Movies

Mexico’s Bruno Santamaría, Argentina’s Martín Benchimol and Turkey’s Selman Nacar proved three of the big winners among San Sebastian Industry Awards, announced Wednesday. João Paulo Miranda, already a young star on Brazil’s film scene after “Memory House,” meanwhile won the Ikusmira Berriak Award. A Chicago Golden Hugo winner for doc feature “Things We Dare Not

Spoiler alert: The entire plot of “Pearl” and “X” will be discussed in this article. Who knew a church dance tryout would result in one of the year’s strongest film monologues? That’s the case with “Pearl,” Ti West’s twisty, hallucinatory ode to Technicolor-era film. It’s the prequel to this year’s grimy porn slasher “X,” in

Adam Sandler earned strong reviews for his performance in Netflix’s “Hustle” earlier this year, but such acclaim is few and far between in the comedian’s filmography. For every “Hustle” or “Uncut Gems,” there’s an onslaught of comedies like “Murder Mystery,” “Hubie Halloween,” “The Ridiculous 6,” “Blended” and more. Film critics often have their knives out

Are we witnessing the start of the “Bros” Cinematic Universe? Billy Eichner stars in the Universal Pictures rom-com as the director of an LGBTQ history museum who falls for a hunky attorney (Luke Macfarlane). After scoring positive reactions at TIFF, Variety was on the movie’s premiere red carpet in New York City Tuesday night to

Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock swapped cameos this year when Pitt showed up in Bullock’s $105 million-grossing romantic-comedy “The Lost City” and Bullock showed up in Pitt’s late summer action tentpole “Bullet Train.” But would the two ever headline a movie together? It turns out they planned to years ago by developing a comedy in

Last week’s Emmy awards saw big winners gush with gratitude over their agents, managers, and audiences, but there was one notable benefactor to many stars that went unthanked: the injectable drug semaglutide, whose brand name is Ozempic. The drug is an insulin regulator for the pre-diabetic, made by the Danish pharma juggernaut Novo Nordisk, whose

Not every race is what it seems, and so it goes with the first category decision of the season. Variety has confirmed Michelle Williams’ work as the piano-playing mother in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” will be campaigned for the Oscars in best actress, instead of supporting as many pundits had speculated. The film, which premiered

Pilar Palomero’s second feature film “La Maternal” had its world premiere in main competition at Spain’s San Sebastián Film Festival on Tuesday. The Spanish filmmaker, who won Goyas for best picture, best new director and best original screenplay with her debut film “Las Niñas,” produced like “La Maternal” by Valérie Delpierre at Inicia Films, returns

Spain’s Madrid region is riding the crest of a wave towards becoming one of the most important animation/VFX hubs in Europe. Taking in the country’s capital, the Madrid region hosts more than 32% of Spain’s active audiovisual companies and around 31% of its animation and VFX firms.  Regional animation and VFX players – structured around

Tom Hardy channeled a little bit of Bane from “The Dark Knight Rises” and a whole lot of Tommy Conlon from “Warrior” when he surprise entered a martial arts tournament over the weekend. As reported by The Guardian, Harder was a surprise competitor at the 2022 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Open Championship in Milton Keynes, England. The

Blue Finch Films has boarded international sales on European genre titles, Scandinavian thriller “Good Boy” and found footage film “Stéphane,” ahead of their world premieres at Beyond Fest. “Good Boy,” which delves into the perils of the modern dating world, follows Sigrid who thinks she’s met the perfect match in Christian until she comes to

Music Box Films has acquired U.S. rights to “Full Time,” Eric Gravel’s visceral social thriller which is one of the five finalists for France’s official submission to the 95th Academy Awards. Represented in international markets by Be For Films, “Full Time” world premiered at last year’s Venice festival in the Horizons sections and won a pair of awards

Joachim Back’s “Corner Office,” featuring “Mad Men” star John Hamm, will open the 30th edition of London’s Raindance Film Festival (Oct. 26-Nov. 5). Austin Bragg and Meredith Bragg’s “Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game” will close the festival. To mark its 30th anniversary, Raindance will screen iconic independent films that had their U.K. premieres

Landing James Bond may be the biggest acting gig in Hollywood, but 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson say they still have to pitch prospective actors on the part. When Variety catches up with Britain’s most famous producers in late August, they’re busy preparing for the 60th anniversary of Bond in October. But

After “Midnight in Paris,” Woody Allen will return to the French capital for his 50th movie which he’s described as a “poisonous romantic thriller” with a pair of French stars, Valerie Lemercier (“Aline”) and Niels Schneider (“Love Affair(s))”. The untitled film, the plot of which is being kept under wraps, will start filming next month

