What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 15th May 2025

The 51st annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) launches on Thursday 15th May and runs through until Sunday 25th May. SIFF is a Seattle-based arts nonprofit dedicated to the creation of vibrant experiences and spaces that champion film discovery and arts education. Beginning in 1976 with the annual Seattle International Film Festival, then expanding into year-round programming, SIFF envisions a thriving arts ecosystem where film discovery encourages a more empathetic, joyful, and connected world. SIFF traditionally attracts approaching 150,000 attendees to celebrate films from more than eighty countries and regions around the world. Many of the features, short films, and documentaries screened will not have a return to US cinemas, making it an amazing event to discover new and underrepresented voices and stories.

The years Opening Night Film presentation is 'Four Mothers' from Ireland and the UK and Co-Written and Directed by Darren Thornton, about a gay YA novelist (James McArdle) who must look after four ageing women left in his care. The Closing Night Film is 'Sorry, Baby' from the USA and Written, Directed and starring Eva Victor with Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, Kelly McCormack, and John Carroll Lynch and is about a melancholic English professor’s complicated path toward healing in the aftermath of an all-too-common tragedy.

The films in Official Competition this year demonstrate some of the finest filmmaking this year from around the world. Spanning a variety of genres, these films advance themes of worldwide resonance, like friendship, coming of age in times of political turmoil, and the challenges inherent to romantic and familial relationships. The Official Competition Jury, comprised of filmmakers, journalists, and industry professionals, selects the winning film, which will be announced at the Golden Space Needle Awards on 25th May and awarded a cash prize of US$5K.

Those films in the Official Competition line-up are as follows :-

* 'Home Sweet Home' from Denmark and Written, Directed and Edited by Frelle Petersen. Sofie starts a career as a caretaker for the elderly, only to be humbled by the toll it takes on her physical and mental health.

* 'The New Year That Never Came' from Romania and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Bogdan Muersanu. Six lives intertwine in the days leading up to the 1989 Romanian revolution in this darkly funny film about living under Communist rule.

* 'Raptures' from Sweden and Written and Directed by Jon Blahed. A devout woman living along the Finland-Sweden border must protect her family from her husband’s newly formed sectarian cult.

* 'Rebuilding' from the USA and Written and Directed by Max Walker-Silverman. Josh O’Connor stars as a Coloradan cowboy who reconnects with his daughter and ex-wife after a wildfire takes his family ranch. Also starring Meghann Fahy, Amy Madigan and Lily LaTorre.

* 'Remaining Native' from the USA and Co-Produced, Directed and Co-Photographed by Paige Bethmann. Ku Stevens wants to become a cross-country runner in memory of his great-grandfather, who escaped from an Indian boarding school.

* 'The Safe House' from Switzerland and Co-Written and Directed by Lionel Baier. A nine-year-old boy and his quirky artistic family experience the turbulence of 1968 Paris from the relative safety of their multigenerational home.

* 'Seeds' from the USA and Co-Produced, Directed and Photographed by Brittany Shyne. Multiple generations in the lives of Black farming families in Thomas County, Georgia from social challenges to financial straits and their dedication to one another.

* 'Summer's Camera' from South Korea and Written and Directed by Divine Sung. A high school girl navigates first love while uncovering her late father’s secret life.

For the full descriptors of the above named films, plus the other competitive strands, being the Short Films Competition, New Directors Competition, New American Cinema Competition, Ibero-American Cinema Competition and the Documentary Competition, plus the complete itinerary of films being showcased and a whole bunch of other good stuff, you can go to the official website at : https://www.siff.net/festival

