Movies

Aside from its star-studded cast, summer 2023 release date and some neon-hued paparazzi photos, we don’t know much about Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated “Barbie” movie. However, the director opened up about the making of the film on Dua Lipa’s “At Your Service” podcast, saying she was both “excited” and “terrified” upon embarking on the project.

Serge Bromberg, the former artistic director of Annecy International Animation Festival, is facing a four-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter. Bromberg was put on trial earlier this week at the Court of Creteil, near Paris, due to his role in a fire involving nitrate film reels that caused two deaths in August 2020 during a heatwave,

The cap on India’s filming incentives, which were revealed at Cannes in March, could dramatically rise if necessary, the country’s top film bureaucrat has revealed. Currently, the Indian federal government reimburses up to 30% of qualifying production expenditure to a maximum of INR20 million ($244,000). An additional 5% to a maximum of INR5 million ($61,100)

Buenos Aires-based Meikincine Entertainment has acquired international sales rights to Sabrina Campos’ first feature, Argentine drama “Ven a mi casa esta Navidad” (“Come to My Place This Christmas”). In post, the film is produced by Juan Pablo Miller at Tarea Fina, the Buenos Aires outfit whose hallmark of exacting, carefully crafted movies which break out

Made on a modest budget of INR160 million ($1.96 million), “Kantara” (or ‘Mystical Forest’) has been one of the biggest sleeper hits in the world this year. Its director-producer and star Rishab Shetty attributes its success to the film’s local flavor. Released in September, the Kannada language film has accumulated a worldwide box office gross

Elena Trapé, whose character-driven ensemble pieces “Blog” and “The Distances” marked her out as a talent to watch, is attached to direct “Gwendolyne, Diary of a Fan,” (“Gwendolyne, Diario de Una Fan”), one of two series being brought onto the market at Ventana Sur’s Spanish Screenings by Barcelona-based Coming Soon Films. Screenplay for “Gewndlyne” is

Carlos Saura’s “Walls Can Talk,” Alex de la Iglesia’s “Four’s a Crowd” and Alex Murrull and Dani de la Orden’s “The Final Game” head as market premieres the most major addition to this year’s Cannes-backed Ventana Sur, Spanish Screenings on Tour, Spanish cinema’s biggest international industry platform ever.  Since 2009, when Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur

“Argonuts,” a Disney-style family animated feature from “The Jungle Bunch” team, TAT Productions, has lured leading distributors in major markets. Rolling off the American Film Market, Gregoire Melin’s sales banner Kinology has closed a raft of deals with the U.K. (Studiocanal), Germany and Austria (Plaion), Latin America (California Filmes), Australia and New Zealand (Icon Film

Variety sat down with TorinoFilmLab’s managing director, Mercedes Fernandez Alonso, to talk through this year’s rich program of industry initiatives and its commitment to support new and established creative talents through TFL Italia and TFL Meeting. “TFL Italia aims to create a bridge between Italian and international professionals. […] This year, we are offering two

Double Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund has been named new Honorary President of Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival, the biggest movie event in Scandinavia.. The “Triangle of Sadness” helmer will act as an advisor for the Swedish fest and “leave his artistic imprint on the festival program,” promised the organizers. That includes the upcoming 46th edition, starting in

Apurva Chandra, Secretary for Information and Broadcasting Ministry, on Thursday confirmed plans to create a national streaming platform within the National Film Development Corporation website. The move is an integral part of plans to promote India as a global content hub. “We are planning to do that on the website so that not just NFDC co-produced

Gabrielle Union is receiving the best reviews of her career in A24’s “The Inspection” — showing it’s never too late to make your mark on Hollywood. “I thought it was late for me,” she tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast. “I’m being treated like the ingenue I probably should have been treated as after ‘Bad Boys

Beloved Indian actor Anupam Kher (“The Silver Linings Playbook,” “New Amsterdam”) has had a tremendous 2022 on screen. This year’s credits include three successful Indian films – “Kashmir Files”, “Karthikeya 2” and “Uunchai” – but now the familiar face says he is ready to return behind the camera. Speaking to Variety on the side-lines of

Organizers of the 33rd edition of the Singapore International Film Festival are naturally keen to prove that the event is as nearly as possible back to normal after two years of COVID turbulence. Thong Kay Wee, in his first full year as program director, has also been keen to put his mark on the lineup.

