Tokyo seems to be the place for confused foreigners. I can't even begin to count the number of people I've known who weren't sure what they wanted to do with their lives, so they went to Tokyo, or neighboring Japanese cities, to teach English for a while. I'm not quite sure why the foreign city has gotten the rep of "city where you can figure out your life," especially since every person that I've seen return was still confused, but maybe this next flick will help.

Variety reports that Veit Helmer, who recently wrote and directed the comedy Absurdistan (which premiered at Sundance), is gearing up for a new movie called Stranger in Tokyo. After Helmer was selected as a filmmaker award finalist for his last film, Japan's NHK invited him to direct the documentary, which will focus on "the lives and careers of foreigners living in Tokyo."

If this is anything like his last project, this should be a fun doc. See, Absurdistan is "the whimsical story of a village where the local women resort to going on a sex strike to force their work-averse men to repair the aging and dilapidated underground water system." Considering all the crazy Tokyo panty stories I've heard, this sounds like a good fit.

As people begin to head out of Sundance in droves, the honors are starting to pour in. Although the awards won't be handed out until a ceremony on Saturday night, Sundance Institute has released a statement listing the winners of the 2008 Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award -- an honor that highlights new projects from Europe, Latin America, the United States, and Japan. Four winners were selected, one from each region, from a jury that included Gregg Araki, Anand Tucker, Jeremy Pikser, Erin Cressida Wilson, Martin Rejtman, Andrucha Waddington, and Shekhar Kapur.

The lucky winners for 2008, who will receive a $10,000 award and "a guarantee from NHK to purchase the Japanese television broadcast rights upon completion of their project" -- Alejandro Fernandez Almendras, Chile, for Huacho, Braden King, United States, for Here, Aiko Nagatsu, Japan, for Apoptosis, and Radu Jude, Romania, for The Happiest Girl in the World.

This award is part of Sundance's commitment to world cinema, and considering some of their past picks, there could be big things in store for these films. Past winners include Miranda July for Me and You and Everyone We Know, Waddington for The House of Sand, and Gyorgy Palfi for Taxidermia.

After the jump, you can find some information on the filmmakers and each selected film.

Some indie nibbles for the new week:

• Before Totally F***ed Up or The Doom Generation, Gregg Araki filmed The Living End. The 1992 film followed a gay hustler and a movie critic, both with HIV, who head out on a dangerous journey with the motto: "F*** the world." Over 15 years later, indieWIRE reports that Strand Releasing and Fortissimo Films have teamed up to bring together The Living End: Remixed and Remastered. The film screened on Friday at Sundance, and will be screened again at Berlinale. Since the DVD has pretty much disappeared since its release in 2002, I imagine that this new remastered copy will soon hit those shiny little discs -- hopefully with some tasty special features to boot.
• Back in April, I told you about Finnish band Lordi's upcoming monster movie called Dark Floors. Set in a hospital, the masked band members play monsters who stalk the film's heroes. Now Variety reports that their English-language flick is getting its world premiere February 6, at the Energia Areena in Oulu, before hitting Finnish screens on February 8. On these shores -- well, you'll have to wait and see what happens at Berlin, where the movie will be shopped around. In the meantime, you can check out the trailer through last month's Trailer Park.
  
• Finally, Vertigo Films has been busy buying up a couple of features. First, Variety reports that they've signed on for writer/director Rupert Wyatt's film The Trail, which will shoot this spring in New Mexico. There's no word on what the film is about, but there's a ton of coverage on Polish sites that I (unfortunately) can't read, so I'm wondering if that's a sign. Beyond this mysterious, new, $10 million movie, there's also Wyatt's directorial debut, The Escapist, which Vertigo also picked up. (The world premiere was yesterday at Sundance.)

Netflix has been looking to the future and exploding with possibilities -- this year alone, there's already been news of a streaming HD box and unlimited downloads. iTunes is looking into movie rentals. Writers are striking over the upcoming possibilities of the Internet. But what about Sundance, the festival made for indie film -- an industry that could really use the web?

Wired threw up an article recently that covers the Sundance Film Festival's involvement in web content now that the whole arena is starting to explode. You might think that the fest is following, doing what they can to integrate the two. However, while the festival includes a panel called "Webolution," Wired says: "Sundance is beating a stealthy retreat from the web. Its Online Film Festival, launched in 2001, has suffered: In 2007, Sundance's site offered nearly 50 films continuously over the course of the festival; this year, it'll show just one for each of the festival's 10 days."

