His filmography defies easy categorization because Jon Avnet says he's only interested in one thing: Great acting. He's proving it this summer, as he teams up with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro for Righteous Kill.

In 1999, a plastic ball floated in the wind—the most beautiful thing ever seen by the strange boy next door—and with that, Alan Ball won an Academy Award for his very first screenplay, American Beauty. Nine years later, he's making his feature directorial debut with Towelhead, which, even before its release, is confronting controversy for its title and few key scenes.

He may be best known for the beloved Cinema Paradiso, but Giuseppe Tornatore's The Unknown Woman, his first film since 2000's Malena, is a substantial departure from that bittersweet love song to cinema. The Unknown Woman stars Russian actress Xenia Rappaport as Irena, a mysterious Ukrainian woman who ingratiates herself with a prosperous Italian family, taking care of their young daughter. Is she after blackmail? Revenge? Lightning-quick flashbacks provide hints of terrible secrets from her past, andThe Unknown Woman constantly keeps us off-balance with its blend of suspense and melodrama, and its mingling of past and present into one continuous stream.

Longtime fans of Judd Apatow will recognize a few familiar moments in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, out in theaters Friday, April 18. From an awkward reunion of sorts for lead actor-writer Jason Segel and his “Undeclared” love Carla Gallo to Segel’s uncontrollable sobbing over a girl who has left him for another man, the movie borrows a few tricks from Apatow’s television series “Undeclared.” “I think this is a story that we started telling eight years ago on the TV show that no one saw and that we’re completing now on the bigger screen, with full frontal male nudity,” jokes Marshall director Nick Stoller. Together with Segel, who appeared in a handful of episodes of the 2001 college comedy, Stoller had been a force behind the series.

Immigration has been a hot topic of debate in this country for the past decade (just ask Lou Dobbs) and with this fall’s election just around the corner, it may even be the deciding factor in determining our next president. But if you think that Patricia Riggen’s feature film debut, Under the Same Moon, is a controversial or political vehicle for discussing such views, think again.

Sure Zak Penn can write you a surefire blockbuster. He has proven that time and again with X-Men, Electra, Fantastic Four, etc. But that's not all he can do. The Grand, an improvisational comedy set in the world of competitive poker that he wrote and directed, contains neither a superhero nor a highfalutin special effect. But what the film lacks in terms of big-budget luxuries it makes up for with those erstwhile and less marketable traits: Intelligence, wit and originality.

"On the blockbuster summer movies, writing subplots that intersect with the main plot in the third act can be the difference between a good script and a bad one" and other lessons learned from one of Hollywood's most in-demand screenwriters.

Blockbuster moviemaking would be the expected career path of one of Michael Bay's former employees, but Mark Palansky has never been one for doing the "expected" thing. In facting, spending the early part of his career on the sets of such big-budget projects as Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and The Island, helped this Toronto native make the most of a $12 million budget on the quirky Penelope.

"Do a lot of daydreaming" and other lessons from Hollywood's go-to guy when it comes to family fantasy films.

Since 2000’s My Dog Skip, director Jay Russell has been the go-to man for bringing the heartwarming tales of children’s novels to life on the big screen. His latest effort, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, which opens on Christmas Day, used the resources of Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop to bring the mythical hatchling to life and portray the bond between boy and pet.

Twelve years and seven directorial efforts after storming the indie film scene at Sundance, Ed Burns is making history once again, as he premieres Purple Violets exclusively on iTunes.

"When sending your screenplay out to a movie star, don’t expect to hear back from them for at least three months" and other lessons from a truly independent moviemaker.

For writer-director Kasi Lemmons, making movies has never been a question of black or white, but rather varying shades of gray. "The gray area is so much more interesting and so much more realistic and valid to our experiences,” says the 46-year-old multi-hyphenate. “People are not all good or all bad. They’re complicated. Complicated characters are what interest me."

You've learned how to block a scene, move a dolly, mix a soundtrack, cut a negative, color-correct a work print, watch Hitchcock and critique Spielberg - but you don't know how to make money. Here's how.

Determining the roles of "writer" and "director" begins and ends with one simple question: What is the story I'm telling?

Warren Beatty may have said it best when he declared that "Casting is everything." And sometimes type-casting is the way to go.

You have a great script, an incredible director, cast and team and you're passionate about making this film. Sounds like a slam dunk, right? Wrong! You still need the money - and, in an ideal world, the distribution to pay it back.

Tell the truth.

