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Blurry.If you know Dash Shaw’s films but haven’t read his books, you might be unsure what to expect when picking up his newest graphic novel, Blurry. My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea (2016) is a high-school melodrama that dovetails with a disaster plot: soon after a student discovers that the school building is not up to code, an earthquake sends the building into the sea. The characters, rendered with thick lines, are often tinted and filled in by expressive bursts of color. The animation style in Cryptozoo (2021) is more detailed, the colors more lush; the story seems more straightforward at first—the stewards of the titular enclosure attempt to capture another mythical beast for their menagerie and protect it from the humans who want to exploit it—but it raises questions which are meant to encourage deeper thinking from the audience.Ever since his first graphic novel,...

Logan Paul is known for being a jack of all trades. Apart from being a professional wrestler in the WWE, Paul is also a viral social media influencer, YouTuber, actor, and entrepreneur who has a loyal and die-hard fan base. The athlete launched a game called CryptoZoo in 2021 in which users could earn tokens to make money.

WWE star Logan Paul (image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Unfortunately, the game did not take off as Paul had planned and went on to become extremely controversial after a YouTuber called him out for scamming his fans of millions of dollars. While the WWE star denied these allegations, he recalled the tough times he faced owing to the extreme backlash he received, which almost took him over the edge with thoughts of s*icide.

Logan Paul Almost Took An Extreme Emotional Step Following CryptoZoo Scandal

We’ve often heard that success and failure are...

The first few minutes of White Plastic Sky, the animated feature from Hungarian directors Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó that debuted at the Berlin Film Festival 2023, sketch a future world with echoes of past cinematic dystopias.

The world has been stripped of life, the soil poisoned, and all animals driven to extinction. Humanity survives under a huge geodesic dome (the plastic sky of the title) and has learned to feed on itself. At the age of 50, every citizen gets a special implant that turns them into a food source for the next generation. In a scene resembling the pod farms of the Matrix films, we see how implanted humans are transmogrified into a hybrid plant species, becoming trees that provide oxygen and food for those under the dome.

“There are similarities in our story to Soylent Green or Logan’s Run, similar motifs to other high-concept, or hardcore science fiction,” admits Bánóczki,...

Even with two Oscar nominations under his belt, a resume that includes commercials for Geico and music videos for Kanye West and Weird Al, animator Bill Plympton remains committed to the DIY ethos and unique hand-drawn style that launched his career 35 years ago. “That’s the great thing about animation — there are no rules, so you can do anything you want,” he said during a Q&a following a screening of some of his shorts at the 15th annual Mendocino Film Festival Sunday. “I like to try and break the rules as much as possible.”

Plympton and his humorously provocative work had a receptive audience in the remote Northern California community known for its wine, weed, and art, delighting the audience with the kind of intimate programming that’s just not possible at the largest festivals. He also offered a first look at his upcoming Kickstarter-funded feature “Slide,” took...

The 37th Annual Independent Spirit Awards took place on Sunday, returning to an in-person format following last year’s virtual ceremony. Many of the biggest names in the independent film community made the trek out to the beach in Santa Monica with the hopes of taking home the most coveted prizes in indie film. While the Spirit Awards typically take place the week before the Oscars, this year’s unique Covid-influenced awards season calendar meant that they were held nearly a month in advance. Hollywood couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally served as emcees of the proceedings.

This year’s class of nominees draws from films largely shut out from the Oscars, with indie hits like Oscar nominee “The Lost Daughter,” “C’mon C’mon,” and “Zola” racking up the most nominations. “The Lost Daughter” cleaned up, with three wins for Netflix including Best Feature and Best Director Maggie Gyllenhaal. Oscar no-show...

Three awards ceremonies are taking place the weekend of March 5. On Saturday, a double dose of the Art Directors Guild (Adg) and American Cinema Editors Awards (Ace Eddies), and on Sunday, the Film Independent Spirit Awards, airing on IFC.

Paying special attention to Adg and Ace Eddies since there’s Oscar crossover, we’re expecting a couple of surprises at both. On the Adg side, “Dune” and “Nightmare Alley” should reign triumphant, but “Don’t Look Up” may overcome fellow Netflix property “The Lost Daughter.”

At Ace Eddies, there’s a possible upset on the drama side in the favor of “King Richard’s” Pamela Martin, besting Joe Walker for “Dune.” On the other hand, “Tick, Tick … Boom!” is expected to sneak past “Licorice Pizza.”

