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Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s All You Need Is Kill novel, which inspired the Hollywood live action adaptation Edge of Tomorrow featuring Tom Cruise & Emily Blunt, is getting an anime film adaptation.

Kenichiro Akimoto is directing the movie at Studio4°C, and Warner Bros Japan is producing it. Akimoto is known for helming Children of the Sea (also Studio4°C) and Berserk: Golden Age Arc movies.

The plot focuses on Rita Vrataski & Keiji Kiriya who keep repeating a single day over and over again amid an extraterrestrial invasion.

A new key visual and teaser video were released to commemorate the anime adaptation. The release window of the anime is yet to be revealed.

©Hiroshi Sakurazaka/Shueisha/All You Need Is Kill Production Committee

Director Akimoto hoped that those who watch the film will find hope for life amid their repetitive everyday routines.

“I am honored to be involved in the animation film adaptation of this wonderful novel.

The massive Hollywood Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow was inspired by the Japanese sci-fi novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Edge of Tomorrow is widely accepted as one of the best action movies, and it also became a huge box office hit.

Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow [Credits: Warner Bros]

However, even after getting a manga on this novel, fans really wanted an anime adaptation as well. Finally, their prayers have been heard as an anime movie announcement has been made by Studio 4°C on All You Need Is Kill.

Needless to say, it is generating a lot of buzz regarding the storyline it will follow and very out-of-the-box animation. Everything should go well if they respect the source material and the core ideas of the series.

All You Need Is Kill anime will have a fresh take Rita Vrataski from All You...

Witch Hat Atelier's anime adaptation will be released in 2025 and will be produced by Bug Films. The anime will be directed by Ayumu Watanabe featuring character designs by Kairi Unabara. The trailer and key visual unveiled at Anime Expo reveal the anime has managed to maintain the series' whimsical tone and lovable designs.

Kamome Shirahama's popular fantasy series Witch Hat Atelier is being adapted into an anime which has finally received an official release window, a brand-new trailer, and a new key visual. First announced in 2022, news of Witch Hat Atelier's anime adaptation was met with plenty of excitement, and after a two-year-long wait, fans finally have a release date to look forward to.

According to an announcement on X, the anime adaptation of Witch Hat Atelier is expected to release in 2025 and will be produced by Bug Films, also known for producing Zom 100. The announcement was accompanied by a...

Eurozoom, a leading French distributor for Japanese animation, has forged a strategic partnership with major French animation producer Special Touch Studios, led by founder and CEO Sebastien Onomo.

“We both share the same passion for animation and want to tell bold stories with a particular attention to professional diversity,” said Eurozoom’s CEO-Founder Amel Lacombe, who added that they were jointly working on a six-animation feature lineup.

Leading the pack is “Melvile,” directed by Romain Renard and Fursy Teyssier. Initiated and produced by Anne-Laure Guégan alongside Onomo, the feature is an adaptation of the eponymous graphic novel “Les Chroniques de Melvile” by the multi-awarded comic artist Romain Renard.

“Melvile” revolves around Paul, who, since his fourteenth birthday, has been haunted by the belief that he is responsible for the disappearance of Ruth, his first love, who perished in a fire. Two decades later, he returns to Melvile to settle his grandmother’s estate.

Mermaid fairy tales have enjoyed lasting popularity since Andersen's “The Little Sea Maid” and La Motte-Fouqué's “Undine”. Recent (unequal) reboots can further attest to this enduring appeal. Nothing surprising when considering the universality of these legendary creatures across civilizations and times. As for Japanese folklore, the Ningyo has gained a significant prominence not long ago through Miyazaki's “Ponyo” (2008). Just a decade later, the director of the celebrated “Mind Game” (2004), Masaaki Yuasa, developed his own rendition, this time in the form of a coming-of-age narrative.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

Kai Ashimoto, a taciturn and disillusioned middle school student, is raised in a small coastal town by a single father in the handcrafted umbrella shop of his grandfather, a retired fisherman. After being exposed for posting music demos online, he agrees to join his classmates, the wannabe Yuho and the carefree Kunio, in a rock band named Seiren,...

Children of the Sea is a visually stunning and philosophically complex film, comparable to Neon Genesis Evangelion. The climax of the film is visually outstanding but narratively complex, with protagonist Ruka experiencing a perspective change of a lifetime as she becomes immersed in intergalactic sea life. The film explores deep concepts of the microcosm-macrocosm relationship and humanity's place within the cosmos.

Children of the Sea is a difficult film to understand. Directed by Ayumu Watanabe and adapted from Daisuke Igarashi's five-volume manga, the film is philosophically comparable to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Watanabe's psychedelic antics have successfully intrigued, dazzled, and ultimately bamboozled countless viewers, some of whom still aren't clear about the movie's conclusion.

