Eric Lavallée

If you want a piece of Belgium this year, skip Tintin and look out for the Dardenne's latest. Lorna's Silence might not have been a masterwork in a filmography populated by great achievements in cinema, and despite rehashing of similar themes, they outfitted the film with sense of hope. Here's hoping that Cécile de France (local Belgian actress) navigates troubled waters and we see whipping boy/Dardenne favorite actor Jérémie Renier embody another fringe character. Their hallmark items of gritty handheld camerawork, their attention to detail void of anything theatrical and infectious characters are always appreciated.

We're huge fans of Arnold's Fish Tank and her short film work (especially Wasp), and we look forward in seeing how she can add the funk to a tiresome old classic. With her trusted right-hand man in cinematographer Robbie Ryan and a ballsy casting decision move of picking up a non-actor lead for the role of Heathcliff -- demonstrates she's still shooting from the hip. Add this to the Arnold aesthetic which is soaked in a realism, this might become a contempo classic and carry more weight now that this critic appreciates.

Call this my "hail mary" pick of the Top 100 list, as the chances of Desplechin's project going into production and somehow being ready for 2011 are next to impossible. Fans of his more recent films Kings and Queen and A Christmas Tale should come to expect a different curriculum here with this.

You can say we've been anticipating HHH's genre switching project for a while now, as we first got word of the project back in 2007. Working with a foursome of Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shu Qi, Chang Chen and Tadanobu Asano, this martial arts and fantasy film blend certainly makes us wonder what kind of aesthetic the Taiwanese filmmaker might employ.

Same ranking as last year, we're big on the narrative elements of the project and think it is well-suited for Alexandre Payne's styled humor. And who isn't a fan of the multi-tasker (dramatic/comedic) George Clooney?