News

"Why do fireflies have to die so soon?" One of the saddest films ever is getting a proper streaming release on Netflix this fall. Grave of the Fireflies is one of the masterpieces directed by the late Japanese animation master Isao Takahata. It never got a US theatrical release in 1988 when it initially opened, but it has since become a cult classic, known by all who love & appreciation animation. Based on Akiyuki Nosaka's Naoki Prize-winning short story, Grave of the Fireflies is set in Kobe near the end of World War II and depicts the tragic fate of war orphan siblings and the horrors of this period. It was made by Studio Ghibli and released by Toho, though it was also the same year as My Neighbor Totoro, which is why it never achieved the same amount of fame. Written and directed by Takahata, the film stars Tsutomu Tatsumi,...

Ahead of House Of The Dragon Season 2's heart-stopping finale last night, American streamer Max teased that there be more than dragons headed our way with a tantalising trailer for the service's upcoming 2024-2025 HBO and Max originals. But whilst the teaser offers exciting blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpses of Game Of Thrones spin-off A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, Pennywise prequel series It: Welcome To Derry, Bene Gesserit beginnings show Dune: Prophecy, and the third series of The White Lotus, the real star attraction is indubitably The Last Of Us Season 2. Now sure, we may only get 20 seconds of footage from HBO's post-apocalyptic video game adaptation here, but with new cast, new characters, and high emotion, it's some 20 seconds! Check out the trailer for Max's upcoming slate below (and track to 1:16 for Pedro Pascal and co specifically):

"Did you hurt her? What did you do?" Catherine O'Hara's S2 newcomer...

Rotten Tomatoes is a truly fascinating thing. Though it simply works by aggregating other critics' reviews, the site itself has become, whether we like it or not, somewhat of a tastemaker for the masses. It's odd to think that a site which doesn't actually review movies itself has taken on this role as a kind of cultural arbiter, yet here we are in 2024 when AI movies will soon be a thing and Kevin Hart's "Lift" tops the Netflix most-watched charts. But before we start lamenting the cultural landscape of the moment, here's a question for you — do you know how Rotten Tomatoes works?

Everyone pretty much knows that Rt collects reviews for a film or TV show and spits out a percentage score based on how many of those reviews are positive. But how does Rotten Tomatoes judge a review to be positive? What is a "good" review? Does...

This post contains major spoilers for the season finale of "The Last of Us."

The story of "The Last of Us" doesn't end with a dramatic sacrifice from a selfless hero or a "Resident Evil" boss fight with a mutant clicker. There are no bad guys, let alone unquestionably good ones. There's no emotionally fraught, tear-jerker finale. Instead, we watch Joel's (Pedro Pascal) bloody, murderous rampage through the Salt Lake City hospital to save Ellie (Bella Ramsey) from a fatal brain surgery. One that Marlene emphasizes could potentially reverse-engineer a cure to the Cordyceps infection. One life in exchange for the future of humanity.

The season finale decides to end on something quiet, but not any less impactful. Without shame, Joel tells a lie. There's a hold on Ellie's face, and she says, "Okay." Cut to black, roll credits. The delivery of one word holds so much power and meaning in this story because,...

Spoilers follow.

Here we are at last, the episode "The Last of Us" has been building towards for nine weeks. This is the culmination of Joel and Ellie's journey, but has all their pain and suffering been worth it? Well, that is very debatable. Still, it was a very compelling season of TV.

We start, one last time, with a flashback. This is arguably the most important flashback of the season, at least for the characters — one that adds essential context not present in the games. The flashback brings back Ashley Johnson, Ellie's original performer, as Ellie's mother, Anna.

We see Anna getting bit by one of the infected right as she is giving birth — she has so much adrenaline from fighting the infected she quite literally just pops that baby out without noticing. She manages to cut the umbilical cord right away, but it's probably too late. It is...

