Movies

Three days after a barbarous playground attack left the lakeside town in grief and shock, and in an amphitheater facing the public park where the tragedy occurred, the Annecy Intl. Animation Festival inaugurated this year’s edition with a show of solidarity and communal defiance. “In response to barbarity, this festival will hold up creativity and

A slow-burn Rocky Mountain noir set along the corridor between Billings, Mont., and the Canadian border — a cold, lonely stretch of highway shared by salesmen and smugglers alike — “Blood for Dust” establishes a ruthless sense of sangfroid from its opening shot. On a desk in a bland business office sits a family portrait,

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s production banner Artists Equity states that it “did not consent” to the use of a monologue from the film “Air” in a new campaign ad for Donald Trump. On Saturday, Trump shared a fundraising video on his Truth Social platform. The ad features footage and images of the former president

Variety will host a panel at the Annecy Animation Festival, Breaking the Borders of Animation, focusing on one of the key – and most exciting –  talking points in the medium: How animation is currently being revolutionized and reimagined by new waves of creativity and technology. The panel has been organised with Nickelodeon as its official

Michael Shannon has previously revealed that he was “a little confused” when he received the offer to join “The Flash” in a reprisal of his role of of General Zod from “Man of Steel.” Now, the actor has revealed that those complicated feelings weren’t exactly resolved while making the new DC film. In a new

In Netflix’s “The Saint of Second Chances,” Academy Award winner Morgan Neville (“20 Feet From Stardom”) and Jeff Malmberg (“Marwencol”) tell the story of Mike Veeck, the hard-not-to-love son of late Major League Baseball owner Bill Veeck, who gained infamy for his role cooking up the disastrous Disco Demolition Night promotion at Chicago’s Comiskey Park

After a two-year hiatus Focus Features is back in the documentary theatrical game with Julie Cohen’s “Every Body,” a film that explores the lives of three intersex people. Defined as those born with sex traits that do not fit binary medical definitions of male or female sexual or reproductive anatomy, intersex people make up close

Folding the intricacies of the human condition into everyday life in Jordan, director Cynthia Madanat Sharaiha (“Noor”) bows her feature debut “Saleem” in competition at the Annecy Animation Festival. The film marks the first Jordanian selection for the festival and was selected as part of this year’s Contrechamp strand which includes Pablo Berger’s offbeat friendship

After less than two weeks of release, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” has surpassed the entire box office run of its predecessor, 2018’s Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” Over the weekend, the comic book sequel hit $226 million in North America and $390 million globally. It now stands as Sony’s highest-grossing animated release in history. The

“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” kicked off at the international box office with $110 million from 68 markets, including a decent $40 million start in China. The seventh installment in Paramount’s action franchise also pulled in $60 million in its North American debut, bringing its worldwide tally to a solid $170 million. Overseas audiences will

Elizabeth Olsen is currently on a break from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and she’s definitely enjoying it. During a conversation with “The White Lotus” star Meghann Fahy as part of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Olsen got honest about not missing her Scarlet Witch days. “Do you miss doing Wanda?” Fahy asked. “No, I don’t,”

It’s all about the framing of a news story. “We’re seeing it now, how a narrative can change the truth,” says Tracee Ellis Ross as she slides into a plush chair in her Los Angeles home. There’s no particular trending story on her mind. The actress and sometimes director is simply musing about the state

Spider-Man put up a good fight, but the Autobots came out on top. After an unusually close box office battle, Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” pulled ahead of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” debuting in first place to $60.5 million from 3,678 theaters. Sony’s animated “Spider-Verse sequel still managed a mighty second weekend, landing in

These days Jane Campion – Palme d’Or and Oscar-winning film director – is celebrated for a vein of heartfelt cinema that is aching and quirky, rather than gushing. She’s also an intelligent and determined female pioneer who has had to struggle for her present standing in a male-dominated industry. The Sydney Film Festival this week

This year, the Annecy Animation Film Festival hosts a variety of first-looks and works-in-progress, including the anticipated “Migration,” from Illumination, to be released by Universal on Dec. 22. On the heels of a presentation at CinemaCon in April, Illumination chief Chris Meledandri will present never-before-seen footage of the feature at Annecy June 13. Meledandri and

