Movies

Let the church say “amen.” “Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul” will open for film worshippers on Labor Day weekend. Focus Features, Peacock, and Monkeypaw Productions announced that the movie, from Daniel Kaluuya’s 59% Productions, will be released in theaters and begin streaming on Peacock on Friday, Sept. 2. Writer-director Adamma Ebo and producer Adanne

TRAILER BAFTA and sponsor, telecommunications provider EE, are celebrating a 25 year partnership with a trailer that is playing across U.K. cinemas from Friday. The partnership is one of the longest running arts partnerships in the U.K. with EE working with BAFTA to introduce the EE Rising Star Award. The nostalgic film looks back over

“CODA” started as “a scrappy production with few resources and filmed in a short amount of time,” says writer-director Siân Heder. But it earned the audience favorite award at Sundance and has chalked up other honors recently, including the key best-acting-ensemble at the Feb. 27 SAG Awards. It is nominated for three Oscars: supporting actor

Those who do not know Oscar history are surprised when it repeats. It’s a different take on philosopher George Santayana’s famous quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Statistics are an important piece to consider when analyzing an Oscar race. Too often, from the casual awards-watchers on social media, contenders

The 60th edition of the New York Film Festival will take place from Sept. 30 through Oct. 16. Along with the newly announced dates, Film at Lincoln Center’s recently promoted president Lesli Klainberg shared that Dennis Lim has been elevated to the New York Film Festival’s first-ever artistic director and Eugene Hernandez has been upped

Director, Oscar-winning actor and special envoy for the UN refugee agency, Angelina Jolie has signed a three-year international filmmaking agreement with producer and distributor Fremantle. Under the agreement, effective immediately, Jolie and Fremantle will jointly develop a “sophisticated, powerful, and internationally focused slate of feature films, documentaries, and original series in which she will produce,

“The Batman,” Matt Reeves’ pitch-black take on the oft-told story of the billionaire who became a costumed crime fighter, earned a muscular $21.6 million in Thursday previews. The superhero reboot is eyeing a debut of $100 million or more, buoyed by good reviews and interest in Robert Pattinson’s take on the title role. The former

After going virtual in 2021, the Rendez-Vous With French Cinema Festival is returning as an in-person event at the Lincoln Center in New York with a bevy of heavy hitters, including Claire Denis, Juliette Binoche, Jacques Audiard, Arnaud Desplechin and Mathieu Amalric. Kicking off with the North American premiere of Denis’ Berlinale Silver Bear winning

LevelK has boarded the buzzed-about Australian horror movie “Sissy” which have its world premiere at SXSW’s Midnighters section. The company is handling international sales on “Sissy,” while XYZ films is representing North American rights. Penned and directed by Hannah Barlow (For Now) and Kane Senes (Echoes of War, For Now), the film stars Aisha Dee

Netflix has released the first trailer for ‘The Bubble,’ Judd Apatow’s upcoming comedy about a cast and crew of a blockbuster movie in production during the COVID-19 pandemic. In “The Bubble,” Karen Gillan and Pedro Pascal play the lead actors in the action film “Cliff Beasts 6: The Battle for Everest: Memories of a Requiem,”

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Hollywood stars are fundraising for Ukraine on Cameo. As Russian troops continue to attack major Ukrainian cities, displacing more than a million refugees from their homes, actors such as Olivia Colman, Busy Philipps, Denise

Cymande was an early ‘70s group of Black British musicians who released three albums, split in 1975 and largely faded from view — until years later when, in a now-familiar story, their records began being sampled by hip-hop, house, drum n’ bass and other DJs and producers. The Fugees’ “The Score,” Wu-Tang Clan’s “Problems,” De La

Deckert Distribution has announced that it has picked up world rights for feature-length documentary “Outside,” directed by the Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba. The film will premiere in the main competition section of the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), which runs March 23-April 3. Zhurba’s short fiction film “Dad’s Sneakers” had its premiere in the

The Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), which runs March 23-April 3, has revealed its conference program. Among the filmmakers taking part are Sara Dosa (“Fire of Love”), Daniel Roher (“Navalny”) and Renzo Martens (“The White Cube”), and Brazilian indigenous cinematographer Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau (“The Territory). The conference program, known as CPH:CONFERENCE, is presented in partnership

“2nd Chance” may be the best Errol Morris movie that Errol Morris never made. It’s the first documentary feature directed by Ramin Bahrani, who has often brought a real-world edge to his dramas (“The White Tiger,” “Chop Shop”), and the figure at the film’s center could be a true-life character out of Morris land —