Far and away the most confusing part of the film is the climax, wherein protagonist Ruka is absorbed into a maelstrom of intergalactic sea life and spat out the other end with the perspective change of a lifetime.

The Ronnie James Dio-era Black Sabbath live album Live Evil is receiving a 40th anniversary Super Deluxe Edition release on May 19th.

Originally released in December of 1982, Live Evil is culled from Sabbath’s 10-month tour in support of Mob Rules. The 15-song tracklist includes Dio-era staples such as “Neon Knights,” “Heaven and Hell,” and “The Mob Rules,” as well as Sabbath classics such as “Iron Man” and “Paranoid” with Dio on lead vocals.

For the 40th anniversary 4-cd/4-lp edition, the original album’s 15 songs have been remastered by Andy Pearce and are included on the first two discs. Meanwhile, a brand new 2023 mix of the album by longtime band associate Wyn Davis from the original analog multi-tracks is included on the other two discs. An illustrated hardback book featuring new liner notes and replicas of the concert book and the “Mob Rules” tour poster are included...

“Hina is Beautiful,” a new film from Japan’s Iwaisawa Kenji, director of the cult “On-Gaku: Our Sound”), headlines an Annecy Animation Showcase at this year’s Cannes’ Marché du Film.

The Showcase in general looks like a declaration of intentions from the world’s most important animation festival. Its shows heartfelt support for some of the world’s most original, redolent and sometimes riotous – think France’s Jul, Brazil’s Otto Guerra – adult animation auteurs of all ages, hailing from four corners of the earth.

All productions are works in progress, though production status varies radically from one title to another.

“Hina” looks to have largely flown under the international radar to date, which will make this year’s Showcase a must-attend after Iwaisawa burst onto the scene with left-of-field musical comedy “On-Gaku,” hailed by Variety as 2020’s “biggest dark horse in anime fandom.” If it’s half as...

Director Ayumu Watanabe navigates the growing pains of a young girl, coping with life on a houseboat with her mother and the tragicomic dramas of school life

Compared to the cosmically grand anime Children of the Sea, Ayumu Watanabe’s new film is a more intimately scaled coming-of-age story that acutely understands the embarrassment that teenagers have towards their parents once puberty hits. A rotund woman with a bubbly personality, Lady Nikuko – “the Meaty Lady” – has a weakness for food, questionable dirtbags and corny puns. Her snoring rumbles through her modest houseboat like a mini earthquake. To her shy, scrawny daughter Kikurin, she is simply too much.

In fact, despite the title, the film is all about Kikurin’s internal world, as the young girl navigates friend-drama at school and her secret crush on the equally timid Ninomiya, a boy who likes to make outrageously silly faces when no one is watching.

A gleaming and delightful anime with a large appetite for tenderness and laughter, director Ayumu Watanabe’s mother-daughter saga “Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko” boundlessly adores its titular character even when it lingers a tad too long on her happy-go-lucky naiveté or ample love of food.

We get introduced to Nikuko (Shinobu Ôtake), a charming thirtysomething living with her young daughter, Kikuko (Cocomi), as she contentedly works at a local grill house in a small port town in Northern Japan. Heavyset, carefree and irrepressibly joyful in a manner that both puzzles and disarms everyone around her, she is known as “the cheery plump lady who wound up living here” to townsfolk. There is a lot of truth to that, as the film’s stunning opening montage recaps, guided largely by Kikuko’s voiceover, like the rest of the movie.

Being a punch-drunk romantic a little too trusting of scheming men who mercilessly take advantage of her,...

There’s more warmth than wisdom in the animated Japanese coming-of-age drama “Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko,” an exceptionally well-realized variation on a by-now familiar anime story: a young girl learns how to love herself and her life in a picturesque seaside town.

The typically impressive craftsmen at the Japanese animation studio Studio 4°C have successfully highlighted the most endearing parts of this mother-daughter dramedy, which is as much about going through puberty as it is about accepting a parent or guardian for who they are.

Director Ayumu Watanabe and supervising animation director–character designer Kenichi Konishi (“Children of the Sea”) capture the halting rhythms and awkward splendor of daily life in a small port town. That makes all the difference in this story about a shy pre-teen who learns not only to look forward to her adolescence, but also how to empathize with her embarrassing single mother.

Also Read:

Crunchyroll...

Dio’s debut album, Holy Diver, will be reissued this summer to mark what would have been the 80th birthday of the late Ronnie James Dio. The four-cd set, dubbed Holy Diver: Super Deluxe Edition, contains a new remix of the album by Joe Barresi (Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold), the original album remastered, a live album recorded in 1983, and a compendium of outtakes, single versions of tracks, and B-sides. It will come out on July 8, two days ahead of Dio’s birthday.

