"SERENITY" The cult television writer Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") directs a feature version of his science-fiction series "Firefly," set aboard a space cruiser commanded by a former freedom fighter turned mercenary (Nathan Fillion). When he picks up a space hitchhiker, he finds himself back in the battle. With Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin.

Tim Burton returns to animation in "Corpse Bride."

September

Sept. 14

"CHAIN" The Brooklyn-based documentary maker Jem Cohen directed his first feature about a pair of women stranded in a commercial "superlandscape" of shopping malls, theme parks and hotels.

"THE FUTURE OF FOOD" Deborah Koons Garcia’s documentary looks at what’s lurking in genetically modified food. It isn’t pretty.

"THE WEEPING MEADOW" The opening panel of a trilogy about modern Greek history, directed by Theo Angelopoulos in the distant, formal style that has made him a festival regular. We begin in 1919, as refugees from Odessa, fleeing from the Red Army, settle near Thessaloniki.

Sept. 16

"CRY WOLF" Prep school students invent a fictitious serial killer, "the Wolf," to scare their classmates, but the bodies that start turning up are real. Jeff Wadlow directs.

"EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED" The actor Liev Schreiber turns his hand to directing with an adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel. Elijah Wood is the American Jew who goes searching for the Ukrainian woman who rescued his grandfather from the Holocaust.

"HARD GOODBYES: MY FATHER" From Greece, the story of a boy and his father united by their fascination with space travel. But one day, the father fails to return from a business trip, and the boy has to come to terms with his disappearance. Penny Panayotopoulou directs.

"JUST LIKE HEAVEN" The director Mark Waters takes the "meet cute" formula to a new dimension, as a comely spirit (Reese Witherspoon) falls for the lonely architect (Mark Ruffalo) who has taken over her apartment.

"LORD OF WAR" An Interpol agent (Ethan Hawke) tracks a wisecracking arms dealer (Nicolas Cage) through most of the world’s hot spots. This black comedy is the writer-director Andrew Niccol’s first solo effort since "Simone."

"ONE BRIGHT SHINING MOMENT: THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER OF GEORGE McGOVERN" Stephen Vittoria’s documentary remembers the McGovern campaign of 1972 as the last great moment for American liberalism. The interviewed include Gore Vidal, Gloria Steinem and Warren Beatty.

"PROOF" Gwyneth Paltrow stars again for John Madden, who guided her to an Oscar in "Shakespeare in Love"; in this one, based on David Auburn’s play, she’s the daughter of a celebrated mathematician (Anthony Hopkins) who has lost his mind. With Hope Davis and Jake Gyllenhaal.

"SEPARATE LIES" Tom Wilkinson’s character discovers his marriage isn’t as happy as he thinks when he learns that his wife (Emily Watson) is having an affair. Julian Fellowes, who won an Oscar for the screenplay of "Gosford Park," wrote and (for the first time) directed.

"THE THING ABOUT MY FOLKS" A father (Peter Falk) and a son (Paul Reiser) renew their relationship. Raymond De Felitta directed from Mr. Reiser’s screenplay.

"THUMBSUCKER" Lots of name performers - Tilda Swinton, Vince Vaughn, Keanu Reeves, Benjamin Bratt - fill out this independent feature about a 17-year-old (Lou Pucci) who has never abandoned his childhood habit of sucking his thumb. Mike Mills directs.

"TIM BURTON’S CORPSE BRIDE" Tim Burton returns to his first love, animation, with a gothic comedy about a repressed Victorian (voiced by Johnny Depp) who is claimed by a bride (Helena Bonham Carter) from the Land of the Dead. The animator Mike Johnson is the co-director.

"VENOM" There’s something lurking in the swamp that wants to eat teenagers - with ample justification, no doubt. Among the prospective morsels: Agnes Bruckner and Bijou Phillips. Jim Gillespie directs.

Sept. 23

"DALTRY CALHOUN" Quentin Tarantino is one of the producers of this sentimental drama set in and around a dilapidated golf course in Knoxville, Tenn., where the hapless owner (Johnny Knoxville, appropriately) tries to repair his relationship with his alienated daughter. Katrina Holden Bronson wrote and directed.