Programmer Trevor Groth claims that this is to eliminate competition with iTunes and other video sites. This is, unfortunately, bad timing for indie film, because it's struggling even in the wake of big hits like Little Miss Sunshine. What is there to do? Ian Calderon, director of the fest's digital programs, says: "We aren't good at engineering outcomes, but we are good at featuring new tools and technologies for filmmakers to explore and use to tell their stories. We try to highlight, support, and underscore the new technologies, and then we hope for the best." Um.. There's got to be something more than hoping for the best. What would you suggest?

When juries are put together for these film fests, chances are the everyday person wouldn't have the slightest idea who most of the people are -- perhaps they make ultra-arthouse films, or they work behind the scenes in some capacity. But for Sundance, they've collected a bunch of names that are pretty recognizable -- coming from both the world of big-budget film and indie wonder. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Marcia Gay Harden, Sandra Oh, Quentin Tarantino, Jason Reitman, and Alan Alda are heading the list of 24 jurors chosen to hand out prizes at Sundance this year, which starts later this month.

There are six juries selecting the prizes, and this is how it is broken up:

Dramatic Competition Grand Jury -- Harden, Diego Luna, Oh, Mary Harron, and Tarantino.

Documentary Competition Grand Jury -- Michelle Byrd, Heidi Ewing, Eugene Jarecki, Steven Okazaki, and Annie Sundberg.

World Dramatic Competition Jury -- Shunji Iwai, Lucrecia Martel, and Jan Schuette.

World Documentary Competition Jury -- Ilda Santiago, Leena Pasanen, and Amir Bar-Lev.

American & International Shorts Jury -- Jon Bloom, Melonie Diaz, and Jason Reitman.

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Jury -- Alda, Michael Polish, Evan Schwartz, Benedict Schwegler, and John Underkoffler. (It's awarded to a film focusing on science or technology, and most of these names are in the biz.)

Ah, if only I could be there! Stay tuned to Cinematical for lots of Sundance goodies as the fest heats up.

Things are looking promising for the little horror film known as Teeth -- which is, in no way, a dental comedy -- at least not the type you'd assume. The movie, which screened at Sundance this year, is about a chaste teen who finds her increasing sexuality troublesome due to its vagina dentata nature. Yes, the girl's vagina grows its own set of gleaming teeth. Scott Weinberg wrote a rave review about the film for Cinematical, likening it not to campy horror, but as a film that has "a whole lot to say about young women and their fear of burgeoning sexuality, society's general distaste (and, let's face it, fear) of the female sex organ, and the ways in which men do a serious disservice to womankind by treating their "naughty bits" as if they're something to be ashamed of."

Jette Kernion then reported that the brothers Weinstein picked up distribution rights to the flick, and plans to release it in all its, erm, full glory, even if that glory comes with a shiny NC-17 sticker or free of a rating. That's great news for a film that sounds theatrically doomed since it revolves around a girl's vagina. Now, to top it all off, Bloody-Disgusting is reporting that Mitchell Lichtenstein, Teeth's director, isn't done with the tale of Dawn and her killer-bite crotch: "I've got a lot more adventures in store for Dawn (our hero with vagina dentata) ... we haven't finished her story yet..."

I can't help but wonder if this is a good idea. If it's done in a smart manner, like Scott has described, can it retain its smarts with part 2, 3 or 4? Horror series almost always fail to live up to the original, and often turn all sorts of campy. It's one thing for a girl to learn how to deal with teeth between her legs, it's another for her to go on vaginal adventures.

One day, two people meet. They fall in love and delight in the perks of romance. With Cupid's large arrow implanted deeply in their sides, the woman gets pregnant and the duo gets engaged. Emotions rise as pregnancy wreaks havoc on the soon-to-be-mom's hormones. What do the couple, who happen to be Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, do? They sign on to star in a short film together -- one about a dysfunctional, unhappy couple. Perhaps this wasn't the best move for the still-fresh pair. Actors and actresses succomb to the powers of the on-screen romance with sexy co-stars all the time, so it isn't a jump to assume that the opposite is also true.

High Falls, which will be screened at Sundance, delves into the workings of a married couple who divulge secrets to their shared best friend, and not each other. The friend then, not surprisingly, watches the couple fail to connect. Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard spent four days mired in this false relationship, while she was pregnant and he was "playing a big jerk." Perhaps this wouldn't matter if your partner and co-star was someone like Freddie Prinze Jr. or another equally goofy, well-natured actor, but Sarsgaard is known for his dark edge. The man can make hair raise and muscles tighten with a mere look. In the future, Ms. Gyllenhaal hopes to "make sure that the making of the movie will be good for us, because I'm not sure that the making of High Falls was..." No surprise there, Sherrybaby.