San Sebastian’s inaugural Creative Investors Conference framed a panel discussion on Storytelling’s New Horizons featuring Phil Hunt of Head Gear Films, Bankside Films and Bohemia Media; Karin Chien of Louverture Films, and dGenerate; and Diana Williams of Kinetic Energy Entertainment. How to navigate new technologies, new ways of thinking and how to broaden storytelling to

In “Patrick and the Whale,” director and editor Mark Fletcher explores an area not often examined by wildlife filmmakers: the emotional connections that bind sperm whales and their ability not only to communicate to one another, but also, seemingly, to humans. Produced by Austria’s Terra Mater Studios and screening in the Zurich Film Festival’s Focus

LevelK continues to terrify international distributors with Finnish horror “The Knocking,” directed by Max Seeck and Joonas Pajunen. The film has now been sold to over 70 countries, Variety has learned, with the company sealing further deals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Alamode Film), Latin America (Gussi), CIS (Capella Film), France (KMBO), Indonesia (PT. Falcon)

Iranian action drama “World War III,” which won two awards at the recent Venice festival, will feature among the main competition titles at next month’s Tokyo International Film Festival. The festival will operate as an in-person event with foreign filmmakers, media and other guests in attendance from Oct. 24-Nov. 2, 2022. “World War III” is

Overline: Hed: By Alissa Simon “Subtraction,” from idiosyncratic Iranian helmer-writer Mani Haghighi (“Men at Work,” “Modest Reception,” “A Dragon Arrives!”) is a tense Hitchcockian thriller set in Tehran, where a heavy, non-stop rainfall signals a lingering malaise. There, a young couple come across their doppelgängers. The film premiered at the Toronto festival. The idea for

Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon has acquired world sales rights excluding Switzerland for Laura Kaehr’s first feature documentary “Becoming Giulia,” which has its world premiere Sept. 23 in the Focus competition at the Zurich Film Festival. Produced by Point Prod, the outfit behind Elie Grappe’s Cannes Critics’ Week prize winner “Olga,” in partnership with SRG SSR, the

Danish director-writer Malou Reymann’s sophomore feature, “Unruly,” premiered in the Toronto festival, and is an affecting drama set in the 1930s about  a rebellious teen forced into an institution, the real-life Sprogø Women’s Home.  At a time when women’s control of their bodies is under attack, your film carries a special resonance. Is what took

After six years at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the EE BAFTA Film Awards are shifting venue across the city to the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, which also hosts the BAFTA TV and games awards. The venue is located in the heart of London on the River Thames, close to landmarks including Big Ben, the

For years, Cannes held dominion over the film-festival world. But that hierarchy has been fading, and never more strikingly so than this year, when the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival reignited the fall awards movie season with an indelible one-two punch. Telluride, meanwhile, had an off year, leaning on documentaries and

Consider Drew Barrymore unimpressed with at least some of Andrew Garfield’s method acting choices during the making of Martin Scorsese’s “Silence.” Garfield told Marc Maron in August that he abstained from sex for six months in order to play a Jesuit priest in the Scorsese religious drama. Barrymore’s reaction? “Yeah, so?” Garfield’s “Silence” prep came

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. “Orphan: First Kill” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on Oct. 18, only two months after its theatrical and streaming release on Paramount+. The highly anticipated “Orphan” prequel explores the events that lead

Switzerland’s SRF and Japanese broadcaster NHK have acquired Rise and Shine’s crowdpleaser “Karaoke Paradise.” Directed by Einari Paakkanen and produced by Marianne Mäkelä and Liisa Karpo for Napafilms, it premiered at CPH:DOX and was recently shortlisted for the Best Documentary Award at the European Film Awards. “It’s one of those rare films that casts a

Anne-Marie Ross, a veteran exec for such companies as Lionsgate and Pantelion over a career spanning more than two decades, died Sept. 9 after a two-year battle with advanced cancer. She was 49. Ross began her career in international film distribution at Lionsgate in 2001, where she was managed by Nick Meyer, Entertainment One’s current

As the Finnish Film Affair embarks on the start of its second decade, the organizers of the annual industry event, which runs parallel to the Helsinki International Film Festival — Love & Anarchy, can both reflect on 10 years of success and look ahead for ways to continue to serve both the Finnish and the

Five years ago, the Finnish Film Affair launched the first edition of its Nordic Flair training program, an initiative designed to offer career development for film professionals from across the Nordic region that takes place parallel to the Helsinki International Film Festival — Love & Anarchy. This year’s event focuses on sales agents, distributors, buyers