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Gutter poetry at its finest, Khavn De La Cruz's parade of humanity at its strangest in Filipino caper-doc-musical Mondomanila is not to be missed.  The slums outside of Manila are hell on earth; an unsolvable problem of poverty and the ass end of society that is the proverbial polluted well.  The film opens with a near-toothless man in a grubby Carnival barkers outfit that shouts at the camera in phonetically learned english syllables,that nonetheless require subtitles, a mad hatter driven crazy the urban ecosystem that the weather often punishes with cleansing floods.  After a credit sequence that promises the Mondo in the title of the film, the film settles down to something different.  It is still visceral exploitation (as are the umpteen Italian films that share that...

The July 19th start of Montreal's 16th annual Fantasia International Film Festival is drawing closer (it runs through August 7th), and the powers-that-be have announced the second wave of films along with a few selections from the new Axis section of the event.

Fantasia Announces The Satoshi Kon Award For Achievement In Animation + A New Section Dedicated To International Animation Cinema + Second Wave Title Announcements

The art of animation in its many forms and disciplines has always had a strong place at Fantasia. This year, the festival has decided to give the form its own permanent section: Axis. From social realism to mind-bending fantasy, all styles and sensibilities will be showcased, now on a greater scale than ever. Further, the festival is proud to be rechristening its animation jury prize as The Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation, named after the dear, departed visionary whose feature debut, Perfect Blue,...

I’ll just fess up: Despite the fact that it’s in its 41st year, the International Film Festival Rotterdam is something I’ve kind of never heard about until today. (Let’s blame it on a slip in my geography skills.) This ignorance on my part notwithstanding, taking a look at their initial lineup for this year — when the event runs from January 25th to February 5th — has left me mightily impressed.

The biggest world premieres come from two directors on opposite ends of at least a few spectrum: Takashi Miike and James Franco. (Discounting the fact that they’ve both depicted amputations onscreen, in one way or the other.) The former is debuting his adaptation of the popular Nintendo DS game, Ace Attorney, while the latter will be exhibiting Francophrenia (Or: Don’t Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is). A movie based on a kid’s...

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has announced the lineup for its main section, Spectrum: 72 features and documentaries from 32 countries, with descriptions from the Festival, running January 25 through February 5:

World premieres

Cornelia frente al espejo (Cornelia at Her Mirror) - Daniel Rosenfeld, Argentina, Hubert Bals Fund-supported film. A "meticulous and stylish film based on the story by Silvina Ocampo (1903-1993)." Roman Diary - Michael Pilz, Austria. A "meditative film featuring images of a park in Rome." Rua Aperana 52 - Júlio Bressane, Brazil. A "musical film about a street corner in Rio, edited together from old photos and the maker’s own films from the period 1957-2005." Lacan Palestine - Mike Hoolboom, Canada. A "found-footage essay on a complex country and its love-struck inhabitants." 38 témoins (38 Witnesses) - Lucas Belvaux, France, Belgium. Opening Film Iffr 2012. Le reste du monde (The Rest of the World) - Damien Odoul, France. A "family considers issues of identity and relationships.