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Kim Zolciak is coming to her daughter's defense! The "Don't Be Tardy" star is no stranger to public scrutiny, but this time, 13-year-old Ariana Biermann was the target. After the Bravolebrity posted an Instagram pic of her family cheering on husband Kroy Biermann at football practice, some haters commented on her daughter's changing appearance. And that didn't sit well with the mother-of-six. "My sweet, smart, motivated princess @arianabiermann. She has the biggest [heart] and is even more beautiful on the inside and you Low Life a**holes who have the audacity to make your rude comments, 'she finally lost weight 'she finally came into her own' Wtf is wrong with you!" she captioned a zoomed-in pic of Ariana. "What possesses you to sit behind a computer and write a negative comment?!!!!" she added. "Can you imagine if you took the time to write something positive or nothing at all how wonderful this world would be!

Kim Zolciak is one protective mama! The Don't Be Tardy star took to Instagram to defend her daughter, Ariana Biermann, against the haters who have turned to social media to body shame her. The reality TV mother wouldn't stand for it and posted a pretty picture of her daughter with a lengthy caption to describe her anger she feels towards Internet trolls. "My sweet, smart, motivated princess @arianabiermann she has the biggest [heart] and is even more beautiful on the inside and you Low Life assholes who have the audacity to make your rude comments, 'she finally lost weight' 'she finally came into her own' Wtf is wrong with you!" she began her caption. Kroy Biermann's wife...

Kim Zolciak is firing back at Instagram followers judging her tween daughter's appearance.

After the Bravo reality star posted a photo Tuesday of her family cheering on husband Kroy Bierrman at football practice, some fans commented on how much Ariana, 12, has changed since she first appeared with her mom on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

But Zolciak-Biermann, 37, couldn't stand the body-shaming scrutiny.

"My sweet, smart, motivated princess @arianabiermann. She has the biggest [heart] and is even more beautiful on the inside and you Low Life a---holes who have the audacity to make your rude comments, 'she finally lost weight 'she finally...

In July, talented web series creators traveled Down Under for the Melbourne Web Fest, which brands itself as "the first and only festival dedicated exclusively to web series in Australia — and the southern hemisphere." The three-day event included 32 official selections, with the black comedy Low Life ultimately taking home the Grand Jury Prize. Low Life, which first debuted on Vimeo in April, follows its protagonist as he battles depression. All six of the series' episodes are available through its website. In addition to the Grand Jury Prize, Low Life was also named Best Comedy, beating out high-profile web series like Convos With My 2-Year-Old and Caper in the process. The winner for Best Drama was Libres, about a group of seven city dwellers who face challenges in their attempt to move to the countryside. Libres, which comes from Spain, also represents the international and multi-cultural makeup of the Melbourne Web Fest selections.

The 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards went off without a hitch earlier this evening (February 22) with "12 Years a Slave" continuing to make waves snagging the biggest prize of the night.

Before her film won Outstanding Motion Picture, the gorgeous Lupita Nyong'o added another piece of hardware to her already impressive collection taking home a trophy for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, while Kerry Washington snagged up her second Image Award with a win for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series. Kerry's show "Scandal" also won Outstanding Drama Series.

In addition, the hilarious Kevin Hart took home Entertainer of the Year, while Oprah Winfrey paid tribute to the late Nelson Mandela with a touching speech and musical dedication.

"He was everything we have all have heard and more. He was humble and he was unscathed by any kind of bitterness after all that we know he's been through," Winfrey said.

The 45th NAACP Image Awards were presented Saturday night (Feb. 22), with names like Kevin Hart, Kerry Washington, "12 Years a Slave" director Steve McQueen and Lupita Nyong'o being honored.

The Image Awards pay tribute to the best in film, TV, writing, music and literature. Take a look at the full list of winners below.

Winners are in bold.

Entertainer of the Year

Kevin Hart

Film

Outstanding Motion Picture

"12 Years A Slave" "Fruitvale Station""Lee Daniels' The Butler""Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom""The Best Man Holiday" 

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture

Forest Whitaker - "Lee Daniels' The Butler"Chadwick Boseman - "42"Chiwetel Ejiofor - "12 Years A Slave"Idris Elba - "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom"Michael B. Jordan - "Fruitvale Station"

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture

Angela Bassett - "Black Nativity"Halle Berry - "The Call"Jennifer Hudson - "Winnie Mandela"Kerry Washington - "Tyler Perry Presents Peeples"Nicole Beharie...

