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Whether it's Robert Eggers' darkly brooding Nosferatu, the painterly charms of Oscar-winning animation Flow, or the sun-bleached sands of Furiosa, you can't possibly appreciate the best that either small or silver screen has to offer unless you have the screen to do it justice. Thankfully, the best 55-inch TVs on the market today are better than ever. While upsizing your set is always a thrill, what if you're downsizing from a 65-inch model? Well, the size difference is surprisingly not such a big deal and you won't be losing out on features. A lot of the advanced bells and whistles we normally see in larger sets like 65-inch TVs (with micro dimming for deeper blacks and other tricks) have made their way into models as small as 43-inch TVs.

The best Amazon Spring Sale deals on 55-Inch TVs

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Disney’s “Snow White” took the crown at the U.K. and Ireland box office over the weekend, debuting with a strong £3.8 million ($5 million), according to Comscore. The reimagining of the classic fairy tale led a competitive field of new releases and set the tone for the upcoming Easter holiday period.

In second place, Trinity Filmed Entertainment’s animated fantasy sequel “Ne Zha 2” earned $1.6 million. The Chinese blockbuster, which continues the mythological story of its 2019 predecessor, became one of the highest openings for a Chinese film in the territory. It has earned more than $2 billion worldwide and is the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the fifth highest grosser ever.

Universal’s “Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy” continued its remarkable run in third place, earning $1 million in its sixth weekend. The romcom sequel has now grossed $57.6 million, solidifying its position as the highest-grossing U.K. release of the year so far.

Last year, the Un Certain Regard section had several gems. Caméra d’Or jury prized Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s Armand and the Ucr jury of Xavier Dolan bestowed the top prize to Black Dog. Other solid film items included Souleymane’s Story, September Says, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Holy Cow and the Oscar-winning Flow. Christian Jeune will be looking to steal some high value directorial debuts from the Critic’s Week and Directors’ Fortnight sections (such as the buzz titles from actor-turn-directors Kristen Stewart and Harris Dickinson) and we are anticipatinga handful of return guests who’ve previously premiered their works at the Debussy.…...

When people talk about animated movies, many think of Disney. Disney has released some iconic and popular animated films, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the recently released Moana 2. Through their partnership with Pixar Animations Studios, Disney released more memorable films like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Inside Out. Yet, while Disney animated films remain some of the best animated movies, there are many others released by other studios that are just as good as Disney animated movies or better.

With the success of the animated adventure film Flow, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, many are looking at animated movies outside the ones produced by Disney. Over the years, there have been many animated movies from studios like DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Studios that managed to win over viewers. And while Walt Disney Animation Studios remains the leading studio for animated movies, there...

After “Flow” became the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award, the crew received much more than a warm welcome back home. Producer Matiss Kaza told IndieWire that when the Latvian filmmakers returned from Los Angeles, they were treated like they had won not just Oscar but Olympic gold.

“There was a special event at the monument of freedom in the center of Riga to welcome [us],” Kaza said. “Thousands gathered despite the late hour. A couple of days later, the entire team visited the president of Latvia. The three major trophies received by Flow were on display at the National Museum of Art, where they were seen by more than 28,000 people. Now, the trophies are touring the smaller Latvian cities, such as Liepāja, Cēsis, and Rēzekne so that fans in [those] regions can also see them in person. The nation is extremely proud of the achievement, and it is a...

In Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow, a cat travels through a flooded, hazardous, post-human landscape, putting those feline survival skills to good use. Here, the Latvian director recounts to Empire's Ian Freer the nine stages of his own unique filmmaking journey.

1) Embarking

I think my personality is like a cat.

I want to be independent and do things my own way. After making my first feature, Away [2019, about a boy being chased by a monster], I had an opportunity to work on a bigger scale and so thought I should make a story about me figuring out how to collaborate. It wasn’t something I had past experience with; it was something I was going through in that moment.

When I was 15 I made a simple, seven-minute, hand-drawn short, Aqua, about a cat’s fear of water. When I decided to revisit this premise for a feature version, I wanted to focus more on the cat’s fear of others,...

UK-Ireland top five Mar 21-23 Rank Film (origin) Distributor Mar 21-23 gross Total Week 1 Snow White (US) Disney £3.9m £3.9m 1 2 Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy(UK-Fr-us)

Universal £772,874 £44.6m 6 3 Black Bag(US) Universal £734,932 £2.2m 2 4 Mickey 17 (US-s Kor) Warner Bros £724,113 £5.9m 3 5 The Alto Knights (US) Warner Bros £386,698 £386,698 1

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.29

Disney’s latest foray into live-action remakes, Snow White, has started off with a modest £3.9m at the UK-Ireland box office.

