Lions Gate Films and IFC Films, the movie's distributors, said an appeals board for the Motion Picture Association of America rejected their request to reduce the rating to PG-13.

The R rating prohibits those 17 and younger from seeing "Fahrenheit 9/11" without an adult.

The movie, which won the top honor at last month's Cannes Film Festival, was rated R for "violent and disturbing images and for language." The movie's images include an Iraqi man tossing a dead baby into a truckload of bodies, Iraqis burned by napalm and a public beheading in Saudi Arabia.

Tom Ortenberg, president of Lions Gate Films, had argued to the appeals board that 15- and 16-year-olds should be free to see the film on their own because they could end up in military service in Iraq in the next few years.

"I hope the R rating doesn't have a large impact on the box office," Ortenberg said. "I've spoken with many parents, including some on the appeals board, who absolutely said they are going to take their children to see the film. We'll just have to hope the teenagers we're encouraging to see this picture find their way in through parents or adult guardians."

IFC Entertainment President Jonathan Sehring disagreed with the MPAA's ruling, adding, "But we do respect the process and appreciate that the MPAA listened with open minds to our appeal."

"As anyone who has read a paper, watched TV, surfed the web or chatted by a water cooler this week can attest, the interest in 'Fahrenheit 9/11' has grown to mammoth proportions," Sehring went on. "It is a shame that 'Fahrenheit 9/11' will become inaccessible to a segment of the American population to whom this film has a great deal of relevance."

"Fahrenheit 9/11" opens in limited release in New York on Wednesday and nationwide in about 850 theaters Friday.

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