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“Companion” is a darkly comedic sci-fi horror thriller that doubles, as TheWrap’s review notes, as a heightened commentary on one-sided relationships. It is also the rare film featuring artificial intelligence that chooses to take the side of its android character, Sophie Thatcher’s robot companion Iris. Movies have been warning audiences of the dangers of AI since, well, practically the dawn of cinema. Now, as AI becomes an increasingly real part of daily lives, cautionary tales about the boundary-pushing technology have only become more common.

“Companion” is not the only film that paints AI in a semipositive light, though. Here are five others that treat their robot characters with a more sympathetic hand.

“Ex Machina” (A24) “Ex Machina” (2015)

Writer-director Alex Garland’s “Ex Machina” follows Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a low-level coder who is invited by the genius, reclusive CEO (Oscar Isaac) of the tech company he works at to...

Twelve years ago, YouTuber Riley Brennan went missing. When, after a long dry spell, a seemingly related tragedy lands on the doorstep of her sister Mia, the rescue mission restarts in debutante director Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks. Chris Stuckmann is one of the biggest names in the emerging landscape of video-based film criticism that has exploded over the last five or so years. Many of these film commentators are content to exist in the reaction/analysis space, but Stuckmann has made it clear that his dream is creation, and that dream comes to fruition with his first feature, Shelby Oaks. Produced by the veteran indie champions at Paper Street Pictures, Shelby Oaks is an ambitious film whose reach occasionally...

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

If you’re wondering where to find the next generation of great filmmakers, look no further than YouTube. Running a channel involves pumping out content on a regular basis, shooting and editing your own videos (on a limited budget), and learning how to grow an audience; self-taught skills that will come in handy when it comes to making a first feature. A prime example of this is Danny and Michael Philippou, who started off making horror comedy shorts on their channel RackaRacka and went on to direct the very successful Talk To Me. And now there’s another name to add to that list: Chris Stuckmann and his debut feature Shelby Oaks.

For over a decade, Stuckmann has been reviewing movies on YouTube, raking in millions of subscribers. A couple years ago, he set out to make a movie of his own, and launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund it,...

When Australian filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou first announced that their film "Talk to Me" would be coming out through A24, there were a lot of folks who thought "Who?" but just as many (if not more) who thought, "RackaRacka got an A24 deal?!" As the American monoculture continues to splinter thanks to the internet, niche fandoms can thrive beyond what appeals to general audiences. This also means that folks who find fame outside of the typical pathways through Hollywood can make a name for themselves without having to answer to a studio system.

For the last 15 years, YouTube creator and film enthusiast Chris Stuckmann has been one of the most viewed film creators on the streaming platform. He first launched a series of short-form movie reviews called "Quick Movie Reviews," before expanding to longer-form videos. It's hard to imagine, but back in 2009, there weren't many folks reviewing films through YouTube.

Another big award show took place this weekend (in addition to the SAG Awards), the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which celebrates indie film and TV. One thing about this awards show is that their idea of independent sometimes makes me scratch my head a bit, with HBO’s big-budget The Last of Us nominated a whole bunch in the TV category, along with Netflix’s Beef and several other streaming shows, which I’m not sure one could call independent. For films, there’s a $30 million budget cap. For TV, I’m honestly not sure what the benchmark is because Last of Us was notoriously an expensive show to shoot, costing at least $100 million.

Indeed, The Last of Us won some key awards on the TV side, winning Best Supporting Performance (for Nick Offerman) and Best Breakthrough Performance (for Keivonn Montreal Woodard). Over on the film side, American Fiction and...

Past Lives was named best feature at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which were handed out Sunday afternoon in Santa Monica.

In addition, Celine Song was named best director for her work on the film.

Elsewhere, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won the Spirit Award for best supporting performance, for her role in The Holdovers, repeating her win from Saturday night’s SAG Awards and other shows this awards season. Her co-star, Dominic Sessa, won the Spirit Award for best breakthrough performance.

American Fiction also collected two trophies: Cord Jefferson won the award for best screenplay, while Jeffrey Wright won for best lead performance.

May December won the award for best first screenplay for Samy Burch (story by Burch and Alex Mechanik). Four Daughters was named best documentary.

On the TV side, Beef was named best new scripted series, while Ali Wong won best lead performance for her role in the show,...

The 2024 Independent Spirit Awards took place on Sunday at the traditional Santa Monica beach tent location, with Aidy Bryant hosting. “Past Lives” took home the coveted Best Feature award, with “Beef” being honored as Best New Scripted Series. Check out the full list of winners and nominees below.

