The Golden Globe Foundation has announced the recipients of $5 million in grant awards for 2023-24, supporting 96 organizations that help underserved communities, universities and colleges. The Foundation also assists film restoration projects and offers aid to journalists around the world. The foundation awarded grants across several categories: $929,920 went to professional mentorship and training
Movies
Steven Spielberg memorably thanked Tom Cruise last year for saving the movie business with “Top Gun: Maverick,” but it appears Meryl Streep has a different selection. While attending this year’s Palm Springs Film Awards, the Oscar winner called out Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” for saving the movies and “all of our jobs” last summer. The blockbuster comedy
This year’s Oscar feature documentary shortlist is made up of a group of 15 films that, by and large, big streamers aren’t interested in sharing with subscribers. Six films that made it to the shortlist — Lea Glob’s “Apolonia, Apolonia,” Nancy Buirski’s “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s
In any year, some successful directors carve out artistic identities through a distinctive visual vocabulary, or by repeatedly mining particular themes. But it’s rare, even among highly acclaimed filmmakers, for a director to establish a new cinematic language. Yorgos Lanthimos is on his way to doing just that. The Greek-born director will be honored Jan.
Top Israeli director Talya Lavie (“Zero Motivation,” “Honeymood”) is developing “Seven Eyes,” a feature film based on the gripping story of the female lookout soldiers who were based at the Israel-Gaza border on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians. Entirely staffed by women, that IDF “lookout” unit is stationed by the
“Do you guys ever think about dying?” asks the titular toy at the center of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s inventive and ambitious screenplay for the mega-hit comedy “Barbie.” In their yarn, the virus of death awareness is planted in Barbie World by a daydreaming Mattel employee named Gloria, who randomly sketches Thoughts of Impending
With their nearly 40-year history, one would think Hayao Miyazaki could no longer surprise composer Joe Hisaishi. However, the Japanese animation master did just that when he introduced “The Boy and the Heron” to his longtime musical collaborator. It wasn’t because Miyazaki was coming out of retirement (once again). Rather, it was how the Studio
Want to know which international features vying for Oscar gold are worth watching? Variety‘s team of critics has been on the ground at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto and other major film festivals, on the hunt for the best of the best. In December, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences unveiled its shortlist of
Billie Eilish is ready for more close-ups. The Oscar and Grammy-winning music superstar tells me she’d love to do more acting following her TV debut in “Swarm.” “I like it!” Eilish said Thursday at the opening night gala of the Palm Springs International Film Festival. When asked what kind of roles she’d like to tackle,
Big Beach, the producer of “Little Miss Sunshine,” A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and “The Farewell,” has fully relocated from New York to Los Angeles while building out its ranks. Keetin Mayakara has been tapped by Big Beach as a producer. As a post producer, she has worked on the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo,” and most recently, “All the Beauty
The British Academy has unveiled the results of the first round of voting across all 24 categories for the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards, with a perhaps unsurprising trio of films at the top. The cultural phenomenon that was “Barbenheimer” has continued to smash its way into awards season, with both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” named in
Ernst Goldschmidt, member of the founding team of Orion Pictures and an international film executive, died Dec. 2 from heart failure in Badenweller, Germany. He was 92. Born and raised in Badenweller, Goldschmidt started his career in entertainment working across Europe. He began as a salesman at MGM in Zurich before moving on to become
The Palm Springs International Film Festival’s annual gala recognizing some of the year’s finest achievements in cinema Thursday evening saw several honorees let their guards down, allowing the tearducts to flow. Mary Hart returned as host for the starry awards gala held at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Billie Eilish and Finneas became the first
Christopher Nolan recently recounted an unexpected encounter with a critic of his work while accepting the award for best director at the New York Film Critics Circle ceremony. The filmmaker told the room that his Peloton instructor suddenly called out his sci-fi film “Tenet” mid-workout, saying “that’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never
David Tennant is set to host the BAFTA Film Awards for the first time. The actor — best known for playing Doctor Who — will oversee proceedings during the U.K.’s biggest night for film on Feb. 18 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. “I am delighted to have been asked to host the EE