1. Take a nap at lunch. The A.D and producer will always beg you to have some meeting or scout something, or talk through another scene, but always say no. They'll learn to find other times for your attention. You need time alone in your trailer or on a walk or a drive for yourself, or hang out with a buddy. Get a half hour where no one's asking you something at the very least. The second half of the days dailies will thank you for it.

I know from being on the other side of the lens how important it is for the director to be able to communicate and earn everyone's trust. The first few times I directed, I only thought about recording the actors' performances. Every once and a while I would get an idea about how framing a shot could have an impact, but I didn't really understand that part of filmmaking in the beginning. I'm always prodding myself and whatever cinematographer I'm working with to try to encourage me to think of ways to assist the actor with the composition and cinematic choices.

Though the role of cinematographer is not one he's ever tackled directly, actor-writer-producer-director Ron Howard's behind-the-camera prowess has been impressive enough to earn him the 2007 American Society of Cinematographers Board of Governors Award, which is presented annually to an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to advancing the art of moviemaking.

You can't be fatalistic. You can't sit down and let it roll downhill. You can't say films are all about fantasy, and meanwhile we destroy the planet.

Although the storyline of Ken Loach's new film, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, seems somewhat forced, the movie succeeds in making the subject vibrant and visual for viewers today. MM caught up with Loach and The Wind That Shakes the Barley screenwriter Paul Laverty to get to the bottom of the matter.

On every flick since Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, I've been editing while still in the midst of production. I'm not talking about some hired editor piecing together an assembly while I'm on set, either-I mean that, whenever I'm not shooting, I'm in the edit room with my footage. For this reason, we keep our editing bay as close to the set as possible. While the crew is taking 15 minutes to an hour to set-up the next shot, I'm behind the Avid, putting the flick together.

Kevin Smith has built a career on creating characters to whom almost any viewer can relate. His repertoire includes angst-filled retail clerks, heartfelt comic book romantics, fast-talking angels and widowed fathers, and he ties them all together with a no-holds-barred honesty with which Smith approaches his everyday life.

Don't worry if you don't know what your story is about.

You know, you're with the subject for a long time. It's important that you get it to where you want it to be.

If up until now Todd Field has been known primarily as an
actor, all that is about to change with In the Bedroom,
his feature directorial debut. The movie garnered a special
jury prize for acting for the film's stars, Sissy Spacek and
Tom Wilkinson, and is already generating some Oscar talk.
Here, Field talks about how being an actor informed some of
his directing choices and why being an performer is a whole
lot easier than being a director.

Don't ask people to do something they can't do. Casting is crucial. Don't give a very physical actor a lot of intellectual reasons to do something; learn to know your actors and direct each differently according to who they are as individuals

When it comes to the film world's original independent voices, names like Orson Welles and John Cassavetes are the first to be bandied about. But for more than 35 years, Henry Jaglom has been making movies the only way he knows how-his way! Beginning with A Safe Place in 1971 and leading up to the recent Hollywood Dreams, the former actor has managed to complete 15 feature films throughout his career-not just a writer and director, but as an actor, editor and distributor, too.

In 1995 Danish moviemakers Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von
Trier took a break from the technical conventions of modern
cinema and created the now famous Dogme 95 manifesto. This
month, Italian For Beginners, the fourth Danish Dogme
film, will be released with director Lone Scherfig at the
helm. In a conversation with MM, Scherfig talks about making
a Dogme comedy, Danish insecurities and staying true to that
prickly "Vow of Chastity."

Six months after the five-year anniversary of the events of September 11th-and months after United 93 and World Trade Center-comedian-turned-auteur Mike Binder is releasing his own take on the events of that fateful day-or, more appropriately, the after effects-with Reign Over Me, starring Adam Sandler.

Don't stop working. For me, moviemaking is practice that makes you better but never perfect.

Bill Lustig has been appreciated by the French as a director with a unique, unflinching cinematic eye for years. At home in L.A., he?s best known as a cult midnight moviemaker who has crafted some of the most fun, frightening, gory films of the ?80s, including Maniac, Vigilante, and Relentless. Intelligent, articulate and intimidatingly well-steeped in film lore, the hardworking Lustig recently began a new career as a film restorer and DVD producer with Anchor Bay Entertainment.

The process of each actor is different. Some are intuitive, some love to rehearse, some hate to rehearse. In some instances, you may want to rehearse even when they don't want to; it's just a matter of them understanding the process. Actors are so exposed. Directors are behind the camera crafting our world while the actors are exposed in front of the camera, exposed with their emotions. It's a matter of finding the best atmosphere for them to work.