Author: Alex Billington

"Really, really, funny." NoBudge has debuted a brand new official trailer for an indie comedy called Dad & Step-Dad, made by filmmakers Tynan DeLong and Colin Burgess. After initially releasing on the streaming service NoBudge last year, this is getting a proper VOD release (with limited theatrical showings) starting in March. Here is the full intro to this cinema creation via Indiewire: "Dad & Step-Dad was filmed in just four days during summer 2021, with a production budget of $18,000. The feature is entirely improvised and based on an outline and multiple rehearsals... The film uses cinéma vérité, documentary filmmaking, ASMR, and Japanese environmental music as cinematic inspirations." Jim and Dave, a dad and a step-dad, have trouble bonding during a 3-day weekend upstate with their son, Branson. It's entirely improvised, based off of a robust outline + several rehearsals. Starring Colin Burgess and Anthony Oberbeck, with Brian Fiddyment and Clare O'Kane. This is a funny trailer, filled with glowing quotes, including a bunch from Letterboxd users (they're hilarious). "And don't just take their word for it, you can form ...

"Racing has taken from me the most important thing in my life... but it's also given me so much." HBO has revealed an official trailer for a new sports documentary film titled The Lionheart, a story about a racing family, coming to Max and HBO this March. The film first premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival last year, with a stop at the Heartland Film Festival. The doc is about Dan Wheldon – a two-time Indianapolis 500 champion, dies on the track in 2011, shocking the world of motorsports to its very core. Ten years later, his sons Sebastian and Oliver Wheldon continue their father's practice. As their mother Susie grapples with her grief and the responsibility of raising their sons alone, the two boys, ages 12 & 10, take on their father's mantle and enter the world of professional racing. As an epic sports story unfolds within the ongoing inter-generational family drama, this explores Susie's dilemma as a mother who questions whether her family's lineage is a blessing or a burden while watching her sons, with the high-risk ...

"Overflowing with handcrafted charm..." Curzon in the UK has revealed their official trailer for the beloved animated film Robot Dreams, which first premiered at the 2023 Cannes & Annecy Film Festivals last year. The film snuck in and ended up getting nominated for Best Animated Film at the 2024 Academy Awards (after a small qualifying theatrical release in the US last fall). Neon has finally scheduled Robot Dreams to open in US theaters in May 2024, but we're still waiting for their full trailer to drop online (after a teaser). In the meantime, both UK and Australian distributors have unveiled new trailers - they're pretty much the same thing but with different quotes swapped in. A story about friendship, its importance, and its fragility. The dialogue-free animated film is based on the popular graphic novel by Sara Varon, about the adventures and misfortunes of Dog and Robot in NYC during the '80s. Dog is lonely so he orders a Robot companion, but then Robot gets stuck in the sand at the beach one day. I wrote a glowing review of ...

"Backups on the way, we just have to hold out 'till they arrive! Okay?" The Movie Partnership in the UK has debuted an official UK trailer for an indie thriller titled Jericho Ridge, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker / editor Will Gilbey. This first premiered at the 2023 Galway Film Fleadh in Ireland last year, and opens in UK cinemas this April, with no US date confirmed just yet. Trapped and without backup, a small town cop fights for her life when her remote Sheriff's Office is targeted by a group of murderous attackers. Isolated and outgunned, mother and son will have to do whatever it takes to survive. The director explains how intense this survival thriller is aiming to be: "I want the audience to feel wrung out when they leave the cinema, as if it's only safe to take a breath when the closing credits start rolling." Jericho Ridge stars Nikki Amuka-Bird, Zack Morris, and Chris Reilly. This looks like a proper remix of Assault on Precinct 13, with a similar defend-the-station concept. Looks just as ...

"Dreams and illusions collide like spark dazzling in the sky." FS has been posting unique music videos for years in our acclaimed Short Film section - and here's another funky one to add to our growing selection sci-fi music videos. This funky, flashy sci-fi music video is for the song "The Day When We Fall In Love", a collaboration between the artists Sing Sing Rabbit and Kelly Chen. The Cantonese language song (with subtitles included!) has a music video created by the Hong Kong based filmmaker Andy Tang, who runs a company called UnderThePillow - with the artist known as "Sing Sing Rabbit". The film has been selected to show as part of the 2024 Cinequest Film Festival selection this year, playing as a short in front of the film Three Birthdays. Sing Sing Rabbit plays Emma, who lives on a planet that is about to be destroyed, walking along the dunes with her violin, remembering the mysterious and fantastic story of the Star Tribe that her grandfather told her. She decides to start a wishing journey, hoping to send ...

