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Jerónimo Rocha’s latest animated short film, Macabre, is a scary, beautiful story about a man who gets trapped in a freaky mansion. Synopsis:

K just crashed his Mercedes-Benz 280 SE against a tree, right after trying to avoid running over a small wild animal that ran across his path. He is on a secondary road in the rural interior, and it’s a very dark night. His evening has only just begun…

Director Jerónimo Rocha is well known for his short films, which include the excellent The Mirror of the Mirror’s Mirror, Dédalo, Take It Easy Maria, and more. Macabre was originally a very short piece known as The Mansion, created especially for London’s FrightFest festival. Yellow Bread did a short interview with the director last year at TIFF:

How do you find your inspiration?

J.R.: When I was a kid, roleplaying in the backyard of my school with my mates, I experienced a creative freedom that I aspire to now as a storyteller. Hopefully I’ll never really understand how one finds it, but by now I’ve realize how to create the conditions to summon it. I call it the “filling the cup” experience. To travel, read books, have deep conversations with true friends, fall in love, fail and fail again. Those are the things that fill the cup. And, working creatively are the ones that empty it, because you distill and pour it into your work. I guess destiny and coincidences also help, of course. Being at the right time at the right place and having your mind clear to receive whatever is coming your way. However, once it finds you, you must labor. Do the homework. Work the extra hours. Push hard. And there is nothing romantic about that!

So far, you have made mainly horror shorts. Is that your favorite genre?

J.R.: Mainly – I agree. I think I was always fascinated with “the fantastic,” that thing beyond everyday life. I’m not sure if it is horror per se, but my path lead me to this road and I’m enjoying it very much. I love to create fantasy worlds and play with the atmosphere of a specific place and situation. When I was in college studying arts I played a lot with this concept I called “ambiances of anticipation”. Places that had the potential to create… energy. You would see them and you could sense something drawing you to them and have the feeling that something happened there, or was about to. Having said that, I enjoy watching all kinds of genres. It depends on my state of mind that particular day. From timeless classics to guilty pleasures. And I can see myself working on many other genres and techniques, as long as I feel a deep connection with the source material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw1Y-zhQURU

Yes it’s that time of year where everyone inundates you with Christmas ads – Here’s John Lewis’, with a character called Moz the Monster. It’s garnered a bit of a mixed response from the public, according to the BBC:

The eagerly anticipated ad from the high street store tells the story of a little boy and his friendship with an imaginary monster living under his bed. It features a cover of The Beatles song Golden Slumbers by Elbow. Viewers cast their verdicts on Twitter: “So ready to cry,” said one. “Lost their magic touch,” said another.

The ad has appeared on the store’s Youtube channel and will preview on television on Friday night. Reviews so far have included “heart-warming” to “disappointing”, with some questioning how “Christmassy” the story was. The campaign follows the release of other big-budget festive ads from Marks and Spencer, Argos and Debenhams. The John Lewis advert is directed by Oscar-winning Michel Gondry, whose past work includes the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and music videos for the likes of The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers and Björk.

“When I told my ex-girlfriend I was doing the next John Lewis Christmas film she said, ‘You have big shoes to fill, this John Lewis commercial must make people cry, don’t forget’. Last week I showed it to her and she cried. Phew,” he said. But there were no tears from one viewer, Claire Hyman, who wrote on Facebook: “I actually wonder if this will give any children nightmares?”

Other viewers drew comparisons with the Disney Pixar 2001 film Monsters Inc, after spotting a small sock stuck to Moz’s fur.

Did you like it?

Marks and Spencer is kicking off the Holiday Season ad campaign overload with an adorable short film involving Paddington Bear. The Guardian ruminates on the ad and on the law of unintended consequences:

It’s a nicely made advert and will surely enhance the reputation of M&S, Paddington 2 and burglars this Christmas. My concern is for the other major, albeit absent, figure in the story: Father Christmas. We’re not going through a phase of unquestioned respect and admiration for patriarchs, so this is a bad time, if Santa’s crucial role in the magic of a child’s Christmas is to be sustained, to remind everyone that fundamentally he’s a big fat guy who breaks into people’s houses. It’s just not a helpful way to think about him if you want to be swept up in the season.

My little brother instinctively thought about Father Christmas that way from an early age, which must have caused severe collateral damage to his sense of wonder. He absolutely did not want any strange beardy mystical old men coming into his bedroom bearing presents, and so diverged from family tradition and, instead of putting his stocking at the foot of his bed, left it downstairs in the sitting room. That was as close as Claus was allowed with his suspicious sackful of offerings. I think, in my brother’s ideal world, it would all have been forwarded from a PO Box.

