Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. A leading figure in the Japanese film industry, he often played hypermasculine characters and was noted for his physical presence and commanding screen presence.
Yojimbo is a 1961 Japanese samurai film directed by Akira Kurosawa, who also co-wrote the screenplay and was one of the producers. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Atsushi Watanabe. In the film, a rōnin arrives in a small town where competing crime lords fight for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard.
Harakiri is a 1962 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The story takes place between 1619 and 1630 during the Edo period and the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate. It tells the story of the rōnin Hanshirō Tsugumo, who requests to commit seppuku (harakiri) within the manor of a local feudal lord, using the opportunity to explain the events that drove him to ask for death before an audience of samurai. The film continues to receive critical acclaim, often considered one of the greatest Japanese films of all time.
Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse.
Chanbara (チャンバラ), also commonly spelled "chambara", meaning "sword fighting" films, denotes the Japanese film genre called samurai cinema in English and is roughly equivalent to Western and swashbuckler films. Chanbara is a sub-category of jidaigeki, which equates to period drama. Jidaigeki may refer to a story set in a historical period, though not necessarily dealing with a samurai character or depicting swordplay.
Sword of the Stranger is a 2007 Japanese animated jidaigeki-chanbara adventure film produced by Bones and released by Shochiku. It depicts Kotaro, a young orphan hunted by Ming swordsmen, who receives unexpected protection from Nanashi, a troubled ronin.
Screen Media Ventures, LLC was an American-Canadian distribution company founded in 2001 and owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment since 2017 alongside its subsidiary Popcornflix. In 2008, Screen Media selected The Creative Coalition as its exclusive nonprofit partner in launching the Spotlight Initiative. The partnership permits the pursuit of active outreach efforts for issues showcased in Screen Media produced and distributed motion pictures. While the Spotlight Initiative serves as a strategic business component that will create unique marketing, branding, and advertising opportunities as well as value for mass marketers, it also enhances America's cultural connection to the stories and social agendas of our times.
Na Hong-jin is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter.
A Boy and His Samurai is a 2010 Japanese time travel comedy film, directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura.
Klown is a 2010 Danish comedy film directed by Mikkel Nørgaard, and written by and starring Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen. It was developed from the successful Danish television series of the same name, in which Hvam and Christensen play fictionalized versions of themselves.
Gridlocked is a 2015 Canadian action thriller film directed by Allan Ungar and co-written by Ungar and Rob Robol. It had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 26, 2015, and stars Dominic Purcell, Stephen Lang, Danny Glover, Trish Stratus, and Saul Rubinek. The film was purchased by Netflix and became available worldwide on July 14, 2016.
John McPhail is a Scottish film director and screenwriter.
Rachel Maclean is a Scottish visual artist and filmmaker. She lives and works in Glasgow. Her films have shown widely in galleries, museums, film festivals, and on television. She has screened work at numerous festivals in the UK and internationally, such as Rotterdam International, Fantasia and BFI London Film Festival. She has received significant acclaim with solo shows at Tate Britain and The National Gallery, London, and she represented Scotland at the 2017 Venice Biennale with her film Spite Your Face. Her work A Whole New World (2014) won the prestigious Margaret Tate Award in 2013. She has twice been shortlisted for the Jarman Award, and achieved widespread critical praise for Feed Me at the British Art Show in 2016.
The film industry in Western Australia encompasses a wide range of productions and a wide range of filmmakers.
Monster Fest is an annual genre film festival held in Melbourne, Australia, dedicated to cult and horror cinema. As of 2017 it is the only genre film festival held in Australia to be supported by the federal screen agency, Screen Australia.
The GenreBlast Film Festival is an annual event held in the Winchester, Virginia area that specializes in genre film. GenreBlast is the largest genre film festival in the Washington, D.C. region, spotlighting short and feature films that are typically independently produced and would not otherwise receive theatrical release.
Koko: A Red Dog Story is a 2019 Australian family documentary film directed by Aaron McCann and Dominic Pearce, written by Aaron McCann and Dominic Pearce, and starring Jason Isaacs, Felix Williamson and Sarah Woods. It is a spin-off to the 2011 film Red Dog, detailing the life of Koko, who was cast as Red Dog in the original film.
Aaron Wilson is an Australian film director and screenwriter, known for the 2013 suspense war drama Canopy and the 2021 period drama Little Tornadoes.
It's a Summer Film, also translated as It's a Summer Film!, is a 2021 Japanese science fiction romantic comedy written and directed by Sōshi Matsumoto. It is set in a Japanese high school during the filming of a school film called Samurai Spring.
