Movies

“Monos,” an unsettling thriller about teenage soldiers that one critic described as “like ‘Lord of the Flies’ in hell,” has won the award for best film at the BFI London Film Festival. Mati Diop’s “Atlantics,” which premiered in Cannes, took home the prize for best debut feature, while “White Riot,” about a 1970s reggae protest

BARCELONA — Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s debut feature “The Platform” was awarded best film and best music at the 52nd Sitges’ Intl. Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. Gaztelu-Urrutia also snagged the Citizen Kane Award for an up-and-coming director. The prizes come off the back of the Grolsch People’s Choice Award at Toronto’s Midnight Madness. Produced by Carlos

Robert Forster, a prolific character actor who was nominated for an Oscar for Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” and appeared in more than 100 films, died Friday in Los Angeles of brain cancer. He was 78. Tarantino created the bail bondsman character Max Cherry with Forster in mind, and the role netted him his first Academy

Vietnamese coming-of-age drama “Rom” and Iraq-Qatar co-production “Haifa Street” shared the top award in the New Currents competition section of the Busan International Film Festival. The prizes were announced Saturday morning in Busan, South Korea. Headed by British director Mike Figgis, the New Currents jury said that “the use of real, live locations” in “Rom”

In today’s film news roundup, Neil Young’s “Mountaintop” is coming, AMC replaces its CFO, Bob Weinstein is starting anew, and Ed Begley, Jr. and David Koechner join “Reboot Camp.” MUSIC DOCUMENTARY Abramorama is partnering with Shakey Pictures and Reprise / Warner Records to release the Neil Young documentary “Mountaintop.” The movie, which chronicles the making

Steve Dayan has been re-elected in a landslide as secretary-treasurer of Hollywood Local 399 of the Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters over Derick Hixon by a three-to-one margin, 1,381 to 455. Dayan has held the post — the top leadership slot at the local — for the past six years after topping Leo Reed, who had won eight

They’re creepy, they’re kooky, and they’re an allegory for immigration in America.  Charlize Theron discussed the changing face of the nuclear family and her animated film, “The Addams Family,” with Variety at the movie’s recent premiere at the Century City Mall in Los Angeles. “When you think of [the Addams] being around since the sixties,

Despite inevitable comparisons to Glenn Close’s iconic turn as Cruella de Vil in 1996’s “101 Dalmatians,” Emma Stone teased that her take on the infamous villain in the upcoming “Cruella” movie will be very distinctive. “It comes long before her story,” Stone told Variety at the premiere of “Zombieland: Double Tap” at the Regency Village

Brie Larson talked about her upcoming film “Just Mercy” and the Equal Justice Initiative at Variety‘s Power of Women luncheon on Friday at the Beverly Wilshire. Larson was being honored at the luncheon presented by Lifetime for her work with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). In “Just Mercy,” she portrays one of the co-founders of the

October 11, 2019 2:53PM PT Idina Menzel is in negotiations to join Camila Cabello in Sony’s “Cinderella,” portraying the evil stepmother. The news comes a day after the revelation that Billy Porter was in talks to play Cinderella’s fairy godmother. Sony had no comment on either possible casting. The stepmother role, also known as Lady

A dweeb strikes up a relationship with his female-voiced virtual assistant. Most moviegoers would recognize that as the plot of Spike Jonze’s “Her” — and most would probably say, as well, that Jonze’s cautionary A.I. romantic fantasy, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the depressed loner who comes under the seductive spell of his Siri muse, is

October 11, 2019 1:58PM PT “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot will produce and star in “Irena Sendler,” based on the Polish heroine who saved thousands of Jewish children during the Holocaust. “Irena Sendler” has been set up with Warner Bros. through Gadot’s newly formed Pilot Wave with producing partner and husband Jaron Varsano. Marc Platt

October 11, 2019 1:44PM PT Solstice Studios has made two key hires. Selena Arizanovic has been tapped as senior vice president of music, and Nathan Rodriguez has been named director of statistics and analytics. Arizanovic joins Solstice from Millennium Films, where she was music supervisor and head of music production. She has worked on more

Joaquin Phoenix remains the ruler of the North American box office as the second weekend of “Joker” heads for an easy victory with as much as $50 million at 4,374 sites, early estimates showed Friday. That’s far above a trio of new entries, led by MGM’s animated comedy “The Addams Family” with about $30 million

Robert De Niro has taken fresh swipes at Donald Trump, branding the U.S. president a “dirty player” who is attempting to destroy institutions to “save himself.” The Oscar-winning actor was speaking onstage at the BFI London Film Festival ahead of the international premiere Sunday of “The Irishman,” Martin Scorsese’s crime drama, in which he plays

