Though James Cromwell was honored at the fourth annual Carney Awards for his work as a character actor, the industry veteran has worked as a political activist his entire career. On the red carpet at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica, Calif., he candidly shared his thoughts about the current political climate. “This is
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An aspiring singer, an astronaut, and a magical nanny walk into a movie theater — and with that, Oscar season is officially underway. History proves that festival raves don’t necessarily translate into box office success, and massive ticket sales don’t always correlate with awards love. Still, Variety has started to take a look at this year’s
MEXICO CITY — Morbido Festival, Mexico’s most important event for genre cinema, has announced that Spain’s Paco Plaza, “Veronica” director and co-creator of the 2007-14 “Rec,” the breakout hit found-footage horror movie series, will be attending the festival and writing a script for one of its newest initiatives. This year, Morbido Group renovated the haunted
A “Talking Tom and Friends” movie may be heading to the multiplex as developer Outfit7 teams with “Assassin’s Creed” producer Jean-Julien Baronnet to adapt the mobile app into a feature film. “Talking Tom,” a wisecracking cat that responds to gestures made on smartphone or tablet screens, was first introduced eight years ago. The family friendly
In Anna Odell’s much-anticipated ”X&Y,” which world premieres as the opening film at the Stockholm Film Festival, the director also plays the leading role alongside Mikael Persbrandt, one of Sweden’s most renowned actors. Odell spoke to Variety about the film. Odell is one of Sweden’s best-known contemporary artists and, since her directorial feature debut –
October 29, 2018 4:03AM PT For the fourth year, the Stockholm Impact Award, which comes with a prize of SEK1 million ($110,000) and a trophy designed by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, will be handed to a film playing at the Stockholm Intl. Film Festival that “reflect our times.” This year the organizers are expanding the
MADRID — Vicente Canales’ Film Factory Entertainment has acquired world sales rights to “The Consequences” (“Las consecuencias”), writer-director Claudia Pinto Emperador’s follow-up to her 2013 feature debut, “The Longest Distance,” which marked out the Spanish-Venezuelan writer-director as a talent to track. A Spain-Netherlands-Belgium co-production, “The Consequences” won a €330,000 ($376,000) conditionally repayable non-interest loan for
Before Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” – the acclaimed period-piece centering on the rivalry of two female courtiers, vying for the attention of England’s queen – closes the Stockholm Intl. Film Festival on Nov. 18, the event will have offered its audience 150 films, 39% of which are directed by women, a higher percentage than most international
Feature documentaries about Chaka Khan and Prince are on Kew Media Distribution’s slate for the AFM. Kew is building a profile in music documentaries, launching “Chuck Berry” at Mipcom and recently sealing deals with Showtime and Sky for “Teddy Pendergrass – If You Don’t Know Me.” In Michael J. Kirk’s “Mr Nelson: On the North Side,”
As Brazil falls heedlessly into far-right political clutches, the liberal message of Gustavo Steinberg, Gabriel Bitar and André Catoto’s ravishing animated feature “Tito and the Birds” turns out to be more unhappily timely than its makers would have hoped: Put simply, a society gripped by fear will never take flight. If the boy-against-the-world allegory carrying this
If American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to be taken at his word, the Asia Society’s U.S.-China Entertainment Summit taking place Tuesday in Los Angeles could be a short meeting. Pompeo this week said that the U.S. would oppose China “at every turn.” Janet Yang, noted producer, and chair of the summit, says there
“The Predator” opened on top of the Chinese box office after a gap of some seven weeks for a Hollywood movie. But its $19.5 million haul was indicative of a continuation of the recent slump in theatrical takings in the Middle Kingdom. Another newcomer, Chinese animated romance, “Crystal Sky of Yesterday” took second place with
“Halloween” continues to cash in on the spooky holiday spirit, leading the international box office with $25 million from 62 territories overseas. Universal and Blumhouse’s R-rated thriller also made a killing in North America where it came in at No. 1 with $32 million. Director David Gordon Green’s film — starring Jamie Lee Curtis as
“Suspiria” bewitched the indie box office, nabbing the best screen average of the year. Luca Guadagnino’s arthouse remake of “Suspiria” summoned $179,806, an especially impressive haul considering the horror film opened in just two locations. That averages out to a massive $89,903 per venue. “Suspiria” played at Regal Union Square in New York and Arclight Hollywood in Los
“Halloween” easily stayed No. 1 at the domestic box office in its second weekend as the spooky holiday nears. Universal and Blumhouse’s slasher film starring Jamie Lee Curtis picked up another $32 million, marking a 58% decline from its impressive debut. Directed by David Gordon Green, “Halloween” crossed $100 million on Friday. Holdovers “A Star
