“We humans are capable of greatness,” reads the first line in Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s The Hyperboreans as the narrator’s voice beams from an old TV set. On the screen, a hypno wheel spins and spins; the voice speaks of evolution and “the energetic charge of ancestral blood.” These ominous themes already suggest that the Chilean stop-motion animator / filmmaker duo continue to explore religious symbolism and the ritualistic nature of their Latin American heritage. Before premiering The Hyperboreans in this year’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection, their 2021 short The Bones was awarded the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film in Venice and proposed a fictionalized legacy to address colonial trauma. Now, their second feature (after 2018’s The Wolf House) continues to mix fact and fiction as a means to allegorize the past.
The scene cuts from a TV screen to a pristine, overhead wide shot of a film set.
The scene cuts from a TV screen to a pristine, overhead wide shot of a film set.
- 5/22/2024
- by Savina Petkova
- The Film Stage
The classic tale of Hansel & Gretel has been brought to the screen a handful of times over the years, and now an upcoming stop motion animated film has attracted some A-list talent.
Variety reports that Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen have boarded the Hansel & Gretel movie as executive producers through their company Square Peg.
Chilean filmmakers Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (The Hyperboreans) are directing. Variety notes, “The story is expected to twist the fairy tale into inimitable shapes.”
The duo co-directed the stop motion movie The Wolf House back in 2018, and they also worked in the animation department on Ari Aster’s most recent movie, Beau Is Afraid.
“It’s our very personal adaptation of the classic fairy tale, with the main difference that Hansel and Gretel are both boys in this version, at least at the beginning of the story,” Cristóbal León explained. In this telling, “the story itself gets lost,...
Variety reports that Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen have boarded the Hansel & Gretel movie as executive producers through their company Square Peg.
Chilean filmmakers Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (The Hyperboreans) are directing. Variety notes, “The story is expected to twist the fairy tale into inimitable shapes.”
The duo co-directed the stop motion movie The Wolf House back in 2018, and they also worked in the animation department on Ari Aster’s most recent movie, Beau Is Afraid.
“It’s our very personal adaptation of the classic fairy tale, with the main difference that Hansel and Gretel are both boys in this version, at least at the beginning of the story,” Cristóbal León explained. In this telling, “the story itself gets lost,...
- 5/20/2024
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Ari Aster and his producing partner Lars Knudsen have boarded Chile’s Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s new film “Hansel & Gretel” as executive producers through their company, Square Peg.
The Chilean duo’s feature “The Hyperboreans” forms part of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
The story is expected to twist the fairy tale into inimitable shapes. “It’s our very personal adaptation of the classic fairy tale, with the main difference that Hansel and Gretel are both boys in this version, at least at the beginning of the story,” Cristóbal León told Variety. In this telling, “the story itself gets lost,” León added.
León and Cociña worked with Aster on “Beau is Afraid,” having come to his attention via their feature “The Wolf House,” a winner at Annecy described by Variety as “a jaw-dropping marriage of various animation techniques.”
“Cociña and León are among the true originals working in animation right now.
The Chilean duo’s feature “The Hyperboreans” forms part of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
The story is expected to twist the fairy tale into inimitable shapes. “It’s our very personal adaptation of the classic fairy tale, with the main difference that Hansel and Gretel are both boys in this version, at least at the beginning of the story,” Cristóbal León told Variety. In this telling, “the story itself gets lost,” León added.
León and Cociña worked with Aster on “Beau is Afraid,” having come to his attention via their feature “The Wolf House,” a winner at Annecy described by Variety as “a jaw-dropping marriage of various animation techniques.”
“Cociña and León are among the true originals working in animation right now.
- 5/20/2024
- by Callum McLennan
- Variety Film + TV
From the Land of Ice and Snow: Cocina & Leon Pursue Hermetical Cinematic Spell
To say the latest feature from the experimentally inclined Chilean directing duo Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña is unclassifiable would be something of an understatement, delving as it does into a new frontier of juxtapositions, collapsing visual textures and narrative structures while somehow remaining coherent. Following their sinister 2018 animated feature The Wolf House (2018) and having contributed to the standout animated sequences of Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid (2023), the duo deliver something even more exceptionally offbeat with The Hyperboreans (Los hiperbóreos), a reference to inhabitants of ‘the extreme north,’ here routed back to the troubling Aryan mythos of self-classified supreme racial hierarchies fantasized by the Nazis.…...
To say the latest feature from the experimentally inclined Chilean directing duo Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña is unclassifiable would be something of an understatement, delving as it does into a new frontier of juxtapositions, collapsing visual textures and narrative structures while somehow remaining coherent. Following their sinister 2018 animated feature The Wolf House (2018) and having contributed to the standout animated sequences of Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid (2023), the duo deliver something even more exceptionally offbeat with The Hyperboreans (Los hiperbóreos), a reference to inhabitants of ‘the extreme north,’ here routed back to the troubling Aryan mythos of self-classified supreme racial hierarchies fantasized by the Nazis.…...
- 5/16/2024
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
"I had no choice but to take refuge in the spiritual world." There's an early promo trailer available for a peculiar, mind-bending, strangely fun new film titled The Hyperboreans, from the one-of-a-kind Chilean filmmakers Joaquín Cociña & Cristóbal León. It's premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival this week in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar. Here's their full intro: "Following their first feature-length animated film The Wolf House (2018), the Chilean duo are back, mixing puppets, stop-motion and live-action, theatre, science fiction, and real and fabricated biopic. In the liminal space of a big studio, our only guide is a woman – by turns storyteller, actress and illusionist – who interacts with Méliès-style cardboard sets and effigies, following in the footsteps of a very real man: the Chilean neo-Nazi dandy Miguel Serrano (1917-2009), a writer and the originator of delirious esoteric theories. Should he be viewed as a fascinating anomaly or symbolic of a deeper evil?...
- 5/13/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Preeminent Spanish arthouse sales outfit Bendita Film Sales (“Memories of a Burning Body”) has acquired worldwide rights to the second offbeat feature from Chilean auteurs Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, “The Hyperboreans” (“Los Hiperbóreos”), which bows at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight program, running May 15-25.
“We’re excited to join forces with Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, visionary filmmakers renowned for their distinct perspective and captivating universe. Their body of work has long enthralled and inspired us, making this collaboration a truly special opportunity,” Luis Renart, CEO, sales & acquisitions at Bendita Film Sales, told Variety.
“The Hyperboreans encompasses a daring fusion of live-action and stop motion, speculative fiction and fabulated biography, that takes audiences on a mesmerizing journey through realms both familiar and fantastical, exploring the haunting echoes of history and the boundless potential of the human psyche. We’re excited to share this exceptional work with audiences worldwide,” he added,...
“We’re excited to join forces with Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, visionary filmmakers renowned for their distinct perspective and captivating universe. Their body of work has long enthralled and inspired us, making this collaboration a truly special opportunity,” Luis Renart, CEO, sales & acquisitions at Bendita Film Sales, told Variety.
