Digital Media

LOS ANGELES--There are a lot of reasons why the entertainment industry is still trying to figure out how to wrangle Twitter: real-time tabloid drama, on-set spoilers, and the fact that 140 characters offers a lot of ways to say a movie really sucks.

The 140Conf LA event, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, had a great opportunity to be the definitive discussion hub for tackling those tricky issues and complications that arise when the much-talked-about "real-time Web" collides with the old-school entertainment industry. That didn't happen. Instead, the event was a general showcase of the possibilities of Twitter, much like at the previous 140Conf event in New York this summer.

Conference organizer Jeff Pulver said that despite the Hollywood setting, he didn't want to take a purely entertainment-focused angle. "This really is not a Twitter conference, it's a gathering of people who use it as a platform and speak it as a language," he explained at a post-conference cocktail event on Tuesday. Pulver said he intended 140Conf LA to be "a celebration" of the possibilities of Twitter and the people who are passionate about using it, a disparate crowd that includes marketers, public servants, and yes, entertainment industry professionals. Indeed, 140Conf featured panels about police chiefs who use Twitter, teachers implementing it in the classroom, and how it's affecting the photography profession.

True, there were a lot of entertainment types there, mostly those talking about how Twitter has positively affected their business. Industry bloggers talked about how the blast-it-out nature of Twitter makes it easier to harness and report fast-breaking news. "Access Hollywood" personality Billy Bush talked about what he's learned from Twitter, like "no TUIs. Twittering under the influence is not a good idea." And "Tonight Show" blogger Aaron Bleyaert talked about the program's popular "Celebrity Twitter Tracker" feature, in which it makes fun of banal celebrity tweets. "Making fun of how celebrities think that everything they do (matters)," Bleyaert said, "Twitter's been great for us."

More interestingly, Sarah Ross, head of digital at the Ashton Kutcher-founded Katalyst Media, said paparazzi interest in the Twitter-happy Kutcher has actually declined since he started documenting his life on the microblogging service. That's fascinating, and it would've been cool to see whether the case is the same or different for other celebrities who tweet. It would've been great to hear from an industry personality who doesn't tweet, or one who's quit the service, or some perspectives from the production or public relations side of things, or perhaps someone who manages celebrity Twitter accounts. There's a lot out there.

But, Jeff Pulver said, he didn't think a Twitter-and-Hollywood conference would have much draw.

"I don't think anyone in L.A. would give a damn if we had a conference about the entertainment industry and Twitter," Pulver said. "It's not as interesting to people here as it is elsewhere."

Another conference attendee at the same cocktail party voiced a similar opinion. "This is not a studio crowd," he said of the people who'd showed up for 140Conf. Studio executives are "not innovators, not movers. They're very reactive."

Fair enough. Folks like Pulver, who have been using Twitter since its early days, are probably pretty sick of hearing about the latest gossip-blog diatribes getting plastered all over their conversation tool of choice. But headlines in the likes of Variety, The Los Angeles Times, and the Hollywood Reporter beg to differ. "Bones" creator Hart Hanson inadvertently created a mini-firestorm when a tweeted joke about swine flu on-set was taken seriously. Some studios have reportedly started inserting "no tweeting" clauses into contracts. As the likes of Perez Hilton and TMZ continually remind us, it's also given train-wreck pop stars a whole new outlet to hate on one another.

The entertainment industry has historically been reliant on the deft spin of public relations to keep a gaggle of wild personalities under wraps. Social media, not surprisingly, is a real problem. That goes double for Twitter, which can be updated on-the-fly from any mobile phone on the set of the latest hyped-up teen vampire flick or on the sidelines of a velvet-rope tiff at the Roosevelt Hotel. 140conf, rather than focusing on the glittering possibilities, could have given these very real issues some more face time.

Take the no-tweeting rules that are getting imposed by studios, production companies, publicists, and even sports leagues. "The majority of celebrity tweets are inane and not of concern to studios, but they still need the stronger contractual protections to cover themselves against the minority," entertainment attorney Jonathan Fuhrman, who previously served as vice president of business and legal affairs at The Weinstein Company, explained to CNET News.

