Movies

The Los Angeles premiere of Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has officially wrapped and the first reactions to the MCU’s latest entry are out in the wild. Official reviews and social media responses are beginning to pour in, with many offering euphoric praise for the multiverse mash-up featuring Tom Holland’s friendly neighborhood superhero. Director Jon

The 2019 Indian coming-of-age comedic drama “Chhichhore” is set to hit Chinese screens nationwide on Jan. 7, 2022. It will be the first Indian film to release in the world’s largest film market in two years following a bitter border dispute. The news comes as Chinese authorities remain mum about approvals for Hollywood blockbusters like

Documentary filmmaker Chris McKim was looking for something that would make him feel good six months into the Trump Administration and he wanted to make a difference. While he was aware of downtown New York City queer artist and activist David Wojnarowicz, it wasn’t until he started diving into the artist’s work that McKim realized

The Gary Sinise Foundation hosted its second virtual Snowball Express event on Monday, connecting 750 families of fallen military service members. As the original Snowball Express would fly military families out to Disney World, the virtual event gifted participants with videos of thanks and appreciation from various celebrities, many of which gave their messages as

Of the six Sub-Saharan African submissions, the buzziest titles include Somalia’s first-ever entry, “The Gravedigger’s Wife” from feature debutant Khadar Ayderus Ahmed and Chad’s Cannes competitor, “Lingui: The Sacred Bonds” from veteran helmer Mahamet-Saleh Haroun. Meanwhile, South Africa’s dysfunctional family dramedy “Barakat” from Amy Jephta earns points for likeability although it represents a genre not

With last year’s surprise nominee “The Man Who Sold His Skin” hailing from Tunisia, Oscar handicappers should be sure to give West Asia and North Africa titles close scrutiny this time around.Among the 11 submissions are several titles likely to be highly competitive in the international feature category. These include Iran’s social media critique “A

The story of three women who embark on a European train-ride tour in honor of their dearly departed friend, “Off the Rails” is inevitably colored by the 2020 death of Kelly Preston, who delivers her final screen performance as a member of this sorrowful trio. Such sentimental circumstances, however, can’t overshadow the creakiness of Jules

New parents are always advised to treasure every moment of their child’s infancy, even through the sleepless nights and bawling meltdowns for it all passes in the blink of an eye. Most parents, of course, have other stages of child-rearing to look forward to. For the incarcerated young mothers at Ukraine’s Odessa women’s correctional facility,

Latin America has submitted 15 contenders in the Academy Awards’ international feature category this time, not quite as big a haul as last year’s tally of 18. Leading the hopefuls is Mexico’s “Prayers for the Stolen,” the fiction debut of Tatiana Huezo, one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch in 2022. Her tale follows three

The Black List, an annual ranking of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays, has unleashed its 2021 edition — a smattering of delicious pop biopics, true crime and even a psychodrama about Mickey Rourke appearing on “The Masked Singer.” Founded in 2005 by Franklin Leonard, the list surveys top studio and development executives asking them to share

“Marry Me,” a musical romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez, will debut on Peacock on Feb. 11, 2022, the same day as its theatrical release. The Universal Pictures film was intended to premiere exclusively on the big screen, but the studio opted to shake up its release plan at a time when dramas and comedies —

A first-look image has debuted of Andrea Riseborough, whose credits include “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” and Karl Glusman, who starred in Gaspar Noé’s Cannes entry “Love,” in Amanda Kramer’s “Please Baby Please.” In the challenging image, Glusman is seen branding Riseborough with an iron. The film also stars Harry Melling, who appeared

Kevin Spacey will not have to testify at an upcoming deposition about his sexual partners or allegations against him from anonymous accusers, a federal judge ruled on Monday. Spacey is facing a sexual battery lawsuit from Anthony Rapp, the actor who alleges that Spacey groped him and laid on top of him in 1986, when

New Regency, the production company behind “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “The Revenant,” has extended its global theatrical distribution deal with The Walt Disney Company. The pact was a holdover from New Regency’s deal with 20th Century Fox, which was signed in 2011 and extended for a decade. Disney absorbed that deal when it purchased much of

Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” and Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” dominated the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards, picking up a leading 11 nominations. “Belfast,” Branagh’s most personal film to date, scored in Best Picture, Best Director and Original Screenplay categories.  The cast also earned nominations including Best Supporting Actor nods for both Jamie Dornan and Ciarán