What’s most interesting is that there is very little to no presence of the presumed Oscar frontrunners this weekend, including Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,...

Exclusive: Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment have prevailed in a bidding war surrounding the Sundance thriller Emily the Criminal, starring and produced by Aubrey Plaza, claiming North American rights. They’ve slated the film for an exclusive theatrical release this year, with Redbox joining the partnership for home entertainment distribution.

John Patton Ford’s feature directorial debut follows Emily (Plaza), who is saddled with student debt and locked out of the job market due to a minor criminal record. Desperate for income, she takes a shady gig as a “dummy shopper,” buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a handsome and charismatic middleman named Youcef (Theo Rossi). Faced with a series of dead-end job interviews, Emily soon finds herself seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills of black-market capitalism, and increasingly interested in her mentor Youcef. Together, they hatch a plan to bring...

“Drive My Car” filmmaker Hamaguchi Ryusuke, director Karim Ainouz (Berlin-winner “Central Airport Thf”) and actor Connie Nielsen (“Wonder Woman”) will join president M. Night Shyamalan on the international jury of the Berlin Film Festival.

Also serving on the international jury are producer Saïd Ben Saïd (“Benedetta”) and filmmakers Anne Zohra Berrached (“24 Weeeks”) and writer-director Tsitsi Dangarembga (“I Want a Wedding Dress”). The international jury decides the Golden and the Silver Bear winners.

The jury for the festival’s Encounters strand includes Mubi director of content Chiara Marañón and filmmakers Ben Rivers (Venice Fipresci prize winner “Two Years at Sea”) and Silvan Zürcher (Berlin Fipresci prize winner “The Girl and the Spider”). They will choose the winners for the strand’s best film, best director and the special jury awards.

The jury for the Gwff Best First Feature Award includes Gaia Furrer, artistic director of the Venice Film Festival’s Venice...

This marks the fifth year that the entire membership of the academy can take part in the nomination stage of the Animated Feature Oscar race. Previously, only select members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch and invited members from the other branches could serve on the committee that decided the nominees. Collectively, the committee tended to favor traditional and stop-motion films over CG fare. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2022 Oscars predictions for Best Animated Feature.)

Mandatory attendance at screenings has been dropped and voters who want to be on the nominations committee need only attest to having seen all the contenders at theaters or screenings or by way of the the academy’s streaming site.

The method of determining the nominees has also changed. Gone is the system where voters scored a film from 6 (poor) to 10 (excellent) with only those movies meriting an average mark of at least 7.5 eligible for a nomination.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday revealed the 276 feature films that are eligible for consideration at the 94rd Oscars, which are set to air live March 27 on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The number is 90 fewer than last year’s 366, but this year’s eligibility period was only 10 months.

To be eligible for Best Picture consideration, films must have submitted a confidential Academy Representation and Inclusion Standards entry as part of the submission requirements. Nominations voting begins January 27 and concludes on February 1. The Oscar nominations will be revealed on Tuesday, February 8.

Today’s news comes about a month after the Academy released its shortlists in the International Film, Documentary Feature, Original Score, Original Song, Makeup & Hairstyling, Visual Effects, Sound and the Live-Action, Documentary and Animated Shorts categories.

Here is the full list of films eligible for Best Picture at the 94rd annual Academy Awards,...

In most Oscar categories, it’s clear what “best” means. Not so the annual animated feature race, in which the ballot presents perhaps the greatest range of any category every year — certainly, in terms of budget, subject matter, artistic style and formal innovation. Where else can you see a pair of superhero movies competing against an ultra-personal Japanese anime and stop-motion Wes Anderson movie, to use 2018 as an example?

Consider this year’s crop: Among the 26 films that qualified, you’ll find everything from a splashy studio hit (“Sing 2”) to a cult-interest Sundance indie (Dash Shaw’s hand-drawn “Cryptozoo”), from a Sony-animated pop-culture phenom (“The Mitchells vs. the Machines”) to a highly targeted, “Heavy Metal”-esque midnight movie (“The Spine of Night”).

Many of the more eccentric submissions will be eliminated in the next phase — including perhaps anime entry “The Laws of the Universe: The Age of Elohim,...

