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The feature directorial debut of actress and comedian Nina Conti, “Sunlight,” reimagines Monkey, one of the characters she performs in her ventriloquist act, as the human-sized alter ego of a woman on the run from a toxic relationship. In addition to wearing multiple hats behind the scenes of the film, Conti wears two costumes, playing both the woman and the monkey.

“The monkey is much easier,” she tells Variety.

Principal photography took place in Albuquerque, N.M., just a few dozen miles from the Santa Fe International Film Festival, where the film screened on Oct. 19 with Conti and executive producer Christopher Guest in attendance. Speaking in the El Dorado Hotel lobby right after the screening, she exuded a joyful relief that “Sunlight” was well-received by festival attendees; the film’s completion and current festival run marks the payoff to a journey that began more than 20 years ago when she first...

Comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti makes her directorial debut with Sunlight, it will premiere in Edinburgh in August.

Nina Conti comes from a showbiz family, her father being noted actor Tom Conti. Nina trained with theatre director Ken Campbell, which is explored in the documentary Her Master’s Voice. Conti is best known for her ventriloquism, performing with a variety of characters, the best known of which is the sardonic Monkey.

Conti has now made her feature directorial debut with Sunlight.

The plot “follows two people on the edge of life who find purpose and romance through an unlikely connection, escaping the darkness in search of some sunlight. Disappearing into a monkey costume and creating a new persona, Jane strives to break free from a toxic relationship when she encounters a suicidal radio show host, Roy, who presents a path to freedom. After hitting the open road in Roy’s Airstream,...

Christopher Andrews’ Bring Them Down starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, Sean Dunn’s The Fall Of Sir Douglas Weatherford and Marianne Elliott’s The Salt Path, featuring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, are among the eight films taking part in the Great 8 showcase, which presents new UK feature films from first-and second-time UK filmmakers to international distributors and festival programmers.

Now in its seventh year, the 2024 Great 8 showcase is funded and produced by the BFI and the British Council, with support from the Great Britain & Northern Ireland campaign, BBC Film and Film4.

In preparation for Cannes, unseen footage from...

Video game movies typically get a bad rap, as they try to strike a balance between exploring their narratives and catering to the fans of a given franchise. The move from one medium to the next can be a challenging one, but more recent additions to the sub-genre found success with titles such as Pokémon Detective Pikachu. There are more video game movies hitting the silver screen in recent years, so here’s a look at pre-2000s flicks.

‘Mortal Kombat’ (1995) L-r: François Petit as Sub-Zero and Robin Shou as Liu Kang | New Line Cinema

A group of unlikely heroes pulled from all around the planet join together to participate in the ominous Mortal Kombat tournament. They’ll have to use all of their fighting prowess if they hope to survive this fight to the death. The tournament determines the fate of Earth, as malevolent forces try to take it over.

Each year, the Film Independent Spirit Awards gives the John Cassavetes Award to the year’s best feature made for under $1,000,000. In this column, film critic David Bax compares and contrasts past Cassavetes winners with their most recent work.

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Trey Edward Shults has made three feature films so far and, technically, only one of them (2017’s It Comes at Night) is a horror movie. But from the opening shot of 2015’s Krisha (which won him the John Cassavetes Award at the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards in February of 2016)—a close-up of a woman’s face, stricken with an emotion we can’t quite place yet and accompanied by rumbling, ominous music—it’s clear that Shults will be exercising a talent for unnerving us, no matter what genre he may be working in.

In more ways than one, Krisha (a terrific film in its own right) serves as an...

Pixar’s Oscar-winning Wall-e (2008) is coming to The Criterion Collection this November, marking an unexpected but welcome collaboration between the animation giant and boutique home video label. Wall-e will be spine #1161.

As per The Criterion Collection:

We’re proud to announce our first collaboration with Disney and Pixar: Wall•E (2008), directed by Andrew Stanton, enters the Criterion Collection on 4K Uhd this November! A high-water mark of digital animation, Stanton’s prescient vision of a rapidly oncoming dystopian future, packaged within a dazzling pop-science-fiction love story, is an urgent fable for our troubled millennium.”

