Curfew

At the lowest point of his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his nine-year old niece, Sophia, for a few hours.

Peter Howell:
Curfew (Shawn Christensen): A depressed New Yorker reclines in a bathtub of bloody water, his life just a final razor-slash away from ending — until the telephone rings. It’s the man’s desperate sister, who needs him to babysit her precocious preteen daughter, even though the sis knows her bro’s a passive-aggressive screw-up. Black comedy with a light heart.

Steve Pond:
In a category in which black comedy has often fared well -- witness recent winners like "Six Shooter" and "The New Tenants" -- "Curfew" has a shot. It's also the only American-made film, shot in New York by a U.S. writer-director-actor-musician, who also stars as a morose young man we meet just after he's slashed his wrists and settled into the bathtub. When his sister calls and begs him to babysit her young daughter, he climbs out of the tub, bandages himself and has some awkward but life-changing moments with the girl.

The film is kind of sick, in a good way, with its dark humor offset by odd touches like a dance sequence set in a bowling alley. By the end, it also manages to be quite touching -- and the combination of twisted humor and true sentiment is one that could stand out in a tough category.

My take:
Likeliest winners: "Death of a Shadow," "Curfew"
If voters go for the real world: "Asad," "Buzkashi Boys"
If "Amour" creates a bandwagon effect: "Henry"