Month: August 2019

“Magari” is an Italian word without a precise English-language equivalent: somewhere between “maybe” and “I wish,” backed by a particularly Italian tone of cheerful, shrugging flexibility. It’s the original title of Ginevra Elkann’s sweetly ruminative debut feature, though the more blandly whimsical “If Only” has been chosen as its English moniker, which is neither wrong
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When two movie studios launch projects built on a suspiciously similar concept — it could be asteroid-hitting-the-earth thrillers or animated bug comedies, biopics about Truman Capote writing “In Cold Blood” or reboots of classic old monster franchises — it’s sometimes a coincidence and sometimes a case of flat-out imitation (which is the nice word for
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For the eighth year in a row, the Locarno Film Festival is playing host to 12 aspiring film critics from around the world as part of the festival’s annual Critics Academy initiative. Featuring participants from Switzerland, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Mexico, the U.S, the U.K., Nigeria and Czech Republic, the latest edition of the Locarno Critics
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Call it an end of summer box office dump, but busy movie theater marquees are about to get even more crowded. That’s because five films — Disney-Fox’s tear-jerker “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” Warner Bros. and New Line’s heist thriller “The Kitchen,” Paramount’s kiddy pic “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” Lionsgate,
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August 7, 2019 11:55AM PT Amazon Music today announced that it has hired Adam Block as Global Head of Music Catalog, a new position. Block, who for many years was president of Sony’s Legacy Recordings, will report to the Ryan Redington, director of Amazon Music. According to the announcement, Block will drive the catalog music strategy for
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Fox Entertainment, now a standalone broadcast network unaffiliated with a studio after Disney swallowed its former corporate home’s entertainment assets, is “leaning into what makes [it] different structurally,” said CEO Charlie Collier at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour on Wednesday. “Given the trend in our industry toward consolidation, we get to determine, if
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Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss play women who take over their husbands’ criminal business in Warner Bros.’ “The Kitchen,” adapted from the DC/Vertigo comic book series by Andrea Berloff, who also directed. Costume designer Sarah Edwards and prop master David Schanker used their skills to create a supporting parallel story for the characters that evoked the look and
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The annual Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Running Aug. 8-17, the shorts film fest brings together premium story creators, top-flight industry leaders and dynamic companies, launching filmmakers into the next stages of their careers. “We had submissions from 80 countries this year. The event has truly become an explosion of phenomenal
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August 7, 2019 9:30AM PT Amy Carney, most recently Sony Picture Television’s head of ad sales, strategy and research, has been appointed chief operating officer for Fox Entertainment. There she will oversee research, strategy and operations for the company. “I’m pleased to welcome Amy to FOX Entertainment. She’s a smart, sophisticated leader whose passion and
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Agency and media conglomerate Endeavor has hired Guy Schory, a former eBay and PayPal executive, as its first chief digital officer. Schory will head up Endeavor’s digital efforts across product management, marketing, data platforms, advertising and commerce. He also will lead Endeavor’s digital direct-to-consumer and business-to-business operations, including Endeavor Streaming, the video-streaming distribution unit formed
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Television has never looked quite like this before, with so many conversation-starting, cultural narrative-altering stories that incite, invite, or ignite something in viewers. Telling tales of grounded, often tough, topics through heightened worlds is frequently a way to soften the blow of such hard-to-watch material. Viewers may be enticed by the spectacle of gimmick (as
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MADRID —  Buenos Aires-based Meikincine Entertainment has acquired world sales rights outside Argentina to “Los Sonambulos” (“The Sleepwalkers”), just confirmed by the Toronto Film Festival as one of the films in its 2019 Platform competition. After world premiering at Toronto, “The Sleepwalkers” segues for its European first night at the San Sebastián Horizontes Latinos, a
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Taylor Swift will perform at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) just three days after the release of her new album “Lover.” The show will broadcast live from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Aug. 26 and will be her first televised performance following the album’s release. Swift, who earned 10 VMA nominations for
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China’s spat with Taiwan over the prestigious Golden Horse film awards has escalated, with mainland productions and stars being ordered to boycott the ceremony and some Hong Kong companies and celebrities reportedly pulling out as well. China’s state-run CCTV announced on its official Weibo site Wednesday that the China Film Administration had banned local films
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MADRID —   Film Factory Entertainment, a premiere sales agent of Spanish-language films, has acquired sales rights to the U.S., Europe and Asia on Federico Veiroj’s “Asi habló el cambista” (“The Moneychanger”) which has just been announced as one of the 12 titles playing Toronto’s prestigious Platform program. Buena Vista Intl. will release “The Moneychanger”
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