A review of the Oscar-nominated nature documentary “The Last Lions.” [...]

“El Premio” is a slow, meditative piece with a political back story and a headstrong protagonist too young to understand the danger that her family is in. Incidentally, these aspects are shared by last year’s Golden Bear winner, the Turkish production “Bal.” For a festival whose award choices are often seen as political, “El Premio” is exactly the sort of film that Berlin loves.

Daniel Alfredson, director of the second “Millennium” film (“The Girl [...]

Last year in Cannes I remember seeing a youngish filmmaker [...]

“We are what we are” (“Somos lo que hay”) is the wickedly original and poised directorial debut from young Mexican writer-director Jorge Michel Grau. Focusing on a moment of crisis in a family of cannibals “We are what we are” was one of the discoveries of the 2010 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, before playing at the New York Film Festival and Fantastic Fest, where it won the “Next Wave” competition for Best Film and Best Screenplay. The film will receive its U.S. theatrical premiere on Friday, February 18 at IFC Center in New York. It will simultaneously be available nationwide on IFC Midnight’s video on demand platform.

The acting is truly awesome. Nowadays, athletes—be they tennis players, runners or X-game participants—accomplish incredible feats that leave us slack-jawed and wondering what they will do next. Snowboard down Everest? Jump parkour-style over the rooftops of Paris from Montmartre to Notre-Dame? Run a thousand miles without stopping? Actors are the same. Their performances become better and better and not only because of the perfect digitized images on enormous Cineplex screens and of voices booming through dolbied surround sound.

“Midnight in Paris” a new film by Woody Allen, will [...]