Movies

February 11, 2019 1:21AM PT “The Deer and the Cauldron,” one of the best-known martial arts novel series, is to be reborn as a major feature film franchise. Hong Kong’s Pang Ho-cheung (“Love in a Puff,” “Isabella”) is to produce and direct. Pang plans to shoot three movies, back to back, each with a budget

February 10, 2019 11:55PM PT Yuval Adler’s thriller “The Secrets We Keep” has pre-sold into multiple territories. AGC is financing and selling the title, which stars Noomi Rapace (“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”) and Joel Kinnaman (“Altered Carbon”), and sealed the deals in Berlin. Amazon has taken the rights in France, Universum in Germany,

February 10, 2019 11:00PM PT The Doha Film Institute has added Oscar-winning production designer Eugenio Caballero and Italian director Alice Rohrwacher to the lineup of top talents who will hold master classes and act as mentors during its Qumra event which blends creative workshop and festival elements. They join previously announced prominent directors Agnès Varda,

BERLIN — When Variety conducted the following interview, “Arde Madrid” was a Movistar + Original Series which was sparking good word of mouth from sneak peak screenings over the summer in Madrid. Since then, it has gone on to world premiere to acclaim at the San Sebastián Festival, be renewed for a second season, become

Already being tipped by some sources as the most beautiful movie in Berlin this year, “So Long, My Son” is Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai’s biggest film to date. Biggest in terms of ambition, budget and scale. He sets out to chronicle 40 years of Chinese economic development and to tell the personal stories of two

Gaumont has closed key deals on Rémi Bezançon’s “The Mystery of Henri Pick,” which is having its market premiere at the European Film Market. The mystery-comedy, which is headlined by French stars Fabrice Luchini and Camille Cottin, was produced by Mandarin Production, the company behind Francois Ozon’s Berlinale competition film “By the Grace of God.”

Radoslaw Smigulski (right), general director of the Polish Film Institute, hosted Friday’s Polish Party at Berlin’s Ewerk, where the guests included Agnieszka Holland (left), director of Berlin competition film “Mr. Jones,” and European Film Academy chairwoman. Among the guests were filmmakers Sergei Loznitsa and Olga Chajdas, Antoine le Bos, founder of Groupe Ouest, Philip Ilienko,

Carlo Chatrian, the incoming artistic director of the Berlin Film Festival, is bringing the core of his Locarno fest programming team with him when he takes up his new post in the German capital in June, Variety has learned. Set to be part of Chatrian’s Berlinale team are the Locarno Film Festival’s outgoing head of

The eight selected projects set to participate in this year’s inaugural edition of the FICG TV Pitchbox, have been announced by the event’s organizers, Filmarket Hub. In timing and location, part of Mexico’s Guadalajara Festival, the event has the potential to become an important pit-stop in Latin America’s already vibrant circuit of TV events. Chile

mk2 films has scored major sales across its slate, including on Céline Sciamma’s female-driven period drama “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” an 18th century-set drama that is expected to premiere in Cannes. Other sales standouts on mK2’s slate include “Arab Blues,” “Varda by Agnes” and “The Whistlers.” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” marks

Munich-based sales company Morefilms is moving into production with Nazi war criminal thriller “Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes.” The film, which is set to begin production this fall, has pre-sold to Dubai-based Gulf Film for the Middle East and was also acquired by Der Filmverleih in Stuttgart for Germany. Morefilms has now also boarded

Paris-based Slot Machine is re-teaming with Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, whose film “Donbass” won Cannes’s Un Certain Regard directing prize, on his long-gestating project “Babi Yar,” which will mark his most ambitious film to date. The film will chronicle the September 1941 massacre of 30,000 Jews by Nazi troops over a three-day period. Marianne Slot,

February 10, 2019 6:03PM PT [embedded content] The latest look at Disney’s live-action “Aladdin” is here, revealing Will Smith in his full blue Genie form for the first time. Twenty-seven years after the animated “Aladdin” became a classic, Disney dropped the new trailer during the Grammys on Sunday night. In addition to Smith’s Genie, who

February 10, 2019 4:31PM PT A mainstream rap musical served up with generous helpings of deftly written hip-hop lyrics and an appealing, largely well-woven narrative starring Ranveer Singh in all his charms. A Bollywood movie about a rapper from the slums may sound derivative, but what does that matter when “Gully Boy” revels in high-wattage

The 35th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will run from Jan. 15 to Jan. 25, 2020 — a radical shift in dates that will affect Oscar strategies as well as other festivals. Next year, Academy Award nominations will be announced Jan. 13, two days before the start of the Santa Barbara Festival. The Oscar ceremony

