Last night, Thursday January 06, saw the open of the 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Palm Springs mayor, Stephen Pougnet, the PSIFF chairman Harold Matzner and festival director Darryl Mac Donald opened with speeches thanking the volunteers who make the festival possible and the filmmakers of the 200 international films that will screen at the festival over the next 10 days from 70 countries. 

Speeches were followed by the screening of the French film 'Potiche' (2010) by French filmmaker François Ozon and then the opening night gala took place at the Palm Springs Art Museum. 

Each day I will write up a review of the films I have seen and the impressions I have had of the festival. 

Today on my viewing list... Wasteland (Brazil), The Life of Fish (Chile), Essential Killing (Poland), Hermano (Venezuela).

Check back later for update on first day of the the fest!

-Vanessa McMahon, fest21.com

for more on the PSIFF read Alex Deleon's tribute to this not so well known but nevertheless very important festival:

http://www.filmfestivals.com/cgi-bin/shownews.pl?obj=ShowNews&CfgPath=ff...