Carlo Chatrian’s rapid rise to becoming Berlin’s artistic director stems from the steely resolve of a soft-spoken film lover with smarts and a clear sense of what he considers meaningful in contemporary cinema today. The Italian film critic and curator previously served a five-year stint as artistic director of Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival. He is
Movies
February 17, 2020 7:00AM PT The 19th annual Tribeca Film Festival will open on April 15 with the world premiere of the documentary “Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President.” The film explores Carter’s lifelong passion for all genres of music and how it helped propel him, a former peanut farmer from Georgia, all the way
Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Cristi Puiu’s “Malmkrog,” the opening film of the Berlin Film Festival’s new competitive strand, Encounters. Shellac is handling world sales. “Malmkrog” is set at the manor house of an aristocratic landowner in Transylvania. Among the handpicked guests who have arrived to spend the Christmas holidays
“Your Name Engraved Herein,” the first gay movie from Taiwan since the territory last year legalized homosexual marriage, will enjoy a private screening at Berlin’s European Film Market this week, before having its world premiere at the Osaka Asian Film Festival next month. Presented at the Berlin market by sales agent Flash Forward Entertainment, the
Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the new James Bond film “No Time to Die” has cancelled its Beijing premiere as well as a promotional tour with talent in April, according to Chinese reports. The film, which marks star Daniel Craig’s last turn as the iconic spy, is set to debut in North America on April
Opening on Wednesday (Feb. 12), comedy “Honest Candidate” topped the South Korean box office, ahead of “Little Women” and Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” which returned to the charts eight months after its original release. “Candidate” earned $6.52 million from 909,000 admissions over five days. Directed by Chang You-jeong (“Finding Mr. Destiny”), “Candidate” is the story of
Netflix has acquired global rights to drama “The Life Ahead,” which marks Sophia Loren’s return in front of the camera for a feature film after a decade. Directed by her son Edoardo Ponti, “Life Ahead” sees the iconic Italian Oscar winner playing Madame Rosa, a Holocaust survivor who forges a bond with a 12-year-old Senegalese
Oliver Stone will preside over the main jury of Saudi Arabia’s nascent Red Sea International Film Festival, which has unveiled its inaugural lineup. The fest will feature the Middle East premiere of Harvey Weinstein-inspired workplace abuse drama “The Assistant” amid a fresh mix of feature films and docs from Europe, the U.S., Asia and Africa
A Chinese film director and his entire family have died from the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. Chang Kai, a film director and an external communications officer at a Hubei Film Studio subsidiary, died in hospital on Feb. 14 from the virus now called COVID-19, according to a statement from the
Remi Bonhomme, a leading force behind Cannes’ Critics Week, has been appointed artistic director of the Marrakech Film Festival and its industry conference, the Atlas Workshops. In recent years, Bonhomme successfully headed the Atlas Workshops, a platform dedicated to supporting the cinema of the African continent and the Arab world, where he was also part
Berlin-based Picture Tree International (PTI) has acquired global sales rights to Leander Haussmann’s highly anticipated East German laffer “A Stasi Comedy.” Set in the early 1980s, the film centers on East Germany’s infamous state security service, the Staatssicherheitsdienst or Stasi, and young agent Ludger, played by David Kross (“Balloon,” “The Reader”), who is sent to
Sales agent Media Luna New Films has acquired international rights to Rodrigo Bellott’s horror thriller “Blood-Red Ox.” Bellott directed Bolivia’s Academy Award entries “Sexual Dependency” and “Tu Me Manques,” and was the producer behind Jim Mickle’s U.S. remake of Mexican horror hit “We Are What We Are.” In “Blood-Red Ox,” which is in post-production, a
Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” dominated global box office charts after debuting to $100 million worldwide. “Sonic,” based on the popular Sega video game, pulled in $43 million when it launched in 43 international territories, representing 60% of its foreign footprint. Among overseas markets, Mexico saw the biggest start with $6.7 million, followed by the United
February 16, 2020 9:51AM PT Nikita Pearl Waligwa, an actor who appeared in Disney’s biographical drama “Queen of Katwe,” has died, according to BBC and the Ugandan newspaper Daily Monitor. She was 15. Waligwa had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2016 and seemed to recover a year later. However, in 2019, another tumor
Paramount’s family film “Sonic the Hedgehog” ignited over Presidents Day weekend with $57 million in North America and $100 million globally, the biggest showing ever for a video game adaptation. “Sonic” is expected to earn $68 million to $70 million through Monday, one of the best results for the holiday weekend. The better-than-expected start is
