Movies

Los Angeles-based Dark Star Pictures has acquired North American distribution rights to Colombia-based Spanish director Ruth Caudeli’s Tribeca title “Petit Mal” from Italian sales company The Open Reel.  “Petit Mal,” in which Caudeli also stars, is centered around three young women, Martina, Laia, and Anto, who are in a passionate, playful three-way relationship — the dynamic

In “Mad Men,” Jon Hamm had his corner office: the room with a view, overlooking Madison Avenue, where Don Draper could work, drink and brainstorm in peace. Maybe that’s why the actor was drawn to playing a lowly paper-pusher with a bad mustache and big dreams of occupying such a space in “Corner Office,” a

Doing press for “Fire Island” has been quite an emotional experience for James Scully, who plays Bowen Yang’s love interest in director Andrew Ahn’s new queer rom-com written by and starring Joel Kim Booster. “I have had these out of body moments where I’m like, remember when you thought you were going to have to

In “The Integrity of Joseph Chambers,” Clayne Crawford plays a middle-class insurance salesman who wakes up, shaves his mustache into something from the Chuck Norris/Burt Reynolds catalog of masculinity, kisses his wife Tess (Jordana Brewster) goodbye and sets out for an early morning hunting expedition. Say what you will about the Second Amendment, but Joseph

Though the term “Islamophobia” may seem of relatively recent vernacular vintage, such sentiments have been aggressively popularized — and politicized — for over three decades in the American consciousness. Nausheen Dadabhoy’s “An Act of Worship” chronicles that trend and its impact on Muslims in the U.S., while focusing on several individual activists combatting related discrimination,

Disney-Pixar’s “Lightyear” sees Chris Evans voicing a new version of one of the company’s most famous characters, Buzz Lightyear. First introduced in 1995’s “Toy Story,” Buzz was made famous thanks to Tim Allen’s voice performance across the franchise’s four films, and Evans admitted that taking on the title role was a daunting prospect “The first

Marvel Studios may have its next big team-up movie. A film based on the Thunderbolts — a team of supervillains in the Marvel comics — is in early development, with director Jake Schreier on board, Variety has confirmed. “Black Widow” writer Eric Pearson will write the film, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will produce.

No mere documentary can capture the turbulent life story of “America’s mayor.” In order to do justice to the rise and fall of Rudolph “Rudy” Giuliani, director Jed Rothstein had to invent a new genre. The result, “Rudy! A Documusical,” weaves in musical performances by Broadway actors with archival footage from Giuliani’s metamorphosis from top

“They’re coming out of the woodwork!” Jennifer Lopez is gushing in delight as an impromptu flash mob breaks out — to the tune of “Jenny From the Block,” naturally — on the red carpet of “Halftime,” her new documentary that opened the 2022 Tribeca Festival. “Only in New York,” she said, letting out a “woo.”

Judy Garland, who would have turned 100 years old this week, wasn’t just billed as “the world’s greatest entertainer” – in her time, she really was. Garland was much more than just little Dorothy Gale from Kansas who once had an adventure in far-off Oz. She spent 45 of her 47 years in show business,

June 10 marks the 100th birthday of Judy Garland  — and anyone who’s seen films like “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) or “A Star is Born” (1954) is automatically a fan. To many fans, she was a blazing talent and that was enough. But others became as fascinated with her personal life as with her

Don’t cross the streams! Sony Pictures Virtual Reality is gearing up to launch “Ghostbusters VR Academy,” which will let fans of the 38-year-old movie franchise train to become Ghostbusters themselves. The VR experience, described as an “immersive training simulator,” is being developed by Hologate, an operator of location-based virtual reality entertainment, in association with Ghost

Cinema Management Group (CMG) has inked multiple new sales deals for César Zelada’s sophomore feature “Kayara,” an animated teen-empowerment fable produced by Lima-based Tunche Films in co-production with India’s Toonz Media Group via its Canary Islands-based Fortoon Island. In the latest wave of sales, Mis. Label Aps has acquired “Kayara” for Scandinavia, Films4You for Portugal,

Paul Yanover is stepping down as president of Fandango after nearly a decade atop the country’s leading movie ticketing service. He will be replaced by Will McIntosh, who currently serves as executive VP of NBC Sports Next. His new role will be slightly different, as he will serve as president of both NBC Sports Next

Artists Road has landed rights to “Incoming,” a high school comedy starring “The Black Phone” actor Mason Thames. The company, a new joint venture specializing in funny films, is co-financing with Spyglass Media Group. Dave and John Chernin, who have partnered on “The Mick” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” are writing and directing in

