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Dead Men's Laughter #1 - A Horror/Heist One-Shot Comic: "Centered around the twilight days & hours of Harry and Russell - two elderly criminals, and one time best friends, brought together but simultaneously split apart by a crime committed in their youth…But that crime rears its ugly head once more, and threatens to destroy the lives they have built up for themselves!"

A one-shot horror-crime comic book, written by Will O'Mullane, illustrated by Marco Perugini, lettered by Jonathan Stevenson.

Support the campaign and learn more at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/willomullane/dead-mens-laughter-a-horror-heist-one-shot-comic

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Screambox March Streaming Line-Up Includes Art Attack, Cannibal Comedian, Uncontained: "Screambox has revealed the new films that are joining the horror streaming service in March, including Art Attack! The Dissection of Terrifier 3, Cannibal Comedian, and Uncontained.

Cannibal Comedian will knock 'em dead on March 4 exclusively on Screambox. The horror-comedy features The Texas Chain Saw Massacre alumni Edwin Neal and Allen Danziger.

Screambox has revealed the new films that are joining the Bloody Disgusting-powered horror streaming service in March, including Art Attack! The Dissection of Terrifier 3, Cannibal Comedian, and Uncontained.

Cannibal Comedian will knock ’em dead on March 4 exclusively on Screambox. The horror-comedy features The Texas Chain Saw Massacre alumni Edwin Neal and Allen Danziger.

Uncontained infects Screambox exclusively on March 11. A mysterious drifter struggles to protect abandoned children from an infection that turns people into a feral-like state.

Screambox Original documentary Art Attack! The Dissection of Terrifier 3 drops March 14. Explore Art the Clown’s cultural impact with exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from the record-breaking slasher franchise.

Dario Argento delivers an aria of terror in Opera on Screambox March 21. The giallo classic joins fellow Argento favorites The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Tenebrae, and Phenomena on the streaming service.

Other March highlights include: controversial video nasty I Spit on Your Grave...

A Series of Calamities

In 1846, the Donner-Reed Party set out from Independence, Missouri to make the journey west to a better life in California. What befell them was a horrific fate that some blamed on incompetence and others suggested embodied the dangers of manifest destiny.

In a new mini-primer for Murder Made Fiction podcast, Joe tells Jenn about the calamities that befell the group and left them stranded for the winter under 22 ft of snow with no food, which ultimately forced them to resort to cannibalism. The story includes their perilous journey across the Great Salt Lake desert, the dire conditions of the camp at Truckee Lake and Alder Creek, and the four (!) rescue attempts to reach survivors before they perished during the winter of 1946-47.

It’s a horrifying story about desperation, starvation, hubris, and the enduring will to live. It also involves the murder of indigenous people and the deaths of many children.

Quick LinksWhat Is 'The Silence of the Lambs' About?The Ending of 'The Silence of the Lambs'Lecter's Deleted Monologue Would Have Changed His Character

Nearly 35 years after its release, Jonathan Demme's sweeping Academy Award masterpieceThe Silence of the Lambsremains one of the best movies ever recorded. The psychological crime thriller is still the third in history and the last movie to win the Oscar Awards' Big Five - including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Original Screenplay. Of course, the Best Actor honor was given to Anthony Hopkins, who brilliantly played Dr. Hannibal Lecter with chilling menace and highly intelligent guile.

Yet, Hopkins' indelible turn could have been much different had Demme kept one emotional scene involving Dr. Lecter and FBI Agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) in the film. As it is, Lecter functions as an enigmatic cipher who taunts and teases Clarice with crucial intel on serial killer Buffalo Bill,...

Underoath have announced a new album titled The Place After This One, set for release on March 28th. The band has also released the new single “All the Love Is Gone.”

The Place After This One is the Florida band’s 10th album overall, and the follow-up to 2022’s Voyeurist. “All the Love Is Gone” follows a string of 2024 singles that will all appear on the LP, which features a guest appearance by Mastodon’s Troy Sanders on the song “Vultures.”

Get Underoath Tickets Here

Guitarist Tim McTague stated of the new album, “The Place After This One is a multi-faceted idea. The fact that we grew up so sheltered and spiritual, and are trying to reconcile how we grew up against what we see now in the new age. Underoath, albeit intact and the same, is simultaneously so different.”

He added, “Our band has gone through a lot of chaos.

