Director Attached to Artesia Film Wins Comic-Con Award

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Fort Lee, NJ — July 20, 2005 — Archaia Studios Press (ASP) and celophaine are pleased to announce that Hidetoshi Oneda, the director of the short film “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” who is tapped to turn Artesia into a feature film, was awarded Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Film by the paneled jury at this year’s Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival. A total of 59 films were featured in this year’s festival, with 11 entered in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category.

“It was an unexpected surprise,” said Hide [pronounced Hee Day, short for Hidetoshi] Oneda. “I was just excited to be a part of CCI:IFF, but winning the award against such good competition makes it that much more pleasing. Now as I await word on a number of other film festivals for “La Belle”, Mark [Smylie] and I are putting the pieces together for the Artesia prequel, ‘The Barrow’.”

“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” is based on the John Keats poem of the same name. It tells of a shipwrecked Navigator (John Mycroft), deserted on a strange island, who encounters a Knight of old (Jack Donner). The knight recalls a tale of regret about a mysterious Lady (Natassia Malthe) whom he fell in love with and lost due to his own fears. At the film festival, Oneda, producer Frank Mele (Special, starring Michael Rapaport), and production designer Nathan Amondson (Don’t Come Knocking, directed by Wim Wenders) answered questions from the audience about the making of the film.

Oneda also discussed “The Barrow”, currently under development. “The Barrow” will introduce Artesia’s world and ethos as it follows Artesia’s brother Stjepan, with whom readers of the comic will be familiar with as an agent for the High King, as he follows a map appearing on a woman’s body to the barrow of the Last Worm King.

The CCI:IFF celebrates independent film, with the accent on genre-related entries. Featured genres included superheroes, science fiction and fantasy, pop culture-related humor, suspense, animation, and documentary.

ABOUT ARCHAIA STUDIOS PRESS

Mark Smylie founded Archaia Studios Press (ASP) in 2002 as the home for his epic fantasy comic book, Artesia. Artesia ($24.95, ISBN: 1-932386-00-9), winner of ForeWord Magazine’s Best Graphic Novel of 2003, and its sequels — Artesia Afield ($24.95, ISBN: 1-932386-02-5) and Artesia Afire ($24.95, ISBN: 1-932386-08-4), winner of the Silver in ForeWord’s Best Graphic Novel of 2004 — are available at finer bookstores and comic book shops everywhere. A roleplaying game called Artesia: Adventures in The Known World (fall 2005, ISBN: 1-932386-10-6, $34.95, full-color) will be out soon. The next installment in the Artesia series, Artesia Besieged, is slated for a spring 2006 release. More information can be found at http://www.aspcomics.com/.

ABOUT celophaine
celophaine (always with a lower case “c”) is the independent film production company created by writer/director Hidetoshi Oneda. Oneda has worked in advertising for a decade, first as an art director and eventually a creative director at Dentsu, Japan’s largest ad agency. Since 2000 he has directed dozens of commercials and corporate videos. He has also served as a jury member at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. In 2002 he left Dentsu to pursue writing and directing full time. Visit the website at http://www.celophaine.com.