From the LFF press release:

BENICIO DEL TORO SCREEN TALK IS ANNOUNCED

AND MORE TICKETS GO ON SALE FOR THE LONDON FILM FESTIVAL

The Times BFI 52^nd London Film Festival is delighted to announce an addition to the 2008 programme, as a new wave of tickets go on sale.

Benicio Del Toro will participate in a Tiscali Screen Talk on Friday 24 October.

Multi award-winning actor Benicio Del Toro discusses his film career and gives us an insight into his astounding performance in our Tiscali Gala film CHE (Part 1 & Part 2).

Fundamentalist atheism is as old as religion, and possibly time. Back in a less liberal era, the 16th century, the playwright Christopher Marlowe got into trouble for trashing religion as a translator of the classical author Ovid ("God is a name, no substance, feared in vain"), as well as in his own stuff ("I count religion but a childish toy ").

US comedian Bill Maher shares a lot of Marlowe's sentiments; he believes "faith means making a virtue out of not thinking." Religulous is the result of taking that idea to some very religious people and basically bashing them over the head with it.

From Variety :

"The stormy skies cleared just in time for the launch of the 16th edition of the Raindance Film Festival, held Wednesday in London’s West End.

Opening the fest, which celebrates international and Brit indie cinema, was Clark Gregg’s debut film “Choke,” starring Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston and Kelly Macdonald.

“Tonight proved, once again, that despite rumors to the contrary, independent cinema is alive and well,” said fest director Elliot Grove to a packed house at the Cineworld Trocadero, adding that “we could have sold out tonight’s event three times over.”"

 Download Catalogue | Elliot Grove FAQs | Festival website | the trailer | Programme overview runs below.

FUTURE CINEMA will host the latest SECRET CINEMA screening in association with Nokia at an undisclosed location in LONDON on Friday 3rd October 2008.

SECRET CINEMA is a groundbreaking concept that offers an exciting and unique cinematic experience to film fans in the UK. The locations of the screenings are only revealed the morning of the event to those who have signed up at www.secretcinema.org.

From Rachel Devenport:

A new viral from the makers of British gangster film Daylight Robbery has been launched online  at www.70millionquid.co.uk

The cast and crew of the film teamed up with creative digital agency Silence to produce a personalised short which asks for viewers to sign up their friends to take part in the criminal gangs' next bank job. 

Future Shorts, the film label behind Rock'n' Roll Cinema and Secret Cinema , as well as global distributor of short films, has released its first DVD, a bit of a greatest hits called Adventures in Short Film - Volume 1. They chose well for their inaugural compilation.

From the LFF press release:

The Times BFI 52^nd London Film Festival is delighted to announce two additions to the 2008 programme in advance of public booking opening this weekend.

The UK premiere of Spike Lee’s MIRACLE AT ST ANNA will screen on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 October.

The UK premiere of Jesús Ponce’s LAZY DAYS (Dejate caer) will screen on Thursday 16 and Saturday 18 October.

Salisbury International Arts Festival (22 May - 07 June 2009) is a multidiscipline Arts Festival with a strong programme of film screenings and associated talks, Q&A's, introductions and workshops. 

This year the Festival will focus on the following: 

Geographic Focus: India.  

Artistic Focus: Devotion / Spirituality.  

Environmental Focus: Water.

 We invite you to submit feature's, documentaries and shorts that relate to one or more of these themes. All screenings will be from DVD and entries must be on DVD or a computer playable digital format.  We are particularly interested hearing from directors, producers, actors, cinematographers etc who will be able to attended the screening of their film and talk about their work.  

 Please contact the Festivals film Programmer: Patrick Bliss, 86 St. Marks Road, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 3AZ 07966 176156 patrick.bliss@virgin.net www.carrotcakecinema.co.uk  www.salisburyfestival.co.uk  The deadline for submissions is Friday 31 October 2008.

Details of a new sponsored film contest submitted by Filmaka:

Know your technology? Know someone who has their home hooked up in a unique way?

Well, Filmaka has teamed up with Cisco for a competition with more prize money and wider distribution (over 200 websites) than ever before. We want to find out how you/your mate/colleague has integrated technology into their life.

We’re asking for two clips of 3 minutes each - the first should be about the person, the second about their hardware and software. 20 people will win cash prizes - 10 Brand Winners x U$7,500 and 10 Voter’s Choice x U$5000.

Get cracking as the deadline is Oct 13th midnight PST (HDV preferred, 16:9 aspect ratio, any language but English subtitles please). For more info visit http://www.filmaka.com/ciscodigitalcribs

 From the official Berlinale press release:

Berlinale Talent Campus #7, February 7 – 12, 2009

The application deadline for the Berlinale Talent Campus is October 8, 2008. Producers, directors, actors, cinematographers, screenwriters, editors, production designers, film music composers, sound designers, film journalists and visual artists from all over the world are invited to apply online through the Campus website, www.berlinale-talentcampus.de.