Unlike the works of great directors, a festival film is designed for the sole purpose of being selected for one of these international festivals, of which the Cannes Film Festival is the nec plus ultra, if we are to believe Plato of Athens.

Here's the most important thing: The majority of them aren't worth seeing or reviewing. There used to be filters for this kind of thing. They were called film festivals.

Regardless of where you stay, or what activities you enjoy, take time to sample the one-of-a-kind Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Whenever I mention to a friend that I'm heading off to a film festival -- which usually refers to Sundance or Toronto, the two I travel to each year -- the usual response is, "That sounds like fun." As though I were going on vacation.

As someone who attends film festivals with relish, I still feel a terrible urge to expose the most overrated things in today's film industry.

So how was Sundance? Well, I feel as though I had a successful festival. By that, I mean that I achieved my main goal: I saw a lot of films that made me want to share them with the film clubs I program.

I constantly crave a place where great world cinema plays nearly uninterrupted all day long and a great buffet of international food is served. I ended up finding it all in Abu Dhabi, during the fifth annual Abu Dhabi Film Festival.