Movies

BARCELONA – “Saba,” the new project of Alexis Ducord (“Zombillenium”) and Benjamin Massoubre, the editor at “Zombillenium,” and “Big Bad Fox & Other Tales,” will be offered up to potential partners and buyers at Europe’s upcoming Cartoon Movie, which kicks off March 5 in Bordeaux. A 3D CGI animated feature project, “Saba” is produced by

February 14, 2019 12:09AM PT Berlin-based international sales company Films Boutique has picked up the world rights of “37 Seconds,” the debut film by female Japanese filmmaker Hikari following its Berlin Film Festival premiere in the Panorama section. The film centers on a wheelchair-bound 23-year-old woman, Yuma, who works in a manga studio. Yuma starts

The Premio Maguey, the Guadalajara Intl. Film Festival’s LGBTQ sidebar, will pay tribute to late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Plans include the screening of “Mapplethorpe,” Ondi Timoner’s drama starring Matt Smith, on its March 9 opening night gala, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the death of the iconic artist. Mexican photographers have also been

February 13, 2019 10:45PM PT Georges Schoucair’s Beirut-based Abbout Productions has teamed up at the EFM with 4 European producers on “Costa Brava Lebanon,” a first feature set amid Lebanon’s never-ending garbage crisis to be directed by Mounia Akl who studied film at Columbia University. Abbout has finalized its coproduction pacts on this pic with

Despite a cold and rainy night, Hollywood writers have given a strong endorsement of the leadership of the Writers Guild of America in the current battle over talent agency regulations. About 1,000 members attended a spirited meeting at the Sheraton Universal Hotel on Wednesday night, a week after the first formal negotiating sessions between agencies

“A Star Is Born” took home multiple wins at the 9th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards, held tonight at the theater at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The event celebrates the highest achievements in music supervision, recognizing exemplary work in 18 categories across movies, television, games, advertising, and trailers (read Variety‘s GMS Awards preview

London-based Matchbox Films has snapped up U.K. rights to Venezuelan supernatural thriller “The Whistler” from London and Tbilisi-based film production-distribution company, Alief. Closed at the EFM, deal comes in the wake of the drama’s Best Ibero-American Feature Award at the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Fantastic Film Festival in December and best cinematography, original score and

BERLIN — Jamila Wenske and Sol Bondy’s Berlin-based One Two Films, co-producer of this year’s EFM buzz title “Persian Lessons,” has scored another early winner with comedy-drama “Franky Five Star.” The project, from writer-director Birgit Möller, won the Junior Entertainment Talent Slate (JETS) pitching competition at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday, securing it industry

The officers of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors has sent a letter to is membership attempting to assuage concerns about the decision to hold four Oscar presentations off the live air telecast on Feb. 24. “As the Academy’s officers, we’d like to assure you that no award category at

More than 40 high-profile cinematographers and directors including Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and Roger Deakins have blasted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s decision to not televise four of the awards — including best cinematography, best editing, best hair & makeup, and best live action short — in an open letter to AMPAS president

In today’s film news roundup, Adam McKay is honored by Kodak, tax credit lender Forest Road forms an alliance, and Cohen Media Group makes a deal for “Shooting the Mafia.” KODAK HONOR Adam McKay will be the first recipient of the Kodak Lifetime Achievement Award, to be presented at the third annual Kodak Film Awards in

No U.S.-China venture could have had a more auspicious start than Oriental DreamWorks. On a state visit to the U.S. in February 2012, then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping had lunch and watched a Los Angeles Lakers game with Jeffrey Katzenberg. That same day, Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation announced the launch of Oriental DreamWorks, a $330 million

February 13, 2019 5:26PM PT Chris Pratt is in negotiations to star in Skydance’s science-fiction project “Ghost Draft” with “Lego Batman’s” Chris McKay attached to direct. Pratt’s deal is not closed. Plot details for “Ghost Draft,” a live-action project written by Zach Dean, are under wraps. Adam Kolbrenner and David S. Goyer will produce, with Dana

Director Tara Wood has reclaimed rights to the authorized Quentin Tarantino documentary movie, “21 Years: Quentin Tarantino,” following a long legal battle. She’s hopeful that she can find a buyer to distribute the movie in conjunction with Sony’s release of Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” the Brad Pitt-Leonardo DiCaprio drama that’s opening on

Nadav Lapid’s two previous films have all had elements of autobiography and political critique, but neither framed those traits in a vehicle as deliriously unpredictable and enthrallingly impenetrable as “Synonyms.” Breathtaking in the way it careens from one scene to the next in a whirlwind of personal and political meaning all but impossible to grasp

