Initial selections have been announced for the 10th Tribeca Film Festival, which will take place from April 20 to May 1 at various venues in lower Manhattan. A complete list of films will be announced on March 14. Among the films to be shown is Dennis Lee’s “Jesus Henry Christ”, about a 10-year-old boy genius’ search for his biological father, starring Toni Collette and Michael Sheen. The first two stills from the film can be found below.

Precocious doesn’t even begin to describe Henry James Hermin, a petri dish child who writes rabble-rousing manifestos on the nature of truth… at age 10. This boy-genius misfit’s world turns upside down when – to the dismay of the doting single mother who raised him – he embarks on a search for his biological father. Toni Collette and Michael Sheen star alongside bright newcomers Jason Spevack and Samantha Weinstein in this charming comedy that beams with off-the-wall humor and visual flair.

The Australian has recently interviewed Toni Collette in their 10 questions section.

Many scenes from your films are indelible. Your character Lynn in The Sixth Sense bursting into tears in the car as her son (Haley Joel Osment) says he has spoken to her dead mother. Muriel’s Wedding, in which you joyously stride down the aisle with that fantastic Cheshire cat grin on your face. That powerful scene in The Hours, in which Kitty’s bubbly façade momentarily drops away and she falls into the arms of Laura (Julianne Moore). Are scenes like this all about instinct – or burn-the-midnight oil rehearsal? I prefer less rehearsal and more thought before a scene. I’m open to rehearsing if my collaborators are that way inclined. But most people waste the time playing stupid and fruitless games. Literally. I have only worked with a couple of directors who really use the rehearsal period in a beneficial way. Generally, if I am truly meant to play a character I have an instant alignment with the scene and the way it’s to be played as soon as I read it. I can see and feel it as I read it for the first time. It gets me all stirred up and excited. So rehearsing can feel like it gets in the way of an honest moment one might want to save for the camera.

The Academy Awards are on this weekend. Do you enjoy the big award shows like the Oscars and the Emmys? Yes, from home. I always have. But most are too long, wouldn’t you say? They’re also fun in reality but too nerve-wracking to be entirely enjoyable.

The trailer for the third season of “United States of Tara”, to premiere on March 28, 2011, has been released and can be watched in the video archive. How exiting to see the old – and most probably new – alters return!

The Gradual Demise of Phillipa Finch is a whimsical 17×2 minute animated series narrated by Emmy Award-winning actress Toni Collette which follows acclaimed artist Emma Magenta’s newest character, Phillipa Finch. The pin-up girl for the emotionally thwarted, Phillipa Finch tumbles back through her past relationships and reflects on her search for not just love, but AMAZING love. Phillipa’s failed relationships have left her unmotivated, uninspired and with a bruised and battered heart — she’s ‘died’. Premieres Tuesday, 15 February at 10.00pm, ABC1

Article courtesy USA Today. Americans know all about the impressive acting chops of Oscar nominees (and past winners) Nicole Kidman and Geoffrey Rush. Which is why fellow Aussie Toni Collette is happy that another countrywoman, 63-year-old supporting actress nominee Jacki Weaver, is getting her due stateside.

She is an Australian legend and no one’s really known her outside Australia, so I’m absolutely thrilled for her,” Collette, 38, tells USA TODAY’s Olivia Barker. “It’s really encouraging for older actors also to know that this can happen at a later stage in your career.

The very pregnant Collette was “bummed” to have missed this year’s Globes. She was up again for the best TV series actress, musical or comedy award for her role on Showtime’s United States of Tara, whose third season premieres March 28 (Collette lost out to Laura Linney). Her bursting belly – she’s due this spring – was only part of the reason for her absence. “I could not foresee myself gathering the energy and getting back on a plane for 14 hours,” says Collette, who already has a daughter, Sage, 3. Her character Tara Gregson, however, won’t be adding to her brood of two: The pregnancy wasn’t written into the show. “It’s just a matter of standing behind large objects,” says Collette, who was about five months along by the time shooting wrapped. And like with many second pregnancies, she started showing sooner. “So I’m stirring lots of large pots in the kitchen and carrying lots of plants and books.” As for the alleged Hollywood baby boom she’s a part of, Collette chalks some of it up to media hype. Still,

Perhaps it is a sign of the time we are living in,” she says. “It used to be common for women to become stay-at-home mums, forced to make a decision between motherhood and the workplace. These days women can actually do it all, so younger female actors are more present in all states of womanhood.

News courtesy Inside Film. PJ Hogan’s Mental is set to shoot mid-year in Australia. The specific shoot dates are still to be set with star Toni Collette currently pregnant with her second child. “It’s just a matter of timing,” Universal Pictures International Australasia managing director Mike Baard said. Universal has the UK, Australian and New Zealand rights to the film – a comedy set within the world of Muriel’s Wedding and loosely based on Hogan’s own life. Baard raved about the project at last year’s Screen Producers Association of Australia conference, calling it “one of the most incredible scripts we’ve ever read”.

“Out of probably the 300 scripts I’ve read in the last four years it is the best beyond any doubt and that includes a lot of the international productions that we do,” he said at the SPAA conference. “We got involved very early on with CAA, PJ’s agent, and came on board – we negotiated the deal by putting up a very hefty advance for Australia, New Zealand and the UK which is a primary catalyst in getting the film financed.” Muriel’s Wedding grossed more than $15.76 million in Australia in 1994. Mental is expected to be released in 2012.