Our hometown festival - the Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) - has just announced their first 10 Official Selections. There are a few DIFF alumni filmmakers returning this year - Alex Gibney, Steve James and Tim McCanlies. Gibney brought GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON in 2008 when DIFF was known as AFI DALLAS. This year he'll be showing his new film, CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY. Also in 2008, James screened his film, AT DEATH HOUSE DOOR, and this year he'll bring his second documentary to the festival, NO CROSSOVER: THE TRIAL OF ALLEN IVERSON. Last and certainly not least, McCanlies came last year with THE 2 BOBS, and will be screening ALABAMA MOON in just a few months.

Check out the 10 films after the jump! THE DIFF runs April 8 – 18, 2010. Tickets will on sale March 18 and can be purchased HERE.

ALABAMA MOON (USA)
Director: Tim McCanlies
Cast: John Goodman
Based on the novel by Watt Key, Tim McCanlies’ ALABAMA MOON is a children’s story of adventure and survival that follows the journey a young boy takes from Alabama to Alaska after being orphaned by the death of his anti-government radical father.

CARRIED AWAY (USA)
Director: Tom Huckabee
Directed by Tom Huckabee, CARRIED AWAY is a drama about a young man who, upon returning home to Fort Worth to find a fractured family, sets off on a cross-country pursuit after rescuing his beloved Granny from a nursing home.

CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY (USA)
Director: Alex Gibney
The latest film by Academy Award winning documentary director Alex Gibney, CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY, is a probing investigation into the lies, greed and corruption surrounding D.C. super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his cronies.

CLIMATE REFUGEES (USA)
Directed by: Michael Nash
Michael Nash directs CLIMATE REFUGEES, a documentary that uncovers the unbelievable plight of people around the world displaced by climatically induced environmental disasters, illuminating the human face of climate change and the collision that civilization now finds itself at between over population, lack of resources and our changing climate.

I AM LOVE (Io sono l'amore) (Italy)
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti
Starring Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton and directed by Luca Guadagnino, I AM LOVE is a tragic love story set at the turn of the millennium in Milan. The film follows the fall of the haute bourgeoisie due to the forces of passion and unconditional love.

NO CROSSOVER: THE TRIAL OF ALLEN IVERSON (USA)
Director: Steve James
Academy Award nominee Steve James (HOOP DREAMS), explores the fallout from a racially inspired incident and the handling of the subsequent trial which landed a young Allen Iverson in jail and sharply divided his hometown along racial lines.

SIN ELLA (Mexico)
Director: Jorge Colon
Directed by Jorge Colon, SIN ELLA is a drama about a successful reality show producer whose life and relationship with his children is turned upside down following the tragic death of his wife. When she appears in his thoughts to tell him what she would have done in each situation, the two begin to relive their love story.

SNOW AND ASHES (Canada)
Director: Charles-Olivier Michaud
Directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, SNOW AND ASHES is a war-based drama where a war journalist attempts to piece together the events that landed him in the hospital after he awakens from a coma to discover that his long time collaborator and photographer has not come back with him from the war zone.

SOLITARY MAN (USA)
Directors: Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Cast: Michael Douglas, Jesse Eisenberg, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Jenna Fischer, Mary-Louise Parker
Directed by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, SOLITARY MAN stars Academy Award winner Michael Douglas as a former car dealership mogul dealing with a string of business problems and issues in his personal life through a number of relationships with women – many women.

THUNDER SOUL (USA)
Director: Mark Landsman
Directed by Mark Landsman, THUNDER SOUL is a documentary which turns the camera on a reunion of the 1970’s Kashmere High School band and its director, Conrad Johnson, which became an international funk sensation at the time. Thirty years later, his students return to pay tribute to the man who changed their lives.