Spoiler Alert: This interview contains spoilers from the Season 1 finale of “The Last of Us,” now streaming on HBO Max.

For a show about a post-apocalyptic world torn apart by a deadly fungus that creates zombie-like creatures, there weren’t a whole lot of zombies in the final episodes of “The Last of Us.” Series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have seen the complaints about the infrequent zombie mayhem in the HBO drama series, but fans can rest assured that Season 2 will have “a lot more infected.”

“Ultimately, we generally stressed the power of relationships and trying to find significance within moments of action,” Mazin told reporters during a virtual press conference for “The Last of Us” last week. “And so there may be less action than some people wanted because we couldn’t necessarily find significance for quite a bit of it, or [there was] concern that it would be repetitive.

This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us

HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us has captivated viewers for weeks, with both fans of the game and newcomers to the story eager to see what happens next in Joel and Ellie’s journey to find the Fireflies. Episode 8, “When We Are in Need,” had a total of 8.1 million viewers (up 74% from the series premiere), according to a press release from HBO and HBO Max, with 30 million views total for the first five episodes of the series.

Sadly, this chapter of Joel and Ellie’s story will come to a close with episode 9, “Look for the Light,” though thanks to the series’ season 2 renewal, we know that this likely won’t be the last we see of Joel and Ellie. With the season 1 finale fast approaching, here’s everything you need to know before the episode:

When Does The Last of Us...

One of the most striking artistic choices in the original "The Last of Us" game is the big perspective shift from our burly protagonist to our youthful companion character, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), right after Joel (Pedro Pascal) gets severely injured back in a scene that bookends the Fall chapter. There's a level of ambiguity over Joel's fate that lingers as we play as Ellie for the first time. In this week's episode of the HBO series, "Left Behind," based on the Dlc chapter of the same name, we're immediately reassured that Joel is indeed still alive and kicking. While we've lost the jarring shift to the cruelty of the Winter section of the game, this episode still presents Ellie with a choice to make by the end of this episode: Will Ellie follow Joel's wishes to return to the Jackson commune without him?

Naturally, it's time for an interlude. Most...

This Last of Us review contains spoilers.

The Last of Us Episode 7

“Left Behind” is an episode of The Last of Us that fans have been eagerly anticipating since the show was announced. Although the video game flashback to Ellie and Riley was released as bonus content in 2014, it’s considered to be essential to the game’s overall narrative, as it gives stirring insight into Ellie’s past that lends depth to her relationship with Joel.

The show includes Ellie’s backstory as a part of the main story and stays true to the game where it counts, though some moments are omitted and some new ones are added. We see one of the new scenes early on in the flashback, with Ellie getting into trouble as a Fedra trainee and getting pressured by Officer Kwong to clean up her act so that she can one day become an...

This Post Contains spoilers for this week’s episode of The Last of Us, “Left Behind.”

The world of The Last of Us is both vast and tiny. Over the course of seven episodes, we’ve traveled from Texas to Boston to Colorado, with a stop in Jakarta. We’ve seen planes crash, society fall, cities be consumed. But we’ve seen this transformed world almost entirely through the eyes of two people(*). Post-apocalyptic worlds are a dime a dozen in modern pop culture. Even a fully-realized one like this...

This post contains spoilers for episode 5 of "The Last of Us."

In "The Last of Us," death is everywhere, but we don't always see it. We don't see Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) take their last breaths in bed together, and we don't see a shot of Tess (Anna Torv) being burned by an explosion after sacrificing herself to an infected horde. We also didn't see the executions Kansas City's brutal leader Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) signed off on — or in one case, took into her own hands — during her two-episode arc.

But for the first time in the series' run so far, episode 5 of "The Last of Us" brings a level of carnage fit to match its source material, first bloodying things up with a massive face-off between the infected, Kathleen's group, and Joel's (Pedro Pascal) traveling companions. More importantly, though, the episode pulls zero punches in its final moments,...

