News

By Tim Greaves

Between the early 1950s and mid 1980s the Children's Film Foundation was a non-profit making establishment behind dozens of films aimed at a young audience, most of them screening as programme constituents at Saturday morning 'Picture Shows'. I didn't catch many of these during my own childhood. But I do recall a couple of particularly enjoyable ones that I did get to see in the early 1970s: Cry Wolf (1969) and All at Sea (1970), both of which are conspicuously absent from the half dozen or so collections issued on DVD to date. Many of the Cff’s films had a run-time of around an hour, although there were also a number of serials in their catalogue. Masters of Venus was one such production. Comprising eight 15-minute instalments, it arrives on DVD in the UK in a restored release from BFI.

On the day prior to mankind's first mission to Venus,...

Columns Festival Roundup The Berlin Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Festival of New Latin American Cinema covered by Howard Feinstein, Peter Broderick, and Beth Cataldo Production Update by Mary Glucksman Legal Affairs Michael Barnes and Kevin Morris on new securities laws and indie fundraising Technology Marc Schiller explores computer services for filmmakers Words Books on cinematic motion, Godard, and environmentally-correct filmmaking reviewed by Scott Macaulay and Holly Willis Short Ends Spring 1993 Table Of Contents Features Whose Crime Is This Anyway? Peter Bowen on true crime and Nick Broomfield’s Aileen Wuornos Reel Values Directors Peter McCarthy and …...

On Monday morning, Fox & Friends looked to Gop strategist Michael Barnes and Democratic strategist Christy Setzer to make some sense of how accountability has been handled in the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Looking to a report that asserted that those at the State Department who were fired were actually just reassigned, the panel clashed over who gets the blame.

WonderPhil Productions is a film marketer based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Their latest title is Rancid, a film from director Alastair Orr (The Unforgiving). This is a sci-fi thriller that puts four test subjects in a perilous situation. A corporation is testing a new drug, which accidently or intentionally (it is not explained) turns some of the participants into blood craving monsters. The experiment breaks down, while hired guns try to regain control. The soundtrack heightens the tension, with Rancid setting itself up to be on this reviewer's must-see list.

Rancid stars Brandan Auret of District 9, Ryan Macquet (One Way) and Christien Le Roux. This is an early preview of a film whose major crux involves the players' "hidden truths" (WonderPhil) or reason for signing up for the project. They must be desperate. As well, there is mention of a "pregnant intruder," which needs more background to be discussed.

Much to my regret, I haven't yet been able to get to Cine Las Americas this year. Fortunately, several other excellent online writers have been sharing previews, reviews and other interesting notes on the film festival.

Check out these websites, which will tempt you to head out to Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar and the Mexican American Cultural Center for the remaining films and events at Cine Las Americas this week. Feel free to share links to other coverage in the comments.

Austin Vida is publishing movie reviews from Cine Las Americas. Annar Verold was impressed with the Chilean documentary Nostalgia de la luz, and amused by opening-night film Las marimbas del infierno.Over at Austin Film Society's Persistence of Vision blog, Afs Programming Director Chale Nafus has been sharing his enjoyment of the festival and offering previews of many films. Here are his entries for Day One and Day...

In New Orleans, January 6 is the first day you can buy a king cake before Mardi Gras ... it's the Feast of Epiphany, or Three Kings' Day. So all I can think about today is cake. Fortunately, I'm distracting myself with a lot of local film news, some of which is really good.

My favorite news this week: Local filmmaker Kristoffer Aaron Morgan's upcoming film production The Home has been picked up by Dimension Films (the Weinsteins' horror-movie company). Morgan and Eric Vespe wrote the script for this horror movie. Morgan is someone I always see at Alamo Drafthouse movies and film fests (I took the photo of him at right at Fantastic Fest 2009), and lots of you probably know Vespe under his pen name of Quint at Ain't It Cool News. The Home will be shooting in Austin soon, and will star Cloris Leachman, Louise Fletcher, Brian Cox and Ed Asner.

Without a doubt, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the most important gaming franchise on shelves right now. It claims the highest opening day gross in the entertainment industry. Not just video games, but All entertainment.

That’s nothing to sneeze at. And of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 came out to its share of controversy. Most notable is the level entitled “No Russian”.

Be warned, there are spoilers ahead if you are one of the four people left in the universe who haven’t played this game.

“No Russian” has the player in the role of an undercover agent attempting to infiltrate a Russian war criminal’s inner circle. He is forced to do the unthinkable as you will see in the video below in an effort to take this man down.

Machinima talent Michael Barnes takes this scene to an entirely level. Using interspliced footage from his...

We'll have lots of guests at Fantastic Fest this year, more than ever before. Here are just a few of the many interesting people who'll be joining us this year, in no particular order. We'll continually update our roster so keep an eye on this page.

Filmmakers and Actors

Norihiro Koizumi (Gachi Boy: Wrestling With A Memory)

A young, talented director who is quickly making his mark in the Japanese filmmaking scene. At the tender age of 25, he directed his first major feature-length film, “Midnight Sun.” “Midnight Sun” was not only critically-acclaimed, but became a commercial hit, grossing over 1 billion yen at the Japanese boxoffice. His latest film, “Gachi Boy Wrestling with a Memory,” won the grand prix at the Udine Far East Film Festival.

Nacho Vigalondo (Shorts Program)

Last year at Fantastic Fest noted Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo won the Next Wave competition, later securing domestic distribution for Timecrimes...