Festivals

Cinema can be a great bridge between both different cultures as well as past and present generations, generating empathy and serving as a conduit for expanded human feeling by simply transporting viewers to different places and times. To live a life with a sustained, open embrace of movies is to commit to never stop musing, learning, and growing.

  As the Golden Globes website has been highlighting for the past week, San Diego’s Comic-Con – a Holy Grail to geeks everywhere - finally returned after a three-year Covid-induced hiatus. Nothing replaces the experience of being there in person, but our HFPA members Anke Hofmann and Rocio Ayuso will try it in our new episode of the Golden Globes Around the World podcast.

In pre-COVID times, more than 135,000 people would pack into the San Diego Convention Center each July to eagerly feast upon trailers, casting announcements and other parceled-out new details about their favorite superhero, fantasy, horror, and other genre shows and properties. But Comic-Con International, the largest comic book and popular arts fan convention of its kind, has basically been on ice for the last several years — its frequently raucous in-person events relegated to virtual gatherings.

HFPA’s Anke Hofmann and Rocío Ayuso present a plaque to Comic-Con International’s Chief Communications and Strategy Officer, David Glanzer. This has been the 8th time that the HFPA has had an official presence at the festival celebrating comics and pop culture.

Unlike other superheroes who use shields, axes, hammers, or lassos, Kuya (older brother in Tagalog), portrayed by former UFC fighter Mark Muñoz, uses an unlikely weapon - lumpia (a Filipino spring roll) - in Patricio Ginelsa’s indie film, Lumpia with a Vengeance. Premiering at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con with an exclusive screening at the Grand Ballroom 5 of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, with a panel discussion held last July 21 at the San Diego Convention Center Room 7AB, Lumpia with a Vengeance marked the first time that an indie Filipino American feature film was showcased in the popular convention and multi-genre entertainment event.

A loving unpacking of narrative themes, a bundle of toy reveals and other material debuts, and a surprise appearance from none other than William Shatner marked the highlights of a special panel presentation celebrating the 40th anniversary of Masters of the Universe at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 on Thursday, July 21. Moderated by director (and Masters of the Universe: Revelation creator) Kevin Smith, the event looked both backward and forwards, digging into the history of the pop culture sensation — which began as an original line of toys and accompanying mini-comics in 1982, and has in the decades since spanned action figures, film, publishing, videogames, and of course a plethora of animated TV series (sometimes existing in parallel), in addition to a variety of other media platforms.

After several years of shutdown owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, San Diego Comic-Con was finally back in full swing this year, welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd of dedicated genre fans. Kicking off a full day of Hall H presentations on Thursday, July 21, was a debut look at the big screen fantasy action-adventure comedy Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, releasing March 3, 2023, from Paramount Pictures.

Without a doubt, one of the most anticipated events in pop culture and art is the Comic-Con convention held in San Diego, California. After two years of mandatory recess due to the scourge of the pandemic, fans, and artists of comics, graphic novels, and illustrators, along with film and television producers and actors who have adapted their works, will meet this week for five days, beginning the night of Wednesday, July 20.