Movies

Shining a light on the insidious child sex trade and the lives it seeks to destroy, director Gabriella A. Moses (“Sin Raíces”) exposes a Dominican community complicit by way of young Desi (Scarlet Camilo), an adolescent girl who dreams of parlaying her nascent musical talents into a full-fledged singing career. “Boca Chica” takes place in a

Taskovski Films Sales has picked up documentary “1001 Days,” directed by Chloe White and Kethiwe Ngcobo, which will have its international premiere at IDFA in the Luminous selection. The film follows three fearless, charismatic women, who take on the role of home visitors in Alexandra, a township in Johannesburg. Thandiwe, Khosi and Zanele help pregnant

Tamil-language film star Dhanush is to star in “Ilaiyaraja,” a biopic of a renowned Indian composer that marks the launch of joint-effort production and distribution slate by Connekkt Media and Mercuri Group, two major companies from South India. Dhanush is one of South India’s most famous and most versatile movie stars, with credits including romance “Ranhjhanaa,” actioner

Polish actress and singer Joanna Kulig (“Cold War,” “The Eddy”) and French icon Fanny Ardant are co-starring in “Island,” a psychological thriller by Italian-German writer director Nora Jaenike filmed on the Italian island of Elba. Filming on the mostly English-language atmospheric noir wrapped on Nov. 4 on the island, which is located off the coast

The fourth running of the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (aka TCCF) wrapped on Friday with the award of some 30 prizes to film and TV projects in five sections. The prizes followed three and a half days of one-on-one meetings and pitching within the context of the TAICCA-backed project, innovation and rights sales market. TAICCA

In an unprecedented move, legendary Spanish soccer club FC Barcelona, home to Lionel Messi for 21 years, has launched video game platform Barça Games, the first of its kind created by a sports club. Developed jointly by FC Barcelona, Mas Ros Media and FireSPORTS, Barça Games was unveiled Nov. 8 at the FC Barcelona museum

Christmas comes early this year, as “Journey to Bethlehem” puts words (and music) in the mouths of all who bore witness to Jesus’ birth. Some of those tunes — like “Silent Night” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” — will sound familiar enough, though most of the songs — like most of the script —

Rockism, in case you don’t know the term, is the school of thought that holds the noisy “purity” of rock ‘n’ roll to be morally and aesthetically superior to the “corruption” of pop. There are numerous iconic examples of rockism. It was there in the postpunk ’80s hipsters who found the Replacements and Joy Division to

Cord Jefferson didn’t always know he wanted to be a director. While working on Netflix’s comedy series “Master of None,” actor/writer/creator Aziz Ansari asked Jefferson out of the blue if he ever wanted to direct. Jefferson recalls, “I said, ‘No, I’ve never been to film school, I don’t know anything about cameras or lighting. I

Salman Khan stars alongside Katrina Kaif in Yash Raj Films’ “Tiger 3,” the latest film in producer Aditya Chopra’s spy universe. The spy universe kicked off with the Tiger franchise, starring Khan and Katrina Kaif, beginning with “Ek Tha Tiger” (2012) and “Tiger Zinda Hai” (2017) and continued with “War” (2019), starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff

Just about everybody in Hollywood is celebrating the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike after 119 days, but not everyone can do it with the same suave style as Kevin Bacon. The “” star posted a video on Thursday afternoon celebrating the end of the strike and performing his signature smooth dance moves in his unfinished

After months of speculation amid the work stoppage caused by the recently ended SAG-AFTRA strike, “Deadpool 3” is being delayed by the Walt Disney Company. The comic book threequel has vacated its May 3, 2024 release date and is now set to hit theaters on July 26, 2024. It’s one of several moves that Disney

The SAG-AFTRA strike is over, and it only took four minutes and 46 seconds after the news broke to receive an interview pitch for an actor from a publicist. That’s because strategists and publicists for the top movies from studios and streamers have been sitting on their hands, waiting for their actors to promote their

A police officer in Sydney, Australia has pleaded guilty to “carrying a firearm with disregard” for a colleague’s safety after he threatened to shoot another police officer who said he would reveal spoilers from Tom Cruise’s blockbuster sequel “Top Gun: Maverick,” the Australian Broadcasting Company reports. According to court documents, 30-year-old cop Dominic Gaynor took

After six months of strikes, the primetime cupboard is pretty bare. But after a fall filled with repeats, unscripted series and a smattering of stockpiled scripted episodes, the broadcast networks are racing to salvage the rest of the TV season — and that means a scramble to get episodes in place by the start of

