The footage from Cannes 2000 is divided into sections that cover particular topics, none of which I found too interesting or engaging. There was a segment featuring interviews with interns from around the world and what they did while at Cannes. Another showed a few brief glimpses from the Film Fest party, while others showed brief glimpses of stars. A photographer also provides an interview and shares what its like taking pictures at Cannes. More interviews with "real" stars and/or directors would've really helped make this section more interesting.

The footage from the South by Southwest Music and Film Festival is divided into sections covering either the music portion (3 minutes) or the film portion (5 minutes). While more coherent, it still suffers a lot of the same problems mentioned before with a lack of substantial behind the scenes information and begins to get tedious fairly quickly.

The four short films included are: Luz (by Jose Javier Martinez, 8 minutes), Five Feet High and Rising (by Peter Sollett, 29 minutes), Keep Clear (by Corey Rosen, 2 minutes), and Reinvention (by Sadia Shepard, 4 minutes). Of the four, Keep Clear was the best; the others just weren't very interesting and I can't see myself watching them again. Only one is presented in widescreen, Keep Clear, and all are presented in Dolby Mono 2.0.

Picture:
Almost everything on Film Fest 5 is presented in full frame; a few segments and Keep Clear are presented in widescreen. The picture is generally quite good with accurate flesh tones and vibrant colors – especially in the festival footage. Some of the short films contain some grain and marks, though Reinvention appears to be shot intentionally like that, to give it a dated feel.

Sound:
Everything on Film Fest 5 appears to be in Dolby Mono 2.0. For the material presented on this DVD, it is fine, with no apparent shortcomings. Dialogue, for the exception on Five Feet High and Rising, is crisp and clean with no distortions that I could detect.

Extras:
Each short film has a separate audio commentary by the director and notes about the film. The commentaries ranged from enjoyable to dull, but if you're a fan of one of the short films on the disc, the commentary for it is worth a listen.

Most of the festival footage has the option of turning on "interesting" facts about whatever the person on screen is talking about, ala VH1's Pop Up Videos, only the facts appear in the bottom of the screen where a subtitle would go. Usually these facts aren't relevant at all, but many times, they were more interesting that the footage being shown.

Interviews with Willem Dafoe about Shadow of the Vampire, Michelle Rodriguez about Girlfight, John Waters about Cecil B. Demented, and the Hughes Brothers about American Pimp are also present, and each run about four minutes in length. All feature some clips from the movie they're trying to promote. I thought the interviews were, for the most part, interesting. Notes for each person are also present.

Running interviews also stream on each menu screen, and participants include Roger Ebert, Samira Makhmalbaf, George Clooney, and Lars Von Trier. These can be turned off and on.

Also included are the trailer and some notes for Shadow of the Vampire, a trailer/music video hybrid and notes for Dancer in the Dark, and a trailer, notes, and a clip from Bounce: Behind the Velvet Rope.

Unfortunately, Film Fest 5 also contains a very much-unwanted extra – forced, minute long, commercials and advertisements that are un-skipable and play at the beginning of several short films and segments throughout the DVD. You can fast forward through them, but its much more of a chore than not having them at all; since they charge for the DVD, the commercials, if they must be here, should only be selectable from a separate menu option.

Summary:
Film Fest 5 is only recommended for fans of the four short films included here, or people who absolutely must have some behind the scenes footage from Cannes 2000 or the South by Southwest festival. For all others, skip it.