2015 Venice Film festival Line Up

Kristen Stewart, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson are among the stars in movies coming to the world’s oldest major film festival.

The world’s oldest major film festival in Venice, Italy will once again screen films from new and established directors, with 55 new films set for this year's 72nd edition.

Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera and Biennale president Paolo Baratta unveiled this year's star-studded lineup Wednesday morning at the Westin Excelsior Rome hotel. It includes much-buzzed about American films, a slew of Italian talent and various voices from world cinema. 

In the competition section, a number of U.S. titles are part of the lineup, which Barbara called one of the most diverse in festival. Among U.S. directors, the competition features Laurie Anderson's  return to directing with Heart of a Dog, a film about loss, Cary Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation, starring Idris Elba as a warlord in the film about child soldiers in Africa, which Netflix bought global rights to for a reported $12 million. 

Also in the competition, Duke Johnson and Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman's animated film Anomalisa, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tom Noonan, is not for kids. Centered around the crisis of the middle-aged man, the film was partially funded by Kickstarter.   

2015 Toronto International Film Festival (First Batch)

After the long line up of amazing summer movies, fall is coming, and we will have some award race with those fall film festival. TIFF has announced their first list. TIFF 2015 is going back to its Canadian roots for its 40th birthday, opening the festival with Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallée's Demolition. After critical successes such as Wild and Dallas Buyers Club, Vallée will kick off the festival with Demolition, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Gyllenhaal is just one of the A-list stars who have become fan favourites at the festival, returning to Toronto year after year. After her Oscar-winning turn in Still Alice, Julianne Moore will walk the red carpet again for Freeheld, a movie she starts in alongside Canadian Ellen Page. The film focuses on the real-life love story and fight for justice by two New Jersey women and is likely to be especially poignant in a year where same-sex marriage became legal in the United States.

Ant-Man (2015)

All the movies in the MCU have a little comedy in them. With the exception of Guardians of the Galaxy most of the movies however rely heavily on the action to pull people in. Ant-Man is much more relatable to Guardians of the Galaxy from that point. The jokes come flying from everyone, most notably Michael Peña.

I admit before even hearing about this movie I had no idea who Scott Lang was. To me, Ant-Man was Hank Pym, and that's all I knew. Although it was great to be introduced to a new character, I thought it was amazing that hey pay homage to the original Ant-Man with a flashback of Hank in the suit; also for the ride was Wasp; which of course everyone freaked out about.

67th Primetime Emmy Awards Nominees

The nominees for the 2015 Emmy Awards were announced Thursday morning.

Game of Thrones, Mad Men and House of Cards were among the shows nominated in the drama series category.

The comedy series nominees included Transparent, Veep and Modern Family.

Uzo Aduba (Orange Is the New Black) and Cat Deeley (So You Think You Can Dance) announced the nominations at the Pacific Design Centre in West Hollywood. The presentation was streamed live on the television academy’s website.

The 67th Primetime Emmy Awards will be held on September 20 at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles. Andy Samberg will host the live telecast.

Drama series

“Game of Thrones”

“Mad Men”

“Downton Abbey”

“Orange Is the New Black”

“Homeland”

“House of Cards”

“Better Call Saul”

Comedy series

“Louie”

“Modern Family”

“Transparent”

“Silicon Valley”

“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”

“Veep”

“Parks and Recreation”

True Story (2015)

True Story is based on the true story (never would have seen that coming) of Christian Longo. I have seen Jonah Hill and James Franco take on non- comedic roles before and i know they are great at what they do, especially Franco. I never would have expected the duo who interacted in This is the End to take on these roles, especially together. The trailer was great and i was on board although early reviews made it seem like maybe i wouldn't be able to take them seriously. Well my worries were put to rest and i will explain exactly what my thoughts are.

Jonah Hill plays Mike Finkel of the New York Times. When he is fired for making things up in his article for dramatic effect he receives a mysterious phone call and finds out convicted murderer Christian Longo (James Franco) has been using his identity. This leads Finkel to meet Longo in prison who asks him to publish his side of the story. Finkel starts to believe that Longo could be more innocent than he seems, but is this the case? That is one of the things i really like about this film.

Far From the Madding Crowd (2015)

The fourth film adaptation of author Thomas Hardy's classic 1874 book, of the same name. This one was directed by Thomas Vinterberg  and it was written by David Nicholls. The film stars Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge and Juno Temple. It tells the story of an independent woman, living in Victorian England, that juggles romantic relationships with three different men. I think it's a well made film, but it's also (somewhat) emotionally shallow.

Bathsheba Everdene is an independent farm owner, living in Victorian England. She first attracts the attention of a sheep farmer, Gabriel Oak (Schoenaerts), who proposes to her, before she inherits her farm. Although Bathsheba likes Gabriel, she doesn't wan't a husband, so she turns him down; breaking his heart. After Bathsheba inherits her land, and Gabriel's life takes a turn for the worse, she employs him at her farm. She later attracts the interest of two more suitors; a wealthy, but older, bachelor, named William Boldwood (Sheen), and a military Sergeant, named Frank Troy (Sturridge).