Adding their picks to the awards season deluge, the 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards unveiled the official list of nominees.

Not surprisingly, “The Butler” will compete in categories including Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Supporting Actor & Actress and Writing.

Meanwhile, Kerry Washington’s “Scandal” is up for Outstanding Drama Series, and Ms. Washington herself received a nod for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.

NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock gushed, “This has been an incredible year from the artistic community, with phenomenal contributions across the board from the music, television, motion picture, and literature genres that have the power and impact to drive social change.”

The 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards will go live on Friday, February 21st.

And the nominees are:

Television

Outstanding Comedy Series

"House of Lies" (Showtime)

"Modern Family" (ABC)

"Real Husbands of Hollywood" (Bet)

"The Game" (Bet)

"The Soul Man" (TV Land)

Outstanding Actor in...

Gregory Katz, Associated Press

London (AP) - Known on the one hand for his starring role in "Lawrence of Arabia," leading tribesmen in daring attacks across the desert wastes, and on the other for his headlong charges into the depths of drinking, Peter O'Toole was one of the acting world's most charismatic figures.

O'Toole, who died Saturday at age 81 after a long bout of illness, was fearsomely handsome, with burning blue eyes and a penchant for hard living, which long outlived his decision to give up alcohol. Broadcaster Michael Parkinson told Sky News television it was hard to be too sad about the news of his passing.

"Peter didn't leave much of life unlived, did he?" he said, chuckling.

A reformed - but unrepentant - hell-raiser, O'Toole long suffered from ill health. Always thin, he had grown wraithlike in later years, his famously handsome face eroded by years of hard drinking.

Today we have a restricted international trailer for the upcoming "The Immigrant" drama, which was previously called "Low Life" and stars Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Renner. Check it out below. Plot: 1920. In search of a new start and the American dream, Ewa Cybulski (Cotillard) and her sister Magda sail to New York from their native Poland. When they reach Ellis Island, doctors discover that Magda is ill, and the two women are separated. Ewa is released onto the mean streets of Manhattan while her sister is quarantined. Alone, with nowhere to turn and desperate to reunite with Magda, she quickly falls prey to Bruno (Phoenix), a charming but wicked man who takes her in and forces her into prostitution. And then one day, Ewa encounters Bruno's cousin, the debonair magician Orlando (Renner). He sweeps Ewa off her feet and quickly becomes her only chance to escape the nightmare in which she finds herself.

The story of Mary Stuart gets another cinematic workout in Mary Queen of Scots from Swiss director Thomas Imbach, who adapts Austrian author Stefan Zweig’s biography Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles into an intimate and serious-minded biopic that never quite gets into the head of the protagonist. Delicately featured French actress Camille Rutherford (Low Life) stars as the titular Queen but her delivery, in French and English, is often stilted and she struggles to illuminate the complexity of her character in the way Zweig, partly inspired by the writings of his fellow Viennese contemporary, Sigmund Freud, did.

read more...

Last year, to celebrate Pov’s 25th anniversary, Filmmaker organized a series of conversations between documentary directors whose work had been featured on the PBS non-fiction showcase. This year, we continue this series with a fascinating discussion between Stephen Maing — whose debut feature on Chinese citizen bloggers, High Tech, Low Life, is currently streaming for free on the Pov website – with Lixin Fan, the Chinese filmmaker whose Last Train Home, an intimate portrait of a fractured family of migrant workers in China, won him great acclaim in 2009. In the conclusion of this five-part discussion, the two discuss how to construct a story through intimacy. High …...

Last year, to celebrate Pov’s 25th anniversary, Filmmaker organized a series of conversations between documentary directors whose work had been featured on the PBS non-fiction showcase. This year, we continue this series with a fascinating discussion between Stephen Maing — whose debut feature on Chinese citizen bloggers, High Tech, Low Life, is currently streaming for free on the Pov website – with Lixin Fan, the Chinese filmmaker whose Last Train Home, an intimate portrait of a fractured family of migrant workers in China, won him great acclaim in 2009. In the fourth segment of this five-part discussion, the two documentarians discuss the co-dependent relationship between the filmmaker …...

