If the audience for the New York Film Festival is defined as a standard American bunch, there are a number of entries this year to which one could apply the dubious label of "obscure": The African melodrama "Min Yè…," a document of sheep herding called "Sweetgrass," and Filipino director Raya Martin's stylish colonialist indictment "Independencia" all fit in there.

There are short films that might seem more "accessible" to casual arthouse audiences, such as Ramin Bahrani's Werner Herzog-narrated "Plastic Bag" and Albert Maysles' Rolling Stone portrait "Get Your YaYa's Out!"

But to see the latter film, you need to be the sort of person willing to engage with 100-year-old director Manoel Oliveira's thoughtful-but-prosaic romance "Eccentricities of a Blonde Hair Girl," which the short precedes.

So the program is heavy with transnational ingredients that practically force viewers to expand their boundaries and learn a thing or two about the farther reaches of international cinema.

This regular observation has been labeled, perhaps unfairly, as a "critique" of the festival, when it ought to be seen as a description of its qualifying characteristic.

Anyone miffed by the challenges of grappling with NYFF's stranger titles can easily focus on the movies that are more accessible to critically engaged moviegoers with less hardcore cinephilic inclinations: Todd Solondz's "Life During Wartime" (which still has no U.S. distributor, but will get one eventually) deals with memory, redemption and sexual discontent in a quietly experimental fashion that's still very funny. Bong Joon-ho's "Mother" (soon to be released by Magnolia Pictures) puts a matriarchal spin on the classic detective story. Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon" (coming to you soon courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics) feels like "Children of the Corn" if it were directed by Carl Dreyer.

There's no doubt that these movies deliver on several levels. They bear the stamp of intelligent auteurs whose careers deserve notice. But so do the directors of "Min Yè…" and "Independencia," and most American audiences won't get an easy opportunity to check them out.

That's why NYFF remains valuable. Aside from a special anniversary screening of "The Wizard of Oz" and a glitzy New York premiere for "Precious," the festival celebrates — or, rather, deflates — the notion of "obscurity" by placing conventionally "obscure" cinema on even footing with the standard artsy stuff.

I'm an unequivocal fan of "A Serious Man," but don't mind its exclusion since you can find it pretty much everywhere else. There's enough praise going around for the latest from Joel and Ethan Coen that another festival showcase wouldn't matter, anyway.

The idea that the critics on the selection committee are out of touch with popular taste — an argument that has circulated lately — doesn't quite add up. J. Hoberman has an affinity for Tim Burton (http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-12-11/film/prime-cut/). Dennis Lim recently expounded on the virtues of Mike Judge (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/movies/30lim.html). Scott Foundas once wrote an extensive argument for the positive qualities of Brett Ratner's oeuvre (http://www.laweekly.com/2007-08-02/news/brett-ratner-the-popcorn-king/).

So the exclusion of mainstream works at NYFF feels more like a push for expanded awareness of cinema's current state than an overarching thesis about the best of the best. Instead, it's a chance to poke around.

At the Woodstock Film Festival this weekend, I participate in a panel discussion about the state of film criticism today. During the conversation, I pushed for a move away from market-driven criticism that tends to focus on whatever the public happens to gravitate toward at any given moment.

This should not implicitly reject public consensus (although sometimes it does); rather, we should look around to avoid the ever-present threat of isolation.

I suggested that the American movie industry worked a single hierarchy, and used the metaphor of a tower. If all domestic theatrical releases exist in that tower, then there's a huge world outside of it that we need to seek out. "Life During Wartime" is in the backyard, "Mother" lies down the road, and "To Die Like a Man" exists in an entirely different town. We have to travel the distance to find these movies and bring back word of their existence.

Perhaps because the multiple layers of film culture easily give way to architectural metaphors, A.O. Scott provides a related perspective in his piece for the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/movies/07festival.html?pagewanted=2&_r...) on NYFF's remote selection, which he defines as symptomatic of "festivalism." He uses this dubious term to refer to the film festival world's rampant narrow-mindedness, concluding that "festivalism lives in a high castle, surrounded by a moat not entirely of its own construction."

If that's true, then I suggest audiences take a day trip from my tower to visit Scott's castle.

The festival shouldn't serve up the big picture, nor its essential ingredients. More like a navigation device than some unwieldy edifice, it fills in the gaps and connects the dots of modern cinema. As a result, NYFF is just another tool — but a vital tool, for those willing to use it.

If the audience for the New York Film Festival is defined as a standard American bunch, there are a number of entries this year to which one could apply the dubious label of "obscure": African melodrama "Min Yè…," sheep-herding documentary "Sweetgrass" and Filipino director Raya Martin's stylish colonialist indictment "Independencia" all fit in there.

