News

Mudbound’s Rachel Morrison has just become the first woman ever nominated for an Oscar for cinematography. The recognition is long overdue

Rachel Morrison’s Academy Award nomination in the best cinematography category is a landmark for women in film. This shortlist has long been the toughest Oscar ceiling to crack, but now, for the first time since the awards began in 1929, a woman has been included. Morrison, who shot the overcast landscapes and intimate interiors of 1940s drama Mudbound for director Dee Rees, stands a good chance of winning, but women in her field may be forgiven for celebrating already.

The American Society of Cinematographers (Asc), which counts Morrison as a member, was founded in 1919. It didn’t invite a woman to join until 1980, when it admitted Brianne Murphy, reportedly the first woman to work as a cinematographer on a major Hollywood studio film (Fatso, directed by Anne Bancroft...

Lisa Loven Kongsli (upcoming Wonder Woman, Force Majeure), Sophie Cookson (Kingsman: The Secret Service), and Peter Franzen (History Channel’s ‘Vikings’, The Gunman) have joined 2016 BAFTA Rising Star nominee Bel Powley (upcoming Carrie Pilby, The Diary Of A Teenage Girl), Jonah Hauer-King, and Martin Wallstrom (FX series ‘Mr. Robot’) in Marius Markevicius’ riveting Ashes In The Snow, it was announced by Radiant Films International President and CEO, Mimi Steinbauer.

Rounding out the newly announced cast are Sam Hazeldine (The Huntsman: Winter’S War, Monuments Men), James Cosmo (HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’, upcoming Ben-hur), Adrian Schiller (The Danish Girl, Suffragette) and Tom Sweet.

Currently in production, Radiant will present the project to international buyers at the upcoming Marche du Film in Cannes.

Ashes In The Snow is the poignant story of a 16-year-old heroine Lina Vilkas (Powley) who is separated from her family amidst Stalin’s reign of terror in the Baltic region during WWII.

Following previous announcements of their film lineup, the Fantasia International Film Festival has released their full lineup of movies to be shown at the 18th Annual festival, starting July 17.

New additions to the lineup include 2014 Cannes Selection When Animals Dream, directed by Jonas Alexander Amby and the return of Fantasia’s showcase of animated films, Axis.

Tickets for the festival go on sale starting July 16, and the festival runs through August 5.

View the whole press release of additional announcements below:

Fantasia Celebrates Its 18th Birthday

With Over 160 Feature Films Montreal, Thursday July 10, 2014 – 2014 is the year that Fantasia turns 18. We can’t believe it either. Fantasia’s 18th birthday means over 160 features and something in the neighborhood of 300 shorts, many being shown for the first time on this continent, a good number screening here for the first time anywhere in the world.In addition to being stacked with a multitude of breathtaking debut filmmaker discoveries,...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Eye Of The Storm Trailer I like this kind of story, I do. It's familiar territory, to be sure, but if there's someone who I...

After eight crazy days, Fantastic Fest 2010 is in the books. Here's an index to all of our coverage, reviews, features, interviews, videos, and podcasts.

Last Updated: 10/01/2010

Reviews

"Red," directed by Robert Schwentke

"Agnosia," directed by Eugenio Mira

"Bibliotheque Pascal," directed by Szabolcs Hajdu

"Corridor," directed by Johan Lundborg and Johan Storm

"Fatso," directed by Arild Fröhlich

"Fire of Conscience," directed by Dante Lam

"Ip Man 2," directed by Wilson Yip

"I Saw the Devil," directed by Kim Ji-woon

Kidnapped," directed by Miguel Angel Vivas

"Let Me In," directed by Matt Reeves

"The Man From Nowhere," directed by Lee Jung-beom

"Outrage," directed by Takeshi Kitano

"Red White and Blue," directed by Simon Rumley

"A Somewhat Gentle Man," directed by Hans Petter Moland

"Sound of Noise," directed by Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson

Interviews

Mark Hartley, "Machete Maidens Unleashed"

Ryan Kwanten and Patrick Hughes, "Red Hill"

Andrew Lau, "Legend of the Fist"

Ryan Reynolds and Rodrigo Cortés,...

