Movies

The Red Sea Film Festival and Variety will be partners on two new awards: the Intl. Vanguard Filmmaker Award, which will go to Nadine Labaki, and the Intl. Vanguard Actor Award, which goes to Ranbir Kapoor. An actor, director, musician and activist, Labaki has carved a distinctive path on the international film circuit. As a

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, will accept the newly introduced European Sustainability Award – Prix Film4Climate on behalf of her organization at the 35th European Film Awards on Dec. 10 in Reykjavík, Iceland. The award is given to the European Green Deal, a program launched by the commission under von

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Intl. Film Festival is becoming a major catalyst for moviemaking in a place where it hadn’t really existed for a long time before. Ever since Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year-old religion-related ban on cinema in 2017, all aspects of film industry activity have been booming in the country. It’s also rapidly

Amazon has settled on a new corporate structure for its expanded content operations, putting most of MGM under Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke while also promoting MGM veteran Chris Brearton. Salke will oversee all aspects of scripted TV and film, distribution and marketing for MGM. Brearton will oversee MGM’s unscripted TV, the MGM+ streaming service

The now-ancient joke about the kind of pitches that movie executives respond to (“It’s ‘Avengers 2’…meets ‘Glass Onion’!”) is really about what the audience responds to. We’re the ones who like our special-sauce tacos stuffed inside a bacon burger topped with a bun made of pizza. And “Violent Night” is a movie that takes the

Freddie Prinze Jr. revealed in a recent Esquire interview that he grew furious with the “Scooby-Doo” franchise after he was asked to take a pay cut on the second film, 2004’s “Monsters Unleashed,” in order to boost the salaries of his co-stars. Prinze Jr. starred in both 2002’s “Scooby-Doo” and 2004’s “Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed” as

Nintendo fans, rejoice: The second trailer for the “Super Mario Bros.” movie is here, and there are even more Mario video game references than the first. The new trailer gives a first look at Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong, Anya Taylor-Joy’s Princess Peach, several power-ups (like Mario’s Tanooki suit and a fire flower) and the iconic

Joe Pesci starred as the hot-headed thief Harry in two “Home Alone” movies opposite Macaulay Culkin and Daniel Stern. In a new interview with People to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Pesci looked back at the “demanding” physical comedy that went into making the family comedy. One prank

It’s easy to write off the Gotham Awards as an early bird ceremony that is decided by a jury of five industry people. It’s too small, too niche, too idiosyncratic to signal much of anything, right? Well, yes and no. Like any awards show, the Gothams are an opportunity for the performers and filmmakers who

Strand Releasing has acquired U.S. distribution rights to San Sebastián competition title “Pornomelancolia,” sales agent Luxbox announced during this week’s Ventana Sur film-TV market in Buenos Aires. As previously announced, Filmin will handle distribution in Spain. The film has also been picked up by Epicentre Films Distribution for France. Directed by Argentina’s, Manuel Abramovich who

Chloë Grace Moretz was only 8 years old when her first movie, the 2005 Ryan Reynolds-starring “The Amityville Horror” remake, opened in theaters. By the time she was 14, she was leading her first major Hollywood production with “Carrie.” Despite basically growing up on film sets, Moretz said older men often “infantilized” her as a

Ahead of Thanksgiving, cinema owners, increasingly dismayed by the lack of compelling movies to screen and painfully aware that this fall’s only blockbuster, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” wouldn’t match the stratospheric grosses of its predecessor, approached Netflix with a plea. Would it be possible, they asked, for “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” the sequel

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has tapped industry veteran Scott Rowe to lead communications for the collective bargaining entity that represents Hollywood’s major studios. Rowe’s appointment comes as the entertainment industry braces for potential labor strife next year, with the Writers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA master contracts

A reimagining of the classic 1969 counterculture film “Easy Rider” is in early development, Variety has learned exclusively. A consortium of stakeholders and producers — including Maurice Fadida’s Kodiak Pictures, Defiant Studios’ Eric B. Fleischman, and the Jean Boulle Group — own the adaptation rights to the project originally released by Columbia Pictures. The original

“Top Gun: Maverick” is flying back into theaters in time for the holidays. Paramount is re-releasing the blockbuster sequel on the big screen, including select premium large formats and Imax, from Dec. 2 through Dec. 15. The film, which is already readily available to watch on home entertainment, lands on Paramount+ on Dec. 22. The

Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson are longtime friends and collaborators, but they don’t necessarily see eye to eye when it comes to Marvel actors being movie stars. Tarantino ignited a fierce debate on social media this month when he said that Marvel actors are not movie stars. In Tarantino’s view, it’s the character of

Michelle Yeoh is set to receive the International Star Award at the 34th annual Palm Springs International Film Awards in honor of the budding star’s critically acclaimed performance in the A24 film “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The 2022 feature, directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, centers its narrative around an immigrant mother named

Dubai-based distributor and producer Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired Middle East and North Africa (MENA) rights to British-Palestinian filmmaker Basil Khalil’s action-packed drama “A Gaza Weekend” ahead of its regional premiere at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival. Front Row, which is a prominent distributor of indie films in MENA region, picked up “Gaza

Rome-based Illmatic Film Group (“Santa Lucia,” “Fourth Grade”) has teamed with Red Carpet-ILBE Group and Beetlefilm, to co-produce “Resvrgis,” director Francesco Carnesecchi upcoming genre feature. Unveiled during Locarno’s March Me!, the project earned a berth at Brussels’ BIF Market. Illmatic Film Group also handles international sales and will introduce the now finished production to buyers

Ventana Sur Animation! WIP title “Kayara” is on a hot sales streak, striking deals way in advance of its completion.  Three more pre-sales deals have been confirmed by Beverly Hills and Paris-based Cinema Management Group (CMG) which reports that some 18 blue chip distributors from around the world have already signed up for the rights

Aeden O’Connor’s “Sun Falls,” Manuela Martelli’s “The Meltdown” and Tomás Corredor’s “November” feature among 15 projects to be presented at Ventana Sur’s 5th Proyecta co-production forum, a wide-ranging showcase of emerging and already consolidated filmmakers plus new talents to track from Latin America and Europe. Producer Ana Isabel Martins at Honduras’ Pulsar Cine is re-teaming

Francois Ozon’s next film “My Crime,” a period film headlined by Rebecca Marder and Nadia Tereszkiewicz, will world premiere on opening night of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, an annual showcase organized by the promotion org Unifrance. The 25th edition of the Rendez-Vous festival, which will run Jan. 10-17 with industry professionals from around the

Argentina’s Impacto Cine (“Lady Di”) has swooped on all Latin American sales rights to Cesc Gay’s comedy “Stories Not To Be Told” (“Historias Para No Contar”), propelling it into the territory and cementing its regional footing. International sales on the title are handled by Filmax, in a longterm relationship with Gay. News of the sale

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera was celebrated last night in New York with the Gotham Awards Impact Salute in recognition for the unwavering support provided by the Lido to indie U.S. cinema. One of the longest-serving artistic directors of Venice, Barbera has helped turn the festival into a major springboard for awards hopefuls.

L.A.-based Outsider Pictures, one of the most avid U.S. distributors of Spanish-language movies, has picked up Chile’s Oscar entry “Blanquita.” “It’s a critical look at a sordid part of Chilean social history, but also a political thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat,” enthuses company’s founder and CEO Paul Hudson, who closed the

BUENOS AIRES — “Wild Tales” and “The Clan” sales agent Film Factory Ent has swooped on “The Blue Star” (“La Estrella Azul“), a fiction film inspired by the life of Spanish musician Mauricio Aznar, a fundamental and endearing figure on Spain’s 1990s rock scene. The film also marks one of the most anticipated feature debuts

Lebanese writer-director and actor Nadine Labaki and Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor are set to be honored with Variety International Vanguard Awards at the upcoming second edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival. Labaki’s first feature, “Caramel,” was set in a Beirut beauty salon, and premiered in the Cannes Director’s Fortnight section in 2007,

Harvey Weinstein’s defense called on a choreographer from the 2004 film “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” to answer questions about a dancer from the movie, who is a witness testifying in the L.A. trial. The dancer has alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein during production on the musical film, which his company Miramax produced.

When producer Gerald Webb came to Claremore, Okla., to shoot “A Christmas … Present” in late September, he knew the production would get great small-town Middle America looks and, more importantly, an exceptionally good deal.  Because Claremore is located within the Cherokee Nation, which covers 7,000 square-miles in the northeastern corner of the state, the

Adam Sandler lit up the 32nd annual Gotham Awards on Monday evening with his acceptance speech for the performer tribute award at the New York ceremony. The occasion marked Sandler’s first major stop of the awards season, campaigning for his performance in the Netflix basketball drama “Hustle.” “I told my daughters Sadie and Sunny, who