12:08 East of Bucharest
Romania, 2006, 89 min.
The Best First Feature winner at Cannes, this hilarious movie wrings substantial mileage out of a single joke. A television newscaster in a small Romanian town has convened a panel to discuss their town's role in the overthrow of Ceausescu, but recollections of the revolution seem to differ.... more

9th Company
Russia, 2006, 126 min.
The Soviet Union’s ill-fated “military action” in Afghanistan in the 1980s, a taboo topic until only recently, provides the backdrop for this recent number-one hit at the Russian box office. The film provides a gritty portrayal of war with all the blood, dirt and death of a war... more

A Dinner for Them to Meet
Italy, 2006, 108 min.
This Cannes Film Festival winner features a family of three, who were abandoned by the wife/mother of the family. When she returns unexpectedly, the son, Tommy, along with his sister Viola and their father, try to cope with unexpected changes and growing pains with determination and unspoken love fo... more

Ahlaam
Iraq, 2006, 110 min.
In Iraq’s first post-Saddam feature, three individuals from a mental hospital are forced to wander the streets of Baghdad after the U.S. invasion destroyed their home. They are stuck between the madness they once were treated for and the madness that now surrounds them. Their dreams, or hallucinatio... more

Before Flying Back to the Earth
Lithuania, 2006, 52 min.
A gracefully expressive journey into the lives of children living with leukemia at a pediatric hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania. Every detail is carefully chosen, composed and edited. A poetic, unsentimental, award-winning documentary about the resilience of the human spirit.... more

El Benny
Cuba, 2006, 120 min.
Cuba’s Oscar entry El Benny is based on the life of the famous Cuban musician, Benny Moré. The debut feature by writer/director Jorge Luis Sanchez features new versions of Morés songs performed by contemporary musicians including Chucho Valdes, Juan Formell, Haila and Orishas.... more

Beyond Hatred
France, 2006, 86 min.
After their gay son is murdered by a gang of skinheads, a close-knit French family tries to move toward understanding and even forgiveness in this devastating documentary. In classic vérité style, director Olivier Meyrou allows this immensely cathartic story to unfold at its own pace without unneces... more

Black Irish
USA, 2006, 92 min.
This complex, moving coming-of-age story is about Cole McKay, a 16-year-old South Boston kid trying both to survive and to save his disintegrating Irish-Catholic family that is fueled by alcohol and anger. A brilliant ensemble cast illuminates this ultimately uplifting story.... more

The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros
Philippines, 2006, 100 min.
When Maximo, a 12-year-old effeminate Filipino youth, falls for a new cop on his street, all kinds of hell breaks loose for his criminal family and for his sense of who he is and what he wants to become. This independent project was awarded the International Jury Prizes at both the Berlin and Rotter... more

Bosta
Lebanon, 2006, 112 min.
This rousing Lebanese musical tells the story of college troupe that tours the country in an old bosta (bus), performing a techno version of the national line dance that shocks conservatives, but paves the way for the future. The infectious soundtrack features compositions performed by British group... more

Buddha’s Lost Children
Netherlands, 2006, 97 min.
Mark Verkerk’s inspirational documentary follows the exploits of a Thai ex kick boxing champ and soldier turned Buddhist monk who for the last 15 years has created a safe haven and given a sense of hope to the children throughout the Golden Triangle.... more

Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?
USA, 2006, 82 min.
When Dick Gephardt vacated his democratic Senate seat in 2004, an unknown political science instructor entered the race, defying all odds and expectations to demonstrate that with no money and lots of enthusiasm, you can become a contender. This Capra-esque documentary is an inspiring example of how... more

The Cats of Mirikitani
USA, 2006, 74 min.
When filmmaker Linda Hattendorf turned her lens on Jimmy Mirikitani, a homeless octogenarian Japanese-American artist, she got far more than she anticipated: the collapse of the World Trade Center, a family reunion more than 50 years in the making, and a series of small miracles. Audience Award Winn... more

