(Photo by Warner Bros. /Courtesy Everett Collection)

Best Cinematography Oscar-Winning Movies, Ranked

Movies are first and foremost a visual medium, and on-set cinematographers are responsible for setting up the angles, the lighting, and the look of what’s being captured on camera. In other words, cinematography is about how we see movies. Take a look at the movies and filmmakers that have won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography over the past 25 years and big scenes and moments immediately fill the mind’s eye: Saving Private Ryan’s desaturated, dirt-and-blood-on-the-lenses look put you in the middle of the chaos on Omaha Beach. Andrew Lesine brought the high fantasy of Tolkien to earthy life in The Fellowship of the Ring. You can’t separate the overwhelming rain-drenched appearance in Road to Perdition from the movie’s plot, thanks to Conrad Hall, who won the Oscar posthumously. Like a magician, Emmanuel Lubezki won three in a row for pulling off three wildly different assignments: Gravity, Birdman, and The Revenant. Roger Deakins was nominated 13 times before finally winning one for Blade Runner 2049′s sci-fi vistas and memorable triple-layered love scene, and then winning again for matching all the complicated sequences in 1917 to help achieve the appearance of one continuous shot.

The Best Cinematography award has been a thing for as long as the Oscars have been around, with Sunrise taking home inaugural gold in 1927. By 1940, the award had permanently split in two: One for Black-and-White, and the other for films in Color, with Gone with the Wind being the first to win the latter. 1966 was the final time the Academy made that distinction, though black-and-white movies have won since, like Schindler’s List in 1994, Roma in 2019, and Mank in 2021.

And now, we’re ranking all Best Cinematography Oscar-winning movie by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo

Best Heist Movies of All Time

Crooks. Thieves. Liars. And these are the ones we’re rooting for. In the heist and caper films, we see the hero hatching a plan, putting together a crew, and then pulling off the job, usually in order to turn the screws against an institution or person that’s wronged them — or maybe just for the thrill of sticking up banks. Either way, we put together a list of the 78 best-reviewed heist movies of all time for you to look over, each with at least 20 reviews and sorted by ranking formula, which factors how long ago a movie was released and how many critics reviews it got overall. Just don’t get caught! —Alex Vo

Best Western Movies of All Time

Welcome to Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the 100 best-reviewed Western movies of all time, sorted by Adjusted Tomatometer with at least 20 reviews for each selection. Additionally, we picked only classical period films, so you get outta here with that Best Picture-winning neo-Western nonsense! Now, it’s time to put on your best pa-avenging chaps, slide a bad hombre down the saloon bar top, and ride on to see how the West was Fresh! —Alex Vo

This week, Kenneth Branagh brings his interpretation of Agatha Christie’s distinguished detective Hercule Poirot to theaters in Murder on the Orient Express, a stylish period mystery set aboard a passenger train. But Hollywood has a rich history of telling stories on and about trains, almost from the very beginning, so we thought it would make sense to take a look back at the best train movies to grace the silver screen.

For the entire month of November, dudes everywhere get a free “get out of social jail” card to grow mustaches however they please. We call it “Movember.” So guys, let your upper lip hair prickle forth in order to raise awareness of men’s health issues and… stick it to shaving cream lobbyists in Washington? Anyways, here’s our photo gallery of at least 30 mustaches for 30 days of Movember 2016.

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Chris Columbus‘ 1980s output helped shape a generation of young film fans with hits like Gremlins, The Goonies, and Adventures in Babysitting — and he’s further solidified his legacy in the decades since, directing more massive hits (including Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and films in the Harry Potter franchise) while building an impressive production portfolio with releases like The Help, Night at the Museum, The Witch, and this weekend’s The Young Messiah.

Columbus took time out of his busy schedule to talk with Rotten Tomatoes about the movies that have defined his personal love affair with cinema and informed his own ever-expanding filmography. Check it out here — and leave a little room for The Godfather, which he purposely didn’t mention because it’s such a widespread favorite.

 

 

Cloris Leachman has been a household name since she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Last Picture Show in 1971. Between that film and her latest, This is Happening (now available on VOD), Leachman has entertained us with some of our favorite comedy performances of all time in movies (some of which are discussed below) and TV shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, its spinoff Phyllis, and The Facts of Life.

With such a variety of illustrious films in her pocket, here at Rotten Tomatoes, we got to ask her about some of her favorite film experiences throughout her career. Here is the list, with some very funny anecdotes to boot!

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As one half of the Farrelly brothers, writer-director Bobby Farrelly has been one of the filmmakers instrumental in shaping modern American movie comedy. Before the Apatow era, the Farrellys redefined the idea of raunchiness on screen, delivering multiple hits like Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary while helping elevate performers like Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller to superstar status in the process. (Their unlikely influence on the mumblecore genre is also, apparently, not to be overlooked.)

