Movies

This fall marks 30 awards seasons I’ve covered, not only as neutral observer, which is my main gig, but also as a fervent film fan, quietly cheering on my filmmaking heroes who sometimes manage to put their teams on the field. Sometimes they even manage to win. But most of the time, I’ve spent the

Film and TV financing company FilmHedge has set a first-look pact with the Apiary, a startup animation and game design firm based in Lakeland, Fla. The deal calls for FilmHedge to provide up to $25 million in financing for projects produced by Apiary, which was founded last year by architect Brad Lunz. Apiary recently inked

Dear fans, please stop yelling “Randall!” at Sterling K. Brown whenever you see him walking down the street. That’s a reference, of course, to the actor’s Emmy-winning role as Randall Pearson on the hit NBC drama “This Is Us,” which ran for six seasons. “It’s funny, people would be like, ‘Yo Randall!,” he tells Variety.

“I’m a big admirer of Gerard Depardieu,” said Emmanuel Macron candidly on the set of C’est à vous, the primetime TV magazine, when asked to comment on the downfall of Depardieu, the revered French actor who’s facing new sexual assault accusations and has crystallized a new tide of #MeToo in France. “He’s an immense actor,

With “My Love Affair with Marriage,” animator Signe Baumane creates another dense personal narrative that expresses complicated concepts and ideas in images. Stuffed with irony, humor, Soviet history and musical numbers, her ambitious second feature (following 2014’s festival hit “Rocks In My Pockets”) boasts 30 singing and speaking characters (including a talking neuron that explains the biochemical

Starting in the 2000s, for a little over a decade, 3D was sold as a value-added feature of moviegoing, even though, with rare exceptions (e.g., the “Avatar” films), it never worked too well or added very much. (I would argue that it subtracted.) In most cases, 3D was a rip-off — a carny-barker way for

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The luxury photo book brand Assouline has announced a new photo book behind Bradley Cooper‘s “Maestro,” including an introduction by Steven Spielberg. A digital version of the book, which comes with an audio narration

“Kingdom of the Blind,” “Little Trouble Girls” and “Wind, Talk To Me” were among the projects which won prizes at the milestone 15th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival‘s Industry Village. The event, held in a popular French Alps resort, was attended by more than 700 professionals, including top sales agents, distributors and festival programmers,

A convincing romantic and erotic attraction, we can all agree, is one of the keys to a good rom-com. Do you believe these two people love each other? Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell definitely have that in “Anyone but You.” It begins with the simple fact that both are such splendid camera objects. She, with

Roberto Benigni, whose film “Life Is Beautiful” won three Oscars in 1999, has come out of the woodwork to support Matteo Garrone’s Golden Globe-nominated “Io Capitano,” which is Italy’s current Oscar candidate for best international feature film. The revered yet reclusive Italian actor/director, whose most recent big screen role is playing Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s hit

Content Americas, the fast-rising trade event in Miami, has unveiled the finalists for its 2024 Content Americas CoPro Pitch and Content Americas Hispanic Kids Programming Pitch.  According to event organizer C21, more than 80 submissions rolled in for the CoPro Pitch and over 50 for the Kids Pitch from seasoned producers across Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Among

Colman Domingo will receive the London Film Critics’ Circle’s inaugural Innovation Award. Domingo has been recognized for his work as an actor, producer, writer, director and musician in film, television and theater. He won an Emmy for his role in “Euphoria.” He starred in Broadway musical “The Scottsboro Boys” (2011) for which he received a

DISTRIBUTION Bohemia Media will release “Memory” across U.K. and Ireland cinemas from Feb. 9, 2024. Written and directed by Michel Franco (“Sundown,” “New Order,”) “Memory” stars Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard. It premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival where Sarsgaard won best actor. “Memory” follows Sylvia (Chastain), a social worker who leads a simple

Here we go again? Warner Bros. Discovery is flirting with the idea of acquiring Paramount Global. If a deal involving the Redstone empire comes to fruition, it would mark another transformative mega-merger for Hollywood legacy brands, following on the heels of Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019, AT&T’s difficult marriage with Time Warner

