News

The following remembrance was written by Deborah Davis, Mark Urman’s wife.

From Anatole Litvak’s “Anastasia,” the first movie he saw as a child at a picture palace in the Bronx, to Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” (his choice for this year’s Best Picture), Mark Urman was a man with a boundless passion for cinema. In the course of his nearly 50 years in film, Mark felt blessed to work with some of the greatest luminaries in the business, from Joseph Losey, David Lean, and Bernardo Bertolucci to Roman Polanski, Sydney Lumet, and Julian Schnabel.

He also delighted in encouraging talents as they emerged, including Ryan Gosling, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Lynette Howell, Jamie Patricof, Christian Bale, Liv Tyler, Marc Forster, Natasha Richardson, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Kevin Smith, Cary Fukunaga, Lee Daniels, and Bill Condon.

Mark was born in the Bronx on November 24, 1952, the...

Journalist Michael Ware's feature Only the Dead .has won the Walkley documentary award.

The film, which was recently bought by HBO Documentary Films is produced by Queensland-based Patrick McDonald (Predestination) and directed by Ware and two-time Academy Award-winning Us documentarian Bill Guttentag (Nanking, Twin Towers).

It is also vying for an Academy Award and is elibible to shortlisted for Best Documentary..

The shortlist will be announced in early December.

Only the Dead is a visceral and compelling documentary which follows Ware, a war correspondent reporting for Time Magazine and then CNN.

Ware finds himself launched into the Middle East following the geopolitical upheaval of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Ware, whose journalism career began at Queensland.s The Courier Mail, shot hundreds of hours of camcorder footage between 2003 and 2007 in war-torn Iraq. .

He was the first western journalist to get access to combat insurgents and as the nature of the war changed,...

.

HBO Documentary Films has bought the Us rights to feature documentary Only the Dead, which centres on Australian journalist Michael Ware.

The film is produced by Queensland-based Patrick McDonald (Predestination) and directed by Ware and two-time Academy Award-winning Us documentarian Bill Guttentag (Nanking, Twin Towers).

Only the Dead recently screened at Colorado.s 42nd Annual Telluride Film Festival.

The film is also vying for an Academy Award and is elibible to shortlisted for Best Documentary..

The shortlist will be announced in early December.

Only the Dead is a visceral and compelling documentary which follows Ware, a war correspondent reporting for Time Magazine and then CNN.

Ware finds himself launched into the Middle East following the geopolitical upheaval of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Ware, whose journalism career began at Queensland.s The Courier Mail, shot hundreds of hours of camcorder footage between 2003 and 2007 in war-torn Iraq. .

He was the first western...

A debate over the role of the traditional film industry in an increasingly democratized medium unfolded at the inaugural Middleburg Film Festival in northern Virginia. In the festival's Oct. 26 keynote address, Ted Leonsis, film producer and founding chair of Indiewire parent company SnagFilms, decried what he saw as the "high priest" model of production and distribution, which he says prevents new creative voices from being heard. "The high priests – the studios of the world, the newspapers of the world – are fundamentally failing a large generation of the next creative-class individuals," Leonsis said. "Because in a world where everyone is a filmmaker, everyone has a story to tell, and now has the tools to do it … still, the distribution system is analog." Speaking without notes, Leonsis framed his talk in the context of his own experiences producing independent features. In 2007, his production "Nanking" came off a debut at the Sundance Film...

This is a first-person piece from Ted Leonsis, founder and chairman of SnagFilms (and parent company of Indiewire). He asked if he could have the floor to lay out why he believes digital distribution platforms define the future for indie films. And while as a principal of SnagFilms he clearly has a horse in this race, his perspective echoes points that others have made on our site (including this week's very popular piece written by Greenburg Traurig partner Steven Beer.) How does all of this square with your thoughts on indie distribution? Tell us in the comments. -- The Editors Sunday marked the end of the Sundance Film Festival, the traditional launching point for a new year of independent films. I didn’t go to Park City this year, as I had when my films "Nanking" and "Kicking It" were in the festival, but I read the extensive coverage from Indiewire and others with interest.

The opening weekend of Toronto is always a logjam of acquisition titles and this one is worse than usual, distribs complain. Saturday night is especially impossible, if key execs want to be positioned to make bids on Sarah Polley (pregnant!) title Take This Waltz, Jennifer Westfeldt and Jon Hamm's Friends with Kids, Oren Moverman's follow-up to The Messenger, Rampart starring Woody Harrelson, Australian cancer drama Burning Man, ensemble comedy The Oranges or Salmon Fishing in Yemen, starring Ewan McGregor. These are among the most anticipated fest pick-ups. Meanwhile every distributor in town turned up Friday for a screening of 20 minutes of gorgeous, horrifying footage of master auteur Zhang Yimou's once-titled Heroes of Nanking, starring Christian Bale as mortician in wartorn 1937 Nanking who steps ...

Reviewed by Jay Antani

(June 2011)

Directed/Written by: Lu Chuan

Starring: Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Hideo Nakaizumi, Fan Wei, Jiang Yiyan, Ryu Kohata, Liu Bin, John Paisley, Beverly Peckous, Qin Lan, Sam Voutas, Yao Di and Zhao Yisui

“City of Life and Death” is among the greatest war films ever made. Rich in humanist themes and absolutely unflinching in its depiction of the moral chaos and physical violence of war, Lu Chuan’s film about the Japanese occupation of Nanking in 1937 isn’t merely one of the year’s best films, it’s a powerful work of art and a testament to the expressive essence of pure cinema.

Inevitable comparisons will be made between “City of Life and Death” and Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.” Lu’s opening battle scenes between the Japanese invaders and a Chinese platoon — led by a stalwart patriot (Liu Ye) — have the complex staging,...

Reviewed by Jay Antani

(June 2011)

Directed/Written by: Lu Chuan

Starring: Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Hideo Nakaizumi, Fan Wei, Jiang Yiyan, Ryu Kohata, Liu Bin, John Paisley, Beverly Peckous, Qin Lan, Sam Voutas, Yao Di and Zhao Yisui

“City of Life and Death” is among the greatest war films ever made. Rich in humanist themes and absolutely unflinching in its depiction of the moral chaos and physical violence of war, Lu Chuan’s film about the Japanese occupation of Nanking in 1937 isn’t merely one of the year’s best films, it’s a powerful work of art and a testament to the expressive essence of pure cinema.

