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Dedham High School looked more like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Wednesday, May 19 night as students and their friends and families celebrated at the fifth Annual Dedham High School Media Film Festival.

If so much of movie-industry success combines talent and luck, Stephen Kijak’s luck is that he’s talented. The New Bedford native is sitting on a rooftop from which you can see the Mediterranean, basking in his moment at the world’s biggest film festival. His hourlong documentary, “Stones in Exile,’’ arrives on DVD in June. It premiered with a lot of hoopla last week at a sold-out screening in the Director’s Fortnight program of the Cannes Film Festival.

An amendment in next year’s state budget would create a website that would publish reports detailing which companies receive tax credits, how much the tax credit is for and the date it is issued. Some in the business community say the requirement unfairly focuses on businesses and could be a slippery slope toward giving out confidential tax and trade information.

As film season returns this year, city officials are more prepared to handle the onslaught. Officials studied best practices of permitting from New York and Los Angeles after streamlining the process by gathering representatives from various departments for weekly meetings.

The number of Emerson graduates who have not only found work in the entertainment industry, but are wielding significant influence, has exploded in the worlds of television, film, the Web, and publishing. And the biggest reason is the willingness of the big-name graduates of the small liberal arts college to take care of their own. It’s gotten to the point where they have started jokingly referring to their network as the Emerson mafia.

Harvard film student Andrew Wesman was on a Utah road trip over spring break with his best friend, Ian Carr, when they stopped to take pictures in Zion National Park. An e-mail popped up on Wesman’s iPhone: The renowned Cannes Film Festival in France had accepted Wesman’s senior thesis, a low-budget, 21-minute narrative film called “Shelley.’’ His tuxedoed presence was requested on the red carpet on May 21.

Natick homegal Ari Graynor starts shooting Anna Faris’ made-in-Boston romantic comedy “What’s Your Number?” today. But that career rush can’t compare to the day she went to Priscilla of Boston to get fitted for three onscreen wedding gowns! The film, which co-stars Sudbury homey Chris Evans, revolves around Ari’s faux wedding. It seems Faris’ character doesn’t want to go to her sister’s wedding alone, so she revisits each of her past paramours – and there are many – to see if she missed her Mr. Right. Hilarity, as you can imagine, ensues.

When David Salzberg’s friends called him “Hollywood” as he was growing up in Walpole and in the area, it was more-or-less a derogatory moniker. Nowadays, that has all changed. With the release of “The Perfect Game” earlier this month, Salzberg, a Hollywood mainstay, earned his first executive producer film credit.
Based on the true story written by W. William Winokur, “The Perfect Game” follows a group of poor young boys from Monterey, Mexico in 1957 who dreamed of playing baseball in uniform. With the help of a local priest (played by Cheech Marin) the boys realize that dream and much, much more.

Even as some states pull back from the Hollywood game, others are expanding in a big way. The Florida Legislature, for example, recently approved a $242-million film tax credit program. Massachusetts earlier this year fended off an effort to impose a cap on its program, while New York has proposed boosting its incentive to a whopping $420 million annually.

Boston Logan International Airport is celebrating the return of daily seasonal service between Boston and Paris on American Airlines by offering a three night stay for two in Paris — the City of Light — courtesy of American Airlines and the Hotel de Vigny located near the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysées. To win this trip of a lifetime, contestants need to submit a short video–before May 20th–about what it means to be an American in Paris.

What summer-movie season is this, anyway? We’ve got an “Iron Man” movie, a “Twilight” (June 30), a “Robin Hood,” a “Shrek,” a “Sex and the City,” another “Karate Kid,” another “Toy Story” (June 18), a George Romero zombie movie (May 28) and, for crying out loud, “The A-Team.” Can you say: I pity the fools? Clearly, it’s deja vu 24/7 as the film industry sells only what has been sold before, even if it was only on television. No wonder indies sweep the awards.

The summer release schedule, which starts Friday, is light on both obvious blockbusters and post facto 3-D spectacles. This might turn out to be the sort of summer where audiences weary of schmucks go out in search of people. Here is a complete guide to your many options.

Throughout May, the Boston Public Library will welcome local filmmakers to its popular “Made in Massachusetts” film series. The yearlong series is the BPL’s most expansive film series ever, showcasing a wide range of movies filmed in the Bay State. Writers, producers, and directors will describe their works and take questions at each of the four Monday night film screenings planned in May.

Rhode Island’s tax credit for film and TV productions generated $8 in economic activity for every $1 invested between 2005 and 2009, according to a new study by Edward M. Mazze, economics professor at the University of Rhode Island, and former dean of URI’s business school. He found that the $57.6 million in film tax credits Rhode Island issued over the four-year period created a total of $465.51 million in economic activity. The credits also created and supported 4,184 new jobs, generated $181.7 million in direct wages and $152.6 million in indirect wages, and led to $34.1 million in state and local taxes, according to the report.

This picture-perfect Newton, Massachusetts homestead is one of several shooting sites around the Boston area for a CBS pilot called “Quinn-Tuplets”….just one of 80-plus scripted pilots in production across the country, and due to be evaluated soon by the five broadcast networks. Each is bucking for a berth on a fall prime-time schedule.

Local producer Sam Weisman’s hit reality show, “The Sing-Off,’’ is coming back to NBC, and casting begins next month.

Turbine Inc., one of the Boston area’s biggest video game companies, has been acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Inc. of Burbank, Calif., a business unit of media giant Time Warner Inc. “I view this as Hollywood coming to Boston,’’ said Turbine chief executive Jim Crowley, who said the deal underscores Greater Boston’s increasing prominence as a center for video game development

Kevin Bright, the Emmy-winning producer of the smash sitcom “Friends,’’ is involved in a groundbreaking partnership with the Perkins School for the Blind. An executive artist in residence at Emerson College, Bright has developed a filmmaking course for blind students, teaching them how to shoot, light, direct, and produce. His students just completed their first short film, “Seeing Through the Lens,’’ about the friendship between three teenage girls at Perkins.

This is all in good fun and will inevitably lead to can’t-miss train wreck moments once the show goes on the air. But it’s also a thin, cheap look at the state. Even if the show is a commercial success, the version of Massachusetts it depicts is getting less relevant by the day. And for the millions of Bay Staters who have no interest in muscle cahs or hair products, that’s not such a bad thing.

Among the movies in the pipeline is the Anna Faris-Chris Evans comedy, “What’s Your Number,” which starts shooting next month.