# Puli (2015 film)
### Box office
On the first day, it collected 10.75 crore in Tamil Nadu. It grossed 28.6 crore worldwide on its opening day Thursday. In the second day the film grossed 27.5 crore worldwide. It collected 3.87 crore in four days in Kerala. In the first weekend, the film collected 64 crore worldwide, with 2.84 gross in Chennai city alone beating S.S Rajamouli\'s *Baahubali*, as the latter collected only 1.64 crore; and 4.65 crore from Telugu states
However, it is reported according to *International Business Times* that the film performed poorly in its third week at the box office. The film performed well overseas.

### Critical response
The film received mixed reviews and poor ratings from Telugu film critics. Behindwoods praised the production design and visual effects of the film but criticised the screenplay, rating the film 2.75/5. \"When Superstars pick such new scripts, there are lots of good things that can happen to cinema. Applause to Vijay for that\". *The Times of India* rated the film 2.5/5, stating \"Puli (Tiger) is your Indian cinema version of Gulliver and the Lilliput\'s fairy tale. A lavishly mounted fantasy adventure, at the core it is basically a love story.\" Latha Srinivasan of Daily News and Analysis gave the film 2.5/5 stars, deeming the film a \"visual treat\" with a disappointing screenplay. She praised the cinematography, visual effects and performances of the cast, but criticised the story, noting that the genre might be new for Tamil cinema, but \"the story is not something new and it moves at such a slow pace that it gets tiring to watch in places.\" Koimoi.com rated the film 2/5, stating \"If you are a die-hard Vijay fan then you may but if you are looking for something unique, the film will fail you. It creates an illusion of being smart but in reality, it lacks any kind of logic.\" Bollywood Hungama rated the film 2/5, writing, \"On the whole, PULI is a strictly average fare. Watch it if you are a Sridevi or a Vijay fan. Otherwise, this fantasy is a bore fest.\"


# Puli (2015 film)
### Critical response
Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV rated the film 2/5, writing that \"Puli gets two stars for ambition and scale, but none for execution.\" Raja Sen rated the film 1.5/5, writing, \"Clearly Puli needs you to make (or carry) your own entertainment.\" Mumbai Mirror rated the film 1.5/5, writing, \"Fantasy films allow defying logic, physics and biology, as long as it fascinates. This one makes a jaded attempt to recreate tested ideas and wages a war against one\'s brain cells.\" *The Indian Express* rated the film 1.5/5, writing, \"The bigger the film doesn\'t always mean the greater it is, and there can\'t be a better example of this than Vijay\'s big-budget fantasy drama \"Puli\", which isn\'t a bad film, but worse.\" *India Today* rated the film 1.5/5, stating \"Vijay\'s fantasy film tries hard to roar but ends up squeaking.\" Mid-Day rated the film 1.5/5, writing, \"Not fair to compare, maybe, but one cannot help it. \'Puli\', at best, looks like the poor, underfed cousin of \'Bahubali\', the other fantasy film that we were treated to not so long ago. The setting is almost the same. Kings, queens, waterfalls and forests and a newborn child being found in the ocean, but Puli proves that director Chimbu Deven doesn\'t even remotely share the grand vision of SS Rajamouli\'s.\" Gautaman Bhaskaran of *Hindustan Times* gave the film 1/5 stars saying, \"Chimbu Deven could have thought of something better than this juvenile romp into fantasy land.\"


# Puli (2015 film)
### Critical response
Both Baradwaj Rangan of *The Hindu* and S Saraswathi of Rediff.com gave negative reviews. Both critics also stated that several dialogues of Vijay were meant as declarations of political intent. Rangan wrote, \"Put differently, Chimbu Deven has forgotten to make a movie for adults.\" Comparing *Puli* with *Baahubali*, another historical fiction film, he said that there was \"a sustained commitment to storytelling\" in the latter, which was missing in *Puli*. IBNLive rated the film 1/5, writing \"If adventure is your genre, and Sridevi your fantasy, I\'ll wholeheartedly recommend K. Raghavendra Rao\'s \'Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari\' in which Sridevi is joined by Chiranjeevi on a whirlwind tour of fantasy, games, childish humor, action, and terrific music by Ilaiyaraaja. Coming to *Puli*, it\'s clearly a case of a misguided shot.\" Indiaglitz rated the film 2.75/5 and concluded, \"Despite some drawbacks and disappointments, \'Puli\' ends up as a decent fantasy entertainer that will be especially liked by Children and Vijay who retains his form and charm as always lives up to his mass appeal\" *DNA India* regarded that the film\'s weaponry, armour, costumes and fighting skills were inspired from *Game of Thrones*, whereas Vijay and Sudeep\'s characterisations had resemblances to Jon Snow and Stannis Baratheon.
The film attracted fandom among the younger audience. Baradwaj Rangan of *The Hindu* writes, \"Put differently, Chimbu Deven has forgotten to make a movie for adults. His inventions surprise us, delight us for a second or two -- and then we're back to the turgid story.\"
In 2015, following the film\'s overseas success, *International Business Times* pointed out that *Puli* is one of the South Indian films that has taken the standard to international level.


# The Boy and the Beast
`is a 2015 Japanese animated action-adventure fantasy film written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda. The film stars the voices of Kōji Yakusho, Aoi Miyazaki, Shōta Sometani, Suzu Hirose, Kazuhiro Yamaji, Mamoru Miyano, Kappei Yamaguchi, Keishi Nagatsuka, Kumiko Asō, Haru Kuroki, Sumire Morohoshi, Momoka Ōno, Masahiko Tsugawa, Lily Franky and Yo Oizumi. It was released on July 11, 2015. It won Animation of the Year at the 37th Japan Academy Prizes and grossed  at the Japanese box office.`
Nine-year-old Ren has recently lost his mother. With no news of his father and refusing to live with his legal guardians, Ren flees into the streets of Shibuya. Ren steals some food and sleeps in an alley, reminiscing the aftermath of his mother\'s funeral.
In the Beast Kingdom, the grandmaster has decided he will retire in order to reincarnate as a deity and names two potential successors: the popular Iōzen, who is also the father of two children, and the powerful Kumatetsu, who is lonely and lazy. The Grandmaster suggests that Kumatetsu find a disciple in hopes of inspiring him to succeed him.
While wandering the streets of Tokyo with his makeshift companion, Tatara, Kumatetsu meets Ren and suggests that the boy becomes his disciple. Though Ren is fiercely opposed, he follows Kumatetsu back to the Beast Kingdom out of curiosity but is unable to go back to the human world. As he watches a battle between Iōzen and Kumatetsu, Ren is impressed with Kumatetsu\'s persistence despite the lack of support from onlookers. When Ren cheers for him, Kumatetsu is easily defeated. However, the Grandmaster declares the actual duel of succession has not come yet.


# The Boy and the Beast
Taking Ren as a disciple, Kumatetsu gives him a new name, Kyūta. Their initial training sessions go poorly, but Kyūta realizes that he can learn from Kumatetsu by imitating him while performing his household chores. The boy gradually discovers that he can predict his master\'s movements, and can dodge and move adeptly in combat. They soon begin training together. After eight years, the teenage Kyūta has become a distinguished kendo practitioner. Moreover, through his relationship with Kyūta, Kumatetsu gains his own following of supporters, including the younger son of Iōzen, Jirōmaru, who wishes to be trained by Kumatetsu.
Kyūta finds a way back to the human world, and befriends Kaede, a young student. In the process, Kyūta finds his father, who had been searching for Ren since he disappeared and wants to catch up. Torn by his double life, he is unable to reconcile the resentment he had as Ren and the lack of connections he has as Kyūta. When he rejects both his father and Kumatetsu, he discovers a powerful void within himself that nearly overwhelms him, until Kaede gets him to calm down and gives him a bracelet that has helped her when she becomes anxious.
On the day of the succession duel, Kumatetsu loses confidence without Kyūta\'s encouragement and is nearly subdued by Iōzen. However, Kyūta has been secretly watching and reveals himself, helping Kumatetsu defeat Iōzen. When Kumatetsu is declared the winner and the new lord, Iōzen\'s elder son Ichirōhiko is revealed to be a human who had been found on the streets of Tokyo as an infant and adopted by Iōzen. Having developed a vacuum in his heart like Kyūta, unwilling to believe that he is a human and not a beast, Ichirōhiko manifests telekinetic powers and seriously injures Kumatetsu with Iōzen\'s sword. Kyūta is nearly overtaken by his own emptiness and tries to kill Ichirōhiko, but regains his senses with Kaede\'s bracelet as Ichirōhiko is consumed by darkness and disappears.


# The Boy and the Beast
Kyūta decides to leave for the human world to fight Ichirōhiko. When Kaede refuses to leave him, they are attacked by Ichirōhiko, who takes the form of a destructive whale. Unable to hold his own against Ichirōhiko, the young man decides to use the vacuum within himself to absorb his opponent\'s negative energy and then kill himself, saving everyone else. However, Kumatetsu uses his new privilege as the lord and reincarnates as a deity, taking the form of a sword \"to be handled with the heart\" in reference to their first training session together. He merges with his pupil\'s form, filling his empty void within him. Together, the two manage to defeat Ichirōhiko without killing him. Ichirōhiko wakes up surrounded by his adoptive family with no memory of his time possessed by the darkness and with Ren\'s bracelet on his wrist. Meanwhile; back in Shibuya, Ren is talking to Kumatetsu (who now resides inside him) and the two have a heartfelt moment together, with Kumatetsu promising to always be there for Ren and threatening to beat him up from the inside if he wavers again.
In the aftermath, Ren celebrates his victory with Kaede in the Beast Kingdom and returns to the human world. After reconciling with his father and himself, Ren decides to live once again in the human world with Kumatetsu forever residing in his heart.
Character
Cast
`Japanese`
`English`
`Kumatetsu (熊徹)`
`Kōji Yakusho`
`John Swasey`
`Kyūta (九太)/Ren (蓮)`
`Shōta Sometani,Aoi Miyazaki (child)`
`Eric Vale,Luci Christian (child)`
`Kaede (楓)`
`Suzu Hirose`
`Bryn Apprill`
`Tatara (多々良)`
`Yo Oizumi`
`Ian Sinclair`
`Hyakushūbō (百秋坊)`
`Lily Franky`
`Alex Organ`
`Sōshi (宗師)`
`Masahiko Tsugawa`
`Steve Powell`
`Iōzen (猪王山)`
`Kazuhiro Yamaji`
`Sean Hennigan`
`Ichirōhiko (一郎彦)`
`Mamoru Miyano,Haru Kuroki (child)`
`Austin Tindle, Morgan Berry (child)`


# The Boy and the Beast
`Jirōmaru (二郎丸)`
`Kappei Yamaguchi,Momoka Ono (child)`
`Josh Grelle,Brittney Karbowski (child)`
`Chiko (チコ)`
`Sumire Morohoshi`
`Monica Rial`
`Kyūta's Father`
`Keishi Nagatsuka`
`Chuck Huber`
`Kyūta's Mother`
`Kumiko Asō`
`Jessica Cavanagh`
The film was released on July 11, 2015 in Japan. The film received its International Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and its UK Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 16, 2015.
In December 2014, Gaumont secured international sales outside Asia and theatrical distribution rights in France. The film was released in France on January 13, 2016. Funimation licensed the film for the United States release; it opened in select theaters there on March 4, 2016. It has been licensed by StudioCanal for the UK and Ireland release, Madman Entertainment for the Australian release, and Mongrel Media for the Canadian release.

