Movies

Martin Scorsese is executive producing “Escape,” the next film from Spanish writer-director Rodrigo Cortés, who burst onto the international scene directing Ryan Reynolds in the 2010 Sundance hit “Buried.” Set to go into production at the end of May, Cortés’ first Spanish-language film since his debut feature, 2007 madcap dark comedy “The Contestant,” “Escape” stars

Cannes Docs, the Cannes Film Market event dedicated to documentary film, brought together an expert industry panel to discuss the place of creative documentary in the fast-changing audiovisual market, where words like “content” and “format” are increasingly replacing “film” and “language.” Joining DAE co-founder Brigid O’Shea on stage for the May 21 talk were Emilie Bujès, artistic director of Swiss

After his debut feature “Titli” bowed at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand in 2014, Kanu Behl is back on the Croisette with “Agra,” which has its world premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight. ” ‘Agra’ grasps the reality of patriarchy in India through the prism of male sexual misery,” is how the festival describes the film.

The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) announced on Tuesday that NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson and entrepreneur Cookie Johnson will be commemorated at this year’s Elizabeth Taylor Ball to End AIDS on Sept. 21 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Both Magic and Cookie Johnson will be presented with the Elizabeth Taylor Commitment to

Solid, stately and — like the collapsing Papal States of the Italian Peninsula in the late 1800s — just a little too tradition-bound for its own good, Marco Bellocchio’s “Kidnapped,” based on a 19th-century case of religious abduction, opens with an eavesdrop. Anna (Aurora Camatti), the Catholic servant to the Jewish Mortara family of Bologna,

Jewish Story Partners (JSP), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit film funding organization, has announced  its new slate of grants to 19 documentary film projects. The org, which was launched in April 2021 with support from Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation, will distribute $490,000 among these independent films, all of which explore the vast and

Aki Kaurismäki, the deadpan cockeyed minimalist of Finland, has become the ultimate illustration of the principle that if you make movies in the same mood and style, with the same monosyllabic bombed-out hipster vibe, for a period of 30 years, your movies may not have changed — but the world around them has, so the

AMC Theaters has partnered with Grindstone Entertainment and Roadside Attractions for an exclusive U.S. release of Uninterrupted’s documentary “Black Ice.” The film reveals a long history of racism in the hockey world as told by both past and Black hockey players. In a sport where only around 5% of professional players are Black, the documentary

Moving towards a more equitable and accountable curation in film programming and selection processes, ethical representation in storytelling and the challenges posed by the lack of awareness and accountability was at the heart of a panel discussion at Cannes Docs, the Cannes Film Market event dedicated to documentary film, on May 20. Panelists included Egyptian director and producer Nada Riyadh,

A Ukrainian influencer was pulled off the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, after she covered herself in fake blood on the steps up to the Palais, staging a protest in support of Ukraine. This year, the city of Cannes banned protests along the Croisette and its surroundings during the festival. Ilona Chernobai —

Wes Anderson brought cowboys, aliens and movie stars to the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, earning a six-minute standing ovation at its world premiere. Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jason Schwartzman, Matt Dillon, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Norton, Margot Robbie and Jeff Goldblum are among the starry ensemble cast — many of whom

The disturbing thriller “Club Zero” that played at Cannes will divide audiences and critics with a scene of a teen eating vomit, but director Jessica Hausner gets one crucial thing right: It starts with a trigger warning for attendees, stating that the film features scenes regarding eating disorders. Of course, there will be many opinions

Quentin Tarantino eulogized his fictional “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” star Rick Dalton on a recent episode of his Video Archives podcast.  On May 19, Tarantino announced on The Video Archives’ Twitter that the fictional character had passed away, writing, “We are saddened by the news of the passing of actor Rick Dalton, best

As much as any filmmaker alive, Wes Anderson has a canon of movies that look and feel all of a piece. The diorama design, which extends from his life-size-dollhouse sets to his graphic lettering; the acting so stylized it’s like postmodern jokey-music-video kabuki; the fable-within-a-fable structure that can seem the cinematic equivalent of nested Russian

The highest award for docs-in-progress at the Cannes Film Market’s sidebar dedicated to documentary, Cannes Docs, has gone to Ya-Ting Hsu’s debut feature doc “Islands of the Winds.” Twenty years in the making, the film follows the anti-eviction struggle of the patients of Losheng Sanatorium for lepers, which became a symbol of the fight for democracy

Debuting Chilean director Felipe Gálvez doesn’t shy away from controversy. On the contrary: he actually welcomes it. “I love to be controversial,” he tells Variety in Cannes, where he is introducing blood-soaked Western “The Settlers,” posing some uncomfortable questions about his country’s colonial past.   “If something is controversial, it’s a good sign. It means it’s interesting.

