Eric Lavallée

After finding another distribution to share in the risk of releasing Last Night and passing off The Debt to Focus, the "new" Miramax company is in risk sharing mode on another delayed title in Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark. The horror flick will receive an August 12th release via FilmDistrict and Miramax.

Despite the crazy mount of sales that took place, this pikc-up acts as a reminder that not all Sundance Film Festival titles were picked up before Day 11. One such title, the U.S Dramatic Competition selected Higher Ground has found a home with adult cinephile audience specialist Sony Pictures Classics -- a great fit for a film that I think many would agree was inoffensive, but far from tone-deaf as Vera Farmiga managed to give this decades-spanning tale an authentic charm that challenges notions of faith and religion in a manner that is far from Hallmark Card-ish.

Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly IONCINEPHILE profile (read here), we ask the filmmaker the incredibly arduous task of identifying their top ten list of favorite films. This month we feature Aaron Katz [Cold Weather 02.04]. Here are his Top 10 Films of All Time as of February 2011.

Sergei Loznitsa's My Joy (which gets released by Kino Int. sometime this year) was perhaps the odd duckling of the previous Cannes Film Festival as it was the only picture in the main competition that was from a first time feature, mostly unknown filmmaker, but the film itself was pretty out there for a road movie.

“Finisterrae” the film debut of the director of the electronic music festival “Sónar”, Sergio Caballero, was awarded with the top prize at the International Rotterdam Film Festival. The film, produced by the prolific and off-beat Luis Miñarro whose name is attached to award-winning films such as “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” and “La Mosquitera”.