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Belize City, Belize – Mexican films and shorts dominated the winners of the 13th Belize Intl. Film Festival on Sunday in a brisk closing ceremony punctuated by pulsing reggae music performances by the likes of Ras Indio & Boss Lady, Ernestine Carballo and Jah Art.

The event was broadcast live on local television station, Channel 5.

“Guerrero,” Ludovic Bonleux’s harrowing documentary about the disappearance of 43 students and the protests that paralyzed the Mexican state, won best film in the festival’s Collective Memories section.

“You wouldn’t know it, but it’s a feel-good musical,” quipped juror Dan Mirvish, co-founder of Slamdance, who presented the award.

Mexican short films also beat out other contenders from the region with Toronto-based multihyphenate-juror Nicole Brooks – who showed off her prodigious dancing skills to kick off the event – giving out the best short prizes.

Mexican short “The Good Man” (“El Hombre Bueno”) by Jose Luis Solis,...

In recent months, the #MeToo movement has derailed the careers of big-name stars and studio execs right and left, but the impact isn’t limited to the rich and famous. One such case is affecting those in the below-the-line film and TV production community in New Mexico.

Jon Hendry, a longtime fixture of New Mexico’s film industry, resigned March 18 as the business agent of the Intl. Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 480 after two women filed a lawsuit alleging that he sexually harassed them and engaged in discriminatory behavior. Iatse and the local were also named as defendants.

Less than a week earlier, the scandal had cut through the political scene in the Land of Enchantment. On March 13, Richard Ellenberg, chairman of the New Mexico Democratic Party, stepped down following a storm of criticism after he cast doubt on the credibility of the accusations against Hendry. While the events...

Showcasing the Best in Independent and World Cinema

Thursday, October 5–15, 2017Acclaimed Festival Films From Around the World And New Offerings from Bay Area Filmmakers Highlight First Slate of Films Announced at 40th Mill Valley Film Festival

The Mill Valley Film Festival (Mvff), presented by the California Film Institute, has announced the first set of films to premiere at the 40th edition of the Festival, returning to Marin County October 5–15, 2017. The Festival will present the Bay Area premiere of many acclaimed films from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.

Additionally, Mvff will launch many acclaimed Bay Area filmmakers’ latest films as part of the Festival’s effort to showcase the many established and emerging filmmakers in the Bay Area.

Early Confirmed films from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival at MVFF40:

Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or Winner and Swedish Oscar Submission The Square...

Don’t look to this noir for hardboiled cynicism – for his first feature Nicholas Ray instead gives us a dose of fatalist romance. Transposed from the previous decade, a pair of fugitives takes what happiness they can find, always aware that a grim fate waits ahead. The show is a career-making triumph and a real classic from Rko — which shelved it for more than a year.

They Live by Night

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 880

1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 13, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Cathy O’Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva, Jay C. Flippen, Helen Craig, Will Wright, William Phipps, Ian Wolfe, Harry Harvey, Marie Bryant, Byron Foulger, Erskine Sanford .

Cinematography: George E. Diskant

Film Editor: Sherman Todd

Original Music: Leigh Harline

Written by Charles Schnee, Nicholas Ray from the novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson

Produced by John Houseman

Directed by Nicholas Ray...

We have another busy week of home entertainment releases on the horizon, as there are over two dozen titles making their way to Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday. For those of you cult film enthusiasts, you have a lot of options when it comes to adding items to your collections, as Alienator is being resurrected by Scream Factory, Arrow Video is unleashing a special edition set for Madhouse, and Mondo Macabre has given Paul Naschy’s Inquisition an HD overhaul as well.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also have new releases for The Hound of Baskervilles, Medusa, and Nicholas Ray’s classic noir They Live By Night to look forward to as well. For you TV lovers out there, the box sets for the final season of both The Vampire Diaries and Grimm are being released Tuesday, and for those who are on the hunt for some new action cinema,...

It’s a new week, and nestled in another dumpster-load of content destined for the garbage pile that is the growing video-on-demand market comes Stephen C. Miller’s Southern action thriller Arsenal. The first of two movies Miller has due for release in 2017, which incidentally will be his fifth since 2015 (in case you needed an idea of the patient love and care the director brings to his projects), Arsenal is incoherent, thin on ideas original or otherwise and, despite its brisk 92-minute running time, a curious slog. Even by the now shockingly low standards of Nicolas Cage, lo-rent crap extraordinaire, Arsenal is bad – a product of totally incompetent filmmaking that will, as you drift, have you pondering how the money it cost to make could have better served humanity.

