Alice Cabañas has been appointed the new head of the BFI Network. She will lead the network’s U.K.-wide talent development programme, overseeing management, funding, digital platforms and professional development programmes. Cabañas is joining as the BFI is developing a 10-year funding strategy in consultation with the industry and the public which will explore how best
Month: March 2022
LICENSING Global rights management company Eccho Rights has licensed “Servant of the People,” the 2016 series created by and starring Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, to Channel 4 in the U.K., MBC in the Middle East, ANT 1 in Greece and PRO TV in Romania, in solidarity with Ukraine and Zelensky. Fredrik af Malmborg, managing director
Avi Armoza’s 17-year-old company Armoza Formats is becoming the Israeli production arm for ITV Studios, Variety can reveal. The business, which has specialized in global formats, will expand under the new structure to become Armoza Productions. Meanwhile, Armoza Formats will remain the development hub for new format IP and will continue to serve as the
Ukrainian film producer and co-founder of the Ukrainian Film Academy Julia Sinkevych (“Heat Singers”) has been selected as jury president for this year’s Series Mania Festival and its international competition. “She has always been committed to supporting Ukrainian artists and the culture of her country from Kyiv, where she lives,” the festival said in a
Top Pakistani stars Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed have wrapped shooting an as-yet-untitled series for Zindagi, the Indian subcontinent focused programming block on streamer ZEE5. The series, which blends magical realism and supernatural fantasy with a family reunion, is helmed by critically acclaimed director Asim Abbasi who also directed Zindagi’s first Pakistani original “Churails” and
The Oscar-nominated “Flee” took home the top prize at the 15th annual Cinema Eye Honors on Tuesday evening at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. Going into the evening, Neon and Participant Media’s “Flee” led the field with a total of seven nominations, while “Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could
After several shifts around the release calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “The Batman” finally rolled out the red carpet for its world premiere at Lincoln Center in New York on Tuesday evening. Though Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz and other stars in attendance, the evening was missing one key contributor. Matt Reeves, the director behind
Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar and Future are set to headline this year’s Rolling Loud Festival in July. The Miami-based music festival announced the trio of performers on Tuesday evening. Ye is set to headline the first night of the festival on Friday, July 22. Future will headline July 23, while Lamar will cap off the
It isn’t often that an Academy governor publicly criticizes the Academy itself, but that happened today when music-branch governor Laura Karpman issued a statement condemning the Academy’s plan to drop the music-score Oscar presentation from the live telecast on March 27. She was sharply critical of both the decision and the process. Her statement, issued
As one Oscar season comes to a close, another opens (at least to speculation) with Matt Reeves’ newest take on the Batman franchise starring Robert Pattinson, Jeffrey Wright, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano and Colin Farrell. The director and co-writer (along with Peter Craig) delivers a dark take on the world’s greatest detective as he battles
An ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine dating back to the collapse of the Soviet Union has become a full-out war with global — and commercial — reverberations. Russia’s booming film and TV industry, with its deep, government-backed coffers, lost its grip on the world stage virtually overnight amid growing fallout from Vladimir Putin’s Feb.