Marc Webb directs the live-action musical re-imagining of Disney’s 1937 Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs animation, which stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, and was released at 651 sites,...

As the format continues to gain traction, here’s our regularly-updated list of upcoming 4K Ultra HD disc releases in the UK.

Sitting alongside our list of upcoming DVD and Blu-ray releases (that you can find here), we’re also keeping a calendar for those who support the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc format. As we learn of new UK releases, we’ll add them to this list.

We have started adding shopping links too. We’d be obliged if you clicked on them, as it really helps us in our quest to make the Film Stories project of magazines, website and podcast profitable. We’re a 100% independent publisher, and we quite like drinking coffee. It’d be lovely to afford some more.

Without further ado, here are the titles we know about…

Out now

3rd March: The Super Mario Bros Movie (Steelbook)

3rd March: Panic Room (Steelbook)

3rd March:...

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s enchanting eco-fable about a lone moggy in a flooded world is a triumph of imagination over budget

Animation as a medium and fairytales as a subject have always been natural bedfellows. You only need to look at Disney’s princess industrial complex to understand that sparkle-dusted happily-ever-after is big business; that the appetite for this particular breed of magical thinking (plus associated merchandising and sequined tat) is enduringly healthy. But the beguiling, Oscar-winning, dialogue-free Latvian animation Flow, which tells of a solitary cat who must learn to cooperate with a mismatched pack of other species to survive a catastrophic flood, is a little different.

The fairytale here is not the story the picture tells – it’s the story of the film itself. Created by a tiny team with a minuscule budget of about £3m, and rendered entirely on the free open-source 3D software Blender, Flow...

We've another bumper-sized edition of the Empire Podcast in store for you this week, folks, with a double whammy of top notch guests — so buckle up! Our first guest is legendary director Barry Levinson, who sat down with our very own Chris Hewitt on the eve of the release of his new gangster joint The Alto Knights to discuss working with Robert De Niro, Robert De Niro, aaaand Robert De Niro's dogs, as well as the life-changing impact Marlon Brando putting on a glove in On The Waterfront had on him as a young whippersnapper. [23:31 — 40:13 approx] Then, we also hear from Latvian indie animation hero Gints Zilbalodis, the director of this year's Oscar-winning animated movie Flow, in an exclusive excerpt from a recent Empire VIP Club event hosted by resident superfan Beth Webb. [59:44 — 1:13:04 approx]

Either side of those stellar chats, Chris is joined back in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara, James Dyer and,...

Disney’sSnow White is being ushered into 651 sites, the widest release at the UK-Ireland box office of the weekend.

Marc Webb directs the live-action musical re-imagining of Disney’s 1937Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs animation, which stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot.

The film has faced a series of controversies, including star Zegler’s criticism of the original film, debates regarding whether the portrayal of the dwarfs is appropriate for the modern day, a mixed critical reception, as well as Zegler and Gadot’s own politics. Although the press campaign has been muted, Disney hasn’t shied away from a wide roll-out.

The beloved “Star Wars” sequel “The Empire Strikes Back” is set to open this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival on April 24, with director George Lucas presenting the film for its 45th anniversary.

“’The Empire Strikes Back’ is like ‘The Godfather Part II.’ Yes, technically, they’re sequels, the second movie in a series. But they are so much more,” TCM’s primetime anchor Ben Mankiewicz said in a statement. “The first ‘Star Wars’ picture in 1977 ignited a new era in Hollywood and turned a generation of young people into passionate movie fans for life. Then, somehow, three years later, along comes ‘Empire,’ which might even be better. It’s a stunning accomplishment and surely stands one of the great achievements in the history of film.”

Additional titles that will screen at this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival include “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” “The Lady Eve,” “Cinderella,” “Apocalypse Now,...

People are quite literally flowing to the movie theater for Flow, the Academy Award-winning animated film that has become a favorite among animation lovers — and lovers of cute animals. Flow, which earlier this month became the first Latvian film to be nominated for and win an Oscar, has grossed over $36 million at the global box office, according to Variety, a massive haul for a film that had low expectations originally.

