Love Room

Bounty Killer

Bounty killers compete for body count, fame and a fat stack of cash. They're ending the plague of corporate greed and providing the survivors of the apocalypse with retribution. This is the age of the BOUNTY KILLER.

Gang Lawyer

Pornikula

Noses Don't Look Good On Reptiles

Had to pull down the earlier "leaked" TMNT images because people were getting C&D's from Paramount (which is stupid - you can't fight this stuff getting out, the era of non-plot-related movie "secrets" is dead); but now ComicBookTherapy has a snap up of a merchandise standee that let's the new turtles out of the bag pretty definitively.

Verdict? Same as before: Like `em, with reservations. The differing body-types work (Leo and Raph are bruisers, Mike is small, Donatello is slimmer) and the personalized gear/clothes/etc are a good idea - I even like Don wearing glasses over his mask. A detail I like: Leo and Raph's weapons are actually kind of small for them, proportionally, implying that their using "actual" katanas/sais that would've been designed for humans. I imagine this won't be the case for Mike and Don, since nunchucks and staffs can be more easily made from scratch.

Leo and Don have better looking heads, because the more humanoid nose/palate don't look right at all on Raphael and Michaelangelo. I've never understood the modern creature-animation conceit of giving nonhuman characters human-like lips. I understand the "logic" behind it, i.e. in reality they'd need human lips to form human syllables when speaking, I've just never really heard from anyone who cared. Movie-monsters spoke "muppet style" (mouth open for any sound, closed otherwise) for decades and I don't recall that ever being a widespread complaint.

We may or may not see them moving around and talking in a Super Bowl ad, though right now Paramount is onlying officially touting a TRANSFORMERS 4 spot.

Escape to The Movies: "THAT AWKWARD MOMENT"

It's still January.

Here, read this instead.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : That Awkward Moment

WINTER SOLDIER Super Bowl Clip

Super Bowl ads for movies that already have proper trailers generally feel kind of pointless, since they're just short action-beat reels, but this one features what looks very much like a shot of Captain America being back in his proper costume at some point in the present day so I'm glad to have seen that. Also really like how "wing-shaped" Falcon's wings are:

39th César Awards Nominations

A few minutes ago at Fouqet's restaurant on Champs Elysees (ahh!), the French Academy announced the nominations for this year edition and fear no more, Abdellatif Kechiche master opus has many (8) nominations along with some excellent movies that were released in France during 2013 and yes, 2013 was another extraordinary year for French Cinema.

When we consider all nominations there are 47 that come from Cannes films and most were honored at the festival with award(s). That's another reason why these nominations show incredible high cinema-quality. Nevertheless La Vie d'Adèle is not the film with more nominations (8) but is the film where most nods come from "main" categories; Cannes honored and box office success, Me, Myself and Mum leads the tight pack with 10 nods, and L'inconnu du Lac also got 8 nods as La Vie d'Adèle. These three films are the top contenders. Still remember that more nominations doesn't necessarily mean more awards, at least in this award as just have to check last year where the most nominated film got no awards at all.

Perhaps the major snubs for me are the few nominations for Jeune & Jolie and Grand Central plus some surprises like Jimmy P nominated for Best Film, but most complex -at least for me because who are nominated- are categories like actress in a lead role, female newcomer, and actor in a lead role as there are some excellent performances being honored. Still have my favorites and -of course- hope Léa Seydoux gets the honor, as well as Adèle Exarchopoulos and Mads Mikkelsen.

Can't help but to share that most social media (and now general news!) is talking about one peculiar issue that obviously is NOT related to cinema, Julie Gayet nomination! Well, is great to have a good laugh so early in my morning.

Awards ceremony will be on February 28 at Châtelet, with François Cluzet acting as President and my favorite Cécile de France as Maîtresse de Cérémonie. Ceremony is stream live by Canal + and as every year will be and odyssey to find a stream available worldwide, sigh.

These are the nominations for the twenty-two (22) categories.

Best Film
9 mois ferme (9 Month Strech) by Albert Duponel
Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum) by Guillaume Gallienne
L'inconnu du Lac (Stranger by the Lake) by Alain Guiraudie
Jimmy P. (Psychothérapie d'un Indien des Plaines) (Jimmy P.) by Arnaud Desplechin
Le Passé (The Past) by Asghar Farhadi
La Vénus à la Foururre (Venus in Fur) by Roman Polanski
La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color), Abdellatif Kechiche

Best First Film
La Bataille de Solférino (Age of Panic) by Justine Triet
La Cage dorée (The Gilded Cage) by Ruben Alves
En solitaire (Turning Tide) by Christophe Offenstein
La fille du 14 juillet (The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu) by Antonin Peretjatko
Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum) by Guillaume Gallienne