Issa Rae co-stars in two romantic movies with leading men of color this year: “The Photograph,” a drama with Lakeith Stanfield, and the upcoming rom-com “The Lovebirds” with Kumail Nanjiani. Rae said the former — written and directed by Stella Meghie — echoes the nostalgia of one of her favorite films centered on black love,
Shaun, everyone’s favorite sheep, is back, and this time he’s facing aliens and robots in “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.” Directors Will Becher and Richard Phelan teamed together on this film for their first full-length collaboration. While the two have been working at Aardman Studios, Phelan’s background was as a story artist and Becher’s
The Independent Film & Television Alliance has filed a complaint to the U.S. Trade Representative, calling for the U.S. government to keep China on its Priority Watch List and to monitor China under Section 306 of the Trade Act. The IFTA lobby group, which represents American and international independent film companies, argues that China is
Lynn Cohen, a veteran stage and screen actor who played Magda on “Sex and the City,” died Friday. She was 86. Magda was Miranda Hobbe’s (Cynthia Nixon) housekeeper and eventually her nanny, and Cohen also appeared in both film adaptations of the show. She talked to Cosmopolitan about her role in 2018. “It showed a
February 15, 2020 6:29AM PT FilmNation will launch international sales on “The Good Nurse,” a thriller set to star Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, at the European Film Market (EFM), Variety has learned. The film marks Tobias Lindholm’s English-language feature directing debut. The Danish filmmaker previously oversaw “A Hijacking” and “A War.” The film centers
There’s much talk these days of microaggressions: words and gestures of disrespect toward others, particularly those of other social groups, that betray prejudice even when everyday or unintentional. It’s a term that sounds almost scientific, though as a unit of measurement, it’s frustratingly inexact: how many microaggressions add up to plain, violent, not-so-small oppression? How
When disconsolate lovers light up a post-coital cigarette amid tousled bedclothes in a French New Wave film, the source of their angsty ennui is often, in some way or other, l’amour. But if it’s Hangzhou, China, in the late 2010s, as opposed to 1960s Paris, the source of the disaffection, and therefore the poetry, is
In today’s film news roundup, Noomi Rapace gets a starring role, ArcLight Cinemas hires Ted Mundorff and a “Karn Evil 9” movie is in the works. CASTING Noomi Rapace will star in the thriller “O2,” which will launch sales next week at the European Film Market in Berlin through Wild Bunch International. Franck Khalfoun is
As panic roils mainland China and fear escalates throughout globe over the spread of coronavirus, Hollywood studios and content production companies are ramping up their efforts to respond to the human and economic impact of a potential pandemic. This past Tuesday, as Sony Pictures Entertainment shook off its Oscar hangover from wins for “Once Upon
For any Lin-Manuel Miranda fans whose hearts sank almost as quickly as they rose upon hearing that, yes, there’s a “Hamilton” movie, and no, it won’t be out for another 20 months, succor may be on the way in the form of a probably faster-arriving movie that features Miranda in almost as big a role,
Predator or prey? Victimizer or victim? Rapist or philanderer? These questions are at the heart of the closing arguments of the Harvey Weinstein trial and how the 12 member jury answers them will play a critical role in deciding whether or not the former movie mogul goes free or spends the rest of his life
Variety and the European Film Market are teaming up to host a half-day TV summit as part of this year’s Berlinale Series Market & Conference. Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett will participate in a panel with “Stateless” co-creators Elise McCredie and Tony Ares. Startz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch will participate in a keynote conversation at the summit as well.
February 14, 2020 11:45AM PT Taylor Russell is going behind the camera. The star of “Waves” and Netflix’s “Lost in Space” is making her directing debut with “The Heart Still Hums,” a documentary short that she co-directed with her best friend, Savanah Leaf. “It’s about women in Sacramento who are pregnant or young mothers who
The world is Bong Joon Ho’s oyster following last Sunday’s Oscar triumph. “Parasite’s” surprise best picture victory was a statement-making moment for the South Korean filmmaker and for Neon, the indie distributor that helped catapult the film into the awards season race and its founder Tom Quinn, who has been a longtime backer of the
The bombshell news about the resignation of the governing board of the Cesar Academy, which distributes France’s equivalent of the Oscars, was greeted with relief within the French film world on Friday. On the heels of an industry-wide backlash, the 21-member board of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema – the organization overseeing the