### Box office
The film was #1 at the Japanese box office during its opening weekend, replacing Avengers: Age of Ultron, and earning approximately on 492,000 admissions from 457 screens. In its second weekend, *The Boy and the Beast* earned \$3.89 million, marking a 29.1% decline and dropping to number two, overtaken by *Hero 2*. The film was Japan\'s second highest-grossing film in the year 2015 with a total box office gross of (converted from yen) .
The film ranked #28 at the American box office during its opening weekend on March 4, 2016. As of March 16, 2016, the film has an American box office gross of \$474,308.

### Critical response
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 90% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 7.34/10. The website\'s critical consensus reads, \"*The Boy and the Beast* combines familiar parts to create a gripping, beautifully animated adventure with inventive storytelling to match its visual appeal.\" Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 65 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating \"generally favorable reviews\".


# The Boy and the Beast
### Critical response
Mark Schilling of *The Japan Times* said that the film \"has more in common with the "Harry Potter" series than the usual female-centered Miyazaki fantasy\" and would later say that the storyline \"stays centered on Kyūta's long, vexed struggle to become not only strong, but also whole.\" Richard Eisenbeis of *Kotaku* said *The Boy and the Beast* \"is an entertaining coming-of-age adventure on one hand and an excellent thematic exploration on the other. This is one of those films that is perfect for any age group---there's something for everyone in this one.\" Charles Solomon of the *Los Angeles Times* said the film \"is a bracing tale of two flawed individuals who find the love and discipline they need to assume their rightful places in their respective worlds.\" Peter Debruge of *Variety* called it \"an action-packed buddy movie that strategically combines several of Japanese fans' favorite ingredients: conflicted teens, supernatural creatures and epic battles.\" Peter Keough of *The Boston Globe* gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and wrote that Hosoda \"does know how to mix an eclectic array of film plots and concepts into a mish-mash that seems original.\" Pat Padua of *The Washington Post* wrote, \"But it is the world of man, not beast, that makes this coming-of-age movie most touching.\"


# The Boy and the Beast
### Critical response
While popular in Japan, in the west the film has a more mixed reaction. Andy Webster of *The New York Times* was more critical of the film, saying \"Mr. Hosoda is skilled with fight scenes, and his settings --- the pastel-hued Jūtengai and the drab Shibuya, evoked at times with surveillance-camera perspectives and crowd-paranoia angles --- are impressive. But the characterizations and conflicts here are strictly generic.\" Sherilyn Connelly of *The Village Voice* said that the film \"works with many common anime tropes but doesn\'t find anything new to say about them.\" Marc Savlov of *The Austin Chronicle* gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and said \"A huge success in Japan, this thrilling, if overlong, epic from director Mamoru Hosoda (*Wolf Children*, *Summer Wars*) is part *Karate Kid* and part Japanese folklore.\" Jacob Chapman of Anime News Network had a mixed response to the film and said \"*The Boy and The Beast* is the kind of movie you put on to please a kid with its loudness and color, but promptly leave the room to do something else.


# Brimstone (2016 film)
***Brimstone*** is a 2016 Western film written and directed by Martin Koolhoven, starring Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Emilia Jones, Kit Harington, and Carice van Houten. The film is a Dutch-American as well as French, German, Belgian and Swedish international production.
It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2016, where it caused controversy. It premiered in the Netherlands on 12 January 2017, where it was very well received, as in the rest of Europe and was released on 10 March in the United States, where it received mixed reviews from critics.
`Narrative acts`
`1. Revelation`
`2. Exodus`
`3. Genesis`
`4. Retribution`
The plot consists of four acts, which are presented in anachronic order. The chronological order is acts 3 (Genesis), 2 (Exodus), 1 (Revelation), 4 (Retribution). So, after the first act, Revelation, the following acts are what happened before and the fourth act is chronologically the last.


# Brimstone (2016 film)
**1. Revelation**
Liz lives in the old west with her husband Eli and two children: Eli\'s son Matthew from Eli\'s prior marriage, and Liz and Eli\'s young daughter Sam. Liz is a midwife who can hear but is mute, and so communicates through sign language. A new minister comes to their church, and the moment that Liz hears his voice, she seems to recognize him and is terrified. Later that day Liz is forced to choose between delivering a baby safely or saving its mother; she chooses to euthanise the baby and save the mother, without telling the mother until after the procedure is finished. Afterwards, the father, Nathan, blames Liz. A drunken Nathan later shows up at Eli and Liz\'s house, violent and threatening; Nathan claims Liz is responsible for his son\'s death. In the middle of the fight, the Reverend shows up and tells Nathan to leave. He then goes into Eli\'s house and has a mysterious talk with Liz, saying she is guilty of the murder of Nathan\'s son and must be punished. As Eli overhears some of the conversation, the Reverend leaves the house. Later
Eli\'s sheep are found dead, and he seeks out Nathan, who has since disappeared. Liz later sneaks off at night to murder the Reverend, but finds her daughter\'s doll in the Reverend\'s bed instead. Meanwhile, the Reverend disembowels Eli, and leaves him to die in his barn. As he is dying, Eli tells Matthew to take the family up into the mountains to Eli\'s father, before the boy shoots him. Liz and the children flee the farm.


# Brimstone (2016 film)
**2. Exodus**
A young girl named Joanna walking through the desert is picked up by a Chinese family. In the mining town of Bismuth, she\'s sold to a brothel owned by Frank. Joanna is protected by Sally until Sally is hanged for shooting a violent customer; Elizabeth then protects Joanna. After Elizabeth bites the tongue of an abusive customer, her tongue is cut off in punishment. Joanna teaches Elizabeth sign language from a book the doctor gave her. Elizabeth plans to sneak out of Bismuth to start a new life, and arranges through a marriage broker to marry Eli.
The Minister comes to the brothel and becomes violent with Joanna. Elizabeth saves Joanna and is murdered by the Minister. Joanna slashes his throat and runs away, cutting off her own tongue and taking Elizabeth\'s place with Eli.
**3. Genesis**
In the desert, two badly wounded men, Samuel and Wolf, are the last survivors in a dispute over gold that has left several other men dead. They depart on a single horse. Young Joanna lives with her mother, Anna, and father, who is the Minister. Samuel and Wolf collapse at the farm and Joanna secretly cares for them. Anna confronts the Minister when she realizes he lusts after their daughter, so he beats and humiliates her by placing a scold\'s bridle on her head. In response, Anna commits suicide in full view of the church congregation. The next day the Minister takes Joanna to church and starts to perform a wedding ceremony between himself and his daughter. Samuel tries to rescue her, but the Minister murders him. Her father whips Joanna and rapes her. In the morning she runs off.


# Brimstone (2016 film)
**4. Retribution**
Matthew is shot by the Minister as he follows Liz to her father-in-law\'s place in the mountains. He murders her father-in-law and tells Liz he will beat and rape her daughter, but Liz murders him instead. Some time later, after Liz has turned Eli\'s place into a sawmill, Nathan arrives to arrest her. The Minister had sent him to Bismuth where he became a deputy and then sheriff. Having found a wanted poster of Elizabeth Brundy (the woman without a tongue who killed Frank before she saved Liz/Joanna), Nathan has come to arrest her (Liz). As Nathan is escorting her onto a ferry, with a last look at her daughter playing on the shore, Liz throws herself in the lake and drowns. Her daughter Sam, now a grown woman with a child of her own, remembers her well.
- Dakota Fanning as Liz
- Emilia Jones as Joanna
- Guy Pearce as The Reverend (Minister)
- Kit Harington as Samuel
- Carice van Houten as Anna
- Jack Roth as Wolf
- Jack Hollington as Matthew
- Paul Anderson as Frank
- Carla Juri as Elizabeth
- Vera Vitali as Sally
- William Houston as Eli
- Bill Tangradi as Nathan
- Naomi Battrick as older Sam
- Ivy George as Sam
- Justin Salinger as Doctor
- Frederick Schmidt as Sheriff Zeke
- Adrian Sparks as Eli\'s Father
- Joseph Kennedy as the husband of pregnant woman
- Martha Mackintosh as the pregnant woman
- Hon Ping Tang as Meng
- Fergus O\'Donnell as Fred Eastman
- Joe David Walters as customer Sally
- Ad van Kempen as Arie
- Frieda Pittoors as Agatha
- Farren Morgan as Mike
- Charlotte Croft as Abigail
- Baely Saunders as Jackie
- Paula Siu as Meng\'s wife
- Sue Maund as Abigail\'s mother
- Hans-Joachim van Wanrooij as Blacksmith
On 5 February 2015, Guy Pearce and Mia Wasikowska were the first to be announced as part of the cast of the film. Later, Robert Pattinson came on board to portray an outlaw along with Carice van Houten.


# Brimstone (2016 film)
In May 2015, Koolhoven confirmed that Jack Roth had joined the cast of the film. In June 2015, *The Hollywood Reporter* confirmed that Dakota Fanning and Kit Harington had replaced Wasikowska and Pattinson in the film, respectively. In 2017, Pattinson said he regretted not doing *Brimstone* and called it \"his own stupid fault\".
Principal photography began from 15 June 2015, and took place in Germany, Hungary, Austria and Spain.
*Brimstone*\'s first commercial release was in The Netherlands on 12 January 2017, becoming Martin Koolhoven\'s fifth consecutive hit film. The film was also released on 10 March 2017, in selected theaters and video on demand in the United States. It was sold to more than 80 countries in the world, making it the best sold Dutch movie ever.

### Festival screenings
*Brimstone* was shown in competition at the Venice Film Festival. After Venice, the film had its North American premiere as a *Special Presentation* at the Toronto International Film Festival where it received positive reviews. as it later did in other festivals like the Sitges Film Festival,

### Critical reception
In The Netherlands, the film received generally positive reviews from critics and opened strongly. The readers of *True West Magazine* chose the movie as Best Foreign Western Movie. Koolhoven won the Gouden Pen (Golden Pen) for the screenplay and the Gouden Film (Golden Film) for the film. 29 September 2017 *Brimstone* won six Golden Calves (often called *\"The Dutch Oscars\"*) at the Netherlands Film Festival, breaking the old record of four.