“The Hyperboreans encompasses a daring fusion of live-action and stop motion, speculative fiction and fabulated biography, that takes audiences on a mesmerizing journey through realms both familiar and fantastical, exploring the haunting echoes of history and the boundless potential of the human psyche. We’re excited to share this exceptional work with audiences worldwide,” he added,...
- 4/24/2024
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
Following the main lineups for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, a handful of sidebar slates have been unveiled, featuring Directors Fortnight, Critics Week, and Acid. Notable highlights include the Sundance favorite Good One (read our review here), Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point starring Michael Cera, the first film in over a decade from James White director Josh Mond, the Christopher Abbott-led It Doesn’t Matter, Eat the Night from Jessica Forever duo Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel, Carson Lund’s Eephus, Patricia Mazuy’s Visting Hours, The Hyperboreans, a new film from The Wolf House directors Cristobal Leo & Joaquin Cocina, Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century follow-up Universal Language, and more.
Check out the lineups below.
Cannes Directors Fortnight
Feature films:
“Ma Vie Ma Gueule,” Sophie Fillieres (France) – opening film
“A Son Image,” Thierry de Peretti (France)
“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” Tyler Taormina (USA)
“Desert of Namibia,...
Check out the lineups below.
Cannes Directors Fortnight
Feature films:
“Ma Vie Ma Gueule,” Sophie Fillieres (France) – opening film
“A Son Image,” Thierry de Peretti (France)
“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” Tyler Taormina (USA)
“Desert of Namibia,...
- 4/16/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
After spending the majority of the 2010s working on hifs sublime sci-fi trilogy World of Tomorrow, animation genius Don Hertzfeldt hinted he desired to work on a larger scale: “I’m not getting any younger. You just want to work faster. I’m jealous of actors, of musicians, of people able to put out multiple things in one year. To take two years to make a short film is just absurd. I don’t want to use a Marvel term, but we’re expanding the universe,” he told The Guardian. “I don’t relish doing this alone! I can’t be drawing little round heads by myself for the rest of my life.”
While his large-scale animation Antarctica fell apart, it looks like he’ll get his crack another big project soon. At the Overlook Film Festival for the premiere of his latest short, the dialogue-free musical Me (which may...
While his large-scale animation Antarctica fell apart, it looks like he’ll get his crack another big project soon. At the Overlook Film Festival for the premiere of his latest short, the dialogue-free musical Me (which may...
- 4/7/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale, Last Voyage of the Demeter) stars in the upcoming horror movie Stopmotion, and we’re serving up an exclusive sneak peek clip this morning.
Stopmotion releases in theaters on February 23 before heading to Shudder on May 31, 2024. Begin this macabre descent into madness by watching an exclusive clip below.
Directed by Robert Morgan, the film stars Franciosi as Ella Blake, “a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother.
“Suddenly alone in the world, she embarks upon the creation of a macabre new puppet film, which soon becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.”
Stopmotion also stars Stella Gonet and Tom York.
“IFC and Shudder are ecstatic to...
Stopmotion releases in theaters on February 23 before heading to Shudder on May 31, 2024. Begin this macabre descent into madness by watching an exclusive clip below.
Directed by Robert Morgan, the film stars Franciosi as Ella Blake, “a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother.
“Suddenly alone in the world, she embarks upon the creation of a macabre new puppet film, which soon becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.”
Stopmotion also stars Stella Gonet and Tom York.
“IFC and Shudder are ecstatic to...
- 2/9/2024
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
A few months ago, right before the horror film Stopmotion had its world premiere screening at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, we learned that IFC Films had acquired North American and select International distribution rights to the film, with the plan being to give Stopmotion a theatrical release before it heads over to the Shudder streaming service. Now we know the exact dates for those releases: the movie will be reaching theatres on February 23rd, then will be available to watch on Shudder as of May 31st. With the release date information comes the unveiling of a trailer, and you can check that out in the embed above.
Aisling Franciosi of The Nightingale and The Last Voyage of the Demeter stars in Stopmotion, taking on the role of Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world,...
Aisling Franciosi of The Nightingale and The Last Voyage of the Demeter stars in Stopmotion, taking on the role of Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world,...
- 1/25/2024
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Up next from actress Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale, Last Voyage of the Demeter) is the horror movie Stopmotion, and a brand new trailer unveiled today gives an unsettling look at the puppet-inducing horror.
Stopmotion releases in theaters on February 23 before heading to Shudder on May 31, 2024.
Directed by Robert Morgan, the film stars Franciosi as Ella Blake, “a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she embarks upon the creation of a macabre new puppet film, which soon becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.”
Stopmotion also stars Stella Gonet and Tom York.
“IFC and Shudder are ecstatic to bring Robert Morgan’s riveting live-action/animation hybrid to audiences everywhere.
Stopmotion releases in theaters on February 23 before heading to Shudder on May 31, 2024.
Directed by Robert Morgan, the film stars Franciosi as Ella Blake, “a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she embarks upon the creation of a macabre new puppet film, which soon becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.”
Stopmotion also stars Stella Gonet and Tom York.
“IFC and Shudder are ecstatic to bring Robert Morgan’s riveting live-action/animation hybrid to audiences everywhere.
- 1/24/2024
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
Aisling Franciosi of The Nightingale and The Last Voyage of the Demeter stars in the upcoming horror film Stopmotion, which is set to have its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, running in Austin, Texas from September 21st through the 28th. Ahead of the premiere screening, Variety reports that IFC Films has acquired North American and select International distribution rights to the film. They’re planning to give Stopmotion a theatrical release sometime in 2024, then it will head over to the Shudder streaming service.
Franciosi takes on the role of Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she creates a macabre new puppet film, while struggling to maintain her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed...
Franciosi takes on the role of Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she creates a macabre new puppet film, while struggling to maintain her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed...
- 9/22/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Up next from actress Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale, Last Voyage of the Demeter) is the horror movie Stopmotion, which instantly caught our attention with its killer premise.
Variety reports today that Stopmotion has been acquired by IFC Films ahead of its premiere at Fantastic Fest, with a theatrical release and eventual Shudder premiere in 2024.
IFC grabbed the North American and select International rights, Variety notes.
Directed by Robert Morgan, the film stars Franciosi as Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she creates a macabre new puppet film, while struggling to maintain her sanity.
As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.
“IFC and Shudder are ecstatic to bring...
Variety reports today that Stopmotion has been acquired by IFC Films ahead of its premiere at Fantastic Fest, with a theatrical release and eventual Shudder premiere in 2024.
IFC grabbed the North American and select International rights, Variety notes.
Directed by Robert Morgan, the film stars Franciosi as Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she creates a macabre new puppet film, while struggling to maintain her sanity.
As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.
“IFC and Shudder are ecstatic to bring...
- 9/21/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
IFC Films has acquired North American and select International rights to “Stopmotion,” a psychological horror film that will have its world premiere at Fantastic Fest this September. The indie distributor will release the movie in theaters in 2024, followed by a streaming debut on Shudder, AMC Networks’ streaming service for horror, thrillers and other films about the supernatural. IFC’s parent company is AMC.
