Month: June 2021

After launching their first volley at SXSW this past spring, U.K.-based outfit Fat Red Bird are set to expand its “(Hi)Story of a Painting” franchise, partnering with the National Gallery in London for the series’ four subsequent installments. Directed by Gaëlle Mourre and Quentin Darras, and produced by Charlotte Mikkelborg (who also runs the U.K.-based
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Everything starts and ends with tradition in “India Sweets and Spices,” an inviting intergenerational dramedy of comforting flavors, both witty and familiar. Packing a conventional coming-of-age tale into its pleasantly paced running time, Geeta Malik’s sophomore feature — about old-fashioned multicultural families with storied roots and their modern, independently minded offspring — doesn’t offer all
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Boasting 41 projects and 81 decision makers, NewImages’ XR market took on a more expansive scope this year as organizers looked to welcome new actors and project types into the fold. “We’ve seen a much wider profile of projects this year,” NewImages market head Elie Levasseur tells Variety. “Because NewImages is very linked to the
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There have been many dramas in which actors portray legendary true-life psycho killers, and the overwhelming majority of them are less than convincing. Every so often, though, an actor — through looks, skill, and temperament — will connect to the monster he’s playing in a way that’s so uncanny it seizes and chills you. Jeremy
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Chicago rap star Polo G was arrested in Miami, Fla. Saturday morning, Variety has confirmed. The 22-year-old, born Taurus Bartlett, was booked at 8 a.m. at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center for five charges totaling $19,500, according to jail records obtained by the Miami Herald. The charges include battery on a police officer, criminal mischief and
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Tina Fey’s newest comedy, “Girls5Eva,” follows a ‘90s girl group reuniting after 20 years to recapture their old magic. Along the way, the group discovers that some of the messages from their songs that were once culturally acceptable, are now very much not. Fey, who serves as an executive producer on “Girls5Eva,” discussed how the
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Despite hailing from different backgrounds and faiths, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu are linked by their kindred fights for justice and self-determination for all. Their unique friendship is the crux of “Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times,” Academy Award-winner Louie Psihoyos (“The Cove”) and co-director Peggy Callahan’s nonfiction portrait
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Cinétévé Experience, the interactive branch of production outfit Cinétévé, used this year’s NewImages Festival to launch a prototype of its unconventional AI project “Eliza.” Created by Léa Ducré, the immersive installation will put participants in an enclosed space and ask them to engage in conversation with an inquisitive and incisive AI interlocutor with only one
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Following the launch of startups in Kenya and South Africa in 2015, and the victory of Nigerian filmmaker Joel Kachi Benson’s “Daughters of Chibok” at Venice’s VR competition in 2019, industry eyes have looked to the African XR ecosystem with ever-growing interest. Some of that interest, however, has been a little short-sighted, so speakers at
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On June 12, 1981, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” immersed viewers in the intrepid undertakings of Indiana Jones — a lionhearted archaeologist who set out to find the mystifying Ark of the Covenant. Harrison Ford portrayed the titular adventurer, while Karen Allen played the high-spirited and resilient Marion Ravenwood. Before being cast in Steven Spielberg’s
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“Kids,” a gritty look at a group of skateboarding, drug-abusing, bed-hopping teenagers, became an unlikely box office hit when it premiered in the summer of 1995. Shot on a shoestring budget with a cast comprised of unknowns and amateur actors, the film’s subject matter and frank sexuality was scandalous, prompting condemnation in some quarters, as
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“Wish Dragon” is well aware that “Aladdin” got there first. Making his spirited feature debut, dream-big animation director Chris Appelhans pretty much assumes you’ll be thinking of Disney’s blue genie when his humble Hong Kong hero rubs a jade teapot and produces a fluorescent flamingo-pink dragon, ready to grant his wildest dreams — or three of
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Variety’s Virtual TV Fest ran from June 8 to 10, bringing together the entertainment industry’s premier content creators and stars for a number of panels about the very best in television. Keynotes and conversations spanned the examination of content development, writing, casting, marketing and distribution. The virtual event assembled the leads of Marvel’s three TV
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Why did he do it? That’s the question that anyone who’s ever been touched by the hungry, life-force spirit of Anthony Bourdain will have at the top of his or her head going into “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain.” Directed by the award-winning Morgan Neville (“20 Feet from Stardom,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”),
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Stylish and insidery, “Poser” is enthralled by Columbus, Ohio, particularly its burgeoning independent arts and music scene. It’s a sophisticated, if not cold-to-the-touch psychodrama of elegant visuals and innovative tunes, which debuting co-directors Ori Segev and Noah Dixon (who also scripted) beguilingly steer as a cheeky yet gradually darkening ode to their adoptive city. So
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Joe Berlinger is accusing Amber Sealey, the filmmaker behind “No Man of God,” a new film about Ted Bundy, of taking unnecessary potshots at the two films he previously made about the serial killer in an effort to generate attention for her movie. The indie director, whose credits include both the Netflix docu-series “Conversations with
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Imagine the protagonist of a Richard Curtis film woke up on the morning of whichever wedding or funeral they were to attend, suddenly cursed with self-awareness. The resulting movie, a comedy that elicits such bone-deep cringe it’s indistinguishable from horror, might look a lot like Andrew Gaynord’s “All My Friends Hate Me,” a ferociously witty,
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