Movies

The Sundance Film Festival awarded its grand jury awards to Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” a semi-autobiographical glimpse into the Korean American director’s Arkansas upbringing, and “Boys State,” an immersive vérité look at an impassioned class of politically inclined Texas teens who participate in an annual mock-government competition. Ethan Hawke and his fellow U.S. dramatic competition

Filmmaker Tabitha Jackson has been named the incoming director of the Sundance Film Festival, succeeding outgoing director John Cooper. Sundance, America’s premiere festival and sales market for global independent film, elevates Jackson from her previous role as director of the Sundance Institute’s documentary film program. Cooper, who vacates the role after 11 years, has been

If you care about cinema, you take the Sundance Film Festival for granted at your peril. Despite some early-in-the-festival grousing, though (“Oh no! The first day has gone by without a masterpiece!”), this was the kind of year that didn’t allow you to take the festival for granted. The sheer range of vibrant filmmaking on

GÖTEBORG, Sweden  — Norwegian helmer-writer Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Beware Of Children,” a complex, almost novelistic examination of how people reveal their true colors under pressure when crisis strikes, came away the biggest winner at the 43rd Göteborg Film Festival, scoring the generously endowed ($104,000) best Nordic film prize. The film’s lead actress, Henriette Steenstrup, also nabbed the fest’s

Sony’s “Bad Boys for Life” is keeping the North American box office healthy as it heads for its third weekend crown at domestic multiplexes with about $17.4 million at 3,705 sites, estimates showed Saturday. But Paramount’s spy thriller “The Rhythm Section,” starring Blake Lively, has tanked in ninth-place with a $2.9 million launch at 3,049

This year’s leading animated films take us from the crowded streets of Victorian-era London to far off lands where dragons roam. Though their storytelling and locations couldn’t be more different, many share a common attribute: the emergence of a powerful female character (or two) that’s crucial to the story. “Frozen 2” has those unforgettable sisters,

GÖTEBORG, Sweden —  Norway’s Stian Kristiansen (“Homeground”, “The Man Who Loved Yngve”) has signed on to direct “Doppler” for long-time production partners at Motlys (“Louder than Bombs”, Homeground”). Prominent Norwegian author/scriptwriter Erlend Loe, attached to HBO Nordic’s first Danish Original “Kamikaze,” is adapting from his own best-selling novel, sold to 30 territories and named Book

Stylist Leslie Fremar kept looks fresh for Charlize Theron’s “Bombshell” tour: “The clothes don’t wear her, she really wears the clothes well.” Oct. 27 “I really thought I was watching Megyn Kelly,” says stylist Leslie Fremar of “Bombshell” star Charlize Theron. “I was impressed with just how transformative she really is.” Through the press tour,

Brittney Lee has become something of a rock star artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios. Joining the studio 10 years ago on the strength of a design portfolio she put together in her off-time while working as an animator on an online multiplayer game, she’s worked on most of the studio’s features and shorts since

Swedish director-actor Mårten Klingberg (“Cockpit”) will find out if his latest dramedy is as big of an audience pleaser as early test screenings predict when he presents “My Father Marianne” as the closing night of the Göteborg Film Festival on Saturday, Feb. 1. Variety chatted to Klingberg  before the film’s bow. How did you get involved in “My Father Marianne,” which

If you’re a Natalie Wood fan, there is so much to appreciate about her — her flashing eyes, the no-nonsense immediacy of her acting. But if you ask what made her special, I think it had something to do with how she fused sensuality with a kind of sun-dazed warmth. It’s tempting to compare her

As far as the Academy’s concerned, “Honeyland” is the bee’s knees. A Macedonian beekeeper’s struggle to sustain an ancient way of life picked up three jury prizes at 2019’s Sundance Film Festival. Now it’s the first-ever dual nominee for documentary feature and international feature. “Honeyland” thrives on elements traditionally revered in each category. Nature docs

January 31, 2020 11:21PM PT Social media is a termite infestation eating at the foundations of society, according to experts in Jeff Orlowski’s cautionary documentary. Many a personal device will be at least temporarily darkened by “The Social Dilemma” — though whether it’s already too late to stem, mid-course, the societal disaster the film charts is

Invitation to that most exclusive of groups, the Oscar winners club, must be gratifying to those who have come up short in the past. Some have had to put a brave face before the cameras on double-digit occasions. Sound mixer Kevin O’Connell, for instance, endured 20 unsuccessful nominations before triumphing as part of the team

