BELIZE CITY, Belize – Mexican films and shorts dominated the winners of the 13th Belize Intl. Film Festival on Sunday in a brisk closing ceremony punctuated by pulsing reggae music performances by the likes of Ras Indio & Boss Lady, Ernestine Carballo and Jah Art. The event was broadcast live on local television station, Channel 5.
Movies
Variety celebrated the 2018 class of 10 Actors to Watch on Sunday with a brunch and panel discussion in partnership with Newport Beach Film Festival at the Resort at Pelican Hill. NBFF also presented honors to several artists, including Topher Grace, Colman Domingo, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who were all recognized with artist of distinction
Superheroes and Hollywood figures alike took to social media on Monday to pay tribute to comic book legend Stan Lee, who died on Monday at age 95. Lee co-created iconic Marvel superheroes including Black Panther, Thor, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and X-Men. Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said, “Stan Lee was as extraordinary as
November 12, 2018 12:00PM PT Orion Pictures will release the reboot of “Child’s Play,” starring Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry, and Gabriel Bateman, on June 21, 2019. Plaza will portray the mother who gives her son a toy doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature. Henry will play the role of a
As the Woolsey fire continues to rage, Netflix has canceled another red carpet out of respect for the victims and first responders of the deadly inferno. The streaming giant announced that the carpet for Monday’s AFI Fest gala screening of Sandra Bullock’s latest film “Bird Box” has been called off. “Our hearts are with the victims,
Playboy magazine in Germany defended its story in which Ennio Morricone called Quentin Tarantino “a cretin” whose movies are “trash,” saying Monday that the comments were made by the legendary Italian composer in an interview at the end of June. Morricone had said over the weekend that he had not spoken to Playboy and that
Sam Worthington is set to star in Brad Anderson’s next film for Netflix, sources tell Variety. The currently untitled project follows a man, played by Worthington, who must find his courage and hold onto his sanity when his wife and daughter disappear in the middle of an ER visit. Alan B. McElroy writing the script, and
LOS CABOS, Mexico — Paula Amor, the former head of communications of Mexico’s Morelia Festival, now has one of the most exciting jobs in Mexico, running La Corriente del Golfo, the new film-TV production shingle launched by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna in April. An inevitable major production force, it also marks a pivot
LOS CABOS, Mexico — “Days of Winter” (“Días de invierno”) begins with 22-year-old Nestor slumbering on a bus returning from his night-shift at a restaurant in a wane dawn. When he gets off the bus, in full plain daylight, the mountain rear behind him, like the Alps or Rockies. Several scenes later, Nestor and his
Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, and crew are back in the first teaser trailer for Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 4.” The footage released Monday also featured Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Rex the Dinosaur, Hamm the Piggy Bank, and Slinky the Dog as the characters held hands as Judy Collins’ cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Both
Craig Zadan was looking forward to Thespians Go Hollywood, the Educational Theatre Foundation’s gala that was held on Sunday night. He and his producing partner Neil Meron were set to receive the inaugural Theater for Life Award, which supports theater programs in underserved schools. When Zadan unexpectedly died on Aug. 31 after complications of a shoulder
LOS CABOS, Mexico — This year’s Los Cabos Festival couldn’t have gone much better for editor-producer Fernanda de la Peza. Two films she is producing participated in the Works in Development section, Amat Escalante’s “Estado del Imperio” and Joaquín del Paso’s “The Hole in the Fence,” the former winning the CTT Exp & Rentals post-production
LOS CABOS, Mexico — Latam Pictures’ Mineko Mori, one of Mexico’s best-regarded distributors, is making her feature debut as a screenwriter with the upcoming “#Lady Rancho.” The film is produced by Mori and Alex Garcia, founder of Latam Pictures. To aid in the process, Mori enlisted the help of co-writer Molo Alcocer, a promising young
There are few things Hollywood loves more than a good revival. A familiar brand with a built-in fan base? Sold! Even so, bringing back a recognizable property comes with risks. That’s a lesson illustrated last weekend at the box office. It was a tale of two reboots. Illumination and Universal’s “The Grinch,” the third adaptation of
LOS CABOS, Mexico — Ringing its options as one of Canada’s most internationally-minded companies, Yanick Letourneau’s Quebec-based Périphéria has boarded “Viaje al País de los Tarahumaras” and English-language “In Cold Light.” Directed by Federico Cecchetti, “Viaje,” which won the best pitch Talent On The Road Award at Los Cabos Film Festival on Saturday, is set