# Brimstone (2016 film)
### Critical reception
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 42% based on 76 reviews and the average rating is 5.09/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 45 based on 17 reviews, indicating \"mixed or average reviews\". While *The Independent* wrote \"*Brimstone* is raw and very powerful filmmaking, a movie that can\'t help but get under your skin\", *Variety* wrote it was \"highfalutin exploitation\", blaming it on the Netherlands, writing, \"It is, after all, a country that ever since the 1960s, especially in Amsterdam, has profferred a more liberal view than almost any other place of what might euphemistically be termed \'youthful sexuality\'.\" Roger Ebert\'s publication referred to the film as \"dimwitted, amoral exploitation\" and accused Koolhoven of identifying most with the murderous and incestuous Reverend. Kevin Maher of the *Times UK* called it \"an exploitation western that veers from self-importance to high camp.\"
*Brimstone* was released in the United Kingdom 29 September 2017, and was well received by British press. *Empire Magazine* gave it four stars and called it \"white-knuckle tense\", and Peter Bradshaw wrote in *The Guardian*: \"This epically long, lurid, violent western from Dutch film-maker Martin Koolhoven has a kind of Tarantino-ish prolixity and narrative ingenuity. Despite its very indulgent length, it never bores.\"


# Brimstone (2016 film)
### Critical reception
- Nominated -- Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival
- Winner -- Golden Film
- Winner -- Golden Pen, Martin Koolhoven
- Nominated -- Best Film in the Official Competition, London Film Festival
- Nominated -- PFS Award (Human Rights) by Political Film Society
- Nominated -- Audience Award (Best Narrative Feature), Palm Springs International Film Festival
- Winner -- Best Foreign Western Movie chosen by the readers of True West Magazine
- Winner -- Ensor Award, Beste Co-productie at the Ostend Film Festival
- Nominated -- Golden Calf, Carice van Houten, Best Actress in a supporting Role, Netherlands Film Festival
- Nominated -- Golden Calf, Job ter Burg, Best Editing, Netherlands Film Festival
- Nominated -- Golden Calf, Martin Koolhoven, Best Screenplay, Netherlands Film Festival
- Winner -- Golden Calf, Floris Vos, Best Production Design, Netherlands Film Festival
- Winner -- Golden Calf, Tom Holkenborg, Best Music, Netherlands Film Festival
- Winner -- Golden Calf, Herman Pieëte, Best Sound Design, Netherlands Film Festival
- Winner -- Golden Calf, Rogier Stoffers, Best Director of Photography, Netherlands Film Festival
- Winner -- Golden Calf, Martin Koolhoven, Best Direction, Netherlands Film Festival
- Winner -- Golden Calf, Els Vandevorst, Best Film, Netherlands Film Festival
- Nominated -- Best Feature Length Film, Official Fantastic Competition, Sitges Film Festival
- Nominated -- Best Film, International Ecumenical Award, Jameson CineFest -- Miskolc International Film Festival
- Nominated -- Golden Frog, Rogier Stoffers, The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography Camerimage
- Winner -- European Film Award, Leendert van Nimwegen, European Hair & Makeup Artist, European Film Academy
- Winner -- Beste Dutch Film 2017, Circle of Dutch Film Journalists (KNF)
- Nominated -- Zilveren Krulstaart, Martin Koolhoven, Best Feature, Screenplay Award
- Winner -- DirectorsNL Award, Martin Koolhoven, Best Feature, Director\'s Award given by DDG and Vevam Members
- Nominated -- Saturn Award for Best International Film
- Winner -- Best Feature, Almeria Western Film Festival


# Dororo (film)
***Dororo*** is a 2007 Japanese action film based on the 1960s manga series by Osamu Tezuka. It was filmed in New Zealand. Universal Pictures picked up the US rights, while MVM Films have the UK rights. Better Luck Tomorrow producer Ernesto Foronda is allegedly working on a Hollywood version of *Dororo*.
The film\'s storyline has some major differences from that of the manga, one of which is that Hyakkimaru and Dororo are significantly older than their manga incarnations.
Dororo is a young woman assuming the identity of a man despite others seeing through her brash and often violent exterior. When her father was killed by Daigo when he attempted to call the warlord out, the girl and her mother escaped into the wilderness. At her mother\'s dying request, in order to carry on her father\'s insurmountable vendetta against Daigo, the child takes on a man\'s identity and grows up without a permanent home or any friends. As a result, She becomes a thief to make a living. Throughout her life, she\'s denied any name, citing that the best thieves never revealed their names as doing so meant they could be hunted and arrested. Only after travelling with Hyakkimaru does she decide to take on the name \"Dororo\", as that name had been one of many that Hyakkimaru had acquired during his previous travels. Although Hyakkimaru explained it as meaning \"Little Monster,\" Dororo felt that it suited her better while Hyakkimaru kept his previous name.
Abandoned at birth, Hyakkimaru\'s body was sold to demons by his birth father, resulting in his lacking 48 body parts. He only survives because he is discovered by a master spellcaster, who takes pity on him and replaces his missing body parts with those of deceased children. From a young age, Hyakkimaru attracts a disproportionate amount of attention from supernatural beings, especially malignant ones. This supernatural magnetism results in the death of his adopted father. Hyakkimaru is emotionally destroyed but begins questing to destroy the demons and regain the body stolen from him at birth.


# Dororo (film)
Among the demons Hyakkimaru encounters are a Jorōgumo, the moth demoness who abducted abandoned children in order to feed her Hanyō offspring, a cherry blossom tree monster and a lizard monster. After killing a Daitengu and regaining his right arm, Hyakkimaru learns that his curse was his birth father\'s doing and this man was in fact Daigo. Killing a pair of dog demons who tormented him about this revelation, Hyakkimaru gains his real eyes and is later confronted at daybreak by Tahōmaru, the man he learned to be his younger brother. Expressing jealous rage towards Hyakkimaru due to their mother\'s feelings for him, Tahōmaru\'s resulting anger brings about a confrontation in which he is accidentally killed by Hyakkimaru. By then, Daigo arrives and cuts down his wife while she, despite her own despair over Tahōmaru\'s death, tries to persuade Daigo to spare Hyakkimaru\'s life, now their only living son. Though he came close to killing his father, Hyakkimaru refused and spared his father while telling him to strive for and create the utopia that Tahōmaru had once envisioned. However, with the promise of reviving Tahōmaru from the dead, Daigo sold his body to one of the demons with whom he made the original pact. Dororo tried to convince Daigo not to do it, telling him that the demon would use his body to rule the land and cause greater despair and suffering among the people. Daigo accepted the proposal nonetheless, but was able to muster enough control to hold the monster at bay for Hyakkimaru to kill him. Once dead, Hyakkimaru regained his heart, yet complained that the pain in his chest did not subside afterward, an indication that he was feeling remorse for the first time in his life. Though later offered the throne, Hyakkimaru declines and entrusts his brother with it as he and Dororo continue their quest to kill the remaining 24 demons.


# Dororo (film)
- Satoshi Tsumabuki - Hyakkimaru
- Kō Shibasaki - Dororo
- Kiichi Nakai - Kagemitsu Daigo
- Yoshio Harada - Jukai
- Eita - Tahomaru
- Mieko Harada - Yuri
- Katsuo Nakamura - Bipa
- Tetta Sugimoto - Sabame


# Mojin: The Lost Legend
***Mojin: The Lost Legend*** (previously titled *The Ghouls*) (English: *Touching Gold: The Lost Legend*) is a 2015 Chinese action adventure fantasy thriller film based on the novel *Ghost Blows Out the Light*. It was directed by Wuershan and produced by Chen Kuo-fu. The film was released on December 18, 2015.
At the beginning of the 1990s, famous tomb explorer Hu Bayi, Wang Kaixuan, and Hu\'s fiancée Shirley Yang decided to retire to Manhattan. After a supposedly split of the team, Wang Kaixuan was pulled into a deal to locate the ancient tomb of a Mongolian princess. Hu Bayi has been having recurring nightmares of his first love, Ding Sitian, who had supposedly died 20 years before in an underground tomb beneath the Mongolian plains. The team is lured back to their original vocation by a mysterious, businesswoman/cult leader Ying Caihong who wants them to find the ancient tomb of a Mongolian princess. They eventually learn that what she really wants is to possess a famed artifact known as the Equinox Flower that allegedly has the power to raise the dead.
- Chen Kun as Hu Bayi.
- Huang Bo as Wang Kaixuan.
- Shu Qi as Shirley Yang.
- Angelababy as Ding Sitian.
- Xia Yu as Big Gold Tooth.
- Liu Xiaoqing as Ying Caihong.
The film is based on the popular adventure novel series *Ghost Blows Out the Light* about a trio of legendary grave robbers, and is the second film following *Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe* to be adapted based on the series. *Mojin* was based on the series\' last four volumes while *Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe* was based on series' first four volumes. After Wanda Media acquired the rights to film the last four volumes, other production companies such as Huayi Brothers Media and Beijing Enlight Pictures came on board, adding financial and produced the project.


# Mojin: The Lost Legend
Filming wrapped up in New York City in late March 2015. As of October 14, 2015, the film was being remastered for the IMAX 3D format.
The film was released in 2D, 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D formats in China on December 18, 2015, and on the same day in the United States and Canada in 2D by Well Go USA Entertainment across 30 theaters. Following the huge commercial success of Chinese films like *Monster Hunt* and *Lost in Hong Kong*, Greg Foster, senior executive VP, IMAX Corporation and CEO of IMAX Entertainment said the company was looking forward to witness such success again with the film because the suspenseful and visual nature of the film, combined with the Chinese cultural interest in treasure-hunting, makes *Mojin: The Lost Legend* a perfect fit for the IMAX experience. It was released in a total of 269 IMAX screens in mainland China.
Due to sensitive issues about the circulation of national treasures abroad and the reported prevalence of grave robbing in poorer parts of China, the subject was feared to be taboo on screen, making the project one of the Chinese film industry\'s most anticipated movie over its three and a half production period.


# Mojin: The Lost Legend
### Box office
Prior to its release, various film critics were predicting the film would be a significant hit at the box office. It is the highest-grossing IMAX film of all time in China with \$27.1 million (as of January 6, 2016). *Mojin: The Lost Legend* earned US\$26.4 million on its opening day in China which is the highest-grossing opening day for a 3D local language film. This includes the US\$1.34 million it earned from midnight screenings, also a new record for a 3D local film. In addition to this, it earned the largest single-day gross for a local 3D title (\$35.5 million on Saturday, December 19). Through its opening weekend, it grossed US\$85 million (per Rentrak), US\$91.9 million (per Entgroup) and debuted at No. 1 in China and No. 2 worldwide (behind *Star Wars: The Force Awakens*). The film has the third biggest three-day opening of all time in China behind *Monster Hunt* and *Lost in Hong Kong* (both of which were also released in 2015). Furthermore, it also broke the record for the biggest IMAX midnight gross (US\$300,000), opening day (US\$2.7 million) and opening weekend (US\$7.5 million) from 250 IMAX screens.
In its second weekend, it grossed another US\$44 million -- US\$95.7 million in its full second week -- falling behind newcomer *Devil and Angel*. Of that US\$6 million alone came from 259 IMAX screens for a 10-day cumulative of US\$17.6 million becoming the second-highest grossing local language film for IMAX ever in China. The film went on to surpass *Monster Hunt* () to become the highest-grossing Chinese-language IMAX film in China, with . It is only behind *Furious 7* (US\$39 million) when incorporating all kinds of films.
In the United States and Canada, it opened with US\$280,000 from 22 theaters.


