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"If someone remains in contact with the boy, he'll make it." Janus Films has revealed an official trailer for a 4K restoration of an animated sci-fi classic called The Time Masters, also known as just Time Masters or Les Maîtres du Temps originally in French. "The Time Masters is a trippy, visually fantastic foray into existentialist space adventure." This stunning animation creation is one of the few cinema works from the legendary Moebius, aka Jean Giraud. Directed by René Laloux as his follow-up to 1973's Fantastic Planet, this one first opened in France in 1982, and in the US in 1984. Now 40 years later it's getting a proper 4K restoration and re-release, with a theatrical run planned later this summer in US art house theaters. Don't miss it! In The Time Masters, Piel, a young boy, is stranded alone on the dangerous desert planet Perdide, the only survivor of an attack by giant hornets.

In the realm of “adult animation” there are few peers for René Laloux, whose reputation could rest almost entirely on Fantastic Planet. Making notable the 4K restoration of The Time Masters, his superbly entertaining 1982 sci-fi feature based on the work of Fantastic Planet author Stefan Wul, designed by Mœbius and co-written by France’s supreme crime novelist, Jean-Patrick Manchette. Janus Films will being a roll-out of said restoration at the IFC Center on July 26 (likely ahead of a Criterion disc), and with it comes a trailer.

Here’s the official synopsis: “Directed by visionary sci-fi animator René Laloux (Fantastic Planet) and designed by the legendary Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Mœbius), The Time Masters is a trippy, visually fantastic foray into existentialist space adventure. After his parents are killed on the dangerous planet Perdide, young Piel (voiced by Frédéric Legros) survives by maintaining radio contact with Jaffar (Jean Valmost), a...

The '90s were a great time to be a young horror-loving kid. There were several gateway horror shows and movies that made genre fans out of an entire generation, preparing kids for the horrors of the real world within the safe confines of a television set. It was a time of "Goosebumps" and of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," a time of "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters" and "Tales from the Cryptkeeper." Then there was "Courage the Cowardly Dog."

Though "Real Monsters" featured, well, monsters, it was still definitely a comedic show. "Courage the Cowardly Dog," though, even when it wasn't technically scary, it was always eerie and disturbing. The cartoon follows the eponymous dog Courage, who lives with an elderly couple in a farm in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas. They are constantly thrown into weird, often spooky situations. The series started with a pilot short titled "The Chicken from Outer Space,...

If an animated film turns up in the Competition at Cannes, chances are it’s not going to be another Bambi — although, if it were made today, the traumatic shooting of Bambi’s mother would certainly tickle the selection committee. No, Cannes prefers its animation to be skewed towards adults, like René Lalou’s surreal sci-fi Fantastic Planet (1973), Robert Taylor’s raunchy sequel The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974) or Ari Folman’s wartime docudrama Waltz with Bashir (2008). And with The Most Precious of Cargoes, actor turned director and now graphic artist Michel Hazanavicius has turned to the most controversial topic it is possible to approach with pen and ink: the Holocaust.

Five long years in the making, Hazanavicius’s adaptation of the 2019 novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg arrives in Cannes two years after the death of its narrator, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and, unfortunately, a year after the debut of Jonathan Glazer...

On September 15, 1965, Irwin Allen whisked television viewers out of their living rooms on a journey to the outer reaches of space, where the Robinson family finds themselves marooned on a strange, not-entirely-hospitable planet thanks to the sabotage of their chief medical officer. For a nation dreaming of a seemingly impossible moon landing, "Lost in Space" was both wish fulfillment and cautionary tale; a part of us was enthralled by the notion of exploring the cosmos, but we were also terrified by the thought of aimlessly hurtling through a universe with no known end and no direction home.

Allen's series didn't dwell much on the more frightening aspects of the Robinsons' predicament. Unlike Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" (which would debut a year later), Allen employed a fairly rigid formula that found the Robinsons and the hunky Major Don West (Mark Goddard) having to outwit the generally inept scheming of Dr.

The opening credits sequence of Scavengers Reign is heavy with doom, with images of the Demeter, an interstellar freighter whose wreckage orbits an alien planet, dissonantly set to peaceful classical music. Bodies float in the vacuum of space, escape pods burn up in the atmosphere, and the leaping flames of a sun hint at the cause of the disaster. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the series that follows, a superb survival story depicting both the planet’s natural beauty and the violent, horrible ends it can visit upon the people who encounter it.

