The Decade List: 50 (More) Honorable Mentions

I don't plan on offering realtime stats of the process of elimination I'm going to be going through, but I've officially axed 50 titles from the list that's now sitting at around 165. In previous months' updates, I'd included other honorable mentions that were certainly not going to make the 100, some annotates, some not. You can find them for 2000, 2001, 2002 and an assorted one including films from 2002-2004. These are not what one might assume to be 101-150, as I still have close to 70 more that I need to eliminate before finalizing the 100, but are of some merit nonetheless. Listed alphabetically.

20 Centimeters [20 centímetros], 2005, d. Ramón Salazar, Spain/France
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 2007, d. Andrew Dominik, USA/Canada
Away from Her, 2006, d. Sarah Polley, Canada
Bad Education [La mala educación], 2004, d. Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Beeswax, 2009, d. Andrew Bujalski, USA
Before I Forget [Avant que j'oublie], 2007, d. Jacques Nolot, France
The Boss of It All [Direktøren for det hele], 2006, d. Lars von Trier, Denmark/Sweden/Iceland/Italy/France/Norway/Finland/Germany
The Bridge, 2006, d. Eric Steel, USA/UK
Captain Ahab [Capitaine Achab], 2007, d. Philippe Ramos, France/Sweden
The Cats of Mirikitani, 2006, d. Linda Hattendorf, USA

City of God [Cidade de Deus], 2002, d. Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund, Brazil/France
Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul [Istanbul hatirasi - Köprüyü geçmek], 2005, d. Fatih Akin, Turkey/Germany
Dave Chappelle's Block Party, 2005, d. Michel Gondry, USA
Enduring Love, 2004, d. Roger Michell, UK
The Exterminating Angels [Les anges exterminateurs], 2006, d. Jean-Claude Brisseau, France
Far from Heaven, 2002, d. Todd Haynes, USA/France
Fast Food Nation, 2006, d. Richard Linklater, USA/UK
The Girlfriend Experience, 2009, d. Steven Soderbergh, USA
Great World of Sound, 2007, d. Craig Zobel, USA
Home, 2008, d. Ursula Meier, Switzerland/France/Belgium

In the Loop, 2009, d. Armando Iannucci, UK
The Incredibles, 2004, d. Brad Bird, USA
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, 2006, d. Mary Jordan, USA
Jackass Number Two, 2006, d. Jeff Tremaine, USA
The King, 2005, d. James Marsh, UK/USA
Last Life in the Universe, 2003, d. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Thailand/Japan
Man Push Cart, 2005, d. Ramin Bahrani, USA
Manderlay, 2005, d. Lars von Trier, Denmark/Sweden/UK/France/Netherlands/Germany
Milk, 2008, d. Gus Van Sant, USA
Next Door [Naboer], 2005, d. Pål Sletaune, Norway/Sweden/Denmark

Punch-Drunk Love, 2002, d. Paul Thomas Anderson, USA
Quiet City, 2007, d. Aaron Katz, USA
Read My Lips [Sur mes lèvres], 2001, d. Jacques Audiard, France
Rejected, 2000, d. Don Hertzfeldt, USA
Requiem, 2006, d. Hans-Christian Schmid, Germany
Rubber Johnny, 2005, d. Chris Cunningham, UK
Silent Light [Stellet licht], 2007, d. Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany
Solaris, 2002, d. Steven Soderbergh, USA
Somersault, 2004, d. Cate Shortland, Australia
Son frère, 2003, d. Patrice Chéreau, France

Starting Out in the Evening, 2007, d. Andrew Wagner, USA
Tetro, 2009, d. Francis Ford Coppola, USA/Italy/Spain/Argentina
Time of the Wolf [Le temps du loup], 2003, d. Michael Haneke, France/Austria/Germany
Times and Winds [Beş vakit], 2006, d. Reha Erdem, Turkey
Vinyan, 2008, d. Fabrice Du Welz, France/Belgium/UK/Australia
Wendy and Lucy, 2008, d. Kelly Reichardt, USA
X2, 2003, d. Bryan Singer, USA/Canada
XXY, 2007, d. Lucía Puenzo, Argentina/France/Spain
Yeast, 2008, d. Mary Bronstein, USA
Yella, 2007, d. Christian Petzold, Germany

