Payne aboard for downtown cinema plan by Dane Stickney / OMAHA WORLD-HERALD / November 9, 2005 Film Streams officially has made a splash. The Omaha-based nonprofit organization devoted to the presentation and discussion of film as an art form has added Academy Award winner Alexander Payne to its board of directors. Payne will help lead the organization as it prepares to open a two-screen cinema in downtown Omaha in 2006. It's part of a downtown development plan anchored by Saddle Creek Records. Until the theater opens, Film Streams will begin programming at Joslyn Art Museum's Abbott Lecture Hall in January, showing 10 films in five months. Aside from guiding the group's projects, Payne also will select 10 of his favorite films for a special series that will run during Film Streams' first year of operations. "I'm so happy that downtown Omaha will have cinemas again for the first time in 30 years," Payne said Tuesday. "I couldn't be more thrilled." Film Streams officials are feeling pretty good, too. "Alexander's involvement will certainly help to secure the future of the organization," said Rachel Jacobson, Film Streams director. "He has a great understanding of Film Streams' mission. His films are a true representation of the kind of work we hope to bring to Omaha - unique, socially relevant and artistically interesting." Payne, a Creighton Prep graduate, has directed "Citizen Ruth," "Election," "About Schmidt" and "Sideways." He has an Oscar and two Golden Globes. That type of expertise is exactly what Film Streams needs, Jacobson said. "He has encyclopedic knowledge about the history of cinema," she said. "His curatorial help will be invaluable. I couldn't be more excited to work with him."