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While last year’s strikes created a somewhat subdued energy on the Lido with very few talent able to be present, this year’s 2024 Venice Film Festival proved to hot and steamy. And we’re not just talking about the excessive heat movie stars and fan alike were subjected to. Films like Halina Reijn’s erotic thriller “Babygirl” and Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of William S. Burrough’s short novel “Queer” aroused audience interest with career-best performances from Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and highly revealing sexual interplay. However it was Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” that took home the coveted Golden Lion, marking the first time the filmmaker has won a top prize at any major festival throughout his career.

Brady Corbet returned to the Palazzo del Cinema with his four-hour post-wwii epic “The Brutalist,” which screened to rave reception and earned the director the Silver Lion,...

“The Witness,” premiering at the Venice Film Festival, has sold to Benelux (Edgy), France (Jour2fete) and No.mad Entertainment (Italy). The film’s German distributor is Missing Films as previously reported. The film, which is directed by Nader Saeivar, and co-written by Saeivar and Jafar Panahi, is debuting its trailer (below).

“I’ve been working with Jafar Panahi since 2017 and ‘3 Faces.’ He taught me it’s possible to make a good film with a small group of people, in secret. Perhaps this type of filmmaking was actually invented by Panahi himself?” wondered Saeivar. Repeatedly persecuted and arrested, Panahi was recently released from jail in 2023 after he went on hunger strike.

“I am proud he’s been by my side, like a teacher, in all three films I’ve made. I learnt not to be afraid, not to make excuses and just make movies.”

In “The Witness,” a retired dance teacher...

Are you a glutton for punishment when it comes to puzzle games? Do you crave the satisfaction of finally cracking a mind-bending challenge after hours of head-scratching and trial-and-error? If so, you are in for a treat.

These titles are not for the faint of heart or the easily frustrated. They require patience, perseverance, and a whole lot of mental flexibility. But for those who relish the thrill of the challenge, the sense of accomplishment that comes with solving these devious puzzles is second to none.

So, if you’re ready to put your brainpower to the test, read on for our countdown of the five hardest puzzle games that will have you questioning your intelligence, your sanity, and your very existence.

5. The Witness A beautiful but unforgiving puzzle experience. | Image Credit: Thekla, Inc.

The Witness, a 2016 puzzle game from the mind of Jonathan Blow, creator of the equally brain-teasing Braid,...

Spoiler Alert !!!Warning: 'House of the Dragon' Season 2 Spoilers Ahead!

Following the first season’s tremendous success, House of the Dragon has returned with its second season to keep fans hooked, but this season has been progressing pretty wildly lately. For instance, besides the lagging plot and a lot of events feeling like simple fillers, this season’s latest released episode 6 has also received some pretty spectacularly bombing ratings.

A still from House of the Dragon, season 2. | Credit: HBO.

While a lot happened in this season, one thing, in particular, seems to have caught fans’ attention the most and also become one of the major causes of their speculation behind this episode receiving the worst rating of the series: The twisted romance arc introduced between Rhaenyra and Mysaria. However, there’s more to this story than what meets the eye.

House of the Dragon S2 E6 is Being Bombed with Critical Reviews

Recently,...

Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent” Season 1 finale titled “The Verdict.”

Since David E. Kelley’s “Presumed Innocent” debuted on Apple TV+ last month, the series has taken viewers on a ride filled with shocking clues and troubling revelations, all while diving into the minds of narcissistic and obsessive men. Over eight episodes, “Presumed Innocent” followed former chief deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal), who was on trial for the murder of his lover and colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve).

In the “Presumed Innocent” finale — an episode that was not provided as a screener ahead of time to journalists —viewers learned that Carolyn’s killer is Rusty’s teenage daughter, Jaden (Chase Infiniti). After Rusty was found not guilty, this is how audiences found out who did it.

From the beginning, there were four major suspects. Rusty, of course, was obsessed with Carolyn. Throughout the series,...

Außerhalb des Wettbewerbs der Mostra wird Andres Veiels Dokumentarfilm „Riefenstahl“ zu sehen sein und dort seine Weltpremiere feiern. In den Wettbewerb wurde u.a. Pablo Larrains „Maria“ eingeladen, bei dem Komplizen Film als Koproduzent an Bord war.

Andres Veiel ist mit seinem Dokumentarfilm „Riefenstahl“ nach Venedig eingeladen worden

Andres Veiels Dokumentarfilm „Riefenstahl“ wird im Rahmen der 81. Mostra (28. August bis 7. September) außerhalb des Wettbewerbs zu sehen sein und dort seine Weltpremiere feiern. Das gab Festivaldirektor Alberto Barbera heute bekannt.