This week, the duo’s latest — their take on the classic slapstick The Three Stooges — arrives on DVD and Blu-ray, which gave us the chance to talk with Farrelly about his all-time favorite films (and get an update on the Dumb and Dumber sequel).

The Farrelly brothers’ latest, The Three Stooges, is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.

History is littered with the corpses of sports champs whose bids for movie immortality have been dubious at best; for every Hong Kong martial arts superstar and Austrian bodybuilder there are scores of straight-to-video beefcakes lacking the onscreen charisma to match their real-life skills. Rarer still is the successful female action hero crossover, but this week — with the somewhat unlikely help of genre-shifting filmmaker Steven Soderbergh — a new one arrives in the shape of Gina Carano, former Mixed Martial Arts fighter and now star of her very own spy thriller, Haywire.

The story goes that Soderbergh caught one of Carano’s fights on TV one evening and couldn’t believe the talented — and visually striking — fighter wasn’t headlining her own movie. So, with the help of screenwriter Lem Dobbs (The Limey) and a supporting cast of thespian eye-candy that includes Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum and Michael Douglas, he set about putting together an action vehicle for Carano, in which the fledgling actress plays a CIA-trained assassin on the loose and out to avenge those who double-crossed her. With its minimalist plot, punishing (yet expertly-staged) fight choreography and throwback thriller cool, Haywire is the kind of film that seems almost too good to be true in the movie release graveyard of January — and, if fate smiles upon it, should make a new action hero of its leading lady. We had the chance to chat with Carano about the movie recently; but first, she ran through five of her all-time favorite films.

Next, Carano chats about working with Steven Soderbergh and dueling with her co-stars.

 

Steven Soderbergh really threw you in the deep end here, headlining your first major film against some serious acting talent. Were you daunted by the challenge?

Gina Carano: Yeah he threw me in the deep end, but he threw himself in with me, you know. It wasn’t like I was by myself — and he knows how to swim like an Olympic champion. He was right along with me and he knew exactly what he wanted. It was really refreshing to meet a man with a vision who knows exactly what he wants to do, and he doesn’t — he doesn’t panic, and never gives up. And I really saw that in him. The people that he surrounded me with — not only on-screen, but off-screen — made me very comfortable. I felt like the whole reason I got the job was because of my physicality, and so I felt more confident than I ever have in bringing fighting to the big screen.

Working alongside people like Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas — that must have been some crash course in acting for a first-timer.

Well, the first person I started off with was Fassbender, and whether any of them knew it or not I was 100 per cent observing and learning as much as I could from them. And what I realized was they really go with their gut instinct on certain things, and they really put their heart into what they do, and their opinion into the characters that they choose.

Even Steven said, It’s gonna be really interesting to see who takes these roles, because the guys that take these roles are gonna have to be okay with being physical with a female and/or possibly getting beat up by a female — so we’re really gonna find out who’s an actor by the guys that take these roles. And they were all so genuine. There were no egos involved. It was all about creating the best possible scenario, instead of, you know, “Well my character needs more of this or more of this.” It wasn’t about that. It was about creating something beautiful, regardless of how they looked after. So I thought that was really cool.

How did the other actors take to the physicality of the action in the film?

I think that, you know, being physical in those situations is acting. With physicality, even if there’s no lines in a movie, just walking around you still have a camera on you — so I really realized how genius these guys are. Because they didn’t have the last nine years I had to get good at technique; they only had a certain amount of time in their schedules to learn these fight scenes, so it was really fascinating to see how quickly they all picked it up, and how much they threw themselves into it. Every single one of them — Channing, Michael, Ewan — nobody wanted a body double, nobody said, “Oh, that’s too tough for me,” you know; they all wanted to do more.

Once they all realized they could throw me around, you know, and be as completely physical with me as they would a man — except that there’s no ego there — then it was so much fun for us to walk away with bruises. It was really one of the most poetic feelings in the world; especially because my purpose in the fight isn’t to hurt them as much as take care of them. So it was kind of like this cool, weird thing where you could be physically violent with each other but at the same time take care of each other. That was very interesting to see that they just threw themselves completely into it.

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Haywire opens in theaters across the US and UK week.

“He won’t do it,” says Ricky Gervais, striding over to RT. He’s referring to his round-headed friend Karl Pilkington. Last time we sat down with Gervais he’d suggested Pilkington – co-star of his phenomenally successful podcast series with Stephen Merchant – as a film reviewer for the Tomatometer. “I said, ‘They’ll pay you £50.’ He wasn’t interested. I said, ‘We’ll dress you up as a giant tomato.’ He went, ‘Oh, this is getting better and better.'”

But while Gervais has failed in that particular recruiting mission, he and Merchant are on fine form today. It’s late July and RT has come to the Shepperton Studios set of Cemetery Junction, their first feature film together after success on the small screen with The Office and Extras. The atmosphere is light, the cast and crew seem to be enjoying themselves and Gervais’ trademark cackle rings regularly through the air.