Best Feature

“Past Lives”

Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

“All of Us Strangers”

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

“American Fiction”

Producers: Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson, Nikos Karamigios, Ben LeClair

“May December”

Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Grant S. Johnson, Pamela Koffler, Tyler W. Konney, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, Christine Vachon

“Passages”

Producers: Michel Merkt, Saïd Ben Saïd

“We Grown Now”

Producers: Minhal Baig, Joe Pirro

Best Lead Performance

Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”

Jessica Chastain, “Memory”

Greta Lee, “Past Lives”

Trace Lysette, “Monica”

Natalie Portman, “May December”

Judy Reyes, “Birth/Rebirth”

Franz Rogowski, “Passages”

Andrew Scott, “All of Us Strangers”

Teyana Taylor,...

Following a turbulent year marked by dueling industry strikes and the violent contraction–if not yet full pop–of the streaming bubble, 2024 has thus far been pretty good to Hollywood. It certainly helps that we’re in the middle of awards season, which for cineastes amounts to a three-month holiday largely characterized by voluminous binge-watching. And not just binge-watching of the year’s top films. For the curious, the season also offers up a smuggler’s bounty full of talking special post-screening Q&As, roundtables, filmmaker panels, celebratory cocktail receptions and more.

Traditionally Film Independent’s Directors Close-Up series has been a little bit of all of the above, presenting behind-the-scenes insight into the year’s most important works of cinema, straight from the mouths and brains of filmmakers themselves. As the virtual portion of this year’s programming winds down (see below), we’re looking ahead now to our...

Here on Bloody Disgusting we’ve published several articles (find them all here) covering *our* favorite horror movies of last year, but it’s always interesting to take a look at year-in-review roundups from other places as well. Letterboxd, for example, kicks off each new year by spotlighting the previous year’s top hits, and their full 2023 Year in Review is now live.

As always, films are broken up into various categories based on highest user ratings, including the 10 Highest Rated Horror Movies of 2023. It’s hardly surprising that the list is topped by horror hits including Talk to Me, When Evil Lurks, and Scream VI, but there are also several films on the list that you probably wouldn’t expect – and maybe haven’t even heard of.

Here are Letterboxd’s 10 Highest Rated Horror Movies of 2023…

10) Huesera: The Bone Woman 9) The Passenger 8) Birth/Rebirth 7) Vincent Must Die 6) Scream VI 5) Romancham...

It’s been a robust year for genre film. Horror’s continued dominance at the box office has effectively spilled over into fantasy, thrillers, and sci-fi in ways that defy easy classification. So much so that it’s difficult to overlook the 2023 genre movies that employ horror techniques, draw inspiration from our favorite genre, or simply dabble in it.

These horror adjacent movies may not fully plunge into the genre, but they’re also not afraid to wear their horror influences on their sleeves, whether through style or bloodletting.

Here are the top ten best horror adjacent movies of 2023.

10. A Haunting in Venice

Director and star Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot gets reeled into another whodunnit, but this time Branagh leans into the Halloween setting with stunning style to infuse this murder mystery with atmospheric mood. A Haunting in Venice looks and feels like a vintage ghost story, complete with nods to Edgar Allan Poe.

While the likes of Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Killers of the Moon will likely battle it out at the Oscars, Film Independent Spirit Awards is putting the spotlight on the indie productions of the year, with budget ranges from $10,000 to $28 million. May December, Past Lives, and American Fiction lead the nominations for the 39th ceremony, each taking five nods.

Other highlights include All of Us Strangers and Passages for Best Feature, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt and Earth Mama for Best First Feature, Kokomo City and The Mother of All Lies for Best Documentary, Glenn Howerton for BlackBerry, Marin Ireland and Anne Hathaway for Eileen, Marshawn Lynch for Bottoms, How to Blow Up a Pipeline for Best Editing, Godland and Tótem for Best International Film, and more.

See the nominations below ahead of the ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024 (a full two weeks before the Oscars), hosted by Aidy Bryant.

Best...

Erika Alexander stars as Coraline and Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison in ‘American Fiction’ (Photo credit: Claire Folger © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC)

American Fiction, Past Lives, and May December lead the list of the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Each of the three films picked up five nominations and will be going head-to-head in the Best Film and Best Supporting Performance categories. Films and TV shows earning four nominations included The Holdovers, I’m a Virgo, The Last of Us, and Passages.