Inevitable comparisons will be made between “City of Life and Death” and Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.” Lu’s opening battle scenes between the Japanese invaders and a Chinese platoon — led by a stalwart patriot (Liu Ye) — have the complex staging,...

SnagFilms, the advertising-supported site for documentaries online, announced today, on its second anniversary, a major expansion of its distribution infrastructure, bringing its library of 1,500 titles to a suite of new platforms. Among the new ventures: the creation of VOD offerings with Comcast, the nation's leading provider of entertainment, information and communication products; and with Verizon FiOS TV, the converged communications platform.

Founded by AOL Vice-Chair Emeritus and award-winning documentary producer Ted Leonsis (Nanking; Kicking It), SnagFilms has become the Web's largest and most broadly-distributed home for nonfiction films, with its library ...

Award-winning doc depicts harrowing tragedies of war.

All too often the faces of those who became senseless casualties of strife go forgotten.

With 'Nanking,' directors Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman bring to light one of the lesser-known travesties of World War II. In what has become historically known as "the rape of Nanking," Chinese citizens endured a brutal containment that caused over 200,000 deaths.

Featuring narration from Woody Harrelson, Stephen Dorff, and Mariel Hemingway, 'Nanking' is an award-winning documentary that's enlightening, emotionally devastating and ultimately uplifting. Watch the film in full, or snag it onto your own site, from SnagFilms.com.

Watch 'Nanking' FreeFiled under: Documentaries

Continue reading Free Documentary of the Week: 'Nanking'

Permalink | Email this | Comments...

The summer of 1937 brought the invasion of China by Japan. "By December 13th, they had defeated the Chinese army and invaded the nation's then-capital, Nanking," wrote Kim Voynar in January 2007, by way of introducing her review of the documentary Nanking, which played at Sundance that year. The film is now available for free online viewing, thanks to our friends at SnagFilms.

As you might expect, directors Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman use archival footage and interviews with survivors to flesh out the film, but they also include "staged reading of excerpts from journals and letters by a group of actors including Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, Rosalind Chao and Jurgen Prochnow," as described by Voynar. She observed: "The scripted reading actually works more effectively than mere voiceover would have, bringing to life the people who were a part of the events that happened in Nanking during that time. War and violence are never pretty,...

Out of 88 directors, this year's Tribeca Film Festival was able to count over 20 filmmakers as repeat attendees. Tribeca Director of Programming David Kwok talked to five returning documentary filmmakers (Liz Mermin, The Beauty Academy of Kabul, Tff '04; Cathy Henkel, The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face, Best Documentary Tff '04; Marshall Curry, Street Fight, Audience Award Winner Tff '05; and Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, Nanking, Tff '07 [Guttentag also directed the feature Live!, Tff '07]) about their previous Festival experiences, Tff '09 projects, and the future of documentary filmmaking. The Burning Season David Kwok: How was your first experience at Tribeca and what have you been working on since then? Cathy Henkel (The Burning Season): Coming to Tribeca in 2004 was one of the highlights of my life. The Festival treated me so well, I loved New York, I got to meet and have dinner with Glenn ...

ABC's "Lost," AMC's "Breaking Bad," Nickelodeon's "Avatar" and -- in a nod to the influence of the Web -- YouTube are among the winners of 2008 Peabody Awards unveiled Wednesday.

Others among the 36 television and radio programs or media institutions that garnered accolades for their excellence were NPR's radio reports from China on the earthquake in Chengdu, the Metropolitan Opera's performances in high-definition, CNN's presidential primary and debates coverage and "Saturday Night Live's" political satire.

For the first time, several Web-related entities received nods, including the New York Times' Web site and the Onion's news network as well as the recognition to YouTube for its impact on the media landscape. The latter was lauded for being "an ever-expanding archive-cum-bulletin board that both embodies and promotes democracy."

Although there were numerous radio and TV entries devoted to the financial meltdown of the past year, only one -- NPR's hourlong analysis in...

And here's the rest, including the Midnight Section, all after the break.

Encounters

This collection of engaging and entertaining narrative features and documentaries, a mixture of dark comedies and lighter fare, offers work from returning filmmakers, established talent, and popular subjects, and includes 10 World Premieres. Included in Encounters are performances from Academy Award®-nominated actors Thomas Haden Church, Melissa Leo, Elisabeth Shue; directorial debuts from both Eric Bana and Cheryl Hines (from a screenplay by Adrienne Shelly); stories ranging from an ill-fated man's discovery of inspiration and happiness, dysfunctional families, and unrequited high school crushes to a doc on the emergence of New York’s independent film scene.

• Blank City, directed by Celine Danhier. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Celine Danhier’s kinetic doc mirrors the urgent, anything-goes energy of her subject: the Diy independent film movement that emerged in tandem with punk rock in late ‘70s downtown New York.

PARK CITY -- Indie distributor Liberation Entertainment and Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment picked up rights to the Sundance soccer docu "Kicking It".

In the low-to-mid six figure deal, Netflix will stream the film to its subscribers simultaneously with ESPN's airing after Liberation's theatrical release. Liberation will be handle North American and Central American theatrical, DVD and ancillary rights to the film, while Red Envelope will have domestic home video rights for Netflix.

Susan Koch's feature, produced by AOL vice chairman emeritus Ted Leonsis (last year's Sundance winner "Nanking"), follows seven homeless players from around the world who compete in the fourth annual Homeless World Cup.

ESPN picked up worldwide TV and digital distribution rights earlier this week. Leonsis and exec producer Rick Allen repped the earlier network deal.

CAA and Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment repped the Liberation and Red Envelope deal on behalf of the filmmakers.

