A collection of impressive works by first and second time directors who hold great promise.
HIGH School and Honeymooner
Au Revoir Taipei
(Country: US, Taiwan; Year: 2010; Director: Arvin Chen; Writer: Arvin Chen; Stars: Hsiao-chuan Chang, Amber Kuo, Ko Yu-Luen, Jack Yao)
Lightweight and funny crime caper about a desperate man trying to score an air fare.
Act Of Dishonour
(Country: Canada; Year: 2009; Director: Nelofar Pazira; Stars: Marina Golbahari, Abdul Ghafar Quotbyar, Masood Serwary, Nelofer Pazira)
The arrival of a film crew sparks conflict in a village in Afghanistan.
Alamar (To The Sea)
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2009; Director: Pedro González-Rubio; Writer: Pedro González-Rubio; Stars: Jorge Machado, Natan Machado Palombini, Nestór Marín, Roberta Palombini)
Fathers and sons, and fishing.
Boy
(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2010; Director: Taika Waititi; Writer: Taika Waititi; Stars: Taika Waititi, James Rolleston, Te Aho Eketone),
Official Site
A Boy and his brother find their fantasy version of their dad is somewhat different to the real deal.
C'est déjà l'été
(Country: Netherlands/Belgium; Year: 2010; Director: Martijn Maria Smits; Writer: Bastiaan Kroeger, Martijn Maria Smits; Stars: Patrick Descamps, Benjamin Willem, Julie Anson)
Life without hope in a polluted Belgian town.
Frontier Blues and Undertow
Crab Trap (El vuelco del cangrejo)
(Country: Colombia, France; Year: 2009; Director: Oscar Ruiz Navia; Stars: Arnobio Salazar Rivas, Rodrigo Vélez)
A newcomer explores a troubled paradise
Donkeys (Rounding Up Donkeys)
(Country: UK, Denmark; Year: 2010; Director: Morag McKinnon; Writer: Colin McLaren, Lone Scherfig; Stars: Martin Compston, Kate Dickie, James Cosmo, Brian Pettifer)
An ailing man seeks to reconnect with his family but inadvertently keeps making all his previous blunders worse.
Frontier Blues
(Country: Iran, UK, Italy; Year: 2009; Director: Babak Jalali; Writer: Babak Jalali),
Official Site
Four Iranian men and a donkey struggle with life's complexities.
Fog (Wu)
(Country: US, Hong Kong; Year: 2009; Director: Kit Hui; Writer: Kit Hui; Stars: Terence Yin, Eugenia Yuan, Camy Ting, Joman Chiang, Phat Chan, Yung Wong, Tony Ho, Ben Yuen, Lok Yu, Chun Lee, Lawrence Wong, Ching-yu Cheung, Wai-Yip Ho),
Official Site
Unreliable narrators and late-twenties hedonism in a strange brew.
Foxes (Listicky, Little Foxes)
(Country: Ireland, Czech Republic; Year: 2009; Director: Mira Fornayová; Writer: Mira Fornayová; Stars: Rita Bánczi, Jonathan Byrne, Réka Derzsi, Julia Krynke, Marcus Lynch, Brendan McCormack, Aaron Monaghan, Nicholas Pinnock, Yvonne Scanlon, Christopher Simpson)
Economic migrant siblings toil for respect, or hedonism.
Boy and Fog
Gravity (Schwerkraft)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Maximilian Erlenwein; Writer: Maximilian Erlenwein; Stars: Fabian Hinrichs, Jürgen Vogel, Nora von Waldstätten, Jule Böwe, Eleonore Weisgerber, Thorsten Merten, Jeroen Willems, Fahri Ögün Yardim, Jonas Hien, Isabell Hindersin, Waléra Kanischtscheff, Henning Peker)
A bank clerk finds himself drawn into the criminal underworld after a shock to the senses.
HIGH School
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: John Stalberg Jr; Writer: Erik Linthorst, John Stalberg Jr, Stephen Susco; Stars: Sean Marquette, Matt Bush, Adrien Brody, Michael Chiklis, Colin Hanks, Mykelti Williamson, Andrew Wilson, Yeardley Smith, Michael Vartan, Curtis Armstrong, Erica Phillips, Adhir Kaylan),
Official Site
When a drug test coincides with a valedictorian's first hit of pot, there's only one solution... get the whole school high.
Honeymooner
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Col Spector; Writer: Col Spector; Stars: Gerard Kearns, Chris Coghill, Al Weaver, Daisy Haggard)
A young man is forced to reassess his life when his fiancée dumps him days before their planned wedding.
Kick Off
(Country: Iraq, Kurdistan; Year: 2009; Director: Shawkat Amin Korki; Writer: Shawkat Amin Korki; Stars: Shwan Atuf, Govar Anwar, Rojan Hamajaza, Mohamad Hamed, Nasir Hassan, Soheila Hasan)
Organising a football match amongst the ruins of broken lives in Kirkuk, Iraq.