Directed by Robert Morgan, “Stopmotion” stars Aisling Franciosi (“The Nightingale”) as Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she creates a macabre new puppet film, while struggling to maintain her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.
“IFC and Shudder are ecstatic to bring...
Directed by Robert Morgan, “Stopmotion” stars Aisling Franciosi (“The Nightingale”) as Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she creates a macabre new puppet film, while struggling to maintain her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.
“IFC and Shudder are ecstatic to bring...
- 9/21/2023
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Genre filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak) made headlines last week when he announced via THR that he plans to soon focus exclusively on animated films.
“Animation to me is the purest form of art, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to rescue it. [And] I think that we can Trojan-horse a lot of good shit into the animation world,” del Toro candidly told the outlet. He’s not wrong; a rich world of stunning animation exists beyond films targeting young audiences. That includes horror, of course.
This week’s streaming picks highlight the storytelling that animation can achieve and the various techniques and styles employed to capture them. These five animated horror movies vary in tone and style, from stop-motion to 2D traditional and beyond, finding haunting beauty in grim realities.
Here’s where you can stream them this week.
For more Stay Home,...
“Animation to me is the purest form of art, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to rescue it. [And] I think that we can Trojan-horse a lot of good shit into the animation world,” del Toro candidly told the outlet. He’s not wrong; a rich world of stunning animation exists beyond films targeting young audiences. That includes horror, of course.
This week’s streaming picks highlight the storytelling that animation can achieve and the various techniques and styles employed to capture them. These five animated horror movies vary in tone and style, from stop-motion to 2D traditional and beyond, finding haunting beauty in grim realities.
Here’s where you can stream them this week.
For more Stay Home,...
- 6/19/2023
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
Late in Ari Aster’s subversive Oedipal odyssey, “Beau Is Afraid,” Joaquin Phoenix’s neurotic man-child enters a play in the woods as a momentary escape from his nightmarish existence. The 12-minute, predominantly stop-motion sequence — aptly titled “Hero Beau” — joyfully conjures an alternate reality of what might have been for Beau, free of his castrating mother (Zoe Lister-Jones and Patti LuPone), raising three boys on a farm, surviving a disaster, and living a full life.
Directed by Chilean animators Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“La Casa Lobo”), this movie-within-the-movie is exquisitely hand-crafted with the aid of some set design by production designer Fiona Crombie (“The Favourite”), evoking an unnatural world that’s as symbolically dreamlike as the rest of the film. It serves as Beau’s emotional high point and provides the impetus for the rest of his actions thereafter.
“The original plan was not for it to be animated...
Directed by Chilean animators Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“La Casa Lobo”), this movie-within-the-movie is exquisitely hand-crafted with the aid of some set design by production designer Fiona Crombie (“The Favourite”), evoking an unnatural world that’s as symbolically dreamlike as the rest of the film. It serves as Beau’s emotional high point and provides the impetus for the rest of his actions thereafter.
“The original plan was not for it to be animated...
- 4/24/2023
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
To title your film after a year, as actor-turned-filmmaker Manuela Martelli does, is a bold statement. For Chileans, after all, “1976” (renamed “Chile ’76” for North American markets) will conjure up a host of reactions tied to what was one of the bloodiest years of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. And yet this dazzling debut feature is grounded not in the resistance movement against Pinochet, nor on the political maneuvring that led to thousands having been disappeared. It focuses instead on a housewife’s day-to-day routine, as she slowly finds her insular world rocked by events that soon spiral out of her control. Following a successful festival run beginning at Cannes last year, the film will be released Stateside by Kino Lorber from May 5.
Carmen (Aline Kuppenheim) leads an intentionally sheltered life. When we first meet her she’s most concerned with getting the right shade of pink for the summer house renovation...
Carmen (Aline Kuppenheim) leads an intentionally sheltered life. When we first meet her she’s most concerned with getting the right shade of pink for the summer house renovation...
- 4/18/2023
- by Manuel Betancourt
- Variety Film + TV
Ari Aster’s first two films, 2018’s “Hereditary” and 2019’s “Midsommar,” cultivated the young director enough cachet for A24 to hand him a blank check for “Beau is Afraid,” his “Jewish ‘Lord of the Rings’” about the psychological horror of visiting your mother. The three-hour horror-comedy epic is the indie studio’s most expensive movie to date. Starring Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix as the stunted and anxiety-ridden Beau of the title, the movie defies easy categorization and is, expectedly, inspiring awe and disgust in nearly equal measure – often within individual viewers.
Beau lives in an urban hellscape that approximates what “New York City looked like in the mind of Travis Bickle and Bernhard Goetz” and is in a persistent state of waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it finally does, it’s a chandelier on top of his mother’s head (it wouldn’t be an Aster film...
Beau lives in an urban hellscape that approximates what “New York City looked like in the mind of Travis Bickle and Bernhard Goetz” and is in a persistent state of waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it finally does, it’s a chandelier on top of his mother’s head (it wouldn’t be an Aster film...
- 4/14/2023
- by Ronald Meyer
- Gold Derby
“Nightmare comedy” is the perfect phrase to describe Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid, a darkly funny Kafkaesque odyssey that defies easy categorization. The writer and director of Hereditary and Midsommar is back with yet another emotionally complex saga, this one his most ambitious yet. The visionary combs his literary and cinematic influences, infusing them into a surreal, emotionally tumultuous journey that’ll prove divisive for its cryptic, unhurried storytelling.
Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) lives with constant unrelenting anxiety smack in the middle of a chaotic city. His ramshackle apartment with thin walls and unkind neighbors seems peaceful compared to the violent chaos outside in the streets. Yet, the most significant source of Beau’s emotional turmoil stems from his strained relationship with his mother, Mona (Patti LuPone). A planned trip home instills panic, prompting Beau’s longtime therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson) to prescribe medication and coping measures. The sudden,...
Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) lives with constant unrelenting anxiety smack in the middle of a chaotic city. His ramshackle apartment with thin walls and unkind neighbors seems peaceful compared to the violent chaos outside in the streets. Yet, the most significant source of Beau’s emotional turmoil stems from his strained relationship with his mother, Mona (Patti LuPone). A planned trip home instills panic, prompting Beau’s longtime therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson) to prescribe medication and coping measures. The sudden,...
- 4/11/2023
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
Poor Beau. Nearly half a century on Earth, and he’s never really lived. Sure, he was born — that much director Ari Aster depicts from Beau’s point of view at the outset of his wildly self-indulgent and frequently surreal third feature, “Beau Is Afraid,” lingering long enough to witness the infant’s umbilical cord being snipped — but what has Beau done with his life since then? Can it be said that he ever really developed an identity apart from his successful single mom, Mona Wasserman, who haunts the film for the better part of three hours before finally revealing herself?