This post contains spoilers for the first four episodes of "The Last of Us."

There was a lot going on in the first three episodes of "The Last of Us." We had several deaths, a look into the moral grey area of the Fireflies, a doomed romance, and most importantly, several decades of a zombie-like apocalypse that shaped our leads. After those plot-heavy and emotional first three episodes, you might expect its fourth outing be something similar. And while that is sort of true, it's only partially the case.

The fourth episode of the series, "Please Hold to My Hand," certainly couldn't be described as a filler episode, as it helps kickstart a pivotal storyline partially adapted from the original video game. However, the first half of the episode is like a beach episode in an anime series in comparison. This time is dedicated to building the relationship between Joel...

When you have a show that kills the supporting characters off so quickly, it isn't easy to form an attachment to the people drafted to replace them.

On The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 4, Joel and Ellie's search for Tommy finds them on the road again, and while I could watch their dynamic for days, the rest of the TV universe around them is beginning to fall a bit flat.

Maybe we've been spoiled by the impressive runtimes of the first three episodes, but "Please Hold My Hand" clocking in at 45 minutes and ending on a cliffhanger felt more like a tactic to keep the latest crop of supporting players around for another episode.

Joel and Ellie's bond continues to strengthen by the episode, and the trauma they endure on the road is bonding them together.

After what happened to Tess, Joel told himself there was a reason for Ellie's existence,...

Welcome To Our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week Gorillaz deliver a smooth new jam, Lil Yachty gets romantic, and Blondshell rocks out, plus great new songs from Rosalia, Rae Sremmurd, and more. Check out the list, or cue it up on Spotify.

Lil Yachty, “drive Me crazy!” (YouTube)

Rae Sremmurd, “Sucka or Sum” (YouTube)

Rosalia, “Llylm” (YouTube)

Maesu, “Sex On Gps” (YouTube)

Popcaan, “Skeleton Cartier” (YouTube)

Bas, “Diamonds” (YouTube)

Surf Mesa feat. Selah Sol, “City of Love” (YouTube)

Blondshell,...

When "Game of Thrones" aired its climactic eighth season episode, "The Long Night," the response from fans wasn't exactly what the show's creators might have expected. Instead of cheering for Arya Stark's big moment or mourning the deaths of the characters who didn't make it through the battle for Winterfell, fans were caught up on something else entirely: How darn dark it all was.

Lighting is a delicate art form, and in recent years, many prestige TV shows have fallen into the habit of under-lighting night scenes or using muddy day-for-night effects. HBO's latest highly anticipated series, "The Last of Us," features a few key scenes set under the cover of darkness, including several shot by cinematographer Eben Bolter. The filmmaker served as director of photography on the show's third, fourth, and fifth episodes, and provided additional photography throughout the season. Along the way, he and his team worked diligently...

This article contains spoilers for "The Last of Us" episode 2, "Infected."

"The Last of Us" is an HBO Max original series that lives up to its depressing name. Based on Naughty Dog's critically acclaimed video game of the same name, the series is created and written by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. Mazin, who helmed the HBO miniseries "Chernobyl," has proven himself a fan of video games in the past, having co-written the script for an as-yet-unreleased "Borderlands" film under Lionsgate's purview. As for Druckmann, well, he's the co-president of Naughty Dog and the original creative mind behind "The Last of Us" and "The Last of Us Part II" (that's right, there's more and it's somehow far darker than "Part I"). 

Narratively speaking, their HBO adaptation seems to be in safe hands. That's not just speculation, either. As of this writing, the first two episodes of Druckmann and...

The 42 Film, a new Madrid and Mexico City-based film-tv company of producer Alberto Müffelmann, an executive producer on early Sundance hit “Cassandro,” is forging a first slate of titles, led by “El Origen,” to be voiced by Gael García Bernal.