The second annual BFI and Chanel Filmmaker Awards celebrated creative audacity at the tony Claridges Hotel in London on Thursday afternoon. Emerging filmmakers writer/director Ella Glendining, writer/director Savanah Leaf and producer Nadira Murray were the recipients of this year’s award, selected by a jury panel comprised of BFI CEO Ben Roberts, actor Tilda Swinton, British

The world’s biggest hero makes his way to Netflix in “Ultraman: Rising.” The streamer has released the first teaser for the CG-animated feature film, which is slated to premiere in 2024. Based on characters from Eiji Tsuburaya, known for co-creating the “Godzilla” franchise, “Ultraman: Rising” will follow baseball star Ken Sato, who returns home to

SAG-AFTRA had settled dozens of issues, ranging from pension and health contributions, to page limits for self-taped auditions, to pay for background actors. But there was still the small matter of zombies. The union was worried that studios could use artificial intelligence to reanimate dead actors, or to create a digital Frankenstein out of the

Nia DaCosta survived the roller coaster of making “The Marvels,” but London’s rush hour traffic threatens to make her sick. It’s late October, weeks from the Nov. 10 release of the $250 million superhero movie, and DaCosta is conducting a Zoom interview from the back seat of a car as it inches toward her home.

It’s hard to imagine this now, but there was a time when Marvel Comics had zero presence in film or live-action television. That all changed 25 years ago with “Blade,” released by New Line Cinema. Then came “X-Men” in 2000 from 20th Century Fox, then “Spider-Man” in 2002 from Sony Pictures, and then, in 2008,

As evidenced in its title, music plays a big part in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” In the prequel to the original trilogy, “West Side Story” star Rachel Zegler portrays Lucy Gray Baird, the female tribute from District 12 for the 10th annual Hunger Games, who hails from a musical and

Danish IDFA winner Phie Ambo (“Family”) will be attending Amsterdam’s major doc showcase for the 8th time with “Fire, Water, Earth, Air,” bowing at the Forum Pitch alongside 20 other projects. Ahead of their industry pitch Nov. 13, Ambo and her producer Rikke Tambo Andersen of Copenhagen-based Tambo Film, have just secured two co-producers: Mantaray

Another Warner Bros. movie bites the dust. The studio no longer plans to release “Coyote vs. Acme,” a live action-animation hybrid starring John Cena, which completed filming in 2022. A similar situation transpired a little over a year ago as Warner Bros. shocked the entertainment industry by shelving the $90 million-budgeted DC adventure “Batgirl” and the

“Barbie” triumphed at the box office. Can it conquer the Oscars too? If history is any guide, it may have to settle for the adoration of audiences over the acclaim of awards voters. The Academy has nominated some recent commercial juggernauts for best picture — last year “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun:

Hollywood is ready to dust off the red carpet. After months-long dual labor strikes that prevented top actors and screenwriters from promoting their projects, star power will finally return to premieres, panels and other splashy events. It’s a huge relief for once-struck companies because too many major movies, like Sony’s starry Game Stop-stock comedy “Dumb

Vienna-based Autlook has boarded sales on the Danish docu project “Architecture as Invention” in which seasoned doc filmmaker Michael Madsen shares existential and creative conversations with U.S./Polish star architect Daniel Libeskind. The IDFA Forum Pitch entry is Autlook Film Sales’ third Madsen doc pick-up after his multi-awarded “Into Eternity,” IDFA Green Screen Doc winner in

The marketing for Disney and 20th Studios’ “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” got off to a strong start with 75 million views in 24 hours across platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, X/Twitter and more, Variety has learned. Social engagement for the trailer came in with 72,000 mentions in 24 hours, boosted by 11,000

Netflix film chief Scott Stuber once ran Universal Studios – today he sometimes feels like the operator of “the AMC 6000” given the volume of movies that Netflix produces and acquires. From Greta Gerwig’s plans for Narnia adaptations to wooing Denzel Washington and Steven Spielberg, Stuber shared Netflix’s vision of film’s future in a wide-ranging

Zac Efron has heard the news about Matthew Perry wanting to cast him in a biopic about the “Friends” actor’s life, and Efron would be “honored” to do it. The “High School Musical” and “Baywatch” actor spoke to People magazine on the red carpet for A24’s “The Iron Claw” and called Perry a “mentor” figure

Guess Joy is hard at work for Pixar fans, because “Inside Out 2” has just dropped its first trailer.  “Inside Out 2” is the sequel to 2015’s animated coming-of-age film “Inside Out.” The first film centered on 11-year-old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) and the five emotions in her brain, led by a star-studded cast: Joy (Amy