Movies

Ladj Ly had already beaten the odds by world premiering in competition at Cannes and winning the jury prize with his feature debut “Les Miserables.” Ly has now scored an Oscar nomination for his politically-charged film in a particularly competitive year for the international feature film race. One of the five movies selected out of

January 13, 2020 4:59AM PT Oscar nominations for the 92nd annual Academy Awards will be announced Monday morning from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif. Martin Scorsese’s mob epic “The Irishman,” Quentin Tarantino’s ode to Los Angeles “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and Noah Baumbach’s drama “Marriage Story” are expected to sweep

China’s last truly independent film festival has been “halted indefinitely,” organizers said in a hard-hitting statement. They said that it has become “impossible” to undertake such an event in the country’s current political climate. The move comes as Chinese president Xi Jinping tightens the noose on freedom of expression in one of the world’s most

Now that the Golden Globes ceremony has come and gone, film fans can look forward to the Oscars as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the nominations for the 92nd annual awards show on Monday. This year’s selections will be revealed via global livestream from the Oscars’ official websites Oscars.com and Oscars.org,

The Locarno Film Festival has announced that Nadia Dresti is stepping down as head of the prominent Swiss indie cinema event’s market side which she built over two decades into a unique and formidable space for international quality cinema industry operators. Dresti (pictured, left) praised in a statement as Locarno’s “Grand Dame,” is staying on

Layering archive footage and soundbites with the kind of quickfire verve suited to a catwalk backdrop, the introductory montage to “House of Cardin” presents us with a number of words to describe Pierre Cardin: “Genius” is the overriding one, uttered by multiple luminaries in his thrall, with other flattering variations (“creator,” “chic,” “modern,” “innovator”) rounding

Running from Jan. 16-17 in Paris’ Parc Floral, what was previously known as the Paris Images Location Expo will enter its 10th edition with a changed name, a different locale, and an expanded, industry focus. Newly rebranded as The Production Forum, the two-day trade show will host more than 100 exhibitors from throughout the French

The wildfires that have ravaged large parts of Australia have sparked an outpouring of generosity from celebrities and the general public. The entertainment industry has so far escaped largely unburned. Since September, huge wildfires have razed more than 11.2 million hectares (27.7 million acres), nearly half the area of the U.K., at least 20 people

French sales/distribution company Bac Films and Danish production banner Snowglobe have unveiled the trailer of “Wildland,” Jeanette Nordahl’s female-driven crime thriller which is set to world premiere at the 70th Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama section. Starring Sidse Babett Knudsen (“Borgen”) as a mafia ringleader and introducing Sandra Guldberg Kampp, “Wildland” was written by

Turns out, “The Australian Dream” is more similar to the American Dream than we might realize — and the obstacles to achieving it are all too familiar as well. In both countries, idealistic conversations about opportunity and equality quickly butt up against the realities of racism. And yet, for many, as soon as the R-word

China’s total box office may have hit another record high in 2019, but a struggling exhibition sector and plummeting growth in lower-tier cities will likely sow seeds of trouble in 2020 for the world’s second-largest film market, Chinese firm Tencent Entertainment said in a year-end discussion paper. China’s theatrical market has grown an impressive 60-fold

The 25th annual Critics’ Choice Awards gala, hosted by Taye Diggs, will be broadcast live on The CW Television Network on Sunday night. “The Irishman” has picked up the most film nominations for the ceremony. The Martin Scorsese gangster drama goes into the awards show with 14 noms, including best picture, director and acting ensemble

Jennifer Lopez is truly enjoying the awards season ride. “This is the industry. This is the town!” Lopez told Variety before accepting her Los Angeles Film Critics Association best supporting actress award on Saturday night. “’Hustlers’ was a movie we made in 29 days, on a low budget. I didn’t take any money for it

There’s a time-honored tradition of turning celebrated movies into television series. A lot of them have ended up as sitcoms: “The Odd Couple,” “M*A*S*H,” “Alice” (spun out of Martin Scorsese’s 1974 landmark “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”). But not all of them. Did you know that “Casablanca” was turned into two different TV series, one

Sam Mendes’ “1917” marched to box office victory, earning a solid $36.5 million from 3,434 theaters in its first weekend of wide release. Universal and DreamWorks’ World War I drama defeated Disney’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” the final chapter in the sequel trilogy that has ruled box office charts since debuting in late

“Bombshell” lead the winners’ list at the seventh annual Make-Up and Hair Stylist Guild Awards on Saturday night. The film that sees the hair and make-up team transforming Charlize Theron into Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman into Gretchen Carlson and John Lithgow into Roger Ailes scooped up three awards, including best contemporary hairstyling, best contemporary make-up