Over a span of 13 years, Scott Z.. Burns has compiled an incredibly rich, diverse body of work as a screenwriter, collaborating with many of Hollywood’s most prestigious filmmakers and stars to make films that broke box office records and left a tremendous impact on popular culture. But when asked what quality unifies his uniquely

Fresh off directing the enormous spectacle of China’s 70th anniversary gala earlier this month, Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou took to the much smaller stage of the Pingyao International Film Festival on Friday to discuss his involvement in such propaganda displays as well as his upcoming works. Since last year’s “Shadow,” Zhang has been at work

More human than human — yes, that’s a “Blade Runner” reference — yet it sounds like an unattainable standard when it comes to creating believable, photorealistic, digital human characters. But the visual effects team on Ang Lee’s “Gemini Man” set its sights on something even more difficult: creating a digital version of young Will Smith

The Open Reel has acquired international sales rights to Andrea Adriatico’s “Bitter Years,” which plays at the Rome Film Festival. The movie, which follows the life of real life LGBT intellectual and activist Mario Mieli, stars Sandra Ceccarelli and Antonio Catania. The screenplay is by Grazia Verasani, Stefano Casi and Adriatico. The film is produced

SEGOVIA — Madrid-based Barbara Studios pitched their first-ever original IP “T-Rey” at Segovia’s 3D Wire market, where it was selected as one of two projects to win accreditation and travel to Ventana Sur’s Animation! sidebar in early December. The win comes less than four months after the studio’s founding members assembled in Annecy and decided

It took several years, but writer-director Jill Culton has finally seen her animated film “Abominable” come to the big screen, and in a big way. The DreamWorks Animation–Pearl Studio production led the domestic box office with $21 million in its opening weekend. As of Oct. 8, it has taken in nearly $80 million worldwide, and

October 10, 2019 11:41PM PT A John Doe patient wreaks supernatural havoc on a hospital psych ward in Billy Senese’s creepily restrained thriller. There’s nothing conceptually all that special about “The Dead Center,” but sometimes it’s all in the execution, and this creepily restrained horror thriller manages to never seem entirely predictable while nonetheless drawing

Slamdance has awarded its grand prize for screenwriting to Tamra Teig and Michael Lipoma for their feature screenplay “The Fall.” The festival announced a dozen prizes Thursday night during a ceremony hosted by Writers Guild of America West across feature film, horror/thriller, TV pilot and short film categories. Slamdance awarded more than $16,000 to winners

In today’s film news roundup, Kerry Washington gets a musical role, Marvel’s production chief and Naomi Watts are honored and an app offers a Spanish-language version of “The Addams Family.” CASTING Kerry Washington has joined the star-studded cast for the upcoming Netflix movie “The Prom,” an adaptation of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical. The cast includes

Erik Feig’s Picturestart has acquired film and television rights to “Along for the Ride,” a YA sensation published on the digital platform Wattpad. Written by Rachel Meinke, the book follows a young athlete who is forced to tour the U.S. with her pop star brother. She meets an ultra-famous musician on the same tour, and

October 10, 2019 3:47PM PT “Pose” star Billy Porter is in negotiations to join Camila Cabello in Sony’s reimagined musical version of “Cinderalla.” If the deal goes through, Porter will play Cinderella’s fairy godmother. Sony had no comment. Cabello came on to the project in April with “Blockers” director Kay Cannon attached to helm and

The ninth annual Napa Valley Film Festival has released its film line-up. Returning this fall, the five-day festival will open Nov. 13 with “Just Mercy” (Michael B. Jordan, Brie Larson and Jamie Foxx) and close Nov. 17 with the world premiere of “Verticals,” a series about Napa Valley winemakers and directed by Jason Wise.  “We

There must have been something in the water the week of Sept. 18, 1964. That’s when the ghouls-are-us sitcom “The Addams Family” premiered on ABC — and exactly six days later, the ghouls-are-us sitcom “The Munsters” premiered on CBS. True, only one of those shows was based on the sinister genius of Charles Addams (whose

The Czech Republic’s top competitive doc event, the Ji.hlava fest, announced today the main prize for its 23rd edition will be decided by sole juror director-screenwriter Cristi Puiu, a leading figure in the Romanian New Wave. The Opus Bonum section, screening international non-fiction films, traditionally invites a single juror, who will this year weigh nine

Studios are signing on to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ plans to eventually eliminate DVD screeners for Oscar voters. Academy president David Rubin recently told IndieWire that the Academy will make online screeners available for most eligible films in time for the 2020 awards season, though DVDs will also likely be provided