# Mojin: The Lost Legend
### Critical reception
While the performances of the cast, special effects and action sequences have been praised, the film overall has received largely mixed reviews from western critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 50% approval rating, based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10.
Daniel M. Gold of *The New York Times* gave a negative review saying the film wastes some fine actors such as Shu Qi \"on predictable, one-dimensional characters, and once the tomb is entered, the underground sets become all but interchangeable. What starts eerie becomes strictly cartoonish.\" Likewise, the *Los Angeles Times* gave a negative review. Writing for rogerebert.com, Mark Dujsik awarded the film one and a half stars out of four calling it, \"equal parts shabby and discomforting.\"
However, not all reviews were negative. David Noh of *Film Journal International* advised \"Grab a big bag of popcorn and a soda and sink yourself into this rambling but skillfully done and surprisingly deep Chinese action romp.\" Frank Scheck of *The Hollywood Reporter*---while criticising the film for being overlong, convoluted and repetitive---praised the action sequences and special effects, deeming them superb, and lauded the performances of the leads. Chief Asia film critic Maggie Lee of *Variety* agreed that the film provided \"enough robust action and technical moxie to make audiences overlook its formulaic plotting and rote characterizations.\" Jake Wilson of *The Sydney Morning Herald* gave the film three stars out of five, writing \"the result can feel a bit disjointed: it takes a long time for things to get started, and there are too many distractions for the hints of social commentary and tragedy to register with much force.\" But he praised the cinematography, comparing it to that of Peter Jackson\'s work on *The Lord of the Rings* trilogy. The *Taipei Times* said the movie \"is lavish, packed with eye-dazzling action and fantastic plots, making it feel right at home among the *Lara Croft: Tomb Raider* films.\"

### Accolades
`Year `
`Award `
`Category  `
`Recipient(s) and nominee(s) `
Result
`Notes`
2016
`23rd Beijing College Student Film Festival `
`Best Writing `
Best Visual Effects
`33rd Hundred Flowers Awards `


# Mojin: The Lost Legend
### Accolades
`Best Film `
`Best Director `
`Wuershan `
`Best Actress `
`Shu Qi `
`Best Supporting Actor `
`Xia Yu `
Best Supporting Actress
`Angelababy `
53rd Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards
`Best Visual Effects `
` Douglas Hans Smith, Sam Wang, Sam Khorshid, Strilen Liu`
The sequel of the film was released in 2018 titled *Mojin: The Worm Valley*


# Shivaay
***Shivaay*** is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed and produced by Ajay Devgn under his banner Ajay Devgn FFilms. The story and screenplay are written by Sandeep Shrivastava and the film features Ajay Devgn in the lead titular role along with debutante actresses Sayyeshaa, Abigail Eames and Erika Kaar in lead roles. Mithoon composed the film\'s score and soundtrack. British band The Vamps and composer Jasleen Royal also contributed to the music.
*Shivaay* was released on 28 October 2016 on the Diwali weekend. It was commercially successful, and ran for more than 50 days at the box office. It won the 64th National Film Award for Best Special Effects in 2017. It was screened at the 2017 Shanghai International Film Festival on 17 June 2017.
Shivaay (Ajay Devgn) is a skilled mountaineer who makes a living by providing treks and climbing expeditions to tourists. One day he meets Olga (Erika Kaar) and saves her from an avalanche. They eventually fall in love. Olga becomes pregnant but doesn\'t want the child. Shivaay begs her to give him the child, after which he will not stop her. Nine years later, Shivaay leads a happy life with his mute daughter Gaura (Abigail Eames) until she discovers that Olga is still alive and in Bulgaria. Gaura insists Shivaay be taken to Bulgaria, and despite his old sorrows, Shivaay finally agrees to take her to Bulgaria, where he saves one young child from child traffickers. Shivaay seeks the Indian embassy\'s help in tracing Olga and is assigned to Anu (Sayyesha Saigal).
The traffickers, led by the baron Ustinov and his right-hand man, the unseen Changez, come after Shivaay and kidnap Gaura. Shivaay chases the van, destroying various cars but loses the van and is arrested by the Bulgarian police, charged with murder and trafficking. While in the police van, Shivaay imagines the officers in the van to be the same masked traffickers, attacks them, throwing out every single officer. The van accidentally falls off a dam, and the police think that Shivaay is dead. But Shivaay escapes by jumping from the van due to his skills and survives.


# Shivaay
Shivaay brings one of the saved prostitutes from a brothel to Anu\'s home to help her out. Anu, who misunderstood Shivaay earlier, agrees to help him. Olga, having now seen television coverage of Shivaay, meets him and joins him. They seek Wahab (Vir Das) help to recover CCTV footage Shivaay\'s various chases. Ivanovich, Ustinov\'s henchman, is beaten badly when he arrives there, after which he reveals Ustinov\'s location, where Shivaay discovers that Gaura has been taken away to be sold into the flesh trade.
Shivaay chases after the transport van carrying his daughter off to Romania. A prolonged and vicious fight ensues as Changez, now revealed to be Captain Nikolai of the Bulgarian Police, attacks Shivaay but gets killed by the latter. Gaura is reunited with Olga, who is now married to a wealthy Bulgarian and can provide Gaura with every comfort. Shivaay doesn\'t want to lose Gaura, but, seeing as Olga now beseeches him, he heavy-heartedly leaves for the airport, where Gaura arrives &, requesting not to leave her, runs into his arms.
- Ajay Devgn as Shivaay, a tourist guide, mountaineer and Gaura\'s father
- Sayyeshaa as Anushka, a budding IFS officer at the Indian embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria
- Erika Kaar as Olga, Shivaay\'s former lover and the mother of Gaura
- Abigail Eames as Gaura (Maharishi Gaura), Shivaay\'s young daughter with his former lover, Olga
- Vir Das as Wahab, an expert computer hacker who has a crush on Anushka
- Girish Karnad as Anushka\'s father
- Markus Ertelt as Changez/Sgt. Nikolai
- Saurabh Shukla as Sharma, Anushka\'s boss in the Indian embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria
- Bijou Thaangjam as Kancha, Shivaay\'s friend
The shooting of the film started in November 2014, with the majority shot in Mussoorie, Bulgaria and Hyderabad.
*Shivaay* released on 28 October 2016. It released internationally in 60 countries including Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, and Chile. However, the film was not released in Pakistan.


# Shivaay
The film\'s runtime was later reduced by 19 minutes, and the new trimmed version was released in cinemas.

### Piracy issue
On 27 October 2016, *The Indian Express* published that self-proclaimed film critic Kamaal R Khan had uploaded the opening sequence of the film on Twitter, which he shot in a theater in Dubai. Devgn, the producer, was quoted saying that he would take legal action against Khan.

### Critical reception
*Bollywood Hungama* gave Shivaay 3.5/5 stars. \"*Shivaay* is a perfect emotional thriller that scores high on the account of its breathtaking visuals, amazing action and a high octane performance\". *Dainik Jagran* rated the film 3.5/5, describing it as \"full of emotion and action.\" *The Times of India* gave the film 3/5, praising the cinematography but criticizing the 3-hour runtime which was later trimmed. *Mumbai Mirror* also rated the film 3/5, stating that the film \"scores fairly on most accounts.\" Bollywood Life rated the film 3/5, writing \"Ajay Devgn\'s directorial is all about its stunning visuals and breath taking action scenes.\" BookMyShow reviewed the film and called the film a \"perfect Diwali gift you can give yourself and your family this (Diwali) weekend.\"


# Shivaay
### Critical reception
Rajeev Masand for News 18 gave the film 2 stars out of 5 and wrote, *What Ajay Devgan the star deserved, was a sharper director and a better script. In the end, there\'s little else to Shivaay than the eye-watering locations (both in the Himalayas and in Bulgaria), and occasionally poignant moments between Devgan and the little girl who plays his daughter. Everything else is noise. Way too much noise.\" Writing for*The Hindu*, Namrata Joshi commented that the movie moves too slow, and \"turns out almost three hours long with just a wisp of a story.\" Anna MM Vetticad of Firstpost described it as a heavy-handed, over-stretched film.
Rating the film 1.5 stars out of 5, Ananya Bhattacharya of IndiaToday.in praised the cinematography but criticized the writing. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave the film 1 out 5, calling it an \"absolute catastrophe\". Shubhra Gupta of*Indian Express\'\' wrote in a 1 out of 5-star review, \"The only thing your eye can rest on is the spectacular scenery. The rest is a bloated star vehicle.\"
The four-week worldwide grossing of film was between and .

### India
*Shivaay* was released alongside Karan Johar\'s romantic drama *Ae Dil Hai Mushkil* and collected 102.4 million from India on its opening day, which was less than *Ae Dil Hai Mushkil*s 13.30 crore domestic first day. *Shivaay* grossed more than 1.39 billion.

#### Overseas
The film collected from North America (USA and Canada), from UK, from Australia, from New Zealand and from Malaysia.
*Shivaay*s soundtrack was composed by Mithoon with a guest vocal appearance by the British pop-rock band The Vamps. The lyrics were penned by Sayeed Quadri and Sandeep Shrivastava.


# Shivaay
### India
#### Overseas
On 11 September 2016 the title track, \"Bolo Har Har Har\", was released, sung by Mithoon, Mohit Chauhan, Sukhwinder Singh, Badshah, Megha Sriram Dalton, and Anugrah. The second song, \"Darkhaast\", was released on 22 September 2016, and featured vocals by Arijit Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan.
All music rights of *Shivaay* were acquired by T-Series.

### Track listing
`Awards `
`Category `
`Nominee `
`Status`
`National Film Award `
`Best Visual Effects `
`NY VFXWALA `
`Star Screen Awards `
`Best Cinematography `
`Aseem Bajaj `
`Best Action `
`Jai Singh Nijjar `
`Zee Cine Award `
`Best Visual Effects `
`NY VFXWALA `
`Best Cinematography `
`Aseem Bajaj `
`Best Action `
`Jai Singh Nijjar `
`Stardust Awards `
`Best Breakthrough Performance (Male) `
`Ajay Devgn `
An official game based on this film has been released by Zapak Mobile Games Pvt. Ltd, for Android mobile phone users.


# Homeland: Iraq Year Zero
***Homeland: Iraq Year Zero*** is a 2015 documentary film written and directed by the Iraqi-French film director Abbas Fahdel.
Chronicles of everyday life in Iraq before and after the U.S. invasion.
- Sesterce d\'Or (Best Feature Film Award - International Competition), Festival Visions du réel, 2015
- Doc Alliance Selection Award, Locarno International Film Festival, 2015
- White Goose Award (Best Feature Film Award - International Competition), DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, 2015.
- Award of Excellence (International Competition), and Citizens\' Prize, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, 2015.
- Grand Prize and People\'s Choice Award, RIDM (Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal), 2015.
- Silver Tanit, Carthage Film Festival, 2015.
- Jury Prize, Milano Filmmaker Festival, 2015.
- Public Award, Festival Internacional de Cine UNAM (FICUNAM), Mexico, 2016.
<!-- -->
- Cinema of Iraq
- Iraqi culture


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
***The Birth of a Nation*** is a 2016 American period drama film written and directed by Nate Parker in his directorial debut. It is based on the story of Nat Turner, the enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. The film stars Parker as Turner, with Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Junior, Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Aja Naomi King, Dwight Henry, Jackie Earle Haley, Esther Scott, Penelope Ann Miller, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Gabrielle Union in supporting roles. Parker also petitioned financiers to invest in the film, ultimately getting an \$8.5 million production budget, and started filming in May 2015 in Georgia.
The film premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2016. Fox Searchlight Pictures bought worldwide rights to the film in a \$17.5 million deal, at the time the largest deal at the film festival. At the end of the festival, the film won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition and was highly praised for its directing, acting, soundtrack, and cinematography. The film was theatrically released in the United States on October 7, 2016, by Fox Searchlight Pictures and grossed \$16 million.
Because *The Birth of a Nation* attracted increased attention due to possible Oscar nominations, there was significant press coverage of a 1999 alleged rape that Parker and co-writer Jean McGianni Celestin were accused of having committed, and the fact that the accuser died by suicide in 2012. While Parker was acquitted and Celestin was not retried after his conviction was overturned on appeal, the controversy surrounding the alleged rape and Parker\'s initial responses to the controversy cast a shadow over the film.


