Film nerds across New York City are all buzzing like bees following the announcement of the line-up for the 47th annual New York Film Festival.  As is evidenced by this piece many changes are afoot this year and there are many differing opinions on the line-up.

Personally I couldn’t be more excited about this year’s NYFF.  You can read the entire line-up HERE and below are the films that I think you, the TakePart community, would enjoy and that I’ll be writing about this year!

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ANTICHRIST - Lars von Trier, Denmark, 2009, 109m - Surely to be one of the year’s most discussed films, Lars von Trier’s latest chronicles a couple’s efforts to find their love again after a tragic loss, only to unleash hidden monsters lurking in their souls. An IFC Films release.

- I’m super curious about how this film portrays women and if it will live up to the hype.

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THE ART OF THE STEAL - Don Argott, USA, 2009, 101m - Bound to be controversial, this intriguing account of the travails of the legendary Barnes collection of art masterworks and the foundation set up to protect it raises vital questions about public vs. private “ownership” of art.

- Ownership of art = super important topic

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GHOST TOWN - Zhao Dayong, China, 2008, 180m - A revealing, one-of-a-kind look at China far away from the glittering urban skylines, this portrait of a contemporary rural community in China offers extraordinary insights into everything from the role of religion to gender relationships to the place of social deviants.

- A friend has told me this is worth the 3 hour running time..

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INDEPENDENCIA - Raya Martin, Philippines, 2009, 77m - Maverick director Raya Martin offers a kind of alternative history of the Philippines and its struggle for nationhood in this stylized tale of a mother and son hiding in the mountains after the US takeover of the islands.

- Sounds important and wonderful

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KANIKOSEN - Sabu, Japan, 2009, 109m - Kaniskosen is a highly stylized, stirring, manga-flavored update of a classic Japanese political novel, with labor unrest aboard a crab canning ship evolving into a cry of a younger generation aching to break the bonds of conformity.

- I love me some labor unrest!

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LEBANON - Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2009, 92m -Debut director Samuel Maoz takes us inside an Israeli tank and the emotions of its crew during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

- Sounds powerful and extremely informative

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MIN YE - Souleymane Cissé, Mali/France, 2009, 135m - A work of startling originality, Souleymane Cisse’s first film in over a decade insightfully and incisively chronicles the dissolution of an upper-middle class African marriage.

- People should be watching more African cinema

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POLICE ADJECTIVE - Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2009, 115m - Discovering a teenager with hashish, a young policeman hesitates about turning him in. But his supervisor has other ideas in this beautifully acted, provocative modern morality play. An IFC Films release

- I’ve heard this is great, it sounds great.

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ROOM AND A HALF - Andrey Khrzhanovsky, Russia, 2009, 131m - Former animator Andrey Khrzhanovsky combines scripted scenes, archival footage, several types of animation, and surrealist flights of fancy to create this stirring portrait of poet Josef Brodsky and the postwar Soviet cultural scene. A Seagull Films release.

- Sounds beautiful and inspiring

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VINCERE - Marco Bellocchio, Italy, 2009, 129m - Mussolini’s “secret” marriage to Ida Dalser, afterwards completely denied by Il Duce, along with the son born from the relationship, becomes the springboard for this visually ravishing meditation on the fascist manipulation of history. An IFC Films release.

- “visually ravishing meditation on the fascist manipulation of history.” = YES!!

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WHITE MATERIAL - Claire Denis, France, 2009, 100m - A handful of Europeans try to make sense of-and survive-the chaos happening all around them in an African country torn apart by civil war.

- I might be most excited for this film. I adore Claire Denis.

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THE WHITE RIBBON - Michael Haneke, Austria/France, 2009, 144m - The Palme d’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this is a starkly beautiful meditation on the consequences of violence-physical, emotional, spiritual-in a northern German town on the eve of World War I. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

- Won the Palme D’or.  I’m not super excited about this but I have a feeling it will be good.