Movies

The Oscars will talk about Bruno, yes, yes, yes. The 94th Academy Awards, which will take place on March 27, will feature the first live performance of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the breakout sensation from Disney’s animated musical “Encanto.” This year’s telecast will also include tributes to James Bond and “The Godfather,” which is

Ever since Searchlight Pictures released stills of Jessica Chastain in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” audiences were captivated by her transformation, and now, the hair and makeup team, along with Chastain, are all in the running for Oscar. The goal of makeup department head Linda Dowds, hair department head Stephanie Ingram and special makeup effects

With Oscar voting set to begin on March 17, four new actors will be entering the history books with “Academy Award winner” next to their name. The honor of an Oscar nomination is one of the highest a person can receive in Hollywood. Still, many talented actors haven’t received the distinction yet, despite a plethora

CAA has signed Krystin Ver Linden, writer and director of the Sundance Film Festival selection “Alice,” for representation. The dramatic thriller marks Ver Linden’s feature film debut. Prior to its festival launch, Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment nabbed U.S. rights to the picture, starring Keke Palmer, Common and Johnny Lee Miller, in a deal made

George Miller’s anticipated fantasy-romance-drama “Three Thousand Years Of Longing” with Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton will world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Variety has learned. Both Miller and Swinton are Cannes regulars. Swinton appeared in five movies at last year’s festival, while Miller served as jury president in 2016 and his most recent film

Children’s and young adult literary juggernaut Judy Blume will be the subject of an untitled feature documentary from Amazon Prime Video and Imagine Documentaries, Variety has learned exclusively. Framed as a coming-of-age tale of Blume and the generations of readers who have sparked to her work, the film will cover 50 years and many of

On the heels of its Oscar nomination for best documentary, “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” will return to New York City’s Marcus Garvey Park this June. Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage, a series of free performances and screenings in parks around the city, announced Wednesday that a free

Jamie Lee Curtis forged a strong enough bond with LaKeith Stanfield during the making of Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” that she personally contacted the actor last year when she heard from a mutual friend that he was thinking about sobriety. Stanfield revealed in a new interview with GQ magazine that he struggled with alcohol addiction,

Kalu Ikeagwu and Marcy Dolapo Oni have been tapped to star in “It’s the Blackness,” the debut feature from actor turned director Hakeem Kae-Kazim. Ikeagwu (“30 Days”) and Oni (“Diary of a Lagos Girl”) will play Mr and Mrs Baba-Lola in the film. They are joined by Daniel Davids (“Meet the Adebanjos”), Matthew J. Morrison

A testament to her fearless nature and boundless determination, Croatian-American filmmaker Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović was nine months pregnant when she traveled from New York to present her feature debut “Murina” at the Cannes Film Festival. At the end of the festival, Kusijanović tool a 12-hour road trip with her husband to her homeland in Croatia,

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” The Oscars’ hour-long ceremony before the live telecast is getting some major star wattage. I can exclusively reveal that Academy Award nominee Josh Brolin and “Aquaman” star Jason Momoa are in final talks to present all eight categories that have been cut from being shown in real-time during

The Casting Society celebrates its 40-year anniversary this year just as the entertainment industry is marking the diversity and authenticity in the many roles in film and TV from “CODA” and “West Side Story” to “Bridgerton.” In honor of this landmark, the society’s leaders hoped to organize an in-person ceremony for the Artios Awards, their

There’s something missing from Adrian Lyne’s “Deep Water,” and it’s not just the body of Martin McRae, the last unfortunate rival to get a little too friendly with Vic Van Allen’s wife. Vic (Ben Affleck) and Melinda (Ana de Armas) have an open marriage, but her … distractions have a habit of disappearing, and so

It’s been less than a year since the Oscars aired a stripped-down version of the show at Union Station, but the 95th annual Academy Awards is set to take place March 27, back at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. With voting opening March 17, we take a look at the top categories and where things

Sundance 2022’s top prize winner, filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu’s “Nanny,” has been acquired by Blumhouse and Prime Video. The companies jointly secured worldwide rights for the horror-drama, which premiered to rave reviews at Sundance in January, before ultimately winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, making history as the first horror film to take the festival’s top