Taking its name from a road junction in Gervais’ hometown of Reading, the film stars Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson and Matthew Goode. Relative newcomers Christian Cooke, Tom Hughes, Jack Doolan and Felicity Jones, play its young leads. “It’s a film about escaping your roots and that small-town mentality,” explains Gervais. “There’s a line in it which my mum said to me when I was 18. I told her I was going to France and she said, ‘What do you want to go there for? There’s parts of Reading you haven’t seen.'”

“It’s about a group of working-class lads in the 70s, one of whom aspires to be better than his dad – played by Ricky – and not go to work in a factory,” continues Merchant. “Instead, he goes to work for Ralph Fiennes’ character; a sort-of white-collar job. He finds a role-model in him but in doing that he starts to drift away from his friends who are still in that world. It’s the story of them, really, and whether that friendship will last.”

Gervais and Merchant on set, rocking the Miami Vice look.

Like all of their work to date, there’s a sense that this is a comic take on a delicately-observed slice of real life, but it’s not just the hometown location that makes the project feel all the more autobiographical than The Office and Extras. “The coolest kids in school when I was growing up,” says Gervais, “the best footballers, the best fighters, the ones who got a girlfriend first — now they’re bald and stacking shelves. The Office was that feeling of, you’ve already wasted some of your life and you don’t want to wake up and go, ‘That was it.’ With these kids we’ve condensed that pounding feeling that there must be something out there. They’re 23, not 33.”

It seems, too, as though the comedy in Cemetery Junction will come from a slightly different and perhaps unexpected place. “We’ve lost that level of irony,” Gervais tells us. “We’ve lost that level of, isn’t it funny that they’re bad? Isn’t it funny that they’re stupid or they’re saying the wrong things? With this we wanted to give them a rip-roaring adventure — we want you to like these guys. They do get into fights and they do drink too much and chase girls, but it’s to be celebrated.”

And that’s the key point for Gervais and Merchant — this isn’t your average British film. While much of the British industry seems to wallow in gritty realism, get lost in romantic fantasy or strap on a bonnet and put on a posh accent, Gervais and Merchant hope that Cemetery Junction will strike away from pack and, perhaps, present a slightly less blinkered view of life in Britain. “We liked the idea of making it very contained in this small town in the 70s, but with that sort of swagger that you get in Butch Cassidy,” explains Merchant. “It’s a much smaller story about tiny lives, but in their heads it’s epic. No-one lives their lives going, ‘I’m a nobody and I’m pathetic.'”

Gervais continues: “Their world is as big to them as it is to us; it’s just that they sometimes don’t go outside of their square patch of it. Even in the kitchen we’ve tried to make it cinematic. We’ve used the widescreen this time; we’re not shooting for telly. And we’ve got our soap-opera radar — anything that looks slightly cheap is out. We were very conscious that we didn’t want this to look drab and dingy, and curtains drawn and kitchen sink. We want this to look like Hollywood doing early-70s England. And we have taken liberties, you know; it’s sunny every day in Cemetery Junction for that summer.”

Casting the central roles was the biggest challenge — finding actors in Britain who had the screen presence to strike that epic quality. “In the States, I think one of the reasons there are perennial heroes like Steve McQueen is because they’re classless,” says Merchant. “I think it’s one of the things that are tricky in making British films, because class always comes into it. It’s quite tricky to find something that feels neutral and allows you to think about the story and not the class of the characters.”

“[Our actors] just had that,” says Gervais. “They walked into a room and suddenly they were film stars. They weren’t phoning their agent saying, ‘I’ve got The Bill tomorrow and I’ve got a small part in Holby and I might do a play.’ They were going, ‘I want to be a film star,’ and they got it straight away. Plus they were cheap, and we’ve signed up for 50% of their earnings until they’re 68!”

If that’s not strictly true, as we suspect it may not be, Gervais told RT last year that the plan was to extend the world into a TV series so the pair could further explore these characters, so this may not be the last time they work with the young cast. The spin-off is still on the cards, they said, but nothing was certain. “It’s an option, but we never hold ourselves to anything like that. I’d like to, but anything could happen. We might think it ruins the legacy of the film, and that’s important to us, and we’ll turn it down. We might love it; we might do five series this time instead of two. I think the likelihood is that we’ll probably write it, at least, because that’s the real joy for us, the writing.”

L to R: Felicity Jones as Julie, Christian Cooke as Freddie, Tom Hughes as Bruce, Jack Doolan as Snork.

“It’s all speculative,” agrees Merchant. “We’ve been totally focussed on this script. But we like the characters, and we’ll be doing a scene with Ricky and we’ll go, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if…'”

“What we’d lose is the one big story,” adds Gervais. “But we’d have more fun with the smaller characters. My character, for example – it could become about the family unit, so it’s more of a sitcom.”

