While the cities of Paris, New York and Tokyo have all been showered with love via short film collectives, now the location specific neighborhood with an abundance of metropolitan settings will receive the same treatment.

What is fascinating about character is his since of normalcy, he lacks a moral compass from which to work from and the ascension of his obsessive behavior adds unpredictability to the tone of the film. The out of focus, handheld aesthetics, muted and degraded colors add a touch of realism and vintage to the film, and for a period pic working with such a politically charged subject matter, Tony Manero takes a risky, disturbing, but rewarding road in deciphering the air of the moment.

From an outsiders point of view, you'd think that winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for 2007's No Country for Old Men and winning Best Actor and Best Cinematography for There Will Be Blood would be a sign of better things to come, but at the end of the day, it's not the number of Oscars you win, but the plus and minus on the balance sheet.

Tales from the Golden Age's Cristian Mungiu and Ioana Uricaru (one of the several co-directors that participated in the deadpan, short film collage on some of the blunders in Romanian's past) have collaborated on a screenplay that they have handed to fellow Romanian filmmaker Bogdan Apetri. This is Apetri's feature length debut.

Add Michele Placido’s Il Grande Sogno, Jacques Rivette’s 36 Vues du Pic Saint-Loup and Christophe Honoré’s Non Ma Fille, Tu N'iras Pas Danser to the list of possible titles that will compete at the Venice Film Festival. I speculated on plenty of titles what we should be seeing at the Lido in late August, and these three titles will surely be added to the usual cluster of Euro titles.

A trio of actors in Isabelle Carre (Anna M.), Marina Hands (Lady Chatterley) and James Thierree (Vatel) have scored a top-lining acting gig in Claude Miller's next feature which will be filmed on both sides of the Atlantic.

I can't say that I've been following Fernando Trueba's career as a filmmaker, I've only seen his 1992 Oscar winning Belle Epoque (which along with Jamón, jamón launched Penelope Cruz's career) and I missed his much adored jazz documentary Calle 54.

I was all smiles when news surfaced last May that Mean Creek's Jacob Estes was quickly jumping into production with the foursome of James McAvoy, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Anna Friel for some nutty indie dramatic thriller about neighbors going ballistic. Recent reports from Seattle are that the production has hit a rough patch.

Oscar nominated thesps Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo have been confirmed, while Josh Hutcherson and Mia Wasikowska have been added to Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right - which is the filmmaker's first film since 2002’s Laurel Canyon. Filming is currently underway in Los Angeles.

The lush 18th century set The Duchess may not have been a guaranteed box office return, but it might have been a great calling card for helmer Saul Dibb. The filmmaker is in talks currently in talks to take on the 19th century. THR reports that he may take on another story-line featuring a defiant, young female protagonist with Spider Dance.

Low budget filmmaker George Gallo has gathered some former players in Giovanni Ribisi (from the just completed Middle Men) and Selma Blair (My Mom's New Boyfriend) and added Amy Smart and Jason Lee to the fold in an indie thriller that was co-written with Kevin Pollak (the actor also has a role in the film - he wrote himself a concierge part).

Not sure if Sidney Kimmel Ent. is tapping into a new market demo. While they're setting up Jon Amiel’s distinctly golden aged Old Timers, the prod co. are boarding a road trip film with vet actresses Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker.

This July (2009), we are keeping tabs on Paul Scheuring's Americanized remake of the German film Das Experiment, Trent Cooper's third outing as a director with the comedy Father of Invention, David O. Russell puts Nailed behind to concentrate on The Fighter, Harold Becker starts filming Uma and Abigail in Michigan and David Gordon Green directs his second straight studio film in part of the U.K/Ireland.

Almost seven years since her breakout Since Otar Left, Julie Bertucelli is finally setting sail on her sophomore feature. The French filmmaker will be packing her bags for Australia (home of the film's source material) along with an actress who is coming off a career high and huge win for Best Actress at Cannes for her role as a distraught mother/wife in Antichrist.

Chalk one more independent production up for Guy Pearce. Soon to be seen in his second collaboration with John Hillcoat's The Road and currently can be seen in Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, the actor is currently in final negotiations to play the annoyed author/father who is fed up with his daughter's distractions in Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.