Based out of Madrid and Mexico City, the new shingle is headed by Müfflemann whose producer credits take in “Museum,” Alfonso Ruizpalacios’ Berlin 2018 best screenplay winner, Fernando Frías’ 2019 “I’m No Longer Here” – a jolting, timely piece of cinema I urge everyone to see,” said Guillermo del Toro – and 2013 best film Ariel winner “The Prize,” directed by Paola Markovitch.

The 42 Film underscores the drive into international co-production by the world big arthouse players as they seek to make titles of theatrical potential in a contracted market.

News of Müffelmann’s new shingle comes as “Cassandro,” starring García Bernal as the openly gay lucha libre wrestler Saul Armendáriz, has won large critical...

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria is showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries starting August 5, 2022, in the series Luminaries.“It’s all about feeling,” Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom told me several times whenever I tried to frame the nuances of his methodology with conceptual notions. His words, however filled with ambiguity and elusiveness, might in fact seem to be the key to describe the general premise of the films he has worked on as a cameraman—it is, indeed, all about the feelings, participation, and intuition. After all, the work of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Luca Guadagnino, Miguel Gomes, whose films Sayombhu has shot, revolve around a certain reciprocity—the images link with the tactile, offering a space for the audience to immerse themselves in the images: just as real as imagined. A meditative gaze floats with Sayombhu’s camera in carefully designed master shots, following the characters in a tender rhythm, accompanying them from a safe distance,...

It starts with a ‘bang’. An enigmatic, metallic sound wakes up the protagonist of “Memoria”, Jessica Holland (Tilda Swinton), a Jacques Tourneur-inspired character, about whom we don’t know much. Aside from visiting her sister, growing orchids, and seemingly being in mourning after her deceased husband, she seems like a mystery we’ve just witnessed through a sudden awakening. The sensation sets her in motion. She starts to look for its roots, questioning one’s sanity, like a detective who’s about to lose their senses. Slowly drifting between the worlds of liminal boundaries – between material and imagined, visual and sonic, past and present – Jessica becomes involved in a mystery that will push her closer to the memory of the Colombian past. As it happens with Apichatpong’s narratives, the audience is plunged into a journey, too; we’re invited to participate and to cherish all of that – memories,...

Tom Parker, the British singer best known for his role in the popular boy band the Wanted, died Wednesday after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor two years prior. He was 33.

“Max, Jay, Siva, Nathan and the whole Wanted family are devastated by the tragic and premature loss of our bandmate Tom Parker, who passed away peacefully at lunchtime today surrounded by his family and his band mates,” the band wrote in a statement. “Tom was an amazing husband to Kelsey, and father to Aurelia and Bodhi. He was...

In another quiet weekend in China, Korean War blockbuster “The Battle at Lake Changjin” was at last eased out of the top five for the first time since its Sept. 30 debut. It was replaced by a new Korean War film with lower production values.

“Crossing the Yalu River” from China Media Group debuted Friday to a $3 million three-day opener, coming in fourth. It stars frequent portrayer of Mao Zedong Tang Guoqiang as the controversial leader and Sun Weimin as Zhou Enlai.

Meanwhile, Wanda Pictures’ “Fireflies in the Sun,” an adaptation of the 2002 Nick Cassavetes film “John Q,” opened first with $54.2 million, according to data from Artisan Gateway. It tells the story about a family that lived a poor but happy life until the son has an accident and needs an expensive treatment, which his father does whatever it takes to obtain.

The original film starring Denzel Washington was not especially...

All products and services featured by IndieWire are independently selected by IndieWire editors. However, IndieWire may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Pressing play on a song can transport you back in time and rustle up memories from your favorite movies, or maybe even a personal experience. We might not always notice, but musical soundtracks are a major part in the evolution of cinema. Although soundtracks tend to differ from film scores in that they’re usually inspired by a film vs. written specifically for it, but sometimes the movie soundtrack is just as big (if not bigger) than the film itself.