On the seventh day, there was levity. And it was good. After a brutal sixth day at Fantastic Fest 2010, the penultimate seventy day finally held a few films to break up the constant barrage of disturbing images. Of course, those lighter films were sandwiched others featuring mass gay rape and immigrant torture, plus the so-called “lighter films” did contain self castration as well as a barrage of bullets. It’s still Fantastic Fest after all, it’ll never be puppy dogs and ice cream. Hit the jump to read about The Life and Death of a Porno Gang, Red, Fatso, Undocumented, and Karl Urban talks Dredd.

The Life and Death of a Porno Gang is a Serbian film about a filmmaker trying to make his way in the world. His journey leads him into porn, erotic theater, and eventually on a trip as the head of a traveling sexual theater group.

Director: Arild Fröhlich

Writers: Arild Fröhlich, Lars Gudmestad, Lars Ramslie

Cast: Nils Jørgen Kaalstad, Josefin Ljungman, Kyrre Hellum

This review of Fatso is brought to you by the makers of The Fleshlight. “The Fleshlight, the worlds #1 selling male sex toy.” It should be pointed out that this review is actually Not sponsored by the Fleshlight but it definitely gets its moment to shine in this film. Fatso is a wonderful tale of a man and his roommate that could be considered a coming of age tale for both the man, and his roommate.

Read more on Fantastic Fest 2010 Review: Fatso…...

Reviewed at Fantastic Fest 2010.

The lonely men of the Swedish "Corridor" and the Norwegian "Fatso" have a lot in common. They live by themselves, they're uncomfortable with other people, they like to eat in front of their TVs, and their solitary lives are disrupted by flaky, outgoing girls who drive them nuts with their loud lovemaking and demands for interaction.

The woman in "Corridor" (written and directed by the Johans Lundborg and Storm) is Lotte (Ylva Gallon), a hairdresser who corrals her downstairs neighbor Frank (Emil Johnsen) into first helping her move desk, then in loaning her some laundry detergent, then in shifting her boyfriend Micke's (Peter Stormare) motorcycle. Micke has some anger issues, and Frank, an anal-retentive med student who would rather spend all of his time studying, finds the addition of Lotte and her lover to the building begins to really get in the way of his work.

Next week, the film community will take a break from all of these high brow film festivals, to descend upon Austin Texas for the epic genre festival, Fantastic Fest. We’ve previewed several of the films that will be premiering at Fantastic Fest, and they just announced a few more films, from those lovely vikings up in Norway.

Criterion alum, Stellan Skarsgård (Insomnia, The Perfect Murder, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being) plays Ulrik in Hans Petter Moland’s comedy A Somewhat Gentle Man. You’ll also be able to catch Arild Fröhlich’s 2008 film, Fatso, as well as Thomas Cappelen Malling’s Norwegian Ninja. It’s nice to see some of the more comedic Scandinavian films being represented amongst so many darker genre films at the festival.

While there are going to be a number of Asian genre films represented at the festival, it’s clear that Fantastic Fest is a global event.

This is the ninth film review in the coverage of this year's Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. If you expect to see a dumb comedy, Arild Fröhlich's Fatso will prove you that your expectations were wrong. In fact, the Norwegian film Fatso is one of the few comedies about sex that, on the surface, looks vulgar, but hides many layers of depth.

Rino (Nils Jørgen Kaalstad) is a fat and lonely man living in an appartment. When he's not translating instruction manuals from German to Norwegian, Rino likes to watch pornographic films and jerk off. Besides, in his wildest dreams, Rino also sees himself as a sexually hungry rhinoceros named Captain Cock, a comic book character Rino created. One day, Rino gets a new roommate in the form of Malin (Josefin Ljungman), a beautiful Swede who came to Norway to study. While Malin treats Rino like a friend at most,...

[Our thanks to Nicolas Krief of Panorama Cinema for the following review and Maude Michod for the translation.]

Based on its sexually suggestive poster and trailer, Fatso appears to be about a fat pervert and his relationship with the female body. Rino lives alone, works as a translator and draws comic books in his spare time; however his main hobby is masturbation. Along with his friend Fillip, he goes to strip clubs and have strange sex habits and discussions. However, his life is about to change when his father introduces him to Malin, his new female roommate.

Fatso sometimes tries to be a Scandinavian equivalent of There's Something About Mary without offering any particularly successful laugh gags. However, the film is not a complete failure as many eccentric characters save the film by adding a good dose of pathos. Fillip (Kyrre Hellum), an unforgettable supporting character, has a fascinating screen presence and a peculiar physique, and we simply cannot wait for him to appear on screen.

Fatso is...

