Festival season in high gear

In September the film festival season really heats up with an autumn schedule so jam-packed that it's hard to keep up with all the haps. The "Fall Season" actually starts in late summer when Venice opens, usually during the last days of August. Right on top of that comes Toronto, Deauville, Montreal, San Sebastian  and a number of others, such as Gdynia, overlapping and vying for attention.  October brings on the new Rome fest which kicked off its inaugural session last year with such a brilliant flash of style, verve, and stars. Also in October such lesser but not miniscule festivals like Warsaw -- And suddenly a number of Islamic and Middle-Eastern festivals are now vying for attention -- Abu Dabi, Marrakesh, Antalya -- and late in the year the extremely well-heeled Dubai festival in the seven-star Persian Gulf...