Not since “Psycho” has an off-screen mother loomed so large over a film’s protagonist, played here by Joaquin Phoenix, cowering from the world. The Hitchcock comparison could be misleading, since Aster makes a surprising tonal shift away from traditional nightmare material for this deranged road trip, which follows...
Not since “Psycho” has an off-screen mother loomed so large over a film’s protagonist, played here by Joaquin Phoenix, cowering from the world. The Hitchcock comparison could be misleading, since Aster makes a surprising tonal shift away from traditional nightmare material for this deranged road trip, which follows...
- 4/11/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe Mother and the Whore (1972).The lineup for this year's Cannes Classics boasts a 4k digital restoration of Jean Eustache's The Mother and the Whore, a rare screening of Satyajit Ray’s newly restored Pratidwandi, films by Vittorio de Sica, Orson Welles, Mike De Leon, and much more. After recently making Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going! available for free online, Martin Scorsese is set to narrate and executive produce a documentary about the filmmaking duo. Directed by David Hinton, the documentary follows Scorsese's personal journey with and relationship to Powell & Pressburger's films. David Cronenberg has announced his follow-up to Crimes of the Future: Starring Vincent Cassel and produced by Saïd Ben Saïd, Shrouds is about grieving widower whose technologically innovative (and controversial) cemetery is vandalized. Recommended VIEWINGThe trailer...
- 5/11/2022
- MUBI
With Arcade Fire, Kendrick Lamar, Sharon Van Etten, Wilco, and more, it’s quite a month for new music and amongst our most-anticipated albums is the debut from the Radiohead side project The Smile. Comprised of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, their album A Light For Attracting Attention will drop this Friday but they’ve now released a new music video for the single Thin Thing.
Directed by Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña, who helmed the stunning animation The Wolf House and the recent short The Bones, it’s a vivid stop-motion operating with its own fascinating dreamlike logic.
“Hearing the song for the first time, we imagined a frenetic fluid that carries machines, pieces of human bodies and carnivorous plants,” said the directors. “When presenting the idea to the band, Thom told us about a dream that made him write the song. We believe...
Directed by Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña, who helmed the stunning animation The Wolf House and the recent short The Bones, it’s a vivid stop-motion operating with its own fascinating dreamlike logic.
“Hearing the song for the first time, we imagined a frenetic fluid that carries machines, pieces of human bodies and carnivorous plants,” said the directors. “When presenting the idea to the band, Thom told us about a dream that made him write the song. We believe...
- 5/11/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Prestige French distribution house Dulac Distribution has closed rights to France on “1976,” one of the most awaited of films to come out of Chile this year, which will world premiere next month at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
The buzzed up title represents the first feature from young Chilean actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli, star of Andrés Wood’s “Machuca” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro.”
Worldwide sales rights on “1976” are represented by Paris-based Luxbox, adding to its lengthening list of high profile pick-ups from Latin America which include Nathalie Alvarez Mesén’s “Clara Sola,” Alejandra Márquez’s “The Good Girls,” Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses” and Benjamín Naishtat’s “Rojo.”
The acquisition in a key territory for non English-language art films comes just weeks after “1976” walked off with three of the biggest awards at the Toulouse Latin American Festival’s Films in Progress, including the pix-in-post competition’s Grand Prix and Cine Plus...
The buzzed up title represents the first feature from young Chilean actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli, star of Andrés Wood’s “Machuca” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro.”
Worldwide sales rights on “1976” are represented by Paris-based Luxbox, adding to its lengthening list of high profile pick-ups from Latin America which include Nathalie Alvarez Mesén’s “Clara Sola,” Alejandra Márquez’s “The Good Girls,” Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses” and Benjamín Naishtat’s “Rojo.”
The acquisition in a key territory for non English-language art films comes just weeks after “1976” walked off with three of the biggest awards at the Toulouse Latin American Festival’s Films in Progress, including the pix-in-post competition’s Grand Prix and Cine Plus...
- 4/25/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
A Place Called Dignity is the latest drama to take on the abusive horrors that happened behind the gated, religious doors of the Colony of Dignity in Chile, which has also in recent years been the focus of Emma Watson-starrer The Colony, animation The Wolf House, documentary Songs Of Repression and Netflix documentary series A Sinister Sect: Colonia Dignida.
Matias Rojas Valencia uses an outsider, 12-year-old Pablo, as our surrogate into this German community whose outward face of singing and industriousness hid a decades long rule by abuser its leader Paul Schäfer (Hanns Zischler), who also had a sideline in torture and disappearances for the Pinochet regime.
For little Pablo and his mother, the chance to become the first scholarship child in the community seems like a real opportunity as Schäfer - referred to in the community as "permanent uncle" - says he'll be given an...
Matias Rojas Valencia uses an outsider, 12-year-old Pablo, as our surrogate into this German community whose outward face of singing and industriousness hid a decades long rule by abuser its leader Paul Schäfer (Hanns Zischler), who also had a sideline in torture and disappearances for the Pinochet regime.
For little Pablo and his mother, the chance to become the first scholarship child in the community seems like a real opportunity as Schäfer - referred to in the community as "permanent uncle" - says he'll be given an...
- 11/23/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
When Ari Aster first saw the animated horror “The Wolf House,” he loved it. Then he watched it again, and again. Four days later, he called up Chilean directing duo Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña to congratulate them on the animated film that had critics chomping at the bit.
“He said he saw the film three times, and we realized that he saw the film for the first time like four days before, so that basically means he saw the film almost every day,” Cociña told IndieWire during a recent phone interview. “It was amazing, because I saw ‘Midsommar’ two weeks before that conversation, and I was honestly amazed by this film. He approached us, and he saw some shot from the short, and he was really enthusiastic and he jumped in.”
“He has been really enthusiastic about our work,” added León. “So it was like, ‘I want to be a part of that,...
“He said he saw the film three times, and we realized that he saw the film for the first time like four days before, so that basically means he saw the film almost every day,” Cociña told IndieWire during a recent phone interview. “It was amazing, because I saw ‘Midsommar’ two weeks before that conversation, and I was honestly amazed by this film. He approached us, and he saw some shot from the short, and he was really enthusiastic and he jumped in.”
“He has been really enthusiastic about our work,” added León. “So it was like, ‘I want to be a part of that,...
- 9/11/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Sonny Chiba in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003). Sonny Chiba, the prolific and singular actor, martial artist and choreographer, has died at the age of 82.New York Film Festival has unveiled its Currents section, featuring a strong slate that includes Artavazd Peleshian, Ted Fendt, Shengze Zhu, Christopher Harris, Shireen Seno, Matías Piñeiro and more. NYFF will also be screening seven programs dedicated to the centenary of the late film programmer and festival co-founder Amos Vogel. The retrospective includes works by Glauber Rocher, Oskar Fischinger, and Dušan Makavejev. The Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival has announced its lineup. This year's Focus program will showcase the works of Cambodian production company Anti-Archive, Nguyễn Trinh Thí, Rajee Samarasinghe, and Sps Community Media. Organized by Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, Archival Assembly #1 will take place from...