"Every talent agreement--with writers, directors, producers, cast, and crew--has a standard confidentiality provision," Fuhrman continued. "That's what really is at issue here. In a world where anyone can tweet, the new, buffed-up confidentiality language is an important protection for the studio to prevent any of the talent from releasing this. And this is before you take into account the whole other issue about publicists and marketing campaigns: we are talking huge, million-dollar organized campaigns that can be compromised by an ill-advised tweet."

But on the flip side, that potential benefit of Twitter was paraded onstage at 140Conf. "Heroes" creator Tim Kring, for example, gave a well-attended talk on Tuesday about how Twitter has allowed the NBC sci-fi show's team to interact with fans in an unprecedented way. "You can follow the escapades of the show by following the people involved in it," he said.

Still, Kring also hinted at the complications of using Twitter as a vehicle for connecting with TV audiences: "We're now making Episode 13 and we are airing Episode 8, so at the beginning of the season we're up to two or three months ahead of where the audience is," Kring said. "The making of the show is so far ahead of where the audience experience is that it's hard to have a real-time relationship." Unfortunately, he didn't elaborate on how the show keeps tabs on its Twittering team. Have they ever had any accidental leaks or near-missteps? Kring didn't talk about that.

"Twitter has become hugely important in marketing movies," Fuhrman said. "The perfect example is 'Paranormal Activity.' What Twitter did for that movie, every studio would love to bottle that formula, and believe me, they'll try." In other words, it's a delicate balance. Twitter, for all its 140-character simplicity, has the potential to make or break a big Hollywood success.

Even though he didn't think it merited its own two-day event on the Kodak Theatre stage, 140Conf creator Jeff Pulver did acknowledge that he thinks the Hollywood-Twitter relationship is only going to get more complicated, especially when it comes to the big movie studios.

"They're scared because they want to be the gatekeeper," Pulver said. "It's a big conflict and it's going to get worse."

This post was updated at 11:33 a.m. PT on October 30 to correct the spelling of Jonathan Fuhrman's name.

Actor Armie Hammer (left, with actress Blake Lively) in a promo shot from TV series 'Gossip Girl.' Hammer will play twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in 'The Social Network.'

(Credit: The CW)

Did director David Fincher end up finding a pair of 6-foot-5-inch identical twins to play ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in "The Social Network," his upcoming movie about the contested origins of Facebook? It appears the answer is no.

According to blog The Playlist, which picked up on filmmaker Richard Kelly's Twitter account, a single actor has been cast: 23-year-old Armie Hammer, best known for the role of moneyed sleazebag Gabriel on teen drama "Gossip Girl." A thread on screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's Facebook page reveals that additional young actors cast include Max Minghella, Rooney Mara, Dakota Johnson, Brenda Song, and Josh Pence--but no character names were provided.

"The Social Network," which kicked off filming in Boston this week, is an adaptation of Ben Mezrich's unauthorized Facebook tell-all, "The Accidental Billionaires." Founder Mark Zuckerberg will be played by actor Jesse Eisenberg, while pop star Justin Timberlake will play Valley it-boy Sean Parker.

The question remains as to whether Armie Hammer, who actually is 6-foot-5, will be playing both twins with the help of some "Parent Trap"-style camera work, or if they've combined Cameron and Tyler, who had a longstanding legal battle with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg after they accused him of stealing their code and business plan, into a single character.

In either case, he sounds like the perfect casting choice for the white-collar Harvard graduates, who hail from Greenwich, Conn., and competed in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing on the U.S. rowing team. According to the Internet Movie Database, Hammer "is the great-grandson of industrialist, art collector, and philanthropist Armand Hammer."

Dude won't even have to act!

Update 6:20 a.m. Thursday: To include more background on new witness.

RealNetworks introduced a new witness in the RealDVD case on Wednesday, a move that comes late in the court proceedings that could decide the software's fate.

Real is locked in a court battle with the major movie studios over RealDVD, a software that enables owners to copy DVDs and store them to a hard drive. The Motion Picture Association of America filed suit against Real last fall, accusing the company of violating copyright law and breach of contract. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel could rule on whether to remove a ban on the sale of RealDVD as early as Thursday.

Real on Wednesday filed with U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California a written declaration from Peter Biddle, an Intel executive who had dealings with the movie industry over a decade ago while employed for Microsoft. He disputes Hollywood's claims that the industry included in a license for its DVD-encryption technology a ban on copying DVDs while in a computer hard drive.

Real argues that because it possesses a license to use CSS and because the license doesn't prohibit the copying of DVDs in all cases, Real isn't guilty of breaching its contract.