Chariton's Choir
Greece, 2006, 116 min.
This Corfu-set comic drama stars Greek superstar George Corraface as a bohemian school principal whose freethinking spirit will not be crushed by the fascistic military after their 1967 coup d’état. Chariton’s outlook on life inspires his students who face the challenges of adolescence in a Greece.... more

Cheech
Canada, 2006, 105 min.
Neo-noir done Québecois style, Patrice Sauvé’s memorable feature debut is a stylish and darkly humorous tale that follows the destinies of six characters who are connected through a seedy Montréal escort agency. Glamorous Montréal’s dark side gets a rare showing on screen.... more

Chicha Tu Madre
Argentina, 2006, 90 min.
When Julio Cesar, an amateur Tarot reader and cab driver, learns that his daughter is pregnant, he has to revise his sense of fate and chance to find a future for his family. Playing off local literary conventions, the film actually uses the Tarot cards to narrate its tale of fate, free will and cha... more

Cinema, Aspirin and Vultures
Brazil, 2006, 99 min.
In 1942, Johann, a young German fleeing the war, and Ranulpho, a Brazilian seeking an escape from the oppressive drought in his home province, join forces. Merrily rolling from village to village, they bring rural folk the magic of cinema as they screen a film advertising a miraculous new patent med... more

Close to Home
Israel, 2006, 90 min.
Two very different young Israeli women are partnered together to patrol Jerusalem streets as part of their obligatory Israeli military service. In the process, they find that, despite the uniforms, they are just young people trying to find their place in the world. ... more

The Curiosity of Chance
USA, 2006, 98 min.
When new high school sophomore Chance Marquis is bullied for being openly gay, he turns to a drag queen and a high school jock to help him fight adversity in Russell P. Marleau’s John Hughes-styled ’80s comedy. Winner of the Jury Award for Best New Director at Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.... more

Dear Mr. Waldman
Israel, 2006, 90 min.
In the early 1960s, Hilik, a Tel Aviv ten-year-old, shares his brother's goal in life: to make their parents happy and compensate for the grief they suffered in the Holocaust. Meanwhile Moishe, Hilik’s father, chooses to believe that his son from his first marriage didn't die in Auschwitz and someh... more

Dear Talula
USA, 2006, 34 min.
In Lori Benson’s Dear Talula, a mother is diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after the birth of her daughter. ... more

Deliver Us From Evil
USA, 2006, 101 min.
For over two decades, Roman Catholic priest Oliver O’Grady molested dozens of young boys and girls throughout central California. Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg uncovers the truth behind the scandal, and why the Church kept trying to cover it up. Winner of the 2006 New York Film Critics Circle Award... more

Devil’s Point
Argentina, 2006, 90 min.
Marcelo Pavan’s impressive Devil's Point is a moody tale of a brain surgeon's confrontation with his own mortality. The film is an exceptional experience in sight and sound set on a remote, windswept Uruguayan peninsula that serves as a physical representation of the doctor’s well-concealed e... more

The Diary of Immaculée
USA, 2006, 38 min.
The Diary of Immaculée chronicles the life of a young woman who survived the slaughter in Rwanda, directed by Peter LeDonne.... more

Dreamland
USA, 2006, 89 min.
Beautifully shot and passionately acted, Dreamland is the striking feature film debut of Jason Matzner. This woozily romantic trailer park love triangle features a stunning central performance by Agnes Bruckner that, alongside rising stars Kelli Garner and Justin Long, seems to unspool... more

East Side Story
USA, 2006, 88 min.
Drawing inevitable comparisons to Quinceañera, Carlos Portugal’s exuberant indie debut—a robust, frequently funny combination of melodrama, romance and comedy—tracks a (mostly) gay love triangle in a rapidly gentrifying Latino neighborhood in East Los Angeles.... more

Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds
USA, 2006, 85 min.
How far would you go to get the person of your dreams? In the first American gay sequel ever, stakes get raised and sexual boundaries are obliterated as Kyle (Jim Verraros) pretends to be straight in order to land the new guy—and nude model—in town.... more

