Andy Garcia’s latest film is City Island, a great little movie that was the winner of the audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. It is a tale of a family spinning a web of misrepresentations, misinterpretations and misunderstandings, from writer-director Raymond De Felitta (Two Family House).

The 10th Annual International Beverly Hills Film Festival kicked off their festivities with the World Premiere of As Good As Dead, directed by Jonathan Mossek, starring Andie MacDowell and Carey Elwes.

Established in 1981, American Cinematheque is a non-profit organization dedicated to the Motion Picture in all forms.  Each year, they honor an extraordinary artist in the entertainment industry, currently making a significant contribution to the Art of the Motion Picture.  Past honorees included Eddie Murphy, Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, and Julia Roberts.

It’s not surprising that James Cameron was named the 2010 Motion Picture Showman of the Year at the annual ICG Publicists Awards. Avatar became the biggest blockbuster of all time thanks to Cameron being his own best publicity machine heralding his emotional high-tech movie about blue people trying to save their world.

This brooding, unsettling film was shot in Cobh, a harbor town on the South Coast of Cork.  We are introduced to Michael Farr (Ciaran Hinds), a teacher, writer and father of two children, who is coping with the loss of his wife two years before.  He has volunteered at the annual literary festival where he is assigned to look after an attractive author of fiction about ghosts and the supernatural.

It looked like the green room backstage at the Oscars, with all the star power and experience that gathered for AARP the Magazine’s 9th Annual “Movies for Grownups Awards.” Many of the Oscar-winning films and nominees were honored, including Crazy Heart, The Blind Side, Invictus, and an award for “Best Movie for Grownups Who Refuse to Grow Up” went to Star Trek. The Oscars only honored Star Trek with trophy for Best Makeup.

There seemed to be more people at Sundance this year, most likely because last year the crowd was thinned due the magnetic pull of Obama’s inauguration in DC.  Nonetheless, folks were able to move around Park City rather efficiently in 2010.  A constantly refined transportation system touted their millionth rider of the year.  The odd rainy weather at the tail end of last year’s festival was replaced this year with the more traditional dry, cold, crisp weather. Of the dozens of films screened, these two are noteworthy.  Don’t miss them when they come to a theatre near you.

Dickens’ classic holiday tale has been told countless times, a testament to its durability.  The most recent iteration is from Robert Zemeckis, who brings his admirable ‘no fear of technology’ approach to the forefront.  Whereas his use of technology in the past rendered the technology rather seamless and invisible (think “Forrest Gump” or his “Back to the Future” trilogy), here the technology always seems to be on display.  Zemeckis has assembled a notable cast and outfitted them with 3D motion capture capability.  The result is an animated film with fluid life-like action, driven by the likes of Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Cary Elwes, Bob Hoskins and Robin Wright Penn.

The splashier of the two films is “Inglorious Basterds.” Tarantino’s revenge fantasy is set ‘once upon a time in Nazi occupied France.’ After a bumpy opening at the Cannes Film Festival and after some likely judicious editing, the 152 minute film now delivers an impressive romp.  Brad Pitt leads the titular posse of Jewish guerilla fighters, pulled from various corners of the USA and dropped behind enemy lines to kill some Nazis.

Music Box Films' Cloud 9 (Wolke 9) is an award-winning German film opening in New York on August 14 and Los Angeles on August 28. Directed by Andreas Dresen who won The German Film Award for Best Director and starring Ursula Werner, who won for Best Actress, it also stars Horst Rehberg as Ursula's husband and Horst Westphal as her lover.