The last groups of films have been announced for AFI Fest 2011 Presented by Audi, which runs November 4th-10th in downtown Hollywood, and I have to say it’s quite a strong program, especially in the Galas and Special Screenings category. I usually don’t go to the galas at AFI or LAFF because most of the films come out soon enough anyway and I prefer to spend my time with smaller stuff, but I think I’m going to have to break that rule to get to see The Artist and Carnage as early as possible. We’re also getting Steve McQueen’s Shame, Luc Besson’s The Lady and My Week With Marilyn as Gala screenings, along with an Evening with Pedro Almodóvar featuring Law of Desire. A lot of stuff from TIFF, but that’s par for the course. AFI’s niche is kind of a “fest of fests” – not too many world premieres, but a pretty comprehensive roundup of the most highly acclaimed films from TIFF, Venice, Cannes, SXSW, Sundance, and other fests.

In the Special Screenings category, I’m most excited about Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin (thanks to Kurt’s constant plugging!), and Wim Wender’s foray into 3D filmmaking with the dance doc Pina. So far Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams has been my favorite use of 3D, and I’m hoping that Wenders can match it. Herzog’s Into the Abyss is also playing AFI this year as a Special Screening, but I’m not sure I can take the subject matter of that one. I might also catch my first Dardenne brothers film with The Kid with a Bike.

Usually the World Cinema is where I find the bulk of interesting films, and there are a number catching my eye here, but not really as many as I remember last year. Maybe I’m looking back with rose-colored glasses. Anyway, I’m definitely going to catch Hong Sang-Soo’s The Day He Arrives after loving his HaHaHa so much last year, and Bob’s glowing review of Café de Flore will almost certainly land it on my schedule as well. I’m curious about Yorgos Lanthimos’s second film Alps, even though I haven’t seen Dogtooth – with both Alps and Attenberg playing the festival, I may get a double-dose of Greek cinema. Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse will be here, which our own Domenic hails as a masterpiece, and Iran’s A Separation has not only been getting strong reviews from all quarters, but it’s Iran’s official Oscar nominee as well. I’m also curious to check out Joshua Marston’s The Forgiveness of Blood and Nacho Vigalondo’s Extraterrestrial, having been a big fan of their respective previous films Maria Full of Grace and Timecrimes.

There are only a few films in the Breakthrough and Midnight sections – Breakthrough is for films chosen via the festival submission process, Midnight for genre fare. I keep hoping AFI will ramp up their Midnight section one of these years, but so far they’re keeping it small, only three films this year: Beyond the Black Rainbow, Headhunters, and Kill List. I was really hoping to see The Raid in this section, but oh well. I’ll probably try to get to Headhunters for sure, and possibly Kill List. We’ll have to see.

I already wrote a bit about the New Auteurs, Young Americans, and Joe Swanberg sections, so I won’t repeat myself on those. I will, however, post the full lineup under the seats, including those sections.

Click through to see the full line-up. Tell me what else I should be seeing!

GALAS

THE ARTIST: DIR Michel Hazanavicius.

CARNAGE: DIR Roman Polanski.

THE LADY: DIR Luc Besson.

LAW OF DESIRE: An Evening with Pedro Almodover

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN: DIR Simon Curtis.

SHAME: DIR Steve McQueen.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

BUTTER: DIR Jim Field Smith.

CORIOLANUS: DIR Ralph Fiennes.

I MELT WITH YOU: DIR Mark Pellington.

INTO THE ABYSS: DIR Werner Herzog.

JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME: DIR Jay & Mark Duplass.

THE KID WITH A BIKE: DIR Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne.

MELANCHOLIA: DIR Lars von Trier.

MISS BALA: DIR Gerardo Naranjo.

PINA: DIR Wim Wenders.

RAMPART: DIR Oren Moverman.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN: DIR Lynne Ramsay.

WORLD CINEMA

ALMAYER’S FOLLY: DIR/SCR Chantal Akerman. Belgium/France. U.S. Premiere.

ALPS: DIR Yorgos Lanthimos. SCR Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou. Greece/France. U.S. Premiere.

ARIRANG: DIR Kim Ki-duk. South Korea. U.S Premiere.

CAFÉ DU FLORE: DIR/SCR Jean-Marc Vallée. Canada. U.S. Premiere.

