With an already crowded European calendar of established film festivals (find a complete calendar of world wide film festivals and events HERE), you can imagine that Madrid’s announcement of The Cim Madrid International Film Festival was met with less than ‘tinkle our britches’ enthusiasm.

The festival is set to run March 26-April 1 and will specialize in art pictures, so they are trying hard to make their own niche. "We're betting on high quality features, not necessarily from indie pro-duction houses. We're looking for movies that show excellence not only in direction and acting but also lensing, music, costumes…," Maria Kannon De Cle said, the official festival head.

In the competitive section, they’ll have about 10 films, and sidebars will include a new directors section and another specializing in international indies. Cim will also give lifetime achievement awards... but what they SHOULD do is get an official website together!

While Madrid is totally stoked about their new festival (translation- tons of tourism bucks and press), the international industry sharing their joy is another matter... as the planned festival falls between two European mega-fests — Berlin and Cannes, which both provide a platform for upscale movies in their festival lineups and markets. We’ll just have to wait and see if this causes a scuffle, a decrease in the other two festival attendees, or simply the crash and burn of the new Madrid endeavor. Good luck and pass the sangria!