Reverse Shot's Best of 2007: "Syndromes and a Century" and 9 More

Despite the tortured self-analysis some critics feel the need to use as ostensibly humbling preface for their top tens, at Reverse Shot we're thankful for best-of-year round-ups -- we savor any chance we get to reiterate our love for films that might not have had the benefit of a massive marketing team behind them. Pitting the year's best films against one another in a top-ten list may seem like an arbitrary comparison of national cinemas, moods, genres, and political statements, but it doesn't necessarily invalidate the act.
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Industry and Blogger Top 10s for 2007

Another look back at 2007... this time featuring top ten lists from industry insiders and bloggers. Participants were invited to include films released theatrically this year, but each person devised their own criteria. indieWIRE readers are encouraged to post their own top ten list for 2006 in the comments section below (and don't forget to include your name). Yesterday, indieWIRE published top ten lists from iW editors and columnists, while last week we published the results of the 2007 indieWIRE Critics Poll, surveying more than 100 film critics.
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indieWIRE's Top Ten Lists for 2007

As 2007 comes to a close, indieWIRE takes a look back at the year, offering a round-up of the ten best lists from the iW editors and our columnists. Participants were invited to include films released theatrically this year, but each person devised their own criteria. Tomorrow, we invite readers to check back for Top 10 Lists from a host of insiders and bloggers. indieWIRE readers are also invited to post their own top ten list for 2007 in the comments section below (and don't forget to include your name).
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SHORTS COLUMN | Short Film Superstars of 2007

2007 has been a very good year for short film viewers. Not only did the festival circuit deliver another amazing crop of winning films, every exhibition format offered up something remarkable to watch. Two hundred movie theaters nationwide unspooled Paris-themed shorts directed by the Coen Brothers and other A-list directors. Network television debuted a short filmmaking competition during prime time. iTunes allowed almost half a million people to download a Wes Anderson mini-movie for free. And 35 million viewers clicked on Funnyordie.com to see Will Ferrell get upstaged by a two-year old. For those who may have missed these shorts the first time around, here is a round up of the superstars of the past twelve months.
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WORLD CINEMA | The Foreign-Language Oscar Race: Where (Almost) Anything Can Happen

You've got to hand it to Bulgaria, Chile, and the Philippines: Year after year, the countries proudly enter their most celebrated films into the race for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film--with not a chance in hell of winning. And poor Portugal: it holds the record for most submissions without ever receiving a nomination. With the exception of Bosnian director Danis Tanovic's "No Man's Land" victory in 2002, the prize has never gone to a director from a developing country.
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SHORTS COLUMN | British Filmmakers Reign Supreme at North America's Three Biggest Short Film Fests

From June 12 to 17, the Canadian Film Centre hosted the 13th annual Worldwide Short Film Festival, inviting 265 shorts from more than 30 countries to screen in Toronto, Ontario. Two months later in California, 332 films from over 40 countries screened at the 2007 Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films (August 23-29), followed a month later by 700 shorts at the 11th annual LA Shortsfest (September 5 - 17). With such an overcrowded field, it's remarkable that UK filmmaker Simon Ellis walked away with both the Best Live Action Short Award at the Canadian fest and the Best of Festival laurel at Palm Springs for his fifteen-minute drama, "Soft." While Ellis went empty-handed in Los Angeles, London-based commercial director Daniel Barber received LA Shortfest's Best of the Fest nod for "The Tonto Woman" while Donald Rice made some noise with his Best Comedy Award-wining UK short "I Am Bob."
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WORLD CINEMA | Foreign Flicks Checklist: 10+ New Films to Watch at Fall Fests

Searching for the newest, best and most anticipated in world cinema at this fall's film festivals is no easy feat. Let's face it: the year's most significant foreign-language pictures probably already premiered last summer in Cannes. Many of these films will be showing up again in Venice, Toronto and New York--from "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "The Last Mistress," and "Persepolis" to "Secret Sunshine" and "Silent Light"--and it's often the case that the majority of what's new on programmers' plates doesn't compare. But, of course, with 101 world premieres at Toronto alone, one can hopefully expect another 5 - 10% of positive returns.
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WORLD CINEMA | New Crowned Series Offers Hope for International Auteurs... And Peace on Earth