Stars: Stephen Samson, Angela Wilding, Stephen Staley, Andy McQuaker, Ema Ekaete, Julia Quayle, Emily Felicia Moore | Written by Ken Daly | Directed by Greg Ak

Mountain Shark opens with a couple wandering along a path in the hills when they stumble across a body with a small bloodstain on it. The only clues as to what happened are a shark’s tooth and a strange metal device on the corpse. That’s enough to send them running, although once we see the CGI fin slicing through the ground, we know they’re doomed.

That is both an exciting and problematic development for Dr. Eric Nesbitt and Major Jennifer Hawkes (Angela Wilding). Exciting in that the creature they created is still alive, problematic in the fact that it’s out of control and needs to be killed without compromising the project’s secrecy. The solution is to bring in what are supposed to be highly trained soldiers,...

Which Cannibal Horror Is One Of The Most Banned Movies Of All Time? ( Photo Credit – YouTube )

Ready for a shocker? Cannibal Ferox (1981) holds the Guinness World Record for one of the most banned movies ever. Violent, grotesque, and unapologetically disturbing, it’s a grindhouse classic. Tourists meet a cannibal tribe—expect hooks, decapitations, and brain-eating. But it’s more than gore; it’s a dark dive into revenge, exploitation, and karma—gross yet oddly thoughtful.

According to Collider, the film hit the UK hard, landing squarely on the Video Nasties list. It was banned under the Obscene Publications Act. But just banning it wasn’t enough. The BBFC made cuts, then more, and even more, until the film was barely recognizable. The Cannibal Ferox fans didn’t care—they snuck bootlegs, hunted down uncut versions, and made this shocking film a cult classic. In the US? Same story. Under the title Make Them Die Slowly,...

¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, the new documentary about Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s restaurant side-hustle/$40 million midlife crisis, is a big hit with audiences so far. Which isn’t all that surprising considering that cable TV has already proven that people like both South Park and watching strangers go through hellish ordeals in restaurants.

Well, soon we’re going to be getting yet another feature-length doc about the exploits of Parker and Stone, thanks to good old physical media. And it also involves the culinary arts — to some degree at least.

Parker’s directorial debut, 1993’s Cannibal! The Musical, is receiving its first ever Blu-Ray release, meaning that we’ll finally be able to see the alleged flesh-eating exploits of Alfred Packer in high definition. And just imagine how crisp the audio will be on songs like “Let’s Build a Snowman” and “Shpadoinkle.”

The film is actually being released by two different companies.

Before they were TV stars and vanity restaurant moguls, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone made Cannibal! The Musical, a low-budget retelling of the story of Alfred Packer, the old-timey prospector who was convicted of cannibalism. Although really, it was a thinly-veiled allegory for Parker’s failed relationship, as evidenced by the fact that he named Packer’s horse after his ex-fiancée.

Random celebrity cameos weren’t uncommon in the early days of South Park (although Jerry Seinfeld refused the opportunity to voice a Thanksgiving turkey), and Cannibal! The Musical also featured a surprise appearance from a notable figure.

The opening credits list a cast beginning with star “Juan Schwartz.” Of course, Schwartz was really writer-director Parker, who was sick of seeing his own name in the credits and opted to use a stage name instead. The very last credit reads, “And introducing Stan Brakhage as Mr. Noon.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire pays tribute to Ivan Reitman in a subtle nod to his 1973 film, Cannibal Girls. Cannibal Girls follows a couple who are terrorized by a group of beautiful, cannibalistic women. The Cannibal Girls reference in Frozen Empire is the third to occur in the Ghostbusters franchise.

It may be subtle, but one line from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is actually the perfect nod to Ghostbusters director, Ivan Reitman. Over the years, Reitman has been at the very core of every Ghostbusters movie. In 1984, Reitman directed and produced the very first Ghostbusters movie. Five years later, he returned for Ghostbusters II. From there, he continued to be a producer on every subsequent Ghostbusters film, including the 2016 remake and the two modern-day reboots starring McKenna Grace. Though Reitman passed away in 2022, his legacy remains in one humorous way in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

Although Ghostbusters is a massive part of Ivan Reitman's filmography,...

Bursting with ingenuity and good old fashioned, “come on pals, let’s make a movie!” can-do energy, Sander Maran’s debut feature, Chainsaws Were Singing, is a gleefully gory musical romantic horror comedy that really hits the spot and proves that sometimes fun is more than enough. A gloriously overstuffed mish-mash of influences from across the genre spectrum, Chainsaws Were Singing is a love letter to low budget cinema and also a love letter to love, itself. A hyper-violent cross between films like Cannibal! The Musical, Bad Taste, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre; Chainsaws Were Singing celebrates lowbrow art in such a delightfully ridiculous way that it’s impossible not to smile. There is a lot going on in Chainsaws Were Singing, almost too much – we’ll...

