Notícias

For the third year in a row, an animated feature produced by Catalan companies will feature in Annecy’s main competition. Following strong showings from the eventual Oscar nominee “Robot Dreams” in 2023 and “Rock Bottom” in 2024, the region’s first-ever stop-motion feature “Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake” will premiere in 2025.

“Olivia” isn’t the only Catalan title looking to make waves at Annecy this year. Below, we take a closer look at some of the hottest upcoming Catalan productions set to impress at Annecy and its accompanying MIFA Market.

‘Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake’ Courtesy of Citoplasmas

“Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake”

Director: Irene Iborra

Production: Cornelius Films, Citoplasmas, Panique!, Bigaro Films

Spanish Distributor/Sales Agent: Filmax / Pyramide Films

Screening: Premiere on June 9, 10:30, Grande Salle

The jewel in this year’s Catalan crown at Annecy, “Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake” is the first-ever stop-motion feature produced in Catalonia and only the third from Spain.

Emily in Paris season 4 has officially come to an end with the release of part 2 on Sept. 12. Once again, the season finds Emily bumbling through professional and personal woes, but she does so with a bubbly spirit, a great fashion sense, and a catch soundtrack to back her up! And thankfully, there's a new Mindy original in season 4 part 2 for all of us to obsess over.

In the season 4 finale, Mindy joins Emily in Rome and hops on a piano in the piazza to play on an original song she has been writing. When the song goes viral online thanks to a tourist's video, Emily later names the song "Beautiful Ruins," and that's really what the song is: beautiful! Ashley Park couldn't be more talented, and it's so exciting that she sings another original song for the series.

Park also has a few additional music moments in part 2, much more...

While Mindy (Ashley Park) and co. gear up for the Eurovision Song contest in Season 4 of Emily in Paris, they have some time to practice their numbers. Whether it be a French rendition of a popular song, or the English hit itself, they often perform crowd-pleasers.

The soundtrack to Emily in Paris features many French artists that back the hustle and bustle of Emily’s life. Find all the songs featured in Season 4 of Emily in Paris below:

Episode 1: Break Point

“Swan Lake, Op. 20, Spanish Dance” by Tchaichovsky “Chat Dans La Nuit” by Dopamoon (feat. Romain Muller) “Love Is in the Air” by John Paul Young “Encore” by Dopamoon x Napkey “Paris Yeye Girl” by Bea Parks and Jack Lake “Visions” by Tample “Bollide” by Warner Chappell Music Group “Off” by Les Filles and Christopher “Café Bombon” by Sergey Kolosov, Ross Gidney “3 Bikinis” by David C [French Dance Version] “Memories” by...

The 30th edition of the Unifrance Rendez-vous in Le Havre is just around the corner. The French film market plays host to hundreds of buyers and a vast range of titles being sold across genres and mediums.

Autour de Minuit, the Oscar-nominated production company that recently turned heads co-producing 2022’s “Unicorn Wars” (granted the Best Distributor Award by Unifrance last year), is bringing plenty of animated titles to this year’s Rendez-vous, including an eclectic selection of TV series and specials.

“The Drifting Guitar”

This 31-minute, stop motion-animated TV special from director Sophie Roze should definitely be one to watch, having picked up the Cristal For a TV Production at this year’s Annecy Festival. Using a beautiful mixture of cut-outs and puppets, Roze’s film is a rather whimsical tale about a weasel who sells ties. Her reputation as a pest drives her toward the forest, where she befriends a hedgehog and a capybara,...

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 2024 edition, running from June 9 to 15. (scroll down for full list of titles and events)

Highlights announced on Thursday include Terry Gilliam as guest of honor to receive an Honorary Cristal and give a masterclass. He joins previously announced honorary guest Wes Anderson.

The main Competition and the Contrechamps sections will showcase 23 new animated features.

Features in the main competition include Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius’ first ever animated feature The Most Precious of Cargoes, which will also open the festival.

The drama follows the fate of baby boy who is thrown from an Auschwitz-bound train by his French-Jewish father. The picture will world premiere first in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Other Cannes films in Annecy’s main competition include Un Certain Regard selection Flow by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis and Ghost Cat Anzu by Japan’s Yoko Kuno,...

Two of France’s fastest-rising young stars, Lyna Khoudri and Rio Vega, will lead the French voice cast of animated feature “In Waves,” an unconditional first love story, and tale of loss and memories adapting American illustrator Aj Dungo’s same-titled multi-prized graphic novel.

