We continue to wrap up the year in film with another look back at a major film festival: Even before the Sundance and Slamdance awards were announced, Jonathan Marlow and Hannah Eaves had landed in Rotterdam, where the International Film Festival, emphasizing more challenging films from Asia and Europe, was already underway.

'Tis the season on the GreenCine Daily, our award-winning film blog: Magazines, blogs and critics' organizations are rolling out their year-end best-of lists. Just about every day at the Daily, an entry called "Lists" goes up, updated as more awards are announced. So far, it looks like a very good year for Ang Lee. Also: NYC critical bash, the story behind Mary Poppins, reviews, interviews and more.

Video-on-Demand: About Baghdad (2004).

The still very timely About Baghdad, which was a finalist in the first GreenCine Online Film Festival, was shot by the D.C.-based collective InCounter Productions and documents the return of Iraqi writer (and InCounter member) Sinan Antoon to the city after 12 years in exile. "While 24-hour cable-news commentators continue to blather non-stop about what it means for the Iraqi people to be free from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein," wrote Ken Fox in TV Guide, "this excellent documentary from Iraqi writer-turned-filmmaker Sinan Antoon presents their hopes and fears directly from the Iraqis themselves." The Christian Science Monitor called the film a "harrowing, informative, conscientiously balanced documentary about the social, cultural, and economic welfare of Baghdad and environs after Saddam Hussein's fall. It's hard to decide which are more saddening - the film's accounts of torture and oppression under the Hussein regime or the evidence of tragedy and privation under American occupation." In short, About Baghdad is a fascinating and important document that makes for incredibly compelling viewing.

You can view a Windows Media 9 trailer for About Baghdad on our site, and then watch the whole film anytime you wish, via GreenCine's rapidly expanding Video-on-Demand service.

GreenCine Staff Pick of the Week: Lantana (2001).

Those seeking meaty, intelligent fare should give a look to the accomplished and underseen Australian neo noir Lantana. Nimbly written by Andrew Bovell, based upon his stage play, and sharply directed by Ray Lawrence, Lantana may center around its compelling murder mystery plot - which is full of red herrings - but out of that comes an intricate portrayal of complex, tense adult relationships, investigating nothing less than the human condition itself. But it never feels like an exercise.

American TV viewers may be familiar with the charismatic Anthony LaPaglia from his work on Without a Trace and Murder One, and may be surprised to know of his fine work in his native Australia (see also: The Bank, for another terrific example). Just as surprising is American actress Barbara Hershey, who plays a therapist caught in a web of dysfunctional relationships - and thusly begins to question her own (the always effective Geoffrey Rush has a small but pivotal role as her husband). The entire cast is in fine form. What really makes this mystery a standout, however, is the way the decisions, revelations and plotting all come from these three-dimensional characters' hearts and muddled minds, rather than filmmaker gimmickry. That's the neatest trick of all. -- Craig Phillips

Among the highlights of this week's new DVD releases are a few films providing us with some much-needed laughs:

The Baxter (2005). "Michael Showalter's [he of the sketch comedy troupe The State and Comedy Central's Stella] directorial debut is an immodestly refreshing crash course in modesty," wrote Ed Park in the Village Voice. "The Baxter has a high huggability quotient, but the points of the central love triangle are pricklier than one might expect."

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). "What's distinctive about this male sex comedy is that it's sort of a woman's picture," wrote David Edelstein in Slate. "[T]his is a woman's fantasy of meeting a cute but nonaggressive guy's guy with a richly developed interior life who still needs emotional breaking-in, a guy who can save a gal as she saves him." And he went on to single out a particular performance: "Catherine Keener was the cat's pajamas on first viewing, but a second confirms that she's also the bee's knees. Her combination of womanly earthiness and ethereal loopiness is unique in modern American cinema - and super-sexy." [Widescreen edition.]

Bad News Bears (2005). "Is there a movie role Billy Bob Thornton can't pull off?" Manohla Dargis asked in the New York Times. What's more, "[Director Richard] Linklater guides his story forward as smoothly as he did School of Rock. Filled with small, cute kids and large, goofy laughs and buoyed by fine supporting work from Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden, the director's latest effort won't rock your movie world, but the fact that he manages to keep the freak flag flying in the face of our culture of triumphalism is a thing of beauty."

The Island (2005). Boy, was Michael Bay upset when audiences didn't swarm to The Island this summer. But not half as much as some studio execs who suggested that, well, maybe Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson just aren't sexy enough to draw a crowd. Hello? The real reason for the poor performance at the box office might be this: The Island doesn't look like a movie you want to spend ticket, popcorn and parking money on. Instead, it looks like a fun, possibly even silly actioner with surefire effects, a potentially engaging premise and, yes, a couple of sexy leads. In other words, perfect for a relaxing evening at home.

Naked Among Wolves (1963). In a profile of Frank Beyer for Senses of Cinema, Leonie Naughton notes that this "anti-fascist" film made for the DEFA studios (basically UFA during the years of the German Democratic Republic) "has been acclaimed for its 'indelibly written characters,' and has invited 'positive comparison to Schindler's List in its ability to portray the triumph of human spirit.'"

The Beautiful Country (2004). "The idea for the film came from Terence Malick, a good solid start in my book," wrote David Hudson when he caught The Beautiful Country in Berlin early last year. "Malick also wrote the original draft of the screenplay and, after seeing Aberdeen, decided that Hans Petter Moland was just the director who could bring the epic journey of a young Vietnamese man from his homeland to America to the screen - for a mere $5 million. Though Moland likes to joke that if you want to make a film set in the Far East and the States, the obvious thing to do is call in a Norwegian, straight across the board, Malick was absolutely right."

Long Way Round (2004). Road trip! But not just any road trip. Actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman fulfill a life-long dream, motorcycling through Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Alaska on their way to New York. The series of episodes runs nearly seven hours in all, but by all accounts, it's irresistible viewing.

The Five Pennies (1959). Danny Kaye plays jazz trumpeter Red Nichols; the true story takes a back seat, though, to the candy-colored look and the terrific musical numbers.

Fine, go watch some new Anime:

Stellvia Volume 8: Foundation VIII (2005). "Highly recommended for sci-fi and school based coming-of-age anime fans," says drseid.

As always, if you want to see a complete, more detailed list of all this week's new releases, do drop by our new releases page.

Congratulations to these lucky winners of several recent GreenCine trivia contests: Murder One: Season Two winners were tipkin, Jimmycrawfish and bradyg (the answer: Mary McCormack also appeared on The West Wing); Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals winners were Daria, IronS, Orius1, dramachick, lsteele and artifex (the answer was "fa(r), a long, long way to run"); Unknown Chaplin winners were FancyLad, Eoliano and ALittlefield (the answer was The Great Dictator). We'll announce more winners of pending trivia contests in this space soon.

The member list of the week is ZenBones' "22 Reasons Why 1974 Was Cinema's Best Year" ("A time when movies were original, challenging, and gave a voice to those of us non-conformists.") Which reminds us, why isn't 1970's The Conformist out on DVD?

Thanks to those of you who came to last week's enjoyable screening of Mau Mau Sex Sex at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, which was introduced by director Ted Bonnitt and writer Eddie Muller. If you missed it, you can watch the film now via Video-on-Demand.

Meanwhile, even though it's some distance away, we can already tell you our next screening at the YBCA will be the criminally under-seen caper classic, Le Clan des Siciliens (1969). The film is the only motion picture to feature all three heavyweights from French tough-guy cinema -- Jean Gabin, Alain Delon and Leno Ventura. More details on this magnifico screening to come!