Eric Lavallée

Anyone who makes Juillette Binoche cry in my books is not okay. William Shimell didn't really make the actress cry, but he held his own in his screen debut in an Abbas Kiarostami film. Trained to use his pipes for another reason (the actor actually works in the opera), Shimell plays James Miller, an English author whose latest book "Certified Copy" leaves Binoche's character tied up in knots, but it is the film's journey between the two characters after the initial meeting that could be a lesson on how not to love.

What a way to begin a long film career. Bang Bang...this baby shot me down. I'm referring to actress Monia Chokri who had the great fortune of being sprinkled with gold dust, offered the Jeanne Moreau with touches of Jackie O role in Xavier Dolan's stylized sophomore feature.

Regardless of me never hearing about either of these actresses prior to seeing the film, Mirela Oprisor (small part in Coppola's Youth Without Youth) and Maria Popistasu (David Yates' television series Sex Traffic) landed major roles and delivered pitch perfect performances in Radu Muntean's Tuesday, After Christmas. Oprisor plays the part of the one unaware of bad news about to hit her, while Popistasu plays the part of the one ready to make her own future in this triage drama. The film should find other film festival venues, but I expect both thesps to make further inroads in Romanian and other Euro projects.

Korean dramas with an over 2 hour run time that despite winning at Cannes normally don't find a distribution deal if you take Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine as an example, but the folks at Kino International must feel a little different about the prospects in Chang-dong’s Poetry - an equally long, Cannes winning drama with a fine female performance in full view.

The South Korean actress has a very distinct sounding voice and specific look with the sort of face you can't forget - a pair of puffy eyes and a chiseled, symmetrical features. She was previously presented late last year and at this year's Rotterdam film festival in Park Chan-Ok's Paju, but in Im Sang-Soo's The Housemaid she plays more than just the trophy wife...