An anticipated banner prestige animation title from Paris-based Silex Films, “In Waves” lead producer, the feature also marks the first animated co-production of both Anonymous Content and Charades, behind sales of Jeremy Clapin’s “I Lost My Body” and Mamoru Hosoda’s “Mirai,” both Oscar nominated titles.

In Waves is directed by Phuong Mai Nguyen, a former student of French animation schools Gobelins and La Poudrière who helmed episodes of the Silex-produced animated series “Brazen” and was Oscar-shortlisted for her short “My Home,” “In Waves” has just been announced as one of five titles at the Annecy Animation Showcase, part of Cannes’ Animation Day on May...

Belgium’s Panique!, and Chile’s Pájaro have joined Oscar-nominated Vivemant Lundi! and Spanish collective Terremoto Aie to round out the co-production force behind the animated feature, “Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake.”

Filmax will handle distribution in Spain. Kmbo will handle its domestic release in France. The Gallic distributor is on a roll with strong animation box office performances in France for “Amazing Maurice” and current Ukrainian hit “Mavka: The Forest Song,”

Spearheading the production is Terremoto Aie, which includes Citoplasmas Stop Motion studio, Cornelius Films, and Bígaro Films, all contributing to the feature.

Directed by Irene Iborra, who founded Citoplasmas with Eduard Puertas and Adrian Iborra, the film brings to life the children’s book, “La Pelicula de la vida,” by Maite Carranza. The title sold over 24,000 copies in Spain and has been translated into seven languages. Adding a dash of French talent, artist Morgan Navarro has crafted the character designs.

It’s been a four-year long wait, but Ari Aster has finally made his return. The director’s third film “Beau is Afraid” journeyed into theaters April 14, bringing surrealist comedy to audiences through the auteur’s famously punishing perspective. The film, which is as loved as it is disliked by critics and audiences, stars Joaquin Phoenix as the title character: a repressed man making a grueling odyssey back home to see his mother.

The film’s title and premise comes from Aster’s 2011 short film “Beau.” One of several shorts he made as a student at the American Film Institute Conservatory — the most infamous being the viral incest drama, “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons” — the original “Beau” was a much smaller production than the director’s latest, focusing on the title character (played by the late Billy Mayo) as he’s locked in his apartment following the disappearance of his keys.

Rolling off Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hit “I Lost My Body,” Charades has boarded another artful animated film, “Unicorn Wars,” Alberto Vázquez’s solo follow-up to “Birdboy: the Forgotten Children.”

“Unicorn Wars” tracks two brother teddy bear soldiers, Azulín, who yearn for unicorn blood to be beautiful for ever; and Gordi, who just wants to be accepted and liked. Their mission sparks total war, leading to the arrival of the most terrible of demons: Man.

Drawn in expressive and increasingly dark charcoal strokes, “Unicorn Wars” chronicles a brutal and resonant ancestral struggle between teddy bears and unicorns in a magical forest.

Mixing humor, drama and myth, the war fantasy is produced by France’s Autour de Minuit, Borderline Films, Autour de Minuit’s new Angoulême studios, Spain’s Abano Producións, and Uniko, Belgium’s Panique run by Vincent Tavier, whose co-production credits include “A Town Called Panic,” and “Ernest & Celestine.

Initially a box office flop and critical failure, French auteur Julien Duvivier’s 1946 title Panique is now hailed as one of the great technician’s finest achievements. The film was digitally restored and re-released theatrically in the Us in early 2017, but initially premiered at the 1946 Venice Film Festival. In a career which spanned nearly fifty years as a director, from 1919 to 1967, the title is arguably the best-known work from his mid-period, if not his entire career (with Patrice Leconte famously remaking it in 1989 with Sandrine Bonnaire and Michel Blanc as Monsieur Hire).…...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Forman, Spielberg, Hitchcock, and more play as part of “Universal in the ’70s.”

Ronin screens on Friday; King Kong shows this Saturday.

Museum of the Moving Image

Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and New York, New York will screen as part of the ongoing Scorsese retrospective.

The Tilda Swinton-led Teknolust screens this Sunday.

IFC...

Next month, the folks at Rialto will begin touring Julien Duvivier’s 1946 film, Panique.

Duvivier made 70 films between 1919 and 1967, many of them landmarks of French cinema. His first postwar project, a noir adaptation of Georges Simenon’s Mr. Hire’s Engagement (later adapted by Patrice Leconte as Monsieur Hire), stars Michel Simon as a reviled voyeur framed for a murder by the girl he adores. Now widely considered the finest Simenon adaptation but criticized at the time for its bleakness, the long-unseen Panique has finally been given the vivid restoration it deserves.

