Billed as "the largest worldwide festival of films made for mobile", Mobifest (in its second year running) is now accepting digital submissions through their website.

The rules are simple: keep your movies under 60 seconds, and shoot for the "tiny" screen -- that means you should stabilize your camera as much as possible and mainly go for close-ups. And lastly -- something most folks don't know -- you can shoot your brilliants flicks on anything you like, not just cellphones.

The deadline for submissions is Oct. 31, 2007. Chosen entries are eligible for awards and will have their movies showcased at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Nov. 20, 2007.

My childhood memories of Genghis Khan were, for the most part, fueled by those popular and grossly misinterpreted images of a stoic, bloodthirsty warlord, often standing between mounds of freshly decapitated heads in the sunset. Silly I admit that even now and then, my wandering perceptions of the great Mongolian ruler could look a lot like something straight off the pulpy covers of Canon the Barbarian. Forgive me, reader, I was a sponge of popular culture.

Mongol is an epically scaled Euroasian co-production made in Germany, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia. The story focuses on the early years of Khan's life, from a nine year old boy to a man played with focused calmness and resolve by the charismatic Japanese star Tadanobu Asano (Ichi the Killer, Last Life in the Universe). While the film does contain some grandly scoped scenes of violent sword warfare (don't go in expecting the ludicrous mayhem of 300 however), for much of its running time, we instead get a love story and a humanized look at the would-become Mongolian emperor, who would eventually go on to conquer China and half the world.

Although it's too early to call a masterpiece, Bela Tarr's The Man from London is the Hungarian master's leanest, most realized and plot-driven film to date. This monochromatic genre film -- that is at once obedient to the rules but also manages to be anti-genre -- is still monumentally dense and challenging.

The opening scene is astonishing in its pure bravado, an orchestration of movement and space so complex, it rivals that of any ever wrought by the Russian "sculptor of time" Andrei Tarkovsky. In it, our hero Maloin, a burly laconic railway worker, becomes a witness to a heist and a murder. Yet what Tarr does with this conventional plot setup is remarkable: in a single unending shot, the mise-en-scene somehow morphs into a point-of-view, then to an over-the-shoulder, and back out to a master shot again. Lasting what seems like an eternity, the camera swings back and forth, and glides without boundaries -- at times, I swear it goes through walls. Anyone with a vested interest in the mechanics of filmmaking may likely ponder: how the hell is he pulling this off?

2 Days in Paris

REVIEW: With its fleeting timeframe, and crackling Rohmer-like dialog, French actress Julie Delpy's directorial debut 2 Days in Paris has drawn unavoidable comparisons to Before Sunset. Not unexpected since the latter film is also about a breezy stroll through Paris and contains one of Delpy's most memorable and cherished performances. So it's a real treat then that her unmistakable wit and intelligence is on full display again, in front of and behind the camera this time, even though we can't help but keep telling ourselves that it's not the third installment to Richard Linklater's masterful, romantic diptych.

The Simpsons Movie

BUZZ: I don't care what anybody says, I'm a Simpsons fan for life. The advance buzz on the movie version of this beloved, unending TV show about the misadventures of a yellow dysfunctional family has been -- with a sigh of relief -- immensely positive.

Much of the plot has been kept so top secret that the script had to be shredded after each voicing session by the actors. But regardless of what's known about the story, most critics have already suggested, we're in for a very, very special episode, ahem, an 87 minute episode of this venerable classic.

Twenty completed films of the 48-Hour Toronto Film Challenge were projected at the Bloor Cinema this past Sunday. It was a wild, eclectic bag of genres and subjects, and, yes of course, varying degrees of quality and inspired creativity were on display. But as any marathoner would attest: it's getting to the finish line that matters most.

At the end, the twenty films were whittled down to the ten best, which will be competing for the big awards this Friday night for the Closing Gala at The Berkeley (315 Queen St. E). Doors open at 7pm for cocktail hour, and the awards start at 8pm.

We have a pair of tickets ($50 value) to give away. Want 'em? Simply email us: contests [at] blogto.com.

The list of the Top Ten below: