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Ayvianna Snow, an actor ‘fast becoming the British Queen of Horror’ (Sean Cronin), stars in two highly anticipated new British independent films, Bogieville and Derelict, both set to make their World premiere at this year’s FrightFest 25th Anniversary event in London this month. We catch up with Ayvianna for a chat.

You have two new films premiering at FrightFest this month, can you tell us a bit more about them?

In Bogieville I play a vampire called Mary. Bogieville is an intriguing tale set in a derelict American trailer park. It follows the story of a young couple who find themselves lured in by the sinister caretaker, ‘Crawford’. Unbeknownst to them, Crawford is the guardian of the park’s residents, a pack of blood-thirsty hillbilly vampires. The film is directed by the renowned British filmmaker and actor Sean Cronin, who also stars as the lead vampire.

Derelict is Director...

Syndey Sweeney is currently one of the most in-demand young actors generally. She has just recently come off the hit rom-com Anyone But You and horror pic Immaculate, but that doesn’t mean that the young actress is taking a rest. No, as things stand, Sweeney has decided to tackle yet another genre, as she has signed on to portray legendary American boxer Christy Martin in the upcoming biopic produced by Black Bear. The movie is going to be presented to buyers in Cannes and it might be one of the biggest scoops of the festival this year.

In case you’re not familiar with the name, Christy Martin is a true legend of female boxing. Known as both “the Female Rocky” and “The Coal Miner’s Daughter,” she was a legend of American female boxing in the 1990s and one of the most successful female boxers in history. She...

20th Century Studios hits the open road today with The Bikeriders trailer, previewing the film shortly after its Telluride Film Festival screening last week. Amidst plumes of dust and the smell of gasoline, Jeff Nichols directs from a script he wrote inspired by the Danny Lyon book of photography. The Bikeriders is an original story set in the 1960s following the rise of a fictional Midwestern motorcycle club. Seen through the lives of its members, the club evolves over a decade from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life.

Produced by Sarah Green and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, The Bikeriders features a cast that would make any Sons of Anarchy fan drool with envy. Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road, Venom), Boyd Holbrook, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Austin Butler, and Norman Reedus lead the cast. Damon Herriman, Mike Faist,...

Editor’s Note: This review originally published during the 2023 Locarno Film Festival. Dekanalog will release “Sweet Dreams” in U.S. theaters on Friday, April 12.

Two-thirds of the way into Ena Sendijarević’s stylized sophomore feature “Sweet Dreams”, a heavily pregnant white Dutch colonialist, Josefien (Lisa Zweerman), is attempting to relieve some pent-up hormonal tension by straddling her bedpost and getting herself off. It is at this exact moment that an Indonesian housegirl, Siti (Hayati Azis), walks in bearing a jug of water and a glass.

Josefien experiences no shame and seizes her chance to manipulate Siti, for Siti has the status afforded by bearing the illegitimate son, Karel (Rio Den Haas), of the recently deceased plantation head, Jan (Hans Dagelet). Unbeknownst to Siti, Jan left it all to Karel and now the young heir and his mother both have targets on their backs for Jan’s older son, Cornelius (Florian Myjer...

Gas up your hog and prepare to ride alongside Tom Hardy because 20th Century Studios is ready to announce The Bikeriders release date. The motorcycle club drama hits the road in theaters on December 1, 2023, just in time for Oscar season. Jeff Nichols directs from a script he wrote inspired by the Danny Lyon novel. The Bikeriders is an original story set in the 1960s following the rise of a fictional Midwestern motorcycle club. Seen through the lives of its members, the club evolves over a decade from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life.

Produced by Sarah Green and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, The Bikeriders features a cast that would make any Sons of Anarchy fan drool with envy. Tom Hardy, Boyd Holbrook, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Austin Butler, and Norman Reedus lead the cast. Damon Herriman, Mike Faist,...

Exclusive: Elle Fanning (The Great) and Sarah Paulson (Ratched) are attached to star in I Am Sybil, a new film co-written and directed by Mirrah Foulkes (Judy & Punch) that explores the gripping true story behind the best-selling book and cultural-sensation case of Sybil, one of the first mainstream cases of dissociative identity disorder, which spurred questions in the public consciousness around identity and mental health.

Sybil was a pseudonym given to Shirley Mason in a 1973 work of nonfiction by Flora Rheta Schreiber, which examined the young woman’s treatment for Mpd by psychologist Connie Wilbur. The source material the new film will draw on is Debbie Nathan’s 2011 book Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case, one of a number of texts that dispute the facts of Schreiber’s account.

While the producers wouldn’t confirm the...

“Take a good close look at what we’re fighting for,” says Mia Wasikowska’s oceanographer in “Blueback,” as she scans the Australian bay where she grew up. She’s talking to a colleague, even as writer-director Robert Connolly (“Paper Planes”) is really saying the same thing to us.

