Movies

IFC Films has acquired worldwide rights to the SXSW award-winning documentary “Bad Axe.” The deeply personal film is directed by David Siev, and follows the director as he returns home to rural Michigan. There, he captures his Asian-American family’s quest to keep their local restaurant alive, amidst the backdrop of pandemic and Trump-era political and

Jenny from the block will return to her old stomping grounds. The 2022 edition of the Tribeca Festival will kick off on Wednesday, June 8, with the world premiere of “Halftime,” a new Netflix documentary that promises to inject some serious star wattage into the annual celebration of movies and media. The movie follows Jennifer

“Il Posto” (“A Steady Job”), which world premiered Tuesday at Visions du Réel film festival, is set to launch in Europe on Franco-German channel ARTE and German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk in September. The film is directed by Italian duo Mattia Colombo and Gianluca Matarrese, whose “Fashion Babylon” premiered recently at CPH:DOX. “Il Posto,” which is

Sundance Film Festival: London will host an industry program alongside public screenings and events, it has been confirmed, with producer Christine Vachon giving a keynote speech. Hosted by the Sundance Institute and Picturehouse, the four-day industry event in June will be comprised of roundtable meetings, keynotes, masterclasses, themed panel discussions and daily networking drinks enabling

His dad, that unknown man: since he was a child, Steven Vit saw only one side of his father’s life. What exactly Rudy Vit did for a living remained a mystery to him. “I grew up in Thun, in a family like many others, with an older brother, a devoted stay-at-home mother, and an often-absent

American auteur Kelly Reichardt, an icon of the international film community thanks to her signature “slow cinema” style, will be honored by the Locarno Film Festival with its Pardo d’onore Manor lifetime achievement award. Since making her acclaimed 1994 debut “River of Grass,” Reichardt has followed her own singular orbit as a true outlier of

“Beautiful Blue Eyes,” the last film starring Roy Scheider, will release worldwide on June 10, following a charity premiere in London on June 6. The two-time Oscar nominee (“Jaws,” “The French Connection,” “Marathon Man,” “Klute,” “All That Jazz”) died in 2008 while “Beautiful Blue Eyes” was being filmed. Completion of the film was put on

Picture a suburban neighborhood that mostly immigrant families and pensioners call home, hidden under a wide avenue and wedged on the edge of a forest and a river. Or as Swiss director Tizian Büchi puts it: “A hole where no one ever goes, unless they live there.” This is the setting of his first feature

After its Tuesday evening performance, Broadway’s “Aladdin” paid tribute to Gilbert Gottfried. Gottfried’s family shared that the comedian died after battling a long illness earlier in the afternoon. Actor Don Darryl Rivera, who serves as the production’s original and continuing Iago, honored Gottfried with a speech during the show’s curtain call. Gottfried was the first

Lionsgate’s local-language film consortium GlobalGate Entertainment has added Japan’s Rakuten to its worldwide team of production and distribution partners. “We will acquire the adaptation and remake rights to IPs with high global value and recognition and work with talented creators in Japan to create world-class content. We will also leverage the Rakuten Ecosystem to distribute the newly created

Netflix has promoted Emily Feingold to vice president of communications, Variety has learned exclusively. The experienced and well-liked executive will now oversee communications for the streaming giant across the United States and Canada. She reports to Rachel Whetstone, Netflix chief communications officer. “I am thrilled that Emily has been appointed as Netflix’s new VP of

Michael Bay’s “Bad Boys” movies are one of his signature action franchises, but the director said the studio did not have faith in the project because of a misguided belief that Black actors don’t attract international audiences. Sony Pictures was behind “Bad Boys,” which paired Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as two Miami narcotics detectives.

Comedians and other Hollywood talent are paying tribute on social media to Gilbert Gottfried. The comedian’s family announced April 12 that he had died at age 67 following a long illness. Gottfried was known for his iconic shrill voice and beloved for his crude comedic style. His most famous screen role was voicing the parrot

Gilbert Gottfried, the comedian, “Aladdin” star and owner of the most recognizable voice in Hollywood, has died after battling a long illness, his family announced Tuesday. He was 67. His publicist told the Washington Post that he died due to complications from muscular dystrophy. “We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert

In the infinitely vast multiverse of the Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” anything is possible: Fingers become hot dogs, raccoons become chefs and rocks can even talk to one another. So, when the time came for hair department head Anissa Salazar to design the cast’s hairstyles — from a traditional Chinese opera headdress to