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

The humble beginnings of Matt Stone and Trey Parker's "South Park" are nothing short of inspiring, with two friends crafting a stop-motion short film that would evolve into one of the most popular and longest-running shows in television history. "The Spirit of Christmas" was first released in 1992 (colloquially referred to as "Jesus vs. Frosty") and again in 1994 as a Christmas card (colloquially known as "Jesus vs. Santa" to differentiate) Fox executive Brian Graden had commissioned to send to his friends. Parker and Stone then developed the characters and the mountain town setting into what would become "South Park," and the rest is history.

This timeline certainly makes "South Park" sound like one of those dreamy Hollywood Cinderella stories in which two unknown comedy animators were plucked from obscurity to become billionaires and one award shy of earning Egot status. However, this narrative ignores the countless other projects -- both...

Miami– Gaumont USA, producer of “Narcos,” is powering up new series from both Oscar-winning “Birdman” co-writer Armando Bó and also Spain’s Manuel Martin Cuenca, director of Toronto winner “The Motive,” as well as multiple other talents. It is also readying it first movie slate.

Gaumont USA already co-produced the Bó showrun Amazon Original “El Presidente,” with Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula and Argentine powerhouse Kapow, both partners on “La Jauría.”

News of new series projects comes as Gaumont USA is advancing on Lucía Puenzo’s near future android family saga “Futuro Desierto” (“Desolate Future”), part of a 2020 multi-project development pact with the Argentine writer-director.

Gaumont USA is currently developing titles with Jimena Montemayor (“Wind Traces”), Pedro Amorim (“The Dognapper”), Sebastian and Emiliano Zurita (“How to Survive Being Single”), Katina Medina Mora, Belen Macias (“Verano en Rojo”), among other top-level filmmakers. Other projects are from screenwriters Ruth García...

Fantastico Studio dropped some news regarding the updated demo for their visual novel, Cannibal Tales, stating that the demo will be available next Monday, kicking off Steam’s Storyteller’s Festival event. The event will take place from January 29th to February 4th, during which time players will have the chance to try an updated version of the demo.

The developer also did a bit of updating on the development front for Cannibal Tales, which according to its Steam page, is aiming for a March 2024 release of its first episode. Hoping to give the game a more accessible release, the team is currently in the midst of looking for a translator for translating the game’s text from English to Japanese.

In addition, Fantastico Studio is looking for a partner to finance the development of the game’s remaining two episodes. “Our goal is to complete them by the end...

2024 will start things off with a bang for those waiting to play Fantastico Studio’s Cannibal Tales. The developer posted a new update to the game’s Steam page, announcing that development is close to completion. Not only that, but the team is once again confirming the goal to release Cannibal Tales “for the end of February.”

“We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve completed the implementation of all the game scenes,” reads the statement. “Currently, we’re focusing on refining the settings and saving features. Our goal is to wrap up development by January.”

The team also announced that they’ll be participating in February’s Steam Next Fest with a new demo for Cannibal Tales. You can still find the original demo that was released back in October on the game’s Steam page, just in case you wanted to get your comparisons out of the way.

Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is so raw, bleak, and gritty that one could be forgiven for thinking they discovered a legitimate snuff film. The interior of the killer family's household, festooned with human bone-encrusted furniture and lampshades made from skin, looks more like a grim discovery than a constructed set. It's well known among the film's fans that many elements of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" were inspired by the crimes of notorious murder and arts-and-crafts enthusiast Ed Gein. Gein, who actually lived in Wisconsin, is confirmed to have murdered at least two people, although he frequently plundered a nearby graveyard for building materials. A list of Gein's grisly crafts can easily be found by true crime enthusiasts, and the makers of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" recreated some of them in shocking detail.

The main characters of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" were a quintet of city slickers -- Sally,...

Kesha is ready to hit the road!

The 36-year-old music superstar just kicked off her Only Love Tour on Sunday night (October 15) at the The Factory in Deep Ellum in Dallas, Texas.

The set list for the evening includes a bunch of her biggest hits, including “Cannibal,” “Take It Off,” “Your Love Is My Drug” and “We R Who We R.”

The tour sees the singer hitting stops across the country including Austin, Orlando, Nashville, Washington D.C., New York City, Boston, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. For all ticket and tour info, click here.