Connolly has turned Tim Winton’s 1997 novella into his own environmental cri de coeur — premiering at the Toronto Film Festival — and while the specifics can get a bit clunky, his passion drives our interest all the way to the end.

The end is where we begin, actually, with Wasikowska’s Abby getting a call while she’s working. Her aging mother, Dora (Liz Alexander), has had a stroke, and Abby has to rush back to remote Longboat Bay (Western Australia’s Bremer Bay stands in for the fictional coast) to care for her.

Also Read:

‘Judy & Punch’ Film Review: Provocative...

Joel Edgerton’s drawling voice instructs us to “breathe out the dark black air” over an image of police officers combring long grass in search of something. Or someone. This is how “The Stranger” opens, posing the question of how much darkness we will need to breathe out in the course of the film. Thomas M. Wright — best known for playing Elisabeth Moss’s sexy, traumatized love interest in Jane Campion’s “Top of the Lake” — offers a sophomore directorial outing that fits right in with the wave of early Australian directors who emerged with a crime drama pivoting around the bleakest of human deeds.

Compared with David Michôd’s dread-fueled “Animal Kingdom,” Justin Kurzel’s sadistic “Snowtown,” and Mirrah Faulkes’s vaudevillian “Judy & Punch,” this is a relatively straight and somber affair. Across locations that hop between Queensland and an anonymous Southern Australian sprawl, Wright draws a tasteful...

Second feature from the writer-director of ‘Judy And Punch’ receives Screen Australia funding.

See-Saw Films has teamed with Australian writer/director Mirrah Foulkes to produce her upcoming psychological thriller Runaway.

It marks the second feature from Foulkes, whose debut Judy And Punch played in competition at the Sundance and Sydney Film Festivals.

Runaway is based on a 2004 short story of the same name by renowned Canadian writer Alice Munro. It follows a young woman who attempts to save her marriage by leading her husband into a complex and dangerous world of sexual fantasy, entangling her older neighbours at the same time.

Top Australian actor Damon Herriman and U.K.-Italian star Greta Scacchi join “Succession” star Sarah Snook in horror-thriller “Run Rabbit Run” from “The Handmaid’s Tale” director Daina Reid. The film starts production in Victoria and South Australia this week.

Snook replaced Elizabeth Moss who was previously attached, but who dropped out late last year due to scheduling clashes. Snook plays a fertility doctor whose firm grasp on the cycle of life is put to the test as her young daughter begins to exhibit increasingly strange behavior.

The script was written by acclaimed South Australian novelist Hannah Kent (“Devotion,” “Burial Rites”) from an original idea developed with Carver Films. Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw of Carver Films are producing.

Los Angeles-based XYZ Films is executive producing, financing and handling world sales, having taken over sales duties from STX International which previously touted the project at 2020’s virtual Cannes Market. Storyd...

The Golden Trailer Awards, which honor the best trailers in movie and TV/streaming marketing, awarded Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Part II its marquee Best of Show honor Thursday night during a ceremony in Greenville, Tn.

The awards, founded and run by sisters Evelyn Brady-Watters and Monica Brady, returned after pausing for a year because of the Covid pandemic, with last night’s ceremony honoring campaigns and the companies behind them culled from a widened eligibility window for content created between April 2019-April 2021.

That meant winners in the 16 categories revealed onstage included recent releases like Black Widow and F9 but also the likes of Joker, Uncut Gems, Queen & Slim and Jojo Rabbit, which also took honors last night at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center. There were also a slew of non-show category winners announced from Trashiest Trailer to the Don Lafontaine Award for Best Voice Over (see the full...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has added to its growing list of Australian acquisitions, negotiating a deal for the worldwide rights to Antaine Furlong’s Ascendant.

Under the agreement, there will be a planned theatrical release of the film as Rising Wolf in the US on July 16.

Ascendant will be released in Australia and New Zealand this Thursday via Maslow Entertainment.

Set in Shanghai, the story follows Aria Wolf (Charlotte Best), a young woman who wakes, trapped, kidnapped in an elevator of a super high­ rise building at the mercy of her tormentors. Cocooned in the belly of the beast, Aria is forced to adapt her thinking, her beliefs, and her endurance.

The cast includes Jonny Pasvolsky (The Front Runner), Alex Menglet (Wentworth), Susan Prior (The Rover), Lily Stewart, Justin Cotta,Tahlia Sturzaker (I am Mother), and Karelina Clarke.

Ascendant was written by Kieron Holland and Furlong, who produced alongside Kristy Vernon,...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the North American rights to Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson ahead of its world premiere at SXSW next week.

In a deal was brokered by Momento International, The Drover’s Wife marks yet another Australian acquisition for Samuel Goldwyn, who has in recent years picked up films such as Rams, High Ground, Judy & Punch, Top End Wedding, Measure for Measure. H is for Happiness, Dirt Music, Koko: A Red Dog Story and Sweet Country.

