ANNECY — Announced on the first day of Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, Nickelodeon is launching the “Intergalactic Shorts Program,” aimed at developing the next generation of animation talent from around the globe. The venture is to be spearheaded by Nickelodeon’s EVP animation production and development Ramsey Naito, along with newly-hired producer Conrad Vernon (“Sausage
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ANNECY, France — Having traveled from the floor of Bikini Bottom to the shores of Lake Annecy in France, SpongeBob SquarePants is kicking off his 20th year at Europe’s most important animation festival with a Nickelodeon panel and accompanying sneak peek of the upcoming special “SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout.” A few lucky Annecy Intl. Animation Film
ANNECY — Again, we’re not saying these are the best shorts at Annecy this year. That will be left to the festival’s juries to decide. They most certainly, however, underscore the current creativity of animation, its healthy diversity. The selection is, moreover, limited to official sections so does not take in DreamWorks Animation’s “Marooned,” which
Aton Soumache’s On Entertainment (“Playmobil”) is allying with Joann Sfar, the revered French comicbook artist and filmmaker, on an ambitious live action mini-series inspired by French aviator and author Antoine de Saint Exupery’s 1943 philosophical and self-reflective parable “The Little Prince.” The project, which is still at an early development stage, is being conceived as
June 9, 2019 9:45PM PT Bong Joon-ho’s Cannes Palme d’or-winning “Parasite” remained on top of the South Korean box office. The family drama earned $12.4 million from 1.67 million admissions between Friday and Sunday for a total of $51.0 million from 7.02 million admissions after two weekends. The CJ Entertainment release accounted for some 47%
ANNECY — Ed Noeltner’s L.A. and Paris-based Cinema Management Group (CMG), one of the world’s leading sales agent specializing in international animated features, has closed both France and South Korea plus a swathe of South East Asian territories on “Salma’s Big Wish,” which bows in Annecy on Monday as one of eight titles in its
June 9, 2019 2:14PM PT The Seattle Film Festival wrapped Sunday with top Golden Space Needle audience awards going to “Tel Aviv on Fire” for best film and “We Are the Radical Monarchs” for best documentary. Ulaa Salim won best director for “Sons of Denmark,” while Damla Sonmez won best actress for “Sibel” and Julius
An increasingly hostile trade war with China has Hollywood film financiers and distributors just as nervous as producers and star talent these days. As the Trump administration continues with threats and prohibitions, the theatrical film business specifically is wringing its hands over the possibility of being shut out of the massive Chinese marketplace — to
Disney-Fox’s “Dark Phoenix” failed to rise in North America, but the latest “X-Men” saga looks off to a slightly better start overseas, where it earned $107 million from 53 international markets. Combined with a disastrous $33 million at the domestic box office, “Dark Phoenix” had a global debut of $140 million. The $200 million movie
ANNECY – Brazil’s “Beyond the Legend,” Venezuela’s “Karetabla” and Chile’s “Witches’ Business” are among the thirteen animation projects selected to participate at the 5th Bridging the Gap (BTG), a Canary Island-based intensive animation workshop. Since its first edition in 2015, Tenerife animation lab Bridging the Gap has promoted fifty international feature films and animation series.
The North American box office fizzled this weekend as Universal and Illumination’s “The Secret Life of Pets 2” and Disney and Fox’s “X-Men” installment “Dark Phoenix” battled it out at theaters. Neither packed much of a punch, with both films debuting well below expectations. “The Secret Life of Pets 2” nabbed first place with $47.11
Viewers obsessive about spoiler alerts will be thwarted by the very title of “Fire Will Come”: You know exactly what climax is coming in Oliver Laxe’s rustically beautiful rural parable, but its dreamy, mesmeric power lies in the waiting. An exactingly paced slow burn before it becomes, well, a very fast one, this second feature
CLUJ, Romania–Alejandro Landes’ “Monos,” a survival thriller about a group of rebels set deep in the jungles of Colombia, won the top prize at the Transilvanian Intl. Film Festival on Saturday, with the jury praising the Sundance player “for its hypnotic power through its minimalist storytelling, committed cast, and unsentimental portrait of young people with
Mindy Kaling and Nancy Meyers — two titans of romantic comedies and layered, human storytelling overall — gathered Saturday in a wide-ranging conversation about their experiences as filmmakers in a changing market. At Produced By, the annual conference of the Producers Guild of America, the pair had an hour to share a wealth of information
June 8, 2019 3:27PM PT Would the luxurious kitchens and interior design of Nancy Meyers’ movies be mentioned as often in articles and reviews if she were a male director? Meyers says no. In conversation with Mindy Kaling at the PGA’s Produced By conference on Saturday, the top-grossing filmmaker was asked how she feels about
