The following updates have been posted on the Downbeach Film Festival Web site:

The first…
1. We have cancelled the awards reception at Showboat on Sunday night. The awards ceremony at Dante Hall will be held as scheduled at 7 p.m.

and… regarding the Revel party:

2. CREDENTIAL UPDATE: For filmmakers and VIP pass holders attending the party at Revel, you must pick up credentials and wristbands outside the Orleans Room at Showboat Friday night between 6 and 9 p.m. If you come to Revel without them, security might deny entrance. We have no room to handle credentials at Revel. Best bet? Go to Showboat and attend an evening with Robert Downey, Sr. and see Putney Swope.

and now, for the festival venues:

The 2012 Atlantic City Cinefest announces four venues for film screenings: Presenting sponsor, Dante Hall Theater, will host films Saturday and Sunday. Showboat will host the opening night film on Friday night. Carnegie Center will show films on Saturday as well, and Golden Nugget will provide a second venue for Sunday afternoon.

Regarding special Saturday screening of Boardwalk Empire:
HBO has granted permission for the Downbeach Film Festival to screen a not-yet-aired episode of season three of “Boardwalk Empire” at the 2012 Atlantic City Cinefest. The episode will air at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 13 at Dante Hall Theater, 14 N. Mississippi Avenue. Terrence Winter, series creator, head writer and producer, will moderate the program and hold a Q&A afterwards in Dante Hall Theater, 14 N. Mississippi Ave., Atlantic City. The screening will precede a filmmaking panel discussion where Winter wil lbe one of the participants.

The schedule for the 2012 Atlantic City Cinefest includes:
SCHEDULE 2012 ATLANTIC CITY CINEFEST

Friday, October 12th

Showboat Atlantic City
ORLEANS ROOM

7 p.m.     An Evening with Robert Downey Sr. – $5
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
**Putney Swope (84 mins)

**For Open-Minded Mature Audiences

(more…)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The fifth annual Atlantic City Cinefest, presented by the Downbeach Film Festival, will feature a celebration of scare with the screening of three New Jersey horror films.

The Showroom in the Golden Nugget Atlantic City will host the event beginning 12:30pm on Sunday, Oct. 14.

Atlantic City filmmaker Keith Vaile’s Azrael will kick off the fright fest, a local film about the angel of death.

Another South Jersey film, Ticket to Hell, will follow, written by Ed McKeever and Kevin Orosz. The premise of this alarming adventure directed by Evelle Mitchell follows two horror fanatics from Jersey that use their lottery winnings to hire their favorite late night horror host to appear in a new documentary. Things turn hellish on this journey through South Jersey’s Pine Barrens and the infamous Ten Acres, starring Orosz, Jeremy Sless, and Ryan Loughney.

The world premiere of The Meat Puppet, directed by Joe Valenti and written by and starring Keith Collins, will act as the finale of the event. The film’s focus is Andrew “Drew” Shelton – a handsome, wealthy playboy with a voracious craving for human flesh. His favorite dish is beautiful women, whom he kills, prepares, and cooks to perfection. Unbeknownst to his guests, the lavish dinner parties he throws are catered by his latest victim, and also the forum for who will be the next dish du jour. The intensity increases with a cat and mouse game between Drew and a suspicious detective who has a hunch something isn’t right. The question arises if the cold-blooded killer is really who he seems to be, or if he’s just the Meat Puppet for an even more sadistic mastermind. Collins expressed the individuality of the psychological thriller, saying his piece is “the kind of horror movie that you don’t see anymore – it’s a great story with great characters.” The Meat Puppet is sure to satisfy its audience’s appetite for horror.

Tickets are $5 for a single show, $10 for the trio. Prefacing the three films will be a block of shorts beginning at 11am.

Click here for more info on the 2012 Atlantic City Cinefest, including appearances by Boardwalk Empire creator Terry Winter and Robert Downey Sr.

— Casey Harper

In a first for the state of New Jersey, the Associated Press is reporting this afternoon that the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has permitted the Golden Nugget Atlantic City to move three of its blackjack tables to its outside deck. This would make the Nugget the first casino in the state and city to offer gaming outdoors.

The casino in the marina district of Atlantic City underwent a massive renovation project, which debuted this summer, and has plans for several festivals this fall.

Last weekend, it held its Bubba Gump Shrimp Festival (see video).

Read more.

Atlantic City was hopping over the final weekend in April.

Click on links to see photo galleries from each event.

The Counting Crows returned to the Borgata.

Third Eye Blind performed at the Golden Nugget, and also held a meet and greet before the show, one of many events during the Nugget’s Grand Opening Weekend bash. (See video here)

Saturday night, Bernard Hopkins was defeated by “Bad” Chad Dawson at Boardwalk Hall.

In Somers Point, the annual Bayfest was held on Bay Avenue on Saturday and on Sunday the South Jersey Field of Dreams in Absecon held its opening day of the baseball season.

CLICK: Upcoming concerts and events in the Atlantic City region.

Courtesy Jerde Partnership

Tourism has been the buzz word in the Atlantic City region now for several years — in fact, it always was — especially with regard to the slumping casino revenues, due in part, to competition sprouting up in neighboring states.

First the rise of the airplane (pun intended) made it easier for families — mostly middle class — to forgo A.C. vacays and set off for places like Florida and Las Vegas or wherever they wanted, leading to a decline in the “World’s Playground” status as one of the top tourist destination’s in the country for most of the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s.

