Month: November 2021

The new look of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts is more than just a fresh coat of paint. The academy, which presents the U.K.’s premier film, television and gaming industry awards, is in the process of a major makeover and redevelopment — inside and out. BAFTA was formed in 1947 as the

Disney’s “Encanto” topped the Wednesday box office, netting $7.5 million in its first full day of release. The family film has heavy competition over the Thanksgiving holiday. Also vying for a major slice of the pie are MGM’s star-studded crime drama “House of Gucci,” which brought in a solid $4.2 million on Wednesday, as well

Movie theaters reopened, “Succession” Season 3 is finally here and some of the biggest artists are hitting the road once again to go back on tour. As the entertainment industry mounts a measured comeback amid the global pandemic, here are the films, series and artists that the writers, editors and reporters at Variety are thankful

Set in the north of her homeland, Vietnam, Ha Le Diem’s IDFA competition entry “Children of the Mist” follows 12-year-old Di from the Hmong ethnic minority, living in the mountains and isolated from the rest of the population. Although she would like to study, the widespread custom of “bride kidnapping” on the Lunar New Year

A producer on “Rust” is backing another independent film, “Sam & Kate,” starring Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek, which is set to begin production early next year. Ryan Smith is helping to finance the film, which is set to shoot in Thomasville, Ga., starting in mid-February. A source close to the project said that Smith

Nepalese project “Ek Mutthi Badal” (My Share of Sky) by Sahara Sharma has won the Rotterdam Lab Award at India’s Film Bazaar virtual co-production market. “Ek Mutthi Badal” producer Abhimanyu Dixit is the emerging South Asian producer chosen to attend the Rotterdam Lab Program at the 2022 edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Roya

When the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Iceland last year, shutting down production on Netflix’s eight-part supernatural volcano drama “Katla,” veteran filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur was quick to rise to the challenge. With the support of the streaming giant, Kormákur came up with measures that would allow the production to get up and running again, introducing frequent

For millions of viewers, NBC’s telecast of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is as much part of the holiday tradition as roast turkey, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. The parade that begins on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and culminates two and a half miles later outside the famed department store in Herald Square will mark its

This year’s IDFA makes a rousing return to in-person projections, following an online-only version in 2020 that fell at the mid-point of the nearly 18 months that saw Dutch screens go dark. As it plays out in 15 venues in Amsterdam, including prestigious halls like the Eye Film Museum and the generally live-performance oriented Royal

CINEMAS The Slovak government today declared a state of emergency will go into effect on Friday Nov. 25 in response to the deteriorating COVID-19 situation in the country. The state of emergency includes a curfew, with exceptions only for traveling to work, shopping and medical visits, and will run through Dec. 9.  At that time,

Despite recently losing its director just three weeks into shooting, “Midas Man,” the music biopic about The Beatles’ wunderkind manager Brian Epstein, has now cast its fab four. John Lennon will be played by Jonah Lees (“The Letter for the King”), Paul McCartney by Blake Richardson (“Eleven Days”), George Harrison by Leo Harvey Elledge (“Creation

Italy’s Torino Film Festival, the pre-eminent event for young directors and indie cinema — now being revamped after going virtual due to the pandemic — will somewhat symbolically kick off its upcoming 39th edition with the international premiere of “Sing 2” with director Garth Jennings in tow. “It’s a hymn to going back into movie

How does anyone, especially a Beatle, write a melody? The answer may be as simple as it is mysterious. In “The Beatles: Get Back,” Peter Jackson’s sprawling and revelatory fly-on-the-studio-wall documentary, there’s a great moment when we get to see it happen. It’s January 1969, and the Beatles — long-haired, scruffy, bearded, looking less like

“The Battle at Lake Changjin” has become the highest grossing film of all time in China, after nearly two months of release. Co-directed by a trio of major helmers, Dante Lam, Chen Kaige and Tsui Hark, it is also the top earning film in the world this year. The Chinese record was achieved on Wednesday

“Papa Fujii’s Unexpected Journey,” a film project about a Japanese man’s attempt to understand his dead daughter’s life in Taiwan was named as the grand prize winner at the 2012 edition of the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion event. It wins a NT$1 million ($36,000) prize. Prizes were announced on Wednesday evening at a ceremony

The Walt Disney Co. plans to increase its overall spending on content to $33 billion for its fiscal year of 2022, which began on Oct. 1. Details on the company’s previous year and forecast for the coming year were revealed in its annual report, which was filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Steve Restivo, an actor and former co-owner of Vitello’s Restaurant in Studio City, Calif., died on Nov. 5 at West Hills Hospital after a year-long battle with lung cancer and complications from COVID-19, his son Roy confirmed. He was 81. Restivo was an actor for over 50 years. He was known for frequent roles as

Costume designer Janty Yates was fortunate to have unprecedented access to the Gucci archives when she was planning the looks for “House of Gucci,” but the wardrobe for the Ridley Scott film also encompassed pieces from Yves Saint Laurent and several noted menswear tailors. Yates says the Gucci collection she saw was “exquisite but small,”

The proton pack from 1984’s “Ghostbusters” is back in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” Used in the original film by the team of paranormal sleuths played by Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson, the pack’s gun blasts a bright stream of light that sounds like a sizzling electric current followed by an explosion. That’s just

The long Thanksgiving weekend provides an opportunity for awards voters to get through the first pile of screeners — or in the case of the Academy Awards and BAFTA groups, scroll through their streaming room platforms. In multiple discussions with awards voters, it’s been interesting to note how few movies they’ve seen at this point