News

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.

Berlin Syndrome (Cate Shortland)

While the recent 10 Cloverfield Lane and Room told stories of captivity with various hooks — science-fiction and the process of healing, respectively — Cate Shortland’s approach in her latest, harrowing drama Berlin Syndrome makes room for more nuance and depth. Locked in a Berlin apartment, there is little hope for our protagonist for nearly the entire runtime. And while some of the story’s turns can feel overtly manipulative,...

In 2002, the star ended up in jail after being chased through London by police. Now he’s turning that wild night into a single-take movie starring Owen Wilson and Willie Nelson to be beamed live into cinemas. What could possibly go wrong?

It is almost midnight on Monday evening and Woody Harrelson is showing me around the set for his directorial debut, Lost in London. An unused building in the centre of the capital has been commandeered to house assorted locations including a club with burlesque trimmings where gold statues dangle from the ceiling and a police station complete with cells and interview rooms.

There’s just one problem: Harrelson doesn’t seem to know where he is. “Hold on,” he mumbles. “I lost track of what floor we’re on. Where’s the …?” His bleariness has always been a considerable part of his charm: that sleepy Texan drawl, that quizzical gaze,...

In the five months found within James White, our title character is at the most difficult chapter of his life thus far. Grieving the loss of his father and attempting to assist his ailing mother, the drama authentically depicts the brutality of the process. After producing the gripping Sundance dramas Martha Marcy May Marlene and Simon Killer, Josh Mond diverts in some ways with his directorial debut. Providing yet another intimate character study of a fractured individual, James White also has a perhaps unexpected enveloping warmth.

I had the chance to speak with Mond upon the release of his debut, which arrives in limited theaters on November 13th. We discussed the personal connection everyone had on set, the intense camerawork, crafting one of the year’s most emotional scenes, finding the ending, being inspired by James Gray, Joachim Trier, Denis Villeneuve, and Wong Kar-wai, and more. Check out the full...

Curated by senior programmer Michael Plante, this first (and complementary!) batch of festival shorts features early projects from Emmy contender Jill Soloway ("Transparent"), "Prisoners" and "Sicario" director Denis Villeneuve and more. SundanceTV will be releasing five more Festival Shorts next month, along with a number of shorts from the cast and crew of "Rectify," Sundance Channel's Peabody-winning drama that returns for season three on Thursday, July 9. Read More: Cannes: Denis Villeneuve Says Drug War Film 'Sicario' Is "Very Dark" and "Quite Violent" The shorts already available on Sundance.TV are: "Una Hora Por Favora" Directed by Jill Soloway Co-stars Wilmer Valderrama (“That ‘70s Show,” “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series”) "Next Floor" Directed by Denis Villeneuve Canal+ Award Winner at Cannes Film Festival 2008 Best Canadian Short Film at Toronto Film Festival 2008...

One filmmaker on the rise in a big way is Denis Villeneuve, from Quebec, Canada, who just premiered his latest film Sicario to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival (here's our review). He's next set to direct the Blade Runner sequel/reboot/restart with Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, not to mention Roger Deakins as cinematographer. His previous work is also impressive (and worth seeking out): Incendies, Prisoners and Enemy. And if you want to go back even further, you can now watch his 2008 short film Next Floor that mocks the "endless symphony of abundance". It's a wicked commentary on excess that's powerful to watch. Thanks to The Playlist for the tip on this short. Description from Vimeo: During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with cavalier servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be a ritualistic gastronomic carnage. In this absurd and grotesque universe,...

Anyone who has seen Denis Villeneuve’s “Enemy” knows that the filmmaker does not always gravitate toward linear storytelling closed off to interpretation and analysis. “Prisoners” is more clear-cut, but Villeneuve does a great job maintaining speculation and intrigue throughout the thriller. Even the incredible “Incendies,” which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film four years ago, is a rollercoaster ride with unpredictable reveals and reversals. Still, none of these films come quite as close to mind-bendingly perplexing as his 2008 short, “Next Floor.” Read More: 'Prisoners' & 'Enemy' Director Denis Villeneuve To Helm 'Blade Runner' Sequel. “Next Floor”—a virtually dialogue free nine-minutes—takes place entirely around a dining table. A hodgepodge of gluttonous individuals—mostly men, but with a few women—all in dusty clothing, eagerly and rapidly cram as much food into their mouths as possible. The spread is lavish (and sorry, vegetarians, you’ll most likely find it.