- 8/25/2021
- MUBI
"Fragments of the ritual performed by me..." Our friends at The Film Stage have revealed a teaser trailer for an intriguing animated short film from Chile titled Los Huesos, premiering at the 2021 Venice Film Festival in a few weeks. This is the latest work from the Chilean experimental animators Joaquín Cociña & Cristóbal León (they made The Wolf House recently) and it's exec produced by horror director Ari Aster. What's their new 14-min short about? "Shot on a 16mm Bolex, the short is a fictitious account of the world’s first stop-motion animated film. Dated 1901 and excavated in 2021 as Chile drafts a new Constitution, the footage documents a ritual performed by a girl who appears to use human corpses. Emerging in the ritual are Diego Portales and Jaime Guzmán, central figures in the construction of authoritarian and oligarchic Chile." It features music by Tim Fain, a Philip Glass collaborator and exquisite violinist.
- 8/22/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
One of the most inventive, stunningly nightmarish animations of the last decade, The Wolf House was the work of Chilean filmmakers Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña. Now, quickly after their debut feature film, they are returning with their follow-up, the 14-minute short Los Huesos, and they’ve found a perfect pairing with another director whose horror creations have left a vivid mark: Hereditary and Midsommar helmer Ari Aster, who has executive-produced the Venice-bound short alongside Adam Butterfield and Lucas Engel. Ahead of the premiere, we’re delighted to exclusively present the trailer.
Shot on a 16mm Bolex, the short is a fictitious account of the world’s first stop-motion animated film. Dated 1901 and excavated in 2021 as Chile drafts a new Constitution, the footage documents a ritual performed by a girl who appears to use human corpses. Emerging in the ritual are Diego Portales and Jaime Guzmán, central figures in the...
Shot on a 16mm Bolex, the short is a fictitious account of the world’s first stop-motion animated film. Dated 1901 and excavated in 2021 as Chile drafts a new Constitution, the footage documents a ritual performed by a girl who appears to use human corpses. Emerging in the ritual are Diego Portales and Jaime Guzmán, central figures in the...
- 8/19/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Specialty U.S. distribution company KimStim is to give a North American release to “Wood and Water,” a German-made feature set against the backdrop of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
The film premiered in the Deutsche Perspektive section of this year’s erlinaleand won the Compass-Perspektive Award special mention during the Berlin festival’s summer edition. It also scored at the New Directors/New Films festival at new York’s Lincoln Center.
It is the feature debut of Jonas Bak, who was previously based in London and Hong Kong, where he worked as a freelance film director and director of cinematography, before returning to his native Germany.
“Wood and Water” was shot on 16mm film and is loosely inspired by real events. The film’s lead role is played by Bak’s mother Anke, as she finds herself facing the void of retirement. A trip to Hong Kong, where...
The film premiered in the Deutsche Perspektive section of this year’s erlinaleand won the Compass-Perspektive Award special mention during the Berlin festival’s summer edition. It also scored at the New Directors/New Films festival at new York’s Lincoln Center.
It is the feature debut of Jonas Bak, who was previously based in London and Hong Kong, where he worked as a freelance film director and director of cinematography, before returning to his native Germany.
“Wood and Water” was shot on 16mm film and is loosely inspired by real events. The film’s lead role is played by Bak’s mother Anke, as she finds herself facing the void of retirement. A trip to Hong Kong, where...
- 7/15/2021
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Chile is starting its own big restart. Few national industries will have a larger online presence at this year’s Cannes Film Market. Big name news has broken in early market plays as well.
After features with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams (“Disobedience”) and Julianne Moore (“Gloria Bell”), Academy Award winner Sebastián Lelio, (“A Fantastic Woman”) will associate produce “El Porvenir de la Mirada,” a doc feature that captures the trauma of some of the 460 protesters shot in the eyes by Chilean police during massive demonstrations that erupted in October 2019.
Set up at Storyboard Media, “Porvenir” is directed by distinguished Chilean doc filmmaker Cristián Leighton.
Even while gearing up to direct Joaquin Phoenix in A24’s “Disappointment Blvd.,” Ari Aster has signed on to executive produce Chilean stop-motion short “The Bones,” directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“The Wolf House”) with a soundtrack composed by acclaimed U.S. violinist Tim Fain,...
After features with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams (“Disobedience”) and Julianne Moore (“Gloria Bell”), Academy Award winner Sebastián Lelio, (“A Fantastic Woman”) will associate produce “El Porvenir de la Mirada,” a doc feature that captures the trauma of some of the 460 protesters shot in the eyes by Chilean police during massive demonstrations that erupted in October 2019.
Set up at Storyboard Media, “Porvenir” is directed by distinguished Chilean doc filmmaker Cristián Leighton.
Even while gearing up to direct Joaquin Phoenix in A24’s “Disappointment Blvd.,” Ari Aster has signed on to executive produce Chilean stop-motion short “The Bones,” directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“The Wolf House”) with a soundtrack composed by acclaimed U.S. violinist Tim Fain,...
- 7/8/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Winners of an Annecy Animation Festival best feature jury distinction, Chile’s Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“The Wolf House”) have wrapped shooting on a new short, “The Bones,” a stop-motion piece for adult audiences with a bold auteur aim.
“Bones” is produced by Lucas Engel’s new company Pista B in co-production with Diluvio. Director Ari Aster and Adam Butterfield are executive producing the short. It will be ready to premiere in the second half of this year.
“With ‘La Casa Lobo’ (‘The Wolf House’), Cociña and León struck me as the clear successors to Jan Svankmajer and the Quays,” Aster told Variety of his decision to board the film. “Here they seem to be channeling Ladislas Starevich and Joel-Peter Witkin, while sharpening their uncanny and unmistakable signature. ‘Los Huesos’ is a brilliant film by two utterly singular filmmakers.”
American composer and charismatic violinist Tim Fain created the film...
“Bones” is produced by Lucas Engel’s new company Pista B in co-production with Diluvio. Director Ari Aster and Adam Butterfield are executive producing the short. It will be ready to premiere in the second half of this year.
“With ‘La Casa Lobo’ (‘The Wolf House’), Cociña and León struck me as the clear successors to Jan Svankmajer and the Quays,” Aster told Variety of his decision to board the film. “Here they seem to be channeling Ladislas Starevich and Joel-Peter Witkin, while sharpening their uncanny and unmistakable signature. ‘Los Huesos’ is a brilliant film by two utterly singular filmmakers.”
American composer and charismatic violinist Tim Fain created the film...
- 7/7/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
In 2002, “Ogu and Mampato in Rapa Nui” became Chile’s first animated feature since the silent “Vida y milagros de Don Fausto” in 1924. Less than two decades later, five animated Chilean features in various stages of production are pitching at the Cannes Marché du Film.