January 11, 2020 2:42PM PT This pleasant if slight dramedy has failed comic Ben Schwartz gaining an unlikely pal in alcoholic dentist Billy Crystal. Ultimately pleasant if slight, “Standing Up, Falling Down” arrives at that modest impact despite the fact that the major characters here insist on behaving in ways that are meant to be

The Palm Springs Film Festival has announced its juried winners, with “Beanpole” taking the FIPRESCI prize for films in the international feature film Oscar submissions program. The documentary award went to “Talking About Trees.” Acting prizes went to Bartosz Bielenia from “Corpus Christi” for actor and Helena Zengel from “System Crasher” for actress. “Parasite” won

“This is the only award show that matters. Best night of my life. I love it here,” Olivia Wilde quipped while accepting Best Female Director at the 3rd annual Hollywood Critics Awards on Thursday night. The “Booksmart” director then congratulated fellow nominees Alma Ha’rel, Lulu Wang, Greta Gerwig and Lorene Scafaria for “paving the way

January 11, 2020 9:00AM PT A trans Filipina in Brooklyn has troubles of both the romantic and immigration-status ilk in writer-director-star Isabel Sandoval’s quietly involving drama. There’s a simultaneous delicacy and straightforwardness to “Lingua Franca” that stamps Isabel Sandoval’s third feature with a distinctive directorial sensibility — even if her script eventually muffles some of

January 11, 2020 8:42AM PT Universal and DreamWorks’ “1917” is riding sky-high following its Golden Globes victories, scoring $36.5 million at the U.S. box office in its first weekend playing nationwide. Sam Mendes’ World War I drama, which took home best picture and best director at the Globes, had previously nabbed $2.7 million in limited

There’s a scene late in “Chhapaak,” writer-director Meghna Gulzar’s stirringly crafted and intelligently uplifting fact-based drama, where Malti (Deepika Padukone), the survivor of a horrific assault, tentatively expresses her warm feelings to Amol (Vikrant Massey), the crusading activist who has taken up the cause of women who have suffered similar attacks. But, true to form

January 10, 2020 4:55PM PT “Venom” director Ruben Fleischer will likely direct “Uncharted,” the long-gestating, oft-delayed adaptation of the popular video game of the same name. There’s no deal in place and Fleischer is said to be atop a list of other candidates being considered by Sony Pictures, but insiders say the job is his

Paul Rosenfeld, former Gramercy Pictures’ veteran head of distribution, died Tuesday at his home in Portland, Ore. He was 71. Rosenfeld was one of the most well-known film buyers in the exhibition industry. He began his career working as a young film booker at Walter Reade theater in New York. 20th Century Fox film executive

In 2001, at 22, Josh Hartnett was supposed to become the next Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon. His back-to-back roles in Michael Bay’s “Pearl Harbor” and Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down” catapulted him onto the A-list. He graced magazine covers, the paparazzi stalked his personal life and directors pursued him for blockbusters and comic-book vehicles.

Fresh off his Golden Globe win and ahead of Oscar nominations being announced, Joaquin Phoenix was arrested, along with other climate change protestors, on Friday, Variety has confirmed. Jane Fonda’s last Fire Drill Friday protest in Washington, D.C., saw the actor march with hundreds, including stars Martin Sheen, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Susan Sarandon, and give

Golden Age of Streaming who? Despite an influx of entertainment options on Netflix, Hulu and now Disney Plus, global box office receipts will surpass $42.5 billion in 2019, according to Comscore, cementing a new industry high. Though U.S. ticket sales slumped 4.4% to $11.4 billion, international audiences fueled the record turnout. Overseas revenues also set

Melanie Laurent, the successful French actor (“Inglourious Basterds”) and filmmaker (“Gaveston”), is set to write and direct “The Mad Women’s Ball,” a period thriller based on the award-wining novel by Victoria Mas. Alain Goldman’s Legende Films, the well-established French production outfit behind Marion Cotillard starrer “La Môme,” “The Round Up” and “An Officer and a

As the grisly, counterfactual but oddly rosy ending of “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” continues to be a point of debate among critics and audiences, along comes “The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” to remind even the most insistent detractors of Tarantino’s what-if rewrite of the Manson murders how much worse things could be.

In the 1950s, paranoid schizophrenics and others with mental afflictions were treated much more harshly by today’s standards, often being locked away in institutions and subjected to electroshock and other debilitating treatments. In the film “Three Christs,” Richard Gere plays Dr. Alan Stone, a character based on real life social psychologist Milton Rokeach who during