Movies

Saturday night meant another feather in the cap for Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy, whose Arab-language social satire “Feathers” took the Best Film prize on the awards night of the 5th Joburg Film Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa. His story centers on a father who literally turns into a chicken during a magic show at

The Santa Barbara Intl. Film Festival celebrates movies and the people who make them.  One essential element of SBIFF is its focus on film education. With a carefully curated program, executive director Roger Durling says, “We’re educating your average filmgoer that comes to the festival.” Every event — from panels to tributes — is designed

Variety’s ninth annual Artisans Awards celebrates and honors the craftspeople who are essential to the filmmaking process. The tribute evening will take place on Feb. 13 at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara where Jazz Tangcay, Variety senior artisans editor, will moderate a conversation and panel with the honorees. As audiences returned to the movie-going

New York Times bestselling author turned TV creator Taiye Selasi captivated a packed theater at the Joburg Film Festival this week, acknowledging that the deck is stacked against Black female creators in Hollywood, but insisting that the power of African women remained in their ability to overcome any obstacle in bringing their stories to the

James Cameron’s blockbuster “Avatar: The Way of Water” has overtaken Cameron’s other blockbuster “Titanic” as the third-highest grossing movie in history at the international box office. The sci-fi sequel has now generated $1.538 million overseas, trailing only James Cameron’s other blockbuster “Avatar” ($2.1 billion) and “Avengers: Endgame” ($1.9 billion) in terms of international ticket sales.

M. Night Shyamalan’s horror film “Knock at the Cabin” collected $14.2 million in its opening weekend, enough to top box office charts and dethrone “Avatar: The Way of Water” after spending seven weeks at No. 1. The creepy thriller, from Universal, just barely beat the weekend’s other new wide release, “80 for Brady,” which scored in

Mark Hamill announced in a new Politico interview that he will be signing limited edition “Star Wars” posters in an effort to raise cash for maintaining the Ukrainian army’s drone supply amid the country’s ongoing war against Russia. The war will hit its one-year mark on Feb. 24. Hamill was named an ambassador of Ukraine’s

Armenia’s submission to the Oscars, animated feature “Aurora’s Sunrise,” took home the top Jury Award for best documentary at the MiradasDoc Festival, Spain’s foremost documentary film festival, which wrapped its 16th edition on Feb 4.  The festival closed on a strong note, reaffirming its relevance where interest in and demand for documentaries have only grown

It has been a long road for Cameroon’s Cyrielle Raingou, the director of documentary “Le Spectre de Boko Haram,” about children growing up surrounded by terrorist organization Boko Haram, winner of the Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam’s Tiger Award. “Life can be crazy, no?,” she tells Variety after her win. Initially following a different protagonist, Raingou

“The Worst Person in the World” producer Thomas Robsahm is set to produce “Loveable,” another contemporary relationship movie headlined by Scandinavian stars Helga Guren (“22. juli”) and Oddgeir Thune (“Blind Spot”). Scandinavia’s leading sales company TrustNordisk is representing “Loveable” in international markets. “Loveable” will mark the long-gestated feature debut of Lilja Ingolfsdottir, who has directed

Oscar nominee Eskil Vogt – who co-wrote “The Worst Person in the World” with Joachim Trier, and directed Cannes selected “The Innocents” – delivers another love story, but he goes darker in “Copenhagen Does Not Exist,” a Snowglobe production directed by Martin Skovbjerg, recently awarded at Göteborg Film Festival following its world premiere at Intl.

Monolit Film, the Danish banner behind “The Great Silence,” is developing “Wannabe,” the feature debut of “Bad Bitch” director Patricia Bbaale Bandak, and “After the Sun,” a dystopia based on a short story featured in The New Yorker in 2021. “Wannabe,” which was pitched at the Nordic Film Market in Goteborg as part of the

Renowned British costume designer Sandy Powell will be awarded a Fellowship at the upcoming EE BAFTA Film Awards. The award is the highest recognition given by BAFTA to an individual for their exceptional contribution to the film, games or television industry. Powell, who is the first costume designer to receive the Fellowship, has a three-and-a-half

Malou Reymann’s “Unruly” won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at Göteborg on Saturday. At SEK 400 000 ($38,000), the Award’s cash prize is one of the largest prizes in the world.  Jurors Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Sofie Gråbøl, Antonio Lukich and Matti Bye praised the film for telling a “universal story about human spirit against