Rendered in a detailed 2D style by the prolific animation studio Titmouse, each of the show’s 12 half-hour episodes cuts between multiple perspectives. After all, the Demeter’s few survivors are scattered in different terrestrial environments, unaware of one another’s existence, and the series delights in foregrounding their often ingenious use of the local ecosystem to survive.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Museum of the Moving Image

Reverse Shot celebrates its 20th anniversary with a months-long programming run, starting this weekend with Demonlover, Femme Fatale, Summer Hours, and Junebug all on 35mm; Cukor’s Sylvia Scarlett plays on 35mm.

Paris Theater

The Paris has reopened with 35mm screenings of The Conversation, There Will Be Blood, and The Tree of Life, as well as Lawrence of Arabia on 70mm.

Roxy Cinema

Ahead of The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s feature debut Sexy Beast plays on 35mm; Dog Day Afternoon, The Graduate, and Fantastic Planet also show on prints.

Film Forum

A new 4K restoration of Farewell, My Concubine begins; Michael Roemer’s great The Plot Against Harry screens on 35mm; Contempt continues in a 4K restoration; The Secret Garden plays on Sunday

IFC Center

The new restoration of Shinji Somai’s Typhoon...

Guillermo del Toro is returning to The Criterion Collection, as his 2022 Oscar winner Pinocchio will be released on December 12th as spine #1201. What, no love for Robert Zemeckis’ version?

Here are the special features for The Criterion Collection’s upcoming release of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, which also comes complete with stunning cover art by James Jean:

4K digital master, supervised by directors Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, with Dolby Atmos One 4K Uhd disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision Hdr and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Handcarved Cinema, a new documentary featuring del Toro, Gustafson, and cast and crew, including the film’s puppet creators, production designers, and animation supervisor Directing Stop-Motion, a new program featuring del Toro and Gustafson New conversation between del Toro and film critic Farran Smith Nehme New interview with curator Ron Magliozzi on The Museum of...

It’s Juliette’s fifth birthday, and she can wish for whatever she wants. Top of her list is an adventure, the likes of which this restless girl has only read about in books — specifically, a series of fantasy novels about a capricious wizard who controls the wind. In “Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams,” a quiet afternoon takes an unpredictable, eye-popping turn, as Juliette (voiced by Loïse Charpentier) and her 8-year-old sister Carmen (Maryne Bertieaux) are whisked away to a dazzling surreal world of alligator-shaped airships and bird-headed opera divas, where seemingly anything can happen.

Welcome to the imagination of French director Benoît Chieux, who has crafted — in the year 2023, against considerable odds — a truly spectacular psychedelic excursion in the vein of head-trip classics “The Fantastic Planet” and “The Yellow Submarine.” It’s been roughly half a century since those two movies demonstrated just how liberating the medium of animation can be,...

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s Veb needed David Dastmalchian, and it turns out that he needed Veb more than anyone might realize.

Veb — who’s a slime-like creature with the ability to break down communication barriers in the Quantum Realm — is Dastmalchian’s second role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the opportunity came out of the blue after Quantumania director Peyton Reed had already told the actor that his original Ant-Man character, Kurt, would not return for the threequel. Dastmalchian was so inspired by Reed’s pitch for the CG Freedom Fighter character that he put together a tape that included Veb’s potential voice and movement, and Reed responded with an invitation for Dastmalchian to come and perform Veb’s motion capture on the film’s London set.

The offer was music to Dastmalchian’s ears, as he was coming off a tough shoot that was...

The love affair between Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund and the Cannes Film Festival continues.

The 48-year-old director will return to the scene of his recent triumph, as it was just last year that his “Triangle of Sadness” came away with the coveted Palme d’Or, the top prize at the most prestigious festival in world cinema. (Don’t tell Venice I said that.)

“I am happy, proud, and humbled to be trusted with the honor of jury president for this year’s competition at the Festival de Cannes,” he wrote in an announcement released by the festival early Tuesday morning. “I am sincere when I say that cinema culture is in its most important period ever,” he continued.

Östlund’s “Triangle” is, of course, currently a long-shot Oscar candidate in three categories: Best Director (a nomination for Östlund), Best Original Screenplay (another nomination for Östlund), and Best Picture (a nomination...