The 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards will be held on February 25 on the beach in Santa Monica. Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live) is on board to host.

“This year’s exciting group of Spirit Award nominees reflect the undeniable strength and vitality of independent storytelling – this is the beating heart of film culture today,” said Josh Welsh, President of Film Independent. “It’s especially thrilling to see so many nominees...

Ceremony to take place on Santa Monica Beach on February 25, 2024.

The 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations have been announced and May December, American Fiction, and Past Lives lead the field with five nods apiece.

The Holdovers earned four and there were three for All Of Us Strangers – winner of seven Bifas at the weekend – as the nominations were announced on Tuesday. A24 leads the studio field with 11 nominations, followed by Netflix on 10.

Andrew Scott for All Of Us Strangers, Jessica Chastain for Memory, Greta Lee for Past Lives, Franz Rogowski for Passages, and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction are...

Nominees for the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards — the premiere awards event for the independent film and television community — were announced on Tuesday morning by actor/director/writer Natalie Morales and actor/producer/writer Joel Kim Booster, and HBO’s The Last of Us and Prime Video’s I’m a Virgo the TV pack with four nods each.

Netflix’s Beef followed closely with three noms.

More from TVLineCritics Choice Award Nominations: <em>The Morning Show</em> Scores Most Nods, Beating <em>Succession</em> — See Full ListThe Oscars Telecast Is (Pretty Much) Guaranteed to End Before Bedtime This Year — Here’s WhyTVLine Items: Michelle Williams Is Dying for Sex,...

Film Independent announced the 2024 Spirit Award nominees in all the film and TV categories on Tuesday, Dec 5. Only American productions with budgets of less than $30 million were eligible for consideration in the film races. Winners will be revealed on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, at a ceremony hosted by Aidy Bryant.

Last year, these kudos eliminated the four gendered acting awards and replaced them with just two prizes: lead and supporting performances (each has 10 nominees). It also added a new category, Best Breakthrough Performance, which has five contenders.

See the full list of 2024 Spirit Awards nominations for film and TV below.

Film

Best Picture

“All of Us Strangers”

“American Fiction”

“May December”

“Passages”

“Past Lives”

“We Grown Now”

Best Director

Andrew Haigh, “All of Us Strangers”

Todd Haynes, “May December”

William Oldroyd, “Eileen”

Ira Sachs, “Passages”

Celine Song, “Past Lives”

Best Lead Performance

Jessica Chastain, “Memory”

Greta Lee, “Past Lives”

Trace Lysette, “Monica”

Natalie Portman,...

American Fiction, May December and Past Lives lead the nominations for the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which were were announced Tuesday morning.

Each film garnered five noms, including best feature. Also nominated in that category are All of Us Strangers, Passages and We Grown Now.

The Robert Altman Award, which is given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast, will be presented to Showing Up, directed by Kelly Reichardt. The casting director is Gayle Keller, and the ensemble cast includes André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch, Heather Lawless, James Le Gros, John Magaro, Matt Malloy, Amanda Plummer, Maryann Plunkett, Denzel Rodriguez and Michelle Williams.

On the TV side, Jury Duty was tapped for the award of best ensemble in a new scripted series, an honor bestowed on one show (there are no nominees). The cast includes Alan Barinholtz, Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, David Brown, Kirk Fox, Ross Kimball,...

The final month of the year has arrived, and with it an early Festivus bounty of news (very exciting!) about the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which are happening once again on February 25, back on the beach in Santa Monica. Last week brought tell of our incomparable new Spirit Awards host: SNL funnywoman and Emmy-nominated streaming series auteur Aidy Bryant. Now, the nondenominational secular-humanist Holiday Gnomes have brought us something potentially even more exciting… the nominees!

For the third consecutive year, the Spirit Awards will recognize outstanding achievement in uniqueness of vision, innovation and boldness in TV and streaming in addition to feature film. And for the second year, all acting categories are gender-neutral.

Noms were revealed in a livestream earlier today on Film Independent’s YouTube channel (like and subscribe!) by special guest presenters Joel Kim Booster and Natalie Morales:

Spirit Awards winners are voted on exclusively by Film Independent Members.

“American Fiction,” “May December” and “Past Lives” dominated the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards nominations on Tuesday, picking up five nods apiece. The three movies are all up for best feature, where they will battle it out against “All of Us Strangers,” “Passages” and “We Grown Now.”

