'Old Jews' go Off Broadway

Website-inspired Off Broadway play "Old Jews Telling Jokes" will bow Off Broadway in an open-ended commercial run that kicks off in May. Co-created by Peter Gethers, the scribe-editor and Random House Films prexy, and journo Daniel Okrent, "Old Jews" is a five-thesp revue of jokes and songs both old and new. Marc Bruni, helmer of the upcoming Encores! staging of "Pipe Dream," directs. Based on website OldJewsTellingJokes.com, the show hits Off Broadway in a production backed by Tom Viertel, Marc Routh, Richard Frankel and Steven Baruch, producers of the upcoming Rialto tuner "Leap of Faith" as well as past outings "A Little Night Music," "Company" and "Sweeney Todd," among others. Cast has yet to be announced for "Old Jews," which begins previews May 1 ahead of a May 20 opening at Off Broadway's Westside Theater. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

AFTRA Revises Basic Cable Residuals Statistic

Monday morning, a person authorized to speak on behalf of AFTRA contacted "The Hollywood Reporter" to reveal a surprising statistic: 91 percent of AFTRA basic cable shows on the air as of mid-May 2011, the source said, were produced under the industry standard "Sanchez" residuals formula that generates run-by-run payments.That was newsworthy, because the Sanchez formula contrasts with what AFTRA was better known for using in basic cable: an "exhibition day" or "exhibition window" approach that typically generates little or no residuals. The union has been sharply criticized for using such formulas, which AFTRA says were necessary in order to achieve unionization of the work at all.It's widely believed that AFTRA still predominantly uses such formulas, but the statistic purported to prove otherwise. We ran a story on this disclosure Monday afternoon. The source read the story and reaffirmed the 91 percent figure shortly thereafter.The next day, however, a source within AFTRA, as well as the previous source, revised the statistic, telling THR that the actual figure is 84 percent, and that the 91 percent figure was based on a subset of AFTRA basic cable series, known as OPO or "one production only" shows.That is not how the statistic was presented the day before. "The Hollywood Reporter" regrets having relied on inaccurate information authorized by AFTRA, and we apologize to our readers.Despite "THR's" repeated requests, AFTRA refused to provide a categorized list of its basic cable shows or even to provide the numbers that AFTRA says calculate out to 84 percent and 91 percent. Accordingly, "THR" is reluctantly reporting those figures as unverified.In addition, the AFTRA source said Tuesday that "on the air" did not actually mean shows that were on the air. Rather, AFTRA said that by "on the air" it meant shows that were either (a) in production, (b) on hiatus or (c) had been picked up to series but were not in production. That appears to encompass both existing shows even those in their last season and new ones that haven't yet commenced production.In summary, "91 percent of AFTRA basic cable shows on the air" was revised by the union to mean "84 percent of AFTRA basic cable shows that were either (a) in production, (b) on hiatus or (c) had been picked up to series but were not in production."The source within AFTRA, and the source authorized by AFTRA, spoke on condition of anonymity.OPO's which are negotiated on a series by series basis represent only a portion of basic cable series, because AFTRA also has a number of system-wide deals, including those with Disney, MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. The latter two provide for exhibition day residuals, according to AFTRA.(All of the formulas and deals under discussion relate to scripted shows. AFTRA also has jurisdiction over unscripted shows, but those are not relevant here.)The AFTRA source estimated that there were about 95 OPO shows and 10 shows under system-wide deals. Despite several requests, the union refused to provide precise numbers or to state exactly how many AFTRA shows were under Sanchez terms. The union also refused to provide a list of its scripted basic cable shows and indicate the applicable residuals formulas, notwithstanding "THR's" requests.It's difficult to reconcile the total estimate that the AFTRA official cited as of mid-May 2011 105 shows with totals derived from "show sheets" that the union publishes for Los Angeles and NY. The Jan./Feb. 2012 editions of these list about 41 and 17 scripted basic cable shows, respectively. That's a total of 58 (with some uncertainty, due to omission of the network in several cases), as compared with the 105 shows that the AFTRA official cited