Movies

Cinematographer Adam Greenberg, who earned an Oscar nomination for his work on James Cameron’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” began to learn the craft of filmmaking working in the Israeli Army’s photo section. Landing a technician job in a one-room production lab in Tel Aviv, he used his downtime wisely. “Reading old copies of Cinematographer magazine

Angelina Jolie has signed with WME after spending most of the past decade with UTA. Jolie is coming off the Disney sequel “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” which is close to grossing $500 million worldwide. In recent years, the woman who is one of the world’s most recognizable movie stars has focused more on directing and

Nineteen years after he attended the Gotham Awards for the first time, Jeffrey Sharp is overseeing the closely watched kudofest as the Independent Filmmaker Project’s new executive director.Under former exec director Joana Vicente’s nine-year tenure at IFP, the Gotham Awards expanded from a small New York-centric dinner that honored the year’s best under-the-radar films to

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is the ultimate love letter to that period of in Los Angeles. The year was 1969, and things were changing, to say the least. Tarantino’s latest stars Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio as Cliff Booth and Rick Dalton, respectively. Booth is a stunt double who drives Dalton,

Fresh from its triumphant win for Best Feature-Length Documentary at IDFA in Amsterdam, Cuban docu “In a Whisper” (“A Media Voz”) makes its market debut at Ventana Sur where it screens on Wednesday Dec. 4. Picked up by Brazil-based Habanero Film Sales prior to IDFA, “In a Whisper” is a moving auto-ethnographic documentary about two

The mock-documentary is a largely played-out genre, all too often used as vehicle for cheap satire or puffed-up intrigue. In their intriguing, intractable debut feature “My Friend the Polish Girl,” however, directing duo Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek find some spiky new life in the form, using it to pointedly expose the narcissism and ethical

Leading Miami-based international sales and distribution company FiGa Films has picked up worldwide sales rights to Agustin Banchero’s drama, “Las Vacaciones de Hilda” (“Hilda’s Short Summer”). “The film was part of this year’s San Sebastian Int’l Film Festival’s [work in progress section] Cine en Construcción and blew us away,” said FiGa Films’ Sandro Fiorin, adding:

Director-producer Nabil Ayouch and actor-director Maryam Touzani are attending the Marrakech Film Festival for the gala screening of Touzani’s debut feature, “Adam,” on Tuesday. The film, written by her, with the collaboration of Ayouch, and produced by the latter, is Morocco’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. “Adam” had

Paris-based Luxbox has sold more new major territories on Peruvian Melina Leon’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hit “Canción sin nombre” (“Song Without a Name”), proving sales hits can come from anywhere., especially when selected for Cannes. A standout at last year’s strong Ventana Sur Copia Final showcase, “Song Without a Name” has closed Italy with Torino.based

Mark Adams is stepping down as artistic director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival after having overseen five editions of the event. “It’s been a real pleasure to work with the team in Edinburgh and help deliver the growth and development of EIFF over the last five festivals and to be instrumental in re-establishing its

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” will hit Chinese theaters Dec. 20, day-and-date with the U.S. While Marvel films are typically outsized hits in China, the “Star Wars” franchise has historically under-performed in the territory. Chinese audiences are less familiar with it because the original films were not theatrically released in the ’70s, when Western

November 28, 2019 6:56PM PT Industry veterans, Dov Kornits and Lou Balletti have announced the launch of a new theatrical distributor operating in Australia. The company pitches itself as a one-stop shop straddling distribution and media promotion, and will begin operations with a Friday 13 December release of horror title “Wrinkles the Clown.” Kornits is

Canadian actor Taylor Russell started out in TV roles on The CW and Lifetime, advancing to the big screen in movies like “Before I Fall” with Zoey Deutch, “Down a Dark Hall” with Uma Thurman and “Hot Air” with Steve Coogan and Neve Campbell. In A24’s “Waves,” now in theaters, Russell plays Emily, a shy

‘Frozen 2″ is dominating North American moviegoing with as much as $155 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday in North America, estimates showed Thursday. Disney’s animated adventure, which opened on Nov. 22 and is playing at 4,440 locations, will wind up with a 10-day total of around $320 million by the end of the weekend —