Levan Koguashvili’s “Brighton 4th” has won best film at Saudi Arabia’s inaugural Red Sea Film Festival, while Hamzah K. Jamjoom’s “Rupture” won best Saudi film. “Brighton 4th” is Georgia’s entry in the Academy Awards’ international feature category. Haider Rashid won best director for “Europa” and Adam Ali won best actor for his role in the

“American Reject,” a music comedy that delves into the aftermath of a reality singing competition, has secured U.S. distribution with 1091 Pictures. Fledgling London-based sales agent The Mise En Scene Company, which launched at the 2020 American Film Market, sold the project into the indie distributor, which is known for Taika Waititi’s “Hunt for the

After a turbulent year under scrutiny over the glaring lack of diversity among its membership, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is announcing the nominees for the 79th annual Golden Globe Awards. Earlier this year, the HFPA came under fire for not having any Black members in its roughly 100-person organization, accepting expensive gifts to sway

Chinese viewers may not get a chance to catch the Chloe Zhao-helmed Marvel movie “Eternals” in theaters due to China’s thorny relationship with the director, but the film’s meshing of Eastern and Western ideas has nonetheless appealed to some Chinese viewers. Many reviewers on the Douban social media platform who have seen the film —

Chinese action-adventure title “Schemes in Antiques” conspired to hold its own at the top of the China box office with a $14.7 million second weekend, having opened first last week with a solid $25.6 million three-day debut. Originally set to premiere in April, the tale of intrigue around real and counterfeit artifacts from Hong Kong

STUDIOS Shinfield Studios, an 85,000 square meter studio facility comprising 18 sound stages, has received planning permission for construction from Wokingham Borough Council. The studio, located at Shinfield, Berkshire, within the Thames Valley Science Park, some 42 miles southwest of London, will be one of the largest film and TV studios in the U.K. once

Ecuador’s Ana María Barragán (“Alba”), Brazil’s Joâo Paulo Miranda (“Memory House”) and Spain’s Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”) will put awaited new feature film projects through San Sebastián’s Ikusmira Berriak, one of Spain’s foremost development labs. Also selected for 2022’s edition are a second reputed Latin American auteur, Argentina’s Maximiliano Schonfield (“Jesús López”) as well

A new report from the British Film Institute (BFI) reveals that film and high end TV tax breaks have resulted in the highest ever return on investment in the U.K. The report, which covers the pre-pandemic period from 2017-2019, calculated that tax reliefs across film, high-end television, video games, children’s TV and animation contributed £13.48

In spite of a new wave of COVID-19, a snow storm and train cancelations, Les Arcs European Film Festival kicked off its 13th edition on Dec. 10 with a festive opening night ceremony highlighted was the presence of Swedish star Noomi Rapace who introduced her film “Lamb” on stage. Vladimar Jóhannsson’s feature debut, “Lamb,” world

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Japan’s entry to the Academy Awards’ international category, looks to be the odds on favorite from Asia to win the category. The drama with a theater world backdrop follows the trajectory of South Korean four-statuette winner “Parasite” in that it began its winning ways at Cannes and is festooned with

When “West Side Story” star Ansel Elgort appeared on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” on Dec. 8, he gushed about attending the lavish New York City premiere for the Steven Spielberg film at Lincoln Center. He shared the advice the late Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics for the show, gave him after

I liked Steven Spielberg’s emotionally energized, visually bustling “West Side Story” just fine, though I’m not as over the moon about it as some of my critical colleagues. There’s an ecstatic tone wafting through the reviews. I raise the issue because you would have expected that collective hosanna to be one of many things that

Audiences didn’t open their wallets to see the infamous rivalry between the Sharks and the Jets play out on the big screen. “West Side Story,” Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic musical, fell flat in its box office debut, collecting a paltry $10.5 million from 2,820 theaters. That’s cause for concern because Disney and 20th

What do Pedro Almodóvar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Kenneth Branagh and Jane Campion have in common? They’ve helmed acclaimed films for decades, earned Academy Award nominations and done some of their best work this year … yet they’ve never won a director Oscar. In exclusive new interviews with Campion, Branagh, Almodóvar and Wes Anderson

Anne Rice, influential author of “Interview with the Vampire,” died on Saturday due to complications resulting from a stroke. She was 80. The author’s son Christopher revealed the news on Facebook and said that she would be interred in the family mausoleum at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans in a private ceremony. Earlier tonight, my