CARRÉ BLANC: DIR/SCR Jean-Baptiste Léonetti. France/Luxembourg/Russia/Belgium/Switzerland. U.S. Premiere.

THE DAY HE ARRIVES: DIR/SCR Hong Sang-Soo. South Korea. U.S. Premiere.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL: DIR/SCR Nacho Vigalondo. Spain.

FAUST: DIR Alexander Sokurov. SCR Alexander Sokurov, Marina Koreneva. Russia. U.S. Premiere.

FOOTNOTE: DIR/SCR Joseph Cedar. Israel. Israel’s official foreign-language Oscar submission.

THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD: DIR Joshua Marston. SCR Joshua Marston, Andamion Murataj. USA/Albania/Denmark/Italy.

THE INVADER: DIR Nicolas Provost. SCR Nicolas Provost, Giordano Gederlini, François Pirot. Belgium. U.S Premiere.

JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI: DIR David Gelb. USA.

KINYARWANDA: DIR/SCR Alrick Brown. USA.

MAMA AFRICA: DIR Mika Kaurismäki. Germany/South Africa/Finland.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA: DIR Nuri Bilge Ceylan. SCR Ercan Kesal, Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Turkey/Bosnia/Herzegovina. Turkey’s official foreign-language Oscar submission.

PLAY: DIR/SCR Ruben Östlund. Sweden/France/Denmark.

A SEPARATION: DIR/SCR Asghar Farhadi. Iran. Iran’s official foreign-language Oscar submission.

THE SILVER CLIFF: DIR Karim Aïnouz. SCR Beatriz Brachner, Karim Aïnouz. Brazil.

TARGET: DIR Alexander Zeldovich. SCR Vladimir Sorokin, Alexander Zeldovich. Russia.

THIS IS NOT A FILM: DIR/SCR Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Jafar Panahi. Iran.

THE TURIN HORSE: DIR Béla Tarr. SCR Béla Tarr, László Krasznahorkai. Hungary. Hungary’s official foreign-language Oscar submission.

BREAKTHROUGH

EXPECTING: DIR/SCR Francisca Fuenzalida. Chile. U.S. Premiere.

LIGHT OF MINE: DIR Brett Eichenberger. SCR Jill Remensnyder. USA.

THREE AND A HALF: DIR/SCR Naghi Nemati. Iran. U.S. Premiere.

WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT: DIR/SCR Alexandra-Therese Keining. Sweden. World Premiere.

MIDNIGHT

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW: DIR/SCR Panos Cosmatos. USA.

HEADHUNTERS: DIR Morten Tyldum. SCR Lars Gudmestad, Ulf Ryberg. Norway.

KILL LIST: DIR Ben Wheatley. SCR Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump. UK.

NEW AUTEURS

ATTENBERG: DIR/SCR Athina Rachel Tsangari. Greece.

BONSAI: DIR/SCR Cristián Jiménez. Chile/France/Argentina/Portugal.

BULLHEAD: DIR/SCR Michaël R. Roskam. Belgium.

HANAAN: DIR/SCR Ruslan Pak. Russia/South Korea/Uzbek.

THE LONELIEST PLANET: DIR/SCR Julia Loktev. USA/Germany.

MICHAEL: DIR/SCR Markus Schleinzer. Austria.

OSLO, AUGUST 31: DIR Joachim Trier. SCR Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier. Norway.

RESTLESS CITY: DIR Andrew Dosunmu. SCR Eugene Gussenhoven. USA.

SNOWTOWN: DIR Justin Kurzel. SCR Justin Kurzel, Shaun Grant. Australia.

YOUNG AMERICANS

THE COLOR WHEEL: DIR Alex Ross Perry. SCR Alex Ross Perry, Carlen Altman.

THE DISH & THE SPOON: DIR Alison Bagnall. SCR Alison Bagnall, Andrew Lewis.

DRAGONSLAYER: DIR Tristan Patterson. (Documentary)

GREEN: DIR/SCR Sophia Takal.

SPARK OF BEING: DIR Bill Morrison. (Experimental)

WUSS: DIR/SCR Clay Liford.

SPOTLIGHT ON JOE SWANBERG

ART HISTORY: DIR Joe Swanberg. SCR Joe Swanberg, Josephine Decker, Kent Osborne.

SILVER BULLETS: DIR/SCR Joe Swanberg.

THE ZONE: DIR/SCR Joe Swanberg. World Premiere.