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

Antlers (Scott Cooper)

Scott Cooper is comfortable in the mud. The American director routinely finds himself in the confines of the lowdown and dirty, in gritty landscapes with working-class characters overcoming their shortcomings and often turning to violence to solve their problems. While his previous two features Black Mass and Hostiles failed to find tension in their deliberately tedious pacing, Antlers strikes the balance between methodology, terror, and blue-collar dynamics. – Erik N. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Arrebato (Iván Zulueta)

That Arrebato has waited more than 40 years to receive a bona fide U.S. theatrical run is wild; it lives up to the cult-classic status it’s held since 1979. (The marketing push highlights it being Pedro Almodóvar’s favorite horror film.

Writer, artist, and director Dash Shaw’s adult animated fantasy film Cryptozoo is a morality play masquerading as a dark reflection of Jurassic Park. In that film, dinosaurs were brought back to life through DNA and put on display. Cryptozoo does the same with cryptids, which are mythological creatures who have teased mankind’s imagination since the dawn of civilization.

Cryptozoo is set in 1967 San Francisco, a time of civil unrest, disobedience and oppression, and the cryptids are facing the same kind of suppression as hippies like Amber (Louisa Krause) and Matthew (Michael Cera), but on a far more mythic level. Military minds want to weaponize the cryptids, putting them in a prison camp, while they study what makes these things tick. Well-meaning and animal loving zookeeper Joan (Grace Zabriskie) and her assistant Lauren Gray (Lake Bell), prefer they are kept in what they see as a Garden of Eden.

Animation, documentary submissions also tallied.

The Academy has confirmed it has received 93 country submissions for the international feature film category in the run-up to the 94th Oscars on March 27, 2022.

The Academy said on Monday (December 6) it had also received 26 animated feature and 138 documentary feature submissions.

The entire list of international feature film submissions can be viewed here and includes a first submission from Somalia. The Academy said some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfil that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

Animation, documentary submissions also tallied.

The Academy has confirmed it has received 93 country submissions for the international feature film category in the run-up to the 94th Oscars on March 27, 2022.

The Academy said on Monday (December 6) it had also received 26 animated feature and 138 documentary feature submissions.

The entire list of international feature film submissions can be viewed here and includes a first submission from Somalia. The Academy said some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfil that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

2021 is nearly in the books and Hulu is celebrating by heading back to the past…like, the way past. With its list of new releases for December 2021, Hulu is going positive Medieval with two swords and shield original series arriving this month.

Animated comedy Crossing Swords premieres its second season on Dec. 10. This stop-motion style tale follows Patrick (Nicholas Hoult) as he works his way up the feudal latter of The Kingdom. This will be complemented by Dragons: The Nine Realms on Dec. 23. This series is set in the How to Train Your Dragon universe and takes place over 1,000 years after the events of the films. In it, a group of modern day kids uncover the secret truth about dragons.

Hulu also has some more current options for TV this month. Original comedy Pen15 premieres the second half of its second season on Dec. 3. Watch it to relive the trauma...

Five Inspirations is a series in which we ask directors to share five things that shaped and informed their film. Dash Shaw's Cryptozoo is playing exclusively on Mubi starting October 22, 2021 in many countries in the series The New Auteurs.I decided to highlight five books that inspired Cryptozoo:Inspiration #1Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art by Susan Aberth

I got the Carrington Nyrb prose books too, but this art book stayed on a close shelf in my studio during the years of making Cryptozoo. Each picture is its own world, orchestrating a network of relationships. Their incomplete areas activate the imagination. To say something is "dream-like" is overused, but it applies here.Inspiration #2Walt Disney Imagineering by the ImagineersI got this when it first came out. If you're a kid growing up loving comics and cartoons, everyone really shoves Disney down your throat. My childhood dream job was to be an Imagineer.

Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Icelandic-Swedish-Polish drama “Lamb,” starring Noomi Rapace was awarded best film and actress for Rapace at the 54th edition of Sitges’ International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, which wrapped Sunday.

The prizes add to an Originality Prize which the film received when competing at July’s Cannes Un Certain Regard.

“Lamb,” a horror-comedy combo, follows protagonist Maria, played by Rapace, a woman living with her husband in the total loneliness of the Icelandic countryside. According to a Variety review, “creepy-funny-weird-sad ‘Lamb’ proves just how far disbelief can be suspended if you’re in the hands of a director — and a cast, and a SFX/puppetry department — who really commit to the bit.” Lamb is produced by Go to Sheep, Black Spark Film & TV and Madants with New Europe Film Sales and A24 attached.