There are short films that might seem more "accessible" to casual arthouse audiences, such as Ramin Bahrani's Werner Herzog-narrated "Plastic Bag" and Albert Maysles' Rolling Stones portrait "Get Your YaYa's Out!"

But to see the latter film, you need to be the sort of person willing to engage with 100-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira's thoughtful but prosaic romance "Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl," which the short precedes.

So the program is heavy with transnational ingredients that practically force viewers to expand their boundaries and learn a thing or two about the farther reaches of international cinema.

This regular observation has been labeled, perhaps unfairly, a "critique" of the festival, when it ought to be seen as a description of its qualifying characteristic.

Anyone miffed by the challenges of grappling with NYFF's stranger titles can easily focus on the movies that are more accessible to critically engaged moviegoers with less hard-core cinephilic inclinations.

Todd Solondz's "Life During Wartime" (which still has no U.S. distributor, but will get one eventually) deals with memory, redemption and sexual discontent in a quietly experimental fashion that's still very funny. Bong Joon-ho's "Mother" (soon to be released by Magnolia Pictures) puts a matriarchal spin on the classic detective story. Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon" (coming to you soon courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics) feels like "Children of the Corn" if it were directed by Carl Dreyer.

There's no doubt that these movies deliver on several levels. They bear the stamp of intelligent auteurs whose careers deserve notice. But so do the directors of "Min Yè…" and "Independencia," and most American audiences won't get an easy opportunity to check them out.

That's why NYFF remains valuable. Aside from a special 70th-anniversary screening of "The Wizard of Oz" and a glitzy New York premiere for "Precious," the festival celebrates — or, rather, deflates — the notion of "obscurity" by placing conventionally "obscure" cinema on even footing with the standard artsy stuff.

I'm an unequivocal fan of "A Serious Man," but I don't mind its exclusion from NYFF, since you can find it pretty much everywhere else. There's enough praise going around for the latest from Joel and Ethan Coen that another festival showcase wouldn't matter, anyway.

The idea that the critics on the selection committee are out of touch with popular taste — an argument that has circulated lately — doesn't quite add up.

J. Hoberman has an affinity for Tim Burton. Dennis Lim recently expounded on the virtues of Mike Judge. Scott Foundas once wrote an extensive argument for the positive qualities of Brett Ratner's oeuvre.

So the exclusion of mainstream works at NYFF feels more like a push for expanded awareness of cinema's current state than an overarching thesis about the best of the best. Instead, it's a chance to poke around.

At the Woodstock Film Festival this weekend, I participated in a panel discussion about the state of film criticism today. During the conversation, I pushed for a move away from market-driven criticism that tends to focus on whatever the public happens to gravitate toward at any given moment.

This should not implicitly reject public consensus (although sometimes it does); rather, we should look around to avoid the ever-present threat of isolation.

I suggested the American movie industry works as a single hierarchy, and used the metaphor of a tower.

If all domestic theatrical releases exist in that tower, then there's a huge world outside of it that we need to seek out. "Life During Wartime" is in the backyard, "Mother" lies down the road and "To Die Like a Man" exists in an entirely different town. We have to travel the distance to find these movies and bring back word of their existence.

Perhaps because the multiple layers of film culture easily give way to architectural metaphors, A.O. Scott provides a related perspective in his piece for the New York Times on NYFF's remote selection, which he defines as symptomatic of "festivalism." He uses this dubious term to refer to the film festival world's rampant narrow-mindedness, concluding, "Festivalism lives in a high castle, surrounded by a moat not entirely of its own construction."

If that's true, then I suggest audiences take a day trip from my tower to visit Scott's castle.

The festival shouldn't serve up the big picture, nor its essential ingredients. More like a navigation device than some unwieldy edifice, it fills in the gaps and connects the dots of modern cinema.

As a result, NYFF is just another tool — but a vital tool, for those willing to use it.

The intriguing thing about this year's edition of the New York Film Festival isn't merely the program's whimsical nature (a given), the broad range of international selections (also a given) or that many of the movies lack U.S. distribution.

Instead, I have been struck by how nearly every film at the festival seems to divide people. Both the
comic zaniness of Alain Resnais' surrealist comedy "Wild Grass" and the explicit madness of Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist" were met with mixed responses. A similar situation arose with documentaries, including the Chinese village portrait "Ghost Town" (endlessly fascinating or overlong?) and "The Art of the Steal" (valiant
chronicle of art world conspiracy or activist propaganda?).

