On the world cinema front, we have a new film from Aki Kaurismäki (filming in the North of France), we have Lou Ye joining forces with Tahar Rahim, and another auteur in Phillippe Garrel who will be directing Monica Bellucci.

This February we are keeping tabs on So Yong Kim, Tom McCarthy and Dito Montiel who are all filming their third films which happen to all be set in the state of New York. Outside of the U.S, I'm with Cancer sets up shop in Vancouver, Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod will lense the adaptation of Guy De Maupassant's classic novel's Bel Ami which will film in Budapest, and finally Ana Katz will film Los Marziano in her native Argentina.

Our very first feature of 2010, is an item which we begin at the top of every month. January's Tracking Shot makes up for a lack of production in December - and at the top of the productions that are beginning this month we find George Clooney toplining Alexander Payne's The Descendants for Fox Searchlight. Casting is still underway with this project - and I guess we'll be hearing more from it in the next couple of weeks.

At the beginning of every month, IONCINEMA.com's "Tracking Shot" features a handful of projects that we feel are worth signaling out and that are moments away from lensing. We can expect a surge in film productions starts in January, but the month of December is short on film productions, yet we still have a trio of titles that are worth following.

The prolific documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman's new film, will have a two-week engagement at Film Forum in NYC, and it is a stunning display of some of the best dancers and choreographers in the world training at one of the world's greatest ballet companies.

For the Obama family and for everyone who campaigned or voted for him, By the People is a feel good memory to add to the scrapbook. Considering that this is literally yesterday's news and hasn't yet aged, the Rice-Sams card still managed to carve out an easy watch and make an overly processed in the media road to the presidency, feel somewhat dynamic.

At the beginning of every month, IONCINEMA.com's "Tracking Shot" features a handful of projects that we feel are worth signaling out and that are moments away from lensing. As we get closer to holiday dates productions tend to drop, so this November we are keeping tabs on only a handful of projects.

Rags to Riches to Rags (9pm ET/PT on HBO tonite) is one more example of the many industries that have exported the bulk of jobs to the East.

At the beginning of every month, IONCINEMA.com's "Tracking Shot" features a half of a dozen or so projects that are moments away from lensing and that we feel are worth signaling out. This October (2009), we are keeping tabs on....

This September is when Blacklist's 2008 top title goes into production - Jodie Foster helms The Beaver for Summit. Scribe Rowan Joffe begins his career as a director with Brighton Rock, - Joffe penned Pawel Pawlikowski's Last Resort.

Available today, until next Thursday (August 20th) - SnagFilms SummerFest is presenting Zombie Girl. Without knowing anything about the film, you'd think this is a low budget horror film - but au contraire readers, this is a documentary film that follows the enthusiasm of 12 year-old Emily Hagins, who decides to write and direct her own feature length Zombie horror flick.

On HBO tonight, I'll finally have the opportunity to catch a docu film that I managed to miss at Sundance. Hart and Dana Perry's Boy Interrupted tells the heartbreaking story of Evan Perry: the heart-wrenching profile of a family torn apart.

This August (2009), we are keeping tabs on: a Canadian financed pic with top tier talent, that for the next weeks becomes known as the film that the radiant Rachelle Lebevre committed to and which annoyed Summit Ent., the re-appearance of The Details (it receives a second life), three French filmmakers (Julie Bertucelli, Fabienne Berthaud) on their sophomore efforts and Guillaume Canet on pic number three and finally, master filmmaker Mike Leigh is getting set for his latest project for Focus Features.

Bill and Turner Ross' 45365 portrays the daily life of residents in the small American town of Sidney, Ohio. It actually preemed at South by Southwest Film Festival and received the Grand Jury Award Winner for Best Documentary Feature - it grabbed Full Frame Documentary Festival and the Athens International Film Festival.

The Blacklist (a list of favorite unproduced screenplays making the rounds in Hollywood created by Franklin Leonard) acts as a good indicator of the best original ideas to come out of agents/rep offices and to come out of an industry which is too dependent on sequels, prequels and remakes. So far, we are past the midway point of 2009 and I was curious to update the 2007 list and see, mostly what went into production and which of the top tier scripts were greenlite.

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.

We've received an exclusive clip from the National Geographic Channel who tomorrow night are completing a three part series with the two-hour sequel to the 1997 Oscar nominated, Sundance winning documentary film. Today's Daily Recommendation is: A Decade Behind Bars: Return to the Farm which airs tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

While nothing beats the big screen, you have to admire a documentary film that respected its own carbon footprint and isn't profit-driven, as is the case when the Yann Arthus-Bertrand directed Home – the first simultaneous online and offline film debut that pulled in some impressive numbers via its YouTube channel.

Across the pound Abdellatif Kechiche begins filming Black Venus and the U.K will see William Monahan make his directorial debut with London Boulevard and Nigel Cole directs Sally Hawkins in a drama that reminds me of North Country.

A mix of genre specific fair and a couple of indie titles that automatically caught my attention, The Weinstein Company aren't flashing any cards in the festival comp portion, but they have a cool slate of market offerings in post production with noteworthy titles such as All Good Things from Andrew Jarecki, Youth in Revolt from Miguel Arteta and a 3D Piranha movie from horror helmer Alaxandre Aja.

It's not because of Danny Pang's Bangkok Dangerous that I've included GK Films among those production companies worth keeping an eye on, but for their future slate of releases – C.R.A.Z.Y's Jean-Marc Vallee's The Young Victoria which received good reviews from Berlin Market and they have The Rum Diary, Edge of Darkness with Mel G and London Boulevard in various stages of production.

Odd Lot International is the foreign sales division of Odd Lot Entertainment and though they don't have a huge inventory, the titles they do have are worth keeping track of beginning with John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole which should be among our most anticipated films to see next year.

London based Celsius (an indie financier) comes to Cannes with a small but determined line-up and they officially give the Cannes market a shot to the arm with the market screening for Freakonomics: which brings together the talents of documentarian filmmakers Alex Gibney, Morgan Spurlock, Eugene Jarecki, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing.

Mandate might not be a supplier of films for Cannes' competition, but they supply tons of stuff: not only for Lionsgate, but in Grant Heslov's debut The Men Who Stare at Goats, Drew Barrymore's roller derby film Whip It! and Tarsem's third feature film in the soon to be shooting War of Gods.

After a crazy year where they brought six or seven titles to Cannes (including Tulpan, Waltz with Bashir) in various competition categories, this year The Match Factory bring only a pair of titles in Ajami and Kinatay.