Image Comics had a strong showing at last night’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards in San Diego, taking home wins across multiple categories.

Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadzki’s Assorted Crisis Events won Best New Series, continuing the breakout hit’s momentum. Martin Simmonds picked up Best Painter/Multimedia Artist for his work on The Department of Truth.

Jordie Bellaire won Best Coloring for her work across multiple Image titles, including Assorted Crisis Events, The Department of Truth, Exquisite Corpses, W0RLDTR33, and G.I. Joe. Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou took home Best Lettering for the Author Immortal series and other projects.

The awards are voted on by comics industry members and presented annually at San Diego Comic-Con. For creators working in indie comics, the Eisners remain one of the most respected honors in the medium.

Copies of the winning titles are available at Image’s SDCC booth #1915 for fans attending the convention.

The wins underscore Image’s continued influence as a major publisher of creator-owned work, where artists and writers maintain ownership of their properties, a model that’s become increasingly important to independent creators looking for alternatives to work-for-hire arrangements.

Francesco Cavalieri is swapping power metal for neon-soaked synthwave tonight in San Diego.

The WIND ROSE frontman’s new project V.B.O. will DJ the Transformers: The Movie 40th Anniversary Concert at House of Blues. He’s spinning 80s classics mixed with tracks from Vice Business Only, the debut album dropping tomorrow on Reigning Phoenix Music.

Cavalieri founded V.B.O. in 2023 with electronic producer Simone Giusti. The project ditches fantasy metal for retro-futuristic vibes inspired by Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, and Justice. Think analog synths, driving rhythms, and the neon-drenched excess of Miami nightlife.

The full band includes Claudio Falconcini on guitar, Federico Meranda on keys, and Angelo Carmignani on drums. They made their live debut in January at 70000 Tons of Metal.

Tonight Cavalieri performs from 6pm for VIP ticket holders and curates playlists between sets throughout the evening. General admission doors open at 7pm, show starts at 8pm. Tickets run $50 for GA, $100 for VIP packages.

For metal musicians looking to break out of genre boxes, this is what reinvention looks like.

A grandson chasing money finds something else entirely in “Dear You,” the Chinese drama that’s crossing the Pacific for a September 4 theatrical release.

Well Go USA Entertainment is bringing director Lan Hongchun’s breakout film to US and Canadian theaters after it scored big with critics and audiences back home. The story follows a debt-ridden grandson who tracks down his grandfather in Thailand, hoping the old man can bail him out. What he discovers instead is a lifetime of sacrifice hidden behind years of letters and money sent home.

The film taps into qiaopi, the traditional practice of overseas Chinese sending remittances to family, and spins it into something deeply personal. It’s the kind of quiet family drama that sneaks up on you.

Stars Li Sitong, Wang Yantong, Wu Shaoqing, Zheng Runqi, and Wang Xiaohui are all early in their careers, giving the film fresh energy. After its North American premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival, it’s getting a proper theatrical run through Well Go USA, a distributor known for bringing international films to North America.

For indie filmmakers, this is how crossover happens. A strong story, cultural authenticity, and a distributor willing to take a chance on something outside the usual blockbuster churn.

Mark Pellington is bringing back a piece of MTV history that hasn’t been seen in over three decades. The filmmaker behind The Mothman Prophecies and iconic music videos for Pearl Jam and Nine Inch Nails has turned BUZZ, his groundbreaking 1990 MTV current affairs show, into a documentary called This Is Buzz.

The film gets a special preview Saturday at Beyond the Streets Gallery in Los Angeles, presented as “Analog + Ecstasy,” a multi-screen immersive experience featuring lost episodes of the original series. IndieWire called it “one of the best documentaries of the year.”

BUZZ featured interviews with William S. Burroughs, Malcolm McLaren, Dennis Hopper, The Edge, Timothy Leary, William Gibson, and RuPaul. The show helped define MTV’s visual aesthetic in the early ’90s before disappearing from the airwaves.

The free event runs from noon to 10 p.m. and includes screenings of two original BUZZ episodes, a conversation between Pellington and Oscar-nominated editor Hank Corwin, and the multi-screen documentary premiere with Q&A.

Indie distributor Antenna Releasing will launch a nationwide roadshow this September, with Pellington appearing for Q&As at select cities. Digital release follows in the fall.

For filmmakers who grew up on MTV’s experimental era, this is a rare chance to see what shaped that generation’s visual language.

Before zombies were brain-eating monsters, they were something else entirely: a metaphor for slavery and stolen humanity.

That’s the driving force behind Black Zombie, Maya Annik Bedward’s debut feature documentary that digs into how one of horror’s most recognizable figures was co-opted from Haitian spiritual traditions and repackaged for Hollywood. The film traces the zombie’s journey from colonial Haiti to modern cinema, reexamining classics like White Zombie, Night of the Living Dead, and The Serpent and the Rainbow through a cultural lens that’s long overdue.

Bedward, an Afro-Caribbean-Canadian filmmaker, brings together cultural historians, artists, and genre legends including Slash, Tom Savini, and Mambo Labelle Déesse to reclaim the zombie’s deeper significance as a symbol of survival and resistance. The doc blends archival footage, vérité scenes, and critical analysis to show how Black spiritual practices were distorted and erased in the process.

Black Zombie premiered at SXSW 2026 and has since picked up acclaim at Hot Docs and BlackStar Film Festival. It opens in theaters September 11 via Kino Lorber, starting at New York’s Quad Cinema and LA’s Laemmle Nuart.

For indie creators working in horror or documentary, this is a reminder that reclaiming history can be just as powerful as creating new stories.

