Movies

The BAFTA Awards are Feb. 10, with Oscars two weeks later. All the lead actress nominees are terrific, but Glenn Close creates something unique because it’s so subtle. What she does is harder than it looks. In Sony Classics’ “The Wife,” Close has the least showy role of the contenders, which is usually an awards

February 7, 2019 4:01PM PT Blue Fox Entertainment has boarded sales on thriller “Feedback” and kicked off the worldwide sales effort at the EFM. The thriller stars Eddie Marsan (“Ray Donovan”), Paul Anderson (“Peaky Blinders”) and Ivana Baquero (“Pan’s Labyrinth”). Shot in the U.K. and Spain, the movie follows Jarvis Dolan (Marsan), the host of

Brittany Grooms has been named vice president of casting at Columbia Pictures. Grooms joins the team from Walt Disney Pictures, where she spent six years casting live-action features like “Beauty and the Beast,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King.” Prior to joining Disney, Grooms worked in casting for scripted and unscripted television, including reality

Whether they’re depicting the dynamic of a single interpersonal relationship, recounting pivotal moments in history or conceiving new worlds beyond an audience’s wildest imaginations, screenwriters seek first and foremost to find the humanity in their subjects. But many of the scripts nominated for Academy Awards this year either extract that discovery from true events that

Many of this year’s films nominated for original and adapted screenplay center on issues of class, race, diversity, and marginalized individuals who are living on the fringes of society, or operating within their own personal realm to the extent that they feel like outsiders to the rest of the populace. When narratives explore events from

“But you’re a TV director,” the Oscar winning producer said as her face scrunched into a sneer. “Feature directors are hot-messes, you’re far too organized to direct features!” “I’m not too worried about you as a director but we’ll have to get a top writer to polish your screenplay so his name will attract a

A visibly moved Dieter Kosslick received a standing ovation at the opening of the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday as he took to the stage to welcome international stars, filmmakers, and cinephiles for the final time as festival director. The 69th Berlinale opened with a 1920s-style serenade dedicated to Kosslick by popular German singer Max

Lionsgate earnings and operating income have topped Wall Street projections, thanks to growth from its premium cable channel, Starz. The studio reported earnings of $22.9 million, or 10 cents a share, and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization of $171.4 million for its third fiscal quarter that ended on Dec. 31. Analysts had been

Big-budget Korean-made animation “Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs” has been set up for a wide international release through a slew of local distributors. The film, a modern English-language retelling of “Snow White,” features the voices of Chloe Grace Moretz, Sam Claflin and Gina Gershon as Snow White, Merlin and the Witch Queen, respectively. Sales

February 7, 2019 1:11PM PT Nisha Ganatra, who directed the Sundance darling “Late Night,” is in negotiations to helm Universal and Working Title’s upcoming film “Covers,” sources tell Variety. Not much is known about the project, written by first-time screenwriter Flora Greeson, other than it being a romance set in the Los Angeles music world.

The uncertainties that loom over the media in mainland China could soon spark a renaissance of Taiwan’s film and television industries, with an increasing number of international and regional players planning to produce Mandarin-language content on the island that would target Chinese audiences worldwide. Taiwan’s free environment, lower production costs and abundance of Mandarin-speaking talent

European connections with the vast Chinese film market will be given a boost during the Berlinale with the return of the Bridging the Dragon event series. This week sees an unusually large selection of mainland and Greater China productions across the Berlin Film Festival’s different sections. They include three Chinese films – Wang Quan’an’s “Ondog,”

As with Wang Xiaoshuai, who also appears in competition at Berlin, Wang Quan’an belongs to what Chinese call the sixth generation of filmmakers. That means he is in his 50s, grew up in the immediate aftermath of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), and has witnessed for himself China’s headlong rush into industrialization, urbanization and modernity. Unlike

With “The Kindness of Strangers,” which opens the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday evening, Danish writer-director Lone Scherfig said she felt an urgent need to respond to the current political and social turmoil around the globe in a positive way. “I thought it would make sense…to make a film that had light and hopefully leaves the audience

With each new revelation to make headlines since the #MeToo movement first rocked Hollywood in 2017, film and TV industries around the globe have faced their own reckoning about sexual harassment, gender parity and equal opportunities for women both on and off screen. That debate has had ripple effects across sub-Saharan Africa as well, where

Following on the heels of two successful editions, the Berlinale Africa Hub returns to its site beside the historic Martin-Gropius-Bau, offering a glimpse of trends emerging in the growing pan-African film market with a wide-ranging slate of presentations and panel discussions taking place from Feb. 8-13. For industry insiders well-versed in the large, diverse and