Best Animated Film
Aya de Yopougon (Aya of Yop City) by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie
Loulou l'Incroyable Secret by Eric Omond
Ma maman est en Amérique, elle a rencontré Buffalo Bill (My Mummy is in America and She Met Buffalo Bill) by Marc Boreal and Thibaut Chatel

Best Foreign Film
The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix Van Groeningen
Blancanieves by Pablo Berger
Blue Jasmine by Woody Allen
Dead Man Talking by Patrick Ridremont
Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino
La Grande Bellezza by Paolo Sorrentino
Gravity by Alfonso Cuarón

Best Director
Albert Dupontel for 9 mois ferme (9 Month Strech)
Guillaume Gallienne for Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
Alain Guiraudie for L'inconnu du Lac (Stranger by the Lake)
Arnaud Desplechin for Jimmy P. (Psychothérapie d'un Indien des Plaines) (Jimmy P.)
Asghar Farhadi for Le Passé (The Past)
Roman Polanski for La Vénus à la Foururre (Venus in Fur)
Abdellatif Kechiche for La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color)

Best Actress
Fanny Ardant in Les Beaux Jours (Bright Days Ahead)
Bérénice Béjo in Le Passé (The Past)
Catherine Deneuve in Elle s'En Va (On My Way)
Sara Forestier in Suzanne
Sandrine Kiberlain in 9 mois ferme (9 Month Strech)
Emmanuelle Seigner in La Vénus à la Foururre (Venus in Fur)
Léa Seydoux in La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color)

Best Supporting Actress
Marisa Borini in Un Château en Italie
Françoise Fabian in Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
Julie Gayet in Quai d'Orsay
Adèle Haenel in Suzanne
Géraldine Pailhas in Jeune & Jolie

Best Female Newcomer
Lou de Laâge in Jappeloup
Pauline Etienne in La Religieuse (The Nun)
Adèle Exarchopoulos in La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color)
Golshifteh Farahani in Syngué sabour - Pierre de patience (The Patience Stone)
Marine Vacth in Jeune & Jolie

Best Actor
Mathieu Amalric in La Vénus à la Foururre (Venus in Fur)
Michel Bouquet in Renoir
Albert Dupontel in 9 mois ferme (9 Month Strech)
Grégory Gadebois in Mon âme par toi guérie (One of a Kind)
Guillaume Gallienne in Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
Fabrice Luchini in Alceste à bicyclette (Cycling with Moliere)
Mads Mikkelsen in Michael Kohlhaas (Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas)

Best Supporting Actor
Niels Arestrup in Quai d'Orsay
Patrick Chesnais in Les Beaux Jours (Bright Days Ahead)
Patrick d'Assumçao in L'inconnu du Lac (Stranger by the Lake)
François Damiens in Suzanne
Olivier Gourmet in Grand Central

Best Male Newcomer
Paul Bartel in Les Petits Princes
Pierre Deladonchamps in L'inconnu du Lac (Stranger by the Lake)
Paul Hamy in Suzanne
Vincent Macaigne in La fille du 14 juillet (The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu)
Nemo Schiffman in Elle s'en va (On My Way)

Best Original Screenplay
Mariette Désert and Katell Quillévéré for Suzanne
Albert Dupontel for 9 mois ferme (9 Month Strech)
Asghar Farhadi for Le Passé (The Past)
Philippe Le Guay for Alceste à bicyclette (Cycling with Moliere)
Alain Guiraudie for L'inconnu du Lac (Stranger by the Lake)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Antonin Baudry, Christophe Blain and Bertrand Tavernier for Quai d'Orsay
Arnaud Desplechin, Julie Peyr and Kent Jones for Jimmy P. (Psychothérapie d'un Indien des Plaines) (Jimmy P.)
Guillaume Gallienne for Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
David Ives and Roman Polanski for La Vénus à la Fourrure (Venus in Fur)
Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalya Lacroix for La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color)

Best Cinematography
Thomas Harmeier for L'extravagant voyage du jeune et prodigieux T.S. Spivet (The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet)
Claire Mathon for L'inconnu du Lac (Stranger by the Lake)
Jeanne Lapoirie for Michael Kohlhaas (Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas)
Mark Ping Bing Lee for Renoir
Sofian El Fani for La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color)

Best Editing
Valèrie Deseine for Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
Jean-Christophe Hym for L'Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake)
Christophe Pinel for 9 mois ferme (9 Month Strech)
Camille Toubkis, Albertine Lastera and Jean-Marie Lengellè for La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color)
Juliette Welfling for Le Passé (The Past)

