Movies

Spain has proved ever more successful in luring some of the biggest movies and series, and although 2020 saw a large rise in tax breaks, the big hike came in December. New record tax advantages raised relief for international productions to up to €20 million ($21.4 million) per movie and $10.7 million for any single

Belarusian filmmakers and industry professionals gathered in Berlin on Friday to announce the launch of the Belarusian Film Academy (BIFA), an organization formed to give a platform to independent filmmakers in the repressive former Soviet republic and staunch Kremlin ally. Born in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when more than 130 Belarusian

The intersection between Black Lives Matter and a COVID-like pandemic plus a standout performance from non-professional actor Mwajemi Hussein is sure to make “The Survival of Kindness” one of Berlin’s most talked-about films. The film is deliberately obscure – the little dialog that is heard involves each performer speaking in a language of their own

“The Echo” — or rather, El Eco — is the name of a tiny rural village in Mexico’s Puebla state that sufficiently captivated Mexican-Salvadorean filmmaker Tatiana Huezo into filming it over the course of 18 months, observing its changes in weather, fortune and the temperament of its few, tightly bonded residents in fine, fraught degrees.

Barcelona-based sales shingle Filmax has acquired international rights to Spanish thriller “Ellipsis,” directed and co-written by  Goya-nominated David Marqués (“The Unemployment Club,” “En Temporada Baja”). “Ellipsis” toplines a slew of Spanish-language world stars, including  Diego Peretti (“The Kingdom,” “The Wrath of God”), José Coronado (“No Rest for the Wicked”), and iconic Mexican thesp Cecilia Suárez

Best Friend Forever has boarded Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s debut feature “Banel & Adama,” a lushly lensed Senegalese female emancipation drama. Now in post, the movie is expected to have its world premiere later this year. ‘Banel & Adama’ is set a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for

REinvent International sales has closed deals on genre titles from its Chills label, including “Dark Windows,” “Leave” and “Shadow Island,” ahead of the EFM. “Dark Windows,” Alex Herron’s English-language horror thriller, has been sold to the MENA region (ENL / Empire Network Ltd) and Latin America (Gussi). The movie tells the story of teenagers involved

India’s Clapstem Entertainment, led by director-producer Girish Malik and producer Amardeep S. Reen, has completed film “Band of Maharajas,” which is set for a market screening at Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM). Malik’s directorial debut, ecological drama “Jal” (2013), was in Busan’s New Currents competition. His sophomore feature, refugee and sports themed “Torbaaz” (2020), headlined

After breaking into NASA to make his last movie, “Operation Avalanche,” one would think that “BlackBerry” — a film that, on paper, sounds like a standard book adaptation about a Canadian boom-and-bust story — would be a walk in the park for Matt Johnson. For anyone else, it might have been. But short-cuts don’t compute

In “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise,” which is premiering on Feb. 17 at the Berlin Film Festival, the folk icon with a supple soprano voice and a long history of activism, takes a disarmingly candid look on her life as she faces the end of her 60-year musical career. The immersive doc is co-directed

Writer-director Dustin Guy Defa has shared a first-look clip (below) of his feature comedy drama “The Adults,” which will have its world premiere Saturday at the Berlin Film Festival, with stars Michael Cera, Hannah Gross and Sophia Lillis, and Defa in attendance. The film, which is distributed worldwide by Universal Pictures Content Group, will be

Picture Tree Intl. has boarded Berlin Film Festival title “Measures of Men,” which focuses on the genocide committed by the German army against the Ovaherero and Nama tribes in Southwestern Africa. The trailer debuts (below). The film is written and directed by Lars Kraume, whose credits include Berlin’s “The Silent Revolution” and Toronto’s “The People

“A Radiant Girl” is set in Paris in 1942, but you’d hardly know it from spending time with the film’s 19-year-old protagonist, Irene (Rebecca Marder) — at least not to begin with. Irene is, as the title suggests, a lovely young woman, practically vibrating with joie de vivre. An aspiring actor, she spends her days

In a sign of a new ebullience in Spain’s film industry, Spain’s Elamedia Estudios, founded by Roberto Butragueño is launching Sideral, an integrated production-distribution-sales label which makes its debut presenting at the Berlinale Co-Production Market the feature project “Cheaper Than Stealing.” Titles Sideral handles either in international sales, production or distribution take in “In the