In the beginning stages of his career (with the exception of Maelstrom showing in Berlin), Denis Villeneuve was an habitual of the Cannes Film Festival. His filmography has been embraced up and down the Croisette with short Cosmos (1996) and Polytechnique (2009) showing in the Directors’ Fortnight section, Un 32 août sur terre (1998) showing in the Un Certain Regard and his savoury short Next Floor (2008) landing at the Critics’ Week, but the Quebecois helmer was left scratching his head when Incendies (2010), Enemy (2013) and possibly Prisoners (2013) failed to receive the same approbation. Going in with zero expectations, especially with a cross-border thriller, his seventh film finally won him an In Comp berth. Considering the amount of Palme d’Or contenders receiving pans from the critic community, Sicario might actually not be so out of place as first conceived.

Starring Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, this is receiving great reviews from the trades.

While some filmmakers only find out the night before, Cannes Film Festival’s Thierry Frémaux informed Denis Villeneuve that he’d be part of the Main Comp mix almost three weeks back. Having been on the Croisette before with his debut film Un 32 août sur Terrre (Un Certain Regard), and the Directors’ Fortnight was home for his epic short Next Floor and sobering Polytechnique, the Quebecois helmer saw his critically lauded Incendies and Enemy receive a pass from the fest, but it was this work that ultimately convinced backers with deep pockets to have the auteur filmmaker move onto large-scale productions (Prisoners, Story of Us, the Blade Runner sequel), and in turn Sicario is now among the hopefuls for the Palme d’Or.

The film’s Canadian distributor Entertainment One hosted a press conference the morning of the Cannes announcement and we learned that the filmmaker (who is one degree...

Today’s film is the 2008 short Next Floor. The film stars Jean Marchand, Neil Kroetsch, and Mathieu Handfield, is written by Jacques Davidts, and directed by Denis Villeneuve. Villeneuve has made a name for himself on the international film stage with movies such as Polytechnique and Incendies, and made his first foray into English-language feature films in 2013 with Prisoners. His newest feature, titled Enemy, opens in limited release in American theatres this weekend.

****

The post Saturday Shorts: ‘Next Floor’, directed by Denis Villeneuve appeared first on Sound On Sight.

A few years ago I caught Pedro Pires' debut short film Danse Macabre which preceded a Canadian feature at Viff. I can't recall anything about the feature but I've never forgotten Pires' short. I looked up everything I could on the director and have been tracking his career since (his feature film debut Triptyque premiered at Tiff and was co-directed with Canadian legend Robert Lepage). I'm thrilled that everyone can now take in Pires' glorious short.

Phi Centre, who a few weeks ago released Denis Villeneuve's Next Floor, have released Pires' morbidly gorgeous short for free viewing. Watching this again, I'm stunned at how much of it I rememb [Continued ...]...

If you say it three times, a link roundup appears from the other side!

By now you've heard that Tim Burton and Michael Keaton are prepping a sequel to the 1988 comedy classic Beetlejuice, largely because Burton has long since run out of ideas and better a sequel than another remake, right?! If they name it "Beetlejuice 2" instead of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" I will be disappointed in their mundanity. I love that movie but honestly if this project does not star Winona Ryder I hope whoever deigns to see it will sit in the theater alone... *utterly* alone... because the rest of us should boycott. Noni was the best thing about the original aside from its playfully smart comic visuals including the Oscar winning makeup.

Now a few links...

E! Online reactions to the awful Parks and Recreations hiatus news

Women and Hollywood on male directors and depictions of female sexuality:...

I've got an awesomely absurd dark comedy short for you to watch today! It's called "Next Floor," and it was directed by Denis Villeneuve from an original story by Phoebe Greenberg. This film is just so different and interesting, and I'm sure you're going to enjoy the insanity! On top of that, the movie is shot extremely well. I loved the tone. Here's the plot summary:  

During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with cavalier servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be a ritualistic gastronomic carnage. In this absurd and grotesque universe, an unexpected sequence of events undermines the endless symphony of abundance.

Have fun!  ...

With the release of his first Hollywood film a few weeks ago (Prisoners (trailer)) and a first look at his upcoming doppelganger drama Enemy (clip), Denis Villeneuve is currently in very high demand and rightfully so.

In all the chatter of Villeneuve features, I'd almost forgotten that a few years ago, just before the release of Polytechnique, Villeneuve directed the award winning short film Next Floor. It's likely the closest the director has ever come to an out and out genre movie, a short about food, gluttony and perha [Continued ...]...