DreamWorks Animation brings three features to Annecy, and screens the world premiere of “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” with director Kirk DeMicco, producer Kelly Cooney Cilella and co-director Faryn Pearl in attendance, on June 15 at the festival. The animated adventure opens June 30 in the U.S. and features an all-star cast of Lana Condor, Toni

“Nimona” took a twisty road to the big screen. But now it’s ready for its debut at Annecy Animation Film Festival. Pictured above is an exclusive still from the anticipated fantasy adventure. Based on the graphic novel by N.D. Stevenson, the feature follows Ballister Boldheart, a knight in a futuristic medieval world who is framed

Lille-born filmmaker Benoît Chieux has been coming to Annecy for 30 years. This year, to his own amazement, he is opening the festival with “Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams.”  “It’s an incredible surprise and a huge honor. Today’s competition [in animation] is very tough and there are so many high-quality feature films out

While debates about the use of A.I. take center stage across the entertainment industry, the technology has been quietly assisting animation and visual effects crews for years. It had made some of the most astonishing visual images possible when artisans have been asked to do what was previously thought impossible. When helmer Peter Sohn wanted

There’s a moment in “Stan Lee,” David Gelb’s lively and illuminating documentary about the visionary of Marvel Comics, that’s momentous enough to give you a tingle. The year is 1961, and Lee, approaching 40, is burnt out on comics. It’s a form he has never taken all that seriously, even though he’s been working at

Production designer Patrick O’Keefe drew inspiration from brutalist architecture, graphic artist Syd Mead and British punk band The Sex Pistols when animating the world of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” As Miles Morales crosses path with different Spider-People from other dimensions, it was up to O’Keefe and his team of animators to create visual worlds that

Arnold Schwarzenegger has had no shortage of hits throughout his career, but he’s still embarrassed by the lackluster reception of one of his would-be blockbuster’s, the 1993 action comedy “Last Action Hero.” In the new three-part Netflix docuseries “Arnold,” the bodybuilder-turned-star-turned-governor details his varied career, providing insights into his momentous highs and lows as an

Set within a typically raucous fraternity at a fictional college, Ethan Berger’s “The Line” foretells where it’s headed early on when the school administrator warns of repercussions if a hazing is performed. Consider Chekhov’s gun cocked from that point: Audiences can guess what awaits, though the lead-up to the inevitable is lively and compelling, while

Half an hour into “Songs About Fucking,” James Gallagher’s music documentary premiering at Tribeca on Saturday, Marc Rebillet points the microphone at a burly, bearded gentleman standing in the front row of his concert and asks, “Sir, how are you?” “I’m great,” says the man, dressed in only his underwear and a bathrobe. “I’m pregnant

The summer season has its first genuine battle for top of the heap, as “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” looks to fend off last week’s top release “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” “Rise of the Beasts” put its foot on the gas with $25 million on its opening day, a figure that includes $8.8 million in

Michael Shannon has turned the tables on me. I’m supposed to be the one conducting the interview, but he’s more interested in what I saw at Cannes. “What did I like?” he wonders. “What was worth watching?” And to hear his probing questions, delivered in the low rumble and unvarnished intensity with which Shannon threatens

The unimaginable — a modern U.S. civil war — gains considerable clarity and alarming proximity in the documentary “Against All Enemies,” about the continuing rise of far-right extremist groups. Various talking heads here stress that the January 6 insurrection was no aberration but part of a fast-evolving pattern that poses a serious threat to our

Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria used the platform of her keynote address Friday at the UCLA Entertainment Symposium to dispel a few myths that persist around the streamer that has transformed television viewing during the past decade. During an hourlong, wide-ranging Q&A with veteran entertainment attorney Ken Ziffren, Bajaria made the forceful case that

Paul Geoffrey, an English actor known for his roles in “Excalibur” and “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes,” has died. He was 68. Geoffrey died on June 3 in Santa Fe, N.M. from a battle with cancer, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. “A thespian to the core, Paul continued to act

Several crew members were injured on the Morocco set of the sequel to “Gladiator” on June 7 while filming a stunt sequence for the action film. “While filming a planned stunt sequence on the set of the ‘Gladiator’ sequel, an accident occurred during which several crew members experienced non-life-threatening injuries,” a spokesperson for Paramount Pictures, the studio