The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.
Rena Riffel (Showgirls/Mulholland Drive) stars in her directorial debut, the B Movie Musical Retro Satire, Trasharella. Transforming into a recycling trashy super hero, it is up to Trasharella to kill the Hollywood Vampire.
When her babysitter doesn’t show, a single mother is forced to leave her precocious five-year-old daughter with the girl’s estranged father for a long weekend.
A brother and sister are plane-wrecked in Canada, where they must rely on the help of a native and his bear.
An American girl, Daphne, heads to Europe in search of the father she's never met. But instead of finding a British version of her bohemian mother, she learns the love of her mom's life is an uptight politician. The only problem now is that her long-lost dad is engaged to a fiercely territorial social climber with a daughter who makes Daphne's life miserable.
A hunter on horseback accidentally discovers a portal to another world in this fantastical true Tsilhqot'in story.
Speed Racer is a young and brilliant racing driver. When corruption in the racing leagues costs his brother his life, Speed must team up with the police and the mysterious Racer X to bring an end to the corruption and criminal activities.
Oscar is a small fish whose big aspirations often get him into trouble. Meanwhile, Lenny is a great white shark with a surprising secret that no sea creature would guess: He's a vegetarian. When a lie turns Oscar into an improbable hero and Lenny becomes an outcast, the two form an unlikely friendship.
The twelve-year-old Emil and his father are haunted by bad luck. To take a break from a series of family disasters, Emil is allowed to spend a few days with a friend of the family, the female priest Hummel in Berlin. In the train he runs across the slick Max Grundeis who anaesthetizes Emil and steals his savings of 1500 DM. When he finally arrives in Berlin, Emil and a gang of street kids, led by the cheeky girl Pony Hütchen, try to find the gangster, who haunts the posh Hotel Adlon as a hotel thief. Meanwhile, to prevent anyone from finding out about Emil's mishap, Gypsi, a member of the gang of kids, passes himself off as Emil, thus wreaking havoc on the home of the priest.
8-year-old Vicky has a mysterious gift: she can recreate any scent she comes across, even that of her beloved mother Joanne. When her estranged aunt Julia suddenly returns to town, the invocation of her fragrance plunges the young girl back in time to unravel a past replete with family secrets.
Shaina lives 600 years in the future. War, greed, prejudice, poverty, pollution, violence, loneliness, depression – these are things that she’s read about in history books. When an accident in a physics experiment sends her on a time-travel journey to our times, she assumes that everyone around her is honest, generous and caring, as she recruits the help that she needs to get back home.
Johnny St. James was a young seminary student who lost his wife to a drunk driver. With his reason for living gone, John lost his faith and turned to alcohol. Ten years later, John is finally read to get his life back on track. With his best friend Hickey ('Eric Roberts') in tow John attends his first AA meeting. He soon finds that his road to recovery tested when he runs into the man who ran down his wife.
During the heat of battle in the midst of the Civil War, a beguilingly innocent colt is born to Union Jim Rabb's beloved mare. Refusing the orders to shoot it, lest it prove a hindrance, Rabb keeps the colt as a consolation in these desperate times-a symbol of hope that leads the men of the First Cavalry on a journey of self-discovery and newfound brotherhood.
An animated retelling set to Prokofiev's suite. Peter is a slight lad, solitary, locked out of the woods by his protective grandfather
The fates of horses, and the people who own and command them, are revealed as Black Beauty narrates the circle of his life.
Eleven year old Maria has lost her little brother to cancer. Having disappeared into herself, her mother is no longer there for Maria and her father struggles to keep the family together. Maria meets Jacob, who is the same age as she, but with a completely different attitude. Jacob is outgoing, exciting, funny and has wisdom way beyond his tender years. He gradually pulls Maria out of her shell and enables her to come to decisions which will affect her entire life.
Two teenage girls discover that mermaids really do exist after a violent storm washes one ashore. The mermaid, a sassy creature named Aquamarine, is determined to prove to her father that real love exists, and enlists the girls' help in winning the heart of a handsome lifeguard.
An eccentric socialite raises a gorilla as her son.
While visiting a Christmas market in her Norwegian town, eight year old Mariann spots a talking teddy bear at a carnival game booth. However, when someone else wins it, she embarks on a quest to find the adorable bear that captured her heart.
A movie for the Sci Fi Channel based on the book series by Philip José Farmer. The location is Riverworld, a mysterious and treacherous land where every human who died between the years 99,000 BC and 2,200 AD has been resurrected on the banks of a huge river.