Fair Play
France, 2006, 99 min.
The competitive nature of office politics is given an innovative approach through the extracurricular activities of sports, in this brilliantly controlled and cynical tale that takes place entirely outside the office with colleagues rowing, jogging, playing squash, canoeing and even rock climbing th... more

Falkenberg, Farewell
Sweden, 2006, 88 min.
The struggle of five 20-something male friends to find their place in the world provides the focus for Falkenberg, Farewell, which captures the energy of youth, and with it, a strong undercurrent of melancholy. Winner for Best Film at the Athens Film Festival.... more

Fat Girls
USA, 2006, 82 min.
This offbeat teen comedy asks the questions: can snappy 300-pound plus fat girl and nebbish musical gay boy find happiness and love in a back-water Texas high school? First-time director Ash has concocted a comedy about discrimination that finds a way to laugh at pretty much everything and everyone.... more

Forget You Not
Italy, 2006, 94 min.
The first feature film of Mariantonia Avati, daughter of Pupi Avati, continues the father’s tradition with a feminine approach. Nina works in a maternity ward in post-WWII Italy where women from different backgrounds are united by motherhood. For Nina, each story becomes a source from which she will... more

Free Jimmy
Norway, 2006, 80 min.
Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Kyle MacLachlan and Jim Broadbent lend their voices to his outrageous Norwegian animated adventure in which a drug-addicted elephant escapes from the circus, only to be chased down by circus employees, sober animal activists, big-game hunters and the mafia.... more

French California
France, 2006, 107 min.
Maguy (Nathalie Baye) is an idle rich woman. She lives in a luxurious mansion of the French Riviera among a bunch of odd friends and hired men. A dangerous desire game starts where no one knows the rules, creating a blazing and dangerous story of desire and power.... more

Fresh Air
Hungary, 2006, 109 min.
Viola works as a bathroom attendant in the subway. Angela, her daughter, is ashamed of Viola and dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Communication between them has become almost impossible. This first contemplative feature by a young director reveals a mature craft for composition and creating at... more

Go West
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2006, 97 min.
Gay lovers Kenan, a Muslim cellist, and Milan, a Serbian student, fight to survive the brutal inter-ethnic wars of early ’90s Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dreaming of peace, happiness and acceptance, they travel west with one of them disguised in drag, in a film that provocatively addresses subjects once... more

Grbavica
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2006, 90 min.
Winner of the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival, this Sarajevo-set drama highlights the plight of the thousands of Muslim women raped during the Balkan wars through the story of Esma, a hard-working single mother haunted by events from her past.... more

The Ground Truth: After The Killing Ends
USA, 2006, 72 min.
Documentary filmmaker Patricia Foulkrod lets veterans step and recount their heartrending experiences being in Iraq, and even worse returning from that war—wounded, traumatized, with little or no government assistance to support them. It’s a story that is not only heartbreaking, but absolutely vital... more

Heaven's Doors
Morocco, 2006, 160 min.
Ney, a Moroccan in his early 20’s, lives in Casablanca. He and two other contemporaries determine each other’s destinies without knowing it. This first feature film by young directors Imad and Swel Noury and produced by their mother, describes our contemporary urban jungles.... more

Ice Cream, I Scream
Turkey, 2006, 100 min.
Made with over 2,000 residents of Mugla as the cast, this comic drama follows a single tradesman’s naive struggle for survival in the global economy. Ali decides to promote his homemade ice cream on a newly purchased scooter, but when the bike is stolen, he accuses his competitors of sabotage.... more

An Inconvenient Truth
USA, 2006, 100 min.
The documentary, narrated by Al Gore, is the decade’s scariest film in which he shows man’s toxic effect on the environment—global warming. The biggest event-documentary since Fahrenheit 9/11, the film provides a timely, salutary look at the physical state of our Earth. ... more