Best Original Soundtrack
Jorge Arriagada for Alceste à bicyclette (Cycling with Moliere)
Loïk Dury and Christophe "Disco" Minck for Casse-tête chinois (Chinese Puzzle)
Etienne Charry for L'Ecume des Jours (Mood Indigo)
Martin Wheeler for Michael Kohlhaas (Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas)
Alexandre Desplat for La Vénus à la Fourrure (Venus in Fur)

Best Sound
Marc-Antoine Beldent, Loïc Prian, Olivier Dô Hùu for Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
Philippe Grivel and Nathalie Vidal for L'inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake)
Jean-Pierre Duret, Jean Mallet and Mélissa Petitjean for Michael Kohlhaas (Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas)
Lucien Balibar, Nadine Muse and Cyril Holtz for La Vénus à la fourrure (Venus in Fur)
Jérôme Chenevoy, Fabien Pochet and Jean-Paul Hurier for La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color)

Best Costumes
Olivier Bériot for Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
Pascaline Chavanne for Renoir
Anina Diener for Michael Kohlhaas (Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas)
Florence Fointaine for L'Ecume des Jours (Mood Indigo)
Florence Fontaine for L'extravagant voyage du jeune et prodigieux T.S. Spivet (The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet)

Best Set Design
Yan Arlaud for Michael Kohlhaas (Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas)
Benoit Barough for Renoir
Aline Bonetto for L'extravagant voyage du jeune et prodigieux T.S. Spivet (The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet)
Sylvie Olivé for Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
Stéphane Rozenbaum for L'Ecume des Jours (Mood Indigo)

Best Documentary
Comment j'ai détesté les maths by Olivier Peyon
Le dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust) by Claude Lanzmann
Il était une forêt by Luc Jacquet
La maison de la radio by Nicolas Philibert
Sur le chemin de l'école by Pascal Plisson

Best Short Film
Avant que de tout perdre (Just Before Losing Everything) by Xavier Legrand, 29'
Bambi by Sebastien Lifshitz, 58' (this is not a short film! - is a documentary)
La fugue by Jean-Bernard Marlin, 23'
Les Lézards by Vincent Mariette, 14'
Marseille la nuit by Marien Monge, 40'

Best Animated Short Film
Lettres des Femmes by Augusto Zanovello
Mademoiselle Kiki et les Montparnos (Kiki of Montparnasse) by Amélie Harrault

If you wish to check nominations at official site go here but have to downlowad a pdf file.

Most surprising nomination is for Bambi by Sebastien Lifshitz not because is not good, as a matter of fact is an excellent must be seen documentary (!), but because is nominated as a short film (!) with 58 minutes! Go figure, hope they fix this.

There are a few films that I have not seen, some because decided not to see and now maybe will, others because escaped my radar and one/two that I'm dying to see and haven't seen them yet. Still the "important" (lol) ones have seen them and yes, they're fantastic films! Most interesting, from those that escaped my radar, is the second film by Katell Quillévéré (remember Un Poison Violent?) Suzanne that not only has a very interesting story but also Adèle Haenel performs.

I suppose that this will be the only -non LGBT- major award where a lesbian interest movie will be competing with a gay interest movie for the top award! Doubt we will soon see this milestone again and -obviously- believe that the lesbian interest movie is highly superior to the gay interest film and to the others in the race for best film.

2014 César Awards - Les Révélations Selection

Today the César Awards nominations were unveiled and there were no big surprises with the actors nominated as Newcomers in the female and male categories. Perhaps the most predictable César category is Best Female Newcomer as we all know Adèle Exarchopoulos HAS TO and WILL win; but I'm sure that if she was not nominated the award would have gone to Marine Vacth for her incredibly good performance in Jeune & Jolie.  But then Pauline Etienne and Golshifteh Farahani also have excellent performances.

I am not crazy about L'Inconnu du Lac but have to recognize that Pierre Delandonchamps performance is outstanding so I hope he wins the César category; if he does think will be the first time that two newcomers performing LGBT characters win.

César nominees are in *BLUE.

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1/16
Last Monday was the Soirée des Révélations in Chaumet where the Révélations photo exposition was inaugurated. The Révélations list was released last November 2013 with 32 actors that made the selection for this year Newcomers. Now French Academy members will vote to select the nominees in the 2014 César Awards Best Female Newcomer and Best Male Newcomer categories.

