Movies

During his eclectic career so far British actor Shubham Saraf has played a variety of roles. Saraf, who studied at the U.K.’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama and France’s École Philippe Gaulier, played an aristocrat in newly independent India in Mira Nair’s BBC/Netflix series “A Suitable Boy”; a policeman in Netflix procedural “Criminal: U.K.”

Paul Negoescu’s fourth feature, “Men of Deeds,” which world premieres in competition Sunday at the Sarajevo Film Festival, is at first glance a departure from the Romanian director’s previous work. Set in the rural region of Bucovina, it’s a world removed from the swanky bars and bistros of his last film, the Bucharest-set “The Story

When the first edition of what would become the Sarajevo Film Festival was held in 1995, the Bosnian capital was in the final year of a devastating, four-year siege. Electricity shortages plunged the city into darkness, while food and hard currency were scarce. The inaugural screenings were held in the basement of a bombed-out building

The fashions, fabrics and eye-crossingly patterned wallpapers of the 1970s abound in “Angry Annie,” a French period piece practically painted in avocado green and Le Creuset orange, with hand-crocheted accessories for good measure. Would that the rest of Blandine Lenoir’s rousing abortion drama felt quite so dated. Instead, in a year where the overturning of

Tiffany Haddish revealed in 2020 that she received an $80,000 paycheck for her breakout role in “Girls Trip,” and now she’s updating fans on how she spent her first major Hollywood payday. As part of her Cosmopolitan cover story, Haddish revealed that she used all of her “Girls Trip” money to finish paying off the

Verve has promoted Melissa Darman to partner. Darman, who joined Verve in 2014, started her career at ICM before pivoting to the studio system to work in comedy development at ABC Network. She then moved onto Lionsgate before joining Verve, where she has continued to focus on comedy during her time as an agent on

Walter Hill, the director behind “The Warriors” and “48 Hrs.,” is the recipient of the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award from this year’s Venice International Film Festival, Cartier and La Biennale di Venezia announced Friday. His new film, “Dead For a Dollar,” will premiere at the festival. “In the film world, one knows it’s

Everybody’s gonna be kung fu fighting — a fourth film in the “Kung Fu Panda” series will release in 2024, Universal Pictures announced Friday. The film, which is slated for a March 8, 2024 release, will be the first film in the “Kung Fu Panda” franchise since 2016, when the DreamWorks Animation series concluded a

What Westerners don’t know about Noh — the classical Japanese theater form in which masked dancers gracefully interpret supernatural tales — could easily fill a 12-hour PBS documentary. But who wants to watch that? Certainly not the audience renegade anime director Masaaki Yuasa is after with “Inu-oh,” a rowdy punk alternative focusing on two social

Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer — in his regular weekly letter to the staff — has vowed that the company will prioritize and protect the reproductive rights of its employees. In the letter, which was obtained by Variety, Feltheimer noted that Lionsgate already has strong protections in place “to safeguard employees from discrimination, harassment, bullying and

While “John Wick: Chapter 4” is reportedly the longest “John Wick” film yet, director Chad Stahelski ensures that the newest installment will use that extra runtime wisely. “I love mythology,” Stahelski told Variety at the red carpet for “Day Shift” on Wednesday night. “I love a good myth. I don’t really believe — at least

J.J. Perry started his career in Hollywood by getting hit by cars. Now, he’s taking on his first project for the big screen. In “Day Shift,” Perry used his extensive knowledge of stunts and action scenes to create vampire-slaying sequences with garlic grenades, katanas and silver bullets. “I prepped this movie so hard,” Perry told

Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival has revealed to Variety the projects that the participants of its 2022 Emerging Producers program are working on. The producers were asked to deliver an elevator pitch for their projects. Every year since 2010, the festival has selected 18 up-and-coming producers of documentary films (17 European and one representing a

The team responsible for bringing the Predator to life in Hulu’s acclaimed prequel “Prey” was uniquely positioned for the project. StudioADI’s award-winning industry veterans Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. have worked on many celebrated films, including the original “Predator,” and they are the co-creators of the alien in director Dan Trachtenberg’s film. “Prey” has

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the re-election of Helen Hoehne to another term as president. According to the HFPA’s press release, Hoehne won by “an overwhelming margin.” “I am humbled and truly grateful to be re-elected,” Hoehne said. “This is a vote of confidence in the changes we have made and the

Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie was attacked as he was about to deliver a lecture in western New York on Friday. A statement from New York State Police said: “On August 12 2022, at about 11am, a male suspect ran up on to the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer. Rushdie suffered an