• A lingering strike haven't kept the Writers Gild of America from naming the noms for the Best Original, Adapted Screenplays and Best Documentary screenplays of the year. A quick overview of the noms below shows that studio-based indie division delivered in quantity and quality. Here are the noms below for those who create narratives on paper. Winners are announced on February 9th.           Original Screenplay"Juno" - Written by Diablo Cody, Fox Searchlight"Michael Clayton" - Written by Tony Gilroy, Warner Bros. Pictures"The Savages" - Written by Tamara Jenkins, Fox Searchlight"Knocked Up" - Written by Judd Apatow, Universal Pictures"Lars and the Real Girl" - Written by Nancy Oliver, MGM                 Adapted Screenplay"No Country For Old Men" - Screenplay by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, Based on the Novel by Cormac McCarthy, Miramax"There Will Be Blood" - Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson, Based on the Novel Oil by Upton Sinclair,

...

Nominees for the Writers Guild of America Awards have been announced, with a few suprises and notable omissions. Original Screenplay nods went to four comedies -- Juno, Knocked Up, Lars and the Real Girl, and The Savages -- and one drama, Michael Clayton, while the films up for Adapted Screenplay are four critical favorites -- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood -- and one surprising left-field contender, the thriller Zodiac, released back in March. Missing from contention were such high-profile films as Atonement, Charlie Wilson's War, and Sweeney Todd, which were also passed over for the Directors Guild of America awards. Documentary nominees were The Camden 28, Nanking, No End in Sight, The Rape of Europa, Sicko and Taxi to the Dark Side. The WGA Awards will be handed out on Saturday, February 9th.

• In recent years I've often criticized the Academy Awards for not having the foresight and fortitude to include docu films that have not only completely reinvigorated the genre, but have pushed the medium to new possible artistic and narrative terrains. This year's short list of 15 titles only further confirms that the Academy has tremendous difficulty in acknowledging the wider scope of films that merit year-end salutations. The formula for the docu-filmmaking and docu movie-going experience has significantly changed since Y2K, yet the most prestigious award film ceremony seems to come up short when it comes to new trends in storytelling and filmmaking. Today IndieWIRE reports Aj Schnack will collaborate with online independent film distributor IndiePix to launch a new nonfiction filmmaking awards event, set for March 18, 2008 at IFC Center in New York City. Below you find a Top 15 list of films that will be nominated for eight categories,

...

NEW YORK -- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday unveiled the 15 films on its 2007 documentary feature Oscar shortlist.

Four ThinkFilm releases made the cut, a record for the company and one of the biggest lineups ever for any distributor. They are Tony Kaye's abortion epic Lake of Fire, Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's World War II expose Nanking, Alex Gibney's Iraq War study Taxi to the Dark Side and Sean Fine and Andrea Nix's look at a Ugandan musical competition War/Dance.

The biggest boxoffice hit among the bunch by far is Michael Moore's health-care expose Sicko, from the Weinstein Co., but other high-profile releases were left off the list. Jonathan Demme's Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains and Amir Bar-Lev's child prodigy study My Kid Could Paint That from Sony Pictures Classics were expected to make the cut but didn't. Other notable absentees were Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg's look at Darfur, The Devil Came on Horseback; Picturehouse's gamers study The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters; and ThinkFilm's space-themed In the Shadow of the Moon.

Aside from Taxi, other films covering the Iraq War that made the list included Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight and Richard Robbins' Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.

Features about other wars made the cut, too, including Steven Okazaki's White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham's World War II art study The Rape of Europa.

Virtually all films on the list were topical, including Tricia Regan's look at special-needs children, Autism: The Musical...

The International Documentary Assn. is featuring 12 feature-length documentaries and five short nonfiction films in its 11th annual Theatrical Documentary Showcase, DocuWeek, set for Aug. 17-23 at the ArcLight Hollywood and the Landmark West Los Angeles. Features appearing are Chops, Curt Kobain About a Son, In the Shadow of the Moon, Here and Now, "Larry Flynt: The Right to be Left Alone," Nanking, A Promise to the Dead, The Price of Sugar, Protagonist, Taxi to the Dark Side, "War/Dance" and We Are Together. The featured shorts are Angel's Fire, Gene Boy, Steps to Eternity, Salim Baba and Sari's Mother.

BEIJING -- Nanking, AOL vice chairman-turned-producer Ted Leonsis' documentary about the Japanese army's 1937 massacre of civilians in China's pre-war capital, will premiere Tuesday in Beijing.

Back in China's capital for the first time since AOL set up a research and development office here in April, Leonsis said Monday that he made the film with no profit motive and as a part of the "filmanthropy" mission he set out for himself when he stepped down from active duty at AOL in the fall.

Leonsis said he observes three Chinas: the poor agricultural interior of China that few in the West know about; the "formal" and governmental China represented by China Central Television and the Shanghai Media Group; and the new "rock 'n' roll China" of the Internet and Web 2.0, that is "more capitalistic than America now."

My intentions are pure, he said. "What China can do for me is make sure that one million people see this film by any means necessary. Free on the Internet, even on pirated disc."

Nanking, which was bought for distribution by ThinkFilm and Fortissimo at Sundance, was made with more than $2 million of Leonsis' own fortune.

PARK CITY -- Barely remembered in the West, the rape of Nanking -- then the capital of China -- by the Japanese imperial forces in 1937 stands as a gruesome testimonial to man's inhumanity to man. Conceptualized by AOL co-chairman Ted Leonsis and directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, "Nanking" is a vivid account of those terrible events. The beautifully crafted film could generate some interest in theaters before finding its natural home on a high-profile cable outlet.

Having already annexed Manchuria, Japan started its full-scale attack on the Chinese mainland in summer 1937 with extensive air raids on Shanghai and Nanking. Chinese citizens who had money and most foreigners had fled Nanking before the ground troops arrived that December. All that was left behind were the poor and a group of 22 European and American clergy, businessmen, doctors and teachers. In an attempt to save as many lives as possible, the foreign contingent set up a safety zone for the Chinese.

Guttentag and Sturman give the events great immediacy by staging a reading of the diaries, letters and other accounts of the invasion written by the expats. Recited by actors including Mariel Hemingway, Woody Harrelson and Stephen Dorff on a soundstage, the material serves as the narration for much of the film.