as of mid-May 2011, a date some seven or eight months earlier.Suggesting an explanation for the approximately 45 show differential (i.e., 105 minus 58), the AFTRA official said that there are no show sheets for domestic production locations outside of Los Angeles and NY or for foreign locations.However, a review of the LA and NY show sheets disclosed listings for shows shooting in Hawaii, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, England, New Zealand, Australia, Capetown and Prague as well as, of course, LA and NY.With international locations and Hawaii apparently accounted for by the LA and NY show sheets, the figures offered by AFTRA seem to imply that there are roughly 45 AFTRA scripted basic cable shows shot in Louisiana, Michigan and other runaway locations in the continental U.S.The AFTRA source said that regardless of the exact statistics, the union had made progress for actors by starting with an exhibition day formula and bargaining up. The source said that one of the system-wide deals, with Disney, while originally negotiated with exhibition day residuals, now provided for Sanchez residuals from the very first rerun."THR" requested copies of the union contracts applicable to some of the Sanchez shows, but AFTRA declined to share these. The union did provide on a not-for-publication basis two-page contract summaries for four shows that appeared to reflect that the Sanchez formula applies: USA Network's "White Collar" and "Royal Pains," Spike's "Blue Mountain State," and FX's "Sons of Anarchy."However, the contract summaries supplied by AFTRA don't actually correspond to the mid-May 2011 date that the union says the 84 percent and 91 percent statistics are based on. Instead, the summaries encompass a one-year period starting July 1, 2011, i.e., about a month and a half after mid-May. It's not known whether any of the information would have been different in earlier contract summaries.As reported in our original story, the union also stated that FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland," "Happily Divorced," "The Exes" and "Retired at 35" are all under the Sanchez formula. "THR" has not seen contract summaries or other documents relating to these programs.Although the obscure nature and nomenclature of residuals formulas may make the debate seem inconsequential, it isn't; working- and middle-class actors rely on residuals to survive between jobs. AFTRA does not release statistics about member's aggregate earnings or residuals, but SAG does. The guild's data underscore the importance of residuals to actors: on average, roughly 40 percent of a performer's total movie or TV earnings are residuals.The figure is almost certainly lower in basic cable work even when the Sanchez formula is used, since that formula is less lucrative than broadcast formulas. Nonetheless, basic cable residuals are money in the pocket.The initial Monday morning call from the AFTRA-authorized source came just a few hours after "THR" reported that SAG had signed a discounted basic cable deal. The back-and-forth reflects a degree of continuing tension between the two unions even as they seek to merge.Reflecting on the situation, the source within AFTRA who spoke on condition of anonymity sent "THR" a statement after our conversation Tuesday morning. The statement was as follows:This is exactly why these unions must merge. Not because of so-called "undercutting". Because as separate organizations, honest fact-based discussions over how to approach an emerging platform don't occur and instead get politicized. As one union, such issues could be discussed together as one body to determine a rational approach, based on facts (and proprietary information that each union has but cannot share as separate institutions), which elected members can reach consensus on. This debate over who undercut who when, in fact, it was never about undercutting at all is an example of the divisiveness that happens when we are separate: allowing one set of members to consider another set of members as "the other" rather than working together in recognition that we are all "us". The Hollywood Reporter

Should Title That Tune Get yourself a Reboot? It Could Happen

Whitney Houston's will remains released, as well as the late singer didn't spread the wealth. The document released on Wednesday in Atlanta, Ga. names Houston's only daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown since the sole recipient of all the assets, including money, automobiles, jewelry, furniture, clothing and effects, Inside Edition reviews. Discover More > Other Links From TVGuide.com Bobbi Kristina BrownCissy HoustonWhitney HoustonBobby Brown