The Decade List: Auf der anderen Seite (2007)

Auf der anderen Seite [The Edge of Heaven] – dir. Fatih Akin

The trouble with writing about films you love dearly is the fear of redundancy. How many superlatives can I really throw out there? And what's worse, I often find myself resorting to using absolutes (or suggested absolutes) to the point that they begin to mean nothing (the best example of that was a billboard I saw for Milk where some critic called it "the best live-action, English-language mainstream film of 2008," or something to that extent). Yet I like to think I'm being as sincere as I can be when resorting to them. So when I say that The Edge of Heaven is unlike any film I can think of in its graceful adoption of the language, skill and intricacy of a cherished novel, I'm trying not to exaggerate.

Fatih Akin knows what it takes to make his characters blossom with as little information as possible. All six characters, three sets of parents and their children, radiate onscreen, as fully developed as if he had used written chapters to flesh them out. More than just penetrating the rocky relationship between Turks and Germans, The Edge of Heaven explores the nature of identity through heritage and family. And more than just intersecting the six's lives for the sake of cheap revelation, Akin places a complex blanket of universality to the characters' struggles, having the separate familial bonds stand as facets of the same truth. Akin is too brilliant of a writer for the incidents to become easily compartmentalized and allows The Edge of Heaven to pulsate with utter refinement.

What Akin understands—which most filmmakers who choose to tackle overlapping stories in one film don't—is the balance of human relationships and the capacity to tell his audience exactly what they need to know without oversimplification or slighting. He makes his audience aware of the fates of the two dead girls before you even meet them, and it's to his credit that both of their deaths are as heartbreaking and disquieting as if he hadn't clued you in. It's a feat to draw an audience's involvement into one character, but he does it with six, all of whom are as elaborately sketched as they are beautifully acted. The Edge of Heaven is the sort of film where characters come to intellectual conclusions about themselves and the people around them, void of the forced whims of an ominous film conductor.

With: Nurgül Yesilçay, Baki Davrak, Tuncel Kurtiz, Hanna Schygulla, Patrycia Ziolkowska, Nursel Köse
Screenplay: Fatih Akin
Cinematography: Rainer Klausmann
Music: Shantel
Country of Origin: Germany/Turkey/Italy
US Distributor: Strand Releasing

Premiere: 23 May 2007 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 8 February 2008 (Portland International Film Festival)

Awards: Best Screenplay (Cannes Film Festival); Best Screenwriter (European Film Awards); Best Film, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Editing – Andrew Bird (German Film Awards); Best Director, Best Supporting Actor – Tuncel Kurtiz, Best Supporting Actress – Nursel Köse, Best Editing, Special Jury Award (Golden Orange Film Festival, Turkey)

Samuel Maoz's Lebanon Takes the Golden Lion

Samuel Maoz's Lebanon, which is set during the First Lebanon War in 1982, took home the Golden Lion in Venice today, wrapping up the annual festivities. Ang Lee, who's won two Golden Lions himself in the past five years (for Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution) was the head of this year's jury, which also included Sandrine Bonnaire, Sergei Bodrov, Liliana Cavani, Joe Dante, Anurag Kashyap and Luciano Ligabue. The awards are all listed below.

Golden Lion: Lebanon - d. Samuel Maoz
Silver Lion, for Best Director: Shirin Neshat - Women Without Men
Special Jury Prize: Soul Kitchen - d. Fatih Akin
Coppa Volpi for Best Actor: Colin Firth - A Single Man
Coppa Volpi for Best Actress: Xenia Rappoport - La doppia ora
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor: Jasmine Trinca - Il grande sogno
Osella for Best Technical Contribution: Sylvie Olivé, production designer - Mr. Nobody
Osella for Best Screenplay: Todd Solondz - Life During Wartime

Whoopsidaisy

Shortly after Venice announced their 2009 line-up, Toronto added another 8 titles, and while I took a mental note of it at the time, I forgot to post them here. The titles include World Premieres of the new Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Jason Reitman films, as well as Fatih Akin's Soul Kitchen's North American Premiere. Also, Dagur Kári's English-language The Good Heart, which reteams Brian Cox and Paul Dano from L.I.E.