Here are the dates and places where the film will open first:

January 20 – 31 – New York, NY – Film Forum

February 3 – 9 – Chicago, Il – Gene Siskel Film Center

February 11, 13, & 16 – Baltimore, MD – The Charles

While Panique is not yet streaming on FilmStruck alongside several other Duvivier films, we’ll keep our fingers crossed for this film to join the Collection one day.

The New York Film Festival’s diverse slate of programming included a Revivals slate, a series of the latest restoration and re-releases of essential cinematic classics. Some of the films included Robert Bresson’s final film “L’Argent,” Edward Yang’s second feature “Taipei Story” and Julien Duvivier’s long-unseen postwar film “Panique,” which will have a two-week run at the Film Forum this January. Watch an exclusive trailer for the restoration below.

Read More: ‘The Lion in Winter’ Restoration Trailer: Anthony Harvey’s Beloved Adaptation Gets 4K Freshening — Watch

An adaptation of Georges Simenon’s “Mr. Hire’s Engagement,” the film follows Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon), a reviled, aloof voyeur who’s framed for murder by the very girl (Viviane Romance) whom he adores. It was Duvivier’s first film in France after his stint working Hollywood during World War II, and though it was criticized at the time for its bleakness,...

The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards took place Sunday, August 28 from New York’s Madison Square Garden, where the hottest musical acts reunited to celebrate another year of creative, empowering and artistic videos from the past year.

This year Beyoncé led the pack with 11 nominations and took home eight Moonmen including Video of the Year. Although Adele, with her Xavier Dolan-directed “Hello,” garnered a successful eight noms, she left empty handed.

Other winners of the night include Drake, Dnce, David Bowie and Coldplay. See the full list of winners below.

Read More: MTV Vma 2016 Live Stream: Watch the Video Music Awards Live Online

Video of the Year

Adele – “Hello”

Director: Xavier Dolan

Beyoncé – “Formation”

Director: Melina Matsoukas

Drake – “Hotline Bling”

Director: Director X

Justin Bieber – “Sorry”

Director: Parris Goebel

Kanye West – “Famous”

Director: Kanye West

Best Female Video

Adele – “Hello”

Director: Xavier Dolan

Beyoncé – “Hold Up”

Director: Jonas Åkerlund, Beyoncé Knowles...

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the lineup for the Revivals section, taking place during the 54th New York Film Festival (Nyff). The Revivals section showcases masterpieces from renowned filmmakers whose diverse and eclectic works have been digitally remastered, restored, and preserved with the assistance of generous partners.

Read More: Ava DuVernay’s Netflix Documentary ‘The 13th’ Will Open 54th New York Film Festival

Some of the films in the lineup include plenty of Nyff debuts returning once again: Gillo Pontecorvo’s “The Battle of Algiers,” which was the the Nyff Opening Night selection in 1967, Robert Bresson’s “L’argent,” and Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County USA.” Also included are a program of Jacques Rivette’s early short films, Edward Yang’s second feature “Taipei Story,” Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugetsu,” and Marlon Brando’s solo directorial effort “One-Eyed Jacks.”

The Nyff previously announced three of the films screening...

As much as we’re excited for the already enticing line-up for the 2016 New York Film Festival, their Revivals slate is always a place where one can discover a number of classics or revisit favorite films. This year is no different as they have newly restored films from Robert Bresson, Edward Yang, Jacques Rivette, Marlon Brando, Kenji Mizoguchi, and more. Check out the line-up below and return for our coverage this fall. If you don’t live in New York City, there’s a good chance a number of these restorations will travel in the coming months (or year) as well as get the home video treatment.

L’argent

Directed by Robert Bresson

1983, France, 83m

Robert Bresson’s final film, an adaptation of Tolstoy’s story The Forged Coupon, is simultaneously bleak and luminous, and sharp enough to cut diamonds. The story of a counterfeit bill’s passage from hand...

It’s hard to imagine MTV holding the interest of anyone over the age of 16, but these days they don’t even come across as being in touch enough for the younger demographic. This year’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) nominees have been announced, and for the most part the network seems intent on shoving the same artists down our throats that it did five years ago.

