All the Pretty Horses
USA, 120 minutes
Matt Damon stars in Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thornton's eagerly awaited adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's acclaimed novel set in the 1940s. When a young Texan suddenly finds himself without a home, he and a friend embark on a journey south of the border lured by the romance of cowboy life and promise of a fresh start. Penelope Cruz (All About My Mother, AS99) and Henry Thomas also star in this textured coming-of-age odyssey that will test their resilience, define their maturity, and change their lives forever.

Tigerland
USA, 101 minutes
On a shoestring budget with no make-up, no trailers and no time, director Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever) breaks out of his blockbuster mold to create a very personal film about young soldiers in training for Vietnam. It's 1971 and a nation stands divided. In Tigerland, a backwoods wilderness designated for simulated jungle combat, Bozz's (a first-class performance by newcomer Colin Farrell) defiance galvanizes every member of his platoon. The lines of opinion that divide the national conscience penetrate the soldier's ranks and Bozz rushes towards an action that no one - not even he - could have anticipated.

The Claim
USA, 120 minutes
Michael Winterbottom's The Claim is an epic story of love, passion and redemption. Dillon (Peter Mullan) is a pioneer who defied the harsh winter of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in search of rumored gold during the making of California. Having amassed unimaginable riches, he runs a thriving mining town, but the blind ambition and greed that drove him to succeed finally catch up with him with the arrival of three strangers. Dalglish (Wes Bentley) threatens the future of the town. And, two women from Dillon's past hold a secret that could be his undoing.

Finding Forrester
USA, 133 minutes
From director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, AS97) comes another inspiring tale of unlikely friendship. William Forrester (Sean Connery) was a vibrant personality who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 40 years ago. That's the last the world heard from him. That is until Jamal Wallace, a brash 16-year-old with writing aspirations of his own, cracks the veneer of Forrester's sheltered existence. Together the literary novice and eccentric recluse are forced to look past their initial assumptions about one another to (re)ignite their dreams.

Dancer in the Dark
Denmark/Sweden/France, 134 minutes
Danish filmaker Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves) turns his madly inventive, postmodernist imagination to a reworking of the Hollywood musical. Pop singer Bjork wrote the score and stars in this emotionally wrenching tale of a single mother who works in a rural factory and is slowly going blind. Selma is determined to save her son from the same fate but the drama of her life soon escalates as a chain of circumstances set tragedy in motion. With Catherine Deneuve and Dave Morse. Winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Actress at Cannes.

Quills
USA, 123 minutes
With eager anticipation comes the latest from Philip Kaufman (Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Right Stuff), an appallingly funny, deliciously cruel, steadily sexual tale about the later years of the Marquis de Sade. Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Michael Caine and Joaquin Phoenix star in this lush period piece about the notorious Frenchman's final years in an asylum. When Napoleon appoints a stern disciplinarian to quell the subversive libertine, there are dire consequences for everyone.

Pollock
USA, 117 minutes
In a cinematic tour-de-force, Ed Harris performs triple-duty as star, director, and producer in his arresting dramatic biography of seminal abstract-expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. Populated by a Who's Who of the post-WWII New York art world including Peggy Guggenheim and Willem de Kooning, Pollock traces the rise and decline of America's most famously visionary yet tormented artist. Marcia Gay Harden stars as artist Lee Krasner, Pollock's wife; Val Kilmer, Amy Madigan and Bud Cort round out the cast.

The Gift
USA, 112 minutes
From director Sam Raimi (A Simple Plan) and screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton (Slingbade) comes this smart supernatural thriller featuring a terrific cast. The mysterious disappearance of a young, beautiful socialite prompts a small Southern town to enlist the help of a local resident (Cate Blanchett) with a psychic "gift". A single mom with three boys, she soon finds her life threatened in this creepy community where nothing is private, few people are trusted, and corruption seeps through every vine. Greg Kinnear, Hilary Swank, and Keanu Reeves also star in this compelling concoction of drama, suspense, and psychological thriller.

You Can Count on Me
USA, 111 minutes
Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, and Mathew Broderick star in this frequently funny, enormously touching realistic drama that explores the relationship between two adult siblings. Sammy and Terry are a sister and brother from a small New England town. Orphaned at a young age, they have followed two very different paths. Terry's most recent homecoming disrupts Sammy's well-ordered existence and leads to confrontations and subtle transformations for everyone involved. Co-winner of this year's Sundance Grand Jury Prize, as well as Best Screenplay.