Yesterday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge presented their newly born baby boy to the world during a photo-call. If you didn't get enough of it, or if you are simply curious of knowing how members of a Royal family spend their time, you can treat yourself with the newly released trailer for the movie "Mary, Queen of Scots" based upon the real life of one of Great Britain's most tragic royal figures: Mary Stuart (1542-1587).This French/Swiss co-production is based upon a biography of Mary Stuart written by famed German writer Stefan Zweig. The film was helmed by Swiss director Thomas Imbach and has a young French actress named Camille Rutherford ("Low Life," "Holy Motors") playing the titular character. There hasn't been much publicity surrounding this film as of yet but it will hopefully get more exposure when it premieres at Tiff in September. Judging by the trailer,...

Last year, to celebrate Pov’s 25th anniversary, Filmmaker organized a series of conversations between documentary directors whose work had been featured on the PBS non-fiction showcase. This year, we continue this series with a fascinating discussion between Stephen Maing — whose debut feature on Chinese citizen bloggers, High Tech, Low Life, is currently streaming for free on the Pov website – with Lixin Fan, the Chinese filmmaker whose Last Train Home, an intimate portrait of a fractured family of migrant workers in China, won him great acclaim in 2009. In the third of this five-part discussion, the two filmmakers discuss how unforeseeable circumstances have contributed to their documentary films. …...

Last year, to celebrate Pov’s 25th anniversary, Filmmaker organized a series of conversations between documentary directors whose work had been featured on the PBS non-fiction showcase. This year, we continue this series with a fascinating discussion between Stephen Maing – whose debut feature on Chinese citizen bloggers, High Tech, Low Life, is streaming for free on the Pov website from today – and Lixin Fan, the Chinese filmmaker whose Last Train Home, an intimate portrait of a fractured family of migrant workers in China, won him great acclaim in 2009. In the second of this five-part discussion, the two discuss …...

Last year, to celebrate Pov’s 25th anniversary, Filmmaker organized a series of conversations between documentary directors whose work had been featured on the PBS non-fiction showcase. This year, we continue this series with a fascinating discussion between Stephen Maing – whose debut feature on Chinese citizen bloggers, High Tech, Low Life, airs tonight on Pov – with Lixin Fan, the Chinese filmmaker whose Last Train Home, an intimate portrait of a fractured family of migrant workers in China, won him great acclaim in 2009. In the first of this five-part discussion, the two discuss their early cinematic experiences. High Tech, …...

Sure, Sunday tends to be overcrowded with high-end TV, including "True Blood," "The Newsroom," "Copper," "Dexter," "Ray Donovan" and more, but what to watch the rest of the time? Every Monday, we bring you five noteworthy highlights from the other six days of the week. "The Cheshire Murders": Broadcast Premiere Monday, July 22 at 9pm on HBO Kate Davis and David Heilbroner's ("Jockey") true-crime documentary premieres on HBO on the six-year anniversary of the murders of the title -- a brutal home invasion, arson, rape and triple homicide in small-town Connecticut. Looking at the details of the event and interviewing the people involved in the case as well as the friends and family of the victims and the perpetrators, the film explores how a community deals with tragedy and the complications arising from the prosecution's seeking of the death penalty. "Pov": "High Tech, Low Life" Monday, July 22 at...

Sundance Institute has announced the four independent films that will make their digital debut on June 18 through a variety of platforms and storefronts, via the Institute’s Artist Services program. In addition, three previously announced titles will expand to additional portals. For details visit sundance.org/nowplaying.

The upcoming releases, three of which are documentaries, focus on unlikely heroes such as the bold and brave reporters challenging the boundaries of free speech in their homeland of China (High Tech, Low Life) and women serving time in a Siberian prison who organize a beauty pageant every year to demonstrate that beauty can still be found in the ugliest of places (Miss Gulag). Titles will be available on a variety of platforms, including iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Microsoft Xbox, Sony Entertainment Network, SundanceNOW, Vudu and YouTube.

