Movies

He may have starred in the beloved sitcom “The Office” and worked with his hero Quentin Tarantino in “Inglourious Basterds,” but B.J. Novak never feels cooler than when he’s shooting the shit at some swanky Manhattan watering hole with his buddy John Mayer. That realization inspired the opening sequence in Novak’s new film “Vengeance,” a

Tom Hanks won his first Oscar for best actor thanks to Jonathan Demme’s 1993 legal drama “Philadelphia,” in which he plays a gay man with HIV who is discriminated against at work. Now, almost 30 years later, Hanks says he or any fellow straight actor would no longer be able to play the openly gay

Chris Evans is taking a stand against anyone criticizing “Lightyear” for featuring a gay kiss between two female characters. The actor recently told Reuters that film and TV viewers who opposite diversity and more inclusive on-screen representation are “idiots” who will eventually “die off like dinosaurs.” Evans said it’s important not to pay any attention

Kyra Sedgwick has been acting since she was 16, stealing scenes from Julia Roberts in “Something to Talk About” and interrogating hardened criminals to Emmy-winning effect on “The Closer.” But she thinks she’s found her true calling as a director. “I’m madly in love with it,” Sedgwick tells Variety as she prepares for “Space Oddity,”

Warner Discovery came out at Annecy all three animation cylinders firing, Cartoon Network Studios,  Warner Bros. Animation and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe coming together to host a joint sneak peek presentation of their upcoming slates. They make a formidable combination. The biggest news was an exclusive, multiyear cross-studio overall deal inked between Cartoon Network Studios and Warner

Natalia Sinelnikova, a rising writer-director who emigrated from St. Petersburg to Germany as a child, is exploring the disrupting force of fear through her critically acclaimed feature debut “We Might as Well Be Dead.” The film, which world premiered at the Berlinale and is having its North American premiere at Tribeca, is both a dystopian

Jerry Seinfeld is cooking up an A-list ensemble to star in “Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story,” a movie about the creation of the popular breakfast treat. Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, Hugh Grant and James Marsden will headline the upcoming Netflix film alongside Seinfeld, who is also writing and directing the movie. Set in 1963

“Paris in Harlem” director Christina Kallas is set to direct limited series ‘The Second Attack’ for ARD Mediathek, Variety can exclusively reveal. The six-part political thriller envisions what would happen if an “unthinkable war” were to take place on the world stage. Oliver Bottini (“Algiers Confidential”) has written the screenplay. “Inspired by true events, ‘The

Following its world debut at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight this May, Kino Lorber has snagged North American distribution rights to “1976,” a gripping Pinochet-era drama directed by Manuela Martelli. The film is the first feature for Martelli, produced by Chilean writer-directors Omar Zuniga (“The Strong Ones”) and Dominga Sotomayor (“Too Late to Die Young”) for Cinestación,

Ryan Gosling makes for the perfect Ken doll in Warner Bros.’ latest look at Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” which stars Margot Robbie in the title role. The studio has debuted a striking photo of Gosling’s Ken sporting six-pack abs, bleach blonde hair and a spray tan. The image is the second official still from “Barbie” to

Bleecker Street, the indie studio behind “The Assistant” and “Mass,” and online film packaging, financing and distribution marketplace Slated have entered a strategic partnership. It is described as a multi-picture, multi-year output deal. It’s also an innovative alliance that will see the two companies use new to technology to identify high scoring films from Slated’s

Benji Davies’ “Storm Whale” children’s books are getting an animated adaptation from Lupus Films, the studio behind the adaptation of Judith Kerr’s “The Tiger Who Came to Tea.” Lupus are working on a series of three films based on the books, which are published by Simon and Schuster. The three half-hour specials will be written

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights to the documentary “Turn Every Page — The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb.” The film premiered at Tribeca Festival as part of its spotlight documentary programming. Robert Gottlieb’s daughter Lizzie Gottlieb (“Today’s Man,” “Romeo Romeo”) directed “Turn Every Page,” which explores the legendary editor’s creative collaboration

Three animated “Avatar” movies — no, not the ones about the Na’vi — are in the works at Paramount and Nickelodeon. Not to be confused with James Cameron’s blockbuster “Avatar” franchise, the upcoming films are based on “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” the anime-influenced TV series about a boy who can manipulate water, earth, fire and

The resurgence of neo-fascist movements and authoritarian rule around the world has unsurprisingly coincided with a ramping-up of hostility against press freedom. Assassinated U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is the most notorious single example, but hundreds in his profession have been murdered in recent years, with many more assaulted, detained, harassed and so forth. Telling