Rapace shared best actress honors with Susanne Jensen in Peter Brunner’s “Luzifer.” Justin Kurzel...

When it comes to painting outside the box, so to speak, this year has been a promising one for animation. While the Pixars and Dreamworks of the world often get the biggest budgets both on the production and marketing side, we are thankful to get such delightfully inventive works like Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee, Dash Shaw’s Cryptozoo, Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, and Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle. Premiering at SXSW earlier this year, Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King’s The Spine of the Night deserves to be part of the conversation.

With a voice cast of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, and Joe Manganiello, the film is described as an “ultra-violent fantasy epic” in which “ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must...

The distributor of films like “Melancholia” and “John Lewis: Good Trouble” is reportedly seeking a buyer. Magnolia Pictures has hired investment bank Stephens to run a sale of the company, Deadline reported after the New York Times first broke word of a potential sale on Wednesday.

The move comes as consolidation is rapidly reshaping the industry for the streaming era. While it has amassed a diverse library of 500 films during its 20 years in business, Magnolia is a vastly different company than other recent Hollywood acquisitions targets, like MGM with its exploitable IP or Reese Witherspoon’s “Big Little Lies” production outfit Hello Sunshine.

The Hollywood Reporter once called Magnolia “one of the last indie distribution houses dedicated to art house fare.” Magnolia wants to find out what that might be worth in a time where box office revenues are down, but streaming has fueled a demand for content that has never been greater.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Melvin Van Peebles. (Courtesy of Shadow & Act)We're deeply saddened by the news that the great Melvin Van Peebles has died. A filmmaker, director, novelist, playwright, and composer, Van Peebles was a pioneer of independent cinema, best known for his films Watermelon Man (1970) and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971). In an official statement, Van Peebles' son, filmmaker Mario Van Peebles, states: "He was a pioneer, a maverick and one cool cat." Exiled Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi has published an open letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, discussing the struggles faced by refugees whose films are censored, banned, and restricted from being shown to the Academy. Ghobadi proposes "a refugee team of filmmakers; they can have their works viewed by a jury and eventually one movie can be chosen from the refugee team.

"We can only greet the strange and unusual with love." Mubi in the UK has debuted another official trailer for the psychedelic, mind-expanding hand-drawn animated film Cryptozoo, which initially premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. As cryptozookeepers struggle to capture a "Baku" (a legendary dream-eating hybrid creature) they begin to wonder if they should display these rare beasts in the confines of a cryptozoo or if these mythical creatures should remain hidden and unknown. With the voices of Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Alex Karpovsky, Zoe Kazan, Louisa Krause, Angeliki Papoulia, Thomas Jay Ryan, Peter Stormare, and Grace Zabriskie. We already featured two other trailers for this film earlier in the summer before it opened in the US (back in August), but with a European release from Mubi coming up in October, why not share some more footage. If you haven't seen this yet and you love psychedelics,...

A young couple go for a walk in a forest, make love, and encounter a gigantic fence. On impulse they decide to climb over it, curious about what could be on the other side. Anyone who has seen a Jurassic Park film will know that this might not be a good idea... and wonder if these people have any braincells whatsoever. It's a powerful beginning though, preparing audiences a bit for what to expect from Cryptozoo, an animated feature film from director Dash Shaw. Made with the help of a veritable army of artists, it contains an eclectic mix of styles, ranging from beautifully painted mythical creatures to paper cut-out caricatures. And if you're fond of mythical creatures, this film invites you to eat your...

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

Korean director Hong Eui-jeong’s debut feature “Voice of Silence” stood out at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival as the year’s best film from its Cheval Noir main competition section. The film, about two men who clean up after an organized crime organization, has enjoyed an impressive international festival run, having built up strong buzz as a project when it was selected to Venice’s Biennale College Cinema program in 2016.

“In a film festival that’s known as a melting pot of genres, ‘Voice of Silence’ feels like an excellent representative for the top prize in the Cheval Noir section. It’s earnest and sincere in tone but also unpredictable and experimental, impossible to pin down, and truly idiosyncratic,” said the jury in a statement accompanying the announcement.

Basque filmmaker Igor Legarreta was honored as the year’s best director for his sophomore effort “All the Moons,” a 19th...

Yoo Ah-in (Voice Of Silence), Zelda Adams (Hellbender) win acting prizes.

EuiJeong Hong’s South Korean thriller Voice Of Silence has won the 25th anniversary edition Fantasia International Film Festival’s Cheval Noir award for best film.

