Movies

Former Amazon executive Leo Zimbrón has been appointed senior vice president of Spanish-language features and international co-productions at Eugenio Derbez and Ben Odell’s 3Pas Studios. “There are few executives with the levels of experience and success that Leo has garnered over the years. Eugenio and I have both worked with him previously and love what

Sofia Coppola recently spoke to Rolling Stone on her press tour for “Priscilla” and touched upon two high-profile projects that fell by the wayside. The first was the final “Twilight” movie, “Breaking Dawn,” which Summit Entertainment split into two films that were released in 2011 and 2012 and grossed a combined $1.5 billion at the

In a new interview with GQ Magazine UK ahead of the release of his latest directorial effort “The Killer,” David Fincher expressed a bit of relief over his “World War Z” sequel never getting off the ground. Why? He revealed the sequel’s storyline was a bit too similar to HBO’s wildly popular, apocalyptic video game

Animation Is Film has announced the 2023 winners of its annual film festival, with “Chicken for Linda!,” directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, winning the grand prize. The film also took home the audience award. The special jury prize went to Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams.” In the short categories, “Letter to a Pig,” directed

Jonathan Majors will face a trial on domestic abuse charges after a New York judge denied the motion to dismiss the case. The trial date is set to begin on Nov. 29. Majors appeared on Wednesday morning in a lower Manhattan courtroom via Zoom because he’s out of state. During the hearing, his defense attorneys

The immediate family of leading Taiwanese film director Hou Hsiao-hsien said on Wednesday that he had retired from filmmaking due to illness and is now living peacefully in retirement. They said that their family-run company remains active and in business. The statement (see below) was issued in response to news articles earlier this week that

Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan bring Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre to life in the first official trailer for “Maestro,” premiering in limited theaters on Nov. 22 and arriving on Netflix Dec. 20. In the trailer, Cooper and Mulligan travel through time as the couple experiences love, betrayal and music. The movie encompasses Bernstein’s professional

FilmNation Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to Sean Baker’s new romantic dramedy film “Anora.” Following the acquisition, FilmNation sold rights internationally to Le Pacte in France, Lev in Israel, Kismet in Australia and New Zealand and Focus Features and Universal Pictures International in the rest of the world, excluding North America.  The film was written

Christopher Nolan deserves a really nice fruit basket. The director’s latest blockbuster “Oppenheimer” was shot with Imax cameras, something that Nolan talked up during the film’s press tour. That advocacy contributed to $180 million in global ticket sales for Imax venues, lifting the big screen company’s latest earnings results. Overall, Imax’s revenues jumped 51% during

Italy’s Luca Guadagnino and India’s Mani Ratnam will receive the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival‘s 2023 Excellence in Cinema awards. Ratnam will receive the Excellence in Cinema (South Asia) award and Guadagnino the Excellence in Cinema (International) award. The awards will be presented at the festival’s opening ceremony on Oct. 27. Both filmmakers will be

Arnold Schwarzenegger for president? Though the former Governor of California can’t legally run for the United States’ highest office — the position requires one to be a natural-born citizen, and Schwarzenegger hails from Austria — he said in a new interview with the BBC that he thinks he’d be a good fit. “I feel like

Péter Kerekes will follow “107 Mothers” – which won Venice’s Horizons Award for best screenplay – with “Marathon,” currently in production and eyeing a winter 2024 release. Set in his Slovak hometown and revolving around the Košice Peace Marathon, established in 1924, the doc will clock in at exactly 2 hours and 7 minutes, mirroring

Following musical sequences in her latest doc “Vika!,” Polish director Agnieszka Zwiefka will turn to animation for an upcoming project under the working title “Runa.” “What can I say? I really like fusion cuisine,” she laughs. “I like hybrid films, because this division between documentary and fiction is completely pointless. I see documentary as a

Leading Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou has a tough guy exterior – leather jackets, black shirts and a square jaw that has earned him acting awards alongside his top-level credentials as cinematographer and director of “Hero,” “The Road Home” – but on a visit to the Tokyo International Film Festival this week he was all smiles

Chinese superstar actor and producer Fan Bingbing will be the 2023 recipient of the Singapore International Film Festival‘s (SGIFF) Cinema Icon Award. The festival will screen three of Fan’s films, curated by her – the recent “Green Night,” “Buddha Mountain” and “Double Xposure” – and the star will walk the red carpet on opening night,

