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It's been quite some time since Danish helmer Natasha Arthy was last on the big screen but after a lengthy - and productive - foray into television but she's headed back to cinemas for the first time since 2007's Fighter with upcoming comedy Comeback.Comedian Thomas Vang has wrecked his career and will do anything to return to the top. Even if it is just warming up for his friend, the successful Mads Andersen, he goes all out to get his career back on track. However, when his cheeky teenage daughter, Frederikke, suddenly turns up out of the misty fog of oblivion, Thomas' life is turned upside down. She does whatever she can to sabotage his dreams, and before Thomas realizes what has hit him, he...

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When last we heard from Danish director Natasha Arthy the occasion was her stellar 2007 martial arts coming of age story Fighter, a film that neatly balances out character drama with tightly choreographed martial arts and which was a selection of the Berlinale. Arthy's been busy since but her work has all been in television since Fighter - very high end television, too, as she did significant work on the original (and superior) version of The Killing - but she's moving back into features now with dark comedy Comeback.Comedian Thomas Vang has wrecked his career and will do anything to return to the top. Even if it is just warming up for his friend, the successful Mads Andersen, he goes all out to get his...

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

It's always a night full of sportstastic fun when the 2014 Espy Awards go down in Los Angeles. The spectacular event took place this evening (July 16) inside the Nokia Live Theater and featured the wonderful emcee skills of rapper Drake.

As for the evening's winners, the Best Team prize went to the Seattle Seahawks and Best Male and Female Athlete went to Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) and Ronda Rousey (Ufc fighter), respectively.

Meanwhile, Chris Brown and Drake proved that there is no more feud over Rihanna by performing a lighthearted skit together.

Check out the full list of ESPYs winners below!

Best Team

Winner Seattle Seahawks, NFL

Boston Red Sox, Mlb

Connecticut Women’s Basketball

Florida State Football

Los Angeles Kings, NHL

San Antonio Spurs, NBA

Best Male Athlete

Winner Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder

Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos

Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers

Floyd Mayweather, Boxer

Best Jockey

Winner Victor Espinoza...

What's this? A new martial arts themed project? From Denmark? Yes, the Scandinavian country may not be the most obvious source of new fight stars - though Natasha Arthy's 2007 effort Fighter is pretty damn good and star Semra Turan absolutely deserves a return trip to the big screen - and yet it will soon bring us a new short film backed by New Danish Screen titled Echoes of A Ronin. Boasting fight choreography by Tim Man (fight coordinator on Scott Adkins star vehicle Ninja 2) with David Sakurai in the lead and Shaky Gonzalez directing the short explores aspecs of the bushido code in a contemporary story also influenced by elements of fairy tale and graphic novels.We've been promised a trailer for this one...

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

London -- Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech" is in pole position to be crowned the big winner at this year's Orange British Academy Film Awards, presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.There is nothing stuttering in the nomination race for the Colin Firth starrer about King George VI with the movie securing 14 slots on the potential kudos count sheet.Hooper secures a best director nomination and the picture a best film tilt. Speech will compete with the David Fincher-directed Facebook drama "The Social Network," balletic thriller "Black Swan," from Darren Aronofsky, Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic "Inception" and the Coen brothers' western remake "True Grit" for the best film nod.In the best director category, Danny Boyle could secure his second BAFTA director nod after Slumdog for his efforts with his adventurous biopic dramatization "127 Hours" if he fends off challenges from Hooper, Aronofsky, Nolan and Fincher.

While the concept of a Danish martial arts film sounds considerably less strange now than it did before the arrival of the excellent Fighter a few years back it's still surprising enough that it merits a mention.

Director Stefano Gonzalez and actor / co-producer David Sakurai (yes, I know, a very unlikely pair of Danish names) recently got together with Pusher 3 co-star Marinela Dekic (also not sounding like a Dane) to create a low budget short film titled Love Is Vengeance. Spun out from a comic book concept and intended as a tribute to Bruce Lee, those involved enjoyed the process enough that Gonzalez and Sakurai are now prepping a feature length martial arts affair titled The Elite.

Still in early development they plan to shoot an early test sequence / promo reel for the film in the very near future but those who want an idea of what's coming can...

