by Alex Deleon for <filmfestivals.com> The sixteenth edition of the Arab Film Festival (which travels to five cities in California) opened here on Friday, October 19 with a festive reception at the Screen writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. This is an intensive three day event which will screen as many films as can be squeezed into a long weekend. The opening night film was "Man Without a Cell Phone", a debut feature by Palestinian filmmaker Sameh Zoabi who has won various...

  The Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallee first made significant waves in 2005 with his rock-infused coming-of-age film C.R.A.Z.Y., which won major prizes on the international film festival circuit and was sold to almost 50 international territories (a strong statement for a French language Canadian film). Unfortunately, its success was not matched in the United States, where it played at the New Directors/New Films festival and other prestigious events, but never got theatrically released....

Thursday, March 29----With Spring (finally) making its arrival after an unexpected early March frost and series of snowstorms, one of the rites of Spring in New York is the NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS festival, which is entering its final weekend with a spring bouquet of films. The series, which is celebrating its 36th anniversary, is a joint presentation of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Film Department of the Museum of Modern Art, with screening at both MoMA and the Film Society's ...