Movies

The Critics Choice Assn. has selected Billy Crystal to receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s ceremony on March 13. A Billy Crystal life achievement reel might look a lot like a history of American showbiz. Crystal’s family roots are embedded in the greatness of American music via his father and his uncle

It’s easy — and perhaps a bit lazy — to posture that 2021 was a year like no other. In fact, not only was there a global pandemic, but the angst over film, theater attendance and the future of entertainment went along in lockstep. As the Hollywood awards season marches on with the Critics’ Choice

With no new major releases for the weekend, Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” has an easy path to repeating its top performance at the domestic box office. The DC adaptation grossed an additional $18.7 million on Friday from 4,417 locations, more than enough to maintain the No. 1 position on North American charts. That performance represents

“Power of the Dog” star Jesse Plemons is speaking out about Sam Elliott’s recent rant against Jane Campion’s award-winning Netflix film. “I laughed when I heard. I don’t know why,” Plemons told me at premiere of his new Charlie McDowell-directed thriller “Windfall” on Friday night at the London West Hollywood hotel. ”I haven’t listened to

The pop-music world, in many ways, has only gotten angstier (it would be hard to imagine a mood-poet chanteuse like Billie Eilish commanding arenas 20 years ago). But even back in the ’90s, Sheryl Crow was the kind of straight-up, middle-of-the-strike-zone, tasty-licks virtuoso of rock ‘n’ roll good times who seemed to have been put

The SXSW Film Festival delivered a doozy of an opening night presentation with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” on Friday in Austin — offering up a buffet of images for viral memes. Fleshy hot dogs in place of human fingers, a talking raccoon voiced by Oscar winner Randy Newman, butt

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Oscar-nominated “Drive My Car” took eight prizes at the 45th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony, held on Friday at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takawana in Tokyo. In addition to the best picture award, the film won best director (Hamaguchi), best screenplay (Hamaguchi and co-writer Oe Takamasa) and best actor (Nishijima Hidetoshi). The

Way back in 1998, before Marvel made metaverses a household concept, Gwyneth Paltrow starred in a lovely parallel-realities drama called “Sliding Doors,” in which a woman’s life split along two paths, depending on whether or not her character caught a specific train. At the time, juggling these competing fates was considered to be so demanding

In early 2019, Casey Neistat began filming “Under the Influence,” about 23-year-old YouTube phenomenon David Dobrik, capturing his evolution from prankster to online celebrity with major brand sponsors and tens of millions of followers across social media platforms. But in 2021, the docu took a turn when a Business Insider story documented sexual-assault allegations by

Guillermo del Toro and Jane Campion have strong thoughts about filmmaking — both in execution and exhibition — in this modern streaming age. And lucky for us, they’re not afraid to share those opinions. And that’s exactly what they did last fall, for Variety’s “Directors on Directors” issue. Now, in case you missed that conversation

Disney CEO Bob Chapek is facing a major test of his leadership, after the company’s botched response to an anti-gay bill in Florida sparked a staff revolt among LGBTQ employees and their supporters. Chapek apologized to the staff on Friday, saying he should have been “a stronger ally.” But for some employees, who found the

Women filmmakers are taking the reins of their destinies in Hollywood, with many stepping behind the camera and creating stories universal to the human condition. But it has been a slow-moving machine to see these talents recognized at the Oscars, especially in the best director category. In the 94-year history of the Academy Awards, there

Everybody in the industry seems to like and admire J.K. Simmons, and why wouldn’t they? He’s talented, versatile, dependable and affable. The fan club includes Aaron Sorkin, writer-director of Amazon’s “Being the Ricardos,” for which Simmons is Oscar-nominated as supporting actor. Sorkin’s last seven screenplays have centered on real people, but he tells Variety he

When asked on “The View” this week about filmmakers slamming superhero movies (directors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and more have criticized Marvel films for disrupting exhibition), Marvel Cinematic Universe stalwart Samuel L. Jackson said “it’s easy” for directors to do so “only because people aren’t going to see their movies.” Jackson has

The theme of fathers and sons runs through the films of Venezuela-born writer-director Lorenzo Vigas, whose 2015 debut drama “From Afar,” which focuses on a troubled middle-aged man and young hustler in Caracas, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In Vigas’ latest film “El Caja” (“The Box”), which screened Thursday at the