In den Wettbewerb wurden insgesamt 21 Titel eingeladen, zwei weniger als im vergangenen Jahr: Pablo Larrains Maria Callas gewidmeter „Maria“, bei dem Komplizen Film wie schon zuvor bei Larrains „Spencer“ als Koproduzent fungiert hat, Todd Phillips‘ „Joker: Folie A Deux“, dessen Vorgänger „Joker“ 2019 den Goldenen Löwen gewonnen hatte, Pedro Almodovars „The Room Next Door“, Gianni Amelios „Campo di Battaglia“, „Leurs Enfants Apres Eux“ von Ludovic und Zoran Boukherma, Brady Corbets „The Brutalist“, „Jouer avec le Feu...

Just a day after New York Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival made major announcements, Venice Film Festival is here with their full lineup ahead of the festival taking place August 28 through September 7.

Highlights include Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements, Harmony Korine’s Baby Invasion, Pablo Larraín’s Maria, Takeshi Kitano’s Broken Rage, Errol Morris’ Separated, Lav Diaz’s Phantosmia, Thomas Vinterberg’s Families Like Ours, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April, and more.

Check out the lineup below with a hat tip to Cineuropa.

Competition

The Room Next Door – Pedro Almodóvar

Campo di battaglia – Gianni Amelio

Leurs enfants après eux – Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma

The Brutalist – Brady Corbet

Jouer avec le feu – Delphine & Muriel Coulin

Vermiglio – Maura Delpero

Iddu (Sicilian Letters) – Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza

Queer – Luca Guadagnino

Love – Dag Johan Haugerud...

[Warning: The following post contains Major spoilers about Presumed Innocent Episode 7, “The Witness.”] Welp. We’re just one episode away from the Season 1 finale of Presumed Innocent, and we still don’t quite know who killed Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve), but Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) is looking guiltier by the second. In Friday’s new episode of the crime thriller series, Rusty has the very terrible idea to continue as his own lead attorney after Raymond’s (Bill Camp) heart attack, despite Judge Lyttle’s (Noma Dumezweni) offer of a no-questions-asked mistrial. As Mya (Gabby Beans) predicts, it’s a massive mistake that lands him right in hot water. After cross-examining Carolyn’s son, Michael (Tate Birchmore), and successfully raising the possibility of another killer, he then completely botches his defense by asking Det. Alana Rodriguez (Nana Mensah) questions that form a new narrative and thus force Rusty to take the stand. There, he is thoroughly dissected by...

The previous episode ended on a cliffhanger, with Raymond Horgan suffering a stress-induced cardiac arrest during trial. The penultimate episode of Presumed Innocent, titled “The Witness”, starts on a hopeful note, with Lorraine finding out from the doctor that her husband’s condition had greatly improved and he was not at risk. While Raymond was doing well, he could not immediately resume his role as the defense attorney.

Judge Lyttle offered two options to the prosecution and the defense: they could either opt for a mistrial or continue after appointing someone else as the defense attorney. Nico did not think they could win the case, and he believed it would be wise to choose a mistrial, but Tommy disagreed. Rusty felt confident upon seeing the prosecution’s eagerness to opt for a mistrial, so he decided to continue. Mya Winslow was stunned when Rusty announced he would fill in for Raymond.

Podcast ad sales in the Irish market from Acast, the world’s leading independent podcast company, have delivered podcast creators returns of €7 million globally since launching locally in Ireland at the end of 2019. Home to some of the biggest podcasts in Ireland, including The Blindboy Podcast, The David McWilliams Podcast, The Tommy, Hector and Laurita Podcast, Catch Up with Louise McSharry, The Witness, I’m Grand Mam and The Stand with Eamon Dunphy, Acast now boasts more than four million monthly listens in the region.

Acast is committed to empowering all podcasters in Ireland to discover their audience and make money from their craft on their own terms, irrespective of their size or location. Last year, it launched its hugely successful Acast Amplifier programme in Ireland to champion brand new creators as well as launching innovative and world-class products, tools and services to allow any podcaster to grow and monetise...

Asian Pop-Up Cinema: Season 15 is taking its show on the road to various ethnic communities throughout Chicago and the north suburbs. The in-person festival will present 31 films and opens on September 10 and runs through November 6. Tickets are on sale now at https://buytickets.at/apuc

The festival will highlight the best of Asian animation with a unique lineup of films from Taiwan, China, and South Korea. Programming highlights include films from Japan and special guest appearances from Japan Cinema Showcase host Mark Schilling; this year’s Bright Star Award recipient, Hong Kong actress Jennifer Yu (Pretty Heart); director Yeung Chiu-hoi (The First Girl I Loved); and lead actor Kaki Shum, director Amos Why, and producer Teresa Kwong of Far Far Away.

To enhance the audience’s understanding of the cultural and artistic background of the films, Columbia College Chicago’s Professor Ron Falzone will be leading the post-film discussion...

