Published in the year which marks the centenary of the cinema, this fourth issue of an annual diary presents comment by international film-makers on their favourite films. The first edition won the BFI Michael Powell Book Award. James Toback, scriptwriter of "Bugsy" and writer/director of films such of "Fingers" and "Exposed", writes from Hollywood. Arthur Penn, veteran director of "Bonnie and Clyde", discusses his career, as does prop master Eddie Fowlie, whose long association with David Lean enables him to provide insight into that often enigmatic film-maker. The issue concludes with a meditative piece by Fellini, written shortly before his death in 1994.

Projections 2 highlights Robert Altman, whose film The Player restored him to his proper place in cinema's pantheon. Actor Tim Robbins, who memorably incarnated Griffin Mill in The Player, has written, directed and acted in Bob Roberts, the script of which is printed here in full. And another actor, Willem Dafoe, describes how he approaches his craft. There are also pieces by Belgian director Jaco van Dormael, New Zealand director Alison Maclean and Australian director George Miller, who charts the journey he has made from Mad Max to the (then) eagerly awaited Lorenzo's Oil. Finally, Bertrand Tavernier's diary records the evolution of his controversial film L627 against the shifting European cultural landscape.

The centrepiece of this issue comes from the celebrated French film magazine, Cahiers du Cinema. For their 500th issue Martin Scorsese contributed material not only about his own work - including his relationship with Robert de Niro - but also about film-makers he admires: those of his generation (Coppola, De Palma, Lucas and Spielberg), as well as those film-makers whose legacy enriches cinema today (Ford, Raoul Walsh, Ida Lupino, Hitchcock, John Cassavetes). He celebrates the glories of the British cinema, and concludes by posing five essential questions about film. Other contributors include: Jamie Lee Curtis - In Conversation with Janet Leigh and Lillian Burns Hippolyte Girardot - Never Forget Mastroianni Frances Mcdormand & Willem Dafoe - Acting is Believing Robert Mitchum - Looking Like Nothing Matters Brian Cox - Manhunter Leslie Caron - The L-Shaped Room Sylvia Syms - Victim Teresa Wright - Shadow of a Doubt Jaco van Dormael - Life Lessons Bebe Barron - Making Music for Forbidden Planet Christopher Porter - Photographing Dead Man Frank Capra/Douglas Sirk - A Centenary Tribute William K. Everson/Marcello Mastroianni - In Memoriam

PROJECTIONS is a forum for film-makers where - like dispatches from the front - practitioners of cinema write about their craft. In this year's issue there is a special focus on the art of animation, with interviews with the father-figure of stop-motion animation, Ray Harryhausen, and its leading exponents in Britain, Nick Park, and in the US, Henry Selick. Jamie Lee Curtis & Tony Curtis - Some Like It Dark Quentin Tarantino & Brian de Palma - Emotion Pictures Ray Harryhausen - Animation and Dynamation Nick Park - A Lot Can Happen in a Second Henry Selick - Bringing Things to Life by Hand Simon Pummell - Cutting Off Their Tails with a Carving Knife Annaud On Annaud Fred Zinnemann - A Little Tea, A Little Chat James Stewart - Learning Your Craft Todd Haynes, Julianne Moore, Christine Vachon - Making Safe Chris Buck - Portfolio William Wellman - A Tribute Walter Donohue - Adventures in a Light Industry Louis Malle - In Memoriam

When the door of the Lumiere factory opened to release the workers, it was more than just the end of the day - it was the beginning of a brand new art form that has shaped the consciousness of the twentieth century. This very first moment of the very first film gave birth to other moments that are cherished in the recollections of people all over the world. In this issue we collaborated with the French film magazine Positif. The centrepiece of this issue came to us from Positif. For their 400th issue Positif asked the film-makers with whom they had forged a special relationship over the past forty years to write about the films, directors and actors who have had a special significance for them. An array of seventy international film-makers - including Altman and Angelopoulos, Chabrol and the Coens, Eastwood and Frears, Kazan and Kieslowski, Leigh and Loach, Makavejev and Marker, Ophuls and Penn, Resnais and Rohmer, Rosi and Rudolph, Tavernier and the Tavianis, Varda and Zulawski, among others - responded, and we present this treasure trove of film-making comment as a way of celebrating the 100 years of cinema. 1995 was also the centenary of Buster Keaton. In honour of this, Kevin Brownlow - noted film-maker, historian and restorer of the silent cinema - recounts the making of Keaton's masterpiece, The General.

Projections is a forum for practitioners of the cinema to write about their work. The first issue includes a journal compiled by John Boorman which records his responses to the events and trends of 1991, and their implications for the future of cinema. Like his Emerald Forest diary, Money into Light, it is a fascinating mix of anecdote, personal reflections, thoughts on the nature of cinema, and comments on the practical business of making films. Projections also contains contributions from cinematographer Nestor Almendros, who describes the craft of photographing the human face, and from Jonathan Demme, who traces the evolution of his career from his early days with Roger Corman to his chilling Silence of the Lambs. River Phoenix and Gus Van Sant discuss their work together on My Own Private Idaho; there is a script from one of the most original talents in American today, Hal Hartley, and a penetrating account by director Michael Mann of his startling new version of Last of the Mohicans.