Barresi’s new mix of the title cut sounds...

Following the impressive “Children of the Sea”, the golden team of Ayumu Watanabe and Studio 4ºC, once more focus on a school girl, Kikuko, although this time she is attending elementary while her mother, the titular Nikuko, is an even bigger part of the picture (pun intended).

“Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko” is screening at Sdaff Spring Showcase

Nikuko, whose name means something on the lines of ‘meat child’, has settled in a seaside town with her daughter, Kikuko, following a series of relationships with men who either exploited or abandoned her, or even both, as the impressive, initial montage eloquently presents. She works in the local tavern, while her daughter, on the cusp of adolescence, attends the local elementary, with all the ‘romance and the politics’ that come with the age being in full blossom. The two of them, however, could not be more different, as Nikuko is big, loud and immature while Kikuko,...

“Poupelle of Chimney Town” begins where “Toy Story 3” ends, with a daring escape from a dangerous garbage incinerator. You see, it’s not always easy to tell the trash from the treasure in Chimney Town, a richly imagined steampunk metropolis where smokestacks crowd the skyline, belching so much thick black haze into the air that an entire generation of soot-covered townspeople has ceased to believe in the stars. The lone exception, a bobble-headed boy named Lubicchi (Antonio Raul Corbo), is always looking up, determined to prove to everyone that there’s something beyond all that “smoky smoke.”

To prove his theory, this pint-sized Galileo’s gonna need help, and he finds it in the form of an unlikely friend, magically brought to life one night from the local landfill — a literal “garbage man” he decides to call Poupelle. This stinky scarecrow-looking character might not seem like the most appealing of companions,...

Distributor plans awards run on latest collaboration with Studio 4°C.

GKids has acquired North American rights to Studio 4°C’s Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (Gyoko No Nikuko-chan) and will submit it for awards consideration this season.

Ayumu Watanabe directed the story based on the novel by Kanako Nishi about a brash, passionate mother and her quiet 11-year-old daughter in a sleepy seaside town whose relationship is threatened by a shocking revelation.

Shinobu Otake, Cocomi and Natsuki Hanae lead the voice cast. Satomi Oshima wrote the screenplay and Japanese comedian Sanma Akashiya served as producer.

GKids, whose credits last season included Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers,...

The fourth edition of the Animation Is Film festival (Aif) returns in-person October 22-24 to the Tcl Chinese 6 in Hollywood, and will kick off opening night with the North American premiere of Netflix’s “The Summit of the Gods,” the breathtaking French 2D feature from director Patrick Imbert (“The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales”), who will do an in-person Q&a.

“The Summit of the Gods” (opening November 24 in select theaters and streaming November 30) is adapted from the popular manga and concerns a Japanese adventure photographer and mountain climber obsessed with finding a legendary climber obsessed with scaling Mount Everest.

Other highlights include the West Coast premieres of GKids’ “Belle” on October 23 and Neon’s award-winning “Flee” on October 24. “Belle” is the musical fantasy 2D reworking of “Beauty and the Beast” from Oscar-nominated anime master Mamoru Hosoda (“Mirai”), who will do an in-person Q&a. “Flee” (December 3) is the...

Following the impressive “Children of the Sea”, the golden team of Ayumu Watanabe and Studio 4ºC, once more focus on a school girl, Kikuko, although this time she is attending elementary while her mother, the titular Nikuko, is an even bigger part of the picture (pun intended).

“Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko” is screening at Fantasia International Film Festival

Nikuko, whose name means something on the lines of ‘meat child’, has settled in a seaside town with her daughter, Kikuko, following a series of relationships with men who either exploited or abandoned her, or even both, as the impressive, initial montage eloquently presents. She works in the local tavern, while her daughter, on the cusp of adolescence, attends the local elementary, with all the ‘romance and the politics’ that come with the age being in full blossom. The two of them, however, could not be more different, as Nikuko is big,...

The Fantasia International Film Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary edition in style, with the announcement of a special screening of James Gunn's The Suicide Squad! We also have a look at more of their impressive lineup, as their second wave has been announced (with a third wave announcement still to come):

The Fantasia International Film Festival will launch its 25th edition this summer as an exciting virtual event composed of scheduled screenings, on-demand library, panels, and workshops, taking place from August 5th to August 25th. The festival will be accessible across Canada, geo-locked to the country, and will maintain unique film admittance quantities in line with the cinema experience.

Fantasia is thrilled to reveal a second wave of programming and will return in late July with a third and final line-up announcement, including features, virtual events, and juries.

In celebration of Fantasia’s 25th anniversary, the international film...

