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I love anime opening credits. The best of them distill the strongest qualities of their source material into beautiful, ninety-second chunks of music and animation. Even the worst of them churn up love in my heart. I remember almost nothing about "Nobunagun," but I have a special place in my heart for its outrageous hard-rock theme song "Respect for the Dead Man." The opening guitar riff of "Rewrite," Asian Kung-Fu Generation's theme for "Fullmetal Alchemist," brings back vivid memories of my teenage years. I know that I'm not alone on that, either. "A Cruel Angel's Thesis," the theme song to "Neon Genesis Evangelion," topped Joysound's karaoke rankings for the Heisei period (1992-2019.) "Gurenge," the theme song to "Demon Slayer," has been downloaded over a million times and was even featured in Japan's recent Olympics Closing Ceremonies. The right Anisong can make a lot of money.

Anime opening credits are frequently over the top,...

Read More: Moët British Independent Film Awards to Honor Chiwetel Ejiofor The 18th Moët British Independent Film Awards ceremony, hosted by Richard Ayoade, were held at Old Billingsgate in London last night, where the night's biggest winner, "Ex Machina," took home four awards for Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay for director Alex Garland and Outstanding Achievement in Craft for its Visual Effects for Andrew Whitehurst. Laurence Green, chairman of the Bifa Board, said, "As part of our mission to build the widest audience we can for British independent film, it is Bifa's great honour to celebrate the cream of the crop once a year at the Moët British Independent Film Awards. This year's winners speak volumes, not just for their excellence but also for the undimmed ambition and beautiful diversity of the stories they tell." Other winners from last night's ceremony included: Best British...

Members include Belle director Amma Asante and Lionsgate UK CEO Zygi Kamasa.

The British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) has announced that a new board of directors has been appointed.

Laurence Green will act as Chairman with other members including Amma Asante, Claire Jones and Zygi Kamasa. Bifa co-founder Elliot Grove will have a permanent seat.

The 2015 ceremony will be held at Old Billingsgate in London on Dec 6.

Board members will serve fixed terms, with the distributor role rotated regularly. Lionsgate CEO Zygi Kamasa takes that place in 2015 alongside Belle director Asante, Kill List producer Jones and brand expert Laurence Green.

Amy Gustin and Deena Wallace, appointed as the new Directors of Bifa this year, complete the line-up.

The Board will have no influence over the voting process, which remains in the control of the Bifa voters and juries.

• Armed with caffeinated drinks and toothpicks (for closing eyelids) IONCINEMA’s Australian correspondent Samuel Hilton will be covering this very cool fest from the land down under……take it away Sam! The 52nd Sydney Film Festival was kicked off in style on Friday 10th June in the heart of Sydney city at State Theatre with the opening film, My Summer of Love. While it’s a shame that there wasn’t an Australian film of enough quality to open the festival, the British flick drew a large audience in for the beginnings of a highly promising festival. My Summer of Love’s lead actors Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt were both in attendance to open the film festival (while none of my pictures of them came out - here's one from the festival's site) This year the line-up, which includes independent films from Australia, Britain and the U.

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