Middle East exhibitor Vox Cinemas is on track to open 110 screens in Saudi Arabia by year’s end as the oil-rich kingdom continues to liberalize its entertainment environment. Vox unveiled its second Saudi multiplex Jan. 28, a luxurious 12-screen facility in the city of Jeddah’s Red Sea Mall. The multiplex houses more than 1,450 seats and an Imax

The tectonic shifts being felt across the film industry landscape are reverberating at this year’s European Film Market, where the impact of new technological developments, growing opportunities, new markets and the roles of diversity and inclusion are in the spotlight. “We have been witnessing one of the biggest changes in the film industry during the

French actress Juliette Binoche said Thursday that Harvey Weinstein has “had enough” public excoriation and that “now justice has to do its work.” In Berlin, where she is heading the film festival jury, Binoche said she herself had had no problems with Weinstein, with whom she worked on “Chocolat” and “The English Patient,” for which

February 7, 2019 2:47AM PT STXfilms is in final negotiations to acquire U.S. rights to Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s “King of the Jungle,” starring Seth Rogen and Michael Keaton. STX is in talks with IMR International, which introduced the project to buyers at AFM and continues international sales at the European Film Market this

February 7, 2019 2:00AM PT Italian sales company True Colours is launching sales in Berlin on new pics by Italian auteurs Mario Martone (“Capri Revolution”) and Guido Lombardi (“La-bas: A Criminal Education”). Both pics have ties to the city of Naples and are produced by Indigo film, the shingle behind Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning “The Great

February 7, 2019 1:32AM PT A Dutch-raised teen returns to Bosnia to see her ill father in this coolly detached, predictably absurdist road trip, with Jarmusch overtones. Take a hefty amount of Jim Jarmusch, mix in a few heaping tablespoons of David Lynch, leaven it all with Bosnian absurdism and you can more or less

Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired Atiq Rahimi’s “Our Lady of the Nile” (“Notre-Dame du Nil”), the Kabul-born novelist-turned-director’s follow up to the “The Patience Stone.” “Our Lady of the Nile” is adapted for the screen by Rahimi and Ramata Sy from the award-winning novel by Scholastique Mukasonga and unfolds in Rwanda in 1973. Pic

TF1 Studio has picked up Ludovic Colbeau-Justin’s “The Lion,” a high-concept action comedy starring Dany Boon (“Welcome to the Ch’tis”) and Philippe Katerine (“Sink or Swim”). Set to start shooting next week, the movie follows Romain, a psychologist who is fascinated by his patient, Leo Milan, who claims to be a highly-trained international spy, code-named

Paris-based Luxbox, whose films “The Heiresses” and “Museo” won three of the seven Silver Bears on offer at last year’s Berlinale, has acquired sales rights to three movies bowing later this year: Carlos Sironi’s “Sole,” Shahrbanoo Sadat’s “The Orphanage” and Melina Leon’s “Song Without a Name.” Luxbox is also unveiling first images on Feb. 7

February 6, 2019 10:01PM PT Rock Salt Releasing has boarded Kate Bosworth-starrer “Nona.” TriCoast Media launched arthouse-focused Rock Salt last year. It will present both films to buyers with screenings in Berlin. Michael Polish’s “Nona” – also known as “No Fame” – follows two strangers who travel from Honduras to the U.S. border. Touching on

Memento Films Intl. (“Call Me By Your Name”) has come on board “Persian Lessons,” a drama directed by “House of Sand and Fog” helmer Vadim Perelman. Set in Occupied France in 1942, “Persian Lessons” toplines Nahuel Perez Biscayart as Gilles, a man who is arrested by the SS alongside other Jews and sent to a

February 6, 2019 10:00PM PT In a gender-flipped remake, Taraji P. Henson is a sports agent who reads her male coworkers’ minds and discovers that (surprise) they’re still jerks. Mel Gibson was still a beloved Hollywood megastar when he costarred with Helen Hunt in “What Women Want” (2000). The film had all the depth of a

After a vibrant Sundance, driven by Amazon Studios’ $47 million spending spree, can Berlin sales prove as buoyant? While there are some intriguing titles, indies have to contend with, among many factors, very active buyers from deep-pocketed streamers and a volatile theatrical box office in many territories. Certainly there are star-studded titles. FilmNation will sell

London-based sales agency WestEnd Films has released the first-look photo for “I Am Woman,” which Variety has exclusively. The movie follows the rise of singer-songwriter Helen Reddy, whose song “I Am Woman” became the anthem for the women’s movement in the 1970s. The shot features Tilda Cobham-Hervey (“Hotel Mumbai,” “52 Tuesdays”), who plays Reddy. “A