Movies

Robert Downey Jr. just picked up his third career Oscar nomination, this time in the supporting actor race for his performance in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” Many pundits are viewing Downey as the frontrunner after he won the same category at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Award, plus picked up nominations from the BAFTA Film

Short days on site, nice rental cars, plus room and board — being a hitman doesn’t seem so bad. But a job is a job, and everybody deserves a vacation now and then. That’s what Wilson (Ian McShane) treats himself to in “American Star,” checking into a Canary Islands resort after discovering his target’s residence

Colman Domingo is already unforgettable, but now he’ll tackle the role to prove it. Domingo will be starring as the legendary singer Nat King Cole in a movie musical from a script he co-wrote, Variety has learned exclusively. He will also be making his feature directing debut on the project. “I’ve been working on it

The new HBO documentary “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero” chronicles the Grammy winner as he embarks on his debut concert tour of the same name. The behind-the-scenes film includes the Grammy winner talking about how his family has come to not only accept his queerness, but embrace his sexuality. He’s even taken his dad

Tamara Tatishvili is going full steam into her first edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which runs Jan. 25 – Feb. 4, following her appointment as the head of the festival’s funding arm, the Hubert Bals Fund. She started full-time in early January. “I will use the festival to connect to professionals outside of

Joining a long line of filmmakers who’ve fictionalized their comings-of-age in one regional punk scene or another, veteran New Zealand writer-director Jonathan Ogilvie turns the clock back to 1979 Christchurch in “Head South.” Its protagonist is the classic shy but would-be rebellious teen boy dared into starting his own band, whose first gig naturally provides

The CEO of Paramount Global urged staffers at the entertainment conglomerate to focus on their 2024 business goals, even as a handful of industry heavy hitters and investment firms explore a potential acquisition of the company and speculation about looming layoffs intensifies. In a memo issued to employees Thursday and reviewed by Variety, Bob Bakish

Ian McShane is 81, but you’d never know it watching him in “American Star.” Also a producer of director Gonzalo López-Gallego’s new film, the English actor plays Wilson, a seasoned assassin who visits the Canary Islands’ Fuerteventura for a job, but instead unexpectedly becomes involved in the life of a French expatriate (Nora Arnezeder) and

Christopher Nolan is reuniting with Warner Bros. for a theatrical re-release of his time-hopping 2020 sci-fi film “Tenet.” It will return to movie theaters — on 70mm Imax, Imax, digital and 70mm film screens — for one week only, starting Feb. 23. The screenings, held across the U.S. and in select international markets, will be

Fresh off receiving his first Oscar nomination, Colman Domingo has been cast as Joe Jackson, the father of Michael Jackson, in the Antoine Fuqua-directed biopic “Michael.” The casting announcement comes after the news Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar would portray the King of Pop, with 9-year-old Juliano Krue Valdi tackling the singer during his early days.

French mini-major Pathé has acquired Les Films des Tournelles, the production company founded by Anne-Dominique Toussaint whose recent credits include Louis Garrel‘s Cesar-winning “The Innocent.” Besides Garrel, Les Films des Tournelles has worked with a flurry of auteurs on some of their most successful films, including Riad Sattouf’s “The French Kissers,” which won the Cesar

Rapper Travis Scott stars in the first trailer for his and director Harmony Korine‘s indie film “Aggro Dr1ft,” which was shot entirely in infrared. The short trailer is bathed in the starkly contrasted colors of the infrared lens, and it follows an assassin on his journey. “Breaking away from the traditional parameters of cinema, ‘Aggro

There were a smattering of big sales and buzzy premieres, but as the 40th edition of Sundance ends, it’s impossible to ignore that the indie film business it champions is suffering from an identity crisis. The box office for art-house movies has yet to regain its pre-COVID stride. Streaming services once inflated the prices for

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are teaming up once again for “Animals,” a new crime thriller that Netflix has just acquired. Affleck will direct, with Damon starring, from a script by Connor McIntyre and Billy Ray. Affleck will remain behind the camera for “Animals” — unlike his previous collaboration with Damon, Amazon Studios’ “Air,” in which

“Chime,” a mid-length movie by leading Japanese director Kurosawa Kiyoshi, is among three late additions to the Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Special section. The two others are “August My Heaven,” another mid-length picture form Japan, directed by Kudo Riho, and “The Strangers’ Case,” a full-length feature directed by Brandt Andersen which will play as a