Hong’s film follows a mute low-level gangster tasked with taking charge of an 11-year-old kidnapped girl from a wealthy family. The jury described Voice Of Silence as “impossible to pin down, and truly idiosyncratic. Put simply, it’s unlike anything we’d seen before”.

Juried awards

In other Cheval Noir awards Yoo Ah-in who plays the mute man won best actor while...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Sonny Chiba in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003). Sonny Chiba, the prolific and singular actor, martial artist and choreographer, has died at the age of 82.New York Film Festival has unveiled its Currents section, featuring a strong slate that includes Artavazd Peleshian, Ted Fendt, Shengze Zhu, Christopher Harris, Shireen Seno, Matías Piñeiro and more. NYFF will also be screening seven programs dedicated to the centenary of the late film programmer and festival co-founder Amos Vogel. The retrospective includes works by Glauber Rocher, Oskar Fischinger, and Dušan Makavejev. The Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival has announced its lineup. This year's Focus program will showcase the works of Cambodian production company Anti-Archive, Nguyễn Trinh Thí, Rajee Samarasinghe, and Sps Community Media. Organized by Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, Archival Assembly #1 will take place from...

Comic book writer-turned-director Dash Shaw (“My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea”) has conjured the wildest, most surreal animated feature of the year with the 2D “Cryptozoo.” It’s about a group of cryptozookeepers in the late ’60s who create a utopia safe haven for rare, fantastic beasts to protect them from becoming weaponized by the U.S. military. However, the search for the most revered creature — the nightmare-sucking Baku — by cryptid hunter Lauren Grey (Lake Bell) reveals the harmful implications of such an idealistic pursuit.

Shaw, who collaborated with his animator wife Jane Samborski, described “Cryptozoo” as a counter-culture version of “Jurassic Park.”

“When the movie starts, your mind goes to ‘Jurassic Park’ and you’re thinking how it’s going to fail in ‘Cryptozoo,'” Shaw said. “But whereas ‘Jurassic Park’ has a cleaner, allegorical space that’s defined by Spielberg, ‘Cryptozoo’ makes more unusual associations and a collage of different tones.

The selections at this year’s North Bend Film Festival were (as usual) pretty great, but for me, Dash Shaw’s Cryptozoo was one of the biggest surprises of the fest. Full disclosure—I wasn’t really into it for the first 15 minutes. I didn’t dig the animation style and the opening sequence features two stoners who stumble up to a gigantic fence, climb it, find a unicorn, and then have the gall to touch it.

But then, we get into the story and it unfolds into something so much more magical and profound than I had expected. The animation grows more complex and detailed, taking on beautiful and deep colors. It’s a little psychedelic and a bit of an adventure story. Sometimes you really need to dig into a film to get its full impact, and this was one of those times for me. I was thrilled...

Cryptozoo, Dash Shaw’s beautifully animated follow-up to 2016’s My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, begins with a stark, colorless prologue in which a couple, Amber and Matthew (voiced by Luisa Krause and Michael Cera), scale a fence that seems to be randomly placed in the middle of the woods and find themselves staring at an honest-to-God unicorn. The ensuing scene is delicately handled, conveying both the beauty and fright of the encounter and, eventually, its tragicness unflinchingly, without sentimentality. It’s a wonderful introduction to the weird world of the film, where not only unicorns but also gorgons, griffins, […]

The post “Spreadsheets Are the Best Things in the World”: Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski on Animating Cryptozoo first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Cryptozoo, Dash Shaw’s beautifully animated follow-up to 2016’s My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, begins with a stark, colorless prologue in which a couple, Amber and Matthew (voiced by Luisa Krause and Michael Cera), scale a fence that seems to be randomly placed in the middle of the woods and find themselves staring at an honest-to-God unicorn. The ensuing scene is delicately handled, conveying both the beauty and fright of the encounter and, eventually, its tragicness unflinchingly, without sentimentality. It’s a wonderful introduction to the weird world of the film, where not only unicorns but also gorgons, griffins, […]

The post “Spreadsheets Are the Best Things in the World”: Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski on Animating Cryptozoo first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

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

Andrzej Munk Retrospective

An influence on the likes of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Roman Polanski, and Jerzy Skolimowski, and more, Andrzej Munk’s filmography is quite unspoken of here in the United States. Hopefully that will change with the arrival of new restorations, featuring his early political documentaries and his subsequent features including Bad Luck, Eroica, Man on the Tracks, and Passenger, which was finished after his untimely death in 1961.