Au Revoir Taipei and Soul Boy
Me, Too (Yo también)
(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Antonio Naharro, Álvaro Pastor; Writer: Antonio Naharro, Álvaro Pastor; Stars: Lola Dueñas, Isabel García Lorca, Antonio Naharro, Teresa Arbolí, Joaquín Perles, Ramiro Alonso, Consuelo Trujillo, Susana Monje, Pablo Pineda, Ana De los Riscos, María Bravo, Pepe Quero, Daniel Parejo, Roma Calderón, Tania Román)
A man - the first European with Down's syndrome to get a university diploma - falls for a workmate with no apparent disability.
Mundane History (Jao Nok Krajok)
(Country: Thailand; Year: 2009; Director: Anocha Suwichakornpong; Writer: Anocha Suwichakornpong; Stars: Arkaney Cherkam, Phakpoom Surapongsanuruk, Paramej Noiam, Anchana Ponpitakthepkij)
A male nurse cares for a paralysed patient in Bangkok and waits for something to happen.
Northless (Norteado)
(Country: Mexico, Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Rigoberto Pérezcano; Writer: Edgar San Juan, Rigoberto Pérezcano; Stars: Harold Torres, Alicia Laguna, Sonia Couoh, Luis Cárdenas)
A man trying to cross into the US finds himself 'trapped' in Tijuana.
Nothing Personal
(Country: Ireland, Netherlands; Year: 2009; Director: Urszula Antoniak; Writer: Urszula Antoniak; Stars: Stephen Rea, Lotte Verbeek, Tom Charlfa, Fintan Halpenny, Ann Marie Horan, Sean McRonnel)
Long estranged characters come together
Obselidia
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Diane Bell; Writer: Diane Bell; Stars: Michael Piccirilli, Frank Hoyt Taylor, Chris Byrne, Gaynor Howe, Grant Mathis, Michael Blackman Beck, Kim Beuche)
A lonely librarian believes love is obsolete until a road trip to Death Valley with a beguiling cinema projectionist teaches him otherwise.
Red Hill and Donkeys
Peepli Live
(Country: India; Year: 2010; Director: Anusha Rizvi; Writer: Anusha Rizvi; Stars: Omkar Das, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raghubir Yadav, Shalini Vatsa, Farukh Jaffer)
Social satire about not-very-suicidal but desperate farmer.
Police Adjective (Politist, adj)
(Country: Romania; Year: 2009; Director: Corneliu Porumboiu; Writer: Corneliu Porumboiu; Stars: Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Irina Saulescu, Ion Stoica, Marian Ghenea, Cosmin Selesi, George Remes, Dan Cogalniceanu, Serban Georgevici, Costi Dita, Alexandru Sabadac, Anca Diaconu, Radu Costin, Viorel Nebunu, Emanoela Tigla)
A young policeman crosses swords with his supervisor when he hesitates to turn in a teen caught with drugs.
Red Hill
(Country: Australia; Year: 2010; Director: Patrick Hughes; Writer: Patrick Hughes; Stars: Ryan Kwanten, Steve Bisley, Tommy Lewis, Claire van der Boom, Christopher Davis, Kevin Harrington)
Life proves tough for a young police officer in a small town, as he begins to wonder if he'll make it through his first day alive.
The Sentimental Engine Slayer
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez; Writer: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez; Stars: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Tatiana Velazquez, Nomar Rizo, Kim Stodel, Rikardo Rodriguez Lopez, Angel Marcelo Rodriguez Chevrez, Marcel Rodriguez Lopez, Becky Vigil, Astrid Magallon, Daniel De La Mar, Chris Salcedo, Valentin Merz, Sonny Kay, Bud William Allen, Ramon Villa)
A lonely young man muses on murder.
Son Of Babylon
(Country: Iraq; Year: 2009; Director: Mohamed Al-Daradji; Writer: Mohamed Al-Daradji, Jennifer Norridge, Mithal Ghazi; Stars: Yasser Talib, Shazda Hussein, Bashir Al-Majid)
In the days following the fall of Saddam, a Kurdish grandmother takes her grandson on the search for his father.
Crab Trap and The Sentimental Engine Slayer
Soul Boy
(Country: Kenya, Germany; Year: 2010; Director: Hawa Essuman, Tom Tykwer; Writer: Billy Kahora; Stars: Nordeen Abdulghani, Christopher Abuga, Rose Adhiambo, Jones Onyango Ajwala, Consolata Apondi, Micheal Babu, Katherine Damaris, Lucy Gachanja, John Githui, Frank Kimani, Gilbert K. Lukalia, Clementina Makokha, Lydia Makori, Aida Mulafu, Sharleen Njeri),
Official Site
A boy goes in search of his father's lost soul.
Undertow (Contracorriente)
(Country: Colombia; Year: 2009; Director: Javier Fuentes-León; Writer: Javier Fuentes-León; Stars: Manolo Cardona, Tatiana Astengo, Cristian Mercado)
A closeted gay fisherman finds himself trapped in an unusual love triangle.
Winter's Bone
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Debra Granik; Writer: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, Daniel Woodrell; Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Kevin Breznahan, Isaiah Stone, Shelley Waggener, Ashlee Thompson, William White, Casey MacLaren, Valerie Richards, Beth Domann, Tate Taylor, Cody Brown, Ronnie Hall, Sheryl Lee)
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.