Your Daily Film

Property of the State is a 2016 UK biography by Kit Ryan.
Starring Elaine Cassidy, Aisling Loftus and Patrick Gibson.

UK: Passed 15 for strong language, violence, sexual violence, threat, suicide references after 34s of BBFC category cuts for:

• 2017 cinema release

The BBFC commented:

• Distributor chose to remove bloody detail from a suicide scene in order to achieve a 15. An 18 uncut was available.

Summary Notes

Based on the true story that gripped Ireland in the 1990's, Property of The State tells of a disturbed young man by the name of Brendan O'Donnell. Seen through the eyes of his sister Ann Marie, piece by piece she threads together the events that ultimately lead to the harrowing murders of a young mother, her child and a local priest in the forest of East Clare, Ireland. Ann Marie lived through it all. As the loving sister of a loving brother, she became the sister of a murderer and the sister of a man described as the most evil man in Ireland. She had not committed a crime, yet many saw her guilty by association.

Horror Channel has nine prime-time film premieres in September including the UK premiere of Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer's stunning contemporary occult tale of Hollywood ambition and possession, Starry Eyes.

There are also network premieres for Sam Raimi's ferociously terrifying Drag Me To Hell , Eli Roth's splatter sensation Hostel , Mike Mendes' ultimate B-Movie experience Big Ass Spider , Jonathan King's zombie sheep gore comedy Black Sheep , James Wan's creepy killer-doll horror Dead Silence , starring True Blood's Ryan Kwanten, Robert Longo's cyberpunk action thriller Johnny Mnemonic , starring Keanu Reeves, Bryan Bertnia's home-invasion chiller The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler and John Carp

Maniac is a 1963 UK crime horror romance by Michael Carreras.
Starring Kerwin Mathews, Nadia Gray and Donald Houston.

UK: Passed 12 uncut for moderate violence, threat, references to sexual violence with previous BBFC cuts waived for:

• 2017 Powerhouse Films UK video

UK Censorship History

Cut by the BBFC for an X rated 1963 cinema release. The BBFC cuts were waived for 12 rated home video in 2017.

Summary Notes

Kerwin Matthews, playing a dissolute drifter down on his luck, Jeff Farrell, is stranded in a cheap bar in France where he falls for Annette, the proprietor's pretty stepdaughter, played by Liliane Brousse. Annette's stepmother Eve, played by Nadia Gray, gradually shifts the young man's attentions to herself, rather than her stepdaughter, and together Eve and Jeff concoct a plot to help free Eve's estranged husband from the institution in which he's been confined as a homicidal maniac these past four years after committing the so-called "Acetylene Murder", when he killed with a blowtorch the man who raped Annette. The idea is that Georges, the husband, will leave the country, but, unknown to Jeff, it's not Georges who escapes but Henri, the guard who has become Eve's lover . . .

Matilda is a 2017 Russia historical biography by Aleksey Uchitel.
Starring Michalina Olszanska, Lars Eidinger and Luise Wolfram.

In the twilight of Imperial Russia, prima ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya becomes the mistress of three Grand Dukes.

A historical film about the last Russian czar's affair with a ballerina has been cleared for release by film censors at the Russian Culture Ministry. Vyasheslav Telnov, the head of the ministry's film department, said it checked Matilda and found it in full compliance with legal norms.

Matilda, which describes Nicholas II's relationship with Matilda Kshesinskaya has drawn virulent criticism from some Orthodox christians and hard-line nationalists, who see it as blasphemy against the emperor, glorified as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church. 

Russian lawmaker Natalya Poklonskaya spearheaded the campaign for banning the film. She even asked the Prosecutor General's office to carry out an inquiry into Matilda, which is set to be released on the centennial of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

Matilda opponents have gathered signatures against the film, and earlier this month several hundred people gathered to pray outside a Moscow church for the movie to be banned. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed regional leader of Chechnya has supported the calls for a ban, as have authorities in the neighboring province of Dagestan.

Two digital outdoor ads displayed on large screens in two stations in central London, for the film Alien: Covenant, seen in early May 2017:

a. The first ad began with a spacecraft approaching a planet followed by scenes on the planet. In one scene a man in a dark room shined a torch on an alien egg, the top of which began to slowly open. A close-up showed an alien-like mouth suddenly exploding from it, towards the camera. A woman in distress was then shown running down a corridor, being chase by an arachnid-like alien, followed by a close-up of her screaming. An arachnid-like alien was then shown running towards the camera. The final shot showed a woman hiding from an alien which was just on the other side of a door frame.

b. The second ad featured large on-screen text which stated in turn: RUN, HIDE, SCREAM and PRAY. The text appeared next to brief clips from the film, including the scene with the woman in distress running down a corridor being chased by an alien, the alien egg slowly opening, the close-up of the woman screaming, a woman looking panicked and shouting through the glass window in a closed door, the close-up of the alien-like mouth suddenly exploding towards the camera, and the final shot of a woman hiding from an alien which was just on the other side of a door frame.

