This year’s 16 films were selected from 1,058 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.
Welcome To The Rileys and The Dry Land
3 Backyards (Three Backyards)
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Eric Mendelsohn; Writer: Eric Mendelsohn; Stars: Embeth Davidtz, Edie Falco, Elias Koteas, Rachel Resheff, Kathryn Erbe, Peyton List, Dana Eskelson, Danai Jekesai Gurira, LeRoy Wilson Jr., Kathy Searle, Cory Nichols, Antonio Ortiz, Catrina Ganey, Paul Urcioli, Victor Pagan),
Official Site
A quiet suburban town becomes an intense emotional terrain for three residents over the course of one curious autumn day.
World Premiere
Blue Valentine
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Derek Cianfrance; Writer: Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis, Cami Delavigne; Stars: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman, Ben Shenkman, Liam Ferguson, Maryann Plunkett, Faith Wladyka, Samii Ryan, Tamara Torres, Carey Westbrook, Eileen Rosen, Michael J. Kraycik),
Official Site
A couple love and lose.
World Premiere
Douchebag
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Drake Doremus; Writer: Andrew Dickler, Drake Doremus, Ben York Jones, Marius A. Markevicius, Lindsay Stidham; Stars: Andrew Dickler, Ben York Jones, Marguerite Moreau, Nicole Vicius, Amy Ferguson, Wendi McClendon-Covey)
On the verge of getting married, Sam Nussbaum insists he escort his younger brother, Tom, on a wild goose chase of a journey to find Tom's fifth grade girlfriend.
World Premiere
The Dry Land
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Ryan Piers Williams; Writer: Ryan Piers Williams; Stars: Ryan O'Nan, America Ferrera, Jason Ritter, Starwind, Kate Schroeder, Benito Martinez, Jeremiah Bitsui, Candice Costello, June Diane Raphael, Ethan Suplee, Zion Sandoval, Melissa Leo, Evan Jones, David Smith, Misty Upham)
A US soldier returning home from war struggles to reconcile his experiences abroad with the life and family he left in Texas.
World Premiere
Happythankyoumoreplease
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Josh Radnor; Writer: Josh Radnor; Stars: Malin Akerman, Josh Radnor, Kate Mara, Zoe Kazan, Tony Hale, Pablo Schreiber, Michael Algieri)
A mumblecore romcom following a group of friends struggling with their relationships.
World Premiere
Happythankyoumoreplease and Howl
Hesher
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Spencer Susser; Writer: Spencer Susser and David Michod, based on a story by Brian Charles Frank; Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson, Piper Laurie, John Carroll Lynch, Audrey Wasilewski, Frank Collison, Devin Brochu, Lyle Kanouse, Paul Bates, Monica Staggs, Allan Graf, Biff Yeager, Brendan Hill, Van Epperson),
Official Site
A mysterious, anarchical trickster descends on the lives of a family struggling to deal with a painful loss.
World Premiere
Howl
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman; Writer: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman; Stars: James Franco, Mary-Louise Parker, Jon Hamm, Jeff Daniels, Alessandro Nivola, David Strathairn, Treat Williams, Aaron Tveit, Bob Balaban, Jon Prescott, Todd Rotondi, Andrew Rogers, Cecilia Foss, William Fowle, Anna Kuchma)
The story of Allen Ginsberg’s ground-breaking poem is told through a mixture of reconstruction and animation.
World Premiere
The Imperialists Are Still Alive!
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Zeina Durra; Writer: Zeina Durra; Stars: Élodie Bouchez, José María de Tavira, Karim Saleh, Karolina Muller, Armin Amiri, Marianna Kulukundis, Rita Ackerman, Pierluca Arancio, Karen Lynn Gorney, Oksana Lada, Robert Prescott, Anthony John Crane, Alexander Wraith, Vitali Baganov, Jessica Pimentel)
Juggling the sudden abduction of her childhood sweetheart as well as a blooming love affair, a French Manhattanite makes her way as an artist in an indifferent, sometimes hostile world.
World Premiere
Lovers Of Hate
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Bryan Poyser; Writer: Bryan Poyser; Stars: Chris Doubek, Heather Kafka, Alex Karpovsky, Zach Green, Josh Meyer, Dan Brown, Adam Donaghey, Lana Dieterich, Garry Peters, Kim LeBlanc, Rebecca Beegle, Harper Cummings, Eric Moorhead, Brett Hill, Ray L. Perez)
The shaky reunion of estranged brothers takes a turn for the worse when the woman they both love chooses one over the other.
World Premiere
Night Catches Us
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Tanya Hamilton; Writer: Tanya Hamilton; Stars: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Jamie Hector, Wendell Pierce, Jamara Griffin)
In 1978, complex political and emotional forces are set in motion when a young man returns to the race-torn Philadelphia neighborhood where he came of age during the Black Power movement.
World Premiere
Hesher and Blue Valentine
Obselidia
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Diane Bell; Writer: Diane Bell; Stars: Michael Piccirilli, Frank Hoyt Taylor, Chris Byrne, Gaynor Howe, Grant Mathis, Michael Blackman Beck, Kim Beuche)
A lonely librarian believes love is obsolete until a road trip to Death Valley with a beguiling cinema projectionist teaches him otherwise.
World Premiere
Skateland
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Anthony Burns; Writer: Anthony Burns, Brandon Freeman, Heath Freeman; Stars: Ashley Greene, Brett Cullen, Shiloh Fernandez, Taylor Handley, James LeGros, A.J. Buckley, Haley Ramm, Melinda McGraw, D.W. Moffett, Ellen Hollman, David Sullivan, Casey LaBow, Krystal Mayo, Heath Freeman, Halley Rachal)
In the early 1980s, in small-town Texas, dramatic events force a 19-year-old skating rink manager to look at his life in a very new way.
World Premiere
Sympathy For Delicious
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Mark Ruffalo; Writer: Christopher Thornton; Stars: Orlando Bloom, Juliette Lewis, Mark Ruffalo, Laura Linney, John Carroll Lynch, Noah Emmerich, Nathan Wetherington, Dov Tiefenbach, Diana Terranova, Milissa Skoro, Daniel Escobar, Erin Way, Sandra Seacat, Niko Nicotera, Tiffany T. Tynes)
A newly paralysed DJ gets more than he bargained for when he seeks out the world of faith healing.
World Premiere
Welcome To The Rileys
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Jake Scott; Writer: Ken Hixon; Stars: Kristen Stewart, James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, Lance E. Nichols, David Jensen, Kathy Lamkin, Michael Wozniak, Sharon Landry, Russell Steinberg, Kim Collins, Elliott Grey, Tiffany Coty, Garrett Allain, Allen Boudreaux, Kerry Cahill)
On a business trip to New Orleans, a damaged man seeks salvation by caring for a wayward young woman.
World Premiere
Winter's Bone
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Debra Granik; Writer: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, Daniel Woodrell; Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Kevin Breznahan, Isaiah Stone, Shelley Waggener, Ashlee Thompson, William White, Casey MacLaren, Valerie Richards, Beth Domann, Tate Taylor, Cody Brown, Ronnie Hall, Sheryl Lee)
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
World Premiere