That the NYFF program inspires more debate than consensus may or may have been intentional on the part of the selection committee, but the outcome is mainly positive. Disagreements spawn dialogue, and subjective reactions are integral to a passionate moviegoing experience.

While there are plenty of worthwhile below-the-radar entries in the program (several of which I hope to single out in my next dispatch), I would like to highlight two divisive NYFF movies with somewhat bigger profiles: Harmony Korine's "Trash Humpers" and Lee Daniels' "Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire."

Korine inspires plenty of hatred from moody critics perturbed by his supposed "bad boy" persona, which was something of an illusion even back when he wrote "Kids" at age 19. His latest movie, however, works precisely because it cautiously dismantles that perception.

"Trash Humpers" undoubtedly doesn't work for everyone: It's shot on low grade VHS and follows a group of aimless psychopaths as they engage in the titular activity and other related craziness throughout Korine's native Nashville setting.

But just because the director shot the thing four months ago and injects it with autobiographical flourishes does not mean it should be dismissed as sloppy or stupid, as some have claimed. Korine appears in "Trash Humpers" as one of the demented characters, rambling as he drives through suburbia about how his madness frees him from the boundaries of a settled life. "I can smell how all these people are trapped in their lives," he seethes.

The filmmaker has an agenda, and it permeates nearly every scene. Those willing to engage with "Trash Humpers" on this level will find that it is precisely the meditation on creative isolation that he intends. Which means you're either with him or you're not -- but even as I noticed plenty of frustrated faces at the "Trash Humpers" press screening on Tuesday, a scattered bunch seemed to fully appreciate it.

When Korine showed up at the end for a brief press conference, one questioner compared the movie to Fernando Arrabal and the theater of the absurd; another brought up performance artist Paul McCarthy. Korine admitted he wasn't thinking of either man, but seemed to relate to the immediacy of their creative techniques. "It takes too long to make movies, which is an opposition to experimentation," he said. "I wanted to make a film as quickly as I could."

There's no doubt that "Trash Humpers" was destined for reckless hatred. But then there's the NYFF centerpiece, "Precious," a movie made with hefty productions values, a handful of stars and oversized buzz that began back at Sundance, putting it directly in the crosshairs of critical backlash.

I understand this movie's flaws like anyone else with two eyes: Director Lee Daniels' flashy story follows an overweight Harlem teen (Gabourey Sidibe) coping with her negligent mother (Mo'Nique, in a frightening -- but overly histrionic -- turn) and multiple pregnancies inflicted on her by a now-absent father.

Precious dreams of becoming a star and waltzing across the red carpet. The artifice invades every scene, but her reality is much bleaker than the plot's abrasive qualities imply. The character has a sharp mind and gradually overcomes the familial boundaries holding her back.

On this basic level, "Precious" feels like a classical Hollywood drama and an urban rumination on the American dream. There's genuine emotion and charm in this simplistic drive that's only dismissible if you try to outsmart it with cynicism (not hard, but useless).

Still, "Precious" is undeniably a slight accomplishment. I would easily exchange its popularity for the distribution of several of NYFF's top-of-the-line foreign films, including Claire Denis' "White Materials" and the moving Portuguese drama "To Die Like a Man."

But my own critical snobbery notwithstanding, "Precious" deserves just as much attention as "Trash Humpers" and vica versa, even from those who hate both movies. There's far more value in intelligent dissent than ignorance.

New leadership, pricey renovations, the massive exposure that arises from holding an event at Lincoln Center -- each of these factors are worthy of analysis when considering the New York Film Festival, but ultimately the program comes down to the whims of five people.

Selected by a handful of critics and journalists, NYFF stands out on the festival circuit for its idiosyncratic, cinephile-oriented program that features highlights from the year in world cinema, but no world premieres.

Even though everything in the 17-day festival screened somewhere else first (much it at Cannes, Toronto, or Berlin), it's still a fascinatingly eccentric compilation of big screen accomplishments.

Some highlights to look for as the festival gets under way this Friday:

 
Wild Grass

Octogenarian French New Wave veteran Alain Resnais' beguiling romantic comedy went virtually unnoticed in the main competition at Cannes last May, dwarfed by the shadows of Quentin Tarantino and Michael Haneke (whose black-and-white period piece "The White Ribbon" also screens at NYFF). But Resnais proves that he's still got a few tricks up his sleeve with his beautiful and oddly hilarious look at romance amid midlife crises. The movie was selected for the opening night slot, and appropriately so -- it appeals to young movie buffs and old school arthouse lovers alike.

