Tag: Top 10

A Nerd’s Guide to the 2025 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Although the number of genre films seems small in this year’s Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the number of drama are always high as the 2025 event is ready to rumble starting tomorrow!

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival LOGORuns: May 1st to 7th, 2025

When I have a fondness for films made in Asia, I’m always excited to see what the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival will screen. This event kicks off tomorrow, and I’m always curious about who may become the next Bong Joon Ho. Or rather, wonder if this event will premiere the next exciting genre flick! My coverage over the years always considers this side of the show before extending the list to other movies that pique my interest.

And while some years offer more fantastical works than others in the short film category, there’s still some good drama to find! This top picks in what to see also considers this category too.

Chinatown Cha-Cha
China, Directed by Luka Yuanyuan Yang

CHINATOWN CHA-CHAThe 92-year-old previous nightclub dancer Coby Yee decides to get back on stage again after joining the senior dance troupe Grant Avenue Follies. Together they go on a tour for the last time, bridging once isolated Chinese communities in the US, Cuba, and China.

From Okinawa With Love
Japan & USA, Directed by Hiroshi Sunairi

In the 1970s, Okinawan photographer Mao Ishikawa worked as a barmaid for African American GIs and published an impressive photography book.

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The Alien (UFO) Cinematic Agenda at SXSW 2025 and Nerdy Picks For the Horror Enthusiast

SXSW is always worth paying attention to because of its various premieres in the cinematic front. This year looks exceptional if you love invasion themed material!

SXSW Logo Poster OrientaedSXSW is shaping up to be the year the aliens took over Austin, Texas. Now that this event is in full swing, I’ll be paying attention to how well certain films will do, and how fast they will get (pardoning the pun) picked up by distributors.

Usually, all I do is pay attention to the midnight madness movie screenings over other debuts. When this mega event celebrates music, tech, and film, it’s often the latter two that I have more interest in. That’s because the movies give me a good idea of what to expect when Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival announces their lineup. When there’s five films that share concerns over UFO visitations, I hope these films will land elsewhere later this year!

And while this enormous event has much more entertainment to consider, I have to round out the list to ten than the usual five. There are some fabulous documentaries that have my attention, and as for other buzz worthy films, what I offer is a list of works that definitely have my interest beyond the usual midnight madness picks. What I present works in alphabetical order that are “coming soon.”

Ash

Ash Movie Poster 2025A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.

The Age of Disclosure

An unprecedented film–featuring 34 senior members of the U.S. Senate, House, military and intelligence community–revealing a cover-up of the existence of non-human intelligent life and a secret war to reverse engineer technology of non-human origin. (World Premiere)

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Top 10 Animated Movies to Look Forward to in 2025

To decide on which animated movies are a must isn’t too hard to decide on. When pickings can be somewhat limited in the cinematic front, we’re diving into streaming and direct to video offerings too.

Aztec Batman- Clash of Empires - Animated MoviesInstead of looking at the animated movies coming to cinemas, what I offer is a list of works expected to be released this year from abroad and in America. There are some wonderful works that should be great, and the big question will concern whether the two major distributors, GKIDS or Well GO USA, will pick them up. They’re still working through last year’s catalogue of releases. Trailers are provided where possible:

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires

This Elseworlds take on Batman lore promises to be good because it’s also connected to a bit of Mesoamerican folklore concerning the bat. Both Aztec and Mayan cultures hold this creature sacred, representing various Underworld aspects. Here, instead of focusing on the Wayne family, another clan’s parents are killed, and Yohualli Coatl enacts swift revenge!

Here, the conquistadors are not the only threat. No Batman adaptation is complete without The Joker! As for how he got reimagined, much has been spoiled in other reports, and it’s better to be surprised.

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Top 10 Movies To Look Forward to 2025. Not Everything Has To Be From Hollywood.

