This year’s SWFMC finalists have been announced. Visit StarWars.Atom.com to check out all the hard work and fun people devoted to their favorite movie franchise. While you’re there vote for your favorite for the Audience Choice Award in the right hand column. You can only vote once, so make sure you mean it, and tell your friends. The winners will be announced Thursday, July 21st at the San Diego Comic-con Star Wars Fan Movie Awards panel at 8:30, and here on StarWars.Atom.com the following day.

Ed Helms stars in Cedar Rapids available on Blu-ray & DVD today!  The funniest business trip of all time gets even crazier with the Super Awesome Edition of Cedar Rapids- with more hysterical footage, more outrageous shenanigans and more two-diamond fun! See Ed Helms and John C. Reilly lead an all-star cast in the comedy that shows what can happen…when insurance agents go wild!

Have you checked the email associated with your Atom account? Did you see a note from us informing you that you’re a finalist in the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge? Congrats!

Don’t see one? Check your junkmail folder (it’s a trap!). Still nothing? That’s ok, you can still participate by coming back on July 7th and casting your vote for Audience Choice awards.

Congrats to the finalists, and stay posted for more details on what’s up next!

Running out of pickling supplies? Getting oboe chafe? Looking for a socially acceptable way to spend this weekend? You should probably mosey on down to that them there SketchFestNYC 2011.

Our main man Matt McCarthy will be hosting the Comedy Central Digital Showcase on Friday, June 10 at 10pm. Join him for new videos from Sidecar Comedy, The Selwyn Brothers and Rachel Feinstein.

You’ll get the chance to watch your favorite new web series, The Download (hosted by your BFFs Jordan Rubin and Molly McAleer) on an actual big screen, instead of that dingy gray sheet in you’ve been projecting it on in your basement. We’ll also be premiering “Kid Farm,” starring Pete Holmes as the dad of one of those sideshow families pimped by the creepy carnival barker that is TLC.

It’s all popping off (technical term) today, Wednesday, June 8, through Saturday, June 11 at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre at 307 W. 26th Street in NYC. Festival passes and tickets for individual shows can be purchased online here.

Congratulations to all this year’s entrants. You’ve put your blood, sweat, tears, and official release collectible memorabilia on the line to make the best Star Wars Fan Movie you could. Finalists will be announced on July 7th. Voting for the Audience Choice award opens noon pacific, July 7th and closes noon pacific July 14^th. Winners will be announced in July at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con.

We are currently reviewing the submissions and will be notifying potential finalists within the next few weeks. Be sure to check the e-mail account you used to sign up to Atom with regularly for updates.

In the meantime, stay tuned right here for more blogs and updates on the 2011 Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge, and thanks for participating.

Feel free to contact YourFriends@Atom.com with any additional questions.

There’s been a whole lotta buzz about one of our latest pieces, Crankin The Commish, so 12 Angry Mascots creator Scott Rogowsky thought he’d set a few things straight:

In the absence of the NFL due to the ongoing league-imposed lockout, there has been a corresponding absence of NFL news. And who wins when the sports media machine gets desperate for a story? Comedy troupes making spoof videos!

When we launched “Crankin’ the NFL Commish” – 12 Angry Mascots’ latest video starring Chester Pitts and Raheem Brock of the Seattle Seahawks (REAL NFL PLAYERS!) – on atom.com last Monday, I don’t think any of us involved could have expected that a week later, we’d be watching clips of the video being played on ESPN. But that’s just what happened when the morning news program “First Take” on ESPN 2 brought on Chester and Raheem via satellite to discuss their controversial roles as juvenile pranksters, crank calling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in our video.

The video first made waves in Seattle, where Seahawks beat writer Danny O’Neil’s investigative report into its production process became front-page fodder for The Seattle Times’ sports section. Then the bloggers and NFL websites started picking up on it. Pro Football Talk posted the link and invited its readers to determine the sketch’s comedic worth (sample comment from these great arbiters of humor: “Why are they laying together on a bed?”). Deadspin ran a transcript of a radio interview given by Pitts regarding the video. Yahoo’s football blog Shutdown Corner called Pitts and Brock the “Jerky Boys” of the NFL. Even the Gray Lady (New York Times) got in on the action with her Fifth Down blog.

Why the coverage? What the controversy? If you read the headlines, it’s because an NFL player called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a “douche.” But really, that’s just an NFL player, impersonating President Obama, telling an IMAGINARY Goodell to “stop being a douche,” in a satirical video that was produced for COMEDY CENTRAL. There truly wasn’t any offensive or malicious intent behind the jokes, as Chester and Raheem were forced to repeat on ESPN today.

But hey, we’re thrilled with the coverage! So desperate sports media, keep it coming! And in the meantime, we’re already at work on production of our next video, featuring real NFL players. Working title: “Murderin’ the Commish’s Family.”

Oh, and in the meantime, check out the OUTTAKES reel from the crank call shoot!

You have 21 days left to submit to the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge, which is 21 days longer than it took me to pen the winner of the Most Expository Headline Of The Day Challenge.

For your shot at your own (way more illustrious) award, upload your fan vid by the deadline, follow all pertinent directions, and use the FORCE, duh.

Here’s a previous submission, in case you need a little inspiration:

Well friends, it’s been a long road, hasn’t it?

A little over a year ago, we were a bunch of scrappy kids armed with nothing but a camera and a dream. Now? We’ve been on TV, we’ve earned cash, we’ve been decked out in swag.

Don’t despair. When God closes a Tournament, he leaves open an upload page. Yes, you can still upload videos to Atom. Heck, you can even tell us when you do. If it brings a nostalgic tear to our eye, a yearning for the days that were, or, if it’s…you know…funny, we might just feature it.

Until then, here are the last Atom Tournament Winners:

The Tournament is winding down, and with it, the selection of Atom Picks. It’s been a great run, and we’ve been psyched to have the power to control destiny and reward greatness, but, sadly, all good things must come to an end.

OK, so, like, not really. The actual dude (or ladydude) is probably way too busy snuggling baby eaglets and taste testing government-grade apple pie whiskey out of Babe Ruth’s baseball glove to be shenaniganning in some dive somewhere. But I want to believe. Rob Riggle for president! USA! USA!