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Exclusive: Free streamer Rokit Flix now has a library of nearly 31,000 hours, just 18 months after launching.

The service, notable for offering free content without ads and stylized as ROKiT Flix, offers family-friendly content such such as 3D animation, classic cartoon, animated short, ‘edutainment,’ radio programs, interactive games, motion comics, movies and series.

New content has been added each Thursday since launch in May 2023. Most of the streamer’s shows are produced from its Rokit Studios in-house production arm, turned around quickly to bulk up the original content offer.

Top performing family-friendly shows include Fiona Fatale, about a female super spy at the top of her game and the bottom of the ladder in the male dominated world of Britain’s 1960’s espionage scene; and Oh No Nolan!, 2D series follows the adventures of Nolan, a curious little boy who loves to learn and use his imagination, which has a magical twist,...

One of the strangest and most vexing things about reviewing movies for a trade paper like Variety — which involves covering films at festivals and markets, as opposed to those consumer newspaper critics who follow the theatrical release schedule — is the fact that so many of the films we cover don’t have U.S. distribution at the moment we write about them. That’s the whole reason Variety is there: to give buyers, agents, and festival programmers an idea of where the quality lies. But it can be surreal to read (or write!) a rave review a movie that may never reach a movie theater near you.

Sometimes an enthusiastic critic can nudge a company into taking the risk on a foreign gem, but more often than not, the marketplace is too tough for a review to make a difference in a tiny film’s fate. And so the films...

Elina Löwensohn, Paula Luna Breitenfelder, Vimala Pons, Agata Buzek, Pauline Lorillard and Camille Rutherford star. An Ecce Films production sold by Kinology. On 12 November 2019 will begin the seven-week shoot for After Blue, the second feature from Bertrand Mandico after The Wild Boys. The cast includes the American actress of Romanian origins Elina Löwensohn, the young Paula Luna Breitenfelder (in her first on-screen appearance), Vimala Pons,...

Abdellatif Kechiche, the French director best known for helming “Blue is the Warmest Color,” has been accused of sexual assaulting a young actress, Deadline reports. The woman, who is remaining anonymous for now, filed a complaint with French police at the beginning of October, alleging Kechiche assaulted her at a dinner party in Paris in June. Kechiche’s lawyer says the director “categorically denies” the accusation.

According to Deadline, French police have started a preliminary investigation into the accusation. The actress says the alleged assault took place at an apartment located in the 20th Arrondissement in Paris. The apartment was owned by a mutual friend of Kechiche and the actress.

Kechiche is famous for sharing the Palme d’Or with actresses Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Despite “Blue Is the Warmest Color” being championed by many critics and moviegoers, some have criticized Kechiche’s male...

Markus Schleinzer is a filmmaker who knows how to wait for a payoff: Take the dry in-joke, for example, of waiting seven years to follow his 2011 debut “Michael” with a film called “Angelo.” His tartly brilliant second feature is awash with slow-building irony, though as with his first, there’s precious little mirth in its devastating kicker. An interpretive biopic of Angelo Soliman — an African man kidnapped into slavery as a child, who subsequently rose and fell through the ranks of 18th-century Viennese high society — Schleinzer’s film takes a chillingly but aptly clinical view of a life treated as an amusing human experiment by all but the man living it. Behavior is painstakingly observed and notes are extensively taken, before “Angelo” tersely delivers its own findings on the toxicity of the culture that colonized its title character.

Lest the “Michael”/”Angelo” segue lead viewers to expect a clear partner piece to Schleinzer’s debut,...

The 62nd BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express® has announced the contenders for the Official Competition and the long list of films in the other “Strands”.

The Best Film Award recognises inspiring, inventive and distinctive filmmaking and this year’s line-up showcases the enormous depth and diversity of talent working in the global film industry today, with 50% of the films from a female director or co-director.

The Festival has also welcomed as Jury President Academy Award-nominated director of Room (Lff Official Competition 2015), Lenny Abrahamson, whose long-awaited film adaptation of Sarah Waters’ horror novel The Little Stranger will be released this September. For the first time, the winner of the Best Film will receive their award in front of a public audience at a special screening on Saturday 20 October at Vue Leicester Square.

And here is the full list of Asian entries in this rich edition of BFI...