The annual honors recognize the best of television, as well as film. “The Last of Us,” a sci-fi epic that was a ratings hit for HBO, and “I’m a Virgo,” an absurdist miniseries from Boots Riley that was produced by Amazon, led the small screen crop, with four nominations each. Only new TV shows that have run for one season and were released between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of this year are eligible for awards. That’s why some big-budgeted fare was deemed eligible or, in the parlance of the show, independent.

That’s not the case on the feature front, where films have to be...

The Artifice Girl is a sci-fi indie film directed by Franklin Ritch. The film first premiered at the 26th Annual Fantasia International Film Festival and it won the Gold Audience Award for Best International Feature.

There are many films that are being made about AI and it has become part of our life to discuss this technology almost every day. The dangers of AI are always in the back of our minds as they haunt us as we think about what could happen in the future. Films discussing this topic, such as The Artifice Girl, can increase our fears as well as educate us on the matter.

The film makes you wonder about all the good uses we can find behind AI. Instead of portraying a shallow reason, The Artifice Girl had an important message for its audience. The film follows a team who start developing an AI-generated program that they name Cherry.

On Friday, July 7th, the 27th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival announced the winners of this year's feature competition section during the closing ceremony at the 500 plus seats Main Theater inside Bucheon City Hall. The ceremony was followed by the screening of the festival's closing film “Sana” by Japanese horror master Shimizu Takashi, a world premiere.

Bucheon Choice: Features

Best of Bucheon Krw – 20,000,000

Sorcery by Christopher Murray

Best Director Choice – Krw 5,000,000

Superposition by Karoline Lyngbye

Jury's Choice – Krw 5,000,000

The Artifice Girl by Franklin Ritch

Audience Award

The Artifice Girl by Franklin Ritch

Korean Fantastic: Features

Best Korean Fantastic Film – 20,000,000

Iron Mask by Kim Sung Hwan

Film Review: Iron Mask (2023) by Kim Sung-hwan

Korean Fantastic Best Director – Krw 5,000,000

Risk Society by Kim Byung Jun

Film Review: Risk Society (2023) by Kim Byung-jun

Korean Fantastic Actors:

Jung E-seo in Her Hobby

Jang Seongbeom in Abroad

Korean Fantastic Audience Award

Abroad by Giovanni Fumu...

The festival’s closing film was the world premiere of Takashi Shimizu’s ‘Sana’.

Christopher Murray’s witchcraft and revenge thriller Sorcery won the top prize at the 27th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) tonight (July 7) in South Korea.

Onstage at the closing ceremony at Bucheon City Hall, the Chilean filmmaker dedicated the Best of Bucheon award for his folk horror film “to the people from the island where the film was shot – that is Chiloe - because it’s a story that is based on their story,” noting “the people from the island also participated in the film...

The great Choi Min-sik was on hand to take early headlines at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan).

Described somewhat blandly as “a highly reliable performer” by the Korean Film Council (Kofic), Choi is not only the star of Korea’s top grossing film of all time “The Admiral: Roaring Currents,” he continues to be available for work of all different levels. He appears in no less than ten titles that played at the festival this week.

The festival also does reliable — in its own way – as it plays up to its “stay strange” mantra, cooperates with other festivals of a similar fantasy leaning and sidesteps the political infighting that currently bedevil Korea’s best-known festivals.

The selection runs from a documentary about Korean reunification to Anurag Kashyap’s “Kennedy,” a crime drama in which former adult movie star Sunny Leone gets to show that she has evolved into a versatile and confident actor.

The brilliance of Franklin Ritch's latest movie, The Artifice Girl, not only subverts the predictable trope of AI (Artificial Intelligence) being the doom of humanity, as seen in several movies featuring AI characters. With the compelling storytelling and themes that this minimalist, indie film explores, The Artifice Girl poses a question for debate within and outside cinema.

The plot revolves around Cherry's (Tatum Matthews) evolution from being an AI chatbot to a robot that develops sentience due to years of data accumulation from the internet, society, and decades of self-training. Throughout the movie, in collaboration with a top-secret agency, the AI is dedicated to catching and prosecuting online child predators. Modeled by her maker (Gareth) to appear as a nine-year-old blonde girl, Cherry is utilized to catch pedophiles and monitor child abuse across the globe. However, as she continues to evolve in performing her highly complex tasks, Cherry begins to adapt skills,...

For as hard as we film journalists can be on certain movies, it's honestly kind of a miracle when any live-action feature film ever gets finished. Even a movie as simple in its design as the recent sci-fi indie flick "The Artifice Girl" -- most of which centers on a small group of people talking in a cramped, dimly-lit room -- represents the handiwork of many, many different artists working behind the scenes. That goes doubly for animated movies, not least of all ones that push the envelope to the degree that "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" does.