For now though, the focus is on delivering the film amidst the pair’s other commitments. In addition to their work together, Gervais, also has a stand-up tour to do (he’d probably be keen on us mentioning that it’s sold out, as his last tour was) and his first American directorial feature, The Invention of Lying, to promote.

So with all the work on their plates have there been any tensions between them? “We see eye-to-eye on 98% of stuff,” says Gervais. “And when we don’t see eye-to-eye, we’ve got one rule: one veto and then it’s out, or let’s do them both and we’ll see in the edit. There doesn’t need to be arguments, really. And we work so fast, and it’s such a joy. It’s so much fun. The only thing I don’t like is getting up early.”

“Or doing the work,” adds Merchant.

“Or doing anything.”

“Anything that takes you away from the sofa.”

Gervais unleashes that cackle again. “Yeah, so all my scenes were on the sofa. At one point Steve went, ‘Ricky, are you actually asleep?'”

Cemetery Junction is released next year. Ricky Gervais’ home on the web is rickygervais.com, where you can fail to buy tickets for his sold-out stand-up tour.

Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made — and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they updated the Top 100 … I guess because they ran out of lists.

Frankly I think all of these lists are a little silly, but they do spark a lot of movie discussion and therefore I’m all for ’em. Seems a bit unnecessary to update a list that’s barely ten years old, but hey, you do what you have to do to get the viewers interested. I’ll post the new list below, but if you’d like to compare it to the original Top 100, you can check our source below.

And definitely feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and outrage regarding the big list. There’s a lot of movies out there, so please do toss your lists out, too. (The one below came from a list of 1,500 filmmakers, writers, actors, critics, and "others.")

At the very least, this list should give you a good idea of how to fill up your Netflix queue.

1. "Citizen Kane," 1941.
2. "The Godfather," 1972.
3. "Casablanca," 1942.
4. "Raging Bull," 1980.
5. "Singin’ in the Rain," 1952.
6. "Gone With the Wind," 1939.
7. "Lawrence of Arabia," 1962.
8. "Schindler’s List," 1993.
9. "Vertigo," 1958.
10. "The Wizard of Oz," 1939.

11. "City Lights," 1931.
12. "The Searchers," 1956.
13. "Star Wars," 1977.
14. "Psycho," 1960.
15. "2001: A Space Odyssey," 1968.
16. "Sunset Blvd.", 1950.
17. "The Graduate," 1967.
18. "The General," 1927.
19. "On the Waterfront," 1954.
20. "It’s a Wonderful Life," 1946.

21. "Chinatown," 1974.
22. "Some Like It Hot," 1959.
23. "The Grapes of Wrath," 1940.
24. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," 1982.
25. "To Kill a Mockingbird," 1962.
26. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," 1939.
27. "High Noon," 1952.
28. "All About Eve," 1950.
29. "Double Indemnity," 1944.
30. "Apocalypse Now," 1979.

31. "The Maltese Falcon," 1941.
32. "The Godfather Part II," 1974.
33. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest," 1975.
34. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," 1937.
35. "Annie Hall," 1977.
36. "The Bridge on the River Kwai," 1957.
37. "The Best Years of Our Lives," 1946.
38. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," 1948.
39. "Dr. Strangelove," 1964.
40. "The Sound of Music," 1965.

41. "King Kong," 1933.
42. "Bonnie and Clyde," 1967.
43. "Midnight Cowboy," 1969.
44. "The Philadelphia Story," 1940.
45. "Shane," 1953.
46. "It Happened One Night," 1934.
47. "A Streetcar Named Desire," 1951.
48. "Rear Window," 1954.
49. "Intolerance," 1916.
50. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 2001.

51. "West Side Story," 1961.
52. "Taxi Driver," 1976.
53. "The Deer Hunter," 1978.
54. "M*A*S*H," 1970.
55. "North by Northwest," 1959.
56. "Jaws," 1975.
57. "Rocky," 1976.
58. "The Gold Rush," 1925.
59. "Nashville," 1975.
60. "Duck Soup," 1933.

61. "Sullivan’s Travels," 1941.
62. "American Graffiti," 1973.
63. "Cabaret," 1972.
64. "Network," 1976.
65. "The African Queen," 1951.
66. "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1981.
67. "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", 1966.
68. "Unforgiven," 1992.
69. "Tootsie," 1982.
70. "A Clockwork Orange," 1971.

71. "Saving Private Ryan," 1998.
72. "The Shawshank Redemption," 1994.
73. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," 1969.
74. "The Silence of the Lambs," 1991.
75. "In the Heat of the Night," 1967.
76. "Forrest Gump," 1994.
77. "All the President’s Men," 1976.
78. "Modern Times," 1936.
79. "The Wild Bunch," 1969.
80. "The Apartment, 1960.