Trash Humpers

Harmony Korine's naughty return to form follows a demented group of killers as they engage in the eponymous sexual activity as a means of social rebellion, while their deeds unfold on VHS camcorder footage to mix the "Kids" writer's penchant for freaks with an unsettling degree of realism. "Trash Humpers," which Korine conceived and shot a mere three months ago in his hometown of Nashville, mystified audiences in Toronto but was met with widespread critical approval. A late NYFF addition, it's surefire bet for cult popularity. Then there's the press conference, which may or may not involve cast members showing up in character. Stay tuned for more.

To Die Like a Man

Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues premiered this magnificently shot and deeply felt portrait of a transvestite in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes. Though already deemed "undistributable" by at least one journalist at a press screening earlier this week, "Man" deserves an audience attuned to its mixture of emotional fragility and celebratory queerness. Imagine "Transamerica" as directed by John Waters and you might get halfway there. The rest is a collage of signifiers almost too intense for words.

Antichrist

By now, the whole world knows about Lars Von Trier's frightening and knowingly twisted look at an ailing couple (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainesborough) going crazy in the wilderness. Genital mutilation and talking animals notwithstanding, "Antichrist" is actually far more poignant than its sensationalistic reputation would have you believe. But NYFF attendees will have to be be willing to sit through the whole thing if they want to figure that much out.

Lebanon

My favorite movie at the Toronto International Film Festival ended its time there without distribution. Since then, however, Sony Pictures Classics snatched up this intense, engaging war movie set during Israel's militant engagement with Lebanon in the early 1980s. Blending the setting of "Waltz with Bashir" with the suspense of "The Hurt Locker," it practically screams for an Oscar -- and, beyond that, an appreciative audience.

Precious

Fresh from winning top honors at TIFF, Lee Daniels's moving portrait of Harlem strife takes the centerpiece slot at NYFF, where it's bound to receive a flashy homecoming. Another surefire Oscar contender, its New York premiere provides a testing ground for what sort of reception the drama might get when it hits theaters in a few weeks.

The entire NYFF program is listed below.

New York Film Festival 2009
September 25 - October 11

Main Slate

OPENING NIGHT

Wild Grass / Les herbes folles
Alain Resnais, France, 2009; 113m
The venerable Alan Resnais creates an exquisite human comedy of manners, mystery and romance with some of France's - and our - favorite actors: Sabine Azéma, André Dussollier, Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Almaric. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

CENTERPIECE

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Lee Daniels, USA, 2009; 109m
Precious is sixteen and living a miserable life. But she uses all the emotional energy she possesses to turn her life around. Director Lee Daniel's audacious tale features unforgettable performances by Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe. A Lionsgate release.

CLOSING NIGHT

Broken Embraces / Los abrazos rotos
Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2009; 128m
Almodóvar's newest masterwork is a candy-colored emotional roller that barrels from comedy to romance to melodrama to the darker haunts of film noir and stars his muse, Penélope Cruz, in a multilayered story of a man who loses his sight and the love of his life. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

36 Views of Saint-Loup Peak / 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup
Jacques Rivette, France, 2009, 84m
The legendary Jacques Rivette returns with an elegiac look at the final days of a small-time traveling circus.

Antichrist
Lars von Trier, Denmark, 2009, 109m
Surely to be one of the year's most discussed films, Lars von Trier's latest chronicles a couple's efforts to find their love again after a tragic loss, only to unleash hidden monsters lurking in their souls. An IFC Films release.

The Art of the Steal
Don Argott, USA, 2009, 101m
Bound to be controversial, this intriguing account of the travails of the legendary Barnes collection of art masterworks and the foundation set up to protect it raises vital questions about public vs. private "ownership" of art.

Bluebeard / La Barbe Bleue
Catherine Breillat, France, 2009, 78m
Two sisters reading Charles Perrault's 17th century tale of perhaps the first "serial killer" becomes a meditation on the enduring fascination with a character who has served as inspiration for countless novels, plays and films.

Crossroads of Youth / Cheongchun's Sipjaro

An Jong-hwa, Korea, 1934, 73m
The oldest surviving Korean film, this recently-rediscovered masterwork will be presented with live musical accompaniment as well as a benshi (offscreen narrator).

Eccentricities of a Blonde
Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France, 2009, 64m
One hundred years young, director Manoel de Oliveira returns with another gem: a wry, moving tale of a pure if frustrated love adapted from a novel by Eça de Queiroz.

Everyone Else / Alle Anderen
Maren Ade, Germany, 2009, 119m
The ups and downs, joys and jealousies, frustrations and fulfillments of a young couple on a summer holiday provide the premise for this brilliant meditation on modern coupling.

