Provincetown International Film Festival 2009

New England Premiere -Sponsored by Crown & Anchor Woody Allen returns to New York with an offbeat comedy about a crotchety misanthrope and a naïve, impressionable young runaway from the South. After the failure of his career, his marriage, and his suicide attempt, world-class grouch Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David), spends his days insulting the small children who study chess with him and irritating his still-loyal friends with his never-ending tirades about the worthlessness of absolutely everything. A self-proclaimed genius and not a "feel-good person," Boris fancies himself the only one who fully comprehends the meaninglessness of all human aspirations, and the pitch-black chaos of the universe. Shortly after the dewy-eyed innocent (Evan Rachel Wood), talks her way into his apartment - and into his life - her uptight parents (Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr.) arrive to rescue her, and are quickly drawn into wildly unexpected romantic entanglements themselves. Through a series of chance circumstances, heartbreaks, personal transformations and the occasional ménage à trios, the romantic partners in this story chase after the emotional configurations that fulfill their needs, and in the process discover that finding love is just a combination of lucky chance and appreciating the value of "whatever works." Print Source: Sony Pictures Classics

This wickedly funny dark comedy stars Robin Williams as a sad-sack poetry teacher who inadvertently finds his greatest opportunity from a freak accident. This latest offering from comedian-turned-director Bobcat Goldthwait defies expectations. A restrained Williams stars as Lance, a divorced, high school teacher and failed novelist who dreams of one day becoming a famous writer. To make matters worse, he must suffer the indignities of living with his thoroughly vile, porn-obsessed teenage son, Kyle. His coworker-with-benefits is drawn to another teacher whose first submitted piece was published in the New Yorker. After a horrifying and embarrassing family tragedy, Lance finds that his life takes a bizarre turn - for the better. By making the best of what life's given him, he sets a series of events in motion that could make all his dreams come true. WORLD'S GREATEST DAD aims to provoke by wringing laughs from personal calamity. But Goldthwait's jet-black comedy rises above mere shock value with sharp satirical insights about ambition, deception and the dangers of wish fulfillment. Print Source: Magnolia Pictures

-Sponsored by HBO Co-director Andy Bichlbaum will be in attendance. The Yes Men are back. After their first film, you would think they had blown their cover, but, to the contrary, they have only stepped up their game. If you don't know them, they're Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, a pair of notorious troublemakers who sneak into corporate events disguised as captains of industry. Then they use their momentary authority to expose the biggest criminals on the planet. In THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD, they've set their sights on a plethora of manmade disasters, from profiteering after Hurricane Katrina to the environmental disaster in Bhopal, India. Initially their antics come across like adolescent pranks, but after further exploration, you discover that the Yes Men can actually be considered "inside out activists." By changing reality - even temporarily - they open your mind to the possible. Sweet dreams for some, a nightmare for corporate Goliaths with skeletons in the closet. When they present what should have been done, you become acutely aware of how easy it would have been to solve the problem in the first place. A film complete with comedic interludes and, yes, an underwater ballet, THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is as entertaining as it is effective.--John Cooper, Sundance Film Festival Winner of the Audience Award at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival. Print Source: HBO Documentary Films