Movies

One of the eternal mysteries of awards season is how to determine whether Oscar-worthy actors should compete in the lead category or in supporting. Is Lily Gladstone’s role in “Killers of the Flower Moon” significant enough to warrant a best actress nom? Is “The Taste of Things” star Juliette Binoche’s part “too big” for supporting?

There’s a good old fashioned box office battle brewing. Disney’s “Wish,” an animated adventure that had been expected to dominate the Thanksgiving holiday is facing off against Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” for the top spot over the five-day stretch. And the dystopian prequel, which is currently in its second

India‘s Film Bazaar, the Singapore-based Asia TV Forum & Market’s (ATF) IP Accelerator Project Market (AIPA) and the Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association (SAAVA) have formed a project market partnership. Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest film market is operated by India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and runs concurrently with the International Film Festival of India

Focus, the end-of-year meeting place for the international production community, returns to London as a live event Dec. 5-6. With over 60 conference sessions and more than 150 expert speakers, the event’s ninth edition remains free to attend for industry professionals and embraces the increasing convergence of all screen sectors, gathering thousands of attendees across

The Marrakech Film Festival’s 20th edition kicks off on Friday with Richard Linklater’s action comedy “Hit Man” as its gala opening, Mads Mikkelsen being feted, and a rich roster of stars and top talents supporting a panoply of cinema from the African continent and the Arab world. The event will run Nov. 24-Dec. 2 in

Spain’s 7th Ibero-American Quirino Animation Awards has found its jury for next year, to be held over May 9-11. The jury is led by animation directors José Miguel Ribeiro from Portugal, Colombian Marcela Rincón and Wesley Louis (U.K.) alongside Zane Valeniece, director of acquisitions at Latvian public television (LTV) and Emmanuèle Petry, head of international

Film co-productions between Australia and India received a significant double boost this week with the ratification of a treaty that was proposed last year and the Indian government’s major enhancement of filming incentives. An Australian delegation is attending the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa and the concurrent film market, Film Bazaar. Australian

Natalie Portman calls Todd Haynes’ new film, “May December,” a “dream role.” “May December” stars Portman as actress Elizabeth Berry (Portman), who is set to portray Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) in a movie. Gracie is a Georgia woman who became a notorious tabloid figure when she engaged in a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old boy,

Calling a movie a “tearjerker” could practically qualify as a spoiler, especially in the case of “Terms of Endearment.” Because it is very, very funny. For writer-director James L. Brooks, that heightened comic tone was always essential when he first began working to adapt Larry McMurtry’s novel of the same name. His devotion led to

SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points for “Wish,” currently playing in theaters. Disney’s animated feature “Wish” features over 100 nods. As the animation studio celebrates its centennial year, “Wish” pays homage to classic Disney films from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to “Peter Pan,” “Sleeping Beauty” and more. Speaking with Variety, director

Following on the heels of a 2022 U.K. ScreenSkills report, the British production industry has sought to bulk up, responding to an urgent decree that urged local players to ready 21,000 new technicians for 2025. Those suggestions have grown ever the more imperative now that the recent stoppage waylaid a sizable chunk of the local

After six months of strike-related stoppages, global production is set to resume in a massive way, as producers, execs and day-to-day facilitators anticipate an early 2024 surge in production that could very well last throughout the calendar year. Only (and tellingly) — despite such evident and abundant relief — all of those facilitators are also

Hollywood might not be feeling so festive this Thanksgiving. The holiday period is traditionally a busy time for moviegoing, but audiences aren’t turning out in force over Turkey Day, leaving the box office suffering from too much tryptophan. In this drowsy state of play, Disney’s “Wish” earned a lackluster $8.3 million on Wednesday. The animated

São Paulo-based activist producer Maria Farinha Films, behind Globoplay hit “Aruanas” and one of the global South’s key impact entertainment companies, has boarded Marcel Beltrán’s mystery drama “Moa,” a big double winner at Locarno’s 2022 Open Doors. Produced by Paula Gastaud at Cuba’s Mediocielo Films, “Moa” is now set up as co-production with Mediocielo Filmes,

Shortly after actor-director Michael Goorjian wrote the script for “Amerikatsi,” which is Armenia’s candidate for the international Oscar, he turned to System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian – who is also of Armenian descent – for feedback on the tale of an Armenian-American who repatriates in 1948 to what has become Soviet Armenia. The Grammy-winning