Award-winning South African drama “Good Life” is set for a U.S. release after sales agent Angel Oak Films inked a deal with distributor Level 33. Set in Cape Town and Greece, “Good Life” tells the story of Olive Papadopoulous (played by Erica Wessels), a thirty-something year-old with a broken heart. Fleeing to a small town

A panel composed of representatives from A-list festivals got together on Sunday for an online talk staged by documentary film festival Visions du Réel to discuss the place of documentary films at their events. The speakers were Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, U.S. programmer and selection committee member of the Venice Film Festival, Cristina Nord, head of

Johnny Depp’s lawyers accused his ex-wife, Amber Heard, of fabricating domestic violence claims against him in order to advance her own career, as a defamation trial got underway in Virginia. Depp has sued Heard for $50 million, alleging that she devastated his career when she revived her allegations against him in a 2018 op-ed in

Amazon Prime in France has unveiled its upcoming slate of director-driven Originals, including ‘Hawa,’ a new movie by “Cuties” director Maimouna Doucouré, Nicolas Bedos’ TV debut “Alphonse” and Franck Gastambide’s “”Medellín.” “Hawa” follows the coming-of-age tale of a teenage girl who lives with her grandmother and worries she will be removed by social services. She

“Matrix” stars Jessica Henwick and Hugo Weaving may never have shared a screen in the sci-fi mega-franchise (Weaving appeared in the original “Matrix” trilogy but due to scheduling conflicts missed out on the fourth installment, in which Henwick stars) but fans will no doubt be thrilled to learn the duo will be uniting for Kitty

A day prior to the glitzy world premiere of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” Ezra Miller, who has a key role in the upcoming “Harry Potter” spinoff sequel, was arrested for disorderly conduct and harassment. In another timeline, Miller, known for striking red carpet outfits and zany interviews, would have been front and center

The ad campaign for “Father Stu” — before-and-after photos with Mark Wahlberg looking sleazy in a mug shot, then as a clean-cut clergyman glancing up at the heavens — makes you think it’s going to be a movie about the world’s toughest priest. It is, but not in the way you expect. “Father Stu” is

References to a gay relationship in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” were edited out of the movie by Warner Bros. for the film’s release in China. Only six seconds of the movie’s 142-minute runtime were removed. Dialogue that was edited out alluded to the romantic past between male characters Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Grindelwald

The French duo behind “The Last Hillbilly,” which received a Special Mention in the First Appearance category at IDFA, have been pitching their new project at Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel. “A Dog’s Life” will follow the journey of six teenage girls from the juvenile detention center in Bakersfield as they embark on a

The Far East Film Festival in Italy’s Udine has set Chinese-Italian co-production “The Italian Recipe” as the opening title of a revived, largely in-person event. The film, directed by Hou Zuxin, sees an unexpected series of events bring together a Chinese reality TV show contestant and a woman already resident in Italy. The collision of

Reims Polar, a new international festival set in Northern France and dedicated to police thrillers, has awarded Wen Shipei’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?,” Adikhan Yerzhanov’s “Assault” and Lado Kvataniya’s “The Execution.” The selection of Reims Polar is curated by Bruno Barde, who is also the artistic director of the Deauville American Film Festival. “Assault,” a

The solar eclipses of 1961 and 1999, both observable in Serbia, bracket the events explored in the lyrical imagery of Nataša Urban’s debut feature-length documentary. But because life so rarely arranges itself neatly along a defined timeline, they do it imprecisely, blurring over a little at either edge, the way memories do. As a metaphor,

Production is under way on “Asian Persuasion,” a feature film that marks the directorial debut of three-time Tony-Award and Grammy-winning producer Jhett Tolentino. Set in New York, romantic comedy “Asian Persuasion” features a diverse, primarily Asian cast and seeks to elevate, inform and inspire the Asian narrative. The story follows a down-on-his-luck chef who cooks up a

Funded by multiple arts organizations, the hybrid documentary “Foragers” from the Berlin-based Palestinian sculptor and filmmaker Jumana Manna investigates the age-old Palestinian practice of gathering wild edibles such as the herb za’atar and the delicacy ‘akkoub, a thistle-like plant with medicinal properties, and how these traditions conflict with Israeli nature conservation laws that essentially criminalize

James Bond producers have yet to announce which actor will replace Daniel Craig as the new 007 following “No Time to Die,” but filmmaker Paul Verhoeven is probably more interested in whether or not sex scenes will come back to the long-running spy franchise. Verhoeven, who has crafted memorable sex scenes in films such as