The documentary Wordplay opens in New York on June 16, Los Angeles on June 23rd, and nationwide on June 30th. To celebrate, I’ve got a giveaway of an exclusive, can’t-find-it-anywhere else crossword puzzle, courtesy of IFC Films. Here's the scoop on the movie, from IFC:

WORDPLAY stars Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, Mike Mussina, Bob Dole, Ken Burns, and the Indigo Girls. This irreverent and humorous film focuses on the man most associated with crossword puzzles, New York Times puzzle editor and NPR puzzle-master Will Shortz. Director Patrick Creadon introduces us to this passionate hero, and to the inner workings of his brilliant and often hilarious contributors, including syndicated puzzle creator Merl Reagle. In addition to deconstructing this uniquely American institution, WORDPLAY takes us though the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament where almost five hundred competitors battled it out for the title “Crossword Champ” and showed their true colors along the way.

Visit the film’s official site, or watch a trailer.

My review of the film is here.

Here, for your puzzling enjoyment, is “Double Negatives,” by Elizabeth C. Gorski (copyright © 2002 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament). This puzzle has not appeared previously in print or online -- it was used in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and has only been available previously to tournament competitors. Tournament time limit was 15 minutes.

Click on the grid on the left below for the blank puzzle grid, which will pop up in a new window. Click on the grid in the center for the solution (no peeking!), which will also come up in a new window. Click on the Word icon to download an RTF file with the clues, or just copy and paste the clues from below.

puzzle grid

solution

clues

And don't forget to enter the contest, over at Geek Philosophy, to win a copy of the new book Crossworld: One Man’s Journey into America’s Crossword Obsession, by Marc Romano.

ACROSS

1 Whittle (down)
5 Car trunk item
9 Cold season sound
14 East of Eden twin
15 “Like ___ not …”
16 Hockey scores
17 They may be rolled over
18 They’re nuts
20 Quick chef’s slogan
22 11-year-old, in adspeak
23 Eastwood’s Rawhide role
24 George W.’s deg.
27 Outdated map abbr.
28 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire broadcaster
30 Assess
32 Drifting
35 Chantilly’s department
36 Daredevil’s slogan
40 Ali ___
41 Indian homes
42 Strong desire
45 Wager
46 Windows boxes
49 Application
50 Buccaneer’s base
53 Ditch
55 Personal trainer’s slogan
57 Nutritious intake
60 Pocket fluff
61 Word after bell or before ball
62 Condition treated with cream
63 Actress Swenson
64 Moths’ work
65 Lightly blacken
66 River through the netherworld

DOWN

1 Does art
2 Cupid’s cache
3 Vagabond
4 Follow
5 Slim ___ (dried sausage sticks)
6 No matter how expensive
7 Drink with marshmallows
8 Big name in cheese
9 Tennis’s Andre
10 Dot-___ (Internet startups)
11 “Bali ___”
12 Suffix with pay
13 C.I.A. forerunner
19 Membership fees
21 Major mistake
24 Israel’s Golda
25 Kind of signal
26 King Kong, e.g.
29 Quick lunch?
31 Places with bars
32 Jelling agent
33 Get ___ for effort
34 Bigwig
36 Informal negatives
37 Theater award
38 “Oh, wow!”
39 Release
40 Air conditioner meas.
43 Mall divisions
44 Video
46 Grumble
47 Body-hugging
48 Sentence structure
51 Half a ’60s pop quartet
52 Jigsaw bit
54 Fuzzy fruit
55 Church section
56 N.Y. Met, for one
57 Univ.
58 Status ___
59 Browser bookmark, for short

(Technorati tags: Wordplay, Will Shortz, crossword puzzle, giveaway, documentary, movie, film)