What Biddle focuses on in his statement is the license for DVD Content Scramble System (CSS), the encryption technology designed to prevent copying of DVDs. Companies need the license to make DVD players. In his declaration, Biddle says that he was part of the "standards-setting" group that helped draft the CSS license between 1996 and 1998. According to court documents, he has not been compensated by Real. It is not yet clear whether Patel will allow Biddle to testify in court.

He confirmed that the film industry was initially against allowing the copying of DVDs under any circumstances. But he said eventually the studios relaxed their position.

Real says it couldn't find Peter Biddle until May 6th. Perhaps it should have tried simple Google search.

(Credit: LinkedIn)

"I repeatedly explained that such a prohibition would be extremely difficult to implement," said Biddle in his declaration, recalling what he said during negotiations on what language the CSS license should include. "Because computer and software products rapidly evolve, the CSS license was designed to enable computer manufacturers to have significant freedom."

He says it was never agreed to that the CSS license would ban all copying.

Marsha King, a retired vice president at Warner Bros., testified during the hearing that the entire reason for the CSS license was to prevent consumers from creating copies.

"The studios were adamant that no copy be placed on the (computer) hard drive," King told the court. "The only thing we authorized was playback of the movies...no copies were to be made...it was a mantra."

In the past week, Real has introduced Biddle and filed new allegations against the film industry, accusing them of antitrust violations. The question is whether these moves are just 12th-hour legal wrangling or will have legitimate impact on the case.

In a letter to Patel, Real's attorneys said that they were unable to locate Biddle until May 6, and weren't clear about what he would testify to until Wednesday. This makes little sense as Biddle, the man behind Microsoft's BitLocker technology and Darknet, is pretty high profile and a Google search quickly reveals he is Director of the Google Program Office at Intel and lives in the Seattle area.

Patel is scheduled to hear closing arguments on Thursday morning. There's no telling when she will issue a decision, but she has a history of ruling from the bench.

Move over Hotforwords, Lonelygirl15, and all the other YouTube stars. The video site is bringing in more professionally made content and plans to make it a marquee product.

Some of YouTube's most-watched contributors will get some competition from the likes of Sony Pictures.

(Credit: YouTube)

The Internet's largest video site on Thursday announced that it has struck deals with a host of entertainment companies, including Sony Pictures, CBS (parent company of CNET News), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, Starz, and the BBC, to acquire "thousands" of TV episodes and hundreds of films. The new content will only be available in the United States.

YouTube executives also said during a conference call that they have redesigned part of its Web site to create separate areas for professionally made content. On the site's front door will be two new tabs.

"The 'Shows' tab allows you to browse shows by genre, network, title and popularity," YouTube said in a statement. "The 'Subscriptions' tab will grant logged-in users one-click access to fresh content from their favorite creators."

At this point, it appears the most significant partnership is with Sony Pictures, one of the largest Hollywood film studios. The studio has agreed to post several full-length feature films and TV shows to YouTube. Some of the TV shows include, "Bewitched," and "Charlies Angels" and among the films are "Blue Lagoon," "Single White Female," and "Nowhere to Run." CNET reported earlier this month that the companies were in talks about a feature-film deal.

Representatives from Sony Pictures declined to comment.

Movies from Sony Pictures will only trickle on to YouTube, at least initially. YouTube has agreed to display the films using a video player from Crackle, Sony Pictures' own video site. The studio will control all the advertising for the films and Crackle will also get credit for the traffic.

Also on Thursday afternoon, Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, suggested during a conference call about the company's earnings that YouTube could someday charge fees.

"With respect to how it'll get monetized, our first priority is on the advertising side," Schmidt said. "We do expect over time to see micropayments and other forms of subscription models coming as well, but our initial focus is on advertising."

YouTube, acquired by Google in 2006, also announced it is launching a test version of Google TV Ads Online. Advertisers will be enabled to insert their advertisements into the ad breaks within TV shows displayed online. But to do this, advertisers must first enter bids for the shows it wants.

YouTube said pre-roll and post-roll ads may also be bid on.

While most of the TV shows and films YouTube acquired are at least several years old, the Sony news marks YouTube's most significant Hollywood deal yet. YouTube was once called a "rogue" by Viacom executives, who claimed in a 2007 lawsuit that the company encouraged the posting of unauthorized copies of its material to the site.