It's not a pretty picture as the army rolls into the once vibrant and now almost deserted city. As one of the diaries explains and the images confirm, "Each day is worse than the one before," and another says, "I can see little sign of God". Particularly fascinating is the account of a German businessman, John Rabe -- movingly read by Jurgen Prochnow -- who was a Nazi sympathizer but nonetheless does the right thing.

Survivors of the event, both Chinese and Japanese, also are interviewed on-camera and offer stories almost too horrific to be believed. Gasoline was thrown on men who were then set on fire. Chinese men were forced to have sex with dead women while the soldiers watched.

One elderly Chinese man who was there breaks down sobbing when he recalls his mother being slaughtered with a bayonet as she breast-fed his baby brother. A woman cries as she recounts how her young daughter was taken away from her, then raped and killed. A Japanese soldier recalls, "In the dark of night, we shot them in the back with machine guns."

In all, 200,000 Chinese were killed and an estimated 20,000 women ages 12-60 were raped. But 250,000 were saved by the bravery of the foreigners in the safety zone.

Indelible footage of looting, rapes and mass killing has been collected from archives in Europe, America and Asia and stitched together seamlessly by editors Hibah Frisina, Charlton McMillan and Michael Schweitzer, who won the docu editing award Sunday at Sundance. Some of the most chilling images come from home movies shot by a minister and smuggled out of the country in the coat lining of another safety zone foreigner. Philip Marshall has composed an understated Chinese-sounding score evocatively played by the Kronos Quartet.

Not only is the film a powerful historical record and a warning for future generations, it is an essential reminder to people, including many in Japan today, who might deny that this massacre ever occurred. As such, "Nanking" honors the highest calling of documentary filmmaking.

NANKING

Fortissimo Films

A Ted Leonsis production

Credits:

Directors: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman

Screenwriters: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman, Elizabeth Bentley

Producers: Ted Leonsis, Bill Guttentag, Michael Jacobs

Director of photography: Buddy Squires

Music: Philip Marshall

Editors: Hibah Frisina, Charlton McMillan, Michael Schweitzer

Running time -- 91 minutes

No MPAA rating...

• The 2007 Sundance Film Festival Award-Winners are: The Grand Jury Prize: Documentary:Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) - Jason Kohn The Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic:Padre Nuestro - Christopher ZallaThe World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary Enemies Of Happiness (Vores Lykkesfjender) - Eva Mulvad and Anja Al Erhayem. The World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic:sweet Mud (Adama Meshugaat) Dror Shaul The Audience Award: Documentary: Hear And Now Irene Taylor BrodskyThe Audience Award: Dramatic:Grace Is Gone James C. StrouseThe World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary In The Shadow Of The Moon David SingtonThe World Cinema Audience Award: DramaticJohn Carney ONCEThe Directing Award: Documentary - Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine War/Dance The Directing Award: Dramatic Jeffrey Blitz - Rocket ScienceThe Excellence in Cinematography Awards – Dramatic: Benoit Debie for JoshuaThe Excellence in Cinematography Awards – Documentary: Heloisa Passos for Manda Bala (Send A Bullet)Documentary Editing Award: Hibah Sherif Frisina, Charlton McMillian, and Michael Schweitzer

...

• Quick Links  Complete Film Listing: Premieres Dramatic Comp  World Dramatic Comp World Doc Comp Spectrum: Park City at Midnight: New Frontier Short Film Programs January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); Another eclectic docu section this year ranging in subject matters such as U.S Foreign policies, internal American struggles, global issues and human portraits of the young, old and stupid. On the war front we have Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, where Rory Kennedy looks at the abuses at the Iraqi prison, No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson looks at the chain of decisions that led to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and in hindsight. White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki directed by Steven Okazaki looks at the human cost of atomic warfare.On the global scale, Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold’s Everything's Cool looks at alternative energy

...

• Here is the complete listing for this year's Sundance film festival which kicks off tomorrow!January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); Premiere's section lineup:An American Crime - Tommy O'Haver Away From Her - Sarah Polley Black Snake Moan - Craig BrewerChapter 27 - Jarrett Schaefer Chicago 10 - Brett Morgen Clubland - Cherie Nowlan The Good Night - Jake Paltrow King of California - Mike Cahill Life Support - Nelson George Longford - Tom Hooper The Nines - John August Resurrecting the Champ - Rod Lurie The Savages - Tamara Jenkins Son of Rambow - Garth Jennings Summer Rain - Antonio Banderas Trade - Marco Kreuzpaintner Year of the Dog - Mike White Dramatic Competition:Adrift in Manhattan - Alfredo de Villa Broken English - Zoe CassavetesFour Sheets to the Wind - Sterlin HarjoThe Good Life - Steve BerraGrace Is Gone - James C. StrouseHounddog - Deborah Kampmeier Joshua

...

In announcing the competition slate for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Geoffrey Gilmore, its longtime director, said he sees the beginning of a new era in independent filmmaking. "Filmmakers are undergoing a massive expansion in perspective and aesthetic qualities," he said. "Where once independence meant a detachment, a kind of navel-gazing, that doesn't exist right now. Instead, there is engagement and innovation. Filmmakers are going out and engaging the real world in terms of subject matter, vision and innovative storytelling."

Old categories of films long a staple of Sundance -- the coming-of-age picture or the dysfunctional family drama -- are no longer applicable to the competition films in the upcoming festival, Gilmore insisted. These new films tend to be more optimistic about the future, both politically and personally. Where once the independent world created its films almost in reaction to Hollywood and its happy endings, the new independents are drawing on the traditions of the American independent film itself. So if one thing characterizes Sundance 2007, Gilmore said, it is "freshness."

For the festival -- which runs Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Sundance, Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah -- programrs looked at a mind-boggling 3,287 feature submissions. That includes 1,852 U.S. films and 1,435 international movies, an increase over the previous year, when 1,764 U.S. features and 1,384 international films were considered.

The 122 feature films selected include 82 world premieres, 24 North American premieres and 10 U.S. premieres representing 25 countries. The competition section is divided into dramatic and documentary sections for both Independent Film -- meaning American films -- and World Cinema. Each section will present 16 features, for a total of 64 films that screen in competition.