A 40-year-old shop in Raleigh, North Carolina just got some serious recognition from one of comics’ biggest indie publishers.

Capitol Comics won Image Comics’ Summer 2026 Select Retailer Award, beating out thousands of fan nominations during San Diego Comic-Con. The award highlights comic shops that go beyond just selling books, focusing on stores that build community, champion indie titles, and actually help readers find what they’ll love.

“We are beyond ecstatic,” the Capitol Comics team said. “Thank YOU for the support and the camaraderie you give us in this industry.”

Image launched the award to shine a light on the retailers who keep the direct market alive. Fans nominated shops based on criteria like hand-selling recommendations, inclusive atmosphere, smart displays, and support for creator-owned comics. The previous winner was ATOM Comics.

Capitol Comics gets a commemorative medallion, a spotlight Q&A on Image’s platforms, and an exclusive variant cover with their logo (limited to 250 copies).

It’s a rare moment where the backbone of the comics industry, the local shop, gets the credit it deserves. Image will open nominations for the next award cycle soon.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art just dropped details on its film program, and it’s not your typical museum screening series.

Instead of timed showings, two theaters will run curated films non-stop all day. Visitors can walk in and out whenever they want, treating cinema like a gallery experience.

The Robert Flaherty Theater focuses on documentary. You’ll find a new commissioned series called Seeing is Believing: The Story of Narrative Art, plus docs on artists like Norman Rockwell, Jim Lee, Charles Schulz, and Diego Rivera.

The Slavko Vorkapich Theater goes experimental. Early silents from Georges Méliès, animations by Winsor McCay and Walt Disney Studios, avant-garde work from the ’60s, Looney Tunes, anime from Cowboy Bebop, and even George Lucas’s student films from 1965-1969.

Both theaters are named after cinema pioneers. Flaherty helped invent documentary filmmaking. Vorkapich created montage sequences for Hollywood in the ’20s through ’40s and later taught film at USC, where Lucas studied.

Films range from a few minutes to 90 minutes. Come and go as you like.

The museum opens September 22 in LA’s Exposition Park. Tickets are on sale now through February 2027.

For filmmakers and film lovers, it’s a chance to see how storytelling through moving images evolved, from cave paintings to screen art.

A fake exorcist YouTuber teams up with the grandson of a legendary demon hunter to battle actual zombies. That’s the premise of “Demon Hunters,” the first-ever Taiwan-India co-production, hitting U.S. VOD platforms August 7.

The film stars Taiwan heartthrob JC Lin as Tommy, who fakes exorcisms for clicks, and India’s Arjan Bajwa as Sanjay, a tech expert who actually knows how to fight demons. It’s an action-horror-comedy-romance mashup directed by Mei-Juin Chen and produced by an all-female team, Gayathiri Guliani of India’s Kleos Entertainment Group and Cindy Shyu of Taiwan’s Light House Productions.

“Demon Hunters” already crushed it with audiences in Taiwan and India earlier this year. The production pulled in heavy hitters from Jackie Chan’s action and cinematography teams and features over 700 VFX shots. The soundtrack blends Taiwanese and Hindi tracks, including a Bollywood-style number distributed by Sony Music Taiwan.

The film launches on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and everywhere else you rent or buy movies. It’ll be available in five languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Mandarin, and English.

This matters because cross-cultural collaborations like this are rare, especially when led entirely by women filmmakers bridging two massive film industries. It’s a blueprint for how indie international productions can build global audiences without Hollywood’s stamp of approval.

Emmy-winning filmmaker Minos Papas is bringing his psychological horror “Motherwitch” to Fantasia Film Festival on July 30th for its North American premiere.

The film follows Eleni, a painter in 1882 Cyprus who tries to resurrect her dead children but instead awakens the Kalikantzari, creatures from Cypriot folklore. Now she has to fight both grief and a curse threatening her village.

“Motherwitch” sold out its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam and has been making the rounds at EFM Market, Guadalajara, Transilvania, BIFAN, and Galway Film Fleadh. After Fantasia, it heads to Croatia, Brazil’s Festival Filmes Incriveis, and Fantasy FilmFest Germany.

Papas shot the film between Los Angeles and Cyprus, drawing on years spent listening to bereaved parents, healers, and war veterans. The result is what he calls a love letter to Cyprus, its mythology and landscape woven into every frame.

The director, known for “Shutterbug” and “Tango on the Balcony,” also produced “Take Me Home,” which premiered at Sundance 2026 and screened at Berlinale and Tribeca.

“Motherwitch” is a co-production between Cyprus, North Macedonia, Canada, and the USA. B Rated International is handling sales.

For indie horror fans who love atmospheric folklore films, this one’s worth tracking down.

A 17-year-old girl lines up golf balls for wealthy men at an elite country club outside Manila. She wanders pristine grounds, samples luxuries meant for others, and stumbles into something dark beneath the manicured fairways.

That’s the setup for “Filipiñana,” Rafael Manuel’s debut feature that won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at Sundance earlier this year. Executive produced by acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, the film follows Isabel as she navigates the stark divide between the club’s powerful members and its subservient staff. When she tries to return a lost golf club to the club’s patriarchal director, she ventures deeper into exclusive spaces where the violent truths of privilege, power, and her own past collide.

Critics are calling it a masterwork. The New Yorker says it “opens new vistas in the future of cinema,” while NPR praises it as “an incisive, slow-burning satire of capitalism and powerful men with far too much hubris.”

Kino Lorber is releasing the film August 28 at Film Forum in New York, followed by LA and select cities September 4. Shot in Filipino, English, and Ilokano, it’s the kind of singular vision that reminds you why theaters still matter.