LOS CABOS, Mexico — In a newly expansive move for a vigorous Mexican movie industry, Machete Producciones founder Edher Campos and producer Gabriela Maire are launching a new production house, Zafiro Cinema. Based out of Mexico City, Zafiro will look to co-produce titles from territories currently underserved by state film funding and industry infrastructure, such
November 12, 2018 1:37AM PT Local comedy “Intimate Strangers” remained on top of the South Korean box office, earning $7.88 million from 1 million admissions between Friday and Sunday. The Lotte Cultureworks release has earned a total of $25.3 million from 3.38 million admissions after two weekends on release. Directed by Lee Jae-kyoo (“The Fatal
It is the first day at a new school for teenaged Mia (Luna Wedler). At lunch break, a girl shyly tries to make friends. But the pouty, pretty Mia, who is just days away from her first period and is perhaps taking this new start as an opportunity to better her social standing, has her
Tom Hardy-starring “Venom” injected some much-needed juice into the Chinese box office, with a blockbuster $102 million first weekend opening. The film crushed other new releases and holdovers alike. Data from Artisan Gateway, which excludes online ticketing fees, shows the superhero film gobbling up 73% of the entire Chinese box office this weekend. Second-placed Japanese
Douglas Rain, who voiced the soft-spoken HAL 9000 robot that went rogue in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” has died. He was 90. The Stratford Festival, which Rain, who was a dedicated Shakespearean actor, co-founded in 1952, said that Rain had died of natural causes in Stratford, Ont. in Canada. The festival said Rain
As the Woolsey fire in Ventura and Los Angeles counties continues to rage, Netflix has canceled the red carpet portion of its AFI Fest screening of “The Ballad of the Buster Scruggs,” the Coen brothers’ latest film. “Our hearts are with the victims and families of the Borderline shooting and of the California wildfires,” a
“The Front Runner,” Jason Reitman’s political docudrama about the disaster that befell Gary Hart’s 1988 campaign for the presidency (a perfect storm of private sin, public voyeurism, and journalistic hubris), is a movie that pulses with the twitchy electronic-nerve-ending hunger of mass media. Reitman, a director of up-front humanity and skill, has figured out a
Reportedly the biggest-budgeted and most widely released Bollywood production ever, “Thugs of Hindostan” is an exuberantly excessive masala of swashbuckling heroics, broader-than-broad comedy, propulsively choreographed action, and raucously caffeinated song-and-dance sequences. Writer-director Vijay Krishna Acharya, a creative force behind the popular “Dhoom” movies, has borrowed freely from Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean,” even to the
“I don’t talk about it a lot…but when I was a young teen, I was in a position where I might become at risk,” Amy Adams said in her acceptance speech while receiving the Giving Tree Award at the Baby2Baby gala Saturday night, held at 3Labs in Culver City. “You never know when an act
Ennio Morricone has denied participating in an interview with Playboy Germany magazine in which he was quoted as saying Quentin Tarantino was a “cretin,” who made nothing but “trash” films. “This is totally false,” the 90 year-old composer said in a statement released Sunday. “I have not given an interview to Playboy Germany and even
Days after the White House press secretary shared doctored footage to justify restricting a journalist’s access, the annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards took on a more charged tenor than usual. “Remember truth? That little thing that’s the foundation of civilization?” Robert De Niro asked wistfully, drawing laughs from the audience who’d gathered at the BRIC
“Venom” carried the global box office this weekend, thanks to its massive $111 million debut in China. That ranks as the second biggest opening ever for a superhero film in that territory, behind just “Avengers: Infinity War.” Its performance in the Middle Kingdom powered “Venom” to $673.5 million worldwide, including $467 million internationally. Though its
“The Grinch” proved it’s never too early for some holiday cheer as the animated family flick stole the weekend box office with $66 million from 4,141 locations. Illumination and Universal’s adaptation of the Dr. Seuss holiday tale now ranks as the best start for a Christmas film. Benedict Cumberbatch voiced the animated green grouch in “The
This year’s European Film Awards will be dominated by movies that won prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, with Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War,” Matteo Garrone’s “Dogman,” Alice Rohrwacher’s “Happy as Lazzaro,” Lukas Dhont’s “Girl” and Ali Abbasi’s “Border” all in the running for best picture. A 1950s-set love story shot in black and white, “Cold
LOS CABOS, Mexico — Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee visited this year’s Los Cabos Festival where Lee received a lifetime achievement award, his “BlacKkKlansman” closing out the festivities, and Lewis Lee donned her producer hat for an impassioned roundtable on the drama series boom that has been attracting so many independent producers and filmmakers.