Director Alberto Mielgo is back for Season 3 of Netflix’s “Love, Death + Robots” (currently streaming) with a new original animated short: “Jibaro,” a dark, medieval fable about a bejeweled, golden siren who meets her match in a deaf armored knight. Their battle in a forest wilderness is a choreographed ballet that’s both exquisite and horrifying.

Mielgo has certainly earned the right to make his own originals after winning the Emmy for Season 1’s “The Witness” (the anthology’s first episode not based on existing source material), and scoring the Oscar this year for his animated short “The Windshield Wiper.” The Spanish filmmaker has become the show’s premier auteur — pushing adult animation further with his hybrid of 2D painted backgrounds and 3D modeled characters and his exploration of toxic relationships.

“I wanted to build the narrative around a modern ballet,” Mielgo told IndieWire. “It’s very interesting to...

"Love Death + Robots" is a beautiful experiment in short-form storytelling, allowing each short to explore its ideas as fully as possible. Over three seasons, the shorts have been incredible tech displays, hilarious satires, heart-pounding works of art, and more. In season 1, Alberto Mielgo's "The Witness" showed viewers the kind of rich storytelling that could be done with minimal dialogue and a combination of animation techniques. Hand-drawn words and textures over computer-generated figures simply look cool, and it's really no surprise that Mielgo was a visual consultant on "Into the Spider-Verse," as you can still see hints of his influence in the...

The post If You Watch Just One Love Death + Robots Short, Make it Jibaro appeared first on /Film.

Artist, animator, and director Alberto Mielgo just wants people to take animation seriously. Mielgo has won Emmys for his short "The Witness" from the first season of "Love, Death + Robots," and just this year won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short for his film "The Windshield Wiper." Mielgo took the stage at the Oscars to plead with audiences to give adult animation a chance, because it's an art form deserving of love and attention. Now Mielgo is back with another entry in "Love, Death and Robots" season 3, and he's upping the ante. If "The Witness" was a groundbreaking piece...

The post Love, Death and Robots Director Alberto Mielgo Talks About His Stunning New Short, Jibaro [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

The Emmy award-winning animated anthology series "Love, Death + Robots" is back for a third installment of, well, love, death, and robots! This season will see the series' first sequel episode, with a short dedicated to the "Three Robots" that stole everyone's heart in season 1. It also sees the return of acclaimed director Alberto Mielgo, whose short "The Witness" in season 1 earned the series three of its Emmy awards, and the animation directorial debut of David Fincher, which isn't anything to sneeze at. 

The new season is just a day away, with all nine shorts debuting on Netflix on May 20, 2022, and they've...

The post Love, Death + Robots Season 3 Trailer 2: It's Time to Awaken from This Illusion appeared first on /Film.

10 exciting Spanish directors to track in 2022:

Gabriel AZORÍN

“I’m interested in films that move from intimacy to mystery exploring language without being solemn,” says shorts director Azorín (“Greyhounds”). Backed by Spain’s Dvein Films and Filmika Galaika, “Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes,” his long-awaited first feature and a friendship tale straddling Roman and modern times, proved a buzz title at Locarno’s 2021 Match Me forum.

VERÓNICA Echegui

Launched as an actor by Bigas Luna in “My Name is La Juani,” the “Trust” and “Fortitude” thesp’s surprising first short “She Wolf Totem” earned her a director Goya. Now she’s writing her feature debut. “I love movies that focus on life aspects that may go unnoticed,” she says citing “Drive my Car,” Michel Gondry and Isabel Coixet.

Anna FERNÁNDEZ De Paco

A poetic depiction of a couple’s changing flats in Sarajevo, De Paco’s short,...

The Nes and its incredible library of games changed console gaming forever. It’s impossible to know what would have happened if the Nes had never come along, but it’s relatively easy to draw a line from so many of the best Nes titles to where we are now.

However, if you spend a little more time looking through the Nes library, you may find quite a few titles that feel…out of place. It’s not that they’re bad (though some arguably are), but rather that they’re so unlike everything else that was available at the time (and often for many years after) that they strike you as anomalies that just need to be explained.

Those are the games that we’ll be talking about today. Before we get into all of that, though, here’s a quick look at the criteria used to select these...

Chances are, you landed on this review because you’re trying to game your Oscar pool, looking for a clue as to what will win the always-underseen shorts categories — in a year when they were unceremoniously booted from the telecast, no less. Well, if it’s predictions you’re looking for, there’s little contest among this year’s cartoon contenders: Academy favorite Aardman Animations has delivered a delightful frontrunner in “Robin Robin.” But don’t stop reading there! In an unusually adult-leaning year, the traditionally kid-friendly category is well worth watching in its entirety, whether in theaters or on demand, thanks to stalwart distributor ShortsTV.

The program opens with “Robin Robin,” which seems poised to earn Aardman its fifth Oscar. This half-hour Christmas musical was hatched by Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, who joined the Bristol-based studio for the express purpose of co-directing this Netflix holiday special, about a...

