Ponyo News

Our favorite movies of 2009 belie a diverse appreciation ranging from a quiet rumination on death to gruesome horror; from a mostly ad-libbed, low-budget character study to the most expensive movie of all time.

Is this the greatest year ever for animated films? I've been spending the last two weeks watching at least one film a day, to "cram" for our upcoming voting for the San Francisco Film Critics Circle awards.

We've heard through the grapevine that Warner is readying a 15 December Best Buy-exclusive Blu-ray Disc release of Boogie Nights .

Central Wisconsin Hub will occasionally post stories from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's student newspaper The Pointer.

The 20 films being considered for five nominee spots with a shot at the 2010 Academy Award for Best Animated Film vary widely in style -- from CGI to performance-capture to stop-motion -- and substance At least 16 films have to submitted for consideration in order to have five nominees.

Bad news for " The Messenger " star Ben Foster . Yes, he's made it onto the Golden Globe eligibility list for best lead drama actor, but so did costar Woody Harrelson .

Disney animators are back on top of the cartoon world after dominating nominations for the 37th annual Annie Awards.

Henry Selick's "Coraline" led the Annie nominations with ten contenders, including best feature, best directing and two noms for character design.

Disney's 2D animated film The Princess and The Frog won't hit theaters nationwide until December 11th, but right now the film is playing in limited release in New York and Los Angeles.

Young viewers of The Princess and the Frog won't give a croak that the marvelous new - adventure from Walt Disney Animation Studios has been created using the same hand-drawn, 2-D techniques that entertained those viewers' Bambi -loving grandparents more than 65 years ago.

Hayao Miyazaki For bringing magic back to animation, and not just for kids. Sweet story of two sisters out in the country, and their adventures with the forest spirits.

This week Film Weekly goes from Britain on the eve of the second world war with Stephen Poliakoff's Glorious 39, to the American midwest in the 60s with the Coen brothers' A Serious Man, to the fangtastical environs of contemporary Washington state in The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

THE 23rd Leeds International Film Festival has already had its fair share of stars - and now it has its own beer.

With the recent announcement that no less than 20 films were submitted for this year's Best Animated Feature Oscar, 2009 can rightly be labeled something of a watershed year for the format.

Carey Mulligan in "An Education" 1. "An Education" A surefooted and subtle film that's also a satisfying bit of entertainment.

Now here's a Balloon Boy Hollywood can really get behind. As expected, Up leads the record 20 eligible films for the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the 82nd Academy Awards.

A record 20 animated films will vie for Oscars glory in a 2010 race stuffed with wildly popular 3D offerings such as "Up," "Astro Boy," "Monsters vs.

A scene from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" Stories The Best Animated Feature category at this year's Oscars will be more crowded, thanks to a plethora of films qualifying for the Academy Awards this year.

If you didn't make it to the theaters to see Miyazaki's newest work, Ponyo , take heart -- this amazing anime feature film will hit the DVD shelves on March 2, 2010.

Dynasty: The Fourth Season, Vol. 2 is headed to DVD from Paramount on 2 February.