Keep reading to see the set list…

Only Love Tour 2023 Set List

1. Only Love Can Save Us Now

2. Tik Tok

3. Cannibal

4. Backstabber

5. Raising Hell

6. Take It Off

7. Good Old Days

8. Eat the Acid

9. Till the World Ends

10. Hymn

11. Hate Me Harder

12. Ram Dass Interlude

13. Timber

14. Your Love Is My Drug

15. Die Young

16. Blow

17. Praying

18. We...

Get ready to delve into The Music of Heatmiser. The Portland band best known as Elliott Smith’s pre-solo career springboard has announced a new rarities compilation arriving October 6th via Third Man Records, and a demo version of the track “Lowlife” is out now.

Heatmiser initially distributed The Music of Heatmiser — then a 6-song cassette — at local record stores and shows to promote the band before they released their 1993 debut LP, Dead Air. According to co-founding singer-guitarist Neil Gust, this longer package — featuring 23 additional demos, live tracks, rare versions, and previously unreleased songs — came together thanks to drummer Tony Lash.

“Tony found a bunch of forgotten recordings and started mixing them and sending them to me,” Gust said in a statement. “We were struck by the freewheeling energy of the band; you could hear how much fun we were having. In 1992 we could barely afford the studio so it...

While Italian genre cinema generated its fair share of classics throughout the ’70s and ’80s, filmmakers during that period were also quick to exploit successful trends. Lax copyright protections gave way to Italian rip-offs of such hits as The Exorcist, Jaws, Dawn of the Dead, Alien, The Evil Dead, and Mad Max, to name a few.

Not even Italy’s own productions were safe from imitation, as the cannibal subgenre proved. While 1972’s Man from Deep River is often cited as the originator, the international notoriety of Cannibal Holocaust ushered in the cannibal boom in 1980. Man from Deep River director Umberto Lenzi helmed another one of the subgenre’s highlights, Cannibal Ferox (originally released in the US as Make Them Die Slowly), in 1981.

Shot on location in the Amazon, the film follows three Americans to the Colombian jungles in search of an alleged cannibal village. Unfortunately for them, they find...

Screambox’s extremely popular horror mockumentary When the Screaming Starts, about a journalist who tracks a newly formed murder cult founded by a bumbling wannabe serial killer, is now heading to 4K Uhd/Blu-ray this September, courtesy of Terror Vision.

Pre-order your copy before it sells out!

Orders will begin shipping in September 2023.

When the Screaming Starts is the perfect combination of humor and horror. It’s Shaun of the Dead meets Spinal Tap. Fangoria’s Editor-in-Chief Phil Nobile Jr. raved that When the Screaming Starts “does for serial killers what What We Do In the Shadows did for vampires.”

Directed by Conor Boru, When the Screaming Starts follows struggling journalist turned filmmaker Norman, who finds himself face-to-face with aspiring serial killer Aidan Mendle. When Norman is invited to follow Aidan on his journey, he thinks he’s finally landed his big break. But as Aidan and his newly recruited...

Things have been fairly quiet regarding the development of Borneo: A Jungle Nightmare. According to developer Fantastico Studio, the project is still alive, though not in the way you might expect (more on that in a bit). In light of director Ruggero Deodato‘s passing, the developer has decided to switch things up, announcing the visual novel game, Cannibal Tales.

You’re probably wondering just how this all makes sense. According to the developers, development on Borneo: a Jungle Nightmare has been halted, due to a lack of funds. Sadly, attempts to secure additional funding haven’t been successful. According to Fantastico, they don’t even have the necessary resources to complete a vertical slice of the game.

Therefore, the team has decided to pivot, returning to the original idea with their collaboration with Deodato. “We will create a visual novel using the master’s unpublished screenplay, and the project will be called Cannibal Tales.

Pop singer-songwriter Kesha is back with her fifth studio album, “Gag Order,” which comes three years after her last effort, 2020’s “High Road.” It was released on Friday, May 19, and the early reviews have been highly favorable, adding up to a MetaCritic score of 82 as of this writing. What do you think of the collection?

If her score holds at 82, it would outdo the 81 she received for 2017’s “Rainbow,” her comeback album following a protracted legal battle over her accusations of sexual assault against her former producer Dr. Luke (“Gag Order” is the last album she will release under contract with his label). But it must be noted that the 81 for “Rainbow” was based on 27 reviews, while only five have come in for “Gag Order” as of this writing.

SEEBillboard Hot 100: Every #1 song of 2023

Nevertheless, those reviews are full of praise. Four are classified as positive, while one is marked as somewhat mixed,...

South Park is one of the most hilarious animated comedies of all time. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators behind it, are a dominant duo in the comedy industry. The pair's second crowning achievement, however, is clearly the smash Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, a play that features the same outlandish and controversial humor that South Park is known for. Parker and Stone did not hold back from bringing some outrageous humor & songs to the Broadway stage.