Where to Stream: Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema

Annette (Leos Carax)

In Annette, a provocative comedian (Adam Driver) and renowned opera singer (Marion Cotillard) fall in love and have a gifted child. Written and composed by Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, the singular rock band that formed in the early 1970s,...

This review of “Cryptozoo” was first published after the film’s premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

If you ever talk to an animator, they are likely to share two opinions very quickly: one, “Animation is not a genre.” And two, “Animation isn’t exclusively for children.” Dash Shaw is one of many contemporary artists expanding the idea of what animation can do, and who it can be for, and with his second feature, “Cryptozoo,” his well of imagination is matched only by his precision at executing his ideas.

“Cryptozoo” delivers on the promise of Shaw’s first feature, “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea.” This time out, the writer-director (in collaboration with animation director Jane Samborski) is even more assured as both a storyteller and as a crafter of images, be they outrageous or gorgeous, haunting or hilarious.

Underneath it all, Shaw seems to revel in genre,...

After taking a Covid hiatus last year, MoMI (Museum of Moving Image)'s annual new film showcase First Look is back! Celebrating its tenth year, First Look takes a peak at innovative new international cinema. Opening Night is the New York premiere of Claire Simon’s The Grocer’s Son, the Mayor, the Village, and the World… and Closing Night is the New York premiere of Dash Shaw’s Cryptozoo. First Look 20/21 presents 22 features and more than two dozen mid-length and short works from around the world, plus its signature “Working on It” sessions, which focus on the creative process. The festival runs from July 22 through August 1. A special kick-off event for First Look 20/21 takes place at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn on July 19, with...

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

Comic book illustrator, writer, and filmmaker Dash Shaw recently created a visually stunning film about cryptids called Cryptozoo. The animated feature from Magnolia Pictures innovates the creature feature subgenre while exploring artistic methods that creatively capture an array of mythological beasts. There are hundreds of cryptids, or mythological animals, that span centuries of folklore across the […]

The post ‘Cryptozoo’ Trailer: A Hand-Drawn Animated Movie About Monsters and the People Who Capture Them appeared first on /Film.

"I dedicated my life to keeping Cryptids safe." Magnolia Pictures has released another official US trailer for the eccentric, psychedelic, wacky hand-drawn animated film Cryptozoo, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. This earned some rave reviews from various critics, mostly because it's insanely original and unlike anything you've ever seen before - the latest from the filmmaker behind the film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea. As cryptozookeepers struggle to capture a "Baku" (a legendary dream-eating hybrid creature) they begin to wonder if they should display these rare beasts in the confines of a cryptozoo or if these mythical creatures should remain hidden and unknown. With the voices of Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Alex Karpovsky, Zoe Kazan, Louisa Krause, Angeliki Papoulia, Thomas Jay Ryan, Peter Stormare, and Grace Zabriskie. If you've been looking for movies that are unlike anything you have ever seen before - don't miss this one.

In the sea (one might say glut) of contemporary animation—a form that, by its very nature, is most often supported by the ever-watchful eye of major studios—breaths of fresh air are desperately needed. Directed by Dash Shaw, with animation direction from Jane Samborski, the sui generis Cryptozoo truly galvanized us at Sundance, our critic calling it “one of the most gorgeous works of American animation in ages.”

You’ll find that quote in the trailer Magnolia have released ahead of Cryptozoo‘s August 20 release. Having not seen the film myself, I’m rather jazzed by what’s here—ever shot offering something new to observe, a gorgeous score to boot. As Juan Barquin said, “With John Carroll Kirby’s haunting and seductive original music still playing in my head long after the credits have rolled, Cryptozoo has embedded itself into my mind. Every fascinating creature has been brought...

Earlier this year, comic book writer/artist and filmmaker Dash Shaw presented his latest animated film, “Cryptozoo” at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival to much acclaim. Shaw was primarily known for his inventive comic book work but then quickly moved into animated filmmaking with “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea,” which was critically acclaimed and had its world premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘Cryptozoo’ Trailer: Dash Shaw’s Fantastical Sundance Animated Film Features Lake Bell, Zoe Kazan, Michael Cera & More at The Playlist.