Now Is Good Trailer Online

Dakota Fanning has a bucket listDid you watch Gus Van Sant's winsome, terminally-ill-girl-meets-quirky-boy-and-they-fall-in-hipster-love piece Restless last year? Did you think, "This is all very well, but I'd rather it star Dakota Fanning, Jeremy Irvine from War Horse and feature lots of British accents"? You did? Then you're in luck! Check out the trailer for Now Is Good below.All snark aside, Good comes from Ol Parker, who wrote and directed Imagine Me & You and more recently scripted The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The new film finds Fanning as Tessa Scott, a young woman diagnosed with terminal leukaemia, who decides to forgo any further treatment and instead seek out the things she's always wanted to do. Among her targets is sampling drugs and losing her virginity, but along the way she also meets and falls for Adam, her new neighbour. And that really changes her outlook.Parker has assembled a solid Brit cast to back up his leads, with Paddy Considine, Olivia Williams and Kaya Scodelario all part of the ensemble. If it manages to rise above the mawkish, too-cute stylings of Restless, it could actually be a nice little romantic weepy. Now Is Good is out on May 25.

Nat Faxon Lands Title Role In Fox Comedy Pilot Ned Fox Is My Manny

Nat Faxon is on the hot streak. The actor-author, who just won an Oscar on Sunday for co-writing The Descendants together with his writing partner Jim Rash and Alexander Payne, just arrived the title role opposite Abby Elliott in Foxs single-camera comedy pilot Ned Fox Is My Manny (formerly Ben Fox Is My Manny), directed by Mike Kasdan. The project, from author Dana Fox, 20th TV and Chernin Entertainment, focuses on an uptight single mom Kate (Elliott) whose aimless older brother Ned (Faxon) moves directly into help raise her daughter (Maggie Johnson). Co-starring within the pilot is Lucy Punch. Faxon, repped by Innovative and Principato-Youthful, is really a familiar face (and voice) at Fox. He co-starred around the network’s short-resided comedy Happy Hour and it has voiced figures on animated comedies The Cleveland Show and Allen Gregory. Faxon’s writing partner Rash is also on the primetime comedy series, he co-stars on NBC’s Community.

BOX OFFICE: Act Of Valor #1 With $24.7M Weekend, Good Deeds $16M, Wanderlust And Gone Explosive device

SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM, second UPDATE:Properly enough for Academy awards Sunday, it’s another up weekend for that eighth straight week this year.General moviegoingis at $135M, the industry whopping +24% over this past year.Obviously, Hollywood is ecstatic (though not in the prospect at sitting with the interminable Oscars simply to watch Harvey Weinstein gloat). Relativity’s R-ratedAct Of Valor has stayedNo. 1all weekend. It’s the the Bandito Siblings’ individually funded low-budget U.S. Navy fighting pressure taleusing actual Closes from an authentic script by Kurt Johnstad (300). (FYI, there is a novelization of this script, Tom Clancy Presents Act of Valor, compiled by Dick Couch and George Galdorsi and launched in paperback by Clancys writer. Relativity acquired the privileges towards the project last June for $13 million along with a $$ 30 million in prints and advertising commitment -the greatest money taken care of a finished film by having an unknown cast in those days.But Relativity didn’t spend $30M on P&A. That might have been the studio’s minimum legal commitment however it spent much more. Ryan Kavanaugh et al got 4 wildely costly Super Bowl game day advertisements. Yes, 4. That cost between $12M-14M alone (though Relativity claims it had been $6.5+M). Educated guess is they spent $45M-$50M total to hawk this actioner. Yes, they acquired domestic privileges for affordable and strongly pre-offered foreign. And, yes, your budget was just $12K. Appears like Relativity will recoup. Marketing-smart, Relativity released a hostile 400 screening enter in over 40 marketplaces included in amulti-pronged strategy that spoke to players, action fans, sports fans, ethnic audiences, new bands fans, patriots, military, women, and also the belief-based community. It had been about person to person then and today: audiences are submission by providing it an ‘A’ CinemaScore. Also getting an ‘A’ CinemaScore from audiences was Lionsgate’s beneficial romantic dramaGood Deeds. It makes sense middling for that Tyler Perry movie — does he clone them? — that was only playing by 50 percent,132 locations. Butthen individuals films where he doesn’t crossdress as Madea (and offendwith that stereotype) earn less. However it’s right consistent with Lionsgate anticipation and, besides, your budget was just $15M. Like them or otherwise, this really is yet anotherof author, director, producer Perry’ssoap operas specific to his core fans. But is Tyler a fascinating enough thesp tocarry a film virtually by themself or perhaps a large enough draw to feature only himselfon the film poster? Not necessarily.(And I only say this fearing his approaching portrayal of imaginary crimefighter Alex Mix.) Universal’s alleged comedyWanderlustbombed worse than the studio expecte: lousy trackingfor this R-ranked nonsense had indicated the film would open below $10M.Audiences gave it an average’B-’ CinemaScore. The mixture of Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd demonstrated toxicto moviegoers. FYI: this greenlight was the studio’s payback to Heroines director David Wain and and the creative partner Ken Marino and mogul/producer Judd Apatow. Regrettably your budget was $30M that is cheap by any standard except whenever a pic flops this badly.Sad, really, because Aniston’s flack-from-hell Stephen Huvanepulled out all of the nauseating stops by taking advantage of her personal existence — as always. Also tanking is Summit’snot-so-thrilling Gone starring Amanda Seyfried which gained merely a ‘C+’ CinemaScore.This is actually the latest consecutively of stinkers for your studio that is now a part of Lionsgate.The only real great news is the fact that, in line with the structure from the cope with producersLakeshore Entertainment and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment andother parties, the studio includes a internet chance of only $two million. Keep in mind that kids around the New England lost of faculty a few days ago so family holdovers Warner Bros’ Journey 2 and Disney’s The Key Existence Of Arrietty held strong — a minimum of until Universal/Illumination’sDr. Suess toon The Lorax opens next weekend. The new sony’s The Vow passed the $100M domestic mark this 3rd weekend out because the first Screen Gems film to ever hit $100M. Here’s the very best Ten (order based on weekend grosses): 1. Act Of Valor (Relativity) NEW [3,039 Theaters] Friday $9, Saturday $9.4, Weekend $24.7M 2. Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds (Lionsgate) NEW [2,132 Theaters] Friday $5.3M, Saturday $6.7M, Weekend: $16M 3. Journey 2 three dimensional (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,350 Theaters] Friday $3.2M, Saturday$6.4M,Weekend $13.4M,Cume $76.7M 4. Safe House (Universal) Week 3 [3,052 Theaters] Friday $3.1M, Saturday $5.0M, Weekend $11.3M, Cume $98M 5. The Vow (Screen Gems/The new sony) Week 3 [3,038 Theaters] Friday $3.2M, Saturday $4.5M,Weekend $10M, Cume $103M 6. Ghost Driver 2 three dimensional (The new sony) Week 2 [3,174 Theaters] Friday $2.3M, Saturday $4.1M,Weekend $8.8M (-60%),Cume $37.8M 7.What This Means Is War (Fox) Week 2 [3,189 Theaters] Friday $2.7M, Saturday $3.9M,Weekend $8.5M (-51%),Cume $33.5M 8. Wanderlust (Universal)NEW [2,002 Theaters] Friday $2.1M, Saturday $2.9M,Weekend $6.6M 9. Gone (Summit)NEW [2,186 Theaters] Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.1M,Weekend $5.0M 10. Secret Realm Of Arrietty (Disney)Week 2 [1,522 Theaters] Friday $1M, Saturday $2.1M,Weekend $4.5M (-30%),Cume $14.6M