It’s that time of year again. While some directors annually share their favorite films of the year, Steven Soderbergh lists everything he consumed, media-wise. For 2021––another year in which he not only released a new film, but shot another (and produced the Oscars)––he still got plenty of watching in.

Along with catching up on 2021’s new releases, he took in plenty of classics, including Jaws, Citizen Kane, Metropolis, The French Connection, and Lubitsch’s Ninotchka and Design For Living. Early last year, he also saw a cut of Channing Tatum’s Dog, which doesn’t arrive until next month. He also, of course, screened his latest movies while in post-production, with three viewings of No Sudden Move and three viewings of Kimi, which arrives on February 10 on HBO Max and the first look of which can be seen below.

Check out the list below via his official site.

Yet another disaster movie from South Korea, but “The Tower” and “Sector 7” director Kim Ji-hoon gives the genre a comedic twist in his newest film “Sinkhole”.

Synopsis

Jung Man-soo is a resident of Chungwoon Villa, which is a cheap apartment building. He works hard to raise his son alone. Park Dong-won works at a company. He finally becomes a homeowner after 10 years, but his home falls into a sinkhole. Park Dong-won and his co-worker Kim Seung-hyun are stuck in the fallen house.

The star-cast also includes actors who’re either known for or have proved their comedy chops in previous projects. Cha Seung-won (“Man on High Heels”) plays Jung Man-soo, Kim Sung-kyun (“The Witness”) plays Park Dong-won whereas the Prince of Asia Lee Kwang-soo (“Tazza: One Eyed Jack”) plays Kim Seung-hyun. The film is scheduled for release of August 11th, 2021.

It would not be misplaced to say that 2020 was a successful year for actor Park Jung-min. The 34-year-old actor featured in two highly anticipated projects last year, “Time to Hunt” and “Deliver Us from Evil“, both of which were very well received and his performance of a transgender character in the latter earned the actor much applause and awards. His first work in 2021, “Miracle: Letters to the President” comes halfway into the year and is helmed by “Be With You” director Lee Jang-hoon.

Synopsis

In 1988, math genius Joon-Kyeong lives in a small village. The village has a railroad that passes through it, but it doesn’t have a train station. Joon-Kyeong’s life long dream is to have a railway stop at his village. He tries different ways to get a station built, including writing dozens of letters to the South Korean president.

After “Be With You”, Lee Jang-hoon’s...

Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s stylish, snowy spy thriller “Impasse” is set to debut in China over the May 1 Labor Day weekend, joining what will be an unusually competitive line-up.

“Impasse” was supposed to hit screens last year, but its release was pushed back to this upcoming April 30 due to the pandemic. Starring Zhang Yi (“Operation Red Sea”), Yu Hewei (“A Writer’s Odyssey”), Qin Hailu (“White Deer Plain”) and Zhu Yawen (“The Witness”), the 1930s-set story tells the tale of four Chinese agents specially trained in the Soviet Union who parachute into the puppet state of Manchukuo, as northeast China was called under Japanese rule, to carry out a secret operation — only to discover they’ve been set up in a trap.

Including “Impasse,” six strong titles are now set to debut over the three-day holiday.

Three will premiere alongside Zhang’s latest on Friday, April 30: video game adaptation “Dynasty Warriors,...

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences today unveiled the winners of the International Emmy Awards 2020.

During a virtual ceremony broadcast from New York City, Oscar-winner Glenda Jackson added another award to the mantlepiece for her BBC dementia drama Elizabeth Is Missing. She won best actress for the Stv Studios show, adding to a haul that includes a BAFTA and Broadcasting Press Guild gong.

Kudos/72 films’ BBC drama Responsible Child scooped two prizes: Best TV movie/mini-series and best actor for lead Billy Barratt. It tells the true story of a 12-year-old boy named Ray who is put on trial for murder.

Other winners included PBS and Channel 4’s Oscar-nominated Syria film For Sama; Netflix’s Brazilian comedy Ninguém tá Olhando and Indian drama Delhi Crime; and Endemol Shine Australia’s ABC show Old People’s Home For 4 Year Olds.

Elsewhere, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo won the International...

This year’s crop of Intl. Emmy nominees across categories feature strong and diverse showings for series and performers alike. Here, Variety breaks down the races.

Drama

Few categories sum up current trends in global TV better than drama series, which also continues to be the biggest prize at the ceremony. Three of the four titles come from big, global-reaching companies, and three of are also crime thrillers, still the stock-in trade of much high-end international drama. On paper, any of the four titles could win, with interrogation room-set “Criminal: U.K.” from “Killing Eve” writer George Kay, pitting cops against suspects played in memorable turns by a stone-faced David Tennant and swanking Hayley Atwell. “The Bronze Garden 2” has Argentina’s Joaquín Furriel take on a new case to honor his dead friend Doberti (Luis Luque). Set in Berlin’s renowned Charité university hospital, the second season of “Charité” unspools...