Actresses
Margot Bancilhon in Les Petits Princes
Flore Bonaventura in Casse-­‐tête chinois
Pauline Burlet in Le Passé
*Lou de Laâge in Jappeloup
Laetitia Dosch in La Bataille de Solférino
*Pauline Etienne in La Religieuse
*Adèle Exarchopoulos in La vie d’Adèle Chapitres 1 & 2
*Golshifteh Farahani in Syngué sabour – Pierre de patience
Esther Garrel in Jeunesse
Ariane Labed in Une place sur la terre
Charlotte Le Bon in La Marche
Chloé Lecerf in Vandal
Anamaria Marinca in Un nuage dans un verre d’eau
Pauline Parigot in Les Lendemains
Vimala Pons in La fille du 14 juillet
*Marine Vacth in Jeune & Jolie

Actors
*Paul Bartel in Les Petis Princes
M'Barek Belkouk in La Marche
Swann Arlaud in Crawl
Zinedine Benchenine in Vandal
*Pierre Deladonchamps in L'inconnu du Lac
Alain-Fabien Delon in Les rencontres d’après minuit
Idrissa Diabaté in La Cité Rose
Youssef Hadji in Mohamed Dubois
*Paul Hamy in Suzanne
Tewfik Jallab in La Marche
Ibrahim Koma in La Cité Rose
*Vincent Macaigne in La fille du 14 juillet
Hamza Meziani in Les Apaches
Driss Ramdi in Je ne suis pas mort
Jules Sagot in Tu seras un homme
*Memo Schiffman in Elle s'en va

Les Révélations 2014 by Antoine Carlier - The Video


Les Révélations 2014, par Antoine Carlier .

Les Révélations 2014 by Antoine Carlier - The Album

Jug Face

Jug Face tells the story of a pregnant teen trying to escape a backwoods community when she discovers that she may be sacrificed to a creature in a pit.

The Double

A retired CIA operative is paired with a young FBI agent to unravel the mystery of a senator's murder, with all signs pointing to a Soviet assassin.

The Tutor

John Tucker Must Die

Three ex-girlfriends of a serial cheater set up their former lover to fall for the new girl in town so they can watch him get his heart broken.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Captain Barbossa, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann must sail off the edge of the map, navigate treachery and betrayal, and make their final alliances for one last decisive battle.

Red-Band "A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST"

I think I've figured out what it is that makes Seth MacFarlane "hard to take" as a persona. I mean "overall," of course - whether he's not your cup of tea because of the subject matter of his humor (or choice of target) is another matter entirely. I'm talking more about why even I, as someone who thinks he's a real comic talent, can agree that a little of him goes a long way:

He's just a little too conventionally-handsome, a little too well spoken and a little too outwardly-confident about it for a comedian.

A modern comedian, anyway. His only semi-ironic affection for the Rat Pack era of lounge-act emcees makes an alarming amount of sense when you consider how well his look, delivery and sensibility would fit in that milieu; i.e. in the era where The Entertainer was The Alpha of the room, with the audience and (especially) "The Other" as his lessers to be humorously judged. The main difference is target: Frank & Dean basked in their superiority over both "squares" and (explicitly at first, implicitly later) the "lower" classes/races, while MacFarlane works basically the same act (right down to the "you think I'm smug now, just wait till I back it up with these pipes!" shift to songman) but with Middle America and/or religious-conservatives as the targets of choice. He's a completely different animal from the self-effacing post-60s face of modern comedy, for better or worse, save that he shares their penchant for self-hate... it's just that he seems to hate his advantages instead of his foibles.

Case in point: The new trailer for "A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST," his Western-spoof follow-up feature to "TED," which features MacFarlane as his own lead in full-on Brian Griffin only-smart-man-in-a-world-of-morons smug mode and also in full-on Brian Griffin douchebag-who's-too-happy-about-being-the-only-smart-man smarmy mode; but here as a snarky Eastern transplant in The Old West cursed with a modern eye-view of the horrible shittiness behind the myth of the Cowboy Era. Looks funny, but I also remember how "WAGONS EAST" failed to stretch the same basic joke to feature-length...

COLOMBIANA

A young woman, after witnessing her parents' murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin.

Fighting Fish

From the journey of Mike( Jawed El Berni) , a former France Boxer, moved to Thailand to start new life. Sadly, he was robbed and had nothing left, then he met Yo (J-J Jakkris Kanokpojnanon), a skillful Thai boxer and his beautiful wife Cartoon (Gus-Jang Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul) who crippled from car accident. Mike and Yo entered to underground fight club called "Fighting Fish" where death is unavoidable for loser of the fight.

click the "caption" button to enable english subtitle

A Secret Affair

Rafi (Anne Curtis) is happily committed to her lovely partner in life, Mark (Derek Ramsay). She's a bachelorette from a rich family, who belongs to the "Friday Club", the regular get-together of her college friends. Rafi is an attention-getter because of her in and out beauty and impressive credentials. But one day, a major life decision shifts everyone's impression of her. Sam (Andi Eigenmann), a rebellious, carefree and happy-go-lucky woman, who thinks that she can get away with her every dilemma. However, her perspectives turn 180 degrees when she meets the man who unexpectedly changes her life.

