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Simon Brew Aug 18, 2017

Looking for a film to watch, that you might not have considered before? Try some of these...

Sometimes, we figure, you come to a site like this just to find out about a film you didn’t know about. That you want recommendations of movies that you might not otherwise have uncovered. This list, then, has no theme, save that the films on it are really good, and didn’t get much of an audience first time around. That, or they seem to have been forgotten. It’s a real mix, but hopefully, there’s something on here that appeals..

The Brady Bunch Movie

The Brady Bunch films never really seemed to do much business in the UK, and that’s a real pity. No foreknowledge of the series is required, and the first movie takes the Brady film and transplants them into 1990s America, with no...

Our series on big-screen remakes continues with a cult horror film that kickstarted the illustrious career of Steve McQueen. This week, Cinelinx looks at The Blob (1958 vs. 1988). Come inside to see how these two films stack up.

The original version of The Blob was a low-budget monster film made for $110,000. The titular creature was originally supposed to be called The Molten Meteor Monster, which then was changed to The Mass, which turned into The Glob, and Finally The Blob. The film's tongue-in-cheek title song was written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David, which became a hit. The movie was directed by Irvin Yeaworth who specialized in directing motivational educational and religious films, so this was a departure for him. The film was a moderate success, grossing over $4 million, although the critics weren’t overly kind. It has a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its cheesiness, its reputation has grown over...

Horror isn't known for being a woman-friendly genre. From the flailing histrionics of Fay Wray in "King Kong" to the slasher sub-genre and its attendant bevy of brainless, scantily-clad female victims, there's a perception -- in some ways warranted -- that the horror film caters in misogyny. And yet that's also a frustratingly reductive viewpoint. It seems obvious but I'll say it anyway: boiling down the horror genre to "Friday the 13th Part VII" is like boiling down the comedy genre to Adam Sandler's "Grown-Ups." There is so much more to horror than "a girl running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door." So what of the women working behind the scenes? The number of high-profile woman directors who have worked in the genre remains frustratingly limited, yet there are a few who have not only managed to infiltrate the boys' club but created...

For The Lusty Month of May, we're looking at a few sex scenes. Here's Nathaniel...

They like to say that people come into your lives for a reason. Also true of movies. When I saw Priest (1994) in its American release in 1995, I was just out of the closet but still very much struggling with having been a strict Mormon for then roughly 100% of my life. The movie is about a gay Priest (Linus Roache) who struggles with his vows .... and not just the sexual ones. It hit me in a seismic way. This had never happened to me before or since but I started crying at the end and actually couldn't stop until after the credits had ended. 

Where you are in life can dictate a lot about how you receive a movie. But this series is about sex scenes so let's narrow our focus. Today Priest's sex scene,...

I have seen Ravenous at least a couple dozen times. I’ve seen it on VHS, and I’ve seen it on DVD, and now, thanks to Scream Factory, I have seen it on Blu-ray, and I couldn’t be happier. I read a scathing review of the disc before I watched it, as I’m sure some of you did, but I’ve learned that bad reviews of Scream titles are to be taken with a grain of salt. Scream have become popular now, so with all of their millions of fans, will naturally come a handful of loudmouth detractors. I watched the disc from start to finish, including all of the extras, and I can say without issue that this release is definitely a worthy upgrade to one of my favorite weird little movies. I’ve been trying to save the new Scream releases for the night before the retail date,...

Summer is officially right around the corner, which means horror DVD and Blu-rays are starting to heat up as well. This week, we’ve got several cult classics hitting high definition for the first time, another special edition set of the first three seasons of The Walking Dead,and the recent RoboCop reboot directed by Jose Padilha and starring Joel Kinnaman.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a special Doctor Who David Tennant-themed collection being released, several indie creature features and we’re finally seeing the official arrival of the Video Nasties documentaries stateside on Tuesday. Check out all the horror and sci-fi fun you can add to your home collections this week below!

Spotlight Titles:

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (Cult Epics, Blu-ray)

Prepare yourselves… The strangest bedtime story ever told! Cult Epics brings you Death Bed, George Barry’s uniquely weird journey through a world of wind demons,...

Blu-ray Release Date: June 3, 2014

Price: Blu-ray $24.97

Studio: Shout! Factory

It’s a cannabilistic fest in 1999 horror movie Ravenous.

Guy Pearce (Lockout) stars in the independent film as Capt. Boyd, a disgraced war veteran who’s quietly sent to a remote fort inhabited by soldiers half-mad with boredom. Then a frozen stranger (Robert Carlyle, California Solo) arrives and tells them about a group of settlers who are trapped in a cave and forced to eat one another. When Boyd and soldiers go to help, they fall into a deadly ambush.