Burn will be released as part of a recent collaboration between Artist Services and non-profit partner organization Film Independent. The collaboration allows partner organizations to select films they have supported to receive access to best-in-class digital distribution arrangements secured by Artist Services.

My Best Day premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in the Next section.

Titles Available June 18

Burn (Directors: Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez) — Burn is an award-winning, action-packed documentary capturing a year in the lives of Detroit firefighters who are charged with the thankless task of saving a city that many have written off as dead. A portion of proceeds from each sale go to the Leary Firefighters Foundation. (Released through Artist Services collaboration with Film Independent)

High Tech, Low Life (Director: Stephen Maing) — High Tech, Low Life follows two of China’s first and most daring citizen reporters as they fight censorship, document the underside of the country’s rapid economic development, and challenge the boundaries of free speech. (2010 Documentary Edit and Story Lab)

Miss Gulag (Director: Maria Yatskova-Ibrahimova) — Through the prism of a beauty pageant staged by female inmates of a Siberian prison camp emerges a complex narrative of the lives of the first generation of women to come of age in Post-Soviet Russia. (2006 Documentary Film Grant)

My Best Day (Director: Erin Greenwell) — Karen has to work her receptionist gig on the Fourth of July. A call comes from her long-lost father. Enlisting her friend Meagan, Karen investigates her father's trailer home. Karen's journey sets in motion a chain of events that will change not just her but this one small town forever. (2012 Sundance Film Festival)

Previously Announced Titles Available On Additional Platforms

Code of the West (Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen) — Code Of The West follows the human stories behind the recent federal crackdown on medical marijuana growers. This is the story of what happens when politics fail, emotions run high and communities pay the price. (Released through Artist Services collaboration with Ifp and Cinereach)

Ecological Design: Inventing the Future (Director: Brian Danitz) — This documentary's thesis focuses on the emergence of ecological design, from the original vision of the independent thinkers in the 1920s to the powerful present-day movement. (1995 Sundance Film Festival)

Unfinished Spaces (Directors: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray) — Cuba's ambitious National Art Schools project, designed by three young artists in the wake of Castro's Revolution, is neglected, nearly forgotten, then ultimately rediscovered as a visionary architectural masterpiece. (Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue)

The Artist Services program provides artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work. The exclusive aggregation partner for distribution across all portals participating in the Artist Services program is Cinedigm. The Artist Services initiative is made possible by The Bertha Foundation. These deals were brokered via pro bono legal services generously provided by law firm O’Melveny & Myers, which has built the legal framework for the Artist Services program and participating filmmakers since its inception.

Sundance Institute

Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global, nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to nurturing artistic expression in film and theater, and to supporting intercultural dialogue between artists and audiences. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to unite, inform and inspire, regardless of geo-political, social, religious or cultural differences. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival and its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

The Sundance Institute's distribution and marketing arm Artist Services will digitally debut four upcoming independent films. Beginning June 18, titles will be available everywhere from iTunes, Amazon and Microsoft Xbox to SundanceNOW. The four films are internationally bound documentaries "Miss Gulag" and "High Tech, Low Life" as well as a film from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival: Erin Greenwell's narrative feature "My Best Day" and Detroit firefighter doc "Burn," directed by Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez, which came to Artist Services under the auspices of Find's filmmaker program; it premiered at Tribeca in 2012. More details over at Sundance here. Since launching in January 2011, Artist Services has been expanding and reshaping itself as an alternative distribution platform by continually making new titles digitally available for audiences and forming partnerships with Cinedigm and non-profit Film Independent, among others (read our Toh analysis from...

Top Ten Most Anticipated Movies at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival As you read this I am just about to land in New York, before hopping on a plane to Nice as I make my way to the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, something I would not have been able to do had it not been for the generous contributions from the RopeofSilicon readers. It's almost impossible to tell you how much more energized I am to cover this year's festival due to the help from the readers and I have to say, it's quite a line-up I'll be reviewing for you this year, which brings us to the following list. If you haven't yet had a look at this year's line-up I have the complete list right here where you'll find the list of 20 films competing for this year's Palme d'Or, the films selected for the Un Certain Regard, those playing Out of Competition,...