"Across the Spider-Verse" is, of course, the much-anticipated sequel to 2018's "Into the Spider-Verse." A groundbreaking feat of animation, the latter brought Marvel comic book web-slinger Miles Morales to life on the big screen for the first time in a coming-of-age superhero story featuring several other Spider-People from across the multiverse, ranging from...

Franklin Ritch has been throwing audiences into existential turmoil with his debut feature, "The Artifice Girl," a character-driven film in three parts that centers on the ethics behind the humans creating and helping evolve AI-generated, responsive personalities. The film is by no means the first to tackle the ever-expanding landscape of artificial intelligence, but rather than take an action-packed approach like "I, Robot," his intimate piece of speculative fiction is far more interested in the ways our humanity is reflected by AI, for better and worse.

The Best International Feature Audience Award at the 2022 Fantasia Film Festival feels like a spiritual successor to Philip K. Dick's dystopian science-fiction novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which became the basis for Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner," mixed with the intimate tension of "12 Angry Men." Ironically, there's a "Juror #8" joke in "The Artifice Girl," a clear sign that Ritch was...

International sales talks underway on Croisette.

Jackrabbit Media has closed a North American deal with Level 33 on Oscar winner Tom Schulman’s high stakes gambling drama Double Down South and will continue talks with international buyers in Cannes this week.

The feature stars Lili Simmons as Diana, whose plan to win at gambling takes a dangerous turn when a local kingpin wants her to be the new attraction at his illegal gambling den. Kim Coates from Sons Of Anarchy also stars and the feature shot on location in Georgia.

Schulman, who won the original screenplay Oscar for Dead Poets Society,...

Stars: Sinda Nichols, David Girard, Franklin Ritch, Tatum Matthews, Lance Henriksen | Written and Directed by Franklin Ritch

The press release and IMDb page for The Artifice Girl describe it like this “ A team of special agents discovers a revolutionary new computer program to bait and trap online predators. After teaming up with the program’s troubled developer, they soon find that the AI is rapidly advancing beyond its original purpose.” It’s also tagged “Mystery” “Sci-Fi” and “Thriller”. Sounds like a potentially exciting crime film with some topical AI elements, right? Not exactly.

Deena is asking Siri the difference between right and wrong. Unsurprisingly her virtual assistant doesn’t have an answer. Her partner Amos arrives with Gareth, played by The Artifice Girl’s writer/director Franklin Ritch. It seems the two agents want to ask him some questions about some pictures found on his computer.

That’s when he drops a bombshell on them.

With all the wonderment and controversy surrounding artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT, it's becoming more apparent that the next stage of human advancement will revolve around AI. Love it or hate it, the technology has been around for a while and will certainly be with us going forward, but has also proven to be highly polarizing. While most people see AI's potential for making our lives more convenient, others see only the downsides. Movies have played a large part in creating the stigma and fear around AI for close to a century with films like Metropolis dating back to 1927.

The most famous AI films, like The Terminator, play on our worst fears and naturally gravitate toward sentient AI that seeks to destroy or rule over humans. However, as entertaining as such movies are, most never convey the stunning complexity, beauty, and true ethical conundrums that AI technology actually encompasses. Enter The Artifice Girl,...

Tatum Matthews, who stars in The Artifice Girl as Cherry, has opened up about what it was like making the movie and playing an AI character. The film's premise follows a Cherry, who has been designed to trap pedophiles. Speaking with Fangoria, Matthews revealed that she'd never played a role like that before, so the new challenges that would come with it were part of what drew her to the project.

"I just tried to approach her as a real girl because even though she's not, she's able to bring that spontaneity that AIs will never be able to, so I wanted to make sure that came across. But I also had to figure out where to add those little touches where you can kind of tell that something is off because they are really, really good at seeming natural, and Cherry was designed to fool people, these online predators.