Criterion typically announces their new releases to the collection in the middle of the month, with the November 2022 releases having been unveiled on August 17. Singling out September 8 for the Wall-e announcement was most likely done so to coincide with Disney+ Day.

The special features:

4K digital master, approved by director Andrew Stanton, with Dolby Atmos soundtrackOne...

In what Criterion is describing as their “first collaboration” with fabled animation studio Pixar, Andrew Stanton’s “Wall•E” will be joining the collection this November (spine #1161). And, typical of Criterion releases, it will be festooned with special features, including a new essay (by Sam Wasson), a pair of audio commentaries and a new documentary called “Wall•E A to Z,” featuring co-writer/director Andrew Stanton and writer Jim Reardon.

“Wall•E,” released back in 2008, originated as an idea from “Up” director (and current Pixar chief creative officer) Pete Docter called “Trash Planet.” Soon the idea mutated, as it was passed to Stanton and the focus became squarely on a small, lonely robot inhabiting an abandoned, garbage-covered Earth. When another droid visits Earth, the sleek new Eve, Wall•E falls in love. He follows her to the Axiom, a cruise ship in space, and together they reignite the human race.

“Wall-e,” Pixar’s 2008 sci-fi love-story animated film classic, is getting a special three-disc 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray release from the Criterion Collection this fall.

The special edition of “Wall-e,” the first collaboration between Criterion and Disney’s Pixar, features a 4K digital master approved by director Andrew Stanton, according to Criterion. The three-disc set will be available Nov. 22, 2022, and is currently available to pre-order from Criterion’s site for 39.96.

“Wall-e” is set in the 29th century, after humans have long since fled Earth for outer space, leaving the movie’s protagonist — the last functioning trash-compacting robot — to go about the work of cleaning up the pollution-choked planet, one piece of garbage at a time. When he meets Eve, a fellow automaton sent to detect plant life, the pair are launched on an intergalactic quest to return humanity to Earth.

According to Criterion’s description, “Transporting us simultaneously back to cinema...

In a bit of an unexpected and pleasant surprise for fans of both animation and physical media, Pixar has teamed up with the folks at Criterion for a special 4K Ultra HD release of one of the greatest animated movies of the last 15 years (at least). "Wall-e," the 2008 Oscar-winning triumph from director Andrew Stanton, is indeed going to get a physical release as part of the Criterion Collection. And it sounds like this is going to be worth the money.

Criterion made the somewhat unexpected announcement out of nowhere, revealing that the 4K edition of "Wall-e" will be hitting shelves in November. So Pixar fans now know what to put on their Christmas lists this year. Aside from an impressive list of special features (more on that in a moment), the film has been mastered in 4K, which was approved by Stanton personally. The new release also comes with some...

As we approach 2022’s halfway point it’s time to take a temperature of the finest cinematic thus far: we’ve rounded up our favorites from the first six months of the year, many of which have flown under the radar. Kindly note that this is based solely on U.S. theatrical and digital releases from 2022.

We should also note a number of films that premiered on the festival circuit last year also had an awards-qualifying run, thus making them 2021 films by our standards—including Memoria, Petite Maman, The Worst Person in the World, A Hero, and Cyrano. Check out our picks below, as organized alphabetically, followed by honorable mentions.

After Yang (kogonada)

Many artists strive to find meaning in their work, but for kogonada it’s the pursuit that provides the meaning. In a way, if he were to “find it” that wouldn’t be nearly as special as...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood"

Where You Can Stream It: Netflix

The Pitch: Stanley (Milo Coy) is a fourth-grader growing up in Houston in the late 1960s. Like the vast majority of his classmates, he's white, lives in the suburbs, and his father (Bill Wise) is employed by NASA. He's also the youngest child of a large family, which comes with both its benefits (free ice cream cones from...