81. "Spartacus," 1960.
82. "Sunrise," 1927.
83. "Titanic," 1997.
84. "Easy Rider," 1969.
85. "A Night at the Opera," 1935.
86. "Platoon," 1986.
87. "12 Angry Men," 1957.
88. "Bringing Up Baby," 1938.
89. "The Sixth Sense," 1999.
90. "Swing Time," 1936.

91. "Sophie’s Choice," 1982.
92. "Goodfellas," 1990.
93. "The French Connection," 1971.
94. "Pulp Fiction," 1994.
95. "The Last Picture Show," 1971.
96. "Do the Right Thing," 1989.
97. "Blade Runner," 1982.
98. "Yankee Doodle Dandy," 1942.
99. "Toy Story," 1995.
100. "Ben-Hur," 1959.

Grr. I’m annoyed that neither of my all-time favorites (those would be "Alien" and "Young Frankenstein") made the list. Oh well.

Be honest: How many of ’em have you seen?

Source: SeattlePI.com

"Casino Royale," the forthcoming James Bond flick (number 21, if you’re counting), has generated quite the buzz among die-hard Bond fans irate over the casting of "Layer Cake" star Daniel Craig as the suave secret agent.

The vitriol is not held back at Craignotbond.com, the online headquarters for a grassroots movement to boycott "Casino Royale" on the sole basis that Daniel Craig is too short, too "rough faced," and too blond to play the beloved lethal lothario.

Fans supporting the boycott are also upset with the filmmakers for deciding the franchise needed a "reboot;" according to reports, "Casino Royale" will not carry on the chronology of the previous Bond films but will be a sort of prequel/origin story to restart the entire franchise. Thus, while Dame Judi Dench is onboard once again as Bond’s boss, "M," character actor Jeffrey Wright will portray CIA agent Felix Leiter — a recurring character previously played by numerous actors, who was killed off in 1989’s "License to Kill."

But back to the Craig debate. On their comprehensive website, boycotters seem consumed first and foremost with the physicality of their new Bond; at 5’11" Craig stands inches shy of his predecessors Sean Connery (6’2"), George Lazenby (6’2 1/2"), Roger Moore (6’1"), Timothy Dalton (6’2"), and Pierce Brosnan (6’1"). He’s got blond hair and blue eyes. According to the website, only "people who think that men like Mick Jagger, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine are handsome" will find Craig attractive. To illustrate, the site juxtaposes Craig with pictures of Bill Murray, Bob Denver, and Cleveland Cavalier Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

And yet, that’s not all the latest news for the "Casino Royale" production and poor Daniel Craig. Days after the casting of Eva Green as Bond girl Vesper Lynd was confirmed (yay!), Craig got two of his teeth knocked out while filming his very first fight scene in Prague (aww). Add to that rumors that Craig couldn’t drive Bond’ signature Aston Martin with it’s manual stick shift, and this Bond’s got quite the mission: impossible ahead.

"Casino Royale" is set for release on November 17, 2006. The confirmed cast so far includes international thesps Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Eva Green, Jeffrey Wright, Mads Mikkelsen, Simon Abkerian, and Caterina Murino.

One of the most talked-about and eagerly-anticipated film festivals of the year runs every January in a tiny little Utah ski town called Park City. The festival, of course, is Robert Redford’s Sundance, and it’s at about this time every year that the fest’s lineup hits the streets. Read on for the festival announcement and several of the most noteworthy titles.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter: "In unveiling the lineup for the independent feature film and world cinema competitions for next year’s Sundance Film Festival on Monday, programmers characterized the upcoming fest as a return to its roots in independent programming. The key to what they consider the core of Sundance, the four competition sections, is the discovery of new faces before and behind the camera. "I don’t know how broadly these films will play," festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said. "What I’m not worried about, though, is the quality of the films or the excitement this return to our roots will produce. I want people to take a step back when it’s over and say, ‘God, what a great class of directors this is.’ " Said director of programming John Cooper: "Usually, we get our information from normal sources — producers, sales reps and agents. But a lot of this festival’s lineup will be unknown even to them." The competition screenings will take place Jan. 19-29 in Park City, with additional screenings occurring in other Utah locations, including Salt Lake City."

Dramatic Competition

"A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" (Director, screenwriter: Dito Montiel) — A writer recounts his teenage experiences in tough 1980s Astoria, N.Y. — where all his friends ended up dead, as junkies, or in prison — exploring how he managed to emerge unscathed. World premiere.

"Come Early Morning" (Director, screenwriter: Joey Lauren Adams) — The story of a Southern woman trying to escape her addictions and self-destructive behavior to find true love. World premiere.

"Flannel Pajamas" (Director, screenwriter: Jeff Lipsky) — A magical evening in a local diner sparks an intense courtship and an emotionally mercurial marriage that challenges two New Yorkers to the core. World premiere.