You can count the DJ/producers nominated for VMAs in 2016 on one hand: Calvin Harris, 99 Souls, Afrojack, Alesso and The Chainsmokers. Even Skrillex and SeeB’s names were left curiously absent from the nominations for Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” and Mike Posner’s “I Took A Pill In Ibiza,” respectively, even though the latter song marks Posner’s first relevant single since 2011.

As its growth has run parallel to the proliferation of streaming services, electronic music simply isn’t a cash crop...

MTV has announced the nominees for the 11th annual Video Music Awards, with Beyoncé’s 11 nods leading the pack. Adele is up for eight awards, meanwhile, including Best Director for the Xavier Dolan–directed “Hello”; she’s up against Bey, Drake, Justin Bieber and Kanye West in that category. Full list below:

Video of the Year

Adele – “Hello”

Director: Xavier Dolan

Beyoncé – “Formation”

Director: Melina Matsoukas

Drake – “Hotline Bling”

Director: Director X

Justin Bieber – “Sorry”

Director: Parris Goebel

Kanye West – “Famous”

Director: Kanye West

Best Female Video

Adele – “Hello”

Director: Xavier Dolan

Beyoncé – “Hold Up”

Director: Jonas Åkerlund, Beyoncé Knowles Carter

Sia – “Cheap Thrills”

Director: Lior Molcho

Ariana Grande – “Into You”

Director: Hannah Lux Davis

Rihanna ft. Drake – “Work” (short version)

Director: Director X

Best Male Video

Drake – “Hotline Bling”

Director: Director X

Bryson Tiller – “Don’t”

Director: Cris

Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna – “This Is What You Came For”

Director:...

Every year MTV gathers the biggest and brightest musical heroes for their Video Music Awards, and this time around it’s going to be a wild ride.

Slated to take place on August 28th, the 33rd annual installment of the shindig will be held at New York City’s Madison Square Garden after spending the past three years out on the West Coast.

And earlier today, MTV unveiled their list of this year’s nominees-

Video Of The Year

Adele, “Hello”

Beyonce, “Formation”

Drake, “Hotline Bling”

Justin Bieber, “Sorry”

Kanye West, “Famous”

Best Male Video

Bryson Tiller, “Don’t”

Calvin Harris feat. Rihanna, “This Is What You Came For”

Drake, “Hotline Bling”

Kanye West, “Famous”

The Weeknd, “Can’t Feel My Face”

Best Female Video

Adele, “Hello”

Ariana Grande, “Into You”

Beyonce, “Hold Up”

Rihanna feat. Drake, “Work”

Sia, “Cheap Thrills”

Best Pop Video

Adele, “Hello”

Alessia Cara, “Wild Things”

Ariana Grande,...

Looks like it's going to be ladies night at the MTV Video Music Awards. Nominations have been announced for the 2016 awards and if you didn't already guess, Beyoncé and Adele rule supreme. Beyoncé earned a career-best 11 nominations for videos from her visual album Lemonade, while Adele scored eight nominations, including seven for her record-shattering hit "Hello." Other nominees include: Video of the Year•"Hello" - Adele•"Formation" - Beyoncé•"Hotline Bling" - Drake•"Sorry" - Justin Bieber•"Famous" - Kanye WestBest Female Video•"Hello" - Adele•"Hold Up" - Beyoncé•"Cheap Thrills" - Sia•"Into You" - Ariana Grande•"Work" - Rihanna ft.

Looks like it's going to be ladies night at the MTV Video Music Awards. Nominations have been announced for the 2016 awards and if you didn't already guess, Beyoncé and Adele rule supreme. Beyoncé earned a career-best 11 nominations for videos from her visual album Lemonade, while Adele scored eight nominations, including seven for her record-shattering hit "Hello." Other nominees include: Video of the Year•"Hello" - Adele•"Formation" - Beyoncé•"Hotline Bling" - Drake•"Sorry" - Justin Bieber•"Famous" - Kanye WestBest Female Video•"Hello" - Adele•"Hold Up" - Beyoncé•"Cheap Thrills" - Sia•"Into You" - Ariana Grande•"Work" - Rihanna ft.

Oh my god - it's full of stars! Photo: Jassy Earl

Day seven of the Glasgow Film Festival began with classic film noir The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe pitched against Lauren Bacall’s sultry femme fatale. There was a chance to catch up with films that had proved a hit with audiences earlier in the festival, such as Demolition and The Pearl Button, before the evening introduced an older classic. Part of the festival’s retrospective look at the work of Jules Duvivier, Panique, which features a superb performance by Michel Simon as the misfit made a scapegoat after a murder is committed, and which would go on to inspire Patrice Leconte’s much admired Monsieur Hire, proved a hit with cineastes and the curious alike. The print isn’t in great condition these days but it’s still a stunning film and its final...