From The Video Archives Podcast, writer/director Roger Avary and writer/producer Gala Avary discuss a few of their favorite movies with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Taxi Driver (1976)

Star Wars (1977)

Matinee (1993)

Dune (1984)

Terror On A Train a.k.a. Time Bomb (1953)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Batman (1989)

Yentl (1983)

Nuts (1987)

Spaceballs (1987)

Die Hard (1988)

Top Gun (1986)

Cocksucker Blues (1972)

Mijn nachten met Susan, Olga, Albert, Julie, Piet & Sandra (1975)

Straw Dogs (1971)

The Godfather (1972)

A History Of Violence (2005)

Day Of The Dolphin (1973)

Babylon (2022)

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022)

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)

Carrie (1976)

Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995)

Blow Out (1981)

The Matrix (1999)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Killing Zoe (1993)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The Tenant (1976)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Bugsy Malone (1976)

Phantom Of The Paradise (1974)

The Muppet Movie (1979)

The Rules Of Attraction (2002)

The Sound Of Music (1965)

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)

Giant (1956)

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Babe (1995)

Time Bandits...

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.

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.

The Batman (Matt Reeves)

Over the 80 years of his comic book, televised, and cinematic existence, Batman has always grappled with his secretive dual identity. Bruce Wayne hobnobs and toasts champagne with fellow philanthropic one-percenters during the day, while his Caped Crusader alter-ego attempts to clean up Gotham City and its never-ending crime problem at night, a particularly torturous method of dealing with childhood trauma. But in The Batman, director Matt Reeves’ moody and riveting addition to the canon, that binary is mostly absent. The cape and cowl isn’t so much a nocturnal costume as it is around-the-clock attire. – Jake K. (full review)

Where to Stream: HBO Max

Brut Force (Eve Symington)

Finding a unique location to place a neo-noir––a genre...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Paris Theater

An all-35mm Jane Campion retrospective is underway, with the director present for The Piano on Sunday.

Metrograph

Films by Varda, Chris Marker, Demy, and Resnais play in a new series on Left Bank cinema; “Metrograph A to Z” returns with Polanski’s Bitter Moon; Heavy Metal, Fantastic Planet, and Perfect Blue screen late.

Museum of Modern Art

A Peter Bogdanovich retrospective has begun, as has a look at the films of Larry Clark.

Roxy Cinema

Prints of Black Orpheus and Pink Narcissus play this weekend.

Film Forum

A new restoration of Joseph Losey’s The Servant begins playing, while Donkey Skin screens on Sunday.

Museum of the Moving Image

As First Look commences the Museum offers “Second Look,” a retrospective of past festivals that includes a print of Chantal Akerman’s Almayer’s Folly and Loznitsa’s Donbass.

French helmer Bertrand Mandico has achieved a cult following for his gender-bending sensorial surrealist visions, with more than 20 short films and two feature films completed to date.

His first feature, “The Wild Boys,” about five wealthy adolescent boys sent to a tropical island, all played by actresses, premiered in Venice. It won the Louis-Delluc 2018 prize for best first film and topped Cahiers du Cinéma’s 2018 list of Top 10 films.

His sophomore feature “After Blue (Dirty Paradise),” is a sci-fi western, again primarily with a female cast, including Mandico’s fetish actress Elina Löwensohn. It had its world premiere at Locarno in 2021, where it won the Fipresci prize, followed by its North American premiere in Toronto’s Midnight Madness sidebar, and U.S. premiere in the Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Film. It won the Special Jury Prize at Sitges.

The helmer is now completing post-production on his third feature,...

Reunited space rock trio Failure return in December with Wild Type Droid, the Los Angeles band’s third album since their reunion in 2013.

Ahead of the album’s December 3rd release on their own Failure Music – and available to preorder now – the group unleashed the first single “Headstand.”

“The lyrics come from my earliest memory of spacing-out in my room when I was seven, trying to conceive of infinity and watching the dust falling through the bars of sunlight pouring through my blinds,” Failure’s Greg Edwards said in a statement.

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.

