Movies

In one scene in Natalia Meschaninova’s “Core of the World,” animal rights activists free some caged foxes from a hunting dog training farm in the forests of Russia. A few days later, two of the foxes reappear at the farm and climb back into their cages: They cannot fend for themselves in the wild. The

SAN SEBASTIAN — One of the biggest single public-sector funding systems in Europe, the European Union’s Creative Europe-Media Program, is up for renewal. On May 3o, the European Commission, the E.U.’s administrative arm, set out a proposal for renewed funding over 2021-27 of €1.85 billion. The Program’s head, Spain’s Lucía Recalde, used the San Sebastian

SAN SEBASTIAN — Gustavo Hernández and Ignacio Cucucovich’s Mother Superior, producer of Hernandez’s “La Casa Muda” and “You Shall Not Sleep,” has acquired Spanish-language remake rights to cult movie “Big Bad Wolves,” a film Quentin Tarantino described at Busan Festival in 2013 as best film of the year. The move is sure to make waves

SAN SEBASTIAN — As many people talk the talk, some companies are walking the walk – acquiring and selling women’s films as part of a growing business. In the latest move, announced Sunday at San Sebastian as the festival, the biggest in the Spanish-speaking world, signed a gender parity charter, Latido Films has acquired international

September 23, 2018 9:30PM PT Actor-director Jiang Wen concludes his decreasing-returns action trilogy with this good-looking but convoluted period romp. If the delicacy of the English title, “Hidden Man,” makes you think that Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen (last seen by Western audiences in “Rogue One”) might have come over uncharacteristically restrained for the final installment

For the most part, successful teen comedies follow a tried and true formula. Memorable high school movies typically feature characters who feel like outsiders floundering hilariously en route to the revelation that simply by being themselves, they’ll find what’s eluded them for so long. John Hughes knew it well, as did his imitators, realizing that

In case there are any young folks out there who aren’t convinced that the Nazis were bad — shockingly, there still seem to be stragglers — here stomps Julius Avery’s World War II thriller “Overlord,” a blast of righteous rage in which a group of good American boys avenge themselves against an SS goon squad

September 23, 2018 1:37PM PT Bruce Beresford’s feel-good dramedy about female department store workers in 1950s Sydney is a hit-and-miss affair. Women working at a fancy Sydney department store in 1959 are the subjects of “Ladies in Black,” an uneven dramedy directed and co-written by veteran Australian filmmaker Bruce Beresford (“Breaker Morant,” Driving Miss Daisy”).

Jeff Bridges is open to a “Big Lebowski” remake, but only under one condition — he has to be in it. Variety caught up with the actor Saturday night at the premiere of his latest film, “Bad Times at the El Royale,” where Bridges reflected on the 20th anniversary of the cult hit. The “Only

The films of Michael Moore have been faltering at the box office for several years now. This weekend, though, the lackluster performance of his latest truth-to-power opus, “Fahrenheit 11/9,” was notably dramatic, if not downright stark. The movie is a sequel, of sorts, to “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore’s scathing riff on the administration of George W.

Basque company Gariza Films is partnering with France’s La Fidèle to co-produce “Ane & Peio, A Paprika Love Story,” writer-director Lara Izagirre’s follow-up to “An Autumn Without Berlin.” Izagirre caught attention with “Berlin,” a Basque homecoming drama which earned a best new actress Goya award for Irene Escolar in 2016. One of the 17 movie

SAN SEBASTIAN — Chilean actress Paulina García, winner of a Berlin best actress Silver Bear for Sebastian Lelio’s 2013 ”Gloria,” which inspired his Toronto hit “Gloria Bell,” with Julianne Moore, is attached to star in the second feature of Pepa San Martín, “Happiness.” The project will be pitched at the 7th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum

2018 has been a relatively low-key year for Channing Tatum, but he says he’s ready to get back to work. At the Saturday premiere of animated feature “,” his only film of the year, Tatum said he took the opportunity to slow down a bit this year. “I have a kid, man,” Tatum explained. “That

September 22, 2018 2:39PM PT The Gdynia Film Festival, Poland’s leading event for local movies, has signed the gender-parity pledge, following in the footsteps of Cannes, Locarno, Venice and Toronto. The pledge was signed Friday by Gdynia’s general director, Leszek Kopec, and writer/director Wojciech Marczewski, who is head of the festival’s programming board. The pledge

Even if it’s only a rumor for now, Zendaya says she’d be open to starring in a “Little Mermaid” live action film. At the premiere of “” Saturday, the “Spider-Man: Homecoming” actress confirmed to Variety‘s Marc Malkin that her involvement in a live action version of the hit 1989 Disney film is so far just a

“The House With a Clock in Its Walls” is on its way to a No. 1 debut at the box office with an estimated $24 million from 3,592 North American locations. The remaining top five slots should go to box office holdovers, with three other R-rated films opening in the $1 million to $3 million

SAN SEBASTIAN — Swiss filmmaker Hannes Baumgartner’s debut feature “Midnight Runner” headed into its San Sebastian’s New Directors world premiere on Saturday afternoon buzzing off a series of international press screenings held the week prior. The film’s protagonist, Jonas Widmer, seems to have it all together. He’s his country’s most impressive young distance runner and

World premiering in New Directors at San Sebastian in 2014, Simon Jaquemet’s first feature, “Chrieg” (War), a nuanced portrait of disaffected Swiss youth, established Jaquemet as one of the most prominent voices in a new generation of Swiss directors, questioning Switzerland’s status quo and aura of democratic civility. Four years later, Jaquemet is back. But,

September 22, 2018 1:36AM PT The Film Federation of India has chosen Rima Das’ “Village Rockstars” as the country’s entry to the Oscars foreign-language category. The film follows a 10-year-old growing up in straitened circumstances in a flood-prone village in the state of Assam, with ambitions of starting her own rock band. “Rockstars’ premiered at

September 21, 2018 7:16PM PT Everyone’s having a bad day in this misfired ensemble comedy, and viewers will share the feeling. Some projects presumably gather their own momentum heedless of whether they ought to have gotten rolling in the first place. A first directorial and screenplay feature for actors Judy Greer and Gary Lundy, respectively,

In a pop-culture era rife with cleverness for its own sake, how did Rowan Atkinson’s new spy-spoof sequel wind up with a title as retro bland as “Johnny English Strikes Again”? Was “Johnny English Is Back!” already taken? How about “The Return of Johnny English”? “Johnny English Strikes Again” is the third in the series

France has selected Emmanuel Finkiel’s “A Memoir of War” (“La Douleur”) as its official entry for the foreign-language Oscar race. The French Oscar committee’s choice was announced late Friday amid a dust-up over the ineligibility of Olivier Assayas’ new film, “Non-Fiction,” which did not meet the French National Film Board’s theatrical release criteria for consideration as

Content Partners, the investment firm that forged a new financial option for Hollywood profit participants, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, just as the industry is seems poised to head into a period of retrenchment on the kind of deals that built the company. Headed by former William Morris Agency CFO Steve Kram and

Hugh Jackman may have been praised and gushed over every which way on Monday while being honored for his movie career with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, but there was only one person in the room who moved him to tears. The “Front Runner” star teared up

June 11, 2019 4:00PM PT Disney-controlled streaming service Hulu and cable channel FX have jointly bought the rights to show Lionsgate movies released in 2020 and 2021. The news was first reported Tuesday by The Information, which cited people familiar with the situation. The report also said that after 2021, Lionsgate expects to license the