The Lost Boy: Canada's longest running film festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinema (FNC) has seen a remarkable rebound since the drama that surrounded it a few years back. In 2004, the festival came under new management when Daniel Langlois, director of FNC since 1999, left the organization to begin the New Montreal FilmFest. New Montreal's intention was to merge with the Montreal Festival of New Cinema and New Media, thus creating a potentially devastating competitor to FNC, which prides itself on its devotion to cinematic innovation. However, a variety of controversies led to New Montreal's demise, and FNC has since seen both a significant increase in attendance and reputation.

This was certainly clear in its 37th edition, held last week amidst Montreal's gorgeous Autumn backdrop. Screening nearly 250 films from 60 countries, in every conceivable format, FNC's broad programming spectrum and commitment to the artist sets it apart from both Montreal's slew of specialty fests and many festivals around North America.

Blogspout: Funny how, in the indie film world, falls from grace tend to begin before you’ve even hit the top. Yesterday, Lance Hammer’s Ballast was nominated for four Gotham Independent Film Awards. Meanwhile, the critical darling is, for maybe the first time since its Sundance premiere, provoking sour responses. Armond White wrote a scathing review of the film, but he’s Armond White, so that was somewhat expected. Somewhat less expected was a Hollywood Elsewhere post, where Jeff Wells pounces on White’s review like it’s the smoking yellow cake that makes the case that Ballast is overrated.

Newteevee: Scott Kirsner, a journalist who just released a book called Inventing the Movies about technology’s affect on Hollywood, told us this week that he thinks YouTube will is a more influential innovation than television. In his review of movie history, from Smell-O-Vision to digital filming, Kirsner found an “epic battle” between technology and the status quo, with each generation’s doom and gloom predictions — from the likes of Thomas Edison, George Eastman, Jack Valenti, and Sumner Redstone — failing to come to fruition.

Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal: When Ingrid Bergman asks Sam to sing that deathless song in Casablanca, the lyrics reassure her that the fundamental things still apply. But in the movies, as everywhere else, some of them don't. Traditional superstar power is in steep decline, thanks to salaries that have spiraled out of control, to star vehicles that have become -- along with some of their stars -- repetitive or grotesque, and most of all to changing tastes.

Movies have changed profoundly since the days of Bergman and Bogart -- or Paul Newman. They've changed even more since the days when a film starring Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Cameron Diaz, Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise was automatically a major event. Will Smith remains a huge draw, the exception to the rule, and Johnny Depp was certainly the animating spirit of three phenomenally profitable pirate extravaganzas. Yet Hollywood glamour is in a lowered state, and young audiences don't much care, even though the full extent of their indifference is still being masked by the white noise of celebrity chatter. Kids are just as likely to turn out for a heavily promoted horror flick, the latest comedy from Judd Apatow's laugh factory or another iteration of the National Treasure franchise. (Or adorable doggies: Beverly Hills Chihuahua won last weekend's box office over Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in Body Of Lies.) Meanwhile, grown-ups -- people old enough to sit through a two-hour feature without an uncontrollable urge to text, phone or Twitter -- tell me all too often that most new movies leave them so cold they've stopped going out to theaters.

Drawing: Ensemble performances and star turns, by Drew Friedman for the Wall Street Journal. Top row (from left to right): Russell Crowe of American Gangster and L.A. Confidential, Tom Cruise in Magnolia, and Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich. Middle row (from left to right): Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski, Julia Roberts and George Clooney of Ocean's Eleven, and Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There. Front row (from left to right): Meryl Streep in A Prairie Home Companion, Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, and Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.