Art-House Animation

If your eyes are tired of the latest cookie-cutter animation from the Hollywood mill, Criterion is featuring quite a line-up of inventive arthouse offerings in the field. With works by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more, the series includes The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962), Belladonna of Sadness (1973), Fantastic Planet (1973), Watership Down (1978), Son of the White Mare (1981), Alice (1988), Millennium Actress (2001), Mind Game (2004), Paprika (2006), Persepolis (2007), Waltz with Bashir (2008), Mary and Max (2009), It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012), Tower (2016), The Wolf House (2018), No. 7 Cherry Lane (2019), and more.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Neo-Noir

One of the greatest series to arrive on the Criterion Channel thus far is this selection of neo-noir offerings, including Brian De Palma’s masterpieces Blow Out and Body Double,...

Frank Moreno, who was known for screening films at Cannes for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures to purchase and distribute in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, died Wednesday in Florida. He was 82 and died after a brief battle with cancer, according to his daughter.

Moreno was a promoter for such Art films as Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers and Federico Fellini’s Amarcord, both the biggest US grossing pictures of the directors’ careers up to that point.

He also touted Volker Scholondorff’s The Tin Drum, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1980; Bruce Beresford’s Breaker Morant; Fantastic Planet, the winner of numerous animated awards; and Bergman’s The Magic Flute.

In addition, Moreno acquired and distributed many mainstream commercial pictures, including The Private Eyes, starring Tim Conway and Don Knotts; managed theater circuits, including one out of Florida; and was a consultant to movie producers,...

The current state of American animated cinema is more than a little disappointing; Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks, and more regurgitate the same formula and offer nothing new but a juxtaposition of cartoon designs and hyper-realistic imagery; animation for adults is all too rare. When something like Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski’s Cryptozoo comes along, it’s easy to recognize as one of the most gorgeous works of American animation in ages.

There is a willingness to experiment with animation and layers that is present from the very first frames of Cryptozoo that makes it immediately captivating. One simply watches two hippies roaming through the forest, engaging in their erotic and philosophical musings, without the realization that something so small and dark and intimate will explode into a psychedelic adventure that asks an important question: can humans and cryptids ever truly co-exist in peace?

As amusing as the notion of potentially...

The word “psychedelic” certainly applies when describing “Son of the White Mare,” director Marcell Jankovics’ stunning 1981 animated odyssey, which finally makes its way to American audiences nearly 40 years later. Viewers don’t have to ingest psychedelics to appreciate the visual poetry of every frame, but : Comprised of shimmering bright colors, it’s a Hungarian folk tale that bends, twirls, and morphs, with an all-consuming energy that never lets up. “Son of the White Mare” may be the greatest psychedelic animated movie ever made.

The movie’s hypnotic power works in tandem with a simple narrative arc — a fallen king, the noble son rising from the ashes to set things right, the usual jam. The animation invites readymade comparisons to two earlier stalwarts of the genre, “Fantastic Planet” and “Yellow Submarine,” owing enough to those precedents that it may as well be conceived on a grid. At the same time,...

With “The Midnight Gospel,” Pendleton Ward left “Adventure Time” far behind, while Duncan Trussell found new meaning in repurposing his funny, philosophical podcast interviews. Together, they pushed the boundaries of animation at Netflix with their trippy and darkly comic journey through a simulated multiverse undergoing apocalyptic meltdowns. And the fact that the series dropped during the pandemic lockdown makes it seem all the more relevant and therapeutic.

“The pandemic is surreal on its own. I hope the show is enjoyable as a distraction right now,” said Ward, who enjoyed the freeform structure. “That’s my favorite way to work now…to provide a comedy/visual aesthetic direction to work under but to break the rules if someone has a cool idea. Making art exciting and not just a grind!”

Ward’s concept for “The Midnight Gospel” (an official selection of the Annecy 2020 Online festival) was to create a crazy quilt...

With “The Midnight Gospel,” Pendleton Ward left “Adventure Time” far behind, while Duncan Trussell found new meaning in repurposing his funny, philosophical podcast interviews. Together, they pushed the boundaries of animation at Netflix with their trippy and darkly comic journey through a simulated multiverse undergoing apocalyptic meltdowns. And the fact that the series dropped during the pandemic lockdown makes it seem all the more relevant and therapeutic.

“The pandemic is surreal on its own. I hope the show is enjoyable as a distraction right now,” said Ward, who enjoyed the freeform structure. “That’s my favorite way to work now…to provide a comedy/visual aesthetic direction to work under but to break the rules if someone has a cool idea. Making art exciting and not just a grind!”