Several press releases went out today featuring some huge news coming out of Canada's Fantasia Film Festival including the first batch of films that will be populating this massive three-week long event. Pull up your chair, kids! You're gonna be here for a while!

Dig on the wealth of information below from today's releases and look for more announcements and of course full coverage soon!

Spotlight: Between Death And The Devil

Recent times and crimes have seen extraordinary levels of disillusionment with organized religion, particularly with the Catholic Church, and genre cinema has mirrored this anger with startling impact. In the face of this, we’ve put together this troubling spotlight focused on the abuse of faith, the horrors of ideology and the corruption of Godliness. Several of these films will absolutely stagger you.

Black Death (UK) Dir: Christopher Smith – North American premiere. Hosted by Director Christopher Smith

With the Black Death sweeping across England,...

You want the best of genre film from Canada, the Us and around the globe? Fantasia is the place.

Montreal, June 29, 2010 - For its fourteenth edition, the Fantasia Film Festival is proud to present over 50 titles from Asia. Once again, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China are widely represented, demonstrating the great quality and diversity of their industries. And, as always, the programming team is also dedicated to exposing several hidden gems hailing from emerging national cinemas. Through these, audiences can discover new visions and new sensibilities. Therefore, the public will be privy to works hailing from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and - a first for the festival - Indonesia. The filmic multicultural feast prepared by the 2010 Fantasia Film Festival promises to satisfy film lovers of all kinds.

Fantasia's 2010 occidental lineup of World Cinema is once again on fire with an astounding kaleidoscope of styles and sensibilities.

Here’s another brand new movie poster from the upcoming Norwegian horror film “Dead Snow” by director Tommy Wirkola (Remake) and starring Ane Dahl Torp (Cold Lunch), Jenny Skavlan (Fatso), Charlotte Frogner (Hvaler), Jeppe Laursen (Limbo) and Stig Frode Henriksen (Kill Buljo: The Movie). Synopsis: A group of teenagers had all they needed for a successful ski vacation; cabin, skis, snowmobile, toboggan, copious amounts of beer and a fertile mix of the sexes. Certainly, none of them anticipated not returning home alive! However, the Nazi-zombie battalion haunting the mountains had other plans. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for the latest “Dead Snow” movie news and trailers.

Check out this brutal new movie poster from the upcoming Norwegian horror film “Dead Snow” by director Tommy Wirkola (Remake) and starring Ane Dahl Torp (Cold Lunch), Jenny Skavlan (Fatso), Charlotte Frogner (Hvaler), Jeppe Laursen (Limbo) and Stig Frode Henriksen (Kill Buljo: The Movie). Synopsis: A group of teenagers had all they needed for a successful ski vacation; cabin, skis, snowmobile, toboggan, copious amounts of beer and a fertile mix of the sexes. Certainly, none of them anticipated not returning home alive! However, the Nazi-zombie battalion haunting the mountains had other plans. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for the latest “Dead Snow” movie news and trailers.

Watch the official Sundance movie trailer for the upcoming Norwegian horror film “Dead Snow” by director Tommy Wirkola (Remake) and starring Ane Dahl Torp (Cold Lunch), Jenny Skavlan (Fatso), Charlotte Frogner (Hvaler), Jeppe Laursen (Limbo) and Stig Frode Henriksen (Kill Buljo: The Movie). Synopsis: A group of teenagers had all they needed for a successful ski vacation; cabin, skis, snowmobile, toboggan, copious amounts of beer and a fertile mix of the sexes. Certainly, none of them anticipated not returning home alive! However, the Nazi-zombie battalion haunting the mountains had other plans. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for the latest “Dead Snow” movie news and trailers.

Taking a wee break here from my non-stop Tiff coverage because this one is just far too good not to get online right away. It’s the trailer for Fatso, the self-described most unromantic comedy ever from Erik Poppe’s production outfit Paradox, based on the book by Lars Ramslie. And what’s it about? Ahem ...

Rino Hanssen is 30 years old, obsessed with porn, and has never been with a woman. He lives in an apartment owned by his father, and he has only one friend: the asthmatic, misanthropic Filip. Suddenly his father rents out one of the rooms in the apartment to a young girl called Malin, an emancipated and seemingly unconcerned individual who seeks affirmation through sex, friends and a wild life. All of a sudden, Rino’s strong fortress has been invaded by the world which he has worked so long on shutting out. Through his acquaintance with Malin and her friends,...