The feeling by many in Hollywood was that YouTube was hostile to content creators. But over the past year, Google and YouTube have made the service more attractive to big movie and TV companies. The site has upgraded the quality of its streaming video and began filtering content to eliminate pirated material.

Another concern was that the site offered no copy protections on its streams, according to film industry insiders. YouTube solved that problem with Sony Pictures at least, by using the studio's own video player.

Sony Pictures has acknowledged that it is discussing a deal to license feature films to Google's YouTube.

On Monday, CNET reported the two companies were discussing a deal that could help YouTube become an outlet for premium full-length content. Right now, YouTube offers mostly independent films and a handful of titles from Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Sony Pictures wants to boost the profile of Crackle.com, the studio's own online video site, and a YouTube partnership could help promote the offering. Judging from other feature-film deals that Sony Pictures has cut with Hulu and others, Sony Pictures will likely not offer YouTube much more than a dozen films and will control advertising.

The studio also doesn't allow the syndication of its content, which means YouTube users won't be allowed to embed Sony Pictures content on their blogs or personal Web pages.

The biggest potential benefit for YouTube is that a successful partnership could attract other studios and TV networks.

Bloomberg first reported that Sony had confirmed talking to YouTube.

YouTube is in negotiations with Sony Pictures to get licensing rights to some of the studio's movies. 'The Professional' is from Sony Pictures and is available at Crackle.com.

(Credit: Crackle.com)

YouTube is in talks to acquire licensing rights to full-length content from Sony Pictures, home of such films as "The International" and "Spider-Man," sources familiar with the negotiations told CNET News. Details about what a final agreement could look like are sparse, but any partnership between the two powerhouses would likely benefit both.

Representatives from both companies declined to comment.

Word of the negotiations comes a week after Disney announced it had licensed short-form content to YouTube. Those clips will come from a range of Disney brands, including ABC and ESPN. For YouTube, obtaining short-form clips from Disney is an important step but still doesn't provide what YouTube needs most.

Founded in 2005, YouTube made a name for itself by showcasing amateur-made snippets as well as hosting scores of illegally posted clips from the best TV shows and films. YouTube has done much to rid the site of pirated content, but the flip side is that most of the hot shows and films that generated big viewership are gone. At the same time, a host of Web video services are offering full-length films and TV episodes online. To compete, YouTube is trying to get access to the same premium content but has so far only acquired a handful of films from the archives of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Sony Pictures' Web video property, Crackle, could mean a major boost to YouTube's long-form hopes.

Is YouTube a movie channel?
YouTube is trying to become a player in Hollywood at a time when the online video sector is bursting with an increasing number of savvy and very watchable Web video services. YouTube, which did more than any company to create the online video sector, is at risk of falling behind when it comes to offering the kind of content most sought after by audiences as well as advertisers.

Hulu, the ad-supported video portal formed by News Corp. and NBC Universal, has become synonymous with long-form content. The service is easy to use and provides a high-quality viewing experience. Netflix's Web streaming requires a monthly subscription fee to access movies but can boast a much larger movie-library than Hulu. Netflix has also made the all-important jump from showing films on a PC to delivering streaming video to a TV, via set-top boxes, such as Roku and Xbox 360. Apple can offer mobility to those who download movies and TV shows to iPhones and iPods.

The cable companies are also talking up their own online-video plans. After decades of pumping money into Hollywood, the cable operators and premium movie channels could have an advantage when it comes to acquiring studio content.

Here's where Crackle and YouTube can help each other. Sony Pictures presumably wants to promote Crackle, so it needs to get in front of a large audience. YouTube needs popular movies and TV shows and that means striking deals with studio and networks willing to post long-form content on the Web. Not all of them are.

Some studio executives have told CNET that they don't believe full-length movies can make money online. To generate a decent return, a large number of ads must accompany a film. Tests show Internet viewers resent this, according to film-industry sources.

The good news is that at this early stage at least, managers at Sony Pictures' digital unit appear to believe in long-form Web video.

Sony Pictures embraces long-form Web video
Sony Pictures acquired Crackle for $65 million in 2006, shortly before Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube. The site began as Grouper, a video-sharing site and YouTube rival. In July 2007, the studio swapped business models and names after it became obvious YouTube had locked up the video-sharing market.