Prior to lighting it up with great films like Incendies and Prisoners Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve caught our attention with his 2008 short film Next Floor. There really is not a single thing that we can say about it except that we love it very much and it is now available for everyone to see! During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with hordes of servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be a ritualistic gastronomic carnage. In this absurd and grotesque universe, an unexpected sequence of events destabilizes the endless symphony of abundance....

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

#33. Denis Villeneuve’s An Enemy

Gist: A man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie. Villeneuve’s An Enemy, based on the José Saramago novel The Double The Canada-Spain co-production sees Gyllenhaal play a character who sees himself in a DVD film he rents, and then sets out to find his double. Co-stars Isabella Rossellini, Sarah Gadon and Melanie Laurent.

Prediction: He showed his award-wining short Next Floor (2008) on the Croisette, and then Villeneuve’s Incendies was bypassed Cannes for Venice leaving Thierry Frémaux salivating for his next project. With no Xavier Dolan on the Croisette this yer, perhaps this might find a spot in the Un Certain Regard section.

prev next...

What do you get when you take Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski - collectively known as Clyde Henry, the directing duo behind Oscar nominated animated short Madame Tutli Putli - and match them up with the producers of equally acclaimed shorts Next Floor and Danse Macabre and Montreal based musician Patrick Watson? You get upcoming short film Cochemare.Blending animation, live action, and stereoscopic 3D, Cochemare is an immersive, tactile, and sensory experience. As the viewer journeys from the mystical Forest of Storms to the orbiting International Space Station, the film forces us to confront our notions of voyeurism, femininity, and the separation of body and mind.This particular creative team is responsible for some of the most unique, engaging and challenging work we've come across over...

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

Five Canadian films will be presented at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which will run from July 1 to 9.

The Canadian embassy had a role to play in bringing these Canadian films to Czech Republic. Moreover, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will present a tribute to Canadian director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies).

World premieres

Among the five films that will be screened, four will have their world premiere. In the official competition, Canada will be represented by Martin Donovan's Collaborator and Ivan Grbovic's Roméo Onze.

The teen drama Laurentie will be presented out of the competition while Aaron Houston's Sunflower Hour, a mockumentary, will be screened in the Forum of Independents.

Denis Villeneuve

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival's tribute to Denis Villeneuve will consist in screenings.

Four of his feature films will be presented: Un 32 août sur terre, Maelström, Polytechnique and Incendies, which was nominated...

By Elliot V. Kotek

(from Moving Pictures, winter issue, 2011)

“To encounter a film of heart-wrenching tragedy, mythic proportions and sweeping visual majesty is rare, but such are the riches of Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Incendies.’” So reads the Toronto International Film Festival’s official description of the film that won the prize for Best Canadian Feature Film and was nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the 83rd Academy Awards. The two-time Genie Award winner for Best Director (“Next Floor,” “Maelstrom”) talked with Moving Pictures in Toronto about “Incendies,” a drama that weaves elements of civil war, family, resilience and love, and culminates in a shocking revelation.

Moving Pictures: The film begins with a perfect premise for a mystery. People find out something very personal that they’ve never known before and are sent on a mission, essentially. But what unfolds after that took me by complete surprise.

If...

By Elliot V. Kotek

(from Moving Pictures, winter issue, 2011)

“To encounter a film of heart-wrenching tragedy, mythic proportions and sweeping visual majesty is rare, but such are the riches of Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Incendies.’” So reads the Toronto International Film Festival’s official description of the film that won the prize for Best Canadian Feature Film and was nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the 83rd Academy Awards. The two-time Genie Award winner for Best Director (“Next Floor,” “Maelstrom”) talked with Moving Pictures in Toronto about “Incendies,” a drama that weaves elements of civil war, family, resilience and love, and culminates in a shocking revelation.

Moving Pictures: The film begins with a perfect premise for a mystery. People find out something very personal that they’ve never known before and are sent on a mission, essentially. But what unfolds after that took me by complete surprise.

If...

Year: 2010

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Writers: Denis Villeneuve, Wajdi Mouawad

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by: Marina Antunes

Rating: 9 out of 10

[Editor's note: Incedies is up for the "Best Foreign Film" award at the Oscars]

The time has come for an introduction to a great Canadian talent. Some may recognize his name from the fantastic short film Next Floor (trailer) but after only three full length features, Denis Villeneuve has marked himself as a force to be reckoned with and any filmmaker who manages to shock with each outing is well worth a little extra attention. And shock he does.

