Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and
Movies
AFI Fest: del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’, ‘The Son’ and ‘She Said’ Among Red Carpet Gala Films The American Film Institute (AFI) announced “Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, “Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths,” “The Son,” “She Said,” “Living” and “Is That Black Enough for You” will be among the six films receiving red carpet premiere
The American French Film Festival, formerly known as COLCOA, will kick off Oct. 10 with the North American premiere of docudrama “Notre-Dame on Fire,” from “Quest for Fire” director Jean-Jacques Annaud. The weeklong festival at the DGA Theater Complex in Los Angeles closes with Dominik Moll’s thriller “The Night of the 12th,” about a cold
Director Matt Sobel called on production designer Mary Colston and cinematographer Alexander Dynan to subtly emphasize a sense of foreboding in his reimagining of the 2014 Austrian psychological thriller “Goodnight Mommy,” on Prime Video. Naomi Watts plays a mother who returns home to her sons after having cosmetic surgery, but she’s not quite the same
In a rare move, Barcelona-based Film Factory Entertainment has snapped up world sales rights to documentary “Mibu, The Moon in a Dish” (“Mibu, La Luna en un Plato”), which opened the Culinary Zinema sidebar of the San Sebastian Festival Sept. 19. The feature debut of Spanish filmmaker Roger Zanuy, the documentary transports audiences to members-only
India has selected Pan Nalin’s “Last Film Show” (“Chhello Show”) to represent the country in the best international feature category at the upcoming 95th Academy Awards, but it’s not going over well in social media circles. That’s due to the popularity and love for the historical epic, “RRR” from S.S. Rajamouli, which has been a
“Billy on the Street” is back — and with Paul Rudd. After three years of waiting, a new episode of the hilarious rapid-fire series dropped online Tuesday, which Eichner announced in a tweet on Monday. “SURPRISE! The first BILLY ON THE STREET IN 3 YEARS drops TOMORROW!!!!!!” Eichner wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of
U.S. director-producer Laura Poitras, who won an Oscar and an Emmy with Edward Snowden film “Citizenfour,” and recently took the Golden Lion at Venice with opioid epidemic pic “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” will be the Guest of Honor at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The 35th edition of the festival takes place
Searchlight Pictures’ “Fire Island” will receive The Gotham Film & Media Institute’s ensemble tribute during the 32nd annual Gotham Awards ceremony, Variety has learned exclusively. The announcement comes during the Gotham Week Conference, which concludes Sept. 23 in Brooklyn. The “Fire Island” cast includes Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, Matt Rogers,
After screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and coinciding with its San Sebastian bow, Variety has been granted exclusive access to the trailer for “La Jauria,” the first feature effort from award-winning Colombian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido (“El Edén”). The film tracks the visceral journey of two estranged friends, Eliú (Jhojan Estiven Jimenez) and El Mono
With Txintxua’s series “Intimacy” shooting to No. 1 on Netflix’s global non-English charts this summer and 17 Basque films of ever greater renown participating at the San Sebastian Festival, led by Mikel Gurrea’s feature debut “Suro” and Fernando Franco’s “The Rite of Spring,” the region’s film and TV industry has flashed signs of real growth
Two Basque movies screen in San Sebastian main competition, multiple others, from ever more notable and noted filmmakers, play other sections or grace Basque showcase Zinemira. A drilldown: “Blue Files” (“Karpeta Urdinak”, Ander Iriarte, Spain-France) Iriarte directs a doc investigating his father’s potential torture while in police custody. The investigations take the doc deeper into findings
Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks subsidiary The Remake Company has closed a remake deal with Italy’s Marco Belardi and his new label Bamboo Prod. for Ariel Winograd’s latest film “Today We Fix the World” (“Hoy se Arregla el Mundo”). Produced by powerhouse shingle Patagonik, the family dramedy was picked up by Netflix for several key territories after
In recent years, Spain’s Basque Country has emerged as a hub for fresh talent, something that directors Mikel Gurrea (“Suro”), Estibaliz Urresola (“Cuerdas”) and Irati Gorostidi (“Contadores”) credit to robust mentorship programs, governmental financing campaigns and ever-maturing production and distribution initiatives as well as a tight-knit network of professionals woven into the fabric of the
Saudi-owned MBC Group has officially opened its new headquarters in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh in a move that will boost its stated mission to serve as a driver to kickstart the kingdom’s nascent film and TV industry. The broadcaster which is the top satellite free-to-air player in the Middle East and North Africa, and
The 18th Zurich Film Festival kicks off Sept. 22 with a muscular lineup that includes some of the year’s most anticipated international pics while also putting the spotlight on Swiss and German-language cinema. In addition to a strong selection of U.S. films, including Oscar-winning writer-director Florian Zeller’s “The Son” and Neil Jordan’s “Marlowe,” Zurich is
“Vive le cinéma!” goes the call from Tabakalera, International Centre of Contemporary Culture, at this year’s San Sebastián International Film Festival (SSIFF). The Centre’s exhibition hall plays host to four cinematographic installations made by leading global filmmakers, a project which sees them transform their usual cinema-based practice into a more expansive and experimental gallery space.