Lionsgate’s “Bombshell,” which opens Dec. 20, has been getting enthusiastic reactions at industry screenings, indicating multiple Oscar nominations are likely. If so, that would make the film a welcome addition to a rare but important Academy Awards category: The hot-button, current events film. Director Jay Roach, writer Charles Randolph and the actors — including Charlize

EuropaCorp founder Luc Besson, already beset by accusations of sexual misconduct, now faces a possible 10-month suspended prison sentence if he is found to have unlawfully fired his former assistant while she was on medical leave, Variety has confirmed. On top of the 10-month prison sentence, the Paris prosecutor in charge of the case also

DC Comics has yanked a poster for a new Batman title from its social media accounts after the image drew criticism from Chinese commenters who said it appeared to support the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The artwork depicts Batman throwing a Molotov cocktail against a backdrop of hot-pink words spelling out the new

November 28, 2019 2:04AM PT Cuban filmmakers Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández relate their immigrant journeys as a series of bittersweet video letters in this original, aching IDFA prizewinner. It’s hard to explain the cycle of emotions prompted by permanently leaving one’s home country to someone who has never had to do it. Pangs

Lucy Bevan, casting director on “Cats” and “Cruella,” is among the jury members for the upcoming edition of European Film Promotion’s annual European Shooting Stars. It selects Europe’s best young acting talent, with the roster unveiled ahead of the Berlin Film Festival in Feb. where they will receive their awards. Bevan will be joined on

Even with the streaming company’s sophisticated algorithms, it’s not always easy to decide what to watch on Netflix. The right mood is difficult to find and whether you’re feeling a sober classic like “Schindler’s List” or a heart-warming Disney-Pixar flick like “Coco,” there are options to fit every movie palate. Here are 20 films worth watching to

Martin Armiger, a musician turned record producer, academic, and film and TV composer, based in Australia has died. He was 70. Born in the U.K. as John Martin Armiger, he relocated to Australia with his family as a teenager. He is known for Australian film classics Yahoo Serious’ “Young Einstein,” and the Alex Proyas-directed “Dark

The Cannes Festival and Film Market’s boldest international initiative outside France, as well as Latin America’s biggest movie mart-meet, Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur runs Dec. 2-6. Co-organized by Argentina’s Incaa film-TV agency, it provides a telling window into Latin American market trends. Here are five takes for 2019: 1. Latin American HeadwindsFor most of the

You can tell from the title. “The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open” stands out in a field of generic, cookie-cutter dramas, not simply in terms of representation — though the female-made, indigenous-focused thriller offers a field day for intersectionality theorists — but also in the unconventional way the story unfolds. Filmed in what

John Boyega has claimed responsibility for the “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” script ending up for sale on eBay. The actor, who plays Finn in the saga, told “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan, “I was moving apartments, and I left the script under my bed.” “I thought, ‘I’m going to leave it under

Directors Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández were the winners of the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary with “In a Whisper,” a film that focuses on two emigrated Cuban filmmakers reunited by their passion for film, friendship and freedom. The jury, which comprised Claire Simon, Mila Turajlić, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Gaston Kaboré, and Rima Mismar,

In the doc world, Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker are a legendary filmmaking combo, and their presence has been felt at IDFA since the festival first began. The pair attended regularly over the years, but this year, sadly, only Hegedus was able to make the trip, having bade farewell to her longterm partner just a

Every year, more than 300 TV buyers, sales agents, distributors and festival scouts descend on Arti et Amicitiae on one of Amsterdam’s busiest thoroughfares to watch a wide selection of documentaries available to the international market. Variety sat down with Docs For Sale manager Laurien ten Houten to discuss the enterprise and what it means

The tendency to apply the label “narrative film” to non-documentary cinema is a convenience, but also a misnomer: Documentaries can be as narratively driven as any fiction feature, as “Love Child” proves in entirely engrossing fashion. Spanning six years in the lives of two Iranian refugees — and their out-of-wedlock son — as they seek

This year’s DocLab opened with a video message from the Commander in Chief of the United States, but not the current one; speaking from his desk at the White House in 1969, President Richard Nixon held forth about the state of the arts and the future of technology. Not that long ago, this would have

The last time Alison Klayman found herself in Portugal, she was facing significantly different circumstances. It was late-December of 2018, and the documentarian was taking a quick break from an unrelenting editing schedule when she learned that her Steve Bannon portrait “The Brink” would premiere in Sundance. Only that made official the filmmaker’s unenviable task