Anyone who has been to a film festival has had this experience: You watch a terrific movie, you think, "This film deserves an audience" -- and then the movie is never heard from again. It doesn't get theatrical distribution, and it winds up with a cursory DVD release 18 months later. The end. So sad.

Well, I am happy to report that a movie I feared would suffer that fate has been spared. It's called Kabluey, and Cinematical's Kim Voynar and I saw it at the Oxford (Mississippi) Film Festival back in February, where it won the jury prize. It's a comedy about a directionless man who moves in with his sister to help take care of his hellion nephews, and who subsequently takes a lame job wearing a big dumb mascot suit and handing out fliers advertising available office space. The movie is funny, inventive, and sweet, and a real crowd-pleaser.

Scott Prendergast, who wrote, directed, and stars in the film, told us in Oxford that it had been acquired by some division of some studio and would be released in the summer. But as time passed, I noticed with some concern that no release date was being announced. Now, at last, we have confirmation: July 4 in New York, July 11 in L.A., and Aug. 1 in San Francisco. At the moment, that's it before the film's DVD release in the fall. So it's not a huge theatrical release, but hey, it's something.

Eric Snider and I spent this past weekend in lovely Oxford, Mississippi with our friend Jen Yamato from Rotten Tomatoes, where the three of us participated in a panel on Film and New Media for the Oxford Film Festival. I also served on the documentary features jury for the fest. Scott Weinberg was supposed to have been here with me and Jen, but a serious tooth issue kept him home in Philly. Scott still pulled duty on the dramatic features jury for the fest, and Eric very kindly dropped things on a moment's notice the other day to fly to Oxford in Scott's stead.

The three of us had an absolute blast in Oxford. I love these small town film festivals ... everyone is so nice, the pace is laid-back and mellow -- a nice change coming off the craziness of Sundance. We got into Memphis on Thursday, and Jen and I had some yummy BBQ at Corky's -- Memphis-style "dry" ribs and brisket that was to die for. Mmmm. After Eric got in, we drove the hour or so trip to Oxford.