Movies

One of the biggest crowdpleasers of the Toronto International Film Festival has arrived. “,” a high-class horror comedy written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy and directed by Mark Mylod, held its rollicking world premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre on Saturday. Mylod, the in-demand TV director who has helmed key episodes of “Game of

Consider “Glass Onion” another triumphant case for detective Benoit Blanc. As evidenced by the enthusiastic reaction to the premiere screening Saturday, Rian Johnson has again charmed the masses at the Toronto Film Festival with “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” the hotly anticipated sequel to the 2019 hit whodunit. Johnson briefly addressed moviegoers before the

The death of actress-activist Marsha Hunt this week is a historical watershed and a personal loss. Marsha was one of the last living actors who began her movie career during the Great Depression in 1935. She became part of a now vanished Hollywood, initially at Paramount then at MGM, that bound contracted talent to studios

Jennifer Lawrence brought serious starpower to the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, appearing at the world premiere of her new film “Causeway.” But despite the big, Hollywood name “Causeway” was a quieter character study. Lawrence stars in and produces the film, in which she plays a soldier returning to civilian life in New Orleans.

It isn’t that people’s first instincts are bad in “Victim,” Slovak director Michal Blaško’s compelling, apprehensive feature debut. A distraught Ukrainian mother travelling back to her adopted home in the Czech Republic to be by her injured son’s hospital bedside, for example, will find someone willing to drive her when her bus is delayed. It’s

“You should see the backstage,” actor Diego Luna told the D23 Expo crowd Saturday morning as he talked up his new “Star Wars”-branded Disney+ series “Andor” to the 5,000 faithful fans who packed the Anaheim Convention Center. The assembly of boldface names that were brought out at the three-day Disney fan event for a wave

Who didn’t have a crush on Michael Moscovitz in 2001’s “The Princess Diaries”? Mia Thermopolis’s sweet, slightly awkward love interest — played by Robert Schwartzman — liked her well before she was ever Genovian royalty, had a cool band (Schwartzman’s actual band, Rooney), and even knew how to fix cars. Fans will recall the devastation

In his Toronto International Film Festival premiere “,” Ralph Fiennes plays Slowik, a celebrity chef who runs an exclusive restaurant that caters to the ultra-rich. And while the darkly comic horror film eventually reveals some macabre twists regarding what’s on Slowik’s menu, Fiennes says he got into the character via more mundane inspirations. “One of

Hillary Clinton is pushing for politicians to take greater action on gun control. “Gun violence in our country is out of control. And it’s killing our kids,” she said. “It’s outrageous we let this happen, and that there are people who worship guns more than they worship life.” From mass shootings to the perils of

Director James Cameron’s long-awaited “Avatar: The Way of Water” closed out the Marvel, Lucasfilm and 20th Century panel at the D23 Expo Saturday by handing out 3-D glasses to everyone in the audience and showing off six extended scenes from the movie. The new clips weren’t released online, but stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney

With its seventh edition coming to an end, Venice’s Book Adaptation Rights Market (BARM) is already eyeing the future. The three-day event – taking place during the Italian fest – is now recognized as the third most important annual rendezvous by the publishers, states Pascal Diot, head of industry sidebar Venice Production Bridge. “It’s starting

The white men speak in subtitles, while the proud members of various African tribes express themselves in English in “The Woman King,” a clear sign of where our allegiances belong in director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s sweeping early-19th-century war movie — an Africa-set epic of the kind not seen since “Zulu,” only this time, the task of

Veteran Italian auteur Gianni Amelio rose to prominence with Oscar-nominated “Open Doors” (1990) and also “Stolen Children,” which won the 1992 Cannes Grand Prix. He won the Venice Golden Lion in 1998 with period drama “The Way We Laughed” and competed again in Venice with “A Lonely Hero” in 2013. Amelio’s more recent work comprises

Producers, showrunners, line producers and location managers all agree: When it comes to shooting a production in Spain, they need a bridge with local administrations. As film and TV shoots ramp up to historic heights — doubling expenditure in 2021 vs. the average spend for 2016-19 — Spain’s intoxicating mix of historic cities, natural parks

Marvel Studios’ upcoming film “The Marvels,” starring Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, got an official first look at the D23 Expo on Saturday. So what can we expect from this film? “Monica got her powers and we’re going to see how those pop off