After “Parasite” and “Squid Game” struck planet-wide notes with their critique of elitism, Trevor Choi’s “Smashing Frank” is a timely Hong Kong twist on the revenge-against-the-rich theme. It is being pitched at the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) that this week runs alongside the FilMart rights market. “This is a comedy-drama about four millennials

In “Master of Light,” Rosa Ruth Boesten’s superbly intimate portrait of painter George Anthony Morton, shadows matter as much as light. The documentary, which won the grand jury prize at the SXSW Film Festival, deals with Black trauma, gently acknowledging change without over-trumpeting resilience.While serving time in federal prison for selling drugs, Morton studied the

Back together in person after two years of going virtual during the pandemic, the Austin-based SXSW Film Festival has announced its juried prizes. As in previous editions, the awards show happened at the midpoint of the nine-day event, before SXSW’s music events suck much of the attention away from film screenings. The top prize in

After a film career spanning more than three decades, production-costume-art designer Tim Yip has achieved plenty, including winning an Oscar and a BAFTA award. But he is only now launching his most uncompromising production, which he calls a “living film project,” and which he hopes will challenge the tradition of cinema. “I want to make

Courteney Cox knows a thing or two about sitcoms. She shot to fame as Monica Geller on the iconic “Friends” and starred for six seasons on “Cougar Town.” It’s no surprise she gets pitched a lot of half-hour comedies. However, it’s rare she finds anything that appealing. “Usually they’re not challenging enough, or I find

Marvel Studios released a statement denouncing anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation on Tuesday afternoon. Marvel’s official words come after a week of controversy surrounding its parent company, The Walt Disney Company, and its initial lack of public response against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation. “We strongly denounce any and ALL legislation that infringes on the basic human rights

AMC Theatres, the biggest cinema chain in the world, is buying a 22% stake in Nevada-based gold and silver mining company Hycroft Mining Holding Corp. AMC’s $27.9 million cash investment in Hycroft is the company’s latest attempt to shore up its finances after COVID-19 forced movie theaters to close. After evading bankruptcy and embracing its

While Chloé Zhao’s “Eternals” managed to gross $402 million worldwide at the pandemic box office, the film strongly divided critics and Marvel fans. “Eternals” boasts a 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest-rated Marvel movie on the aggregation website (yes, even lower than “Thor: The Dark World”). In a new interview with Empire

Despite James Cameron, Jane Campion and Guillermo Del Toro speaking out against the Academy’s decision to pre-record eight of the craft categories, their plea to reconsider is falling on deaf ears. With the 94th Academy Awards less than two weeks away, artisans impacted by the decision are still feeling like second-class citizens. The news was

Samuel Di Piazza Jr. will serve as the chairman of Warner Bros. Discovery following the close of the deal to combine the two media companies, AT&T announced. Di Piazza, previously global CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers from 2002 until his retirement in 2009, spent 36 years working at PwC. He was among the seven board members of

The Critics Choice Awards returned to a fully in-person event on Sunday, and so did the audience — sort of. Never a huge ratings performer, the ceremony nonetheless recovered from last year’s COVID dip, averaging 1.1 million viewers and a 0.2 rating with adults 18-49 in live + same day viewership. That rating is on

Early on in David Cronenberg’s “Crash,” two characters lock eyes across the crumpled hoods of their cars after a head-on collision. A strange transference occurs, partly sexual and partly about a different kind of intimacy, one that comes from a shared proximity to death. Actress Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ intriguing, evocative directorial debut “It Is in Us

Popular Indian actor and singer-songwriter Diljit Dosanjh has signed a deal with Warner Music to amplify his global music career. Coming up are singles with Canadian rapper Tory Lanez and Tanzanian star Diamond Platnumz, who revealed a partnership with Warner Music last year. As an actor, Dosanjh’s hit Punjabi-language films include “Honsla Rakh,” “Jatt &

A group of Disney employees have planned a week of in-person and virtual walkouts in response to the company and CEO Bob Chapek’s handling of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. On Monday afternoon, the Twitter account called Disney Walkout posted a message explaining that, “The LGBTQIA+ workers and allies at The Walt Disney Company are

Amar Chadha-Patel has been cast in Gareth Edwards’ forthcoming sci-fi pic “True Love.” The up-and-coming British actor will appear as multiple characters that are called “Simulants” in the movie, and include Satra, Sergeant Bui and Inspector Omni. Details about the film are still being kept under lock and key, and all that’s known is that