Films Boutique (“Lunana, a Yak in the Classroom”) has boarded “White Plastic Sky,” the animated feature debut of Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó, the duo behind the critically successful shorts “Les Conquerants” and “Leftover.” A dystopian eco-fantasy, “White Plastic Sky” is set in a near future, where the last humans live in an artificial dome

“When you become a mother, you feel like you are split in two,” a character says late in Michelle Garza Cervera’s “Huesera.” The words are supposed to be comforting, a reminder that the physical and emotional toll the pregnancy is taking on young Valeria (Natalia Solien) is not just natural, but expected. “And just wait

PRODUCTION Production has wrapped on “Asian Persuasion,” a New York Asian tale of a down-on-his-luck chef who cooks up a scheme to marry off his ex-wife in an attempt to escape substantial alimony and child support obligations, before realizing that he wants a second chance. Featured actors include Black Eyed Peas’ Apl.de.Ap, Yam Concepcion (“Nightshift”),

Shailaja Padindala’s Kannada-language film “Naanu Ladies” won best narrative feature and Pedro Peira’s English and Spanish-language film “LA QueenCianera” best documentary feature at the 2022 Kashish LGBTQ+ film festival in Mumbai. Gujarati-language shorts “Muhafiz” by Pradipta Ray and “Dal Bhat” by Nemil Shah” won best Indian narrative short and the Riyad Wadia Award for best

“I was very low,” we hear lonesome inventor (and cabbage enthusiast) Brian’s voiceover say at the start of Jim Archer’s “Brian and Charles,” a textured, melancholic and eccentrically funny mockumentary set in a remote corner of North Wales. With the camera luring the audience into his charmingly cluttered country-home workshop straight out of a storybook,

Alongside its annual World Summit at the Annecy Int’l Animation Festival, Women in Animation (WIA) has launched in  partnership with FIAPF the inaugural edition of Stories x Women, a program aimed at increasing the diversity of voices in animation around the world. Six delegations of filmmakers selected among a pool of candidates from emerging animation

Spain’s Navarre will analyse a 40% tax deduction on R&D investment and other factors turning it into one of Spain’s fastest-building animation hubs at a June 15 panel, held at Annecy’s MIFA market. Located in northern Spain,   Navarre currently has six animated features in development, two in production, one recently launched, and two shorts,

Dark Star Pictures has acquired distribution rights in North America for Australian gay love story “Lonesome,” directed by Craig Boreham. Following its world premiere at the Seattle Intl. Film Festival in April, San Francisco’s Frameline Film Festival will present the film on June 20. The film is also screening at the Guadalajara Intl. Film Festival,

Annecy this year is all about innovation, in animation  style – seen in the villain of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” unveiled on Monday – in Europe’s push into adult animation, and even in new ways of connecting with audiences, as DreamWorks Animation has demonstrated in a joyous and packed open air screening of “The Bad Guys.”

The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) has outlined plans for the restart of in-person screenings in July. But it says it will keep an online component as this reflects the “irreversible changes” in the film industry. “The language of cinema, the form of the medium, and how the audience receives them have changed, and

The wedding industrial complex has intensified since novelist Edward Streeter wrote his wryly observational satire “Father of the Bride” in 1949. So, too, has the titular patriarch’s panic that his daughter’s nuptials will expose him as a substandard provider. Director Gary Alazraki’s uneven adaptation — the third in seven decades after Spencer Tracy and Steve

How many millennial cine-memoirs does the world need? I might have answered that question differently before “Beba.” As a generation of TikTok and Instagram users seek still more ways to overshare, it’s only a matter of time before we’re drowning in personal essay films. Having seen what Rachel Huntt can do with the format, however,

A judge in Santa Maria, Calif., on Tuesday dismissed a rape case against film producer David Guillod, weeks after another judge threw out most of the charges against him. Guillod was accused of raping or sexually assaulting six women, including actress Jessica Barth. But after a 10-day preliminary hearing in May, Judge James K. Voysey

Jennifer Lopez has always been obsessed with authenticity. It’s there in her music, like the 2014 single “Same Girl,” the radio sensation “I’m Real” with Ja Rule and her signature bop “Jenny From the Block.” In the latter, a girl from the Bronx makes the solemn promise: “No matter where I go, I know where

Despite a report that Amber Heard was fired from her role as Mera in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” a source tells Variety that she has not been cut from the movie. A spokesperson for Heard said in a statement to Variety, “The rumor mill continues as it has from day one — inaccurate, insensitive and