Biloxi, Mississippi provides Arsenal‘s setting, the location adding an unavoidably muggy atmosphere that’s perfect for the pulpy material but...

While deploying an action-pulp armory of slo-mo slaughter and hard-slamming brutality, the crime thriller Arsenal also taps into primal matters of brotherly loyalty and betrayal. The brothers — one straight-arrow, one ne’er-do-well — are played by Adrian Grenier and Johnathon Schaech, digging into two-dimensional roles with conviction. The key attraction, though, if you find sadistic maniacs entertaining, is Nicolas Cage in full-throttle wacko regalia.

Director Steven C. Miller shot Arsenal in two weeks. With a cast that also includes John Cusack and Cage’s real-life brother, Christopher Coppola, the key takeaway is that some screen vets welcome the opportunity to dip into...

This year, Nicolas Cage starred in films about ex-cons kidnapping a mobster’s birthday, an imbalanced civilian trying to hunt down Osama Bin Laden and a WWII Navy Captain struggling to stay alive in shark-infested waters. Suffice to say, he’s an actor who takes on varied roles, and this January, audiences will see him again as a ruthless mobster who faces off against John Cusack (“High Fidelity”) and Adrian Grenier (“Entourage”)

Read More: Samuel L. Jackson And John Cusack Dial Up Terror In Trailer For Stephen King’s ‘Cell’

The film follows the Lindel brothers, Mikey (Johnathon Schaech) and Jp (Grenier), who had taken completely different paths in their adult life. Jp found success as the owner of a construction company, while Mikey became a small-time mobster. But when Mikey is kidnapped by crime boss Eddit King (Cage), Jp turns to his old friend Sal (Cusack), a plain clothes detective,...

The final limited edition con variant of the year for The Walking Dead #1 will be available exclusively to all Wizard World Reno goers. Also in this round-up: The Curse of Sleeping Beauty distribution news and Another Hole in the Head Film Fest.

The Walking Dead #1: Press Release: "Reno, Nev., November 3, 2015 -- Wizard World, Inc. (Otcbb: Wizd) and Skybound, Robert Kirkman 's imprint at Image Comics, today announced that ‘Spawn’ artist Jonboy Meyers has drawn the 23rd and final in a yearlong series of Limited Edition Exclusive Variant Covers of The Walking Dead #1 comic, to be provided free to all full-price attendees at Wizard World Comic Con Reno, November 20-22. Skybound’s The Walking Dead created by Kirkman, the groundbreaking, Eisner-Award-winning comic book series, continues to captivate audiences worldwide.

The exclusive The Walking Dead #1 edition will be produced in extremely limited quantities and is available at registration to fans at...

The next generation of talented filmmakers has grown up in a time in which cameras are more easily available than ever before. Their relationship to the moving image is incredibly interactive and natural. The YouTube generation shoots everything, edits, shares, and expresses its opinions on virtual global platforms. Therefore, it's not surprising to see very young filmmakers creating works of great quality with the tools at their disposal, which are also rapidly becoming more and more professional while still affordable.

I had the great pleasure of watching numerous examples of this type of talent as a juror for the Fifth Annual Los Angeles Student Film Festival. After receiving nearly 200 submissions from Los Angeles County high school students, the jury, which also included Sasheen Artis, Jesse Atlas, Christopher Coppola, Armen Harootun, Jeffrey David Harvey, Larry Laboe, Patricia Richardson, Tatiana Grace Simonian and Anahid Yahjian, selected 37 short films that will be screened on Saturday, May 30, 2015 at the beautiful El Portal Theatre in the NoHo Arts District.

The show begins at 6:30 p.m. and is preceded by an exciting career fair that starts at 5:00 p.m. Come early to meeting industry professionals, take photos on the exclusive red carpet, and enjoy free food and entertainment! Festival tickets are now available for purchase by clicking here.This year, tickets will be offered for a modest fee of $2.50 to offset event costs.

Here are the finalists in each of the 8 different categories, some of the schools that feature more prominently include Burbank High School, Providence High School, Van Nuys High School, El Camino Real Charter High School, and Harvard-Westlake School.