Instead of offering a list of what’s coming from “American” shores, this top 10 list considers what’s happening abroad. All cineastes can hope for is that they will get worldwide distribution sooner than later.

Vintage Film Projector Top 10 List GraphicTo make a list of top 10 films being released this year for the masses that are must-sees isn’t too tough, but when I want to know what’s being released abroad, to decide on what stands out, that’s harder! There are non-blockbuster movies that have caught my attention. When they don’t get the love they so deserve, I can say confidently that my list differs from others.

Leading the charge are the following (with release dates where possible.

A Whale
Date: Expected late 2025

When filmmakers bill a movie as “a cross between film noir, science fiction, and cosmic horror,” that’s a winning formula in my books. While I fully expect that it will hit film festivals first, all I can hope for is that Fantasia Film Festival will have it listed following its Spanish debut.

What’s known about this film is that it concerns an assassin whose boss comes from the stars! They give her the ability to vanish without a trace, but as for whether or not the connection is Lovecraftian, I hope more information will be revealed when it hits the International market.

Dracula: A Love Tale
Date: Expected 2025

Dracula A Love Tale Movie PosterWhen Luc Besson announced he will make his own adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, just what he will do is anybody’s guess. This filmmaker is best known for The Fifth Element and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

Attached to play the leading roles are Caleb Landry Jones as Dracula and Christoph Waltz as a priest. Whether that’s Van Helsing or some other character, I’m going to want to know!

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Crunchyroll’s 2025 Winter Schedule and Our Top 10 Must-Sees

After looking at Crunchyroll’s 2025 Winter Schedule, we feel we can compose a song out of our top ten selection of titles that we feel are must-sees.

2025 Winter Schedule - CrunchyrollBefore signing off for a much needed holiday break, we looked at Crunchyroll’s 2025 Winter schedule, and it’s big! The fact the list includes returning anime series makes it huge, and what we are offering is our top ten of must sees. There are a lot of titles debuting in the first two weeks of January, and whether or not we’ll be able to watch everything will depend on other commitments, but can at least watch these series for enjoyment. Not everything will get reviewed.

To note, this schedule and languages available are subject to change, and the show’s availability may vary by region. The dates listed reflect what’ll be subtitled or simulcast premieres.

DECEMBER 31

Fate/strange Fake (A-1 Pictures)

In a Holy Grail War, Mages (Masters) and their Heroic Spirits (Servants) fight for the control of the Holy Grail—an omnipotent wish-granting device said to fulfill any desire. Years have passed since the end of the Fifth Holy Grail War in Japan. Now, signs portend the emergence of a new Holy Grail in the western American city of Snowfield.

 

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Hollywood Suite’s Shocktober isn’t Just Zombie Town. Top 10 Picks, Returning Series and more!

While we won’t argue which holiday is better, Halloween or Christmas, the face Hollywood Suite doesn’t want to miss a beat with a month long celebration of films can be boiled down to our distallation of a top ten, along with news on what’s debuting or finally here to watch at home.

Hollywood Suite LOGOIn Canada, Hollywood Suite is back to deliver fan favourites of classic and modern age horror movies for the Halloween enthusiast. Their 2024 Shocktober line-up is here to play on air and on demand, and I’ve started with the broadcast premiere of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town.

Despite what the major critics say, I rather enjoyed this family friendly work about a young teen who has a dislike for the season, but will have to change his mind when his hometown gets ravaged by your not so typical zombie. What happens is a variation on a moment from Last Action Hero! You can read a full review of my first impressions here, and after subsequent viewings, I feel it has the potential to be a cult classic. To have Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase make cameos is a plus!

Also, the second season of the Hollywood Suite original series Cinema A to Z is ready to air with its premiere episode Serial Killers on October 10. In this episode, film experts uncover audiences’ fascination with the macabre through 26 portrayals of murderers on film from American Psycho to Zodiac. Although I’m not a huge fan of the slasher genre, I respect it because that’s where the movie Halloween emerged from.

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