Movies

Switzerland has selected Carmen Jaquier’s standout first feature “Thunder” as its submission for the best international feature film category of the Academy Awards. The choice was announced Friday at a press conference held at the Locarno Film Festival.   Writer-director Jacquier’s feature debut is a coming-of-age film set in 1900 against a glorious mountainous landscape and the

Mark Margolis, who portrayed the menacing, bell-ringing Hector Salamanca in “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” died Thursday at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. He was 83. His son, Morgan Margolis, announced the news. As the former drug kingpin who continues to hover over the Albuquerque meth trade from his nursing home, Margolis

The U.K. and Ireland box office soared to £160.7 million ($205.1 million) in July thanks to “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” according to numbers released by Comscore. The July box office was 78% higher than June and 27% higher than July 2022. Year-to-date 2023 is currently running 4% ahead of the same period in 2022, a step

Jay Oliva, a storyboard artist who worked on several DC and Warner Bros. movies such as “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Wonder Woman,” recently opened up to Inverse about Ben Affleck’s scrapped standalone Batman movie. Affleck debuted as Batman in Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of Justice” and reprised the role in

Variety’s Power of Young Hollywood party will take place on Aug. 10 and celebrate its annual Young Hollywood issue. This year’s cover stars include singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer Steve Lacy, actor Noah Schnapp and actress Sydney Sweeney. Radio host Josh “Bru” Brubaker will host the awards program at the event.  The event is also

“Meg 2: The Trench” sunk its pearly whites into $3.2 million in Thursday previews, as the followup to the 2018 Jason Statham hit is hoping to premiere to $30 million. Critics have feasted on the film, giving it a dreadful 28% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the pulverizing reviews may not have much impact

When Will Smith was ready to turn down the role of Agent J in 1997’s “Men in Black,” executive producer Steven Spielberg decided to take matters into his own hands. During a recent appearance on Kevin Hart’s “Hart to Heart” talk show (via Insider), Smith told the story of Spielberg sending a helicopter to bring

Feature documentary “Golden Legends,” which focuses on the Hungarian men’s water polo team who were crowned Olympic champions three times running between 2000-2008, has broken the record for a theatrical release in Hungary of a local documentary. Tamas S. Zákonyi’s film was released nationwide in Hungarian cinemas by Fórum Hungary at the end of April,

MIPCOM KEYNOTE SPEAKER Gerhard Zeiler, president of international at Warner Bros. Discovery, will give the opening keynote at the 39th edition of TV market Mipcom, which runs Oct. 16-19 in Cannes. Zeiler is expected to share insight into WBD’s transformation post-merger as well as lay out the company’s worldwide content and streaming strategy. Zeiler’s responsibilities

Raven Banner Entertainment continues to rack up sales for Richard V. Somes’ action spectacle “Topakk.”  “Topakk”(“Trigger”) has been sold to Aud (South Korea), Superfine Films (India), Kinologistika (CIS and the Baltics) and Lighthouse (German-speaking Europe). It’s not the end of good news, as the film – debuting its trailer and produced by Fusee, with Strawdogs

LOCARNO– New titles from “The Pretenders’” Vallo Toomla and Sara Summa, director of “The Last to See Them,“ rub shoulders with Nina Menkes’ “Minotaur Rex” and scarefest “All the World Drops Dead,” from Kevin Kopacka, in a lineup of some 150 projects being brought to Locarno Pro networking and co-production forum Match Me!  Shepherding them

Alliance 4 Development – a co-development initiative for film projects from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland hosted by Locarno Pro – is ready to embrace a “variety of genres, themes and visions,” says project manager Francesca Palleschi. Among 11 titles selected for its 8th edition, emerging filmmakers will be featured alongside their more established

LOCARNO — Tiempo Libre, the Lima-based production house behind Peruvian Oscar candidate “Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes),” has boarded “Valves” (“Valvas”), the second feature film from Andrea Hoyos, whose feature debut “Autoerotic,” established her as one of the forthright rising stars of Peru’s still expanding film industry. Verony Centeno, a Peruvian actress with significant experience

LOCARNO — Marianly Tejada, star of Netflix hit “One of Us Is Lying,” and Jean Jean, multi-prized for “Woodpeckers,” are attached to headline “Predicament” (“Predicamento”), an action-thriller written, produced and to be directed by Dominican Republic’s Ico Abréu.  A step up into the mainstream, but maintaining the social issue focus of much of Abréu’s TV