A cemetery is not an auspicious choice of rendezvous point for an estranged father and son arranging what might be one last meeting in “A Perfect Day for Caribou,” but the dry joke of Jeff Rutherford’s tender, affectingly reserved first feature is that things get more melancholic still when they leave its glum confines. Set

Are there too many Marvel movies and TV shows? “Lost” and “Watchmen” showrunner Damon Lindelof recently said he’d like to see fewer Marvel movies made so that “each one that [comes] out [feels] a little bit more special,” but Marvel stalwart Mark Ruffalo isn’t too concerned. The actor is reprising his role of Bruce Banner

New projects by Argentina’s Anahí Berneri and Emiliano de Torres, both big winners at San Sebastian, plus Brazilian Beatriz Seigner’s next all feature in the 14-project lineup for San Sebastian’s 2022 Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, the Spanish festival’s biggest industry event. Now preparing her sixth feature, Berneri debuted in 2005 with Berlin Teddy Award winner,

Nineteen up-and-coming producers from 12 countries across Southeast Europe and the wider Black Sea region have been selected to take part in the first edition of the CineLink Producers’ Lab, a new networking and training program launched by the industry arm of the Sarajevo Film Festival. Taking place from Aug. 12-15 as part of the

Industry stalwarts including director Cheryl Dunye (“Bridgerton”), actor, writer, director Romola Garai (“The Amulet,” “Becoming Elizabeth”), producer Elizabeth Karlsen (“Mothering Sunday”) and Sky Comedy commissioning editor Tilusha Ghelani have joined the illustrious roster of mentors at The Writers Lab U.K. & Ireland. Now in its second year in the territory, the lab, which supports women

Göteborg-based Cinenic Film, headed by Annika Hellström and Erika Malmgren, has a flawless track record in backing debut directors with global breakthrough potential. Their roster takes in Ísold Uggadóttir (“And Breathe Normally”), Gorki Glaser-Müller (“Children of the Enemy”) and most recently Christoffer Sandler, whose fiction debut “So Damn Easy Going” opened the last Göteborg Film

U.S. born British filmmaker Aaron Brookner (“Uncle Howard”) is plotting his first Nordic noir, slated for a market debut at Haugesund’s Nordic Co-Production Market, part of the leading Scandinavian confab New Nordic Films (Aug. 23-26). Based on the novel “A Gift to My Mother” by London-based Finnish author and journalist Jouko Heikura, the thriller is being

Selena Lee, Kenny Kwan, and Adam Pak lead the cast of “Tape,” a Cantonese-language remake of the Richard Linklater drama film that debuted in 2001. The new film is to be directed by Bizhan Tong (“Forensic Psychologist,” “The Audition”) with cameras set to roll next month in Hong Kong. “Tape” tells the story of 3

More than 300 industry delegates from top shingles including Warner Bros Discovery, Viaplay, Germany’s Constantin Film, The Match Factory and France’s TF1 Studio are expected on the shores of Haugesund, Norway, over Aug. 23-26, for Scandinavia’s major film showcase, New Nordic Films. Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness” will both open the film

CLOSE TO THE EDGE Thomasin McKenzie (“Life After Life,” “Jojo Rabbit”) and Devon Terrell (“Rap Shit”) star in “Totally Completely Fine,” a series co-production between Sundance Now and Australia’s Stan, which has now started production in Sydney. McKenzie plays a young woman whose life was a mess even before she inherited her grandfather’s coastal clifftop

“Day Shift” is a vampire thriller stuffed with lock-and-load ultraviolence, starring Jamie Foxx in imperious badass mode. At heart, though, it’s a knowingly eccentric goof of a movie, to the point that it’s hard, for a while, not to find it agreeable, even as you register what a preposterous piece of fluff it is. Unfortunately,

Grab your glass slippers — “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” is coming back to TV. In celebration of the beloved fairytale musical’s 25th anniversary, ABC will air a special edition of the news program “20/20” that will reunite the cast of the television film, set to air on Aug. 23. The film’s entire surviving cast —

Sylvester Stallone is synonymous with the character of Rocky Balboa, the scrappy underdog boxer who first brought him to the spotlight in the ’70s. But in recent years, Stallone has made it very clear that even though the films are inextricably linked with him, he’s not happy about the way the original deal was structured

When Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav spoke to investors on Aug. 4, the very first question was about his decision, announced two days earlier, to cancel the release of DC comics adaptation “Batgirl,” taking the HBO Max production (as well as “Scoob!: Holiday Haunt”) as a tax write-down instead. If Zaslav hoped his answer