Month: October 2018

MADRID — Making good on the largely overlooked achievement of debut feature “The Demons,” Québécois Philippe Lesage’s “Genesis” swept the 63rd Valladolid Intl. Film Festival, winning its top Golden Spike, director and actor on Saturday. One of Spain’s top three or four festivals, and a bastion of auteur cinema, Valladolid closed its official section Friday

British filmmaker Sean McAllister is probably better known around the world than he is in his homeland, scoring big international hits with thoughtful and insightful character sketches such as 2015’s “A Syrian Love Story” and the Sundance Special Jury Prize winner “The Liberace of Baghdad” (2005). But the amazing thing is not that the director

The Ji.hlava docu fest is known for its embrace of new technologies, trends and platforms, so this year’s launch of an online section, Short Joy, with Internet viewers acting as jury, surely fits the fest profile. About 2,000 viewers screened the 24 shorts in the curated program on DAFilms.com, the online streaming source for hundreds

When it comes to documentary, there are few subjects as thorny as pornography, and for his latest film, Portuguese director Jorge Pelicano has chosen something even thornier – the sometimes fraught relationship between a gay male porn actor and his mother. Titled “Until Porn Do Us Part,” the film tells the story of Eulália, a

Comedians and satirists have been thoroughly challenged in the age of Trump, says Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men, the prankster duo who have sent up corporate greed and government injustice since the 90s by impersonating members of elite power structures.   “The challenge is how to work with humor in this moment,” he told

In “Alt-Right: Age of Rage,” screening at the Ji.hlava doc fest, director Adam Bhala Lough takes on the machinations of white power leader Richard Spencer, balancing his philosophies against the views of Daryle Lamont Jenkins – a spokesperson for the anti-fascist movement Antifa – who has tirelessly exposed the group who led the Charlottesville march

To put it mildly, Werner Herzog has his own take on things, so it comes as no surprise that one of the most recent projects by the prolific international director does not follow the rules of normal political biography. Over a six-month period, and without a prepared script, Herzog conducted three interviews with former Soviet

October 27, 2018 9:12AM PT The myriad offscreen woes experienced by this controversial, expensive Chinese WW2 action epic overshadow the hectic, jumbled onscreen result. Few films can claim a bumpier, more public production ride or worse crash landing than “Air Strike,” purportedly the most costly Chinese feature ever when it was shot — which was

If the 18 participants selected to take part in the Emerging Producers program of the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival aren’t entirely sure what to expect from this year’s edition, they’re not alone. “I don’t know how to define it,” says Italian producer Paolo Benzi, who along with Irena Taskovski is tutoring the group. Over

Jamie Lee Curtis’ “Halloween” is dominating the pre-Halloween box office with an impressive $30.5 million at 3,990 North American sites. Universal’s R-rated slasher movie — a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original 1978 movie with Curtis’ Laurie Strode again facing off against serial killer Michael Myers — crossed the $100 million mark on Friday, its

Eighteen documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe will take part this week in Between the Seas, a competition section at the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, including a host of world premieres from emerging and established filmmakers. “It’s very rare to have this type of program focusing on [Central and] Eastern Europe,” said festival

MORELIA, Mexico – Cinepolis CEO Alejandro Ramirez, who presides over the second largest exhibition circuit in the world in terms of admissions, declined to comment on the ongoing controversy swirling around Saudi Arabia and its embattled Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS. The Crown Prince has been tainted by the disappearance and

MORELIA, Mexico — In 2010, Switzerland’s Locarno Festival, Europe’s biggest mid-summer movie event, held its inaugural Locarno Academy with the intent to develop emerging industry talents from multiple industry disciplines such as sales, distribution, exhibition and production. In 2014, Morelia became the first festival to partner with the Academy for what has since become a

In an ongoing series, Variety profiles 10 emerging Mexican women filmmakers. Putting Betzabé Garcia on a list of up-and-coming Mexican female directors is problematic. Garcia doesn’t identify as or believe in the binary gender system used to qualify such a list, but here we are, and it would be criminal not to recognize the filmmaker

Principal photography is about to begin on “Collision,” a new feature by Denmark’s Avaz brothers, who were among Variety’s 10 Europeans to Watch in 2018. Produced by the trio’s Rocket Road Pictures and Kim Magnusson, along with Nordisk Film, the drama explores a family’s struggles to stay together after tragedy strikes. The cast includes leading Danish

On the news that FilmStruck has been struck down, fans — including Hollywood directors Barry Jenkins, Guillermo del Toro and Rian Johnson — vented their shock, sadness and anger on social media. FilmStruck will cease operations on Nov. 29 after two years in operation, Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks announced Friday. The move comes amid

China’s Dalian Wanda group has denied reports that it is seeking to sell a minority stake in Legendary Entertainment, the production company behind “Pacific Rim” and the revived “Godzilla” and “Jurassic World” franchises. The Reuters news agency reported on Friday that the beleaguered Chinese group was exploring the possibility of selling a minority stake in

Emilia Clarke may play one of the fiercest and most intense characters on television as Daenerys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones,” but it took a bit of silliness to help her land the job. While presenting Clarke with the Britannia Awards for British Artist of the Year on Friday night at the British Academy Britannia

MORELIA — At Friday night’s closing ceremony for the Morelia Film festival, winners of this year’s Impulso Morelia, the Works in Progress section of the fest, handed out awards to a handful of projects screened from Wednesday through Friday. This year’s Impulso Morelia jury consisted of Bafta Nominee and César winning filmmaker Nicolas Philibert (“To

Lila Avilés snagged the top prize at Friday night’s Morelia Intl. Film Festival closing ceremony with her debut feature, “The Chambermaid” (“La Camarista”), which world premiered at Toronto. It also took the Warrior of the Press award. “Llegamos! Llegamos!” (“We made it! We made it!”), screamed Avilés all the way from her seat to the

Despite waves of critical adulation in the wake of its Venice Film Festival premiere two months ago, Alfonso Cuarón’s latest film “Roma” — the director’s most personal work to date — admittedly has a few on-paper hurdles to clear on its way to potential Oscar glory. First, it’s a foreign-language film; only 10 such films