While the number of first-time filmmakers is down, programrs have discovered the phenomenon of filmmakers in "new guises." So Chris Smith, whose American Movie won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, returns in dramatic competition with The Pool, a Hindi-language film set in Goa, India.

"You anticipate what a Chris Smith movie is, then you look at 'The Pool' and you say, 'That's Chris Smith?' " Gilmore said. He added that no fewer than four of the films in the dramatic competition are in languages other than English.

"American independent filmmakers are reaching out and changing the parameters that used to so easily encapsulate them," Gilmore said. "They are redefining what American independent film is."

Diversity is another factor, but not in the way Sundance programrs formerly used the word. Four Sheets to the Wind was developed in the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab by Sterlin Harjo, an Oklahoma resident and descendent of the Seminole and Creek tribes. Adrift in Manhattan from director Alfredo De Villa, who is Latino, focuses on an eye doctor and an aging artist losing his eyesight.

"These are complicated and sophisticated films," Gilmore said. "You can't call them Native-American or Latino films. They no longer are reducible to their origins. They no longer represent a particular community, but are simply American independent works."

Dramatic competition presents a range of subjects from personal stories about life in suburban and small-town America to stories taking place outside the U.S. The documentary competition naturally has films focused on the country's current travails in Iraq, such as Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight and Rory Kennedy's Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, but also on aspects of World War II in Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's Nanking and Steven Okazaki's "White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Each of the 16 films in dramatic and documentary categories is a world premiere. Programrs saw 856 films submitted for the documentary competition, while 996 features were submitted for the dramatic competition.

Sundance launched the world competition categories in 2005 to bolster the prominence of the international films at a festival long seen as a showcase for American indie films. Director of programming John Cooper said that with the upcoming festival "we now feel the benefit of all the travel we've done (to select films). We have hit our stride with a well-rounded program. Of the 16 films, 13 countries are represented. We found the best films, not necessarily world premieres, to rebuild the respect for foreign films in the U.S."

This year's selections include stories about a writer from China, a nomad in Mongolia, a peasant in Burkina Faso and the aftermath of crime and war in Sierra Leone.

The 2006 Grand Jury Prize winner for "13 (Tzameti)", Gela Babluani, a French director born in Georgia, will return to Park City with The Legacy, a film he made with his father, Temur Babluani. The film looks at culture shock when three French hipsters travel through rural Georgia.

John Carney's Once is a modern-day musical set in Dublin. The Israeli-German production, Sweet Mud (Adama Meshugaat) by Dror Shaul, is Israel's submission for the foreign-language Oscar.

Meanwhile, longtime British documentarian Nick Broomfield ("Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer," "Kurt & Courtney") will showcase Ghosts, a fictional tale of an illegal Chinese immigrant in the U.K.

Traditionally, international films meant art films in the U.S., Gilmore said. "Now these are not necessarily art films. 'Amelie' and 'Downfall' represent a new edge of where international filmmaking is going. It now embraces genre filmmaking all over the world, not just in Asia. Our selections include art, genre films, melodramas and minimalist works that should redefine what international film is in the U.S."

"The films in the world cinema competition contain complex stories that embrace full visions of life and explore topics that transcend the confines of personal, geographic and artistic borders," Cooper said.

The complete list of titles announced Wednesday follows.

Dramatic Competition:

ADRIFT IN MANHATTAN (Director: Alfredo de Villa; Screenwriters: Nat Moss, Alfredo De Villa) -- Set in New York City, a grieving eye doctor is forced to take a closer look at her life; an aging artist confronts the loss of his eyesight, and a young photographer battles his innermost demons. World premiere.

BROKEN ENGLISH (Director and Screenwriter: Zoe Cassavetes) -- A young woman in her thirties finds herself surrounded by friends who are married, in relationships or with children. She unexpectedly meets a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love. World premiere.

FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND (Director and Screenwriter: Sterlin Harjo) -- Cufe Smallhill finds his father dead. Fulfilling a dying wish, he disposes of the body in the family pond and sets off to begin a new life in the big city of Tulsa. World premiere.

THE GOOD LIFE (Director and Screenwriter: Steve Berra) -- A story about a "mostly normal" young man whose small town existence running a faded movie palace is shaken when he comes in contact with a mysterious young woman. World premiere.

GRACE IS GONE (Director and Screenwriter: James C. Strouse) -- A young father learns that his wife has been killed in Iraq and must find the courage to tell his two young daughters the news. World premiere.

JOSHUA (Director: George Ratliff; Screenwriters: David Gilbert, George Ratliff) -- A successful, young Manhattan family is torn apart by the machinations of Joshua, their eight-year-old prodigy, when his newborn baby sister comes home from the hospital. World premiere.

NEVER FOREVER (Director and Screenwriter: Gina Kim) -- When an American woman and her Asian-American husband discover they are unable to conceive, she begins a clandestine relationship with an attractive stranger in a desperate attempt to save her marriage. World premiere.

ON THE ROAD WITH JUDAS (Director and Screenwriter: JJ Lask) -- Reality, fiction and the notions of storytelling intertwine in this narrative about a young thief and the woman he loves.

In announcing the competition slate for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Geoffrey Gilmore, its longtime director, said he sees the beginning of a new era in independent filmmaking. "Filmmakers are undergoing a massive expansion in perspective and aesthetic qualities," he said. "Where once independence meant a detachment, a kind of navel-gazing, that doesn't exist right now. Instead, there is engagement and innovation. Filmmakers are going out and engaging the real world in terms of subject matter, vision and innovative storytelling."

Old categories of films long a staple of Sundance -- the coming-of-age picture or the dysfunctional family drama -- are no longer applicable to the competition films in the upcoming festival, Gilmore insisted. These new films tend to be more optimistic about the future, both politically and personally. Where once the independent world created its films almost in reaction to Hollywood and its happy endings, the new independents are drawing on the traditions of the American independent film itself. So if one thing characterizes Sundance 2007, Gilmore said, it is "freshness."

For the festival -- which runs Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Sundance, Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah -- programrs looked at a mind-boggling 3,287 feature submissions. That includes 1,852 U.S. films and 1,435 international movies, an increase over the previous year, when 1,764 U.S. features and 1,384 international films were considered.