Uh oh! It looks like Jay-z is following in the footsteps of Bff Kanye, because the rapper slammed Taylor in his new song ’100$ Bill’! Find out what Jay-z said about Tay!

Taylor Swift isn’t the only one who uses her songs to get revenge! In a new song from The Great Gatsby soundtrack, Jay-z calls the 23-year-old singer out!

Jay-z Disses Taylor Swift In New ‘Great Gatsby’ Song

In the song, Jay-z implies that people tell celebrities to behave, but they don’t have to because of the amount of money they have. He raps, “That cheese made us constipated couldn’t tell us s**t.

Then, Jay-z takes a major stab at Taylor! He says, “Took that, Taylor Swift to a hundred f**king million, b***h,” referring to the incident where Kanye West stole the microphone from Taylor at the 2009 MTV Music Awards. Jay-z is saying Kanye became famous for dissing Taylor,...

The full lineup for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival was announced today, and it looks like a really great group of films will be screening in the south of France later next month. Official selections include Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, Roman Polanski’s Venus In Fur, and James Gray’s The Immigrant (previously titled Low Life). Additionally, the Robert Redford man vs. nature film All Is Lost will premiere out of competition, and Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, James Franco’s As I Lay Dying, and the Sundance hit Fruitvale Station (previously titled Fruitvale) will screen Un Certain Regard. A number of these titles are early awards contenders, and I’m particularly interested to hear the reaction for the Coens’ Davis and Payne’s The Descendants follow-up Nebraska, which...

 

Director Stephen T. Maing's documentary High Tech, Low Life depicts a period of time (2008-early 2012, I think) in the lives of two Chinese bloggers as they attempt to circumvent censorship in China, aka "The Great Firewall." We are first introduced to "Zola," a 26-year-old produce seller from Hunan Province who likes to post stories that state media won't and other reporters can't.  He says, "The truth is, I don't know what journalism is... I just record what I witness." 

This is a marked contrast with "Tiger Temple," a 57-year-old retiree based out of an apartment in Beijing, inspired to start a blog in 2004 after witnessing and documenting a murder in the street. Tiger Temple rides his bike long distances  to cover stories upon request/small donation, and tends to get emotionally involved. After finding homeless folk in Tiananmen Square, forgotten by the country that had removed them from their rural homes decades ago,...

While the Oscars are no doubt Hollywood's most coveted prize, we can't help but think of all the noteworthy films and performances that are not being recognized by the Academy. With tongue in cheek (but seriously too), we take a look some alternative categories that recognized (and call out) some unlikely films and performances of both the legitimate and dubious variety. Most Woefully Overlooked Performance of the Year James Badge Dale as Gaunt Young Man in Flight Dane DeHaan as Andrew Detmer in Chronicle Gina Gershon as Sharla Smith in Killer Joe Marin Ireland as Woman in 28 Hotel Rooms Nate Parker as Jimmy Grant in Arbitrage Best Supporting Performance by a Male Playing a Low Life in Killing Them Softly James Gandolfini as Mickey (the deranged hitman) Richard Jenkins as Driver (the ultimate middle man) Ray Liotta as Markie Trattman (the unfortunate patsy) Scoot McNairy as Frankie (the doomed thief...

As the Chinese government strengthens its effort to police its news media and the Internet, some of its citizens are resisting this blatant attempt to control information by committing themselves to investigating the news. Stephen Maing's documentary, High Tech, Low Life, follows two such people, Zola and Tiger Temple, who were inspired to take action by essentially becoming rogue journalists. When Zola noticed that his local newspapers were choosing which news stories to cover and which to bury, he began to dedicate his life to reporting the truth. By posing as a curious bystander at newsworthy events, Zola was able to secretly take photos and videos and post them to his website. Similarly, Tiger Temple witnessed the unreported plights of desperate rural farmers and of poor unemployed urban workers who are being pushed out of cities. He was inspired to become an advocate, travel the country side to gather ...

So, the last time we talked about this project, we were all like – take a look, Joaquin Phoenix is back, and he stars in The Untitled James Gray Project together with Marion Cotillard! Then, a strange thing happened and we were all like – the movie is now titled A Low Life! But today, we’re here to (finally) say that the real title is actually Nightingale, and to share more photos from the whole thing with you!

