In many parts of the world movie-goers are breaking free from the theater.

When we think of a night out at the movies, most of us envisage either a multiplex or small art house theater. But, all across the world people are watching films in more diverse environments than ever before.

New York City is a hub for experimentation of all kinds and when it comes to thinking outside the screen the city has an impressive resume. The Manhattan Shorts Festival began in September with Nicholas Mason projecting short films on the back of a panel truck on the street.

What's the most unusual place you have watched a film? Tell us below

Each summer, people enjoy "movies under the stars" in various city locations from Central Park to disused river piers.  Likewise, TV station HBO hosts an outdoor "film festival" in neighbouring Bryant Park, and one organisation even projects classic films onto the side of the venerated St Patrick’s Old Cathedral on Mulberry Street. At parties organized by Rooftop Films, guests can watch underground films on rooftops with the iconic Manhattan skyline in the background. While arts/entertainment organization Gen Art recently welcomed fall in the city by projecting various film clips mixed to music onto a billboard high above the city as part of a series of screenings.

NYC is not the only U.S. city to embrace the concept of the unique screening location.  Chicago, LA, New Orleans, Santa Cruz and many other cities host film events in venues like steamboat stations on the Mississippi.

Of course, America is the creator of the famous drive-in movie experience. While multiplexes popping up all over may have hastened the demise of the drive-in experience for the masses, companies like MobMov - tagline: "the drive-in that drives in" - are working to keep them alive. With chapters nationwide, Mobmov seeks out an audience and where one is available they find a makeshift screen and a projector, audiences drive up, tune in their radios, and the rest is history.

Across the world the story is the same. Wherever you go, you can find unique screening venues.

In the UK, Secret Cinema shows films in surprise venues that reflect the subject matter, like a recent screening of Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park" at Shipwright Yard, Southwark.  Parisians flock to La Pagode, a large red pagoda that used to be a ballroom and has found new work as a makeshift cinema. Australians can watch their favourite flicks on a huge outdoor screen on Bondi Beach; in Vienna patrons watch films on a screen in front of the impressive City Hall; and Romania’s Anonimul Film Festival screens movies in Sfantu Gheorghe in a sandy part of the Danube’s Delta. Even the UAE, has recently gained its first roaming giant outdoor movie screen, and Iran subsequently followed suit opening its largest open air theater to date.

Indeed, for some, it is watching movies at an indoor cinema is an aberration. In Indonesia and Thailand, films are projected onto any large available building or wall and communities and travelers alike come together to share the experience, often over a beer.

Resorts and towns across the Amazon have started to host tiny film festivals in an attempt to attract tourism; where films, often with the forest as their subject matter, are projected under the jungle canopy. Many countries without a wide network of theaters, such as those in Africa and Central Asia, or those tackling the issue of censorship; rely on a cheap projector and guerilla film screenings for the opportunity to share an experience many of us take for granted.

Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe stars as Clareece 'Precious' Jones in gritty ghetto drama 'Precious'.

Toronto is recognized universally as being the start of awards season and the place where studios launch their Oscar campaigns. You can always tell which films they’re going to push by the relative lavishness of the parties. My suspicions were aroused last year by the oyster mountain at Fox Searchlight’s "Slumdog Millionaire" party.

I felt the same inkling at the Blackberry/Lionsgate "Precious" party, as foie gras crostini were pressed on me, that we will be seeing much more of this fine film and in particular Mo'Nique's much talked about performance.

Film festivals can often start with a bang and slowly fizzle until all that is left are some straggly-looking journalists sitting around eating stale sandwiches and trying to file copy on ancient laptops.

But this year, the Toronto International Film Festival flipped things around launching on a low-key note with Jon Amiel’s Charles Darwin biopic "Creation" starring couple Jennifer Connolly and Paul Bettany. Despite good reviews, film has failed, thus far, to secure a U.S. distributor or much coverage.

Things only really started to get going at the weekend with the premiere of Iraq war satire “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges (aka "The Dude"). The weekend's other big hitter was and "Up in the Air," also starring Clooney, which had critics raving and the Oscar pundits buzzing.

Clooney walked the carpet for both films with a bandaged hand, which he also had at Venice; but declined to do any other interviews, which is a shame because I imagine interviewing him would be fun.

"Capitalism: A Love Story" had its first public outing on Sunday to the usual Michael Moore film love/hate reception. However you feel about Moore, the film is certainly entertaining and speaks to the despair of America's working class during tough economic times. Moore has sympathy: "It’s crazy," he tells me, "We live in a democracy. There’s supposed to be some kind of equitable distribution of something here. It’s not set up for just a few to be calling the shots and everyone else scrambling for what’s left."

The festival is also careful to make things fun for the city it calls home, showcasing various events in public space Yonge-Dundas Square. A crowd of blood covered zombies lurched there through the city to greet horror icon George Romero, with one over-zealous zombie drooling blue goo onto our cameraman’s white sneaker.

The day after, the square was taken over by a roller derby to celebrate actress Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut "Whip It," which drew crowds of press and onlookers eager for Barrymore and star Ellen Page to recreate their recent smooch in Marie Claire magazine.

Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke with a Bosnian woman wearing traditional dress in Sarajevo. (PHOTO: AFP/Getty Images)

Since then, it has grown into the Balkan region's most important film event and a significant film industry destination. It now draws more than 100,000 people each year, a long way from its humble beginnings in a besieged city back in 1995.

This year's festival presented 232 films from 53 countries screened over nine days.

The festival also draws some of the biggest names in the international arena. Last year, Kevin Spacey, Juliette Binoche, Nick Nolte, Mike Leigh, Charlie Kaufman, Jia Khang-ke and Nuri Bilge Ceylan attended among others, filling Sarajevo locals with the hope that their city can be significant in peaceful times too.

This year, the glamour was less evident, likely due to the recession. But Gillian Anderson and Mickey Rourke made an appearance. Rourke spent few days at the Festival and few dollars around the city, buying some traditional Bosnian linen in the historic center.

Sarajevo is arguably the leading showcase for films from south-east Europe and this year there was a real sense of local patriotism. Winner of the top prize, the “Heart of Sarajevo,” was a Serbian war drama, “Ordinary People” by director Vladimir Perisic. A number of other award-winners also explored aspects of the war in the former Yugoslavia, including short film “The Party” by Croatian Dalibor Matanic.

Sarajevo has established itself as the regional center, not only for competing filmmakers, but also for co-operation. Most of the films coming out of the Balkans international co-productions, which not only benefits the industry but brings a co-operative spirit to a region formerly known mostly for its troubles.

NEW YORK (CNN) - Although the film’s title may lead you to believe "Taking Woodstock" is about the kidnap of Snoopy's yellow friend, Ang Lee's latest offering in fact centers round one man's involvement in bringing 500,000 people to sleepy Bethel, NY for the iconic Woodstock festival.

'Taking Woodstock' is not a typical Ang Lee film.

"Taking Woodstock" is not a typical Ang Lee film. It is a gentle coming-of-age comedy and yet when I think of Ang Lee, I think of characters taking understated emotional journeys ... and maybe the odd sprinkling of martial arts thrown in for good measure.

Infamous gay cowboy drama "Brokeback Mountain," martial arts period drama "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and exquisitely-shot tale of betrayal "Lust, Caution" –- not one is without an intense and somewhat cerebral undertone. In "Taking Woodstock" bouncers wear dresses and parents dance like chickens.

The main role is played by Demetri Martin and Emile Hirsch, Liev Schrieber and Imelda Staunton also star.

Demetri Martin is not an actor. He is the first to point this out as I gingerly approach the topic in a room festooned with tie die, lava lamps and beads at the hippy-themed press junket.

Actors are unpredictable critters so say, "You have done some acting before, but were you surprised when you were offered a lead in an Ang Lee film?"

"That's a really nice way to ask that question," he says. "Saying that I hadn't had a huge amount of experience - you mean no experience!

"I was surprised," he says finally. "And you know ... a little concerned.”

Martin has a TV stand up show in the U.S. in which he draws funny stick figures and makes low-key jokes. How on earth did world-renowned, Oscar-winning Lee alight upon this person to carry his entire multi-million dollar film?

It's kind of like imagining Ridley Scott casting Kermit as a lead (actually that would be amazing and Frank Oz did). I thought Ang Lee would have all kinds of impactful things to say about this casting but he merely remarked somewhat cryptically, "I see this possibility in him to find a movie and that's just a belief ... I'm willing to throw myself in and see what happens."

I find it hard to buy that the decision was THAT straightforward but decide against calling Lee a trickster to his face. You see, I think Lee’s casting is more joyfully, deliberately surprising than he lets on. Do you think Ang Lee is being more deliberately playful with his casting then he lets on? Tell us below in the comments.

Liev Schrieber stars as a transvestite and wears a dress. Schrieber is big and burly and married to Naomi Watts. He’s been in masculine action movies like "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," and "Defiance."

Maybe that was Lee's point. When I ask Schrieber what the experience was like he describes it as "exhilaratingly humiliating." Maybe we'll be seeing more of him in dresses.

Lee also manages to get Emile Hirsch in his role as a traumatised Vietnam veteran suffering from flashbacks, to strip completely naked and perform a full-frontal nude dance scene.

"Well," says Hirsch languidly, "I was excited just because I thought it'd be such a cool scene." Meanwhile, confusingly, he is taking my photo with his iPhone. "But then," he continues, "It was kind of a cold day and there were 300 extras everywhere and one of the things that I didn't realize was that everyone has cellphones. So the threat of maybe being photographed was constant."

I point him that even if he wasn’t photographed on set by an sneaky extra with an cameraphone, he is in fact immortalized nude on celluloid to be shown on a huge screen for all to see. I hope I am not the first person to point this out to him.

For more from director Ang Lee on new film "Taking Woodstock" watch Screening Room Xtra's September special on CNN at the following times: Thurs 3 September: 0845, Friday 4 September: 0315, Saturday 5 September: 0845, 1715, 2245, Sunday 6 September: 1445, Monday 7 September: 0245 (all times GMT)