The 122 feature films selected include 82 world premieres, 24 North American premieres and 10 U.S. premieres representing 25 countries. The competition section is divided into dramatic and documentary sections for both Independent Film -- meaning American films -- and World Cinema. Each section will present 16 features, for a total of 64 films that screen in competition.

While the number of first-time filmmakers is down, programrs have discovered the phenomenon of filmmakers in "new guises." So Chris Smith, whose American Movie won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, returns in dramatic competition with The Pool, a Hindi-language film set in Goa, India.

"You anticipate what a Chris Smith movie is, then you look at 'The Pool' and you say, 'That's Chris Smith?' " Gilmore said. He added that no fewer than four of the films in the dramatic competition are in languages other than English.

"American independent filmmakers are reaching out and changing the parameters that used to so easily encapsulate them," Gilmore said. "They are redefining what American independent film is."

Diversity is another factor, but not in the way Sundance programrs formerly used the word. Four Sheets to the Wind was developed in the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab by Sterlin Harjo, an Oklahoma resident and descendent of the Seminole and Creek tribes. Adrift in Manhattan from director Alfredo De Villa, who is Latino, focuses on an eye doctor and an aging artist losing his eyesight.

"These are complicated and sophisticated films," Gilmore said. "You can't call them Native-American or Latino films. They no longer are reducible to their origins. They no longer represent a particular community, but are simply American independent works."

Dramatic competition presents a range of subjects from personal stories about life in suburban and small-town America to stories taking place outside the U.S. The documentary competition naturally has films focused on the country's current travails in Iraq, such as Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight and Rory Kennedy's Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, but also on aspects of World War II in Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's Nanking and Steven Okazaki's "White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Each of the 16 films in dramatic and documentary categories is a world premiere. Programrs saw 856 films submitted for the documentary competition, while 996 features were submitted for the dramatic competition.

Sundance launched the world competition categories in 2005 to bolster the prominence of the international films at a festival long seen as a showcase for American indie films. Director of programming John Cooper said that with the upcoming festival "we now feel the benefit of all the travel we've done (to select films). We have hit our stride with a well-rounded program. Of the 16 films, 13 countries are represented. We found the best films, not necessarily world premieres, to rebuild the respect for foreign films in the U.S."

This year's selections include stories about a writer from China, a nomad in Mongolia, a peasant in Burkina Faso and the aftermath of crime and war in Sierra Leone.

The 2006 Grand Jury Prize winner for "13 (Tzameti)", Gela Babluani, a French director born in Georgia, will return to Park City with The Legacy, a film he made with his father, Temur Babluani. The film looks at culture shock when three French hipsters travel through rural Georgia.

John Carney's Once is a modern-day musical set in Dublin. The Israeli-German production, Sweet Mud (Adama Meshugaat) by Dror Shaul, is Israel's submission for the foreign-language Oscar.

Meanwhile, longtime British documentarian Nick Broomfield ("Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer," "Kurt & Courtney") will showcase Ghosts, a fictional tale of an illegal Chinese immigrant in the U.K.

Traditionally, international films meant art films in the U.S., Gilmore said. "Now these are not necessarily art films. 'Amelie' and 'Downfall' represent a new edge of where international filmmaking is going. It now embraces genre filmmaking all over the world, not just in Asia. Our selections include art, genre films, melodramas and minimalist works that should redefine what international film is in the U.S."

"The films in the world cinema competition contain complex stories that embrace full visions of life and explore topics that transcend the confines of personal, geographic and artistic borders," Cooper said.

The complete list of titles announced Wednesday follows.

Dramatic Competition:

ADRIFT IN MANHATTAN (Director: Alfredo de Villa; Screenwriters: Nat Moss, Alfredo De Villa) -- Set in New York City, a grieving eye doctor is forced to take a closer look at her life; an aging artist confronts the loss of his eyesight, and a young photographer battles his innermost demons. World premiere.

BROKEN ENGLISH (Director and Screenwriter: Zoe Cassavetes) -- A young woman in her thirties finds herself surrounded by friends who are married, in relationships or with children. She unexpectedly meets a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love. World premiere.

FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND (Director and Screenwriter: Sterlin Harjo) -- Cufe Smallhill finds his father dead. Fulfilling a dying wish, he disposes of the body in the family pond and sets off to begin a new life in the big city of Tulsa. World premiere.

THE GOOD LIFE (Director and Screenwriter: Steve Berra) -- A story about a "mostly normal" young man whose small town existence running a faded movie palace is shaken when he comes in contact with a mysterious young woman. World premiere.

GRACE IS GONE (Director and Screenwriter: James C. Strouse) -- A young father learns that his wife has been killed in Iraq and must find the courage to tell his two young daughters the news. World premiere.

JOSHUA (Director: George Ratliff; Screenwriters: David Gilbert, George Ratliff) -- A successful, young Manhattan family is torn apart by the machinations of Joshua, their eight-year-old prodigy, when his newborn baby sister comes home from the hospital. World premiere.

NEVER FOREVER (Director and Screenwriter: Gina Kim) -- When an American woman and her Asian-American husband discover they are unable to conceive, she begins a clandestine relationship with an attractive stranger in a desperate attempt to save her marriage. World premiere.

ON THE ROAD WITH JUDAS (Director and Screenwriter: JJ Lask) -- Reality, fiction and the notions of storytelling intertwine in this narrative about a young thief and the woman he loves.

In announcing the competition slate for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Geoffrey Gilmore, its longtime director, said he sees the beginning of a new era in independent filmmaking. "Filmmakers are undergoing a massive expansion in perspective and aesthetic qualities," he said. "Where once independence meant a detachment, a kind of navel-gazing, that doesn't exist right now. Instead, there is engagement and innovation. Filmmakers are going out and engaging the real world in terms of subject matter, vision and innovative storytelling."

Old categories of films long a staple of Sundance -- the coming-of-age picture or the dysfunctional family drama -- are no longer applicable to the competition films in the upcoming festival, Gilmore insisted. These new films tend to be more optimistic about the future, both politically and personally. Where once the independent world created its films almost in reaction to Hollywood and its happy endings, the new independents are drawing on the traditions of the American independent film itself. So if one thing characterizes Sundance 2007, Gilmore said, it is "freshness."

