Ed Helms understands comedy. But the kind of improv that writer-directors Mark and Jay Duplass do made him a little nervous.

“I’ve done a lot of comedy improvisation and this was nothing like that,” says Helms of his role in the Duplass brothers’ new film, “Jeff, Who Lives at Home.” “It was very different. Mark and Jay wrote a wonderful script and if we’d done it, word for word, it would have been a fantastic movie. But that’s not how they operate. They put their faith in the cast to internalize the scene and make it their own. (More…)

“Footnote,” Joseph Cedar’s fourth film, won the award for best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2011 and was one of the nominees for this year’s Oscar as best foreign film. The film opens in limited release Friday (3/9/12).

But that kind of recognition makes the Israeli-American filmmaker uncomfortable, or so he says. His film – about a dour Israeli academic who is mistakenly informed that he’s won a major prize that, in fact, is intended for his son – deals with the cost of acclaim and the similar toll that comes with not receiving it.

Cedar, born in New York but reared in Israel, lives in Tel Aviv. He sat down to chat about his film when he was in New York last September, shortly before its premiere at the New York Film Festival. Here’s our conversation: (More…)

“I should have paid more attention when I took Japanese in high school,” David Gelb says with a laugh. “Fortunately, what little I still know I speak with confidence and good pronunciation. The Japanese appreciate the effort.”

Gelb, 28, is sitting backstage during a screening of his film, “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” waiting for his chance to have a conversation with the audience. The film, which has been playing the festival circuit, hits theaters March 9. (More…)