This weekend, Liza, the Fox-Fairy won the Silver Méliès Award at the Imagine Film Festival Amsterdam. It was hardly the first award it won either: a few weeks earlier at Fantasporto, it won awards for Best Film and Best Special Effects. And that last award may give you an indication of just how polished and visually sumptuous Liza, the Fox-Fairy is. In his feature debut, Hungarian director Károly Ujj Mészáros tells the tale of Liza, a live-in nurse in 1960s Budapest who takes care of the wife of the Japanese ambassador. In her job, Liza has learned Japanese language and culture, and even has befriended the ghost of Tomy Tani, a famous Japanese singer. Tomy often comes to visit, and Liza thinks he is her...
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It's really difficult to not brag when you've had the same kind of conversation I recently did with John Landis, the same human who directed Animal House, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, ¡Three Amigos!, Trading Places, Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and dozens of other great moving pictures you and I adore. So, for this article, you are going to need to bear with a few of my gloats, please. I'm a nice guy who loves cats and grandmothers, so you can manage for a few paragraphs of crowing. (Or, just skip what I have to say and listen, I'll never know. Unless you comment that you skipped, which is just mean.) Landis was in Dallas over the weekend...
(In Toronto? Come see The Dead Lands at Bell TIFF Lightbox on Monday, April 20th, where I will be presenting the film and conducting a question-and-answer session.)Directed by Toa Fraser, The Dead Lands is a unique and powerful film, mixing aboriginal myths and customs with more universal tales of heroism, compassion, and sacrifice. It's also a kick-ass action movie, with plenty of well-choreographed fight sequences that play both narrative and visceral dividends. The film is told in the Maori language, and it's but one of the film's unique aspects. As I wrote in my original review: "There's a musicality to the language, with both percussive elements and soothing cadences, that feel well in keeping with both the setting and style of storytelling. Given that Maori...
Held in conjunction with the Night Visions film festival in Helsinki, Finland, the inaugural edition of Nordic Genre Industry Days presented panel discussions and pitch sessions for projects that are currently in development. As might be imagined from the title, the sessions held on April 16 and 17 were targeted directly at filmmakers and industry professionals. But the discussions have broader implications as well, in that they cover topics that affect everyone who loves genre movies. After all, if you love horror, science fiction, fantasy, and/or action movies -- not to forget high-strung mystery and suspense thrillers -- then you're open to good genre movies irregardless of their country or countries of origin. Read more about the event, including panel discussions on Nordic genre festivals,...
Given that the third installment of the Mega Shark franchise is openly cribbing designs from the Attack On Titan manga, anime and soon-to-be-live-action franchise, it seems only fitting that the first trailer for the upcoming Mega Shark vs Kolossus has arrived in Japan. Story? Do these movies have one of those? It's got a great big shark battling a 'kolossus'! Duh ...Check out the trailer below....
The latest tease for the next Star Wars film was officially released during the latest "Celebration" fan convention, and is now online.With an hour-long presentation by J.J. Abrahms, Kathleen Kennedy and a bunch of cast and crew (including an almost magical appearance by BB8, the practical droid that wheeled out on stage), fans were treated to this latest peak into what's to come next December.From a wide establishing shot that passes a downed Imperial Star Destroyer (with a crashed fighter in front), to TIE Fighters, X-Wings and the Falcon sweeping through, the nostalgia on this one is set to the highest level, making many giddy at the return.All the right things are being said - it's a return of sorts to the "used universe" of...
The Cannes Film Festival announced their official lineup today with all the pomp and circumstance fitting the French fest. Our own Ben Croll was there and will have a full report along with many more details on the films picked. For now we've got a quick rundown on the films in the main competition, Un Certain Regard, and those official films playing out of competition. Notable names in the competition (who are we kidding, if you're in competition you are a notable name) include Jacques Audiard's (A Prophet) Dheepan, Todd Haynes's (I'm Not There) Carol, Hou Hsiao Sien's (Millenium Mambo) The Assassin, Denis Villeneuve's (The Prisoner) Sicaro, Gus Van Sant's (Elephant) The Sea of Trees, Joachim Trier's (Reprise) Louder than Bombs, Kore-eda Hirokazu's (After Life)...
When one David is not enough, add another. That was the general thinking behind the producers of David Sandberg's much buzzed Kung Fury when pondering how to generate even more attention for a short film that already stands as one of the most successful crowd funding stories of all time thanks to Sandberg's fantastic teaser material. And so enter David Hasselhoff who - in a completely unexpected move - has hopped on board the project with the Davids combining for the first official music video for Kung Fury, one powered by a (surprisingly catchy) new Hasselhoff single along with a metric tonne of new footage from the short film. The power blasts from the keytar are a nice touch but, seriously, there's just too much...
Ruben Guthrie, an Australian film about a hard-partying Sydney ad man who seeks to start a new chapter in his life, has been announced as the Opening Night Film at this year's Sydney Film Festival. It is the directorial debut of award-winning playwright, screenwriter and actor Brendan Cowell, who adapted it from his own critically acclaimed Belvoir St Theatre production. The cast includes Patrick Brammall, Alex Dimitriades, Abbey Lee, Harriet Dyer, Jeremy Sims, Brenton Thwaites, Aaron Bertram, Robyn Nevin and Jack Thompson. Life is good for ad man Ruben Guthrie - he leads a party boy lifestyle, has a model fiancée and lives in a house on the water. He's at the top of his game, until some drunken skylarking lands Ruben at the bottom...
