Sylvain Chomet's "The Illusionist"

Django Films is the flagship animation studio of Sylvain Chomet, the French born writer and director of the academy award nominated Les Triplettes de Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville/Belleville Rendez-Vous). Located in Edinburgh, Scotland, Django Films has produced L'Illusionniste / The Illusionist a 2D animated feature film which is based on an original script by French comic genius, Jacques TatiIt premiers this evening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland.

As cheeky, boisterous and witty as it is delicately drawn and beauteous to behold, Sylvain Chomet’s second feature film is a winner on every level. Our weary hero is an over-the-hill magician, complete with less-than-friendly white rabbit. Always in search of a paying gig, the illusionist treks from Paris to the Western Isles to Edinburgh – acquiring, along the way, a young traveling companion who sincerely believes in his magical abilities. Rich with visual jokes, seductive 1950s period detail and breathtaking views of city and wilderness alike, this is the work of a master in his field – and one of the most gorgeous evocations of Scotland in cinema history. The film is 82 minutes in length.

Instead of Abracadabra

Instead of Abracadabra (Istället for Abrakadabra) was nominated for a 2010 Oscar at the Academy Awards for best Short Film (Live Action). This short film written and directed by Patrik Eklund is about a young man who dreams of becoming a magician, while his exasperated father wishes he would find himself a job.

The film premiered at the Gothenburg Film Festival in 2008, where it won the short film prize Startsladden, worth about $140,000 and the honorary prize as audience choice. The film was shot in Piteå, Sweden in the autumn of 2007. 

Cast:
Simon J Berger – Thomas
Jacob Nordenson - Bengt
Anki Larsson - Gunilla
Saga Gärde – Monika

Women in Boxes

Women in Boxes is the first film to uncover the story of the Unsung Hero behind the magician. The devoted, if not masochistic Magic Assistant who distorts her body into impossible positions while the magician cuts her in pieces, stabs her, sets her on fire, crushes her, makes her disappear, then restores her to life with a dramatic Taa Daa and takes a bow to wild applause. Who is the woman who would subject herself to such torture, not to mention, the Magician's Ego? Are these women just bimbos parading around in skimpy clothes? Or are they the real magic behind the Illusionist?

Heretofore sworn to secrecy, this tough yet feminine group opened their homes, hearts and lives for the filmmakers and gave an insider’s view of love, life and magic family values. As this is a family affair, many of the women are joined on camera with their ‘more famous’ husbands, and some are interviewed with their daughters as they take their turn in the box.

In seeking out the greatest magic acts of the past 20th century, Women in Boxes went on a worldwide quest and hit gold in the untold lives of its main characters: Deanna Shimada, Coral (The Impossibilist) Reveen, Cathy (Shazzam) Daniel, Pam (Tomsoni and Co.) Thompson, Stacy (The Majestix) Jones, Luna Shimada, Moi Yo (Dante the Great) Miller, Frances (Willard the Wizard) Willard, Princess Irene Larsen (co-founder of The Magic Castle),
Gay Blackstone, Dove, Jan (Mis-made Lady) Jones, Lance Burton with Burton’s Babes, Criss (Mindfreak) Angel, and in a very rare occurrence, the magician Teller SPEAKS on camera!

Directed By: Harry Pallenberg, Directed By: Phil Noyes
2008, Running Time: 1:20
Content Rating: PG

Is Anybody There?

Sir Michael Caine gives one of the finest performances of his career as a retired magician who reluctantly enters a family-run old age home in John Crowley's IS ANYBODY THERE?

Set in a seaside English town circa 1987, IS ANYBODY THERE? charts the unlikely friendship that develops between Caine' s proud, acerbic old performer and the death-obsessed young son (played by SON OF RAMBOW'S Bill Milner) of the home's overwhelmed owners.

Written by Peter Harness, who draws from his own experience growing up in a retirement home, IS ANYBODY THERE? brings a rich humor as well as a rigorous honesty to its portrait of different lives colliding under one roof.

With a supporting cast that includes Anne-Marie Duff (THE MAGDALENE SISTERS), David Morrissey (THE DEAL), Rosemary Harris (SPIDER-MAN) and Leslie Phillips (VENUS), IS ANYBODY THERE? tells a charming story about growing up and growing old, and the unpredictable adventures that happen along the way.

In theaters: April 17, 2009.

See the trailer here.