Film

Film director and Tibetan Buddhist lama Khyentse Norbu. He's making his directorial debut with the new film "The Cup" about a group of Monk's who are soccer fans. The film was shot In a actual Monastery, and the cast is the Monks who live there. "The Cup" Is also the first feature-length movie shot In Bhutan. The film was shown at last year's The Cannes Film Festival.

Fresh Air film critic John Powers talks to Terry Gross about this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The festival, held annually in Park City, Utah, concluded this past weekend. John Powers is film critic for Vogue Magazine.

Actress Sigourney Weaver. She made her first film appearance in a scene so short you could miss her. She played Woody Allen’s date in “Annie Hall” after he broke up with Annie. After that she made her big debut in “Alien” as Ripley, and went on to star in the other Alien films. Her other credits include: “Gorillas in the Mist,” “Working Girl,” “CopyCat.” She’s now starring in “Galaxyquest” and “A Map of the World.”

Prize winning author John Irving. He's turned his novel, "The Cider House Rules," into a movie. Irving writes about the Cider House Rules and the process of turning it into a screenplay, in "My Movie Business, A Memoir (Random House). Irving is the author of 9 novels, including "The World According to Garp," "A Prayer for Owen Meany," and "Hotel New Hampshire."

Director, screenwriter, and producer Paul Thomas Anderson. Anderson’s new film is called Magnolia. The 29-year-old filmmaker also wrote and directed the movies Boogie Nights and Hard Eight. Magnolia stars Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, and Julianne Moore.

Character actor John C. Reilly. He's starred In all three of director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson's films. He played a small-time gambler In "Hard Eight," a porn star In "Boogie Nights," and a police officer In the new "Magnolia." Reilly has also worked with directors Brian DePalma ("Casualties of War") and Terrence Malik ("The Thin Red Line"). Reilly got his start In Chicago at the Goodman School of Drama and worked with the Steppenwolf theatre.

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. In the early 60s, Carter was a top contender for the middleweight boxing crown. Then in 1967, he was convicted of three murders he did not commit. He was in prison for nearly 20 years, but continued to fight for his freedom in state and federal courts. Finally in 1985, he was found innocent and set free. We talk with Carter, and his biographer, James Hirsch, author of "Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter" (Houghton Mifflin Company). A new movie about Carter, called Hurricane, just opened.

Filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn. In her debut documentary Regret to Inform, Sonneborn weaves together the stories of widows from both sides of the American-Vietnam War. Sonneborn is a war widow herself; her husband was killed in Vietnam in 1968. Regret to Inform will air on PBS later this month. IT has already received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary feature, and won the Best Director and Best Cinematography documentary awards at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Fresh Air film critic John Powers gives us his ten best list for the year 1999, and then picks the films from the century he'd take with him If he was stranded on a desert Island.

We feature an interview with screenwriter/director David O. Russell. His movie Three Kings is being re-released for the holiday season. His other movies include Spanking the Monkey and Flirting with Disaster.