Animation

"24 Karat"

By Shannon Hoang, Ariana Hernandez, Kristen Broderick and Kayla Hebert

Burbank High School

"Crane"

By Kendra Sazon

Burbank High School

"Destiny Key"

By Evelyna Nazari

Burbank High School

"The Slug Apocalypse"

By Alex Garza

North Hollywood High School

"Life is Your Dream"

By Sandra Elhachem, Kirsten Stoner, and Jennifer Minasyan

Burbank High School

"Stitch Garden"

By Ahdenae Khodaverdian and Elaine Morales

Burbank High School

"Toy Tank"

By Sabrinna Bates

Burbank High School

Comedy

"Lady Kaller"

By Milo Borsuk

Wildwood Forsythe

"Spooky Business"

By Tino Dimperio and J.C. Castro

Providence High School

"Triforce of Desire"

By Lauralee Harper, Brad Pickens, Isaac Sage, and Zara Schuster

Harvard-Westlake School

Commercial

"J&R Drum Sticks!"

By Robert Lugo

John Muir High School

"The Hike"

By Cristian De Jesus and Vicente Tirado

Van Nuys High School

"Colgate"

By Saidakhon Abdullaeva

Van Nuys High School

"Fashion Lookbook"

By Olga Herrera

Van Nuys High School

Documentary / PSA

"A Sockumentary"

By Riley Beres

Port of Los Angeles

"Children of the Genocide"

By Nina Milligan

Harvard-Westlake School

"Cut the Tall Trees: The Killing Power of Words"

By Noah Bennett and Max Cho

Harvard-Westlake School

"Emergency Stop (The Cycle of Violence)"

By Juli Freedman, Becca Frischling, Jess Grody, and Karenina Juarez

Harvard-Westlake School

"Go Make a Difference!"

By Isaiah Ferguson

Providence High School

"Trauma You Don't See"

By Phillip Ahn, Erin Lee, Su Jin Nam. Sean On, and Will Park

Harvard-Westlake School

"What's in Your Food?"

Providence High School

"The Monster Within"

By Angela Soyean Chon, George Khabbaz, Dora Schoenberg, and Jordan Seibel

Harvard-Westlake School

Drama

"15"

By Ben Tan and Luka Joncich

El Camino Real Charter High School

"Pride"

By Rory McClellan

El Camino Real Charter High School

"The Crickets Have Arthritis"

By Shane Koyczan

Providence High School

Experimental

"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"

By Javier Arango

Harvard-Westlake School

"Grace"

By Ricki Herrera

John F. Kennedy Filmmaking Magnet

"Mask"

By Katie Speare

Harvard-Westlake School

"Psychoanalysis"

By Efren Lopez

John F. Kennedy Filmmaking Magnet

"The First Responder"

By Chris Bredin

Taft Charter High School

Horror

"CA Horror Stories"

By Eduardo Encina, Dennise Mojica, Sylvia Balcaceres, and Anika Kokatay

Van Nuys High School

"Late Night Report"

By Keaton Applebaum

Champs Charter High School

"Delirium"

By Noah Kentis

El Camino Real Charter High School

Music Video

"Human After All"

Providence High School

"I Care"

Providence High School

"Life Developments"

Providence High School

"Street Photography"

By Nickon Mirsepassi and Alberto Kersh

Santa Monica High School...

I'll take any excuse to remind people this movie exists. So Focus...con artist movie...blah blah blah... Deadfall (1993) Director: Christopher Coppola Stars: Nicolas Cage, Other Non-Nicolas Cage People A con man accidentally kills his own father during a fake drug sting and in a haze of grief, sets out to fulfill his dad.s dying wish of retrieving a valuable possession from his long lost twin brother. Instead he runs in to Nicolas Cage, who is probably the most ridiculous...

A larger-than-life figure and a veritable force of nature, Christopher Coppola takes pleasure in repeating Philip Kaufman’s greeting when the venerable San Francisco director saw him on the street in North Beach: “There goes the pirate of the Coppola family.” Christopher Coppola isn’t the type to stand in anyone else’s shadow, although he’s had to get used to being identified as Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew, Sofia Coppola and Roman Coppola’s cousin and Nicolas Cage’s brother. He’s a filmmaker, above all, with several iconoclastic features to his credit and a spate of projects with titles like Sacred Blood and Biker MacBeth on various burners. An impassioned champion of digital technology and arts education, among his multitude of interests, Coppola also chairs the film department at the San Francisco Art Institute and sits on the California Arts Council. We conversed over the din in...

A larger-than-life figure and a veritable force of nature, Christopher Coppola takes pleasure in repeating Philip Kaufman’s greeting when the venerable San Francisco director saw him on the street in North Beach: “There goes the pirate of the Coppola family.” Christopher Coppola isn’t the type to stand in anyone else’s shadow, although he’s had to get used to being identified as Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew, Sofia Coppola and Roman Coppola’s cousin and Nicolas Cage’s brother. He’s a filmmaker, above all, with several iconoclastic features to his credit and a spate of projects with titles like Sacred Blood and Biker MacBeth on various burners. An impassioned champion of digital technology and arts education, among his multitude of interests, Coppola also chairs the film department at the San Francisco Art Institute and sits on the California Arts Council. We conversed over the din in...