Gala

- The Damned United - d. Tom Hooper - w. Michael Sheen, Colm Meaney, Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent
- Dil Bole Hadippa! - d. Anurag Singh
- Micmacs [Micmacs à tire-larigot] - d. Jean-Pierre Jeunet - w. Dany Boon, Dominique Pinon, Yolande Moreau, André Dussollier
- What's Your Raashee? - d. Ashutosh Gowariker (Lagaan, Jodhaa Akbar)

Special Presentations

- The Good Heart - d. Dagur Kári - w. Brian Cox, Paul Dano, Isild Le Besco
- The Hole - d. Joe Dante
- Soul Kitchen - d. Fatih Akin
- Up in the Air - d. Jason Reitman - w. George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Jason Bateman, Melanie Lynskey, Danny McBride

New Denis, Rivette, Ferrara, Chéreau, Akin, Sequels to Repo Man, Tetsuo at Venice 09

The official Venice Film Festival line-up was announced today in Italy with some very exciting prospects, not least of which the latest from Claire Denis and Jacques Rivette. The fest will show their national spirit by opening with (groan) Giuseppe Tornatore's latest Baarìa (in other Tornatore news, did you know Miramax remade Everybody's Fine with Robert De Niro, Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale? It'll be out later this year). A number of the films announced will also screen at this year's Toronto. I suspect Toronto might have been waiting for Venice's announcement to add the final details to their roster. My long-shot of a hope that Sébastien Lifshitz's Plein sud would premiere there didn't happen (its release has also been moved to December in France), but otherwise, 2009 has been a pretty promising year at the big festivals. If that's only by name and/or prestige, I can't say... But can we at least expect an Abel Ferrara/Werner Herzog showdown in Venice this year?

In Competition

- 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup - d. Jacques Rivette - w. Jane Birkin, Sergio Castellitto, Jacques Bonnaffé, André Marcon
- Accident - Cheang Pou-Soi (Dog Bite Dog)
- Baarìa, la porta del vento - d. Giuseppe Tornatore - w. Monica Bellucci, Raoul Bova, Ángela Molina
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - d. Werner Herzog
- Between Two Worlds - Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Foresaken Land)
- Capitalism: A Love Story - d. Michael Moore
- La doppia ora - d. Giuseppe Capotondi (directorial debut) - w. Filippo Timi
- Il grande sogno - d. Michele Placido (Romanzo criminale) - w. Riccardo Scamarcio, Laura Morante
- Lebanon - d. Samuel Maoz
- Life During Wartime - d. Todd Solondz
- Lourdes - d. Jessica Hausner - w. Sylvie Testud, Bruno Todeschini, Léa Seydoux
- Mr. Nobody - d. Jaco van Dormael (Le huitième jour, Toto le héros) - w. Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Rhys Ifans
- Persécution - d. Patrice Chéreau - w. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Romain Duris, Jean-Hughes Anglade
- Prince of Tears - Yonfan (Bishonen)
- The Road - d. John Hillcoat (The Proposition) - w. Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Michael K. Williams, Molly Parker, Garret Dillahunt
- A Single Man - d. Tom Ford (yes, the designer) - w. Julianne Moore, Colin Firth, Matthew Goode, Gennifer Goodwin
- Soul Kitchen - d. Fatih Akin - w. Birol Ünel, Moritz Bleibtreu
- Lo spazio bianco - d. Francesca Comencini (Visions of Europe) - w. Margherita Buy, Salvatore Cantalupo
- Survival of the Dead - d. George A. Romero - w. Kenneth Welsh, Devon Bostick (really, in competition?)
- Tetsuo: The Bullet Man - d. Shinya Tsukamoto
- The Traveller - Ahmed Maher
- White Material - d. Claire Denis - w. Isabelle Huppert, Isaach De Bankolé, Christopher Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle
- Women Without Men - d. Shirin Neshat