If it’s nerd-based, but also horror-inclined, it’s always a good idea to see if Guillermo del Toro is available to produce. That’s what producer Don Murphy and Warner Bros. have done, and lo and behold, del Toro has agreed to produce a live-action adaptation of the D.C. comic book “Deadman”. Del Toro won’t direct, though; that honor will go to Danish director Nikolaj Arcel, director of the inspirational-sounding “Island of Lost Souls”, and one of the writers on a little Danish martial arts gem I saw last year called “Fighter”. According to Variety, “Deadman” will be based on the D.C. comic book character created by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino in 1967. The character first appeared in “Strange Adventures #205″, and is the ghost of a murdered circus acrobat name Boston Brand, who has the power to possess the living in order to seek out his killer.

This thing is beautifully shot (Red One I'm guessing) and contains quite a bit of action and potential. Japanese/Danish actor and co-director David Sakurai tells us it's in the style of Nicholas Refn's pusher trilogy in that it depicts the underworld of Copenhagen, Denmark.

This teaser is a bit rough as the film's still in post-production, but it looks great! The movie stars Stephanie Leon (Hush Little Baby), David Sakurai (Fighter), Daniell Edwards (Westbrick Murders), Erik Holmey (Conan The Barbarian) and Slavko Labovic from the Pusher trilogy!

Update: Thanks to reader dexta who provided this translated synopsis!

A couple of rash decisions suddenly gets fatal concequenses for four young people. The young couple Johnny (David Sakurai) and Milla's (Stephanie Leon) safe every day life takes a unexpected turn when an old childhood friend, Nino (Daniell Edwards), suddenly makes contact with the young couple. Nino's little brother Miki (Dennis Haladyn...

Let's kick off this wonderful day with a trailer for a Danish kung fu film called Fighter. This trailer starts out pretty bad, but quickly turns into a full-fledged martial arts extravaganza that should leave every kung fu fan impressed. I'm sold purely based on this footage alone. In the film, a high school student named Aicha, played by actress Semra Turan, secretly starts training at a professional kung fu club. Eventually she discovers that the the rules of life are not as simple as the rules of kung fu. Thanks to Twitch (via SlashFilm) for debuting this trailer, otherwise I probably wouldn't have ever known about it. Look good? Watch the trailer for Natasha Arthy's Fighter: [flv:http://media2.firstshowing.net/firstshowing/fighter-natasha-arthy-med.flv http://media2.firstshowing.net/firstshowing/fighter-natasha-arthy-med.jpg 480 270] Fighter is both written and directed by Danish filmmaker Natasha Arthy, of films like Miracle and Old, New, Borrowed and Blue previously. The script was co-written by Arthy and fellow Danish...

I’ve been following Natasha Arthy’s Fighter ever since the initial trailers hit, and my anticipation for the film continues to grow as it slowly travels West-ward. The Danish film is about a teenage Turkish girl who finds herself outcast from both her family and society due to conflicting pressures. Ultimately, she finds solace in martial arts. On paper it sounds like a more dramatic Karate Kid, but the trailers also hint at some great Crouching Tiger-esque choreography. By many accounts, the film is phenomenal. Now Twitch brings us the new UK trailer for the film, and while it starts off rather deceptively (you could easily imagine a dramatic Don Lafontaine reading [...]...

Let me be very clear about this. Natasha Arthy’s Fighter is a film we think very, very highly of around these parts so when I put the words ‘misleading’ and ‘awesome’ in the same sentence I don’t want you thinking that the brand new UK trailer for the picture is misleading when it comes to quality. It’s not, this film is fantastic. It’s just that this new trailer makes it look like some sort of vigilante justice film rather than the coming of age picture that it actually is.

In Fighter Arthy went out and got herself an actual, national champion martial artist - who also turned out to be one very fine actress - and built a story around her skills and the fact that being a young Turkish woman in Denmark trying to make her way in a dominantly male sport does not play...

Cologne, Germany -- Norwegian cinema cleaned up at the Nordic Film Days in Lubeck, Germany, with Stian Kristiansen's "The Man Who Loved Yngve" taking the Ndr prize for best film and Nils Gaup's historic epic "The Kautokeino Rebellion," winning the audience award.

The prize for best Nordic feature went to "Dancers" from Danish director Pernille Fischer Christensen. Kine Boman's "Herdswoman," which follows three generations of aboriginal Sami women living in Lapland, took best documentary, while Natasha Arthy's cross-cultural drama "Fighter" won the children and youth prize.