Free Stone Productions, one of Japan’s leading indie film sales firms, is poised to bring a big slate to Cannes. It has added three new titles and a catalog. And it expects to add more before the market gets underway.

Highest profile is the recently-released animation film “Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko” directed by Watanabe Ayumu. The film is a slice of life story about a chubby and cheerful single mother who lives on a houseboat. The company is handling rights only in mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong/Macau. Studio 4C is handling the rest of the world.

Live action additions are represented by “Hazard Lights,” and “Junretsuger.”

The former is a drama directed by Sakaki Hideo (“Disregarded People”) about a driver at a chauffeur service who is forced to pair up with a younger mysterious partner and later to face up to his difficult past.

“Junretsuger” is...

Mona Fastvold’s “The World to Come,” starring Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby, will open the hybrid summer component – running June 2-6 – of the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s 50th edition. Hirota Yusuke’s animated feature “Poupelle of Chimney Town” will close the event.

“The World to Come” is a romantic drama about the forbidden love between two women, played by Waterston and Kirby, in 1850s Upstate New York. The film will be shown as a timed premiere online on June 2, followed by physical screenings in Rotterdam theaters during the festival.

The European premiere of “Poupelle of Chimney Town” is an adaptation of Nishino Akihiro’s children book. It is an imaginative family film with the climate crisis at its heart, produced by Studio 4°C, producers of “Children of the Sea,” which ran in Rotterdam last year. The film will be available on demand until June 9.

The first part of the festival,...

Animated film adaptation of the best-selling novel by Naoki Prize-winning author Kanako Nishi, planned and produced by pacific saury Akashiya. It depicts a miracle that connects the secrets of Kikuko and her mother and daughter, Meiko, who live on a boat at a fishing port. Shinobu Otake is in charge of the voice of the main character, and Cocomi and Natsuki Hanae participate as voice casts. The director is Ayumu Watanabe, such as “Children of the Sea,” and STUDIO4 ℃, known for “Tekkonkinkreet,” is in charge of animation production.

Theatrical release: June 11, 2021...

It wasn’t until Black Sabbath started work on their ninth album, Heaven and Hell, in 1979 that bassist Geezer Butler was able to get an objective perspective on his band’s capabilities. The group had recently split with founding vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and begun working in earnest with a new vocalist, Ronnie James Dio. But Butler soon realized he couldn’t stay committed to the band at that time. “I had loads of problems with my divorce, and I had to go back to England,” he recalls. “I told the guys,...

Black Sabbath released live renditions of “Heaven and Hell” and “The Mob Rules” from the upcoming reissues of their two albums of the same name, which were their only to feature frontman Ronnie James Dio in the Eighties.

The performance of “Heaven and Hell” is a rarity previously released only in Europe in 1980 as the B-side to the band’s “Die Young” single. The rendition of “The Mob Rules,” meanwhile, comes from a previously unreleased April 22nd, 1982 concert at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

The deluxe editions of Heaven and Hell...

Hong Kong-produced crime thriller helped boost the weekend box office up by 45% to $51.4m.

Emperor Motion Pictures’ crime thriller Caught In Time topped the China box office over the weekend (November 20-22), according to figures from Artisan Gateway, grossing $30.3m in its opening three days.

Directed by Lau Ho-leung, the film stars Daniel Wu and Wang Qianyuan in the story of a detective tracking down a gang of criminals ten years after they initially evaded arrest.

Local war epic The Sacrifice slipped to second place after four weekends in pole position, grossing $6m for a cumulative total of $160.9m. Co-directed by Frant Gwo,...

Hong Kong-produced “Caught in Time” gave fresh life to the mainland China box office over its opening weekend.

The fantasy crime thriller about a cop chasing a gang through different eras earned $30.3 million. Produced by Emperor Motion Picture, the film stars the popular Daniel Wu and Wang Qianyuan, and was directed by Lau Ho-leung.

It edged aside patriotic war film “Sacrifice” which had held the top spot for the previous three weekends. “Sacrifice” managed $6.0 million in its fourth weekend, for a cumulative score of $161 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Third place, and a $3.3 million haul, belonged to “Paw Patrol” in its second weekend. That compared with $5.5 million in its opening frame, and extended the film’s 11-day cumulative to $9.6 million.

Disaster action movie “Greenland” opened modestly with $3.2 million for fourth place, despite the presence of Gerard Butler above the title. His previous releases of “Geostorm” and “London Has Fallen...

This is the weekend American film fans have been waiting for with the release of a pair of the year’s biggest movies — Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” and Disney’s live-action version of “Mulan” — after considerable delay.