Sherri Shepherd wasn’t a nominee at the 13th AAFCA Awards on Wednesday night, but she certainly had the look of a winner. Shepherd was on hand at the annual awards show — which celebrates the best in film each year — to present the best actress award to her “Chi-town sister” Jennifer Hudson, who the

Hair salons are sacred spaces. Where else could one catch up on the latest neighborhood gossip and engage in mindless chit-chat, while getting treated to a wash, trim and blow-out? But in “Paradise Now“ director Hany Abu-Assad’s restrained yet gripping “Huda’s Salon,” a feminist political thriller whose philosophical observations are richer than its white-knuckle moments,

On paper, the premise of writer-director Eamon O’Rourke’s feature debut seems irresistible: An all-girl gang of abuse survivors, seriously upskilled in the use of baseball bats, bombs and butterfly knives, roams heartland America exacting vengeance on Bad Men — which here means #AlmostAllMen. But in execution (and there are precious few of those), “Asking for

Current B-grade thrillers so frequently have too little plot — often not much more than a starting premise — that it’s almost refreshing to see something like “The Weekend Away,” which has many more narrative complications than it can pull off. Certainly not with sufficient credibility, suspense or atmosphere, and not in one hectic hour

Aunjanue Ellis was content being a journeywoman actor in the business and providing for her family — but now the acclaim is pouring in. And yes, that includes an Oscar nomination for her role as Oracene ‘Brandy’ Williams in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard.” On the latest episode of the award-winning Variety Awards Circuit Podcast,

The Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) has unveiled its Rising Star nominees for 2022. The nominees are writer and director Benjamin Cleary (“Swan Song,” pictured above), writer and director Colm Bairéad  (“An Cailín Ciúin”), actor Hazel Doupe (“You Are Not My Mother”), writer and director Kate Dolan (“You Are Not My Mother”) and actor

Famously mercurial rocker Van Morrison has not shown the same enthusiasm for Oscar campaigning that many of this year’s other Academy Awards nominees have. He and the equally press-shy Beyonce have done little or no promotion for their respective nominations for best song, or for anything else that involves interviews. So it’s something of an

Netflix asked a federal court on Thursday to block a Texas prosecutor from pursuing child pornography charges against the streaming service for distributing the 2020 French film “Cuties.” Lucas Babin, the elected district attorney in Tyler County, Texas, indicted Netflix in September 2020, alleging that the film violates a state law against the “lewd exhibition”

Alexander Skarsgard experienced a serious case of whiplash during the making of Robert Eggers’ “The Northman,” in which he plays a 10th century Viking prince seeking revenge for the murder of his father. Within the matter of a week, the Emmy-winning actor went from playing a tech billionaire in “Succession” Season 3 to getting dragged

The best picture Oscar race is in a dead heat, with any number of paths to victory. But there’s another fierce competition, years in the making, to be the first streaming giant to win the Academy Awards’ most coveted honor. On the television side, Netflix and Amazon each made a play to become the first

In 2021, production came back in full swing for music supervisors, who delivered a wealth of tunes to the worlds of TV and film. Further expanding the reach of these soundtracks, day-and-date releases in theaters and streaming services meant some songs experienced double the consumption. What qualities made the ideal synch last year? A gamut

The Cannes Film Festival is hoping to attract the likes of Baz Luhrmann, George Miller and David Cronenberg for its 75th anniversary. The milestone edition of the sun-dappled celebration of all things cinema may even land a megastar in the form of Tom Cruise, who festival organizers are banking can be convinced to unveil “Top

Marian Lee has been promoted to chief marketing officer of Netflix. She replaces Bozoma Saint John, who boarded the streaming giant in 2020 after serving in senior executive roles at Uber and Apple. Lee joined the company in July 2021 as vice president of marketing in the U.S. and Canada (UCAN in Netflix parlance), overseeing

Harvey Weinstein was caught with contraband Milk Duds in November, prompting a reprimand from L.A. County jail guards, according to records viewed by Variety. The Milk Duds were found during a search on Nov. 10, after Weinstein had a face-to-face meeting with Shawn Burkley, one of his attorneys. The Milk Duds were confiscated, and the

The Toronto International Film Festival has banned all official Russian delegations from its 2022 edition following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, but it will welcome work from independent Russian filmmakers into its programming. “As an arts organization dedicated to transforming the way people see the world through film, we support artists and their freedom of