Out of Competition

- [REC] 2 - d. Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
- Anni luce - d. Francesco Maselli (L'amore in città)
- Chengdu, I Love You - d. Fruit Chan, Cui Jian
- The Hole - d. Joe Dante (Gremlins, The 'burbs) - w. Bruce Dern, Teri Polo
- The Informant! - d. Steven Soderbergh
- The Men Who Stare at Goats - d. Grant Heslov (HBO's Unscripted) - w. Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Stephen Lang
- Napoli Napoli Napoli - d. Abel Ferrara
- L'oro di Cuba - d. Giuliano Montaldo (Sacco & Vanzetti)
- Prove per una tragedia Siciliana - d. John Turturro, Roman Paska
- Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story - d. Yousry Nasrallah (La porte du soleil)
- South of the Border - d. Oliver Stone
- Yona Yona Penguin - d. Rintaro (Metropolis)

Midnight Movies

- Brooklyn's Finest - d. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) - w. Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Lili Taylor, Ellen Barkin, Will Patton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Brian F. O'Byrne
- Delhi-6 - d. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
- Dev D - d. Anurag Kashyap
- Gulaal - d. Anurag Kashyap
- Valhalla Rising - d. Nicolas Winding Refn (the Pusher series) - w. Mads Mikkelsen, Jamie Sives

Horizons

- 1428 - d. Du Haibin (China)
- Adrift - d. Bui Thac Chuyên (Vietnam)
- Buried Secrets - d. Raja Amari (Satin Rouge, Tunisia)
- Il colore delle parole - d. Marco Simon Puccioni (Riparo, Italy)
- Cow - d. Guan Hu (China)
- Crush - d. Pyotr Buslov, Aleksei German Jr., Boris Khlebnikov, Kirill Serebrennikov, Ivan Vrypayev (Russia)
- Engkwentro - d. Pepe Diokno (Philippines)
- Francesca - d. Bobby Paunescu (Romania) - w. Luminita Gheorghiu
- I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You - d. Marcelo Gomes (Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus), Karim Ainouz (Brazil)
- Insolacao - d. Daniela Thomas, Felipe Hirsch (Brazil)
- Io sono l'amore [I Am Love] - d. Luca Guadagnino (Melissa P.) - w. Tilda Swinton
- Judge - Liu Jie (China)
- The Man's Woman and Other Stories - d. Amit Dutta (India)
- Once Upon a Time Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country - d. Guo Xiaolu (China)
- The One All Alone - d. Frank Scheffer (Netherlands)
- One-Zero - d. Kamla Abou Zekry (Egypt)
- Paraiso - d. Héctor Gálvez (Peru)
- Pepperminta - d. Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland) - w. Sabine Timoteo
- Repo Chick - d. Alex Cox (U.S.)
- Tender Parasites [Zarte Parasiten] - d. Christian Becker, Oliver Schwabe (Germany)
- Toto - d. Peter Schreiner (Austria)
- Tris di donne e abiti nunziali - d. Martina Gedeck (Italy)
- Villalobos - d. Romuald Karmakar (Deutschland 09, Germany)

There were a few more events named, including some stuff from Werner Herzog, Aleksandr Sokurov, Tinto Brass and Phillip Haas. There was also a New Italian Cinema Trends side-bar that I didn't post -- but you can get the titles via Variety. I'll post more when I hear of it.

Coming (or Not Coming) in 2009: Part 3

Part three of my posts looking at a number of films that may show up at film festivals during 2009 will focus on the continent of Asia, as well as a pair from Australia/New Zealand. Previous posts have covered France and the rest of Europe, and earlier posts about the Berlinale mentioned the new film from Chen Kaige.

Blake Williams first gave me word of the new film from Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century). You can find more information here on the director, and his latest project Primitive: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives which is going into production shortly via this link. Thanks Blake.

The latest film from Johnnie To (Mad Detective, Election) will be a French/Hong Kong co-production and filmed in English, entitled Vengeance. Filming now, Vengeance stars Johnny Hallyday, Simon Yam and Sylvie Testud. Variety reports that this is not the planned remake of Le cercle rouge, however. It is slated to be released in France on 20 May.