The fact that the two strategies for sharing these two movies with the public are so wildly different — Nolan insisted on releasing “Tenet” in theaters, while “Mulan” will test Disney Plus’ pricey new “Prime Access” model — shows the degree of turmoil and ingenuity within the industry, as studios do their best to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic. Will audiences find these options safe (or affordable) enough at a time of social distancing and belt-tightening?

Meanwhile, independent distributors have more or less figured out how to deliver their titles — movies that didn’t cost hundreds of millions and therefore don’t rely on grabbing as many viewers as possible over a short span of time — directly to consumers,...

It’s the first day of September and you know what that means? Yes, Netflix has dropped its usual gigantic haul of new titles to kick off the month with. This time around, the streaming service has added over 30 movies and TV shows to its library. And amongst them are a huge number of bonafide classics from all different kinds of genres.

Most notably, the entire Back to the Future trilogy has returned on Netflix, allowing fans to rewatch all three parts of the beloved sci-fi franchise. Alternatively, if you’re in the mood for a musical, Grease is also up on the site from today. But wait, maybe you have a hankering for horror instead. If so, then why not stick on classic 90s flick Anaconda, starring Jennifer Lopez?

Check out the full list of everything that arrived on Netflix on September 1st below:

Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices *Netflix...

September is nearly upon us, which means that Netflix will be adding a whole host of new movies and TV shows to their content library on the first day of the month, as they continue to assert their dominance over the competition in the streaming wars. If anything, the company could do with the focus shifting to pre-existing titles after finding themselves in the headlines for all the wrong reasons recently.

As well as the huge backlash that greeted the controversial first poster for French coming-of-age drama Cuties, Netflix drew criticism after canceling popular shows I Am Not Okay With This and The Society despite previously announcing that both had been renewed for second seasons, while Altered Carbon was also axed in what looks to be just the latest in a long line of cost-cutting measures.

Viewership for all the major streaming services might have gone through the roof as...

As August winds down, it’s time to look ahead to everything that’s hitting the major streaming services in September. As always, there’s an enormous haul of originals and newly licensed titles going up across Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Prime Video over the month, including content from every genre out there.

The first day of September brings the usual lengthy list of movies arriving on most of the sites. Just a few of the highlights include all three Back to the Future films returning to Netflix, every entry in the Twilight saga arriving on Hulu and countless iconic movies going up on HBO Max, including Grease, Miss Congeniality and V for Vendetta. Also, Doctor Who fans will want to take note, as the most recent season of the show lands on HBO Max the same day.

Feel free to inspect the full list of everything...

Netflix is out with its list of everything new coming in the month of September.

The list includes the new space series “Away” starring Hilary Swank, out Sept 4. It also includes all three “Back to the Future” movies, “Grease” and “Magic Mike,” out Sept. 1.

“The Duchess” is out Sept. 11, and Ryan Murphy’s “Ratched” comes Sept. 18.

Leaving throughout the month is “Cold Case Files: Season 1,” “Christopher Robin,” “Jurassic Park,” “Despicable Me” and “Dear John,” to name a few.

Also Read: Streaming Time Almost Doubles as Viewers Flock to Netflix, Hulu During Pandemic | Chart

See the full list below.

Sept. 1

Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices — Netflix Family

The Boss Baby: Get That Baby! — Netflix Family

Felipe Esparza: Bad Decisions — Netflix Comedy Special

La Partita / The Match — Netflix Film

True: Friendship Day — Netflix Family

Adrift

Anaconda

Back to the Future

Back to the Future Part II

Back to the Future Part III...

September marks the start of the traditional TV season. For many networks and cable channels, however, this will be an usual season with the coronavirus pandemic halting production leaving behind paltry fall lineups. Over on Netflix, however, things continue to operate at high capacity.

Netflix is rolling out quite a few original series and movies for its new releases in September 2020. The Hillary Swank-starring space drama Away premieres on September 4. That is followed by a whole host of intriguing concepts including Julie and the Phantoms (Sept. 10), Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (Sept. 18), and even the Nurse Ratched origin story series called Ratched (Sept. 18).

The film side of things is just as packed. Romantic comedy Love, Guaranteed premieres on Sept. 3, Charlie Kaufman’s latest effort I’m Thinking of Ending Things arrives on Sept. 4, and the Tom Holland-starring thriller The Devil All the Time bows on Sept. 16. That’s not even to mention Enola Holmes on Sept.

What titles are coming to Netflix in September 2020? I’m glad you asked. I mean, you personally may not have asked, but someone probably did. Somewhere. Moving on.

Earlier today, the streaming site announced the full list of new movies/TV shows headed to the platform next month and it’s a doozy, comprising over 100 titles. A good chunk of those are Netflix Originals, too, and overall, there’s a ton of exciting stuff on the way.