David Arquette (Black Limousine) and Jeffrey Jones (TV’s Deadwood) also star in the thriller, which was directed by Antonia Bird (Priest) and written by Ted Griffin (Tower Heist).

Critics panned Ravenous, which grossed $2 million when it was in theaters. But moviegoers like it much better. The film scored 40% with critics and 79% with moviegoers, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

This Blu-ray release...

Inspired by twisted tales of cannibalistic survival like the real-life Donner Party, cult terror feature Ravenous graphically depicts a twist on an old cliché: You are who you eat. Directed by the late Antonia Bird (Priest), this unnerving cult thriller stars Guy Pearce (Iron Man 3, Prometheus), Robert Carlyle (TV’s Once Upon A Time), Jeremy Davies (Lost, Saving Private Ryan), Jeffrey Jones (Deadwood, Sleepy Hollow), John Spencer (The West Wing), Stephen Spinella (Milk, Royal … Continue reading →

Horrornews.net...

Ja from Mnpp here with a new round of "Beauty Vs. Beast" for us to play... this week's inspiration? It's the 54th birthday of one of my favorite actors, Scotsman slash raving lunatic Robert Carlyle. Alright yes he's (probably) just acting the "raving lunatic" part... over and over again... so well... by all accounts he's a very nice gentleman. Think how sweet he seemed romancing Linus Roache in Priest! That was the first place I ever saw him - it was two years later where he'd cement the scary status he'd carry on to roles in Ravenous and 28 Weeks Later (which I actually prefer to the original) with the one and only terror that was Begbie in Danny Boyle's 1996 phenom Trainspotting.

Did I say "one and only"? Make that twice and doubly - now that Ewan and Danny have finally made up following DiCaprio-Gate (Boyle cast Leo over Ewan in The Beach,...

Actor who played Bert Lynch in BBC police drama Z-Cars and appeared in shows ranging from Doctor Who to Nightingales

The actor James Ellis (also known as Jimmy), who has died aged 82, was the longest-serving original cast member of the hugely popular BBC television series Z-Cars. When Z-Cars began in 1962, it represented a major change in the way the police were characterised in fiction. The BBC police series Dixon of Dock Green had been running for seven years, with Jack Warner playing the understanding, avuncular police constable Dixon. Z-Cars, by contrast, had the actors Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor making cynical remarks about the death of a murdered police colleague whose funeral they were attending, and Ellis, as Constable Bert Lynch, hearing from a colleague how he beats up his wife, without doing anything about it. Z-Cars attempted to show how moral anarchy in the rundown industrial area of the...

★★★☆☆In 1994, the late Antonia Bird paired up Linus Roach and Robert Carlisle for Priest (1994), the tale of a Catholic priest torn between the church and his homosexuality. Now, another female director, Malgorzata Szumowska tackles the same subject but from a different social perspective. In the Name Of (2013) is a poignant exploration of burgeoning homosexuality within both Polish society and the strict confinements of the Catholic Church. Adam (Andrzej Chyra), a charming but troubled man, arrives to take over a small parish in rural Poland. He soon becomes popular with his congregation and a pillar of the community.

Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies who have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Norma Bengell (1935-2013) - Brazilian actress who starred in Planet of the Vampires (see below), Mafioso and the Oscar-nominated The Given Word (aka Keeper of Promises). She died from lung cancer on October 9. (Uol) Antonia Bird (1927-2013) - British director of Ravenous, Mad Love and the famously controversial Priest. She died of anaplastic thyroid cancer on October 24. (BBC) Daniel H. Blatt (1937-2013) - Producer of Cujo, The...

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This inspiring director's death is a profound loss to film-making, and exposes the lack of women in British film and TV

Meeting Antonia Bird in 1999 was a pivotal moment for me, a novice filmmaker. I'd booked a ticket to a preview screening and Q&A of her film Ravenous and lay in wait for her at the cinema, excited that I was going to meet my directing idol.

When she finally turned the corner I was staking out, a large crowd suddenly appeared from nowhere and I thought my hopes were dashed: how would I approach her now? But the throng were autograph hunters of Robert Carlyle: they were only keen on pursuing the actor; I was alone in being solely interested in the director. I told Bird she was an inspiration and asked if she would mentor me. She, very graciously, gave me her business card and told...