Selected for main competition, “Pornomelancolía” premiered at San Sebastián over the festival’s first weekend. A Latin American buzz title at the festival last year when it played in pix-in-post section WIP Latam, “Pornomelancolía” opens a window onto the behind-the-scenes life of a porn influencer, Lalo. But, Argentine director Manuel Abramovich – who won the 2019
Backing a film in which Johnny Depp will play French King Louis XV is what Wild Bunch International head Vincent Maraval describes as part of the risk taking that is essential to this business. In a keynote interview with CAA Media Finance’s Roeg Sutherland at San Sebastian’s first Creative Investors Conference on Monday, Maraval discussed
The BFI London Film Festival’s annual Works-in-Progress showcase, now in its third edition, will present nine new feature films and documentaries by U.K.-based filmmakers. The showcase, which is part of the festival’s U.K. Talent Days focus, will be an in-person event on Oct. 8 screening extracts from each project introduced by their producer to an
As the filmmaking team for “The Woman King” travels to Brazil to promote the historical epic, Viola Davis and her husband and producing partner Julius Tennon are celebrating the success of the film’s no. 1 debut at the box office, grossing $19 million domestically. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival
Jonathan Lipnicki was one of the most beloved child actors of the late 1990s and early 2000s thanks to roles in “Jerry Maguire,” “Stuart Little” and “Like Mike,” but his acting career seemingly vanished in the 2010s. In a new interview with /Film, the 31-year-old actor got honest about his acting absence. Lipnicki starred in
Imax Entertainment CEO Richard Gelfond has extended his contract through 2025. Gelfond, who has served as CEO since 2009 and has been with the company since 1994, will keep his current compensation, equity and severance terms, according to Monday’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since 2019, Gelfond has received a base salary of
As industry mavens alight on the Zurich Film Festival, escalating inflation costs and rising interest rates are hijacking dreams of a post-pandemic recovery and rebirth. Together, these financing challenges are sitting on top of unstable budgets still coping with COVID-induced costs that continue to send production budgets 10% north on average. Observers need to go
“Computers are useless,” Pablo Picasso exclaimed more than 50 years ago. “They can only give you answers.” No doubt he would be turning in his grave at today’s alliance of computer programs, tech companies and digital artists clustering together to create non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It’s a quickly evolving and potentially very risky world for filmmakers, producers
There was a lingering feeling of ambiguity and anticipation on Sunday night at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the site of 20th Century Studios’ worldwide premiere of David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam.” Russell has not released a new film in nearly seven years — his last feature was 2015’s “Joy” with Jennifer Lawrence. Given his various
Martin Scorsese got a little too scared by Ti West’s “Pearl,” the A24-backed “X” prequel starring Mia Goth. In a review sent to A24 and published by /Film, Scorsese called “Pearl” a “deeply disturbing” horror movie that is “mesmerizing” and “wild.” West and Goth co-wrote the prequel, which world premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Fresh off screenings at Toronto and San Sebastian, U.S. director Marian Mathias is still surprised her feature debut “Runner” connected with audiences and programmers alike. Produced by Joy Jorgensen, the intimate drama is a Killjoy Films production made in association with Pigasus Pictures. Easy Riders Films and Man Alive co-produce. Heretic, which is handling international
It took the combined talents of four Grammy winners, a symphony orchestra and a choir of African-American opera singers to make “The Woman King” resonate with the sounds of 19th-century West Africa. “This was one of those once-in-a-lifetime films,” says composer Terence Blanchard of director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s project, for which he wrote a powerful score
It’s been proven time and time again that Academy Award attention has little to do with box office glory. Just look at recent winners like “Moonlight,” “The Hurt Locker,” or “CODA,” the first streaming movie to land the Oscar’s top prize, all of which were more beloved than seen, at least by the general public.