The post The Daily Stream: Apollo 10 1/2 Is Yet Another Reminder That Animation Is Not A Genre appeared first on /Film.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Apollo 10 ½ A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater)

A delightful meditation on childhood in the summer of 1969 set literally in the shadows of NASA’s central operations in Houston, Richard Linklater’s contemplative and vividly animated Apollo 10 ½ A Space Age Childhood reflects on the filmmaker’s own experiences. It captures the joy and wonder of childhood through the eyes of Stan, a ten-year-old who fantasizes about being recruited for “space camp” by NASA. His father (Bill Wise), a frugal but caring man, has uprooted his family from the city to a newly built suburban development in the shadow of the Astrodome and Astroworld amusement parks. Black’s adult narrator fills in the blanks for us with whimsical, nostalgic details that highlight just how...

A delightful meditation on childhood in the summer of 1969 set literally in the shadows of NASA’s central operations in Houston, Richard Linklater’s contemplative and vividly animated Apollo 10 ½ A Space Age Childhood reflects on the filmmaker’s own experiences. It captures the joy and wonder of childhood through the eyes of Stan, a ten-year-old who fantasizes about being recruited for “space camp” by NASA. His father (Bill Wise), a frugal but caring man, has uprooted his family from the city to a newly built suburban development in the shadow of the Astrodome and Astroworld amusement parks. Black’s adult narrator fills in the blanks for us with whimsical, nostalgic details that highlight just how dangerous childhood can be between abusive coaches, parents that thought nothing of allowing the kids to ride in the back of a pick-up truck at 70 miles an hour, and playing with explosives.

The first animated...

The official trailer for writer/director Richard Linklater’s new film Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood has just been released, and you can take a look at it right here.

Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood tells the story of the first moon landing in the summer of 1969 from two interwoven perspectives; the astronaut and mission control view of the triumphant moment, and through the eyes of a kid growing up in Houston, Texas who fosters intergalactic dreams of his own. Taking inspiration from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Richard Linklater’s own life, Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood is a snapshot of American life in the 1960s and the story is part coming of age, part societal commentary, and part out-of-this-world adventure.

“Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood” – Milo Coy as Stan. Cr: Netflix © 2022

Director, writer, and producer, Richard Linklater had the following to say about the film: “After...

After quite a mid-aughts with Before Midnight, Boyhood, and Everybody Wants Some!!, Richard Linklater has continued at near the same clip, despite less of an embrace from the audience after Last Flag Flying and Where’d You Go, Bernadette came and went. He’s now back with his next feature, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, which arrives on Netflix on April 1 following a premiere at SXSW.

Following the story of the first moon landing seen through the eyes of a kid growing up in the 1960s in Houston, TX, the film features a mix of hand-drawn and computer-animated imagery, along with voice work by Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Josh Wiggins, Sam Chipman, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Danielle Guilbot with Zachary Levi and Glen Powell and Jack Black.

“After the years of work on Apollo 10 1/2, I think everyone involved is excited to take folks on...

"This is a covert operation - that means it does not exist. No one can know about this." Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for the new Richard Linklater film, based on his own childhood, titled in full Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure. This one is premiering at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival coming up in a few weeks, then will be available on Netflix to watch at the beginning of April. A coming-of-age story set in the suburbs of Houston, Texas during the summer of '69, centered around the historic Apollo 11 moon landing. Presented as a rotoscope animation film, just like Linklater's A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life previously. The story follows a kid growing up in Texas who is recruited by NASA to help test an accidentally-smaller-than-planned lunar lander module, though that just seems to be his over-active imagination. Apollo 10½ stars Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise,...

Richard Linklater puts a fantastical spin on the moon landing in the new trailer for his upcoming animated film, Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, which is set to arrive on Netflix April 1.

Set in the summer of 1969, at the height of the space race, in Houston, Texas — near NASA’s Johnson Space Center — the film blends fact and fantasy as a young boy named Stan gets caught up in the impending Apollo 11 moon landing and finds himself at the center of his own space adventure. In the opening moments of the trailer,...

