Movies

Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt (the Munna Bhai franchise, “Vaastav,” “Khal Nayak”) is launching production company Three Dimension Motion Pictures with a view to bringing back the golden age of heroism to the industry. Dutt cites the recent pan-Indian box office success of South Indian film “Pushpa” and the films of “Baahubali” filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli as

Sensing a potential trend in the possible nominations of three major Oscars categories — best director, actor and actress — we could see a first-time occurrence for the Academy Awards on Tuesday. However, if you read the tea leaves put forth by the nominations for the DGA and SAG, there’s a strong possibility that all

Dejon Ellis, Jr., won a close vote on Sunday to take over as interim leader of IATSE Local 80, in an election marked by lingering hard feelings over last year’s contract negotiations. Local 80 represents about 3,800 grips, as well as craft service workers and set medics. In November, the local voted resoundingly against the

Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” won four major awards at the 42nd annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards on Sunday. “The Power of the Dog” won film of the year, Campion director of the year, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Kodi Smit-McPhee, actor and supporting actor of the year, respectively. This is Campion’s

After living through nearly two years of a pandemic that won’t end, Americans, as it turns out, were in desperate need of a laugh. That may explain why Paramount’s go-for-broke action comedy “Jackass Forever” triumphed at the domestic box office while Roland Emmerich’s disaster epic “Moonfall” turned into an epic disaster. “Jackass Forever,” the fourth

Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World,” about a young woman figuring out life and love, might have brought Renate Reinsve the best actress award at Cannes, but the two actually started their collaboration in 2011 on “Oslo, August 31st” – Reinsve’s very first film. “I was an extra with one line,” she said

2021 was another annus horribilis for cinemagoing in the Nordics, due to on-going and strict Covid restrictions that halved admissions compared to pre-pandemic levels. Released late September/early October when cinemas for once ran at full capacity, “No Time to Die” literally saved the film year, and even ranked No.  1 among all James Bond movies ever

Danish debut feature helmer-writer Tea Lindeburg’s period drama “As In Heaven,” that portrays a fateful summer day and night in 19th century farming society, came away the biggest winner at the 44th Göteborg Film Festival, scoring on Saturday the best Nordic film kudo, this year worth approx. $44,000. Meanwhile, Seidi Haarla of Finland’s Oscar-shortlisted drama, “Compartment

In “Excess Will Save Us” – named this week joint winner of Rotterdam Film Festival’s Special Jury Award – Morgane Dziurla-Petit returns to Villereau, a village in the north of France where nothing ever happens. Or, according to some of the locals, everything does – from freak accidents to terrorist scares and the curious case

The Spanish Film Academy announced on Friday that its first-ever International Goya Award will be received by Cate Blanchett. Currently presided by Mariano Barroso, the Spanish Film Academy created the award to “honor artists that have contributed to cinema as a medium that brings together different cultures and people.” In Friday’s announcement, Blanchett was recognized

For the Ayoreo Totobiegosode people, the word “eami” means forest and world. Such twinned meaning speaks to the way this indigenous community understands the environment around them. The forest is their world. Or was. For now, the Paraguayan Chaco where the Ayoreo Totobiegosode live is the territory with the highest deforestation rate in the world.

After a quiet January that saw one horror sequel and the same holiday releases putter out over several weeks, the domestic box office finally has a new leader. Paramount Pictures’ “Jackass Forever” is projected to earn $20.7 million in its opening, stunting on the weekend’s other wide release, “Moonfall.” “Jackass Forever” earned $9.6 million on

Paraguayan director Paz Encina, whose striking ecological fable and tale of the pain of exile, “Eami,” won the Tiger Award at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival, is developing a slate of feature film projects, Variety can reveal. The first project, “Sy,” follows the titular character –  whose name means “mother” in the Guarani language –

As Russia-Ukraine tensions rise, dominating international headlines, director Maria Ignatenko talks about the hell of war in her Rotterdam Film Festival title “Achrome.” But her oneiric film, lensed by Anton Gromov, is not exactly a comment on the current situation in Europe. “This particular topic is becoming more and more timely these days, but my

Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom – whose films include Luca Guadagnino’s Oscar nominee for best picture “Call Me by Your Name” and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Palme d’Or winner “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” and who recently lensed Netflix thriller “Beckett” – received the third Robby Müller Award on Thursday, following in the footsteps of

