Dir: Xavier Dolan
French Canada / 2009 / 96mins / Drama / Budget: Approx $500,000

'I Killed my Mother' is written, directed and produced by 20 year old French Canadian Xavier Dolan, who also plays Hubert. The film tells the story of a modish gay teenager whose co-dependent relationship with his divorced mother is going from bad to truly horrific. In his eyes, her irritating tastelessness and monstrous love have become emotionally lethal; for her, his self-obsessed behaviour and new ideas feel exclusionary; this irresolvable tension results in constantly escalating, toxic arguments that alternate between the terrifying and riotously funny.

Winner of 22 Awards including three at the Director’s Fortnight, Cannes 2009

Dir: Lynn Shelton
USA / 2009 / 94mins / Comedy / Budget: Under $500,000

A buddy movie gone wild, Humpday follows Ben (Duplass) and Andrew (Leonard) the bad boys of their college campus, who hook up ten years later only to fall back into an old dynamic of macho one-upmanship, taking their 'bromance' to a whole new level!

Andrew took the alternate route as a vagabond artist, skipping the globe from Chiapas to Cambodia. When Andrew shows up unannounced on Ben's doorstep, they easily fall back into their old dynamic of macho one-upmanship.

Late into the night at a wild party, the two find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest together. But what kind of boundary-breaking, envelope pushing porn can two straight dudes make? After the booze and "big talk" run out, only one idea remains—they will have sex together...on camera. It's not gay; it's beyond gay. It's not porn; it's art. But how exactly will it work? And more importantly, who will tell Anna (Delmore), Ben's wife?

Winner Special Jury Prize & Nominated Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival 2009.

Dir/Prod: Jenna Rosher
USA / 2009 / 70mins / Documentray / Budget: Under $500,000

Followed by Skype Q&A with Producer/Director Jenna Rosher

Junior is Eddie Belasco, a 75-year old San Francisco native who epitomises the old school Italian.  Eddie's childhood was straight out of a Martin Scorsese film.  And like most young Italian-American boys he had the utmost respect for his 'Ma", Josephine Belsco, a hard-working accountant who knew how to keep little Junior in check.  Still, sixty-five years later, things haven't changed.  Now with his kids all grown up and three failed marriages behind him, Eddie is left to face his future as a retiree.  We watch as he stumbles through this process, but not alone.  His 98-year old mother Josie is there to remind him of the beauty of life.  Simple and sweet with no regrets.

Filled with good food and rich memories, Junior explores the one thing we as a society fear most... growing old.

Winner Best Documentary Feature Woodstock Fim Festival 2009, Sheffield Doc/Fest Audience Award 2009, Official Selection Silver Docs

Dir: Oliver Hermanus
South Africa / 2009 / 92mins / Drama / Budget: Under $1 Million

Shirley (in an extraordinary, award-winning performance by Denise Newman) lives in a rough, low-income district of Cape Town, where her son Donovan has been left paralysed after a gang shoot-out. Donovan requires her full time care, which in turn necessitates Shirley to quit her job, further diminishing their already meagre earnings.

Compassionate, and with a clear empathy for his central character, Hermanus (who was sponsored through film school by producer Roland Emmerich) keeps the drama taut and edgy, employing a pared-back, naturalistic approach that has its roots in the films of the Dardenne Brothers.

Winner Best First Feature, Best Actress and Best South African Film 2009 Durban Film Festival

Prod/Dir: Lena Dunham
USA / 2010 / 98mins / Comedy / Budget: Approx $65,000

Followed by Skype Q&A with Producer/Director Lena Dunham

22-year-old Aura returns home to her artist mother's TriBeCa loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her Youtube page, a boyfriend who's left her to find himself at Burning Man, a dying hamster, and her tail between her legs. Luckily, her train wreck childhood best friend never left home, the restaurant down the block is hiring, and ill-advised romantic possibilities lurk around every corner. Surrounded on all sides by what she could become, Aura just wants someone to tell her who she is.

Winner of 22 Awards including three at the Director’s Fortnight, Cannes 2009

Dir: Aron Gauder
Hungary / 2004 / 87mins / Animation / Budget: $525,000

A group of teens from the wrong side of Budapest's tracks band together to make themselves rich by traveling back in time, burying a horde of wooly mammoths under the city's streets, then returning to the present and drilling for oil. As creators of a new oil-producing nation, their scheme draws the attention of Putin (who uses the district’s Russian hookers as spies), Blair and George W. Bush. In the midst of it all, star-crossed teen love is in bloom.

This outrageous and visually stunning animated satire plays like an unhinged ghetto updating of Romeo & Juliet smash-filtered through a politically-charged – and politically-incorrect - kaleidoscope of clashing world views and social unrest, complete with musical numbers and a wicked soundtrack of Hungarian hip-hop.

Winner of too many awards to name!

Dir:Daryl Wein
USA / 2009 / 88mins / Romance / Budget: $15,000

'Breaking Upwards' explores a young, real-life New York couple who, four years in and battling codependency, decide to intricately strategize their own break up. Based on an actual experiment devised by director/actor Daryl Wein and actress Zoe Lister-Jones, the film loosely interprets a year in their lives exploring alternatives to monogamy, and the madness that ensues. An uncensored look at young love, lust, and the pangs of co-dependency, 'Breaking Upwards' follows its characters as they navigate each others' emotions across the city they love. It begs the question: is it ever possible to grow apart together?

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Best Narrative Feature, Brooklyn International Film Festival

Dir: Marc Price
UK / 2008 / 97mins / Horror / Budget: Approx $70

Followed by Skype Q&A with Producer/Director Marc Price

So can anyone now ‘just make a movie?’ Possibly not anyone, as talent is always required, but certainly price alone no longer seems to be a barrier to making films and getting them into cinemas. Marc Price’s debut zombie movie was made for just £45 and has turned the industry on its head. Following completion it was funded by UK Film Council to get into cinemas across the UK and it continues to sell into distribution across the globe.

As well as being an industry phenomenon it is also great fun, playing with the usual zombie format by shifting the perspective from the living to the living dead. We meet Colin just as he’s made the shocking discovery that he has been bitten by a zombie. He dies, but then comes back to life as a one of the undead and gives us the zombie-eye-view of suburbia in the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse.

Winner of the 2008 Revenant Film Festival Special Jury Prize and Best Feature on a micro budget at Raindance Film Festival