Produced by Bunya Productions and Oombarra Productions, The Drover’s Wife is written and directed by Purcell, based on her stage play of the same name.

A reimagining of Henry Lawson’s classic short story, the story is set in 1893 on an isolated property the Snowy Mountains, and follows the heavily pregnant Molly Johnson (Purcell) and her children, who struggle in isolation to survive after her husband leaves,...

It’s funny to think that streaming services like Netflix didn’t bother creating posters for their original work a few years back knowing they’d never have to contend with competition at the local multiplex. Slowly but surely they began doing a few here or there before steadily growing to the point where it seemed they enjoyed being able to embrace out-of-the-box designs for the same reasons they avoided the process altogether.

Now we’re at the end of a calendar to forget that saw a majority of theaters shuttered for nine straight months to make it so streamers became king. Big studios pushed titles out of 2020 altogether, small studios went virtual, and Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, et al. watched subscriptions soar. Suddenly their digital multiplex formed the playground for cinematic competition and the continued creativity of poster design found itself working at the top of its game just like always.

Antonio Gambale led the winners at Tuesday’s Screen Music Awards, picking up two prizes for his work on Netflix’s Unorthodox.

This year’s ceremony, jointly staged by Apra Amcos and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers, was virtual, hosted by Justine Clarke, Meyne Wyatt and Claudia Karvan.

Clarke used the opportunity to urge government to support the industry, in particular screen composers, in the wake of Covid-19.

“I implore all of you listening, and in particular the Federal Government, not to leave the Australian composers behind as you undertake industry reform.

“There remains a huge opportunity for the Australian Government to further invest in the creation and commissioning of Australian content, and in particular, our composers, to fully celebrate their skills and talent. There is now greater risk that our creatives, our composers, and our small businesses will be left behind in the fast-changing global landscape that is ahead of us.

‘Rams.’

Samuel Goldwyn Films continues to show a greater appetite for Australian films than any other North American distributor, with Jeremy Sims’ Rams as the latest acquisition.

WestEnd Films negotiated the deal for the remake of the cult Icelandic pic Hrútar, which stars Sam Neill, Michael Caton, Miranda Richardson, Wayne Blair, Asher Keddie and newcomer Will McNeill.

Roadshow will launch the comedy-drama produced by Wbmc’s Janelle Landers and Aidan O’Bryan and scripted by Jules Duncan on more than 240 screens on October 29.

This year Goldwyn released Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch, Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding, Paul Ireland’s Measure for Measure, John Sheedy’s H is for Happiness and Gregor Jordan’s Dirt Music, mostly on VOD.

Stephen Johnson’s High Ground will premiere next year after its Australian release via Madman Entertainment.

Landers tells If that two US distributors made bids for Rams and Goldwyn won out...

Hulu is out with its list of everything new coming and everything leaving the streaming service in the month of October.

Highlights include seasons four and seven of “90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days,” Season 8 of “My 600-lb Life” featuring the late star Coliesa McMillian, and a bunch of cooking shows including seasons nine and 10 of “Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern,” Season 13 of “Cutthroat Kitchen” and Season 18 of “Hell’s Kitchen.” All of those come out Oct. 1.

For Halloween, catch the Hulu Original series “Monsterland” out Oct. 2.

On Oct. 14, catch the season premiere of “The Bachelorette” just one day after it airs on ABC.

Leaving Hulu on Oct. 31 are all five of the “Twilight” movies, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Footloose.”

See the full list below.

Oct. 1

90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days: Complete Season 4 (TLC)

90 Day Fiancé: Complete Season 7 (TLC)

All-Star Halloween Spectacular: Special (Food Network)

Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern:...

It’s almost spooky season, and the various streaming services are making sure that subscribers have got plenty of great horror content for all ages available to watch this Halloween. Given the current state of the world, this All Hallow’s Eve will see more folks staying in than ever before, so we’ll need as much choice when it comes to finding a perfect movie or TV show to dive into as possible. Thankfully, Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video have got us covered.

Of course, there’s much more beyond just horror content arriving across the streaming world this October, with the first day of the month launching hundreds of new titles on all the various sites. There are also a few key highlights scattered throughout the month. Arguably the biggest is Aaron Sorkin’s much-anticipated all-star drama based on real events, The Trial of the Chicago 7,...

October is officially spooky season and it’s nice to know that some streaming services (*cough*Disney+*cough*) are taking that responsibility very seriously.

For its new releases in October 2020, Hulu is premiering the Marvel TV universe’s first-ever outright horror series. Helstrom debuts on Oct. 16 and follows Marvel Comics character Daimon Helstrom as he struggles against all manner of demonic forces. Another spooky treat arriving this month is Monsterland on Oct. 2. This anthology will feature scary stories from around the country.

