A scheduling shake-up means that the Bermuda International Film Festival will open with a romantic comedy starring Kevin Kostner on Friday March 18.

The eighth annual BIFF was originally supposed to start with a Paul Reisner/Peter Falk film called 'The Thing About My Folks'. Unfortunately, this film has been cancelled, and replaced with 'The Upside of Anger' starring Kevin Costner and Joan Allen.

This film is about a suburban wife and mother who is left to raise her four headstrong daughters when her husband unexpectedly disappears.

Things get even more hectic when she falls for her neighbour Denny (Costner), a once-great baseball star turned radio DJ, and her daughters are forced to juggle their mom's romantic dilemmas as well as their own.

Other cast members include Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, and Alicia Witt. Mike Binder directs the critically acclaimed Sundance festival hit from New Line Cinema. The film will screen at Southside Cinema at 7 p.m.

The Salvadore Allende film has also been replaced by McLibel by director Franny Armstrong who brought the documentary Drowned Out to the festival two years ago.

The film will screen at 4 p.m. on Saturday March 19 at the Little Theatre.

McLibel is the true story of the postman and the gardener who humiliated McDonald's in "the biggest corporate disaster in history".

Penniless campaigners, Helen Steel and Dave Morris, received a libel writ from McDonald's in 1990 over a leaflet they were handing out in the street.

The battle raged for 15 years ? only ending last month ? at the European Court of Human Rights.

As they struggled to defend themselves in the longest trial in English history, the 'McLibel 2' faced infiltration by spies, secret meetings with corporate executives, 40,000 pages of background reading and a visit from Ronald McDonald.

At the same time, they tried desperately to keep their lives going ? Helen working nights in a bar and Dave as a single father.

Filmed over 10 years by Franny Armstrong, with courtroom reconstructions by Ken Loach, this brand new feature-length version of McLibel follows Helen and Dave every step of the way from anonymous campaigners to global heroes.

The film will be released in the United States in mid-April to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the fast food chain, McDonald's.

Tickets for the eighth Bermuda International Film Festival, March 18-24, are on sale online at www.biff.bm . Individual film tickets are $10.

Tickets will also be on sale at the BIFF Front Room box office, # 1 Passenger Terminal, Front Street, Hamilton starting tomorrow until March 23, Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.