The Nordic Film Days, which celebrates cinema from Northern Europe, wrapped Saturday.

We have the full list of the Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia 2008 award winners. Among those taking home prizes was "Surveillance," a film by Jennfier Chambers Lynch which captured the Best Motion Picture award. Lynch writes alongside Kent Harper, the crime drama/thriller which stars Julia Ormond, Bill Pullman, Pell James and Ryan Simpkins. Also taking significant awards was Brian Cox for his work on "Red," Fernando Meilelles' "Blindness" drama starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo and "Let the Right One In." What is Sitges? The number one fantasy film festival in the world and represents, at the same time, the cultural expression with the most media impact in Catalonia. With a solid experience, the Sitges Festival is a stimulating universe of encounters, exhibitions, presentations and screenings of fantasy films from all over the world. As announced, here are the winners announced by Sitges: Surveillance, by Jennifer Lynch, Best...

Last night the complete list of Sitges award winners was announced, and while a combination of alcohol and air travel has prevented me from posting the news until now, here are my personal highlights. There are several juries on hand and several awards categories at Sitges, so hit the links below to get the complete list of winners from all juries.

There were a few big surprises on the night, the first being that major festival fave Let The Right One In - previously announced as the European Federation of Fantastic Films Festival’s Golden Melies Award as the year’s best European genre film - was completely shut out of the Sitges awards. Instead, Jennifer Lynch’s Surveillance to home the best film prize while Kim Ji Woon took best director for The Good The Bad And The Weird, Brian Cox took best actor for Red and - another surprise,...

When most folks think about Danish cinema, they think Lars Von Trier. He and his Dogma 95 cohorts dominated the scene in the 90s and into the current decade. Europa (Zentropa), Breaking The Waves and Dancer In The Dark all garnered critical acclaim and Lars Von Trier became the darlings of the international film festival circuit. Below the surface of this high-concept, somewhat cerebral identity of Danish cinema, there was also another scene developing below the radar of arthouse critics, the often overlooked world of genre film that we so wholeheartedly love here at Fantastic Fest.

Our pal Anthony Timpson from the Incredibly Strange Film Festival in New Zealand first turned us on to director Lasse Spang Olsen and screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen's 1999 brilliant dark-comedy/action film In China They Eat Dogs. Since then, we've hungrily sought out as much Danish genre film as we could devour. Fantastic Fest programmers Blake Ethridge,...

Date: Thursday, July 17, 2008

Press Release: For Immediate Release

Subject: First Wave of Fantastic Fest content announced

Where: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema South Lamar, Austin, TX

Fantastic Fest, September 18-25, 2008

Contact:

Tim League

(512) 912-0529

info@fantasticfest.com

www.fantasticfest.com

We are proud to announce the first wave of our feature film programming for the 2008 edition of Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. For the past 9 months, we have been scouring the globe for the strangest, the most heart-pounding and the most challenging new genre films. With over 100 films representing over 30 countries, Fantastic Fest is the largest festival of its kind in the United States. We are proud to announce our first slate of 22 confirmed feature films. Also included is information about our signature Fantastic Fest special events and parties.

Feature films:

Art of the Devil 3 (2008, Thailand, director: Ronin Team)

A prequel to one of the most graphic and visually creative horror movies in recent times,...

Date: Thursday, July 17, 2008

Press Release: For Immediate Release

Subject: First Wave of Fantastic Fest content announced

Where: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema South Lamar, Austin, TX

Fantastic Fest, September 18-25, 2008

Contact:

Tim League

(512) 912-0529

info@fantasticfest.com

www.fantasticfest.com

We are proud to announce the first wave of our feature film programming for the 2008 edition of Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. For the past 9 months, we have been scouring the globe for the strangest, the most heart-pounding and the most challenging new genre films. With over 100 films representing over 30 countries, Fantastic Fest is the largest festival of its kind in the United States. We are proud to announce our first slate of 22 confirmed feature films. Also included is information about our signature Fantastic Fest special events and parties.

Feature films:

Art of the Devil 3 (2008, Thailand, director: Ronin Team)

A prequel to one of the most graphic and visually creative horror movies in recent times,...