Nicolas Cage...

Undoubtedly one of the biggest -- and unique -- actors of his generation, Nicolas Cage got his start in 1982's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" in a part so small if you blink you'd miss it. Then, after changing his name from Coppola to Cage, the actor's career took off and he's been a leading man ever since.

This week, Cage stars in David Gordon Green's "Joe," as a hot-tempered, but protective ex-con in a role that has critics raving about the actor's restrained performance. Whether or not you're a fan of the intense star, there's no denying he's a cinematic force to be reckoned with.

From his unexpected connection to J.D. Salinger to his questionable dinosaur skull purchase, here are 55 things you probably don't know about Nicolas Cage.

1. Born Nicolas Coppola, the actor chose Cage as his stage name to honor comic book superhero Luke Cage.

2. Inspired by Superman's birth name,...

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 15th 2012

Since he first appeared at age 12 in the wedding sequence of The Godfather, Nick Villelonga has appeared in 31 movies as an actor. Some of his roles included small parts in The Pope Of Greenwich Village, Prizzi’S Honor , and Goodfellas. His first script, Deadfall, co-written with director Christopher Coppola, was made into a feature film starring Nicolas Cage, Michael Biehn, and James Coburn in 1993. Nick then went on to write and direct independent films such as A Brilliant Disguise starring Lysette Anthony and The Corporate Ladder starring Ben Cross.

Now Nick Villelonga has directed the western Yellow Rock starring James Russo and Michael Biehn. It will be playing at the St. Louis International Film Festival on Friday, Nov 16th at 7:00pm at the Wildey Theatre and Sunday, Nov 18th at 4:15pm at the Hi-Pointe Theatre.

We Are Movie Geeks caught up...

Heres a buried treasure that was once lost with the demise of a formerly dominant horror site. Thank goodness for backing files up, as this one, albeit brief is pretty entertaining, especially once Christopher and I get into talking about his brother, Nicholas Cage. Independent Filmmaker Christopher Coppola has made a career both behind, and in-front of the camera. Recently, Christopher's been devoting efforts to his state-of-the-art digital st…...

by Michael Pickle, MoreHorror.com

Evil Kitty Productions brought Horror to Big Bear Lake California last weekend for the 3rd year with the ever expanding Big Bear Horro-Fi Film Festival. Held in the beautiful mountain community of Big Bear Lake with a brand new name thanks to the decision to make Sci-Fi films a part of the festival selection this year.

MoreHorror attended the red carpet kick-off party in Hollywood last week before the festival and the energy, excitement and anticipation was at a fever pitch. Heather Langenkamp from the original Nightmare on Elm Street whose autobiographical feature documentary I Am Nancy headlined the opening night of the festival.

Amanda Wyss who played Tina in the Wes Craven classic and many other stars, filmmakers and fans of the genre gathered at a club in Hollywood to celebrate the young festival that provides a forum for both established and up-and-coming filmmakers.

We're just a few days away from September 30th start of the Big Bear Horro-Fi Film Festival, and a few announcements have come out over the past few days with regard to additions to the lineup along with news of a world premiere taking place at the event.

11/11/11, director Keith Allan’s newest film for The Asylum, which is being released on November 1st, makes its world debut a month early at the 2011 Big Bear Horro-Fi Film Festival. 11/11/11 screens at the Festival’s Opening Night on Friday, September 30, at the Big Bear Performing Arts Center.

“We are honored and thrilled to have Keith’s film make its debut here at the Festival,” said Christopher Gaida, Director of Programming. “I know it’s going to be well received and will set the dark, creepy tone we love to have over this horror weekend. I have goose bumps already!”

Not be confused...

Director Christopher Coppola will screen the first feature film he made, Dracula's Widow (1988) at the 2011 Big Bear Horro-Fi Film Festival® in Big Bear Lake, California. The story of a young owner of a waxworks who unwittingly imports the widow of Count Dracula when he orders Romanian antiques. Dracula’s Widow will show on Saturday night, October 1, at 8 p.m.

Read more...

Director Christopher Coppola will screen the first feature film he made, Dracula's Widow (1988) at the 2011 Big Bear Horro-Fi Film Festival® in Big Bear Lake, California. The story of a young owner of a waxworks who unwittingly imports the widow of Count Dracula when he orders Romanian antiques. Dracula’s Widow will show on Saturday night, October 1, at 8 p.m.