In our journey of transcribing and closed captioning thousands of films and documentaries, our main focus was always to understand the dialogues and find the balance between the other sounds that can intensify or convey the emotional setting of the dialogues in the captions. When we first got on board with the team of “Flow” (2024) we knew we were stepping into something that would require a lot of artistic creativity and diving deep into the emotions of sounds. “Flow” is an Oscar-winning animated feature directed by Gints Zilbalodis, that tells its entire narrative through visual storytelling, without a single spoken word.

Right then and there, we knew that Caption Easy was facing a creative challenge. This project requires us to venture into the uncharted territory of understanding and executing the depth of sounds that we can hear throughout the film, but that doesn’t involve any tangible dialogue. We need...

Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow,” the dialogue-free survival tale of a solitary cat’s journey that won both the Oscar and Golden Globe for best animated feature earlier this year, has been embraced by moviegoers around the world.

Budgeted at $3.4 million and sold internationally by Charades, “Flow” has grossed, as of March 17, more than $36 million worldwide. This includes $4.6 million (€4.5 million) in North America, where it opened in November and was released by Sideshow and Janus Films. The feature went on to gross about $6.7 million in Mexico; $1 million in Brazil; $3.4 million in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay; $2.1 million in its native Latvia; $5.4 million in France; $1 million in Germany (after its first weekend); $1.3 million in the Netherlands; $1.6 million in Spain; $2.7 million in China (after its third weekend); and $591,000 in Vietnam from 157,000 admissions (after its first weekend), among other territories.

Since premiering in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, “Flow” had a spectacular run in the awards circuit,...

“One more time: animation is a medium, not a genre. Animation is film,” Guillermo del Toro said last year. IndieWire couldn’t agree more, and yet animation — an art form that requires the most precise control of the cinematic medium — is continually disrespected.

Infamously, 2022’s Best Animated Oscars presentation featured several jokes about the nominees that, in the words of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, framed “the five Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Feature as a corporate product for kids that parents must begrudgingly endure.” The directing duo called upon the Academy to do better by animation. And this year’s ceremony largely delivered, with less jokes that belittled animation as kiddy stuff and a sterling speech from del Toro himself for his acclaimed stop-motion feature adaptation of “Pinocchio.”

Pixar and Studio Ghibli tend to spring to mind first when discussing great animation, but there’s a world beyond those two giants.

Pixar’s “Elio” is almost – finally – here.

The original animated feature, developed initially by “Coco” co-writer/co-director Adrian Molina (who still retains a credit on the final film), was slated to hit theaters on March 1, 2024. But after a change in leadership on the project, compounded by the twin SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes of 2023, the sci-fi adventure is now headed to theaters this summer. And we’ve got the brand-new trailer, our best look yet at the beloved animation studio’s latest. Watch it below.

In “Elio,” the title character is a young boy who dreams of being among the stars (Yonas Kibreab). He is misidentified by a band of helpful aliens as Earth’s ambassador and they beam him up. That’s where he meets a whole host of colorful alien creatures, including Glordon (Remy Edgerly), Questa (Jameela Jamil), Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett) and Ooooo (Shirley Henderson). Recent Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña also plays Olga,...

The Cannes Film Festival will announce the Official Selection for its 78th edition, running from May 13 to 24, on April 10 in Paris.

Cannes Delegate General Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch, who was recently confirmed for a second three-year term in the role until 2027, will preside over the press conference.

The world’s biggest film festival and market is currently riding high on a record performance at the Academy Awards earlier this month, with 2024 selections Anora, Emilia Pérez, Flow and The Substance taking nine Oscars between them.

Sean Baker’s 2024 Palme d’Or winner Anora led the pack, winning Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actress, and Editing.

Ahead of the press conference, the traditional Cannes prediction talk is in full tilt.

Titles for which speculation is running high include Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Maryam Touzani’s Calle Malaga,...

A new Netflix K-drama has become a global hit. Netflix is one of the most popular streaming platforms in the world and has become well-known for its original content, including movies and television series. Their most popular series, which have drawn hundreds of millions of viewers, include the Addams Family reimagining Wednesday, the 1980s-set sci-fi fantasy drama Stranger Things, and the Regency-era romance Bridgerton.

Some of the most popular shows on the platform are Netflix original K-dramas. This includes the survival thriller Squid Game, which has been watched by more than 455 million viewers, with season 1 being the most-watched season on the platform across all languages and season 2 being the third. Squid Game season 3 is also on the way and may perform similarly. Other notable K-dramas on the platform include the crime drama Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, the zombie series All of Us Are Dead, and the romance Melo Movie.