Turning the focus then back to this weeks six new release movies coming to a big screen Odeon near you, we kick off with the sixth instalment in this horror franchise about a young woman who has a recurring dream about dying in a fire that occurred in the 1960's, and she soon realises that it's not just a dream, but a premonition of the fate that awaits her family. Then we turn to a musical psychological thriller in which, plagued by insomnia, a musician gets pulled into a nightmarish odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence. Next up we have a film set in the heart of a bustling Times Square kitchen, where dreams and desperation collide as the staff each chase the elusive American dream. Following on is an Aussie psychological thriller about a man who revisits his childhood beach to surf with his son, where, humiliated by the locals, he becomes entangled in an escalating conflict that pushes him to his limits. This is followed by a British biographical drama offering that sees a couple lose their home and later discover that the husband has been diagnosed with a terminal illness as they embark on a year-long coastal trek along the south-west coast of England.; and closing out the week there is the story of a widowed Greek fisherman and a teenage refugee who form an emotional bond while sailing the azure waters of the Aegean Sea.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'FINAL DESTINATION : BLOODLINES' (Rated MA15+) - is an American horror film that is Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein in their third Co-Directing outing following 'Freaks' in 2018 and 'Kim Possible' in 2019. This horror franchise that includes six films, ten novels, and two comic books, has so far grossed US$667M from combined production budgets from the first five films of US$154M, making this film a no brainer. The franchise has been praised for its innovative premise of the invisible abstract concept of Death killing people instead of a usual slasher killer, and the creativity of the films' death sequences. The last instalment in the series 'Final Destination 5' was released in 2011.

This film takes audiences back to the very beginning of Death's twisted sense of justice. Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie Lewis (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all. Also starring Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Gabrielle Rose, Rya Kihlstedt, Alex Zahara, April Telek, Tinpo Lee, Max Lloyd-Jones all as members of Stefanie's family and the late Tony Todd reprising his role as William Bludworth, the owner of Bludworth Funeral Homes and who has expert knowledge of Death and its forces or capacities. The film is released in the US this week also.

'HURRY UP TOMORROW' (Rated MA15+) - this American musical psychological thriller film is Co-Written, Directed and Edited by Trey Edward Shults. The film serves as a companion piece to Abel 'The Weeknd' Tesfaye's sixth studio album of the same name, which was produced in conjunction with the film. Shults' previous feature length credits take in his debut with 'Krishna' in 2015, then 'It Comes at Night' in 2017, and 'Waves' in 2019. The film stars Tesfaye as a fictionalised version of himself, an insomniac musician on the verge of a mental breakdown who is pulled into an existential odyssey by a mysterious stranger. Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan also star. The film is released in the US this week too and cost US$20M to produce.

'LA COCINA' (Rated MA15+) - Spanish for 'The Kitchen' this film is Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios which expands on the theme of his own short film from 2008 'Cafe Paraiso', which is based on Arnold Wesker's 1957 stage play 'The Kitchen' which was subsequently adapted into a British drama film of the same name in 1961. This film transfers the kitchen action to New York and captures the frenetic energy of the lunch rush at 'The Grill', a bustling restaurant in Manhattan's Times Square. When money goes missing from the till, suspicion falls on the charming but hot tempered Mexican Pedro (Raul Briones), an undocumented cook who dreams of a better life and is in love with Julia (Rooney Mara), an American waitress who cannot commit to a relationship. Rashid (Oded Fehr), the restaurant owner, has promised to help Pedro obtain legal status, but a shocking revelation about Julia compels Pedro to spiral into an act that threatens to shut down one of the city's busiest kitchens once and for all. The film had its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in mid-February 2024, and was released in the US in late October last year, having so far grossed US$249K, and has garnered mixed or average reviews.

'THE SURFER' (Rated MA15+) - is an Australian and Irish Co-Produced psychological thriller film Directed by Lorcan Finnegan who made his feature film making debut with 'Without Name' in 2016 and would follow this up with 'Vivarium' in 2019 and 'Nocebo' in 2022. Here then, a man (Nicolas Cage) returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. But his desire to hit the waves is thwarted by a group of locals whose mantra is 'don't live here, don't surf here'. Humiliated and angry, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising in tandem with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him to his breaking point. The film premiered in the Midnight Screenings section at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May last year, was released Stateside earlier this month and has garnered generally favourable reviews.