That kind of growth would be surprising if it weren’t mirroring a larger shift seen in the country’s screen industries as a whole. There are few territories where domestic production and international co-production are more vibrant and exciting than Chile, whether in live action or animation, film or TV. In fact, two years before Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” won the international feature Oscar, Punkrobot’s “Bear Story” became the first-ever Chilean film to win an Academy Award as 2016’s best animated short.
Last year, “Nahuel and the Magic Book” was the third consecutive Chilean film to play in competition at the Annecy Animation Festival,...
That kind of growth would be surprising if it weren’t mirroring a larger shift seen in the country’s screen industries as a whole. There are few territories where domestic production and international co-production are more vibrant and exciting than Chile, whether in live action or animation, film or TV. In fact, two years before Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” won the international feature Oscar, Punkrobot’s “Bear Story” became the first-ever Chilean film to win an Academy Award as 2016’s best animated short.
Last year, “Nahuel and the Magic Book” was the third consecutive Chilean film to play in competition at the Annecy Animation Festival,...
- 7/5/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Art-House Animation
If your eyes are tired of the latest cookie-cutter animation from the Hollywood mill, Criterion is featuring quite a line-up of inventive arthouse offerings in the field. With works by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more, the series includes The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962), Belladonna of Sadness (1973), Fantastic Planet (1973), Watership Down (1978), Son of the White Mare (1981), Alice (1988), Millennium Actress (2001), Mind Game (2004), Paprika (2006), Persepolis (2007), Waltz with Bashir (2008), Mary and Max (2009), It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012), Tower (2016), The Wolf House (2018), No. 7 Cherry Lane (2019), and more.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Neo-Noir
One of the greatest series to arrive on the Criterion Channel thus far is this selection of neo-noir offerings, including Brian De Palma’s masterpieces Blow Out and Body Double,...
Art-House Animation
If your eyes are tired of the latest cookie-cutter animation from the Hollywood mill, Criterion is featuring quite a line-up of inventive arthouse offerings in the field. With works by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more, the series includes The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962), Belladonna of Sadness (1973), Fantastic Planet (1973), Watership Down (1978), Son of the White Mare (1981), Alice (1988), Millennium Actress (2001), Mind Game (2004), Paprika (2006), Persepolis (2007), Waltz with Bashir (2008), Mary and Max (2009), It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012), Tower (2016), The Wolf House (2018), No. 7 Cherry Lane (2019), and more.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Neo-Noir
One of the greatest series to arrive on the Criterion Channel thus far is this selection of neo-noir offerings, including Brian De Palma’s masterpieces Blow Out and Body Double,...
- 7/2/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Online Film Critics Society (Ofcs) has revealed its annual Top Ten List as well as winners of its film awards which was topped by Nomadland. In addition, The Chloé Zhao American wanderlust drama was named Best Picture. Also on the list is Pixar’s Soul which was also named Best Animated Feature.
“This list of nominations showcases the diversity and broad expressiveness of the film community,” said Wesley Lovell, a member of the Governing Committee of Ofcs, and founder of CinemaSight.com. “In a year where nothing was as we expected, and those expectations had to shift, cinema not only maintained its creativity and expansive canvas, but it managed to give new voices a chance to speak louder than they might have in any other year.”
He added, “In our directing category alone, we have four women, each at varying points in their careers, alongside one of the major voices of his generation.
“This list of nominations showcases the diversity and broad expressiveness of the film community,” said Wesley Lovell, a member of the Governing Committee of Ofcs, and founder of CinemaSight.com. “In a year where nothing was as we expected, and those expectations had to shift, cinema not only maintained its creativity and expansive canvas, but it managed to give new voices a chance to speak louder than they might have in any other year.”
He added, “In our directing category alone, we have four women, each at varying points in their careers, alongside one of the major voices of his generation.
- 1/25/2021
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
The Chicago Film Critics Association has named Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” as this year’s big winner, netting five prizes, including best picture, director, actress (Frances McDormand), adapted screenplay and cinematography. Leading the Cfca nominations with seven, the Searchlight Pictures drama has performed astoundingly with the half dozen critics awards that have been announced thus far. Zhao is currently 6/6 for critics wins.
With two awards, Focus Features’ “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” walked away with best original screenplay for writer Eliza Hittman and most promising performer for Sidney Flanigan.
The rest of the honorees won a single mention for their respective films. Chadwick Boseman won best actor for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” while Paul Raci netted another trophy for “Sound of Metal.” Maria Bakalova’s work in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” was also rewarded, marking her third win this season thus far.
The full list of winners are below:
Best Picture
“Da 5 Bloods...
With two awards, Focus Features’ “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” walked away with best original screenplay for writer Eliza Hittman and most promising performer for Sidney Flanigan.
The rest of the honorees won a single mention for their respective films. Chadwick Boseman won best actor for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” while Paul Raci netted another trophy for “Sound of Metal.” Maria Bakalova’s work in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” was also rewarded, marking her third win this season thus far.
The full list of winners are below:
Best Picture
“Da 5 Bloods...
- 12/22/2020
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” has earned seven nominations for 2020 honors from the Chicago Film Critics Association, followed by six each for Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” and Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”
David Fincher’s “Mank” and Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” took five nominations each. With 28 nominations, Netflix is the most recognized studio, followed by Amazon with 16 and and A24 with 15. Zhao and Fennell each earned three nominations.
The Best Director category is comprised entirely of women and people of color with Fennell, Lee, Steve McQueen, Reichardt and Zhao. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross achieved a double nomination in the same category, earning Best Original Score nominations for their work in both “Soul” and “Mank.” The late Chadwick Boseman earned nominations for Best Actor in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and Best Supporting Actor in “Da 5 Bloods.”
The...
David Fincher’s “Mank” and Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” took five nominations each. With 28 nominations, Netflix is the most recognized studio, followed by Amazon with 16 and and A24 with 15. Zhao and Fennell each earned three nominations.
The Best Director category is comprised entirely of women and people of color with Fennell, Lee, Steve McQueen, Reichardt and Zhao. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross achieved a double nomination in the same category, earning Best Original Score nominations for their work in both “Soul” and “Mank.” The late Chadwick Boseman earned nominations for Best Actor in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and Best Supporting Actor in “Da 5 Bloods.”
The...
- 12/18/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
The Boston Society of Film Critics awards is the precursor season “kickoff” for critics awards this year. The New England based group showed tremendous love for Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” which took home three awards for best picture, director and cinematography (Joshua James Richards).
Comprised of 26 film critics and journalists from the Boston city area, it offered a few inspired choices for the year’s favorite films and performances. 21-year-old Sidney Flanigan took the best actress prize for her debut turn in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” from Eliza Hittman. You have to go back to 2008 when the group rewarded Sally Hawkins’ work in “Happy-Go-Lucky” for a winner that didn’t move on to an Oscar nomination.
Anthony Hopkins won his second career prize from the 39-year-old group in best actor for his outstanding performance in “The Father” from first-time director Florian Zeller, who also won best new filmmaker. Bsfc awarded...