"Forgiven" (Director, screenwriter: Paul Fitzgerald) — On the eve of his campaign launch for a seat in the U.S. Senate, a small town D.A. receives word that the governor has exonerated a death row inmate whom he had prosecuted five years earlier. World premiere.

"Half Nelson" (Director: Ryan Fleck; Screenwriters: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck) — An inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret. World premiere.

"Hawk Is Dying" (Director: Julian Goldberger; Screenwriters: Harry Crews (novel), Julian Goldberger) — A Gainesville, Fla., auto upholsterer attempts to subvert his mundane life by training a wild, red-tailed hawk. World premiere.

"In Between Days" (Director: So Yong Kim; Screenwriters: So Yong Kim, Bradley Rust Gray) — When a recent Korean immigrant falls in love with her best and only friend, their misunderstood affection for each other creates a delicate relationship that is challenged by the demands of living in a new country. World premiere.

"Puccini for Beginners" (Director, screenwriter: Maria Maggenti) — On the rebound from her latest lesbian relationship, a New York writer finds herself in two surprising and complicated love affairs in this only-in-New York screwball comedy. World premiere.

"Quinceanera" (Directors, screenwriters: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland) — Disaffected Latino teenagers come of age in a gentrifying community in Echo Park district of Los Angeles. World premiere.

"Right At Your Door" (Director, screenwriter: Chris Gorak) — Multiple dirty bombs are detonated and spread deadly toxic ash and mass panic throughout Los Angeles. With limited information, time and supplies, and in the midst of citywide chaos, a married couple struggles to survive. World premiere.

"Sherrybaby" (Director, screenwriter: Laurie Collyer) — After serving a three-year prison sentence, a young woman quickly discovers that coming back to the world she left behind is far more difficult than she planned. World premiere.

"Somebodies" (Director, screenwriter: Hadjii) — Surrounded by eccentric relatives, prankster classmates, and more or less rehabilitated ex-cons, a black college student stumbles along the path to responsible adulthood. World premiere.

"Stay" (Director, screenwriter: Bob Goldthwait) — A youthful, impulsive sexual encounter opens the door to a dark comedy about the complexities of honesty. World premiere.

"Steel City" (Director, screenwriter: Brian Jun) — In a small Midwest town, two irresponsible brothers must come to terms with the lives they live after their father is incarcerated for killing a woman. World premiere.

"Stephanie Daley" (Director, screenwriter: Hilary Brougher) — A forensic psychologist, seven months pregnant, is hired to learn the truth behind a teenager’s denial of accusations that she concealed her pregnancy and committed infanticide. World premiere.

"Wristcutters — A Love Story" (Director: Goran Dukic; Screenwriters: Goran Dukic, Etgar Kerett) — An offbeat comedy, a love story, a road movie — but everybody is dead! World premiere.

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

"13 Tzameti"/ France (Director, screenwriter: Gela Babluani) — Sebastien has decided to follow instructions intended for someone else. When he reaches his destination, he falls into a degenerate, clandestine world of mental chaos. North American premiere.

"Allegro"/Denmark (Director: Christoffer Boe; Screenwriters: Christoffer Boe, Mikael Wulff) — After a long absence, a famous amnesiac pianist returns to his native Copenhagen where he is contacted by a mysterious messenger who leads him back into his forgotten past. North American premiere.

"The Aura"/Argentina (Director, screenwriter: Fabian Bielinsky) — Espinoza is an introverted taxidermist who secretly dreams of executing the perfect robbery. On his first-ever hunting trip, in the calm of the Patagonian forest, his dreams unexpectedly are made reality with one squeeze of the trigger. North American premiere.

"The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros"/Philippines (Director: Auraeus Solito; Screenwriter: Michiko Yamamoto) — Young Maxi’s unquestioned devotion to his family of small-time criminals in a Manila slum is undermined when he is befriended by a principled young policeman. U.S. premiere.

"Eve & The Fire Horse"/Canada (Director, screenwriter: Julia Kwan) — Eve is a precocious 9-yea-old growing up in a Vancouver-Chinese immigrant family where Confucian doctrines, superstitious obsessions and divine visions abound. When Buddhism and Catholicism are thrown into the mix, life for Eve and her prim authoritative sister, Karena, escalates into a fantasia of catastrophe, sainthood and cultural confusion. U.S. premiere.

"Grbavica"/Bosnia-Herzegovina (Director, screenwriter: Jasmila Zbanic) — A chilling story of a woman and her daughter as they fight to survive in the painful aftermath of the recent Balkan war. World premiere.

"The House of Sand"/Brazil (Director: Andrucha Waddington; Screenwriter: Elena Soarez) — The story of a woman across three generations. In the remote dunes of Brazil, Maria spends her life while an entire century passes by her, her house and sand. U.S. premiere.