Ghost Town
Zhao Dayong, China, 2008, 180m
A revealing, one-of-a-kind look at China far away from the glittering urban skylines, this portrait of a contemporary rural community in China offers extraordinary insights into everything from the role of religion to gender relationships to the place of social deviants.

Hadewijch
Bruno Dumont, France, 2009, 105m
A young woman searches for an absolute experience of faith-and in the process grows increasingly distant from the world around her.

Independencia
Raya Martin, Philippines, 2009, 77m
Maverick director Raya Martin offers a kind of alternative history of the Philippines and its struggle for nationhood in this stylized tale of a mother and son hiding in the mountains after the US takeover of the islands.

Inferno / L'Enfer
Serge Bromberg, France, 2009, 100m
A film buff's delight, Serge Bromberg film resurrects the surviving footage of Clouzot's aborted, experimental film L'Enfer, revealing a slightly mad but beguiling project that will always remain one of cinema's great "what ifs."

Kanikosen
Sabu, Japan, 2009, 109m
Kanikosen is a highly stylized, stirring, manga-flavored update of a classic Japanese political novel, with labor unrest aboard a crab canning ship evolving into a cry of a younger generation aching to break the bonds of conformity.

Lebanon
Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2009, 92m
Debut director Samuel Maoz takes us inside an Israeli tank and the emotions of its crew during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Life During Wartime
Todd Solondz, USA, 2009, 96m
Preparing for his bar-mitzvah, a young man must deal with his divorced mother's prospective fiancé as well as rumors that his own father is not really dead.

Min Yé
Souleymane Cissé, Mali/France, 2009, 135m
A work of startling originality, Souleymane Cissé's first film in over a decade insightfully and incisively chronicles the dissolution of an upper-middle class African marriage.

Mother/ Maedo
Bong Joon-ho, South Korea, 2009, 128m
Convinced that her son has been wrongly accused of murder, a widow throws herself body and soul into proving his innocence. Kim Hye-ja in the title role gives perhaps the performance of the year.

Ne Change Rien
Pedro Costa, France/Portugal, 2009, 103m
A shimmering valentine, Costa's latest is less a portrait than a kind of visual homage, to the artistry of actor and singer Jeanne Balibar.

Police Adjective / Politist, adj.
Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2009, 115m
Discovering a teenager with hashish, a young policeman hesitates about turning him in. But his supervisor has other ideas in this beautifully acted, provocative modern morality play. An IFC Films release.

Room and a Half / Poltory komnaty ili sentimentalnoe puteshtvie na rodinu
Andrey Khrzhanovsky, Russia, 2009, 131m
Former animator Andrey Khrzhanovsky combines scripted scenes, archival footage, several types of animation, and surrealist flights of fancy to create this stirring portrait of poet Josef Brodsky and the postwar Soviet cultural scene. A Seagull Films release.

Sweetgrass
Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, USA, 2009, 105m
This breathtaking chronicle follows an ever-surprising group of modern-day cowboys as they lead an enormous herd of sheep up and then down the slopes of the Beartooth Mountains in Montana on their way to market.

Sweet Rush / Tatarak
Andrzej Wajda, Poland/France, 2009, 85m
Celebrated master Andrzej Wajda returns with a bold, experimental work that juxtaposes a story about a terminally doctor's wife rediscovering romance thanks with a heart-rending monologue written and performed by actress Krystyna Janda about the death of her husband.

To Die Like a Man / Morrer como um homen
João Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal, 2009, 138m
This touching, finely-etched portrait follows Tonia, a veteran drag performer confronting younger competition and her boyfriend's demands that she undergo a sex change.

Vincere
Marco Bellocchio, Italy, 2009, 129m
Mussolini's "secret" marriage to Ida Dalser, afterwards completely denied by Il Duce, along with the son born from the relationship, becomes the springboard for this visually ravishing meditation on the fascist manipulation of history. An IFC Films release.

White Material
Claire Denis, France, 2009, 100m
A handful of Europeans try to make sense of-and survive-the chaos happening all around them in an African country torn apart by civil war.

The White Ribbon / Das weisse band
Michael Haneke, Austria/France, 2009, 144m
The Palme d'Or winner at this year's Cannes Film Festival, this is a starkly beautiful meditation on the consequences of violence-physical, emotional, spiritual-in a northern German town on the eve of World War I. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

The Wizard of Oz
Victor Fleming, 1939, USA, 103m
The 70th Anniversary of the timeless classic, presented in a spectacular newly-restored edition makes the film a new experience even for those who practically have it memorized. A Warner Bros. release.