Foreign Titles Dominate 41st New Directors/New Films Festival

An anticipated event on the annual festival circuit in the U.S. the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) unveiled the full lineup for the New Directors/New Films series taking place March 21 – April 1 in NY. The 41st edition of the event will spotlight 29 features and 12 shorts by emerging talent. Foreign titles are heavily represented in this year’s lineup with only a few Americans making the cut. Sony Classics’ Where Do We Go Now? by Nadine Labaki join the large group of foreign titles this year. Adam Leon’s Gimme The Loot, Sundance ’12 titles How To Survive A Plague by David France and An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty by Terence Nance are among the new U.S. offerings this year. ND/NF will break some precedent this year, hosting a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s Fear And Desire, twenty years older than the festival itself. Also new for the closing night is a surprise screening that will be revealed as the curtain raises April 1st. The 41st New Directors/New Films features selections include: THE AMBASSADOR (Ambassadren) (2011) 94min Directed by Mads Brgger Country: Denmark The consummate agent-provocateur–his method fittingly described as Graham Greene meets Borat–Brgger (THE RED CHAPEL, NDNF 2010) shocks and mightily entertains by performing an artistic intervention in reality using role-playing and hidden cameras to expose an awful truth about life in central Africa. BREATHING (Atmen) (2011) 90min Director: Karl Markovics Country: Austria The remarkably assured directorial debut from veteran Austrian actor Karl Markovics (THE COUNTERFEITERS) creates a slipstream between the perilousness of youth and the inevitability of death as it tells the story of an inmate at a juvenile detention center whose last hope of parole rests on his ability to hold down a job…as a morgue assistant. A Kino Lorber release. CRULIC: THE PATH TO BEYOND (2011) 73min Director: Anca Damian Country: Romania Anca Damians documentary utilizes hand drawn, cutout and collage animation techniques, combined with some very dark humor to create a striking documentary about a young Romanians hunger strike in a Polish jail. DONOMA (2011) 133min Directed by Djinn Carrnard Country: France Rumored to have been shot for about $200, DONOMA announces the arrival of an intriguing new talent on the French scene, Haitian-born, Paris based Djinn Carrnard. Devised, shot (often guerrilla-style) and edited over a period of years, the film is a choral piece that chronicles the romantic destinies of three women, offering a fresh, funny portrait of an emerging French generation. FEAR AND DESIRE (1953) 72min Director: Stanley Kubrick Country: USA Directed, photographed, and edited by the talented and ambitious 24-year-old Kubrick, FEAR AND DESIRE was written by his high school classmate, Howard Sackler, who would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize in playwriting.Some Kubrick scholars see this wartime drama of five soldiers behind enemy lines and their encounter with a native woman as a dry run for PATHS OF GLORY; others see it as the original to the second half of FULL METAL JACKET. A Kino Lorber release. 5 BROKEN CAMERAS (2011) 90min Directors: Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi Countries: Palestine/Israel/France Emad Burnats and Guy Davidis documentary began five years ago in the Palestinian town of Bilin when Burnat bought a camera to record the birth of his son Gibreel. Gibreels arrival, however, coincided with a period of great unrest in the area, which is witnessed by five video cameras, each subsequently damaged by bullets or rocks. A Kino Lorber release. FOUND MEMORIES (Historias Que So Existem Quando Lembradas) (2011) 98min Director: Julia Murat Country: Brazil The original title, which translates as “stories that only exist when remembered,” beautifully expresses the theme and core sentiment of Julia Murat’s poetic rendering of the fictive town of Jotuomba. A magical confluence of generations and cultures is occasioned by the visit of Rita, a young photographer, to this place where time has seemingly stood still and life is rooted in the fixed roles of tradition soon to be rendered obsolete. A Film Movement release. GENERATION P (2011) 116min Director: Victor Ginzburg Country: Russia Ginzburgs GENERATION P could be described as a metaphysical Mad Men from the go-go 1990s – a wonderland of images and ideas that emerged from the rebirth of a nation as a marketers paradise. The film offers a view of post-Communist Russia as the arrival of democracy and Pepsi-Cola brought the advance of capitalism with all of its mechanisms and fuzzy messages. GIMME THE LOOT (2012) 81min Director: Adam Leon Country: USA In his feature film debut, Adam Leon has created a raucous, car-less road trip that is an homage to street-smart kids and NY City. Malcolm and Sofia, two determined teens from