“Cryptozoo” broke out of the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year as one of the most innovative animated features of the year. Animator turned director Dash Shaw (“My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea”) builds a psychedelic world like you’ve never seen, envisioning hallucinatory creatures and casting voice talents Lake Bell, Zoe Kazan, Michael Cera, Louisa Krause, Peter Stormare, Thomas Jay Ryan, and Grace Zabriskie. Watch the exclusive official trailer for the film below.

A moving collage of rich, hand-drawn animation, where nearly every frame is a visual stunner, the film follows “cryptozookeepers through a richly drawn hallucinatory world as they struggle to capture a baku (a legendary dream-eating hybrid creature) and begin to wonder if they should display these rare beasts in the confines of a zoo, or if these mythical creatures should remain hidden and unknown,” according to the synopsis.

IndieWire’s Eric Kohn wrote that...

With Covid-19 vaccinations now widely available, the Popcorn Frights Film Festival is returning for its seventh year of on-screen scares August 12th–19th. This year's festival will be a combination of in-theater screenings and virtual streamings, and the first wave of programming is proof that Festival Directors Igor Shteyrenberg & Marc Ferman have once again curated a killer lineup for horror fans to enjoy!

The in-theater feature film screenings for this year's Popcorn Frights Film Festival (hosted at Silverspot Cinema Coconut Creek) include The Night House, Superhost, Pretty Boy, Ditched, and The Welder, as well as a 35th anniversary screening of Friday the 13th Part VI – Jason Lives!

There are also a bunch of great short films for horror fans to check out in the Homegrown: 100% Pure Fresh Squeezed Florida Horror short film competition.

You can purchase In-Theater All-Access Badges here and Virtual Passes here. As previously announced, a portion of...

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival got an early 25th birthday present in the form of James Gunn’s “Suicide Squad,” which will receive a special screening on Aug. 4, the day before Fantasia officially kicks off with the world premiere of Julien Knafo’s zombie thriller “Brain Freeze.” Gunn is a long-time friend of the fest, having first attended in 1997 before later returning for the Canadian premiere of his Marvel blockbuster “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Fantasia also unveiled its second wave of features participating at this year’s festival, joining a raft of titles announced in May, and will announce the rest of its slate in late July along with details on several virtual events and this year’s juries.

New world premieres, joining the a six-pack announced last month, include Ruth Platt’s “Martyrs Lane,” Anna Zaytseva’s feature debut “#Blue_Whale,” Jonathan Rhys Meyers-starrer “Yakuza Princes” from filmmaker Vicente Amorim,...

Ben Wheatley’s ‘In The Earth’ is playing in the main competition of the Swiss festival.

UK director Ben Wheatley’s in The Earth is among the competition contenders in this year’s 20th Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival which will take place as a hybrid edition from July 2-10 in Switzerland.

It is taking place under the interim directorship of Loïc Valceschini before a new head, Pierre-Yves Walder, takes up the reins in July.

The event includes 55 films, eight short films, eight immersive installations and two TV productions. Among the special guests will be legendary VFX artist Volker Engel,...

Exclusive: In an interesting international tie-up, UK sales firm Protagonist Pictures and Germany’s 7500 and Stowaway producer Augenschein are teaming up to co-represent worldwide rights on select English-language movies.

Protagonist will serve as executive producers on the films in the new partnership and work with Augenschein to source finance for the projects. The companies will invest a portion of the funds generated by the sales into the co-development of select projects, with the aim of building a co-production slate.

The strategic alliance is not fully exclusive and will not prevent either company from continuing to work with others.

This is a smart move to bolster prominence in a market in which the streamers are increasingly dominant. We’ve heard for a while about the potential for sellers and distributors teaming up to increase their pulling power and distribution footprints.

The first project under the new deal will be elevated survival...

"Without dreams there can be no future..." Madman Films in Australia has released the first official trailer for the extremely funky, hand-drawn animated film Cryptozoo, which initially premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It also stopped by this year's Berlin Film Festival, and is arriving in theaters starting in August. This earned some rave reviews, mostly because it's insanely original and unlike anything you've ever seen before - the latest from the filmmaker behind the film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea. As cryptozookeepers struggle to capture a "Baku" (a legendary dream-eating hybrid creature) they begin to wonder if they should display these rare beasts in the confines of a cryptozoo or if these mythical creatures should remain hidden and unknown. This features the voices of Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Alex Karpovsky, Zoe Kazan, Louisa Krause, Angeliki Papoulia, Thomas Jay Ryan, Peter Stormare, and Grace Zabriskie.

