Film Festivals

Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love to Open 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival

The North American Premiere of Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love will double as the opening night film for the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival.

Written and directed by Woody Allen, To Rome With Love is a story about a number of people in Italy – some American, some Italian, some residents, some visitors – and the romances and adventures and predicaments they get into. The film stars Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page, and is produced by Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum. To Rome With Love is being released by Sony Pictures Classics on June 22, 2012.

“I can’t think of a better way to kick off this year’s festival than with the original independent filmmaker himself, Woody Allen. It’s a true honor for Los Angeles to host the North American premiere of To Rome With Love,” said Festival Director Stephanie Allain.

“I’ve always wanted to make a film in Rome. It’s obviously one of the great cities of the world, and when you make a film in a foreign city you get a chance to spend several months there, so shooting in Rome gave me and my family an opportunity to really enjoy a city I love in a way that I don’t usually get to. I wrote the film especially for Rome because over the years and my many visits there little ideas occurred to me, and I was able to utilize those ideas to comic advantage, romantic advantage, combined with the visual beauty of Rome,” said Woody Allen.

Returning to downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. LIVE, the Festival will run from Thursday, June 14 to Sunday, June 24, 2012.

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No More, the Reno Film Festival to End

The recession has not been kind to film festivals, and VIMOOZ can confirm that the Reno Film Festival has also fallen to the economic downturn and has decided to end.

The press release:

After careful review and consideration, evaluation of past 12 years performance and economic conditions, including grant availability, the Board of Directors of the Reno Film Festival has voted unanimously to cease operation and dissolve the organization effective June 30, 2012.

“Naturally we’re very sorry to make this announcement,” said Festival President Scott Birmingham, “But the current board—and speaking for past volunteer boards through the years—is very proud of the films, competitions, seminars and programs we’ve brought to our area for more than a decade. Looking back, we’ve hosted a ‘who’s who’ of those involved in the film industry to interact with local and visiting film fans,” he added.

Screenings of the finalists in the Lumiere All School Film Fest, the Reno Film Festival’s competition for elementary to some college level students, will take place as scheduled May 16-18. The location for these evening screenings will be announced on the Festival’s website, www.renofilmfestival.com and all three screenings will be free, courtesy of a grant from the DP Foundation.

Reno Film Festival sponsors this year are KTVN-Channel 2, Reno News & Review, Reno Media Group, Bea-Design for Marketing, KUNR Public Radio – FM 88.7 and Red Machine Multimedia. Grant support has been received from the City of Reno Arts & Culture Commission, DP/Dermody Properties and the E.L. Cord foundations. All eight City of Reno Advisory Boards also support the festival: Ward 1, Southwest Reno. Wards 2, Central and South Reno; Ward 3, East Reno; Wards 4, Northeast and North Valleys; Wards 5, Old Northwest and Northwest.

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Inaugural Unreal Film Festival to run November 9 – 11 in Memphis, TN to

There is a new film festival in Memphis, TN, called the Unreal Film Festival. This is the first year of the festival which is designed as a genre film festival inside a comic convention. The festival is currently open to entries and will be until June 15th. The winners will be announced on July 15th and the winning films will be screened at the festival on November 9-11, 2012 at the Hilton Hotel in Memphis, TN.

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Santa Barbara International Film Festival Announces 2013 Dates

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has set Thursday, January 24 through Sunday, February 3, 2013 as the dates for the 28th edition of the festival, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director, Roger Durling.

Comments SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling, “The 27th edition was an exciting one for us – full of changes and growth with our first ever acquisitions program. Now in the midst of preparations for the 28th edition – we guarantee you that the best is yet to come.”

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Inaugural Film Festival Week – LA Set to Run April 11-19 in Hollywood, CA

The newly created Film Festival Week – LA will be held April 11-19,2012 in Hollywood, CA, at Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave, Hollywood (Chaplin Building).

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Tribeca Unveils Lineup for 2012 Tribeca Online Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_2732" align="alignnone" width="550"]Babygirl[/caption]

The 2012 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) today unveiled the lineup and programming for the third edition of Tribeca Online Film Festival. Audiences across the country will get front row access to the exclusive Festival content and hear filmmakers and industry leaders talking about the future of the industry as TFF’s 11th edition runs concurrently in lower Manhattan from April 18 to 29.

Four world premiere feature selections from the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, and five short films, three of which are world premieres, will be available during the online Festival.