Three complainants, one of whose children had seen the ads, challenged whether the ads were likely to cause fear or distress, and whether they were suitable to be shown in an untargeted medium.

ASA Assessment: Complaints upheld

The ASA understood the film was rated as a 15 by the BBFC and considered that the advertiser should therefore have taken particular care to ensure that scenes included in the ads would be suitable to be shown in a public space where children were likely to be present.

The ads contained scenes of characters who were clearly in distress, as well as images of an alien mouth suddenly exploding from an egg out towards the viewer, and a woman being chased by an alien. We considered those scenes were likely to frighten and cause distress to some children and that the ads were likely to catch their attention, particularly as they were shown on large screens. We concluded the ads were not suitable to be shown in an untargeted public medium and therefore breached the Code.

The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Twentieth Century Fox Film Company Ltd to target their ads more carefully in future to avoid the risk of causing undue fear and distress to children.

Several films about refugees have been censored for showing at a festival in Malaysia.

Activists say the Film Censorship Board (LPF) officials came to the Refugee Festival in Kuala Lumpur late last week, subsequently demanding the partial censorship of Bou , a film about trafficked brides from Burma (Myanmar), and total ban on Kakuma Can Dance about refugee hip hop dancers in Kenya.

Refugee Festival organiser Mahi Ramakrishnan, who directed Bou (bride in the Rohingya language) said Malaysian authorities turned up immediately prior to the opening of the event to force the filmmakers to gain prior clearance from the LPF before screening their work.

Ramakrishnan later showed a cut version of Bou on Aug 13, in which the LPF demanded certain, politically sensitive scenes were muted, played without subtitles or simply removed, including one showing footage of Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak. According to campaign group Fortify Rights, another such scene is where a human trafficker explains false passports for Rohingya child brides are made in Bangladesh before the trafficker will pay money to clear [Malaysian] immigration.

Shakespeare Must Die is a 2012 Thailand horror drama by Ing Kanjanavanit.
Starring Pirun Anusuriya, Sudhisak Bamrungtrakun and Minta Bhanaparin.

Thailand's Administrative Court has rejected a petition by the producer and director of a feature film against a ban imposed by the Film and Video Censorship Committee five years ago.

Shakespeare Must Die was banned from being screened in Thailand on the grounds that the movie's political content might cause divisiveness among people in the country. 

The film, directed by Smanrat Ing K Kanjanavanich and produced by Manit Sriwanichpoom, is an adaptation of Macbeth , a tragedy by English writer William Shakespeare. It depicted both an ambitious general who becomes king through murder, and another world in which the country's leader believes in superstitious, megalomaniac and murderous dictatorship. He is known only as Dear Leader and has a scary, high-society wife. The movie clearly alluded to prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was popular with working people but alienated the Thai elite.

The Administrative Court ruled that even though the story is fictional, the movie's content might cause disunity among people. It contains scenes based on a photograph from Bangkok's 1976 student uprising and violent scenes from red-shirt demonstrations.

Manit said the filmmakers would appeal the court's verdict. I feel like we didn't get justice, he said.

Charlize Theron and Sofia Boutella's lesbian sex scene from their new film, Atomic Blonde, has been totally cut by Indian film censors at the CBFC.  The list of CBFC cuts says:

Delete the visual of the hand touching the bare breast in bed of two ladies, and delete the entire love-making (having sex).

In addition to the sex scene, shots of Theron's bare butt in the bathtub have been asked to be removed. Shots of her nipples visible under a sweater, and a separate scene in which she is topless, have also been ordered out. Words like cunt, cock, balls, bitchh, prick , and cocksuker have been asked to be removed from the subtitles, but not from the soundtrack.

The Cable Guy is a 1996 USA comedy thriller by Ben Stiller.
Starring Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick and Leslie Mann.

An upcoming video release has just been passed 12 uncut for moderate sex references, violence with previous BBFC cuts waived.

UK Censorship History

BBFC category cuts were required for a 12 rated 1996 cinema release and the subsequent VHS releases. The BBFC cuts were waived for 12 rated 2017 home video. The film is uncut and PG-13 rated in the US.

From IMDb. Previously a single 4 sec cut was made to this black comedy, in order to secure a required 12 cert.

• The cut occurs towards the end, when Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick, are fighting on top of the TV satellite. A couple of shots of Carrey headbutting Broderick and an ear clap have been removed.