theBronx, are the ultimate graffiti writers. When their latest masterpiece is wiped out by a rival gang, they must hustle, steal and scheme to get spectacular revenge and become the biggest graffiti writers in the city. GOODBYE (B omid didar) (2011) 104min Director: Mohammad Rasoulof. Country: Iran In his latest film, celebrated Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof creates a dramatic and tense tale set in Tehran, where a young woman is desperately attempting to acquire a visa to leave the country. The beautifully shot film uses the confinement of space to cinematically express claustrophobia, its precise framing catching every subtle expression on the face of the astonishing Leyla Zareh, who plays the disbarred human rights lawyer, Noora, looking for a way out. HEMEL (2012) 80min Director: Sacha Polak Country: The Netherlands/Spain Sacha Polaks HEMEL features Hannah Hoekstra as a strong-willed, complicated, and vulnerable heroine who longs (perhaps too much) to connect with her elusive father and ultimately find herself.The film is a powerful investigation of a sexually-empowered woman and her search for physical and intellectual intimacy. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (2012) 109min Director: David France Country: USA David Frances immersive moving-image document chronicling the rise of AIDS activism shows a movement though the lenses of those who captured it firsthand.Desperate people leveraged the skills they hadsome wrote, some lobbied, many marched, and all mobilizedto flight a plague that vast swaths of society saw as just punishment for immoral actions.A Sundance Selects release. HUAN HUAN (2011) 90min Director: Song Chuan Country: China Song Chuans first feature captures the dreams and desires, disappointments and regrets, of a life not fully lived via the title character. In a rural Chinese village, a young woman who is the local doctors mistress struggles against her family, government bureaucracy and social mores to move away and create a life for herself. IT LOOKS PRETTY FROM A DISTANCE (Z daleka widok jest piekny) (2011) 77min Directors: Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal Country: Poland Anka and Wilhelm Sasnals film is set in a Polish village effectively cut off from civilization, where rough and impassive Pawel makes a living scavenging for scrap metal. Theres bad blood between him and the community (a more spiteful collection of individuals would be hard to imagine), and when he goes AWOL his neighbors loot and vandalize his home. What if he returns? A brooding, almost wordless drama vision of a world in an advanced state of entropy. LAS ACACIAS (2011) 85min Director: Pablo Giorgelli Country: Argentina One of the discoveries of the 2011 Cannes Critics Week, Pablo Giogellis road movie with a difference takes a 900-mile trip from Asuncin in Paraguay to Buenos Aires in the company of Rubn, a gruff, taciturn truck driver and the two illegal immigrantsa young woman, and her new-born daughterhe is reluctantly transporting. THE MINISTER (Lexercice de ltat) (2011) 115min Director: Pierre Schller Country: France Pierre Schllers political thriller focuses on a cabinet minister (Olivier Gourmet) in charge of national transportation who believes himself to be a man of the people. He wants both to be and do good, but in order to get anything done he must, given the exigencies of compromise, cajole, bend and even betray. NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (O som ao redor) (2012) 124min Director: Kleber Mendona Filho Country: Brazil A thrilling debut from a breakout talent, Kleber Mendona Filhos NEIGHBORING SOUNDS delves into the lives of a group of prosperous middle-class families residing on a quiet street, close to a low-income neighborhood. A private security firm hired to police the street becomes the catalyst for an exploration of the neighbors discontents and anxieties, which are exacerbated by a palpable sense of unease over their societys troubled past and present inequities. NOW, FORAGER (2012) 93min Directors: Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin Countries: USA/Poland A quiet tale about the search for integrity and the perfect mushroom, Jason Cortlunds and Julia Halperins NOW, FORAGER followsLucien and Regina, an urban couple living off the land foraging for fungi in upstate NY with a dream of following the seasonal emergence of exotic varieties across the country.That is, until Reginas decision to take a job in the kitchen of a hip restaurant offers a more solid opportunity, even as it betrays Luciens off-the-grid ethos. OMAR KILLED ME (Omar ma tuer) (2011) 85min Director: Roschdy Zem Country: France Actor-turned-director Roschdy Zems OMAR KILLED ME tells a story of racism, politics, and injustice with the clarity of a documentary and the pacing of a thriller. When a rich widow was murdered in the south of France 20 years ago, her Moroccan gardener was convicted and jailed with no evidence; it took