For the festival -- which runs Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Sundance, Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah -- programrs looked at a mind-boggling 3,287 feature submissions. That includes 1,852 U.S. films and 1,435 international movies, an increase over the previous year, when 1,764 U.S. features and 1,384 international films were considered.

The 122 feature films selected include 82 world premieres, 24 North American premieres and 10 U.S. premieres representing 25 countries. The competition section is divided into dramatic and documentary sections for both Independent Film -- meaning American films -- and World Cinema. Each section will present 16 features, for a total of 64 films that screen in competition.

While the number of first-time filmmakers is down, programrs have discovered the phenomenon of filmmakers in "new guises." So Chris Smith, whose American Movie won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, returns in dramatic competition with The Pool, a Hindi-language film set in Goa, India.

"You anticipate what a Chris Smith movie is, then you look at 'The Pool' and you say, 'That's Chris Smith?' " Gilmore said. He added that no fewer than four of the films in the dramatic competition are in languages other than English.

"American independent filmmakers are reaching out and changing the parameters that used to so easily encapsulate them," Gilmore said. "They are redefining what American independent film is."

Diversity is another factor, but not in the way Sundance programrs formerly used the word. Four Sheets to the Wind was developed in the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab by Sterlin Harjo, an Oklahoma resident and descendent of the Seminole and Creek tribes. Adrift in Manhattan from director Alfredo De Villa, who is Latino, focuses on an eye doctor and an aging artist losing his eyesight.

"These are complicated and sophisticated films," Gilmore said. "You can't call them Native-American or Latino films. They no longer are reducible to their origins. They no longer represent a particular community, but are simply American independent works."

Dramatic competition presents a range of subjects from personal stories about life in suburban and small-town America to stories taking place outside the U.S. The documentary competition naturally has films focused on the country's current travails in Iraq, such as Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight and Rory Kennedy's Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, but also on aspects of World War II in Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's Nanking and Steven Okazaki's "White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Each of the 16 films in dramatic and documentary categories is a world premiere. Programrs saw 856 films submitted for the documentary competition, while 996 features were submitted for the dramatic competition.

Sundance launched the world competition categories in 2005 to bolster the prominence of the international films at a festival long seen as a showcase for American indie films. Director of programming John Cooper said that with the upcoming festival "we now feel the benefit of all the travel we've done (to select films). We have hit our stride with a well-rounded program. Of the 16 films, 13 countries are represented. We found the best films, not necessarily world premieres, to rebuild the respect for foreign films in the U.S."

This year's selections include stories about a writer from China, a nomad in Mongolia, a peasant in Burkina Faso and the aftermath of crime and war in Sierra Leone.

The 2006 Grand Jury Prize winner for "13 (Tzameti)", Gela Babluani, a French director born in Georgia, will return to Park City with The Legacy, a film he made with his father, Temur Babluani. The film looks at culture shock when three French hipsters travel through rural Georgia.

John Carney's Once is a modern-day musical set in Dublin. The Israeli-German production, Sweet Mud (Adama Meshugaat) by Dror Shaul, is Israel's submission for the foreign-language Oscar.

Meanwhile, longtime British documentarian Nick Broomfield ("Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer," "Kurt & Courtney") will showcase Ghosts, a fictional tale of an illegal Chinese immigrant in the U.K.

Traditionally, international films meant art films in the U.S., Gilmore said. "Now these are not necessarily art films. 'Amelie' and 'Downfall' represent a new edge of where international filmmaking is going. It now embraces genre filmmaking all over the world, not just in Asia. Our selections include art, genre films, melodramas and minimalist works that should redefine what international film is in the U.S."

"The films in the world cinema competition contain complex stories that embrace full visions of life and explore topics that transcend the confines of personal, geographic and artistic borders," Cooper said.

The complete list of titles announced Wednesday follows.

Dramatic Competition:

ADRIFT IN MANHATTAN (Director: Alfredo de Villa; Screenwriters: Nat Moss, Alfredo De Villa) -- Set in New York City, a grieving eye doctor is forced to take a closer look at her life; an aging artist confronts the loss of his eyesight, and a young photographer battles his innermost demons. World premiere.

BROKEN ENGLISH (Director and Screenwriter: Zoe Cassavetes) -- A young woman in her thirties finds herself surrounded by friends who are married, in relationships or with children. She unexpectedly meets a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love. World premiere.

FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND (Director and Screenwriter: Sterlin Harjo) -- Cufe Smallhill finds his father dead. Fulfilling a dying wish, he disposes of the body in the family pond and sets off to begin a new life in the big city of Tulsa. World premiere.

THE GOOD LIFE (Director and Screenwriter: Steve Berra) -- A story about a "mostly normal" young man whose small town existence running a faded movie palace is shaken when he comes in contact with a mysterious young woman. World premiere.

GRACE IS GONE (Director and Screenwriter: James C. Strouse) -- A young father learns that his wife has been killed in Iraq and must find the courage to tell his two young daughters the news. World premiere.

JOSHUA (Director: George Ratliff; Screenwriters: David Gilbert, George Ratliff) -- A successful, young Manhattan family is torn apart by the machinations of Joshua, their eight-year-old prodigy, when his newborn baby sister comes home from the hospital. World premiere.

NEVER FOREVER (Director and Screenwriter: Gina Kim) -- When an American woman and her Asian-American husband discover they are unable to conceive, she begins a clandestine relationship with an attractive stranger in a desperate attempt to save her marriage. World premiere.

ON THE ROAD WITH JUDAS (Director and Screenwriter: JJ Lask) -- Reality, fiction and the notions of storytelling intertwine in this narrative about a young thief and the woman he loves.

In announcing the competition slate for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Geoffrey Gilmore, its longtime director, said he sees the beginning of a new era in independent filmmaking. "Filmmakers are undergoing a massive expansion in perspective and aesthetic qualities," he said. "Where once independence meant a detachment, a kind of navel-gazing, that doesn't exist right now. Instead, there is engagement and innovation. Filmmakers are going out and engaging the real world in terms of subject matter, vision and innovative storytelling."