The M&S advertising team probably reckons the elision in children’s minds of Father Christmas and rooftop miscreants is a price worth paying to push up seasonal pant sales. Particularly as it’s a price they don’t pay themselves. Their own Christmas of CGI bear-induced redemption is yet to come. But all advertisers must surely be aware that it’s not just about what an advert says, but the surrounding mental associations it also conveys.

Chemours celebrates women in science with a series of historical PSAs, encouraging women to pursue the sciences and work in STEM. Via Adweek:

Women throughout history have made countless noteworthy contributions to science, technology, engineering and math. Yet today, they still only hold a scant 29 percent of jobs in STEM, according to the advocacy group National Girls Collaborative Project.

With a powerful new campaign highlighting just a few of those contributions, chemical company Chemours aims to encourage young girls to pursue careers in the sciences.

The three 30-second YouTube videos created by Ogilvy New York and its production unit tell the stories of three prominent female pioneers in STEM: chemistry teacher, writer and civil rights activist Josephine Silone Yates; physicist and chemist Marie Curie; and bacteriological chemist and refrigeration engineer Mary Engle Pennington. The monologues, which are delivered by actors playing the women’s younger selves, were created for Chemours in honor of National Chemistry Week, an annual campaign spearheaded by the American Chemical Society to get more students interested in careers in chemistry.

The videos tell the stories of women overcoming early 20th-century barriers to enter the sciences. Yates, the first black woman to head a college science department, was told she “wouldn’t amount to anything.” Colleagues said Curie, a pioneer in radioactivity research and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, “would never succeed.” And men mocked Pennington, who helped improve sanitation standards for the handling of milk, and said she “belonged in the kitchen.”

Sweet Country, a low-budget Australian Western, has won a major prize at TIFF. Congratulations! Hopefully there’d be an Oscar nod in the works. Via the Sydney Morning Herald:

For a film initially suggested by the sound recordist on one of his films, director Warwick Thornton has been overwhelmed by the early response to Sweet Country.

After being “unbelievably nervous” before the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last month, he was thrilled when the outback western received an extended standing ovation and won a special jury prize.

Warm reviews called it “majestic” (Variety), “a drama of imposing breadth and emotional depth” (The Hollywood Reporter) and “a milestone for Australian Indigenous cinema” (Screen Daily).

Then came more acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival, including winning the prestigious Platform prize for artistically ambitious work, and another standing ovation at the Australian premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival on Saturday night. “It’s been awesome,” Thornton said. “An absolute fairytale.”

Set in the Northern Territory’s MacDonnell Ranges in the 1920s, Sweet Country stars non-professional actor Hamilton Morris as an Aboriginal stockman who goes on the run with his wife (Natassia Gorey-Furber) after killing a white station owner (Ewen Leslie) in self-defence. The cast also includes Bryan Brown, Sam Neill and Matt Day.

This is the Journey is a beautiful, powerful ad from Alo House, from a recovering addict to those who are still suffering from addiction. Via Adweek:

Created by agency Paradam—who name, interestingly enough, means “an object which reveals itself only to those that know how to see it”—the resulting short film, titled “This Is the Journey,” follows a young man through the silent struggle of going clean. What resonates is how it well it transfers the itchy, abject listlessness of rebuilding yourself from the ground up.

The film is narrated by recovered heroin addict Bob Forrest of Thelonious Monster. Alo House’s founder, Evan Haines, is also a former addict. So, what’s striking about “This Is the Journey” is that it’s told from the perspective of experience: While it doesn’t speak to everyone, the people it wants to address—addicts, but also their families—will feel the message profoundly, creating a “paradam” in and of itself.

Speaking to Adweek about founding Alo House, Haines mentioned:

Alo House saved our lives in a way. Certainly getting to hang out with our clients 24/7, and getting to be of service to them—many of those early clients are still sober today—was so beneficial to us at that time. We got to discover this gift for helping people that we didn’t know we had.

It’s funny, I actually remember thinking, lying in bed the night before we opened our doors, “Wait a minute, I can’t do this, I can’t be surrounded by addicts and alcoholics every day for the rest of my life.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. This has been my greatest joy, outside of my family now, and definitely my greatest passion.

Credits:
Alo House Recovery: Evan Haines and Jared Valentine
Producers: Jeff Venida and Jessica Marren (Agency: Paradam)
Director: Kasey Lum
Director of Photography: Cole Graham
Voiceover: Bob Forrest

Here’s the Plan is a beautiful animated short film about relationships and how they should work out problems in a healthy way over time. Via Short of the Week:

Here’s the Plan, Fernanda Frick’s ambitious 18min short film, is notable for its audacity—the audacity to tell a relationship story about two people who genuinely love each other and work to support each other and their marriage. This is neither a romance about the initial hot and heavy days of the chase and infatuation, nor a heroic adventure about love conquering all. It is instead a remarkably grounded narrative that traverses years of its central couple’s lives and documents the minor sacrifices and changing priorities that cause a shared dream to be deferred.