Cancer has claimed yet another talented filmmaker far too early in their life. Word broke in the early hours of Saturday that TV and film director Antonia Bird has died at the age of 54.Kicking off her career at the Royal Court Theatre, Bird worked her way up from assistant level to directing before making the jump to television with BBC stalwarts EastEnders and Casualty. Those regular gigs led to other jobs including Thin Air and The Men’s Room, adapted from Ann Oakley’s novel.Longer form projects included the acclaimed Safe, which tackled homelessness and scored her a Best First Feature Award at the Edinburgh Television Festival and a BAFTA for Best Single drama. She followed that up with 1994’s Priest which, originally designed solely as a TV movie, was handed a theatrical release and warmly received despite its controversial stance on the Catholic Church. Both projects featured actor Robert Carlyle,...

British film and television director Antonia Bird has died aged 54.

Bird was best known for directing films including Priest (1994), Face (1997) and Ravenous (1999), all starring actor Robert Carlyle.

The Scottish star of Trainspotting and The Full Monty said on Twitter: “Such a sad day today. Rip Antonia Bird. Farewell my beautiful friend.”

Bird, who had a rare anaplastic thyroid cancer, died peacefully in her sleep according to a statement from her partner.

The statement added that she had an operation to remove a large tumour in April but “despite a determined fight, she had come to terms with the inevitable in the last few weeks and died peacefully in her sleep.”

Bird worked in TV in more recent years on series including Spooks, Cracker and BBC drama The Village.

She began her career at London’s Royal Court as a theatre director before making episodes of BBC soap EastEnders and medical drama Casualty in the mid-1980s.

Bird...

English TV and film director Antonia Bird has died after a cancer battle. She was 54. Bird broke through as a director on episodes of EastEnders and worked extensively on the small screen helming television projects including BBC series Casualty, the Bill Nighy-starring miniseries The Men’s Room, and a 2006 special telefilm episode of Cracker. In film she made a detour into teen romance with the 1995 drama Mad Love, starring Drew Barrymore and Chris O’Donnell. Bird frequently directed actor Robert Carlyle who appeared in her feature debut Priest (1994), Face (1997), and Ravenous (1999), the cannibal horror pic that amassed a cult following after initially opening to dismal returns. “Such a sad day today.. Rip Antonia Bird. Farewell my beautiful friend xxx,” Tweeted Carlyle. BBC series The Village which debuted this Spring was Bird’s final project. She directed four Season 1 episodes of the show created by Peter Moffat. “She said to...

British film and television director Antonia Bird, whose work attracted controversy and acclaim in equal measure, died Thursday. She was 54 and the cause of death was anaplastic thyroid cancer. Bird was perhaps best known for helming the drama “Priest,” which followed a gay cleric as he struggled to deal with the incestuous relationship between members of his flock, was widely condemned by the Catholic church and inspired protests. The film was a difficult sell for Miramax and its then corporate parent the Walt Disney Company, which ultimately withstood threats of boycotts and released the film to mixed reviews in...

TV and film director Antonia Bird has died, aged 54.

She was best known for her work with actor Robert Carlyle, which included the the '90s films Priest, Face and Ravenous.

Carlyle took to Twitter to pay his respects, writing: "Such a sad day today... Rip Antonia Bird. Farewell my beautiful friend."

Bird started her career in theatre but soon moved on to television, where she filmed episodes of EastEnders, Casualty, The Bill, Inspector Morse and Peak Practice.

She also made contributions to Spooks, Cracker and the BBC's The Village.

John Simm, who starred in The Village, also paid tribute over Twitter. He said: "Such terribly sad news yesterday re the untimely death of the wonderful Antonia Bird. A brilliant, inspiring, beautiful Soul. Rip Antonia."

Bird won many awards throughout her career, including two BAFTA TV awards for 'Best Single Drama' and the BAFTA children's award in 2009, as well as...

TV and film director Antonia Bird has died, aged 54.

She was best known for her work with actor Robert Carlyle, which included the the '90s films Priest, Face and Ravenous.

Carlyle took to Twitter to pay his respects, writing: "Such a sad day today... Rip Antonia Bird. Farewell my beautiful friend."

Bird started her career in theatre but soon moved on to television, where she filmed episodes of EastEnders, Casualty, The Bill, Inspector Morse and Peak Practice.

She also made contributions to Spooks, Cracker and the BBC's The Village.

John Simm, who starred in The Village, also paid tribute over Twitter. He said: "Such terribly sad news yesterday re the untimely death of the wonderful Antonia Bird. A brilliant, inspiring, beautiful Soul. Rip Antonia."

Bird won many awards throughout her career, including two BAFTA TV awards for 'Best Single Drama' and the BAFTA children's award in 2009, as well as...