Online viewers will be able to vote for the Best Tribeca Online Feature Film, a prize of $10,000, and the Best Tribeca Online Short Film, a prize of $5,000. Winners will be announced at the Tribeca Film Festival Awards on April 26. There will also be a social voting competition, based solely on popularity: the number of “likes” that film accrues on the Tribeca Online Film Festival film detail page. The feature film and the short film that drive the most Facebook likes on the page will each receive a separate $500 prize. Winners will be announced on April 30.

The complete list of feature films streamed on the Tribeca Online Film Festival is as follows:

Babygirl, directed and written by Macdara Vallely. (Ireland, USA) – World Premiere, Viewpoints. For as long as she can remember, Bronx teenager Lena has watched her mom Lucy squander her life on a series of deadbeat men. When Victor, her mom’s latest boy toy, starts hitting on Lena, she sets up a trap to expose Victor for the creep he is… but the plan backfires. Macdara Vallely crafts a heartfelt drama about the emotional highs and lows in the moment between childhood and adulthood.

[caption id="attachment_2733" align="alignnone" width="550"]On The Mat[/caption]

On The Mat, directed and written by Fredric Golding. (USA) – World Premiere, Viewpoints and Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival. Achieving greatness in high school wrestling requires a level of devotion unmatched perhaps by any other sport. That greatness has become a yearly expectation at Lake Stevens High, winner of seven Washington state championships in the past 10 years. Narrated by Lake Stevens wrestling alum Chris Pratt (Moneyball), this riveting documentary follows the team over the course of a season as they fight through injuries and academic issues to maintain their school’s legacy.

[caption id="attachment_2734" align="alignnone" width="550"]The Russian Winter[/caption]

The Russian Winter, directed by Petter Ringbom. (Russia) – World Premiere, Spotlight. Brooklyn-born John Forté was a Grammy-nominated musician in The Fugees at 21 and a federal prison inmate at 26. When his prison sentence was remarkably commuted in 2008, Forté was given a second chance to share his talents with the world. Chronicling his concert tour across Russia, this inspirational documentary takes us on Forté’s personal journey—one that’s as much about having his voice heard as having his music heard. In English, Russian with subtitles.

[caption id="attachment_2735" align="alignnone" width="550"]Town of Runners[/caption]

Town of Runners, directed by Jerry Rothwell. (UK) – World Premiere, Viewpoints. Over the past two decades the small, rural Ethiopian town of Bekoji has been the unlikely home to numerous Olympic champion long-distance runners, whose athletic success has paved the way for a generation of young Ethiopians searching for a better future. With a keen artistic eye, TFF award winner Jerry Rothwell (Donor Unknown) follows two teenage track hopefuls who face the challenge of growing up and striving for greatness in a developing nation. In Amharic, Oromo with subtitles.

The short films streaming on Tribeca Online are:

BFF (World Premiere) Directed and written by Neil LaBute. Jack and Jill have been “best friends forever,” and when Jill suspects that her boyfriend is cheating on her, Jack offers to help her.

CatCam (New York Premiere) Directed by Seth Keal. German engineer Jürgen Perthold was intrigued about where his newly adopted stray, Mr. Lee, disappeared to for days on end, so he developed the CatCam to help solve the mystery.

Scenes from a Visit to Japan (World Premiere) Directed and written by Joel Schlemowitz. An experimental film invoking diverse cultural landscapes, suggesting a collective struggle of humanity between apocalyptic visions of the past, present, and future, and the redemptive power of the human spirit.

Transmission (International Premiere) Directed and written by Zak Hilditch. Following a deadly pandemic that has decimated the world’s population, a father drives his nine-year-old daughter from the west coast of Australia to the safe zone.

Doggy Bags (World Premiere) Directed and written by Edward Burns. A young man suspects the girl he is dating to be hiding a secret after she routinely orders massive amounts of food to go. Produced by American Express as a result of the 2011 My Movie Pitch contest. This film is ineligible for awards.

Nine additional short films will be made available through FOCUS FORWARD – Short Films, Big Ideas, a partnership between GE and CINELAN. Five will premiere on tribecafilm.com beginning today, April 9, when the Tribeca Online Film Festival site goes live. The last four, which are world premieres, will debut on tribecafilm.com on April 25, simultaneous with their TFF premieres at Tribeca Cinemas. The four world premiere films are directed by Nelson George, Katy Chevigny, Steven Cantor, and Michèle Ohayon. Each film is three minutes long and tells an amazing story of innovators making our world a better place.

Select events will be streamed live as part of the Tribeca Online Film Festival, with TFF’s many other events, Q&As and conversations being captured on video for dynamic segments to be posted each day on tribecafilm.com, giving online audiences a comprehensive Festival experience. Among the live events scheduled are:

April 19 at 3pm EDT – A celebration of Universal Studios 100th Anniversary, featuring Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Judd Apatow sharing their favorite moments and memories from Universal’s extraordinary history.