Prolific Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua and filmmakers John Clang and Lavender Chang are reuniting after “A Love Unknown” (2020), which Clang directed and Chang shot. This time around, they have teamed for “Absent Smile,” co-directed by Chang and Clang, which is world premiering at the Singapore International Film Festival. Clang is based in New York and

More than a decade after his feature directorial debut “The Days” (2008) filmmaker Boi Kwong is back in the director’s chair with Singapore crime thriller “Geylang.” The film premiered at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and will have its Southeast Asia premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival in the Panorama strand. In the

A veteran of several short and documentary subjects, Anshul Tiwari’s narrative feature “Before Life After Death” has its world premiere in the Panorama strand of the Singapore International Film Festival. In the film, a rebellious female student and a reticent middle-aged gynecologist, both of Indian origin, strike up an unlikely bond as they each confront

Singaporean filmmaker Lei Yuan Bin’s latest subject is local Opera Tang, who has made a mark on the local drag scene since debuting in 2020. Through vignettes of Tang’s life, the film, which plays in the Singapore International Film Festival’s Singapore Panorama strand, chronicles the performer’s queer journey: from coming-out as a fledgling drag queen,

Dubai-based Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired all Middle East and North Africa rights to Oman-set drama “The Falconer,” co-directed by Adam Sjöberg and starring Seanne Winslow. The movie has been billed as the first international feature film shot entirely in the sultanate. “Falconer” is a tale of two teenagers from different worlds, one a

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” continued to rule over the Thanksgiving holiday box office. Faced with only token opposition, the superhero sequel picked up $10 million on Wednesday. The Marvel and Disney release is on pace to earn roughly $63 million over the five-day period, easily topping the competition. Another Disney movie, “Strange World,” is bombing,

Bangladesh feature film “Agantuk” (aka “The Stranger”) by Biplob Sarkar was Thursday named as unanimous winner of the Prasad DI award, conferred by the Film Bazaar Recommends jury in Goa, India to film in the Viewing Room section. Viewing Room is a component within Film Bazaar that presents films from India and South Asia, which

Tom Cruise revived movie theaters with the blockbuster hit “Top Gun: Maverick,” Taylor Swift broke the internet (and Ticketmaster) with her “Midnights” album and “Eras” tour and Michelle Yeoh proved that Marvel wasn’t the only one with a multiverse up its sleeve with “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Here is what the Variety staff is

Singapore actors Sheila Sim, Sunny Pang and Shane Mardjuki, were among the special guests who graced the gala opening of the 33rd Singapore International Film Festival, at speciality arthouse cinema Projector Picturehouse. The trio headline Boi Kwong’s “Geylang,” a breathless, full-throttle crime thriller set in Singapore’s infamous red-light district. The film is being screened in

With every passing edition, Film Bazaar leaves behind its origins as a project matching event and becomes more like a full-service market. The new stretch of waterfront pavilions resembles the Cannes Market and underlines the event’s stated aim of promoting India as a global content hub. The expanded and upgraded pavilion area this week houses

“Gulab,” a film by Sanjoy Nag, now playing in the Viewing Room section of the NFDC’s Film Bazaar market in Goa, is the first product of a slate of upcoming feature film productions from Endemol Shine India. The company, part of the giant Banijay conglomerate, is best known as a global power in the TV

Germany based New Docs, an international sales agency specializing in documentaries, has boarded sales on documentary “Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini,” written and directed by Charly Wai Feldman (HBO’s “The Talwars”). Sara Mardini fled Syria in 2015 with her younger sister Yusra, and when the motor of the boat they escaped on failed on the

WEST PACIFIC EXECUTIVE ROLES As the post-merger restructuring continues, Warner Bros. Discovery has appointed Gillian Zhao as president of its China operations. Tony Qiu is appointed SVP head of commercial, Western Pacific. Both positions report to James Gibbons, president and MD, WBD, in the Western Pacific region, which it defines as Japan, Australia, New Zealand

Luca Guadagnino’s latest cinematic release, “Bones and All,” is a grisly return to the horror genre for the director, whose last hair-raising feature was 2018’s “Suspiria.” But in order to bring the film’s sickening cannibal scenes to life, Guadagnino heavily relied upon the talents of his long-time make-up department head and close friend Fernanda Perez.

“The Conspiracy” is a documentary that traces the history of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and it’s a film you may be surprised that no one has made until now. The subject, of course, couldn’t be more timely. The film arrives at a moment when these insidious ideas, which seem to have the life of Hydra heads

After its inaugural success, Ventana Sur will host the second annual Maquinitas video game forum, unspooling Nov.-Dec 2 in Buenos Aires. Designed to highlight the Ibero-American games industry, this year there is “an emphasis on Spanish and French studios,” organizer Daniel de la Vega told Variety. “Maquinitas focuses on the challenges and possibilities that Latin America