In celebration of the films released this year, we put together a beginner’s guide to seven of the best movie soundtracks of 2021 (so far). Find the list below, and for more music...

Gangs Of Wasseypur director Anurag Kashyap to join closing film Sthalpuran director Akshay Indikar for Q&a.

Tamil director Thamizh’s debut Seththumaan (Pig) has won the 2021 Indian Film Festival Of Los Angeles (Iffla) grand jury award for best feature heading into Thursday’s (May 27) closing film presentation.

Sajin Baabu’s Biriyaani earned an honourable mention. In other awards announced on Thursday (May 27), the audience award for best feature went to Fire In The Mountains directed by Ajitpal Singh.

In the shorts categories, Karishma Dev Dube’s Bittu was named grand jury award winner, with honourable mentions for Rima Das’ For Each Other,...

L.A.-based Spanish-language streaming platform Pantaya and global streamer Starzplay have revealed that production is underway on the period new drama series “Señorita 89” from Fremantle and the Larraín brothers’ Fabula, the latest co-production stemming from a first-look deal between the two, dating back to 2019.

The first fruit of that combined labor was global hit series “La Jauria,” available on Amazon Prime Video in Latin America and HBO Max in the U.S. Selected as one of Variety’s best international series of 2020, “La Jauria” stars “A Fantastic Woman” lead Daniela Vega and is directed by one of Latin America’s most prominent film and TV writer-directors Lucia Puenzo.

Sticking with a talent alliance that worked so well for Fabula and Fremantle the first time around, Puenzo also co-wrote and is directing “Señorita 89.” She is joined by co-screenwriters María Renée Prudencio and Tatiana Mereñuk, and co-directors Nicolás Puenzo...

Top Bollywood star Ajay Devgn and former Disney India head Siddharth Roy Kapur are joining forces to produce comedy-drama film “Gobar!”

Set in the agrarian area of Northern India known as the “cow belt,” during the 1990s, “Gobar!” (literally cow dung or bullshit) is a satire inspired by real events that transpire when an idiosyncratic animal-loving veterinary doctor chances upon a tangled web of corruption in his local state hospital, and decides to stand up against it.

Well-known advertising filmmaker Sabal Shekhawat, who debuted with the acclaimed 2013 indie “Fireflies,” will direct from a script he co-wrote with Sambhit Mishra (“Mission Over Mars”). Casting is currently underway and principal photography will start at the end of the year.

Devgn will produce via his Ajay Devgn Ffilms and Roy Kapur through his Roy Kapur Films.

” ‘Gobar!’ is a story that chronicles the seemingly pointless but ultimately heroic journey of a simple citizen...

The 19th edition Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles has announced an expanded virtual lineup of shorts and narrative and documentary features after canceling 2020’s event due to the pandemic and lockdown.

Taking place from May 20 to May 27, the Iffla boasts 40 films spanning 17 languages, with 16 women directors.

The festival will open with Ajitpal Singh’s “Fire in the Mountains,” which immerses audiences in the splendor of the Himalayas, and close with Akshay Indikar’s “Sthalpuran (Chronicle of Space),” which explores the inner life of its young protagonist, Dighu. Singh and Indikar’s films will be followed by Q&As with Asif Kapadia and Anurag Kashyap, respectively.

Special programs include “Childhood on Edge,” curated by Uma da Cunha; a panel featuring South Asian showrunners; and a screening of Prakash Deka’s “Fireflies” followed by a panel on transgender and non-binary representation in India and the diaspora.

Iffla’s feature lineup includes...

Fleetwood Mac’s The Dance gets all the (well-deserved) attention for being Fleetwood Mac’s best live album. But the band’s first live release, 1980’s Fleetwood Mac Live, is overdue for some rightful acclaim of its own. Ahead of an upcoming deluxe reissue, let the band’s live take on “Rhiannon” show you just how raw and mesmerizing this album really is.