A redhead sounds just about right for David O. Russell's Massachusetts-set The Fighter. Variety reports that Amy Adams has come onboard to play a gritty bartender from the state who ends up dating Mark Wahlberg's character, "Irish" Mickey Ward.

Overture Films are looking to be a part of Richard Wenk's heist job. The Hollywood Reporter reports that State Street Pictures' George Tillman Jr. (a producer who also happens to be a director as recently witnessed with Notorious) has sold the pitch to the indie distributor.

Haim Tabakman's Eyes Wide Open was an Israeli film that was featured in The Un Certain Regard section. Here Films should roll-out the film in 2010.

Dog Eat Dog is one hell of a fun film, albeit so chock full of obvious influences as to almost be considered derivative. Featuring a couple of plotlines destined to be commingled as the film crescendoes to a violent finale reminiscent of the Quentin Tarantino-penned True Romance, it's easy to see the influence of QT and the Coen Brothers on Moreno's work. But Moreno, who also co-wrote the screenplay, manages to infuse Dog Eat Dog with his own flavor, a flavor that admittedly has not come full circle yet.

Why Warner Bros. is mum on release date details for Jean Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs à tire-larigot is a mystery to me.

The derby for which distributor was going to get the rights to triple award winning title from Cannes (I Killed My Mother) has come to a close and in the same measure, Here Media announced the launch of Here Films - thus putting an end to the confusing co-label of Here! and Regent Releasing. For those who haven't noticed, Here has been slowly doing away with the strictly GL&T label and encompassing a more 'festival fave' orientated direction – just recently they released Best Foreign Language Film winner Departures and Cannes UCR Jury prize winner Tokyo Sonata.

As recently documented in Burma VJ, the Burmese revolution and fight against repression was fought with something more powerful than sticks and stones. The same pocket-sized video cameras that the brave people of Iran are currently using to document the aftermath of an election with gross irregularities and the gross misconduct of the current government. It's with that same camera in hand spirit that we would like give praise to Iranian New Wave and current generation of filmmakers

While I enjoy 10th, silver year, 40th, 50th anniversary editions and beyond this of classic films, I'm handing the Lemon of the Week to Disney for going a bit overboard with the decision to re-release the film in 2006, 2007, 2008 and now once again this year.

What does a top Hollywood filmmaker do between shoots? He picks up an extra paycheck from working on commercial work from Nike. The week-long Cannes Lions honors the best in advertising work, today is reserved for television commercial work (Film Awards) and out of the batch of short list nominees we find this week's eye candy and Silver award winning: David Fincher's Fate.

Universal haven't abandoned ship on Richard Curtis' sophomore feature, instead they're getting James Schamus and Focus Features to tugboat The Boat That Rocked for a more strategic North American release.

What I'm seeing in the trailer for Emmanuel Mouret's Fais-moi plaisir! is pure Blake Edwards' The Party. His last two films, Change of Address and Shall We Kiss?, were released to art-house U.S. audiences, and this hybrid of comedy of manners/comedy of errors might also be headed the same way.

Horror helmer Ti West has finally bedded a distribution deal from none other than Magnet Releasing. Currently in post prod with Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, West had the opportunity to present The House of the Devil in Tribeca this year.

Uma Thurman is replacing Maria Bello and is thus set to star along her Pulp Fiction/Kill Bill co-star Samuel L. Jackson in a role that will call on the actress to play beaten and bruised, which we at IONCINEMA.com prefer over her gigs in comedies - especially the rom com kind.

I would dress up as Willem Dafoe this coming Halloween, but then I'd get the same questions over and over again like why is there blood around my crotch area? and what the deal is with the heavy weight stuck to my leg? Lars von Trier's Antichrist will be receiving an October 21st (VOD) and 23rd release (New York & L.A) via IFC.

Saint John of Las Vegas received its festival debut in...you guessed it. I'm not sure how it faired as the opening film for CineVegas, but I'm a fan of the casting line-up (Steve Buscemi, Sarah Silverman and Peter Dinklage which trickles down to a wheelchair-bound stripper (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a nude militant (Tim Blake Nelson), a park Ranger (Jesse Garcia), and a carnival human torch (John Cho). The film is pegged to receive a Fall release, several months after we forget about The Hangover.

The Best Picture section just got bumped up from 5 to 10 and will be implemented for the 82nd edition of the Academy Awards making Oscar night look something more like the Kentucky Derby.