It usually comes at a combination of things: powerful story, exquisite cinematography, brilliant editing, top notch acting and the feeling that the film is unfolding exactly as the director intended with every nuance carefully measured to achieve maximum affect. The results are, without fail, spectacular. Polytechnique, Villeneuve’s dramatization of the 1989 Montreal Massacre, was powerful and respectful while bringing to the screen a terrible tragedy.

Prepare for the return of Tarnation director Jonathan Caouette. After bursting on to the scene with his debut film, Caouette has maintained a surprisingly low profile but I have a hunch that will change with the arrival of his short All Flowers In Time, his first proper narrative work. Backed by the producers of the stunning Next Floor and Danse Macabre, this one will be having its world premiere as part of the Temps 0 program at Montreal's Festival du Nouveau Cinema, where it will screen in front of Jennifer Lynch's Hisss.

And that Lynch connection may be rather apt. Though the initial teaser is playing very cagey with details they have now also released the first poster art and a synopsis and the Lynch influence seems clear.

"I am not from this place," declares a French cowboy. An old toothless man asks, "Do you know why you're here?" These...

Unlike many of the A-list festivals, Toronto does not do the big celebrity jury thing to hand out their awards. So it's up to festivalgoers to vote and the Audience Awards result. This is why, roughly speaking, the Tiff winner usually goes on to Oscar success, popularity being the key to both honors. This year's winner The King's Speech can now follow the same path as famous films before it like Whale Rider, Precious or Slumdog Millionaire. We already suspected, long before it screened anywhere (it was among my Early Bird predictions in April) that this would be an Oscar hit.

Audience Awards

Feature: The Kings Speech by Tom Hooper

Can we just give Colin Firth the best actor statue now? Given the momentum from last year, don't you think there's no way they're not going to hand him the statue this year? We might be looking at a boring...

After bursting on to the international film scene in such a big way with 2003's Tarnation - a documentary culled largely from his own home movies - it is somewhat surprising that one-time wunderkind Jonathan Caouette has been out of the limelight for so long. Since his 2003 debut he has only three credits as a director: one on a TV documentary about himself, one a short doc about the Raindance Festival, and one as co-director of last year's All Tomorrow's Parties documentary. But he's about to be back in a more direct, more personal way.

Though details are sketchy, Caouette has partnered with Montreal based arts collective The Phi Group - the backers of Denis Villeneuve's Next Floor and Pedro Pires' Danse Macabre - to create a new short film titled All Flowers In Time. The first teaser has just arrived on the official website, giving you just...

This past August 28th saw the San Diego debut of the Blacklist Art and Film Festival, and your local Dread Central staff members were on hand for the event. We're happy to report a good time was had by all, and even though we'd seen a couple of the horror shorts shown during the film fest portion already, they really popped thanks to the enthusiastic crowd.

What types of films were there? Only several of the best shorts the genre has seen in some time: Jason Eisener's hilariously brilliant "Treevenge" (review here), the clever and surprising Aussie flick "Spider" from Nash Edgerton, and Ryan Spindell's quite well made "Kirksdale" (the longest entry of the night with a runtime of 21 minutes). These three came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Beast in Show, respectively, and were all well deserving. They were joined by:

Trevor Jimenez's animated "Key Lime Pie...

Denis Villeneuve has been on a hot streak of late, taking awards in Cannes for his stunning short Next Floor, returning to the big festival the next year with Polytechnique which would eventually sweep Canada's film awards, and now premiering in Toronto with his latest effort Incendies.

Adapted from a play by Wajdi Mouawad, this continues with the social realist direction he adopted with Polytechnique, meaning fans hoping for a return to the Jeunet-styled fantasy of Next Floor will have to wait a bit longer. Here's the synopsis:

Twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette) weren't expecting much from their mother Nawal's will (Lubna Azabal). They are understandably stunned when Jean Lebel (Rémy Girard), notary and long-time friend of Nawal's, reads her last wishes: for the twins to hand-deliver two letters, one to a father they thought dead, the other to a brother they never knew existed.