Before Night Falls
USA, 125 minutes
A star-making performance by Spanish actor Javier Bardem and memorable appearances by Johnny Depp and Sean Penn are just some of the highlights of painter Julian Schnabel's critically-acclaimed film. Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas was a major 1960s literary talent; yet, running afoul of the Castro regime as a political dissident and an openly gay man, he was harassed and imprisoned - all the more so because he managed to smuggle out and publish his works abroad. Adapting Arenas' brilliant, posthumously published autobiography which moves from Cuba to New York, Schnabel (Basquiat) creates a dense, emotionally satisfying portrait of an artist and his times. Winner Grand Jury Prize and Best Actor, Venice Film Festival.

The House of Mirth
England/USA, 143 minutes
Director Terence Davies' flawless adaptation of Edith Wharton's great novel stars Gillian Anderson (X Files) as Lily Bart, a ravishing socialite about to discover the precariousness of her position. Social encounters, fashionable country houses, murmuring voices, and satin gowns - turn-of-the-century New York high society is a sumptuous bell-jar world, much too civilized for violence. But its Gilded Age mafiosi (Eric Stolz, Dan Aykroyd, Laura Linney) practice a spiritual and socio-economic savagery so subtle it comes into awful focus only gradually

Malena
Italy/USA, 90 minutes
From Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso, The Legend of 1900, AS99) comes a sensual coming-of-age story. It's 1941 and although the world is at war, nothing ever happens in 13 year old Renato's sleepy Sicilian village. Then one day he discovers something that will change his life forever - Malena, the beautifully sensuous young widow who is the obsession of every man and the envy of every woman. With emotional poignancy Malena charts one boy's fascination and one woman's difficult reality.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Hong Kong/Taiwan, 120 minutes
In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the power and importance of family - director Ang Lee's favorite theme - is explored within a spectacularly beautiful and kinetic dreamwork about legendary martial-arts heroes. Retiring master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat, Anna and the King) might settle down with the woman warrior (Michelle Yeoh) he's always loved - until potential daughter-disciple Jen turns up. The fight-choreographer from Matrix delivers breathtaking action sequences that often move like epic sword-dances, over and through castles and mystical landscapes. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon offers a cornucopia of cinematic riches that dazzle and delight.

Chocolat
USA, 118 minutes
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules, AS99), this enchanting romantic fable stars Juliette Binoche as the mysterious stranger whose unusual chocolate shop - and sixth sense for satisfying unspoken desires - scandalizes a tiny French village. When the straightlaced community finds themselves led into temptations beyond sugar, a dilemma arises with the resident nobleman (Alfred Molina) on one side and a handsome outsider (Johnny Depp) on the other. Dame Judi Dench and Lena Olin also star.

Traffic
USA, 140 minutes
This contemporary thriller set in the high-stakes, high-risk world of drug trafficking is the latest from director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Out of Sight). Interweaving a series of related stories, some of them highly personal, others filled with intrigue and danger, Traffic features a powerful ensemble cast headed by Michael Douglas as the president's new anti-drug czar, Catherine Zeta-Jones as a drug baron's wife, Benicio Del Toro as a Mexican cop, Dennis Quaid, Albert Finney, Amy Irving and more.

Cast Away
USA, 145 minutes
In a unique exploration of the blessings and cruelties of fate and their effect on the human spirit, Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) and Tom Hanks have reunited for Cast Away. Chuck Noland, a FedEx systems engineer, is presumed dead when his plane crashes in the Pacific. Stranded alone on a remote island and stripped of everyday life's conveniences, Chuck is slowly transformed, both physically and emotionally, as he attempts to survive. Helen Hunt also stars.

Vatel
France/England, 119 minutes
This lavish costume drama from director Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields) and screenwriter Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) boasts a star-studded cast including Gerard Depardieu, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth and Julian Sands. To get his province out of debt, Prince de Conde invites Louis XIV to his chateau. His plan rests on Vatel, the one man who can deliver the sumptuous food and elaborate entertainment fit for a Sun King. But in the midst of preparations, Vatel catches the eye of the beautiful Anne, inadvertently placing himself in direct competition with the King

State and Main
USA, 90 minutes
In David Mamet's new comedy, a cell-phone-wielding Hollywood movie crew invades a quaint New England town, inevitably leading to a hilarious high-speed collision of two radically different worlds. Center stage is Joe White (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a shy, sweet-natured writer who finds himself in a classic dilemma, forced to choose between career ambitions and core values. Laced with Mamet's characteristically tart dialogue and ebullient performances by stars Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker, William H. Macy, and Rebecca Pidgeon, State and Main is loads of fun.