In our increasingly divisive and disconnected planet, the omnibus film has been a welcome antidote of late, bringing together various cultural perspectives and differing experiences into one shared space. Whether "Paris je t'aime" (18 directors), Cannes 60th's "Chacun Son Cinema" anniversary celebration (33 directors), or the New Crowned Hope collection--a series of six feature-length films and one short made in honor of the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth in Vienna--these combined cinematic projects show the possibilities for global harmony.
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iW DOC COLUMN | To Oscar or Not to Oscar, Looking Ahead to DocuWeek

Academy Award. The Oscar. A golden knight holding a broad sword, perched on a reel of film with five spokes that signify the original branches of the Academy: actors, writers, directors, producers and technicians; no wings to represent the soaring of art, or perhaps abstract sculpture to represent the possibility of the unformed. It is a stern representation of accomplishment, phallic and powerful, and to win this particular prize in filmmaking is the penultimate. And these days, Oscar is on the mind of more and more independent documentary filmmakers.
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iW DOC COLUMN | Hybrid Films Take Center Stage

"Bye bye, Africa" are the words spoken by Mahamat Saleh Haroun as he leaves his native Chad for life as an ex-pat in Europe in the film of the same name which screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as part of Flaherty at MoMa program running from June 22 - 30. Haroun stars in his film and though the story is fictional, he plays a character of the same name who is a filmmaker. Haroun, the character, returns to his native soil upon hearing of the death of his mother whom he hadn't seen in ten years. He has changed.
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Romania's Cinematic Revolution: Struggling Against the Past

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 ended decades of oppressive rule by Communist despot Nicolae Ceausescu, but it took another dozen years before Romanian filmmakers finally found their voice and vision. As anyone knows who follows the state of world cinema, the Romanians represent the newest national film movement to catch fire. Cristian Mungui's Cannes Palm d'Or triumph "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days," already acquired for U.S. distribution, confirms a winning streak from the Southeast European nation, which began blossoming in the new millineum with work from Nae Caranfil ("Philanthropy"), first features from Mungui ("Occident") and Crisi Puiu ("Stuff and Dough"), and eventually exploding with Puiu's "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," and the movies of Catalin Mitulescu, the late Cristian Nemescu, and Corneliu Porumboiu, whose "12:08 East of Bucharest" opened in the U.S. last weekend.
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DOC COLUMN | Flying: Confessions of International Co-Production

The phrase "international co-production" sparks a variety of responses from US independent filmmakers. Some think "essential strategy to fund a film," or "I wish I knew how to do that," while others (probably the lion's share) think "international what?" After watching Jennifer Fox's opus "Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman", a 6-hour series that uses Fox's personal life (her indecision between two lovers) as the springboard for a prescient discussion with women from around the world about modern womens' issues, I understood that this film couldn't have been made relying on American financing. But the "why" was more elusive. Style? Length? Subject matter?
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DOC COLUMN | Are Green Docs Hot?

It seemed to come out of nowhere: a high-production value theatrical doc featuring the then media-shy former presidential candidate Al Gore. Skeptics abound prior to the release -- it was tough to imagine that an intellectual stiff like Gore could carry a feature doc about, of all things, global warming, yet the film seems to have raised the profile of a whole crop of new "green" work. Yet, filmmaker and blogger AJ Schnack polled some industry folks before the release of "Truth" to gauge the buzz. David Poland of Movie City News said what others felt, "I think anything over $2 million is a real success for this film. It's just not a pop event."
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WORLD CINEMA | When the Party's Over: "Red Road" Launches Advance Party, But Other Films Stalled