On its face, celebrating the year’s most popular films during the Academy Awards makes perfect sense — movies are a popular art, after all. But when the Academy announced that it would celebrate the Fan Favorite movies of 2021 with a Twitter poll, anyone who has spent roughly 15 minutes on Twitter could have predicted
Amazon Prime Video has launched a £10 million ($13 million) industry training initiative in the U.K. Titled Prime Video Pathway, the initiative has been built into Prime’s U.K. original productions such as “The Devil’s Hour,” “The Rig” and “Mammals” with the aim of making the creative industries more accessible. The streamer has committed to spending
HBO Max has unveiled the first trailer for “Julia,” an upcoming series about the life of beloved culinary icon Julia Child. Created by Daniel Goldfarb (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), “Julia” focuses on Child (played in the series by Sarah Lancashire) during the years following the publication of her iconic cookbook “Mastering the Art of French
Jay-Z and Kanye West were the highest-earning hip-hop acts of 2021, according to a list compiled by former longtime Forbes editor Zack O’Malley Greenberg on Tuesday. Jay topped the list with $470 million, after selling portions of his Tidal streaming service and Armand de Brignac champagne, bringing his net worth to $1.5 billion. Fellow billionaire
For the upcoming Oscars ceremony, the Academy is making a mindful approach to connect with consumers with their Oscars Fan Favorite poll recognized during the show’s telecast. On Monday, the Academy revealed the top 10 finalists that have received votes from utilizing the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite or voting on OscarsFanFavorite.com. The leaderboard includes: Zack Snyder’s “Army
AMC Entertainment, the exhibition giant that became an improbable meme stock, posted revenues $1.2 billion during the holiday quarter as “Spider-Man: No Way Home” galvanized ticket sales at the company. That Q4 performance, revealed Tuesday by AMC, represented a huge jump from the $162.5 million in revenues that AMC posted in the year-ago period and
Samuel L. Jackson has a message for the Academy and it has nothing to do with the current drama surrounding the reformatted 94th Academy Awards telecast. Instead, Jackson wants Oscar voters to know that he should have an Academy Award under his belt at this point in his career. Although Jackson is being recognized with
“Futurama” voice actor John DiMaggio has officially signed on to the Hulu revival of the beloved animated sci-fi comedy series, bringing the long and bitter saga known as #Bendergate to a close. “I’M BACK, BABY! So damn grateful for the love and support of fans and colleagues alike during this whole time (especially my wife,
Nearly 30 years after the band’s inception, Korn’s new single, “Start the Healing,” hit No. 1 on the Active Rock radio charts in mid-February. It marked a triumphant return to the format, which made stars of the nu-metal trailblazers. Lauren Christy, a songwriter/producer who first collaborated with Korn as part of The Matrix for the
The Oscar campaign for “CODA” has touted the film as “history-making.” If you wanted to be a literal-minded curmudgeon about it, you could say that the history it’s talking about was already made — when Marlee Matlin, in 1986, became the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award for best actress, for her great,
Between “Friends” and the “Scream” franchise, Courteney Cox knew that playing both comedy and horror were well within her wheelhouse — but something told her that the new Starz series “Shining Vale” would test her skills in unprecedented ways. “Such a dramatic role that also was comedic was a balance that I hadn’t played in
City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S., will honor Republic Records founders Monte and Avery Lipman (pictured above, R-L) at its 2022 Spirit of Life Gala in the fall. The prestigious award will be presented to them at a gala dinner — the first Spirit of Life
Apple announced several actions it has taken in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including temporarily halting all product sales in Russia. The company also has disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine “as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens.” Last week, according to Apple, the company stopped all
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Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin have set up the comedy pilot “Computer School” at HBO Max, Variety has learned. In the pilot, a recent high school grad and his uncle attend the same computer class in suburban Michigan. Robinson will star as the uncle. Robinson and Kanin are writing and executive producing the pilot. Andrew Gaynord will
William Jackson Harper and Cristin Milioti have been cast as Noah and Emma, the leading roles in Peacock’s upcoming comedic thriller series “The Resort.” Additionally, Skyler Gisondo, Ben Sinclair and Parvesh Cheena are set to join the ensemble. “The Resort” is a multi-generational coming-of-age romance disguised as a fast-paced mystery about the disappointment of time.
Sam Esmail’s “Metropolis” series has been greenlit at Apple, Variety has learned. The drama series is inspired by the 1927 Fritz Lang sci-fi film of the same name. Hailed as one of the greatest and most influential films of the silent film era, the story takes place in the futuristic city of Metropolis. While the city’s
Missy Elliott, Wizkid, Ozuna, Kali Uchis, Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals, Jhené Aiko and many more will perform at a new festival in New York called LetsGetFr.ee, taking place at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on August 20-21, with a special opening night gala on the 19 th. The festival, which also features
As Elliot on “Euphoria,” Dominic Fike debuted his acting chops in Season 2 of HBO’s hit series. But luckily for viewers, the artist was also able to show off his singing in the finale, which aired on Feb. 27. In a rare moment for the show, Elliot pulls out a guitar and serenades Rue (Zendaya),