Richard Linklater’s latest film “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood” poses the question: what if the first person to walk on the moon wasn’t Neil Armstrong but was actually a kid from Houston leading a mission called Apollo 10 1/2 in secret because NASA accidentally built the space shuttle too small?

That amusing fantasy and twist on American history though is just the set up for Linklater’s latest and arguably most personal film, which just released its first trailer Monday. It’s one in which he explores the reality of what life was like in Houston, Texas in 1969 just before the moon landing, all seen through the eyes of a kid who lived right next door to all of it.

“Apollo 10 1/2” is a collection of comedic vignettes that show how rapidly the world seemed to be changing for those living at the heart of the space race,...

The SXSW Film Festival is returning to its in-person roots with a vengeance next month. After several years of going virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic, SXSW will be the year’s first major festival and conference event to return its focus to live festivities when it launches from March 11 to March 20. And with Wednesday’s reveal of its full film line-up, what a significant return that will be.

Previously, SXSW already announced the intriguing Everything Everywhere All at Once will be the opening night film. That A24 release looks to combine the recently popular sci-fi concept of “multiverse theory” with martial arts genre tropes as it follows Michelle Yeoh into parallel dimension madness. Now with the full line-up, we also know the Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Daniel Radcliffe-starring The Lost City will also be making its world premiere at SXSW, as will the meta comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,...

This year’s South by Southwest Film Festival, taking place March 11-20 in-person with select films available online, has unveiled its lineup. With 99 features, highlights include the world premieres of Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood (pictured above), Ti West’s X, Gillian Jacobs’ More Than Robots, Michael Tully’s Lover, Beloved, Jeff Baena’s Spin Me Round, the meta Nicolas Cage movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, The Lost City of D, and more.

“The last two years have been complicated, and full of uncharted new waters for all of us. While there’s been innovation in building community in isolation and figuring out how to pivot, we’ve intensely missed being able to gather together,” said Janet Pierson, VP, Director of Film. “For our 29th edition of SXSW Film Festival, we are thrilled to share a bounty of creative work to experience together,...

The lineup for 2022’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival is here, and it’s headlined by world premieres of Richard Linklater’s “Apollo SXSW: ‘Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood,” the meta Nicolas Cage comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” and the Sandra Bullock-Channing Tatum adventure comedy “The Lost City.”

Also set for the Austin, Texas, film festival are the world premieres of the third season of FX series “Atlanta,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” starring Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova and Pete Davidson, and the previously announced “Everything Everywhere All at Once” from directing duo The Daniels, which will be the opening night film.

This year’s SXSW is returning to an in-person format for the first time since 2019, following the festival’s cancellation in 2020 and the fest going virtual for 2021. Every film on the lineup this year will have an in-person premiere, as well as additional in-person screenings and Q&As for most films,...

We thought this might be ready on time for last year’s fest (it’s an animated film folks – always tough to predict) but Netflix do look to launch the now titled Apollo 10½ for the upcoming year ahead. Richard Linklater could easily grab a spot at either Park City or Austin or both. This stars Jack Black, Zachary Levi, Glen Powell, Josh Wiggins, Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Sam Chipman and Danielle Guilbot.

Gist: Set against the backdrop of the 1969 Apollo mission to the moon this is inspired by Linklater’s childhood in Houston, TX.…...

Directed by Will Bakke, The Get Together is a comedy about a friday night party from the perspective of four individuals; a young college graduate struggling to find a ‘real job’ so is consequently an Uber driver, her slacker passenger with a band that is falling apart, his long lost love who moved away to the big city and her new boyfriend, who struggles to find the perfect way to propose. The film is divided into three parts, one for each perspective. Each person or ‘perspective’ has their own short story to tell that intertwines with the others at the party, as well as with each other.

August’s up first. Played very well by the incredible Courtney Parchman, she’s seen as ‘the loner’, the one who doesn’t go out much and with no friends except her college roommate McCall (Luxy Banner). I find Parchman’s acting very...

