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Once again, The 7th annual CineVegas Film Festival is held at the Palms Casino Resort and Brenden Theaters June 10th to the 18th, 2005. Opening with the compelling HUSTLE AND FLOW, CineVegas celebrates its seventh year with an impressive line-up of films and special events and parties. Once again, this emerging festival introduces important new films from new and established film industry players. Programming Director, Trevor Groth, also of Sundance, hopes to continue a lucky streak that has given Cinevegas the jump on features that have later played Sundance.
Festival opener HUSTLE AND FLOW, directed by Craig Brewer and produced by John Singleton, is a provocative debut that deserves a place on the short list of seminal American independent films. Previously screened at Sundance, the film hit gold with a record-breaking acquisition deal with Paramount and MTV Films that includes backing for future Singleton films. HUSTLE AND FLOW is set for a summer release. Festival pros are laying odds that the film will hit 50 mil by Labor Day.
The Gala Party at Skins, a steamy poolside club at the infamous Palms Hotel and Casino, buzzed with predictions of big payouts for the film’s lead actor Terrence Howard. Hats off to Mr. Howard and a supporting cast of new talent for turning in performances that rival those of any headliner on the Strip.
Cinevegas broke from the starting gate in its debut year of 1998 and continues to put tracks between other young festivals with a winning selection of special appearances of entertainment thoroughbreds like Ann Margaret, Nicolas Gage and Christopher Walken and others. Dennis Hooper, Chairman of the Creative Advisory Board, gets credit for booking these and other headliners like Christopher Walken, Nicolas Cage, Wim Wenders, Samantha Morton, George A.Romero, Rhonda Fleming and Joe Eszterhaz.
This year, Cinevegas hosts over 120 films including one dozen World, North American and US Premieres. Last year, the festival debuted THE TALENT GIVEN US and MITCHELLVILLE, two dark horse narratives that later found slots at Sundance 2005.
Promising titles for this year include BUY IT NOW, CHARLIE’S PARTY, FIREFLY, IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER, STANDING STILL, SELFMEDICATED, LITTLE ATHENS, INSIDEOUT, TRONA, TURNING GREEN, and VEGAS BABY. Advance screenings include Paramount’s MAD HOT BALLROOM, MURDERBALL, and THE ARISTOCRATS – both from ThinkFilm.
Other advance screenings from directors with street cred include David Chapelle’s RIZE, Nicolas Jarecki’s THE OUTSIDER, Gus Van Sant’s LAST DAYS, Michael Winterbottoms’s 9 SONG and RED DOOR from Georgia Lee.
With 9 days of non-stop Vegas action for filmgoers, CineVegas has something for everyone. Once again, The 7th annual CineVegas Film Festival will be held at the Palms Casino Resort and Brenden Theaters June 10th to the 18th, 2005. For more information, visit their web site at www.cinevegas.com
By Keiko Beate and Philip Scanlon