Following Lust, Caution, Ang Lee returns to the US for Taking Woodstock, which is set to be released in the States in August. It will be the third teaming in a row for Lee with Focus Features. Taking Woodstock stars, among many others, Emile Hirsch, comedian Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Paul Dano, Kelli Garner, Imelda Staunton, Katherine Waterston, Eugene Levy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Dan Fogler.

Like Hou Hsiao-hsien before him, Tsai Ming-liang will make his next feature in France, entitled Visage [Face]. The film explores the myth of Salomé, the biblical figure who performed the Dance of the Seven Veils which resulted in the beheading of John the Bapist. The dream cast includes Laetitia Casta as Salomé, Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Mathieu Amalric, Fanny Ardant, Nathalie Baye and frequent actor Lee Kang-sheng. No dates set, but check this link (thanks to Nimzo!) for more information.

Hong Sang-soo's latest You Don't Even Know is currently filming. I couldn't find much information about the film, but it does star Kim Tae-woo and Go Hyun-jung from Woman on the Beach as well as Ye Ji-won from Turning Gate.

Park Chan-wook's Thirst looks to be ready in time for Cannes. The film already has distribution in France (Wild Side), the UK (Palisades Tartan), South Korea (CJ Entertainment) and the US (Focus Features) and will hopefully be out by the end of the year, before the Old Boy remake hits theatres. Thirst stars Song Kang-ho (The Host), Shin Ha-kyun (No Mercy for the Rude), Mercedes Cabral (Serbis) and Eriq Ebouaney (35 rhums).

I Come with the Rain will be Tran Anh Hung's first film since The Vertical Ray of the Sun in 2000. Produced by France, I couldn't find any substantial release dates for the film, but it stars Josh Hartnett, Elias Koteas, Lee Byung-hun (The Good, the Bad, the Weird), Simón Andreu and Takuya Kimura (2046).

No one seems to know what's going on with Wong Kar-wai's intended remake of The Lady from Shanghai after star Nicole Kidman dropped out. If I hear anything, I'll let you know.

The new film from director Mira Nair will be an American biopic of Amelia Earheart, with Hilary Swank as the doomed pilot. The film, called Amelia, will be released by Fox Searchlight in October. Amelia also stars Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Virginia Madsen and Joe Anderson.

John Woo's Red Cliff Part 2 was released in China on 8 January; the first installment was released last summer, though it doesn't look like any US distributor has picked up either. Red Cliff 2 stars Chang Chen, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung.

Abbas Kiarostami's Copie conforme [Certified Copy] is currently in production and is set to star Juliette Binoche (she really does get to work with the world's best directors, doesn't she?). mk2 will release the film in France when it's completed.

The Duel will be the first American film from director Dover Koshashvili (Late Marriage). It looks to be finished filming, but I couldn't find anything further about the film.

Jane Campion will follow the terrible In the Cut with Bright Star, which examines the relationship between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Pathé should release the film by the end of the year in the UK. It stars Ben Wishaw, Abbie Cornish, Paul Schneider and Kerry Fox.

The new film from John Hillcoat (The Proposition), called The Road, was bumped from last fall to sometime this year. The cast includes Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Garret Dillahunt, Michael K. Williams and Molly Parker. The Road is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy.

As there always seems to be one, I forgot to mention the two new films from Fatih Akin (The Edge of Heaven) when doing my European post. Soul Kitchen is to be released in France on 11 November by Pyramide Distribution; the film stars Moritz Bleibtreu and Birol Ünel. The other film is a documentary entitled Garbage in the Garden of Eden.

More from Berlin...

New films set for Berlin unfortunately do not include Claire Denis' White Material, which hopefully will see its premiere at Cannes instead, though I doubt in competition seeing as the film stars Isabelle Huppert, the head of this year's jury. The rest include:

Cheri - dir. Stephen Frears - with Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend, Anita Pallenberg, Iben Hjejle
Deutschland 09 - dir. Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker, Sylke Enders, Dominik Graf, Romuald Karmaker, Nicolette Krebitz, Isabelle Stever, Hans Steinbichler, Hans Weingartner, Christoph Hochhaeusler, Dani Levy, Angela Schanelec
Eden à l'ouest - dir. Costa-Gavras - with Riccardo Scarmarcio, Juliane Köhler, Ulrich Tukur, Eric Caravaca
Happy Tears - dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein (Teeth) - with Parker Posey, Demi Moore, Rip Torn, Ellen Barkin
Ricky - dir. François Ozon - with Sergi Lopez
Sturm - dir. Hans-Christian Schmid (Requiem) - with Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane
Tatarak - dir. Andrzej Wajda - with Krystyna Janda

Full list at IndieWire and on IFC Daily.

