FILM FESTIVALS Social network-educational site Stage 32 will offer SXSW filmmakers a showcase for their projects beginning in April. The site made the announcement on Monday, three days after the film festival was canceled due to concerns about the coronavirus epidemic. Filmmakers and content creators accepted into SXSW 2020 are welcome to submit their pics
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The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB), one of Germany’s most prestigious film schools, has sacked its British director, Ben Gibson, following an incident during the Berlin Film Festival in which he exposed his backside to a female student during a heated argument. The academy’s board of trustees on Friday voted to dismiss Gibson,
Vertical Entertainment has picked up U.S. and U.K. rights to Andrea Dorfman’s comedy “Spinster,” starring “Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s” Chelsea Peretti. The film makes its U.S. premiere today in the Cinema 360 section at the Miami Film Festival. Toronto-based Game Theory Films has Canadian rights. “Spinster” follows Peretti’s character Gaby who, unceremoniously dumped on her 40th birthday,
Leading European festivals, film academies and funders have called for the freedom of Iranian film director Mohammad Rasoulof. Rasoulof was last week summoned to serve a one-year prison sentence in Iran three days after his film “There is No Evil” won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear, according to his lawyer and a report by
John Krasinski had reservations when Paramount, the studio that released his 2018 box office hit “A Quiet Place,” approached him to make a sequel. The first film, a thriller about a family forced to live in silence to hide from creatures that hunt sound, was a cinematic rarity, meaning it wasn’t just adored by critics,
In a sign of how the global film industry is already adapting to a new reality, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival began live-streaming the pitching forum of its annual Agora Doc Market on Monday, just days after the festival’s 22nd edition was postponed amid growing concerns around a global coronavirus outbreak. With hundreds of guests from
March 9, 2020 6:45AM PT U.S. equity markets opened sharply lower on Monday, triggering a 15-minute halt to stock trading minutes after bell rang as investors absorb the latest information on the impact of coronavirus around the world. The Dow Jones Industrial average was down 1,884 points, or 7.2%, at the start of the session.
March 9, 2020 6:11AM PT Magnolia Pictures is delaying the release of “Slay the Dragon” by a month and overhauling the distribution plan for the documentary about gerrymandering, Variety has learned. “Slay the Dragon” will open on April 3 instead of March 13 and will now be released on VOD and digital platforms. It was
March 9, 2020 6:07AM PT AMC Entertainment has named Mark Pearson its chief strategy officer, a newly created role that will focus on streaming partnerships. Pearson, who joins the company from 20th Century Fox, will be based in Los Angles and will report to AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron. In his new position, Pearson will
Max von Sydow, the tall, tragic-faced Swedish actor whose name was virtually synonymous with the films of Ingmar Bergman, has died. He was 90. Variety has confirmed that the actor died on Sunday. Von Sydow, who became Bergman’s symbol for the modern man in such films as “The Passion of Anna” and “Shame” after making his
Danish documentary festival CPH:DOX will move ahead as planned but is to cancel gatherings of more than 1,000 people. Organizers of the annual Copenhagen-set festival, which is slated to take place March 18-29, issued a guidance to delegates on Monday, noting it is in contact with the Danish Health Authority, and has pulled any festival
March 9, 2020 4:30AM PT Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning drama “Parasite” has broken records at the U.K. box office, becoming the country’s highest-grossing foreign-language film of all time. “Parasite” has overtaken Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which had held the foreign-language film record since 2004. “Parasite” overtook “The Passion of the Christ’s” box office
The Beijing International Film Festival originally scheduled for late April will be postponed to an unknown future date due to the coronavirus epidemic, organizers have said. The government-backed event was supposed to have taken place between April 19 and 26. It has been postponed “in order to cope with the overall situation of prevention of
At the time of his death in 2007, Marcel Marceau was the world’s most famous mime. But in 1938-’39, when World War II rescue drama “Resistance” takes place, Jewish-born Marcel Mangel was just 15 years old (two decades younger than actor Jesse Eisenberg, who plays him here) and had not yet adopted his stage name,
Friday, March 6, was a surreal day. We were putting the finishing touches on the sound mix for our film “We Are As Gods,” a feature documentary about counterculture icon and environmentalist Stewart Brand that was set to premiere at SXSW. It was the last day of our sound mix at Skywalker Ranch, which marked
As the number of coronavirus cases in France rises to 1,126, the country’s health minister has banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people in an effort to contain the outbreak, which has already caused 19 deaths. In a televised press conference on Sunday evening, France’s health minister Olivier Véran said some exceptions to the ban
Disney and Pixar’s animated fantasy adventure “Onward” led international box office charts, but the rapid spread of coronavirus has impacted moviegoing overseas. The film collected $28 million from 47 foreign markets, representing about 60% of its international footprint. However, “Onward” didn’t open in any areas being impacted by coronavirus, including China — where movie theaters
A tale of missed connections both earthly and ethereal, Pascal Bonitzer’s haunting “Spellbound” starts underground before it creeps upward to the atmosphere and beyond. Clad in a chic trench coat and styled with a noticeably old-fashioned, side-swept up-do, freelance writer Coline (Sara Giraudeau) is about to hear that ever-unpleasant delay announcement in the Paris metro.
