Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights to "The Selfish Giant," a film fable about growing up in contemporary Britain that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival's  Directors’ Fortnight.

The film was written and directed by Clio Barnard, who is best known for the documentary "The Arbor." It was made with the backing of British Film Institute and Film4.

The story centers on a teenage boy and his best friend who busy themselves collecting scrap metal as something of an escape from the emotional neglect they receive at home. It earned strong notices at Cannes for Barnard's skillful blending of realism and myth.

"'The Selfish Giant' is cinema that tells an unsure nation who we are," Robbie Collin wrote in...

“Nebraska” is a name that stands alone. It’s the name of one of Bruce Springsteen’s best albums, and it’s now the name of one of Alexander Payne’s best films.  

Across the wide, bleak expanse of his “Nebraska,” Payne gives us two charcoal figures: Will Forte and Bruce Dern.  As Woody Grant (Dern) prepares to check out for good, he is driven by the singular goal of cashing in on a promised Publisher’s Clearing House letter: “You have won $1,000,000!” His wife (the shrill and effective June Squibb) can’t handle him anymore, so she calls upon her younger, compassionate son, David (Will Forte), to come and take care of the old man. David agrees to drive Woody to Lincoln, Nebraska to cash in on the promise of a lifetime’s dream. 

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J.C. Chandor’s Oscar-nominated screenplay for "Margin Call" took him 10 years to write. That film was a deliberate, careful study of what it takes for a man to survive on Wall Street, with a large ensemble cast. But while Chandor’s new film, “All Is Lost,” makes use of the same deceptively simple writing and directing style, this time it stars just one person: Robert Redford.

"All Is Lost," which is screening out of competition at Cannes, begins with a few plainspoken words from Redford, whose character is at sea on a small sailboat. From that point on, the film relies only on Redford’s actions; no other dialogue is spoken. Still, we learn much about his character from watching him struggle through a series of tests.

When his boat is hit by a stray shipping container full of shoes, he carefully sets about patching...

Ryan Gosling must be feeling pretty happy about his decision to skip the red carpet at Cannes this year. Critics at the Riviera film festival vivisected "Only God Forgives," his ultra-violent collaboration with Nicolas Winding Refn, leaving it as bruised and battered as the hunky star appears in promotional art for the film. 

Winding Refn, the enfant terrible of Danish film, previously teamed with Gosling on "Drive," earning a Best Director award at Cannes in 2011 for his hallucinatory crime story. Once again, the screen pulsates with all manner of blood-letting -- from beheadings to mutilations with ice picks. The film finds a street-fighting Gosling punching, kicking and maiming his way through Bangkok to avenge his brother's death. It opens stateside on July 19.

Sasha Stone of...