"She just walked in with her new slam-piece." Vertical Ent. has released an official trailer for an indie party comedy titled The Get Together, from Austin filmmaker Will Bakke. This premiered at last year's Austin Film Festival and Lone Star Film Festival, and arrives on VOD in May. The ensemble comedy is set at a wild Friday night house party, following group of twenty-somethings who face uncertain futures, of course. The main four characters are: a post-grad misfit, her slacker Uber passenger, his long lost love, and her neurotic boyfriend struggling to propose. Starring Alejandro Rose-Garcia, Johanna Braddy, Jacob Artist, Courtney Parchman, Stephanie Hunt, Bill Wise, and Chad Werner. This looks as ridiculous and as amusing as the concept promises, with plenty of teenagers-being-teens humor and annoying conversations. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Will Bakke's The Get Together, direct from Vertical's YouTube: A Friday night house party...

Netflix decided to completely forgo the film festival circuit around the midway mark this year and so the big mystery question at this point is the outfitters’ strategy for Sundance. Acquired back in July, the finicky nature of animation means that Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure could still have a lot more time to go until completion, but the good news is that the live action portion wrapped in this last March in Austin. Richard Linklater enlisted Jack Black, Zachary Levi, Glen Powell, Josh Wiggins, Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Sam Chipman and Danielle Guilbot for the 1969 Apollo mission to the moon – here’s a set pic.…...

Last year, I spoke to Richard Linklater about his planned Houston-set film about the 1969 moon landing, and he revealed it had stalled. “It was kind of bittersweet for me. I did have this project, and I think I will get to do it eventually, but no one took the small step–or the great leap–at that time for me to have it out by the anniversary,” he said. “No one cared enough. I didn’t get to get the project off the ground… but someday!”

That someday is now today as Netflix has announced they’ve picked up the project, which is titled Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Adventure. A secret live-action shoot was completed in March in Houston, Texas and the rest of the production will consist of an innovative hybrid of hand drawn and computer animated imagery. Featuring the cast of Jack Black, Zachary Levi, Glen Powell,...

Netflix will release the next film from director Richard Linklater, his latest foray into animation called “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure” that stars Jack Black and Zachary Levi and documents the 1969 mission to the moon.

Linklater wrote and directed the film that his Detour FilmProductions will produce with Submarine, and like his films “Waking Life” or “A Scanner Darkly,” it’s a hybrid live-action and animated film the blends CGI imagery with live cinematography.

Linklater wrapped the live-action shoot this March in Austin, and the animation work will be completed at Minnow Mountain in Austin and Submarine in the Netherlands.

Also Read: Richard Linklater to Executive Produce Animal Rescue Docuseries for CBS All Access

“Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure” is set in Linklater’s childhood home of Houston, Texas and is set against the backdrop of the 1969 Apollo mission to the moon, which celebrates its 51st anniversary on Thursday.

Netflix has added two animated features to its slate: “Bombay Rose,” the Indian drama from director Gitanjali Rao about the disparity between romanticized Bollywood and society’s ruthless truth, and Richard Linklater’s “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure,” inspired by his childhood growing up in Houston during the eventful 1969 Apollo mission to the moon (which celebrates its 51st anniversary today).

“Bombay Rose,” which streams in the fall, and played last year at Hollywood’s Animation Is Film Festival, ushers in the Netflix India deal involving several new projects made in India. Inspired by true events, the hand-painted feature explores how a red rose brings together three tales of impossible love, delicately woven through music, between a Hindu dancer and a Muslim boy, two women, and an entire city for its Bollywood stars.

“I have always wanted to tell the stories about the unsung heroes who live and love in Bombay,...

Richard Linklater has a new animated movie in the works at Netflix, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure.

