Movies

In “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” A.J. Eaton’s moving and elegiac rock-nostalgia documentary, David Crosby appears before us as an older and wiser hippie troubadour, his signature long locks and frontier mustache now white, his spirit chastened but still keyed to the muse of his holy boomer-rock self. In the movie, Crosby speaks with candor

TLA Releasing has snared U.S. and U.K. rights while Optimale has acquired all French rights to Bani Khoshnoudi’s “Fireflies” (“Luciernagas”), from Sandro Fiorin’s sales and distribution company, FiGa Films. “Some of the best Queer cinema right now is undoubtedly coming out of Central and South America, and ‘Fireflies’ is the perfect example of this,” said Adam Silver,

As the aftermath of the Jussie Smollett attack continues to unfold, Ellen Page gave an impassioned speech on “The Late Show” blasting President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for their anti-LGBTQ policies and emphasizing how those policies affect the experiences of marginalized people. “Connect the dots, this is what happens,” she said, referring to

Hugely popular short video platform, TikTok has teamed with Sony Pictures Entertainment to promote the studio’s psychological thriller “Escape Room.” The film features six strangers who find themselves in circumstances beyond their control. They must use their wits to find and follow the clues, or die. Sony recreated settings from the film, including a shrinking

Nicole Brending’s “Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity in American Popular Culture” has won the Narrative Feature Grand Jury prize and the Spirit of Slamdance award at the 25th Slamdance Film Festival. The film follows rise and fall of fictional child pop star Junie Spoons as her life story unfolds, as told by those who

January 31, 2019 9:00PM PT Ash Mayfair, the Vietnamese director whose first film “The Third Wife” rocked the Toronto, San Sebastian and Chicago festivals last year, will join Myanmar’s The Maw Naing (“The Monk”) in going back to school. They are among five young talents who will take part in the third edition of Southeast

With a helping hand from e-commerce giant Alibaba, China has succumbed to Peppa Pig mania. And, following a recent agreement with STX, North American audiences will also get a taste of Chinese New Year swine fever. As the Chinese lunar new year of the pig approaches, there’s no way to escape Peppa. Shopping malls, grocery

January 31, 2019 6:36PM PT The Miami Film Festival has set “This Changes Everything,” the documentary about gender inequity in the film and TV industry, to open its 36th edition on March 1. The documentary features women including Meryl Streep, Sandra Oh, Taraji P. Henson and many others advocating for change. “The cultural reckoning of

It is a view broadly held in Hollywood that writing is not the greatest of James Cameron’s manifold filmmaking gifts: The visual storytelling of his blockbusters is what sticks, not the plywood poetry he sticks in the mouths of his often perfunctory characters. A new Cameron production that boasts his imagination behind the keyboard rather

Chinese streaming firm, iQIYI is to release a virtual reality version of “The Knight of Shadows,” the Jackie Chan-starring film that will launch in conventional theaters at Chinese New Year. It is pitched as a family-friendly costume fantasy. The 23-minute VR version will be available for viewing at Digital Domain Space VR cinemas across China.

The Motion Picture Academy, responding to a widespread backlash to its initial plan to only spotlight two of the best original song nominees on the Oscarcast, is now planning to have all five nominated songs performed on the Feb. 24 show, Variety has learned. Earlier today, the Academy tweeted that Jennifer Hudson would perform “I’ll

Just in time for Valentine’s day, Amazon Prime Video is bringing in a haul of Prime Originals — seven to be exact. For those who air on the cynical side this V-day, check out the twisted love story that led to “Lorena,” which details the story of Lorena Bobbitt, the woman who cut off her husband’s

January 31, 2019 1:04PM PT Jennifer Hudson will be performing her Oscar-nominated song “I’ll Fight” from the documentary “RBG” at the Academy Awards on Feb. 24. The Academy made the announcement on social media on Thursday, tagging Hudson and adding as an aside that “this has been our favorite tweet of the day.” Hudson’s addition

GOTEBORG, Sweden — Netflix is co-producing its first Icelandic series, “The Valhalla Murders,” a crime show created and directed by newcomer Þórður Pálsson and produced by Truenorth and Mystery Productions for RÚV. The deal was announced today at the Göteborg Festival by Netflix’s director of co-productions and acquisitionsLina Brounéus. Half-way through its Icelandic shoot, the

Darla K. Anderson, the Oscar-winning producer of “Coco” and “Toy Story 3,” has signed a multi-year development deal with Netflix, Variety has learned. At Netflix, Anderson will develop and produce new animated and live-action projects, both on the feature film side and on the series end of the business. Anderson is one of the most

“Sharkwater Extinction” isn’t just a follow-up to 2006’s “Sharkwater”; it’s another in a long line of well-intentioned advocacy docs that end with a website address. The difference, however, is that Rob Stewart’s film also concludes with the Canadian writer-director’s own 2017 demise at the age of 37 from hypoxia, which lends it a gravity —

Chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group Donna Langley is putting together her kitchen cabinet, elevating several key executives to new roles and bringing others back to the studio from their posts at different divisions. The promotions come less than a month after Langley assumed her new role, replacing Jeff Shell as filmed entertainment group chair.

