Movies

Inward investment into film and high-end television (HETV) in the U.K. during 2022 reached a record height of £6.27 billion ($7.72 billion), statistics from the BFI reveal. This is the highest ever reported figure and is £1.83 billion higher than for the pre-pandemic year 2019. Some 69% of the £6.27 billion spend was contributed by

Ellie Bamber is set to star as Kate Moss in a new film detailing her infamous relationship with Lucian Freud. The “Serpent” and “Nocturnal Animals” star will play the British supermodel in “Moss & Freud,” which will cover a period in the early 2000s when she sat for Freud, who will be played by Derek

Film marketing, distribution and data agency Together Films has revealed two senior hires as founder and CEO Sarah Mosses prepares for maternity leave. Caitlin Boyle is joining part-time as interim director of impact. The executive will support the company’s strategy clients and give motivational project management to the live impact campaign team. Boyle’s previous clients

Lior Geller is set to direct “The World Will Tremble,” a scripted feature about the first Nazi death camp, which will be produced by Lorton Entertainment. Of the 320,000 Jews sent to Chelmno, the first Nazi extermination camp, only four are known to have survived. “The World Will Tremble” tells the story of two of

Cutting through roaring laughter, Spanish director Albert Serra said: “Why are you laughing?! I am serious!” The reaction of the audience was the natural byproduct of Serra’s staple candidness, which he brought to the International Film Festival Rotterdam during an in-depth talk about his career and methodology delivered earlier this week.  The director measured no

Amazon Prime Video has closed a multi-picture licensing agreement with South Africa’s Known Associates, the parent company of Johannesburg-based Known Associates Entertainment (KAE) and Cape Town-based Moonlighting Films, the company announced Thursday during the Joburg Film Festival. The deal grants Prime Video exclusive SVOD access to over 20 South African feature films, including Zane Meas’

“Twice Colonized” by Danish filmmaker Lin Alluna will open Copenhagen documentary film festival CPH:DOX, and will play in its competition section, Next:Wave. The festival will open on March 15 at DR Koncerthuset, Copenhagen’s international concert venue. The film centers on renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter, who has led a lifelong fight for the rights of

Ahead of the film’s market premiere at Berlin’s European Film Market, Beta Cinema has announced first deals for “Operation Napoleon” to France (Mediawan), Spain (Twelve Oaks), Poland (Hagi Film), Former Yugoslavia (MegaCom), Japan (Tohokushinsha) and Taiwan (AV-Jet). The English-language thriller is based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Icelandic crime author Arnaldur Indriðason and stars

GÖTEBORG, Sweden — On Saturday night, audiences at the Göteborg Film Festival, the largest movie-TV event in Scandinavia, were privy to the world premiere of “The King,” a documentary by Swedish journalist Karin af Klintberg for which she was given unprecedented access to follow Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf for two years. REinvent International Sales

Jafar Panahi has gone on a hunger strike to protest being still held in Tehran’s Evin prison even though Iran’s supreme court has overturned the conviction that led to the dissident director’s detention. Panani has issued a statement from prison saying that to protest against the “illegal and inhumane” treatment by the Islamic Republic’s judiciary

Japan’s Gaga Corporation and Wild Bunch International will collaborate again for international sales of “Monster,” the upcoming film directed by Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu. Gaga will handle Asian territories. Wild Bunch will handle worldwide excluding Asia. A promo reel for buyers will be available at the upcoming European Film Market that operates alongside the Berlin

In a new legal setback for Colombian director Ciro Guerra, best known for his Oscar-nominated film “Embrace of the Serpent,” a Bogota court has denied the injunction that he filed against the journalists behind an explosive 2020 report detailing anonymous accounts of alleged sexual harassment and abuse. In its statement, the court noted: “The journalists did not

Netflix has unveiled a trailer for Berlin-bound action drama “Kill Boksoon,” with Jeon Do-yeon, previous winner of the best actress prize at Cannes, in the starring role. The film sees Jeon as Gil, a single woman juggling the demanding and conflicting roles of professional killer and mother to a teenage daughter. Despite her unblemished track

Dave Bautista really, really means it when he says “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” will be his final outing as Drax the Destroyer. During a recent visit on “The Tonight Show,” the actor stuck to his guns about exiting the Marvel Cinematic Universe and questioned why it’s still news at this point. “Yeah, it’s