Oblivion (2013)

Oblivion (2013)

Category by FTI Movie House:  Action

Description and Synopsis:

Description: The “Oblivion is a 2013 American post-apocalyptic science fiction film” co-written, produced, and directed by Joseph Kosinski based on his radical unpublished edited graphic novel of the same name.  It “was released in the U.S. on April 19, 2013.  According to . . . [him], Oblivion pays homage to science fiction films of the 1970s.

The . . . [Oblivion] received mixed reviews: [t]he acting and visual effects were praised, while . . . [critics were divided on the story].  The film underperformed at the American box office, grossing only $89 million, but performed well overseas.  It is Cruise's twentieth film to gross more than $200 million worldwide.” 

Synopsis: “A veteran assigned to extract Earth's remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself.”

Directed by:  Joseph Kosinski
Produced by:  Joseph Kosinski, Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark, Barry Levine, and Duncan Henderson
Screenplay by:  Karl Gajdusek and Michael DeBruyn
Based on:  Oblivion by Joseph Kosinski
Starring :  Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Melissa Leo
Music by:  M83
Cinematography by:  Claudio Miranda
Editing by:  Richard Francis-Bruce

Sources:  Wikipedia and IMDb

Big Picture: "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW - PART I"

Oh yeah, hey - this went up yesterday afternoon:

The Escapist : The Big Picture : The Devil You Know - Part I

More TMNT: Leonardo, Donatello and SHREDDER Revealed!

UPDATE: The studio has been hitting peopel with cease and desist letters regarding the photos, so they're down for now.

Yup. Consider me onboard, Michael Bay.

As I said re: the earlier image of the maquettes, I'm not "in love" with the jacked-up-badass Turtles as a concept, but this is the best version I can think of FOR said concept. Leonardo looks especially great (love the homemade Japanese fencing-armor look) but then he was always my favorite. The "tech-gear clotheshorse" look for Donny looks a lot less extreme than reported, though we can't really see his shell:

(IMAGE REMOVED)

(IMAGE REMOVED)

But Shredder, on the other hand? Holy shit. Shredder looks fantastic! Not nuts about the overly-busy faceplate (nothing is known about where this Shredder comes from, other than that he'll start out as an American businessman named "Eric Sachs" played by William Fichtner instead of Japanese "Oroku Saki," possibly to avoid Chinese movie distribution skittishness over Asian villains in otherwise western-dominant movies) but everything else looks fantastic. In many ways it's an extreme realization of Eastman & Laird's original "human cheese-grater" concept for the armor - even his cape is made of knives, for fuck's sake!

This is could, of course, all change when we get our first look at how the mocap CGI and voicework used to bring these guys to life works out, which will supposedly be during a teaser set to debut during The Super Bowl.

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night

The adventures of supernatural private eye, Dylan Dog, who seeks out the monsters of the Louisiana bayou in his signature red shirt, black jacket, and blue jeans.

Here Are (Probably) Your New NINJA TURTLES:

Via ComicBookMovie.com, these are apparently Michael Bay and Johnathan Liebesman's new "TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES;" looking about like you'd expect (i.e. like the originals but on HGH) with Raphael displayed most prominently. Don't immediately hate, but will need some time to process:

Armored

A newbie guard for an armored truck company is coerced by his veteran coworkers to steal a truck containing $42 million. But a wrinkle in their supposedly foolproof plan divides the group, leading to a potentially deadly resolution

Blitz

A tough cop is dispatched to take down a serial killer who has been targeting police officers.

64th Berlin International Film Festival Competition Selection - Final

This morning in Berlin fest organizers had the press conference to announce the complete festival selection and there are some changes to my best guess a few days ago. First the opening film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, is In Competition and second, La belle et la bête is Out of Competition. Worth mentioning that out of the 23 films, eighteen (18) are World premieres.

Hope that soon we will learn the movies that will be competing for 2014 Teddy as right now the program section only lists a few short films and no feature films; still to easy access will leave the link to Teddy official site here.  Oops program is out, great will do post immediately.

Also announced today is that Berlinale Camera 2014 will honor Karl Baumgartner, one of Germany's leading producers and independent distributors.

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1/15/14
Today Berlinale organizers announced via press release the titles that complete the main competition selection and even if the films in competition and out of competition are not clearly identifiable, will do my best to deduce them. Seems is not that easy but know that 20 of the 23 films will be in Competition so what follows is my best guess. Festival will run from February 6 up to February 16.