Brazilian animated feature “Perlimps,” Alê Abreu’s follow up to Oscar-nominated “Boy and the World,” has been sold in key territories by Best Friend Forever ahead of the European Film Market. “Perlimps” has been picked up for Japan (Child Film and New Deer), China (DDDream), CIS and baltics (Kinologistica), Sweden (Njutafilm) and Portugal (Films4you). BFF is

Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has inked a three genre-pic production deal with the HJ Production banner of Hugo Cardozo, writer-director-producer of 2019 Paraguayan hit “Morgue.” Paraguay-based René Ruiz Díaz, CEO of Urban Achievers, is also partnering on the deal. Díaz produced “Gold Seekers” from “7 Cajas” director Juan Carlos Maneglia. First pic up in the pact is

Since the launch of its cash rebate in 2018, which covers up to 40% of qualifying expenditures along with 30% in tax relief, Greece has become one of Europe’s hottest filming destinations. But domestic production is surging as well, and the industry reached new heights in 2022, with the rebate scheme supporting 132 international and

For a country of 11 million that’s spent much of the past decade lurching from one economic crisis to the next, you’d be hard-pressed to suggest the Greek film industry isn’t punching above its weight. In the span of just a few weeks earlier this year, Rian Johnson’s Netflix blockbuster “Glass Onion: A Knives Out

Ester Expósito, one of the stars of Netflix global hit “Elite,” is attached to star “The Wailing” (“El Llanto”), co-written by Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s regular co-scribe Isabel Peña (“The Beasts”) and directed by talent-to-track Pedro Martín-Calero (“Secrets”). It’s one of the most powerful Spanish-language packages being brought onto Berlin’s European Film Market. The auteur genre movie

Latvian director Viesturs Kairiss, who won the international narrative competition at the Tribeca Film Festival last year with his coming-of-age drama “January,” is prepping his next feature film. “Ulya” is based on the real-life story of Ulyana Semjonova, a girl raised in the Latvian countryside who reaches a height of seven feet and would go

If you were wondering what to expect from Tyler Perry’s next project, the Netflix World War II-set drama “Six Triple Eight,” the director and the film’s star Kerry Washington have shared a first look. Written, directed and produced by Perry, “Six Triple Eight” tells the inspiring true story of the 6888th Postal Directory Battalion, the

Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron wanted to explore making a series of short films honoring the different cultural traditions at the end of the year, from Christmas to Hanukkah to pagan traditions. His concept was to find a director suited to telling the story, depending on the culture. When it came to Christmas, Cuaron says, “That time

Austin Butler’s agent told him he would need to gain weight to play the older version of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” “I heard that Ryan Gosling when he was going to do ‘The Lovely Bones,’ had microwaved Häagen-Dazs and would drink it,” Butler tells Variety. “So I started doing that. I would go

M. Night Shyamalan has inked a new multi-year, first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, with the Oscar-nominated filmmaker switching his allegiance from Universal. The announcement was made Thursday by Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy. News of the pact comes as the director celebrates his latest release “Knock

It’s old school versus new school for best director at the DGA Awards. Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans” is the culmination of more than 50 years of moviemaking. Then there’s the visionary whimsy of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the duo behind the sci-fi comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The veteran and the newcomers

HBO’s “The Last of Us” is one of the biggest shows of 2023 so far, so big that Sony Pictures Entertainment film chairman Tom Rothman is wishing the studio had gone ahead and turned the video game into a feature film. “The Last of Us” is based on the Sony Playstation game of the same

The dynamics between fathers and sons, and whether the younger generation can ever escape the family legacy, is at the heart of “Devil’s Peak.” It’s apt then that director Ben Young cast Hopper Penn — son of Sean — as his lead. In this adaptation of David Joy’s novel “Where All Light Tends to Go,”

A compelling character-based drama that reveals the interior life of a young trans man over roughly 24 hours in New York City, “Mutt” follows Feña (Lío Mehiel) as he tries to navigate a series of events that would be stressful for anyone. Piling on setbacks that specifically challenge someone still working out how to reintroduce

A judge ruled Thursday that no additional victims — beyond the one woman whose testimony was the basis for Harvey Weinstein’s conviction — will be able to give victim impact statements at Weinstein’s sentencing next week. The ruling comes amid calls from attorney Gloria Allred to allow more victims to speak at the sentencing, which

Jake Bongiovi, budding actor and son of rocker Jon Bon Jovi, is one of three young stars who have joined the cast of the comedy “Rockbottom,” Variety can report exclusively. Bongiovi, a considerable social media presence and native to the music space, will join McKaley Miller (“Ma”) and Teala Dunn (“Crush”) in the feature project