In a couple of hours from now, it's expected that Tiff will read off Denis Villeneuve's Incendies as one of the Canadian films selected for the fest. Not ready for Cannes, where he showed his films Next Floor (short) and Polytechnique in back to back years, Venice Film Festival's Venice Days sidebar plays host to the film's world premiere. Not known for adapting other people's material, in this case he's adapting Canadian/Lebanese writer Wajdi Mouawad’s stage play and perhaps working on his largest budget to date, I'm a fan of Villeneuve's previous work and particularly curious in seeing how he'll handle the material, what tone he'll employ to a narrative constructed with what appears to be linear parallel storylines. Lebel (Rémy Girard), a notary, reads for Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon Marwan (Maxim Gaudette), two twins, their mother's (Lubna Azabal) will. Both twins are surprised to see...

Ask me who Canada's best working filmmaker is at the moment, and I'd make a convincing argument that it isn't Guy Maddin, David Cronenberg or Atom Egoyan, but instead, a French Canadian filmmaker who wasn't at Cannes this year but will be in Venice. I'd bestow the honor on Denis Villeneuve from August 32nd on Earth (1998) and Maelström (2000) fame, and most recently 2008's short film Next Floor and the sobering, Polytechnique (2009) and his fourth feature film, Incendies (Scorched) will be competing in the Venice Days sidebar section which regularly turns out some gems. I've got the poster one sheet below, featuring actress Lubna Azabal (of Exiles and Paradise Now fame) and here's the synopsis: Lebel (Rémy Girard), a notary, reads for Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon Marwan (Maxim Gaudette), two twins, their mother's (Lubna Azabal) will. Both twins are surprised to see two envelopes: one for a father they thought...

Télé-Québec, a Quebecker TV network, announced that it will air a selection of shorts produced in Quebec in the last year. These shorts will be presented in a special show of Voir, a cultural magazine, on Sunday, May 30 from 8 to 9:30 Pm.

Here's the list of shorts that we'll see:

* L’homme et la bête, by Martin Thibaudeau.

* L’homme qui dort, by Inés Sedan.

* Buddies, by Louis-Alexandre Martin.

* Next Floor, by Denis Villeneuve.

* Léger problème, by Hélène Florent.

* Mon nom est Victor Gazon, de Patrick Gazé.

* Le technicien, de Simon-Olivier Fecteau.

Finally, this special will be hosted by Sébastien Diaz and Manon Dumais. Besides, before the presentation of each short, Diaz and Dumais will give some details about the given short so that we can fully appreciate it.

Santosh's Sivan's "Tahaan" won the Golden Reel for Best Children's Film at the 9th Tuboron International Film Festival in the USA. The winners of the Golden Reel Award were announced during a ceremony on Friday, March 26, 2010 in Tiburon. Here is a complete list of winners.

Best Film: A Step Into the Darkness by Atil Inac [Turkey]

Best Director: Ryszard Bugajski for General Nil [Poland]

Best Actor: Olgierd Lukaszewicz for General Nil [Poland]

Best Actress: Leonor Manso for Luisa [Spain]

Best Documentary: Petition by Zhao Liang [China]

Best Cinematography: The Red Baron by Klaus Merkel [Czech Republic]

Humanitarian Award: Under Rich Earth by Malcolm Rogge [Ecuador/Us]

Best Musical: Hipsters by Valery Todorovsky [Russia]

Best Short: Ana's Playground by Eric D. Howell [Us]

Best Music Video: City of Noise by Mitch Barany [Canada]

Best Dance Short Film: Waterfront Access? by Floanne Ankah [Us]

Best Animation: The Magistical by Rebecca Jones [Us]

Best Short Animation: The Offering by Michael Zachary Huber [Us] & Solitude by Mehrdad Sheikhan [Iran]

Best...

The teasing is over! This here is the real deal. The moment we wait all year for: The lineup for the powerful, the mighty Boston Underground Film Festival, which is set to run March 25 to April 1. Now in its 12th year, Buff shows no sign of slowing down or taking it easy. In fact, this might be their most demented and transgressive edition yet.

There are homages to Giallo horror, tributes to the grand grindhouse tradition of sleaze and exploitation, sex and violence galore — both separately and together — plus, a resurrected ’80s slasher classic that all combine into an epic celebration of everything that is vicious and twisted in this world. But, in a fun way, ya know.

Alas, I haven’t seen any of the feature films that are playing this year, so I can’t offer any special recommendations of those. Although, there are many (most) that I...

Fantastic Fest is now over, and the only thing I have left are ticket stubs and memories. And the nostalgic photo above where they started changing the marquee one the closing party started. They hadn’t even let our seats get cold yet. But that’s just fine because it means that the Alamo Drafthouse is back to business as usual, and we want them to stay in operation so we can head to next year’s Fantastic Fest and do it all over again.