Stevie Nicks’ performances of “Rhiannon” in the Seventies have long been legendary. By 1980, when this particular live cut was delivered in London while touring in support of Tusk,...

Fleetwood Mac are revisiting their 1980 live album for a super-deluxe edition out April 9th via Rhino.

Fleetwood Mac Live was mostly recorded mostly during their tour for Tusk, but the super deluxe-edition will contain unreleased live music recorded between 1977 and 1982. The collection comprises a three-cd/two-lp set, as well as a bonus 7-inch single of previously unreleased demos for “Fireflies” and “One More Night.” To accompany the release, the band dropped a raucous version of “The Chain” from the Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland, Ohio, which took place on May 20th,...

Selection committees have been handpicked by the newly appointed artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

French-Chilean film critic and consultant Pamela Biénzobas, Festival Scope co-founder and festival programmer Mathilde Henrot and Italian critic Giovanni Marchini Camia have been named as members of Locarno’s new selection committees for its 2021 edition.

The new committee members have been handpicked by its recently appointed new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

“Setting up a new team with the right skills, know-how and motivation to work with the artistic director is a crucial step. This is a talented line-up of film industry professionals, whose expertise is internationally recognized,...

British actress Shivaani Ghai (Dominion) is set for a major recurring role on the second season of the CW’s Batwoman. She will join new lead Javicia Leslie in the superhero series when it returns in January.

Ghai will play Safiyah, the fiercely protective ruler of a small community on the island of Coryana. A woman with as many enemies as aliases, she is compassionate and charismatic with both physical and psychological prowess. She is beloved by her people and will stop at nothing to protect what’s hers. No one goes unnoticed by Safiyah, specifically when it comes to those who have encountered the Desert Rose.

As previously announced, Leslie will play new character Ryan Wilder who is about to become Batwoman, succeeding Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane. Batwoman premiered last fall as the first superhero series in television history to feature an avowed LGBTQ character as the central character.

Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is now under way on its 2020 edition, as the city remains in lockdown due to the spread of coronavirus. Now in its 11th year, Kashish is South Asia’s biggest Lgbtqia+ themed film festival.

The newly christened Kashish 2020 Virtual will screen 157 films from 42 countries, of which 52 compete in nine competition categories. The festival runs July 22-30.

The films competing in the narrative features category include “Fireflies” (India), “Gossamer Folds” (U.S.), “Margin Of Error” (Argentina), “Music For Bleeding Hearts” (Brazil) and “Stray Dolls” (U.S.). Films competing in the best documentary feature category include “Changing The Game” (U.S.), “Making Sweet Tea” (U.S.), “March For Dignity”, “One Taxi Ride” (Mexico), and “Surviving The Silence” (U.S.).

“It is a great encouragement to filmmakers who have made these films under challenging circumstances, sometimes in countries where being LGBTQ is still dangerous,” said festival director Sridhar Rangayan.

Pablo Stoll’s “Summer Hit,” Matías Lucchessi’s “Las rojas,” Joaquín Peñagaricano and Pablo Abdala’s “Mateína” are some of the Uruguayan projects at different stages participating in a spotlight at Cannes’ Producers Network on the Marché du Film’s digital platform on Tuesday 23.

Five Uruguayan companies, Tarkiofilm, Cimarrón, Montelona, Nadador and Salado, have been selected by the country’s national film body Icau to pitch their production slates at the new format French market.

Recently appointed general director at Icau, Uruguay’s film-tv agency, Roberto Blatt told Variety that Uruguay shows a “maturity in its cinema, backed by a great diversity of formats, genres and styles, and the high creative and technical levels of our professionals.” He went on to say, “That was made evident by the success of titles made free through Vera TV [Uruguayan broadcaster Antel’s digital platform] during the pandemic.”