April 26 at 7pm EDT – TFF Awards Night, saluting the best of the Festival;

April 27 at 11am EDT – Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards, celebrating innovation across the media, entertainment and technology spectrum.

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Film Lineup is Complete for 2012 Montclair Film Festival and Tickets Go On Sale

[caption id="attachment_2724" align="alignnone" width="550"]Opening Night Gala film ‘The Oranges’[/caption]

Tickets are now on sale for the 2012 Montclair Film Festival running May 1 – May 6, 2012 in Montclair New Jersey. The festival will present over 45 films with live participation by over 50 special guests including Kathleen Turner, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Moore, Patrick Wilson, and Oliver Platt.

The Opening Night Gala (May 1) will present the New Jersey comedy, The Oranges. Set in suburban New Jersey, Hugh Laurie (House M.D.) and Catherine Keener (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) play a couple whose best friends and neighbors are Oliver Platt (Love and Other Drugs) and Allison Janney (The West Wing). Their comfortable existence goes awry when a prodigal daughter played by Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) returns and sparks an affair. The ramifications affect all of the family members in unexpected and hilarious ways.

Other highlights of the festival include the drama Tiger Eyes, based on the novel by New Jersey native Judy Blume directed by her son Lawrence Blume, and An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, the debut of African-American director Terence Nance.

[caption id="attachment_2725" align="alignnone" width="550"]Tiger Eyes[/caption]

Born and raised in New Jersey, Judy Blume belongs to the pantheon of American storytellers, yet none of her books have been adapted for the big screen – until now. Her son Lawrence Blume directs this touching story of a 17 year-old girl played by Willa Holland (Gossip Girl; The O.C.) who suffers a family loss. She’s uprooted from her home in Atlantic City and transplanted to New Mexico where she meets a young man who helps her find new strength.

[caption id="attachment_2726" align="alignnone" width="550"]An Oversimplification of Her Beauty[/caption]

In An Oversimplification of Her Beauty which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, Terence Nance in his directing debut chronicles his relationship with a lovely young woman (Namik Minter), teetering between platonic and romantic. Utilizing a tapestry of live action and animated styles, Nance explores his fantasies, emotions, and memories for a vibrant expression of young love.

Documentaries at the festival include the world Premiere of The Prep School Negro and a screening of About Face.

[caption id="attachment_2727" align="alignnone" width="550"]The Prep School Negro[/caption]

In The Prep School Negro, André Robert Lee revisits the life-changing events of his adolescence when he gained a way out of Philadelphia’s ghettos with a scholarship to an elite prep school. As he moved into a different world, he grew distant from his sister and mother. In this poignant film, he explores thorny questions of race, education, opportunity and family. He also spends time with current day prep school students of color to see if anything has changed inside the ivory tower.

[caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignnone" width="550"]About Face[/caption]

About Face features esteemed portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders interviewing fashion’s top supermodels on their lives, careers, and lifelong relationship with beauty. From youth to cosmetic surgery, addiction to self-esteem, overnight stardom to reinvention, this HBO documentary reveals the extraordinary women behind the famous faces. The memorable testimonies include Paulina Porizkova on her insecurities; Pat Cleveland on breaking boundaries for African-American women; and Carol Alt on posing for Playboy in her late 40s. Not to mention Christie Brinkley, Beverly Johnson, Jerry Hall, Isabella Rossellini and more. Courtesy of HBO Documentary Films.

The festival will host the world premiere of David Bromberg: Unsung Treasures and Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Story.

[caption id="attachment_2729" align="alignnone" width="550"]David Bromberg: Unsung Treasures[/caption]

In David Bromberg: Unsung Treasures, David Bromberg is a musician’s musician who collaborated with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jerry Garcia and other greats. But Bromberg stopped performing publicly in the 1980’s and turned to violin making. New Jersey director Beth Toni Kruvant, who won acclaim for Heart of Stone about Newark’s Weequahic High School, follows Bromberg as he helps to revitalize an urban community and makes a musical comeback with esteemed friends such as Dr. John and Levon Helm.

[caption id="attachment_2730" align="alignnone" width="550"]Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Story[/caption]

Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Story, looks at Morton Downey Jr., dubbed the “Father of Trash Television,” who pushed the boundaries of controversy and confrontation from his New Jersey studio and became a media sensation in the late 1980s. Évocateur gains access to never-before-seen footage and takes us behind Downey’s cult of personality while charting his rise and fall. Interviewees include Pat Buchanan, Sally Jessy Raphael, Alan Dershowitz, as well as Downey’s former colleagues, critics and fans. Their testimony brings new insight to a bizarre chapter of TV history.

