Once again, the New York Film Festival anticipates Oscar.
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The sheer size of the Toronto festival can be intimidating.
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<img src="/images/features/new_directors/ndnf_06_2.gif" align="left" hspace="5" width="20" height="30" border="0" alt="L"><div id="body_text"><div class="body_text" align="justify" style="padding-right: 0.5ex">ast year's edition of New Directors/New Films may be impossible to top—by the time the series wrapped, more than half of the films in the 25-feature lineup had secured a distribution deal—but this year's edition shouldn't be shrugged off because there are no sure-things like <i>Murderball</i> and <i>Junebug</i> on the bill. If anything, this '06 edition casts its net just as wide, catching bitter truths and ironies from regions as far as Australia, Chile, India and the Philippines. <br><br><br> <div align="center"><img src="/images/features/new_directors/ndnf_06.jpg" width="205" height="51" border="0" alt="Half Nelson"></div><br><br> <i>Battle in Heaven</i> was last year's Cannes uproar, but it was <i>Sangre</i>, the first film directed by Carlos Reygadas's assistant director, Amat Escalante, that managed to win the festival's FIPRESCI Prize. Now it arrives here, distributorless and bound to stay that way given that it plays out like a desiccated version of the Reygadas polemic. The same could be said about Ian Gamazon and Neill dela Llana <i>Cavite</i>, a nervy but miscalculated thriller that gives <i>Phone Booth</i> a jihad facelift. The Park City carryovers, from Ryan Fleck's <i>Half Nelson</i> to Cam Archer's <i>Wild Tigers I Have Know</i>, are easy to identify—with or without the Sundance Institute logo stamped onto their end credits, you will know them by there meek dispositions. <br><br><br> <div align="center"><img src="/images/features/new_directors/ndnf_06_2.jpg" width="205" height="51" border="0" alt="Quinceanera"></div><br><br> Early highlights include the Belgium comedy <i>Iceberg</i>, Auraeus Solito's DV neorealist homo noir <i>The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros</i> from the Philippines, and Mohammad Rasoulof's <i>Iron Island</i> from Iran, with Matías Bize's <i>In Bed</i> promising a steamy pick-me-up in the series's second week. For a complete schedule of films, screening times and ticket information, please see the festival's <a href="http://www.filmlinc.com/ndnf/ndnf.htm">official site</a>. (Reviews will be posted on a daily basis.) <br><br></div></div>
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