2008 Progress Report, Part 3

In looking back at the past six months, I'm more than a little surprised at how many films not only managed to succeed in their respective endeavors, but actually ended up affecting me deeply. Of course, there may be some extraneous circumstances at work, but overall, I'm pretty assure in ranking these films on the higher tier of contemporary cinema. Let's just hope that the rest of the year is as rich. I also included two special mentions for astounding films that didn't see a theatrical release stateside, but thankfully hit DVDs uncensored.

La crème

Billy the Kid – dir. Jennifer Venditti – USA – Elephant Eye Films

Boarding Gate – dir. Olivier Assayas – France/Luxembourg – Magnet Releasing – with Asia Argento, Michael Madsen, Carl Ng, Kelly Lin, Joana Preiss, Kim Gordon, Alex Descas

Duchess of Langeais, The [Ne touchez pas la hache] – dir. Jacques Rivette – France – IFC Films – with Guillaume Depardieu, Jeanne Balibar, Bulle Ogier, Michel Piccoli

Edge of Heaven, The [Auf der anderen Seite] – dir. Fatih Akin – Germany/Turkey/Italy – Strand Releasing – with Baki Davrak, Hanna Schygulla, Nurgül Yesilçay, Tuncel Kurtiz, Patrycia Ziolkowska

Flight of the Red Balloon, The [Le voyage du ballon rouge] – dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien – IFC Films – with Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu, Fang Song, Hippolyte Girardot

In Bruges – dir. Martin McDonagh – UK – Focus Features – with Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Jérémie Renier

Irina Palm – dir. Sam Garbarski – UK/Belgium/Luxembourg/Germany/France – Strand Releasing – with Marianne Faithfull, Miki Manojlovic, Kevin Bishop, Siobhan Hewlett, Jenny Agutter

Last Mistress, The [Une vieille maîtresse] – dir. Catherine Breillat – France/Italy – IFC Films – with Asia Argento, Fu’ad Ait Aattou, Roxane Mesquida, Claude Sarraute, Yolande Moreau, Anne Parillaud, Amira Casar

Love Songs [Les chansons d’amour] – dir. Christophe Honoré – France – IFC Films – with Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni, Clotilde Hesme, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet

Noise – dir. Matthew Saville – Australia – Film Movement – with Brendan Cowell, Maia Thomas, Henry Nixon, Nicholas Bell

Otto; or Up with Dead People – dir. Bruce LaBruce – Canada/Germany – Strand Releasing – with Jey Crisfar, Katharina Klewinghaus, Marcel Schlutt, Susanne Sachße

Paranoid Park – dir. Gus Van Sant – USA/France – IFC Films – with Gabe Nevins, Taylor Momsen, Jake Miller, Lauren McKinney

Reprise – dir. Joachim Trier – Norway – Red Envelope Entertainment/Miramax – with Anders Danielsen Lie, Espen Klouman-Høiner, Viktoria Winge

XXY – dir. Lucía Puenzo – Argentina/France/Spain – Film Movement – with Inés Efron, Germán Palacios, Valeria Bertuccelli, Martín Piroyansky

Special DVD Mentions

Free Will, The [Der Freie Wille] – dir. Matthias Glasner – Germany – Benten Films – with Jürgen Vogel, Sabine Timoteo, André Hennicke, Manfred Zapatka

Inside [À l’intérieur] – dir. Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury – France – Dimension – with Béatrice Dalle, Allyson Paradis, Nicolas Duvauchellerianne Faithfull, ermany/France - Strand es, llon rouge] - dir.ist. them into three convenient categories. onal festivals