Ward’s concept for “The Midnight Gospel” (an official selection of the Annecy 2020 Online festival) was to create a crazy quilt...

Grégoire Melin’s Paris-based Kinology will sell Sacrebleu’s upcoming animated feature “Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds,” set to host Was an Annecy Works in Progress panel at the upcoming digital version of the world’s largest animation festival and market.

At March’s Cartoon Movie in the French port city of Bordeaux, the films singular visuals and family-friendly story caught the eye of many in attendance, and makes it one of the most anticipated productions set to participate at this year’s Annecy.

Kinology has a strong reputation in dealing with independent arthouse animated features, including the critically acclaimed 2014 Annecy main competition player “Mune: Guardian of the Moon.”

“We’re thrilled to partner with Ron and Benoit on such a unique, poetic and emotional journey; it has everything to become a true future kids’ classic in the line of ‘The King and the Mockingbird’ and ‘Kirikou,’” Kinology CEO Grégoire Melin told Variety.

With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.

The world of René Laloux’s 1973 animated classic “Fantastic Planet” (now streaming on HBO Max) is populated by humans known as Oms and giant blue aliens called Draags, who steal Omns and raise them as pets. The Omns lucky enough to escape Draag oppression live in fear on the planet Ygam, and every so often a group of them are slaughtered by Draags that wish to control the Om population. If the broad strokes of that storyline sound familiar, it’s because the allegory at the heart of “Fantastic Planet” remains as urgent as ever 47 years after the film world premiered at Cannes and won the Grand Prix.

Laloux cowrote the “Fantastic Planet” script with Roland Topor, a French illustrator and writer...

Reunited alt-rockers Failure will celebrate their three Nineties albums with a trio of three-night residencies as well as a box set collecting the newly remastered LPs and unreleased tracks from the era.

In July 2020, Failure will host three-night residencies in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, with each night featuring a full-album performance of one of their first three LPs: 1992’s Steve Albini-produced Comfort, 1994’s Magnified and their 1996 space rock epic Fantastic Planet.

Additionally, Failure will also release the four-lp box set Failure 1992 to 1996, featuring the three remastered and...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

A series of New York-set films from 1981 begins with work by Abel Ferrara, Frederick Wiseman and more.

Alain Corneau’s Série noire has been restored and brought to screens. See the trailer here.

“Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z” continues with The Awful Truth.

House, Mulholland Dr., Ms. 45, and Fantastic Planet play late-night, while Edward Scissorhands screens early.

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Alain Corneau’s Série noire has been restored and brought to screens. See the trailer here.

“Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z” has a stacked weekend of Antonioni, Tashlin and more.

House, Mulholland Dr., and Fantastic Planet play late-night, while The Black Stallion screens early.

Film at Lincoln Center

A number of new restorations...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Stage a Satoshi Kon double bill, with Millennium Actress and Perfect Blue both screening.

“Shaw Sisters,” a series on female-directed Hong Kong cinema, has its final weekend.

A print of The Green Ray continues, while Assault on Precinct 13 and The Angel Levine both screen.

Fantastic Planet and Spirited Away play on opposite sides of the day.

Family functions often go awry, but few end up quite as bloody as that of the DeKalb clan in To Your Last Death, a crowdfunded time travel splatter story billed as the world’s first feature-length animated horror film.

When warmongering megalomaniac Cyrus finds out he’s terminally ill, he summons his estranged children to his corporate headquarters to discuss his legacy. His paternal instincts, however, are a little askew, and the DeKalb kids—“whore” Kelsey, a Beverly Hills-type prone to self-harm, Collin, an uptight banker who publicly denounced his father’s handling of the state budget, and “autoerotic asphyxiator” Ethan, a wiseass who was “far busier doing his eighth-grade math teacher than eighth-grade math”—quickly find themselves stuck in Saw-style deathtraps devilishly modeled on the various ways they have disappointed dad. The sole survivor is “looney” Miriam, our protagonist, who escapes only to be approached by the mysterious Gamemaster,...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday.

Last Friday saw the release of Laika’s “Missing Link,” a singular and exquisitely crafted piece of stop-motion animation at a time when generic, computer-generated fare is dominating the market (IndieWire’s positive review can be read here). Naturally, it bombed.