Old categories of films long a staple of Sundance -- the coming-of-age picture or the dysfunctional family drama -- are no longer applicable to the competition films in the upcoming festival, Gilmore insisted. These new films tend to be more optimistic about the future, both politically and personally. Where once the independent world created its films almost in reaction to Hollywood and its happy endings, the new independents are drawing on the traditions of the American independent film itself. So if one thing characterizes Sundance 2007, Gilmore said, it is "freshness."

For the festival -- which runs Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Sundance, Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah -- programrs looked at a mind-boggling 3,287 feature submissions. That includes 1,852 U.S. films and 1,435 international movies, an increase over the previous year, when 1,764 U.S. features and 1,384 international films were considered.

The 122 feature films selected include 82 world premieres, 24 North American premieres and 10 U.S. premieres representing 25 countries. The competition section is divided into dramatic and documentary sections for both Independent Film -- meaning American films -- and World Cinema. Each section will present 16 features, for a total of 64 films that screen in competition.

While the number of first-time filmmakers is down, programrs have discovered the phenomenon of filmmakers in "new guises." So Chris Smith, whose American Movie won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, returns in dramatic competition with The Pool, a Hindi-language film set in Goa, India.

"You anticipate what a Chris Smith movie is, then you look at 'The Pool' and you say, 'That's Chris Smith?' " Gilmore said. He added that no fewer than four of the films in the dramatic competition are in languages other than English.

"American independent filmmakers are reaching out and changing the parameters that used to so easily encapsulate them," Gilmore said. "They are redefining what American independent film is."

Diversity is another factor, but not in the way Sundance programrs formerly used the word. Four Sheets to the Wind was developed in the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab by Sterlin Harjo, an Oklahoma resident and descendent of the Seminole and Creek tribes. Adrift in Manhattan from director Alfredo De Villa, who is Latino, focuses on an eye doctor and an aging artist losing his eyesight.

"These are complicated and sophisticated films," Gilmore said. "You can't call them Native-American or Latino films. They no longer are reducible to their origins. They no longer represent a particular community, but are simply American independent works."

Dramatic competition presents a range of subjects from personal stories about life in suburban and small-town America to stories taking place outside the U.S. The documentary competition naturally has films focused on the country's current travails in Iraq, such as Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight and Rory Kennedy's Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, but also on aspects of World War II in Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's Nanking and Steven Okazaki's "White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Each of the 16 films in dramatic and documentary categories is a world premiere. Programrs saw 856 films submitted for the documentary competition, while 996 features were submitted for the dramatic competition.

Sundance launched the world competition categories in 2005 to bolster the prominence of the international films at a festival long seen as a showcase for American indie films. Director of programming John Cooper said that with the upcoming festival "we now feel the benefit of all the travel we've done (to select films). We have hit our stride with a well-rounded program. Of the 16 films, 13 countries are represented. We found the best films, not necessarily world premieres, to rebuild the respect for foreign films in the U.S."

This year's selections include stories about a writer from China, a nomad in Mongolia, a peasant in Burkina Faso and the aftermath of crime and war in Sierra Leone.

The 2006 Grand Jury Prize winner for "13 (Tzameti)", Gela Babluani, a French director born in Georgia, will return to Park City with The Legacy, a film he made with his father, Temur Babluani. The film looks at culture shock when three French hipsters travel through rural Georgia.

John Carney's Once is a modern-day musical set in Dublin. The Israeli-German production, Sweet Mud (Adama Meshugaat) by Dror Shaul, is Israel's submission for the foreign-language Oscar.

Meanwhile, longtime British documentarian Nick Broomfield ("Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer," "Kurt & Courtney") will showcase Ghosts, a fictional tale of an illegal Chinese immigrant in the U.K.

Traditionally, international films meant art films in the U.S., Gilmore said. "Now these are not necessarily art films. 'Amelie' and 'Downfall' represent a new edge of where international filmmaking is going. It now embraces genre filmmaking all over the world, not just in Asia. Our selections include art, genre films, melodramas and minimalist works that should redefine what international film is in the U.S."

"The films in the world cinema competition contain complex stories that embrace full visions of life and explore topics that transcend the confines of personal, geographic and artistic borders," Cooper said.

The complete list of titles announced Wednesday follows.

Dramatic Competition:

ADRIFT IN MANHATTAN (Director: Alfredo de Villa; Screenwriters: Nat Moss, Alfredo De Villa) -- Set in New York City, a grieving eye doctor is forced to take a closer look at her life; an aging artist confronts the loss of his eyesight, and a young photographer battles his innermost demons. World premiere.

BROKEN ENGLISH (Director and Screenwriter: Zoe Cassavetes) -- A young woman in her thirties finds herself surrounded by friends who are married, in relationships or with children. She unexpectedly meets a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love. World premiere.

FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND (Director and Screenwriter: Sterlin Harjo) -- Cufe Smallhill finds his father dead. Fulfilling a dying wish, he disposes of the body in the family pond and sets off to begin a new life in the big city of Tulsa. World premiere.

THE GOOD LIFE (Director and Screenwriter: Steve Berra) -- A story about a "mostly normal" young man whose small town existence running a faded movie palace is shaken when he comes in contact with a mysterious young woman. World premiere.

GRACE IS GONE (Director and Screenwriter: James C. Strouse) -- A young father learns that his wife has been killed in Iraq and must find the courage to tell his two young daughters the news. World premiere.

JOSHUA (Director: George Ratliff; Screenwriters: David Gilbert, George Ratliff) -- A successful, young Manhattan family is torn apart by the machinations of Joshua, their eight-year-old prodigy, when his newborn baby sister comes home from the hospital. World premiere.

NEVER FOREVER (Director and Screenwriter: Gina Kim) -- When an American woman and her Asian-American husband discover they are unable to conceive, she begins a clandestine relationship with an attractive stranger in a desperate attempt to save her marriage. World premiere.

ON THE ROAD WITH JUDAS (Director and Screenwriter: JJ Lask) -- Reality, fiction and the notions of storytelling intertwine in this narrative about a young thief and the woman he loves.