Four days after the Primetime Emmys on September, came the nominations for the International Emmys. These awards honor the best in television worldwide from the 2019 calendar year. There are 44 nominees in total from 20 countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Scroll down for the full list of nominees.

Acting legend Glenda Jackson is among the contenders for her performance in the telefilm “Elizabeth Is Missing.” In July, Jackson won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her role as a widowed woman with Alzheimer’s disease trying to investigate a mystery. Her rivals here are: Emma Bading in “Play” (Germany), Andre Beltrão in “Hebe” (Brazil) and Yeo Yann Yann in “Invisible Stories” (Singapore).

The Best Actor race has another U.K. representative with 13-year-old Billy Barratt contending for the telefilm “Responsible Child,...

Netflix shows “Criminal U.K.” and “Delhi Crime,” UFA’s second season of “Charité,” and the second season of HBO Latin America’s “The Bronze Garden” are the nominees in the best drama category at the International Emmy Awards.

Vying for best actress are Glenda Jackson for “Elizabeth is Missing,” for which she has already won a BAFTA, Yeo Yann Yann for “Invisible Stories,” Emma Bading for “Play,” and Andrea Beltrão for “Hebe.”

Nominees for best actor are Billy Barratt for “Responsible Child,” Guido Caprino for “1994,” Raphael Logam for the second season of “Impure” and Arjun Mathur for “Made in Heaven.”

Nominees come from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the U.K. and the U.S.

Bruce L. Paisner, president and CEO of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, said: “At a time of...

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has unveiled the nominations for the International Emmy Awards 2020, with 44 nominees from 20 countries vying for prizes.

Eye-catching nominations include Oscar-winning Glenda Jackson, who is up for best actress for her role in BBC dementia drama Elizabeth Is Missing. Jackson has already scooped a BAFTA for the performance in the Stv Studios-produced single.

PBS and Channel 4’s Oscar-nominated Syria film For Sama will compete for best documentary, while Showtime’s Back To Life is up for best comedy. In the drama series category, Netflix’s Criminal and Delhi Crime are recognized. The full nominations are below.

The International Emmy Award winners will be announced at a ceremony produced from New York City on November 23. Further details will be announced in October.

Arts Programming Jake and Charice

Nhk

Japan

Refavela 40

HBO Brasil / Conspiração

Brazil

Vertige de la Chute (Ressaca)

Babel Doc / France Televisions

France

Why do we Dance?...

In 1991, two brothers—Rand and Robyn Miller—along with a handful of artists and engineers, set out to create a game unlike anything that had come before it, harnessing powerful new PC technology to immerse players in a fantastical island world inside a book. The game was called Myst, a point-and-click adventure full of infuriatingly difficult puzzles and driven by a twisted, fantastical story about a tragically dysfunctional family

Released in 1993, the game was lauded by fans and critics alike, became a killer app for CD-rom drives, and went on to become the best selling PC game ever (over 6.3 million copies sold by 2000) until The Sims dethroned it in 2002. More than two decades after its release, there are even plans to turn the game into a movie and TV series. Myst is one of the most unlikely commercial success stories in gaming history, particularly due to the fact that the game was so strange,...

Since his star-making turn in Na Hong-jin’s horror masterpiece “The Wailing”, Kwak Do-won’s presence has increased in important supporting roles. 4 year on, he is once again the lead actor in Kim Bong-Gan’s action/comedy/drama/mystery feature “The Golden Holiday”, and the two narratives couldn’t be more different in tone and subject matter!

Synopsis

A countrified detective gets drawn into a global crime! Corporal Hong Byeong-soo (Kwak Do-won) from the Daecheon Police Station, goes on his first overseas trip to the Philippines. His sweet dream is short-lived when he falls for mob killer Patrick’s (Kim Hee-won) scheme and gets tagged as a murderer and starts investigating the case with local guide and hometown friend Man-cheol (Kim Dae-myung) to clear his name.

However, unlike his eager heart, Byeong-soo doesn’t speak well enough English and he’s getting old. In addition, nuisance of a childhood friend...

The Witness Now Available on DVD from Bayview Entertainment Bayview Entertainment releases new thriller, The Witness now available on DVD. Three years ago, police academy recruit Xiao Xing (Yang Mi) lost her eyesight in a car accident that also took her brother’s life. Now, having left the academy, Xiao Xing lives with the pain inside …

The post The Witness Now Available on DVD from Bayview Entertainment appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

This The Innocence Files review contains no spoilers.

The Innocence Files opens with attorney Peter Neufeld explaining how The Innocence Project gets thousands of letters pleading for an attempt at new pleas. The “court of last resort” has exonerated nearly 200 wrongfully convicted prisoners since it was founded in 1992. The Innocence Project uses DNA to free the wrongfully-convicted and pushes for stronger science in the criminal justice system.

