Jacob Burns

"An artful, intelligent movie" (New York Times)

Based on François Bégaudeau’s autobiographical novel “Between the Walls,” The Class chronicles the life of a classroom as a microcosm of modern France in Paris’ smoldering suburbs, where African, Arab and Asian Parisian students play out issues of  identity, equality, and social and cultural integration. Mr. Bégaudeau plays a fictionalized version of himself; an engaging teacher who must navigate emotionally charged confrontations and misunderstandings within a community of energetic and frustrating junior-high students. Calling on improvisation and a convincing documentary-style of filmmaking, Cantet's extraordinary film captivated audiences as this year’s New York Film Festival opening night selection, won the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and is nominated for this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year.

"Emotionally rich, authentic and passionate" (New York Magazine)

Set in the insular world of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Two Lovers features Joaquin Phoenix as a charismatic but troubled young man who returns to his childhood home after a recent heartbreak, and Gwyneth Paltrow as the new elusive object of his desire. This classic romantic drama follows his entanglements with two very different women, and the ensuing struggle between the promise of domestic comfort and a voyeuristic, impetuous desire.

Welcome to Stanley, North Dakota, sitting atop the largest oil discovery in the history of the North American continent. Through revealing interviews and breathtaking imagery of the northern plains, Crude Independence (directed by JBFC World Crew alum Noah Hutton) is a rumination on the future of small-town America—a tale of change at the hands of the global energy market and America’s unyielding thirst for oil.

Q&A with filmmaker Noah Hutton Interviewed by Janet Maslin. Filmmaker Noah Hutton learned of the oil boom in North Dakota from a January 2008 newspaper article. He boarded a flight two days later and began work on Crude Independence, his first feature. Janet Maslin, New York Times critic, is president of the JBFC board of directors.

“A dynamite reinvention of the Italian Mafioso movie.” (Salon.com)

Nominated for five European Film Awards An unflinching, gripping look at organized crime in modern-day Naples, this documentary-style film won the Grand Prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Based on the best-selling exposé—which was so explosive that the author, Roberto Saviano, now lives in hiding from the mob—Gomorrah strips away the romantic conventions of modern-day gangster films and reveals the darker, more prosaic truths of a shadowy ubiquitous underworld.