Then, after states near New Jersey’s border — such as New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware — passed legalized gambling bills and started building casinos, etc., Atlantic City’s early 2000’s gaming renaissance, in conjunction with a restaurant and nightclub revolution, and spurred by the opening of the game-changing Borgata in 2003, the 150-year-old resort town was hit hard by the economic collapse of recent years.

Not only did several expected mega-projects (MGM, Bader Field, Bashaw-Barr, etc.) get the kibosh, but casino revenue saw month-to-month revenue declines and it was determined — thankfully — that the city needed a new game plan. Additionally, according the Atlantic City Convention & Authority (ACCVA), annual visit trips to Atlantic City fell from 33.7 million in 1999 to 28.5 million in 2011.

A.C. no longer had a monopoly on the gaming market in the Northeast.

In 2012, the buzz word is tourism still, but with new excitement and expectations.

With the state entity Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) passing a thoroughly researched and considered master plan for a new “tourism district” in Atlantic City this past February — an order given by Gov. Chris Christie in July 2010 — and the casinos getting behind a new non-profit agency — the Atlantic City Alliance (ACA) — to re-brand and market the city anew, and a new mega-resort, Revel, opening on the north-end of the Boardwalk in April, in addition for several other plans for the city to make it the world-class destination for tourists (a Vegas of the East), including a planned multimillion dollar revitalization of the Steel Pier, things are looking brighter for tourism in New Jersey than they have in several years — even despite the attention (positive or negative) of the MTV hit show Jersey Shore.

Founded in 2011, the ACA, headed up by former Aramark executive Liza Cartmell, has chosen one of the top independent New York-based public relations firms, Edelman, to address “some of Atlantic City’s challenges, while still highlighting all of the factors that make the city so great.”

The ACA has also brought in advertising firm Euro RSCG to handle the city’s new ad campaign, which is expected to be put into effect in April.

Starting today (March 14) at the Golden Nugget, the New Jersey Conference on Tourism will have a rekindled purpose and spirit. The annual conference in Atlantic City (March 14-16), put on by the New Jersey Travel Industry Association, New Jersey Department of Tourism, the ACCVA, and other sponsors, will include a plethora of speakers, luncheons, meetings and presentations. (See a full list here.)

Hopefully, this will all lead somewhere positive for Atlantic City, a city that has also been in the international spotlight via the hit HBO show Boardwalk Empire.

If only Nucky was still around.

Well, at least the Steel Pier is — minus the Diving Horse.

— Jeff Schwachter

SEE: Renderings of Future of Atlantic City Boardwalk and more.

Atlantic City’s newest casino — well, at least until Revel opens in April — the Golden Nugget (formerly the Trump Marina) held a Masquerade Bash on Saturday, Feb. 18, at its Live Bar. The event featured live music by Seven Stone.

Click on image to watch video

Also this weekend, the Golden Nugget’s executive VP & GM Tom Pohlman spoke to Atlantic City Weekly, saying that after nine months since taking over the former Trump Marina, the Golden Nugget is about 85-percent complete with regard to its $150 million transformation.

The Golden Nugget features several restaurants, including the new Grotto, a new Poker Room and two live-entertainment lounges (Rush Lounge and Live Bar), in addition to its showroom.

Hear what Pohlman has to say about the transformation project in the video below.

Click on image to watch video

READ: The Gold Standard: Golden Nugget Back in Atlantic City

On Thursday, Feb. 16, a press conference was held in Atlantic City to officially announce the return of the Atlantic City Rodeo, which gallops back into Boardwalk Hall for three days beginning on March 30 through April 1, 2012. (Pictured the Atlantic City Alliance’s Liza Cartmell)

See video from press conference here.

This year’s rodeo was made possible by Mayor Langford’s Strategic Planning Committee and is presented by the Atlantic City Alliance.

See photo gallery here.

The partners in promoting this years rodeo are the Atlantic Club Casino, Borgata Casino Hotel and Spa, Caesars Entertainment, Golden Nugget, Resorts Casino Hotel, Revel Entertainment, Tropicana Casino and Trump Entertainment. The Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority, Tanger Outlets – The Walk , the City of Atlantic City , Dodge Trucks and Caterpillar are amount the many host and sponsors of this years event.  (Read about last year’s rodeo here and see video by clicking here.)

ATLANTIC CITY — It’s official. One of Atlantic City’s 11 casinos, Trump Marina, has become the Golden Nugget Atlantic City.

According to reports, earlier Monday, May 23, New Jersey state casino regulators approved the sale of Trump Marina to the Landry’s Inc.,  owners of the Golden Nugget casinos in Nevada. The $38 million sale — “about a tenth of what the property was expected to fetch just three years ago,” according to the AP, is still a good sign that the city is moving forward and that investors are anxious to get involved in projects within the resort town.

The AP report also botes that: “The giant ‘TRUMP’ letters have been removed from the front of the casino, [in the Marina district of the city] though the top and rear of the casino-hotel still bear Donald Trump’s name. A temporary banner proclaiming the casino as the Golden Nugget could be put up as soon as Tuesday, a company spokeswoman said.”

For more click here and read Thursday’s Memorial Day Weekend special issue.

The Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.

In what they hope will be a sweetheart deal announced on Valentine Day yesterday, Tilman J. Fertitta, Chairman, President, CEO and owner of Landry’s, Inc., parent company to the Golden Nugget Las Vegas and Laughlin, announced that Landry’s has agreed to buy the Trump Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.

For the full story go here.