Palm Springs International Film Festival

Palm Springs is probably the only place cinephiles can take in 16 French movies in two weeks and watch a roadrunner scuttle alongside the base of a snow-capped mountain. "It's different here," quipped director Francis Veber, as he relaxed in a wicker chair at the Wyndham Palm Springs Hotel's bar. "You open windows to the rest of the world. I wouldn't go to a Bulgarian or Korean movie anywhere else."

Indie director Jonathan Parker has a soft spot for the Palm Springs International Film Festival -- and not just because, unlike at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, you can squeeze in a round of golf between screenings and Q&A sessions. "I think Palm Springs is really a film festival that has changed quite a bit," Parker says of the event, which began two decades ago -- it even featured parties at then-Mayor Sonny Bono's house -- and struggled financially in the late '90s.