In a new series, Variety catches up with the directors of the films shortlisted for the International Feature Oscar to discuss their road to the awards, what they’ve learned so far, and what’s taken them off guard. Paolo Sorrentino, who won an international Oscar for “The Great Beauty” in 2014, is back in contention with

Hauntingly beautiful and deeply enigmatic, “Neptune Frost” has enjoyed perhaps the most coveted festival run of 2021. Blending science fiction, dance and allegorical elements, the striking Afrofuturist feature debuted at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. It has since been invited to screen at some of the top showcases: Toronto, New York, London, Sundance, Rotterdam and

TikTok, the omnipresent video-based social-media app that launched five years ago, has always seemed a less serious, more frivolously youthquakey destination than a number of other online networking services — most obviously Facebook. Yet as Shalini Kantayya’s sprightly, informative documentary “TikTok, Boom.” makes clear, there are more levels to the TikTok phenomenon than there are

Family photos, propaganda images and grainy archival footage are manipulated, re-processed and overlaid with wonderfully simple and highly effective animation in “Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish.” This imaginative documentary essay by 36-year-old U.S.-based Chinese artist-animator-filmmaker Lei Lei assembles striking imagery and deeply personal audio recordings to chart his family’s history in China from the late

The 2022 Slamdance Film Festival has announced the winners of their annual Sparky Awards. The film festival focused on the works of emerging artists began its 28th edition on Jan. 27, hosting 23 premieres of films chosen from over 8,000 submissions. The awards were announced at a virtual awards ceremony on Friday, with the winning

Roadside Attractions has acquired U.S. distribution rights to “Call Jane,” a historical drama about a group of women working to provide access to safe abortions. The film debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, premiering at a time when the Supreme Court is debating Roe v. Wade and with it the future of reproductive rights.

Cole Hauser has no idea why “Yellowstone” has finally become the sexy hot thing on TV. Along with most of heartland America, he has known that the grizzly and gamy cowboy show has been a good watch since its debut on Paramount Network in 2018. The pandemic may have something to do with it. With

If Ted Lasso were a film executive, he’d probably resemble someone like Marc Goldberg, the CEO of U.K. producer-distributor Signature Entertainment. Goldberg’s favorite football team since he was a kid has been West Ham United, and — in a cosmic alignment befitting the popular Apple TV Plus series — the club’s owner, David Sullivan, happens

As a perennially popular international filming location — its varied landscapes standing in for everywhere from the Sahara to the French Riviera — South Africa has provided the anonymous backdrop for many a slick big-budget action thriller over the years. Rarer are films from the country’s own industry that aspire to equivalent commercial thrills, which

“The Tinder Swindler,” an eye-opening documentary about a notorious con man who used the dating app to defraud multiple women, could be getting the movie treatment. Variety understands that Netflix is in talks with producers about dramatizing the wild documentary that’s likely to make any Tinder user’s blood run cold. Sources indicate that the conversation

David Lynch has joined the cast of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming drama “The Fabelmans,” Variety has learned. His role remains a closely guarded secret. “The Fabelmans” will mark the first collaboration between Lynch and Spielberg, both seminal directorial talents that emerged in the 1970’s. Lynch has accumulated a celebrated body of work over the course of his

Films Boutique (“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”) has acquired international sales rights to Vincent Kelner’s cinematic documentary feature “A Taste of Whale” ahead of the European Film Market. “A Taste of Whale” is produced by Rémi Grellety, the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning producer of Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro” and HBO’s “Exterminate All

With much of the country bracing for or digging out from a nasty winter storm, two new releases are hoping to provide so much sizzle that moviegoers will brave the ice and snow to hit up their local multiplexes. In one corner: Lionsgate’s “Moonfall,” a disaster epic from Roland Emmerich, one of the most successful

Quintessa Swindell and Esai Morales have been tapped to star in Paul Schrader’s “Master Gardener.” They will join Sigourney Weaver and Joel Edgerton in the film, which Schrader writes and directs. Schrader, who is known for “Taxi Driver” and “First Reformed,” recently wrote and directed “The Card Counter,” starring Oscar Isaac. “Master Gardener” revolves around

Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) and Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) sat down for a virtual chat for Variety’s Actors on Actors, presented by Amazon Studios. For more, click here. Prior to 2021, Ariana DeBose and Simu Liu had certainly worked as actors. DeBose was a Tony nominee (“Summer: The