Month: February 2024

Sony Pictures has acquired the worldwide rights to “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” a fantasy romance starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, in the first major deal of the European Film Market in Berlin. The film will be directed by Kogonada, who also helmed the TV series “Pachinko” and the sci-fi drama “After Yang.” “The

If any part of you has been curious as to how French filmmaker Olivier Assayas spent the early days of the global pandemic, along comes “Suspended Time” to answer your question, with very much the answer you might expect: pretty comfortably, thanks for asking. Alternating a thinly fictionalised portrait of the artist isolating at his

In the history of Black leading actresses at prestigious award shows, Halle Berry’s triumph for “Monster’s Ball” at the Oscars stands prominently, while the BAFTAs lack a similar honoree, and the upcoming Sunday ceremony seems unlikely to change that. This year’s roster of lead actress nominees boasts a diverse array of talents. Vivian Oparah garnered

A low-budget romp set in contemporary London against a curdled cultural backdrop of racist politics, Bruce LaBruce’s “The Visitor” pays explicit homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s sexually provocative last feature, “Teorema.” The cheeky Canadian director’s graphic reimagining sees various mysterious suitcases appearing here and there, each of which turns out to contain an identical naked

After several years working in German TV and locally-oriented film projects, Julia von Heinz had a significant breakthrough with “And Tomorrow the Entire World” — a taut, punchy political thriller with a youthful spirit of anti-fascist revolt, vigorous enough to land a Venice competition slot. Its success evidently raised the status of the director’s long-held

Paramount’s “Mean Girls” musical made fetch happen after surpassing $100 million at the global box office. The oh-so pink movie musical has generated $101.2 million worldwide after six weeks of release, including $71.2 million in North America and $30 million from 31 international territories. Based on the Broadway adaptation of the 2004 comedy classic, “Mean

Aslı Özarslan’s “Elbogen” (“Elbow”), an adaptation of Fatma Aydemir’s award-winning novel of the same name, tells the story of Hazal (played by Melia Kara), a young woman in Berlin struggling to find a job and start a life of her own. After a violent incident on her 18th birthday, she flees to Istanbul, a strange

Highland Film Group shared a first look at “London Calling,” an action-comedy that reunites director Allan Ungar with star Josh Duhamel after the success of the action heist thriller “Bandit.” Film also stars Jeremy Ray Taylor (“It,” “and “It: Chapter Two”), Rick Hoffman (“Billions,” “Suits”) and Aidan Gillen (“Game of Thrones”) Written by Omer Levin

There is a pivotal scene in Greta Gerwig’s dust-pink “Barbie” that has come to define the Oscar-nominated movie — a disarmingly truthful monologue that is not delivered by the film’s many Barbies, nor its numerous Kens. Instead, supporting actress Oscar nominee America Ferrera’s Gloria crisply sums up the movie’s themes around a picture-perfect doll confronted

It’s ironic that memory is the central theme of Piero Messina‘s Berlin Competition title “Another End,” when so many of its twists and turns are so directly lifted from other films that it feels like you’ve seen them before; even watching it for the first time feels like rewatching. But if that makes this elegiac

Buoyed by the Oscar nomination of Chile’s very own Maite Alberdi for her poignant doc, “The Eternal Memory,” Chile’s documentary sector could not be more vibrant. Debuting at the Berlinale’s Forum sidebar is “Oasis,” the latest feature doc from the Mapa Fílmico de un País (MAFI) collective and the hybrid LGBTIQ+ themed short film “Towards

When Lena Dunham first read the script for Julia von Heinz’s “Treasure,” it hit home. The “Girls” creator’s grandmother had just died at 96, and Dunham found herself thinking a lot about her heritage. “Treasure,” based on the 1999 novel “Too Many Men” by Lily Brett, follows Ruth (Dunham), a journalist who travels to Poland

Two years after their Berlinale prizewinner “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush,” veteran German director Andreas Dresen and his regular screenwriter Laila Stieler reteam for the moving drama “From Hilde, With Love.” Drawing on the compelling real-life case of the Hilde and Hans Coppi, a young married couple arrested and executed for treason by the

