Month: February 2019

The Premio Maguey, the Guadalajara Intl. Film Festival’s LGBTQ sidebar, will pay tribute to late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Plans include the screening of “Mapplethorpe,” Ondi Timoner’s drama starring Matt Smith, on its March 9 opening night gala, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the death of the iconic artist. Mexican photographers have also been
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February 13, 2019 10:45PM PT Georges Schoucair’s Beirut-based Abbout Productions has teamed up at the EFM with 4 European producers on “Costa Brava Lebanon,” a first feature set amid Lebanon’s never-ending garbage crisis to be directed by Mounia Akl who studied film at Columbia University. Abbout has finalized its coproduction pacts on this pic with
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“A Star Is Born” took home multiple wins at the 9th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards, held tonight at the theater at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The event celebrates the highest achievements in music supervision, recognizing exemplary work in 18 categories across movies, television, games, advertising, and trailers (read Variety‘s GMS Awards preview
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London-based Matchbox Films has snapped up U.K. rights to Venezuelan supernatural thriller “The Whistler” from London and Tbilisi-based film production-distribution company, Alief. Closed at the EFM, deal comes in the wake of the drama’s Best Ibero-American Feature Award at the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Fantastic Film Festival in December and best cinematography, original score and
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BERLIN — Jamila Wenske and Sol Bondy’s Berlin-based One Two Films, co-producer of this year’s EFM buzz title “Persian Lessons,” has scored another early winner with comedy-drama “Franky Five Star.” The project, from writer-director Birgit Möller, won the Junior Entertainment Talent Slate (JETS) pitching competition at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday, securing it industry
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The officers of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors has sent a letter to is membership attempting to assuage concerns about the decision to hold four Oscar presentations off the live air telecast on Feb. 24. “As the Academy’s officers, we’d like to assure you that no award category at
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More than 40 high-profile cinematographers and directors including Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and Roger Deakins have blasted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s decision to not televise four of the awards — including best cinematography, best editing, best hair & makeup, and best live action short — in an open letter to AMPAS president
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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Money for RENT,” the fifth episode of the first season of “Schooled.” It only took a few episodes for “Schooled,” ABC and Adam F. Goldberg’s 1990s-set comedy centered on a high school music teacher to dedicate an episode to “Rent,” the 1996 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical that
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No U.S.-China venture could have had a more auspicious start than Oriental DreamWorks. On a state visit to the U.S. in February 2012, then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping had lunch and watched a Los Angeles Lakers game with Jeffrey Katzenberg. That same day, Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation announced the launch of Oriental DreamWorks, a $330 million
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February 13, 2019 5:26PM PT Chris Pratt is in negotiations to star in Skydance’s science-fiction project “Ghost Draft” with “Lego Batman’s” Chris McKay attached to direct. Pratt’s deal is not closed. Plot details for “Ghost Draft,” a live-action project written by Zach Dean, are under wraps. Adam Kolbrenner and David S. Goyer will produce, with Dana
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The Television Critics Association’s winter press tour wrapped Wednesday in Pasadena, Calif. The 16-day junket featured its usual share of dull panels, bizarre questions, and awkward silences. But there were also moments that stood out for the right reasons. Among the highlights: HuluThe streaming service’s presence at the tour was genuinely impressive, with a series
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Mary J. Blige kicks butt. The singer-actress plays Cha-Cha, a villain in the new “The Umbrella Academy,” Netflix’s adaptation of the superhero comic book series of the same name. “I went all the way for Cha-Cha,” Blige told Variety on Tuesday at the series’ red carpet premiere in Hollywood. “The stunt work was amazing. I
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February 13, 2019 4:27PM PT A New York Times expose rocked the music industry on Wednesday, containing stories from several women claiming that singer/songwriter Ryan Adams exhibited “a pattern of manipulative behavior in which [he] dangled career opportunities while simultaneously pursuing female artists for sex.” Even Adams’ ex-wife, Mandy Moore, spoke out in the report,
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The final day of the 2019 winter Television Critics Assn. press tour brought Cleo TV, BYUtv and Amazon Prime Video to Pasadena, Calif. Executives from BYUtv discussed their desire to reach a “broad audience,” despite being owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while executives from Amazon announced the order of almost 20
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Director Tara Wood has reclaimed rights to the authorized Quentin Tarantino documentary movie, “21 Years: Quentin Tarantino,” following a long legal battle. She’s hopeful that she can find a buyer to distribute the movie in conjunction with Sony’s release of Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” the Brad Pitt-Leonardo DiCaprio drama that’s opening on
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February 13, 2019 3:57PM PT Rocker Ryan Adams’ immediate response to the New York Times reporting on his allegedly abusive relationships with multiple women was to say he was “f—ing taking you down” with a lawsuit — which he quickly deleted and replaced with a more temperate series of tweets. “Happy Vanentines (sic) day @nytimes,”
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In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix announced the premiere date of “Queer Eye” season 3, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is making a late-night show appearance.  DATES “Queer Eye” season 3 is returning to Netflix March 15 with a new city and new guests. This season, Antoni Porowski (Food & Wine), Bobby Berk (Interior Design), Jonathan Van
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February 13, 2019 3:45PM PT Swedish House Mafia has signed with Columbia Records, home to Adele, Bruce Springsteen and Calvin Harris. The Sony Music label was able to land the EDM group after a tense bidding war with Universal Music Group’s Republic Records, and for “significantly less” money, according to sources.    The group —
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That Television Critics Assn. press tour — concluding Wednesday with a suite of cable and streaming panels, including those for Amazon — does a remarkably effective, even exhaustive job of conveying to participants the sweep of television in this moment of sprawl. From high-class cable and streaming outlets such as HBO, FX, Amazon and Hulu
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Online video platform provider Brightcove is acquiring longtime competitor Ooyala for $15 million in cash and stock, the company announced Wednesday afternoon. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year. As part of the acquisition, Brightcove will get its hands on Ooyala’s software platform, technology and intellectual property. The company
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Nadav Lapid’s two previous films have all had elements of autobiography and political critique, but neither framed those traits in a vehicle as deliriously unpredictable and enthrallingly impenetrable as “Synonyms.” Breathtaking in the way it careens from one scene to the next in a whirlwind of personal and political meaning all but impossible to grasp
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European Union negotiators agreed Wednesday on codified language in a new set of sweeping copyright-reform rules — including a provision that would mandate YouTube and other internet platforms block copyrighted material when it’s uploaded. YouTube in particular has been particularly vigorous in opposing the proposed changes to the laws. The finalized text of the rules
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