On the movie side of things, Hulu is bringing out Clive Barker adaptation Books of Blood on Oct. 7 and Bad Hair on Oct. 23. Thank you, Hulu, for your spooky service.

There are a lot of non-Hulu TV shows of note arriving in October as well. The final season of Homeland will be available to stream on Oct. 26. The premiere of Saturday Night Live‘s 46th season will arrive on Oct.

We’re now just over halfway through September, so let’s turn our attention to what’s coming to Hulu next month. Every October, the streaming service celebrates “Huluween” by adding a bunch of new Halloween-themed content. And this year is no different, with countless classic movies going up on the site that you’ll want to check out to get you in the spooky mood as well as a few notable originals.

These include anthology series Monsterland (October 2nd) and horror comedy film Bad Hair (October 23rd), starring Lena Waithe, Vanessa Williams and Laverne Cox, from Dear White People director Justin Simien. Superhero fans will also want to catch supernatural-themed Marvel series Helstrom (October 16th). The final production from Marvel Television, it’s sadly already doomed to just the one season.

See below for the full list of everything that’s coming to Hulu in October:

Released October 1

90 Day...

‘Bump.’

Stan today unveiled five Stan Original productions – two drama series, a true crime docuseries, a film and a comedy special – as part of an ambitious plan to ramp up local commissions.

The Nine-owned streamer said it plans to invest in more than 30 productions per year within five years, drawing on Nine’s production facilities and via co-productions with international partners including Hollywood studios and international networks.

It will continue to build on relationships with state and national screen agencies including initiatives such as the Stan and Film Victoria Development Fund and the Screen Queensland and Stan Premium Drama Development Fund.

The slate announced today includes Every Cloud Productions and Balloon Entertainment’s eight-part murder mystery Eden; Claudia Karvan, Kelsey Munro and Roadshow Rough Diamond’s 10-part half-hour drama Bump; and After the Night, a four-part true crime docuseries from Eq Media Group and Salon Pictures, created and directed by Thomas Meadmore.

(L-r) Greer Simpkin, Peter Goldwyn, Warwick Thornton and David Jowsey at the Sundance ‘Sweet Country’ premiere.

No North American distributor has been more aggressive in acquiring Australian films in the past few years than Samuel Goldwyn Films, continuing a relationship with Australian filmmakers that stretches for more than 20 years.

Among its latest acquisitions are Stephen Johnson’s High Ground, Paul Ireland’s Measure for Measure, John Sheedy’s H is for Happiness and Gregor Jordan’s Dirt Music.

President Peter Goldwyn explains the long-term commitment to Australian cinema, the target audiences for upcoming Oz titles and the distributor’s release strategies as most US cinemas are closed.

By my estimate, your company has released more Australian titles in recent years than any other US distributor. What keeps attracting you to Oz films and talent?

Simple answer is the quality of the pictures.

I think Goldwyn’s relationship with Aussie cinema...

‘Hi is for Happiness’ (Photo credit: David Dare Parker).

John Sheedy’s debut feature H is for Happiness has been acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films in North America and Germany’s Telepool as well as distributors in multiple other markets.

The comedy-drama which opened the Generation Kplus section at the Berlin International Film Festival is Goldywn’s fifth Australian acquisition this year.

The distributor released Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding in February and Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch in May, to be followed by Gregor Jordan’s Dirt Music on July 17 and Paul Ireland’s Measure for Measure on September 4, all on VOD.

The international sales agent, Tine Klint’s LevelK, negotiated the H is for Happiness deals including the Middle East and North Africa (Front Row), the Nordics excluding Iceland (Angel Films/FilmCentrum), Estonia (Estin Film) Poland (New Horizons Assoc.), Eastern Europe (HBO Central Europe), Israel (yes Dbs...

Movies are slowly starting to trickle back into theaters, emphasis on the word “slowly.” For the time being, audiences’ options are still better at home, as this week’s crop of new films includes outrageous new genre fare — such as “Becky,” from the directors of “Cooties,” which plays a bit like a hard-r version of “Home Alone” — and festival standouts such as Hong Sang-soo’s “Yourself and Yours.”

“The Invisible Man” star Elisabeth Moss elaborates on her ever-widening scope of tortured women in the wildly unconventional Shirley Jackson biopic, a movie which portrays the author of “The Lottery” as the kind of character one might discover in her mind-bending horror tales.

Here’s a complete rundown of the week’s new releases, with excerpts from reviews and links to where you can watch them. Find more movies and TV shows to stream here.

Playing in drive-ins and extremely limited release:...

