Nice surprise came via email today. Not one, not two, but three links to trailers for Aurora, a film that we listed in our number 5 spot for the most anticipated films for 2010. Cristi Puiu's second installment in 'six stories from the outskirts of Bucharest' stars Clara Voda, Luminita Gheorghiu, Gelu Colceag, Lucian Ifrim, Gheorghe Ifrim and Puiu in the lead with a character contemplating his options.

The Freebie, like many films in the low-fi, no budget section works with a premise and milks it for all it's worth. It relates to a couple giving each other a free "pass", in this case the opportunity to break away from monotony of a long term relationship for one night only - a propositional concept not unlike what we saw with Humpday.

A love story that explores the beginning of the beginning and the beginning of the end of a relationship (with seamless transitions that reflect on the past and the present), Derek Cianfrance's debut might have taken more than a decade to make, but it was worth the wait.

So I grabbed a midnight showing to the second official screening to Habib Azar's Armless, and I've got to say that the NEXT section is what it is - small films that are a little rough around the edges but manage to deliver the goods. Here we have an original story idea, that takes on a disturbing subject matter with a generous dose of comedic strokes -- think Downloading Nancy with taboo comedy - I'm thinking daytime soaps certainly influenced Azar's approach.

I'm dubbing Casino Jack & The United States of Money as a marathon-telethon, Jack Abramoff's track record of greed and raising money (greed is something that we also saw in the Enron doc) spans back a couple of presidents and is so extensive that Gibney takes 120 minutes to reveal the blueprint.

While I think Wells' The Company Men will have no problems in getting picked up (it isn't a complete downer and it will draw comparisons to Jason Reitman's film), I'm somewhat surprised that a commentary on corporate downsizing didn't provide more of an emotional whiplash.

A downright delicious, dark film that is equal parts comedy and drama, this throws a molotov cocktail to your standard film that deals with sorrow and grief -- at first I was thinking that Spencer Susser's Hesher was set to describe the bully rapport between victimizer and victim, but it plunges its set of characters on this uneasy course of mayhem and destabilization....

Just before the opening press conference of the festival, the journos are invited to what has become a permanent installation (over the course of the fest of course) display of some installation set-ups that use various forms of the moving image. This year's group (see names above and the family picture below with curator Shari Frilot) includes actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt Orwellian side project....

Tomorrow I'll wake up early for Shorts Program II with a pair of films that have caught my interest in 2nd place Cannes Best short in Mark Albiston & Louis Sutherland's The Six Dollar Fifty Man and Sean Durkin's Mary Last Seen - which comes from the same team that gave us Afterschool and which will give us Two Gates of Sleep (featured in my top 100 most anticipated films for 2010 list).

We have one more Armless items for you which comes to us in the post-holiday, three weeks before Sundance period. In our profile last week, we introduced you to filmmaker Habib Azar in two parts (here and here) and now we have a first look at the trailer. I'm looking forward to the film and much of the reasons are in what Azar cites in our Q&A with him, "Armless has this weird dry and dark humor that is unsettling and enticing at the same time".

Patrons of the film festival circuit will receive a double dose of David Michod next January. Sundance plays host to a pair of his projects -- one which he penned and Spencer Susser directed (Hesher) and the another, which he both wrote and directed. Perhaps the title with the most buzz in the World Dramatic Competition, Animal Kingdom receives its world premiere in the miniscule Park City Egyptian theater - tickets will be scarce.

Focus Features premiered the domestic trailer for Pirate Radio a while back and what many of you might not know is that not only was the original title altered, but the marketing strategy was significantly changed as well.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday (September 29th) via Lionsgate, I haven't looked at the B.O numbers, but I think Shrink may be one of those Sundance titles that works better on DVD than theatrically.

If you had middle class parents like my own, you've probably been told there is no such a thing as free ride - but TIFF organizers have definitely gone Park City this year, handing out free transit passes along with accreditation. Damn cool.

We'll wait before official critical word from the Lido to push this title up as a high priority film to cover at TIFF, but Ford's A Single Man is among a dozen films competing in Venice and with Julianne Moore who looks great any decade setting (she was sublime in Savage Grace) on board and Colin Firth, who I never give enough credit to, but appreciated his loving patriarch bit in Genova, in the driver's seat, I think we might be in for a surprise.

Michael Moore isn't the only one whose getting into narratives concerning the nation's economic troubles. We've got an exclusive look at a set of stills for Alex Cox's Repo Chick, which premieres at the Venice Film Festival next week and looks to be a (semi?) follow-up to the 1984 film Repo Man.

The "Fancy Corn" clip below represents some of the film's sweeter spots that co-exists with the film's darker offbeat humor elements.

Two Michael Ceras for the price of one? There would have been a time where I would have said pass me the rope let's get this over with, but starting today, the kid is okay in my books (note: probably not for long).

I've yet to see "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex", a.k.a the German film that received one of the five slots for the Best Foreign Picture nomination at last year's Oscars. The Baader Meinhof Complex also happens to be: the last of the nominations to receive its theatrical release (via Vitagraph Films on August 21st).

After a stellar limited theatrical release that saw Goodbye Solo make a superb box office run (for an indie film!) and obtain the kind of crucial critical support from heavyweight film journalists that will bring this film towards further year-end accolades, Ramin Bahrani's seminal work is receiving its release on DVD this August 25th via Lions Gate Entertainment.

My introduction to Cédric Kahn began with Roberto Succo (his fourth film which appeared at Cannes), but it is his follow up film Red Lights (a.k.a Feux Rouges) a dark thriller that brings Hitchcockian traits to the mundane existence had me doing cartwheels of cinephile joy.

Earlier this week, commericials director Fredrik Bond signed up to helm comicbook to Rogue Pictures' film adaptation of Hack/Slash. Bond has been attached to the remake The Host and a remake of The Hunger clearly labeling the director as a hot commodity. So who is Bond? He is this week's Eye Candy.

Starring Amalric, Sergi López, Catherine Frot, Karin Viard, Clotilde Hesme and Sabine Azema, this tells the story of Robinson, who is unable to forget the beautiful and cruel Laetitia, his only great love. The day before the destruction of the planet, Robinson leaves his bunker to be reunited with Laetitia in the most dangerous place on Earth: Paris.

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.

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

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.

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.

Before Tatia Rosenthal's celebrated stop motion animated feature film $9.99 (which hits theaters today and was featured at TIFF), the director crafted a pair of shorts, A Buck's Worth was featured at the Sundance Film Festival, while her first piece (an NYU thesis project) dates back to 1998. This week's Eye Candy looks back at her humble debut Crazy Glue.

The pitch is simple. The line-up is impressive. 42 directors explore their dreams (add fantasies and day dreams to the signification of dreams) in 42 seconds. As a trailer that announces the project, this merits our Eye Candy mention of the week. Sponsored by the vodka brand 42 Below, so far, the site is far from the magical number of 42 participants, names like Lynch and Carlos Reygadas have yet to post their contribution, but a quick look around and we can find some noteworthy pieces such as Alishan which includes a mode of transportation, something that always seems to be found in my dreams.

It was originally supposed to be a concrete sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11, but the financial crisis was a lot more "current" than George Bush's administration.

The reason why you may not have heard of Patrick Daughters in the film biz is because he has yet to make his first feature.