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Thursday, March 22---New Directors/New Films, the annual showcase of emerging international film talents jointly organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Film Department of the Museum of Modern Art, kicked off last evening with two highly anticipated screenings at the Museum of Modern Art's Roy and Niuta Titus Theater. The film series, celebrating its 36th year, runs from March 21 to April 1, with screening at both the Museum of Modern Art and at the Film Society's flagship Walter Reade Theater.

The film series opened with THE INNER LIFE OF MARTIN FROST by novelist/screenwriter-turned-director Paul Auster (SMOKE, BLUE IN THE FACE, LULU ON THE BRIDGE). For his second feature film, Auster creates a new scenario for the lead characer from his 2002 novel THE BOOK OF ILLUSION, a renowned novelist played by British actor David Thewlis (best known for his Cannes Film Festival Best Actor performance in NAKED). French actress Irene Jacob, THE SOPRANOS' Michael Imperioli and Sophie Auster play the novelist's unwelcome guests as he retreats in a place in the country to recharge his creative batteries and his interest in life in general.

Also screening on Wednesday evening was the premiere of GLUE, a dazzling debut by young Argentinian director Alexis Dos Santos. The director, whose film has already won awards at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and will have a theatrical release later this year by Picture This Entertainment, draws on his own life story, in detailing the ennui of a group of teenagers in a small town in Patagonia, where having sex and sniffing glue are the only entertainments. Filmed in a highly expressive style, the film is certain to launch an ambitious career for its director and its trio of youthful actors.

Cowboy AngelsOther highlights from the first weekend of screenings include: ONCE, a Sundance Film Festival sleeper hit by Irish director John Carney, the musical tale of a street performer who falls into a relationship with a Czech immigrant; AUDIENCE OF ONE, an entertaining and eye-opening account by American documentarian Michael Jacobs of a Pentecostal pastor and his congregation's commitment to film a $50 million dollar Biblical sci-fi epic, which they are convinced is God's will; COWBOYLove For Sale ANGELS, French director Kim Massee's emotionally involving tale of a young Parisian boy, abandoned by his mother, who goes on a road trip to Spain with his a down-on-his luck gambler to try and find the young boy's father; LOVE FOR SALE, Brazilian director Karim Ainouz (whose MADAME SATA was an international arthouse sensation) sensationally shot and acted film about a young woman who returns to her native village to await the arrival of her boyfriend; and RED ROAD, Scottish director Andrea Arnold's BAFTA and Cannes Film Festival award winning tale of a female security officer who becomes obsessed with the image of a man she first spots on her closed circuit security system.

For more information on New Directors/New Films and to purchase tickets, visit the website of the Film Society of Lincoln Center: www.filmlinc.com and the website of the Museum of Modern Art: www.moma.org

Sandy Mandelberger, Film New York Editor