At the end of October, after 12 years with the organization, I officially stepped down from my position as the Artistic Director of NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival, which just celebrated its 20th Anniversary. Within the last year, three of the other best-known U.S. LGBT film fests have also experienced significant staff changes, beginning with the departure of Outfest's Executive Director Stephen Gutwillig, followed by Frameline's Artistic Director Michael Lumpkin, and, most dramatically, by the wholesale staff restructuring of the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. While some of these changes were simply career shifts after long tenures, others were unfortunately borne out of economic necessity.

While I can't and won't speak for my colleagues at these other festivals, as I make my own departure from NewFest, following NewFest's Kerry Weldon leaving earlier in the year, I offer some thoughts about the state of LGBT film festivals and about non-profit film organizations in general in this difficult economy.

The world premiere of "Mary and Max," a clay animation freature from Academy Award-winning short creators Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs will kick off the 25th Sundance Film Festival on January 15th in Park City, Utah. The feature stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette with narration by Barry Humphries.

The film is described by Sundance as the "tale of two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York. The story is based on the director's own pen-friendship that has also lasted over twenty years.

Back in May 2008, eight UCLA graduate students were given good news: the nonprofit organization AARP wanted to give each of them $10,000 to make short films on the hot-button topics of healthcare and financial security. The bad news was the students had only three months to shoot and edit their pieces, which had to be completed by an August 1, 2008 deadline. The eight shorts made under the Stolen Dreams competition umbrella were then whittled down to four finalists, which were shown on October 23, 2008 to AARP's Emilio Pardo and industry heavyweights Steven Bochco, Curtis Hanson, and Reggie Hudlin. After an intensive morning spent screening then deliberating, the four-man jury awarded a $7,500 cash prize to Anthony Onah's "The Cure." Onah's short will go on to be integral part of AARP's bi-partisanship Divided We Fail initiative.

With a mandate to bring an intergenerational perspective to dramatizing the consequences of America's broken health care and economic systems, the eight AARP/UCLA Stolen Dreams shorts focus on lives in crises.

If the mainstream media suffers from attention deficit disorder, bloggers have obsessive compulsive disorder, posed Arianna Huffington this afternoon at Michael's Restuarant, mecca for Manhattan's media elite. Ringleader for the leading left-leaning water cooler Huffington Post, she moderated a spirited conversation about the state of today's news media pegged to tonight's launch of The IFC Media Project.

The conversation began with a heated exchange about media coverage of the Iraq War, underscoring the very need to examine the press. "What we are talking about here," Arianna Huffington said, "Are some failures of traditional joirnalism both in the lead up to the war and in the way that the truth was ferreted out, which -- as well as technology -- made the successes of online media much more likely and possible." She continued, "So we are not just talking about technology making it possible but we are also talking about the need for people to have alternative ways of getting to the truth."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have named 15 films that made the short-list in the Documentary Feature category for the 81st Academy Awards, whittling the number down from a record 94 that had originally qualified. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist. The Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2009, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, and the awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 will be presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

The Fifteen films are:

For a full week now, many friends, colleagues and co-workers have asked me if and when I'd write more personally about the intensifying fight for marriage equality and its intersection with the indie film community. Last week brought calls for a Sundance Film Festival boycott and then the focus shifted slightly to Film Independent and its Los Angeles Film Festival. Folks are clearly at odds over how to deal with the two festivals, arguing that each has some link to the Mormon church, which aggressively funneled some $20 million into the campaign to defeat Prop 8. But, the situation isn't black and white. Like most issues, it is complicated. There are no simple solutions and even at the indieWIRE office we've had passionate debates on the matter. It goes without saying that I don't speak for any of my colleagues here.

Among the many recent conversations, this weekend I had a private talk with LA Film Fest director Rich Raddon, a Morman member of the film community who was drawn into the spotlight late last week after it was revealed that he donated $1500 to the campaign in support of California Prop 8. Rich is a longtime friend within the film community and I agreed to speak with him off the record, so I can't detail the substance of our conversation. However, I can relate that he is in the midst of a painful and emotional process as his personal and professional worlds collide rather publicly.

Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" was high atop the iW BOT this weekend, according to initial estimates from Rentrak early this afternoon. Screening in 10 locations, "Millionaire" scored one of the best per-theater-averages of any film this year. Grossing $350,434, its $35,043 average even rivaled "The Dark Knight's whopping $36,283 average last July. It certainly found the best specialty numbers so far this season, beating recent $30,000+ openings from "Changeling," "Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom" and "Rachel Getting Married." Since opening Wednesday, the Fox Searchlight Oscar hopeful has grossed an impressive $418,131.

The other notable opener this weekend was IFC Films' release of Arnaud Desplechin's "A Christmas Tale." On 7 screens, the French film grossed a mild $65,408, finding a $9,344 average. That places it ahead of recent French export "I've Loved You So Long," which averaged $8,023 in its first frame, but behind the huge $21,213 opening average "Tell No One" found this summer. But with glowing reviews on its side and the holidays approaching, "Tale"'s box office possibilities still look quite promising.

Steve Kroschel's "The Beautiful Truth" follows the story of 15-year old Garrett. After the unexpected and tragic death of his mother, Garret, who is an animal-loving teenager, spirals downward and fast. His father withdraws Garrett to be home-schooled to avoid flunking out. Growing up on an Alaskan animal reserve, Garrett's father recognized his son's interest in the dietary habits of their animals. This prompts him to assign a book written by Dr. Max Gerson, which maintains that there is a direct link between diet and a cure for cancer. Fascinated and curious, Garrett embarks on a cross-country road trip to investigate the merits of The Gerson Therapy. He meets with scientists, doctors and cancer survivors who reveal how the multi-billion dollar medical industry has made it their mission to dismiss the notion of alternative and natural cures. The film opens in limited release today (Friday), November 14.

Kroschel writes on the film's official website, "TARGET="_blank">: "My purpose in making this film is that I wanted to share with people, especially kids, anexample of what constitutes environmental sustainability and profound health for all living things. I have been a natural history filmmaker for over twenty years and have lived close to nature my entire life. And for the past two decades, my house hasbeen a 24' x 32' log cabin nestled in the Chilkat Mountains of Alaska - far removed from modern civilization...