Antonia Bird, the British director who made the crisis-of-faith film Priest her feature debut in 1994, has died, the U.K. website Eye for Film reported Friday. She was 54. Bird also helmed Mad Love (1995), a romantic drama starring Drew Barrymore and Chris O’Donnell; the crime drama Face starring Robert Carlyle; and Ravenous (1999), a tale about cannibalism with Carlyle and Guy Pearce. Photos: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2013 With Carlyle, journalist Mark Cousins and Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, she set up the production company Four Way Pictures. “Such a sad day today.. Rip Antonia Bird. Farewell

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While the name may not immediately jump out at you, Antonia Bird delivered one of our most favorite films here at Dread Central called Ravenous. It's with a heavy heart we report that she's been taken from us at the all too young age of 54.

The sad news comes to us from the UK film site Eye For Film. No cause of death has been announced at this time as the news just broke early this morning after Bird passed away in London, England. We'll keep an eye out for more and update this story accordingly.

In addition to Ravenous, she was much admired for her intense, realistic films, including Priest, Mad Love and Face, for which she won a BAFTA. She also worked extensively in television, making her mark in series like "Casualty."

We here at Dread Central would like to take this time to offer our deepest of condolences to Bird's friends,...

The film and theatre director Antonia Bird has died at the age of 54 from anaplastic thyroid cancer. Also known for her television work, she was much admired for her intense, realistic films, including Priest, Mad Love and Face, for which she won a BAFTA. She also worked extensively in television, making her mark in series like Casualty.

Best known internationally for Ravenous, Bird worked extensively with Robert Carlyle, with whom she, Mark Cousins and Irvine Welsh set up the production company 4-Way Film. The actor has described her as one of his closest friends and paid tribute to her on Twitter, saying: "Such a sad day today. Rip Antonia Bird. Farewell my beautiful friend."...

Ravenous

Directed by Antonia Bird

Written by Ted Griffin

Czech Republic, UK, and USA, 1999

“I said no food. I didn’t say there was nothing to eat.”

Director Antonia Bird’s Ravenous is a bizarre amalgamation of humor and horror that explores cannibalism with warped nuance. The strangely cacophonous score builds up tension as craven outcasts face a glutinous and depraved attacker whose strength seems fortified by his consumption of human flesh. Set during America’s westward expansion, the metaphor of humanity’s insatiable appetite for power is plain to see but its execution indulges in such eccentricities that it is still a gruesome pleasure to behold.

Captain John Boyd (Guy Pearce of Memento and L.A. Confidential) is a reluctant soldier who plays dead in a battle during the Mexican-American War and ends up at the bottom of a pile of corpses. The blood of his more heroic comrades...

A conflicted cleric gets stranded at a rural retreat for teenage tearaways in a film infused with stifled longing

This quiet provocation from the Polish arm of Lars von Trier's Zentropa Entertainments falls into that conflicted-cleric subgenre encompassing everything from The Thorn Birds to Antonia Bird's Priest. The tightening dog collar here belongs to Adam (Andrzej Chyra), who – after several muttered-about transfers – has been stranded at a rural retreat for teenage tearaways, where he finds regular woodland runs can't burn off a growing sense of isolation. Co-writer/ director Malgorzata Szumowska, improving upon 2011's Elles, downplays the conflicts in a scenario apparently ripe for torrid melodrama, allowing the story and characters to reveal themselves at their own pace. The gotcha-like ending may prove debatable, but Szumowska refuses to judge her protagonist, instead placing him within a persuasive atmosphere of stifled longing: every lingering sunbeam serves as an encouragement to...

Tags: OscarsAcademy AwardsJessica ChastainKerry WashingtonLes MiserablesArgoClea DuvallAnne HathawayIMDb

This year's Oscar nominees are pretty straight, especially compared to the last few years where we had a strong showing with The Kids Are Alright, Pariah and Albert Nobbs. Fear not — we've got a way to keep it gay when you watch the ceremony this Sunday, at least as far as the women go.

Jessica Chastain

Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Nominated for: Best Actress, Zero Dark Thirty

Queer Quotient: Before she was the hottest new actress in Hollywood, Jessica starred in the indie Jolene where she has a lesbian relationship with Frances Fisher. She also posed for a sensual photo with Kat Dennings in W magazine once.

Jennifer Lawrence

Photo by Mike Marsland/Getty Images

Nominated for: Best Actress, Silver Linings Playbook

Queer Quotient: JLaw once told The New York Times her mom thought she was gay because she loved painting portraits of naked women.

Ben Schwartz House of Lies, Parks and Recreation Linus Roache Batman Begins, Priest, Johanna Day Tony nominee for Proof and Pete Simpson Blue Man Group all descended on Silence The Musical on May 31st to catch leading man David Garrisons last performance prior to his vacation. Tony Award winner Shuler Hensley is currently filling in as Dr. Hannibal Lecter through June 24th.