'THE SALT PATH' (Rated M) - this British biographical drama film is Directed by Marianne Elliot in her feature film Directorial debut and is based on the 2018 memoir of the same name by Raynor Winn. Here, a married couple Raynor and Moth Winn (Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs respectively) receive a bad health diagnosis and are left homeless after legal trouble, so they embark on the 1,010km  South West Coast Path, the longest uninterrupted path in England, from Minehead to Poole around the coast of Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, and Dorset. The film Premiered in the Special Presentations section at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September last year, and is due for release in the UK at the end of this month. 

'THE AEGEAN' (Rated M) - this Australian drama film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jacob Richardson in his feature length debut. Here, in a world that has started to forget him, Hector (Costas Mandylor and Nikolas Chalkiadakis as the young Hector), a widowed fisherman, feels the weight of his solitude. Everything changes when he encounters Theodore (Nicky Dune), a teenager desperately seeking a saviour to rescue him from a dire situation. United by their shared struggles, they embark on a journey across the enchanting Aegean Sea, where amidst the azure waters, they discover a newfound purpose and a reason to carry on.

With six new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 12th September 2019.

And so the 76th annual Venice International Film Festival drew to a close on Saturday 7th September with the World Premiere screening of 'The Burnt Orange Heresy' Directed by Giuseppe Capotondi and starring Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki, Mick Jagger and Donald Sutherland being the closing film and shown after the awards ceremony. And speaking of which, the winners and grinners of this years top awards, selected by the official Jury from 21 films in competition, were as follows :-

* The Golden Lion for Best Film was awarded to 'JOKER', Directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix (from the USA).
* The Silver Lion - The Grand Jury Prize was awarded to 'J'ACCUSE' (aka 'AN OFFICER AND A SPY'), Directed by Roman Polanski and starring Jean Dujardin (from France).
* The Silver Lion - Award for Best Director was awarded to Roy Anderrson for 'ABOUT ENDLESSNESS' (from Sweden).




* The Volpi Cup for Best Actress was awarded to Ariane Ascaride for 'GLORIA MUNDI' Directed by Robert Guediguian (from France).
* The Volpi Cup for Best Actor was awarded to Luca Marinelli for 'MARTIN EDEN' Directed by Pietro Marcello (from Italy).
* Best Screenplay was awarded to Yonfan for his animated 'No. 7 CHERRY LANE' also Directed by Yonfan (from Hong Kong).
* Special Jury Prize was awarded to 'THE MAFIA IS NO LONGER WHAT IT USED TO BE' Directed by Franco Maresco (from Italy).
* The Marcello Mastroianni Award for for Best New Young Actor or Actress was awarded to Toby Wallace for 'BABYTEETH' Directed by Shannon Murphy (from Australia).

You can get the full run down on all the news and views, the awards, the celebrations and much more from the 76th Venice International Film Festival, by visiting the official website at : https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2019

This week we have four new cinematic releases to tempt you out to your local Odeon on an early Spring day. We start with a big screen adaptation of a much loved and hugely popular British television series set in the post WWI era on a lavish country estate involving the trials and tribulations of a very well do to family and their brigade of servants above and below stairs. This film carries on where the series left off and involves the household preparing for a very important visit. This is followed by a Sci-Fi thriller about a somewhat unhinged father and his seven year old daughter who live in a boarded up home sheltered from the outside world because of the risks and dangers inherent with venturing outside . . . but then the young girl does! Next up is a drama offering about two party animal best friends whose life comes under scrutiny when one of them becomes engaged to a concert pianist who gives up alcohol for good shortly afterwards. We then close out the week with an animated sequel to a 2016 film that sees a bunch of island dwelling birds join forces with a neighbouring islands green pigs to thwart a power hungry bird that is in possession of an advanced weapon that threatens both islands.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'DOWNTON ABBEY' (Rated PG) - legions of fans the world over will be salivating at the prospect of this feature length film that is a continuation of the massively popular and successful television series of the same name, created by Julian Fellowes, that ran on British television and was syndicated around the world from 2010 to 2015. The film, set in the Autumn of 1927, follows on from the TV series, which ended its original run in December 2015, after 52 episodes, with its final episode set at New Year's Eve, 1925. Directed by Michael Engler and Written and Co-Produced by Julian Fellowes,  many of the original cast members here return for this big screen feature length instalment.