Rules are the mother of invention, at least according to Lars von Trier. After imposing his Dogma 95 doctrine on dozens of filmmakers around the world and subjecting Jorgen Leth to a number of sadistic limitations (in "The Five Obstructions"), the Danish filmmaker, together with compatriots Lone Scherfig and Anders Thomas Jensen, devised a new set of restrictions to inflict on a trio of neophyte filmmakers. Now well known as "The Advance Party," the project has already engendered Andrea Arnold's impressive feature debut "Red Road." But the creative path for the projects hasn't been an easygoing get-together.
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DOC COLUMN: Fests Bring Out the Docs in March

It wasn't too many years ago that March was considered a relatively quiet month for North American film festivals, but these days there may not be such a thing as a "quiet" month, given the proliferation of important festivals spread throughout the year. With increasingly high quality programming at these events, even March has its fair share of world premieres and highly anticipated films - and documentaries are no exception. A handful of festivals are already generating buzz on some great new docs, with the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, True/False Film Festival, and SXSW offering some of the most talked about selections this month.
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World Cinema Web: Can Digital Downloads Offer Viable Avenues for Int'l Films?

The diversity of this year's Oscar nominees has sparked discussion about an increasing globalization of the American film industry and audience. With its six nominations, "Pan's Labyrinth" recently broke the box-office record for a Spanish-language film in the U.S., while a trio of foreign-tongued actresses (Penelope Cruz, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikucki) crashed the Academy's vaunted acting categories.
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World Cinema: 10+ Foreign Productions to Watch For at Winter Fests

The New Year's hangover has passed, and now the real work begins: Sundance, Rotterdam, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, Goeteborg, Tromso, and, of course, Berlin and the European Film Market. And that's just in the first weeks of the year. The beginnings of 2007 bring forth dozens of new movies from all over the world. Which ones are gems, destined to break out of their domestic borders and wow the globe? And which ones are over-hyped, big-budget Hollywood-wannabes fated to die an early death? No one knows yet, for sure. But over the next couple months, hours of celluloid and digital video will be unveiled to seal the fortunes of many a feature film.
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The Critics Have Spoken (Again); National Society Chooses "Pan's Labyrinth" As Best Film of 2006

The National Society of Film Critics selected the best of 2006 on Saturday in New York City, naming Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" the best movie of the year. The group, comprised of 58 leading national critics, votes and announces its winners without hosting an annual ceremony. In its 41st annual awards announcement, "United 93" director Paul Greengrass was named best director and "An Inconvenient Truth" was voted the best nonfiction film of the year. The announcement from the National Society of Film Critics marks the final critics organization to announce picks for the best films of the year, as organizations in New York and L.A. prepare to present their prizes during events this week.
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Reverse Shot's Top Ten List for 2006

As per usual, this Reverse Shot Top Ten list was compiled by polling each of our loyal staff writers for their ten favorite films of the year. The first-place ranked film received ten points, the second-place nine points, and so on. Each film on the resulting list is then assigned to a writer who has a special place in his or her heart for that particular title. We wish we had space to honor our beloved runners up ("A Prairie Home Companion," "Inside Man") or other individual favorites ("Fast Food Nation," "Iraq in Fragments"), as well as those released too late in the year for most of our writers to have caught them yet ("Letters from Iwo Jima," "Children of Men"). We plan to poll everyone again in a few weeks' time to see if additional viewings produce a different arrangement. But no grand statements or overviews about 2006, or the arbitrary commingling of different national cinemas and filmmakers - for now, here's yet another top ten list.
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Industry and Blogger Top 10s for 2006: "Borat," "Pan's Labyrinth," "The Departed," and "Jesus Camp" Among List Leaders

Another look back at 2006... this time featuring top ten lists from industry insiders and bloggers. Participants were invited to include films released theatrically this year, but each person devised their own criteria. We also encouraged participants to consider adding a sidebar of a few favorite undistributed films, to help us when we determine the participants in our next Undiscovered Gems series. indieWIRE solicited lists from an assortment of folks and in the spirit of the season, decided to include one joint list and another from an insider who asked if he might be included. indieWIRE readers are encouraged to post their own top ten list for 2006 in the comments section below (and don't forget to include your name).
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