Updated May 19th, 2023: If you're a fan of The Book of Mormon, then you'll be happy to know this article was recently updated for new content by Amanda Minchin.

The Book of Mormon premiered on Broadway in March 2011, and over a decade later, the play is still going strong. It featured music by Robert Lopez, one half of the songwriting duo alongside his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who has since gone...

Charlie is ready to take the stage in the new trailer and poster for the upcoming horror comedy film Cannibal Comedian from writer/director Sean Haitz. The preview follows a psychopathic cannibal (Aaron Prager) fed up with his lack of ambition who decides to try his hand at …

The post Horror Comedy Film Cannibal Comedian Debuts New Trailer & Poster appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

Steven Spielberg directed the music video for the new Marcus Mumford single “Cannibal,” marking the first time he has directed a music video in his legendary career.

Mumford confirmed the news on social media, saying Spielberg directed the entire video in one shot on his cell phone (see his tweet and Instagram post below). Mumford also said on social media that Kate Capshaw served as a producer, dolly grip and art director on the shoot at a high school gym in New York, while Carey Mulligan handled the costumes and sound.

“Cannibal” is out now, and the Mumford & Sons frontman’s solo album Self-Titled arrives September 16. He revealed the project while sitting in with Brandi Carlile at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles last month, where they debuted his new song “How.”

As for Spielberg, his next film The Fabelmans — a semi-autobiographical feature on his early life growing up in Arizona — bows this Thanksgiving.

Presented as part of Series Mania’s Coming Next from France showcase, the youth-skewing series “Derby Girl” offers a fast-paced, darkly comic portrait of a disgraced former-figure skater named Lola Bouvier (Chloé Jouannet), who is offered a shot at redemption when she joins a local roller derby league, the Cannibal Unicorns.

Sharing tonal and thematic similarities with films like “I, Tonya” and “Mean Girls,” the stylish online original will air on France Television’s streaming platform Slash later this year, with France TV Distribution handling international sales.

“It offers a new proposal when you compare it to all the standard police and crime series that you see a lot on linear channels,” says France TV Distribution’s Julia Schulte. “We were really interested in proposing something completely different, and with a younger target group as well.”

“As we’ve seen with ‘Sex Education’ or ‘13 Reasons Why,’ youth-focused series attract a wide-appeal,...

With so many folks out there looking for ways to keep themselves entertained at home right now, perhaps this new batch of home media releases might have something to offer you this week. If you missed it in theaters last year, the controversial Black Christmas remake hits both Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday, and Scream Factory has put together a fourth volume in their Universal Horror Collection series, which looks like a must-own for all classic genre fans out there.

Also headed to Blu this week is The Nines, which is one of my favorite underseen films from Ryan Reynolds, as well as Cannibal Apocalypse, featuring John Saxon. We also have Glenn Danzig’s Verotika coming out on Tuesday and if you need something to keep the kiddos busy, Jumanji: The Next Level should do the trick.

Other releases for March 17th include Uncaged, By Day’s End, Witch Hunters,...

Are you a South Park fan? Did you enjoy Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s musical Book of Mormon? Did you know they made another musical back in 1993 with Troma? If you’re an NYC horror fan, you can catch a showing of Cannibal! The Musical this Friday, September 27th! Troma Entertainment presents a special One Night […]

The post Special Screening of South Park Creators Trey Parker & Matt Stone’s Cannibal! The Musical appeared first on Dread Central.

Cannes — John Malkovich and Russell Smith’s L.A.-based Mr. Mudd has boarded “Brando,” the next film from Spain’s Manuel Martín Cuenca, a director who has grown into one of Spain’s preeminent auteurs.

Gonzalo Sálazar-Simpson’s Madrid-based production house Lazona Films and Martín Cuenca’s own label La Loma Blanca produce the project from Spain. Julio and Carlos Fernández’s Spanish mini-major Filmax will distribute in Spain a project which marks maybe Martín Cuenca’s most international yet: an English-language road movie described as being “in the best traditions of U.S. independent cinema,” Filmax said in a statement Wednesday.

Also handling international sales on “Brando,” Filmax has been introducing the title to buyers at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

“This is my most personal and ambitious project,” said Martín Cuenca. He added that the film “will allow me to explore a different kind of love...