But what were the highlights? What makes Fantastic Fest different from all of the other film festivals around the world? While other festivals seem to focus on A-listers and high-profile star appearances, Fantastic Fest is happy to sit back and enjoy where it sits as a genre film festival. It’s the best collection of science fiction, anime, horror, thriller, Asian, and “other” films that...

If there's one thing I know about film festivals, it's that being content with having your film play for an enthusiastic audience is for losers. Chugging a beer on stage in front of a cheering crowd after winning is for winners. You can tell that I'm right because the word "winning" is a close cousin of "winners." Celebrating the art of the film is one thing, but damn it, it's about taking home the coveted cup. Two or three nights ago (the details are hazy), Fantastic Fest Co-founder Tim League emceed an awards ceremony that featured some Festival fans, filmmakers and the people who wandered in already inebriated and looking for the karaoke party. You can guess which group I was in, and, yes, I stayed at the ceremony despite a shocking lack of amateurs singing "Baby Got Back." Also, I had to present all of the awards for the Fantastic Features Category. There...

For those of you who weren't in Austin, TX from September 23-30, you missed out. Fantastic Fest lived up to its name and presented some of the newest, most anticipated, and best films of the year. From the comfort and coolness of the Alamo Drafthouse (which serves Awesome food during movies) to the palatial Paramount Theater, Austin showed that it knows how to treat fans of genre films.

Think about it: Seven days filled with movies like Zombieland, Paranormal Activity, and Survival of the Dead, side-by-side with some truly creative short films, foreign films, low-budget indie movies, and stars, all put within a mile of each other. It was a movie-lover's paradise. But alas, all good things must come to an end (until next year), but not without a few parting shots.

Below are the announced winners of the various Fantastic Fest contests, and while I can't say I agree with all the decisions,...

At a ceremony Monday night hosted by Fantastic Fest co-founder Tim League, the festival gave out awards to some of the top films and filmmakers in attendance. Awards given out this year include ones for animated and live action short film, horror and “fantastic” shorts, horror and “fantastic” features and the next wave award which showcases emerging talent.

In addition, in conjunction with G4 TV and writer/director Uwe Boll, the fest gave out the “Filmmaking Frenzy” award for the best video game trailer with a “fantastic” twist. Winners of some of these prestigious awards included the comedic drama Down Terrace, which took home the Next Wave award, Human Centipede, which won for best horror film and Mandrill, which was given the Fantastic Feature award.

Check out a list of all the winners below.

Jury results – Shorts Awards

Animated Shorts:

Best Animated Short – I Am So Proud Of You (Don Hertzfeldt...

That's right, the first 32 titles have been announced for Austin's Fantastic Fest and the opening film will be the latest from Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) which stars Jemaine Clement (Eagle vs Shark)! I think I'm going this year!

Also playing will be the likes of...

Nicholas Refn's Bronson (review)

Pieter Van Hees Dirty Mind (review)

Esther Gronenborn's Kaifeck Murder (review coming shortly)

Lawrence Gough's Salvage (review)

Cory McAbee's Stingray Sam (review)

Full list of features and shorts after the break.

42nd Street Forever Volume 5: The Alamo Drafthouse Edition

The hugely popular Synapse trailer compilation series 42nd Street Forever is featuring the Alamo Film Archive for it's fifth volume. Here's your chance to check out a sneak preview screening of the actual 35mm trailers which are featured in the DVD compilation

Breathless

(dir. Yang Ik-june, 2009, South Korea)

Breathless is a foul-mouthed drama that delivers an unlikely mix of pathos,...

It is time boys and girls, the first wave lineup for Fantastic Fest 2009 has been announced, and we are bringing it to you right… now:

Also, Do Not forget to go buy your damn tickets!

Features:

42nd Street Forever Volume 5: The Alamo Drafthouse Edition. The hugely popular Synapse trailer compilation series 42nd Street Forever is featuring the Alamo Film Archive for it’s fifth volume. Here’s your chance to check out a sneak preview screening of the actual 35mm trailers which are featured in the DVD compilation.

Breathless

(dir. Yang Ik-june,

2009, South Korea)

Breathless is a foul-mouthed drama that delivers an unlikely mix of pathos, brutality and humor. First-time director Yang Ik-June plays an angry thug named who gets involved in a dysfunctional relationship with a high-school girl. It eventually becomes apparent that the pair are linked in ways that neither of them realize.