"Kiss Me Not on the Eyes"/Lebanon (Director, screenwriter: Jocelyne Saab) — An educated young Egyptian woman defends her artistic integrity as a dancer and her social independence in the midst of modern Cairo’s culture wars. World premiere.

"Little Red Flowers"/China (Director: Zhang Yuan; Screenwriters: Ning Dai, Zhang Yuan) — A parable about the nature and complexities of being compelled to "fit in" to a regimented society set in a post-revolutionary Chinese orphanage. World premiere.

"Madeinusa"/Peru (Director, screenwriter: Claudia Llosa) — Madeinusa is a sweet girl who lives in an isolated, religiously zealous village in mountainous Peru. Everything changes when a geologist from Lima arrives and unknowingly reshapes Madeinusa’s destiny. World premiere.

"No. 2"/New Zealand (Director, screenwriter: Toa Fraser) — Nanna Maria’s family has forgotten how to party. She’s going to change all that and make them come alive with the heat and passion of the South Pacific. World premiere.

"One Last Dance"/Singapore (Director, screenwriter: Max Makowski) — An assassin is hired to kill the men responsible for kidnapping an important man’s son. With every death, the killer gets closer to the last kidnapper’s name … his own. World premiere.

"The Peter Pan Formula"/South Korea (Director, screenwriter: Cho Chan-Ho) — An adolescent boy confronts premature independence as his mother lies in a coma and he experiences the first tugs of sexual desires with an older woman. North American premiere.

"Princesas"/Spain (Director, screenwriter: Fernando Leon de Aranoa) — The story of two women who form an unbreakable friendship despite their differences as they fight to make ends meet in the big city. U.S. premiere.

"Solo Dios Sabe"/Brazil/Mexico (Director: Carlos Bolado; Screenwriters: Carlos Bolado, Diane Weipert) — On a lark in Tijuana, a young Brazilian art student crosses paths with a roguish Mexican journalist, sparking a cascade of events across both Mexico and Brazil. World premiere.

"Son of Man"/South Africa (Director: Mark Dornford-May; Screenwriters: Mark Dornford-May, Andiswa Kedama, Pauline Malefane) — A gripping journey of love, deception and betrayal, the film translates Jesus’ life to modern-day South Africa, where a new politics of compassion incites revolution during a military dictatorship. World premiere.

Documentary Competition

"A Lion in the House" (Directors: Steven Bogner, Julia Reichert) — Five diverse families — each with a child fighting cancer –navigate the ups and downs of treatment over six years, while maintaining hope in this complex portrait of human resilience. World premiere.

"American Blackout" (Director: Ian Inaba) — A stylish hard-hitting documentary that recounts the fascinating career of Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., and the suppression of the black vote historically and during the recent presidential elections in Florida and Ohio. World premiere.

"An Unreasonable Man" (Directors: Henriette Mantel and Stephen Skrovan) — Using rarely seen archival footage and more than 40 recently conducted on-camera interviews, this documentary traces the career of Ralph Nader from quixotic consumer advocate to upstart presidential candidate to public pariah. World premiere.

"Crossing Arizona" (Director: Joseph Mathew) — A balanced, far-reaching look at a range of human stories unfolding in the midst of Arizona’s illegal immigration crisis. World premiere.

"God Grew Tired of Us" (Director: Christopher Quinn) — Four boys from Sudan embark on a journey to America after years of wandering Sub-Saharan Africa in search of safety. World premiere.

"Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends" (Director: Patricia Foulkrod) — Reveals how the military trains our soldiers for war, the reality of combat in Iraq and the effects of the war on our soldiers coming home. World premiere.

"Iraq in Fragments" (Director: James Longley) — Contemporary Iraq is illuminated in three chapters that follow the diverse stories of Iraqis against a backdrop of war, occupation and ethnic tension. World premiere.

"Small Town Gay Bar" (Director: Malcom Ingram) — A voyage to the deep South to tell a tale of the struggle for community and expression in the face of ignorance, hypocrisy and oppression. World premiere.

"So Much So Fast" (Directors: Steven Ascher, Jeanne Jordan) — A black-humored cliffhanger of romance, guerrilla science and the redefinition of time. When Stephen Heywood finds out he has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), his brother Jamie becomes obsessed with finding a cure and the woman who is falling in love with Stephen has a decision to make. World premiere.

"Thin" (Director: Lauren Greenfield) — With unprecedented access and an unflinching eye, the film documents four women struggling with anorexia and bulimia at a residential facility for the treatment of eating disorders in South Florida. World premiere.

" ‘Tis Autumn — The Search for Jackie Paris" (Director: Raymond De Felitta) — Explores legendary jazz vocalist Jackie Paris’ meteoric rise, enigmatic career and mysterious life while probing the question of how much we need to know of an artist’s personal story to appreciate their art. World premiere.

"The Trials of Darryl Hunt" (Directors: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg) — The wrongful conviction of a black man for a white woman’s rape and murder offers a provocative, haunting examination of a fear-based, racially biased community and criminal justice system. World premiere.