Section to also include celebrations of Ingrid Bergman and Orson Welles as well as screenings of The Terminator and Jurassic Park 3D.

Costa-Gavras has been named guest of honour at this year’s Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24).

The Greek-French film director and producer won the Palme d’or with Missing in 1982, was member of the jury in 1976 that crowned Taxi Driver and picked up the award for best director with Section spéciale in 1975.

The filmmaker will be present for a screening of Z, which won the jury prize in 1969, and has had the original negative scanned in 4k and restored frame by frame in 2K, supervised by Costa-Gavras.

Orson Welles

Marking 100 years since the birth of Orson Welles, Cannes will screen restorations of films from the legendary Us actor, director, writer and producer, who died in 1985.

The titles include his staggering debut Citizen Kane (1941), which has received a 4k restoration completed...

Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...

Joanna Going (House Of Cards) has been tapped for a series regular role in DirecTV’s gritty drama series Navy St. From Byron Balasco and Endemol Studios, the dark family drama is set against the backdrop of Navy Street, a Venice, CA-based mixed martial arts gym owned by Alvey Henderson (Frank Grillo), a former fighter who never made it big due to a drug addiction but is now sober. Going will play Christina Hyatt, Alvey’s ex wife and mother to Jay (Jonathan Tucker) and Nate (Nick Jonas). Going, repped by Aka and Vanguard Management, co-stars in the upcoming Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy. Related: Primetime Pilot Panic! Angelique Cabral (Enlisted, Apt. 23) has signed on for a lead role in NBC’s comedy pilot Two To Go from Universal TV and studio-based David Janollari Entertainment and Jason Bateman‘s Aggregate. The project centers on longtime best friends Kurt and Laura...

‘Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die’ is Panic! At the Disco’s fourth album, and lead vocalist Brendon Urie just hopes people will be inspired, excited, and of course, want to dance. The record is available on Oct. 8 and HollywoodLife.com exclusively spoke with Brendon to get a sneak peek of what to expect.

Brendon Urie, 26 has been part of Panic! At the Disco for nearly ten years, and now he’s revealing his pre-concert rituals, what it’s like hanging out with Fall Out Boy and just how it feels to be compared to other boy bands like One Direction.

Brendon Urie: ‘Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!’ Is A Confessional

HollywoodLife.com: What song on the album meant the most to you?

Brendon Urie: Every song on this album is very personal, very — this is different from others; this record is a confessional.

We asked and you responded like crazy!

Over the last week or so, we polled you guys about your favorite MTV Video Music Awards moments and boy did you let us know who your favorites were in categories like Most Iconic Vma Performance, Best Video of the 2000s and Best Pop Performance!

All told, we received a staggering 15 million votes in nine categories. By far the most heated contest came in the Most Iconic Vma Moment poll, where we received nearly 10 million votes … and over 9 million of those were split between two acts – Michael Jackson and Bon Jovi. That’s right! Fan groups for the two classic MTV artists got crazy competitive, but ultimately Mj prevailed, taking just over 57 percent of the vote. The late King of Pop’s 1995 Vma performance also took the crown for Best Vma Pop Performance.

There were plenty of surpises too. Panic! At The Disco...

Will they come out on top against Florence and the Machine? Second-round voting is under way on the Newsroom blog.

By James Montgomery

Panic! at the Disco's Brendon Urie

Photo: Andy Sheppard/ Redferns

Panic! at the Disco came into the 2011 Musical March Madness tournament brimming with championship confidence, and, after making quick work of Avril Lavigne in the opening round, it appears as if that swagger was justified.

But now, as we enter the second round of Mmm, the guys in Panic! face another tough challenge, this time in the form of #13 Florence and the Machine, who handled Brandon Flowers with relative ease in their first-round matchup.

Second-round voting is now under way in the Panic/Florence matchup over on the Newsroom blog!

So while Panic! still like their chances of advancing to the Sweet 16, they're not about to overlook Florence (or her Machine). The way they see it, they're...

Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco also advance; second-round voting opens Tuesday on the Newsroom blog.

By James Montgomery

Linkin Park's Chester Bennington

Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty

The first round of MTV's Musical March Madness 2011 tournament is in the books, and, unlike the actual Ncaa bracket, ours has been relatively free of upsets so far. In fact, about the closest thing we've got to a Vcu is Sum 41, who shocked the world by knocking off #1 seed Arcade Fire in the battle of Canada.