Bronson

(dir. Nicholas Winding Refn,...

Those already familiar with Robert Lepage are well familiar with why the new short film Danse Macabre is worth being excited about. For those who don’t, here’s a quick primer. Lepage is a multidisciplinary artist and one of Canada’s true treasures. He works in experimental theater, painting, dance, film and bizarre, surprising fusions of all of the above. In his more commercial moments he has worked closely with the likes of the Cirque Du Soleil and directed films like Far Side of the Moon but Lepage’s vision is entirely too wide ranging to be locked in to any one project or medium for too long.

Though he hasn’t directed for the screen himself since 2004, Lepage is now credited with conceptualizing Danse Macabre, a new short film directed by Pedro Pires under tte auspices of the Phi Group, a Quebec arts collective that also lurks behind Denis Villeneuve’s Next Floor.

So, the 2009 Worldwide Short Film Festival here in Toronto is officially up and running, with things starting off last night with a selection of major award winners from around the world. And if festival is to live up to the standard set right out of the gate then it’s got some serious work to do. Because the very first film of the night - the very first film screened in the entire festival - was the absolutely jaw-dropping Next Floor by Denis Villeneuve.

Between this film - which won Best Short at the 2008 International Critics Week in Cannes - and this year’s feature length Polytechnique - which also screened in Cannes - I think it’s safe to say that Villeneuve is the new Golden Child of Canadian film. Yes, I know he’s got earlier features to his credit and, yes, I know they’re quite good...

George Ovashvili's "The Other Bank" was awarded the grand jury's New Directors Showcase Award and Barbara Schroeder's "talhotblond" was the documentary grand jury winner at the 35th International Seattle Film Festival, which concluded Sunday.

The doc jury also awarded a special jury prize to Yoshio Harada's "Manhole Children."

The Golden Space Needle Audience Award for best film went to Scott Sanders' "Black Dynamite." First runner-up was Benoit Pilon's "The Necessities of Life," with runner-up awards also going to: second runner-up: Marc Webb's "(500) Days of Summer"; third (tie): Kevin Hamedani's "Zmd: Zombies of Mass Destruction" and Lucy Akhurst's "Morris: A Life with Bells On"; and fourth: Philipp Stolzl's "North Face."

Louie Psihoyos' "The Cove" took home the Golden Space Needle Award for best documentary.

Runners-up were: Sandy Cioffi's "Sweet Crude"; Sarah Kunstler and Emily Kunstler's "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe"; James D. Stern...

• He'll be following last year's world premiere of his award-winning short film Next Floor, with a showing of his latest feature film in the prestigious la Quinzaine des réalisateurs/a.k.a Cannes' sidebar Director's Fortnight. According to Le Devoir who cite “European sources” and not the film's producers, Denis Villeneuve will be returning to the Croisette (a section that is already familiar to him) with the sobering, expertly detailed and handled Polytechnique, a portrait based on the events of the Montreal University massacre where a gunman executed over a dozen female students. Filmed in black and white, with separate language tracks, this is a portrait where the filmmaker's aim is not about making sense of the gunman's actions, but rather explores the process of healing. Polytechnique was released in Quebec to glowing reviews, but the distributor unfortunately mishandled the release of the film in English Canada, not thinking

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• This past weekend I had the chance to attend one of the more beautiful settings for a film fest. The Sonoma Film Festival offers such a splendid backdrop that makes it difficult to trade it, and the tasty food and delicious wines donated by local restaurants and wineries in for, a darkened environment to watch a slate of films. With exceptions such as the Korean film "Story of Wine" which almost feels tailor made for the festival, the festival's film selections feels catered towards a local, discerning audience who probably take their movies as seriously as they do about making wine. The friendly and patient audience had a chance to indulge in a selection of local shorts, international features and the highlight of the 12th festival edition was a tribute to Hollywood legend Bruce Willis would have preferred to be honoured as a great "Line Memorizer" rather than accepting

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The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television had announced the winners of the 2009 Genie Awards on Saturday night, April 4, and "Passchendaele" came up victorious. On the awards ceremony held at Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, the World War I drama was announced this year's Best Motion Picture in addition to receiving five other nods.

Being the one which collected the most prizes on the special night, this Paul Gross-directed war movie also won kudos for Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design, Achievement in Costume Design, Achievement in Overall Sound and Achievement in Sound Editing. It brought home the Golden Reel Award as well for being the biggest box office gross of the year.