“Perlimps,” Brazilian Alê Abreu’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “The Boy and the World,” has a trailer, released in the run up to the animated feature’s world premiere on June 16 at the Annecy Festival. Shared in exclusivity with Variety by the film’s sales agent Best Friend Forever, the full trailer reveals for the first time the real

Comedy drama “The Shuroo Process” has been snapped up by 4 Digital Media. Co-written by and starring Emrhys Cooper (“Dreamcatcher”), the film also represents Cooper’s directorial debut. He wrote it with Donal Brophy, who also co-stars. The duo also produced the feature. Rainey Qualley, Fiona Dourif, Tommy Dorfman, Olivia Sui, Hakeem Kae-Kazim,Jeff Hephner and Cornelia

Feature documentary “The Wild One,” which looks at the life of Jack Garfein, Holocaust survivor, Broadway director, Actors Studio West co-founder, and controversial filmmaker, has debuted its trailer. Tessa Louise-Salomé’s film, which is narrated by Willem Dafoe, will have its world premiere on Saturday at Tribeca Film Festival. The Party Film Sales is handling sales.

Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson appeared in person at the London outpost of the festival on Thursday, just two days after confirming she’s stepping down from her role. When asked by Variety what she plans to do next, Jackson, who has worked at Sundance since 2013 and took on the festival director role in

Clara Stern’s debut feature “Breaking the Ice,” a drama about the blossoming love between ice-hockey player Mira and her new teammate Theresa, has debuted its trailer. The film will have its world premiere Saturday in the Viewpoints section of the Tribeca Film Festival. Julien Razafindranaly at Films Boutique is handling world sales. The Austrian film

Buckle up: 2022 has been a bumpy ride so far for global equities markets. Experts may be debating how long the bear market will last or when a full-fledged recession could hit, but this much is clear: The good times are over. There’s no shortage of factors driving the downturn: Rising inflation, interest-rate hikes, supply

In the run up to Annecy festival, Netflix has unveiled a powerful slate of talent-driven animated films and series, including “That Christmas” based on BAFTA winner Richard Curtis’s children’s books, and “Ember,” Sergio Pablos’ follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “Klaus.” Netflix’s roster of animated features also boasts the musical “Scrooge: A Christmas Carol” which features songs

Odeon Cinemas Group, the U.K.-based European subsidiary of AMC Theatres, currently ranks as Europe’s largest exhibition circuit in terms of number of screens, followed by by Cineworld (U.K.), Vue International (U.K.), and Les Cinémas Pathé Gaumont (France). Such are the findings of a study conducted by trade body The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), which

Universal Pictures released the final trailer for “Nope,” Jordan Peele’s third feature film. It teases much of the movie’s previously-unknown plot, in which Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya star as the duo behind a horse training ranch for Hollywood productions, who, thanks to the aliens hovering over their property, hatch a scheme to capture and

IN-PERSON SCREENINGS The Melbourne Film Festival will return to cinemas after two turbulent years caused by COVID-related disruptions – the city endured one of the world’s longest pandemic lockdowns – and will run Aug 4-21, 2022. It will open with powerful Australian-U.K.-Serbian-made first film “Of An Age,” by renown shorts director Goran Stolevski. Festival organizers

Warner Bros. Discovery Thursday announced its management team for Japan, Australia New Zealand, reporting into James Gibbons, WBD’s president and managing director. The reshuffle follows similar announcements for the EMEA area under Priya Dogra and India, Southeast Asia and Korea under Clement Schwebig. Masami Takahashi is appointed country manager, head of studios, Japan, and be based in Tokyo.

Ran Tal’s moving documentary ‘1341 Frames of Love and War’ has won three key awards at DocAviv and been sold to seven territories by sales company Reservoir Docs. Tal took home the best director prize while Nilli Feller snagged the editor award. In addition, the doc won the Kedar Foundation Award for a film inspired

Warner Bros. Discovery has set out its India, Southeast Asia and Korea (INSEAK) leadership team under Clement Schwebig, as president and managing director. The Thursday announcement follows just hours after a similar rejig of the EMEA leadership team under Priya Dogra. Both Schwebig and Dogra report to Gerhard Zeiler, president of international for the merged

Big news for “Ghostbusters” fans: the franchise is in development on an animated film, and the sequel to “Afterlife” is returning to the original films’ home of New York City. Several announcements were delivered by Sony Pictures and Ghost Corps’ Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan as part of Ghostbusters Day, the annual celebration of the

The Vancouver branch of the Directors Guild of Canada has reached an agreement with the studios, averting a strike that threatened to shut down film and TV production in British Columbia. The union issued a strike notice on April 26, after talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Canadian Media