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Jaclyn Bethany's The Last Birthday is an experimental short that re-imagines the final days of the Romanov sisters as they’re held in captivity by Bolshevik guards in Siberia. The impressive cast includes Anna Popplewell (The Chronicles of Narnia), Jazzy De Lisser (Thumper), Branko Tomovic (24), Harry Lister Smith (Murder on the Orient Express), Greta Bellamacina, Gus Barry and Fern Bain Smith. Tense and claustrophobic, the film is set entirely within the isolated confines of one house, the "House of Special Purpose". "The Last Birthday taps into my fascination with Russian history - but also explores the theme of isolation and the entrapment women throughout history have experienced,” says Jaclyn Bethany, director and American Film Institute Directing Fellow. “I think the story is almost alarmingly relevant.” The Last Birthday will be...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Stars: Rebecca Reaney, Gus Barry, Elester Latham, Lara Lemon, Peter Lloyd, Shawn McDonald, Vic Stagliano, Adam Birdsey, Ian Birdsey | Written by Diana Townsend | Directed by Rebekah Fortune

It’s fair to say, I am on a pretty big indie-movie kick right now… Trying to rekindle my love of the the movie gems you can find out there if you just look past the Top 10 of the moment. In doing this we have created a spin-off of our podcast in which we will endeavour to promote indie cinema and indie releases on such formats as VOD, because not everything has to be capes and spandex – or break a billion at the box office!

Deadly Intent is a movie I would stick in the above category. A low budget, few thrills, intense psychological horror/thriller, that lives up to all that it promises. Think The Babadook and you’re somewhere close. This...

We're only hours away from Cavity Colors' re-launch of their Happy Horrordays sweater, featuring our favorite slashers: Michael, Jason, Freddy, and Leatherface. Also in today's Highlights: a recap of the Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival, Turbo Kid shirts from Fright Rags, a Q&A with director Scott Frazelle from Moggy Creatures, Deadly Intent release details and trailer, and a full look at the short film Amnesiac.

Horrordays Sweater Revival: From Cavity Colors: "[Today][at 5 pm (est) One of our most highly requested designs makes it's horrific return (in limited quantity) The "Happy Horrordays" sweater, designed by Hillary White! We know a lot of you missed out on it last year, so we wanna give you another chance to own the perfect sweater for the upcoming Horrordays! Set those reminders, cause these will go fast again!"

To learn more about the Happy Horrordays sweater, keep an eye on Cavity Colors' official website.

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Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival 2016 Winners and Runner-Ups: Press Release: "Bruges, Belgium - November 15, 2016 - Prior to ending its 9th consecutive edition with a closing night screening of Sang-ho Yeon’s action-packed Train To Busan the Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival announced the winners of both its feature and short film competitions. In the former category, reserved for directorial debuts or sophomore films,...

Matchbox Pictures. Nowhere Boys has scored its first nomination for the British Academy Children.s Awards presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

The ABC3 teen drama created by Tony Ayres and produced by Beth Frey is in the running for the international award along with Cartoon Network's Clarence and Adventure Time and Disney Xd's Gravity Falls. BBC2/Lion TV.s gruesomely entertaining history show Horrible Histories leads the nominations with nods for comedy and writing for the Magna Carta episode and for Jessica Ransom's portrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots. Peppa Pig received its ninth nomination for pre-school: animation and its fourth in the writer category.

The nominees for best feature are Big Hero 6, Inside Out, Paddington and Shaun the Sheep: The Movie. The awards will be handed out at the Roundhouse, London, on November 22, hosted by actor/comedian/screenwriter Doc Brown. Earlier...

Horrible Histories could be heading to success at this year's British Academy Children's Awards after being nominated in three categories.

The programme leads the nominations with nods in the Comedy and Writing categories, while Jessica Ransom is also nominated in the performer category for her turn as Mary, Queen of Scots.

Elsewhere, The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm is nominated in the Comedy category, while star Harry Hill is also a contender.

Meanwhile, Peppa Pig is up for awards in the Preschool: Animation and Writer categories, while Operation Ouch! is in the running for a Factual award.

Operation Ouch! hosts Drs Alexander and Chris van Tulleken are nominated for Presenter awards, as are Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes of Sam & Mark's Big Friday Wind-Up.

Harriet's Army has nominations for Drama and Writer, while The Dumping Ground, Wolfblood and Katie Morag are all up for Drama awards.

All At Sea...

The highly anticipated brand new ten-part Cbbc period drama series Hetty Feather, adapted from the best-selling book by Jacqueline Wilson will start on Monday 11th May on Cbbc.

Set in London in 1887, the series centres around the story of our indomitable heroine Hetty Feather as she is returned to the awe-inspiring institution of the Foundling Hospital, the place where she was deposited as an infant and which she is to now call home.

Joining Hetty, played by Isabel Clifton, in her adventures are Dasharn Anderson as her foundling brother Gideon, and Gus Barry as boy's gang leader Mathias, with Polly Allen as bully Sheila.

13-year-old Isabel Clifton (represented by Sandra Singer Associates) stars as Hetty in her first professional screen role. Isabel trains at Singer Stage School in Essex . Isabel said “Sandra told me the news I had been made an offer to play ‘Hetty’ while I was helping at...

The Escape Artist, Season 1, Episode 1, “Episode 1”

Written by David Wolstencroft

Directed by Brian Welsh

Airs Sundays at 9pm (Et) on PBS

“It was a mistake; I just made sure they paid for it”

Legal crime dramas with ace lawyers as their lead are pretty easy to come by nowadays. Most don’t have David Tennant as that ace lawyer, though. The Escape Artist, airing for two weeks on Masterpiece Mystery, is a somewhat predictable thriller aided by great performances.

Tennant plays Will Burton, a talented junior barrister who’s never lost a case. He doesn’t particularly like the people he’s defending, but his career choice has been good to him. It’s given his family, sweet and understanding wife Kate (Ashley Jensen) and curious son Jamie (Gus Barry), a modern flat in the city and a quaint cottage in the country.

The Escape Artist doesn’t waste much...

Showtime’s Penny Dreadful Resurrection TV Show Review. Penny Dreadful: Season 1, Episode 3: Resurrection was an exploration Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway)’s past and The Creature (Rory Kinnear). The story that surrounds Dr. Frankenstein’s younger incarnation (Gus Barry) was very much like the back story to Bruce Wayne: [...]

Continue reading: TV Review: Penny Dreadful: Season 1, Episode 3: Resurrection...

I have to admit, John Logan and Sam Mendes’ new showtime show “Penny Dreadful” is one of my most anticipated shows of the year. Everything I’ve seen of it so far, including a handful of teaser promos, have been pretty nifty stuff and left me wanting more. Here’s the latest, an official image of the show’s main cast, including stars Josh Hartnett, Eva Green, and Timothy Dalton. Also, yet another teaser promo. (Useless factoid: Dalton used to play James Bond, while Mendes directed the last Bond movie, “Skyfall”, a film that Logan wrote.) Like Alan Moore’s “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” Logan’s “Penny Dreadful” will be set in Victoria London and brings together famous literary characters like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dorian Gray, and throws in there an American sharpshooter played by Josh Hartnett and a mysterious woman played by Eva Green, who is said to be “battling her own demons.