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New Indie

The critically-acclaimed “Aviva” (Outsider/Strand) casts both male and female dancers as both of the romantic leads, throwing out conventions of gender and sexuality in a love story that features some gorgeous choreography. Boaz Yakin’s film was programmed at the 2020 SXSW festival, and the Blu-ray features behind-the-scenes footage of dance rehearsals.

Also available: Stand-up Steve Byrne wrote and directed the comics-on-the-road saga “The Opening Act” (Rlje Films), featuring such industry vets as Jimmy O. Yang, Alex Moffat, Cedric the Entertainer, Bill Burr, and Whitney Cummings; “Buddy Games” (Saban/Paramount) stars Josh Duhamel and Dax Shepard in an ensemble comedy about estranged friends enduring a ridiculous competition for a $150,000 prize; a newly sober carpenter tries to build a home and establish a life in “Major Arcana” (Gde/Kino Lorber).

New Foreign

Melina León’s Cannes fave “Song Without a Name” (Film Movement), about an indigenous woman trying to...

This year London’s Czech Film Festival, ‘Made in Prague’ celebrated its 15th edition (10-27 November). The theme for 2011 was ‘Film and Literature’, and included hard-to-find retro delights such as the 1959 adaptation of Jaroslav Hašek’s comic novel, The Good Soldier Švejk, and Czech New Wave classics like Jiří Menzel’s Capricious Summer (1967), adapted from a novel by Vladislav Vančura. More recent productions included A Walk Worthwhile (2009), directed by Miloš Forman and his son Petr Forman, based on a jazz opera by Suchý and Šlitr, and Of Parents and Children (2008), an adaptation of a novel by prize-winning contemporary writer Emil Hakl.

Czech New Wave director Juraj Herz attended the festival to present his famously dark The Cremator (1968), as well as his most recent film, Habermann (2010). Based on a story by Josef Urban, it joins an increasingly long list of films examining the mass deportation of Germans from Czechoslovakia following World War II.

Errol Morris, London

The esteem in which this documentarian is held can be judged by the people interviewing him on stage: BBC Storyville producer Nick Fraser, Adam Curtis, Franny Armstrong and the Guardian's Xan Brooks. Each Q&A is preceded by a screening of Morris's latest, Tabloid, which marks a return to his eccentric terrain after recent films on Abu Ghraib (Standard Operating Procedure) and the Vietnam war (The Fog Of War). Tabloid revisits the very British scandal of Joyce McKinney, a Wyoming beauty queen who allegedly kidnapped and sexually enslaved her beau – or did she rescue him from the Mormons? Morris gives us the story from all sides.

Brixton Ritzy, SW2, Sat; Bafta, W1, Sun; Gate Notting Hill, W11; Screen On The Green, N1, Tue

French Film Festival, On tour

There's a tinge of nostalgia to the festival's big draws this year. Special guest Daniel Auteuil harks back to...

Cologne, Germany – Germany has kicked off its campaign for best Foreign Language Oscar with a nine-film shortlist.

The contenders to be Germany's official 2011 Oscar candidate include, not surprisingly, three Nazi-era dramas: Ludi Boekens "Saviors in the Night," "Habermann" from director Juraj Herz and Oskar Roehler's controversial Nazi melodrama "Jew Suss – Rise and Fall."

The other titles picked by local promotion body German Films Service + Marketing include Matti Geschonneck's "Boxhagener Platz," a period drama set in East Berlin in 1968; Feo Aladag's honor killing drama "When We Leave;" Jo Baier's historic epic "Henry of Navarre;" The family drama "The Coming Days" from Lars Kraume and cross-cultural romance "Same Same But Different" from director Detlev Buck.

A nine-member jury of German industry professionals will pick the official nominee on Sept. 17. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film on Jan.

Berlin -- Sherry Horman's fashion biopic "Desert Flower" and the political drama "Der Grosse Kater" (The Big Tom-Cat) from director Wolfgang Panzer tied for the top prize as Best Film at the Bavarian Film Awards this weekend.

"Flower" producers Peter Herrmann and Dietmar Guntsche and "Kater" producer Wolfgang Behr will share the €200,000 ($287,000) award that comes with the honor, cash that has to be invested in new film projects.

Acting legend Barbara Sukowa added a Bavarian best actress trophy to her trophy cabinet, taking the honor for her portrayal of Medieval nun and proto-feminist Hildegard von Bingen in "Vision" from Magarethe von Trotta.

Best director went to Juraj Herz for his period drama "Habermann," with lead Mark Waschke taking the best actor prize for his role as a mill owner whose life is transformed with the onset of World War II.

Benjamin Heisenberg received the best newcomer nod for his sophomore effort,...