It is no surprise that someone is planning a documentary about the Abu Ghraib scandal; there will probably be a few. Already there is Robert Greenwald's latest, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, which deals with one aspect of the prisoner abuse, and the PBS series Frontline has included the incident in its recent episode titled "The Lost Year in Iraq". However, there's a good chance that no others are or will be as good as the one Errol Morris is set to make. The project was announced Sunday by Diane Weyermann of Participant Productions (An Inconvenient Truth) during the American Film Market.

Morris has a habit of making docs that stand out even in the non-fiction genre, which despite having a seemingly general form is still comprised of distinct and divergent subgenres and styles. It is also important to point out that there is no way of knowing how this film will look or sound, considering none of Morris' films are anything alike. It is interesting, though, that he is going for another politically-tinged subject after making The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, for which he finally won his first Oscar (his most worthy, The Thin Blue Line, was ineligible for unfair reasons). As much as I will look forward to his take on Abu Ghraib, I kind of hope that he'll follow it with something less topical. There's enough political docs out there already, and Morris doesn't, or shouldn't, require such marketable subject matter.

Sony Classics, which also released The Fog of War, is already on board to distribute the film when ready.

Not many directors could take a film built around the theme of death and make it as funny, thoughtful, and deeply meaningful as Pedro Almodóvar has with Volver, now officially Spain's nominee for the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture. The film revolves around three generations of women: Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) live with Raimunda's husband, an unemployed laborer who spends his spare time checking out his daughter's blossoming body. Raimunda's sister, Sole (Lola Dueñas) supports herself by running an unlicensed beauty shop out of her apartment. As we meet Raimunda, Sole and Paula, they are at the cemetery cleaning the graves of Raimunda and Sole's parents, who died in a fire.

In La Mancha, where Raimunda's parents lived, the east wind blows incessantly, driving people to the brink of insanity. This is a superstitious culture, where the dead are respected, graves are kept clean and tombstones well-polished, and the dead occasionally walk among the living -- especially if they have unfinished business. When Raimunda and Sole go to visit their elderly aunt, they are surprised to find that she refers to their dead mother, Irene, as though she has just seen her. It doesn't take long for Abuela Irene (Carmen Maura) to appear to Sole and Paula, though she conceals her presence from Raimunda. It is with Raimunda, and with Raimunda and Sole's friend Agustina (Blanca Portillo) that Abuela Irene has unfinished business to resolve.

The foreign-language Oscar race is heating up, as a good deal of high-profile names are being added to the list of contenders. Earlier Kevin reported that Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labrynth is Mexico's submission, and Kim has pointed out that other familiar names like Deepa Mehta and Ari Kuarismaki plus the much buzzed-about The Lives of Others are all up for nominations, as well. The best odds of a guaranteed spot in the noms, however, has to be Volver, which has just been announced as Spain's official entry. This was a bit of a surprise considering Pedro Almodóvar's past couple films were not submitted by Spain (Talk to Her ended up being nominated for ,and winning, the Best Original Screenplay award), but seeing as the Academy loves him (he also won the foreign-language Oscar for All About My Mother), the country must have realized it is in their favor to let the filmmaker represent them.

Not only will Volver certainly be nominated, I figure it also has the best chance to win. Of course, the Academy could also give another director a shot this time around. No matter who gets the prize, this category is going to be a lot more interesting (and better filled) in 2007 than it was in 2006.

Jindabyne, starring Laura Linney and Gabriel Byrne, is about what happens when four men on a fishing trip find the body of a murdered young woman, and decide to leave her in the water, tethered to a tree, until their fishing weekend is over. Their decision has wrenching ramifications both within their personal relationships, and in their relationship with their entire community. Laura Linney very graciously sat down with Cinematical at the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about Jindabyne and her character, Claire. You can download the interview here (31.1MB, five minutes) or watch it over on Netscape. For more on Jindabyne, you can read our review of the film from the Telluride Film Festival.

I know I sound like my dad, but when I was a kid, music and buzz about music couldn't move at the speed of light, via music blogs, MP3s and filesharing; it moved from town to town in photocopied 'zines, 45's, and gear-crammed Ford Econoline vans that smelled like dude. American Hardcore, adocumentary by Paul Rachman based on the book by Steven Blush, revisits that time, and celebrates it through a rag-tag mix of old, blurry footage, new, slightly blurry interviews and loud, fast music. Specifically, American Hardcore is subtitled "The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986," and offers an interesting counter-timeline for the early '80s. History, they say, is written by the winners; American Hardcore offers a few chapters from people who were, in fact, proud to be 'losers,' then and now, if that was defined by being set against the mainstream of consumerism and conformity.

