Fall is a special time in the movie industry. It’s the awkward adolescent phase that exists between the childhood of summer and maturity of winter films for audiences and producers. Studios release blockbusters and mindless fluff in the summer, saving their best material for winter when awards consideration begins.

In the fall, audiences get a mix of both of these kinds of movies. Marty Jorgensen, president of the Iowa Motion Picture Association, says fall movies represent a set of films that are very different from each other.

“There are some very diverse marketplaces,” he says. “People like to see things out of their own lives and see things that help them get out of their own lives.”

This fall is also seeing an upswing in films that are more on the independent side, says Tom Wheeler, manager of the Iowa Film Office. He says the traditional Hollywood method is dissolving and studios will be buying more movies from independent filmmakers.

“I think it says Hollywood has heard the tolling bell,” he says. “More A-list talent will be appearing in independent projects.”

Studios are also looking to fall movies to help raise falling numbers at the box office. Wheeler says, however, he doesn’t think the industry is in a slump, simply because the last few years have been record-setters.

“Any kind of miss makes it seem like some sort of disappointment when it actually did very well,” he says. “Can it help match last year’s? I don’t think so.”

October 7: The feel-good chick flick

“In Her Shoes” is about two women who are great friends but terrible sisters. Cameron Diaz is a spunky party girl who takes nothing – not even herself – seriously. Toni Collette plays her sister and social opposite. After their differences drive them apart, they have to learn how to accept each other in order to reconnect.

This movie will be banking on every female to bring her mother, grandmother, sisters and closest girlfriends to revel in the warm fuzziness.

October 14: The new “Garden State”?

Much in the same vein as “Garden State,” “Elizabethtown,” directed by Cameron Crowe, follows a discouraged young man on his journey home to bury a parent, where he must come to terms with his life and relationships. Along the way, he falls in love with an unconventional young woman who pulls him out of his slump.

Leland Poague, English and film professor, thinks the two films will be different, however.

“It’ll be so different just because Crowe is someone really knowledgeable and informed by classical Hollywood,” he says.

Since “Garden State” enjoyed a huge success as an independent film, stars Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst should bring the same box-office magic to the more mainstream “Elizabethtown.”

October 14: The action

“Domino” is a biography-turned-action-flick, partly based on real-life actor Laurence Harvey’s daughter Domino, who chucks her glamour-girl life to be a bounty hunter. After a botched job, she and her associates are on the run from the mob.

If nothing else, this movie should fare well with guys for two reasons: bounty hunters and Keira Knightley.

October 21: The romantic comedy

Steve Martin, Claire Danes and Jason Schwartzman are at the heart of the love triangle in “Shopgirl,” based on Martin’s own short story. Glove saleswoman Mirabelle finds herself drawn to an older, wealthy man. The other man in her life is a younger, struggling musician, but she has to choose whether love or age is more important to her.

Although Martin is more known for comedy than romance, Wheeler says he thinks Martin will succeed in this role.

“I would expect him to do pretty well in it,” he says. “He’s a pretty talented guy.”

October 28: The comedy

“Prime” should be the quirky comedy of this fall’s releases. In it, Meryl Streep plays Uma Thurman’s psychiatrist. When Thurman’s character begins seeing a new man, she brings all the juicy details into her sessions with Streep, who eventually discovers Thurman is actually dating her son.

The film shows how many outside people get dragged into a relationship between a couple, but this gets its twist from the family/psychiatrist conflict of interest. Just picture having someone like Streep as both a shrink and potential mother-in-law.

November 11: The drama

“Derailed” will be Jennifer Aniston’s first movie since the big split with Brad Pitt. She and Clive Owen play married business executives who become the targets of a blackmailing scheme. With all the press surrounding “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” this summer, will Aniston’s “Derailed” with Owen cause the same stir?

Jorgensen says he thinks the actors are more concerned with their craft than how they compare to other actors.

“I guess that’s what movie criticism comes to,” he says. “It pits actors against each other, but I don’t know if that’s what actors think about. It’s hard enough to act without worrying what other people think.”

November 18: The biography

Country legend Johnny Cash’s life is recounted in “Walk the Line.” The movie follows the singer, played by Joaquin Phoenix, as he rises from farm boy to famous musician. With Reese Witherspoon playing his wife, June, this movie just might strike the right note with audiences.

Poague says it is hard to measure film biographies because an actor is doing a role that isn’t measurable. He says it is acting by someone who is doing an approximation of the person.

Wheeler says biographies challenge actors.

“I think Joaquin Phoenix was a pretty good cast for the film,” Wheeler says. “He’s got some pretty big shoes to fill. He’s either got to be the living, breathing Johnny Cash again or he’s gonna have to pull off a hell of a performance.”

November 18: The literary adaptations

Based on the fourth installment of J.K. Rowling’s wildly popular series, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” hits theaters the same year as her sixth book. The movie follows Harry and his friends as he is drawn into the risky Triwizard Tournament as an underage wizard and the evil Voldemort once again rises to power.

Whether this film is good or bad isn’t the point. It’s Harry Potter, and that’s enough to draw millions of fans in to see it.

Jane Austen also makes a comeback this fall with what is the fifth remake of “Pride and Prejudice.” It follows the Bennet sisters, particularly Elizabeth, played by Keira Knightley in her second movie of the season, as they struggle with class and love, especially at the hand of Mr. Darcy, played by Matthew MacFadyen.

Jorgensen says remakes are like covers of songs. They are just different versions of the same songs and each director brings something new.

“Does it make for good box office? It succeeded once, and it will go again,” he says.

Wheeler says it is a return on investment because Hollywood is a business trying to make a profit off a commonly known product.

“I think it’s just an example of Hollywood taking the safe route,” he says.

November 23: The musical

“Rent” follows a group of friends for a year in Bohemian New York City as they deal with love, loss and AIDS, and is based on Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical. “Rent” has the potential to gather quite a following from fans and young audiences who elevated the musical to a cult status.

Jorgensen says he thinks the movie will have all the qualities to garner that sort of following.

“Those kinds of films lend that [atmosphere] of getting into groups and watching together,” he says. “It has a lot of those characteristics.”