Comprised of 26 film critics and journalists from the Boston city area, it offered a few inspired choices for the year’s favorite films and performances. 21-year-old Sidney Flanigan took the best actress prize for her debut turn in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” from Eliza Hittman. You have to go back to 2008 when the group rewarded Sally Hawkins’ work in “Happy-Go-Lucky” for a winner that didn’t move on to an Oscar nomination.
Anthony Hopkins won his second career prize from the 39-year-old group in best actor for his outstanding performance in “The Father” from first-time director Florian Zeller, who also won best new filmmaker. Bsfc awarded...
- 12/13/2020
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Moments ago, the Boston Society of Film Critics revealed their award winners for the unique year that is 2020. As we enter a whole new section of the precursor season, with critics groups chiming in, we’re going to start to see who and what that element of the industry is partial to. Here, Bsfc went in some very interesting directions, though it’s clear there are some definite Academy Award nominees in the bunch. Like any good critics group, however, they’re not bound by just Oscar hopefuls. Nomadland took the top prize, but what else went down today in Boston? Read on to find out what they did… Nomadland took Best Picture, Best Director for Chloe Zhao, and Best Cinematography, leading the way with three wins. Also getting multiple citations were I’m Thinking of Ending Things and Minari, both winning two categories. Then, the single best win of the...
- 12/13/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
New Foreign
“Parasite” is an often-brutal examination of wealth inequality, and yet its Best Picture win still counts as one of the few universally uplifting moments that 2020 had to offer. This Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection arrives fully-loaded with extras, including director Bong Joon Ho’s black-and-white rendering of the film — anything but an afterthought, it’s a version that he and cinematographer Kyung-pyo Hong had in mind all along — commentaries, interviews, and a new essay from onetime TheWrap film critic Inkoo Kang.
Also available: Cameroonian college students get pulled into the dark web to pull a “Scam République” (IndiePix); anime saga “Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna” (Shout/Toei) celebrates the franchise’s 20th anniversary; “Three Comrades” (IndiePix) go out to unwind on a Friday night and wind up on an unexpected spree.
Chilean stop-motion feature “The Wolf House” (KimStim) uses unsettling visuals to spin a fable about the...
“Parasite” is an often-brutal examination of wealth inequality, and yet its Best Picture win still counts as one of the few universally uplifting moments that 2020 had to offer. This Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection arrives fully-loaded with extras, including director Bong Joon Ho’s black-and-white rendering of the film — anything but an afterthought, it’s a version that he and cinematographer Kyung-pyo Hong had in mind all along — commentaries, interviews, and a new essay from onetime TheWrap film critic Inkoo Kang.
Also available: Cameroonian college students get pulled into the dark web to pull a “Scam République” (IndiePix); anime saga “Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna” (Shout/Toei) celebrates the franchise’s 20th anniversary; “Three Comrades” (IndiePix) go out to unwind on a Friday night and wind up on an unexpected spree.
Chilean stop-motion feature “The Wolf House” (KimStim) uses unsettling visuals to spin a fable about the...
- 10/29/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Chile’s animation industry has gone from nearly non-existent to one of the most highly regarded and best exported in Latin America in just two decades.
For the third consecutive year, a Chilean feature is in competition at Annecy, and in 2016 “Bear Story” became the first-ever Chilean film to win an Oscar, taking home the award for best animated short.
So how did the Andean country go from bust to boom so quickly? As is often the case in modern-day Chile, when attempting to explain any cultural phenomena the first place to look is at the two brutal decades in which dictator Augusto Pinochet reigned over the country. It is through that lens that the roots of Chile’s current animation industry first become clear.
“As a country that went almost into cultural shutdown for so many years during the dictatorship, I think the return of democracy in the ‘90s...
For the third consecutive year, a Chilean feature is in competition at Annecy, and in 2016 “Bear Story” became the first-ever Chilean film to win an Oscar, taking home the award for best animated short.
So how did the Andean country go from bust to boom so quickly? As is often the case in modern-day Chile, when attempting to explain any cultural phenomena the first place to look is at the two brutal decades in which dictator Augusto Pinochet reigned over the country. It is through that lens that the roots of Chile’s current animation industry first become clear.
“As a country that went almost into cultural shutdown for so many years during the dictatorship, I think the return of democracy in the ‘90s...
- 6/16/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
It might be hyperbolic or unhelpful to label Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s “The Wolf House” as , but merely describing this stop-motion nightmare should be enough to explain the impulse.
A grimmer-than-Grimm fairy tale inspired (and ostensibly produced) by Colonia Dignidad — the cult-like Chilean enclave founded by German fugitive Paul Schäfer, an insatiable pedophile who raped the members of his community, provided shelter to Nazi war criminals like Josef Mengele, and tortured Pinochet’s enemies in exchange for his support — “The Wolf House” takes the age-old story of the Three Little Pigs and filters it through the warped mind of a profoundly traumatized little girl until it no longer resembles a fable so much as it does the final minutes of “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.”
Like the aroma of warm cookies wafting out of a witch’s hut, “The Wolf House” begins with a disarming trap, as...
A grimmer-than-Grimm fairy tale inspired (and ostensibly produced) by Colonia Dignidad — the cult-like Chilean enclave founded by German fugitive Paul Schäfer, an insatiable pedophile who raped the members of his community, provided shelter to Nazi war criminals like Josef Mengele, and tortured Pinochet’s enemies in exchange for his support — “The Wolf House” takes the age-old story of the Three Little Pigs and filters it through the warped mind of a profoundly traumatized little girl until it no longer resembles a fable so much as it does the final minutes of “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.”
Like the aroma of warm cookies wafting out of a witch’s hut, “The Wolf House” begins with a disarming trap, as...
- 5/15/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
It’s a relatively slim week in new releases, even by the standards of the ongoing coronavirus shutdown — although there are a few gems to be found, if you hunt hard enough. Families have “Scoob!” which Warner Bros. decided to make available directly via digital, following the recent success of “Trolls World Tour.” And grownups can check out Tom Hardy playing the shell of a notorious gangster in “Capone.” Here are the week’s new releases, with excerpts from reviews and links to where you can watch them.
High-profile on-demand studio and indie offerings:
Capone (Josh Trank)
Distributor: Vertical Entertainment
Where to Find It: Rent on Amazon, iTunes and other on-demand platforms.
In “Capone,” Tom Hardy, as the aging, broken-down, not-all-there Al Capone, acts under a corpse-gray mask of desiccated-mobster makeup. Is “Capone” a fascinatingly idiosyncratic twilight-of-the-mobster drama? Or is it a “Saturday Night Live” sketch with pretensions? It may be a bit of both.
High-profile on-demand studio and indie offerings:
Capone (Josh Trank)
Distributor: Vertical Entertainment
Where to Find It: Rent on Amazon, iTunes and other on-demand platforms.
In “Capone,” Tom Hardy, as the aging, broken-down, not-all-there Al Capone, acts under a corpse-gray mask of desiccated-mobster makeup. Is “Capone” a fascinatingly idiosyncratic twilight-of-the-mobster drama? Or is it a “Saturday Night Live” sketch with pretensions? It may be a bit of both.