See for yourself below…

Released September 1

Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices *Netflix Family

The Boss Baby: Get That Baby! *Netflix Family

Felipe Esparza: Bad Decisions/Malas Decisiones (2020) *Netflix Comedy Special

La Partita/The Match *Netflix Film

True: Friendship Day *Netflix Family

Adrift

Anaconda

Back to the Future

Back to the Future Part II

Back to the Future Part III

Barbershop

Barbie Princess Adventure

Borgen: Season 1-3

Children of the Sea

Coneheads

Glory

Grease...

After much thought, and taking into consideration the health of our guests and viewers, Nihon Media announced that Japan Filmfest Hamburg cannot take place this year as a traditional film festival – and will be online instead. Under the motto ‘Breaking Free – From Japan with Love’, Nihon Media will collaborate with Videocity to stream its entire programme of 70+ films in around 40 blocks globally from 19th of August to the 2nd of September.

The 2020 film programme features 70 current productions, from full-length feature films to experimental short films, including many German, European, and international premieres. Most of the films are shown in the original Japanese language with English subtitles. One special highlight of our programme is the gangster-ballad originally planned as the opening film for the 21st Jffh, “Paradise Next” (2018) from director and film composer Yoshihiro Hanno (“Flowers of Shanghai”). An atmospheric road-movie about the travels of three lost souls living on the edges of society,...

“On-Gaku: Our Sound,” an oddball music comedy directed by Kenji Iwaisawa, upends all that is typical of Japanese animation. glutted with mind-bending sci-fi conundrums or elaborate time-slip-body-switching fantasies. But what fuels its easy breakout to western audiences are its bona fide rock references and characters as deadpan as any Aki Kaurismaki cast.

Signs of “On-Gaku” being the year’s biggest dark horse in anime fandom came in September 2019, when it beat “I Lost My Body” and “Children of the Sea” to win the Grand Prix at the Ottawa Animation Festival. It has since been picked up stateside by Gkids and should enjoy wide fest play following its presentation in the Contrechamps Competition section at the Annecy Animation Festival, which just awarded the film a prize for its music.

“On-Gaku,” which simply means “music” in Japanese, was adapted from a revised draft of the cult manga “Ongaku and Manga,” first self-published...

In today’s film news roundup, box office reporting is going away temporarily, Hollywood Teamsters have job opportunities, comedy “The Incoherents” finds a home and Fathom Events postpones more than a dozen releases.

Box Office Reporting

The coronavirus pandemic and the closure of most movie theaters has led to a temporary suspension of North American box office reporting by Comscore, the industry’s box office tracker.

The decision came after Disney announced it would stop global box office reporting, given the current large number of theater shutdowns around the globe.

“Due to this unprecedented situation, Comscore will be temporarily suspending our usual Sunday North American Top 10 Estimates, Global chart and commentary,” Comscore said in a statement. “We will update the status of studio reporting on Monday.”

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told Variety that there will be some revenues this weekend, thanks partly to drive-in movie theaters that have remained open.

Water, as a conduit for romance and spirituality, has been en vogue as of late in Japanese feature animation. Entries in this wet subgenre, where young characters grapple with torrential rain and oceans to dazzling effect, as well as life lessons submerged in nature-based metaphors, include Makoto Shinkai’s box office hit “Weathering With You,” Ayumu Watanabe’s upcoming “Children of the Sea,” and Masaaki Yuasa’s mermaid tale “Lu Over the Wall.”

Returning to that liquid magic, Yuasa, who produces films through his own company Science Saru, makes a new splash with his third feature in three years “Ride Your Wave,” written by Reiko Yoshida, who also penned recent anime standouts “Okko’s Inn,” “A Silent Voice,” and “Liz and the Blue Bird.” Notwithstanding the saturation of H2O-fueled teen movies, the director-screenwriter pair filter a love story through an oddball premise addressing heroism and perseverance with robust notes of graphic originality.

"The entire ocean has begun moving." GKids has unveiled an official Us trailer for the Japanese anime film titled Children of the Sea, which has been playing at a few film festivals last year (after initially opening in Japan in the summer). This is the latest feature made by Japan's Studio 4°C, and is directed by Ayumu Watanabe, with a score by award-winning composer and longtime Studio Ghibli collaborator Joe Hisaishi. The story involves a young girl named Ruka who is drawn into a mystery involving sealife around the world, in which two mysterious water-connected boys are involved. Of course, she falls in love with one of them. Starring the voices of Mana Ashida, Hiiro Ishibashi, Seishû Uragami, and Win Morisaki in the original version. It's a funky film, with a few quirky, odd moments, along with the usual cute, fun moments in so many anime films these ...

Paramount Pictures has moved the controversial gang film Blue Story to a March 20 exclusive opening.