This week’s question: In an attempt to call attention to the films that treat feature-length animation like the art form that it is, what’s the most beautifully animated film ever made?

“5 Centimeters Per Second”

Hoai-Tran (@htranbui), SlashFilm

Makoto Shinkai may be best known as the director behind the 2017 global mega-hit “Your Name,” but he has long established himself as a singular anime filmmaker whose pensive metaphysical plots are only bested by his gorgeous photorealistic renderings of modern-day Tokyo. While his 2013 short film “The Garden of Words” is objectively...

Bertrand Mandico's The Wild Boys (2017), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing September 14 – October 14, 2018 as a Special Discovery.French director Bertrand Mandico shared with us the films he thought about before, during, and after making his feature debut, The Wild Boys:ISLANDSThe Saga of AnatahanMatango: Attack of the Mushroom People: The island and its fauna and flora, the mushroom-men, the sinking. A sublime film.Lord Jim: The tempest sequence in the opening and the cowardice of Lord Jim—an amazing film.A High Wind in Jamaica: For the confusion of the captain played by Antony Quinn, the phlegm of James Coburn and the beauty of his young crew.The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Lewis John Carlino, 1976): For the erotic figure of the Captain (Kris Kristofferson) and its clique of violent boys.Remorques: A romantic and captivating film with sequences...

2017 Winners of A Night of Horror and Fantastic Planet Film Festivals Sydney, Australia, December 6, 2017 – The winners of the 2017 A Night of Horror Film Festival and Fantastic Planet Film Festival are announced. Presented by Deadhouse Films, the 11th annual A Night of Horror International Film Festival and Fantastic Planet, Sydney Sci-Fi …

The post Winning films of 11th annual Sydney Horror and Sci-fi Film Festivals first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net 2018 - Official Horror News Site...

Presented by Deadhouse Films, the 11th annual A Night of Horror International Film Festival and Fantastic Planet, Sydney Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival showcased a stunning array of the latest and greatest horror, sci-fi, thriller and fantasy films from around the globe.

At the conclusion of the festival, the winners of the 2017 A Night of Horror Film Festival and Fantastic Planet Film Festival were announced – and they include:

Norbet Keil’s gorgeously gruesome body horror Replace took A Night of Horror’s “Best Film” award. While Brazilian filmmaker Samuel Galli captured “Best Director” for his confronting serial killer / supernatural chiller Our Evil. That film’s mesmerising lead actor, Ademir Esteves, won the award for “Best Male Performance”. And the “Best Female Performance” award was given to Dafna Kronental for her stunning performance in the beautifully lensed and terrifying Australian outback nightmare The Marshes. A Night of Horror’s “Independent Spirit...

Presented by Deadhouse Films, the 11th annual A Night of Horror International Film Festival and Fantastic Planet, Sydney Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival announce the first wave of programming for the 2017 event today. Both festivals will run concurrently at Dendy Cinemas Newtown, from November 29th to December 3rd 2017. Says programming director Dean Bertram:

The festivals’ programmers are delighted to announce a stunning array of frightening, bloody, and awe-inspiring cinema from around the world. This first wave is an international cinematic buffet. It includes the freshest and best of this season’s fantastic genre fare: incredible films from Australia, Europe, North and South America, and Africa.

The first eight feature films announced by the two festivals – all of which are Sydney, Australian, or international premieres – are below. More program details and guest announcements will be revealed at the end of the month when tickets also go on sale.

Bad Black (dir: Nabwana I.G.G.,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

All These Sleepless Nights (Michal Marczak)

Blurring the line between documentary and fiction like few films before it, Michal Marczak‘s All These Sleepless Nights is a music-filled ode to the ever-shifting bliss and angst of youth set mostly in the wee hours of the day in Warsaw, Poland. Marczak himself, who also plays cinematographer, is wary to delineate the line between narrative and nonfiction, and part of the...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Tuesday, August 1

Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train

Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.

Screened at three of the top 5 genre fests in the world: 37th Fantasporto (Portugal) and 35th Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifff) in 2017 and A Night of Horror and Fantastic Planet Film Festival in 2016. The biggest indie film from Portland, Oregon, USA in years.Neil Stryker And The Tyrant Of Time official website: …

The post Neil Stryker And The Tyrant Of Time – First Look! first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net 2017 - Official Horror News Site...

