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Independent films are often gritty and realistic. They tell stories that are relatable to many people. Unmade Beds is no exception. Directed by Argentinian director Alexis Dos Santos, this romantic drama tells the story of two random young people and their quest for love and truth. Originally released in 2009, this film was entered in the Sundance Film Festival and the Montreal Festival of New Cinema where it won the Quebec Film Critic’s Award.

Taking place in London, Unmade Beds follows the lives of two 20-somethings and their journeys of self-discovery, trying to find answers to the questions they have about life. The film opens with Axl (Fernando Tielve), a young man from Spain who serves as the picture’s narrator. He is on a mission to find his father who he has never met and confront him about being his son. He soon finds him working as a real...

Like any good hipster, director Alexis Dos Santos is a melange of influences: There's the Larry Clark-like fixation on near-underage threesomes, the formalistic touch of the French New Wave, the exoticism of his Argentinian heritage and the Anglo artiness of his British film school roots. All of those forces find their way onto the screen in Unmade Beds, his Manohla Dargis-praised tale of Axel (Fernando Tielve), a young man searching for his birth father while couch-surfing and sleeping his way through boho London.

As Unmade Beds had its Laff premiere this week, I talked to the unkempt auteur about hip clothes, his first film, Glue, and the artistic siren song of the menage a trois.

After time off for good behavior, Indie Roundup returns with an opinionated look at recent news.

Awards. The Cinema Eye Honors seek to recognize "the breadth of the [documentary] genre." Their second annual awards were handed out on Sunday, with James Marsh's superb Man on Wire deservedly taking home prizes for Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking, Production, and Editing. Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir received awards in the International Feature, Direction, and Graphic Design and Animation categories. Yung Chang's Up the Yangtze won the Audience Choice Award and Debut Feature Film honors, while Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World was recognized for Peter Zellner's cinematography. More information on the films is available at the official site of the Cinema Eye Honors.

Deals. IFC Films acquired Alexis Dos Santos' Unmade Beds and plans to make it available via their IFC in Theaters or IFC Festival Direct...

By R. Emmet Sweeney

The buzz is building around Alexis dos Santos' swoony sophomore effort, "Unmade Beds." Premiering at Sundance to no small acclaim, it made its way to Rotterdam and continues to impress. A jaunty, romantic tale of restless youth and their search for identity and a little sex, the film's real star is its set, a bohemian's paradise: a giant, labyrinthine warehouse stocked with drum sets, animal masks and an international cast of idealistic dreamers. Buzzing with French New Wave-like energy, there's a surprise (and a party) after every cut. Despite traveling from the wilds of Utah to the perpetually damp Holland, not to mention nursing a robust hangover, dos Santos heroically managed to sit down with me for a few questions about his latest work.

Could you talk about the origin of the film?

It goes back a long way. I started writing it when I finished film school in London.

I haven’t had time to write more than one review in the last 48 hours, which is a big problem because it means that I have a handful of films to write up in the next couple hours or I’ll be two or three days behind. The biggest problem with Sundance is that there isn’t enough time. You’re either seeing movies or partying or both and sleep and everything else gets consolidated into a space which is too small to really mean anything. And it doesn’t help that I’ve been sick the last two days. So I’m going to try to keep some of these short.

Alexis Dos Santos made a splash with his debut indie feature Glue, and Unmade Beds is his follow-up. A quirky story that follows the stories of Axl and Vera, both of whom live in a London warehouse together,...

It is easy to get lost looking at the 118 feature-length films in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival catalog. I know I usually become fixated on the U.S. Dramatic Competition, Premieres and American Spectrum selections, and I have often been criticized for my lack of international film coverage. So as Sundance nears on the horizon, I thought I’d include a couple not so typical films in the mix of previews. Sure, everyone is going to cover Big Fan or Adventureland, but what about the next Once or Eagle vs. Shark?

Alexis Dos Santos‘ debut film Glue played at many film festivals domestically and internationally in 2006, but pretty much flew under the radar of mainstream America. His new film, Unmade Beds premieres in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition. The film is described by Sundance programmer Caroline Libresco as “startlingly visceral and original” and “a rhythmic stream-of-consciousness mood...

NEW YORK -- Novelist-turned-director Paul Auster's fantasy The Inner Life of Martin Frost and Argentinean director Alexis Dos Santos' coming-of-age feature Glue will open the 36th annual New Directors/New Films festival, hosted by the Museum of Modern Art's film department and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

The 26-feature lineup for the fest, which runs March 21-April 1, also includes recent Sundance Film Festival prizewinners from directors John Carney (Once) and Christopher Zalla (Padre Nuestro).

Other recent Sundance entries set to be screened at the festival are Andrea Arnold's Scottish thriller Red Road, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's Ugandan conflict documentary War/Dance and Craig Zobel's music biz scam exam The Great World of Sound.

Frost, based on a character in Auster's 2002 novel The Book of Illusions, stars David Thewlis as a writer haunted by bizarre characters who appear during his much-needed vacation at a country house. Irene Jacob, Michael Imperioli and Sophie Auster co-star.

Paul Auster is a slightly odd choice for a fest showcasing "new or emerging international directors" given that he helmed 1998's Lulu on the Bridge and co-directed 1995's Blue in the Face with Wayne Wang.