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
In 1809, on a farm in Southampton County, Virginia, Nat Turner is a pre-teen slave boy. The adult slaves have little food for their children, and Nat\'s father Isaac slips out one night to steal something for his son to eat. On the road, Isaac is caught by a posse led by slave-catcher Raymond Cobb. When Cobb tries to execute him, Isaac turns the tables, kills one member of the posse, and flees. He then returns home, tells his family what happened and says that he has to leave immediately, but not without speaking to Nat once more, insisting that Nat is \"a child of God\" and has a purpose. When Cobb arrives and questions Isaac\'s family about his whereabouts, nobody says anything and Benjamin Turner, the owner of the farm, intervenes and drives Cobb off before he turns violent.
When Elizabeth Turner, Benjamin\'s wife, notices that Nat has basic reading skills, she starts to teach him reading, hoping that he can be helpful in the household with his knowledge. Most of her lessons center around the Bible. Elizabeth even goes so far as to have Nat read Scripture during church gatherings. But shortly before Benjamin dies, presumably of tuberculosis, he orders his wife to stop teaching Nat and send him to work as a farmhand.
Now an adult, Nat is still picking cotton, but he also preaches and reads Scripture for his fellow slaves on the farm. Samuel Turner, Benjamin\'s son, inherits ownership of the farm. During a slave auction, Nat is immediately smitten by one of the female slaves for sale, Cherry. He convinces Samuel to buy her as a wedding gift for Catherine Turner, Samuel\'s sister. Nat and Cherry fall in love, marry, and conceive a daughter.
Since the economic situation in the South has turned and prices for crops are poor, many slaveowners have problems feeding their slaves and fear revolts. Reverend Walthall makes Samuel an offer: several farm owners will pay good money if Samuel will travel to their farms with Nat and have Nat preach to the slaves to pacify them and convince them that the Bible requests them to endure their situations. Samuel, needing the money, reluctantly agrees. During their visits, Nat and Samuel witness emaciated and desperate slaves and, in some locations, horrifying treatment of the slaves by their owners.
Several additional incidents occur which infuriate Nat and make him more and more desperate:


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
- Cherry is horribly beaten up and presumably raped by a group of white men, again led by Raymond Cobb. When Nat asks her who did it, she does not tell him because she fears his retaliation would lead to him being killed.
- One night, Samuel hosts a party for guests whom he hopes could help improve his financial situation. One of the guests asks to rape one of the female slaves and Samuel acquiesces to the request, scarring her and her husband.
- One day, when Samuel is not home, a white man who has been barred from all white churches in the county for unspecified crimes asks Nat to baptize him. Even though Nat knows that this act could lead to horrible consequences for him, he feels that it is his duty as a preacher and he performs the baptism, supported by Elizabeth Turner. For his insolence, he is whipped as a punishment.
When his grandmother dies, Nat decides that he will rise up against the slaveholders. He holds a secret night meeting with some trusted fellow slaves, among them one boy from another farm, and prepares them for the uprising. He also talks with Cherry, who still has not recovered from the beating, about the uprising and she gives him her blessing.
During the night, Nat and a fellow slave enter the house of their owners and kill Samuel and the manager. They then ask the other slaves of the farm to follow them, which most of them do. During the night, they take over several other farms and kill the slaveowners. During one of the takeovers, they notice that the boy has disappeared. A short time later, they are attacked by a group of white men who had been alerted by the boy, and they have to retreat.
In the morning, they enter the town of Jerusalem to loot it for weapons. They are confronted by a group of white men, again led by Cobb, but they manage to defeat the group, with Nat personally stabbing Cobb to death. But when they enter the arsenal, they notice that it is empty. They are immediately ambushed by soldiers who kill every slave except for Nat, who flees.


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
When Nat manages to secretly meet Cherry once more, she tells him that innocent slaves have been murdered in retaliation and more will be as long as Nat is on the run. Nat turns himself in and is condemned to death. During the hanging, Nat notices the slave boy who betrayed the group in the crowd but Nat does not seem to harbor ill will towards him. The film ends with a fade of the boy\'s crying face into the face of an adult soldier who presumably is the same boy, grown up and fighting for the Union Army in the American Civil War.
- Nate Parker as Nat Turner
- Armie Hammer as Samuel Turner
- Mark Boone Junior as Rev. Walthall
- Colman Domingo as Hark Turner
- Aunjanue Ellis as Nancy Turner
- Dwight Henry as Isaac Turner
- Aja Naomi King as Cherry Turner
- Esther Scott as Bridget Turner
- Roger Guenveur Smith as Isaiah
- Gabrielle Union as Esther
- Penelope Ann Miller as Elizabeth Turner
- Jackie Earle Haley as Raymond Cobb
- Tony Espinosa as young Nat Turner
- Jayson Warner Smith as Hank Fowler
- Jason Stuart as Joseph Randall
- Steve Coulter as General Childs
The 2016 film uses the same title as \"D. W. Griffith\'s 1915 KKK propaganda film in a very purposeful way\", said *The Hollywood Reporter*. Parker has said his film had the same title \"ironically, but very much by design\". He told the magazine *Filmmaker*:
Griffith\'s film relied heavily on racist propaganda to evoke fear and desperation as a tool to solidify white supremacy as the lifeblood of American sustenance. Not only did this film motivate the massive resurgence of the terror group the Ku Klux Klan and the carnage exacted against people of African descent, it served as the foundation of the film industry we know today. I\'ve reclaimed this title and re-purposed it as a tool to challenge racism and white supremacy in America, to inspire a riotous disposition toward any and all injustice in this country (and abroad) and to promote the kind of honest confrontation that will galvanize our society toward healing and sustained systemic change.
Parker, who also wrote, produced and directed the film, portrays Turner


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
*The Birth of a Nation* is written, produced, and directed by Nate Parker, who also stars as Nat Turner. Parker wrote the screenplay, which was based on a story he co-wrote with Jean McGianni Celestin. Parker learned about Turner from an African-American studies course at the University of Oklahoma. He began writing the screenplay for a Nat Turner film in 2009 and had a fellowship at a lab under the Sundance Institute. While he got writing feedback from filmmakers like James Mangold, he was told that a Nat Turner film could not be produced. *The Hollywood Reporter* said:But what he heard instead were all the reasons a movie about Nat Turner wouldn\'t work: Movies with black leads don\'t play internationally; a period film with big fight scenes would be too expensive; it was too violent; it wouldn\'t work without a big box-office star leading it; Turner was too controversial---after all, he was responsible for the deaths of dozens of well-off white landowners.After Parker finished his acting role in *Beyond the Lights* in late 2013, he told his agents he would not continue acting until he had played Nat Turner in a film. He invested \$100,000 of his money to hire a production designer and to pay for location scouting in Savannah, Georgia. He met with multiple financiers, and the first to invest in the film were retired basketball player Michael Finley (who had previously invested in the film *The Butler*) and active basketball player Tony Parker (no relation). Parker eventually brought together 11 groups of investors to finance 60% of the production budget, and producer Aaron L. Gilbert of Bron Studios joined to cover the remaining financing.


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
In November 2014, development was underway, and Armie Hammer joined the cast. By April 2015, Aja Naomi King and Gabrielle Union joined the cast. In subsequent months, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, and Mark Boone Junior also joined. Filming took place in Georgia in May 2015 and lasted 27 days. Parker used the a cappella choir from Wiley College on the soundtrack. Parker had previously been part of a cast that portrayed historical figures from Wiley, in *The Great Debaters*.
*The Birth of a Nation* premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on , 2016. Before it screened, the audience gave a standing ovation to the introduction of Nate Parker. After it premiered, *Variety* said it \"received the most enthusiastic standing ovation at this year\'s Sundance Film Festival so far\". Following *The Birth of a Nation*s Sundance premiere, Fox Searchlight Pictures bought worldwide rights to the film in a deal. Competing deals also came from The Weinstein Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Netflix. *Variety* said Fox Searchlight\'s deal was \"the richest in Sundance history\".
A teaser trailer for the film was released in April 2016, followed by an official trailer on June 21, 2016. On July 6, the UK release date of January 20, 2017, was announced. It was actually released in the UK on December 9, 2016. A film poster with Parker in a noose made from an American flag was released on July 15.


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
20th Century Fox canceled the planned 2017 release of the film in Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Austria and Latin America following the disappointing results at the U.S. box office, which damaged the overall distribution budget for the film.
In August 2016, media attention surrounding the film resurfaced 1999 alleged rape charges against Nate Parker and co-writer Jean McGianni Celestin. While students at Pennsylvania State University, Parker and Celestin were accused of raping a female student. The woman went to a doctor, who concluded that she had been sexually assaulted, and local authorities taped a phone conversation between her and Parker in which Parker confirmed that it was he and Celestin who had sex with her. Parker and Celestin denied the accusations and said that the sexual encounter was consensual. Parker was acquitted of all charges in 2001; Celestin was convicted of sexual assault, but the conviction was overturned on appeal in 2005. A subsequent retrial did not take place.
In a formal complaint filed against Penn State in 2002, the woman also stated that she was harassed by Parker and Celestin following her allegation; the harassment allegedly \"included Parker and Celestin hiring a private investigator to publicly expose her as the accuser, and continued bullying by Parker and his friends outside buildings where she had class\". The university settled the complaint with the woman for \$17,500. The woman committed suicide in 2012, with her death certificate noting that she suffered from \"major depressive disorder with psychotic features, PTSD due to physical and sexual abuse, polysubstance abuse\".


