@blakethinks
🎥 interview evangelist, programming @ LIFFF ✍ romance, japan, animation, queer, latam, at BFI, IndieWire, The Film Stage, ScreenAnarchy and more Contact: blakesimons97(at)gmail(dot)com https://muckrack.com/blakesimons
THE KING’S WARDEN is doing insane numbers. It crossed 10 million viewers Friday, but at this rate it’ll become the highest grossing domestic film in Korean box office history (record is ₩139.6B, ₩150B seems assured). 50/50 whether it unseats ROARING CURRENTS’ all-time admissions haul (17.6M).
He will also receive an honorary Palme Mord’Or and an honorary Palme d’Orc. www.festival-cannes.com/en/press/pre...
In my favourite and most comprehensive interview of the year thus far, I spoke with Nao Yoshigai about Berlinale Forum premiere MASAYUME, a documentary about healing that does so for filmmaker and spectator in turn
desperatelyseekingsubtitles.substack.com/p/nao-yoshig...
why would you want to be in charge of a festival like this????? www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
Absolutely incredible interview, maybe the best Matt Johnson interview I've read
This whole interview rocks
Mamoru Oshii’s landmark 1985 anime film, Angel’s Egg, is streaming on HBO. www.hbomax.com/movies/angel...
You can stream two of the best movies of last year, The Secret Agent and It Was Just An Accident, on Hulu today. www.hulu.com/movie/4545bc...
marlon wayans (outspokenly pro-trans) gets the award for most indecipherable politics
Love this one!
The best animation I saw at Berlin, Chinese debut LIGHT PILLAR fuses self-reflexive 2D with VR live-action, and recalls A New Old Play (for a reason!)
My interview for @cartoonbrew.bsky.social:
www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film...
The first in Louise Weard's CASTRATION MOVIE anthology is available on blu ray today. If you want to own this movie I suggest that you buy it right now. The print run has nearly sold out since becoming available today.
vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/...
Yuumi Kawai in the film She Taught Me Serendipity (2024)
Yuumi Kawai in the film Teki Cometh (2024)
Yuumi Kawai in the film A Bad Summer (2025)
Yuumi Kawai in the film Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality (2024)
Been attending Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme screenings at the ICA the past two weekends, where a recurring theme has ended up being the versatility of Yuumi Kawai's hair
Fruit of the Loom formal suit in a bag (for the Japanese market)
Director Koji Shiraishi
The packaging for this makes it look like a Koji Shiraishi Halloween costume
Evangelion's Hideaki Anno said creators reach their peak at around 30 years old — name-checking Hayao Miyazaki and the directors of Yamato, Macross, and Gundam:
we finally reached the end of this calendar event i accidentally made 12 years ago
Last week I was lucky enough to talk to master stuntman/choreographer/director/visionary Yuen Woo-ping! His new film BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS is showing in US/Canadian theatres (thanks @wellgousa.bsky.social) so please let our conversation to get you excited about it screenanarchy.com/2026/02/blad...
WOMAN IN THE DUNES returns to the PCC from a rarely screened 35mm print on Sun 1st March at 5:35pm and Sun 26th Apr at 11:45.
🎟️: buff.ly/cLL6ABP
It brings me no pleasure to report that the anime firework drama in Berlinale Competition fails to spark.
A NEW DAWN is a muddle of a debut that inherits all of Makoto Shinkai's worst tendencies. My review for @indiewire.com:
www.indiewire.com/criticism/mo...
Always a pleasure to introduce a new and exciting Japanese filmmaker through an interview article. This time I did it for
@variety.com
.
Click through for my conversation with Yusuke Iwasaki about his debut, ANYMART, my personal pick for film of fest.
variety.com/2026/film/fe...
Stills from Castration Movie Chapter Three framing an angled black banner. White text in the banner reads 'Castration Movie Chapter Three. Junior Ghosts - Premorphic Drift: A Fragmented Passage'. A laurel sits at the top of the image, 'BFI Flare London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival Official Selection'.
WORLD PREMIERE! Castration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage @ BFI Flare
22/03 + 23/03 @ BFI Southbank, with @weard.moe in person
Tickets on sale Tues 24/02 (members), Thurs 26/02 (general)
whatson.bfi.org.uk/flare/Online...
I reported on Japan Night at the Berlinale for @variety.com
variety.com/2026/film/ma...
Frederick Wiseman - rare case where a 96-year-old filmmaker’s death feels tragic because they had so much more left to do. Uninterrupted streak of curiosity, empathy, wisdom, and quiet anger, ended only by the reality of living in a human body.
This is such a comically shit statement from Berlinale I don't even have the words. A festival that used to be a genuine place for political art has become apolitical. Everyone involved should be ashamed
more research on NDU (Nihon Documentary Union) is needed
r/analytics • IOh We just found out our AI has been making up analytics data for 3 months and I'm gonna throw up. Support So we've been using an Al agent since November to answer leadership questions about metrics. It seemed amazing at first fast answers, detailed explanations, everyone loved it. I just found out it's been hallucinating numbers this entire time. Our VP of sales made territory decisions based on data that didn't exist. Our CFO showed the board a deck with fake insights. The Al was just inventing plausible sounding percentages. I only caught it by accident when someone asked me to double check something. I started digging, and holy shit, it's bad.
lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard
Actual footage of Vince Guaraldi performing "Linus and Lucy". I'm gobsmacked that this exists, but utterly thrilled too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EMf...
Thank you! :)
(they/them by the way)
A decent chance Japan Cuts screens this, I reckon