Whenever Disney announces a new live-action film, there’s a collective: “Ah, shit. Here we go again.” It shows a lack of creativity in taking their animated works and making them “real”. Judy & Punch falls under the category of taking an established story from one medium and bringing it to life in another, but it’s unique in the way it does so. It takes the traditional trappings and characters of the British Punch and Judy puppet show and plays them out in live-action with magical whimsy in this black comedy about a puppeteering duo. Their performances aren’t simply a dance of marionette strings, but art imitating life in very punchy ways, and with themes that have hard-hitting relevancy as writer-director, Mirrah Foulkes, reimagines an old, misogynistic tale into what she calls, “a feminine inversion of the traditional hero’s journey.”

Punch and Judy, despite its roots in Italian commedia dell’arte,...

There are times, I suppose, when it’s a good thing that most of the open movie theaters are drive-ins. Or maybe it’s just that there are films that scream “B movie!” and belong in a setting that also screams “B movie!”

“Becky” certainly screams that, among the many other screams that emanate from its pint-sized, titular avenger. It’s a silly bloodbath administered by a vicious 13-year-old in a knit fox cap with cute little ears that flap as she makes the bad guys bleed. And if you’re desperate to get out of the house and you’ve already seen “The Wretched,” why not go for the movie that rewrites “Home Alone” in a way that gives the Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern characters gruesome, horrible deaths?

None of this, by the way, really qualifies as spoilers. In the opening scene, we see young Becky talking to...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

Free Films Featuring Black Voices

If you’re not able to join your local protest, there are other ways to support the vital fight again injustice and police brutality. And if you’re looking to learn more about the black experience, especially in America, a number of films are now available for free. First up, The Criterion Channel has made available Daughters of the Dust, Losing Ground, Black Mother, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One, The Watermelon Woman, and more films by black filmmakers for free without a subscription. Also available for free on other platforms is Charles Burnett’s landmark film Killer of Sheep, Ava DuVernay’s insightful documentary 13th,...

Early in “Judy & Punch,” a wife who’s just helped her husband perform a vigorously slap-happy puppet show in a desultory corner of 17th century England poses the question, “Do you think the show really needs to be that punchy?”

“That’s what the people like,” he replies with a shrug. “They like punchy. They like smashy.”

People still like punchy and smashy, of course, and “Judy & Punch” sees to it that its viewers will be longing for a bit of the old ultraviolence by the end of this particular enterprise. The film is both a deconstruction of myth and a twisted origin story for a slapsticky form of puppetry that was quite popular a couple hundred years ago, but it’s also a gory little bit of provocation that makes fun of bloodthirsty audiences but might appeal to some of them as well.

And while you could...

If “Being John Malkovich” taught us anything, it’s that marriage and puppets just don’t mix. Even behind closed doors and dropped curtains, some men always need to feel like they’re pulling the strings. Of course, that lesson predated Spike Jonze by a few hundred years, tracing all the way back to the “Punch and Judy” shows that sprung out of the comedia dell’arte tradition in 16th century Italy before moving north and being perpetuated as a Victorian pastime.

How fitting that the most famous story puppets have ever been used to tell — a story that’s basically synonymous with the artform used to tell it — is about a controlling husband who neglects his wife, abuses their baby, and then administers a hilarious slapstick beatdown upon everyone who tries to put him to rights (up to and including the devil himself). The vibe at modern Punch and...

A show that dates back to the 16th century is turned on its head in Mirrah Foulkes' Judy & Punch, starring Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herriman as the legendary titular characters. We have an exclusive clip -- Nsfw, possibly, due to a single word -- that vividly demonstrates the potentially disturbing yet darkly comic spirit of the film, which will be released this week on a variety of Video On Demand platforms. In brief, Judy & Punch is set "in the anarchic town of Seaside, nowhere near the sea," per the official synopsis. "Puppeteers Judy and Punch are trying to resurrect their marionette show. The show is a hit due to Judy's superior puppeteering, but Punch's driving ambition and penchant for whisky lead to an...

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

As the pandemic rages on and the oppressed justly fight back against police brutality across this country, it feels a bit futile to be doling out monthly movie recommendations. So, first, we’ll a number of ways you can help, with a map of places to protest, where to donate, sign petitions, and more.

Now, if you are in the headspace to watch a film, there are a number of worthwhile offerings this June, including a new feature from the director most attuned at capturing our country’s sharp racial divide. There’s also a trio of features from one of international cinema’s most prolific directors finally getting a U.S. release, plus notable documentaries, gripping character studies, and more.

See our recommendations below.

11. Judy and Punch (Mirrah Foulkes; June 5)

After premiering at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, the equally entertaining and shocking black comedy Judy & Punch will arrive this week.

Damon Herriman and Mia Wasikowska in Judy & Punch

In a little town called Seaside, far from the sea, two travelling performers entertain the locals with their puppets. They work perfectly together, each complementing the other's style, but in private things are very different: Punch (Damon Herriman) drinks and gets aggressive whilst Judy (Mia Wasikowska) struggles to look after their baby. After one of Punch's drinking sessions results in a horrible accident, the tension between them explodes into violence - but Judy isn't about to let herself become just another forgotten victim.