American Hardcore isn't the most polished documentary you've ever seen -- there are plenty of interviews where the microphone cord sticks out on the subject's shirts like an undone zipper, or a spoken phrase is mixed with the huff and bluster of the wind. But then again, punk rock was never about sonic perfection: It was (and is) about emotional intensity, and American Hardcore has that in van loads, and delivers with onetwothreefour! power. All the usual suspects are interviewed here -- Henry Rollins of Black Flag, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, Greg Hetson of The Circle Jerks -- but there are also interviews with more marginal figures (or, more precisely, figures on the margins of the margins) like Vic Bondi of Articles of Faith, who sums up Hardcore's response to the Reagan era: "Everyone was saying it was 'Morning in America'; someone had to say 'It's fucking midnight!" In fact, the interviews are strong enough that Rachman wisely forgoes a narrator (And who would you get to narrate this film, anyhow? It's not really a gig for Morgan Freeman) and relies instead on the people who were there, the old VHS tapes plundered from some closet and a few wisely-chosen video graphics.

Sony Pictures Classics knows that just because a film is ridiculed, that doesn't make it unqualified for distribution in the U.S. In fact, they probably realize it could work in their favor. Black Book (aka Zwartboek), the new film from Paul Verhoeven, was reportedly called "Schindler's List meets Showgirls" at Toronto. Although, other than that, the film appears to be receiving some good marks. Of course, if it is sort of camp comparable to Verhoeven's Showgirls, then American audiences will eat it up and make it a cult classic.

In the Reuters story, the film's sex scenes are described as "ribald" and points to one scene in particular that seems to continue Verhoeven's penchant for displaying his actresses' naughty bits -- the scene in question, featuring the dying of pubic hair, will probably not find folks looking back as fondly as they did for the director's famous leg-crossing shot in Basic Instict.

The true test of the film's quality will likely be put in the hands of the Oscars, as Black Book is the official entry by the Netherlands for the foreign-language category. The truest chance of it becoming a camp cult hit, however, is whether or not Sony (who just coughed up a high six figures for it) might offer us a dubbed version.

Ah, punk rock. Director Paul Rachman and screenwriter Steven Blush explore the history of punk rock from 1980-1986 in their documentary American Hardcore, which features interviews with a veritabe who's who of the hardcore scene. Cinematical's James Rocchi sat down with Rachman and Blush at the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about their film. You can download the full video here (76.6MB, 12 minutes) or watch it over on Netscape, where there's an interesting discussion of the film and punk rock going on. Dive on in, hardcore fans.

The Toronto International Film Festival has come to an end, but we'll still be wrapping up coverage with reviews and interviews over the next week or so. In the meantime, I thought I'd peek around and check in on what some of our fellow film journalists and bloggers had to say about the fest.

Over at the Hollywood Reporter, they have a ton of TIFF coverage, including a fest wrap-up by Anne Thompson and Gregg Goldstein. THR is usually pretty smart about the biz side of the film world, and Thompson and Goldstein nicely sum up that side of the fest. Also on her Risky Biz Blog, the erudite Ms. Thompson writes about Mexico's Big Three directors, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (Babel), Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men), and has an interesting piece up on Todd Field, writer-director of one of my fave films from Telluride and Toronto, Little Children.

No matter how much planning and money goes into them, wedding ceremonies are generally all the same. Sure, there are slight variations depending on religious denomination and little personal touches, but they basically lack any sort of originality due to their overall adherence to traditions, which keep them from breaking new ground. For those not involved in the actual wedding party, and even for some who are involved, the ceremony is just a boring obstacle that must be endured before getting to the fun part, the reception. Yet, weddings continue to be, for the most part, under the guise of entertainment, as they typically have an audience.

Therein lays the basis for Confetti, a comic mockumentary that tries to spice up the idea of weddings as enjoyment for all in attendance. It follows three engaged couples as they compete in a contest for most original wedding, sponsored by a wedding magazine that's tired of showcasing, "just another woman in a white dress," on its cover. The contest seems like a great concept at first, but as the magazine's publisher (Jimmy Carr) and editor-in-chief (Felicity Montagu) discover, there is a reason why ceremonies don't often open up to new ideas.

After briefly replacing Chris Weitz as director on The Golden Compass (the first part in the big-screen adaptation of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy), then leaving the project due to "creative differences," Anand Tucker (Shopgirl) will, instead, helm an adaptation of British author Blake Morrison's memoir, And When Did You Last See Your Father.

Though filming isn't set to begin until next month, Sony Pictures Classics has snagged the North American and Latin American rights to the pic. Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent will star in a story that revolves around one man's relationship with his dying father. Yeah, so once this puppy finally does hit theaters, I'd recommend checking your laugh at the door, and replacing it with a box of tissues -- this one looks like a downer. As of now, Father will shove its emotional baggage into theaters next year.

What's truly surprising about The Italian, a Russian film that won two minor Best Feature awards at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival and received favorable stateside reviews after its North American debut at Telluride last month, is its tremendous warmth. Set in a rundown orphanage, the movie features none of the horrors -- neglect, abuse, hunger -- that western audiences associate with that world. Instead, though undeniably poor, the orphanage is a strangely comforting place. Run by a good-hearted man (Yuri Itskov) who struggles daily to balance his desperate need for money with his obvious affection for and desire to protect his charges, the place is home to a wide array of children, all of whom have well-established friendships and a tremendous ease in their environment.