The following countries are participating: Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, People’s Republic of China, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Uruguay and the USA.

The Competition program includes 18 world premieres and three feature debut.

Post will be updated if necessary when films are listed in the official site.

In Competition

Opening Film: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, UK and Germany

*'71, Yann Demange, UK
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley), Alain Resnais, France
Aloft, Claudia Llosa, Spain, Canada and France
白日焰火 Bai Ri Yan Huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice), Yinan Diao, China
Boyhood, Richard Linklater, USA
小さいおうち Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House), Yôji Yamada, Japan
Die geliebten Schwestern, Dominik Graf, Germany
*Historia del Miedo (History of Fear), Benjamín Naishtat, Argentina, Uruguay, Germany and France
Jack, Edward Berger, Germany
Kraftidioten (In Order of Disappearance), Hans Petter Moland, Norway
Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross), Dietrich Brüggemann, Germany
La Tercera Orilla (The Third Side of the River), Celina Murga, Argentina, Germany and Netherlands
La voie de l'ennemi (Two Men in Town), Rachid Bouchareb, France, Algeria, USA and Belgium
*Macondo, Sudabeh Mortezai, Austria
Praia do Futuro, Karim Aïnouz, Brazil and Germany
Το Μικρό Ψάρι To Mikro Psari (Stratos), Yannis Economides, Greece, Germany and Cyprus
推拿 Tui Na (Blind Massage), Ye Lou, China and France
無人區 Wu Ren Qu (No Man's Land), Hao Ning, China
Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds), Feo Aladag, Germany

(*)Qualify for Best First Feature Award along 4 films from Panorama, 4 films from Forum, 4 films from Generation and 2 from Perspektive Deutches Kino, for a total of 18 films competing for the award. If you wish to learn the 18 films names go here.

Out of Competition
La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast), Christophe Gans, France and Germany
The Monuments Men, George Clooney, USA and Germany
Nymphomaniac Volume I, Lars Von Trier, Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium and UK

International Jury
President: James Schamus, screenwriter and producer, USA
Barbara Broccoli, producer, USA and UK
Trine Dyrholm, actress, Denmark
Mitra Farahani, director, Iran
Greta Gerwig, actress, USA
Michel Gondry, director, screenwriter and producer, France
Tony Leung, actor, China
Christoph Waltz, actor,Austria

There are many films that could be VERY interesting, like Claudia Llosa first English-language film, the remake -with different perspective- of very famous La belle et la bête with none other than Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel, the English-language film by Rachid Bouchareb with Forest Whitaker, Ellen Burstyn and more, the new film by Yannis Economides, the new film by Ye Lou when haven't seen Mystery yet..., newest film by Hao Ning also known as Western Sunshine -remember Mongolian Ping Pong?-, and the second film by Feo Adalag after her incredible outstanding debut Die Fremde.

Watch some available trailers @MOC

Police Story

A man looking for the release of a long-time prisoner takes a police officer, his daughter, and a group of strangers hostage.

"ZERO THEOREM" Looks Like "BRAZIL 2" And That's A Good Thing

By all accounts Terry Gilliam's "ZERO THEOREM" is polarizing as hell, which is of course unsurprising. Pitched as the internet-age successor to his masterwork "BRAZIL," the story finds Christophe Waltz as a dystopian data-entry drone who goes batty(er) when he's assigned to crack a mathematical paradox whereby 0 must equal "100%" - presumably proving that nothing matters:

Mutant? More Like Meh-T... oh, forget it

If Bryan Singer were an X-Man, his codename would be "DIAL-BACK" - born with the amazing power to lower expectations at superhuman levels.

EMPIRE has been doing a goofy day-long promo where they're revealing 25 "character reveal" covers for "X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST" once an hour. They look... universally terrible, thus far (we're up to 14 as of this writing); save for the obvious caveats of Jennifer Lawrence hitting my fairly specific fetish for women in bodypaint looking like they'd rather be anywhere else and also who isn't happy to see Patrick Stewart?

Thus far, the only "important" reveal has been QUICKSILVER, looking (to your right) like either the mascot for a line of off-brand Sega controllers from a mid-90s GamePro ad or the leader of the Burger King Kids Club.

Quicksilver, of course, is mainly important as a curiosity item since he's the first instance of a Marvel character being in both the "official" Cinematic Universe ("AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON" next year) and in another film played by two different actors in two different contexts: In this version, he'll keep his comics' backstory as the son of Magneto, while the version who turns up in Avengerswill presumably have either a different or unspoken parentage (prevailing fan theory is that he and sister Scarlet Witch will be refitted as the children of Thomas Kretschman's Baron Von Strucker.)