Above: Soviet poster for The Ghost That Never Returns (Abram Room, Soviet Union, 1929). Designed by the Sternberg Brothers.Have you seen what’s playing on Mubi lately? Many of you who read my column may not often partake of the best of what Mubi has to offer, which is a beautifully curated, constantly changing selection of films which amounts to a top-notch repertory cinema on your laptop and in your living room. Now that Mubi is on the Roku app too there is even more reason to subscribe to the best film streaming deal on the internet. I know, I know, there is always too much to see and too little time, but for me what elevates Mubi over other streaming services—and I’m not just saying this because I write for them—is the 30-day model which offers you a new surprise every morning as well as the...

To celebrate The Criterion Collection’s 2016 releases — and there’s a lot to celebrate — Arik Devens, David Blakeslee, Keith Enright, Scott Nye, and Trevor Berrett gather to talk about the past year in Criterion, including their favorite three Criterion releases of 2016.

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Episode Notes Arik’s List

– Favorite Cover: A Brighter Summer Day

– Favorite Packaging: Trilogia de Guillermo del Toro

– Favorite Releases:

3) Fantastic Planet

2) Wim Wenders: The Road Trilogy

1) Night and Fog

David’s List

– Favorite Cover: Lady Snowblood

– Favorite Packaging: Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

– Favorite Releases:

3) The Executioner/Death by Hanging

2) Chimes at Midnight

1) The Emigrants/The New Land

Keith’s List

– Favorite Cover: Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

– Favorite Packaging: Valley and Beyond the Valley

– Favorite Releases:

3) Valley of the Dolls and Beyond the Valley

2) One-Eyed Jacks

1) The Kennedy Films of...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)

As we await Paul Thomas Anderson‘s next film later this year, one now has the chance to see his sprawling second feature about the world of pornography in a 70s and 80s Los Angeles on Netflix. Boogie Nights, which features much of the ensemble — including Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Heather Graham — at their best,...

While everyone else is busy asking if the movies are dying or not, the Criterion Collection — year after year — is quietly devoting themselves to making sure that the medium will live forever.

Widely accepted as the gold standard of DVD, Blu-Ray, and beyond (2016 saw the company expand their grasp on the world of home video with the launch of FilmStruck, a streaming platform that’s largely dedicated to their roster of films and the cinephiles who can’t live without them), Criterion operates in a gilded bubble of their own design — it doesn’t matter if physical media is on the decline, people who swore off buying DVDs years ago still find themselves stockpiling those beautifully packaged Criterion editions like they’re building a library of precious volumes, like their homes would be glaringly incomplete without them.

The Best of 2016: IndieWire’s Year in Review Bible

2016 was business...

Dr. Dean Bertram, the founder and director of Australia’s two leading genre film festivals: A Night of Horror International Film Festival and Fantastic Planet, Sydney Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival is expanding his reach to the Us with the announcement of the founding of a new film festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin… the MidWest WeirdFest.

The inaugural MidWest WeirdFest will run March 3-5, 2017 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Says Bertram:

MidWest WeirdFest is a cinematic celebration of all things fantastic, frightening, alternative and just plain weird. A film festival that not only champions and showcases independent genre cinema – horror, sci-fi, fantasy and thriller – but one that welcomes all types of underground film. From experimental and avant-garde to offbeat documentaries.

The festival is currently accepting film submissions until January 20, 2017. For more details visit the festival’s official website: www.midwestweirdfest.com...

Presented by Deadhouse Films, The 10th annual A Night of Horror International Film Festival, and Fantastic Planet: Sydney Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival, screen simultaneously at Dendy Cinemas Newtown from November 24 to December 4, 2016. Says festival director Dean Bertram:

The 10th annual festival is going to be our biggest event yet. Featuring over 100 films, several international filmmaker guests, multiple parties and a horror filmmaking master class; Sydney’s genre fans and filmmaking community are going to be treated to eleven days of the best and freshest horror, sci-fi, and fantasy from around the globe.

The festival opens on Thursday November 24, with the Australian premiere of the international festival hit Peelers, plus a Q&A with special international guest: Canadian director Sevé Schelenz. And in keeping with the spirit of the bloody hilarious film, the screening will be followed by a “zombie and strippers” themed after party.

