Gallery: NYILFF Ads Poke Fun At Movie Cliches

When's the last time you saw a horror movie where a girl jumps into a car and manages to make a clean getaway from the killer? Or a thriller in which the computer geek spends his time fixing printers instead of hacking into alien ships and CIA databases? A new ad campaign for the New York International Latino Film Festival gently pokes fun at these tropes and more through graphic, brightly colored infographic-ish posters. (I'm pretty sure these aren't based on actual statistics, so strictly speaking, they're not infographics.) Tagged with the slogan "Watch films, not movies. There is a difference," the ads collectively draw the line between lowbrow, mediocre fare and the more creative stuff that the NYILFF presumably embraces.

Of course, it could be argued that some of these cliches are so ingrained that the very act of pointing out they're cliches has become itself a cliche — yes, we're all aware that villains have a weird habit of getting inappropriately chatty at precisely the moment when they should be shutting up and just killing the hero, already. But the posters, created by New York-based agency Wing, are done with enough humor and style that they're still fun to flip through. Check them out after the jump.

[via Ads of the World]

A couple of the images in the gallery get even more straightforward about the NYILFF's point by highlighting what the festival sees as the divide between "movies" and "films." "Movies," according to the campaign, are uninspired, paint-by-numbers products created by committee, whereas "films" are the product of an original and unwavering vision.

Like most people, I use the terms more or less interchangeably, but I understand the distinction they're making here. "Film" and "cinema" definitely have artsier, more highbrow connotations than "movie" or "flick." I'm not sure I actually agree that movie-watching should be discouraged — I believe that a movie can be predictable and still be worth watching — but it's not surprising that a film festival would embrace the risky and offbeat over the safe and routine.

The New York International Latino Film Festival will kick off Monday, August 15 and run through Sunday, August 21. If these ads have convinced you to give the NYILFF's "films" a shot, hit their site for more details.

Discuss: Do you agree with the NYILFF's distinction between "movies" and "films"?