Claude Barras’ “Savages!,” Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli’s “Tales of the Hedgehog” and Peter Dodd’s “King of the Swamp” are among the sixty-six projects –a 10% increase from last year– to be pitched at the 21st Cartoon Movie, Europe’s leading animated movie co-production event, which will take place in the French port city of Bordeaux,
Movies
Strangely, for a directors’ race that has been dominated by “Roma” helmer Alfonso Cuarón all season long, Saturday night’s Directors Guild Awards didn’t feel all that sewn up. There has been a sense that career respect for Spike Lee, not to mention legitimate love for “BlacKkKlansman,” could break him through as a spoiler. Meanwhile, “Green
As close to a breakout as there seems to be among the disappointing crop of horror films in Sundance’s Midnight section this year, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s “The Lodge” extends the creepy-domestic-crisis tension of their 2014 Austrian debut “Goodnight Mommy” a bit further toward conventional chiller terrain. Once again, children and a maternal figure
“The Favourite,” “Black Panther” and “Crazy Rich Asians” walked away with top film honors at the 23rd annual Art Directors Guild Awards Saturday night. “This journey started six years ago with ‘Fruitvale Station’ and a very awkward Skype interview,” Hannach Beachler, production designer of “Black Panther,” said in thanking director Ryan Coogler. “This journey has
February 2, 2019 10:10PM PT Three psychopaths kill a grieving couple (again and again and again) in Johannes Nyholm’s sinister fable. When “Koko-di Koko-da” characters Elin (Ylva Gallon) and Tobias (Leif Edlund) discover their daughter Maja dead on her eighth birthday, they think life couldn’t get worse. Shockingly, it can. The film jumps ahead three
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” topped Saturday’s Annie Awards, taking home seven zoetropes — one for each of its webslinger incarnations — including best animated feature. The Sony Pictures Animation film, which won in every category in which it was nominated, swung past Aardman Animations’ “Early Man,” Pixar’s “Incredibles 2,” Fox Searchlight Pictures’ “Isle of Dogs”
February 2, 2019 9:27PM PT He might not be getting his own Las Vegas residency anytime soon, but Bradley Cooper sure looked like a pro on stage during “A Star Is Born” co-star Lady Gaga’s “Enigma” show. Cooper surprised a Vegas crowd last weekend when he joined Gaga for a performance of their hit “Shallow.”
Alfonso Cuaron has won the Directors Guild Award for top feature film for “Roma,” keeping up his awards-season momentum. Cuaron topped Bradley Cooper for “A Star Is Born,” Spike Lee for “BlacKkKlansman,” Adam McKay for “Vice,” and Peter Farrelly for “Green Book.” “Thank you, cabron — you are my film career,” a deeply moved Cuaron
The Sundance Film Festival concluded with five female directors — and one man — sharing the grand jury prizes in the four main competition categories. In U.S. dramatic competition, African-American writer-director Chinonye Chukwu won for “Clemency,” in which Alfre Woodard plays a prison warden who connects with a death-row inmate. Meanwhile, in the world dramatic
Fears related to immigration, terrorism, and nationalism are a running theme in many Sundance entries this year, although probably none of the films addresses the commingled issues in such a potent yet roundabout way as Jacek Borcuch’s “Dolce Fine Giornata.” This satisfyingly complex drama stars Polish cinema veteran Krystyna Janda (going back to Wadja’s 1977
What would it take to make you happy: A different house? A different wife? Or maybe an altogether different life? Before you go coveting your neighbor’s fill-in-the-blank, you owe it to yourself to watch “Greener Grass,” an odd and wonderfully upbeat absurdist take on the American dream from improv comedians turned independent filmmakers Jocelyn DeBoer
MADRID — Javier Fesser’s “Champions” won best picture at the 33rd Spanish Academy Goya Awards, having seemed to have been locked out of major awards. Spain’s Oscar entry, a blockbuster hit on home turf for UPI Spain, earning €18.5 million ($21.1 million) and sold near worldwide, the comedy turns on an off-the-rails Spanish coach sentenced
Bradley Cooper left Spike Lee stunned and delighted at the Directors Guild Theatre on Saturday morning by recalling auditioning for Lee long before Cooper became famous. Lee was discussing his process for auditioning actors during the Meet the Nominees Feature Film event and emphasized the importance of being courteous and attentive while moving quickly. Cooper
February 2, 2019 1:49PM PT Though the Academy reversing course on its plan to go hostless at the Oscars seems unlikely at this point, if they were to do so, Tiffany Haddish could be their woman. But, not on her own. The “Girls Trip” actress said at the Saturday premiere of “Lego Movie 2” that
GOTEBORG — Danish helmer May el-Toukhy’s second feature, the provocative melodrama “Queen Of Hearts,” about a successful attorney starting an affair with her teenage step-son, came away the biggest winner at Sweden’s 42nd Göteborg Film Festival, scoring the generously endowed (approx. $110,340) Best Nordic Film kudo. The film also received the Audience Award for Best Nordic
