Magnifica

Stephen Glass is a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September 1998 Vanity Fair article - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks.

A woman takes time in private on a tiny island in Helsinki to contemplate a loss that has caused sudden changes in her life. This tragedy has challenged her to see the world in a different light. A light that is driven by a force of nature.

A parable about the fragility of relationships. Love is sought, found, tested, lost...

Matteo Falcone is an Azerbaijani short drama film based on Prosper Merimée's like-named story from 1829. Matteo Falcone is a successful Corsican, who lives with his wife Giuseppa and 10-year-old son Fortunato. One day he leaves home with Giuseppa, leaving Fortunato alone.

A young filmmaker has just unsatisfyingly captured the last shot for her film. While the crew encourages her to celebrate, she fears that the battle has just begun. Thankfully, she knows that worrying is never the answer. Instead, she turns to a traditional, evil-warding, garland-scattering ritual to direct all misfortune away from her film.

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Marvin is an office drone approaching middle-age. Following the death of a close friend and long-time business associate on a business vacation, and while witnessing his young and ambitious coworkers coldly maneuver for the now vacant managerial position, Marvin faces some tough questions that can cause seismic shifts in his life.

An ambivalent meeting between two friends. Classmates Victor and Amanda meet at a cafe in Stockholm one afternoon before Christmas to study for an exam. Amanda wants to talk about what they read, but Victor steers the conversation into something completely different, and suddenly they both run the risk of losing their face.

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.

In 2003, a 16-year-old Filipino kid from the inner city is forced to leave his old life behind for the terrifying new world of Santa Barbara, California.

The Christmas tree isn't the only thing green in this new holiday classic. Shrek is back and trying to get into the spirit of the season. After promising Fiona and the kids a Christmas they'll remember, he is forced to take a crash course in the holiday. But just when he thinks he has everything for their quiet family Christmas just right, there is a knock at the door.

A young boy makes a snowman one Christmas Eve, which comes to life at midnight and takes him on a magical adventure to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.

Jon wants to be Arconada, the mythical goalkeeper of Real Sociedad, but is the substitute goalkeeper of the school soccer team.

Water is the true protagonist of this story. Love is co-star, first love. And then, there's Daniel, stationary at the poolside...

A sailor prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.

An attractive montage of a vivid and often tense highlights from the soccer field ... Headers, fouls, dribbling, runs, goalmouth dramas are juxtaposed, slowed down, repeated and at the same time embellished acoustically in such an apt and lively manner by the music of the leading German jazz and rock guitarist Volker Kriegel, that even the viewer spoilt by live soccer will enjoy seeing it. The artistes of the bid ball become leading dancers at the penalty mark. Slow motion, animation, modification or restriction of color further lend emphasis to the close interaction with the musical movements, achieving a positive unity, regardless weather attention is focussed on the goalkeeper, on team play, on vigorous tackling or on goalmouth excitement, which are all synchronized in sequence form with the musical sections. The film contains extracts from 13 first division soccer games in Germany. –Joachim Kreck

With methods of eating and manners that are probably all too familiar to children and adults, these mischievous dinosaurs show in a big way that burping, spilling, playing with one's food and outright refusing to eat are not the best ways to enjoy a meal. An entertaining guide to table manners and a good reminder that positive and pleasant mealtime behavior gets the best results.

"The Role of Chance" ("La part du hasard") focuses exclusively on drawing and painting techniques used by the painter Henri Dimier. Shot over several weeks in the same artist's studio, the film shows works in their different phases, processes rarely explained or little known. It also addresses many practical issues (choice of paper, pigment grinding, reports drawings, put the tiles, cliches, etc) as well as broader questions of method and inspiration (use of space, the role of contours, power of suggestion perspectives, use of random processes). Patrick Bokanowski sought with this film to restore the spirit of this teaching, showing how to bend a note or sometimes revealing an essential mystery of creation.

On a tabletop mountain a mahout and his strange herd make a surprising and never-ending journey.

The fading love of two men, remembered. A relationship once vivid, now dissipating into a fog of partial remembrance; the memories of heartbreak and loss that bend and change as the years go by.