The goal of the project sets this apart from Netflix’s other justice projects, like Making a Murderer, The Keepers and Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist. While the project is integral to the telling, it is the soul of the story, the documentary focuses on the cases. The episodes present the cases in three phases. After the crime itself is established, they sift through The Evidence, The Witness and The Prosecution. Then they tear apart what is fundamentally wrong in each phase.

In today’s TV news roundup, Quibi released the official trailer for “Nikki Fre$h” and Leslie Jordan has been cast as a series regular on “Call Me Kat.”

Casting

Leslie Jordan has joined the cast of “Call Me Kat” as a series regular. Jordan will play Phil, who works for Kat (Mayim Bialik) and bakes all the pastries at the Cat Cafe. Kat is helping Phil get a new lease on life after his recent breakup with his longtime partner. The role brings Jordan back to Fox, as he previously starred in the multi-cam comedy “The Cool Kids” for the network. The half hour series is executive produced by Darlene Hunt, Bialik, Jim Parsons, Todd Spiewak, Angie Stephenson and Miranda Hart.

Dates

AMC has announced Season 2 of “NOS4A2” will premiere on Monday, June 1 at 10 p.m. Et/ 7 p.m. Pt. The second season picks up eight years after the...

“I think the best thing that a lawyer can do with their license is get an innocent guy out of prison,” lawyer Ellen Eggers says in the trailer for Netflix’s The Innocence Files, a new docuseries focused on just that: the exoneration of the wrongfully imprisoned.

Executive-produced and directed by Academy Award nominee Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?), Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) and Academy Award winner Roger Ross Williams (Music by Prudence) — with episodes also directed by Academy Award nominee Jed Rothstein...

Netflix has ordered a docuseries titled “The Innocence Files,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The hour-long episodes detail the personal stories behind eight cases of wrongful conviction that the Innocence Project and organizations within the Innocence Network have worked to highlight and overturn. The series is broken down into three parts — The Evidence, The Witness, and The Prosecution. The subjects of the series will be Chester Hollman III, Kenneth Wyniemko, Alfred Dewayne Brown, Thomas Haynesworth, Franky Carrillo, Levon Brooks, Kennedy Brewer, and Keith Harward.

The entire nine-episode season will debut on Netflix on April 15.

“We are thrilled to be part of the groundbreaking Netflix series, ‘The Innocence Files,'” said Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, Innocence Project co-founders and special counsel of the Innocence Project. “This is truly important television. Each episode reveals–step by step–how the American criminal justice system gets it wrong. These stories feature people whose freedom...

For the fifth year running, Lyon’s Lumière Festival will honor Hungarian cinema and invite guests of the Hungarian National Film Fund to present two classic Hungarian films from important national filmmakers, Márta Mészáros’ “Ők ketten” (“Women”) and Zoltán Fábri’s “Fifth Seal.”

Both films will be presented by Lumière Festival special guest Marina Vlady on Oct 18.

It’s a treat for the Hungarian National Film Fund, coming just one month after hosting their own retrospective film festival, the Budapest Classics Film Marathon. This year’s event saw 100 films screen over seven days with more than 17,000 spectators attending.

1977’s “Women” stars popular Hungarian actors Lili Monori and Golden Globe-nominated Marina Vlady (“The Conjugal Bed”) with an appearance from Vladimir Visotski (“The Duel”). The story turns on two women, Juli and Mari, who are each experiencing marital crisis. Their problems bring the two together in an attempt to help one another put their lives back together.

Back in 2014, director Jo Bum-soo took unlikely action hero Jung Woo-sung and created an exciting, entertaining action film in “The Divine Move”, which revolved around the Asian board game Go. The film was successful and five years later, we are nearing the release of its prequel “The Divine Move: Ghost Move”.

Synopsis

“The Divine Move: Ghost Move” is criminal action film about ‘Ghost Move’, a man who loses everything in Go and seeks revenge.

The prequel loses the star and director of the previous film, instead appointing debutant director Khan Lee at the helm and actor Kwon Sang-woo (“The Accidental Detective”) in the lead. Also starring regular supporting actor Kim Hee-won (“The Man from Nowhere“), Kim Sung-kyun (“The Witness“), Heo Sung-tae (“Rampant“) and Woo Do-hwan (“The Divine Fury“), the film releases in Korean cinemas in November, 2019.

The Primetime Emmy telecast will take place on Sunday night, September 22, but die-hard Emmy connoisseurs know most of the awards are handed out the weekend before. On Saturday, September 14, and Sunday, September 15, the television academy held its Creative Arts Awards, honoring the best behind-the-scenes artists as well as achievements in animation, documentaries, reality TV, variety, short form programming and more. Scroll down for the complete list of nominees and winners on Saturday night.