Read more...

The name George Kuchar (right, with Marion Eaton in Thundercrack!) will probably not ring a bell to the vast majority of moviegoers anywhere in the world. Yet, Kuchar, who died of cancer last night, September 6, directed more than 200 movies — mostly shorts and video productions — from the mid-1950s to the late 2000s. The New York-born (Aug. 31, 1942) Kuchar brothers' penchant for experimental, micro-budget underground films with bizarre plots and characters would inspire the likes of John Waters in the '70s. “The Kuchar brothers,” Waters wrote in the introduction to the Kuchars' memoirs Reflections in a Cinematic Cesspool, “gave me the self confidence to believe in my own tawdry vision.” Of course, whether or not that's a good thing depends on whether or not you appreciate Waters' "tawdriness." As for George Kuchar, among his efforts, solo or with his twin brother Mike Kuchar, are A Bathtub Named Desire (1956), The Naked and...

Ian Sansom on a clan inextricably linked to the Godfather films

As director and writer of The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, Peggy Sue Got Married, and a dozen or so other films, Francis Ford Coppola personifies a particular era in American movie history. According to his biographer, Peter Cowie, he has "passed into myth". "He fascinates the movie industry," writes Cowie in Coppola, "as much by the flamboyance of failure as by the occasional magnitude of his success." He fascinates, too, because of his family.

Coppola is an old-fashioned family man, a classic paterfamilias – the founder and owner of the family estate. (He runs an actual estate, a winery, in California). His wife Eleanor – a set designer and artist and "certainly no archetypal mamma mia", in Cowie's words – has said of her husband: "He is radical and innovative in his work, but not in his family life.

His films are hit-and-miss with the critics but Nicolas Cage is undoubtedly one of the most successful Hollywood actors in the business today. With an Academy Award under his belt and having starred in over 70 movies, he's a well-known public figure, but there is more to Nicolas than meets the eye. Keep reading for ten quickfire facts about Mr Cage. 1. Nicolas Cage, born Nicolas Kim Coppola, was born on January 7, 1964 to parents August and Joy. He comes from a family of celebrities including his composer grandfather Carmine Coppola, his actress grandmother Italia Pennino and his director uncle Francis Ford Coppola, while his two brothers are Christopher Coppola, a director, and Marc 'The Cope' Coppola, a New York radio personality. 2. He changed his name from Coppola to Cage in the early stages of his career to avoid association with his already famous uncle. (more)...

If it's Sunday, then that means its time for another Fangoria Week In Review. We're turning back the clock to look back on the past seven days of blood-soaked horror goodness.

We've got the entire week broken down by category so that you can catch up on anything you might've missed. It was a Big week for interviews, with Joe Dante, Danielle Harris, Hg Lewis and more - and the news continued to flow about the biggest event in Fango history - the Fangoria Trinity Of Terrors, which invades Las Vegas on Halloween Weekend!

Want to make sure you never miss a story? Follow @fangoriamag on Twitter!

Fangoria Trinity Of Terrors: Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas, Nv - 10/30-11/01/2009

Tickets are now available online through http://www.trinityofterrors.com and through Vegas.com. You may also order tickets from Vegas.com by phone - 1-888-las-vegas (527-8342) 24 hours a day.

Independent Filmmaker Christopher Coppola has made a career both behind, and in-front of the camera. Recently devoting time to his state-of-the-art digital studio with offices in Los Angeles and New Mexico, Fango's Matt Molgaard recently caught up with the man to talk a little film.

It's been some time since you last directed a feature length film. Do you have any projects in the works?

I've been spending my time building a cutting edge HD/New Media Studio/Production Company - Christopher R. Coppola Productions/PlasterCity Digital Post.  I am developing my project Biker MacBeth which will be my coup de gras.

Dracula's Widow was one of your first pictures if I'm not mistaken. Tell me a little bit about your first experience tackling a feature length film.

I went into it as a young Bohemian fresh out of art school.  I wanted to make a color film noir, creating...

Filmmaker Christopher Coppola and his EARXXI media studio have created Project Alternative Hollywood, or PAH-Flicks, a training and film-production program to be based in New Mexico. PAH-Flicks was created to enhance and expand New Mexico's existing Film Technicians Training Program and will allow New Mexicans to hone their skills on productions bound for distribution. The first project in the program will be Coppola's Big Bad Voodoo Momma, which is in preproduction and scheduled to start shooting in May in Grants, N.M.