I Remember
Brazil, 2006, 110 min.
Edgard Navarro’s magical portrait of boy growing up in Brazil from the ’50s to ’70s captures his changing times, from Catholic repression and teen lust, to civil rights and the hippie movement, through the eyes of its mischievous anti-hero.... more

The Italian
Russia, 2006, 99 min.
Six-year-old Vanya waits in a hell house of a Russian orphanage to be adopted. But when an Italian couple shows up to save him, he realizes that what he really wants is to find his own mother. His ensuing quest takes him into the heart of modern Russia, populated with emerging Capitalists, petty cri... more

Just Sex and Nothing Else
Hungary, 2006, 90 min.
A 33-year-old dramaturge decides to become a single mother. Compared to Bridget Jones’ Diary and Sex in the City, this ultra-modern, smart screwball comedy features deliciously witty dialogue, sophisticated coming timing, and sparkling performances.... more

Kontakt
Macedonia, 2006, 96 min.
Circumstances throw a rugged ex-convict, Janka, and a recent resident of a psychiatric ward, Zana, together in a devastated Macedonian villa. When this odd couple connects, their relationship almost seems normal compared to the chaotic state-of-affairs surrounding them.... more

The Last Gaze
Mexico, 2006, 123 min.
In her debut film, Patricia Arriaga chronicles two different but parallel lives. A painter on the verge of blindness meets by chance a young girl hired as a maid in a remote brothel in the Mexican desert. They intertwine with surprising twists and turns in this beautiful film chronicling the surviva... more

Little Miss Sunshine
USA, 2006, 101 min.
The Little Miss Sunshine Pageant is the impetus for this dysfunctional family road trip in which seven-year-old Olive, is vying for the title. Her family—including a suicidal uncle, her failing motivational speaker father, her mother at her wit’s end, her silent angst-ridden brother and... more

The Lives of Others
Germany, 2006, 137 min.
In this nail-biting political thriller set just years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, an agent of the East German police finds his ideology turned inside out when he is assigned to incriminate an innocent playwright. This runaway hit swept the German and Bavarian Academy Awards.... more

Love Sick
Romania, 2006, 85 min.
Alex and Kiki meet at the university and become fast girlfriends. Enter Sandu, tormented with jealousy. Is he Kiki’s brother or her jealous lover? Love Sick is remarkable for its matter-of-fact attitude towards love without rules.... more

Madeinusa
Peru, 2006, 100 min.
For one devout Peruvian village, God dies on Good Friday and is born again on Easter; between those days there is no sin. During these strange Holy Days young Madeinusa falls for a gringo stranger against her father’s wishes, in this stunningly photographed take on the classic American Western.... more

Monkeys in Winter
Bulgaria, 2006, 111 min.
Set over a 40-year time span, three stories explore the lives of three mothers from separate generations who each face difficult decisions. Winner, East of the West Competition, Karlovy Vary Film Festival.... more

Murch
USA, 2006, 78 min.
Legendary editor and sound designer Walter Murch (American Graffiti, The Godfather, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, The English Patient) is the focus of Edie and David Ichioka’s entertaining and edifying documentary that manages to capture both the man, and his artistic vision.... more

Music Within
USA, 2007, 93 min.
This striking directorial debut and moving true story is about a man who heard his music, and released it to improve the lives of millions of people with disabilities. Ron Livingston (Band of Brothers) enthusiastically portrays Richard Pimentel, a brilliant public speaker who went to Vietnam ... more

Nina's Journey
Sweden, 2006, 120 min.
Based on the true story of the writer-director’s mother, it’s a powerful drama about a young Jewish woman's remarkable odyssey of survival during World War II in Poland. The gripping narrative, poignantly interspersed with testimony from the real Nina, was named Best Film and Best Script at the Swed... more

Outsourced
USA, 2006, 98 min.
A pitch-perfect comedy on a hot-button issue, John Jeffcoat’s feature debut signals a bright new talent in the ranks of American independent filmmakers. Todd (Josh Hamilton) heads up the sales department in a Seattle-based company that sells cheap novelty products. After his entire department is out... more

