A24 Unveils Official Trailer for Alex Garland’s “Warfare”

Posted on December 20, 2024 by admin

A24 has debuted the trailer “Warfare”, the upcoming war drama co-directed by Alex Garland and Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza.

Drawing from Mendoza’s firsthand experiences, rhe film follows a team of Navy SEALs during the Iraq War in 2006.

It follows a platoon of American Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching the movement of US forces through insurgent territory.

The film features an impressive ensemble cast including D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Charles Melton, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Cosmo Jarvis, Will Poulter, Finn Bennett, Noah Centineo, Michael Gandolfini, Henrique Zaga.

A24 is set “Warfare” in 2025. See the powerful new trailer for “Warfare” below:

Annual Annie Awards 2025: “The Wild Robot” Leads Nominations

Posted on December 20, 2024 by admin

Dreamworks Animation “The Wild Robot” topped the nominations for the feature competition of the 52nd Annie Awards for animation. The Chris Sanders’ animated science fiction led with 10 nominations.

Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Aardman and Netflix’s “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” received norminations seven apiece; while Locksmith Animation and Netflix’s “That Christmas,” followed with six.

Honoring excellence in the field of animation, the 52nd Annual Annie Awards will be presented in 37 categories including Animated Feature, Animated Feature-Independent, Television/Media Production(s), Sponsored Production, Short Subject and Student Film, as well as the Achievement and Honorary awards.

The 52nd Annual Annie Awards is set to be held on February 8, 2025 at 7:00 pm PT at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Here are the nominees:

Best Feature
Inside Out 2 – Pixar Animation Studios
Kung Fu Panda 4 – DreamWorks Animation
That Christmas – Locksmith Animation for Netflix
The Wild Robot – DreamWorks Animation
Ultraman: Rising – Netflix Presents in association with Tsuburaya Productions
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – Aardman and Netflix

Best Feature – Independent
Chicken for Linda! – Dolce Vita Films, Miyu Productions, Palosanto Films, France 3 Cinéma.
Flow – Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, Dream Well Studio
Kensuke’s Kingdom – Paramount Pictures
Look Back – Studio Durian
Mars Express – Everybody on Deck, Je Suis Bien Content
Memoir of a Snail – Snails Pace Films / Arenamedia
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New Trailer For Philip Gelatt’s “First Word On Horror”

Posted on December 18, 2024 by admin

ETCH announced today the upcoming release of their documentary series FIRST WORD ON HORROR, which will be available exclusively via Substack on February 7, 2025, featuring Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, Elizabeth Hand, Laird Barron, and Mariana Enriquez.

This will be the first project from the independent animation and production company run by the award-winning trio of Philip Gelatt, Will Battersby and Morgan Galen King.

FIRST WORD ON HORROR is a fifteen-part documentary series that profiles five of the finest horror writers working today.

Across multiple episodes, each author discusses their life, their inspirations, their philosophies, and their writing techniques while reading one of their short stories. As fact and fiction blend, secrets are revealed and the delicate alchemy that turns human experience into creative expression begins to emerge.

The series is a love letter to writers of all ilk, to the primacy of the human experience, and to the simple act of reading a damned good story.

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2025 Sundance Film Festival Unveils Short Film Program Presented by Vimeo

Posted on December 16, 2024 by admin

Top L–R: View From the Floor, THE LILY (เดอะลิลลี่), Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites, Hold Me Close
Center Row L-R: Azi, Debaters, Platanero, Sweetheart
Bottom L–R: Somebody Cares, Hoops, Hopes & Dreams, Entre le Feu et le Clair de Lune, Inkwo for When the Starving Return

Today the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the 57 short films being presented at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. These shorts will screen as part of eight curated Short Film Programs presented by Vimeo that will include fiction, nonfiction, and animated titles from the U.S. and globally. The Festival will take place from January 23–February 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with a selection of titles available online from January 30–February 2, 2025, for audiences across the country to discover bold independent storytelling. Access to watch almost all the short films on-demand (January 30–February 2) is available by purchasing a Short Films Pass: Online, now on sale. Single Film Tickets for in-person and online go on sale January 16 at 10 a.m. MT. Members have access to a Single Film Ticket pre-sale. Visit the Sundance Film Festival site for more information: festival.sundance.org.

“Our program would never be complete without a curation of outstanding short films, and we’re excited to share the 2025 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Program today,” said Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming. “These projects are varied in style and substance, but across all categories they represent the power of short-form storytelling beautifully.”

“Our Short Film Program celebrates fresh styles and unique stories. The short run time encourages innovation,” said Mike Plante, Senior Programmer, Short Film. “Audiences will find much of the next generation of film talent here, with raw, exciting and inspired filmmaking from around the world in each of our eight programs.”

The 57 short films selected for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival were chosen from 11,153 submissions. Of these submissions, 4,909 were from the U.S. and 6,244 were international. Work from 28 countries and territories represented in this upcoming year’s program.
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Official Trailer For “28 Years Later” Released

Posted on December 14, 2024 by admin

The third installment in the “28 Days Later” franchise stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes. It is written by Danny Boyle and directed by Alex Garland (Civil War and Ex Machina).

It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.

28 Years Later” was shot using an iPhone 15 Pro Max by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle.

The film also stars Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Joe Blakemore, Celi Crossland, Geoffrey Newland, Erin Kellyman, and Edvin Ryding.