"The Necessities of Life" was another big winner as the movie about an Inuit hunter stranded in a Quebec hospital grabbed four kudos at the awards. It collected Best Director title for Benoit Pilon and Best Leading Actor for Natar Ungalaaq.

Matt Aselton's "Gigantic" was named best narrative feature, a prize worth $25,000, at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, which concluded Thursday.

Peter Callahan's "Against the Current" received a special jury prize.

Paul Saltzman's "Prom Night in Mississippi" was the winner of the best documentary feature prize, also worth $25,000, while Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi's "Suddenly Last Winter" took the special jury prize.

Joe Berlinger's "Crude" won the $10,000 cash prize for the Current Energy Filmmaker Award, while David Lowery took home the Texas Filmmaker Award and $20,000 in cash, goods and services for his film "St. Nick."

Kazik Radwanski's "Princess Margaret Blvd." was named best short, with honorable mentions handed out to Todd Luoto's "Oil Change" and Denis Villeneuve's "Next Floor." The award for best student short went to Khary Jones' "Hug." Stephen Neary's "Chicken Cowboy" was hailed as best animated short.

Audience...

Year: 2008

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Writer: Jacques Davidts

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by: Bob Doto

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Gluttony ranks pretty high as far as deadly sins go, easily outshining some of the more acceptable vices (pride, anyone?). In the Us where obesity accounts for the second leading cause of preventable deaths effecting roughly 60 million people, it would seem that Denis Villeneuve’s Next Floor would have an immediate audience given our collective lust (whoops, another) for the “all you can eat” buffet. If only we had as much interest in short film as we do short ribs.

The official synopsis:

During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with cavalier servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be a ritualistic gastronomic carnage. In this absurd and grotesque universe, an unexpected sequence of events undermines the endless symphony of abundance.

Next Floor opens with an extreme close...

• Big ideas sometimes come in small packages. A couple of years back, my top film from the Sundance film fest was exactly just that -- a short film by a commercials director named Carter Smith. Bugcrush would go on to claim many international film awards and has set the one time photographer on a career path in feature filmmaking. They used to call the form the best calling card for an eventual feature length career --- now with the whole viral thing the short form complements an auteur’s body of work. 5,632 submissions were submitted this year with 96 short films making the cut including the impressive Next Floor from Denis Villeneuve (see pic). When I cover Sundance I usually don’t attend the short programs, I’ll occasionally catch When I’m not seeing the shorts that come right before select feature length films, I’ll attempt to grab as many screeners,

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Having won best short film at Cannes, I'm surprised I haven't seen this before. It's playing as part of the upcoming lineup at the Denver Film Festival, and I couldn't pass posting this as the photography is excellent and storyline obviously takes a turn for the twisted.

"During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with hordes of servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be a ritualistic gastronomic carnage. In this absurd and grotesque universe, and unexpected sequence of events undermines the endless symphony of abundance."

Trailer after the break with a couple of nicely ambiguous food stills.

:::Gallery(Next Floor)

Next Floor official website...

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...

• What happens when you don’t have access to a specific location for your set in the 18th century film production? Or you want to transport the backdrop of the ocean against the 16th century castle? Or you found a great setting but want to get rid of the telephone polls in the backdrop? Day 1 of the festival began with a little advertised, beginning of the afternoon roundtable discussion on digital film with two of Quebec’s most prolific contemporary filmmakers and one of Hollywood’s secret weapons in the digital visual effects medium. Montreal-based Fake Studio’s director of visual effects maestro Marc Côté brought along examples of its collaborations in works from Denis Villeneuve’s exquisite short film/2008 Cannes winner Next Floor (which I’ll be discussing somewhere down the road) and a sampling of portions of renderings and footage from Jean Marc Vallée’s highly anticipated The Young Victoria.

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• Among the hippest, most avant-garde film events on North America Film Festival circuit, the Montreal Festival of Nouveau Cinema begins today by showcasing a little homegrown talent with the world premiere of Olivier Asselin's A Sentimental Capitalism which will be paired tonight with Next Floor, a Cannes short film winner and possible early Oscar nom favorite from Denis Villeneuve. And speaking of Cannes, this year’s fest is loaded up on pictures from the Croisette and is closing out its 37th edition with Palme d'Or winner The Class. Generally the selection is more in tune with my taste buds so I can venture out on some subtitled film that I may have ordinarily pass on in these bigger events and it also acts as a way to see films that I might have missed out on at Tiff and as far back as Cannes, with Tulpan being at

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