U.K.-based film production and distribution company Sovereign is expanding across the Atlantic with the launch of a distribution arm in the U.S. With a plan to release two to three titles a year theatrically and across VOD platforms, the first film slated for release from the new entity is Laurent Nègre’s World War II thriller “A

Julianne Moore is set to star in “The Room Next Door,” the first full-length English-language feature from Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar. Moore — whose casting was confirmed on Thursday by Almodóvar’s production company El Deseo on social media — joins Tilda Swinton in the film. Swinton previously starred in Almodovar’s 2021 short “The Human Voice.” Swinton’s casting,

A Japanese court on Thursday announced the death sentence for Aoba Shinji, the man who burned down the Kyoto Anime studio in 2019 and killed 36 people. There was little doubt that Aoba, who himself was badly burned in the blaze, was the perpetrator and set the fire using gasoline. Shortly after the attack, at

Indie distributor Bitters End has finally set a theatrical release date in Japan for Christopher Nolan’s lauded “Oppenheimer” – after the Oscars. The film will arrive in Japanese cinemas on March 29, the company said on Thursday. That date is some two and a half weeks after the Oscars ceremony (March 10 in Los Angeles,

The 53rd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, taking place between Jan. 25 – Feb. 4, will be the first for Clare Stewart as managing director. Functioning under a dual leadership structure where the managing director and festival director oversee the commercial and creative elements of the organization respectively, IFFR appointed Stewart back in

The Europe-based International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk has called for the immediate release of Myanmar documentary maker Shin Daewe. One of Myanmar’s leading female filmmakers, Shin Daewe (“An Untitled Life,” “Take Me Home,” “A Bright Future”) was arrested in Yangon in October after she had gone to collect a drone. After three months on

It can feel discordant to see someone mourning amid the pastel-hued bungalows of a beach-bound town, beneath a blue sky. Not that single mom Kristine is grieving exactly in bittersweet, comedic Sundance drama “Suncoast” — a fact Laura Linney’s character makes decidedly clear to a counselor at the hospice center of the title. After all,

Six projects have been announced as participating in the inaugural edition of the HKIFF Industry – CAA China Genre Initiative, a project incubator in Hong Kong for Chinese-language genre films. The HCG platform will run March 11-13, 2024, alongside the 22nd Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) and the Hong Kong International Film

“Look Into My Eyes” opens with an unexpectedly sobering, even provocative encounter for a documentary about New York City psychics and their clientele: not a fanciful palm reading or a conjuring of a lost loved one, but an attempt to reckon with long-festering professional trauma. A middle-aged female doctor, sharply dressed, talks directly to camera

Three Japanese films enjoying their world premieres, along with festival favorites “City of Wind” and “Solids by the Seashore,” are set to appear in the 13-title competition section of the Osaka Asian Film Festival in March. The event will be held March 1-10 at venues including ABC Hall, Cine Libre Umeda, T-Joy Umeda and the

Walter E. Calmette, Sr., a film sales and acquisition executive who oversaw business affairs for Felix the Cat, died Jan. 6. He was 85. After emigrating to the U.S. from Peru in 1958, Calmette, Sr. got his start in the entertainment business at Films Incorporated while putting himself through school part time. At Films Incorporated,

Whoopi Goldberg is an Oscars legend, having won an Academy Award for “Ghost” and hosted the ceremony four times and served as an Academy board member. So perhaps moviegoers might want to listen to Goldberg when she says there are no such thing as Oscar snubs amid the uproar over Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie

Juju Green, best known to the internet as Straw Hat Goofy, is no stranger to talking about movies all day, every day. In fact, it’s his energetic commentary on films of all genres that has endeared him to his 3.5 million followers on TikTok and made him a staple at industry events like premieres and

Variety is celebrating the 2024 Oscar nominees who have graced the magazine’s covers, participated in Actors on Actors and Directors on Directors, and spoken on the Awards Circuit podcast this season. The nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning, with “Oppenheimer,” “Poor Things,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Barbie” and “Maestro” among the

It was recently announced that Joel Kim Booster was teaming up with Searchlight Pictures again following the awards-nominated success of his 2022 queer rom-com “Fire Island.” This time around, Booster’s new script is about the gay best friend (Booster) of a bride-to-be who’s in charge of making sure his bestie’s wedding goes off perfectly. However,