Paraguayan Hammock
Paraguay, 2006, 78 min.
This sublimely minimalist film from Paraguay—its first in three decades—offers a striking meditation on time, memory, loss, and love as an elderly couple sits in the jungle and waits for an impending rainstorm.... more

Pingpong
Germany, 2006, 89 min.
The repressed emotions of the German middle-class provide the focus for this chamber piece, with four characters simmering with unspoken needs. Winner of the Screenwriting Award and the Young Critics’ Award during Cannes Critics’ Week and Best Script at the Munich Film Festival.... more

Premonition
France, 2006, 100 min.
This adaptation of a novel by Emmanuel Bove is an existential drama, as well as a social satire of hypocrisy. Darroussin casts himself as a man trying to throw off the shackles of alienation and social conditioning in life of semi-hermit.... more

Quixotic
Spain, 2006, 110 min.
Albert Serra’s Quixotic is a remarkable debut feature based on Cervantes’s classic. It’s less an adaptation of Don Quixote than a riff on its two principal characters. Serra provocatively chose to shoot the footage in a way that seemingly gives the perception that this could be a kind of Quixote hom... more

The Railroad All-Stars
Spain, 2006, 90 min.
Valeria, Vilma and Mercy are two-dollar-a-pop prostitutes in a destitute neighborhood of Guatemala City. In order to publicize their plight (and also as a way of having fun), they decide to found a soccer team. Rodriguez's documentary is an exhilarating story about perseverance in the face of prejud... more

Retrieval
Poland, 2006, 103 min.
Amateur boxer Wojtek dreams of supporting his girlfriend and her child, but becomes a changed person once he begins working as an enforcer for an amoral loan shark. Wojtek's work and his struggle to make a family for himself prove consistently absorbing.... more

Salty Air
Italy, 2006, 87 min.
Fabio is a social assistant in a Roman prison. When a new prisoner arrives, he recognizes his father who abandoned the family when he was a kid. From that moment on he has to reconsider his relationship with his father figure.... more

The Secret Life of Happy People
Canada, 2006, 102 min.
Thomas, an average Joe in a family of overachievers struggles to get by, until he meets a woman who inspires him to be all that he can be. Unfortunately his muse isn’t all that she says she is. The giddy comedy is both a searing satire of bourgeois values and touching ode to mediocrity. Awarded Bes... more

Sharkwater
Canada, 2006, 89 min.
As the ocean’s top predator, sharks play a crucial role in the ocean’s ecosystem, but as much as 90 percent of them have been eradicated by poachers. With luminous imagery, this film offers a passionate plea to protect them.... more

Someone Else’s Happiness
Belgium, 2006, 98 min.
In the 1990s, a series of child murders hook Belgium. This highly assured first feature creates a series of vignettes centering on the inhabitants of a suburban village where a child’s body has been discovered after a hit-and-run. Emotional truths slowly unravel revealing that things are very differ... more

Someone Else
United Kingdom, 2006, 78 min.
David is a London photographer who leaves his girlfriend of three years to be with a woman who, as it turns out, is already seeing someone. Like the very best British comedies, Someone Else is able to be charming, smart, funny and in the end, emotionally real.... more

Sons
Norway, 2006, 103 min.
A gritty and beautifully written drama about a young man's angry reaction to the discovery of disturbing man from his past lurking near the community pool. Structured as a thriller the film chronicles his personal crusade to expose the truth portraying all of the characters involved with an honest a... more

Storm of Emotions
Israel, 2006, 106 min.
The Israeli government’s decision to order the evacuation of the Gaza Strip in 2005 caused great political and social upheaval. This extraordinary documentary charts this tumultuous time from the point of view of several Israeli Army officers.... more