"DEAR WENDY" Disaffected teenagers in a small American town form a gun cult as a way of giving themselves a sense of identity, but find that those who brandish guns in the first act are required to fire them in the third. It’s a bit of a Dogma 95 reunion film: directed by Thomas Vinterberg ("The Celebration"), written by Lars von Trier, photographed by Anthony Dod Mantle. Jamie Bell and Bill Pullman star.

"DIRTY LOVE" Jenny McCarthy wrote and stars in the story of a photographer who goes on a sexual rampage after discovering that her supermodel boyfriend is cheating on her. John Asher directs.

"DORIAN BLUES" Written and directed by Tennyson Bardwell, the story of an average American high school senior struggling with his sexual identity.

"FLIGHTPLAN" Jodie Foster plays an anxious mother whose young daughter disappears in the middle of a trans-Atlantic flight. Sounds like another variation on "So Long at the Fair," but we’ll see. From the German filmmaker Robert Schwentke ("Tattoo"). With Peter Sarsgaard and Sean Bean.

"A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE" The owner of a small-town diner (Viggo Mortensen) is confronted with his past life when he kills a man in self-defense. David Cronenberg directed this spare and thoughtful variation on a classic theme of the American western. With Maria Bello and Ed Harris.

"INTO THE FIRE" Three lives are transformed when a jet crashes on its approach to Kennedy Airport. Michael Phelan directs. With Sean Patrick Flanery, Ed Lauter and JoBeth Williams.

"MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION: WALKING ON THE MOON 3D" Tom Hanks co-produced and narrates this Imax 3-D film that uses special effects, studio reconstructions and documentary material to recreate the experience of a stroll on the lunar surface. Mark Cowen directs.

"OLIVER TWIST" Roman Polanski’s version of the often-filmed Dickens novel of childhood deprivation and camaraderie, with Ben Kingsley in full, pointy-nosed makeup as Fagin and the newcomer Barney Clark as the title urchin.

"ROLL BOUNCE" The roller-disco craze of the 1970’s provides the background for a comedy directed by Malcolm D. Lee ("Undercover Brother") and starring Bow Wow, Chi McBride and Mike Epps.

Sept. 28

"FORTY SHADES OF BLUE" The gifted regional filmmaker Ira Sachs ("The Delta") looks at a veteran country-music producer (Rip Torn) living in Memphis with his Russian girlfriend (Dina Korzun).

Sept. 30

"CAPOTE" While researching "In Cold Blood," Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) develops an obsession with the young killer Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.). Catherine Keener plays the novelist Harper Lee. Bennett Miller ("The Cruise") directs.

"GOING SHOPPING" Henry Jaglom, the independent filmmaker who peered into women’s lives with "Eating" and "Babyfever," looks at another preoccupation in a film starring Victoria Foyt, Rob Morrow and Lee Grant.

"THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED" Who would have guessed that it was a 1913 United States Open that matched a 20-year-old French golfer (Shia LaBeouf) against a seasoned American champion (Stephen Dillane)? Now you know. Bill Paxton directs; with Peter Firth and Elias Koteas.

"INTO THE BLUE" It’s back into the briny for the waterlogged filmmaker John Stockwell ("Blue Crush"), this time with a thriller about divers who discover contraband in the hull of a sunken airplane. The calendar-worthy cast includes Paul Walker, Jessica Alba and Scott Caan.

"LITTLE MANHATTAN" Fifth graders fall in love in a romantic comedy directed by Mark Levin, the screenwriter of "Wimbledon." With Josh Hutcherson, Bradley Whitford and Cynthia Nixon.

"MIRRORMASK" A teenage girl projects anxieties over her mother’s illness into her dreams in an effects-heavy movie produced by the Jim Henson Company and directed by Dave McKean.

"THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE, OHIO" The screenwriter Jane Anderson steps out as a director with an adaptation of Terry Ryan’s book. Julianne Moore plays a 1950’s housewife and mother of 10 who keeps her family going by entering (and winning) jingle-writing contests. With Woody Harrelson as her hapless husband.

"THE WAR WITHIN" A Pakistani (Ayad Akhtar) comes to New York intent on terrorism, but circumstances force him to live with a now-assimilated childhood friend. Joseph Castelo directs.