When Calah Lane was born, her umbilical cord had a knot in it. She excitedly shares this “fun” fact over a Zoom call with Variety, with the unbridled enthusiasm only a 14-year-old could have. “I mean, that’s kind of sad,” she admits. “But I survived and everything’s good!”  She’s not wrong – things are good

“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” star Leah Jeffries recently spoke to Essence magazine about how her casting as Annabeth Chase in the new Disney+ series initially generated backlash from some toxic fans. Racist trolls were upset that a Black actor was cast as a character described in the books as a blonde white girl. “The White

Jennifer Love Hewitt appeared on the “Inside of You” podcast and revealed she once had to pull a filmmaker aside on set because he was telling her she had to be sexier. As an actor in her early twenties, Hewitt had no idea what such a request even meant. She said that she never felt

Get in, loser. We’re riding with Rachel McAdams because she’s still Queen Bee. Since she’s become a mother, life has changed. During the filming of Lionsgate’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” she had her five-month-old daughter and two-year-old son on set. Even her younger sister and make-up artist Kayleen had her two children,

Jennifer Lopez admits not everyone in her camp initially supported the idea to document her romance with husband Ben Affleck in her upcoming “This Is Me…Now” album and companion film. “As artists, we have to follow our heart and this is me following my heart and doing something that maybe everybody didn’t think was the

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global have held talks about a potential merger of the two media companies, Variety has confirmed. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish on Tuesday in New York to discuss a possible merger, sources said. Zaslav also has spoken to Shari Redstone, whose National

As the holidays arrive and another year draws to a close, I have been reflecting on my first eight months of representing the exhibition industry. 2023 has been quite a year for theater owners and employees, and fans who love motion pictures on the big screen. From the highs of the global cultural phenomenon that

Taraji P. Henson broke down in tears during a SiriusXM interview with Gayle King while promoting her new film, “The Color Purple.” King asked the Oscar and Emmy-nominated actor if she was still thinking about quitting acting, which King had humors of Henson previously saying. Henson responded by revealing she has hit her breaking point

A number of directors are pursuing litigation against the digital indie film distributor 1091 Pictures for failing to make promised revenue-sharing payments after selling their films to the platform, now owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. Helmers are scrambling to reclaim distribution rights to their work out of fear that 1091 Pictures’ parent

2024 can’t come fast enough. When the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1, Hollywood will close the book on arguably the most tumultuous 12 months in a generation, with the town roiled by devastating strikes, the implosion of the superhero movie and deep divisions on everything from AI to Israel. But as Tinseltown ushers in

“The People’s Joker,” a queer comic book parody that garnered headlines after getting axed from the Toronto Film Festival lineup, is heading to the big screen. Los Angeles-based distributor Altered Innocence acquired the film, which will open in theaters on April 5. Vera Drew directed “The People’s Joker,” which was slated to play in 2022

Jake Johnson‘s survival comedy “Self Reliance” will play on the big screen for one day before it lands on Hulu. Neon is releasing the film in 225 North American theaters on Jan. 3 in partnership with the cinema chain AMC Theatres. During the one-night stunt, audiences will be treated to 10 extra minutes of behind-the-scenes

In a dubious achievement, Bob Iger earned the enmity of the world’s richest individual: Elon Musk. The billionaire was furious at Disney and its CEO after the company pulled its ad spending from Musk’s X (the social media platform formerly called Twitter). The acrimony stemmed from Musk’s post on X on Nov. 15, “You have said

“If you’re going to do a Chanel suit, you have to have respect for it,” costume designer Mark Bridges says. So when Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” script called for one, he went directly to the Parisian fashion house for assistance. Spanning four decades, “Maestro” follows Leonard Bernstein’s (Cooper) journey to becoming the legendary composer and conductor.

“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is one of four movies opening in theaters over the weekend. Which of the new releases will sink and which will swim at the box office? Jason Momoa’s “Aquaman” sequel is expected to float to the top of charts in North America over fellow newcomers: Universal and Illumination’s animated “Migration,”

Music Box Films has acquired Tom Gustafson and Cory Krueckeberg’s “Glitter & Doom.” The film is billed as a “fantastical queer romance” and the musical comes with songs from the Grammy Award-winning Indigo Girls. “Glitter & Doom” premiered as the closing night film at InsideOut Toronto. It went on to play gala slots at more