Visit the festival website to see the full film lineup and to purchase tickets

credit: Film description from the festival’s website.

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Actor Armand Assante’s Dialogue From the Steppes Among Winners of 2012 Gasparilla International Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_2721" align="alignnone" width="550"]Armand Assante[/caption]

“Dialogue From the Steppes,” a short film written and directed by actor Armand Assante (“Mambo Kings,” “Private Benjamin”) won the top documentary short prize at this year’s Gasparilla International Film Festival. “Dialogue From the Steppes” is described as Armand Assante’s presentation based on his own observations and feelings for the people of Kazakhstan. about the formation of an independent state, through several periods of Kazakhstan’s development, including the war years, closing of Semipalatinsk testing site, political repressions and the latest economic and political achievements of the country.

The complete list of winners of 2012 Gasparilla International Film Festival:

Life Achievment Award: Keith David

Career Achievement Award: Chazz Palminteri

Rising Star Award: Ryan O’Nan

Digital Domain Institute Award for Screenwriting Competition
“Heart of a Family” BY Sharon Duncan

Digital Domain Institute Award for Audience Best Short Documentary
Dialogue from the Steppes

Digital Domain Institute Award for Audience Best Documentary
Teresa Sareo – Alive Again

Digital Domain Institute Award for Audience Best Narrative
Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best

Digital Domain Institute Award for Audience Best Short Narrative
Underground

Florida Governor’s Office Film in Florida Award for Best Florida Prod.
Subprime

Digital Domain Institute Award for Special Mention Male
Michael Weston in “Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best”

Digital Domain Institute Award for Special Mention Female
Danielle Harris

Digital Domain Institute Award for Grand Jury Short Narrative
Wolf Call

Digital Domain Institute Award for Grand Jury Short Documentary
Dilli

Digital Domain Institute Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary
The Loving Story

Digital Domain Institute Award for Grand Jury Animated Short
Live Outside the Box

Digital Domain Institute Award for Grand Jury Narrative
Downtown Express

Digital Domain Institute Grand Jury Award for Young Filmmaker
According to Plan

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2012 Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival CANCELED

The 2012 Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival which had been scheduled for September, has been canceled, organizers announced Thursday.

The PE website reported that founder and Executive Director Jo Moulton said organizers are restructuring the annual event and the festival will return in 2013.

Moulton said that, after 17 years, it was a difficult decision, but a combination of factors led organizers to conclude it was the right thing to do including a substantial reduction in festival donations and fewer people available to work on the event this year.

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Academy Award Nominee Laura Linney to be Honored at 2012 Dallas International Film Festival Plus More Films Confirmed For Lineup

[caption id="attachment_2712" align="alignnone"]Laura Linney[/caption]

The Dallas International Film Festival continues to make news with the upcoming festival including the announcement that three-time Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Laura Linney will be honored with a Dallas Star Award at the Dallas Film Society Honors. Todd Louiso’s HELLO I MUST BE GOING and Marius A. Markevicius’ THE OTHER DREAM TEAM will be screened in DIFF’s coveted Saturday and Thursday Centerpiece slots respectively. Also, the previously announced LIBERAL ARTS is confirmed as the Opening Night Gala presentation.

[caption id="attachment_1948" align="alignnone"]LIBERAL ARTS[/caption]

DIFF 2012 will kick off on April 12 with the film LIBERAL ARTS which premiered earlier this year at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Starring Zac Efron, Elizabeth Olsen, Josh Radnor, Richard Jenkins and Allison Janney, LIBERAL ARTS centers on 30-something Jesse, who falls for a young 19-year old college student when he is invited back to his alma mater.

[caption id="attachment_2713" align="alignnone" width="549"]HELLO I MUST BE GOING[/caption]

The Saturday Centerpiece will be the comedy HELLO I MUST BE GOING from actor, writer and director Todd Louiso (HIGH FIDELITY (2000); THANK YOU FOR SMOKING (2005)). The new film, which also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, stars Melanie Lynskey (WIN WIN (2011); UP IN THE AIR (2009)) as Amy, a recently divorced New York photographer who moves back in with her parents in suburban Connecticut, then shakes up her life by starting an affair with a young actor. Co-starring Blythe Danner, Christopher Abbott and Julie White, the film had its North American rights snapped up by Oscilloscope Laboratories in preparation for a theatrical release this year.