A visit to Crackle shows Sony Pictures is a trailblazer when it comes to posting movies online. Not only is the studio posting more full-length films on the Web (more than 60) than competitors but the quality of the movies appears to be better. At Crackle are such films as "The Opposite of Sex", "Groundhog Day," "El Mariachi," "Go," "Tommy," and "The Professional."

The studio has also been very willing to license content to such outlets as Hulu, Gaia, Sprint and AOL. Hulu has a deal to showcase nine films, including "In the Line of Fire" and "Single White Female."

Here's the catch: judging from the other distribution deals Sony Pictures has struck, it probably wouldn't give YouTube access to more than 15 movies. The studio has also asked some partners to display films using the Crackle video player, a request that undoubtedly is designed to give Sony Pictures control of advertising and to direct people back to Crackle. The studio also doesn't allow partners to syndicate its content, which means YouTube users won't be able to embed Sony films on their blogs or personal Web sites.

If you're YouTube, you shouldn't care. If you want to become the place for all things video--user-generated as well as films and TV shows--and if you believe your audience is too big for Hollywood to ignore and that eventually advertisers will pay a premium to get in front of that audience, then at this point you jump through hoops to get the best content.

YouTube and Google can't be too choosy. The truth is that two years ago they miscalculated how much they needed Hollywood. YouTube frustrated some studio and TV executives by saying "we're not responsible for the actions of our users."

Since then, YouTube managers have changed their attitude and have focused on making the site more appealing to big entertainment companies, such as offering better-quality streams, and filtering for pirated content. Still, what was true two years ago is true now: none of the big entertainment companies is going to allow Google to build YouTube's business on their content without getting something in return.

There's also the question of what the studios intend to do with the traditional distribution model. Hollywood has long had agreements in place to release films through a complex assortment of channels, including theatrical release, DVD sales, and cable, premium, and broadcast outlets. For example, film-industry sources say the money Hollywood earns from the Web is a trickle compared with the ocean of cash it receives each year from cable providers.

Nonetheless, more and more people are canceling their cable subscriptions and turning to the Web for entertainment. Even execs from the cable companies have acknowledged this. Last week, after Disney announced the agreement with YouTube, I asked Jordan Hoffner, YouTube's chief of content partnerships, whether YouTube, Hulu, and the other Web video services can convince Hollywood to wean itself off these other distribution channels.

"I think that what we're doing is we're dealing with a fragmented world," Hoffner said. "You can't just say you're going to count out any distribution channel and focus on one because audiences are moving to other places. We're one of the places they're moving to."

If YouTube only gets a handful of Sony movies and if they aren't the best and if there's lots of strings attached, YouTube should still go ahead. Sony and Disney are worth twisting yourself in knots for.

YouTube's decision makers should remember that Crackle currently hosts 60 movies but that is a drop in the bucket compared to what's available in Sony Pictures' vast film library, one of Hollywood's biggest treasure troves of film content.

As expected, iTunes customers (Windows|Mac) can now buy and rent films in high definition, Apple said Thursday.

Customers can buy hit titles for $19.99 and rentals will cost $4.99. Rentals will be available a month after a film is released on DVD. Prior to this offer, high-def films were only available for rental.

The high-def quality movies are compatible with Macs and PCs. But iPhones and iPods can still only play films in standard definition, the company said. Each high-def film comes with a standard-def copy to play on Apple's handhelds.

"Customers have made HD content on iTunes a hit, with over 50 percent of TV programming being purchased in HD when available," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services in a statement.

As my colleague Declan McCullagh notes, the $20 price for HD costs less than Blu-ray discs but the large HD files are likely to eat up a lot of hard-drive space.

Apple's downloads use more compression than Blu-ray so that means a falloff in quality.

Nintendo's Wii may follow Microsoft's Xbox and Sony PS3 into the film market.

On Thursday, entertainment trade publication Variety reported that an executive from film studio Lionsgate said the Wii could be equipped to stream movies as early as this year.

Are movies next?

(Credit: GameSpot)

"The thing that is clearly a force in digital are the game devices," Curt Marvis, president of digital media for Lionsgate, told Variety. "I think when we see the Wii come into the market with the ability to stream movies, which I think is maybe going to happen as soon as this year, I think that's going to be a big marketplace for digital distribution."

A Nintendo representative said the company doesn't comment on rumor or speculation.

