David Schisgall

In the late fall of 2012, Theo Padnos, a struggling American journalist, slipped into Syria to report on the country's civil war and was promptly kidnapped by Al Qaeda's branch in Syria.

In the late fall of 2012, Theo Padnos, a struggling American journalist, slipped into Syria to report on the country's civil war and was promptly kidnapped by Al Qaeda's branch in Syria.

Everybody has one—the sibling who is always just a little bit behind the curve when it comes to getting his life together. For sisters Liz, Miranda and Natalie, that person is their perennially upbeat brother, Ned. But as each of their lives begins to unravel, Ned's family comes to realise that Ned isn't such an idiot after all.

Everybody has one—the sibling who is always just a little bit behind the curve when it comes to getting his life together. For sisters Liz, Miranda and Natalie, that person is their perennially upbeat brother, Ned. But as each of their lives begins to unravel, Ned's family comes to realise that Ned isn't such an idiot after all.

Soon after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, a young and charismatic film student, Muthana Mohmed, stands in the rubble of the city's film school and explains to an American television audience that his dream of becoming a filmmaker has been destroyed - first by Saddam Hussein, then by American bombs. This brief, fortuitous appearance on MTV changes Muthana's life forever. Watching in the United States, actor/director Liev Schreiber stops channel surfing, utterly captivated. Feeling guilty about a war he opposed, Schreiber decides to extend to the unknown Iraqi the opportunity of a lifetime - to come to Prague to work on an American movie, Everything Is Illuminated. On set, frustrated expectations complicate the relationship between Muthana and his American benefactors in what becomes a cross-cultural endeavor gone awry. Filmmaker Nina Davenport becomes increasingly entangled in the young Iraqi's life as his visa is about to expire and the threat of returning to Baghdad looms...

Very Young Girls, whose title reflects the fact that in the United States the average age of entry into prostitution is just thirteen. The film takes us into the work of a former sexually exploited youth-turned-activist named Rachel Lloyd, who started the New York City organization GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services) to help victimized young women escape their pimps and find another way of life.

The most ambitious portfolio in the 13-year history of Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue, this year's homage to noir had its own dramatic imperatives.

The most ambitious portfolio in the 13-year history of Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue, this year's homage to noir had its own dramatic imperatives.

Forget martinis and Austin Powers. This documentary is an unflinching portrait of the realities of "swinging," and it's not exactly a shaggadelic picture; in fact, the swingers we meet in the film are older, often lonely people. Most of them are simply looking to break out of their conventional, well-ordered lives by adopting "the lifestyle." Birds and bees may not do it, but we learn that monkeys do -- as well as 3 million Americans.