Disney and Pixar’s “Onward” debuted this weekend to $40 million, enough to lead box office charts but still a somewhat disappointing start given the studio’s near-flawless track record when it comes to animated fare. Internationally, the film brought in $28 million for a global tally of $68 million. “Onward,” a fantastical adventure about two brothers
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, made a surprise visit Friday to a high school in Dagenham, East London, to speak about gender parity ahead of International Women’s Day. Her visit also marked the 50th anniversary of Britain’s Equal Pay Act, which sought to prevent discrimination against women in the workplace. Markle was joined on
After South by Southwest was cancelled on Friday over concerns about the coronavirus, two of its founders told the Austin Chronicle that the film festival doesn’t have insurance to cover the cancellation. Nick Barbaro, a co-founder of SXSW who is also the publisher of the Chronicle, told the paper that the festival does not have
Leaders of the Directors Guild of America have approved a three-year successor deal to the DGA master contract, triggering a ratification vote by the 18,000 members. The DGA national board announced Saturday that it had approved the deal unanimously. The guild revealed that the agreement includes a significant increase in residuals for high-budget streaming content, pension,
In “Last and First Men,” Tilda Swinton is the literal voice of the future: a disembodied narrator from the hyper-evolved “eighteenth species” of humanity, calmly but desolately reaching out to us from a world some way past 2,000,000,000 A.D. Given that we always suspected as much about Tilda Swinton, it’s a comforting choice: the one
March 7, 2020 11:34AM PT The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival will push back its second week of programming to August due to concerns over the coronavirus. Co-founders Halfdan Hussey and Kathleen J. Powell made the announcement in a statement released on Saturday. “We want to make clear that our very first concern is for
Disney-Pixar’s fantasy film “Onward” is dominating North American moviegoing this weekend, opening with $40 million at 4,310 locations, estimates showed on Saturday. The figure is at the low end of pre-release forecasts, which had pegged “Onward” for a launch in the $40-45 million range. The movie centers on a pair of teenage elf brothers —
March 7, 2020 8:19AM PT Dave Bautista’s “My Spy” is moving its North American release date back a month to April 17 in order to take advantage of a recently cleared slot for the family comedy. The company indicated that “My Spy,” which cost $18 million to produce, has opened well in Australia and New
The American Film Institute has postponed its Life Achievement Award gala due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus. The annual ceremony, set this year to honor Julie Andrews, was scheduled to take place April 25 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The event will be rescheduled for a date in early summer. “AFI’s
Remi Chayé’s “Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary,” Benoît Chieux’ “Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds” and “They Shot the Piano Player,” from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, were among projects which caught attention at this week’s 22nd Cartoon Movie, which ran March 3-5 in the French port city of Bordeaux. The presentation
A man grieving the loss of his loved ones retreats into the safety of memory, a place where time stands still and the departed walk among him. Over the years an imaginary city grows, populated by literary idols, comic book heroes, family members and friends. But even that mysterious place is eventually threatened by the
In today’s film news roundup, a pair of long-running film festivals in San Francisco and Cleveland are moving ahead and Warner Bros.’ Fred Hampton biopic gets additional backing and Dule Hill gets cast. FILM FESTIVALS The San Francisco International Film Festival has set the documentary “Boys State” as its opening night film for April 8