Movies

Legendary improv and sketch comedy haven The Second City has named Ed Wells as chief executive officer. The former global head of media and education for Sesame Workshop joins the company to drive strategic growth in areas including content creation, distribution and consumer products. It’s a no-brainer for the incubator to comedy all-stars like Bill

Most of the major U.K. cinema chains will remain closed on Monday, Sept. 19, as a mark of respect to Queen Elizabeth II, whose funeral it is on that day, while others have chosen to remain open to screen the funeral to the public for free. Most cinemas, including the larger operators such as Odeon,

Damien Chazelle is returning to the twilight of Hollywood’s silent era in his newest film “Babylon.” Starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, “Babylon” is set in the late 1920s and captures the film industry’s transition from silent films to “talkies” due to the invention of synchronized sound. Pitt plays a silent film star during the

The European Film Academy will honor Palestinian auteur Elia Suleiman with its European Achievement in World Cinema Award. The Paris-based Suleiman, whose most recent work “It Must Be Heaven” premiered in 2019 at Cannes, is the first Palestinian director to win this prestigious prize. Suleiman will be an honorary guest at the 35th European Film

After several acclaimed shorts, Katrine Brocks’ feature film debut “The Great Silence” (“Den Store Stilhed”) is set to premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival in competition at the New Directors strand. The film follows Alma who is about to take her vows as a nun in a Catholic convent, when her estranged brother Erik

Beijing-based Tiger Pictures Entertainment has acquired worldwide distribution rights outside of mainland China for hit sci-fi comedy film “Moon Man.“ The film, which has collected some $430 million at the Chinese box office to date, tells the story of “the last human in the universe” as an astronaut finds himself stranded on the moon after

After world premiering at Tribeca and travelling the world since, Pan Nalin’s “Last Film Show” (“Chhello Show”) is coming home to India, with Siddharth Roy Kapur’s Roy Kapur Films set to distribute it across the country. The partly autobiographical drama takes Nalin back to his roots in Saurashtra, Gujarat, western India, where “Last Film Show”

Like an ice-cream shop that offers you the choice of pistachio or strawberry and nothing else, the movies Tyler Perry has been churning out for 20 years come in just two flavors: comedy and soap opera. It’s worth noting, in this case, how the flavors blend. Most often, they’re stacked right next to each other,

Michael Keaton, who scored his first Emmy win for best lead actor in a limited or anthology series, reacted backstage to the cancellation of “Batgirl” at the Emmy Awards Monday night. “I think it was a business decision. I’m going to assume it was a good one. I really don’t know,” Keaton said. Last month,

Jordan Peele’s third feature, “Nope,” focuses on a group of characters (played by Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea and Michael Wincott) attempting to track down an unidentified flying object spotted in the air around the Agua Dulce desert. Many of the film’s scenes take place in the dead of night, but as

Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired U.S. distribution rights to “Ashkal,” following its screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. The murder mystery is the second feature from Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi and had its world premiere earlier this year at Cannes as part of the Directors’ Fortnight section. Yellow Veil Pictures plans to release the

Damien Chazelle was itching for a change of pace. “After the quietness of ‘First Man,’” he says, referring to his 2018 astronaut drama, much of which unfolded in deep space, “I wanted to do something big, boisterous and loud.” The result is “Babylon,” a star-studded homage to Hollywood’s silent era and a movie that captures

The love for Brendan Fraser continues to grow following his acclaimed turn in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” generating tons of Oscar buzz. “It’s the right actor, for the right part, at the right time,” Darren Aronofsky says in the Variety Studio presented by King’s Hawaiian at TIFF. While at the Toronto International Film Festival for

The Venice premiere of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2018 drama “Roma” made an overnight star of Yalitza Aparicio, whose memorable performance as family nanny Cleo kicked off a three-month whirlwind that culminated with her becoming the first Indigenous Mexican to receive an Oscar nomination for best actress.  The Venice premiere of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2018 drama “Roma” made an overnight

Laika, the animation studio behind “ParaNorman” and “Coraline,” has announced a six-part series exploring the costumes, props and sets from its iconic films. Titled “Laika Archives,” the series will be released on Sept. 13 via the company’s YouTube channel and features artisans like costume designer Deb Cook, head of model-making Keith McQueen and writer-director Chris