Blue Story is directed by Onwubolu, who is known as Rapman on his successful YouTube videos. His film tells of two London youths whose lives are scarred by gang warfare. Its showing in the UK sparked a mass brawl at a weekend screening, causing at least two cinema chains to pull it from theaters.

The fight, which occurred in Birmingham in central England, involved around 100 people, including someone wielding a machete. Seven police officers were injured trying to quell the brawl.

The March 20 date will have competition from Paramount’s horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II, the comedy/horror film Deerskin from Greenwich Entertainment, the animated Children of the Sea from Fathom Events, a limited release of the comedy Phoenix, Oregon from Aspiration Entertainment, and the Sony Pictures dramedy The Climb.

Paramount also said...

International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) will be held this year from January 23rd until February 2nd. They have announced the line-up for their 2020 edition, which includes a massive number of Asian titles across various categories. Here are all the Asian films which will be showcased at the Dutch festival:

Aahuti

The silent short film explores the concept of Panchabhuta, or the five elements, and follows the filmmaker’s engagement with forms of artistic expression.

Action, Almost Unable to Think

A visually ingenious portrayal of a life story and inner world of a soldier killed in an explosion is told through hypnotically visualized allegoric scenes and objects during an imaginary encounter of views by a scientist searching for a relation to reality, a filmmaker reflecting on a role of time in art and a refugee stripped of the possibility to live in his hometown.

Age of Valiant

Anito

An animistic festival...

With Children of the Sea, director Ayumu Watanabe adapted a manga by Daisuke Igarashi, striving to retain the qualities in the source material that he’d originally responded to, while making the changes necessary to bring its characters into a new medium.

The director’s Oscar-contending animated feature centers on Ruka, a young girl who finds herself drawn into a mystery of the sea. Encountering two boys that were raised in the ocean, at the aquarium where her father works, the girl seeks answers about their supernatural powers, and how they’re connected to strange events involving sea creatures around the world.

When Watanabe first read the manga on which his Gkids film is based, he responded immediately to its visual style. “I was reading [Igarashi’s] manga before Children of the Sea came out, so I was already a fan, and I knew his artwork well,” the director tells Deadline. “For me,...

In the innovative Netflix animated film I Lost My Body, a severed hand skitters across the streets of Paris trying to reunite with its missing anatomical companion. Whether that hand winds up grasping an Oscar is up to Academy voters, in a year when a record 32 contenders qualified for the Best Animated Feature race.

I Lost My Body is an original film, but more than likely a sequel will come away with the Oscar: either Toy Story 4, Frozen 2 or How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the third and final film in the Dragon series.

Walt Disney Studios once again finds itself in prime contention, with the fourth installment in the Pixar Toy Story franchise, which saw the addition of a new character, the spork Forky, voiced by Tony Hale, and an expanded role for Bo Peep (Annie Potts). Toy Story 3 (2010) remains the only sequel to win...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that 344 feature films are eligible for the 2019 Academy Awards.

To be eligible for the consideration, the films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by Dec. 31, and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days. Academy rules also state that a feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format.

Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. The ceremony takes place on Sunday, Feb. 9, airing live from Hollywood on ABC.

“Abominable”

“Ad Astra”

“Adam”

“The Addams Family”

“The Aeronauts”

“After the Wedding”

“The Aftermath”

“Aga”

“Aladdin”

“Alita: Battle Angel”

“Always Be My Maybe”

“The Amazing Johnathan”

“American Factory”

“American Woman”

“Angel Has Fallen”

“The Angry Birds Movie 2”

“Anna”

“Annabelle Comes Home...

At age 14, Ruka feels adrift in the world. At school, she doesn’t have any friends. At home, her parents are absent or distracted most of the time: Ruka’s dad works at the local aquarium, while her mother spends her days drinking beer. , thanks to the splendid attention to detail and seemingly boundless imagination that characterizes “Children of the Sea,” director Ayumu Watanabe’s stunning adaptation of the prize-winning manga by Daisuke Igarashi.

Some audiences won’t go anywhere near anime, no matter how enthusiastic the endorsement, whereas others limit their exposure to only Studio Ghibli movies. But now that Hayao Miyazaki has more or less thrown in the towel, it’s time to open our minds to what Japan’s other great toon outfits are capable of — and in that respect, “Children of the Sea” is something to be celebrated. This latest feat from Studio 4°C (the team...

If you want definitive prove that animation is not just for children, I dare you show Studio 4°C’s Children of the Sea to any kid and see their mind slowly melt before your very eyes. What starts as a straight-forward coming-of-age story with some fantastical elements slowly transforms into a psychedelic and extremely abstract feast […]

The post ‘Children of the Sea’ Review: This Anime is One of the Most Visually Stunning Films of the Year [Sites 2019] appeared first on /Film.

