June 6, 2019 10:00AM PT This year’s recipient of the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal is Melina Matsoukas, an alumna of the AFI class of 2005 who has directed such seminal works as Beyonce’s “Lemonade” visual album and the “Thanksgiving” episode of “Master of None.” Later this year, her feature film debut “Queen & Slim”
Movies
Considering Denzel Washington is a two-time Academy Award winner and widely agreed upon as one of the greatest actors of all time, it’s strange to think he never considered acting until he was in college. “I kind of backed into it,” Washington admits. “I never thought about acting, I didn’t know anything about it. But
June 6, 2019 9:46AM PT A sequel to “Steel Rain,” a Korean hit political drama from 2017, is now preparation. “Steel Rain” earned $30 million from the local box office and was sold to Netflix. The sequel is known to keep most of the key elements from “Steel Rain.” Director Yang Woo-seok and investor-distributor Next
Bron Creative and MGM have entered a multi-picture, co-financing deal worth more than $100 million, for titles including the upcoming “The Addams Family” and “Legally Blonde 3.” The deal also includes MGM’s “Candyman,” “Respect,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “Robocop Returns” and Orion Pictures’ “Child’s Play,” “Bad Trip” and “Gretel and Hansel.” Bron Creative is the
June 6, 2019 3:30AM PT Fred Kogel’s fast-growing Germany-based independent studio has recruited Christian Meinberger as its digital boss. The KKR-backed operation has acquired German assets including independent studio Tele Munchen Group, Universum Film, and Wiedemann & Berg Film. Meinberger will take charge of the digital business, working up partnerships in Germany, as well as
June 6, 2019 3:17AM PT The British Film Institute has launched SVOD service BFI Player Classics in the U.S. on Roku. Streaming device maker Roku added SVOD to its Roku Channel service earlier this year with the likes of Showtime and Starz among the first to roll out paid-for content. The BFI will now join
Well Go USA has taken North American rights to Takashi Miike’s ‘First Love,’ which had its world premiere in Cannes as part of the Directors’ Fortnight lineup. Well Go said the picture will be released in select theaters later this year, with a digital and home entertainment release scheduled for early 2020. The deal was
June 5, 2019 11:56PM PT BBC Studios has signed a co-production deal with Chinese firms Tencent Penguin Pictures and the state-run China Media Group CCTV9 for its new natural history series “Seven Worlds, One Planet.” The series will look at how animal life and behavior has been shaped by the unique environmental circumstances of each
June 5, 2019 10:30PM PT Wong Jing and Jason Kwan’s retro Hong Kong crime thriller is solid fare for action fans. The current wave of Hong Kong nostalgia continues with “Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch,” an entertaining if superficial and heavily fictionalized glimpse into the final days of notorious 1990s kidnapper Cheung Tze-keung,
CLUJ, Romania–“The road is the burden they have to carry,” director Claudiu Mitcu notes of the countless Romanian emigrants who have left the country in search of better fortunes, unsure if they’ll ever return. A recent U.N. migration report ranks Romania second after only Syria on the list of countries with the greatest number of emigrants
CLUJ, Romania–HBO Europe’s Romanian crime drama “Shadows” (Umbre) is returning for Season 3, with the first episode world premiering June 6 at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival. A hit adaptation of the Australian drama “Small Time Gangster,” from writer-director Bogdan Mirica, “Shadows” is the story of a rough-edged taxi driver and family man who leads
It’s time for last orders at Corona, Dubrovnik and Kafe Mockba, as the legendary Helsinki complex, co-owned by Finland’s best known directors, will close down for good in June. After undergoing complete renovation, the building on Eerikinkatu will then be turned into a hotel. The decision to serve eviction notices to one of Helsinki’s most
June 5, 2019 5:33PM PT Adam Nagaitis, who had breakout roles in “The Terror” and “Chernobyl,” has landed a significant part in “Gunpowder Milkshake,” joining Karen Gillan and Paul Giamatti. Lena Headey and Michelle Yeoh are also on board. Navot Papushado and Ehud Lavski wrote the pic, with Papushado directing the action-thriller about a group
Marseille reaffirms its status as one of the most dangerous cities in France with “Shéhérazade,” director Jean-Bernard Marlin’s accomplished feature debut. But its reputation for crime and poverty makes all the more affecting the tentative relationship between a troubled 17-year-old boy just sprung from juvenile detention and the title character, the teenage prostitute he falls
“Dark Phoenix” reigned supreme on Tuesday night in Hollywood, as the 12th film in the “X-Men” franchise celebrated its world premiere. And the biggest show of support for the film and its star, “Game of Thrones” actress Sophie Turner, came from the person who originated the title role on the big screen – Famke Janssen.
