“Straight to video” used to be a badge of shame. William H. Macy is hoping he’s riding a wave that makes it seem like a smart business decision instead.

So his film “The Deal,” which made its debut a year ago at the Sundance Film Festival, was released last week – on DVD, not in theaters. Though it had played a string of festivals during 2008 – and had the possibility of a theatrical release – Macy and his producing partners finally decided that the video release made the most sense from a business standpoint. (More…)

Ari Folman, looking both exhausted and still a little amazed, sits back in a hotel room chair and spreads his arms in a shrug.

“I think I would not be sitting here if this film had not been animated,” he says of his animated documentary, “Waltz with Bashir,” which just won the best-picture award from the National Society of Film Critics. “This subject would never have attracted the New York Film Festival or Sony Classics to buy it. The format made people go for the film.” (More…)