Disney made quite a splash at its D23 Expo last weekend with a first look at Halle Bailey’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” which earned over 104 million global views, Variety has learned exclusively. The clip takes viewers on a journey through the ocean before showing the shimmering underwater life of Ariel (Bailey), who teases her

Pathé, which operates France’s leading cinema circuit, is planning to enter the Paris stock exchange in 2024, Variety has confirmed. The company’s president, Jérôme Seydoux, revealed the group’s long-gestated listing project in an interview with the French publication Les Echos. Seydoux said the company suffered a loss of approximately €100 million during the financial years

The hottest sales title at the Toronto Film Festival is officially off the market, with Focus Features landing worldwide distribution rights to Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” in a deal worth roughly $30 million. Paul Giamatti stars in the Christmas-themed film that reunites the actor and director for the first time since their Oscar-winning 2004 hit

Priscilla Beaulieu Presley’s 1985 bestselling memoir “Elvis and Me” is set to get the big screen treatment, courtesy of Sofia Coppola. Coppola wrote and will direct the feature film, titled “Priscilla,” with Cailee Spaeny (“Mare of Easttown,” “Bad Times at the El Royale”) attached to star as Presley and Jacob Elordi (“Euphoria,” “Saltburn”) as Elvis.

Neon, Double Agent and the U.K.’s Film4 are partnering on the documentary “2073,” from “Amy” director Asif Kapadia. A vague description of the film indicates that it will “tackle some of the biggest challenges imperiling our future.” The synopsis continues: “Kapadia’s decision to create a genre-bending thriller set in a dystopian future was inspired by

MUBI founder Efe Çakarel has detailed the indie streamer and distributor’s plans to grow into a studio player, build cinemas around the world and compete for high-profile films from leading directors. In a rare public speaking engagement, the executive joined Toronto International Film Festival CEO Cameron Bailey for an interview at the fest’s industry conference

Following the world premiere of “My Neighbor Adolf” on the Piazza Grande in Locarno, Beta Cinema has sold the dark comedy to Vendetta Films, which will bring the Udo Kier and David Hayman starrer to cinemas across Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter of next year.  Prior to Locarno, Beta Cinema sold the

FUNDING Sri Lanka’s Vimukthi Jayasundara and Guatemala’s César Díaz, winners of the Cannes Golden Camera for “The Forsaken Land” (2005) and “Nuestras madres” (2019) respectively, are among the recipients of the Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of the International Film Festival Rotterdam‘s (IFFR) HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme for 2022. Out of 25 applications, six projects

Director Edward Berger and producer Malte Grunert are set to follow up their new adaption of Erich Maria Remarque’s harrowing war novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” with a much more upbeat work, a remake of the rollicking 1967 French-Italian pic “The Last Adventure,” which starred Alain Delon, Lino Ventura and Joanna Shimkus. Grunert

The day before the pandemic shut down Los Angeles in March 2020, veteran documentary filmmaker Ryan White (“Assassins,” “Ask Dr. Ruth”) signed on to make “Good Night Oppy.” With the support of NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the documentary recounts the true story of Mars exploration rovers Spirit

Ayan Mukerji’s Bollywood action fantasy “Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva” was one of the leading films at the global box office over the weekend, grossing $28.2 million, according to its producers, Disney’s Star Studios India and Dharma Productions. The film released in India across 5,019 screens and debuted at No. 1 with a three-day weekend of

The first time he made the trip to Europe to take part in U.S. in Progress, an event dedicated to independent American filmmaking launched by Poland’s American Film Festival in 2011, L.A.-based director Pete Ohs admits he was “very green.” “It was my first narrative feature…[and I was] very much getting into this world of

The San Sebastian Festival opens on Sept. 16 with a bang: Alberto Rodriguez’s “Prison 77,” most probably the biggest Spanish film of 2022, the latest title from one of the Spain’s most preeminent auteurs and a foretaste of one possible future face of Spanish cinema, thanks to Movistar+. “Prison 77” begins as a fish-out-of-water jail

The scene opens on Barceloneta, by the shore, and four girls sit together near the boardwalk, looking out at the beach. The Movistar+ original series “Simple” begins as its title suggests, with a concise portrait of each of the four characters, prominent personality traits on display. Scripting ebullient women is something Spanish director Anna R.

It was supposed to be all about the movies. But even here at the Toronto International Film Festival, an ocean away from the United Kingdom, the death of 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II has loomed large. It has provided an opportunity for festival organizers, filmmakers and talent to reflect on the life and legacy of a