The director notwithstanding, the real rulers of the orphanage are found in a group of old kids: Tough boys and girls who go outside the gates daily to make money, both legally and otherwise. Though we sometimes see younger children punched and intimidated by these older boys, it's very clear that nothing is done arbitrarily, or out of cruelty. Instead, the boys are enforcing a code of conduct that demands honesty and the sharing of assets, all for the good of the group -- it seems that, at least among the young, socialism is alive and well in Russia.

Damn, just when I switched my service over from Sprint, they go and announce this whammy: The wireless provider is offering full-length movies on their phones. Sprint is the first company to offer such a service, which many saw as an obvious direction for cell phone companies after the addition of live television and mp3 player capabilities. They probably won't be the last, of course -- because, really, who wants a phone that's just a phone ... and a camera, and an mp3 player, etc.?

For you lucky Sprint subscribers (with phones that allow for it), the service has already begun as of Tuesday. There are a whole bunch of titles available (check the link above for a list) from Sony, Lionsgate, Universal and Buena Vista/Disney. According to the press release, Sprint actually began offering full-length movies with its mSpot Movies subscription service back in December 2005 (unlimited movies for $6.95 per month), but is now additionally selling titles for pay-per-view streaming at varying prices (between $3.99 and $5.99), depending on the title.

I posted the other day about the panel discussion led by The Hollywood Reporter's Anne Thompson on "The New Media Future: The Impact of Broadband on the Creative Process and Content Distribution." The panel included Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of WIRED, Josh Goldman from Akimbo Systems, Yair Landau, President of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, director Kevin MacDonald (Touching the Void) and Dan Scheinman, SVP of Corporate Development for Cisco Systems, which sponsored the event. Cisco has the entire panel discussion up in a podcast now, for your listening pleasure. This was a great discussion with lots of interesting points of view on the impact digital and broadband will have on the future of film. If you're a geek for that kind of stuff, or you were at Telluride and didn't make it to the panel, be sure to check it out.

Today was the last day of the festival, and I was lucky to be able to catch two films that had been eluding me all weekend: Jindabyne, starring Laura Linney and Gabriel Byrne (both in top form) and Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, with Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey, Jr. I'd heard lots of good buzz around Jindabyne all week that, well, I really wanted to see it. The film is about Claire and Stewart, a couple struggling to overcome the effect on their marriage of Claire's nervous breakdown following the birth of their son several years before. The couple's marriage, their friendships, and their relationships with everyone in their small community are challenged when Stewart and three friends find the body of a dead girl in the river on a fishing trip, and decide to leave her in the river until their boys' weekend is over.

Nina Deer's (Elisha Cuthbert) life is infused with sex. At school, she is attached at the hip to her best friend Michelle (Katy Mixon), a girl who is seemingly unable to talk about anyone without announcing that she wants to "f*ck him," or demanding that know if Nina thinks he wants to do the same to her. When not talking specifically about sex, Michelle wonders aloud about the genitalia of the boys in the area, specifically that of basketball star Connor (Shawn Ashmore) who, yes, she also wants to do. At home, meanwhile, it's clear that Nina is being sexually abused by her father, a fact that dominates virtually every moment of her life. With Michelle, she plays the part of the easily-shocked, virginal friend. With her father (a miscast Martin Donovan, looking uncomfortable and out of place), she's something else entirely, and finds herself deeply conflicted about their relationship. She knows she's being abused, and fantasizes in great detail about killing her father, both to punish him and free herself. On the other hand, though, she's profoundly aware of her sexual power over him, and takes secret, forbidden pleasure in the way he responds to her. Throw into this mix a mother (Edie Falco) who prefers the oblivion of painkillers to the reality of her own household and a newly-arrived deaf and dumb godchild (Dot, played by Camilla Belle), and you've got the The Quiet, a movie seething with unrealized potential.

Last month I got pretty excited about seeing Jindabyne, the new film from Australian director Ray Lawrence (Lantana), which premiered earlier this year at Cannes. On a few sites around the internet, its release date was listed as July 20, but it turned out that the date was only for distribution Down Under. At the time, I couldn't even get a response from producer April Films about when or how it would be brought to the U.S. Now, though, it has been announced that Sony Classics will be releasing the title here some time in the spring of 2007. For those who can't wait until then, it will also be screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film tells the story of four men who discover a body while on a fishing trip, an incident which consumes their lives. If the plot sounds a little familiar, that's because it's based on a short story by Raymond Carver, which was also adapted as part of Robert Altman's Short Cuts (the part with Huey Lewis' penis). This version stars Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, whose talent seems to be deteriorating from film to film, and shows promise of being a terrific psychological drama (watch the trailer). It's already a big hit in its homeland and has a strong rating on the IMDb.

Hopefully Sony will have a more specific release date soon.