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: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? This week, […]

The post This Week In Trailers: Wildland, Cryptozoo, Blind Ambition, Who Are You, Charlie Brown? appeared first on /Film.

With a slimmer lineup and much of the action taking place online rather than in Park City, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival will be anything but normal. But if early sales activity is any indication, the hybrid virtual/in-person festival will still serve as a key acquisitions market for distributors.

News of the first deals broke on December 16, the day after Sundance revealed its full slate of 72 features. That’s when Bleecker Street announced it has acquired North American rights to Nikole Beckwith’s “Together Together” and Magnolia Pictures revealed it has nabbed Rodney Ascher’s Midnight section pick “A Glitch in the Matrix.”

While those two movies come from established filmmakers, over half of the festival lineup comes from first-time feature directors. Over 90 percent of the slate are world premieres.

That suggests there is plenty of opportunity for the discovery of hidden gems. But with streaming — coupled with satellite screenings...

15 films have been selected for the UK offshoot of Sundance this year.

The UK premiere of Janicza Bravo’s Zola will close the 2021 edition of Sundance Film Festival: London (July 29-August 1).

Fifteen feature films have been selected for the UK offshoot of Sundance this year, with Edgar Wright’s debut documentary The Sparks Brothers previously announced to open the event.

Zola stars Taylour Paige and Riley Keough and was inspired by stripper Aziah “Zola” King’s viral tweet storm about a wayward road trip. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (Spwa) is handling international rights.

Further UK premieres include Fran Kranz’s Mass,...

Sundance Film Festival: London has revealed that “Zola” and “Coda” will be among the 2021 lineup, when the festival returns to Picturehouse Central next month.

“Coda” — an acronym meaning “Child of Deaf Adults” — features Marlee Matlin (“The West Wing”) and 19-year-old Emilia Jones (“Locke & Key”) navigating their relationship, while “Zola” is based on a 148-tweet viral Twitter thread from 2015 by Aziah “Zola” Wells. It stars Taylor Paige (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) and Riley Keough (“Max Max: Fury Road”) and will close the 4-day festival.

Edgar Wright’s rockumentary “The Sparks Brothers,” described as a “musical odyssey,” opens the festival on July 29.

Other feature film offerings, which have been selected from the longer line-up shown at the Sundance Film Festival, include “The Nest,” starring Jude Law (“Sherlock Holmes”), animation “Cryptozoo,” which features Lake Bell (“BoJack Horseman”) and Michael Cera (“Arrested Development”), and documentary “Writing With Fire,” about a female-run Indian newspaper, which...

Filmmakers set to travel to Berlin for screenings of award-winning features.

Tracey Deer’s Canadian drama Beans and Kateryna Gornostai’s Ukrainian feature Stop-Zemlia are to receive Crystal Bear awards at the Berlin International Film Festival’s Summer Special event (June 9-20).

The winners were decided by two young juries who viewed films from the Berlinale’s two competition programmes in the Generation strand – Kplus and 14plus. These juries were inactive during the festival’s online, industry-only event in March due to the pandemic.

Beans was named best film by the Generation Kplus jury. Inspired by true events, the story...

Recent winners of prestigious Critstal award include I Lost My Body and My Life As A Courgette.

The Annecy International Film Festival has unveiled its main feature competition selections for its upcoming hybrid edition which is due to take place from June 14 to 19 in its lakeside home at the foot of the French Alps.

Danish-French filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary Flee and Netflix-acquired adult rom-com You Animal! by Philippine director Avid Liongoren will be among 10 titles competing in the main feature competition for the Cristal award.

The tale of an Afghan man forced to escape his homeland and Mujahadeen as a child,...

“Naked Singularity,” starring John Boyega, “Socks on Fire” and “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street” are among the selections announced for the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, which will take place in an all-new hybrid format.

Running April 9-18, the 64th edition of the festival will incorporate both online and in-person elements. Through the Sffilm website, audiences will be able to purchase tickets for digital screenings, Q&As with filmmakers, film parties and industry networking events. Additionally, there will be live screenings and performances held at the Fort Mason Flix drive-in theater.

Featuring 103 films from 41 countries around the world, the festival lineup consists of 42 feature films, 56 short films and five mid-length films. Not quite feature-length and not quite a short, mid-length films will run between 30 and 50 minutes. 13 films will be making their world premiere with an additional 15 making their North American premiere. Among the full lineup, 57% of the...