Franklin Ritch’s AI Sci-Fi, The Artifice Girl, doesn’t just make do with the unbelievably small budget; it soars overhead anything the bigwig names and a grand production could’ve ever aspired to put together. What plays out more as a stage play and makes its limitations spring up as boons is at its most impressive when it grapples with the irony of its own device—the irony being how transcendentally existential and grounded the tension is while the subject matter punches the wall and demands more adrenaline. It’s almost as though it were Joyce’s ‘Araby’ when it comes to the disillusionment of stakes, taking nothing away from the bigger conflicts at hand while prioritizing the more philosophical disputes where ethics and rationalizations of motives are submerged in an ongoing battle. The Artifice Girl, while celebrating the phenomenal performances of each actor involved, finds its footing in...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

All These Sons

With his first documentary Minding the Gap, Bing Liu turned the lens on himself and his friends to examine the domestic violence around them. One of the more human documentaries of the last decade, Liu’s film looked at Rockford, Illinois, and the racial and social elements that affect young men and women in this decent-sized city. With his newest effort, All These Sons, Liu and collaborator Joshua Altman focus on Chicago’s South and West Sides, following young Black men at Iman and Maafa, two community organizations aiming to keep these men away from the gun violence that surrounds them. Once again the resulting film bursts with empathy, built-in trauma, and forgiveness. – John F. (full review)

Where to...

A helpful AI tool is starting to gain new power in an exclusive The Artifice Girl clip. Written, directed by, and starring Franklin Ritch in his feature debut and produced by Scare Package's Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns, the sci-fi thriller centers on detectives investigating a missing girl, only to learn she is an AI program designed to bait and trap online predators, but is quickly advancing beyond the original purpose. Alongside Ritch, the cast for The Artifice Girl includes Tatum Matthews, Sinda Nichols, David Girard, and Lance Henriksen.

Fresh off the film's acclaimed showings at the South by Southwest Film Festival, Screen Rant is proud to present an exclusive The Artifice Girl clip:

The video, as seen above, introduces the film's AI character, Cherry, as she communicates with her supervising team of scientists and ponders what happen if she became human. Matthews' character attempts to assure the group that,...

There are plenty of movies about artificial intelligence, though it’s Alex Garland’s Ex Machina that comes to mind first when watching The Artifice Girl. Written and directed by Franklin Ritch, the film is a nuanced look at AI over the years, how we interact with it, the way in which it develops, and the ethics surrounding it. The action unfolds in only two rooms for the entirety of its runtime, which can be suffocating at times, but The Artifice Girl is engaging and compelling, bolstered by stellar performances from its cast, and exceeds where other AI-focused stories might falter.

The film opens in a small room. Gareth believes he is being interviewed for a grant he applied for, but it isn’t long before Deena (Sinda Nichols) and Amos (David Girard) reveal their true intentions. Initially believing Gareth is an online predator soliciting children, Deena and Amos learn...

The horror movie to go see in theaters right now is Evil Dead Rise, but a brand new horror movie is being unleashed in theaters this week to give the franchise a little genre competition.

And it’s one of Seven new horror movies releasing this week…

Here’s all the new horror releasing April 25 – April 30, 2023!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

After scaring up $168 million worldwide, Scream VI just arrived for purchase on Digital Today, and Bloody Disgusting has also learned this week that Scream VI will be unleashed on 4K Ultra HD SteelBook, on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on July 11, 2023.

Meagan wrote in her review of Scream VI, “This slasher sequel lets a ruthless Ghostface loose in the city, slicing up an intense, flawless entry that continues the streak of insightful introspection while escalating the thrills, kills, humor, and heart to a breathless degree.

This debut feature dissects the ethical dilemmas that arise when an AI is used to entrap paedophiles, but it fails to translate its ideas into a cogent argument

Probing the ethical implications surrounding the use of AI, Franklin Ritch’s debut feature hinges on a high-concept premise: an entirely digital avatar of a young girl named Cherry (Tatum Matthews) is used as bait to trap paedophiles in online chatrooms. Without the signature spectacle of the sci-fi genre, The Artifice Girl is a markedly low-key and small-scale endeavour, steeped in philosophical musings that ultimately seem stagey rather than cinematic.

Divided into three chapters spanning decades, the film moves through a series of single locations. It starts in a police interrogation room where Ritch’s Gareth, Cherry’s creator, is questioned by Deena (Sinda Nichols) and Amos (David Girard), members of a taskforce combatting child sexual abuse. Once Gareth reveals Cherry is a virtual being,...

Artificial Intelligence has been increasingly in the news of late, with observers worried that it will soon become difficult for teachers to tell if students actually completed a project themselves (or a program did it for them), for anyone to recognize whether a supposed breaking evidential video is in fact a deepfake, and so forth. “The Artifice Girl,” however, frames the problems raised by ever-growing technological sophistication in a familiar narrative framework: that of the machine intelligence that begins to surpass its human “masters.”