Thicker Than Water
Iceland, 2006, 90 min.
When happy couple Pétur and Ásta’s young son Örn needs a blood transfusion after a soccer accident, Pétur is shocked to find Örn’s blood type matches neither parent, throwing the boy’s paternity into question and removing the cornerstones of Pétur’s world in this chilling family drama.... more

Thieves and Liars
Puerto Rico, 2006, 114 min.
Corruption has exploded in Puerto Rico over the last 15 years. In compelling parallel stories, Thieves and Liars follows three families as the older generations helplessly watch the deterioration of truth and justice in their society’s youth.... more

The Trials of Darryl Hunt
USA, 2006, 113 min.
In 1984, a black North Carolinian teenager was convicted of life in prison for the murder of a young white woman. What transpired over the next 19 years graphically illustrates the holes in the American Justice system. Outraged without being outrageous, this is an investigative documentary of the hi... more

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Denmark, 2006, 59 min.
The mother of 14-year-old Liv and 16-year-old Danny isn't feeling very cheery this holiday season because of her impending bitter divorce. When she confounds family tradition by bringing home a younger male co-worker, she allows herself to become entangled in a dangerous erotic power game with her d... more

An Unreasonable Man
Canada, 2006, 121 min.
From his 1966 attack on General Motors’ safety record, to his refusal to step out of the 2000 presidential election and throw his support to Al Gore, Ralph Nader, as this moving documentary demonstrates, has made being unreasonable a political credo.... more

Uro
Norway, 2006, 98 min.
A solid audience pleasing first feature in the vein of Lumet or Scorsese, Stefan Faldbakken brings this story based on Norway’s zero tolerance policy to drug dealing. Turning his back on a delinquent past, Hans Petter becomes a cop, determined to follow the straight and narrow. He soon realizes ever... more

A Very Serious Person
USA, 2006, 100 min.
A warm, intelligent drama that draws both laughter and tears, this sweet-natured coming-of-age tale focuses on the relationship between a young boy—coming into his homosexual identity—and his grandmother’s caregiver, a male nurse from Denmark (Charles Busch). The result is a beautiful story of frien... more

Waves
Italy, 2005, 94 min.
Debuting writer/director Francisco Fei uses a nonchronological structure, woven with dreams and memories, to give an impressionistic picture of the relationship between Luka, a blind atonal musician and Francesca, a woman whose face is marred by a large birthmark on her cheek. Their successes and fa... more

The Way I Spent the End of the World
Romania, 2006, 100 min.
A tragic-comedy with shades of the absurd and the sublime, carrying an intense historical and emotional charge, World unfolds in Bucharest in 1989, during the last year of the Ceaucescu dictatorship, and revolves around gorgeous 17-year-old Eva, who lives with her parents and seven-year-old brother.... more

The Wedding Chest
Kyrgyzstan, 2006, 104 min.
Aidar, a Kyrgyz expat living in Paris, returns to his homeland for a visit, with a beautiful French girlfriend in tow. But Aidar has become a European, while his relatives and neighbors uphold a traditional way of life, a fact that leads to misunderstandings, both comic and serious.... more

Wild Tigers I Have Known
USA, 2006, 93 min.
Logan is a soft-spoken, lonely thirteen-year-old boy with a crush on Rodeo Walker, the coolest kid in school. Unconventional and fresh, this beautifully photographed and well-crafted story is an ethereal exploration of the moody world of teenage isolation, perfectly capturing the confusion and pain ... more

The Yacoubian Building
Egypt, 2006, 161 min.
Egypt’s most ambitious and audacious movie surveys a microcosm of Cairo society by following the colorful occupants of a once dignified apartment building and their interconnected searches for love, pleasure and honor. Best First Feature, Tribeca Film Festival.... more

You Bet Your Life
Austria, 2006, 95 min.
This gritty portrait of a gambling addict borrows the multiple-ending device used by Krzysztof Kieslowski in The Double Life of Veronique. Kurt, a habitual slacker has a chance encounter with a woman named Elvira and a seemingly lucky gambling die. He starts using it to help him make decision... more