Songwriters from three of the five Oscar-nominated songs gathered at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood on Tuesday night to discuss their craft and to touch on, however reluctantly, some ongoing controversies related to the telecast. The “Conversation with the 2019 Oscar-Nominated Songwriters” panel included Diane Warren, who received her tenth Oscar nomination with

February 13, 2019 12:45PM PT The official soundtrack to “Green Book” has surpassed one million streams on global music streaming platforms. The motion picture starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali is up for five Academy Awards this season, including best picture, lead actor, supporting actor, original screenplay and film editing. This milestone marks Milan Records’

Focus Features has come on board with FilmNation Entertainment to begin production on Carey Mulligan’s thriller “Promising Young Woman.” The thriller marks the feature directorial debut of Emerald Fennell, who will both direct and write the film’s screenplay. Fennell will produce along with Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, and Josey McNamara for LuckyChap Entertainment and Ben

February 13, 2019 12:24PM PT The story of a woman who reluctantly adopts a pug, this shameless romantic comedy knows it’s cute, but earns its place in your heart anyway. There’s no denying that “Patrick” is absolutely adorable. When a story revolves around a four-legged furry friend — a squishy, huggable pug, at that —

The Tribeca Film Festival will open its 18th edition with the world premiere of the HBO Documentary Film “The Apollo,” directed by Roger Ross Williams. The film will debut at the iconic theater in Manhattan on April 24. It includes archival footage, music, comedy and dance performances, and interviews with Patti LaBelle, Pharrell Williams, Smokey

Here’s a prediction, or maybe just a hope, but I’ll put it in crystal-ball terms: By the time that Oscar night arrives on Feb. 24, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will have reversed its decision not to live-broadcast the presentation of this year’s award for best cinematography. The outcry against it has

BERLIN — Israeli director Nadav Lapid drew deeply on his own experiences as a young expatriate 20 years ago for his latest feature “Synonyms,” which world premiered Wednesday in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. With the story of a man who arrives in Paris determined to leave his nation and his identity behind, Lapid

February 13, 2019 11:45AM PT ‘Born into Brothels’ director Ross Kauffman’s new documentary charts preservation efforts to save endangered tigers in India and Russia. A century ago, 100,000 tigers existed in the wild; now just about 4% remain. The threat of extinction of the species — one that historically has fascinated mankind — is always present in

February 13, 2019 11:40AM PT The fascinating true story of a Spanish lesbian couple who tricked a priest into marrying them in 1901 gets a dull and clunky treatment. On the surface, “Elisa & Marcela” may look like a lesbian love story for the ages, a salute to our brave foremothers who risked ridicule and

February 13, 2019 11:30AM PT Josh Brolin is joining the A-list ensemble of Legendary’s “Dune” reboot. He boards a cast that includes Timothee Chalamet, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, and Charlotte Rampling, with Oscar Isaac and Zendaya in talks to join. Brolin will portray Gurney Halleck, the warmaster for Chalamet’s family and

Disney-Marvel’s blockbuster “Black Panther” has dominated nominations for the 50th annual NAACP Image Awards, scoring a leading 13 nods. “Black Panther” was recognized in the outstanding motion picture category alongside “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” and “The Hate U Give.” Chadwick Boseman, who plays the eponymous superhero, and director Ryan Coogler

If things had gone differently, the red-carpet mileage of awards season would still be splashed with the showy, flowy designs of Roy Halston Frowick: better known simply by his middle name, the Midwest-raised fashion designer belatedly put American couture on the map in the 1970s. After his luxury brand expanded to ubiquitous levels in just

February 13, 2019 11:01AM PT David Sameth has been pushed out as part of a marketing shake-up at Paramount Pictures, sources tell Variety. Marc Weinstock, the former president of Annapurna, is in negotiations to join the studio in an unspecified role that will likely include overseeing parts of the marketing team, but could include other

The Directors Guild of America has taken the first step toward bargaining for a successor deal to its current master contract covering feature films and television. DGA president Thomas Schlamme announced Wednesday that Jon Avnet and Todd Holland have been appointed co-chairs of the next DGA Feature Film and Television Negotiations Committee. The DGA National

Italian director Gabriele Salvatores, who won the foreign-language film Oscar for “Mediterraneo” in 1991 and more recently helmed teen superhero franchise “The Invisible Boy” is in Berlin where sales company RAI Com is showing buyers footage of his upcoming road movie “Volare.” Pic stars Claudio Santamaria and Valeria Golino and is penned by Umberto Contarello (“The