Sundance is mostly known for movie premiers and film deals, but among the sea of actors, industry folk and free booze (not necessarily in that order), Robert Redford’s legendary festival also dances into the wee hours of the night thanks to the wealth of music options available. Here are 10 performances that caught our eye

French studio Gaumont said Thursday that its upcoming Celine Dion film will not be a biopic but a fictional “homage” that draws heavily from the details of the singer’s life and uses many of her hit songs. The film – tentatively titled “The Power of Love,” the same name as one of Dion’s songs –

January 31, 2019 10:45AM PT Bill Nighy has joined the cast of “Minamata,” Andrew Levitas’ movie about W. Eugene Smith and the first image of Johnny Depp as the celebrated war photographer has been released. Minami Hinase (“Vision), Hiroyuki Sanada (“Westworld”), Tadanobu Asano (“Midway”), Ryo Kase (“Letters from Iwo Jima”) and Jun Kunimura (“ Midway”)

January 31, 2019 10:35AM PT A death in a theatrical family excavates a long-MIA parent in this diverting but awkward mix of farce and feeliness. A case of quirkiness overload, “Before You Know It” is about two sisters — one sane, the other comically nutty — dealing with a radical shakeup in the family. That

January 31, 2019 10:24AM PT Johnny Flynn (“Beast”) will play a young David Bowie in “Stardust,” a film about the rock star’s first visit to the U.S. in 1971. Flynn is coming off a run in London’s West End, playing opposite Kit Harrington (“Game of Thrones”) in Sam Shepherd’s “True West.” In “Stardust” Jena Malone

A hit from the get-go, nabbing best script and best music at its premiere during last year’s Canneseries world premiere, Norway’s petrol-fueled drama “State of Happiness” launched on broadcaster NRK in October to an impressive 629,000 linear viewers, equating to a 37.4% share, with another 70,000 watching it online. “State of Happiness” is the story

Variety has been given exclusive access to first-look footage from Fatih Akin’s horror film “The Golden Glove,” which has its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. Akin has previously won the Golden Globe, Berlin’s Golden Bear, Venice’s Special Jury Prize, and Cannes’ screenplay award. Set in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district in the 1970s, the

PLAYBACK is a Variety / iHeartRadio podcast bringing you conversations with the talents behind many of today’s hottest films. New episodes air every Thursday. Amy Adams landed her sixth nomination last week for her performance as Lynne Cheney in Adam McKay’s “Vice.” It’s quite the achievement just 14 years into her screen career, a career

AGC International has nabbed international distribution rights to “Ask Dr. Ruth,” one of the hottest documentaries at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Indeed, the legendary sexologist Dr. Ruth Westheimer was one of the biggest celebrities at the mountainside retreat — no small feat for a gathering that attracted the likes of Shia Labeouf, Mindy Kaling,

Stan Lee may not have had the power of immortality, but his legacy and impact on pop culture will surely live on forever. Longtime friend and filmmaker Kevin Smith hosted “Excelsior! A Celebration of the Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible & Uncanny Life of Stan Lee” at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Wednesday night. Lee,

Per its agreement with the Conseil Supérieur d’Audiovisuel, France’s audiovisual regulatory body, OCS must invest a certain amount of money into French film production every year in order to maintain an earlier broadcast window within the country’s rigid media timeline. That poses little problem for Serge Laroye, OCS’ chairman. “French cinema is important for OCS,

When the French telecommunications giant Orange launched its Orange Cinema Series pay TV service a decade ago, it was perceived as an underdog by the French film and TV industry, since the local pay TV market was dominated by Canal Plus. Some feared OCS would suffer the same fate as TPS, a pay TV operator

Bavaria Studios — often described as the heart of the Bavaria Film group — may be one of Europe’s largest and most state-ofthe-art film and television production facilities, but it also boasts an illustrious past that long ago cemented its place in cinematic history. Film pioneer Peter Ostermayr founded the studios, originally known as Münchener