Being a few years into the twenty-first century, animals and humans have been through a lot. Our poor animal friends have dealt with clubbing, being used for coffee harvesting and all sorts of extinction. Us humans have dealt with our own share of hardships, from holy crusades to Kevin Federline's "music." For the most part, we've existed separately, living differently and sometimes loving similarly. But there are those out there who want to traverse the human/animal wall, and Zoo, a new documentary by Robinson Devor, details what can happen when a man loves... a horse.

Yes, this isn't a tale of a young girl and her horse, which is the usual Hollywood horse theme, but of a real man who loved horses just a little too much. You might have heard of the story that made headlines in 2005 (we did mention it a couple times -- how could we not?): Kenneth Pinyan was a man who had a prolific collection of horse sex videos under the name "Mr. Hands." One warm July day, while receiving sex from a stallion so terribly, yet aptly named "Bullseye," Pinyan received fatal anal injuries and died. Now, after only screening a few minutes of the movie, THINKFilm has picked up the rights for the controversial documentary, which will be screened at Sundance this year. John Cooper, Sundance programmer, insists that the film is "as smart as it is eloquent," and investigates just "how much perversity we can tolerate in others." Maybe the bigger question is how much perversity the moviegoing audience can handle before we either get too disgusted to continue watching, or so grossed out that we can't help but guffaw.

Here I sit, nestled in Utah, a short drive from Provo Canyon and Sundance. I had never realized that some of my family relocated just south of the soon-to-be-filled-with-film town, and in no time, I wondered if I could get together enough airmiles so make the trip again in a few weeks. Unfortunately, that isn't looking likely, and it's particularly painful between the Slamdance release of the latest Allan Moyle film, and the music that will sing from Sundance.

Special music events will include "Sundance Celebrates Music and Film" and "Film2Music," but that is only the tip of the melodic iceburg. On January 24, there will be a large roundtable discussion between composers and directors on the creative process of film scoring. The composers who will be present -- Terence Blanchard, who has scored a number of pieces for Spike Lee's films, Peter Golub, whose scored films starring everyone from Nicky Katt to Forest Whitaker, Dave Robbins, who scored Dead Man Walking, Anton Sanko, Suzanne Vega's guitarist who has composed music for quirky films from Party Girl to Scotland, PA, and finally, Adam Hollander, who seems to be a new composer. (If anyone had information about him, please it share in the comments!) The directors in the panel will be -- Mike Cahill, new director of King of California, Tom DiCillo, who brought us the likes of Brad Pitt's Johnny Suede, Andrew Wagner, who wrote and directed The Talent Given Us, which seems to have starred his whole family, and finally the biggest name of the directorial list -- Justin Theroux. Yes, the Inland Empire star has directed a film called Dedication, which will premiere at Sundance.

If you want a little less talk, and a little more music, Sundance's Music Cafe will continue with an interesting lineup -- Jill Sobule, Donovan, Ron Sexsmith, Pete's brother, Simon Townshend and according to The Hollywood Reporter... Julia Sweeney?! So, if you get your tuckus to Sundance, and find you need a break between films, you can always sing along about kissing a girl, or about Sunshine Superman.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is my type of actress. I started following her when she was an ever-lovable Satanist make-up artist in Cecil B. Demented. The film inspired me to make my only memorabilia purchase, fighting tooth and nail on eBay for her character's eyelash curler, beating out a girl who ultimately decided her money would be better spent on the branding iron she actually wanted to use. Since then, Gyllenhaal has picked some great films, has been forgiven for the not-so-great, and is now a two-time best actress winner, scoring the Best Actress prize at the Stockholm Film Festival.

Maggie received the top prize for her portrayal of Sherry Swanson in Sherrybaby, a film by Laurie Collyer that Jeffrey M. Anderson reports also grabbed the Best Film award from the jury. These aren't the first bits of praise to come for the film. Our own Kim Voynar gave a great review earlier this year during Sundance, and it gained nominations both there and at the Gotham Awards. Sherrybaby, in short, is the story of a woman trying to reconnect with her daughter after a prison sentence. However, it's also an incredibly serious and heart-wrenching film that made the Sundance Q&A a river of tears.

This just could be Maggie's ticket to an Oscar, although anything is possible in a ceremony that raises Brockovich above Burstyn. Nevertheless, I think it's safe to say that she's got a long career ahead of her. She's on a steady train forward, which isn't stopping for elevator shenanigans and party girl diversions.

[via Hollywood.com]