a committed journalist to try to unravel the rush to judgment that laid bare the racism that was hidden in the French justice system. OSLO, AUGUST 31ST (2011) 96min Director: Joachim Trier Country: Norway Daylight lingers at the end of August in Oslo, but sunlight is not a friend to Anders, a semi-recovered addict, facing a new life, which may not be appealing without former habits. Adapted from the same novel as Louis Malle’s THE FIRE WITHIN (1963), Joachim Triers OSLO, AUGUST 31ST follows Anders as he tries to adjust – making love, wandering through Oslo, having a job interview, seeing old friends, and trying to get comfortable with his situation. A Strand Releasing Film. AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY (2011) 95min Directed by Terence Nance Country: USA Frank, funny, and bracingly contemporary, visual artist Terence Nance gleefully bends the cinematic rules for his personal meditation on love in the new millennium with his film, AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF BEAUTY. Passages of live action sequences and direct-to-camera interviews are accented with a wide variety of animation styles as Nance analyzes his amorous history as well as his current circumstances. PORFIRIO (2011) 101min Director: Alejandro Landes Country: Colombia Paralyzed from the waist down by a stray police bullet, the title character in Alejandro Landes’ remarkable film spends his days selling minutes on his cell phone when not flirting with his comely neighbor, and secretly plotting his revenge. Landes worked on the film for five years, creating a tale that joined the most intimate details of Porfirio’s day-to-day life with an astonishing re-creation of his attempt to hijack an airplane. THE RABBIS CAT (Le chat du rabbin) (2011) 89min Director: Antoine Delesvaux Countries: France/Austria Adapted from the graphic novels by Joanne Sfar, THE RABBIS CAT is a vivid, lively, and imaginative animated film co-directed by Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux . Set in 1920s Algiers, a widower rabbi lives with his voluptuous and dutiful daughter and their pesky cat who swallows a parakeet and begins to speak, driving everyone crazy and moving the plot ahead by insisting on having a bar-mitzvah. THE RAID (2011) 100min Director: Gareth Huw Evans Countries: Indonesia/USA In Gareth Huw Evans sensational thriller, THE RAID, a police SWAT team storms a housing project ruled by gangsters and inhabited by machete-wielding lowlifesbut the mission has been leaked, the tables are turned, and a dwindling band of elite fighters find themselves massively outnumbered in a lethal game of cat and mouse. What ensues is a relentless and savage succession of close-quarters shoot-outs and punishing martial-arts combat sequences, each jaw-dropping smackdown unbelievably topping the previous one. This film is wild! A Sony Pictures Classics release. ROMANCE JOE (Ro-maen-seu Jo ) (2011) 115min Director: Lee Kwang-Kuk Country: South Korea In his playful first feature, Lee Kwang-Kuk expertly weaves several narrative strands into an elegant web and a meditation on storytelling. A teasing and pleasing portrait of a filmmaker in search of a story to tell, ROMANCE JOE begins as a young, self-possessed barmaid in a remote inn recalls the time she met the title character. TEDDY BEAR (2012) 92min Director: Mads Matthiesen Country: Denmark Mads Matthiesen’s character-based and understated comedy, TEDDY BEAR tells the story of a gentle giant of a body builder who self sculpts his muscles by day and lives quietly at home with his mom at night. But at 38, he really wants a proper girlfriend, and despite his mother’s resistance (she is a master of emotional manipulation) and his own profound awkwardness, he draws up the courage to find one–even if he has to leave Denmark to do so. TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (2011) 105min Director: Angelina Nikonova Country: Russia TWILIGHT PORTRAIT is a powerhouse collaboration co-written and co-produced by Angelina Nikonova, who directed, and Olga Dihovichnaya, who stars in this very dark, provocative and constantly surprising debut feature film. In a modern Russian city where corruption, apathy and class warfare are the norm, a woman is raped, rather casually, by the police. What follows explodes the conventions of sexual politicsand will certainly have filmgoers talking. WHERE DO WE GO NOW? (2010) 100min Director: Nadine Labaki Countries: France/Lebanon/Italy/Egypt Labakis film focuses on a group of women of different religions in a remote Lebanese village that band together and invent schemes to prevent their men from killing each other in the intractable religious conflict that surrounds their community. This entertaining and unlikely near-musical tears down stereotypes of women in the Middle East and uses humor to explore serious subjects, with one eye toward Aristophanes Lysistrata and the other toward Bollywood. A Sony Pictures Classics Release.