Based on the testimony of infamous South Korean spy “Black Venus,” who once infiltrated the highest ranks of North Korean leadership, Yoon Jong-bin’s “The Spy Gone North” recounts a tortuous operation that’s more fascinating and far-fetched than many fictional espionage yarns. Instead of the usual dose of action and suspense one expects of this genre, watching this dense 140-minute political drama unfold is like fumbling through a long tunnel that’s nonetheless worth it when the ray of light emerges at the end. Though nowhere near as crowd-pleasing as the recent espionage action-fantasy “Steel Rain,” this well-crafted work deserves to be seen for its thorough account of intricate workings of secret service and political skullduggery.

After debuting with the violent and intense independent film “The Unforgiven,” which screened in Cannes’ Un certain regard section in 2005, Yoon went on achieve commercial success. Even so, a strain of social critique,...

Black Venus will be available on Blu-ray from Arrow Academy on May 22nd

Between The Secret of the Grain, winner of three César Awards, and the Cannes triumph of Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche made Black Venus, a stark portrait of the life of Saartjie Baartman, also known as the Hottentot Venus .

Baartman was taken from South African home as a 21-year-old and shipped to Georgian London, where she would be caged and exhibited as a freak show. Presented semi-nude, her physique especially her large buttocks was the source of much curiosity. But as her fame spread, so too did her exploitation…

Centred on a remarkable performance by Cuban actor Yahima Torres as Baartman, Black Venus provides a bleak but barbed exploration of sex, science, race, colonialism and social attitudes.

Special Edition Contents:

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Optional 5.1 DTS-hd Master Audio and 2.0 DTS-hd Master Audio soundtracks Optional...

HeyUGuys brings you the latest in World Cinema film trailers in association with Film Dates UK.

Each week we’ll be showcasing some of most anticipated foreign releases as well as highlighting a few hidden gems which may have fallen off your radar. It’s no surprise that Hollywood has turned to World Cinema for inspiration in recent years with the number of remakes getting more and more popular.

Whilst it remains to be seen how many of these remakes go on to succeed or stay true to their original story counterparts, we decided it was high-time we turned the spotlight onto the next wave of foreign films to grace our screens.

This week we have 3 new trailers for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Black Venus (Vénus Noire) UK Cinema Release Date: Wednesday 8th June 2011

Synopsis: The story of Saartjes Baartman, a Black domestic who, in 1808, left Southern Africa, then ruled by Dutch settlers,...

The nominations for this year’s César Awards (France’s Oscar equivalent) has been announced. In addition the awards ceremony has also chosen Quentin Tarantino as the recipient of the ceremony’s honorary award. Alain Terzian, the president of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma announced at a press conference this morning confirmed that the director would be present to ick up his award in person.

It is also worth noting that there are three American movies among the seven nominees for Best Foreign Film: Inception, The Social Network and perhaps the biggest surprise, Invictus.

The 36th edition of the Césars will take place on February 25 in Paris.

Here’s the full list of nominees:

Best Movie

L’arnacoeur by Pascal Chaumeil

Le nom des gens by Michel Leclerc

The Ghost Writer by Roman Polanski

Tournée by Mathieu Amalric

Des Hommes et des Dieux by Xavier Beauvois

Gainsbourg...

Three U.S. films are among the seven nominees for best foreign film in this year’s César Awards, France’s version of the Oscars. Meanwhile, American director Quentin Tarantino has been selected to receive an honorary award and will be at the Feb. 25 ceremony in Paris to accept it, it was announced Friday.

The three American films cited by the Académie des arts et techniques du cinema are Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” David Fincher’s “The Social Network” and Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus,” an Oscar contender in the States last year.

Xavier Beauvois’ “Of Gods and Men” (“Des hommes et des Dieux”) — not one of the nine films still in contention for the best foreign film Oscar — leads with 10 nominations, while Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” and Joann Sfar’s “Gainsbourg” (“Vie Héroïque”) are also nominated in multiple categories.

Presiding over this year’s awards is American actress and director Jodie Foster.

Infusing last year's Cannes with such unique films as Greece's Dogtooth, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno and the biking in the birthday suit comedy The Misfortunates, the all encompassing heavyweight French unit MK2 is on one of those odd winning streaks – managing to find/rep films that are celebrated at not only the major heavyweight film fests, but the “second tier” noteworthy fests as well – such as the Rotterdams and the Locarnos of this world we brought about Alamar (To the Sea) and Nothing Personal. - Infusing last year's Cannes with such unique films as Greece's Dogtooth, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno and the biking in the birthday suit comedy The Misfortunates, the all encompassing heavyweight French unit MK2 is on one of those odd winning streaks – managing to find/rep films that are celebrated at not only the major heavyweight film fests, but the “second tier” noteworthy fests...