Check out our updated Mmm Bracket right here!

There were, of course, other eye-opening results: #11 Adele nipping #6 Kid Rock, #12 Patrick Stump getting by #5 Neon Trees (who couldn't muster the bluster of Gene Hackman to advance), and #9 Disturbed ripping #8 Dave Matthews Band. But overall, the first round played out about how you would expect it. And while that may have been a bummer for fans of underdogs,...

It's MTV's second annual Musical March Madness! MTV News took the 64 biggest names in rock, split them up into four regions, assigned them seeds and puts them up against one another in a single-elimination series of match-ups in a winner-take-all contest. We're leaving it to you to decide an actual champ in this field of 64, so over the next few weeks, fan voting will determine who will emerge as this year's champion. It's all about the fans, and the artist with the most passionate fan base will score the awesome Musical March Madness trophy!

The voting continues in the West bracket, with 30 Seconds to Mars jumping out to an early lead over Yellowcard and Pearl Jam and Train trading blows in a tight early race. There are two more match-ups below between some real heavy hitters, which should keep the action hot.

As always, first round voting continues through Sunday...

Iron Man 2; A Nightmare on Elm Street; Video Nasties - The Definitive Guide

There's an inevitable tension at the heart of the Iron Man franchise between the humans and the hardware, the acting and the action. In the first film, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges formed an entertaining axis of anxiety whose verbal fisticuffs declined as the smash-em-ups increased. The same is true of Iron Man 2 (Paramount, 2010, 12), although hats off to Downey for once again tearing up the role of Tony Stark, the rubber-mouthed billionaire whose "weapon" (he prefers the term "suit") has enabled him to "successfully privatise world peace". It's a terrific turn tailor-made for the once disastrously ill-disciplined Downey, all gabbling flippancy, smart-ass smugness, and borderline megalomaniacal madness. This time his nemesis is Ivan, an embittered Ruskie with a family grudge played with a rolling accent by the barely human Mickey Rourke whose...

There seems to be no exhausting the raw eyeball pleasure to be had from old-fashioned handmade (or semi-handmade, or whatever) animation, and we may be well living through a pop renaissance of it.

The eruptions below the Pixar/Dreamworks budget tier have been spectacular and international, beginning perhaps with 2003's "The Triplets of Belleville," learning from Miyazaki, Oshii, Aardman and the Quays, moving on to Kim Moon-saeng's "Sky Blue," machinima, "The Corpse Bride," "A Scanner Darkly," "Persepolis," "Coraline," "Waltz with Bashir," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Mary & Max," "Sita Sings the Blues," "Fear(s) in the Dark," "The Secret of Kells," and now the Belgian nonpareil "A Town Called Panic."

The variety of toolboxes and styles at work seem limitless (the seductive but uniform look of pure 3D computer animation is getting tiresome just as other approaches proliferate), but it's the personal engagement that makes most of the films sing.

Many of...

This is a great week for content on both the Psn as well as retail shelves.

This Tuesday, one of the most highly anticipated titles of the year will hit your local game-seller. Final Fantasy Xiii may have received a few mixed review out the gate in Japan but has steadily built a core group of supporters who are heralding the title along side other fan-favorite installments to the franchise. PS3 owners will also get the definitive Final Fantasy Xiii experience which runs at full 1080p on a single Blu-ray disc as opposed to the lower resolution, 3-Disc DVD set Xbox players will receive.

In addition to retail content, Sony has released a number of great Dlc add-ons for several titles you already have sitting at home: Resident Evil 5: Desperate Escape, as well as LittleBigPlanet content for the PSP, definitely top the list.

Also, if you pre-ordered Heavy Rain,...

The critical consensus is as strong as I've ever seen at Cannes: the best film of the Festival is Une Prophete. Mind you, that doesn't mean the jury will pick it. Choose 12 people at random and there's no telling what you'll end up honoring. Typically, there will be two camps and they end up compromising on a third film each of them likes second best (perhaps Fish Tank?). Or they'll swap the Palme d'Or winner for an acting award or directing (you give me Christoph Waltz in Inglourius Basterds and I'll give you The Time That Remains as runner-up best film). We shall see what horse trading takes place but there's no question Jacques Audiard of Une Prophete has grown into a world-class director. Here are the movies I saw on Thursday, two of them very good indeed: I Killed...