The Independent Spirit Awards are an annual award given in the name of independent film, featuring all of the indie films which deserve honor and recognition - celebrating their 39th year. The 2024 winners of the Spirit Awards were announced Saturday evening, in their usual spot in Santa Monica near the beach - this time just a week before the Oscars. The big winner this year is the beloved Past Lives, taking both Best Film and Best Director (Celine Song also won a DGA Award for Best First Feature). The other nominations from all the 2023 releases included many outstanding indie films many cinephiles have been talking up all year, deserving of some extra time in the spotlight - gems like May December, American Fiction, Passages, Earth Mama, All of Us Strangers, Theater Camp, BlackBerry, and The Starling Girl. As usual, there are a few surprises: I've never heard of Chronicles of a Wandering Saint (an Argentinian film titled Crónicas de una Santa Errante in Spanish) or Upon Entry before their nominations; We Grown Now (watch the trailer) and Mountains ...

"Just the right amount of spice." Universal + DreamWorks have debuted an amusing TV spot for Kung Fu Panda 4 riffing on the release of the epic sequel Dune: Part Two in theaters this week. KFP4 opens in theaters nationwide next week, starting on March 8th, the week after this one. This spring, for the first time in almost a decade, comedy icon Jack Black returns to his role as Po the Panda, the world's most unlikely kung fu master, for a hilarious, butt-kicking brand new chapter in DreamWorks Animation's beloved action-comedy franchise: Kung Fu Panda 4 (watch the main trailer here). Po is gearing up to become the spiritual leader of his Valley of Peace, but also needs someone to take his place as Dragon Warrior. As such, he will train a new kung fu practitioner for the spot and will encounter a villain called the Chameleon who conjures villains from the past. This sequel also stars Dustin Hoffman as Kung Fu master, Shifu; James Hong as Mr. Ping; Bryan Cranston as Li; and Ian McShane as Tai Lung, ...

A two-part theatrical event. Warner Bros has revealed the full official trailer for Horizon: An American Saga, directed by, produced by, and starring Kevin Costner. This epic western will be released as two parts during the summer of 2024 - at the end of June and in August. He filmed throughout both 2022 and 2023 in southern Utah to get both parts of this story finished and ready for the big screen. The westerns chronicle a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West. The massive ensemble cast for Horizon: An American Saga includes tons of major actors: Kevin Costner stars with Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Michael Rooker, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, Will Patton, Thomas Haden Church, Dale Dickey, and Jamie Campbell Bower, among others. After the success of "Yellowstone", I think Hollywood is hoping this will end up as one of the most successful westerns of the modern era. Can he pull it off? How does ...

"Lou, I wish I could grow as fast as you..." Capelight Pictures & Blue Fox Ent. have revealed an official US trailer for a nice animal movie titled A Cat's Life, a French "warm-hearted and educational family film." Obviously it's about a cat; the film is adapted from a French novel named "Rroû" about a kitty named Rroû. The film follows the journey of Clémence and her kitty, Rroû, as they leave Paris to spend the holidays in the countryside. While there, Rroû enjoys the wildlife and befriends Câline, a white kitten who prowls in the woods. With a great feel for the moment and breathtaking shots of nature and animals, it captures the friendship between a girl and a cat who both have to learn what it means to grow up. The US version of this renames the cat to "Lou" though the cat still goes out for a thrilling adventure into the woods. A Cat's Life stars Capucine Sainson-Fabresse as Clémence, with Corinne Masiero and Lucie Laurent. For the US release, it has been dubbed in English because ...

"A once-in-a-lifetime summer." GKids has revealed the first look teaser trailer for a Japanese animated film titled Ghost Cat Anzu, arriving to watch later in 2024. This originally premiered at the 2023 Annecy Film Festival last year as a work-in-progress project. It's now finished and ready to debut in Japan this summer. It's a rotoscoped 2D animation film that's co-directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita, who often makes live-action films. The Japanese cinema master Nobuhiro Yamashita x rising star of anime world Yôko Kuno x world-renowned artist Mirai Moriyama create a "monster cat"! The anime is about an amusing friendship shared between Karin, a strong-minded girl sent to live with her monk granddad in the Japanese countryside, and Anzu, the even-more unpredictable phantom feline who acts as her guardian. Mirai Moriyama voices the titular Anzu, and Noa Gotō voices Karin. Both played their characters live-action that became the reference for the animators, with both their dialogue and their movements being converted into the final footage. This sounds like so much fun! Just a short teaser to start without much footage - but ...