Launching an ambitious program of compelling global and Czech work, the 27th edition of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival opened on Tuesday, kicking off six days of more than 350 film screenings by veteran and new filmmakers. Fest head and founder Marek Hovorka, who launched the event in his hometown in 1997, introduced what

Abramorama has acquired North American theatrical rights for Leslie Shampaine and Pip Gilmour‘s feature documentary “Call Me Dancer.” The deal was revealed on the sidelines of TIFFCOM, the film market attached to the Tokyo International Film Festival. The film follows Manish Chauhan, a young and talented street dancer from Mumbai who struggles against his parents’ insistence

In too many thrillers to count, the key scene, and the most suspenseful one, arrives when the hero or heroine, investigating a chemical spill or a murder or what have you, sits down at the computer and deep dives into a web search, the information-age detective work culminating in that inevitable “Aha!” moment of discovery.

Negotiations on a new SAG-AFTRA contract are set to continue on Wednesday, as the studios aim to salvage the 2024 summer box office. The union resumed bargaining on Tuesday for the first time in almost two weeks. The studios delivered a new offer on the most contentious issue — streaming residuals — that they hoped

Ichiyama Shozo assumed control of the program of the Tokyo International Film Festival after a long programming career that included Tokyo and the slightly more indie Tokyo Filmex events. He is also a regular producing partner of Chinese art-house darling Jai Zhangke. These influences have shaped his approach to this year’s Tokyo IFF lineup, he

Samuel L. Jackson, Gabrielle Union and more have paid tribute to “Shaft” icon Richard Roundtree, who died Tuesday afternoon after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 81. Jackson, who first portrayed detective John Shaft’s (Roundtree) nephew in the 2000 sequel to Gordon Park’s 1971 action thriller “Shaft,” posted a photo of the two

Aaron Sorkin has dropped CAA over controversial social media posts regarding Israel from agent Maha Dakhil, Variety has confirmed. The “Social Network” and “West Wing” writer is returning to WME, which he had been previously repped by until his move to CAA in 2017. “Maha isn’t an antisemite, she’s just wrong. She’s a great agent

With “Leo,” Indian director Lokesh Kanagaraj adds another “badass” to the growing network of formidable action heroes he calls the “Lokesh Cinematic Universe.” How do we know this guy’s a badass? Because the Tamil film’s techno soundtrack tells us so, chanting “Leo Das is a badass!” before even establishing who Leo Das is. By this

Richard Roundtree, an icon of Blaxploitation film who starred as detective John Shaft in Gordon Parks’ 1971 action thriller, died Tuesday afternoon after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 81 years old. His death was confirmed by Patrick McMinn, his manager since 1987. “Richard’s work and career served as a turning point for

Aizhan Kassymbek‘s Kazakh film “Madina,” world premiering at the Tokyo International Film Festival‘s Asian Future strand, aims to shatter patriarchy both on and off screen. On screen, the film is based on the real life story of Kassymbek’s friend Madina Akylbek, who also plays the lead role. Set in the harsh Kazakhstan winter, the film

Japan’s Nikkatsu studio is pitching “River” at the top of its TIFFCOM sales slate. The film – on which it shares rights with Third Window Films – is a time loop comedy from Yamaguchi Junta, director of “Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes.” The one-hundred-year-old Fujiya inn stands in a quiet region of Kyoto. An employee

French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung spoke about the making of “The Taste of Things” (previously titled “The Pot-au-Feu”) the food-themed romantic drama that won him best director award at Cannes this year, at the master class held Tuesday at the Tokyo International Film Festival.   Screening in TIFF’s Gala section, the film stars Juliette Binoche

“Barbie” and “The Boys” were lauded as top film and streaming series at the 6th annual Silver Pixel Awards, which recognize achievements and innovation in Hollywood digital marketing. Amazon Studios’ Jessica Thurber Hemingway, Lionsgate’s Eric Dachman and Division 13’s Jim Evans were the industry executive honorees at the event, held Oct. 19 at Candela La

TIFFCOM, the film market attached to the Tokyo International Film Festival, is set to be more international and more diverse in its first full comeback year after the COVID hiatus. It should also be more pleasant and convenient, having re-located to a more modern venue that is close to the film festival. “Bringing the in-person

A24 spent $35 million to bring “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” director Ari Aster‘s third feature, “Beau Is Afraid,” to life on the big screen. The film flopped at the box office with a global gross just over $10 million and became one of the most divisive releases of the year. In a new interview with Vanity