When his sister dies unexpectedly, a man leaves the priesthood to care for his young niece. Sounds like the basis for a family film, but though Princess is (mostly) animated and prominently features a pre-teen girl, it is definitely not for children. Instead, director Anders Morgenthaler presents a bleak and brutally violent vision of redemption, loss and pornography run rampant. At least, that's what it sounds like from all the reviews I've read. Princess debuted at Cannes last year before playing in the Midnight Madness section at Toronto; in November Monica noted that Tartan Films USA had announced a May 2007 release date, which obviously has come and gone. Here's hoping the release has only been delayed; Jette reported that Princess has been programmed for Fantastic Fest in September, so maybe it'll come out in the fall.

In the meantime, Morgenthaler has not been standing idle. His next film, Echo, is a drama about a police officer (Kim Bodnia of Pusher fame) who kidnaps his son after he loses custody. Things go bad when a nightmare brings back bad memories and threaten to drive the cop insane. Sounds like potentially another "child in peril" scenario. Echo has been scheduled for an early July release in Denmark, which means it might get some festival play in the US later this year. Morgenthaler has also just started production on another animated feature, The Apple and the Worm, but this one sounds like it will be suitable for the entire family. To quote the ever-helpful Danish Film Institute: "Torben is a shiny young apple with a dream: making it to the bright lights of the supermarket fruit section. But his dream is shattered one sunny morning when a worm pokes her head out of his perfect skin. Silvia is her name, and she is really very nice." Expect The Apple and the Worm in the fall of 2008.

As the year starts winding down, it's time to begin looking into what will come out in the New Year. Tartan Films, the company that brought us everything from Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs to a whole lot of Rocco Siffredi in Anatomy of Hell, is bringing some of this year's quirky and notable festival offerings to the big screen in 2007. Here are five months of funky cinema slated for 2007, some of which have great Cinematical reviews for you to peruse:

February: The Page Turner follows a girl whose botched piano examination leads her to turn away from her passion for the keys, only to be faced with it later when she comes face-to-face with the person whose rudeness shattered her resolve.

March:

Red Road

was the Cannes Jury Prize winner that showed the human weakness behind Big Brother -- a woman's dispassionate viewing of the streets of Glasgow dissolves when she spots a familiar face.

April: Triad Election is filmmaker Johnny To's answer to The Godfather, and the second part to his election epic.

May: Princess is the animated film about a orphan whose mother was a porn star, and the ex-priest uncle who comes to take care of her.

June: 12:08 East of Bucharest is the comedically melancholy story of a man in Bucharest trying to put together a live TV show on the revolution.

Honorable Mention: Taxidermia is worthy of mentioning, although a release date is yet to be determined. It's a tale about an overweight speed eater, a large cat embalmer and a man who shoots fire from his penis -- so what's not to love?

When I cover a film festival, I usually do a small handful of interviews for various publications. In nearly every case, the sit-down is with a young filmmaker or some indie actors. When I was asked if I'd like to spend a half-hour with the Midnight Madness Guru for the Toronto International Film Festival, I figured it'd be a whole lot of fun. I mean... the guy's job is to pick through the world's newest wierd movies and pick his ten favorites! Now that's a guy you want to drink a coffee with! Here now is a conversation between Colin Geddes, filmmaker J.T. Petty and yours truly. And I had to snip about 35% of this chat session because it often devolved into a really nerdy conversation between three hardcore genre geeks. Obviously it was a lot of fun.

Cinematical: How important is a "midnight movie" slate to a festival like Toronto?

Colin Geddes: The Midnight Madness category was originally devised as a spot for films that didn't really "fit in" with a traditional festival agenda. We're talking back in, say, 1988, when genre films didn't necessarily "belong" at a film festival. So the category gave us a chance to introduce quality genre films to an appreciative audience. Plus these movies often work as a "gateway" for new audience members. With the festival being so huge, it's sometimes overwhelming. And if you're an 18-year-old kid coming to Toronto, like I was, where are you going to start? You're probably going to start in the horror stuff, the weird stuff. The rest of the film festival gets the "art," and I get the "fun." And the art. And what we see now is that, of all the different slates, Midnight Madness is one that almost always sells out, ticket-wise. From an industry standpoint, these are quite often the films that sold -- and seen.

Cine: And they're not always horror films either. You have seven or eight of 'em, but then something like Borat makes the cut as well...

CG: Yeah, it's a mixed bag. Now, Borat is an outrageous comedy, but I also knew it would it would bring a lot of attention, and it's great to have that kind of "hook" sometimes. If I can get an 18-year-old kid who'll come and see Borat, and then he comes back to see The Host from Korea or Princess from Denmark, I've done my job there. Borat is kind of the "anchor." On the other hand, I like to take a chance with one or two selections. Two years ago I programmed Calvaire (The Ordeal), which was ... an out-there film. Half the audience was truly perplexed by that one, but it's an excellent film and precisely the kind of title we like to "introduce" to our viewers. This year we have J.T. Petty's S&MAN, which is in a similar vein. Something that's going to be confrontational; something that might divide audiences.

Cine: Something that's going to get people talking. ...

Welcome to the fourth and final chapter of Scott's Toronto Genre Fest. (I swear I saw some "grown-up" movies while I was in Canada; All the King's Men is a snoozer, Catch a Fire is fine stuff, and Little Children is pretty excellent.) But my main goal was to catch all ten of the Midnight Madness selections, plus a few extra genre nuggets that I had my eyes on. (Unfortunately I did miss one of the MM flicks: Nacho Cerda's The Abandoned.) So to round out the reporting, I bring you: Master del Toro's latest masterpiece, a slow-moving but creepifying arctic chiller, and a Dutch piece of animation that deals with pornography and little girls. Yes, really.

Princess -- From Dutch director Anders Morgenthaler comes this (mostly) animated tale of lost innocence, brutal vengeance ... and a sentient stuffed animal creature. It's about a former priest who comes to collect his niece when the girl's porn-star mother is killed, and it quickly branches off into an action-comedy/social commentary that, let's face it, might not play real well in the States. Despite its prickly subject matter, the animation is quite excellent and there's a few canny twists along the way. Certainly not for all tastes, but I dug it well enough.