Netflix’s “I Lost My Body,” the existential adventure about a severed hand, won the Grand Prize award at the third annual Animation Is Film Festival, held last weekend at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theater in Hollywood. The Cannes Nespresso Grand Prize winner from French director Jérémy Clapin beat out GKids’ “Weathering With You,” the popular Japanese climate-change romance from “Your Name” director Makoto Shinkai, which shared the Audience award with “The Swallows of Kabul” (from French directors Zabou Breitman and Elea Gobbe-Mevellec) about love and horror during Taliban occupation.

In addition, Romanian director Anca Damian’s hear-tugger “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” (GKids) earned the special jury prize for visual impact, exploring the memories of a mixed-breed Labrador with its various owners in a daring assortment of animated techniques.

The Aif win for “I Lost My Body,” the adult-themed, boldly graphic mystery about overcoming pain and suffering, means that the streamer...

“I Lost My Body,” the curious story of a disembodied hand searching to reunite with its body, won the grand prize at the Animation is Film Festival, held Oct. 18-20 in Los Angeles. The audience prize was split between two films, Makoto Shinkai’s “Weathering With You” and “The Swallows of Kabul” by Zabou Breitman and Elea Gobbe-Mevellec.

Netflix acquired the worldwide rights to “I Lost My Body,” directed by Jérémy Clapin, after the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The French film — which bested its live-action competition to win the top prize in Critics’ Week at Cannes — screened in its original language at Animation Is Film. Netflix has also prepared an English dub featuring the voices of Dev Patel, Alia Shawkat and George Wendt, which will be available to Netflix subscribers on Nov. 29, two weeks after the French version receives its Oscar-qualifying run on Nov. 15.

“The...

The third annual Animation Is Film Festival (Aif) returns this weekend to the Tcl Chinese 6 Theater in Hollywood, with indie Oscar hopefuls “Weathering With You” (GKids), Japan’s official International Film Oscar entry from “Your Name” director Makoto Shinkai, and “I Lost My Body” (Netflix), the Cannes Nespresso Grand Prize winner from director Jeremy Clapin, competing for the jury Grand Prize and Audience awards.

This year Aif (co-sponsored by GKids and Annecy) offers 10 features in competition with a special emphasis on Asian releases. The festival will also present special screenings, retrospectives (a 4K restoration of the Hungarian “Son of the White Mare”), behind-the-scenes presentations (Disney’s “Frozen 2” and Netflix’s “Klaus”), short films (a Best of Annecy with female directors), and more.

“One of the trends that’s really obvious this year is representation by Asia, not just Japan, but China and India, and even within that, you have a huge range of filmmaking,...

“The Addams Family,” “Frozen II,” “Toy Story 4,” “Abominable” and “The Secret Life of Pets 2” are among the record 32 movies submitted for the animated feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.

Last year’s Academy Awards race boasted 25 entries, while 2017 had 26 and 2016 had 27 (a then-record).

The list of contenders makes for an interesting race leading up to the awards show on Feb. 9, 2020. Featuring an ensemble that includes Charlize Theron, Allison Janney and Bette Midler, “Addams Family” has raked in $35 million at the domestic box office since its release on Friday. While it brought in half the earnings of its predecessor, Universal and Illumination’s “Secret Life of Pets 2” had a decent showing, grossing $46.7 million in its opening weekend. Moviegoers are still anxiously awaiting the release of “Frozen II,” which hits theaters on Nov. 22.

Here’s the complete list of qualifying movies:

“Abominable”

“The Addams Family”

“The Angry Birds Movie 2...

Now that five nomination slots are guaranteed for the burgeoning animated feature Oscar category, it doesn’t matter that as many as 32 films have been submitted. Assuming they are eligible (several films have not yet had their required Los Angeles seven-day qualifying run), they will contend for the Oscar won last year by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

Read: Oscars 2020: Best Animated Feature Predictions

Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch are automatically eligible to vote for the final five nominees in the category, while other Academy members are invited to opt-in and must watch a minimum number of films to be eligible to vote for the animated final five.

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.

Frontrunners in the animation race include PIxar’s “Toy Story 4,” DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World...

Now that five nomination slots are guaranteed for the burgeoning animated feature Oscar category, it doesn’t matter that as many as 32 films have been submitted. Assuming they are eligible (several films have not yet had their required Los Angeles seven-day qualifying run), they will contend for the Oscar won last year by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

Read: Oscars 2020: Best Animated Feature Predictions

Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch are automatically eligible to vote for the final five nominees in the category, while other Academy members are invited to opt-in and must watch a minimum number of films to be eligible to vote for the animated final five.

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.

Frontrunners in the animation race include PIxar’s “Toy Story 4,” DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World...