Blatt pointed out that the Uruguayan public...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.News Khadja Nin, Ava DuVernay and, Cate Blanchett protesting Cannes's lack of female filmmakers in 2018 (Andreas Rentz)After signing a pledge to gender equality in 2018, the Cannes Film Festival has announced its 2020 selection committee, which includes five women and five men. We're saddened to hear that production of Wong Kar-wai's Tong Wars, an Amazon series that would follow the lives of immigrants in San Francisco's Chinatown, has been cancelled. However, the restoration project of Wong's films continues, with a 4K restoration of In the Mood for Love premiering at this year's Cannes ahead of Janus Film's summer retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Recommended Viewingmubi's trailer for the ongoing retrospective, Yûzô Kawashima's Post-War Japan, which runs January - April, 2020. Il Cinema Ritrovato will also be staging a retrospective on the director,...

Following its theatrical run and its Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release this fall, the Firefly family will continue their rampage on Shudder in early 2020 when Rob Zombie's 3 From Hell arrives on the streaming service in the Us and Canada:

Press Release: October 29, 2019 — Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, has acquired exclusive streaming rights in the U.S. and Canada to 3 from Hell, the blood-soaked new chapter in director Rob Zombie’s vicious “Rejects” trilogy, the service announced today. The film is slated to premiere on Shudder in February 2020. 3 from Hell will join other Rob Zombie classics on Shudder including 31 (a Shudder Exclusive), The Devil’s Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses. In September and October, Saban Films, Lionsgate and Fathom Events presented 3 From Hell in select theatres, grossing $2.249M over 4 days. The deal was negotiated by Shudder and Saban Film’s Jonathan Saba.

It’s a rare thing to see an artist’s worldview change overnight. For decades, Nick Cave has been goth rock’s hyperliterate poet laureate, famous for his intricately molded stories about rogues and “badlanders” all in the throes of anguish. (He has also always written beautiful love songs.) But where writing about doom and despair once seemed like a lark — see “Stagger Lee,” John Finn’s Wife,” Murder Ballads, etc. — the freak death of his 15-year-old son Arthur four years ago rightfully shook him to his core. His last album,...

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have announced the release of a new album, Ghosteen, which is coming this month. On his fan Q&a page The Red Hand Files, Cave responded to a query about when fans can expect a new album, writing, “You can expect a new album next week. It is called Ghosteen. It is a double album.”

Cave also confirmed the tracklisting and revealed the album’s whimsical cover art. The first half of the album will include eight tracks, while the second half is comprised...

Bill Moseley’s career in horror has spanned decades, but he’ll probably always be best known as Otis B. Driftwood from the murderous Firefly family. The prolific actor first took on the iconic role in Rob Zombie’s House of 1,000 Corpses back in 2003. The directorial debut from the renowned musician quickly gained a cult following and led to the even more popular sequel The Devil’s Rejects.

The chaotic film stars Moseley as the most sadistic member of a depraved group of criminals who seem to enjoy nothing more than causing pain and destruction. Now, after many, many years, the Firefly family is finally back and ready to wreak more havoc on unsuspecting victims.

Bill Moseley was kind enough to sit down with us here at We Got This Covered for an exclusive interview recently to talk all about the long-awaited movie 3 From Hell, in which he revives...

Jeremy Merrifield’s “Balloon,” Carolina Markowicz’s “The Orphan” and Siqi Song’s “Sister” have won the top awards at the 2019 HollyShorts Film Festival, which handed out its awards on Saturday Night at the Harmony Gold in Hollywood.

Those three films won in categories that automatically qualify a short for the Best Animated Short or Best Live-Action Short categories at this year’s Academy Awards.

“Balloon” stars Jonah Beres and Paul Scheer is the story of a high schooler who discovers he has super powers. The film, made at the American Film Institute, is also a finalist at the 2019 Student Academy Awards.

Also Read: 2019 ShortList Film Festival Finalists Announced: Watch and Vote for the Winner!!

“The Orphan” is based on true stories and deals with a teen orphan given up by his adoptive parents for being too effeminate.

