Barcelona Movie

Whit Stillman's in town, making his second movie for 15 times the cost of his first--and still he's in the world of low-budget movie making. Producer-director-screenwriter Stillman managed to deliver a print of his 1990 debut "Metropolitan," a wry, accomplished comedy about young Manhattan debutantes and their tuxedoed escorts, for an astonishing $230,000. He made it in his hometown of New York, cajoled friends and relatives to invest, and shot scenes in the borrowed apartments of acquaintances.

Whit Stillman's in town, making his second movie for 15 times the cost of his first--and still he's in the world of low-budget movie making. Producer-director-screenwriter Stillman managed to deliver a print of his 1990 debut "Metropolitan," a wry, accomplished comedy about young Manhattan debutantes and their tuxedoed escorts, for an astonishing $230,000. He made it in his hometown of New York, cajoled friends and relatives to invest, and shot scenes in the borrowed apartments of acquaintances.

The American Cinema Foundation's annual Freedom Film Festival opens tonight at 8 with an invitation-only premiere of "Sky Hook," a story of civilians enduring the 1999 NATO bombings of Belgrade. The festival takes place at the Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica, through Sunday, with three Sunday afternoon and evening screenings also at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City in the Tri-Star Building at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Overland Avenue (entrance on Overland).

Vicky Cristina . . . Rio de Janeiro? The Brazilian city has formed a new film commission, hired a longtime movie industry pro to head it and set an ambitious first goal: landing the next Woody Allen flick. Taking a cue from Barcelona, the Spanish city that was the principal setting for Allen's last film, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Rio is dangling $2 million in subsidies to attract the director's as-yet-untitled next movie. This month, Rio was named the site for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, and city fathers hope it's on a roll.