Wow. Sure is hot in here.
Some comments, from a gimp _and_ filmgimp developer:
I also regret any duplication of effort between the two. However, I'm not personally convinced that merging them is a good idea.
My feeling is that Filmgimp should be a tool specifically (or at least, primarily) for the film industry. It is very likely to develop along lines that are (at best) not useful to, or (quite possibly) totally unwanted by, the more general Gimp community. Remember, a tool that can do everything is seldom the perfect tool for one specific job. I don't think merging Gimp and Filmgimp will necessarily make either set of users happy.
Of course, it would be great to build both tools on a single code base. But that's a bigger job than just merging the code, requires a wider range of skills, and (like everything else) is only going to happen if someone wants it badly enough to either do it, or pay someone else to do it.
-- David Hodson -- this night wounds time
