Joe Dante’s (Gremlins 1&2, Piranha) new film The Hole has been named the best 3D film of the year at the Venice film festival, beating out big names such as Pixar and Henry Selick.

From MTV -

So much for my earlier claim that “it’s really only down to ‘Up’ and ‘Coraline’ as serious contenders.” Even as a huge fan of Dante’s work — including the highly underrated “Small Soldiers” and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” — I wasn’t expecting his new thriller, about a family that moves into a house with a bottomless hole in the basement, to feature better use of 3-D than those hit films.

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Yet the way Venice describes “The Hole,” maybe this is the real savior of 3-D as something beyond gimmicky profit-booster. While “Avatar” is being sold as something that will be groundbreaking, Dante’s film was honored for “best representing the exploration of this new frontier of cinematic language.”

High praise indeed for a film that currently has no US distribution or firm release date, hopefully this will lead to the film being picked up. I’m a big fan of Dante (check out his website trailersfromhell.com) and he has a knack for mixing the family-friendly with the mildly horrific. Looking forward to this one.