Unlike portrayals from “2001” to “Ex Machina” and beyond, however, Franklin Ritch’s debut feature does not treat that dynamic in thriller terms, as a hostile takeover. Instead, this smaller-scaled speculative fiction is more concerned with ethics, as pondered in a series of dialogue sequences that aren’t static but might also have worked on stage, and require nothing in the way of FX. The results may...

Multi-hyphenate writer, director, and star Franklin Ritch introduces a science fiction chamber piece in The Artifice Girl, a heady thriller centered around advanced tech. The inciting mystery initially presents as a high-concept thriller but soon gives way to a deceptively complex and affecting sci-fi parable. It’s in the measured layering of complicated character work and ethical conundrums that Ritch’s feature eventually finds its magic.

The Artifice Girl begins as a contained crime thriller set in an interrogation room. Within, special agents Deena (Sinda Nichols) and Amos (David Girard) aggressively cross examine their suspect, Gareth (Ritch), about both his career and online activities. The interrogation leads the agents to deduce the savvy tech guru Gareth of dabbling in pedophilia, specifically in monitoring and baiting predators with a young preteen girl named Cherry (Tatum Matthews). It turns out they’re not too far off; Gareth is indeed using Cherry as...

"She's one of the most complex A.I.s that's ever been created." XYZ Films has unveiled an official trailer for The Artifice Girl, an indie sci-fi thriller by filmmaker Franklin Ritch making his feature directorial debut. This premiered at the 2022 Fantastic Film Festival last year, and stopped by SXSW and Glasgow last month, with a release set for the end of April. "The Artifice Girl delivers a tense and morally cryptic experience that will leave a microchip-shaped imprint on your brain." A group of special agents discovers a revolutionary new computer program that uses Artificial Intelligence to bait and trap online predators. After teaming up with the program's troubled developer, they soon find that the program is advancing much faster than they could have imagined, resulting in unsettling consequences for the future of technology and mankind. "While this is a wildly ambitious science fiction, it was important for us...

She’s not real. She’s more than that. Winner of “Best International Feature” at Fantasia Film Festival 2022, the sci-fi movie The Artifice Girl will be releasing at home later this month.

The film comes to theaters, On Demand and Digital on April 27, 2023.

Meet The Artifice Girl in the official trailer below.

Franklin Ritch wrote the directed the acclaimed sci-fi thriller.

In the film, “A team of special agents discovers a revolutionary new computer program to bait and trap online predators. After teaming up with the program’s troubled developer, they soon find that the AI is rapidly advancing beyond its original purpose.”

Tatum Matthews, David Girard, Sinda Nichols, Franklin Ritch, and Lance Henriksen star.

The post ‘The Artifice Girl’ Trailer – Award-Winning Science Fiction Movie Looks Like a Darker Version of ‘M3GAN’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Lance Henriksen-Starrer “The Artifice Girl” Lands Acquisition XYZ Films has acquired the AI Sci-Fi film following its SXSW debut with plans for an immediate theatrical and digital release this spring Los Angeles, CA – It was announced today that XYZ Films has acquired North American rights to Franklin Ritch’s critically acclaimed sci-fi …

The post Lance Henriksen-Starrer “The Artifice Girl” Lands Acquisition With Xyz Films appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

Exclusive: XYZ Films has claimed North American rights to the sci-fi pic The Artifice Girl, starring Tatum Matthews (The Waltons: Homecoming) and Lance Henriksen (Aliens), which this past weekend had its U.S. premiere at SXSW after world premiering to critical acclaim at Fantasia Film Festival.

The film marking the feature debut of writer-director Franklin Ritch — which like Uni’s horror hit M3GAN, looks at the increasingly top-of-mind subject of AI through a genre prism — is slated for a theatrical release in 15+ U.S. Markets, as well as an accompanying digital debut this spring.

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The Artifice Girl follows a small team of...

Holy hell this year’s SXSW Film Festival really isn’t messing around.

The previous announcement unveiled a stacked horror lineup that includes headiners Evil Dead Rise and opener Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

In addition, they revealed several prominent horror titles that will premiere as part of the Midnighters program, including the Sundance hit Talk to Me and the surprise sequel to Becky, The Wrath of Becky.

It turns out, the programming team isn’t finished!

SXSW announced another wave of film programming today, including an eighth Midnighter.

