary to popular belief, neither the Eskimo nor I were abducted by aliens. I was jut gone on a business trip, and the Eskimo obviously decided to be the cold and silent type. (Spring has sprung, after all. What's an Eskimo to do?)

To celebrate our (my) blogging return, here's a collection of lists of must-see alien movies!

• The 7 Must-See Monsters and Aliens Movies from the 1950s
• List of films featuring extraterrestrials
• Alien Movies Resource
• The Top 10 Alien Movies
• The 10 Most Hideous Aliens on Film
• The Best Alien Movies

We give you our See Its and Skip Its for the weekend of March 12 at the theatres! You can also listen to the HeSaid SheSaid Movie Minute on the radio on WLEZ FM in Jackson on Fridays and Saturdays or online any time at www.wlezfm.com. For all of the Movie Minutes, click here.

OK, folks, we're working on going multimedia (since we're obviously not going nationwide anytime soon) - and here's the debut episode of The Eskimo's Geekout. He offers commentary on Watchmen, Terminator Salvation and Transformers 2.

In our Film Club radio spot this week, we cover films from the new Twilight movie in the works to James Cameron’s Avatar! Also information about Rotten Tomatoes’ newest offering - a TV show. Listen to the HeSaid SheSaid Radio Report during Edward St. Pe’s Film Club Radio on WLEZ FM every Wednesday at 5 p.m. You can also listen online at www.wlezfm.com.  

Plenty of Watchmen fans—and critics—have complained about Zack Snyder, "the visionary director of 300," being enlisted to direct the movie version of the most acclaimed comic book of all time, Watchmen. But it could've been worse! Imagine if Watchmen had been directed by Tyler Perry, or Judd Apatow, or Sofia Coppola, or Woody Allen. Actually, you don't have to imagine those dire scenarios: Slate.com imagined them for you.

In our Film Club radio spot this week, we cover films from an unauthorized biopic of Oprah Winfrey in the works to Watchmen! Also information about the upcoming TriBeca Film Fest and the American Black Film Festival. Listen to the HeSaid SheSaid Radio Report during Edward St. Pe’s Film Club Radio on WLEZ FM every Wednesday at 5 p.m. You can also listen online at www.wlezfm.com.  

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button won the Best Special Effects at the Oscars recently. And on March 2, Ed Ulbrich's TEDTalk walks us through how he and his team made Brad Pitt look 50 years older. Beyond the movie magic, it's a case study in solving seemingly impossible problems.