Movies

Makbul Mubarak’s “Autobiography” has won Best Asian Film, the top prize at the Singapore International Film Festival’s Silver Screen Awards, continuing its award-winning spree. The film made a winning debut at Venice earlier this year and went on to win prizes at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Golden Horse, Marrakech, QCity, Jogja-NETPAC, Stockholm and Tokyo

“When you start looking in the darkness, you’ll see something. That’s the idea I wanted to depict and convey,” Kogahara Takeshi told Variety, after the screening of his debut “Nagisa,” a movie where darkness and silences play a crucial role. The plot follows a young man (played by Yuzu Aoki) who suffers from guilt related

“My need to work on monologues originates from my love of literature. I usually pick novels that have little or no dialogue, so that I perceive the book as a very long monologue. Since I make films where plot twists are rare, if not entirely absent, monologues help me to have something masquerade as a

“Bruiser” builds to a massive brawl that, in a different kind of film, would be the main attraction. But director Miles Warren has other priorities than sensationalizing violence between Black men in a movie that is instead preoccupied with where such aggression comes from. Insightful and universal in so many ways, Warren’s first feature is

Nuns, the wrongfully interned and supernatural forces converge on an asylum, playing duelling protagonists, in “Auxilio,” the latest film from Argentina’s multi-faceted genre darling, Tamae Garateguy (“She Wolf”). Del Toro Films has provided Variety with sometimes exclusive, behind-the-scenes stills from the project, currently in the final phases of post-production. In true Garateguy fashion, the film promises a

BUENOS AIRES — Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” Manuela Martelli’s “The Meltdown” and Demián Rugna’s Shudder co-pro “When Evil Lurks” were three highlights at 2022’s Ventana Sur. Wrapping Dec. 2, it offered a dazzling myriad of projects, bold initiatives in genre and from Spain and confirmation that the sector has still to emerge from the pandemic

“Violent Night” is receiving some holiday cheer with a second place opening on domestic charts, but Santa and his reindeer won’t be able to sleigh the reigning box office leader “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Universal’s action film, which stars David Harbour as a cranky Kris Kringle that takes on a team of mercenaries, is debuting

BUENOS AIRES  — Tinta Oscura winner Juan Bernardo Sánchez Mejía, Netflix awardee “Convince Me,” Argentine art film “León,” animated series “Choco” and the Shudder-coproduced “When Evil Lurks” walked off with some of the biggest prizes on Dec. 2 at a multitudinous Ventana Sur prize ceremony whose whooped applause at each and every winner attested also to

Gurinder Chadha, the BAFTA-nominated filmmaker behind “Bend It Like Beckham” and “Blinded By the Light,” is very much aware of the rumors surrounding “Bullet Train” star Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s bid to be the next James Bond, and she’d like to take the credit if it happens, she said Saturday at the Red Sea Film Festival in

“It’s amazing because I never expected the festival to grow like this,” says Antoine Khalife, director of Arab programs and film classics at the Red Sea Film Festival, which kicked off its sophomore edition this week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. “We are only on our second edition and have done great research to create different

“We have a strong program that deals with global capitalism, the economic situation of today, the story of the movement of people, how the movement of people has nourished culture around the world, how it has strengthened culture.” This is how Kaleem Aftab, director of international programming of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival introduced

The Red Sea Souk, the four-day industry market of the Red Sea Film Festival, is positioning itself as the principal film market for the Middle East and North Africa. This year’s second edition includes two development competitions, a work-in-progress competition, and the Red Sea 360º event, held in association with Winston Baker, with 13 industry

“When I was invited to the Red Sea Film Festival, I saw it as a big opportunity,” says Oscar-nominated director Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth,” “Bandit Queen”) of his romantic comedy “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” opening the sophomore edition of the Red Sea Film Festival. “For all the politics, and let’s leave that aside,

CEO of Desert Rose Films Nancy Paton has joined forces with Meredith Brett of Flying Tiger Entertainment to produce a family-friendly adaptation of Michele Ziolkowski’s children’s book trilogy “The Boy Who Knew the Mountains,” to be titled “Mountain Boy.” The project is supported by Creative City Fujairah and the Abu Dhabi Film Commission. Emirati filmmaker

As jury president of the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, Oliver Stone is taking his role seriously. He sees the festival as an opportunity to explore the cinema being made in a region of the world he views as being misunderstood: “It’s a chance to really dip into the very fascinating Asian and

Prominent film distributor MAD Solutions has taken pan-Arab rights to abortion-themed Yemeni drama “The Burdened” (“Al Murhaqoon”), which is among works-in-progress presented at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Souk project market. Produced and directed by Amr Gamal, “The Burdened” scooped an award among works-in-progress at the industry section of the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival in July. 

Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro has come to Saudi Arabia for the first time to serve on the jury panel for the works-in-progress showcase at the Red Sea Film Festival’s industry section, the Red Sea Souk. A former head of the Venice Critics’ Week, Nazzaro has been tracking Arabic cinema for a while

Staying true to the D.H. Lawrence classic, theater actor Matthew Duckett, who has cerebral palsy, made his feature film debut with “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” — the first disabled actor to play the part of Clifford on a Netflix production. The film started to stream Dec. 2 on the platform. “I’ve been in a great many

Harvey Weinstein’s genitalia has frequently been addressed in open court throughout his trial. But in the final hours of the case, the former movie mogul’s abnormal testicles emerged as a key piece of evidence on which the jury will have to deliberate when they determine whether he is guilty of rape and sexual assault. During

Guillermo del Toro loves cinema, and cinema loves him right back. He also knows the value of listening to collaborators and fellow filmmakers about getting the best possible result when making a feature, especially a passion project. “We don’t run a monarchy,” he tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast. “We run a beautiful collaborative effort. The

For John Leguizamo, 1993 was a breakthrough year thanks to back-to-back releases “Super Mario Bros.” and “Carlito’s Way.” In the latter Brian De Palma-directed film, the actor starred as the up-and-coming gangster Benny Blanco opposite Al Pacino as Carlito Brigante, a Puerto Rican criminal who is dragged back into a life of crime. The only

Harvey Weinstein’s case is now in the jury’s hands. The jury began deliberations on Friday, nearly two months after Weinstein’s trial began in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. The jurors — eight men and four women — will have to wade through testimony from 50 witnesses as they decide whether to convict Weinstein of charges

David Harbour found success in the blockbuster film world with “Black Widow,” where he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Red Guardian, but his first go-around with studio tentpoles was more or less a disaster. Harbour led Neil Marshall’s 2019 “Hellboy” reboot, which only grossed $21 million in the U.S. on a $50 million production

Deck the halls with boughs of cinema! Variety asked 22 celebrities to name their favorite holiday movies. Selena Gomez’s top pick is “The Family Stone”. “I love Rachel McAdams,” she tells me. “I that was a wonderful movie.” No surprise, but many, including Austin Butler and Paris Hilton, chose “Elf” as their go-to seasonal choice.

“Emancipation” director Antoine Fuqua wanted music that was spiritual but yet untraditional: a tall order for composer Marcelo Zarvos, doing their fifth film together. “The bar was very high on this one,” Zarvos tells Variety about the Will Smith escape-from-slavery saga. “It’s so relevant and so momentous for the times that we’re living in; it

Gravitas Ventures has secured North American rights to Julian Rubinstein’s “The Holly,” a documentary about the high-profile shooting case of anti-gang activist Terrance Roberts. The film, which debuted at Telluride’s Mountainfilm Festival in May, is executive produced by Adam McKay and Todd Schulman’s Hyperobject Industries. Gravitas will release the docu in three theaters and on-demand on

MGM’s Orion Pictures has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Emmy-winning writer Cord Jefferson’s untitled feature directorial debut, starring Emmy winner Jeffrey Wright. Produced by MRC and Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street Productions, the film is based on the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett. Jefferson (“Watchmen,” “Maser of None”) also adapted the screenplay. “As longtime

Prepare to see another familiar face in “Ballerina,” the spinoff set in Lionsgate’s “John Wick” universe. Lance Reddick is reprising his role as Charon, a concierge at the pivotal Continental Hotel, in the upcoming film. “Ballerina” stars Ana de Armas as a young female assassin who seeks revenge against those who killed her family. Len

At the core of Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” are the titular women, who, as cinematographer Luc Montpellier says, are “in the process of dismantling an old world that has been part of their lives their entire life.” In the film, an ensemble of actors led by Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley, discuss the

“I thought about exploiting the pandemic to tell this story of intimacy,” Romanian-born, Swedish-based director Ştefan Constantinescu told Variety, after the screening of “Man and Dog.” The movie was showcased in the main competition of this week’s Torino Film Festival. Constantinescu’s debut follows Doru (Bodgan Dumitrache) who suddenly leaves his work in Göteborg, and returns