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
Because *The Birth of a Nation* attracted increased scrutiny due to possible Oscar nominations, and the film itself depicts a fictional, brutal rape that does not appear in historical records, there was significant press coverage about damage control by Fox Searchlight Pictures, the studio releasing the film. Interviews in *Variety* and *Deadline* were a focus, as was Parker\'s response to the event in an impassioned Facebook post. The studio reportedly took a wait-and-see approach before marketing to church groups, college campuses, and Hollywood figures.
Actress and co-star of the film Gabrielle Union criticized Parker\'s past, but also expressed the importance of the film
Writing in *Variety*, the sister of Parker\'s alleged victim expressed particular distress at the film\'s imagined rape scene, saying, \"I find it creepy and perverse that Parker and Celestin would put a fictional rape at the center of their film, and that Parker would portray himself as a hero avenging that rape. Given what happened to my sister, and how no one was held accountable for it, I find this invention self-serving and sinister, and I take it as a cruel insult to my sister\'s memory.\"
Gabrielle Union, a rape survivor and one of the main stars in *The Birth of a Nation*, wrote in the *Los Angeles Times* to express her concern over the allegations, particularly the lack of affirmative consent: \"Even if she never said \'no\', silence certainly does not equal \'yes\'. Although it\'s often difficult to read and understand body language, the fact that some individuals interpret the absence of a \'no\' as a \'yes\' is problematic at least, criminal at worst.\"
After having suffered significant negative publicity for his response to the past rape allegation, Parker chose to deflect the questions about his past legal problems while doing press for *The Birth of a Nation* at the Toronto International Film Festival. Shortly thereafter, Parker and his handlers chose to cut press interviews short when similar questions came up about his involvement with the alleged rape and its impact on the marketing of the film.


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
In an open letter, former members of the Penn State student body and staff who were present during Celestin and Parker\'s trial defended both men\'s innocence of the 1999 accusations. The group made allegations of police intimidation and a hostile racial climate on campus at the time; both Parker and Celestin are black while their accuser was a white female. The group wrote in *The Root*:
Actor Hal Holbrook wrote a letter to *The New York Times* praising the film and defending Parker
Nine celebrities came out in support of Parker, including Harry Belafonte, Chadwick Boseman, Hal Holbrook, Mel Gibson, Kevin Hart, Harvey Weinstein (who was later embroiled in a sexual assault scandal), Al Sharpton, Anthony Anderson, and Sheryl Underwood.
Holbrook wrote a letter to *The New York Times* defending Parker and the film. Holbrook praised *The Birth of a Nation* as \"an exceptional piece of artistry and a vital portrait of our American experience in trying to live up to ideals we say we have\" and suggested that owing to the film\'s critique of racism, Parker and his film were being held to a different standard than what Holbrook characterized as other \"directors and actors who have rather public indiscretions, and who have in some cases been acquitted of them\".
Prior to the film\'s release, it received several hundred one-star ratings on IMDb, possibly as a result of the controversy surrounding the allegations. it holds an IMDb rating of 6.4/10.

### Box office
In the United States and Canada, *The Birth of a Nation* was projected to gross around \$10 million in its opening weekend. It went on to open to \$7.1 million, finishing 6th at the box office. African-Americans made up 60% of the first weekend audience. In its second weekend the film dropped 61.2%, grossing just \$2.7 million and finishing 10th at the box office.


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
### Box office
Despite making back nearly twice its budget, the film was considered a financial disappointment. In assessing the mediocre opening weekend of *The Birth of a Nation*, *The Washington Post* reported, \"While some moviegoers may have been put off by the controversy, middling reviews for the movie itself probably didn't help. Meanwhile, historic dramas can be a hard sell: It\'s possible a lot of multiplex visitors just plain weren\'t interested.\" Adding to the film\'s problems, \"Several prominent feminists decried Parker\'s defiant response to the rape scandal and pledged to boycott the film, which drew a protest vigil at Hollywood\'s ArcLight Cinemas.\"
Gabrielle Union, who appeared in the film, told *Essence* that she understood why some film-goers were avoiding the film and stated that she, as a rape survivor, could not sell it to anyone who chose to avoid the film due to the controversy. She said, \"As a rape survivor and as an advocate, I cannot shy away from this responsibility because the conversation got difficult. I don't want to put myself above anyone\'s pain or triggers. Every victim or survivor, I believe you. I support you. I support you if you don\'t want to see the film. I absolutely understand and respect that. I can\'t sell the film.\"

### Critical response
On review website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 73% based on 268 reviews, with an average rating of 6.70/10. The site\'s critical consensus reads, \"*The Birth of a Nation* overpowers its narrative flaws and uneven execution through sheer conviction, rising on Nate Parker\'s assured direction and the strength of its vital message.\" Metacritic gave the film a normalized score of 69 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating \"generally favorable reviews\". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of \"A\" on an A+ to F scale.


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
### Critical response
Justin Chang at *Variety* compared *The Birth of a Nation* to *12 Years a Slave*, saying: \"Parker\'s more conventionally told but still searingly impressive debut feature pushes the conversation further still: A biographical drama steeped equally in grace and horror, it builds to a brutal finale that will stir deep emotion and inevitable unease.\" He concluded, \"*The Birth of a Nation* exists to provoke a serious debate about the necessity and limitations of empathy, the morality of retaliatory violence, and the ongoing black struggle for justice and equality in this country. It earns that debate and then some.\"
*The Hollywood Reporter*s Todd McCarthy said, \"The film vividly captures an assortment of slavery's brutalities while also underlining the religious underpinnings of Turner\'s justifications for his assaults on slaveholders.\" He added, \"The film offers up more than enough in terms of intelligence, insight, historical research and religious nuance as to not at all be considered a missed opportunity; far more of the essentials made it into the film than not, its makers\' dedication and minute attention are constantly felt and the subject matter is still rare enough onscreen as to be welcome and needed, as it will be the next time and the time after that.\"
Michael Phillips of the *Chicago Tribune* was critical of Parker\'s direction, saying, \"one of the drawbacks, ironically, is Parker\'s own performance. Even the rape victims of the screenplay have a hard time getting their fair share of the screen time; everything in the story, by design, keeps the focus and the anguished close-ups strictly on Parker. He\'s a good actor, but not much of a director; the visual style and approach of *The Birth of a Nation* tries a little of everything, and often too much of everything.\"
In its October 10 issue, *The New Yorker* ran two reviews, \"The Cinematic Merits and Flaws of Nate Parker\'s *The Birth of a Nation*\", by Richard Brody, and \"*The Birth of a Nation* Isn\'t Worth Defending\", by Vinson Cunningham.

### Accolades
`List of awards and nominations`
`Award`
`Date of ceremony`
`Category`
`Recipient(s)`


# The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)
### Accolades
`Result`
`African-American Film Critics Association`
`February 8, 2017`
`Top 10 Films`
*`The Birth of a Nation`*
`Austin Film Critics Association`
`December 28, 2016`
`Best First Film`
*`The Birth of a Nation`*
BET Awards
June 25, 2017
`Best Movie`
*`The Birth of a Nation`*
`Best Actress`
`Gabrielle Union`
`Black Reel Awards`
`February 16, 2017`
`Outstanding Actor`
`Nate Parker`
`Outstanding Director`
`Nate Parker`
`Outstanding Screenplay, Adapted or Original`
`Nate Parker`
`Outstanding Ensemble`
`The cast of `*`The Birth of a Nation`*
`Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Female`
`Aja Naomi King`
`Outstanding Original Score`
`Henry Jackman`
`Directors Guild of America Awards`
`February 4, 2017`
`Outstanding Directing – First-Time Feature Film`
`Nate Parker`
`NAACP Image Awards`
`February 11, 2017`
`Outstanding Motion Picture`
*`The Birth of a Nation`*
`Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture`
`Nate Parker`
`Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture`
`Aja Naomi King`
`Outstanding Independent Picture`
*`The Birth of a Nation`*
`Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture`
`Nate Parker`
`Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture`
`Nate Parker`
`Satellite Awards`
`February 19, 2017`
`Best Film Editing`
`Steven Rosenblum`
`Sundance Film Festival`
`January 29, 2016`
`Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic`
`Nate Parker`
`U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic`
- *The Confessions of Nat Turner*, a 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by William Styron
- *A House Divided: Denmark Vesey\'s Rebellion*, a 1982 television film about Denmark Vesey and his attempted slave rebellion
- List of films featuring slavery
- *Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property*, a 2003 documentary film by Charles Burnett
- *Quilombo*, a 1984 Brazilian drama film about Palmares, a fugitive community of escaped slaves
- *Tula: The Revolt*, a 2013 historical drama film about escaped slave Tula and the Curaçao Slave Revolt of 1795
- List of black films of the 2010s


# Annihilation (film)
***Annihilation*** is a 2018 science fiction psychological horror film written and directed by Alex Garland, based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. It stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Óscar Isaac. The story follows a group of explorers who enter \"The Shimmer\", a mysterious quarantined zone of mutating plants and animals caused by an alien presence.
*Annihilation* was released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on February 23, 2018, and in China on April 13, 2018. It grossed \$43 million against a production budget between \$40--55 million, becoming a box office flop. It was released digitally by Netflix in a number of other countries on March 12, 2018. According to *Empire* magazine, the film addresses \"depression, grief, and the human propensity for self-destruction\".
At U.S. government facility Area X, biology professor and Army veteran Lena recounts her expedition to a zone called the \"Shimmer\", which emerged three years ago from a nearby lighthouse after it was struck by a meteorite. Lena\'s husband Kane entered the Shimmer as part of a Green Beret mission but disappeared. He mysteriously reappears at home but his condition quickly deteriorates. As he and Lena are en route to the hospital, they are intercepted by security forces and taken to Area X. Psychologist Dr. Ventress tells Lena that Kane, who is comatose, is the only person to ever return from the expanding Shimmer. Ventress recruits Lena for a new expedition to the lighthouse, along with physicist Josie Radek, geomorphologist Cassie \"Cass\" Sheppard, and paramedic Anya Thorensen. Lena agrees to join to help Kane, believing he accepted a suicide mission into the Shimmer because she cheated on him.


# Annihilation (film)
After entering the Shimmer, no one in the group remembers what happened in the first three days. All wildlife are mutated, including a crossbred alligator that attacks Josie. At a military base, they recover a video of Kane cutting open a soldier, whose intestines are moving, and find the soldier's corpse overgrown by alien fungi. At night, a mutant bear kills Cass. The group then discover plants growing in human shapes, leading Josie to theorise that the Shimmer refracts information like a prism distorts light. This explains why their equipment malfunctions and the DNA of all creatures intermixes. During a paranoid frenzy, Anya hears Cass\'s cry for help and runs over, only to find the mutant bear that mimics Cass\'s dying pleas. Anya distracts the bear before it kills her and Josie shoots it. Ventress, who is revealed to have cancer, leaves the group hurriedly for the lighthouse before the Shimmer corrupts her and Josie wilfully succumbs to the refraction.
In the lighthouse, Lena discovers a video camera next to a burnt corpse. The footage shows Kane telling the cameraperson to find her, then killing himself with a phosphorus grenade. It is revealed that the cameraperson is his doppelgänger. Lena descends into the meteor crater and finds Ventress, who relates that the Shimmer will eventually encompass and refract everything. She disintegrates into a pulsing Mandelbulb that absorbs a blood droplet from Lena\'s face, creating a humanoid that mimics Lena's motions. Unable to hurt it and prevented by it from leaving, she tricks the humanoid into accepting a phosphorus grenade as it transforms into an identical copy of her. After activating the grenade, Lena flees but her doppelgänger does not follow. The burning doppelgänger calmly, and seemingly intentionally, sets the lighthouse on fire. Lena watches as the Shimmer collapses.
At Area X, Lena tells her interrogator that the Shimmer was not \"destroying\" anything, but changing everything anew. She goes to see Kane, who has since recovered, and asks if he really is Kane; he replies, \"I don\'t think so\". He asks if she really is Lena, but she does not answer. They embrace and their irises shimmer.