The Cannibal sub-genre usually divides the viewer in to one of two camps: horror fans who deem it “necessary” as part of their schooling to watch the gut munchers of the decade from the early ‘70s to early ‘80s, and those who completely stay clear after hearing stories of real life animal mutilation and on screen rape, not to mention an anatomical eye for grisly (and gristly) detail in that uniquely unsubtle, very Italian way. If you choose to wade through the jungle, there are simply no better guides than the denizens at Severin Films, who offer up a superb new disc of Umberto Lenzi’s Eaten Alive! (1980). If you’re new to this fascinating facet of horror, you might as well jump in here – there is no shallow end.

Lenzi kick started the craze with 1972’s Man from Deep River, an unabashed “homage” to A Man Called Horse (1970), the...

Indian Film maker Faisal Saif, after his controversial horror Islamic Exorcist, comes up with yet another horror titled Cannibal. Saif revealed the film’s official poster on Facebook with the line of being the most ‘Disgusting’ horror film you will ever see. “I was always fascinated by the idea of making an Exploitation Horror by keeping …

The post Cannibal First Look poster out! first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net 2018 - Official Horror News Site...

Islamic Exorcist is a new horror from writer and director Faisal Saif, which has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival on Friday 19th January. I got chance to ask Faisal a few questions about how much of the film is based on real events, what makes Islamic Exorcist different from the exorcism films we are used to watching and why the film and why certain scenes from the original script were not filmed.

What can we expect from Islamic Exorcist?

I never made this film with any expectations and I do not want viewers to keep any expectations before watching Islamic Exorcist. I made this film with one very clear intention: that I wanted to tell a story about one of my good friend, who was going through a trouble in his life which he couldn’t explain. I saw it, experienced it and I wanted the world to experience it.

Writer’s block as a theme has given us subversive movies like Barton Fink and Adaptation, films that visualize creative impasse through contorted narratives and stylized cinema. The Motive (El Autor), a smart Spanish comedy from director Manuel Martín Cuenca, doesn’t get close in quality to those stand-out films, but in echoing Deconstructing Harry or Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York, it deftly shows that the dividing line between fact and fiction has always been blurred.

Javier Gutiérrez is Álvaro, a notary in the southern Spanish city of Seville and a wannabe novelist who elevates his hum-drum life for years at a creative writing evening class where his amateurish writing is given short shrift by his irascible tutor (a great Antonio de la Torre).

His life is quickly overturned when his wife Amanda’s (Maríá León) debut novel becomes an overnight hit on the best-seller lists, and his ambitions...

This year’s European Film Awards are officially out of the gates with a not so lean 50 film submissions to select from. The 27th edition collects titles that date back to last year’s Venice and Toronto Int. Film Festivals moving into Sundance-Rotterdam-Berlin and finally Cannes of ’14. Among the 31 European countries represented, we’ve got likes of the Palme d’Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan leading the huge pack of contenders including Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida. Here’s the complete list of 50!:

Alienation

ОТЧУЖДЕНИЕ (Otchujdenie)

Bulgaria

Directed By: Milko Lazarov

Written By: Milko Lazarov, Kitodar Todorov & Georgi Tenev

Produced By: Veselka Kiryakova

Amour Fou

Austria/Luxembourg/Germany

Written & Directed By: Jessica Hausner

Produced By: Martin Gschlacht, Antonin Svoboda, Bruno Wagner, Bady Minck, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu & Philippe Bober

Beautiful Youth

Hermosa Juventud

Spain/France

Directed By: Jaime Rosales

Written By: Jaime Rosales & Enric Rufas

Produced By: Jaime Rosales,...

Manuel Martin Cuenca’s dark romance [pictured] to open theatrically in Us and Canada in Q3 2014, followed by VOD and DVD release.

North American film distributor Film Movement has picked up Cannibal (Caníbal).

Manuel Martin Cuenca’s dark romance centres on a tailor and secret cannibal (played by Antonio de la Torre) who unexpectedly finds himself falling in love with his latest prospective victim. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The deal was negotiated on the first day of the Ventana Sur market in Buenos Aires by Film Movement’s VP of acquisitions and distribution Rebeca Conget and Vicente Casales, managing director at Film Factory.

Conget commented: “Manuel Martin Cuenca has established himself as one of Spain’s most artistically astute filmmakers, his works consistently evolving in skill and style. In Cannibal, we see a surprisingly thoughtful approach to an otherwise gruesome premise, one we’re confident audiences will be as gripped by as we were...

Bad Hair (Pelo malo) wins San Sebastian’s top prize.Scroll down for full list of winners

The Golden Shell of the 61st San Sebastian Film Festival has been awarded to Bad Hair (Pelo malo), from Venezuelan director Mariana Rondón.