Oct. 29 “The Harriet Tubman story is very intense, and it’s a story that needs to be told, so this is the moment that Cynthia and I always talk about for Harriet: How would Harriet do a carpet?” says Bolden, who went for bold, impactful and strong. “All of those looks have this really fantastic,

By any measure, it’s been a great year for animation. From “Frozen 2” and “Toy Story 4” bringing in huge box-office numbers in the U.S. to “Ne Zha” becoming the top-grossing Chinese animated film with more than $700 million gross to 32 official entries in the best animated feature category for the 2020 Oscars, animated

Heading into sundance 2020, twin brothers Josh and Dan Braun keep fielding the same question: “What is this year’s ‘Honeyland?’” It’s not a surprising question because the Braun brothers are the co-founders and co-presidents of Submarine Entertainment, the New York-based sales, production and distribution company that sold Oscar-nominated “Honeyland” to Neon 12 months ago after

Spike Lee has signed on to direct a movie based on the Broadway show “David Byrne’s American Utopia” with Participant acting as lead financier and executive producer. River Road Entertainment and Warner Music Group will also co-finance. The film will be produced by RadicalMedia, as well as Byrne’s Todomundo and Lee’s Forty Acres and a Mule

It’s a remarkable story of personal and professional friendship, all the more so because it plays out within the notoriously volatile realm of show business. Two young men skip university to become chartered accountants. They run a partnership for almost two decades, serving and representing many of the preeminent musical attractions of their time. After

Bob Shaw has scored his first Oscar nomination, as production designer for “The Irishman.” The film looks at U.S. history through the eyes mafia hitman Frank Sheeran and his relationship with Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. The epic entailed 108 shooting days, with several locations each day. How did you start? I decided at age 16

January 31, 2020 5:58PM PT Netflix is in negotiations to buy the worldwide rights to Radha Blank’s semi-autobiographical comedy “The 40-Year-Old Version,” sources have confirmed. Blank directed, wrote, produced and stars in “The 40-Year-Old Version,” which premiered on Jan. 25 at the Sundance Film Festival. Peter Y. Kim, Oswin Benjamin, Reed Birney, Imani Lewis, TJ

In today’s film news roundup, DreamWorks Animation hires a Sony vet, indie comedy “Kombucha Cure” gets cast, “Siempre, Luis” gets sold and Women In Film names new board members. ACQUISITION HBO has acquired worldwide television and streaming rights to the documentary feature film “Siempre, Luis,” which had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film

Taika Waititi owes a lot of this awards season to his mother, Robin Cohen. She’s the one who first told him that he should think about adapting Christine Leunens’ novel “Caging Skies” for the big screen. That suggestion eventually turned out to be “Jojo Rabbit.” Adapted from “Caging Skies,“ the film was written and directed

January 31, 2020 2:07PM PT After Deandre Arnold, a senior attending Barbers Hill High School in Southeast Texas, was suspended from school and told he wouldn’t graduate due to his dreadlocks, Gabrielle Union (a producer on the Oscar nominated animated short film “Hair Love”) invited Deandre Arnold and his family to join her at the

Awkwafina’s stylist Erica Cloud kept “a little bit of playfulness” in her awards looks for “The Farewell,” while respecting the film’s tone Cloud bonded instantly with Awkwafina over their love of pairing “really cool separate pieces.” “She’s a New Yorker, and has this innate ability to make something as simple as a T-shirt, jeans and

From the sound of Randy Newman singing “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” to Hildur Guðnadóttir writing the soundtrack to Joker definitely throwing himself away, here’s a last look at the original song and score candidates for the 2020 Oscars — with a few thoughts from the song contenders themselves, as Academy voting opens.

Magnolia Pictures has bought the documentary “Assassins,” which explores the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong-nam, half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Ryan White directed “Assassins,” which premiered on Jan. 28 at the Sundance Film Festival. Magnolia plans to release the film later this year. Kim Jong-nam was murdered in the departures hall of

The Fast family is back together in the first trailer for Universal Pictures’ “F9,” the ninth mainline entry in the “Fast and Furious” series. The footage shows Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) living on a farm and raising Toretto’s son Brian, named after the character played by the late Paul Walker.

It was, to quote a certain Victorian author, the best of times and the worst of times at the Sundance Film Festival. Or, in the words of another one of history’s great scribes: “The players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.” Those, of course, are the

Jesus is back — that is, John Turturro’s Jesus Quntana character from “The Big Lebowski” in a Screen Media’s trailer for the spinoff movie “The Jesus Rolls.” The footage shows Turturro, who also directed, with his memorable licking of a bowling ball before sending it down a lane and into outer space. “The Jesus Rolls” also