Choi Min-sik, the veteran Korean actor who previously starred in “Oldboy” and Korea’s all-time box office record breaker “Roaring Currents,” heads the cast of upcoming mystery-thriller film “Exhuma.” The title, which will debut in Korean theaters in February, also released its first-look images and an atmospheric trailer. Choi appears as an exorcist who unleashes unexpected
A huge virtual world based on “Ready Player One,” a story set in a future where people enter into a virtual-reality simulation to escape the real world, is coming soon to a real (but, you know, virtual) platform near you. Futureverse, an AI and metaverse technology and content company, announced the formation of Readyverse Studios,
News broke in 2015 that John Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “12 Years of Slave,” was joining the Marvel family to develop a mystery superhero project for ABC. The network was already home to Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” at the time, and a spinoff series had just been announced prior to the Ridley news. Ridley
The way an actor approaches and prepares for a role can be different with each project, and in some instances, the material presents specific obstacles that make the experience even more personally fulfilling or transcendent. This is true for actors of any age but is especially notable for a trio of younger talent in this
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, has become a crucial indicator on which films and performances could garner support for the Academy Awards due to the huge overlap of voting members. Over the years, its influence on the Oscars has been undeniable, with many of its winners often helping to shape
Katt Williams’ recent interview on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast has gone viral for a handful of soundbites and revelations made by the comedian. Williams made his film debut playing Money Mike in the 2002 comedy “Friday After Next,” which he revealed originally included a sexual assault scene that he refused to participate in (via
Legendary filmmaker Michael Mann is “worried about the future” of movies. But, he also declares, “Cinema is not dying.” A luminary auteur with a distinctive visual style and gripping storytelling, Mann calls this time following the end of the historic Hollywood strikes “a real watershed moment.” “The companies are split in ways they haven’t been
“Night Swim,” a supernatural thriller about a ghost-plagued pool, is attempting to start the 2024 box office with a splash. The Universal Pictures film, which marks the year’s first nationwide release, is targeting a debut of $9 million to $11 million from 3,200 North American theaters. It’s a decent start for the $15 million-budgeted movie,
English actor Glynis Johns, who played the daffy suffragette mother Mrs. Banks in the classic film “Mary Poppins,” died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles, her manager Mitch Clem confirmed to Variety. She was 100. “Glynis powered her way through life with intelligence, wit, and a love for performance, affecting millions of
Hollywood being what it is, “This Is Us” star Sterling K. Brown has spent years deflecting roles to yet again play “a Black guy in a white family who’s finding his way in.” Brown said no because he’s adamant about not getting pigeonholed, as he demonstrated this year by shifting to “Biosphere,” a post-apocalyptic two-hander
Patrick Stewart has died many times on screen as Professor X/Charles Xavier, the beloved “X-Men” character he first started playing all the way back in 2000, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s ongoing multiverse means there’s always room for him to come back. Stewart last popped up as the character in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the
The American Cinematheque has programmed a retrospective to celebrate the work of three-time Oscar nominee Wim Wenders ahead of the Feb. 7 nationwide release of his latest film “Perfect Days,” Neon announced. The retrospective screenings and in-person Q&As will begin on Jan. 11 at the Aero Theatre with a double feature of “Perfect Days” and
When “Monica” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2022, the response was immediate: The movie received a standing ovation that clocked in at 11-and-a-half minutes. Andrea Pallaoro’s powerful tale of a woman returning home to care for her ailing mother who hasn’t seen her since before her gender transition had already made history by being the
An internationally celebrated artist, Kaphar didn’t set out to be a filmmaker. “I’m an imagemaker and storyteller, and the film evolved from initially writing down some of my memories,” Kaphar says. “It’s a way to tell a story that could help my children understand my experience and experiences like mine.” His semi-autobiographical debut, “Exhibiting Forgiveness,”
Renowned French auteur Arnaud Desplechin, whose latest film “Brother and Sister” competed at Cannes Film Festival in 2022, is currently wrapping his next directorial effort, “Spectateurs!” Les Films du Losange, which handles French distribution and international sales rights to the title, has unveiled a first still (above) in the run-up to the Unifrance Rendez-Vous With