The low budget film received a positive reception from its first screening at the start of the festival.

Set in the poor areas of Caracas, Bad Hair tells the story of the relationship between a mother and her nine-year-old boy, who loves to dance and sing and is obsessed with his curly hair. The mother begins to suspect the boy is gay and the film develops into a social drama told with humor and does not shy from the melodramatic consequences.

Film-maker Todd Haynes presided over the jury, which comprises actor Diego Luna, actresses Valeria Bruni-tedeschi and Paulina García, producer Mariela Bessuievsky and director Cesc Gay.

Fernando Eimbcke picked up the Best Director prize for his Mexican...

Bad Hair (Pelo malo) wins San Sebastian’s top prize.Scroll down for full list of winners

The Golden Shell of the 61st San Sebastian Film Festival has been awarded to Bad Hair (Pelo malo), from Venezuelan director Mariana Rondón.

The low budget film received a positive reception from its first screening at the start of the festival.

Set in the poor areas of Caracas, Bad Hair tells the story of the relationship between a mother and her nine-year-old boy, who loves to dance and sing and is obsessed with his curly hair. The mother begins to suspect the boy is gay and the film develops into a social drama told with humor and does not shy from the melodramatic consequences.

Film-maker Todd Haynes presided over the jury, which comprises actor Diego Luna, actresses Valeria Bruni-tedeschi and Paulina García, producer Mariela Bessuievsky and director Cesc Gay.

Fernando Eimbcke picked up the Best Director prize for his Mexican...

‘Bad Hair’ day at San Sebastian Film Festival: Venezuelan film wins Golden Shell (photo: Samuel Lange Zambrano in ‘Bad Hair’) Mariana Rondón’s Bad Hair / Pelo malo won the Golden Shell at the 2013 San Sebastian Film Festival, which wrapped up today, September 28, in northern Spain’s coastal city also known as Donostia (in Basque). The Venezuelan / Peruvian / German co-production tells the story of a nine-year-old boy (Samuel Lange Zambrano) with "bad hair," who decides to have his unruly curls molded pop-singer style (Justin Bieber’s?) for his yearbook picture. His mother (Samantha Castillo), however, is against it — the boy’s new hairdo is just not manly enough. Family conflicts ensue. The San Sebastian Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize went to newcomer Fernando Franco’s Wounded / La herida, a Spanish drama about a 30-year-old ambulance driver whose life falls to pieces as a consequence of her undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder.

Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, will compete as part of the official selection of the 61st San Sebastian Film Festival (Sep 20-28).

At a press conference in Madrid today, festival director José Luis Rebordinos revealed the Spanish titles that will compete for the Golden Shell. Spanish films set to feature in other sections of the festival were also revealed.

Scroll down for full lists

Villeneuve’s Enemy stars Gyllenhaal as a man who seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a film. The co-production between Canada (Rhombus Media) and Spain (Roxbury Pics) is Villeneuve’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Incendies.

David Trueba (Salamina Soldiers) will introduce Vivir es Facil (Living Is Easy). Set in 1966, Javier Cámara (Talk to Her) stars as an English teacher who sets off across Spain to find John Lennon, who was taking a break from Beatlemania to feature in Richard Lester film How I Won The War.

Manuel Martín Cuenca ([link...

The films to be screened at this year's Toronto film festival – as the programme release is staggered, this will be updated as more details are revealed

The 38th Toronto Film Festival runs September 5 - 15 2013. This article will be updated as official announcements detailing the full line-up are released.

Opening night film

The Fifth Estate, Dir: Bill Condon, USA

Closing night film

Life of Crime, Dir: Daniel Schechter, USA

World premieres

12 Years a Slave, Dir: Steve McQueen, USA

All Is By My Side, Dir: John Ridley, United Kingdom

The Art of the Steal, Dir: Jonathan Sobol, Canada

Attila Marcel, Dir: Sylvain Chomet, France

August: Osage County, Dir: John Wells, USA

Bad Words, Dir: Jason Bateman, USA

Belle, Dir: Amma Asante, United Kingdom

Can a Song Save Your Life? Dir: John Carney, USA

Cannibal (Caníbal), Dir: Manuel Martín Cuenca, Spain/Romania/Russia/France

Dallas Buyers Club, Dir: Jean-Marc Vallée, USA

Devil's Knot,...

With each passing year, Tiff is becoming more and more prominent on the film festival circuit, with more and more Oscar-primed films making their debut out in Canada. And with the initial line-up announced for the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the trend is definitely continuing.