The winner of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ best film prize has gone on to lose the best picture Oscar each of the last four years: “Boyhood” was felled by “Birdman,” “The Revenant” was routed by “Spotlight,” “La La Land” (infamously) lost to “Moonlight,” and last year, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

February 10, 2019 3:12PM PT Comedy and tragedy go hand-in-hand amid this absurdist power struggle set in a remand penitentiary from talented Danish helmer Frederikke Aspöck. Comedy and tragedy go hand-in-hand in the ironically titled “Out of Tune,” a cleverly executed, perfectly performed Danish dramedy about an absurdist power struggle taking place in a remand

February 10, 2019 2:23PM PT An enjoyable dramedy from Finnish Lapland that uses location and characters to add something fresh to familiar romantic comedy beats. A Finnish party girl falls in love with an Iranian refugee in “Aurora,” an enjoyable dramedy from helmer-writer Miia Tervo. Unspooling during snowy winter in rugged Finnish Lapland, the exuberant

February 10, 2019 1:30PM PT The story of truth-seeking anti-Soviet journalist Gareth Jones remains compelling through the highs and lows of Agnieszka Holland’s overlong biopic. The story of Gareth Jones is such a fascinating one, built on such intrepid, one-man-against-the-system ideals, that it’s a wonder it hasn’t been filmed into oblivion over the past 80

In Berlin with her latest film, Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland gave an impassioned defense of a free press and warned that societies must remain vigilant against growing threats to democracy around the world. At a press conference Sunday to promote “Mr. Jones,” which world premieres Sunday in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, the Polish director

February 10, 2019 12:00PM PT Cohen Media Group has acquired North American rights to Tuva Novotny’s to “Britt-Marie Was Here,” the Swedish comedy-drama that is based on a bestselling novel by Fredrik Backman, the author of “A Man Called Ove.” Represented in international markets by SF Studios, “Britt-Marie Was Here” stars Pernilla August as a

China’s first large-scale sci-fi film, “Wandering Earth” came to dominate the box office over the Chinese New Year holidays – though it started from behind. Over the full six days of the holiday, the picture earned $304 million. Some $187 million of that came over the Friday-Sunday period, making “Wandering Earth” far and away the

“The Favourite” and “Roma” were the big winners at Sunday night’s 72nd British Academy Film Awards in a night that held few surprises until the final award. Entering the night with 12 nominations “The Favourite” took home seven awards, including best actress for Olivia Colman and outstanding British film, but it was beaten to best

“Dark” creators Baran bo Odar (left) and Jantje Friese (right), “Berlin Station” actress Emilia Schuele and actor Nikolai Kinski, and Michael Mueller, Mayor of Berlin, were among the guests at the Studio Babelsberg Night Friday at Berlin’s Soho House. Hosting the event were Studio Babelsberg’s president and CEO, Charlie Woebcken, and its COO, Christoph Fisser.

February 10, 2019 10:15AM PT Diane Kruger is on tough form as a Mossad agent straying off-book in Yuval Adler’s unremarkable but all-in-order espionage thriller. “Operation ‘Business As Usual’” is the name given to the undercover mission assigned to Mossad agent Rachel Currin in Tehran: a knowingly ironic label for a challenging undertaking that gets

Awards season has moved across the pond with this year’s BAFTA Awards in London. Legendary British actress Joanna Lumley is returning to host Sunday’s awards show in London’s Royal Albert Hall, which is set to honor a wide swath of popular films, including frontrunner “The Favourite.” With 12 nominations, the Yorgo Lanthimos film has greatly outpaced

If I could demolish any one idea in the history of film criticism, I think it would be the often stated canard that Pauline Kael wrote flashy exuberant prose, spilling her gut reactions to a movie all over the page — but that she wasn’t an “analytical” writer. That opinion is miles-out-of-the-ballpark wrong, and it’s

Established just six years after Germany’s surrender to the Allied powers and in the midst of the Cold War, the Berlin Film Festival was born with a stark political streak that has only intensified over time, and under Dieter Kosslick it has not only reflected the zeitgeist but also the festival director’s world view. Kosslick

Amidst all the recent 2020 presidential announcements, America Ferrera says she’s putting her money on some of this year’s newest politicians. “I’m super excited for all of the new fresh names and faces, not just in the presidential race, but in politics. You know I think the 2018 midterm elections were so deeply inspiring and

Hollywood’s best and brightest are once again making the trip across the pond for this year’s annual BAFTA Awards in London. However, unlike other award shows, viewers won’t be able to watch Sunday’s ceremony live when it starts at 7 p.m. GMT in London’s Royal Albert Hall. As in past years, the broadcast won’t begin airing