James Gray directed the movie from a script he co-wrote with Ric Menello, and beside Phoenix and Cotillard, Nightingale also stars Jeremy Renner, Angela Sarafyan, Dagmara Dominczyk, Glenn Fleshler, Tom Stratford, Ilia Volok and Antoni Corone.

In case you’ve missed the official synopsis, here’s a little reminder:

1920. In search of a new start and the American dream, Ewa Cybulski and her sister Magda sail to New York from their native Poland.

"The Devil, Probably [1977], one of the great Robert Bresson's greatest, and least-seen, movies gets a week-long run (April 20-26) in the midst of BAMcinématek's Bresson retrospective — resplendent in a new 35mm print and hailed by no less an authority than Richard Hell as 'the most punk movie ever made.'" J Hoberman for Artinfo: "Like all Bresson's movies, The Devil, Probably is a drama of faith so formally rigorous and uncompromising as to border on the absurd — a Dostoyevskian story of a tormented soul presented in the stylized manner of a medieval illumination. At once chic and austere, The Devil, Probably is a generic youth movie set in a Parisian student milieu where long-haired panhandlers play their bongos by the Seine while sinister nihilists mock religion by planting pornographic photos in church documents. Opening with a newspaper headline (Youth Kills Self In PÈRE Lachaise Cemetery), it unfolds in flashback...

Michael Haneke, Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant

on the set of Amour

It's been a couple of weeks since the French magazine Premiere posted "Cannes 2012: Le buzzomètre," a list of over 30 films, each of which were assigned a numerical probability of its making the lineup at Cannes this year. Speculation has only grown hotter, of course, with an official announcement slated for April 19; Critics' Week and the Directors' Fortnight will follow on April 23 and 24, respectively. "Paris is rife with rumors about who will make it," reports Fabien Lemercier at Cineuropa. "Several films by 'big fish' have not been seen yet, and many who have already shown their film are eagerly awaiting news."

A few days ago, a French blog pulled an April Fools' Day prank that thoroughly ticked off Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux. The blog claimed to have seen the full lineup, "briefly published on the official Cannes Film Festival...

by Vadim Rizov

Nicolas Klotz and Elizabeth Percival's Low Life is a hybrid horror film about illegal immigration laced with academic dialogue, scored by a thumpingly contemporary dubstep/witch-house soundtrack. The subjects are students and squatters, who gather nightly to applaud tango dancing in small bars, party in converted lofts, and face off against the police on ideological grounds. While police try to raid a building full of illegal immigrants, the kids form a line of resistance and start chanting insults comparing the police to the Nazi-collaborator Vichy regime. Someone throws a Molotov cocktail, a cop's leg catches on fire, and hostilities cease as he's dragged inside to receive aid from the aliens he's there to arrest.

The long nursing aftermath rounds off 20 minutes that make a much more filled-out argument against French policing practices than the hilariously abrupt moment in Philippe Garrel's 2011 That Summer, in which two friends'...

I will soon post a list of films I have already seen that I highly recommend as well as a list of my most anticipated films screening at this year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema. For now here is the press release from the festival. Make sure you read carefully because there are a ton of great films to check out.

Montreal, Tuesday September 27, 2011– Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma will be celebrating its 40th edition from October 12 to 23. For the past 40 years, Canada’s oldest film festival has offered film buffs a selection of the year’s most exciting new films — a bold lineup with plenty of whimsical and surprising elements, but one that also turns its lens on social realities and the evolution of film and new technologies. Over the course of this year’s 11-day Festival, audiences of all ages can take in features and shorts, fiction films and documentaries,...

Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner in Low Life Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix are set to star in, and Jeremy Renner in discussions, for We Own the Night director James Gray's Low Life. Deadline reports that Greg Shapiro is producing Low Life which stars Cotillard as a woman trying to immigrate from Poland, however, her American dream turns into a nightmare. While sailing to Ellis Island for her new start, her sister falls ill, leaving her trading sexual favors to get medicine and food. Once landing, she's warned to stay quiet about the events. With no place to go, she ends up falling prey to a charming sleazebag played by Phoenix. He persuades her to turn to prostitution in New York...