Movies

Matthew Heineman’s “The First Wave” takes audiences to the frontlines as New York became America’s epicenter at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Heineman’s camera follows doctors, nurses and patients in a cinema vérité, as he shows the strength of the human spirit. Behind the scenes, he worked with editors Francisco Bello, Gabriel Rhodes and

Since launching in 2015, Keshet Studios, the U.S. division of Keshet International (KI), has proved a model worth copying for international content producers looking to make it big in Hollywood. The company now develops and produces content for all the biggest broadcasters and streamers in several languages for both U.S. and international audiences. Led by

“Flee” and “Pride” producer Vice Studios looks set to build its presence in Latin America with a new order from Netflix, “La Divina Gula,” as well as the appointment of “Last One Laughing: Mexico” executive producer Edgar Jaramillo as senior director of unscripted for the region. The latest move from Vice Studios, the global production

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed several titles across various programs for its 2022 edition. In the fest’s multifaceted Panorama strand, women directors account for seven of the 13 projects revealed so far, including U.S. filmmaker Nina Menkes’ “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power,” emerging German director Annika Pinske’s debut feature “Alle reden übers Wetter” (“Talking About the Weather”),

Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed musical “West Side Story” and beloved canine mascot-hero property “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” were neck and neck for pole position at the U.K. and Ireland weekend box office. Disney release “West Side Story” topped the charts with £1.297 million ($1.72 million), while eOne release “Clifford the Big Red Dog” was just

Global cinema box office is set for a strong recovery next year, analysis firm Gower Street Analytics predicts. But a return to pre-COVID levels of business will have to wait until 2023 at the earliest. In a briefing note published Wednesday, the U.K.-based analysis firm forecasts that 2022 global box office will reach $33.2 billion.

After several COVID-induced delays, Ayan Mukerji’s magnum opus “Brahmastra,” starring Bollywood A-listers Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, has locked a theatrical release date of Sept. 9, 2022. The film, which also stars Nagarjuna Akkineni and Mouni Roy, will release in the Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada languages. The project is set in

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has been allowed to maintain its 2022 edition on-site by the Dutch government. The upcoming edition will take place Jan. 26 to Feb. 6. The festival announced last week that its popular industry events, CineMart and Rotterdam Lab, were being switched to online due to the surge of COVID-19

Billed as a black comedy, Uruguay’s Oscar submission feature stays on the breezier side of that description, bringing a playfully light touch to a fish-out-of-water tale that might have gone as dark as something like “The Wicker Man” or “Wake in Fright.” Diego Fernandez Pujol’s second feature (following “Darwin’s Corner” eight years ago) has been

Cineplex has won a CA$1.2 billion judgment against Cineworld, the owner of Regal Cinemas in the U.S., over an acquisition deal that collapsed at the height of the pandemic last year. Cineworld is based in London and is the world’s second largest theater chain after AMC. In December 2019, the company agreed to acquire Cineplex,

Ken Kragen, a prolific manager and producer in entertainment and a central organizer behind the 1985 charity single “We Are the World,” died from natural causes in his Brentwood, Calif. home on Tuesday. He was 85 years old. Kragen’s death was confirmed to Variety by his spokesperson and friend Cheryl J. Kagan. “While I am of course

Ahmir Thompson, better known as Questlove, is the director behind the documentary “Summer of Soul,” which captures an important part of Black history, culture and music. In 1969, the Harlem Cultural Festival took place, a series of concerts that came to be collectively referred to as a Black Woodstock, except unlike Woodstock, it was nowhere

The next installment of Universal Pictures’ “Fast & Furious” saga will take a little detour before reaching its final destination. The 10th chapter in the long-running ode to fast cars, physics-defying stunts and family will hit theaters on May 19, 2023. That’s a little more than a month after its previously scheduled debut of April

Marvel’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is swinging to the rescue. Tom Holland’s newest web-slinging adventure “Spider-Man: No Way Home” hits theaters on Friday and is poised to generate $150 million in its box office debut — a heroic feat even by pre-COVID standards. The film’s distributor Sony Pictures modestly predicts a three-day tally closer to $130

When Village Roadshow CEO Steve Mosko first met with Kevin Garnett to discuss the basketball star’s pivot to the world of entertainment, the longtime film executive says it was immediately clear that the NBA champion’s Content Cartel production company wasn’t merely a vanity label. “He just laid out how passionate he was about the business