The movie, directed and written by Linklater, is set against the backdrop of the 1969 Apollo mission to the moon, which launched 51 years ago today, and is inspired by Linklater’s childhood in Houston, TX. The live action shoot wrapped in March in Austin, and the innovative hybrid of hand drawn and computer animated imagery will be completed at Minnow Mountain in Austin and Submarine in the Netherlands.

Linklater previously made the Rotoscope-animated-live action hybrid A Scanner Darkly in 2006 based on the Philip K. Dick novel and starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey, Jr. and Woody Harrelson. Another all-star ensemble, Apollo 10 1/2 will feature Jack Black, Zachary Levi, Glen Powell, Josh Wiggins, Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Sam Chipman, and Danielle Guilbot.

Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age...

Stars: Taylor Russell, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Alexa Demie, Bill Wise, David Garelik, Justin R. Chan, Lucas Hedges, Joshua Brockington, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sterling K. Brown, Clifton Collins Jr. | Written and Directed by Trey Edward Shults

From the very first frame of Waves we are placed in the centre of this family drama, as the camera spins and turns we soon find our self caught by the movie’s power. Before we know it, the waves have crashed over us and we have been submerged into this world.

Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr) has everything going for him, the star of the school wrestling team, a beautiful girlfriend and a life of endless parties. As the film progresses and we follow his story of dealing with an injury that could ruin his chances of being a future athlete, we see his father (Sterling K Brown) baring down and adding even more weight...

It’s hard to keep up with a movie that is constantly changing its story. It’s even harder when that story is stranger than fiction and may even be fiction — but about a real person. Such is the case of “Sister Aimee,” writers-directors Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann’s (“Canary”) film that scrambles together a mix of rumors and fantasies about notorious evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. But the finished product fails to say much about these tales.

It’s worth noting that a woman who is actually able to control her narrative, even filling it with lies, without it being usurped by a man’s perspective in any era is an extraordinary feat. But that’s especially true in 1926, when we first meet Sister Aimee as she’s wrapping up yet another breathless healing service where she miraculously cures her subject while remaining stupendously dissatisfied. She’s craving something...

"I'm just an entertainer, that's all." 1091 has unveiled an official trailer for an indie comedy titled Sister Aimee, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. From directors Samantha Buck & Marie Schlingmann making their feature debut, the film stars newcomer Anna Margaret Hollyman as Sister Aimee. America's most famous evangelist in 1926 is a woman looking for a way out. Fed up with her own success, and swept up in her lover’s daydreams about Mexico, she finds herself on a wild road trip to the border. "Based on true events. Mostly made up." The cast includes Michael Mosley, Andrea Suarez Paz, Julie White, Amy Hargreaves, Macon Blair, Luis Bordonada, Nathan Zellner, Lee Eddy, John Merriman, and Bill Wise. This looks like it gets extra wild by the end, with all sorts of happenings. Here's the first trailer for Samantha Buck & Marie Schlingmann's Sister Aimee, from 1091's YouTube:...

Exclusive: Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann’s Sister Aimee, which had its premiere in the Next section at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has been acquired by 1091 (formerly known as The Orchard Film Group) and Obscured Pictures. It will now hit theaters September 27 at the Village East Cinema in New York and the Laemmle Glendale in Los Angeles ahead of a further rollout and a VOD bow October 1.

The pic written and directed by Buck and Schlingmann tells the mostly fictional story of the real-life early 20th century mega-star evangelist Sister Aimee Semple McPherson (played by Anna Margaret Hollyman), with the movie’s plot revolving around the media sensation faking her own death at the pinnacle of her fame to run away to Mexico with her married lover. In real life, the Foursquare Church founder was allegedly kidnapped and held captive for more than a month, but the...