In 1927, King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) plan a visit to Downton Abbey resided in by Robert Crawley, the 7th Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and his wife Cora Crawley, the Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern). Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) calls Charles Carson (Jim Carter) out of retirement to help prepare for the royal visit. Royal staff members arrive before the monarchs, upsetting Downton's staff. Accompanying the monarchs are the Queen's Lady-in-Waiting, Maud Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton), who is a cousin of the Crawley family, and her maid, Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton) . The monarchs also pay a visit to their daughter, Princess Mary (Kate Phillips). A ball is hosted in their honour at the Abbey. Also starring amongst others in the ensemble cast are Brendan Coyle, Matthew Goode, Joanne Froggatt, Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton.

'FREAKS' (Rated MA15+) - is an American and Canadian Co-Produced Sci-Fi thriller Co-Directed, Co-Written and Co-Produced by Adam Stein and Zach Lipovski that saw its worldwide Premier screening at TIFF back in September 2018, and only now does it go on general release in the US and Australia this week. Kept locked inside their dilapidated house by her father (Emile Hirsch), seven year-old Chloe (Lexy Kolker) lives in fear and fascination of the outside world, being forbidden from even looking outside their bordered up windows. It's a place where 'Abnormals' are a constant threat, or so she is led to believe. But when a mysterious stranger driving a creepy ice cream truck with a handprinted 'Mr. Snowcone' sign appears outside her house she eventually builds up the courage to defy her father and escape the house. She climbs onto the truck with Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern) and into an adventure filled with hope, fear, and violence, but what are Mr. Snowcone's somewhat suspicious reasons for doing so?

'ANIMALS' (Rated MA15+) - this Australian and Irish Co-Produced drama film is Directed and Co-Produced by South Australian film maker, Producer and Writer Sophie Hyde who is perhaps best known for her award winning feature debut '52 Tuesdays' in 2014. This story is adapted from the 2014 book of the same name by Emma Jane Unsworth and saw its Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year. Here best friends Laura (Holliday Grainger), a struggling writer working as a barista, and her best friend and flatmate Tyler (Alia Shawkat), an American woman who is estranged from her family, are both late 20's heavy partyers living in Dublin consuming large quantities of wine and drugs by night, sometimes engaging in casual sex with a man but mostly just enjoying each other's company. However, their lifestyles soon start to come under scrutiny after Laura gets engaged to a concert pianist Jim (Fra Fee) who shortly afterwards gives up alcohol completely, and then the pair form a friendship with a poet, Marty (Dermot Murphy) to whom Laura also is attracted. The film has so far garnered largely positive Reviews.

'THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE 2' (Rated PG) - this sequel to the 2016 'Angry Birds Movie' which grossed US$353M off the back of a US$73M production budget received mixed reviews from critics but was a box office success, and became the third highest-grossing film of all time to be based on a video game, behind 'Warcraft' and 'Detective Pikachu'. This film is Directed by first-timers Thurop Van Orman and John Rice, was made for US$65M, has so far grossed US$105M since its UK and US release earlier in August and has fared better than its predecessor with positive reviews from Critics who praised the animation, cast, humour and soundtrack. And so, Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis), Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride) and the rest of their feathered friends are surprised when a green pig suggests that they put aside their differences and unite to fight a common threat. Aggressive birds from an island covered in ice are planning to use an elaborate weapon to destroy the fowl and swine way of life. After choosing their best and brightest, the birds and pigs come up with a scheme to infiltrate the island, deactivate the device and return to their respective paradises in one piece to live happily ever after. Also starring the voice work of Leslie Jones, Bill Hader, Awkwafina, Sterling K. Brown, Peter Dinklage, Nicki Minaj, Tiffany Haddish and Gaten Matarazzo.

With four new release movies this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-