Marc Forster has frequently demonstrated an ability to tastefully moderate the more manipulative or saccharine aspects of popular but somewhat blunt-edged source material, in bestseller screen translations like “The Kite Runner” and “A Man Called Otto.” That knack comes in handy once more with “White Bird,” a graceful adaptation of a YA graphic novel by

The spirit of Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” weighs heavily, both thematically and stylistically, on “Brother,” a drama about two brothers growing up in a low-income Toronto suburb that lacks the grace and eloquence of the 2016 Best Picture Oscar winner. But even if writer-director Clement Virgo, adapting David Chariandy’s 2017 novel, can’t achieve the sustained aura

Writer-director Nicholas Maggio may not have intended to be self-critical when, fairly early in his debut feature “Mob Land,” he has one character observe to another about their failing small Southern town, “This whole place has become a fucking cliché.” But the longer this slackly paced rural noir continues, the more that dialogue seems in

The Writers Guild of America is continuing to downplay expectations for Friday’s meeting with the studios, and is telling members that it will not be pressured into accepting a bad deal. Ellen Stutzman, the WGA’s chief negotiator, is scheduled to meet Friday with the head of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. It

Jamie Lee Curtis doesn’t pretend to know when she thinks the SAG-AFTRA strike will end. “I have no idea,” the Oscar winner told me Thursday morning at Project Angel Food’s groundbreaking ceremony for The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Campus in Los Angeles. However, Curtis says she remains “hopeful” that the actors union and AMPTP can

The movie-mad phenomenon of “Barbenheimer” has been a thrilling reminder that audiences can still embrace the movie-theater experience, turning up in awesome droves when they’re offered something new and adventurous. It’s also been powerful evidence that films that aren’t formulaic sequels can succeed in a way that too many recent cookie-cutter franchise films have not.

Following Goya and Catalan Gaudi prize wins for short “The Disinherited” which also won a Cannes Discovery Award, Laura Ferrés’ debut feature “The Permanent Picture” is setting its sights on the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.  Drawing from a rich tapestry of personal and historical narratives, Ferrés showcases her distinctive approach to storytelling, blending

Legendary filmmakers Pedro Almodóvar and Spike Lee are the first honorees announced for this year’s TIFF Tribute Awards. Almodóvar, who won the Oscar for original screenplay for “Talk to Her” (2002), will receive the Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media presented by Participant, which recognizes leadership in creating a union between social impact and cinema.

The Writers Lab, supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, has revealed its ninth annual batch of participants. With a devotion to developing scripted content written by women over the age of 40, the Lab, produced with New York Women in Film & Television, is known for its commitment to elevating the work of women

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” collected $10.2 million on opening day, including $3.85 million from Tuesday’s preview screenings. Paramount and Nickelodeon’s animated adventure is getting a jump on the weekend by debuting on Wednesday. This weekend’s other new release, the Warner Bros. shark sequel “Meg 2: The Trench,” lands in theaters on Friday. “Mutant

Longtime “Daily Show” correspondent Roy Wood Jr. spoke about the future of late-night TV at Variety and Rolling Stone’s Truth Seekers Summit, presented by Showtime, saying he believes studios don’t realize that the more they look to downsize shows, the more likely they will face stiff competition from TikTok creators and other social media stars

“Dicks: The Musical,” the first film musical from A24, has everything: Megan Thee Stallion, a “Parent Trap” plotline, a pair of twins singing penis euphemisms, Nathan Lane and a cage full of mutant sewer boys. The independent banner released the first trailer for the R-rated comedy on Thursday morning, shortly following the announcement by the

Rome’s Cinecittà Studios are in the midst of a radical overhaul that started in June 2021, when the government-owned facilities, headed by Nicola Maccanico — who is a former Warner Bros. and Sky Italia senior exec — secured a multi-million dollar loan provided by the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund to upgrade and expand the studios.

Are Christopher Nolan movies too loud? It’s a question that’s asked every time the director releases a movie, and “Oppenheimer” is no exception. Nolan’s sound mix is once again a point of contention among viewers, with some complaining that it’s hard to understand the dialogue against Ludwig Göransson’s booming score and other sound design choices.

Lately, in the overwrought majority of Hollywood blockbusters, nothing less than the fate of the planet hangs in the balance, as some natural disaster or dastardly supervillain threatens to annihilate life as we know it. Such impossibly large stakes may be necessary to justify the CG spectacle of certain Marvel movies, but instead of inspiring

That’s not how real women look! When it comes to depictions of women’s bodies, Hollywood and the fashion industry have long faced criticism for missing the mark. That’s why the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media is teaming up with production companies Rose Pictures and Besties Make Movies on the documentary “Nothing Fits.” Jennifer