I know I am quite late to the party, but I just got the chance to finish this Oscar-winning masterpiece, Flow. And the underlying message that stayed with me at the end was quite touching, to say the least. I mean, in this modern world, we are at war with each other. We are divided on the basis of race, religion, caste, class, and more, but Flow teaches that when the world is at the brink of extinction, we will have no choice but to abandon our prejudices and to work collectively as humans to survive against odds. One of the running themes of the film was that the demeanor of the animals changed completely whenever they were with their own species. I guess it happens for us humans too, who are always trying to impress the people of our community. The tragic thing is, while we are among those of our own race,...

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” the embattled musical crime thriller about gender confirmation, was the surprise Feature Dramatic Editing winner, Friday night at the 75th annual Ace Eddie Awards (held at UCLA’s Royce Hall).

Besting such contenders as “Conclave” and “Dune: Part Two,” “Emilia Pérez” editor Juliette Welfling cut against the start and stop rhythms of traditional musicals with sequences that flowed naturally from dialogue to musical moments in this operatic fever dream, starring Best Supporting Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña and controversial Best Actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón.

In addition, Jon M. Chu’s maximalist “Wicked” musical beat out Sean Baker’s Oscar-winning “Anora” in the comedy category. Editor Myron Kerstein excelled at handling the tonal shifts and blending different genres to explore the volatile friendship between Elphaba/the Wicked Witch (Oscar-nominated Cynthia Erivo) and Galinda/Glinda the Good Witch (Oscar-nominated Ariana Grande).

Originally set for January 18, the ceremony...

What’s going to be this year’s “Anora”? As the Cannes Film Festival rapidly approaches, that’s the question for artistic director Thierry Fremaux and movie buffs around the world.

A month before Cannes Film Festival’s press conference, the official selection is still very much a work in progress, with little reliable information filtering through about which movies have already been invited. In fact, as of Friday — despite the volume of splashy prediction stories — it appears that only three films have so far been given a golden ticket to compete in Cannes. Variety can reveal that one of them is Jim Jarmusch’s anticipated “Father Mother Sister Brother“ starring Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver and Tom Waits.

The last edition of the festival, which Fremaux had warned would be slightly weaker due to the impact of the double Hollywood strikes, proved to be anything but. Headlined by Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anora,...

With deep character developments and darker themes that even foster satirical masterpieces. Animation acts as a versatile canvas for the most human-like stories. Animation has always been a pinnacle medium in the entertainment industry, yet to this day it is miscategorized as a mere genre. This not only has led to prejudge from audiences, thinking the medium is exclusively for children, but it also has been underestimated by the industry in various ways. Despite the medium’s perceptions narrowing in recent years, this didn’t come without its struggle. One great example of this can be seen across the 94 years of Academy Awards history where the first animated film ever nominated for Best Picture was ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in 1992, the "Best Animated Feature" category not being a thing until the year 2002, and still till this day there we still haven't seen an Animated Best Picture winner. Regardless of all...

The Current Debate connects the dots around a topic of the critical conversation.Anora.Remember Cord Jefferson’s plea at last year’s Oscars? Picking up his Best Adapted Screenplay award for American Fiction (2023), the director chided the industry for being “risk-averse,” and suggested that, “instead of making one $200 million movie,” producers should spread those resources to make room for more diverse and bolder voices. “Try making twenty $10 million movies,” he said, “or fifty $4 million movies.” Jefferson was of course alluding to Oppenheimer (2023), Christopher Nolan’s thunderous portrait of “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer, a $100-million Best Picture winner that racked up seven statuettes and nearly a billion dollars at the box office. A year later, a cursory glance at the list of 2025 Oscar winners might make you think the industry did, in fact, heed the call. It’s not that there were no big-budget films among...

Universal Pictures’ spy thriller Black Bag leads the way for new releases in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend as Warner Bros’ Opus and Studiocanal’s In the Lost Lands also open.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh,Black Bagopens in 650 cinemas, up from Soderbergh’s last film Presence which debuted in 478 sites earlier this year. That title opened with a mild £292,058 for Warner Bros, ending its run on £825,587 total.

Black Bag will be aiming much higher with the help of strong reviews, a London-set premise and a starry ensemble led by Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett. The duo play husband and...

Film and TV production happens fast. Even a series as blown about by the waves as “Doctor Odyssey” needs to navigate between the Scylla of ocean exteriors and Charybdis of network procedural turnarounds. The visual effects team, led by VFX supervisor Jason Piccioni, has only about a week and a half per episode. So on the midseason two-parter, “Shark Attack,” they needed to be very strategic about when, how, and why we see the titular predators from the deep blue sea.

