With such wonderfully eclectic, innovative, moving, funny, disturbing and beautifully crafted shorts to choose from, Sundance jury duty was not an easy task. 

But it was an exciting and thought-provoking task, and one that I, along with fellow jurors Sara Bernstein (Vice President of HBO Documentary films) and Barry Jenkins (Director/Writer, Medicine for Melancholy) were honored to be a part of. And we had a lot of fun too. Many thanks to everyone at Sundance for allowing us to judge — we were mesmerized by so many pictures.

So last night, with much anticipation and happiness, we took to Park City's Jupiter Bowl (and it really is a bowling alley) and ambled on stage (me, nervously so) to hand out the awards. First came the honorable mentions. The impressive, diverse group of shorts included Choke, by Michelle Latimer (Canada), Diarchy, by Ferdinand Cito Filmomarino (Italy), The External World, by David O'Reilly (Germany/Ireland), The Legend of Beaver Dam, by Jerome Sable and Eli Batalion (Canada), Out of Reach, by Jakub Stozek (Poland) and Protoparticles (shown above), by Chema Garcia Ibarra (Spain).

The Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking went to Ariel Kleiman's Deeper Than Yesterday (Australia, in Russian), a haunting, gritty, mysterious, gorgeously crafted depiction of a lonely Russian submarine crew that was both horrifying and touching and then, something like a fairy tale. It was a film that left us in awe — the acting, the actor's faces, the story and the absolute assuredness of big screen filmmaking. It's an unforgettable picture.

Matt Piedmont's irreverent, inventive, charmingly Mandom-esque, animated (with dolls) short, Brick Novax parts 1 and 2 nabbed the U.S. Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking, a short that we hope to see extended into a series. We yearned to know more of Brick's past adventures (from folk singer to slacks designer) and we hope Piedmont gives everyone the chance to experience one of the coolest men in the world. Never mind he's a doll.

Below is the video of the event. Congratulations to all of the filmmakers!

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

It's been reported today via Roger Ebert's Journal at the Chicago Sun Times that I will be contributing to this Shindig.

Roger Ebert's newest incarnation of "At the Movies," called "Roger Ebert Presents: At the Movies" hosted by Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com.

I'll be on hand from time to time to discuss classic films and hopefully, other rarities. (later edit — I was on once and discussed Carole Reed's The Third Man).

Discussing older movies, I'd love for even more to discover and look for the wonders of Jack Garfein's Something Wild starring Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker, Alan Arkin's Little Murders starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd (on DVD, thankfully), Fritz Lang's woefully underseen You and Me starring George Raft and Sylvia Sidney (which I'm currently writing about), or Big House U.S.A. with … Meeker. And so much more.

I'm a bit obsessed with Ralph Meeker (really?). But Big House U.S.A. also stars Broderick Crawford, Lon Chaney Jr., William Talman and a young Charles Bronson. And Bronson suffers the fate of getting his face blow-torched off. Sorry, "blow-torched off" may be a grievous grammatical error (or not?), and I guess revealing the melting of Bronson's mug is what people in these parts call a "spoiler" but, what the hell. Just make an attempt to watch the movie.

Enough about Meeker (for now) … here's more about the show:

"Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com will be the co-hosts of "Ebert Presents at the Movies." The two experienced and respected critics will also introduce special segments featuring other contributors and the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Roger Ebert.

"The new weekly program debuts Jan. 21 on public television stations in 48 of the top 50 markets, representing more than 90% national coverage. It will be produced in Chicago at WTTW, where Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert began taping "Sneak Previews" some 35 years ago."

Read more here. Thanks to everyone involved.