I received three emails this week, asking me to recommend films to see at this year’s Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival. I did my best. We’ve got 107 films for every taste — drama, comedy and documentaries ranging from a tense tale about having to evacuate 5,000 animals from a Ukrainian zoo, to save them bombardment (“Checkpoint Zoo”) to one about a woman setting up her card table in each of our 50 states, to counsel passers-by about their proper or improper use of grammar (“Rebel with a Clause”). 

Our review team watches some 600 submitted films. It takes months. They pass on to me any films they rate at 8 or more (out of 10). I need to know what I like. 

We’ve got an especially strong line-up of Vermont films, including “LaLiga,” that takes us inside the Champlain Valley soccer league, populated by migrant workers from farms in this region. In “Gone Guys,” Montpelier filmmaker, Chad Ervin, poses the vital question of whether we do enough to mentor and support our sometimes-disconnected boys and young men who face cultural, educational, and economic hurdles that come with societal change, whether they’re ready or not. 

Other notable selections by Vermont filmmakers include “Walk With Me” by Heidi Levitt, that shows the filmmaker and her husband, Charlie, adjusting to life with his early-onset Alzheimer’s — and Melanie Finn’s “The Making of Saltmarsh Sparrow,” that reveals the wildlife filmmakers’ behind-the-scenes efforts to capture the story of this imperiled bird.

Charles Light’s “Far Out: Life On and After the Commune” brings the funky 1960s back to life through characters at Vermont’s Total Loss Farm that united activists, artists, and journalists, behind a shared, utopian vision. There are more exceptional Vermont films.

I’m running out of time…other “must-sees” include MNFF award-winners: “Natchez,” “Arrest the Midwife,” “DJ Ahmet,” “and Tatami.” Also, “The Librarians,” “Andre Is An Idiot,” “Open,” “The Encampments,” “Gaucho, Gaucho,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” “Room for Us?” “Under the Volcano,” “Pow Wow Highway,” “Seeds,” “The Silence of My Hands”… I’ve got to stop…. But some films are well on their way to selling out.

In Scott MacDonald’s free Sunday morning session, “Films Made From Other Films” you’ll get to see how re-constructing the same material can stimulate our imaginations and give the new, experimental film, added (and ironic) meaning.

And don’t forget our closing night picture, “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” featuring eccentric lottery winner Charles, who lives alone on a remote island but dreams of re-uniting his all-time favorite musicians, Herb McGwyer and his estranged former mate, Nell. Talk about funny — and tense!

And we’ll bring back the most charming film of the 21^st century — “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” for a free outdoor Thursday night screening that will include (this just in!) a Q & A with the film’s co-creator, Nick Paley, a Hollywood rising star who was raised in Vermont. The film is about tiny, Marcel, an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan.

Sorry if I missed the film that could change your life… Please go to the website (middfilmfest.org) and browse… 

Jay Craven is artistic director of the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival (MNFF). Details for Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival (Aug. 20-24) can be found at middfilmfest.org