That specific challenge got the IndieWire Craft team thinking about how lean and mean you could get a VFX setup to create the shark that kamikaze-swims into the Odyssey’s propeller, the orcas that ram its hull, and the menacing fins that circle in the dark waters while our hero medics are (improbably) out in a support boat.

Piccioni told IndieWire that they worked with FuseFX for the show’s ambitious two-parter — indeed,...

Exclusive: New York International Children’s Film Festival has announced its 2025 jury, including Lake Bell, Seth Meyers, Bob Odenkirk, Matthew Modine and Guillermo Martinez, Director and Head of Story at Sony Pictures Animation. Scroll down for the full jury.

The Festival, closing its 29th edition this weekend, is an Oscar-qualifying festival for short films. Nyicff’s 2024 jury award-winning film Magic Candies qualified through last year’s event and was nominated for a 2025 Academy Award. In addition to Magic Candies, Nyicff screened Oscar nominee Yuck as part of its 2024 slate.

Nyicff also presented a preview screening of Best Animated Feature winner Flow, followed by a Q&a with co-writer and producer Matīss Kaža, last November, as well as Oscar nominees Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (with Q&a with director Merlin Crossingham) and The Wild Robot (with Q&a with director Chris Sanders and lead Lupita Nyong’o) as part of its...

Hayao Miyazaki’s movies are celebrated all over the world. But as more recent films get popular, old ones are forgotten. In the wake of successes like Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron, fans tend to forget the films that shaped Ghibli’s path to success.

Miyazaki’s most popular movies are often thought to be Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro. But there is another underrated movie that simply grows more and more relatable as time passes.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service is a precious gift to the world Kiki struggled with deliveries due to burnout | Credits: Ghibli

To put it in simple terms, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a coming-of-age movie. A young witch named Kiki begins her first adventure with her cat, Jiji. As per the traditions followed by her kind, she sets out for a new town to settle in to refine her skills as a witch.

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light took top honors at the 2025 International Cinephile Society (Ics) Awards, winning best picture, director, and ensemble. The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix, has continued to receive recognition, earning nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs.

The Ics recognized Kapadia’s film for its portrayal of “the voices, the faces, the night-lit trains of modern India.” The story follows women from different generations who form a quiet bond as they navigate personal and cultural challenges.

Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’s Oscar-nominated drama about Black teenagers trapped in an abusive reform school, won best adapted screenplay for Ross and Joslyn Barnes, who based the script on Colson Whitehead’s novel. The film also received the cinematography award for Jomo Fray’s work.

Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths won multiple awards, including best actress for Marianne Jean-Baptiste,...

Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” triumphed at the 2025 International Cinephile Society (Ics) Awards, winning best picture, director and ensemble.

“All We Imagine as Light” world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the grand prize of the festival, along with a flurry of international awards. It also went on earn nominations at the Golden Globes and the BAFTA’s, among others.

The International Cinephile Society praised Kapadia’s film for highlighting “the voices, the faces, the night-lit trains of vibrant modern India.” The film revolves around a trip of women from different generations who form a quiet sisterhood to find their own peace amidst daunting personal and cultural issues.

“Nickel Boys,” RaMell Ross’s Oscar-nominated drama about Black teenagers caged in an abusive reform school, took best adapted screenplay honors for Ross and Joslyn Barnes, who wrote the script based on the book by Colson Whitehead.

Sometimes it can take years for a movie to truly catch on, and that has proven to be the case with the 2004 comedy White Chicks, directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, and starring Marlon and Shawn Wayans, better known as the Wayans Brothers. The film was a moderate hit upon release and wasn't embraced by critics as it carries a less than stellar 15% Rotten Tomatoes score. Despite the critical response, the film has since been regarded as a cult classic, with many fans demanding a sequel. As they wait for news of a follow-up, White Chicks has found success once again by becoming a hit on streaming.

White Chicks is currently streaming on Max and is currently ranked ninth in their top ten movies. The movie is ahead of the James Franco comedy Why Him and behind a wide range of efforts from films that are great, such as End of Watch...

Gints Zilbalodis’ Oscar-winning animation, Flow, made its audience attached to a bunch of animals desperate for survival. But Hayao Miyazaki had accomplished this decades ago with one of his most popular works, Kiki’s Delivery Service.

In Kiki’s Delivery Service, an iconic character is Jiji, the cat who always accompanies Kiki. And when the witch could no longer communicate with Jiji, it broke the hearts of fans. However, it was a necessary step in the maturing of the protagonist.

Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service made Hayao Miyazaki fans tear up Kiki’s Delivery Service fans became highly attached to Jiji just like Kiki | Credits: Ghibli

Ever since the beginning of Kiki’s Delivery Service, Jiji has been there right alongside Kiki. From marveling at the world to going on whacky adventures, Jiji was with Kiki through thick and thin. But then came a point when Kiki lost the ability to talk with Jiji.

Over the weekend of March 15-16, the European Film Academy is hosting free watch party screenings of two of its Lux Audience Award nominated films in partnership with its European Film Club, a platform and network of film clubs across Europe where teenagers aged 12-19 can watch and talk about European cinema. Through the inaugural two screenings, young people will be able to watch Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal” and Oksana Karpovych’s “Intercepted.”

Speaking with Variety ahead of the weekend of screenings, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy Matthijs Wouter Knol recalled first hearing about the idea for the European Film Club upon taking the post in the organization in 2021. “I joined the Academy planning to restructure it into an organization that would be more effective in building a culture for European cinema and have more impact when it comes to reaching audiences,” he says.

“That’s also...

The largest audience award in the world, the Lux Audience Award, sees citizens and members of the democratically elected European Parliament coming together yearly to honor a European film with their coveted prize. This year’s slate of highly-acclaimed nominees include Gints Zibalodis’s history-making “Flow,” which just won Latvia its first ever Oscar for Best Animated Film, and Mati Diop’s “Dahomey,” the first film by a Black filmmaker to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

A joint initiative of the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in collaboration with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas, the Lux Audience Award “fosters dialogue and engagement between politics and the public through the medium of film.” Nominated films address “European values” as well as raising “awareness about some of today’s main social and political issues.” Throughout the competition period, the European Parliament provides subtitles in 24 EU...

Flow took the world by surprise – a happy one at that, with the Ghibli-like animated world it represented and the beautifully innocent concept at its core. Meanwhile, the film’s director, Gints Zilbalodis, will go down in history for not only being the first Latvian to win an Oscar but also for his integrity in the face of Hollywood giants.

Flow (2024) [Credit: UFO Distribution]

As the red carpet rolled onto the 97th Academy Awards stage, stars and performers from all corners of the film industry gathered in a single arena to decide the best and most talented of them all over the course of a single night. However, Zilbalodis was hardly impressed by all the glitter and dazzle of the event as he continued to troll the Oscars even after his monumental win.

Flow director trolls the Academy after Oscar win Flow (2024) [Credit: UFO Distribution]

For most actors and directors, the Academy Award represents...

A24's religious-themed horror flick, Heretic, recently landed on Max after an impressive run in theaters, and it's pulling in massive viewership numbers for the streamer.

Per FlixPatrol, Heretic is the most popular film on Max, just days after landing on the streaming service. The Hugh Grant-led film beat out the Oscar-winning animated film Flow, which ranks second on the list, and the recently added video game adaptation Assassin's Creed, which comes in at third. Heretic also ranks third among all movies and television shows on the platform. During its theatrical run, Heretic took home $58 million at the worldwide box office against a reported budget of $10 million. The film received tons of praise from critics upon release, earning a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, while Grant earned some awards recognition for his performances as the villainous Mr. Reed. Grant was nominated at the BAFTA Awards, Critics' Choice Awards, and Golden Globes for his performance.

As Conan O’Brien joked during the Oscars, after Latvian film “Flow” won the Best Animated Feature — beating out Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” DreamWorks’ “The Wild Robot” and Aardman’s “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” — the “ball’s in your court, Estonia.”

And while Estonia has yet to reveal a charming animated feature all its own, Turkey is responding with its own adorable offering.

American studio Rising Tides Films and Turkish studio 9D Medya will launch a long-term collaboration in March with the Los Angeles premiere event for 9D Medya and Trt’s animated film “Smart Rabbit Momo: The Big Chase.”

“The future of animation is cross-cultural collaboration,” said Mustafa Karayer, founder of 9D Medya and the film’s producer, in a Tuesday statement. “By partnering with Rising Tides Films, we are bridging Turkish storytelling with Hollywood’s expertise — to make fresh, diverse animation for audiences everywhere.”

“Turkey has...

The Academy determined the most worthy films of last year at the 97th Oscars on Sunday. However, the number of awards for these films doesn’t necessarily give us a full picture of the films’ popularity with the audience. New data reveals the most streamed Oscar-nominated films and fans would be surprised to learn that some of the big winners at the Oscars are absent from this list.