Amongst the many, many films making their presence felt out in Toronto will be Steve McQueen’s highly anticipated 12 Years a Slave, which launched a powerful first trailer earlier in the month. The film sees Chiwetel Ejiofor lead a fantastic cast, with Michael Fassbender returning to work for his Hunger / Shame director, alongside the likes of Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sarah Paulson, Paul Giamatti, and many more.

Opening the festival will be Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, alongside Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, and Stanley Tucci.

And closing it will be Daniel Schechter’s Life of Crime,...

Toronto Film Festival Movie Lineup (photo: Chiwetel Ejiofor in Steve McQueen’s ’12 Years a Slave’) (See previous post: “Toronto Film Festival 2013 Dates and Movies.”) Among the Toronto Film Festival’s World and North American premieres are director Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, and Paul Giamatti; Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club, with Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Steve Zahn, and Griffin Dunne; Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot, with Reese Witherspoon, Mireille Enos, Kevin Durand, Stephen Moyer, Dane DeHaan, Colin Firth, Elias Koteas, Alessandro Nivola, Bruce Greenwood, Amy Ryan, and Martin Henderson; and Sylvain Chomet’s Attila Marcel, which is supposed to be an homage to Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton, featuring Guillaume Gouix, Anne Le Ny, Bernadette Lafont, and Hélène Vincent. See Toronto Film Festival 2013 lineup below. Toronto Film Festival: World premieres 12 Years a Slave, Dir: Steve McQueen,...

Piers Handling, CEO and Director of Tiff, and Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival, unveiled the first round of titles set to premiere in the Galas and Special Presentations programmes at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival (September 5 to 15, 2013).

Of the 16 Galas and 55 Special Presentations revealed, this first slate of films includes 40 world premieres. The horror highlights include:

Cannibal (Caníbal)

Director: Manuel Martín Cuenca, Spain/Romania/Russia/France - World Premiere

Carlos is the most prestigious tailor in Granada, but he’s also a murderer in the shadows. He feels no remorse, no guilt, until Nina appears in his life. She will make him realize the true nature of his actions and, for the first time, love awakens. Carlos is evil incarnate. Nina is pure innocence. And Cannibal is a demon’s love story.

The Devil's Knot

Director: Atom Egoyan, USA - World Premiere

A haunting...

With dramatic fare such as August: Osage County, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Dallas Buyers Club, 2013′s Toronto Int. Film Festival once again will be shelving a wide-ranging quotient for Oscar-buzz titles. In the 70 plus title announcement made this morning, Tiff is chock-full in the type of titles that will essentially be putting the distribution companies in the dual modes of: a. buying up available items to stock up their 2014 slate, and b., launching their campaigns for the award season and giving their fall calenders an extra push.

Some might want to call this a Cumberbatchian type edition (Benedict Cumberbatch appears in August: Osage County, Tiff opener The Fifth Estate, and the Venice-bound 12 Years a Slave) but with only David Cronenberg (currently in production with Maps to the Stars) and Guy Maddin (currently in creative overdrive with Seances a.k.a Spiritismes), 2013 will be looked back upon as a...

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave and Wikileaks drama The Fifth Estate are among a raft of world premieres set for the 38th Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff).

Toronto will open on September 5 with Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

The festival will close on September 15 with Daniel Schechter’s crime story Life of Crime, based on Elmore Leonard’s novel The Switch. The film stars Jennifer Aniston, John Hawkes, yasiin bey (aka Mos Def), Isla Fisher, Will Forte, Mark Boone Jr, and Tim Robbins.

In the first wave of programming to be announced for Tiff, there are also world premieres for Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman; Jason Reitman’s Labor Day; Devil’s Knot by Atom Egoyan; The Railway Man by Jonathan Teplitzky; August: Osage County starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts; Richard Ayoade’s The Double; and Starred Up from David Mackenzie.

Stephen Frears’ [link...

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave and Wikileaks drama The Fifth Estate are among a raft of world premieres set for the 38th Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff).

Toronto will open on September 5 with Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

The festival will close on September 15 with Daniel Schechter’s crime story Life of Crime, based on Elmore Leonard’s novel The Switch. The film stars Jennifer Aniston, John Hawkes, yasiin bey (aka Mos Def), Isla Fisher, Will Forte, Mark Boone Jr, and Tim Robbins.

In the first wave of programming to be announced for Tiff, there are also world premieres for Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman; Jason Reitman’s Labor Day; Devil’s Knot by Atom Egoyan; The Railway Man by Jonathan Teplitzky; August: Osage County starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts; Richard Ayoade’s The Double; and Starred Up from David Mackenzie.

Stephen Frears’ [link...