Judy & Punch is the début directorial feature from seasoned Australian actress Mirrah Foulkes, who agreed to connect with me to talk about how it developed.

Mirrah Foulkes

“It was actually brought to me by Vice [Media] in America, of all the places to find a Punch and Judy story. They approached me because they had and idea that...

Judy & Punch, the feature debut from writer/director Mirrah Foulkes is a playful, darkly comic historical fiction depicting the origins of Punch & Judy shows - grotesque puppet theatre derived from Italian commedia dell'arte and traditionally performed by hand puppets in British seaside towns. Here however, Foulkes re-imagines these origins as the work of a husband and wife team who perform their show with marionettes in the 17th Century rural English town of 'Seaside' - shows which reflect their own deeply dysfunctional relationship. The film is at turns comedic and quirky, occasionally bleak, but works on its own terms as kind of socially conscious morality fairy tail about prejudice, betrayal and revenge.

Mr. Punch (Damon Herriman) is a faded puppeteer. Once a great draw for...

Judy & Punch will now be June 5, 2020 The film, written & directed by Mirrah Foulkes, stars Mia Wasikowska (Alice In Wonderland) and Damon Herriman (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood). In the anarchic town of Seaside, nowhere near the sea, puppeteers Judy and Punch are trying to resurrect their marionette show. The show …

The post Judy & Punch w/Mia Wasikowska & Damon Herriman appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

Actress Mirrah Foulkes makes her directorial debut with “Judy & Punch,” a violent and revisionist tale that looks more like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” goes to the puppet show than your classic Punch and Judy story. The period piece, which launched at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019 and was followed by a robust tour on the festival circuit, finally hits theaters in the U.S. on April 24, courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Set in an anarchic town known as Seaside, which happens to be nowhere near the sea, married puppeteers Judy (Mia Wasikowska) and Punch (Damon Herriman) are struggling to resurrect their marionette show. The show is a hit thanks to Judy’s deft puppeteering skills but due to Punch’s jealousy-fueled ambition — and his tendency to hit the bottle too hard — the show is thrust into tragedy. Foulkes’ updated take on the classic 16th-century puppet show,...

“Judy & Punch” isn’t your typical period film. We’re not talking about some grand Shakespearean drama that has been remade a million times previously. “Judy & Punch,” while featuring the same incredible period costumes you expect from a film of this type, carries a much different plot than you might anticipate.

As seen in the new trailer for the film, the story follows the title characters, a married couple that runs a marionette show.

Continue reading ‘Judy & Punch’ Trailer: Mirrah Foulkes’ Directorial Debut Arrives In April at The Playlist.

‘The Nightingale’.

Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale was honoured as the Best Film at Film Critics Circle of Australia (Fcca) Awards yesterday evening, with the film’s star Aisling Franciosi also awarded Best Actress.

At a ceremony in Sydney hosted by Les Asmussen, David Michôd was presented with the Best Director prize for The King, and Joel Edgerton Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Together, Michôd and Edgerton also won the gong for Best Screenplay (original or adapted) for the Netflix film.

For his work in Judy & Punch, Damon Herriman picked up the award for Best Actor, while Danger Close: The Battle Of Long Tan dominated the craft awards, with Ben Nott winning Best Cinematography, Caitlin Yeo Best Original Score and Veronika Jenet Best Editor.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role went to Ursula Yovich for her performance in Top End Wedding.

The award for Best Feature Documentary was shared by two films,...

‘H is for Happiness.’

John Sheedy’s debut feature H is for Happiness seemingly had a fair bit of momentum in the lead-up to the Australian release last weekend.

The comedy-drama with mystical elements adapted from Barry Jonsberg’s young adult novel My Life as an Alphabet won last year’s $100,000 CinefestOZ Film Prize, as well as second place in the audience awards at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

In its international premiere the film starring Richard Roxburgh, Emma Booth, Miriam Margolyes, Joel Jackson, Deborah Mailman and newcomers Daisy Axon and Wesley Patten will open the Berlin International Film Festival’s Generation KPlus section this month.

Pre-release, the film grossed $117,000 from advance screenings and the Perth Festival – so how to explain the modest opening weekend of $96,000 on 158 screens, distributed by R&R Films for Universal Pictures?

Julie Ryan, who produced with Tenille Kennedy and screenwriter Lisa Hoppe, tells If:

“It...

‘Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears’.

Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, the feature film spin-off Every Cloud Productions’ series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, and writer-director Michael Bentham’s indie Disclosure, will both make their world premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in early January.