The major film studios are fans of game consoles. People are used to thinking of the boxes as entertainment devices. The devices are connected to televisions so they own choice living room real estate.

Marvis didn't say that a Wii movie service was a done deal, but Variety noted that he's in a position to know "what's in the works."

Ondi Timoner was awarded the Grand Jury prize Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival for her documentary, We Live in Public.

(Credit: Sundance Film Festival)

We Live in Public, a sort of cautionary story about the Web's impact on our lives, grabbed one of the Sundance Film Festival's top honors Saturday, the Grand Jury Prize for documentary films.

The film was directed by Ondi Timoner, who gave CNET an inside look last week at the life of a filmmaker about to screen her work to an audience for the very first time. It covers a tumultuous decade in the life of Josh Harris, whom Timoner refers to as "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of."

During the 1990s dot-com boom, Harris created the first Internet television network, Pseudo.com, and then an underground bunker in Manhattan where 100 people lived together on camera for 30 days before getting shut down as a millennial cult by authorities on New Year's Day 2000.

Harris' next experiment, which led him to a mental breakdown, was a six-month stint living with his girlfriend under 24-hour live surveillance online.

Timoner, who also won the Grand Jury prize for her 2004 rock 'n' roll documentary, Dig!, had been hired by Harris to film the underground bunker project, called Quiet. She continued to follow him over the years, as she was drawn by his character, even if she didn't quite understand his message.

It wasn't until spring 2006, when she started noticing people walking around, oblivious to the world typing into their BlackBerrys, or posting their every thought and move on social-networking status feeds, that Timoner realized that Harris was a true visionary.

A screenshot from the film We Live in Public.

(Credit: Sundance handout art)

Harris, for his part, said he doesn't plan to watch the film but that he is supportive of Timoner's mission. He was by her side for much of the festival.

There is no word yet on a distributor for the film, which skillfully culls more than 5,000 hours of footage, taking viewers on a crazy journey that leaves them with a lot to think about. Timoner has said she's contemplating handling the distribution herself via the Web so she doesn't have to give up creative rights.

Another top festival honor, the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. dramatic films, went to Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire, which was directed by Lee Daniels and blew audiences away with its dark storyline and surprising performances. (It also received the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic films.)

Push filmmaker Lee Daniels, left, and stars Mariah Carey and Mo'Nique, take audience questions following their film's premiere last week at the Sundance Film Festival.

(Credit: Michelle Meyers/CNET Networks)

Push tells the redemptive story of Precious Jones, a young, overweight, awkward teen in Harlem who somehow musters the strength, despite all odds against her, to discover her own voice. The film is intense, hard to watch, and sticks with you. It has not yet been picked up for distribution.

Never to be forgotten is a performance by Mo'Nique, who got a special jury prize for her for her portrayal of Precious' mentally ill mother, who copes by mentally and emotionally abusing her daughter. The first audience question following Push's first screening last week was directed toward Mo'Nique: "What are you planning on wearing to the Oscars?"

Another impressive performance in the film was that of Mariah Carey, who plays a very plain and conflicted social worker.

A screenshot from the dramatic, award-winning Sundance film Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire

(Credit: Sundance handout art)

The Audience Award for a U.S. documentary went to the buzz-generating The Cove, which this reporter was unable to see due to scheduling conflicts.

One of many environmentally themed documentaries at the festival, The Cove is about the peril of dolphins in a secret cove nestled off a small coastal village in Japan. Its main character is Rick O'Barry, the dolphin trainer from the TV series Flipper. O'Barry leads a group of activists who reveal--using an array of covert cameras--the plight of the creatures after they are captured by the world's largest dolphin supplier.

Here are a few other noteworthy Sundance awards: The World Cinema Jury prize for documentaries went to Rough Aunties, about women protecting and caring for the abused, neglected, and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa; the World Cinema Jury prize for dramatic films went to The Maid (La Nana), about a bitter and introverted maid who wreaks havoc on a Chilean household; the World Cinema Audience Award for documentaries went to Afghan Star, which is about the popularity of the Pop Idol TV show in Afghanistan and follows the stories of four contestants who risk their lives to sing; the World Cinema Audience Award for dramatic films went to An Education, in which a 16-year-old with sights set on Oxford University meets a handsome older man whose sophistication enraptures and sidetracks both her and her parents.