Studio Ghibli has had a successful run in the coveted fashion world but it’s coming to a (temporary) close with one final collaboration with the Spanish luxury house Loewe. Following capsule collections inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” and “My Neighbor Totoro” comes one more limited-edition lineup, this time inspired by “Howl’s Moving Castle.” The

Would M. Night Shyamalan want to see dead people or would he rather be unbreakable? Is there any chance he would get in a wrestling ring with Dave Bautista? Or sing with Jonathan Groff? As his new film “Knock at the Cabin” poses an impossible dilemma, Variety asked the filmmaker to play a quick round

The Intl. Documentary Association (IDA) has announced three $25,000 grants for upcoming films through its Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund. The three documentaries are: Adamu Chan’s “What These Walls Won’t Hold”; Jalena Keane-Lee’s “Standing Above the Clouds”; and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras’s “Hummingbirds,” which will have its world premiere at the 2023

Malcolm D. Lee’s Blackmaled Productions has bolstered its executive ranks by naming Emmy-nominated producer Dominique Telson as executive VP of film and television and announcing three new key hires and promotions within the company. Blackmaled’s new hires include Michael Scott Allen as the VP of television and Giselle Johnson as director of film. Chigo Menakaya,

A second wave of film and television programming has been announced for this year’s South by Southwest Conference and Festivals, with highlights including the series debuts of “Swarm” and Steven Yeun starring “Beef” on opening and closing night, respectively. A full list of honorees in the visions, global presented by MUBI, 24 beats and festival

Plans have begun to formulate for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s slate of DC Studios films, with filmmaker James Mangold in early talks to take on “Swamp Thing.” Sources tell Variety that Mangold is a longtime fan of the DC Comics supernatural hero and approached Gunn and Safran with his idea for the forthcoming project.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a major increase in the state’s film and TV tax incentive, as the state looks to compete with California and Georgia to attract productions. In her executive budget, Hochul proposed increasing the state’s film credit from $420 million to $700 million a year. The credit would also become

An untitled documentary about the experimental use of psychedelics to treat former Navy SEALs’ traumatic brain injuries and PTSD is in the works from Participant. The project, produced by Participant, Actual Films and Chicago Media Project, will depict U.S. special operation veterans as they seek the controversial, transformative treatment. Following former Navy SEALs who suffer

In an almost unbelievable turn of events, an extradition hearing regarding the alleged scammer known as the “Con Queen of Hollywood” was interrupted by histrionics on Wednesday before ending – for a second time – in fire. Hargobind Tahilramani, who is accused of masterminding a million dollar scam in which he impersonated high level film

The twist in M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film comes at the beginning, not the end. The trouble with that arrangement is that a career of surprise-ending films, such as “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs,” has conditioned audiences to expect something juicy to be revealed at the eleventh hour, by which point, this apocalyptic head-scratcher has

Cher Horowitz is back. 28 years after Amy Heckerling’s cult classic “Clueless” premiered, setting the bar for modernized Jane Austen adaptations and inspiring decades of Halloween costumes, Silverstone is set to reprise her role as the sweetly well-intentioned Valley girl — not for a sequel film or one of her TikToks, but rather for a

Emma Thompson is set to star in Brian Kirk’s upcoming action thriller “The Fisherwoman,” Variety can exclusively reveal. In the feature, Thompson is set to play a widowed fisherman who, while trapped in a Minnesotan blizzard, interrupts the kidnapping of a teenager and soon finds she is the young victim’s only hope. Kirk will direct

The official trailer has dropped for the George Foreman biopic, titled “Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World,” from director George Tillman Jr. It explores the life of the legendary boxer turned minister. Forest Whitaker portrays Doc Broadus, the boxer’s longtime trainer who introduced him to

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed its juries, and the addition of Liu Jian’s animated feature “Art College 1994” to its competition lineup, which now has 19 films and is complete. In addition to the already announced actor Kristen Stewart as president, the International Jury members will be actor Golshifteh Farahani (Iran/France), director and writer

“Mutt,” the Sundance prize-winning feature debut of New York-based filmmaker Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, has been boarded by Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever. “Mutt,” which just won the Special Jury Award for actor Lío Mehiel (“WeCrashed”) at Sundance, will next play at the Berlin Film Festival in the Generation 14+ strand. CAA Media Finance is handling North

A new independent film academy has launched out of Belarus to support the country’s independent artists. The Belarusian Film Academy (BIFA) will officially launch during this month’s Berlin Film Festival, where an industry presentation will be made in partnership with the European Film Market. The org has been set up in response to a “constant