After eight weeks of release, “Avatar: The Way of Water” will likely abdicate the top slot at the box office this weekend, as M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller “Knock at the Cabin” and Paramount’s comedy “80 for Brady” look to open above the James Cameron film on domestic charts. Universal’s “Knock at the Cabin” brought in

SPOILER ALERT: This contains spoilers for “Knock at the Cabin,” now playing in theaters. Dave Bautista is having one of the biggest years of his career. He’s coming off a clever part as Duke Cody in “Glass Onion,” wrapping up his run as hilarious brute Drax the Destroyer in Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”

Zar Amir Ebrahimi, a best actress winner at last year’s Cannes for “Holy Spider,” is ready to move into directing, currently developing a feature debut under the working title of “Honor of Persia.” “It has been years and years that I am writing. It’s about my last year in Iran,” she told Variety at Sweden’s Göteborg Film

Three years into BAFTA’s radical overhaul of its voting system at the nomination stage, this year’s slate of nominees isn’t quite as rogue as it has been in the past two years, which saw many a heavily hyped front-runner booted in favor of homegrown underdogs and arthouse outsiders. But if things hew closer to the

Two years after he faced a series of sexual abuse allegations that ended his career as a movie star, Armie Hammer is attempting to tell his side of the story. In a new interview, he reveals that he contemplated suicide after his downfall and claims he was sexually abused by a youth pastor at 13.

The lead role in blockbuster spy action film “Pathaan” was the fulfilment of a promise made by producer Aditya Chopra 30 years ago, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has revealed. “Pathaan” is produced by Yash Raj Films (YRF), founded by the late Yash Chopra, of which Aditya Chopra is now the head. In 1993, Khan

Matthew McConaughey was a king of the romantic-comedy genre in the early 2000s, and it turns out it’s all thanks to a fortune teller. The Oscar winner already had one rom-com hit under his belt with 2001’s “The Wedding Planner” when the offer to star opposite Kate Hudson in “How to Lose a Guy in

It was director Jack Goessens’ own experience as a trans man that inspired his feature debut, “Boifriend.” “The story is based on my personal journey as a trans man figuring out my identity. When I started my transition, I was often asked: ‘How do you know? And how did you get to that conclusion?’ And

SPOILER ALERT: This contains major spoilers for “Knock at the Cabin,” now playing in theaters. Director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest tense, apocalyptic thriller, “Knock at the Cabin,” is adapted from author Paul Tremblay’s novel “The Cabin at the End of the World,” but the Universal film majorly diverges from the book with its ending. Both properties

South African filmmaker Kurt Orderson’s “Apetown,” one of 20 projects selected for this year’s CineMart, the co-production market at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, describes it as a “hard-hitting love letter to Cape Town.” The film is a South African urban story “weaving together hip-hop, graffiti, segregation and camaraderie,” told through the eyes of “a

One of Ireland’s most famous actors has taken a shot at one of Ireland’s most famous athletes. Liam Neeson told Men’s Health that he is no fan of UFC fighter Connor McGregor, going so far as to compare McGregor to a “little leprechaun.” McGregor, one of the highest-paid athletes in the world, is the first

In at heartbreaking scene, “Corsage” director Marie Kreutzer broke down at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival when addressing a recent scandal involving one of the film’s actors.  Florian Teichtmeister was charged with possession of child pornography. As mentioned by the festival’s artistic director, Jonas Holmberg, the Criminal Court of Vienna confirmed that authorities found 58,000 digital files

Before we get into the buzzy new releases that are making their streaming debuts this month, let’s get this important PSA out of the way first: Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy is finally back on Netflix. There really is no better way to spend a winter weekend than on the couch with all

Brian Cox is sharing praise for Bryan Singer, who cast and directed Cox as Colonel William Stryker in 2003’s “X2: X-Men United.” Singer has been accused of sexual misconduct by several men, and he’s also faced accusations from “X-Men” actors of inappropriate on-set behavior. Halle Berry, who played Storm in Singer’s “X-Men” franchise, told Variety

Lorne Balfe, the Grammy Award winning score composer of “Dark Knight,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” has joined the top notch key crew of “Stockholm Bloodbath,” Mikael Håfström’s epic adventure movie produced by Viaplay Studios. Balfe, whose prestigious credits also include “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” “His Dark Materials” and “Genius,”  is creating the score

“Babylon” composer Justin Hurwitz knew the epic vision of his longtime friend and collaborator Damien Chazelle would be divisive. “It’s disappointing,” he tells Variety. “From the elephant poop through all the rest of the bodily fluids. I think we always knew the movie wasn’t going to be for everybody. It’s definitely disappointing that more people