“The Girlfriend Experience” director Lodge Kerrigan’s 2004 movie “Keane,” starring Damian Lewis and Abigail Breslin, is getting a 4K restoration and a U.S. theatrical release. Grasshopper Film snapped up distribution rights to the critically acclaimed pic, which is executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and produced by Andrew Fierberg. “Keane” — in 4K — will premiere

Denis Villeneuve will be the recipient of the William Cameron Menzies Award from the Art Directors Guild (ADG, IATSE Local 800) at the 26th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards. The award recognizes his unique visuals and innovative storytelling which have established Villeneuve as one of the premier filmmakers working today. “We are beyond thrilled

Until Pantelion Films unleashed “Instructions Not Included” in the U.S., grossing $44.47 million there in 2013, no other distributor had really cracked the Latino market. Over the next eight years, Pantelion has produced the biggest U.S.-Mexico double-market comedy movie franchise, “No Manches Frida” and handled the first-run release in the U.S. of six of the

After success with several small-scale films, Peter Jackson in 1992 told Variety he was looking for a project “that will really push me.” He found something that surpassed everyone’s expectations. This month marks the 20th anniversary of Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings,” which kicked off the 2001-2003 film trilogy

Nicolas Cage stars as himself in the new trailer for “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” premiering in theaters on April 22, 2022. The movie follows a debt-ridden Cage as he accepts a $1 million offer to attend a wealthy super-fan’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party in Spain. When things turn sour and he’s recruited by

In the most outlandish scene in “The King’s Man” — if not the strangest scene of the year — Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes), a sneaky aristocrat who will go on to form the first British secret-service agency (and is already acting like a rogue spy), shows up for a meeting with Grigori Rasputin, the fevered

Swedish-Iranian filmmaker Milad Alami’s “Opponent,” Sasha Polak’s “Silver Haze” and Sophia Mocorrea’s “Marriage by Abduction” have won the top awards at Les Arcs Festival‘s popular industry village. Curated by Frederic Boyer, Tribeca and Les Arcs’ artistic director, the Work-In-Progress presentation is part of the festival’s industry sidebar, which also includes the Coproduction Village, Talent Village

The Spanish Academy surprised some this year when it selected Fernando León de Aranoa’s Javier Bardem-starrer “The Good Boss” (“El buen patrón”) as the country’s submission for this year’s Best International Feature Oscar race. It’s main contender was Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers” which wowed at Venice – Penelope Cruz took the award for best actress,

Nominations for the 37th Film Independent Spirit Awards were announced Tuesday by Beanie Feldstein, Regina Hall, and Naomi Watts. The awards, which are returning in-person in 2022 after going virtual due to COVID in 2021, highlight and celebrate movies that are, for the most part, produced and conceived outside of the Hollywood mainstream. In order

Prominent Dubai-based distribution and production outfit Front Row is going forward on its Arabic remake of French hit comedy “Intouchables,” with a writer and director team now attached and plans to start shooting in Egypt in May 2022. For the task of adapting the French original about a grumpy white paraplegic billionaire who strikes a

Tetavi, an Israeli startup pitching its proprietary 3D volumetric-capture platform to entertainment, media and gaming companies, has hired two new executive team members: Anuraj Goonetilleke and Bonnka Lim, both of whom hail from Warner Bros. Goonetilleke (above left), most recently Warner Bros. Entertainment VP of emerging technology and innovation strategy, has been appointed chief strategy

BAFTA chief executive Amanda Berry will step down from her role in the fall of 2023 – after 25 years at the organization. BAFTA chief operating officer Kevin Price will leave in Sept. 2022, after 20 years working alongside Berry. Berry said: “In 2023 I will have been at BAFTA for 25 years. When I

Pixar’s “Wall-E,” “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” and “Selena” have been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. Each year, the Librarian of Congress names 25 motion pictures that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, the movies have to be at least 10 years

A Czech woman married into a working-class Afghan family provides a nuanced perspective on life in Kabul in the interregnum between Taliban rule in the animated drama “My Sunny Maad,” from director Michaela Pavlátová. Based on a novel by the Czech investigative journalist Petra Procházková, it sensitively portrays the complex environment of Kabul in the

SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains spoilers. What do you call the opposite of a reboot? The “system overload” of Spider-Man movies, Sony’s ninth (and almost certainly not last) feature-length riff on the friendly neighborhood superhero, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” seeks to connect Tom Holland’s spin on the web-slinger with the previous live-action versions of