Each will screen as part of the World Cinema Now section, alongside other Australian films, Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth and Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch. Samuel Van Grinsven’s Sequin in a Blue Room will screen as part of Queer Cinema Today & the GayLA, and as Australia’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, Rodd Rathjen’s Buoyancy will also screen alongside the other 51 submissions for the Oscar from around the world.

‘Disclosure’.

Directed by the series’ set up director Tony Tilse from a screenplay by Deb Cox, Miss Fisher & Crypt of Tears was shot on location in Melbourne and in Morocco,...

Mark Warner receives his award from Karen Eastmure.

The editors of Ladies in Black, Bloom and The Final Quarter were among the honorees of the Australian Screen Editors’ annual Ellie Awards presented on Saturday night at the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst.

Mark Warner’s work on Ladies in Black won best editing in a feature drama, James Manché’s episode 5 of Bloom was recognised as best editing in a drama and Sally Fryer’s The Final Quarter took the feature documentary editing prize.

That followed Fryer’s win at the Aacta Awards while the Adam Goodes doco directed by Ian Darling was named best documentary program at the Asian Academy Creative Awards in Singapore last Friday night.

The other recipients included Sara Edwards’ Gatwick – The Last Chance Hotel (documentary), Julie-Anne De Ruvo’s The Letdown (comedy), Nicholas Dunlop and Lawrie Silvestrin’s Don’t Stop the Music (factual entertainment) and...

Confrontational revenge drama “The Nightingale” was the big winner in the feature film category of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. “Lambs of God” was dominant in the TV section.

“The Nightingale” was named as best film. Jennifer Kent additionally won the best director and best screenplay awards. Giving her a night to remember, Kent was also named as one of the producers of “The Nightingale.” Aisling Franciosi was named best actress, giving the film six prizes.

The win meant snubs for “Hotel Mumbai and “Ride Like a Girl,” two of the highest grossing Australian films of the past year. “Mumbai” came away with a single Aacta prize, “Ride Like a Girl” none. Other defeated titles in the best film category were “Judy & Punch,” “Top End Wedding,” and “The King.” David Michod’s “The King” won Aacta awards for cinematography, costume design and production design.

Damon Herriman continued his winning streak,...

‘The Nightingale’.

Last night’s Aacta Awards saw a trifecta for Jennifer Kent, who took home Best Film, Best Direction and Best Screenplay for The Nightingale, with star Aisling Franciosi also winning Best Lead Actress.

Set in 1825, The Nightingale follows a young, female Irish convict (Franciosi) who chases a British officer through the Tasmanian wilderness bent on revenge after he committed an act of violence against her family, and who along the way enlists the help of an Aboriginal tracker. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2018, with Kent the only female director in competition. It won the Special Jury Prize and Baykali Ganambarr the Marcello Mastroiaani Award for his debut performance.

Produced by Causeway Films’ Kristina Ceyton, Made Up Stories’ Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky, and Kent, the period tale beat out The King, Judy & Punch, Hearts and Bones, Ride Like A Girl and Top End Wedding for the Best Film prize.

Natalie Miller.

The Australian films and feature documentaries released in cinemas this year including holdovers collectively have grossed $39.7 million.

So while the calendar year total will fall short of 2018’s $57.4 million, it should be noted Peter Rabbit was the top local title last year, grossing $26.7 million, which alone could explain the year-on-year decline. Sony Pictures is due to launch Peter Rabbit 2 next March, so that is virtually certain to be a big contributor to the 2020 revenues.

As Cinema Nova has supported almost every Australian release, If asked co-executive director Natalie Miller to assess the overall commercial and critical appeal of this year’s Oz slate.

“It’s not bad but it’s not great,” says the veteran exhibitor/distributor, who gives high marks to Ride Like a Girl, Top End Wedding, Storm Boy, Palm Beach and the feature docs 2040, Mystify: Michael Hutchence and The Australian Dream.

Among the...

Steven Jones-Evans with Rod Allan, CEO Docklands Studios.

Hotel Mumbai received the accolade for best feature film production design at the 2019 Australian Production Design Guild Awards held at Melba Spiegeltent, Collingwood, on Sunday night.

The other feature film honorees were Judy & Punch, Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, Aquaman and Ladies in Black.

The winners in the TV categories were Tidelands, A Place to Call Home season 6 and Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries.

The Twist won the screen animation design prize at the show compered by Adam Elliot, the Academy Award winning creator of Harvie Krumpet.

Grant Slotboom, construction manager of Illusions, was presented with the Canal Road Film Centre Artisan Award for Lifetime Achievement for Screen.

The 2019 Apdg Award winners in the screen categories:

Aftrs Award for Student and Emerging Designer for Screen

Sweet Tooth

Emma Bourke, Production Designer

Sabina Myers, Costume Designer

Barry Jarrot, Art Director

Title...

Vue and Showcase removed ‘Blue Story’ from their UK venues this weekend.