Originally, Quicksilver's role was said to be minor - possibly only one or two scenes (that may be par for the course - despite appearing in the first trailer, Anna Paquin's Rogue has since been cut entirely by the removal of a single scene) - but gossip swirls that his screentime has been beefed up to try and make the character's role in "AVENGERS: AOU" problematic for Marvel Studios. And yes, by all accounts the relationship between Disney and Fox really is that childish.

Here's a Sentinel From "X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST"

From Bryan Singer's personal Twitter account, which just promised to join the cast in tweeting all 25 Empire Magazine covers promoting the film:

First up, here's a look at the #Sentinel Mark I, circa 1973. #XMen #Empire25 @EmpireMagazine pic.twitter.com/gNcwwc68FX
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) January 27, 2014

This is, apparently, The Sentinels as they'll appear in the 1973-set portions of the film - which is good to know since, if you go by the film's marketing thus far, you might've assumed the film was comprised entirely of slow dissolves between closeups of returning familiar actors, Z-list Mutant barrel-scrapings nobody asked for ("OMG! Blink and Warpath in the SAME MOVIE!!??") and unsettling reminders that Singer can't really direct action or scale to save his life.

"X-MEN: DOFP" will be out in the U.S. on May 14th. For those of you playing along at home, this will be the sixth of seven movies centered on a subset of the Marvel Universe comprising almost (probably more-than, really) 700 characters that short-shrifts basically everybody to focus on Hugh Jackman With Muttonchops.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Language : English
Country    : USA
Year          : 2013

Genre       : Crime | Drama | Biographical | Comedy
Duration   : 3hr

Director    : Martin Scorsese
Actors       : Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler

Leonardo DiCaprio .... just when I thought 2013 cudn't be any better than "The Great Gatsby", he hits us with an even bigger tsunami with "The Wolf ". Absolutely brilliant movie. His acting skills aced pretty much every slide of the reel. Though its 10% story telling mode, the 3hr movie is 90% pure awesome. The story centers the life of Jordan Belfort, who rose to fame with his company in stock marketing, then following his abuse of money and involvement in crime, corruption, fraudulence, sex/alchohol/drugs addiction and eventualy leading to losing it all. So much for the story, but my God what an act. You gotta see it to believe it :)

Captain Philips

Language : English
Country    : USA
Year          : 2013

Genre       : Crime | Drama | Biographical | Adventure
Duration   : 2hr 10 mins

Director    : Paul Greengrass
Actors       : Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman,
Faysal Ahmed

Tom Hanks... I dont remember a time where Ive gone for a movie of his with huge expectation and came back dissapointed, and this movie here is no exception. Captain Philips, is a based on the real life story of Captain Richard Philips who was captured by the Somalian pirates in the waters of Somalia. The story is based on the book written by Richard himself, "A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea". Tom Hanks did a wonderful job being the captain, although there were allegation from some crew members that Philips wasnt that much of a Hero as its shown in the film. But thats whole another story.
           The movie is well paced, plenty of suspense and that anxiety factor playing in, the crew and Hanks were brilliant. But what deserves more appreciation here are those who played the Somalian pirates, especially Barkhad Abdi who played the lead of the 4 member pirate crew. He was a chauffeur in the States and had no dream of becoming an actor, but the talent that he showed portraying the charater Muse (pirate lead) was just exemplary. The other supporting actors who played the other pirates were good too. Stand up applause for that. All in all, this is a really good movies. Highly recommended :)

Before Midnight

We meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.

Cowboys & Aliens

A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys and natives are all that stand in their way.

Red Vacance

Hee-rae gets excited about going on a long overdue vacation with her long-time lover. But on the very day they are supposed to leave, he does not show up, leaving no clue as to his whereabouts. Now, searching for him becomes her vacation. The Black Wedding - He is on his way from his lover and favorite student’s wedding. He was there as her wedding officiant. Her body was his power, desire, and something that gave him a glimpse of hope to live when he felt he didn’t have any connections with the world anymore. At the moment he thinks he lost everything, she comes see him again on her way to her honeymoon.

2014 Robert Awards Winners

Today the Danish Academy had the awards ceremony and as I was hoping great The Hunt was the BIG winner of the night. The Hunt is such an exceptional film that I'm concern other great movies will prevail in Oscar, but definitively it is my favorite Danish movie of 2013, even do was in 2012 Cannes.

By the way what is happening to The Hunt and Oscar is what could happen next year if France sends Blue is the Warmest Color to Oscar, the momentum is lost and other movies have their 15 minutes of fame, no matter if they deserve it or not.

Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories go official site.