Terminator Genisys (2015)

The Terminator is back with a strange title, Genisys. It is clear that they are eager to continue the franchise however they do not know how. Terminator Genisys shows promise to the visionary world of James Cameron but it is hampered by non-stop big and loud action scenes, it does not stop to develop the story further. That said, it still capture the interesting premise of time travel. It is better than Terminator Salvation but that is not saying much. What you get here is series of thrilling and big CGI heavy action set piece that propel the story forward.

I'm not sure what film the critics have watched, but as someone who queued all day to be one of the first to see T2, Genisys ticks all the Terminator boxes, time travel, morphing androids, liquid metal, Judgement Day, one liners, explosions, car chases, strong female lead, technology and prescient thoughts on handing over power over our lives to machines. Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to his signature role as the T800 at various ages, the CGI rendering of him as the "original" model is fantastic.

2015 San Diego Comic Con Schedule

Summer is finally upon us, and with it comes the weekend that TV lovers everywhere travel for hundreds and thousands of miles for...Comic-Con! In just a few weeks, San Diego is going to be overtaken by fans of movies and shows both big and small, so it's time to start planning out your weekend.

Which panels will you attend? Which screenings will you see? Get ready to start making some agonizing decisions, because with the sheer amount of panels and screenings going on, there's bound to be some crazy conflicts. Sorry in advance, we're having the same problems as you are!

So break out your calendars and check out our ultimate guide to every single TV panel and screening at 2015 San Diego Comic-Con below

Wednesday July 8 - Preview Night

Special Sneak Peek Pilot Screenings - 6pm, Ballroom 20 - Watch the pilots for Supergirl, Blindspot, Containment, Lucifer, and Teen Titans Go!

io9 Editor In Chief Charlie Jane Anders Book Signing - 7pm, Booth 2707 - Our fearless leader will be signing advance copies of her book All the Birds in the Sky.

Thursday July 9

Up, Up and Away: 75th Anniversary of the 1940 Premiere of the Superman Radio Series - 10am, Room 29AB - A celebration of Superman in one of his purest forms.

Studio Production Chiefs Speak - 10:15am, Room 6DE - Executives from 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate talk about the filmmaking process.

The Autobiography of James T. Kirk -10:45am, Ballroom 20 - William Shatner reads a book about Captain Kirk. I mean, come on.

The Super Story Behind the Pixar Short Sanjay’s Super Team - 11am, Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront - The team from Pixar debuts footage from the newest short film.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 - noon, Hall H - One of the biggest franchises in the world comes to Comic-Con for the last time.

Woman in Gold (2015)

THE WOMAN IN GOLD is the story of Maria Altmann, played by Helen Mirren. She was a member of a prestigious family in Austria, before the invasion of the Nazis. Her home and family were destroyed and valuable art treasures stolen from their home. Now, as Austria recognizes its compliance in history with the Nazi movement, the government opts to hear cases for restitution for those WWII victims. Altmann wants her family's paintings returned, especially one of her aunt, with whom she shared a special friendship. Like most governments, however, Austria is not willing to release the paintings, claiming they are now the country's property and part of its historic culture. Faced with the prospect of challenging an entire government, coupled with museum curators and corrupt politicians, Altmann enlists the aide of her friend's son, Randol Schoenberg, played by Ryan Reynolds.

Reynolds is suffering the same fate Matthew McConaughey and Ben Affleck suffered years back. Now, both are holding Oscars and McConaughey is driving a Lincoln and being parodied by Jim Carrey. but surprisingly Reynolds is fine in this film. He plays well off of Mirren. The story is, in essence, a tale of his coming of age in relation to his heritage. Like many Millennials, Schoenberg thinks the world began with his birthday. It takes a trip to Austria for him to discover the importance and significance of his birthright. Helen Mirren is great as Maria, giving us a no nonsense but likable personality that I may have seen before, but Mirren always gives good performances.

While We're Young (2015)

The story of a middle aged couple bored with life and each other trying to justify the fact that they don't have kids with the cliché fantasy of being able to fly off to Europe at a moments notice which of course they never do. They encounter a much younger couple who seems to embody everything that is precious, pure and unspoiled about youth. This is exaggerated by the fact that ironically despite the face that they were raised in the age of social media somehow they are completely unaffected by texted, emailing, googling and facebook.

Start with the successful New York couple, a documentary filmmaker Josh (played by Ben Stiller) and documentary producer Cornelia (played by Naomi Watts). They have spent a great deal of time on their projects, though their circle of friends has started to have children, cutting off their time allocated for fun. Josh would like to have a child though Cornelia has suffered two miscarriages and is a fried to try again, feeling that in her mid- forties, it's too late.

