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From December 2nd to the 6th is the Sante Fe Film Festival with a number of interesting movies touring the festival circuit. The one that caught my attention at this one was Mythic Journeys, part animation, part documentary, and all story, starring Tim Curry, Mark Hamill and Lance Henriksen.

Running December 4th to the 17th is the 9th annual Anchorage International Film Festival, and with a tag line of Films worth freezing for you can bet there will be some good ones in the mix. They do have some we have seen at other festivals, like Zombies of Mass Destruction, and some new ones, like Homemade Vigilante, where his super-power is enthusiasm and his qualifications are his cape and comic book collection. Then there is the huge number of animations the have playing in blocks. In their assortment of film making workshops they even include an Animation Workshop 101 for people looking to create their own.

One of my favorite film festivals is Sci-Fi London, which will be coming around again from April 28th to May 3rd, 2010. If you build your own Science Fiction or Fantasy, be it live action or animated, they would like to see your film and consider including it in their festival. Submissions are now open at their web site; if you want to get an idea of the kinds of things they will accept, check their TV segment and watch some videos.

Likewise, on this side of the pond, the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival coming up February 5 – 15th, 2010, is also looking for submissions. In fact, they are almost done, but you still have time to get your film in (just) with the regular deadline on November 30, and the late deadline on December 15.

I know I have been posting about Film Fests on Tuesdays, but starting tomorrow and running through Saturday is the International Robot Exhibition 2009, and I couldn’t let that pass without a mention. It is being held at the Tokyo International Exhibition Center in Japan, and it is interesting to note that the Service Robot category is now almost as well represented as the Industrial Robot companies.

In Goa, the The 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) kicked off yesterday and will run for the next 10 days. Likewise, kicked off on the 21st, and running through the 29th, is Tokyo FILMeX 2009. I think going forward I am not going to even mention festivals that I can’t say anything about, in this case because I do not yet read either language.

The New York City Horror Fest starts off tomorrow with the Kick Off Party at BLVD, Five bands / 11 Films / One hour free beer!, and runs through the 22nd. One of the interesting things they are doing is the Killer Shorts Sudden Death Film Competition in cooperation with the Monster Mania Collectibles Con held semi-annually in NYC. The opening band has songs called things like “Video Vixen Vampire”, “Mermaids in Outer Space”, and “Spooks on the Loose”; I would probably have spent more time watching Witches In Bikinis than the actual movies.

I should also mention that the Sundance Film Festival (No, that is NOT this weekend) just announced the Sundance Film Festival U.S.A., where they will be presenting festival films in other cities around the country on the 28th of January.

The Lone Star International Film Festival runs from the 11th to the 15th in Fort Worth, TX. The two films that look most interesting at this event are Ichi, not The Killer but another incarnation of Zatoichi, this one female, and Miracle Fish, a fantasy with a dark side. This is also the first festival where I noticed they were playing Herpes Boy, possibly the first big-screen movie to start life as a series of YouTube videos.

The 32nd Starz Denver Film Festival runs from November 12th to the 22nd in Colorado. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus tops the offerings at this festival, as it has at so many others this fall. The other film that looks to have the makings of a cult classic is Who’s Afraid of the Wolf?, a Czech fantasy/family drama. Two films not getting the same widespread festival play but worth noting are The Revenant and Zombies of Mass Destruction, each with a unique take on the undead.

I had to include the video of Terry Gilliam Introducing The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus at the AFI Film Fest in LA, and I can’t wait to get to see the movie myself (the trailers are wonderful). And then of course there is the Fantastic Mr Fox, also making the festival rounds.

A detail I missed this week was the the release of Ki Gai on DVD. This series is a live action story line of classic manga-anime proportions, involving giant birds, aliens, daemons, dragons, and so much more! There was also the 10th Planet Con Event happening tomorrow at the The Broadway Theatre, in Barking, Essex, with a bunch of Doctor Who/Torchwood actors ready to contribute, including Nick Briggs.