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1/9/14
2012 was an outstanding year for Danish cinema and a movie produced in that year that was released in 2013 made it another outstanding year for this great cinema; I'm talking about The Hunt that leads the Bodils race and also the Robert's race as got fourteen (14) nominations. Also with 14 nods Mikkel Nørgaard’s The Keeper of Lost Causes following close by Christoffer Boe’s Sex, Drugs & Taxation with 13 and Michael Noer’s Northwest with 11.

Already infamous Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac was seen by critics but does not qualify for this year awards, so we will have to wait until next year to see if gets some local recognition from the Danish Academy. As we know Part 1 will be world-premiered at the Berlinale and early buzz claims that part 2 will go to Cannes, but maybe not as film will have its release in USA via VOD before it opens in theaters and before Cannes.

These are the nominees' that the Danmarks Film Akademi announced today.

Best Film
*Jagten (The Hunt)
Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)
Nordvest (Northwest)
Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
Spies & Glistrup (Sex, Drugs & Taxation)

Best Feature for Children and Youth Audiences
*Antboy
MGP Missionen (The Contest - To the Stars and Back)
Olsen Banden på dybt vand (The Olsen Gang in Deep Trouble)
Otto er et næsehorn (Otto the Rhino)

Best Director
Michael Noer for Nordvest (Northwest)
Mikkel Nørgaard for Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)
Nicolas Winding Refn for Only God Forgives
Nils Malmros for Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
*Thomas Vinterberg for Jagten (The Hunt)

Best Actress
*Helle Fagralid for Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
Kristin Scott Thomas for Only God Forgives
Lene Maria Christensen for Nordvest (Northwest)
Sofie Gråbøl for I Lossens Time (The Hour of the Lynx)
Sonja Richter for Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)

Best Actor
Gustav Dyekjær Giese for Nordvest (Northwest)
Jakob Cedergren for Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
*Mads Mikkelsen for Jagten (The Hunt)
Nikolaj Lie Kaas for Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)
Pilou Asbæk for Spies & Glistrup (Sex Drugs & Taxation)

Best Original Screenplay
Nikolaj Arcel for Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)
Nils Malmros and John Mogensen for Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
Rasmus Heisterberg and Michael Noer for Nordvest (Northwest)
Simon Pasternak and Christoffer Boe for Spies & Glistrup (Sex Drugs & Taxation)
*Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm for Jagten (The Hunt)

Best US Feature
Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass
Before Midnight, Richard Linklater
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
*Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russel

Best Non-US Feature
*Blue Is the Warmest Color, Abdellatif Kechiche, France
The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, Italy
Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK
Rush, Ron Howard, UK
Rust and Bone, Jacques Audiard, France

To check nominees in all categories go here, available only in Danish or here for English. I'm so glad that Nicolas Winding Refn got recognition for Only God Forgives as was feeling that I was the only one that liked/enjoyed the movie that absolutely makes you recall Gaspar Noé style. Not to bore you reader but you already know that my one of my favorite 2013 films is here, The Hunt, and Best Actor HAS to go to Mads.

66th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards Winners

Last night the Directors Guild of America had their awards ceremony and there are no surprises as Alfonso Cuarón won the top award which makes him the most likely to win an Oscar director and yes, puts again Gravity in the Best Picture contention. But for me, Gravity has always been a contender along with American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave.

Award history says that for the last 65 years of the 85 in which the Academy Awards have been presented, the DGA has presented awards too; over the course of that time, the winner of the guild's top award has gone to win the best director Oscar on all but seven (7) occasions and his/her film has gone to win best picture Oscar on all but thirteen (13) occasions. So, truth is that Oscar best picture race has become tight and interesting.

Winners are in *BLUE and to check winners in all categories go official site.

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1/7/14
Today the DGA announced the nominations for outstanding directorial achievement in feature film for 2013 and there are no real surprises as we all know that there are only five slots and the question was which directors will make it and which will not.

“To be chosen by your peers in a year full of incredibly well-crafted films is the true marker of outstanding directorial achievement,” said Paris Barclay, guild President. “The passion and vision of each of the nominees resulted in tremendously diverse films that kept audiences mesmerized. Congratulations to each of the nominees on a job very well done.”

Winners will be announced at the 66th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

The Nominees

Feature Film Award

*Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
Paul Greengrass for Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave
David O. Russell for American Hustle
Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street

We can predict that the above five movies will be nominated for Best Picture and that all directors, except one, will get a nod in Best Director category. To read press release go here.

Documentary Award

Zachary Heinzerling for Cutie and the Boxer
*Jehane Noujaim for The Square
Joshua Oppenheimer for The Act of Killing
Sarah Polley for Stories We Tell
Lucy Walker for The Crash Reel

To read the press release with the documentary nominations go here.