The short but fine list of films I saw last week at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival 2008 (rated x out of 5):

Voices of a Distant Star + 5 Centimeters Per Second: 4/5

Unfortunately the digital (dvd?) projection in Tuschinksi Arthouse 5 was VERY pixelly (so much for expecting to get something more out of seeing it on the big screen) but it was real nice to see these two anime masterpieces by Makoto Shinkai again, his first and his latest, back-to-back. Truly the master at animating falling cherry blossoms, snow, railroad crossings, electric poles and cellphones. Still have that theme song One more time, one more chance stuck in my head.

Timecrimes / Los Cronocrímenes: 4/5

A very enjoyable, quirky and at times intense little sci-fi story from Spain. Certainly the most well-thought-out depiction of time travel in any movie I've ever seen, how refreshing.

King of the Hill / El Rey de la montaña: 4/5

Great Spanish lost-and-hunted-in-the-woods thriller. Feels like a mix of Surviving the Game and Elephant.

Vexille: 2/5

Your basic Japanese 3D futuristic anime epic, fitting somewhere inbetween Final Fantasy and Appleseed style-wise. A handful of very awesome action scenes and cool robot designs, in an otherwise kinda boring story. Again, the picture quality was rather bad, so that didn't help either.