We’re nearly half way through the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones and the new characters are starting to pile up! As if the monstrous cast of Season 1 wasn’t enough to wrap our minds around, there are a whopping 22 new characters (worth mentioning) introduced over the first four episodes of Season 2. The following list gives some brief background information about each new character, who they are and how they fit into the story.

Hopefully this will help to eliminate any confusion you might have when you yell at your TV: “Wait! Who the hell was that guy again?”

At Dragonstone:

King Stannis Baratheon

Played by: Stephen Dillane

Stannis is the late King Robert’s younger brother and the rightful heir to the Iron Throne and Westeros. Since Robert’s Rebellion, he has held the island fortress of Dragonstone, which lies northeast of King’s Landing. Stannis is a hard,...

If Sean Bean has a hole in his schedule, Andrew has a few film pitches that might interest him...

What can you say about Sean Bean that hasn't been said before? He's like a Moomin Shaman. His love is deeper than the sun and he's as gentle as a mother's kiss.

Apologies if your mother sometimes gets a bit carried away. No one needs those flashbacks.

While Robert Carlyle selfishly took the lead role in Sawney Bean, there are still movies out there, potentially, with a Sean Bean shaped hole in them. The Hobbit is set about 78 years before The Fellowship Of The Ring, but maybe Ecthelion II looks quite like his grandson. And maybe, what with it being a Fantasy film, Ecthelion II can somehow have an even more spectacular death than his son. Who can have a baby with Sean Bean's face. I'm fairly sure Weta could...

Sundance 2012 Review of California Solo, starring Robert Carlyle - After years as a supporting player, Robert Carlyle shines in the spotlight. Most of the time Scottish native Robert Carlyle is a character actor offering bursts of colorful drama in support of the bigger story; sometimes a villain; like the James Bond adventure The World Is Not Enough and sometimes a lover; such as Antonia Bird’s gay melodrama Priest. More often Carlyle settles nicely with an ensemble, contributing his part to a larger cast in classic movies like the amateur male stripper comedy The Full Monty and the Irvine Welsh adaptation Trainspotting. Carlyle continues his trend as a go-to supporting actor in ABC’s fairy tale-inspired drama Once Upon A Time as the mischievous Rumpelstiltskin, arguably his most-seen performance to date...

Sundance 2012 Review of California Solo, starring Robert Carlyle - After years as a supporting player, Robert Carlyle shines in the spotlight. Most of the time Scottish native Robert Carlyle is a character actor offering bursts of colorful drama in support of the bigger story; sometimes a villain; like the James Bond adventure The World Is Not Enough and sometimes a lover; such as Antonia Bird’s gay melodrama Priest. More often Carlyle settles nicely with an ensemble, contributing his part to a larger cast in classic movies like the amateur male stripper comedy The Full Monty and the Irvine Welsh adaptation Trainspotting. Carlyle continues his trend as a go-to supporting actor in ABC’s fairy tale-inspired drama Once Upon A Time as the mischievous Rumpelstiltskin, arguably his most-seen performance to date...

Sundance 2012 Review of California Solo, starring Robert Carlyle - After years as a supporting player, Robert Carlyle shines in the spotlight. Most of the time Scottish native Robert Carlyle is a character actor offering bursts of colorful drama in support of the bigger story; sometimes a villain; like the James Bond adventure The World Is Not Enough and sometimes a lover; such as Antonia Bird’s gay melodrama Priest. More often Carlyle settles nicely with an ensemble, contributing his part to a larger cast in classic movies like the amateur male stripper comedy The Full Monty and the Irvine Welsh adaptation Trainspotting. Carlyle continues his trend as a go-to supporting actor in ABC’s fairy tale-inspired drama Once Upon A Time as the mischievous Rumpelstiltskin, arguably his most-seen performance to date...

Note: I’ll be updating this page as Criterion makes the release dates and final art available. – Ryan 4/15/2011

Well here we are, another mid-month Criterion new release announcement. This time last year, we were treated to the incredible one-two punch announcement of Black Narcissus and the Red Shoes as upgraded DVD/Blu-ray editions. This time around we have even more to be excited about.

First up, a couple of films that we’ve actually already covered on the podcast will finally be getting Blu-ray upgrades. One of our very first episodes was on Mike Leigh’s Naked (a film that I wasn’t too hot on, but I loved Leigh’s Topsy Turvy). Now you’ll finally be able to see this incredibly daring and raw look at England in the early 90s, with David Thewlis as the immortal Johnny. I found the dialogue to be a little too rapid and not very naturalistic,...

