Movies

SAG-AFTRA’s national board has approved the proposal for its commercials contract negotiations with the advertising industry. The talks will begin Feb. 20 in New York City, six weeks ahead of the March 31 expiration of the current three-year deal. The union’s negotiating committee will be chaired by President Gabrielle Carteris and national executive director David

“Free Solo,” the herculean tale of one man’s quest to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan mountain without a rope, has just cleared another massive feat. National Geographic’s palm-sweat inducing film has now surpassed “RBG,” Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media’s feature of esteemed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as the second-highest grossing documentary of 2018. “Free

M. Night Shyamalan’s “Glass” remained victorious at the domestic box office for the third weekend in a row — not that the Universal Pictures thriller had much competition. “Glass” added another $9.5 million, enough to top box office charts as newcomer “Miss Bala,” a drug-cartel drama starring Gina Rodriguez misfired with $6.7 million from 2,203

Amazon Studios strikes again. The digital giant picked up global rights to “One Child Nation,” a documentary about China’s policy of forcibly restricting family size that debuted to great acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The deal is said to be in the high-six figures. The sale comes on the heels of the film’s

Leading Taiwan film director, Doze Niu (aka Niu Chen-zer) has been charged with forced sexual intercourse. If found guilty, he faces a jail term of between three and ten years. The alleged incident occurred in November last year, during the shooting of Niu’s current film project “Pao Ma.” Following evenings drinks at his home with

GOTEBORG  — The 20th Nordic Film Market, held parallel to the Göteborg Film Festival, closed Sunday after three days of screenings and pitchings of 48 Nordic films and projects. Following, five key takeaways or trends: STANDOUT NORDIC BRAND QUALITY An excellent crop, better than 2018, with a large diversity of content, catering to arthouse/mainstream as well

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,

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