Movies

France’s burgeoning VR sector is exploring the hybrid territory between commercial applications, film festivals and contemporary art museums. French producers and authorities are increasingly interested in VR and extended reality solutions against a backdrop of multiple recent developments – such as Facebook’s rebranding as Meta, Sony’s next-generation VR headset for PlayStation 5, Disney’s patents of

Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o and the rest of the cast of Universal’s globe-trotting espionage thriller “The 355” were no match for “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which dominated at the box office in its fourth weekend. The latest Spidey adventure, starring Tom Holland as the titular web-slinger, collected a leading $33 million from 4,108

Looking to build on the exposure offered by recent hits like Netflix’s “Emily in Paris” and “Lupin,” France’s Centre National du Cinema has set out an ambitious reinvestment plan for the country’s production ecosystem. This past July, the Gallic national film body announced a $11.5 million scheme to “shock and modernize [France’s] production apparatus,” dividing

This commentary on the life and legacy of Sidney Poitier was first published in the BAFTA Awards Book 2006, as part of the organization’s lifetime achievement award tribute to the trailblazing star, who died Jan. 6 at the age of 94. Is Sidney Poitier the most important actor in American history? One could quickly defend

A documentary about the career and life of the late Sidney Poitier is in production at Apple, a source close to the project has confirmed to Variety. Oprah Winfrey is attached as executive producer for the Apple Original Films release. Apple and Winfrey have been in production on the documentary for more than a year.

“Drive My Car” has won best picture from this year’s edition of the National Society of Film Critics, continuing its streak of major prizes from major critics groups. The organization announced its honors on Saturday. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s sweeping drama also won top honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics

Kevin Smith was the inaugural guest on Yahoo Entertainment’s “The Never-Weres” series and spoke in detail about an unsuccessful attempt to get a “Superman” movie off the ground with Ben Affleck in the title role. Both men were coming off the success of “Mallrats” at the time. Warner Bros. was in development on a new

Willem Dafoe is a comic book movie icon thanks to his performance as the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s 2002 blockbuster “Spider-Man,” but not everyone liked the way the character looked. Dafoe’s Green Goblin mask received criticism, with Roger Ebert memorably writing in his review that Dafoe looked like “a high-tech action figure with a

Marilyn Bergman, the Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy-winning songwriter whose lyrics written with her husband, Alan Bergman, graced such hits as “The Way We Were,” “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “In the Heat of the Night” and the songs from “Yentl,” has died. She was 93 years old. Bergman was the first woman president and chairman

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is set to add another $30 million to its domestic haul this weekend, continuing its top spot at the box office. Behind the webslinger is family-friendly jukebox musical “Sing 2,” estimated to add $10.3 million dollars to its total, and in third is the weekend’s sole new wide release, the action

The show goes on even if it must be virtually, and not within a much preferred desert oasis. The Palm Springs International Film Society announced in late December that both its awards gala and film festival would not take place in 2022 due to the recent rise of COVID cases. Despite the desert fest having

“Poupelle of Chimney Town” begins where “Toy Story 3” ends, with a daring escape from a dangerous garbage incinerator. You see, it’s not always easy to tell the trash from the treasure in Chimney Town, a richly imagined steampunk metropolis where smokestacks crowd the skyline, belching so much thick black haze into the air that

In the 1961 film version of “West Side Story,” the “tomboy” character Anybodys is a young teen, a stereotype you’d find on any sitcom of the era, dressed in dungarees and a T-shirt with a cute pixie haircut. But in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” transgender nonbinary actor iris menas (who prefers not to use

Total box office revenues in the U.K. and Ireland in 2021 rose 85% to £596.9 million ($811.1 million) from 2020’s total of £323.2 million ($439.3 million), according to the annual box office review released by Comscore. However, these numbers remain far below pre-pandemic levels when annual box office exceeded £1.3 billion in each of the

Sidney Poitier’s family remembered the Hollywood giant as a humanitarian, a leader and a devoted artist in a statement issued Friday evening, a day after his death at the age of 94. The actor, who became the first Black person to win the Oscar for lead actor with 1963’s “Lilies of the Field,” died at

Acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou will mastermind the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, state media said Friday. Rehearsals for the performances are currently underway, but given the shadow of COVID-19, the spectacle will be more curtailed than initially envisioned, reports cited Zhang as saying. In 2008, Zhang regaled the

Cheryl Boone Isaacs, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, remembers Oscar winner Sidney Poitier as “a beautiful man, a creative individual, who gave a lot.” Isaacs, who now serves as the founding director of the Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and

Ben Affleck has played Batman/Bruce Wayne in comic book tentpoles “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League,” but it wasn’t until the production of “The Flash” that he realized how satisfying the role can be. “The Flash” reunites Affleck with Ezra Miller as the eponymous hero, plus it throws Michael Keaton’s iteration of

There’s a staggering legacy tied to the role of Anita, the Puerto Rican girlfriend of Shark leader Bernardo in “West Side Story,” and star Ariana DeBose was well aware of it. The role represents the sole recognition of a Latina acting winner at the Oscars, when Rita Moreno took home the statuette 60 years ago.

Cate Blanchett has officially signed on to star in Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature film, “A Manual for Cleaning Women.” The film is an adaptation of Lucia Berlin’s short story collection of the same name, which includes 43 stories about women in multiple types of demanding jobs. It was confirmed to Variety exclusively that the

Amazon Prime Video has appointed seasoned Mexican film and TV producer Leonardo Zimbron for the newly created position of head of film for Spanish-speaking Latin America, effective January. Zimbron was most recently with Endemol Shine Boomdog where he led its scripted unit since 2018. He has moved to Miami where he will report to Javiera

The new year is upon us, but it’s the best movies from 2021 that will continue to dominate film headlines as awards season heads toward its climax with ceremonies such as the Critics Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Independent Spirit Awards and Oscars. And for the great pics not in this year’s awards race,

Pixar’s upcoming film “Turning Red” is skipping theaters and will debut exclusively on Disney Plus on March 11, Disney announced on Friday. It will be free for subscribers. The family-friendly animated film follows “Soul” and “Luca” as fellow Pixar releases that went straight to the streaming platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. The “Toy Story” spinoff

Every artist hopes to make the world a better place. Sidney Poitier actually did. It was partly timing. When he made his film debut in 1950’s “No Way Out,” Hollywood was ready to tackle the issue of racial equality. After centuries of bigotry, 20th century mass media like radio and newsreels alerted the public to

In a new video released by Netflix, “Don’t Look Up” stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Lawrence as well as Adam McKay discussed why they felt moved to make a comedy about the end of the world. In the film, astronomy Ph.D. candidate Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) discovers a comet heading towards Earth big

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook has acquired the German film and TV firm Telepool, taking full control over its licensing and distribution businesses as well as its subsidiaries. The deal saw Westbrook buy out the 50% stake previously held by Zurich-based investment holding company Elysian Invest AG — a move intended to “dramatically…expand

The Sundance Institute announced the jury members of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, taking place in hybrid format from Jan. 20 to 30. Comprising six juries awarding prizes for artistic and cinematic achievement, the jurors include Marielle Heller (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”), Andrew Haigh (“Looking”), Payman Maadi (“A Separation”) and more. Chelsea Barnard,

Uruguayan coastal resort town Punta del Este is set to open the country’s first sizeable contemporary art museum, the Atchugarry Museum of Contemporary Art (MACA), on Jan. 8, with an inauguration gala celebrating its first exhibitions of the works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude and Argentine artist León Ferrari. Spread over a lush, 90-acre landscape featuring

The Will Book Club (WBC), an initiative of the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation (WJSFF), announced today a new collaboration with the CAA Foundation’s Ready Set mentorship program. The initiative is designed to launch reading groups for its volunteers centered around the themes within Smith’s memoir, “Will by Will Smith.” Those themes include developing

Hollywood stars such as Tyler Perry, Whoopi Goldberg and Viola Davis took to social media on Friday to pay tribute to Sidney Poitier, who has died at 94. Poitier made history in 1964 when he became the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for best actor. Poitier starred in many trailblazing films, such