Month: February 2025

On a particularly gloomy afternoon in Los Angeles, Demi Moore walks into the room, her presence instantly brightening the space. Dressed in a chic yet relaxed ensemble, she carries her designer handbag, —but her adorable, tiny, wide-eyed puppy is not with her. Moore is no stranger to reinvention. From the breakout success of “Ghost” (1990)
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“Night Stage,” the gay erotic thriller by Brazil’s Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon, has been acquired by German distributor Salzgeber, which will release the film in Germany and Austria. The film will world premiere in Berlinale’s Panorama sidebar next week. M-Appeal is handling international sales for the film, and has released the international trailer. [embedded
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Directing is an all-encompassing job, requiring a painter’s eye, a psychologist’s understanding of people, a juggler’s coordination and a general’s big-picture focus. As many responsibilities were undoubtedly shared behind the scenes by the five filmmakers honored with Oscar nominations this year for directing — Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”), Sean Baker (“Anora”), Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”),
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Tim Kappel and Loren Wells of Wells Kappel LLP were the attorneys behind a recent copyright-termination lawsuit that saw songwriter Cyril Vetter re-acquire the global rights to a hit song he’d unknowingly signed away — for one dollar — in his youth. Variety welcomes responsible commentary, send submissions to music@variety.com. One afternoon in the summer of
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Guy Pearce was in a celebratory mood at an afterparty for the 2010 Academy Awards, having appeared in that year’s best picture winner, “The Hurt Locker.” He was chatting with Cameron Diaz when a plate of mini hamburgers passed by, and they decided to have some fun. “Cameron pretended to sort of bite my burger
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Historically speaking, awards season almost always feels like a war between art and commerce — even if the victor just comes down to whose campaign coffers are fuller than everyone else’s. But after a year of tremendous cultural volatility, both in the entertainment industry and across the globe, the films nominated for screenplay awards, including
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Kit Williamson, best known for creating and starring in the Emmy-nominated series “EastSiders,” is back with “Unconventional.” Premiering on LGBTQ streaming platform Revry on Feb. 11, the TV comedy series stars Williamson as Noah, a queer millennial questioning the future of his 10-year marriage to his husband Dan (James Bland). At the same time, Noah
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The late Norman Lear‘s career was defined by centering underrepresented stories rarely seen on television, and “Clean Slate,” one of Lear’s final projects, continues that tradition. The show follows father/daughter duo Harry (George Wallace) and Desiree Slate (Laverne Cox), who reconnect after being estranged for over two decades. Created by Wallace, Cox and Dan Ewen,
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Generational wars have long been a trope in television and popular culture. Yet, no recent series has captured this type of tension as cleverly as “The Z-Suite.” Created and written by Katie O’Brien, Tubi‘s first original scripted comedy series follows Monica Marks (a stellar Lauren Graham), the CEO of Atelier Advertising agency. With numerous awards,
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Chrissy Teigen took aim at Donald Trump‘s White House when asked about a video the administration released that targeted Selena Gomez, who went viral last month after posting an Instagram video in which she filmed herself crying over deportations of undocumented immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “I love her. Empathy should never be
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Berlin-based world sales company Pluto Film, led by Daniela and Benjamin Cölle, is marking its 10th anniversary with a shift into production as it readies its European Film Market slate. Pluto’s Berlin Film Festival lineup is led by Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s psychological thriller “Hysteria,” which screens in the Panorama sidebar. The trailer debuts below. [embedded
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Japanese moviegoers are famously well-behaved, even carting out their empty soda cups and popcorn containers after the screening. They also tend to make few sounds beyond titters for comedies or snuffles for tear-jerkers. But the full-house crowd at the Feb. 5 world premiere of the animation “Hypnosis Mic – Division Rap Battle” at Toho Cinemas
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Slang, the independent frontline record label under the Influence Media umbrella, has named Tiara Hargrave general manager. She is based in New York and will report to Influence partner and founding advisor Rene Mclean, who heads up the label. Slang, launched last July, has a distribution deal with Will Smith, and its roster includes Grammy-winning producers Camper (Jay-Z, Drake,
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Warner Music Group and Spotify have announced a new, multi-year agreement, covering both recorded music and music publishing, that effectively ends the companies’ disputes over the streaming giant’s “bundling” option, which pays rights-holders less in royalties by offering audiobooks and music together for a reduced subscription fee. Universal Music struck a similar deal with Spotify just
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Netflix, Max and Prime Video are currently in the thick of negotiations with French film guilds to seek earlier access to newly released theatrical movies as part of an industry-wide process to update the country’s windowing rules. France’s strict windowing rules apply to French and global streamers, as well as local free-to-air and pay-TV channels,
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Pan-European production and sales company Federation Studios (“The Bureau”) has teamed up with prominent Italian producer Alessandro Usai to launch a new film and TV shingle in Italy called No Name Entertainment. Usai (pictured above), who is president of Italy’s motion picture association ANICA, has over the past 15 years led the commercially successful Colorado Film
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Jonathan Majors‘ violent bodybuilding drama “Magazine Dreams” is heading to market for international sales for the first time ahead of its U.S. release on March 21 via Briarcliff Entertainment. Celsius Entertainment has acquired international sales rights to the film, written and directed by Elijah Bynum and starring Majors alongside Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Harriet Sansom
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Japanese icon Takeshi Kitano offered a surprisingly candid admission about his Venice Film Festival appearance for “Broken Rage” last year: he barely remembers it, having suffered a concussion en route to the premiere after hitting his head on a motorboat. “I actually had to go to the doctor, and they looked into my brain waves,”
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Robert De Niro‘s first foray into series television proved to be an endurance test for the legendary actor, who compared filming Netflix‘s “Zero Day” to swimming the English Channel — with no sight of either shore. “It is like doing three features back to back,” De Niro said at a preview event in London on
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Eye Haïdara (“C’est la vie!”) and Mélanie Laurent (“Inglorious Basterds”) are starring in “Mata,” a high voltage spy thriller directed by Rachel Lang, whose previous film “Our Men” played at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight. “Mata” has been boarded by Paris-based Indie Sales which will introduce the project to buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin.
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