Away From Her - This is the feature film directorial debut from talented Canadian actress Sarah Polley--you might remember her as the little girl in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, still one of my favorite movies of his--and it's nothing like you might expect, being a love story of sorts involving an elderly man and his wife, who is suffering from the early signs of Alzheimer's. The latter is played by the always wonderful Julie Christie, while the former is a lesser-known Canadian actor named Gordon Pinsent, who is amazing in the role. I'm not quite sure how Lionsgate is going to market this movie when they release it against Spider-Man 3 on May 5, but I'll have a full review of this soon.

An American Crime - I can't say too much about Tommy O'Haver's '60s crime drama just yet, although it stars Catherine Keener (Capote, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Ellen Page (Hard Candy, X-Men: The Last Dance), and it's based on the true story of Gertrude Baniszewski and a troubling case of child abuse that took place in Indianapolis. I can't say much more without spoiling the movie. (And I'll try to avoid spoilers in my review, which will be posted later this week hopefully.)

Red Road - This Scottish crime drama, the debut feature from Andrea Arnold, stars Kate Dickie as a policewoman monitoring the activities of an ex-con (Tony Curran), who gets too close for comfort. It will be released by my pals at Tartan Films on April 13.

Great World of Sound - This is a great little indie film by Craig Zobel, who produced many of David Gordon Green's films (and it even lists Green as a dolly grip in the credits!). It stars Pat Healy and Kene Holliday as a couple guys trying to make their way through the shady music business in the form of a company who tries to convince singers and songwriters to give them money to record their songs. Maybe it was my own music background that made this movie so easy to enjoy, but here's hoping some smart indie picks it up, because Kene's performance as Clarence has to be seen to be believed! What I like about this film is that it proves that one doesn't have to have big name star actors to make a good film, and hopefully, people won't be put off by the lack of names and will check it out.

Then, we have two documentaries that are in competition at the festival:

Nanking - Although I probably won't get to see many documentaries, I was given a chance to see this WWII documentary before the festival.I was pretty stunned and impressed by what I saw, taking a classical approach to doc filmmaking, like the kind seen before the likes of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock tried spicing things up. It's all about the assault on the former Chinese capitol of Nanking by the Japanese during the early days of WWII. It's pretty horrifying to hear some of the first-hand accounts of the atrocities from those who were there.

War/Dance - This is one of the most gorgeous docs I've ever seen, right up there with March of the Penguins, and it's quite an amazing story, following three young teens from war-torn Northern Uganda's Patongo Displacement Camp, who get over the adversity of seeing parents and relatives killed by the rebels to follow their musical dreams to a national music and dance festival for the first time. It's really one of the best docs I've seen in a long time, a joyous film with lots of heartfelt moments as we see these poor kids who have suffered so greatly have a chance to make good. Not surprisingly, this has already been picked up for release by THINKFilm, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it make it all the way to next year's awards season.