Month: June 2021

Making its European debut at International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Bright Lights section this week is “The Day Is Over,” the directorial debut of cinematographer Qi Rui (“The Sunflowers”), a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy. The feature charts the futile attempts of a 12 year-old girl and her friends to escape from their

This year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam Freedom Talk speaker Pallavi Paul claims that her mid-length film “The Blind Rabbit,” which examines police violence and systemic abuse of power, is unlikely to be seen by an Indian audience because the level of censorship applied by the government is “so intense.” The New Delhi-based filmmaker’s 43-minute essay,

There’s a certain kind of music-video director who will seize on the prospect of doing a movie as an opportunity to make a splash. It’s not hard to see why. In-demand video directors work with the hottest talent in the business, and their videos tend to be celebrated as four-minute bursts of genius. “Gully” is

After a strong weekend opening for “A Quiet Place 2,” Paramount has dated a third entry in the horror franchise for March 31, 2023. “Mud” director Jeff Nichols will take over from John Krasinki as helmer, with a story based on an idea by Krasinski. Nichols handed in the script for the new installment, which

The world may have been a more wholesome place before Cruella De Vil, but Disney cannot get enough of her. Before “Cruella” — the live-action prequel to the animated feature “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” — has even entered its second weekend of release, Disney is already in early development on a sequel, with director

The new animated feature “Spirit Untamed,” in theaters June 4, celebrates the power and importance of friendships, but at its heart is a theme of fearlessness. Director Elaine Bogan makes her feature in the follow-up to the popular 2002 movie “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” This time the focus is on a new character, 12-year

Actor, writer, producer, director and executive Issa Rae can now add superhero to her resume. The “Insecure” star and industry multi-hyphenate has joined the cast of the sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning animated feature “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” as Jessica Drew, better known as Spider-Woman. Rae joins returning voice actors Shameik Moore (as main hero Miles

To paraphrase an old adage, there’s bound to be a silver lining in every cloud. Indeed, for some Caribbean island locations, the COVID-19 pandemic, despite some losses in human life, has been a blessing for their audiovisual industries. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, two of the most generous locations in terms of film incentives,

Oklahoma Boosts Biz Services Oklahoma got a big boost this year from A24’s Oscar-winning “Minori,” which filmed in the state, creating 180 jobs around Tulsa. Additional filming took place in the communities of Sand Springs, Broken Arrow, Skiatook and Rose. In 2020, Oklahoma declared the film and TV production business — and the recording industry

Moviegoers will soon find out what happened when Captain Jack Aubrey met Dr. Stephen Maturin. 20th Century has tapped screenwriter Patrick Ness to cook up another “Master and Commander” film, one that will likely draw on the first book in Patrick O’Brian’s beloved Aubrey–Maturin series. Those novels inspired the 2003 epic “Master and Commander: The

It’s oddly appropriate that grief-stricken widower Ted (David Sullivan) spends most of Jack C. Newell’s “Monuments” schlepping his wife’s ashes around the geographical midpoint of the continental U.S.A. This dippily surreal existential comedy — imagine Quentin Dupieux engineering a head-on collision between “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” and “Little Miss Sunshine” — feels

“Super Frenchie” begins with what might be considered in the world of extreme sport docs a money shot, albeit an unexpected one. Skier and BASE jumper Matthias Giraud swooshes down a peak in France before hurtling himself into thin air. Behind him a vast shelf of snow cascades, with Giraud’s and photographer Stefan Laude’s cameras

With today’s release of Ludovico Einaudi’s “Cinema,” Universal Music Group confirms its status as one of the world’s most soundtrack-friendly music companies. Music by Einaudi, the Italian composer and pianist, was featured in recent Oscar winners “Nomadland” and”The Father.” “Cinema” collects 28 pieces featured in those films and such earlier projects as “The Water Diviner,”

After going virtual last year with the online initiative LALIFF Connect 2020, the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival returned as an in-person event on Wednesday. The premiere of “7th and Union” served as the opening night film at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The Broken English production is the second feature film from