Movies

Picolo Pictures has unveiled exclusive first-look images for their upcoming feature “On the Run” (“La petite cavale”), currently presented at Annecy’s MIFA Pitches. The film will see a young male blue penguin, Cookie, who dreams of becoming a dad. Cookie can’t lay an egg, but a volcanic eruption turns his New Zealand refuge upside down

“The Blackening” is a slasher movie that’s also a slapdash enjoyable social satire. That the satire turns out to be sharper than the scares isn’t a problem — it’s all part of the film’s slovenly demonic party atmosphere. The set-up, which feels like a “Friday the 13th” sequel by way of “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” reunites

John Romita Sr., one of the key artists in Marvel Comics’ history who co-created characters such as Wolverine, the Punisher and Mary Jane Watson, has died. He was 93 years old. Romita’s death was confirmed by his son, fellow comics artist John Romita Jr., in a post on social media Tuesday evening. “I say this

At Tuesday’s New York’s premiere of Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” the star-studded cast had plenty to say about Hollywood’s writers strike. Scarlett Johansson, Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston and Rupert Friend revealed how they really feel about the face off between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers while

HBO’s “The Last of Us” took home the program of the year award at the 44th Banff World Media Festival. The series was awarded at the 2023 Rockie Award Gala on Tuesday evening alongside other individuals, programs, films and media outlets. The event is held annually in Banff, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies. Craig Robinson,

The man who directed a scene so bloody it was filmed in black and white to avoid an NC-17 rating has some qualms with violence in film. In an hourlong conversation at the Cannes Film Festival, Quentin Tarantino addressed some parts of his book “Cinema Speculation” and he teased his 10th and final film, “The

Ncuti Gatwa is gearing up for a busy back half of 2023 thanks to his supporting role in “Barbie” (opening in theaters July 21), his fourth and final season of Netflix’s “Sex Education” (coming in the fall) and his introduction as the title character of “Doctor Who” (coming this Christmas). Gatwa touched upon all of

Miriam Margolyes’ acting career includes a BAFTA-nominated role in Martin Scorsese’s “The Age of Innocence,” “Reds,” “Mulan,” “Call the Midwife” and a lot more, but it’s her appearance as Professor Sprout in two “Harry Potter” movies that have made her a recognizable face across the world — not that Margolyes cares too much for the

John Whittingdale, U.K. Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, has unveiled his vision for the sector on the back of the British government’s ambitious plans to grow the creative industries by £50 billion ($63 billion). So far this year, films made in Britain have taken audiences from the depths of

The U.K. government has unveiled new plans aimed at maximizing the potential of the country’s creative industries and fostering economic growth. The creative sector, identified as a priority by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, has consistently outperformed the wider economy, growing at a rate 1.5 times faster over the past decade and contributing £108 billion in

From “Avengers” sequels to “Transformers” flicks, so many summer blockbuster end with cities on fire and the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Those moments are usually conjured up by CGI. But major studios looking to promote the hell out of their July or August releases may be in an all-too-real bind that even

Genndy Tartakovsky, behind “Hotel Transylvania” and “Star Wars: Clone Wars,” has revealed the voice cast – led by Adam Devine, Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn – and a first-look image for his upcoming R-rated animation, “Fixed.”  The film, which will be completed in September, is an adult comedy about Bull: an average dog who discovers he’s going

It was positioned as the first big blockbuster battle of summer. But this weekend’s showdown between “The Flash” and Pixar’s “Elemental” isn’t shaping up to be one for box office record books. Both of the mega-budgeted tentpoles are tracking for lackluster starts, with “The Flash,” starring Ezra Miller as the title DC superhero, targeting $70

“The Inseparables,” Jérémie Degruson’s ambitious animated feature competing this week at Annecy festival, has been sold to a raft of territories by Octopolis and nWave. Based on an original idea by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, the Oscar-nominated writers of “Toy Story,” “The Inseparables” follows the misadventures of Don, a runaway puppet with a boundless imagination and,

It’s time to take a dive into the Communiverse.  Disney and Pixar have released the first official trailer for the upcoming animated science fiction feature “Elio,” which is set to debut on March 1, 2024.  “Elio” spotlights the story of an underdog character of the same name who suddenly finds himself transported into the Communiverse,

