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	COEURS - (Private Fears In Public Places) Rating: M Length: 125 min Origin: France Produced: 2007 Director: Alain Resnais Language: French w/ English subtitles Cast: Laura Morante, Lambert Wilson, Pierre Arditi, Isabelle Carre Plus a MIFF short: Remember My Name A group of ordinary people, disaffected by the way things are, see a different way forward and put their bodies on the line for change. Rating: R 18+ Length: 12 min Origin: Australia Produced: 2007 Directors: Bo Duffy, Nick Moore, Kasimir Burgess
Synopsis Based on the Alan Ayckbourn play Private Fears in Public Places, tells the story of Thierry (André Dussollier), who when not trying to find an apartment for his difficult clients, Nicole (Laura Morante) and Dan (Lambert Wilson), tries to charm his alluring but saintly co-worker, Charlotte (Sabine Azéma). She lends him a tape of her favourite religious TV programme, but Thierry’s in for a huge surprise. Meanwhile, his sister, Gaëlle (Isabelle Carré), is on a quest of her own to find the love of her life. With the help of Lionel (Pierre Arditi), a friendly bartender, she meets Dan and they get on well until Gaëlle spots Dan with Nicole. Dan confides in Lionel, who has hired Charlotte as a night nurse for his terminally sick and unbearably rude father, Arthur and Charlotte performs a miracle in getting Arthur to behave himself.


	The Final Winter Rating: M Length: 96 min Origin: Australia Produced: 2006 Language: English Director: Brian Andrews, Jane Forrest Producer: Cast: John Jarratt, Matt Nable, Raelee Hill, Conrad Coleby
Synopsis As the winds of change sweep across the rugby league landscape, Grub Henderson (Matt Nable) defiantly stands among all others as the embodiment of those before him. Foreign codes of business are tearing at the fabric of loyalty that exists between Grub's club and family. He collides headon with an administration eager to bury him, and battles against his brother and coach's betrayal. At home his wife is troubled by the transformation of the man she married, and his children are left wanting for their father. In a bid to cling to his self-worth, Grub bitterly swallows his pride and bargains for his future. As the game that provides him an identity crumbles, he finds acceptance in the man he could be.
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	VITUS Rating: PG Length: 120 min Origin: Switzerland Language: German w/English subtitles Produced: 2006 Director: Fredi M. Murer Producers: Christian Davi, Christof Neracher MIFF recommends: Age 12+. Mild adult themes
Synopsis Vitus not only plays the piano like a virtuoso, he possesses ultra-sonic hearing and a propensity for reading the encyclopaedia. In other words, he is an extraordinary boy. Everyone anticipates a brilliant future for him but Vitus dreams of flying and a normal childhood. Starring real-life, musical prodigy Teo Gheorghiu and Bruno Ganz as his grandfather, “Vitus is first and foremost a declaration of love to the inspiring and healing power of music - furthermore, a declaration of love to life’s longing for itself, which is at its purest, liveliest and most individual in childhood.” (filmmaker Fredi M. Murer).
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	EAGLE VS SHARK Rating: M Length: 86 min Origin: New Zealand Produced: 2007 Director: Taika Waititi Producer: Cliff Curtis, Ainsley Gardiner Language: English Cast: Jemaine Clement, Loren Horsley, Brian Sergent, Rachel House Plus a MIFF short: SPIDER Always the perpetual prankster, Jack learns the hard way that the practical jokes he plays on his long-suffering girlfriend Jill, won’t always end with laughter. As Mum used to say, it’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye. Rating: R 18+ Length: 8 min Origin: Australia Produced: 2007 Director: Nash Edgerton Producer: Nicole O’Donohue Received an Honorable Mention at Sundance Film Festival 2008
Synopsis Painfully inept fast food worker Lily is the butt of her co-workers’ jokes and the object of her manager’s ire. The only bright spot on her day is the regular visit by übernerd man-child Jarrod, a clerk at the local videogame store. When Lily manages to show off her video game moves at a party, she wins what passes for Jarrod’s respect and kicks off an awkward, halting romance, which is derailed when Jarrod declares his intentions to return to his hometown to avenge himself against a former school bully. An hilarious celebration of awkwardness, Eagle vs Shark shows that you’re never too freaky or geeky to find love. The much-anticipated feature debut of MIFF Accelerator alumnus Taika Waititi. Stars Jemaine Clement from New Zealand comedy duo Flight of the Conchords.
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	THIS IS ENGLAND Rating: MA 15+ Length: 98 min Origin: UK Produced: 2006 Director: Shane Meadows Producer: Mark Herbert Language: English Cast: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Joseph Gilgun
Synopsis ISet against the braces and boots of Maggie Thatcher’s Britain, This is England rolls out over the long weeks of summer school holidays, based on filmmaker Shane Meadows’ own life story. Twelve year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) lives in a grim coastal town. After his father dies in the Falklands War, he falls easily under the influence of the local skinheads. His new buddies introduce Shaun to parties, The National Front, first love and the joys of Dr Martens boots, while also sending him headfirst down a rite of passage that is sure to shatter his fragile innocence.
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	ONCE Rating: M Length: 85 Origin: Ireland Produced: 2006 Director: John Carney Producer: Martina Niland Cast: Glen Hansard, Markéys Irglová
Synopsis Featuring Glen Hansard, lead singer of Irish band The Frames, John Carney’s Once is a modern-day musical. It tells of a busker’s chance meeting on a Dublin sidewalk with a pretty Czech pianist (played by Marketa Irglova, an actual Czech singer/songwriter) and their consequential musical rapport. Charming, low-key and uplifting, Once is a musical without the threat of breaking into a full-blown sing-song of dialogue. As this year’s Sundance Film Festival said of the film – where it won the Audience Award – “Great music aside, what makes this film special is how little effort it seems to exert. If it's possible to be blindsided by simplicity, a light touch, Once does it.”

	AFTER THE WEDDING Rating: M Length: 108 min Origin: Denmark Produced: 2006 Director: Susanne Bier Producer: Sisse Graum Jørgensen Language: Danish w/English subtitles Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgård, Sidse Babett Knudsen
Synopsis Screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen and director Susanne Bier’s (a reformed Dogme disciple of what Village Voice calls “emotional disaster movies”) gutwrenching drama looks at the emotional implosion that occurs when the lives of an altruistic aid worker and an arrogant billionaire collide. Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen, Exit in this year’s MIFF) runs an orphanage in India. When it is threatened with closure, he receives a generous offer from Jorgen, a Danish benefactor, on condition that Jacob fly to Copenhagen for a personal meeting. What unravels after this meeting is a series of secrets and subterfuge of near-biblical proportions.

	TELL NO ONE Rating: MA 15+ Length: 124 min Origin: France Produced: 2006 Director: Guillaume Canet Producer: Alain Attal Language: French w/ English subtitles Cast: Francois Cluzet, Andre Dussollier, Marie-Josee Croze, Kristin Scott Thomas Plus a MIFF short: ADVANTAGE A pshycological short thriller which explores a couple whose frisky interlude leads into one hell of a night out. Rating: R 18+ Length: 10 min Origin: Australia Produced: 2007 Director: Sean Byrne Producer: Donna McCrum, Andy Canny Screened at Sundance Film Festival 2008
Synopsis Pediatric Alex Beck, still devastated by the savage murder of his wife Margot in the early days of their marriage eight years ago, receives an anonymous email. When he clicks on the link he sees a woman’s face standing in a crowd and being filmed in real time – Margot’s face. Is she still alive? And why does she instruct him to ‘tell no one’?

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