"The cumulative effect of both [5 Broken Cameras and ½ Revolution] makes you feel like you are there vicariously experiencing the events from the filmmakers’ subjective vantage points," writes Neil Kendricks about two standout features from Sundance 2012. He recaps fest highs and lows, including Grand Jury Prize winner, Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Lucy Walker’s The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom picked up Sundance's jury prize for short non-fiction and an Academy Award nomination. Hers is one of many shorts on Neil Kendricks' must-watch list from Sundance 2012.

Voice-over or not? When to animate? And where to leave your viewers? Two IDFA docs, Four Horsemen and Surviving Progress tackle the consequences of progress by making different stylistic choices.

An editor's technical toolbox may have changed since the 80s but there are still lessons to be learned from classic ensemble dramas like The Big Chill. All those adults in one kitchen, dancing? Editor Mike Sullivan caught up with editor Carol Littleton to ask how she cut that scene and about the significance of leaving Kevin Costner on the cutting room floor.

"I think every doc director is an activist, their army is visual images," says director Seung-Jun Yi. His film, Planet of Snail, about the blind and deaf poet Young-Chan, just won the best feature-length documentary award at IDFA. Seung-Jun Yi has made documentaries for Korean television and is among a growing movement of filmmakers to break out and expand the form.

Even though funding and distributing your doc can feel like a confusing quagmire, to some it's the new sexy. IDFA panelists have their say on the evergreen questions, including an announcement of a new source for financial support: BRITDOC.

"Self-distribution is not for the faint of heart," is just one of the most salient bits of commentary and advice The Independent's Katherine Brodsky overheard at the Annual BNA Atlas International Film & TV Finance Summit. Jodi Piekoff, Josh Braun, Warren Nimchuk, Ira Deutchman, Wilder Knight, Karrine Behr, Vinca Jarrett are mentioned.

The Independent's senior film critic, Kurt Brokaw, is viewing the entire main slate of the 49th New York Film Festival, showing at Lincoln Center September 30-October 16th. His critic’s choices—from among 27 feature films plus numerous ‘special event’ features, masterworks, “views from the avant garde” and shorts—begin here.

The premise sounds like either a miracle or a gimmick: thousands of hours of visual and audio footage off a cell phone turned into a meaningful personal documentary. Yet Bosnian filmmaker Nedžad Begović's Mobitel (A Cell Phone Movie) manages to make cell phones ring like they're centuries old.

For 23 years, the Cinefest Sudbury International Film Festival has come at the heels of the Toronto International Film Festival. But Cinefest has no red carpet, and the only big name you’re likely to see is on the screen. John Charrette introduces us to one Ontario filmmaker whose name you should know, Benjamin Paquette. His fourth feature, (Non) Fiction premiered at Cinefest over the weekend.

Tax incentives. Public and private funding. Transnational co-productions. During a year abroad to study regional film festivals and exhibition, Courtney Sheehan takes in Southeast Europe through the lens of presenters at the third annual industry Cinelink forum during the Sarajevo Film Festival.

From the long walk between work and home to squeezing water from the desert dust, The Fruit of Our Labor depicts daily life in post-9/11 Afghanistan, as told by 10 Afghan filmmakers trained by Community Supported Film.

"Especially for directors, writers or anyone that is an artist, being overemotional is actually both a gift and a curse. That’s your tool," says Jean-Pierre Améris to The Independent's Katherine Brodsky about his new film, Romantics Anonymous. In the interview and the quirky romantic comedy, Améris lays bare his own struggle with social anxiety, the loneliness all people face, and the universal appeal of chocolate.

Normally literature is what moves fiction writer Peggy Rambach. Then she met Buck Brannaman through the documentary portrait of his life. Rambach's is part of a series of personal essays inspired by a particular film experience.

Every minute you let your nearest college film program go by without becoming acquainted with its schedule, leadership, and selection process, is a day you miss of fresh, often free cinema (and popcorn), and a chance to get eyes on your latest masterwork. Courtney Sheehan gives a behind-the-scenes account of running a college film program in Iowa and suggests that filmmakers and distributors should seek out these venues now, before they disappear.