Hail A Film Festival

I've only been a regular festival-goer for 3 years in my fair city, but I can not recommend the experience enough. Before I knew better, I thought these things were simply previews of movies to come or showcases of foreign films; certainly those are two functions of a festival. But beyond that is the experience of magically being exposed to films not only of different countries, but of different cultures, of different times (silent films, film noir detective stories, historical works) and of different treatments (home movies, documentaries, hand-held filming).
While I enjoy the quality (and sometimes the homogeneity) of American movies, I think the corporate business of filmmaking in this country does us a disservice by making it so difficult for auteurs to bring their work to an audience. And for this, I loves me a film festival crowd.
Some of my faves from last year (2006):
Snow Cake - Sigourney Weaver as a high-functioning autistic and Alan Rickman as a survivor of a horrific traffic accident in a small Canadian town.
Half Nelson - I couldn't be more excited about Ryan Gosling's about-face from the sappy ickiness of The Notebook (sorry girlfriends) to this dirty drama about a golden-hearted junior high school teacher with a crack habit.
Hard Candy - Before Patrick Wilson was an adulterous young father in Little Children, he played a probable pedophile unlucky enough to trade messages on the Internet with a scheming teenage girl. Warning to guys: you'll be sitting cross-legged for a few scenes.
Familia - A French-Canadian film about women & daughters & friendship & addiction. Beautifully believable.
Pierrepoint - based on the true story of Britain's most successful hangman in the 1920's - 1950's. Simple and riveting, I thought about it for days afterward. [Not yet available on video - but look for it]
Wordplay - a no-brainer for those of us who are fans of Will Shortz and crosswords in general. A look at players in the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament - word nerds unite!
The World According to Sesame Street - an amazing but humble glimpse into the house that Big Bird built. The Sesame Project is a global campaign aimed at educating children on the basics while providing them with a sense of community in locales ravaged by war, poverty and disease. If it takes a village to raise a child, Sesame Street should be the elders.
The Power of Nightmares - Apparently the BBC felt it was up to them to school us Americans on why 9/11 happened to us. It's a good thing they did. Utterly compelling. 3 hours will whiz by before you've even eaten half your popcorn. [Also, not yet available on video]