Anora was the leading winner of the Oscars night and won five awards, including four wins for director Sean Baker. Adrien Brody’s The Brutalist won three awards, while Emilia Pérez, Dune: Part Two, and Wicked won two awards each.

Best Picture winner Anora isn’t one of the most streamed Oscar nominated movies | Credits: Neon

However, none of these top winners were the most streamed movies. In fact, some of the non-winners took the top spots on this list. Some of...

Mr. Reed’s (Hugh Grant) twisted game to further exploit the "one true religion" leads to quite the perilous predicament for Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) in the psychological thriller Heretic. The film was a bona fide box office hit, making $58.1 million worldwide against a production budget of only $10 million, and the horror flick is now the No. 1 movie streaming on Max. It's even outperforming the Oscar-winning Flow (Best Animated Feature Film), which checks in at No. 2.

Heretic’s intriguing storytelling and foreboding atmosphere definitely do the movie credit, but much of the film’s success firmly lies with its three actors. Thatcher and Paxton give powerful performances as the unsuspecting protagonists spreading the word of God, but Grant’s indelible portrayal of Mr. Reed is not to be missed. In fact, the thespian took the utmost measures to bring a sense of realism to this particular villain.

It may be hard for folks who weren't around at the time to understand, but there was a moment when Hugh Grant appeared poised to become one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.

Flashback to the spring of 1994. Bill Clinton was a popular U.S. President, everyone was drinking Zima, and moviegoers were flocking to cineplexes to see the British rom-com "Four Weddings and a Funeral." It was a surprise hit that picked up word-of-mouth steam via a slow roll-out from its distributor Gramercy Pictures, which was fortunate to have a great, immensely appealing film at a time when theaters were being inundated with dreck like "Major League II," "Cops and Robbersons" and "D2: The Mighty Ducks."

While "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is at heart an ensemble comedy, Grant's endearingly flappable demeanor and effortless delivery of the film's hilariously quippy dialogue had some critics comparing him to Hollywood's greatest Grant.

Quick LinksWhat Is Flow About?How Does Flow End?

The following contains spoilers for Flow.

When it comes to animation in modern cinema, fans often talk about Illumination, Dreamworks, Pixar and Disney. It's no surprise, given the amazing animated films these power players and industry stalwarts have put out over the decades. Properties like How To Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, Toy Story, and Inside Out stand out. It's also not surprising many awards shows, like the Oscars, nominate and award them.

One unheralded 2024 movie beat out some big names from these studios to claim the Best Animated Feature Film award: Flow. The movie is a Latvian feature that was completely rendered with the free and open-source animation software Blender. It took over five years to make and told a story many would associate with the biggest brand of them all: Disney.

What Is Flow About? Flow Speaks to Different...

In an age where major streaming companies like DreamWorks are firing their animators and big budget animated films from Disney fell short during award season, Flow has been quite the breath of fresh air among animation fans. The little cat that could with a budget of about $4 million took down juggernaut films like Inside Out 2, Moana 2, and The Wild Robot at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, which has made director Gints Zilbalodis a national hero for his country. The Latvian people showered the creator with a hero’s welcome after his Oscar win.

Well, Ryan Lattanzio beat Anne Thompson predicting last Sunday’s Oscars. That’s because he went with such international favorites as Animated Feature “Flow” and Documentary Feature “No Other Land.” Anne relied too much on the precursors instead of responding to popular surges.

Why did American Palme d’Or winner “Anora” win five Oscars? It had support from every part of the Academy, judging from the rousing cheers from the Dolby Theatre Sunday night.

Ahead on this week’s episode of “Screen Talk,” Ryan and Anne debate why Mikey Madison won Best Actress. She was young and ingenues are in favor, said Ryan. Older women Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres were close and “Anora” had coattails, said Anne.

We also debate the merits of the show, and both agree that newbie Conan O’Brien was an affably effective host, and that the writing was strong, even if some of the musical tributes were weak.

by Cláudio Alves

Flow | © Janus Films / Sideshow

As Nathaniel mentioned in his rundown of new Oscar trivia, records, and similar stats, Flow was the first film about a cat to win the Best Animated Feature Academy Award. This victory for cat people everywhere couldn't have happened to a better movie or to a more fitting cinematic year. After all, 2024 was positively full of felines on the big screen, and even some on the small. They ranged from heroic protagonists to supporting scene stealers, animated to live-action, Hollywood stars to world cinema revelations, from cute to cuter to cutest. There was even a robot kitty for those who love sci-fi. Let's look back on a year of cats…...