RankFilm (Distributor)Three-day gross (Nov 22-24)Total gross to date Week 1 Frozen II (Disney) £15.1m £15.1m 1 2 Last Christmas (Universal) £2.2m £6.7m 2 3 Blue Story (Paramount) £1.3m £1.3m 1 4 Le Mans ’66 (Disney) £1.2m £4.2m 2 5 21 Bridges (Stx) £655,000 £655,000 1

Today’s Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.29

Disney

Disney’s animated sequel Frozen II grossed a huge £15.1m for top spot, breaking the company’s own record for biggest opening for an animated film, set by Toy Story 4 with £13.3m earlier this year.

Frozen II scored a £22,504 location average from 671 sites, also surpassing the...

‘Judy & Punch.’

Fox/Chernin Entertainment’s Ford v Ferrari easily retained pole position in another soft weekend at Australian cinemas while Mirrah Foulkes’ writing and directing debut Judy & Punch struggled.

Foulkes’ savage satire starring Damon Herriman and Mia Wasikowska as husband-and-wife puppeteers in an anarchic world has garnered a 79 per cent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes since the world premiere at Sundance.

But critical acclaim often doesn’t reflect cinemagoers’ tastes, particularly for niche titles which are as challenging and dark in tone as this. The Madman Entertainment release fetched $29,000 on 38 screens last weekend and $108,000 with festival screenings.

Cinema Nova’s Natalie Miller says: “I think the title is a bit of a hindrance as people don’t know if it’s a children’s film and would find it quite different and confronting, despite great acting.”

Produced by Michele Bennett, Blue-Tongue Films’ Nash Edgerton and Vice Media Australia’s Danny Gabai,...

"Something is very wrong with this town!" Madman Films in Australia has unveiled another official trailer for the indie dark comedy Judy & Punch, the latest Blue Tongue Films production (run by Nash & Joel Edgerton). Written and directed by Australian actress Mirrah Foulkes, her feature directorial debut, the film originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It also played at the Sydney, Bucheon, New Zealand, Melbourne, London, and Sitges Film Festivals. Set in the old town of Seaside (nowhere near the sea), puppeteers Judy and Punch are trying to resurrect their marionette show in an an anarchic town on the brink of mob rule. It's a clever commentary on how women are treated, and how we can do better. Starring Mia Wasikowska as Judy & Damon Herriman as Punch, along with Benedict Hardie, Eddie Baroo, Tom Budge, Virginia Gay, and Don Bridges. It's the best trailer for this weird,...

Further new openers include ‘Harriet’, ‘Blue Story’, ‘Greener Grass’.

Disney’s latest blockbuster Frozen II is looking to challenge the highest openings for an animated title in the UK when it launches this weekend.

Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck return to direct this second instalment, which follows sisters Anna and Elsa as they travel to an ancient forest looking for the origin of Elsa’s powers.

The first Frozen opened to £4.8m in December 2013, two weeks later in the year than the second title. It pulled in a £9,368 location average from 508 locations – a wide release, but not fully so.

This...

Terry Norris and Benedict Hardie in ‘Judy & Punch.’

After portraying a succession of dastardly or less than noble characters in films and TV series, Benedict Hardie welcomed the chance to play someone with at least a few redeeming qualities in Judy & Punch.

In Mirrah Foulkes’ brutal, dark re-interpretation of the puppet play which opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday via Madman Entertainment, he plays Constable Derrick.

The lone cop in the wryly-named inland town of Seaside, Derrick struggles to maintain law and order as Damon Herriman’s narcissistic Punch causes mayhem after his much-abused wife Judy (Mia Wasikowska) vanishes.

“It was such a pleasure to make that film,” he tells If. “The script was like nothing any of us has read. Derrick becomes an emotional touchstone for the audience as an outsider looking at this mad world.

“He’s a quiet, meek and gentle soul who hopes for the...

Nominations for the 9th annual Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) Awards were unveiled in Sydney on Oct. 23, with Jennifer Kent‘s “The Nightingale” sweeping the film nominations with 15 nominations. The period thriller follow-up to Kent’s horror directorial debut “The Babadook” was followed closely by Anthony Maras‘ true story thriller “Hotel Mumbai” and Oscar nominee David Michod‘s Netflix period picture “The King,” with 13 bids apiece. On the TV side, gothic period drama “Lambs of God” shattered Aacta records with 14 nominations across TV categories, with an additional four subscription television award nominations. Winners will be revealed at a luncheon on Dec. 2 and a ceremony two days later.

Other nominees this year include Timothee Chalamet (“The King”), Dev Patel (“Hotel Mumbai”), Ben Mendelsohn (“The King”), Hilary Swank (“I Am Mother”), Ann Dowd (“Lambs of God”), Rachel Griffiths (“Total Control”) and Jacki Weaver (“Bloom”). Previous Aacta Award winner Damon Herriman...