Attention filmmakers — LACMA Muse is now accepting submissions to its 10th annual Young Directors Night, which celebrates short films and the emerging artists behind them by showcasing up to eight films at a screening at LACMA. The 2011 edition of YDN will take place on Saturday, March 5. The chosen films will compete for the “Art of Film” award, given to the best entry in the contest, as decided by a host panel of industry luminaries and the audience. Past winners have received tickets to the Sundance Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival. Submissions are being accepted through January 15. For more information, click here.

So it seems Alicia Silverstone has a new set of cosmetic bags — three brand-new additions and three revised sets, actually — ready to bow in April 2011, via EcoTools, a leader in eco-conscious bath and beauty products. The company’s entire collection of cosmetic brushes, bath, brow and nail accessories, as well as bath and body products features innovative, Earth-friendly materials, such as bamboo, recycled plastic, recycled steel, recycled aluminum, soybean oil and, yes, crushed walnuts. Smart play, I guess, the whole transition into beauty products, clothing and the like. This is the sort of shelf-life-expanding brand extension on which
non-cigar-smoking, non-rapping male celebrities miss out.

Monday ephemera? Christian Bale is a fan of the late Chris Farley, it seems. And Jim Carrey, off shooting Mr. Popper’s Penguins in New York, is also busy painting again.

On Thursday, November 11, at 7 p.m., filmmaker Michel Gondry will sign copies of his new book and short film project, My New New York Diary, a collaboration with cartoonist Julie Doucet, at the Family Bookstore in Los Angeles. Presumably he will not be appearing in paper-mache costume. For more information, click here.

Past, present and future collided yesterday when Universal Studios Home Entertainment reunited the cast and filmmakers of the Academy Award-winning Back to the Future franchise at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, pegged to the original landmark movie’s 25th anniversary, and the series’ debut on Blu-ray today. Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Mary Steenburgen and director Robert Zemeckis, among others, all got together, reliving fond memories and recounting their favorite quotes from the films. Clips of the Q&A are up on YouTube; dig in, and enjoy.

So Adrien Brody is suing in an attempt to stop the imminent DVD release of Dario Argento’s Giallo, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Interesting stuff. How many other actors don’t walk if their compensation deal falls through? And really, though, just as a sidebar, shouldn’t someone on his management team be on top of this, you know, before the week of release? Feel free to drop an Amazon “release alert” into the mix. Some will knock Brody for his post-Oscar choices, but he’s pretty much the definition of adventurous and honorable to me. Even if the film doesn’t work (I’m thinking chiefly of you, The Jacket), he’s always interesting, and totally present.

The ranking system will perhaps be a bit arbitrary to some, but over at Movies.com, Jeff Otto takes a look back at nine of the cheapest and most successful independently financed films of the modern era. Zeitgeist influences all, no doubt, from Clerks and Swingers to Napoleon Dynamite and Paranormal Activity, and proof that complacency born of abundant resources is often the enemy of imagination.

Brad Schreiber gets a deserving double-shot of love from the New York Times for Becoming Jimi Hendrix, his collaboration with Steven Roby on the younger years of the guitar godhead. David Kirby drops the proper Sunday book review, while Steve Coates also weighs in, praising the tome’s rare photos, and offering up a special slide show. And again, the Amazon link, for purchases.

Authors Brad Schreiber and Steven Roby will read from their new book Becoming Jimi Hendrix, give a PowerPoint presentation and raffle off an electric guitar at Skylight Books this Friday, September 17 at 7:30 p.m. Get there, folks.

Anchor Bay snapped up U.S. and Australian/New Zealand distribution rights on Tekken, it was announced today. “The Tekken videogame franchise has sold millions of copies over the past decade,” commented Bill Clark, President of Anchor Bay Entertainment. Production company “Crystal Sky invested millions in the production, making sure they were able to convey not only the incredible fight scenes, but also the emotional journey of the main character, Jin.”

Written by Alan McElroy and directed by Dwight Little, the film is set in a world run by all-powerful corporations (reality?), of which the mightiest is the Tekken Corporation, headed by Heiachi Mishima. Because financial monopoly apparently isn’t enough, these corporations regularly send their best fighters to challenge each other in the ring. After running contraband outside the fortified walls of Tekken City, Jin Kazama (Jon Foo) returns home to witness Tekken security forces destroying his house and murdering his mother. In order to avenge her, Jin files a complaint in the form of a strongly worded letter and enters the Iron Fist Tournament, and is pitted against some of the most brutal martial artists in the world.

In addition to Foo, the film stars Kelly Overton, Luke Goss, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Ian Anthony Dale, Mircea Monroe and Gary Daniels, and features real fighters and martial artists such as
Roger Huerta, Cung Le and Lateef Crowder. The film’s stunt
coordinator, Eric Norris, and fight/parkour choreographer Cyril
Raffaelli, whose credits include District B13 and Transporter,
collaborated closely to make the fight sequences as reminiscent of the
videogame as possible. Tekken will be released widely in the United States in 2011, at a date to be determined.

Ran into Estella Warren at the Landmark tonight — still a total babe, at 31. We chose not to reminisce about Kangaroo Jack. And by the way Westside Pavilion folks — someone shat on/in the third level of your parking garage. Might want to look into that…

In the L.A. Weekly this week, Mike D’Angelo takes a crack at the disparate approaches to tackling Ingmar Bergman, and the forthcoming two-week retrospective at LACMA. Meanwhile, J. Hoberman and I apparently are going to have serious beef over Samuel Maoz’s Lebanon. He loves it; me… not so much.

Congratulations to Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston on their deserved Emmy wins. Good to see Al Pacino doesn’t get the orchestral hook. And I guess I need to see Temple Grandin now.

Filmmaker David Lynch has been named the first-ever guest artistic director for AFI Fest 2010, it was announced today. “I said yes to being the guest artistic director of AFI Fest 2010 because I love the AFI,” said Lynch in a press release. “AFI can do for others what it did for me. AFI gave me an opportunity and money to make a short film, The Grandmother, and my first feature film, Eraserhead. AFI put me on the map.”

Lynch created artwork (above) that will serve as the official image of the 24th
annual festival. As guest artistic director, Lynch will also program a special
sidebar of films that have influenced and inspired him. His selections will be announced in
October. AFI Fest 2010 will take place November 4-11 in Hollywood, at the historic
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Mann Chinese 6 theatres, the Egyptian
Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. For more information, click here.

Journalist, author and all-around talented guy Brad Schreiber has a new book coming out, Becoming Jimi Hendrix: From Southern Crossroads to Psychedelic London, the Untold Story of a Musical Genius, co-authored with Steven Roby. And you should buy it, for the music lover in your family.

Photographer-turned-filmmaker Anton Corbijn has a nice blog detailing his experiences making and fine-tuning The American (Focus, September 1), with plenty of on-set pictures of George Clooney, for those interested in keeping score at home. Click here if interested.

Forgot to mention this earlier, but the 2010 Magill’s Cinema Annual, a book of reviews to which I contributed, is now out. Steep cover price given its academic/reference source leanings, but check it out on Amazon if you so desire.