Tom Wilkinson was in his mid-40s when he decided being a respected theatre actor wasn't enough. He tells Stephen Moss about cracking Hollywood, playing Joe Kennedy – and the two women who inspired him

Tom Wilkinson is a most unlikely Hollywood star. For a start, this interview is taking place not at the glitzy Dorchester hotel – time-honoured home of the film junket – but at his unassuming house in north London. Though he hates giving interviews and is being forced to miss his beloved Friends on TV, he is too polite to ask me to leave, and I hang around in his living room for two hours asking ever more incoherent questions. As if this wasn't enough, he then drives me a couple of miles to the station. Now ask yourself: would Tom Cruise do that?

But that's the point. The tall, angular, intense, somewhat intimidating Wilkinson doesn't want to be like Tom Cruise,...

One of the best things about A-list festivals is that you get red carpet ogling inbetween all the big ticket movies. Oh sure, you get that at medium sized festivals too but the celebrities and movies are more regional and less Klieg lit. So who was at Berlinale? Hailee Steinfeld was despite also showing up at Us events and London events in the same week (I didn't include her in the lineup because she's been featured so much lately). That girl has probably logged more air miles in the past month than you have all year!

Here's a small sampling of stars.

 

From left to right: Dominic Cooper had a new film at the festival called The Devil's Double (more on that in a bit). He must weigh 120 lbs. He is always wearing the slimmest most form fitting suits that money can buy and constant cardio workouts can provide; Diane Kruger,...

Superheroes are swarming into cinemas this year.

The first one out of Hollywood's hive of industry is The Green Hornet, which hits the big screen today with comedy actor Seth Rogen starring as the masked crimefighter.

It will be followed in the summer by Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern.

Also on the way are the less-familiar comic book adaptations Priest and Cowboys & Aliens and there are new films this year for The Smurfs, Conan the Barbarian and Transformers, all of which have featured in comics.

A full calendar counting down the release dates is included below.

The Green Hornet aims to avoid the crowded summer with its early arrival - and it's cashing in on the latest craze by being in eye-popping 3D.

Studio executives at Sony have also given their Hornet an added sting in the form of Oscar-winning writer-director Michel Gondry.

2010 has gone by in a blur and another year at the movies has come and gone. So may films that seemed promising have turned out to be disappointments and the surprises audiences received were few and far between.But the past is the past, it's time to look onward as a fresh new year begins and hopes are raised for it to be an exciting time in the world of cinema. Kicking off the Winter season are a number of films described in detail and listed below:january 7Season Of The WITCHNicolas Cage stars alongside Ron Perlman as knights who return from the Crusades to find their homeland ruined by the Black Plague. Two church elders accuse a girl (Claire Foy) of being a witch and being responsible for the destruction. They command Behmen and Felson to transport her to a monastery so the monks there can lift her curse from the land.

Usually around this time of the year we list maybe 10 or 20 films that we think are as absolute ‘Must See’s’ for what the next 12 months of cinema has to offer us but as the clock is ticking ever closer to midnight on 2010, we thought we would challenge ourselves a little further this time around. The question I posed to the Owf staff recently was… can Cinema in 2011 produce enough ‘Must See’ films to hit 52, which would ratio out to be just one film per week? That’s all we are hopeful for here… just one film every Friday that justifies us parting with our ever increasingly important cash in these tough economic times.

Did we manage to find 52? Kind of.

There’s certainly 52 films listed here but once we got to around 30, the whole thing became a struggle and we had to fill it out disappointingly with the usual array of over-budgeted summer spectacles,...

I feel that before I start my review, I need to give a brief overview of Stephen Sondheim and his influence on musical theater. Sadly, I know that just by saying “musical theater,” many people have already tuned out and moved on with their lives. They should be paying attention, though. His work broke down barriers in American entertainment and made audiences rethink love, relationships, and the traditional idea of heroes and villains. If you care about film, television, comics, or any other art form, you should care about Stephen Sondheim, and Sondheim! The Birthday Concert shows just how much he has changed songwriting and storytelling.

For those who do not know Stephen Sondheim by name, it is likely that you recognize some of his work. He wrote the lyrics for West Side Story. He wrote the oft sung and parodied “Send in the Clowns” as well as “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,...

Antonia Bird (Priest, Face) is directing one of the features Kees Kasander -- Peter Greenaway's regular producer -- is making with London-based Film & Music Entertainment and post-production house Molinare. The 4-film slate will cost $17.5 million to produce. One of the films, The Domino Effect, is already in the can and editing in the Netherlands. “This isn’t one of those fantasy slates that you read about,” F&Me co-principal Mike Downey tells me. “All 4 films are pretty much financed. We’re just bringing the last slice in.” Bird will helm Cross My Mind in early 2011. UK Film Council, Screen Yorkshire and the Netherlands Film Fund are backing this erotic thriller, which plays out between a married, older woman and a young wounded, blinded soldier – but the woman is not who he thinks she is... Arthouse favourite Greenaway will shoot Goltzius and The Pelican Company, about a 16th century Dutch...

