Pat Dowell

Marooned in Iraq is the latest film from Iranian-based Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, who won acclaim for his first effort, A Time for Drunken Horses. The story touches on Saddam Hussein's brutal crackdown on the Kurds in the 1980s, but it's really a "road movie musical" with an often comic sensibility. Pat Dowell reports.

Avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage's death at age 70 ends a career that made a lasting impact on fellow directors. Brakhage made nearly 400 films, most silent, many quite short. He sought to reflect "every kind of seeing" on film. NPR's Pat Dowell reports.

Nominations for the 75th Academy Awards are announced. Chicago receives 13 nominations, including nods for best picture, director and actress Renee Zellweger. Gangs of New York gets 10 nominations, including director Martin Scorsese, while The Hours receives nine, including lead actress Nicole Kidman and supporting actress Julianne Moore. Hear film reporter Pat Dowell.

Pat Dowell reports on the new movie, City of God. It was filmed in the poorest slums of Brazil -- the favelas -- and used street children as its actors. The movie is giving the kids new visibility among Brazil's upper classes, and its makers began acting and filmmaking lessons in the favelas that are continuing past the film's completion.

Pat Dowell reports it's the 50th birthday of the French cinema magazine that helped Americans take their own movies more seriously. 'Positif' is being celebrated at the Museum of Modern Art in New York with a film festival and a retrospective.

The creators of the offbeat comedy Being John Malkovich have a new film out: Adaptation. Nicolas Cage stars as a screenwriter who struggles to adapt a non-fiction book into a screenplay. Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper also play key roles. Pat Dowell reports.

Mike Leigh's latest film, All or Nothing, is about three families living in a decrepit housing project. But the British writer and director says despite the depressing scenery, the movie has a hopeful outlook. Pat Dowell reports.

The indie effort Real Women Have Curves, a mother-daughter story, was made for cable TV -- then diverted to movie theaters after a successful debut at the Sundance Film Festival. Pat Dowell reports.