The king of adventure is back once again. “Indiana Jones 5” showed its first trailer on Saturday during the D23 Expo. Although it was not released online, Harrison Ford appeared onstage to speak about the footage, joined by director James Mangold and co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge. “Thank you for making these films such an incredible experience

Bo Brundin, a Swedish actor who was best known for starring as a German war pilot opposite Robert Redford in “The Great Waldo Pepper” in 1975, died on Sept. 4 in his hometown of Uppsala, Sweden, Variety has confirmed. He was 85. In “The Great Waldo Pepper,” Burdin played Ernst Kessler, a famous German pilot

The wealth of Spain’s attractions as a big-shoot locale are in the details. To that end, below are the 37 Film Commissions or Film Offices that form part of the nationwide Spain Film Commission network, as well emblematic shoots, locations and initiatives: ALICANTE FILM OFFICEIt was launched in 2008 to support shoots at Alicante’s Ciudad

Britain’s free and eternally beleaguered National Health Service has long been both a boost and a burden to the country’s political leaders. The present-day Conservative administration is only the latest to congratulate themselves on the progressive social generosity the NHS stands for — never more cynically than during the global pandemic — while cutting its

American filmmaker Laura Poitras’s acclaimed documentary on photographer Nan Goldin, has emerged as the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, with Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Luca Guadagnino and Martin McDonagh also taking top prizes from Julianne Moore’s jury. Full report to follow. FULL LIST OF WINNERS COMPETITIONGolden Lion for Best

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not seen “Barbarian.” “Barbarian” is one of the year’s most-discussed horror films, largely because of some wild twists that were not spoiled in the trailers. That said, many of the movie’s biggest moments merit discussion beyond screams of “WTF!,” and director Zach Cregger broke them down for Variety.

Marsha Hunt, an actress most known for her roles in films like “Pride and Prejudice” and “Raw Deal,” died from natural causes at the age of 104 on September 7. She died in her Sherman Oaks home in Los Angeles that she had lived in since 1946. Hunt starred in more than 60 films for

The Toronto Film Festival has programmed one of its strongest Canadian feature slates in recent years — films with head-turning performances, eye-catching artistry, and global market and audience appeal, from filmmakers who are subverting stereotypes, challenging or bypassing power structures, or transforming the industry ecosystem from the grassroots on up.  “Right now in our industry,

In 2018, Network Entertainment founder Derik Murray met with Sidney Poitier to discuss making a documentary about the star’s life and career. Over the next two years, Murray established a foundation of trust with Poitier and his family, who all eventually agreed to the film. The result is “Sidney,” an Apple TV+ doc that examines

Robert Schwartzman is part of one of Hollywood’s great filmmaking dynasties, but when he ventured into directing himself, he discovered that the world of distribution for up-and-coming filmmakers was broken. The multihyphenate, who is Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew, has acted in movies like “The Princess Diaries” — where he played Anne Hathaway’s love interest Michael

Ulrich Seidl’s “Sparta” has been pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival amid allegations of impropriety and child exploitation against the director, but its premiere at next week’s San Sebastian Film Festival will continue as planned, Variety can reveal. A spokesperson for the Spanish festival tells Variety on behalf of festival management that “Sparta” will

No feature film has it easy in the modern theatrical and digital landscape, but 2022 has been particularly fraught. Warner Bros. is outright shelving pricey titles like “Batgirl,” Netflix has gone back to the drawing board thanks to its stock stumble and Amazon is focusing its resources on the almost-billion-dollar rollout of its “Lord of

If you’ve seen the British satire “Toast of London,” chances are that voiceover engineer Clem Fandango’s name still rings in your ears. Now Shazad Latif, the man behind Fandango, Ash Tyler on “Star Trek: Discovery” and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde on “Penny Dreadful,” has nabbed his first romantic lead in  “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”  The

With “Chiara,” Susanna Nicchiarelli’s portrait of Saint Clare of Assisi – the 13th century saint born into a wealthy family who at age 18 became a nun after hearing St. Francis preach – the Italian director completes her trilogy of female biopics, segueing from “Nico, 1988” and “Miss Marx,” which both launched from Venice’s Horizons

“The Good Nurse” director Tobias Lindholm wasn’t interested in making a why-dunnit. The Netflix drama, which premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, tells the horrifying true story of Charles Cullen, the serial killer who used his position as a nurse to murder up to 40 patients. But the film isn’t a psychological study. “I’m