# Annihilation (film)
- Natalie Portman as Lena
- Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dr. Ventress
- Gina Rodriguez as Anya Thorensen
- Tessa Thompson as Josie Radek
- Tuva Novotny as Cassie "Cass" Sheppard
- Oscar Isaac as Kane
- Benedict Wong as Lomax
- Sonoya Mizuno as Katie
  - Also plays a motion captured role as the Humanoid
- David Gyasi as Daniel
- Sammy Hayman as Mayer
- Josh Danford as Shelley

### Development
Paramount Pictures and Scott Rudin acquired the film rights to *Annihilation*, the then-unpublished first novel in Jeff VanderMeer\'s *Southern Reach Trilogy*, on March 26, 2013. Rudin and Eli Bush were set to produce the film, and Alex Garland, who had previously worked with Rudin and Bush on *Ex Machina*, was hired to write and direct the film in October 2014.
Garland explained that his adaptation was necessarily based on only the first novel in the trilogy: \"At the point I started working on *Annihilation*, there was only one of the three books. I knew that it was planned as a trilogy by the author, but there was only the manuscript for the first book. I really didn\'t think too much about the trilogy side of it.\"
Garland said his adaptation is \"a memory of the book\", rather than book-referenced screenwriting, with the intention of capturing the \"dreamlike nature\" and tone of his experience reading VanderMeer\'s novel. Rather than trying to directly adapt the book, Garland deliberately took the story in his own direction, with VanderMeer\'s permission. Garland did not read the other two books when they arrived, as he was concerned he would need to revise his script. Others informed him of the elements of the books, and he expressed surprise at some of the similarities.


# Annihilation (film)
### Development
Some critics have noted the film has similarities with the science-fiction novel *Roadside Picnic* and its 1979 movie adaptation, *Stalker*. While Nerdist Industries\' Kyle Anderson noted even stronger resemblance with the 1927 short story \"The Colour Out of Space\" by H. P. Lovecraft (also adapted for the screen on several occasions, including as *Color Out of Space* in 2019), about a meteorite that lands in a swamp and unleashes a mutagenic plague, Chris McCoy of the *Memphis Flyer* found the film (*Annihilation*) reminiscent both of \"The Colour Out of Space\", as well as the novel (*Roadside Picnic*) and its film adaptation (*Stalker*). VanderMeer stated that the original novel \"is 100% NOT a tribute to Picnic/Stalker\", but rather drew influences from works by J.G. Ballard and Franz Kafka.

### Casting
The first cast member to join *Annihilation* was Natalie Portman, who entered negotiations with the studio in May 2015, under the agreement that production not begin until 2016. Once Portman had agreed to play the biologist, the next cast member added was Gina Rodriguez, who entered talks with Paramount in November 2015. By that point, production was set to begin in early 2016, a decision made to accommodate Portman\'s schedule but which also fell during Rodriguez\'s break from filming *Jane the Virgin*. Oscar Isaac joined the cast in March 2016 as the husband of Portman\'s character; he had previously worked with Garland in *Ex Machina*. By the end of April, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and David Gyasi were also attached to the project.


# Annihilation (film)
### Casting
In 2018, Garland was criticized by the Media Action Network for Asian Americans and the American Indians in Film and Television advocacy groups for whitewashing the roles played by Portman and Leigh. In the *Southern Reach* novels, the Biologist is described as being of Asian descent, while the Psychologist is mixed-race and half-Indigenous; both Portman and Leigh are white. Garland responded to the accusations by saying that there was \"nothing cynical or conspiratorial\" about the casting, and that the book in which the characters\' races are revealed, *Authority*, had not been released by the time *Annihilation* had been written and cast. Portman also responded to the controversy, saying that she did not know her character had a specific ethnicity until whitewashing concerns were raised, and that Garland had intentionally not spoken to VanderMeer about the other two *Southern Reach* novels because he wanted to focus on adapting *Annihilation*.

### Filming
Principal photography was underway by April 2016, when actor David Gyasi was added to the cast. Lighthouse Pictures Ltd started location filming in late April in South Forest, Windsor Great Park. Some test shooting had already been done in St. Marks, Florida, but the vegetation in the area turned out to be too dense to give any depth perception on screen. On May 9, 2016, cinematographer Rob Hardy began sharing pictures from the set of the film. On July 13 and 14, filming took place at Holkham Pines in North Norfolk. Shooting was completed that month.
The visual effect team was made up of many of Garland\'s collaborators from his previous film, *Ex Machina*, including VFX Supervisor Andrew Whitehurst, lead VFX house Double Negative and Milk VFX, plus special makeup effects by Tristan Versluis.
Due to a poorly received test screening, David Ellison, a financier and producer at Skydance, became concerned that the film was \"too intellectual\" and \"too complicated\", and demanded changes to make it appeal to a wider audience, including making Portman\'s character more sympathetic, and changing the ending. Producer Scott Rudin sided with the director, who did not want to alter the film. Rudin, who had final cut privilege, defended the film and refused to take notes from Ellison.


# Annihilation (film)
### Filming
On December 7, 2017, it was announced that due to the clashes between Rudin and Ellison, and the shift in Paramount\'s leadership, a deal was struck allowing Netflix to distribute the film internationally. According to this deal, Paramount would handle the American, Canadian and Chinese release, while Netflix would begin streaming the film in other territories 17 days later.
The film was released theatrically in the United States on February 23, 2018, by Paramount Pictures, and digitally in other markets on March 12, 2018, by Netflix. Garland expressed his disappointment with the decision to coincide digital distribution with theatrical, saying, \"We made the film for cinema.\" On January 5, 2019, the film was released digitally on Netflix\'s competitor Hulu.
*Annihilation* was released on Digital HD on May 22, 2018, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on May 29, 2018.

### Box office
*Annihilation* grossed \$32.7 million in the United States and Canada and \$10.3 million in China, for a worldwide total of \$43.1 million, against a production budget of \$40--55 million. While the film did not amass much in terms of box office, the film found new life in home release, with some publications arguing it could become a cult classic.
Domestically, *Annihilation* was released alongside *Game Night* and *Every Day*, and was projected to gross \$10--12 million from 2,012 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made \$3.9 million on its first day (including \$900,000 from Thursday night previews at 1,850 theaters). It ended up making \$11 million over the weekend, finishing fourth, behind *Black Panther*, *Game Night* and *Peter Rabbit*. In its second weekend the film dropped 49% to \$5.9 million, falling to 6th place.


# Annihilation (film)
### Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website\'s critical consensus reads, \"*Annihilation* backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre thrills with an impressively ambitious---and surprisingly strange---exploration of challenging themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits roll.\" On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on reviews from 51 critics, indicating \"generally favorable reviews\". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of \"C\" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 71% overall positive score.
Richard Roeper of the *Chicago Sun-Times* gave the film four out of four, praising it for taking risks, and saying: \"Kudos to Garland and the cast, but bravo to Scott Rudin as well. Apparently you knew a masterpiece when you saw it, and you made sure we were able to see it as well.\" Writing for *Rolling Stone*, Peter Travers complimented the cast and Garland\'s writing and direction, giving the film 3.5 stars out of 4 and saying, \"Garland need make no apologies for *Annihilation*. It\'s a bracing brainteaser with the courage of its own ambiguity. You work out the answers in your own head, in your own time, in your own dreams, where the best sci-fi puzzles leave things.\" *The Economist* described the film as \"tightrope-walking the fine line between open-ended, mind-expanding mystery and lethargic, pretentious twaddle\", but praised its final half hour.


# Tanu Weds Manu: Returns
***Tanu Weds Manu Returns*** is a 2015 Indian romantic comedy film directed by Aanand L. Rai which is a sequel to the 2011 film *Tanu Weds Manu*. Kangana Ranaut, R. Madhavan, Jimmy Sheirgill, Deepak Dobriyal, Swara Bhaskar and Eijaz Khan reprise their roles from the original film. Ranaut also portrays the additional role of a Haryanvi athlete in it. The story, screenplay and the dialogues were written by Himanshu Sharma. The soundtrack and film score were composed by Krsna Solo and the lyrics were penned by Rajshekhar. Saroj Khan and Bosco--Caesar were the film\'s choreographers while the editing was done by Hemal Kothari.
Principal photography began in October 2014 and the film was released on 22 May 2015. The film carries the story forward showing the next chapter in the couple\'s life. *Tanu Weds Manu Returns* holds the record for the highest first week collections ever for a female driven film in India. Additionally, the film also held the former records for the highest single day earner ever for a female driven film in India and the highest opening weekend collections for a women-centric film in India, until these records were surpassed by Ranaut\'s own *Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi* in 2019. It is the first Indian women-centric film to enter the ₹100 crore club. Made on a budget of , the film earned a total of globally and became one of the highest grossing Bollywood films. In May 2018, Box Office India reported that it is the highest-grossing Indian film driven by a female lead. It is also one of the highest-grossing Indian franchises.


# Tanu Weds Manu: Returns
*Tanu Weds Manu Returns* received critical acclaim with Ranaut\'s performance was particularly praised with many considering it one of the best Bollywood sequels ever made. The film received three awards at the 63rd National Film Awards, including Best Actress for Ranaut. At the 61st Filmfare Awards, the film received two awards, including Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for Ranaut. *Film Companion* listed Ranaut\'s performance in the film among the 100 greatest performances of the decade (2010s).
Tanu Sharma and Manoj Kumar Sharma, aka Manu are a couple in London that married four years ago and have an unhappy and dysfunctional marriage. Tanu gets Manu detained in a mental asylum, and returns to her hometown Kanpur, India, when her friend Payal calls her from India and tells Tanu that she has given birth to a baby girl. Before leaving London, Tanu rings Manu\'s friend Pappi Kutti in Delhi and tells him to immediately leave for London and release Manu.
In Kanpur at her parents\' home, Tanu encounters a crafty law student called Chintu who has become a lodger but refuses to pay rent nor does he vacate. Chintu befriends Tanu and slowly develops a crush on her, bemused by her antics. Tanu also learns that her ex-boyfriend, Raja Awasthi, is getting engaged to another girl. Pappi reaches London and gets Manu out and they reach India, where Manu sends a legal notice to Tanu to make her apologise, but she does not respond.