"You don't want me to talk?! I got dirt on all ya'll!" An official trailer has arrived for an indie dramedy titled Thunder Road - written, directed by, and performed by Jim Cummings. Adapted from Cummings' own award-winning Sundance short film of the same name, Thunder Road is about a southern police officer who must come to grips with a death of his mom when giving a heartfelt eulogy at her funeral, while trying to raise his young daughter. The cast includes Kendal Farr, Nican Robinson, Jocelyn Deboer, Chelsea Edmundson, Macon Blair, Ammie Leonards, and Bill Wise. This looks like a worthwhile film, quite heartbreaking, but also an intriguing comedic take on grief and the struggle to live a good life. Watch below. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Jim Cummings' Thunder Road, direct from YouTube: Based on the Sundance-winning short film, Thunder Road follows a Texan police officer who loses his Mother,...

With Sundance 2018 wrapped up, the next major American festival is South by Southwest Film Festival and today they’ve announced their lineup. Opening with John Krasinski’s horror film A Quiet Place, it also includes some of our most-anticipated films of the year: Jody Hill’s Observe & Report follow-up The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter (which Netflix has announced they’ll release), Andrew Bujalski’s Support the Girls, and Julia Hart’s Miss Stevens follow-up, the sci-fi film Fast Color (pictured above) starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Check out the lineup below for the festival that takes place March 9-18 in Austin. It also includes many Sundance 2018 titles, and you can see our reviews of those here.

Narrative Feature Competition

Ten world premieres; ten unique ways to celebrate the art of storytelling. Selected from 1,408 narrative feature submissions in 2018.

Family

Director/Screenwriter: Laura Steinel

When an emotionally stunted 30 year-old woman is tasked...

After solidly tackling the post-apocalyptic thriller with “Day 5,” Rooster Teeth takes a swing at the science-fiction comedy genre with its second, “Crunch Time,” and hits it out of the park once again.

Read More: ‘Day 5’ Review: Rooster Teeth’s Post-Apocalyptic Drama Thrills (And Kills)

Starring five lovable weirdos as eccentric science students, “Crunch Time” clips along at a breakneck pace, seamlessly weaving wacky gags and colorful characters into its intriguing plot exposition. From the discomfort of an interrogation room, the characters in “Crunch Time” recount the shenanigans that got them handcuffed to a metal desk answering to two steely-faced detectives. (Brett Morrin and “True Detective’s” Michael Hyatt, no less). The motley crew explains the origins of “the brain-frame,” a “machine that allows you to place yourself inside another person’s mind.”

Read More: ‘David’ Review: ‘Marcel The Shell’ Meets ‘Twin Peaks’ In Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Surreal Series...

Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress — at the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.

In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.

The Golden Rut

Logline: Austin’s finest actor is inspired to take his career up a notch when he falls for a beautiful, independent, business woman. However his plans are derailed when her spicy, eccentric identical twin sister pops into the picture.

Elevator Pitch:

Scottie Johnson, the finest actor in Austin, Texas is loving life until he starts dating Ebby, a beautiful savvy entrepreneur. In an attempt to secure her love, he makes a promise to take his career to the next level. Around the same time Alex the wild, sexy, identical twin sister of Ebby shows up to stay with her.

There’s no place like home for the holidays.

Join Krisha as she returns home for Thanksgiving in the new trailer from A24’s upcoming family drama Krisha.

Krisha is director Trey Edward Schults’ “ferociously impressive feature debut” (Variety) about a woman’s return to the family she abandoned years before, set entirely over the course of one turbulent Thanksgiving. Winner of both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at the 2015 South-by-Southwest Film Festival, it is an official selection of Critics’ Week at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

Eric Kohn (Indiewire) writes in his SXSW review, “Krisha snaps into focus whenever Shults’ camera remains trained on his extraordinary lead, whose fierce commitment easily recalls a similar portrait of middle-aged alcoholism in “A Woman Under the Influence.” The final shot once again turns the story over to the contours of Krisha’s face and the shades of emotional ambiguity conveyed by it.

A pair of sections that we’ve been covering almost since its inception, the American Film Institute (AFI) announced their selections for the New Auteurs and American Independents line-ups and we’ve got a noteworthy, eyebrow-raising sampling of award-winning items from the Cannes played hellish immigration drama Mediterranea from Jonas Carpignano to Sundance (Josh Mond’s James White) to SXSW (Trey Edward Shults’ Krisha) winners. Since Park City days, our Nicholas Bell has reviewed a good chunk of these titles, but we’ll still likely have a couple of more reviews once the festival begins. Here are the selections and jury members.

