24 May 2004	Monday	04 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

NEW YORK, May 23: Michael Moore, who won the Cannes Film Festival's top prize on Saturday with a documentary caustically critical of US President George Bush and the Iraq war, is still searching for a US distributor after the Walt Disney group rejected his film as too political.

"Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the festival's coveted Palme d'Or, spans the period from Bush's 2000 election through the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The film is a scathing reprobation of Bush, portraying him as out of his depth and keen to further his family's links to Saudi families made rich from oil - including relatives of Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 attacks.

The White House shrugged off the award, saying, "It's a free country. It's what makes America great. Everyone has the right to say what they want." Disney earlier this month banned its subsidiary, Miramax Films, from distributing "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Disney head Michael Eisner said he was concerned the film would impact on the US presidential election campaign. Fahrenheit 9/11 "is a totally appropriate film," he said, "but we did not want to have it in the middle of a political process. We are a non-partisan company."

Miramax, which Disney bought 10 years ago, became a principal investor in Moore's project a year ago. Disney has a contractual agreement with Miramax bosses Bob and Harvey Weinstein that prevents Miramax from distributing films under certain circumstances, including films with an excessive budget or an NC-17 rating which precludes viewing by minors.

Miramax executives claimed Disney's ban fell outside the scope of that agreement. On May 12, however, Miramax announced a deal whereby Disney would sell "Fahrenheit 911" to the Weinsteins, who could then proceed to find a new distributor not associated with Disney, although none had yet been announced as of Saturday. -AFP