# Tanu Weds Manu: Returns
One day Manu goes to Delhi University to give a medical speech, where he sees Kusum Sangwan, a young Haryanvi student-athlete, who resembles Tanu. He slowly gets obsessed with Kusum and keeps following her despite Pappi\'s warning. One day after Kusum confronts them, Manu tells her about Tanu. Kusum sympathises and they gradually develop feelings for each other. Manu tells Kusum he wants to marry her and meets Omi, her elder brother. Omi has no issues with Manu but shows a picture of the boy his wife wanted Kusum to marry, who turns out to be Raja. Payal Gill, Tanu\'s best friend calls Tanu and confides that her newborn baby\'s father is not her husband Jassi Gill.
Chintu gets jealous of Raja going around with Tanu and tells her father about it. He even sends Manu a nasty legal notice for a divorce, without Tanu\'s consent, but Manu responds by agreeing, which shocks Tanu. She confronts Chintu who says he loves her but Raja shoves him off. Raja also discovers his engagement is being called off as Manu is going to marry the new girl in his life. Both Raja and Tanu are enraged and decide to go to Delhi to confront Manu.
Manu, Kusum and Pappi travel to Chandigarh to convince Komal Gill, Payal\'s sister-in-law whom Pappi loves, to ditch her own wedding and elope with Pappi instead. As Pappi tries to convince Komal, Kusum is mistaken by everyone at the wedding as Tanu, including Payal, who tells her she had a test-tube baby secretly as Jassi had azoospermia. Kusum gets frantic on hearing these secrets and gives Payal a karate chop which knocks her out. She also lands a karate chop on Komal and they smuggle her to Jhajjar, where Kusum\'s villagers are waiting. But once her family finds out she loves Manu, they attack Manu and Pappi and lock up Kusum. Omi arrives and saves the day with his logic. The village agrees to Kusum and Manu\'s marriage.


# Tanu Weds Manu: Returns
As wedding preparations start, Tanu and Raja reach there with Jassi, Payal, their baby and Manu\'s parents. Tanu makes fun of Kusum who snaps at her saying she is a state-level champion who is independent, loving and honest. She also reveals the truth behind Payal\'s baby in front of Jassi. A shocked and drunk Tanu meets Manu at night who brutally brushes off her loving declarations. In the morning, Tanu tells Kusum she is sorry about her behaviour and would like to stay and help out in their wedding preparations.
Payal and Jassi are reunited. On the eve of the wedding, Tanu gets drunk and dances in front of Manu during the baraat procession. Her parents arrive with Chintu and are shocked to see Tanu shattered as Manu leaves for his marriage. Tanu sits quietly as Manu is marrying Kusum, until Kusum stops and confronts Manu, who confesses he still loves Tanu and cannot marry her. Kusum honourably releases him and walks off, to break down privately.
Tanu and Manu are reconciled while Kusum and Raja have a conversation.


# Tanu Weds Manu: Returns
- R. Madhavan as Dr. Manoj \"Manu\" Kumar Sharma
- Kangana Ranaut in a double role as Tanuja \"Tanu\" Trivedi Sharma and Kusum \"Datto\" Sangwan
- Jimmy Sheirgill as Raja Awasthi
- Deepak Dobriyal as Parth Sharma / Pappi Kutti
- Eijaz Khan as Jassi Singh Gill
- Swara Bhaskar as Payal Gill
- Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Advocate Arun \"Chintu\" Kumar Singh
- Rajendra Gupta as Rajendra Trivedi
- Navni Parihar as Radha Trivedi
- K.K. Raina as Kishan Kumar Sharma
- Dipti Misra as Anjana \"Anju\" Sharma
- Aakash Dahiya as Deepak Chaudhary
- Shishir Sharma as Digvijay Sangwan
- Gulzar Dastur as Mohini Sangwan
- Rajesh Sharma as Omprakash \"Omi\" Sangwan
- Rahul Shankalya as Rajinder Sangwan
- Kajal Bhadana as Pinky Bhatia
- Manu Rishi as Manu\'s lawyer (Tees Hazari Court, Delhi)
Following the positive response to *Tanu Weds Manu* post release in February 2011, the team considered making a sequel to carry the story forward showing the next chapter of the couple\'s life. The lead couple R. Madhavan and Kangana Ranaut both announced their interest of being a part of a proposed sequel, months after the original\'s release. In September 2011, Sunil Lulla of Eros International announced that they had signed on director Aanand L. Rai to work on a second part of the film titled *Tanu Weds Manu: Season 2*. Early reports claimed that the lead actors would be seen in dual roles, while it was also speculated that Shahid Kapoor may replace Madhavan in the lead role. In January 2012, the project was postponed to allow Anand Rai to proceed with another venture *Raanjhanaa* (2013), while the makers also wanted Ranaut to finish her commitments with *Krrish 3* (2013) as the sequel demanded a different look.


# Tanu Weds Manu: Returns
Following the release and success of *Raanjhanaa* in July 2013, Anand Rai confirmed that the sequel to *Tanu Weds Manu* was still active and would feature the original cast in the leading roles, playing down reports that Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma were to replace them. Screenwriter Himanshu Sharma began working on the film in July 2013 and revealed that only the first ten minutes would have a London backdrop, before the story returns to Lucknow, Kanpur and Delhi. He went on to confirm the working title, though added it potentially may also be known as *Tanu Weds Manu Extra Large*. Pre-production continued through late 2013, with Ranaut\'s two-month trip to the USA delaying the start of the shoot in early 2014. She later confirmed that she would play a dual role in the film, that of an athlete apart from Tanu, and the team scouted for a body double to be used in scenes featuring both characters. Dhanush, who had worked in *Raanjhanaa*, was revealed to be playing a cameo appearance in the film.
The team began filming in October 2014 in Lucknow, after a small launch ceremony. The first motion poster of the film was released on 23 March 2015 on the birthday of the leading actress, Kangana Ranaut at a special event in Delhi. \"Ja Ja Ja Ja Bewafa\" sung by Geeta Dutt in 1954 film *Aar Paar*, was picturised on Ranaut, playing the background.
In May 2014, the producers of the original film, Sanjay Singh, Vinod Bachchan and Shailesh Singh filed a legal notice stating that the director did not have the rights to make a sequel without their permission. Anand Rai replied stating that the trio only had rights over the first film and no direct rights over sequels or the franchise. In a further reply, Bachchan revealed that they were interested in making a sequel and should have been approached ahead of Eros International.
In May 2015, a critic at the Mumbai Mirror gave the film 2.5 stars and a generally negative review. The newspaper later \"revised\" the critic\'s rating to 3.5 stars, based on reader feedback.


# Tanu Weds Manu: Returns
The music and background score is composed by Krsna Solo, and the lyrics were written by Rajshekhar. However, the song \"Banno\" has been composed by Tanishk-Vayu (Tanishk Bagchi), and written by Vayu, and the song \"Mari Gali\" has been written by N.S. Chauhan and SurjRDB, and composed by the latter.
The film was released worldwide on 22 May 2015 with nearly 2200 screens in India. The film was released overseas with 350 screens across the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia and UAE. According to Box Office India, the film had an average opening in circuits like Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. *Tanu Weds Manu Returns* opened to almost 60% occupancies in screens up north, while screens across other states and metros had registered figures of 40--50%. The satellite rights of the film were sold to Zee TV.
Upon release, *Tanu Weds Manu: Returns* garnered widespread critical acclaim, with major praise drawn to Ranaut\'s performance. On the Indian film review aggregator website The Review Monk, *Tanu Weds Manu: Returns* received an average score of 7.3/10 based on 43 reviews and 94% critics being in the favor. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 63% based on 8 reviews and an average rating of 7/10.
Ranaut\'s performance in *Tanu Weds Manu: Returns* garnered widespread critical acclaim winning her the National Film Award for Best Actress at the 63rd National Film Awards.


# Tanu Weds Manu: Returns
### India
Stutee Ghosh of *The Quint* gave the film a rating of 5/5 and wrote, ''*Tanu Weds Manu Returns* is gobsmackingly good; It is a laugh riot and keeps you engaged till the end''. Praising Ranaut\'s performance she further wrote,''In an industry where a''double -- role" entails merely sporting two different shades of lipstick, Kangana is a delight to watch. Both as the madcap Tanu and the short haired, freckled Haryanvi Datto, she is incredible''. Srijana Mitra Das of *Times of India* gave the film a rating of 4.5/5 and wrote,''*Tanu Weds Manu Returns* is a total delight that keeps you laughing, sighing, cheering and guessing throughout''. Praising Ranaut\'s performance she further wrote,''*Tanu Weds Manu Returns* boasts one of the finest double roles ever in Hindi cinema; Kangana is breathtakingly good, both as doll-like drama queen Tanu and simple, dignified, earthy Kusum. Each role is performed with sensitivity, precision and flair, Kangana displaying the confidence of a talent Queen''. Rajeev Masand of *CNN-IBN* gave the film a rating of 4/5 and praised Ranaut\'s performance by writing,''*Tanu Weds Manu Returns* is no doubt a showcase for the immense talent of Ranaut, who sinks her teeth into this 'double-role' challenge, and creates two strikingly different characters; The actress makes you care for both characters. Watch this film for Kangana Ranaut, who's at the top of her game''. Anupama Chopra of *Film Companion* gave the film a rating of 4/5 and praised Ranaut\'s performance by writing,''Watching Kangana Ranaut in *Tanu Weds Manu Returns* is like watching an athlete at the top of her game --- consummate skill with effortless grace. As both the rebel without a cause, Tanu, and the Haryanvi sportswoman Kusum, Kangana is pitch-perfect. The film rests on Kangana's shoulders and she carries it with her Herculean talent''. Sweta Kaushal of *Hindustan Times* gave the film a rating of 4/5 and called it a''entertainer'' and a ''must-watch''. Praising Ranaut\'s performance she wrote,''Kangana has done a fabulous job with her characters Tanu and Datto; From the body languages of the two women to their accents, Kangana aces it to the T. She proves yet again that she is one of the few heroines in Bollywood who is willing to experiment with different roles and still come out as the most convincing every time''.


# Tanu Weds Manu: Returns
### India
Ananya Bhattacharya of *India Today* gave the film a rating of 4/5 and wrote, ''*Tanu Weds Manu Returns* deserves a watch for the sheer brilliance that it is, and the way Kangana has nailed her roles''. Praising Ranaut\'s performance she further wrote,''Kangana carries the film on her able shoulders, reminding one why the actress is among the most sought-after ones in the industry today. Ranaut infuses her Tanu with a rare charm and as far as Kusum is concerned, the actress does a mind-blowing job of getting the Haryanvi girl pitch-perfect. Never for a moment is one allowed the opportunity to think that it is one actress cast in dual roles in the film''. *Bollywood Hungama* gave the film a rating of 4/5 called it a''must-watch''. They wrote,''*Tanu Weds Manu Returns* is a must watch, especially for Kangana\'s spellbinding performance, outstanding plot and amazing one-liners''. They called Ranaut\'s performance in the film her''career-best'' and further wrote, ''The undisputed captain of the ship is Kangana Ranaut, who delivers a career best performance. Her performance in the film is definitely award worthy. She really knows how to carry the film on her shoulders; The impact of her roles is so significant that you just cannot imagine any other actress in her role''. Sukanya Verma of *Rediff* gave the film a rating of 4/5 and called Ranaut a''powerhouse''. Praising her performance she wrote,''As Datto her body language, which alternates between assertive and serene depending on the surrounding, and the sureness with which she rattles off her mother tongue is nothing short of flawless and as Tanu the talented star\'s calibre shines through in her understanding of a wife\'s thinly veiled manipulations that are but an attempt to restore what she haughtily believes to be rightly hers. Kangana, the powerhouse makes it difficult to pick a side''.