Michael B. Jordan addressed how he goes about choosing projects with socially impactful messages during the Produced By conference in Los Angeles on Saturday. “Starting in front of the camera, from the actor’s perspective, it’s all about the heart. It’s about wanting to create bodies of work and tell stories that will make people go
Let’s say you want to make a movie about the dynamic between middle-class white folks and the undocumented dayworkers they employ (some would say “exploit”) in a city like Los Angeles. There are plenty of ways to go about it, any number of which could offer a welcome chance to illuminate the ubiquitous but under-chronicled
CLUJ, Romania–Two students accused of cheating by an older professor appeal to him for clemency, only to end up in his apartment, where he quickly gains the upper-hand. After initially succumbing to his advances, one of the girls tries to resist, prompting a gut-wrenching denouement as he’s determined to get his way. “Mo” is the
Leadership at Warner Bros. Entertainment have started packing designer luggage for the first corporate huddle with their sister brands under AT&T. The interim leadership at the studio — film head Toby Emmerich, TV chief Peter Roth and CFO Kim Williams — are headed to New York next week for the “first corporate offsite of WarnerMedia,”
June gloom has officially spread to the U.S. box office. According to Friday’s grosses, this weekend’s two biggest releases – “The Secret Life of Pets 2” and “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” – are falling short of expectations, but it’s “Dark Phoenix” that’s flaming out the worst. Disney-Fox’s latest installment in the X-Men franchise is on pace
CLUJ, Romania–When Lee Chang-dong’s mystery thriller “Burning” was released in Romania not too long ago, Tudor Giurgiu had the sense he had to catch the Cannes festival player before it was too late. “I felt this film was kind of meteoric, and it just disappeared,” he said. The Romanian director and Transilvania Film Festival founder
Spanish cinema has lost an understated giant with Friday’s passing of genre film and TV pioneer Narciso “Chicho” Ibañez Serrador, dead at the age of 83. Although he only filmed two features, both stand out as milestones in the country’s early genre cannon, 1970’s “La Residencia” (“The House That Screamed”) and 1976’s “¿Quién puede matar
The Writers Guild of America and Association of Talent Agents are expected to continue discussions on a new proposal that the ATA put on the table Friday at the first meeting between the sides in nearly two months. The sides met for several hours at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles. The ATA has offered
June 7, 2019 3:15PM PT An acclaimed documentary about the conflict between Israel and Palestine from executive producer Abigail Disney has sold North American distribution rights to Abramorama and 1091 Media. The doc, billed as “an intimate and timely exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and its root causes,” is from first-time writer and director Ofra
June 7, 2019 2:55PM PT Kevin Hart and Paramount Pictures are partnering on a remake of the Bill Murray Christmas comedy “Scrooged.” Sources confirmed to Variety that Hart will produce the project through his HartBeat Productions and will likely take on a starring role. Insiders say that the project is still in its early days
It looks like Disney’s “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” won’t be rising from the ashes anytime soon. According to Friday’s early estimates, the 12th and final installment in the Marvel-owned franchise is heading for a disappointing $37.7 million opening weekend, after a lackluster Friday showing. Originally, Disney estimated a start between $40 million and $50 million which
Hollywood excels at honoring its legends as much as it revels in some old-fashioned, exclusive partying — hobbies both pridefully displayed on Thursday evening in observation of Denzel Washington’s AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. Following a starry tribute ceremony at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theater, which saw Washington lauded by the likes of Chadwick Boseman, Jodi Foster,
June 7, 2019 1:14PM PT Sue Fleishman, head of communications for Amblin Partners, has left the company after a five-year run. She will return to her own independent consulting company, September Media, Amblin said in a press release. Fleishman joined Amblin, Steven Spielberg’s production company, after stints running communications at Warner Bros. and Universal Studios.
June 7, 2019 12:55PM PT Newsweek Magazine intends to start Newsweek Studios, a film and distribution company that will focus on newsworthy and documentary content from filmmakers around the world. Pierce Cravens, a producer and actor, will lead the operation and has been named president. “We’re interested in acquiring and developing projects from emerging and
“Jungle Cruise” director Jaume Collet-Serra and Dwayne Johnson are reuniting for Johnson’s first foray into the comic-book world. Sources tell Variety that Collet-Serra is in negotiations to direct Johnson in the New Line film “Black Adam,” based on the DC Comics character. According to insiders, the film is a priority for the studio following the