"TV Junkie" (Director: Michael Cain) — From the time he was born Rick knew he had a special purpose. If he could only record it he might be able to figure out what it is. Forty-six years, 5,000 hours of video and more than 3,000 photos later he might have figured it out. World premiere.

"Wide Awake" (Director: Alan Berliner) — A first-person account of filmmaker Alan Berliner’s struggle with sleeplessness, as both a blessing and a curse. Portrait of an artist as an insomniac. World premiere.

"Wordplay" (Director: Patrick Creadon) — An in-depth look at the New York Times crossword puzzle and its editor Will Shortz, and the wonderfully unique and loyal fan base he has built and nurtured during his 12-year tenure at the paper. World premiere.

"The World According to Sesame Street" (Directors: Linda Goldstein Knowlton, Linda Hawkins Costigan) — A behind-the-scenes look at the unexpected dynamics of adapting the most-watched children’s television show for audiences in some of the world’s political hot-spots and incorporating locally relevant themes. World premiere.

World Cinema Documentary Competition

"5 Days"/Israel (Director: Yoav Shamir) — On Aug. 15, Israel began to evacuate 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. In a unilateral move by the Israeli government, they were removed from their homes to make way for 250,000 Palestinians. With exclusive access to the Israeli defense forces and the general in charge, seven film crews simultaneously follow key characters during this historic five-day event. North American premiere.

"Angry Monk — Reflections on Tibet"/Switzerland (Director: Luc Schaedler) — A portrait of the rebellious Tibetan monk Gendun Choephel, this film reveals a face of old and present-day Tibet that runs against popular cliches. North American premiere.

"Black Gold"/U.K. (Director: Marc Francis, Nick Francis ) — A cinematic journey that uncovers the world of coffee and trade from the struggling Ethiopian bean grower to your coffee cup. World premiere.

"By the Ways, a Journey With William Eggleston"/France (Directors: Cedric Laty, Vincent Gerard) — A journey through the southern U.S. home of William Eggleston considered "the father of color photography." Eggleston’s persistent silence defies each truth revealed about his character. North American premiere.

"Dear Pyongyang"/Japan (Director: Yang Yonghi) — A Korean-Japanese daughter explores her father’s fierce political loyalty to North Korea — costly to the point of breaking up his family. North American premiere.

"The Giant Buddhas"/Switzerland (Director: Christian Frei) — A film about the destruction of the famous Buddha statues in Afghanistan. An essay on fanaticism and faith, terror and tolerance, ignorance and identity. U.S. premiere.

"Glastonbury"/U.K. (Director: Julian Temple) — A staggering range of music presented at England’s annual Glastonbury Festival; captures the spirit of important social changes during the past 30 years. World premiere.

"I is for India"/England/Germany/Italy (Director: Sandhya Suri) — A tale of migration and belonging, told primarily through Super 8 films and audio letters sent between India and England during a period of 40 years. World premiere.

"In the Pit"/Mexico (Director: Juan Carlos Rulfo) — According to Mexican legend, whenever a bridge is built the devil asks for one soul, in exchange for keeping the bridge standing. This film chronicles the daily lives of the workers building a second deck to Mexico City’s Periferico freeway — their hopes, dreams and struggle for survival. World premiere.

"Into Great Silence"/Germany (Director: Philip Groening) — The first film ever to examine life inside the Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the legendary Carthusian Order. An austere, next to silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form. U.S. premiere.

"Kz"/U.K. (Director: Rex Bloomstein) — A look at the way the town of Mauthausen, previously the site of a German concentration camp, faces the ultimate demons of its dark past. North American premiere.

"No One"/Mexico (Director: Tin Dirdamal) — The story of Maria, a Central American immigrant forced to leave her family in search of a better life. On her way to the U.S., she crosses Mexico where she encounters a nightmare. U.S. premiere.

"The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez"/Germany (Director: Heidi Specogna) — Behind the heroic tale of the first U.S. soldier to die in the war in Iraq, there unfolds the story of a Guatemalan street child drawn into war by the promise of a green card in a foreign country. World premiere.

"Songbirds"/U.K. (Director: Brian Hill) — Downview Prison in England is host to 250 women who have committed crimes ranging from drug trafficking to manslaughter, but these women also are mothers and caretakers. In a musical set in the prison, the women sing about their lives and the crimes that led to their imprisonment. North American premiere.

"Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst"/Australia (Director: Gillian Armstrong) — Flamboyant design pioneer Florence Broadhurst lived a colorful life, but it is only now that her time has truly come, with her bold, exotic wallpaper prints in huge demand internationally. World premiere.

"Viva Zapatero"/Italy (Director: Sabina Guzzanti) — A critical and playful look at censorship in Italy under Berlusconi contrasted with other European nations. North American premiere.