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The fourth edition of the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards announced the jury panel for their 2026 shortlist—featuring key voices across film, animation, and studio production. This year’s jury includes: Will Gluck, Golden Globe-nominated director and producer (Anyone But You, Peter Rabbit) Rachel O’Connor, acclaimed producer and President of Film and Television at Pascal Pictures (Challengers, Spider-Man: No Way Home) Adam Rosette, animation director and story artist (GOAT, The Wild Robot, Orion and the Dark) Award-winning director Justin Chadwick With submissions still open through December 16, filmmakers worldwide have the opportunity for their work to be considered by this year’s jury. The 2026 Sony Future Filmmaker Awards will once again bring shortlisted filmmakers from across the globe to the iconic Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City for a four-day industry program from June 8–11, offering unprecedented access to Sony executives, masterclasses, and behind-the-scen...

Indian Indie Filmmakers Demand Fair Screenings After Limited Release of Kanu Behl’s Agra ~Statement issued by 46 leading filmmakers, including Payal Kapadia, Rima Das, Nandita Das, Ajitpal Singh, Alankrita Shrivastava, Megha Ramaswamy, Raam Reddy, Ruchi Narain, Shaunak Sen, Shonali Bose, Varun Grover, Vasan Bala and many others~ November: A large group of India’s most respected independent filmmakers has issued a joint appeal following the limited and inconvenient showtimes given to Kanu Behl’s award-winning film Agra, which released on 14th November. 46 leading voices of India’s indie film community, listed below in alphabetical order, have come together to call for fair and equal opportunities for independent films to be showcased in cinemas across India: Aamir Bashir, Aditya Kripalani, Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Ajitpal Singh, Akshay Indikar, Alankrita Shrivastava, Anuparna Roy, Arati Kadav, Ashim Ahluwalia, Bauddhayan Mukherji, Bhaskar Hazarika, Chaitanya Tamhane, ...

Hollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas Staring illusion in the face Film: Now You See Me: Now You Don't (2025) Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt, Rosamund Pike Director: Ruben Fleischer Rating: * * Runtime: 112 min. The “Now You See Me” trilogy, is basically about magicians pulling a con on powerful bad guys and redistributing that wealth among the public - in a sort of modern Robin Hood activism. In this third entry the Four Horsemen return along with a new generation of illusionists to perform mind-boggling magic while being involved in a plot to steal the world’s biggest diamond. The new director Ruben Fleischer and writers Michael Lesslie, Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese, Seth Grahame-Smith mix the old with the new ( fresh additions to the team and some new tricks) to keep the interest in the series going. The magic tricks don’t exactly impress but the plot twists and turns are enough to k...

Hollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas An artistic rendition of a monstrous experiment Film: Frankenstein Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi. Christopher Waltz Director: Guillermo del Toro Rating: * * * * Runtime: 149 m Netflix Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel titled ‘Frankenstein’ is named after the scientist Victor Frankenstein and not the Monster he made in the lab… but when we hear the word Frankenstein the first thing that comes to mind is the monster. This film gives Victor and his monster similar weight-age. Shelley’s 200-year-old source material, has been grist for creative liberties since long and Guillermo del Toro is no different. But his version comes very close to what Shelley envisioned while writing the book. Del Toro’s vision is ambitious, uncompromising and makes the macabre look artistic. This long-gestating romanticization of darkness is driven by passion and forged with perseverance. The auteur’s imagery of gothic horror is impressive. Frankenstein adheres clos...

Hollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas A fresh new take on the iconic antagonist Predator: Badlands (2025) Cast: Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Michael Homick, Rohinal Nayaran, Reuben De Jong, Cameron Brown. Voices: Stefan Grube, Alison Wright, Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer. Director: Dan Trachtenberg Rating: * * * Runtime: 106 min. #20thCenturyStudios #LawrenceGordon #DavisEntertainment #ToberoffEntertainmentProduction #TSGEntertainment Dan Trachtenberg’s follow-up to ‘Prey’ is a surprisingly mild-mannered franchise entry in the ‘Predator’ series. There’s not much room for crushing brutality, grimness or gore here because the story is about building bonds with the unlikeliest of allies. The iconic sci-fi villain is an underdog hero here. Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a young Predator monster, who is ordered to be killed by his domineering father Yautja chieftain Njohrr, is spared death by his elder brother Kwei (Mike Homik). Kwei sends Dek to t...

Hollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas A beautiful, bizarre take on modern belief systems Film: Bugonia Cast: Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Emma Stone, Alicia Silverstone, Stavros Halkias Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Rating: * * * Runtime: 118 m Yorgos Lanthimos latest,“Bugonia”, after the critical success of “Poor Things” and “Kinds of Kindness”, is a black comedy which is far more easily accessible than his earlier films. Even so, it has the typical Yorgos stamp all over it. Produced by Ari Aster, “Bugonia” is a radical, capricious adaptation of Jang Joon-hwan’s Korean film “Save the Green Planet!” Bugonia is a daring attempt to mesh absurdist satire, sci-fi meanderings with psychological horror, as the film follows two men who kidnap a corporate leader they believe to be an alien. The premise may seem bizarre but in Yorgos-land it’s par for the course. An apiarist, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), and his impressionable cousin Donny (Aidan Delbis), both conspiracy theorists, kidn...

Hollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas A docudrama on Trump that flatters to decieve Film: The Apprentice (2025) Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Emily Mitchell, Martin Donovan, Patch Darragh, Stuart Hughes, Eoin Duffy Director: Ali Abbasi Rating: * * * Runtime: 122 m This film is not really a life story of Donald Trump but it briefly details his formative years in the real estate business and the strong influence that lawyer Roy Cohn had on him. Based on actual events with fictional elements meshed in, the Indian censor board refused to pass the film as is, and with Abbasi unwilling to compromise on his work the only alternative was OTT. This film is airing on Lionsgate play. Trump, of German and Scottish descent, belonged to a well-off family that ran a business focused on developing middle-class housing in New York. He had exposure to the company as a child.While in college, he began investing in real estate and, after graduation, joined his father, ...

Hollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas An all too obvious melodrama Film: Regretting You (2025) Cast: Allison Williams, Mckenna Grace, Dave Franco, Mason Thames, Sam Morelos, Scott Eastwood, Willa Fitzgerald, Clancy Brown Director: Josh Boone Rating: * 1/2 Runtime: 116 min. This schmaltzy romantic drama, a relationship saga that attempts to give your tear ducts a workout, is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s romantic novel of the same name. Film adaptations of her books Reminders of Him and Verity are also in the make and are scheduled to come out soon. Adapted for the screen by Susan McMartin, directed by Josh Boone and filmed by cinematographer Tim Orr, this film is a spurious melodrama. There’s a lot of crying to go through here. The story is about infidelity which gets discovered after a fatal crash. It’s the late 2000s. Morgan (Allison Williams), her boyfriend Chris (Scott Eastwood), her sister Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald) and Jenny’s boyfriend Jonah (Dave Franco),...

Hollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas A fairly distinctive supernatural horror thriller Film: Black Phone 2 (2025) Cast: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Demián Bichir, Miguel Mora, Arianna Rivas, Anna Lore, Jeremy Davies Director: Scott Derrickson Rating: * * 1/2 Runtime: 114 min. Blumhouse’s “Black Phone 2” is set in 1982, a four years after Finney (Mason Thames) survived the vengeful killer Grabber (Ethan Hawke in the earlier film). One would have thought that with the villain no longer available to terrorize, franchise ambitions would lie low. But there’s no accounting for creativity. “The Black Phone” was adapted from a short story by Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill. This film though, gets inventive creating a bogie that comes entirely from mental instability. Grabber was killed in the climax in the earlier film, but Finney Blake, now 17, in the present film, hasn’t really recovered from that trauma. He is struggling with his life after captivity. He take...