A few weeks ago we asked readers to submit up to five of their favorite movies in our third annual favorite gay film poll. We wanted to see which older gay films have timeless appeal and which recent gay films you judged important enough to register in the rankings.

After voting closed we sorted through the nearly 15,000 nominations (representing over 500 individual titles) to identify your top fifty favorite gay films.

Tabulating this data is actually a bit harder than it sounds. For instance, do you know how many different ways our readers can type/abbreviate "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?" We counted about a dozen!

But we're not complaining, because the list that resulted this year is actually rather interesting.

Nine new films made their way into the rankings, and five of these are of very recent vintage. This represents a strong showing for current queer cinema.

Kathryn Bigelow's win at the DGA film awards puts her in line for an Oscar – a rare encouragement for female directors

History was made in the entertainment industry last night. You might not have noticed it amongst all the headlines about Beyoncé scooping the Grammy awards, or how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were seen in public together (are they breaking up? Aren't they? Who cares?). But in a low-key ceremony in Los Angeles, Kathryn Bigelow became the first-ever female winner of the Directors' Guild of America (DGA) award for best direction in a feature film.

This is an important moment: in the DGA's 62-year-existence no female director has ever won this award. Congratulations to Bigelow aside, this win now points her firmly in the direction of an Academy award: almost every DGA win in this category results in the same achievement at the Oscars.

Why is this significant?...

No woman has ever won an Oscar for directing. Could this be the year that all changes?

For Vanity Fair's annual ­Hollywood issue a few years back, photographer Annie Leibovitz created a classic image of a film director at work. Posing beneath a stormy sky, George Clooney stood with his shirt ripped open, trousers tucked rakishly into his boots, arms outstretched – a young Orson Welles meets Michelangelo's vision of God. His crew were a crowd of female models in flesh-coloured lingerie; not the obvious costume for a camera operator, but there you are. This was the auteur as masculine genius, a warrior amid a sea of passive women.

This has long been the archetype of the film director, but over the last few months a host of women have been making waves: Sam Taylor-Wood with Nowhere Boy, Lone Scherfig with An Education, Andrea Arnold with Fish Tank. Then there are Kathryn Bigelow and Jane Campion,...

Hippie Hippie Shake

Opens: 2010

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Sienna Miller, Max Minghella, Emma Booth, Lee Ingleby

Director: Beeban Kidron

Summary: Follows the love story of Oz editor Richard Neville and Louise Ferrier. Neville and his cohorts launch the London edition of Oz amidst the 1960s counterculture and are subsequently put on trial for distributing a sexually explicit issue.

Analysis: One of the most troubled productions in Working Title's history, 'Hippie' began development back in 1998 but failed to get beyond script stage both in 1999 and in 2002 when "Elizabeth" helmer Shekhar Kapur was attached to direct. Filming finally got underway late 2007 with director Beeban Kidron in charge and shooting seemed to proceed without issue aside from feminist author Germaine Greer being vehemently unhappy about being depicted on film.

Actually the film scored quite a bit of free press for a skinny dipping scene where full-frontal shots of actress Sienna Miller shooting the sequence...

Georgia

Opens: 2010

Cast: Val Kilmer, Andy Garcia, Rupert Friend, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Johnathon Schaech

Director: Renny Harlin

Summary: An American journalist, his cameraman, and a Georgian native get caught in the crossfire of the five-day Russia-Georgia conflict in August 2008, and then have to deal with their obligation to be impartial.

Analysis: A timely parable on war, or Hollywood propaganda filmmaking at its worst? Wherever it goes, especially in Europe and the former Soviet states, "Georgia" will cause a lot of talk and controversy as the incidents depicted are still so fresh in many's minds. Like all topics of the sort, it'll also have its strong supporters and detractors having opinions on the film long before a frame of footage is screened anywhere.

Shot on-location in Tbilisi, the project also marks a potential return to form for Finnish director Renny Harlin. Given the right material the skilled action director delivered three...

Georgia

Opens: 2010

Cast: Val Kilmer, Andy Garcia, Rupert Friend, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Johnathon Schaech

Director: Renny Harlin

Summary: An American journalist, his cameraman, and a Georgian native get caught in the crossfire of the five-day Russia-Georgia conflict in August 2008, and then have to deal with their obligation to be impartial.