“Midnighters don’t need to be exclusively horror films, they just need to perk you up and get your blood pumping,” said Peter Hall, Film & TV Festival Programmer. “That’s why this year’s SXSW Midnighters class is a mix of horror, bone-crunching action, and mind-melting genre hybrids. Some of them introduce new, terrifying lore to the canon of suburban horror movies,...

A second wave of film and television programming has been announced for this year’s South by Southwest Conference and Festivals, with highlights including the series debuts of “Swarm” and Steven Yeun starring “Beef” on opening and closing night, respectively.

A full list of honorees in the visions, global presented by Mubi, 24 beats and festival favorites categories was also unveiled in tandem with additions to previously announced sections.

“The second wave of our lineup signals that the countdown to SXSW is on! The hype train is officially leaving the station, baby!” said Claudette Godfrey, V.P. of film and TV at SXSW. “From thought-provoking documentaries and thrilling television series, to hotly anticipated studio tentpoles and micro-budget dramas, we strive to showcase the best of a diverse range of work, and couldn’t be more proud of this year’s lineup.”

From co-creators Donald Glover and Janine Nabers comes the March 10 world premiere of “Swarm,...

Festival runs in Austin, Texas, from March 10-19.

Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby follow-up Bottoms and Jon S. Baird’s Tetris starring Taron Egerton are among the second wave of SXSW unveiled on Wednesday.

Festival organisers announced all selections in Visions, Global presented by Mubi, 24 Beats, and Festival Favorites as well as additions to Headliners, TV Premieres, Narrative and Documentary Spotlight.

New to Headliners are world premieres of Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby follow-up Bottoms which follows two unpopular queer high school students who start a fight club to have sex before graduation; and Jon S. Baird’s Tetris starring...

The Roundup

The full list of Audience Awards from this year's Fantasia International Film Festival was revealed today, with the top prize going to Franklin Ritch's smart science fiction drama The Artifice Girl, while South Korean hit The Roundup won Best Asian Feature/film]. French fairy tale Princesse Dragon came top in the animation category, and Alexandre Leblanc's rambling shaggy dog story Les Pas D'Allure won on home soil, receiving the Best Quebec Feature prize.

The festival came to a close on Wednesday with a screening of July Jung's Next Sohee, and next year's dates have yet to be announced.

Those awards in full:-

Best International Feature Gold: The Artifice Girl Silver: La Pieta Bronze: Deadstream

Best Asian Feature Gold: The Roundup Silver: Next Sohee Bronze: One For The Road (Hong Kong/Thailand, d. Baz...

The festival wrapped up its 26th edition on August 3.

Korean action film The Roundup and US sci-fi The Artifice Girl won the gold awards for best Asian feature and best international feature, respectively, at the audience awards for the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, which wrapped its 26th edition on August 3.

Starring Eternals and Train To Busan’s Done Lee as a ‘best of a cop’, The Roundup is directed by Lee Sang-yong and acts as a sequel to 2017’s The Outlaws. The gold winner was also a box office hit in South Korea, recording over 12.5 million admissions (as...

The Artifice Girl Photo: Courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival

The Fantasia International Film Festival has long had a reputation for supporting thoughtful, intelligent science fiction, and this year The Artifice Girl is one of the standouts in that area. It’s directed by Florida filmmaker Franklin Ritch, who also stars as Gareth, a computer programmer who sets out to create an artificial intelligence capable of hunting for child molesters online. When his project attracts the attention of the authorities, Gareth is forced to make compromises, but what really complicates matters is the process of change going on within the AI itself, which raises a series of difficult ethical questions.

The film is split into three acts, the first of which takes place in a single, dimly lit room, beginning as an interrogation and gradually morphing into a negotiation. It’s the sort of scene which is really tough for...

Ahead of its world premiere in competition at Montreal’s Fantasia, writer-director Franklin Ritch has provided Variety exclusive access to the trailer and poster for his first sci-fi feature, “The Artifice Girl.”

The film will premiere within the Cheval Noir strand, among a line-up of equally unconventional narratives brought to the screen by fresh and established global talents. Ritch is no stranger to the festival, having debuted his buzzy short film “Bedridden” there in 2018.

Produced by Paper Street Pictures (“The Pale Door”), Blood Oath (“Extra Ordinary”), and Ritch’s Last Resort Ideas, “The Artifice Girl” follows the punishing interrogation of a rogue tech wizard responsible for creating an elaborate AI program to lure child predators and abate human trafficking.

As the tech grows sentient and develops its own moral code, the characters are caught in the cross-hairs as they debate authoritative overstep, boundaries and abuse of power while questioning the fate of anonymity and autonomy.