Don’t look for a “Game of Thrones” stampede to start here. Saturday’s awards focused on achievements like Best Animated Program, Best Documentary Series and Special, and Best Structured and Unstructured Reality Program, to name a few. These races are where RuPaul Charles (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”) might have taken home a fourth Best Reality Host award to tie “Survivor” emcee Jeff Probst for the most ever.

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As September 2019 approaches, so does the 33rd edition of Fantasy Filmfest which will take place in the cities of Berlin, Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich on specific dates during that month. Among its program including the newest film by American filmmaker Rob Zombie and a prequel to Lucky McKee’s cult classic “The Woman” titled “Darlin'”, the festival again also shows its dedication towards Asian genre cinema with many interesting titles, some of which will be screened in Germany for the first time.

Here is the list of Asian films included in this year’s program:

“Diner” by Mina Ninagawa

“Door Lock” by Lee Kwon

“First Love” by Takashi Miike

“The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” by Lee Won-tae

“It Comes” by Tetsuya Nakashima

“Kingdom” by Shinsuke Sato

“Shadow” by Zhang Yimou

“White Snake” by Amp Wong and Ji Zhao

“The Witness” by Jo Kyu-jang

In case you are...

Jung Ji-woo is known for directing melodramas that are different than your average melodrama. His last two films, however, have been the excellent mystery/courtroom drama “Heart Blackened” and the swimming drama “4th Place”. He returns back to the romance and melodrama this year with his latest “Tune In for Love” (previously called “Yoo-Yeol’s Music Album).

Synopsis

In 1994, on the first day when Singer Yoo-Yeol becomes the DJ for radio program “Music Album,” Mi-soo meets Hyun-woo. Mi-soo works part-time at a bakery store and Hyun-woo happens to enter the store. Mi-soo falls in love with Hyun-woo at first sight and a romantic relationship eventually develops. An unexpected case takes place and the couple breaks up, but their relationship never ends.

For the film, Jung Ji-woo brings his “A Muse” actress Kim Go-eun on-board, along with actor Jung Hae-in, who is riding high after back-to-back success of his K-Dramas “Something in the Rain...

Have you ever had a fear of somebody entering your home when you are not there or when you are asleep, without you realising they were ever there? If so, director Lee Kwon is here to bring your fear to thrilling life with his latest film “Door Lock”. It is one of two films playing at Fantasia International Film Festival 2019 that stars actress Gong Hyo-jin, the other being “Hit-and-Run-Squad”.

“Door Lock” is screening at Fantasia International Film Festival

“Door Lock” is a film that is very hard to talk about without giving away spoilers, but I will attempt to do so anyway: Kyeong-min is a non-regular bank employee who has a nagging feeling that someone is messing about with the electronic door lock on her studio apartment, the kind that are very common all over Korea. Her suspicions soon get confirmed when she coincidentally sees someone trying to open her door while she is inside.

Alberto Mielgo, who won an Emmy for his work on Tron: Uprising and is up for another for his episode of Netflix’s animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots, is making his first feature film. Stampede, the production outfit run by Greg Silverman, has come aboard to produce the pic, which Mielgo will write and direct based on an original concept. The plot is under wraps. Vince Gerardis of Startling will serve as producer, along with John Morgan.

Mielgo was credited as a visual consultant for his early work on Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which ended up winning the Animated Feature Oscar this year. The Spanish animator’s episode “The Witness” from Love, Death & Robots was nominated last week for an Emmy in the Outstanding Short Form Animated Program category.

The new deal was negotiated by Chris Bosco and Anna Pinar of Stampede and Gerardis.

Greg Silverman's Stampede is set to produce an untitled animated feature written and directed by Alberto Mielgo.

Mielgo recently penned and helmed "The Witness," an Emmy-nominated episode of David Fincher and Tim Miller's Netflix series Love, Death & Robots. His work has included serving as a storyboard artist on Tron: Uprising, for which he won an Emmy and Annie Award, and as visual consultant on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Stampede has partnered with Vince Gerardis of Startling to produce the animated project. Gerardis will serve as producer, along with John Morgan.

“It’s a rare thing to come ...

Greg Silverman's Stampede is set to produce an untitled animated feature written and directed by Alberto Mielgo.

Mielgo recently penned and helmed "The Witness," an Emmy-nominated episode of David Fincher and Tim Miller's Netflix series Love, Death & Robots. His work has included serving as a storyboard artist on Tron: Uprising, for which he won an Emmy and Annie Award, and as visual consultant on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Stampede has partnered with Vince Gerardis of Startling to produce the animated project. Gerardis will serve as producer, along with John Morgan.

“It’s a rare thing to come ...

Every once in a while, a good supporting actor breaks through the mould and makes his or her place as a dependable lead actor. Like Kwak Do-won, for example, who broke out with Na Hong-jin’s “The Wailing“, another actor who has consistently impressed on the sidelines is Lee Sung-min. 2018 was quite the turning point in his career, with a very important role in “The Spy Gone North” and his first ever lead in “The Witness“. Both the performances were highly praised and he follows them up with “The Beast”, the newest film from director Lee Jung-ho.

