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Presented by Deadhouse Films, the 11th annual A Night of Horror International Film Festival and Fantastic Planet, Sydney Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival announce the first wave of programming for the 2017 event today. Both festivals will run concurrently at Dendy Cinemas Newtown, from November 29th to December 3rd 2017. Says programming director Dean Bertram:

The festivals’ programmers are delighted to announce a stunning array of frightening, bloody, and awe-inspiring cinema from around the world. This first wave is an international cinematic buffet. It includes the freshest and best of this season’s fantastic genre fare: incredible films from Australia, Europe, North and South America, and Africa.

The first eight feature films announced by the two festivals – all of which are Sydney, Australian, or international premieres – are below. More program details and guest announcements will be revealed at the end of the month when tickets also go on sale.

Bad Black (dir: Nabwana I.G.G.,...

Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut to the Feeling” may be the song of this never-ending summer, but audiences in France and the UK have been grooving to this irresistible pop masterpiece since last December (about six months before it was available for digital download). Recorded during the creation of Jepsen’s monumental “E•Mo•Tion” LP, “Cut to the Feeling” was deemed “too cinematic” for inclusion on the record, and set aside for future use. For mere mortals, this euphoric jam would have been a career-defining milestone; for Jepsen, it was merely a B-side.

Fortunately, it wouldn’t be long before the song found a home, as its singer — one of post-Gretzky Canada’s finest cultural exports — offered it to a Montreal animation studio when she agreed to voice one of the characters in their animated feature, “Ballerina.”

Retitled “Leap!” for its impending U.S. release, the harmlessly inspirational kids...