The closing night film,...

"When he finds you... run." Those words of advice are taken to heart by a woman being pursued by the titular character in our exclusive clip from The Demolisher, which comes out on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD today from Mpi Media Group.

Press Release: New York, NY (September 2, 2016)- Like the stylistically brutal films of Nicolas Winding Refn, The Demolisher, from Canadian director Gabriel Carrer, is an unapologetic portrayal of what can happen when a fragile mind is pushed too far. Winner of the 2015 Fantasia Film Festival's Silver Audience Award, this "powerful jolting entry in the vigilante genre" (Bloody-Disgusting) will be available on Digital HD and Blu-ray/DVD starting October 4, 2016.

The Demolisher stars Ry Barrett (Kingdom Come, Ejecta), Tianna Nori (Bite), Jessica Vano (Crackerhead), and Duncan McLellan ("Arrow"). Along with Carrer and Barrett, the film's producers include Christian Burgess, Andrew Bussey, Martin Buzora, Duane Frey, and Angus McLellan, who also served as editor.

A Night of Horror International Film Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Australia’s longest running horror film festival screens with Fantastic Planet: Sydney Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival at Dendy Cinemas Newtown from November 24 to December 4, 2016. Presented by Deadhouse Films, the two festivals are now announcing the first wave of feature programming …

The post Sydney’s 10th Annual Horror and Sci-Fi Film Fest First programming Wave first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net - Official News Site...

There are networks that play cartoons 24 hours a day. There's a daunting amount of animated fare available to stream, and high-profile CG animated family films are among the biggest box-office hits year after year. There is, quite honestly, an embarrassment of animated riches available to modern audiences. So it seems almost pedantic to pine for the halcyon days of Saturday morning cartoons, to get all nostalgic for an era when the wide theatrical release of a fully-animated adult film like Heavy Metal” was a big, big deal.

But I do, dammit, because there was a time when us science fiction fans (at least in the West) were lucky to get one animated film or TV show a year, making the likes of “Heavy Metal, “Fantastic Planet, “Rock & Rule, “Akira, and &l [Continued ...]...

Funko's Pop! keychain line is adding the fierce Alien Queen to its ranks. Also in today's Highlights: The Demolisher release details as well as preview pages and cover art for the 16th issue of Harrow County from Dark Horse Comics.

Funko's Alien Pocket Pop! Keychain Release Details: From Funko: “The newest Pocket Pop! Keychains are coming soon!

Decorate your key ring with Happy of the Fairy Tail Guild, Inside Out's resident odd couple Joy and Sadness, Dragonball Z's Goku and Vegeta, or the Alien Queen!

Coming this fall!”

Image from Funko:

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The Demolisher Coming to Digital HD, Blu-ray, and DVD: Press Release: "New York, NY (September 2, 2016)- Like the stylistically brutal films of Nicolas Winding Refn, The Demolisher, from Canadian director Gabriel Carrer, is an unapologetic portrayal of what can happen when a fragile mind is pushed too far. Winner of the 2015 Fantasia Film Festival's Silver Audience Award,...

Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

The “Cassavetes/Rowlands” series ends on a real high note.

This Saturday, Dead Man plays with Jim Jarmusch and Chris Eyre in-person. It also screens on Sunday as part of “Native to America,” a series that brings the latter’s Smoke Signals on the same day.

Lucio Fulci‘s A Cat in the Brain screens on Saturday.

In this episode of CriterionCast Chronicles, Ryan is joined by David Blakeslee, Arik Devens, Aaron West and Scott Nye to discuss the Criterion Collection releases for June 2016.

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Episode Links Le amiche (1955) Amazon.com: Le amiche Le amiche: Friends—Italian Style Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) Amazon.com: Here Comes Mr. Jordan Here Comes the Angel of Death La chienne (1931) Amazon.com: La chienne La chienne: He, She, and the Other Guy Fantastic Planet (1973) Amazon.com: Fantastic Planet Fantastic Planet: Gambous Amalga Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Amazon.com: Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Criterion Designs: Dr. Strangelove Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) Amazon.com: Clouds of Sils Maria iClouds of Sils Maria Episode Credits Ryan Gallagher (Twitter / Website) David Blakeslee (Twitter / Website) Aaron West (Twitter / Website) Arik Devens (Twitter / Website...