Synopsis

A criminal action movie about two detectives in conflict who solve a murder that shakes up the Korean peninsula.

The film, apparently a remake of the French thriller “36 Quai des Orfèvres” starring Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu, will be the third time that Lee Sung-min will be collaborating with Lee Jung-ho, having...

Chris Longo Mar 29, 2019

Innovative, and somewhat provocative, animation is at the forefront of Netflix's robot-themed anthology.

It’s the morning after Tim Miller’s latest project, the animated anthology series, Love, Death & Robots, debuted for a late-night Alamo Drafthouse crowd at SXSW, and the Deadpool director, despite having a big personality, admits he’s slightly bashful about doing interviews. He jokes that much of the press tour for Deadpool centered on Ryan Reynolds and his Merc with a Mouth, and he was happy to be relegated to the background. He is ostensibly the face of this project with no charismatic leads to defer to, but Miller seems more comfortable with pointing the spotlight at the medley of animators and storytellers he collaborated with to bring Robots to life.

Really it’s impossible for one man to have enough stamina to take credit for what’s been hyped in...

Remember Heavy Metal, the 1981 animated movie based on the French magazine Métal Hurlant? That feature-length hodgepodge of stories about stoner aliens, voluptuous androids, horny space travelers, dragon-riding heroines in dominatrix gear and other interstellar-overdriven pulp touches? “A step beyond science fiction” was the tagline; a 13-year-old boy peering at intricate drawings of rayguns and boobies with a flashlight under the sheets was the vibe. For a generation of geeks, this was solid gold. Fast forward to right now — past the years of Spike & Mike’s Twisted Animation festivals and MTV’s Liquid Television,...

Good ideas wasted are often more infuriating than no idea at all. Such is the case with Tim Miller and David Fincher’s series of animated short films, “Love, Death & Robots,” a project conceived with broad ambition and executed with a maddeningly narrow perspective. Uniting animators from around the world for 18 standalone stories of various self-determined lengths, the Netflix offering intends to be a “global celebration” of the craft, as Miller said during the opening remarks of its SXSW premiere. While there’s a lot to admire in the visuals — each distinct to their episode, with an enticing range of styles on display — the stories themselves are treated like an afterthought, and that colors everything an ugly shade of gray.

Only one-third of the first season was screened in Austin Saturday evening, but the chosen entries shared enough unwanted aspects to dissuade further viewing. For one, all of the...

Netflix is building up to the March 15 release of its animated anthology series “Love, Death & Robots” by dropping a teaser trailer each day for one of the season’s 18 different animated short films. The series hails from “Deadpool” director Tim Miller and executive producer David Fincher. Per the official synopsis, “Love, Death & Robots” will feature different animation styles and directors for each short film.

As Netflix continues to drop individualized teasers, the streaming giant has issued synopses for each of the animations. One short that already stands out is “Alternate Histories,” which is set in a world called Multiversity and will feature Adolf Hitler dying in a variety of comically fantastic ways.” The teaser for “Alternate Histories” finds Hitler being trampled by a horse and ends with the bloodied and dismembered dictator spread out across the concrete.

The 18 short films span several different genres, including science fiction (“Three...

Michael Ahr Mar 3, 2019

Netflix brings its Nsfw animated anthology series to viewers soon, and we've got the latest trailer and some insane episode descriptions.

Love, Death & Robots is coming to Netflix, and this adult animated anthology series is definitely for mature audiences. Those who remember the cyberpunk appeal of The Animatrix, a selection of animated shorts that explored the world of The Matrix, or perhaps were fans of MTV's Liquid Television or Heavy Metal comics will definitely enjoy this line-up of 18 stories that feature plenty of sex, violence, and science fiction. Quite a combination!

According to Netflix, Love, Death & Robots "brings together world-class animation creators and captivating stories for the first anthology of short animated stories guaranteed to deliver a unique and visceral viewing experience." The anthology series has David Fincher, Tim Miller, Jennifer Miller and Josh Donen as executive producers. Here's what we know so far...

Love, Death...

Well Go USA has acquired the English language rights to “Freaks” for around $2 million at the Toronto International Film Festival, an individual with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein directed the psychological thriller from their script, and the distributor is planning a theatrical release for it.

The film made its debut at the festival on Saturday and stars Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Lexy Colker and Amanda Crew. It follows a girl who discovers a bizarre and threatening new world behind her front door after she escapes from her paranoid father.

Producers on the project include Lipovsky, Stein, Jordan Barber and Mitchell Waxman. Executive producers are M. Alan Stein, Phil Kim, Eliazbeth Costa de Beauregard Rose and Rick Alyea.

Mihal Abou-Sayed,...