Opening with Potiche (french film by François Ozon starring french icon Catherine Deneuve) just six days after New Years the Palm Springs Film Festival can probably lay claim to the honor of being the very first such festival of any size or signifigance on the annual international film festival calendar. While this is not a festival one hears too much about, being well off the beaten track and coming at a time when most of us are still recovering from year end Holidaze entertainment ove...

Opening just six days after New Years the Palm Springs Film Festival can probably lay claim to the honor of being the very first such festival of any size or significance on the annual international film festival calendar. For readers unfamiliar with the geography of Southern California, most of the lower part of the state is actually a desert and Palm Springs is a kind of extremely upscale oasis in the middle of this desert, a hundred miles away from Los Angeles and halfway to more desert over ...

by ALEX DELEONfor www.filmfestivals.com Director/actress Aparna Sen, is the special guest at Florence The River to River (Arno to Ganges) festival of Indian films in Florence, Italy, is all set to fly from Dec. 3 to Dec. 10. This will be the tenth installment of this unique European showcase of Indian cinema, founded and fostered by Selvaggia Velo, herself a native of the Tuscan urb famous for its long art and architectural traditions, from Michelangelo to the fabulous cathedral known as the "D...