MADRID — Making good on the largely overlooked achievement of debut feature “The Demons,” Québécois Philippe Lesage’s “Genesis” swept the 63rd Valladolid Intl. Film Festival, winning its top Golden Spike, director and actor on Saturday. One of Spain’s top three or four festivals, and a bastion of auteur cinema, Valladolid closed its official section Friday
British filmmaker Sean McAllister is probably better known around the world than he is in his homeland, scoring big international hits with thoughtful and insightful character sketches such as 2015’s “A Syrian Love Story” and the Sundance Special Jury Prize winner “The Liberace of Baghdad” (2005). But the amazing thing is not that the director
The Ji.hlava docu fest is known for its embrace of new technologies, trends and platforms, so this year’s launch of an online section, Short Joy, with Internet viewers acting as jury, surely fits the fest profile. About 2,000 viewers screened the 24 shorts in the curated program on DAFilms.com, the online streaming source for hundreds
When it comes to documentary, there are few subjects as thorny as pornography, and for his latest film, Portuguese director Jorge Pelicano has chosen something even thornier – the sometimes fraught relationship between a gay male porn actor and his mother. Titled “Until Porn Do Us Part,” the film tells the story of Eulália, a
Comedians and satirists have been thoroughly challenged in the age of Trump, says Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men, the prankster duo who have sent up corporate greed and government injustice since the 90s by impersonating members of elite power structures. “The challenge is how to work with humor in this moment,” he told
In “Alt-Right: Age of Rage,” screening at the Ji.hlava doc fest, director Adam Bhala Lough takes on the machinations of white power leader Richard Spencer, balancing his philosophies against the views of Daryle Lamont Jenkins – a spokesperson for the anti-fascist movement Antifa – who has tirelessly exposed the group who led the Charlottesville march
To put it mildly, Werner Herzog has his own take on things, so it comes as no surprise that one of the most recent projects by the prolific international director does not follow the rules of normal political biography. Over a six-month period, and without a prepared script, Herzog conducted three interviews with former Soviet
October 27, 2018 9:12AM PT The myriad offscreen woes experienced by this controversial, expensive Chinese WW2 action epic overshadow the hectic, jumbled onscreen result. Few films can claim a bumpier, more public production ride or worse crash landing than “Air Strike,” purportedly the most costly Chinese feature ever when it was shot — which was
If the 18 participants selected to take part in the Emerging Producers program of the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival aren’t entirely sure what to expect from this year’s edition, they’re not alone. “I don’t know how to define it,” says Italian producer Paolo Benzi, who along with Irena Taskovski is tutoring the group. Over
Jamie Lee Curtis’ “Halloween” is dominating the pre-Halloween box office with an impressive $30.5 million at 3,990 North American sites. Universal’s R-rated slasher movie — a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original 1978 movie with Curtis’ Laurie Strode again facing off against serial killer Michael Myers — crossed the $100 million mark on Friday, its
Eighteen documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe will take part this week in Between the Seas, a competition section at the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, including a host of world premieres from emerging and established filmmakers. “It’s very rare to have this type of program focusing on [Central and] Eastern Europe,” said festival
MORELIA, Mexico – Cinepolis CEO Alejandro Ramirez, who presides over the second largest exhibition circuit in the world in terms of admissions, declined to comment on the ongoing controversy swirling around Saudi Arabia and its embattled Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS. The Crown Prince has been tainted by the disappearance and
MORELIA, Mexico — In 2010, Switzerland’s Locarno Festival, Europe’s biggest mid-summer movie event, held its inaugural Locarno Academy with the intent to develop emerging industry talents from multiple industry disciplines such as sales, distribution, exhibition and production. In 2014, Morelia became the first festival to partner with the Academy for what has since become a
In an ongoing series, Variety profiles 10 emerging Mexican women filmmakers. Putting Betzabé Garcia on a list of up-and-coming Mexican female directors is problematic. Garcia doesn’t identify as or believe in the binary gender system used to qualify such a list, but here we are, and it would be criminal not to recognize the filmmaker
Principal photography is about to begin on “Collision,” a new feature by Denmark’s Avaz brothers, who were among Variety’s 10 Europeans to Watch in 2018. Produced by the trio’s Rocket Road Pictures and Kim Magnusson, along with Nordisk Film, the drama explores a family’s struggles to stay together after tragedy strikes. The cast includes leading Danish