New Auteurs Selections (11 Titles)

From Afar – When a middle-aged man is assaulted and robbed by a young criminal, an unlikely relationship develops. Dir Lorenzo Vigas. Scr Lorenzo Vigas. Cast Alfredo Castro and Luis Silva. Venezuela/Mexico. U.S. Premiere

Disorder – Matthias Schoenaerts plays an ex-soldier who becomes locked...

With Sundance in the rear view mirror and Berlin just around the corner, another huge festival that’s now very much in mind is the 2015 South By Southwest Film Festival (SXSW 2015), to be held in Austin, Texas, this March. And this year, the lineup looks no less eclectic than in any previous year for the festival.

SXSW 2015 will see the debut of two big-studio comedies (Paul Feig’s Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy; and Etan Cohen’s Get Hard, starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart), some red-hot documentaries (none more so than Alex Gibney’s Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine) and a vast array of smaller indie titles. Intriguingly, Judd Apatow’s Amy Schumer vehicle Trainwreck will be screened as a work-in-progress.

Elsewhere, Alex Garland’s well-received Ex Machina will be making an appearance, as will Ryan Gosling’s much-maligned Lost River. And curiously, there will be a...

Top brass at the 22nd South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival have announced the feature line-up for the upcoming festival, set to run from March 13-21 in Austin, Texas.

SXSW will showcase 145 features. The line-up includes 60 films from first-time film-makers and comprises 100 world premieres, 13 North American premieres and 11 Us premieres.

Head of film Janet Pierson and her team of programmers culled selections from a record 2,385 feature-length submissions composed of 1,614 Us and 771 international features. The record of 7,335 total submissions marks a 13% gain on 2014.

For the first time the number of films in the juried Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature selections have risen from eight to ten. The complete Conference line-up and schedule will be released on February 17.

Besides the Narrative Feature Competition and Documentary Feature Competition selections listed below, feature entries include Judd Apatow’s work-in-progress comedy Trainwreck starring Amy Schumer in Special Events, music film 808 (pictured) in 24 Beats Per Second and Alex Garland’s sci-fi...

Tagline: "You are what you eat." Horror feature Boneboys offers one of the more ridiculous taglines this year: "You are what you eat." The characters in the film eat or sell human flesh. So, if they are humans or cannibals, the tagline suggests that they are still humans. Maybe the producers need to go back to the drawing board with that one. In the film's defence, this title has been influenced by Jonathan Swift's satire "A Modest Proposal." This is a piece that suggests Irish babies should be sold to the richer elite for consumption (from the 18th Century). Thus, the killer's might simply be babies. Whatever the case, the tagline is strange indeed. Boneboys is also significant for reuniting many actors from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre according to the Uhm. Those appearing from the TCM franchise include Marilyn Burns (Sally from original), Bill Johnson (Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw...

The Wild Man of the Navidad co-director Duane Graves dropped me a line with word of his latest production written and produced by original Texas Chain Saw Massacre writer/producer Kim Henkel, Boneboys, which unleashes predatory cannibals in a cityscape.

Boneboys was originally conceived back in 2008 as a potential urban Texas Chain Saw Massacre sequel before getting reworked into its own potential franchise. Leatherface fans should be thrilled to know Boneboys boasts cameos by several TCM series alumni: Marilyn Burns, Bill Johnson, Ed Neal, Ed Guinn, Bill Wise, Perry Lorenz and John Dugan.

The Wild Man of The Navidad (review here) directors, Duane Graves and Justin Meeks, re-team with the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre writer/producer, Kim Henkel, for a gut-wrenching, non-stop roller coaster ride through the hellish underbelly of inner-city America. A birthday celebration at an upscale restaurant sets in motion events that bring Sissy, her brother,...