For its Opening, the Festival celebrated the centenary of the birth of George Gershwin. The new Short Film competition section was launched, but had to be closed down in 2004… due to a lack of competitors! By way of anecdote, Michael Douglas, to whom the Festival was paying tribute, met the woman who was to become his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, in Deauville, where she was promoting The Mask of Zorro. Also on the honour roll were producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Steven Spielberg also came, with his family, to present Saving Private Ryan, of which two sequences had been shot, during the previous year’s Festival, at the nearby American Cemetery at