February 2, 2019 1:13PM PT Chris Pratt braved the rainy Los Angeles skies Saturday to attend the “Lego Movie 2” premiere, where he assured fans that they will get a third “Guardians of the Galaxy” film. When Variety‘s Marc Malkin asked if a third film could be made without James Gunn, Pratt said, “I promise
February 2, 2019 11:56AM PT IFC Films has acquired “Official Secrets,” a politically charged thriller with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes that debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Gavin Hood, the film is a ripped-from-the-headlines tale, this one about a Katharine Gun, a British whistleblower who leaked documents to the press. Her
“Groundhog Day” is getting a sequel, but it’s not a movie — it’s a virtual reality game being developed by Tequila Works in partnership with Sony Pictures Virtual Reality. “Groundhog Day: Like Father, Like Son,” drops players into a reoccurring day in the life of Phil Connors Jr., the son of the eventually affable Phil
With the Super Bowl and severe weather conditions across the U.S. contributing to a slow box office, M. Night Shyamalan’s “Glass” is poised to take the No. 1 slot for the third weekend in a row with an estimated $9 million. Sleeper hit “The Upside” may give “Glass” a run for its money, however, with
MADRID — Telefonica’s Movistar +, Studiocanal, owned by Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group, and Madrid’s Bambu Producciones (“Grand Hotel,” “Velvet,” “The Cable Girls) are teaming for new Movistar + Original Series “En el corredor de la muerte” (“On Death Row”). Movistar +, Telefonica’s pay TV unit, and Bambú, Spain’s premier producer of Netflix originals, are producing;
February 2, 2019 5:46AM PT Amazon has nabbed “Honey Boy,” a coming-of-age drama that is inspired by Shia LaBeouf’s stormy relationship with stardom. The film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, earning a standing ovation and respectful reviews, particularly for Labeouf’s performance as his father and for Noah Jupe’s star turn as a child
GOTEBORG, Sweden — The BBC has boarded DR Sales’ “Follow the Money” 3, now bound for Berlinale Series, as Link TV has acquired Seasons 1 and 2 for the U.S. Season 3 of the Danish crime series “Follow the Money” (“Bedrag”) was acquired ahead of its international premiere at the Berlinale Series by the BBC
GOTEBORG, Sweden — One of the hits of the Göteborg fest’s Nordic Comedy section, “Out Of Tune” is a cleverly stylized dramedy about a charismatic but manipulative celebrity entrepreneur, Markus Føns, stuck in a remand prison, awaiting sentencing for financial crimes. When life on the yard with the regular prison population proves too dangerous, he
February 2, 2019 4:03AM PT Hirofumi Arai, an actor who has appeared in many major Japanese films of the past two decades, was arrested by Tokyo police on Friday. He has been charged with the offense of “forcible intercourse” or rape. The move stems from Arai’s alleged encounter with an unnamed woman dispatched from a massage service to
Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” and period romp “The Favourite” walked away with top film honors at the 69th annual ACE Eddie Awards Friday night. Both films were nominated for the film editing Oscar last week. In the ACE drama category, “Bohemian Rhapsody” bested fellow Oscar contender “BlacKkKlansman,” as well as “First Man,” “Roma” and “A
Matthias Schoenaerts has always been a bit of a conundrum: a brilliant actor in the body of a supermodel bruiser. Maybe that’s why, even though he’s from Belgium, he has long been drawn to a certain kind of rough-and-tumble American art thriller — like “The Drop,” or the criminally overlooked “Blood Ties” (where he was
February 1, 2019 7:07PM PT Paramount Pictures has set late summer release dates for the next two installments of “Mission: Impossible.” The studio announced Friday night that the seventh film in the series will be released on July 23, 2021, and the eighth film will open on Aug. 5, 2022. Variety first reported on Jan.
In today’s film news roundup, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” sets a Sony Pictures record, Chris O’Dowd is honored, “The Spongebob Movie” gets a date change, and arm-wrestling movie “Golden Arm” gets a director. BOX OFFICE MILESTONE “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” has topped $170 million at the domestic box office to become Sony Pictures’ biggest animated
February 1, 2019 5:53PM PT Two MoviePass subscribers filed a class action lawsuit on Friday, alleging that they were able to see only three movies over 10 months due to routine blackouts. Lawrence and Laurie Weinberger, of Sea Cliff, N.Y., allege that MoviePass engaged in a “deceptive and unfair bait-and-switch scheme” when it sold them
February 1, 2019 5:34PM PT Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are officially performing “Shallow” at the 91st Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed the news with a simple tweet Friday, writing “Cooper. Gaga. ‘Shallow.’ #Oscars.” In another tweet, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were also confirmed to sing “When a Cowboy