- 5/15/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Walls are ever-morphing canvases in the ghastly realm of “The Wolf House” (“La casa lobo”), a mind-blowing stop-motion animated feature concerning how allegorical storytelling is exploited for fear and psychological manipulation. Chilean co-directors Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León graduate their uncanny yarns of sentient rooms and macabre beings from the short format into a full-length nightmare.
In the film, which opens on VOD and virtual cinema on May 15, viewers are asked to interpret the piece as an old production created by the Colony, an actual German community that lived in the countryside of southern Chile mostly isolated from sinful modernity — similar to the Amish of Pennsylvania or the Mennonites in Carlos Reygadas’ northern Mexico-set “Silent Light.”
A male voice, the Wolf (Rainer Krause), leader or spokesperson, asserts in accented Spanish that the filmmakers have restored the movie as a publicity move to mitigate the dark rumors surrounding the group. Outsiders...
In the film, which opens on VOD and virtual cinema on May 15, viewers are asked to interpret the piece as an old production created by the Colony, an actual German community that lived in the countryside of southern Chile mostly isolated from sinful modernity — similar to the Amish of Pennsylvania or the Mennonites in Carlos Reygadas’ northern Mexico-set “Silent Light.”
A male voice, the Wolf (Rainer Krause), leader or spokesperson, asserts in accented Spanish that the filmmakers have restored the movie as a publicity move to mitigate the dark rumors surrounding the group. Outsiders...
- 5/15/2020
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
If an Orwellian fable were to be visualized by a surrealist in the vein of Salvador Dali, the result would look and feel something like “The Wolf House,” a jaw-dropping marriage of various animation techniques, chiefly stop-motion. A dystopian tale with haunting echoes of “The Three Little Pigs” and “Red Riding Hood,” this shape-shifting, trippy nightmare from filmmakers Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña startles and terrifies in equal measure, while putting forth an uncompromising examination of fascism in a way that only animation can do. Audiences will frequently ask themselves, “How on earth did they pull that off?” as characters and objects emerge, evolve and transform in a relentless rhythm — the whole movie is shot to suggest a single continuous sequence — while feeling disturbed, even frightened to their bones for reasons they won’t always be able to pinpoint.
That’s because the breathtaking yet abstract...
That’s because the breathtaking yet abstract...
- 5/15/2020
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
KimStim Announces the U.S. Virtual Theatrical Release of the Chilean Film The Wolf House by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña Winner of the Cinema Tropical Award for Best First Film, the Stop-Motion Animated Feat Will Be Available on Friday, May 15 Through Virtual Cinemas Across the Country KimStim is proud to announce the U.S. virtual …
The post Virtual U.S. Theatrical Release of The Wolf House, Opens May 15 appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.
The post Virtual U.S. Theatrical Release of The Wolf House, Opens May 15 appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.
- 5/4/2020
- by Adrian Halen
- Horror News
"You're burning! Be careful!" KimStim has released an official Us trailer for an experiential animated film titled The Wolf House, the English version of the original Spanish name - La Casa Lobo. The 75-minute film is animated using the paint / repaint stop-motion technique with various real-world objects and rooms worked right into the visuals. The story is very strange - it's about Maria, a young woman who takes refuge in a tiny house in southern Chile after escaping from a German colony. "Using stop-motion techniques and combining elements of various fables, photography, drawing, sculpture, and stage performance, Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León have created a nightmarish shapeshifter of a film." Starring Amalia Kassai and Rainer Krause. It is supremely weird and trippy, and gets to be a bit much, spiraling into utter madness. Official Us trailer (+ original poster) for Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal León's The Wolf House, from Vimeo: Evoking Colonia Dignidad,...
- 5/4/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
KimStim Announces the U.S. Theatrical Release of the Chilean Film The Wolf House by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña Winner of the Cinema Tropical Award for Best First Film, the Stop-Motion Animated Feat Opens Friday, March 20 at Anthology Film Archives in New York, and on Friday, March 27 at the Laemmle Glendale in Los Angeles, Followed by …
The post U.S. Theatrical Release of The Wolf House, Opens March 20 appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.
The post U.S. Theatrical Release of The Wolf House, Opens March 20 appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.
- 3/10/2020
- by Adrian Halen
- Horror News
While November and December are often considered the months in which films of the highest-quality films arrive (as award season demands), one could easily make the case for spring. It’s often the time of year when distributors unspool more daring, adventurous works that may not be tailor-made for Academy voters. To further fuel this notion, March brings three films in my current top five of the year thus far, and much more. Check out my recommendations below.
15. The Truth (Hirokazu Kore-eda; March 20)
Following his Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda used his newfound worldwide attention to shift gears with The Truth, a French- and English-language production (the Japanese director’s first) boasting the mightly impressive cast of Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Ethan Hawke. Unfortunately, it’s not quite a knock-out as our Tiff review attests to, however, there are enough grace notes of performance to be found...
15. The Truth (Hirokazu Kore-eda; March 20)
Following his Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda used his newfound worldwide attention to shift gears with The Truth, a French- and English-language production (the Japanese director’s first) boasting the mightly impressive cast of Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Ethan Hawke. Unfortunately, it’s not quite a knock-out as our Tiff review attests to, however, there are enough grace notes of performance to be found...
- 3/2/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
When it comes to the field of animation, many productions can often succumb to a certain sameness in their respective visual approaches. This is certainly not the case for a bold new Chilean film. Directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, The Wolf House is a stop-motion animation that plays out in a single-sequence shot, telling a fairy tale story based loosely on Colonia Dignidad, a German émigré-run colony in post-wwii Chile that was revealed to have been used to imprison, torture, and murder dissidents during the Pinochet regime.
Ahead of a U.S. release from KimStim, opening on March 20 at Anthology Film Archives in NYC and March 27 at the Laemmle Glendale in La, we’re pleased to exclusively unveil the new trailer. Winner of the Cinema Tropical Award for Best First Film, the feature animation was created over several years, shot in art galleries in a number of countries as viewers witnessed the production.
Ahead of a U.S. release from KimStim, opening on March 20 at Anthology Film Archives in NYC and March 27 at the Laemmle Glendale in La, we’re pleased to exclusively unveil the new trailer. Winner of the Cinema Tropical Award for Best First Film, the feature animation was created over several years, shot in art galleries in a number of countries as viewers witnessed the production.
- 3/2/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The strangest film I saw at Fantastic Fest in Austin last September was, hands down, The Wolf House. There’s always something creepy about stop-motion animation, but this film reaches dizzying levels of nightmarish insanity. If you missed The Wolf House […]
The post Hallucinatory Stop-Motion Nightmare The Wolf House Coming to Select Theaters This March appeared first on Dread Central.
The post Hallucinatory Stop-Motion Nightmare The Wolf House Coming to Select Theaters This March appeared first on Dread Central.
- 2/28/2020
- by Josh Millican
- DreadCentral.com
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