Last year’s BAFTA ceremony was a star-studded affair, with Richard E. Grant on hosting duties, an (unintentionally) viral rap from Ariana DeBose and the Prince and Princess of Wales in the audience. This year’s awards, set to take place on Feb. 18 and produced by Penny Lane Entertainment, promise to be equally entertaining, with former

Gael García Bernal and Renate Reinsve (“The Worst Person in the World”) star as lovers caught in an unusual bind in Italian director Piero Messina’s unconventional sci-fi film “Another End,” which is competing in Berlin.  Set in a near-future when a new technology exists that can put the consciousness of a dead person back into

Argentine director Luján Loioco (“About a Woman,” “The Girl with Yellow Heels”) is prepping her third feature film, “Queen of the Woods” (“Reina del bosque”), starring Chile’s venerable Alfredo Castro, seen most recently in Pablo Larrain’s Oscar-nominated “El Conde,” and rising Argentine actress Delfina Chaves (“Máxima,” “Ringo”). The story takes place in a cabin set

Saban Films has acquired North American rights to the British thriller “Kill,” starring Paul Higgins (“Slow Horses,” “Line of Duty”), Brian Vernel (“Star Wars: Episode VII – the Force Awakens,” “Dunkirk”), Daniel Portman (“Game of Thrones, The Angel’s Share”), Calum Ross (“Wednesday”), Anita Vettesse (“Outlander,” “Guilt”), James Harkness (“Darkest Hour,” “Phantom Thread”) and Joanne Thomson (“The Victim”). The film, which explores

Highland Film Group has locked key territory deals for sci-fi thriller “The Astronaut” from “A Quiet Place” producer Brad Fuller Pic stars Kate Mara (“A Teacher”), Laurence Fishburne (“John Wick” films) and Gabriel Luna (“Terminator: Dark Fate”). The film wrapped shooting late last year in Ireland. “The Astronaut” has sold to Signature Entertainment for the U.K., Capelight Pictures for Germany, Blue Swan Entertainment for

Those dismayed by the cancellation of the big-budget “Coyote vs. Acme” — a high-profile casualty of the recent Hollywood trend towards pulling the plug on near-completed projects — may find consolation and then some in “Hundreds of Beavers.” That is, if they become aware of it, of course. Chances are good that they will, eventually,

Abel Ferrara is set to begin production on his latest feature, “American Nails,” a modern gangster story inspired by ancient tragedy that stars Asia Argento and Willem Dafoe, Variety has learned. According to the producers, “American Nails” charts “the rise and fall of this modern Phaedra, in a tale set in the gangster world of

Stephen Fry has been described as a “quintessential Englishman” and, thanks to his Cambridge University degree and roles in films such as “Gosford Park” and “Wilde,” he’s got a resumé to prove it. But it turns out his latest role, as Polish Holocaust survivor Edek in the upcoming feature “Treasure,” is closer to home. Premiering

The Hong Kong-Europe-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme being launched this week in Berlin is intended as a major component of an exercise in rehabilitating and internationalizing the Hong Kong film industry. In unprecedented fashion, the territory’s Film Development Council is getting ready to start giving cash grants to movie projects that don’t necessarily have to

Italy’s Teresa Cavina has been appointed artistic director of Malta’s Mediterrane Film Festival the second edition of which will run June 22-30 in Valletta, the island’s capital. Cavina, who has over twenty years of experience in programming and artistic director roles at festivals including Locarno, El-Gouna, Rome, Venice and Abu Dhabi, is structuring the Mediterrane

The Berlin Film Festival has just three Indian narrative fiction features in the 2024 lineup, but all of them are sophomore efforts by filmmakers who have already won global acclaim for their debuts. Raam Reddy burst onto the international scene with “Thithi” (“Funeral”), which won the Golden Leopard — Filmmakers of the Present and the

Having already directed plenty of action-thrillers, a few sci-fis and — last year — a whole load of mutts (the Venice-bowing “Dogman”), Luc Besson is now set to venture into epic fantasy territories with one of the most famous big screen characters of all. The French director is to direct an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s’ “Dracula,” telling