Analysis: A timely parable on war, or Hollywood propaganda filmmaking at its worst? Wherever it goes, especially in Europe and the former Soviet states, "Georgia" will cause a lot of talk and controversy as the incidents depicted are still so fresh in many's minds. Like all topics of the sort, it'll also have its strong supporters and detractors having opinions on the film long before a frame of footage is screened anywhere.

Shot on-location in Tbilisi, the project also marks a potential return to form for Finnish director Renny Harlin. Given the right material the skilled action director delivered three...

Case 39

Opens: January 1st 2010

Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper, Kerry O'Malley

Director: Christian Alvart

Summary: A family services social worker thinks she has seen it all until she meets her newest, most mysterious case - a troubled 10-year old girl whose parents try to kill her. The social worker decides to take her in herself until the right foster family comes along.

Analysis: Despite the presence of promising German director Christian Alvart ("Pandorum"), 'Case' has sat on a shelf since late 2006 and is finally being quietly shuffled out this year for one very good reason - it stinks. Having opened in Australia a few months back, reviewers utterly savaged the film as both incredibly dumb and utterly ludicrous. Lead star Renee Zellweger also scored personal criticism to a level rarely seen in film reviews outside of comments about Nicole Kidman's 'more alien than the...

Case 39

Opens: January 1st 2010

Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper, Kerry O'Malley

Director: Christian Alvart

Summary: A family services social worker thinks she has seen it all until she meets her newest, most mysterious case - a troubled 10-year old girl whose parents try to kill her. The social worker decides to take her in herself until the right foster family comes along.

Analysis: Despite the presence of promising German director Christian Alvart ("Pandorum"), 'Case' has sat on a shelf since late 2006 and is finally being quietly shuffled out this year for one very good reason - it stinks. Having opened in Australia a few months back, reviewers utterly savaged the film as both incredibly dumb and utterly ludicrous. Lead star Renee Zellweger also scored personal criticism to a level rarely seen in film reviews outside of comments about Nicole Kidman's 'more alien than the...

After such success with this last year, today comes the first in a multi-chapter look at the various cinematic releases hitting the U.S. in 2010.

Each 'Volume' contains brief descriptions and editorial opinion/analysis of around 25-30 films, and at present it's looking to run around nine volumes in length.

Expect the remaining ones to go up between now and the first official weekend of releases on January 8th.

13

Opens: 2010

Cast: Jason Statham, Alexander Skarsgard, Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone, 50 Cent

Director: Géla Babluani

Summary: A remake of 2005 French thriller "13 (Tzameti)". A naive young man assumes a dead man's identity and finds himself embroiled in an underground world of power, violence, and chance where men gamble behind closed doors on the lives of other men.

Analysis: Remakes are very common, the same director remaking his own film in English is rarer but still not unheard of ("Funny Games," "Bangkok Dangerous," "The...

After such success with this last year, today comes the first in a multi-chapter look at the various cinematic releases hitting the U.S. in 2010.

Each 'Volume' contains brief descriptions and editorial opinion/analysis of around 25-30 films, and at present it's looking to run around nine volumes in length.

Expect the remaining ones to go up between now and the first official weekend of releases on January 8th.

13

Opens: 2010

Cast: Jason Statham, Alexander Skarsgard, Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone, 50 Cent

Director: Géla Babluani

Summary: A remake of 2005 French thriller "13 (Tzameti)". A naive young man assumes a dead man's identity and finds himself embroiled in an underground world of power, violence, and chance where men gamble behind closed doors on the lives of other men.

Analysis: Remakes are very common, the same director remaking his own film in English is rarer but still not unheard of ("Funny Games," "Bangkok Dangerous," "The...

Batman Begins star Linus Roache took a step back from Hollywood after shooting controversial 1994 movie Priest - because he was becoming far too successful too quickly.

The British actor hates the fact that celebrities are the "new gods of our time" and didn't want to become a superstar following his first big break.

So he turned down roles and took a two-year sabbatical.

He tells WENN, "I think it's an interesting part of our culture and our nature, in a sad way, that movie stars became the new gods of our time. Celebrities are the hierarchy and it's not appropriate; it's wrong.

"I say this pretty confidently because I took two years off after Priest because it's nuts. Your priorities are wrong. I had achieved a lot and set out to do the things I wanted to do, and I went, 'What now? More of this?'

"I just couldn't keep on going because I wasn't fulfilled."

But starring opposite Angelina Jolie in Beyond Borders eventually made Roache realise celebrity isn't always a bad thing: "Sometimes you get a little deluded and lost and then you realise celebrity can be a good thing in the proper place. I think Brad and Angie are perfect examples of what a celebrity can become for the better.

"I worked with her in Beyond Borders and that girl really walks her talk and I think that's awesome."...