June 5, 2019 12:24PM PT Wonder Woman is back. Director Patty Jenkins tweeted a picture of a new costume for the DC superhero Wednesday in what appears to be a reference to Wonder Woman’s Golden Eagle armor from the comics. The updated look has been a popular rumor among fans who hoped to see the
CLUJ, Romania–New projects from around the Black Sea and beyond will take part this week in the Transilvania Pitch Stop, a workshop and co-production forum that’s one of the industry highlights of the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival. Launched in 2014 as a five-day workshop for first- and second-time directors from Romania and Moldova, the Pitch
Rolling off Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hit “I Lost My Body,” Charades has boarded another artful animated film, “Unicorn Wars,” Alberto Vázquez’s solo follow-up to “Birdboy: the Forgotten Children.” “Unicorn Wars” tracks two brother teddy bear soldiers, Azulín, who yearn for unicorn blood to be beautiful for ever; and Gordi, who just wants to be accepted
When the producers of Lionsgate’s “The Spy Who Dumped Me” were struggling to get a permit for a key location on the streets of Budapest several years ago, they knew exactly where to turn. “I called Andy,” says Adam Goodman, whose Mid Atlantic Films serviced the shoot. “I said, ‘Look, we need your help.’” Goodman
Nicolas Schmerkin’s Paris-based Autour de Minuit has boarded Alfredo Soderguit and Alejo Schettini’s “Two Little Birds” (“Dos pajaritos”), the first winner of La Liga contest, an award created by Argentina’s Animation!, Spain’s Quirino Awards and Mexico’s Pixelatl Festival, three major events in Ibero-American animation. The project will be pitched at the upcoming Annecy Intl. Animation
UCI Cinemas inaugurated Rome’s first Imax theater with the local premiere Wednesday of “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” in Imax 3D, filling an exhibition gap that had seen the Italian capital lag behind Milan, Florence and Naples and also other major European cities. Cosplayers impersonating the film’s characters such as Mystique, Cyclops, Beast and Storm strutted down
Suggesting once more that audiences are underserved by high-quality independent animation, Studiocanal has closed multiple major territories to “Samsam,” the latest movie from Folivari, headed by Didier Brunner whose producer credits include the Academy Award nominated “The Old Lady and the Pidgeons,” “The Triplets of Belleville,” “The Secret of Kells” and “Ernest & Celestine.” A
June 5, 2019 8:31AM PT [embedded content] Brad Pitt is launching into the stratosphere in the first trailer for “Ad Astra.” The dazzling sci-fi drama stars Pitt as an astronaut who travels on an interstellar mission to search for his missing father. The new footage begins with Pitt’s character, Roy McBride, praising his father, who
China has started putting the brakes on the entry of some U.S. content in apparent retaliation against Washington’s escalation of its trade war with Beijing, multiple sources tell Variety. Chinese film officials have told some local buyers to steer clear of U.S. movies. One Chinese distributor says he was advised by various platforms not to submit
Japan may not appear to be a particularly surprising choice for the spotlight nation at the 2019 Annecy International Animated Film Festival. But since 1999, when Annecy last so honored Japan, much has changed, and 2019 finds Japanese animation bursting with creative and commercial potential and sitting on the verge of a global breakout. “The
Like the art form it celebrates, the Annecy International Animated Film Festival has been growing creatively and commercially by leaps and bounds — increasingly attracting attention from Hollywood’s expanding roster of animation studios. Annecy artistic director Marcel Jean says the number of festival goers has nearly doubled since 2013 to 11,700 in 2018. The number of projects has
The X-Men are hoping that even after “Avengers: Endgame” steamrolled the box office in April, comic-book fever is alive and well when “Dark Phoenix” opens this weekend. But some furry friends could prevent the band of mutant superheroes from claiming victory in North America. Universal and Illumination’s “The Secret Life of Pets 2” and “Dark
In “Palm Beach,” a Murderer’s Row of vintage yet durably sparkling Australian acting talent, combined with recent Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant, makes for a bright and eventful weekend in the sun at the eponymous northern Sydney enclave. The second feature-length directorial credit from actress-turned-director Rachel Ward following the resonant and well-received 2009 drama “Beautiful
June 5, 2019 3:24AM PT ITV Studios has appointed Lars Finnland to the post of managing director of ITV Studios Norway, its Scandinavian label. Finnland is joining ITV Studios from the events company 6.Sans Event where he was CEO. He also ran Nordisk Film TV, where he reorganised the company and allowed it to become
CLUJ, ROMANIA–More than a decade after a tide of critically acclaimed and award-winning features announced the arrival of the Romanian New Wave, the Transilvania Film Festival’s annual Romanian Days program continues to offer a vital and wide-ranging survey of the country’s dynamic film industry. This year’s edition, which kicks off June 6, will present 15