There are many reasons why Silvio Berlusconi’s death, at 86 due to complications from chronic leukemia, represents the end of an era. Berlusconi single-handedly created the concept of private national network television in Italy. He was part of that rare breed of Logan Roy-esque media moguls to emerge in Europe in the late 1970s and

Kristen Stewart announced in a chat with “The Idol” star Rachel Sennott for Interview Magazine that she is currently writing a screenplay for a “stoner girl comedy” with her fiancée, Dylan Meyer. The project marks the second Stewart-scripted movie that the Oscar winner has announced following her feature directorial debut “The Chronicles of Water,” which

“Joker” fans who are theorizing about the reported musical aspects of the upcoming Joaquin Phoenix-led sequel film finally have a little bit more clarity, thanks to star Zazie Beetz. “I think people will be surprised. I don’t think it’s going to be what they expect, around it being musical,” Beetz, who is reprising her role

Disney is shaking up its release calendar, adding a new “Star Wars” movie and “Moana” live-action adaptation to the schedule and delaying the next three “Avatar” movies by a year. At this rate, the fifth trip to Pandora will be released in 2031. That’s in eight years, for anyone who wants to know the math.

Sapan Studios and IFC Films have acquired U.S. rights to “The Pot-au-Feu,” Trần Anh Hùng’s (“The Scent of Green Papaya”) lush gastronomy-themed romance which competed at the Cannes Film Festival and won best director. The movie is headlined by two of France’s biggest stars, Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel, who won this year’s Cesar Award

A tiger on the loose terrorizing the inhabitants of an unnamed city becomes the launching pad for a meditation on love, loss and grief in Romanian filmmaker Andrei Tănase’s feature debut, “Day of the Tiger.” The film, which had its world premiere in the Bright Future strand at the Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam, plays this

DreamWorks Animation and Netflix will pair on “Orion and The Dark,” a CG family comedy written by Charlie Kaufman and based on a 2014 book by Emma Yarlett. Animator Sean Charmatz will mark his feature debut with this darkly whimsical tale about a young boy confronting his greatest terror. That boy is Orion (voiced by

When “Avatar 2: Way of the Water” surged to the top of the Romanian box office earlier this year to become the highest-grossing film of all time, it marked an auspicious sign for a theatrical business still looking to recover from the doldrums of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet local industry-watchers were even more encouraged to

Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” led the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second consecutive weekend with £4 million ($5.1 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The web-slinging animation now has a total of £16.2 million. Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts” debuted in second place with a healthy £2.9 million. In its third

Ikiru Films (“Bruc-The Manhunt”), Tinglado Film (“Ona”) and Anangu Grup are readying “Black Butterflies” (“Mariposas Negras”), an animated climate exodus film three years in the making that illustrates the journey of three women fleeing uninhabitable terrain towards new lives that prove far from welcoming. The trials and tribulations of each are brought to life by

Scottish actor Ewan McGregor and Swedish actor Alicia Vikander will be honored at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where they will receive the President’s Award, and present their latest films. The festival will open with “Firebrand,” in which Vikander has the leading role of Katherine Parr. McGregor will present “You Sing Loud, I Sing

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has appointed former BFI London Film Festival director Clare Stewart to the position of managing director, taking over from Marjan van der Haar. Stewart was most recently interim CEO at Sheffield DocFest and commences in the role at IFFR on June 21. IFFR has a dual leadership structure where the

It’s time to finally “humanize” the workplace, argued Oscar-nominated director Nora Twomey at Annecy. And women are leading the way. “There was a point when I wanted to prove myself and would spend long hours immersed in animation. It took me until I had kids to start working smarter,” she said.   “Then I got

Los Angeles-based Viva Kids has nabbed a stake in 3Doubles Producciones, a 2D/3D animation studio in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. For now, Viva has acquired a minority interest with an option to acquire a majority stake after two years. Founded by Darío Sánchez in 2017, the company currently employs more than a

In the heart of the Atlantic Ocean, the Canary Islands is rapidly becoming a global animation force.   “Tara Duncan,” has charmed audiences via the Disney Channel, “Arcane,” which also uses a Canary Islands service studio, is one of the biggest shows on the planet, and the merchandise of “Miraculous Ladybug,” is seen everywhere.  All three