Barbara Celis

Jason Reitman shows up at media day in a very anti-establishment, dressed-down style - an indication that this is how the next generation of filmmakers might present themselves: plain jeans, shabby shirt and non-groomed hair. I wouldn’t care how I looked either. With the wind behind his back, if the critics' predictions turn out to be correct, Reitman and his new movie, Juno, will be hitting Oscar's red carpet nominated in more than one category (best original screenplay?)....and besides, he has come to this New York hotel to talk about a movie whose main character has enough of a personality to not worry about what people may think about him.

Finally, a doc that explains it all. Did you ever wonder why Iraqis are killing each other? Where are all their guns and bombs coming from? Why do they ‘hate’ us if we went into their country to save them all from a devil called Saddam Hussein?

Hawks are not easy to domesticate. Some of them refuse to “break”. They would rather starve themselves to death before giving up their freedom. Julian Goldberger, the director of ‘The Hawk Is Dying’ isn’t ready to be domesticated either. Hopefully he will never be.

Pedro Almodovar has done it again. His most latest oeuvre Volver has conquered the soul of moviegoers and critics alike, as it happened before with cinema darlings Talk to Her and All About My Mother, among others. As usual, he opened in Spain in the early spring and he started collecting awards all over the world. Landing in American theaters in November it’s also part of the ritual: oscar season is up and running and once again, Almodovar and his movie are strong contenders for nominations. This 57 year-old Spanish director is among the few foreigners that has not only won (All About My Mother) and been nominated (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) for the Oscar in the foreign language feature category but has also been a contender (and a winner) for best screenwriter and director for Talk to Her.

A new wave of movies is once again reshaping the so called idea of ‘avant-garde independent cinema’. No, we are not going backwards in...