Nirvana is not quite to Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” as Prince was to Tim Burton’s 1989 version of “Batman.” But even with only one oldie being used instead of an entire new song score, the new film is being identified with primarily one musician, thanks to Kurt Cobain’s “Something in the Way” appearing at prominent

Shawn Levy has entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The director of “Free Guy” and “The Adam Project” will once again team up with Ryan Reynolds for “Deadpool 3,” the much-anticipated third installment of the comedic action franchise, Variety confirms. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who penned the first two “Deadpool” films, will write the third movie

Zoe Saldaña revealed in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly that her former management team “discouraged” her from using her real name once she landed her first major acting role in the 2000 teen drama “Center Stage.” The actor stressed that her team was not trying to be malicious at the time. Saldaña starred in

Two weeks after pausing the theatrical release of “Morbius” in Russia, Sony Pictures has announced that it is also halting all other business in the country following its invasion of Ukraine. This includes home entertainment releases, such as that of box office hit “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” and any television distribution deals. Crunchyroll has also

While streamers continue to upend all and any traditional entertainment industry business models, they are now facing the power of the user over which services to choose and then potentially lose. Indeed, the challenge for all competing streamers is not just attracting new subscribers, but keeping existing ones — a phenomenon known in business speak

Returning to in-person gatherings after last year’s online event, this year’s Cartoon Movie pitch and co-production forum saw the teams behind 57 animated features pitch their development projects before 930 European industry delegates from 19 countries. Running over March 8 – 10 in the southwest city of Bordeaux in France, this year’s forum saw both

The Australian Consulate-General of Los Angeles celebrated Australian women’s success in film and television on Thursday with a panel and networking reception featuring vetted and rising Aussie talent. The event, held in partnership with Variety, spotlighted the increase in international production in Australia and the historic number of Australian women who have been recognized by

While the Madrigal family is the heart of Disney’s “Encanto,” another key character in the film is Casa Madrigal, the family’s magical home and center of the narrative. From the very beginning, co-writer and co-director Charise Castro Smith says the creative team knew that the house would be a reflection of the family and their

After weeks of internal strife and external controversy surrounding the Walt Disney Company’s lack of public response to the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in Florida, CEO Bob Chapek announced in a company email on Friday that Disney will pause all political donations in the state during a restructuring of its political giving framework. Chapek also

Netflix is going to ride the gaming rocket. TikTok is just getting started. The metaverse is real and so is the threat of the regulatory ax swinging against Big Tech in the aftermath of this year’s mid-term elections. Those were among the key conclusions about what’s ahead for media, offered up Friday morning in the

Color wasn’t the only consideration for production designer Rona Liu and director Domee Shi when they were developing the look of Disney Pixar’s “Turning Red,” available on Disney Plus March 11. They also wanted “chunky cute.” That meant building everything to look bigger and rounder for the coming-of-age story of a middle school girl, Mei,

Focus Features has lined up an emotional tribute reel and some primo swag to celebrate its 20 years of prestige indie filmmaking. The Comcast-owned unit run by Peter Kujawski released a heart-tugging compilation featuring its most celebrated movies –including the Oscar-nominated “Brokeback Mountain,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Lost in Translation,” “Milk,” “The Kids Are All Right,”

In the aftermath of #OscarSoWhite, there has been a shift, with actors of color including Viola Davis, Daniel Kaluuya, Mahershali Ali and Steven Yuen earning nominations. But the parts these actors inhabited were written specifically for a Black or, in Yuen’s case, a Korean actor. It was only last year when Riz Amed, the British

“Peaceful,” Emmanuelle Bercot’s Cesar-winning melodrama which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, has landed domestic distribution with New York-based banner Distrib US. Sold by Studiocanal, the movie is headlined by Benoit Magimel and Catherine Deneuve (pictured). Magimel, who won the Cesar Award for best actor — beating fellow nominee Adam Driver — stars as a

Eva Zaoralová, the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s artistic advisor and its artistic director for many years, has died, the festival confirmed Friday. Zaoralová was 89 years old. Established in 1946, Karlovy Vary is one of the world’s oldest film festivals, and one of its most prestigious, considered to be the leading festival in Central