Month: June 2019

ANNECY, France — Five years ago Sarah Smith and Julie Lockhart founded Locksmith Animation. Smith was coming off her feature directorial debut on Aardman Animations’ “Arthur Christmas.” Lockhart was a long-time Aardman producer whose credits include Oscar-nominated fare such as “Shaun the Sheep” and “The Pirates! Band of Misfits.” Oh Thursday afternoon the two now-studio

ANNECY, France — French production house Maybe Movies has a long and fruitful relationship with the Annecy Intl. Animation Festival, which was further strengthened this year by a works in progress presentation for the studio’s upcoming feature, “Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary.” Co-producing on the feature is Denmark’s Nørlum along with broadcaster France

ANNECY, France — Ibermedia, the multi-million dollar pan-regional audiovisual fund, has applied new regulations and changes affecting animation. The changes have been applied to this year’s call for applications, closing April 25. After evaluations, award results will be announced the first week of November. There will be just one call for entries per year. In

Greater professionalism within the Chinese film industry could lead to higher standards and greater overseas success. That was the unsurprising conclusion of the “Global Film Industry Value Chain Forum” held in Shanghai on Saturday on the eve of the city’s showcase annual film festival. Speakers from China, the U.S., and Europe identified a need for

ANNECY, France – Spain will be the country of honor at 8th edition of Mexico’s Pixelatl animation event, it was announced at an Annecy Festival presentation of the Animation Ibero-American White Paper, backed by Tenerife’s Quirino Awards. The upcoming edition of Pixelatl will run September 3-7  in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Pixelatl will showcase Spanish features and

ANNECY  —  For Hollywood, an Annecy Work in Progress sneak peek of “Scoob!” took one huge bull by the horns: How to reboot major IPs for  modern audiences. Joined onstage by “Scoob!” director Tony Cervone, production designer Michael Kurinsky at Warner Animation Group (WAG) and Bill Haller, animation supervisor at Reel FX, the panel, hosted

ANNECY  —  Led by Nickelodeon’s “Paw Patrol” and ”Miraculous: Tale of Ladybug and Cat Noir,” animation still rules kids and family entertainment, according to the most recent Kids TV report by Paris-based Eurodata TV. Focusing on Europe’s “big five” markets of France, Germany, U.K., Italy and Spain and the second half 2018, three-quarters of the

ANNECY, France – Denis Do’s “Sorya” and Amandine Taffin’s “Tistou of the Green Thumbs” –both from France– took feature kudos at the 2019 Mifa Pitches Awards, the first honors announced at Annecy and devoted to projects pitched in various categories/showcases: Feature Films, TV Series and Specials, Short Films and Animation du Monde. The 37-title selection

Well-known actor Nana Patekar (“Kaala”) and director Vikas Bahl (“Queen”) are among the Bollywood  personalities accused by the #MeToo of sexual misdeeds who are now free to get back to work. Their names have been cleared. The movement kicked off last year with actress Tanushree Dutta accusing veteran actor Nana Patekar of harassment on the

In today’s film news roundup, Marcia Gay Harden joins “Pink Skies Ahead,” Jack Mulhern stars in a Europe-set hockey movie, Oceana Studio opens its financing division and Participant hires a social impact veteran. CASTINGS Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden has been added to the cast of the drama “Pink Skies Ahead,” the first feature

June 14, 2019 3:55PM PT Freida Pinto, Bo Hopkins and Owen Asztalos have rounded out the ensemble of Netflix’s adaptation of “Hillbilly Elegy,” directed by Ron Howard. Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Haley Bennett and Gabriel Basso are also on board to star. Based on J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir, the pic is a modern exploration of

June 14, 2019 3:31PM PT Longtime Hollywood executive Gerry Rich has been named to the top marketing position at United Artists Releasing, insiders tell Variety. The distribution company is the joint venture between MGM and Annapurna Pictures, renamed in February for the legacy brand that MGM owns. A formal announcement is expected next week. Rich

Sony’s “Men in Black: International” is heading for a disappointing $24 million opening weekend in the top spot at a mild North American box office, early estimates showed Friday. The fourth iteration of the sci-fi comedy franchise is performing well under modest expectations, which had been in the $30 million range at 4,224 locations. “Men

David Kaminow, the marketing chief at the Annapurna-MGM joint venture recently rebranded as United Artists Releasing, has stepped down from his post. The executive sent a memo notifying colleagues of his decision on Friday, staff including distribution chief Erik Lomis and communications head Adriene Bowles, individuals familiar with his exit told Variety. Kaminow was beloved

In the new comedy “Late Night,” Emma Thompson plays Katherine Newbury, a veteran talk-show host who has fallen so out of touch she doesn’t even know her own writing staff. Prompted to add a woman to the room, she hires Molly Patel (played by Mindy Kaling, who also wrote the biting script). Molly finds herself

As fanciful as Martin Scorsese’s new film about Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975 is, it doesn’t aim to turn truth into myth nearly as much as the infamous movie Dylan himself made during that period, “Renaldo and Clara” — in which the cast list had Ronee Blakley playing “Mrs. Dylan.” Whatever impish reasons

June 14, 2019 11:15AM PT Bradley Cooper is in early talks to star in Guillermo del Toro and Fox Searchlight’s adaptation of “Nightmare Alley.” Sources say Cooper recently received an offer and while it’s currently unclear if a deal will close, sources indicate both sides have engaged in talks. Cooper would take the place of

June 14, 2019 10:27AM PT The Cannes Film Festival has set the dates of its 73rd edition next year, which will take place May 12-23, 2020, Variety has confirmed. The festival will open on Tuesday evening for the third consecutive time, unlike the Wednesday kickoff  that had been the tradition for many years. The Marche