Tigran Arakelyan’s Zako, a France-Armenia project about the painter Sargis Mangasaryan who survived the concentration camps of the Second World War by drawing portraits of his tormentors, won the Eurimages co-production award at this year’s Cartoon Movie event that closed on March 6.

Zako, a collaboration between Armenia’s OnOff Studio and France’s Sacrebleu, is now in development. The award aims to boost international co-productions intended for cinema release.

Sacrebleu producer Ron Dyens, who was also at the event with My Dad, The Truck, said he had been inspired by the innovative spirit demonstrated by the filmmakers at Cartoon Movie.

Did You Know Anora & The Brutalist’s Numbers Took Over A Major Christopher Nolan Thriller At The Bo? ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

As Anora director Sean Baker wrapped the 97th Academy Awards ceremony, seizing his record fourth statuette of the night, he roared, “Long live independent cinema” — a mantra that couldn’t have resounded better outside a ceremony exalting indie films over studio juggernauts and streaming titans.

Anora clinched five wins, The Brutalist nabbed three, and A Real Pain, Flow, and others—all original films without the tag of sequel, remake, biography, or adaptation attached to them—galvanized the evening with one award each. Their victories now incite a box office rush, unlike anything the majors could muster.

Even months after its digital release, Anora and The Brutalist saw theater admissions soar post-Oscar night. Anora’s Monday take vaulted over 400% from the prior week, Tuesday’s surge past 350%, pushing its domestic...

Emanating from their studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, The History of Bad Ideas sees hosts Jason, Jeff and Blake talk about all things geeky on their podcast. Whether it’s rumours of the latest comic book movies, debating who really is the worst villain of all time, discussing the latest comic issues or just wondering about life in general, you are sure to have a fun time with them! In theory.

If you haven’t listened to the show before – why not? – you can check out previous episodes of The History of Bad Ideas podcast on iTunes and look out for new episodes here on Nerdly each and every week…

Episode 586: Either Way You Are Getting a Puppy!

The Hobi Gang is short-staffed this week so film critic Scab Jeff is here to recap the Oscars, Jason and Bryan debate John Cena’s heel turn, The Pit is still getting...

Doja Cat has responded to the backlash she received for her James Bond tribute performance at the 2025 Oscars. Held on March 2, the 2025 Oscars saw a variety of impressive performances, including Doja Cat (born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini), who was featured in a dramatic collection of songs in honor of James Bond.

In a rendition of the song “Diamonds Are Forever,” the namesake for the 1971 film, the singer delivered her unique interpretation, which was met with split reactions from the public. While many praised the rapper’s dramatic tone shift, others quickly remarked that some of her notes occasionally “sounded flat.”

On Monday, alongside photos of her in a stunning golden dress, Doja Cat shared on Instagram, “I danced with Sarah Paulson last night. Also, Flow is my favorite movie of all time because it’s a story about friendship. Thanks to the Academy Awards and Vanity Fair for having me.

Since the establishment of the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars in 2002, Disney animated films have been racking up the award. With beloved Academy Award Winners like Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and Zootopia, Disney has continued its animation empire with every win they've secured.

While Disney films still lead the race in many cases, the medium of animation is vast, and the Academy has given the Best Animated Feature award to other animation studios for their unique style and storytelling achievements. Even though these Disney films lost, their impact on audiences is significant. They are remembered and referred to by many as excellent films even though they didn't take home the gold statue.

Inside Out 2 Is a Heartfelt, Pertinent Sequel Lost to Flow in 2025 at the 97th Academy Awards

The first Inside Out film was a breath of fresh air for Pixar fans, telling a moving story about 11-year-old...

Exclusive: Jia Zhangke’s Cannes Competition entry Caught By The Tides has been set for U.S. release on May 9, 2025 via Sideshow and Janus Films.

The latest from the Chinese auteur, known for movies including A Touch Of Sin and Ash Is The Purest White, is love story told over 23 years and set against the backdrop of explosive growth in China. Made up of old footage shot by the filmmaker over the past century as well as some new, the film traverses personal and national history including all of his films to date. Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin star.

Written by Jia and Wan Jiahuan, pic is produced by Casper Liang Jiayan, Shozo Ichiyama and Zhang Dong. The film is an X Stream Pictures, Momo Pictures, Huanxi Media Group Limited (Beijing) and Wishart Media (Quanzhou) production in association with mk2 Films, Ad Vitam and Bitters End. It played at festivals including Cannes,...