“Sister,” which is also a finalist in TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival,...

Barcelona — David R. Romay’s feature debut “Beyond the Mountain” snagged Best Feature at Lleida’s 25th Latin America Film Festival of Catalonia, hosted in the world’s culinary capital for grilled snails, 84 miles west of Barcelona.

A dramatic thriller starring Benny Emmanuel (Gael García Bernal’s “Chicuarotes”), it follows Miguel, a young, solitary man whose routine existence working for a public typing service office is turned upside down when he finds his mother lying dead on the floor with a letter to his deadbeat dad in her hand. Tragic events force him to face a forgotten past and to seek out his father with murderous intent.

The award follows Guadalajara best actor and press awards this year.

“I wanted to involve the viewer in the plot without any kind of narrative tricks, without having to tell them what to feel,” Romay explained to Variety.

He added: “The music is discreet,...

This interview was originally published in Fireflies #5. Many thanks to the author and the publication for allowing us to run it online.By going to Paris to interview Agnès Varda I lived two dreams shared by many a cinephile: I met and spent a couple of hours with the filmmaking legend, and I visited a place that ranks high amongst cinema’s most fabled locations: the house at 86-88 rue Daguerre. Walking over from the métro, it was difficult to get my bearings based on Varda’s 1976 documentary Daguerréotypes. In lieu of the film’s charmingly scruffy artisanal shops and family-owned businesses I found snazzy boutiques, restaurants and cafés. Where the butcher used to be, there is now a yoga studio. Though hardly surprising, it was still heart-breaking to ascertain that gentrification had done away with the village-like microcosm immortalised by Varda. My disenchantment evaporated once I spotted a familiar...

Jia Zhangke’s new feature Ash Is Purest White, opening in the Us this Friday, March 15, marks the Chinese director’s ninth collaboration with actress Zhao Tao. It’s now been twenty years since the pair first began working together, on Jia’s landmark feature Platform (2000); in the interim they’ve forged what is arguably the most fruitful artistic partnership in contemporary cinema. When I wrote the following article for Fireflies #3 in early 2016, Jia’s most recent feature Mountains May Depart (2015) seemed like a culmination of his and Zhao’s work up to that point—and it was. But now we have Ash Is Purest White, which takes the years-spanning premise of its predecessor even further, and, because of the film’s meta-textual relationship to Jia’s own corpus, feels like a truly summative work. Ash Is Purest White is indeed a grand tour through the pair’s filmography, following Zhao’s resilient heroine Qiao,...

Audience award for best feature went to Billy Corben’s documentary Screwball.

Birds Of Passage by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra has won the $40,000 Knight Marimbas Award at the 36th Miami Film Festival.

The filmmakers’ Ciudad Lunar Productions will split the festival’s top jury prize with the film’s Us distributor The Orchard, which will distribute the film in select markets including Miami on March 15.

Sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the award is presented to the film “that best exemplifies richness and resonance for cinema’s future”. The Audience Award for Best Feature went...

Tla Releasing has snared U.S. and U.K. rights while Optimale has acquired all French rights to Bani Khoshnoudi’s “Fireflies” (“Luciernagas”), from Sandro Fiorin’s sales and distribution company, FiGa Films.

“Some of the best Queer cinema right now is undoubtedly coming out of Central and South America, and ‘Fireflies’ is the perfect example of this,” said Adam Silver, Tla Releasing Manager – U.K. operations and acquisitions, who expects an international release for later this year.

“Apart from its social and political statements, ‘Fireflies’ is a strong film, and heralds the birth of a very talented female director whose personal story echoes the film,” said Optimale distribution head, Cyril Rota.

Optimale aims to slot the film into as many French film festivals as possible this year and for a theatrical release by the end of 2019 or early 2020, he added.

Written and directed by Khoshnoudi, an Iranian-born Mexico City resident,...