[caption id="attachment_2714" align="alignnone"]THE OTHER DREAM TEAM[/caption]

Completing the Centerpiece line-up, THE OTHER DREAM TEAM is the incredible story of the 1992 Lithuanian basketball team coached by Donnie Nelson, known now as the general manager of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. The Lithuanian athletes struggled under Soviet rule, but they became symbols of Lithuania’s independence movement and against all odds they triumphed at the Barcelona Olympics. Members of the original team will join Donnie Nelson and director Markevicius at the Landmark Magnolia Theatre screening on Thursday, April 19.

Finally, two additional screenings have been added to the film schedule:

BERNIE (USA)
Director: Richard Linklater
In small-town Texas, the local mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow but when he kills her, he goes to great lengths to create the illusion that she’s alive. Starring Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Shirley MacLaine

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS (USA)
Directors: Shana Sosin, Barbara Stepansky, Jennifer Chambers Lynch, Beth Grant, Tracie Laymon, America Young
Six filmmakers were awarded $1000 each to make a short film. The filmmakers were given only two rules: it had to be written, directed, produced, shot, and edited by women, and the finished product had to express what “feminine strength” meant to the filmmakers. GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS is the result of these terrific collaborations, a half a dozen short films that showcase the diverse and unique voices of young female filmmakers from around the country.
CONVENTION OF DYING
MY OWN PRIVATE DEMON
HOW TO HAVE A HAPPY MARRIAGE
THE PERFECT FIT
A HIDDEN AGENDER
LOCKED-IN

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WWE Superstars Kelly Kelly and Rey Mysterio Among Sports Related Programming and Guests at 2012 Sarasota Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_2709" align="alignnone" width="550"]WWE Superstars Kelly Kelly and Rey Mysterio [/caption]

The Sarasota Film Festival announced sports related programming and guests for the upcoming 2012 festival.

Tino Wallenda and the Flying Wallenda family will attend the World Premiere screening of THE SHOW MUST GO ON on Friday, April 20th.

[caption id="attachment_2710" align="alignnone" width="549"]THE SHOW MUST GO ON[/caption]

THE SHOW MUST GO ON explores the unique familial bond that exists within the high flying Wallenda clan who, despite the true risks of their dangerous high wire act and the economic reality that threatens their livelihood, have performed aerial acts for generations as The Flying Wallendas. As they continue to hone their skills and develop their artistry, the film explores their rich legacy by sharing some of their most death defying feats. One of the most famous circus families in world, the Wallendas call Sarasota home, performing and training here with the same apparatus and on the same rigs as Karl Wallenda developed over 80 years ago.

WWE Superstars Kelly Kelly and Rey Mysterio will attend the Saturday, April 21 screening of THE DAY alongside Dominic Monaghan, Ashely Bell and Director Douglas Aarniokoski.

THE DAY | Set in a bleak, post-apocalyptic world, where much of the remaining population has turned to the chaos of open warfare. A group of survivors, just normal people forced into a life of constant battle for survival, are now lost, wandering the desolate country in hopes of finding a true refuge. There is no mission objective. There is no destination. There used to be 12. Only 5 remain. One survivor falls victim to illness and when faced with an impending storm, the group decides to take shelter at an abandoned farmhouse. THE DAY is a horrifying glimpse into what 24 hours is like in this vicious world. The battle is everywhere and the bullets are dwindling. The group must use every ounce of strength, courage and guile they have to defend their stronghold from a brutally determined enemy. When faced with the end, what will you continue to battle for? Grab your weapon. The battle for humanity is here. Fight or die. A Robert Rodriguez protégé, Doug Aarniokoski, directs this edge-of-your-seat war action horror. Relentless, visceral, intense… THE DAY has come.

NY Giants Hall Of Fame legend Harry Carson will attend thescreening of AMERICAN MAN on Thursday, April 19th.

AMERICAN MAN | Kevin Turner was always good at football. After playing fullback for and graduating from the University of Alabama, he spent his career in the National Football League with The Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots, laying vicious blocks on his opponents and playing the game with physical abandon. But after his career came to an end, Kevin developed ALS, a devastating disease of the brain that may have been caused by his participation in the game he loved. IN AMERICAN MAN, Jon Frankel provides a powerful portrait of an athlete whose diagnosis has inspired him to help in the quest to find answers about this mysterious disease.

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‘After’ and ‘Beauty is Embarrassing’ open ‘BIG EASY EXPRESS’ and ‘Paul Williams Still Alive’ to close 2012 Nashville Film Festival

Beauty is Embarrassing

Continuing a trend started several years ago, two films will officially open and close the Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) when it takes place April 19-26, 2012 at the Regal Green Hills Cinemas.

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