[…]

Frick and the team are Chilean, yet the voice acting is in English to ensure a larger potential audience. Frick has some knowledge of the potential benefits that can accrue from international recognition, as PunkRobot, a Chilean studio that is prominently credited in the film, is responsible for Historia de un oso, which won the Oscar for best animated short in 2016, becoming the first Latin American winner of the category. The decision to record the dialogue in English has its pluses and a minuses however. While the voice acting is by and large good, it is also cloying, and the saccharine nature of the narrative can be off-putting to audiences at first. We’re used to independent animation being edgy, and so the wholesome sincerity evinced can be obnoxious. Yet the undeniable truth embedded in the character development is refreshing, the unvarnished depiction of a relationship as it could, as it should be, is daring. Frick, via email described her inspiration as a desire to fight against “perpetuating gender stereotypes”, feeling that the majority of onscreen romance “normalizes toxic and bad relationships, making you think ‘maybe that’s how it is’ when it doesn’t have to be.”

This sci fi film, also improbably named Alien Invasion S.U.M.1., looks promising, starring Iwan Rheon of Game of Thrones fame. It’s been picked up for limited distribution. Via Variety:

Gravitas Ventures has acquired all North American distribution rights on sci-fi thriller “Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1,” which stars “Game of Thrones” actor Iwan Rheon. Munich-based sales agent Global Screen is handling global rights.

The movie, which is produced by Christian Alvart (“Nick – Off Duty,” “Case 39,” “Pandorum,” “Antibodies”), has its theatrical roll-out set for Dec. 1, day and date in 10 markets. It premiered at the Shanghai Intl. Film Festival and also played at the Fantasia Intl. Film Festival.

The film centers on S.U.M.1, a committed young soldier who has lived his whole life underground. He enters a dark and desolate forest, his mission: to keep at bay the Nonesuch, a breed of hostile alien creatures. As reports circulate of frequent, devastating attacks, the routine military operation becomes a nightmare.

“We are thrilled to team up with Gravitas Ventures to bring this intensely suspenseful and highly original genre piece to the U.S. audiences this December,” Klaus Rasmussen, senior theatrical sales manager at Global Screen, said.

The film is produced by Syrreal Entertainment, which was founded in 2008 by Alvart. He is joined by CEO and producer Siegfried Kamml and producer Timm Oberwelland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVpSlqJDFZg

Rather improbably, Microsoft’s latest console is called the Xbox One X, touted as the most powerful gaming console made yet. Did they run out of inspiration for the name? Either way, here is its equally high budget ad campaign. Via Adweek:

Xbox One X, the Microsoft product touted as “the most powerful console ever made,” continues to roll out advertising that’s so cinematic it might even lure adrenaline-junkie non-gamers into the fold.

A slick new spot from 215 McCann puts sports stars, race cars, aliens and warriors against a catchy Kanye West soundtrack for 60 seconds of nonstop action. It compellingly makes the point that you can be part of this immersive world, if you have $500 to plunk down on the 4K gaming console when it launches Nov. 7.

The ad, like the product reveal video from agency Ayzenberg Group first shown at E3 a few months ago, takes pains to be inclusive in its portrayal of gaming fans. This time around, there’s a mix of male and female players of different ethnicities responding to a range of emotions that happen when they’re fighting off demons, scoring touchdowns, crossing the finish line and running for their virtual lives.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this ad for Calvin Klein in its Eternity campaign, reading an e. e. cummings poem to his daughter. Via Adweek:

One more reason to love Jake Gyllenhaal: He recites touching lines of an e.e. cummings poem to his darling 4-year-old daughter.

Well, it’s an advertising scenario, for Calvin Klein’s Eternity, and that’s not actually his kid, but it’s sweet anyway. Especially if you’re a fan, it’s easy to get swept up in the emotion of the spot and the fact that Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, Nocturnal Animals) is so natural and convincing in playing a smitten young father (without the dad bod).

Shot in black-and-white by superstar director Cary Fukunaga, this is the first-ever fragrance commercial for Gyllenhaal, who was named an ambassador for the brand a few weeks ago.

A print ad released earlier this month, teasing the 60-second TV spot, put the Oscar-nominated actor with model-advocate Liya Kebede and child star Leila as a 21st century family. It highlights the brand’s “longstanding ideas of romance, love, intimacy and commitment,” according to a statement. “Today, those values continue with the focus very much on contemporary life.”

Gyllenhaal, who stars in this fall’s drama Stronger, about a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing, reads snippets of cummings’ “I carry your heart with me (I carry it in)” while cuddling and playing with the preschooler, using her tiny foot as a phone at one point. Begin melting, icy hearts.