Alejandra Villaba García’s “Hyperballad,” Sophia Mocorrea’s “Marriage by Abduction” and Theo Court’s “Three Dark Nights” feature in a 15-title lineup of Ventana Sur’s Proyecta project lineup which is emerging as Ventana’s industry centerpiece as international co-production becomes vital to more ambitious arthouse filmmaking.  Organised by Cannes Marché du Film and the San Sebastian Film Festival,

Martin Moszkowicz is to step down as chairman of the executive board of Constantin Film, the producer of the “Resident Evil” franchise and one of Germany’s leading distributors, with deputy chairman Oliver Berben taking over the role. At his own request, Moszkowicz is to let his contract expire on Feb. 29, 2024, and he will

Daisy Ridley is gearing up to reprise her role as Rey in a new “Star Wars” film, and has revealed the storyline is “not what I expected.” In an interview with Collider, Ridley reminisced about her surprise appearance at London’s Star Wars Celebration in April, where it was announced that Rey will be the focus

FESTIVAL FIRST FOR DARREN DALE Producer and screenwriter, Darren Dale has been named as the new board chair of the Sydney Film Festival, following the retirement of Dianne Weir. He is a leading advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and has been director of Blackfella Films since 2000. He has been involved with

Jonathan Ogilvie’s post-punk coming-of-age comedy “Head South” will open the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam on Jan. 25, with the festival running until Feb. 4. Ogilvie’s semi-autobiographical film is set in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1979 where a private schoolboy becomes desperately enamored with all things post-punk. The director’s last film, thriller “Lone Wolf,” screened

Marco Mueller, the veteran film festival curator and director, is set to launch a new festival and market in Macau. It will have its first edition in January. The Asia-Europe Young Cinema Festival, running Jan. 5-11, will operate as a bridge between the mainland China markets and audiences and the production and sales industries behind

Jude Anthany Joseph, director of India’s international feature Oscar contender “2018,” has started work on his next film. The untitled investigative thriller is being written by the filmmaker alongside journalist Josy Joseph. The film is based on the true story of Kerala Shipping Corporation’s cargo ship MV Kairali that disappeared in 1979 with a crew

Zee Studios‘ “Gandhi Talks,” directed by Kishor P. Belekar, had a sold out premiere at the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa. The cast includes Aravind Swami, Vijay Sethupathi, Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth Jadhav. The latter three actors were present at the premiere alongside the filmmakers and composer, the Oscar-winning A.R. Rahman

Arriving a whopping 26 years after 1997’s cult-favorite Nickelodeon comedy, “Good Burger 2” fits the streaming-era trend in which audiences seek a nostalgia bump reconnecting with old favorites, like “Coming to America” or “Hocus Pocus” — not exactly classics so much as modest pleasures from more innocent times. In this obnoxiously unfunny followup from Paramount+,

Actor-writer Vishnu Manchu has grand plans for big-budget Indian epic “Kannappa.” The film revisits the folk tale of Kannappa, an atheist hunter who became a devotee of Hindu god Shiva and plucked out his eyes in an act of extreme devotion. The story was previously filmed in the Kannada and Telugu languages as “Bedara Kannappa”

Pan Nalin, producer and director of Indian Oscar-shortlisted film “Last Film Show,” has boarded Subhadra Mahajan’s debut feature “Second Chance” as an executive producer. Mahajan previously served as assistant director on Nalin’s “Echo of Eco,” “Angry Indian Goddesses,” “Beyond the Known World” and “Last Film Show.” “Second Chance,” now in the final stages of post-production,

Jamie Foxx was sued on Wednesday for allegedly sexually assaulting a patron at a rooftop bar in New York in 2015. The woman, identified in the suit as Jane Doe, alleges that Foxx took her to a secluded corner of the Catch NYC rooftop lounge, rubbed her breasts and groped her under her pants against

Melissa Barrera has issued her first response regarding her recent exit from the “Scream” franchise. Spyglass Media Group fired the actor, citing her social media activity regarding the ongoing attack on Gaza by Israeli forces; the production banner deemed the posts as antisemitic. Barrera’s response came on Wednesday afternoon through a post on her Instagram

Not even Ghostface could see this twist coming. The “Scream” franchise lost two stars this week, putting the seventh film in the series in a creative conundrum, according to sources familiar with the project. Variety broke the news that Melissa Barrera was fired by Spyglass, the film’s producer, in recent days over social media messages that

Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman has filmed a lot of things — dismissive budget negotiations among UC Berkeley administrators, dead end conversations inside a New York welfare center, a live capuchin monkey being decapitated by scientists. But before he saw any of that, the Boston native saw Bill Russell win the NBA Finals. “I shared season