Sony Pictures Releasing is set to release the upcoming post-apocalyptic horror on 20 June 2025.

A.I. from METROPOLIS to EX MACHINA | 30+ Film Festival Runs January 3-23 at Film Forum

Posted on December 13, 2024 by admin

A.I. FROM METROPOLIS TO EX MACHINA…, a three-week festival of movies that helped introduce the world to the concept of “artificial intelligence” (a term not coined until the 1950s), will run at Film Forum from Friday, January 3 to Thursday, January 23. The series includes more than 30 films, most of them offering a dystopian view of a society run by A.I., along with profound ethical and existential questions.

Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent masterpiece METROPOLIS (written by his wife Thea von Harbou, who adapted it from her own 1925 novel), broke new ground in science fiction storytelling, with the creation of Maria, a robot designed to look human and control the workers in an underground city. Gort, a massive robot that serves as enforcer for an alien peace mission in Robert Wise’s THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951), provided an early example of a machine with a higher purpose.

Five years later, Robby the Robot of FORBIDDEN PLANET (based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest!) both defined what a “robot” looked like for generations and offered a more benign depiction of what would later be called “artificial intelligence.” Later lovable movie robots include Johnny 5 in SHORT CIRCUIT, R2D2 in the Star Wars movies, and Wall-E in the Pixar movie of that name. The “Emerac” computer in the Tracy-Hepburn comedy DESK SET is also less malevolent, merely threatening to take jobs away from humans – probably the first film to raise that possibility.
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Festival Hit “Birdeater” Sets Release Date

Posted on December 10, 2024 by admin

Dark Sky Films has set the upcoming release of BIRDEATER, the psychological thriller from Australian directing duo Jack Clark and Jim Weir.

Written by Jack Clark, the film is set for release in theaters and on digital platforms on January 10.

A bride-to-be is invited to join her own fiancé’s bachelor party on a remote property in the Australian outback. But as the festivities spiral into beer-soaked chaos, uncomfortable details about their relationship are exposed, and the celebration soon becomes a feral nightmare.

The Dark Sky Film thriller stars Mackenzie Fearnley, Shabana Azeez, Ben Hunter, Jack Bannister, Clementine Anderson, Alfie Gledhill, Harley Wilson and Caroline McQuade.

Anthony Rapp and Lana Parrilla Star in “Scrap”

Posted on December 8, 2024 by admin

Vivian Kerr, Anthony Rapp, Khleo Thomas, Brad Schmidt and Lana Parilla star in Kerr’s feature-length directorial debut, Scrap.

In the movie, Beth (Vivian Kerr) has recently been laid off and struggles to maintain the appearance of a successful middle-class lifestyle as she bounces around Los Angeles. Hoping to land a new job and change her situation before her estranged older brother Ben (Anthony Rapp) finds out, Beth must confront her own pride in order to reconnect with him and provide for her young daughter, Birdy.

Meanwhile, Ben and his wife Stacy (Lana Parrilla) consider a third round of IVF and Stacy, a successful attorney, must re-evaluate her own conflicted relationship with motherhood.

Written and directed by Vivian Kerr, Scrap is set to arrive on VOD platforms. Check out the trailer in the player above.

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore In “The Room Next Door” Trailer Released

Posted on December 6, 2024 by admin

The trailer for Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language The Room Next Door has been released. The drama film stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.

It has received acclaimed recently, winning Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. It was also nominated at the European Film Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (Swinton) and Best Screenplay.

It is Almodóvar’s follow-up to “Parallel Mothers” which was released in 2021, and which also bowed at Venice Film Festival.

In the film, Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.

Also in the movie are John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola, Juan Diego Botto, Raúl Arévalo, Victoria Luengo, Alex Høgh Andersen, Esther-Rose McGregor, Alvise Rigo.

ony Pictures Classics is set to release the film in New York and LA on December 20, and then nationwide on January 10, 2025.

52nd Saturn Awards Nominations Announced

Posted on December 5, 2024 by admin

The 52nd Annual Saturn Awards nominations have been announced, with some high profile blockbusters leading the list.

Warner Bros. received 35 total nominations in the Film category, with its film Dune: Part Two topping the overall nominations with 14. This includes Best Science Fiction Film and acting noms for Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. Beetlejuice 2 received 13 noms including Best Fantasy Films.

“The Saturn Awards organization is the official awards group of The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The Academy was founded in 1972 and is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.”

On the TV front, video game adaptation Fallout led with five nominations including Best Science Fiction Television Series, Best Actor on Television (Walton Goggins) and Best Actress on Television (Ella Purnell).

The winners are set to be announced during an awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 2, 2025. It is also set to be streamed on The Roku Channel and ElectricNOW.

Here is the complete list of nominees:

Best Science Fiction Film
Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros./Legendary)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Warner Bros. Pictures)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Lionsgate Films)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (20th Century Studios)
Megalopolis (Lionsgate Films/American Zoetrope)
Venom: The Last Dance (Sony Pictures/Marvel)

Best Fantasy Film
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony Pictures)
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary)
My Old Ass (Amazon/MGM)
Poor Things (Searchlight)
Wonka (Warner Bros. Pictures)
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