Saudi Arabia’s Ithra Film Productions has launched a new film fund that aims to attract international filmmakers to shoot fully-financed movies in the kingdom on which local talents and crews can cut their teeth. Ithra Film — which is a unit of The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, financed by Saudi Aramco Oil Company to

Universal’s “Fast X” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £5.8 million ($7.3 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. In second place, Disney’s “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3” continued its strong run in the territory, adding £2.8 million in its third weekend for a total of £28.9 million. In its seventh

Eva Longoria put Hollywood on notice during her Kering Women in Motion talk at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The “Desperate Housewives” alum, who was joined by University of Southern California Annenberg professor and researcher Dr. Stacy L. Smith, is making her feature directorial debut with “Flamin’ Hot,” an inspirational story about a Frito-Lay janitor

Florence Pugh revealed to Time magazine that a lot of people in the independent film community were “pissed off” at her when she decided to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Pugh made a name for herself with acclaimed roles in indies such as “Lady Macbeth” and “Midsommar” before earning an Oscar nomination for Greta Gerwig’s

Tribeca will release a newly restored edition of “A Bronx Tale,” the directorial debut of Robert De Niro. It will include exclusive interviews with De Niro, who starred in the film as well as directed it, and writer and star Chazz Palminteri, reflecting on how the movie has become a classic with audiences. They also recall the original

Natalie Portman told GQ magazine that she’s open to returning to the “Star Wars” franchise, 18 years after “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” served as her exit from the long-running space saga. Portman starred in all three of George Lucas’ prequel films as Padmé Amidala, who wins the heart of Anakin Skywalker. “I have

Last summer, Van Robichaux ran for the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America West. Out of 17 candidates, he was the only one who raised a concern about artificial intelligence in his campaign statement. “As far as I know, this issue is not on the radar of anyone else running for the

Fogs, dogs and toxic smogs are just the headliner adversities hurled at the motley band of misfits determined to survive Kim Tae Gon’s “Project Silence,” by no means a classic in the Korean action-thriller pantheon, but a good enough stopgap for a rainy Sunday until the next one comes along. Set on a cataclysm-prone Seoul

Barbara Neri’s LGBTQIA+ play about a woman who claims to be Tennessee Williams heroine Blanche DuBois is set to be adapted as a feature film, with sales launching at Cannes. Neri has partnered with Ango-American filmmaker Jaclyn Bethany’s BKE Productions for the adaptation. According to the logline, “Unlocking Desire” tells the story of “an institutionalized

Revered Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio is returning to Cannes with “Kidnapped,” a drama that reconstructs the true tale of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy who was kidnapped and forcibly raised as a Christian in 19th century Italy. It’s a story that Steven Spielberg had his eye on, having announced in 2016 that he would

Neon has acquired Justine Triet’s Hitchcockian courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall.” The U.S. distributor has been “aggressively pursuing” the competition title, which premiered in Cannes on Sunday to rapturous reviews and early Palme d’Or buzz. In the 150-minute film, a frustrated writer dies of suspicious causes, leaving behind clues that implicate his wife (Sandra

Finnish actors Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen have been making names for each other for a while now. But playing leads in Aki Kaurismäki’s latest film, “Fallen Leaves,” was a whole different story. “He has always been that household name, even when I was growing up on a farm in the 1980s, kicking a ball

Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” is a hot property in Cannes, and it’s yet to even premiere. Several buyers are currently circling the Japan-set, music-infused title from master filmmaker Wenders, which bows in competition on Thursday. Sources tell Variety that interested parties so far include Utopia, MUBI, Magnolia, Sideshow and Janus Films and Sony Pictures Classics.

Dartmouth Films has set a U.K. and Ireland release date for Alastair Evans’ acclaimed documentary “A Crack in the Mountain” and unveiled a clip from the film. Deep in the jungle of central Vietnam lies an underground kingdom. Hang Son Doong, which translates as ‘mountain river cave’ is the largest cave passage in the world