The DUFF (2015)

When i heard about "The DUFF" i thought it was going to be an extremely lame movie about some high school girl trying to get a boy, and it was, but the way that they went about entertaining and keeping the audience interested was okay.  The film concerns Bianca (Mae Whitman), a smart, eccentric teenage girl, who enjoys her individuality and her love for cult horror movies. She spends most of her time with Jess (Skyler Samuels) and Casey (Bianca A. Santos), two popular girls who find themselves at the center of everyone's attention whenever they walk through the hallways.

Mae Whitman gets her first real starring role in a film. She was also good in the TV Series Parenthood but she actually proved she could do this. She wasn't quite as charismatic as an A-Lister (Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway even Lindsay Lohan in her prime) but she is down to earth and someone you can relate to and that might be more important for this particular movie. Bella Thorne who is a real up and comer as far as I'm concerned plays the hideously mean Madison. Thorne is a natural at sarcastic comedy, she was awesome in Blended, and she plays this part perfectly and is a great nemesis for Whitman.

Danny Collins (2015)

The plot of Danny Collins is inspired by a true story. Danny Collins is an aging 70's rocker, who can't give up his ways, that he has lived hard for. One day, his manager, Frank Grubman, uncovers a letter, written to Danny by John Lennon, that has been undelivered for 40 years. Because of this, Danny decides to get to know about his family (mainly his son, Tom Donnelly), start a relationship with a woman named Mary Sinclair, and begin a second act.

This movie is really well acted, especially from its main star, Al Pacino. He gives a great performance as a Danny Collins, who is man who is trying to find true love in a relationship with both his family and a woman that he met. So yeah, he is definitely that standout of the performances, however, the rest of the cast are also really good. Bobby Cannavale is really good as the son, Tom Donnelly, and shares some really good chemistry with his father, and so does Annette Bening as Mary Sinclair, in terms of both acting performance and chemistry with Pacino. Jennifer Garner plays Tom's wife, Samantha Leigh Donnelly, and Christopher Plumber plays Danny's manger, Frank Grubman. They're both good in their roles, but they don't get as much to do as Pacino, Cannavale, and Bening, do.

Spy (2015)

I was really surprised by "Spy." I was surprised because it's billed as a comedy, and I actually laughed out loud, and there was laughter in the theater throughout the film. I can't remember the last time I went to see a new release comedy and that happened. The humor in "Spy" is surprisingly gentle and light hearted. That's surprising because the filmmakers apparently felt it was necessary to build a violent, obscene movie around jokes that a ten-year-old could enjoy while watching the movie with her grandmother.

I thought this movie was fantastic, it started solid with some really good jokes but once Susan (Melissa McCarthy)finds her confidence then so does the movie. The jokes come fast and mostly hit the target. The supporting cast were superb, especially Statham who sends up not just every character he has played since snatch but basically every bad ass macho man we have seen since the 80's.

Minions (2015)

The story is about the origins of the Minions, the little, yellow creatures have always attached themselves to the most ambitious, powerful super villain with one mission - serve them with all their might. But when the masters are killed, the Minions find themselves without a purpose and thus go into a self-imposed exile. After years, the Minions finally return and in the 60's attends a super villain conference where they hope to find a new master - and the first female super villain Scarlett Overkill seems to be the obvious choice.

Who the hell doesn't love those little yellow one eye or two eye minions. They made Despicable Me one and two watchable and stole the show for us. Minions have become a fan favorite and everybody couldn't get enough of them and now they got they very own stand alone movie starring them of course. I was looking forward to this movie, I mean the trailers looked funny and yes the real reason is for Minions. I thought a full feature movie starring them would be a blast to watch as in the Despicable Me movies they are good with they slap stick humor. Now after seeing the movie I'm a bit disappointed of what we got.

Jurassic World (2015)

From its very first frame, there is no denying that Jurassic World is an absolutely enormous movie. The Jurassic Park films have always been big-budget affairs, but the size of Jurassic World takes the series to a whole new level in terms of scope. Every single scene looks hugely expensive with massive sets, tons of extras, endless special effects shots, and lots of attention payed to even the smallest of technical detail. This easily could have been one of those sequels that falls apart from being bloated by its own excess (like almost every other big budget sequel of the past decade or so), but director Colin Trevorrow keeps the movie together. It's not better than the first one, it definitely a fun movie. and not disappointed at all

First, to all of those saying this movie is so predictable, duh its a dinosaur movie, you can only do so much with it. Do you want all of the dinosaurs to just remain in their cages and no action happens? Second, those same people who say that the raptors being "good guys" are dumb, you didn't want predictability so why did you want the raptors who are the main villains of the first movie and also in the second and third movies to be villains again? I thought it was a nice welcomed change.