Movies

FESTIVAL NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), with presenting partners The Arab Film and Media Institute and Dutch Culture USA are partnering for a short film festival that runs across the Dec. 10 and 11 weekend. The annual event, titled NFMLA Film Festival InFocus: Middle Eastern, Arab

BAFTA has unveiled its 2021 BAFTA Breakthrough cohort, including “It’s a Sin” star Lydia West and “Censor” director Prano Bailey-Bond. Supported by Netflix, the annual talent initiative, which originally launched in 2013 as “Breakthrough Brits,” was renamed BAFTA Breakthrough in May 2020 and expanded to include the U.S. and India. Previous participants have included Paapa

David Zaslav is sad. His day started off with a sobering phone call with Suzy Welch, author, host and widow of longtime General Electric CEO Jack Welch. The morning headlines from the once largest company in the world and citadel of corporate America came as a jolt to Zaslav, who previously worked for then-GE-owned NBC

IFC Films has acquired Justin Kurzel’s “Nitram,” a searing drama about a mass killing that debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won a best actor prize for Caleb Landry Jones. The film will have a hybrid release. It will premiere in theaters on March 30, 2022, while also debuting day and date

For his first film since winning the Oscar for 2018’s “Green Book,” Peter Farrelly again ventured into new regions of the country. The 40-day shoot of “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” set between fall 1967 and spring 1968, was split between Thailand and northern New Jersey. Thailand filled in for Vietnam; bars, churches and other

All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. It’s beginning to look a lot like the holiday season, which means different things to different people. For

Javier Bardem couldn’t help but rave about his “Little Mermaid” co-star Halle Bailey at the Los Angeles premiere of his upcoming film, “Being the Ricardos,” at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Dec. 6. “Her voice is out of this world,” the Oscar-winner told Variety. “She was warming up the voice near me and

“Parasite” star Song Kang-ho will reteam for the fifth time with leading Korean director Kim Jee-woon on their upcoming feature film “Cobweb.” Kim describes the project as “experimental” and said that it will be shot entirely on sound stages in support of a film-within-a-film narrative. The film will be the first project to emerge from

Controversial drama “Nitram” dominated the prizes at the Australian Academy of Cinema & Television Arts (AACTA) film awards on Wednesday. Leaving little room for celebration of any other achievement in the past year, “Nitram” swept to eight awards. These included the most major prizes — best film, best directing and best original screenplay — as

Equity, the U.K. trade union for performing arts workers, has called on theater venues and producers to enforce mask-wearing among audience members. The request is in light of a surge in the Omicron variant of coronavirus, of which the U.K. already has 437 detected cases. “The new Omicron variant of coronavirus threatens the fragile return

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will be hosting its popular industry events, CineMart and Rotterdam Lab, online due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in The Netherlands. The festival said on Wednesday that a dedicated announcement about the Pro Days, including the CineMart selection, will be unveiled on Dec. 16. The full IFFR 2022 lineup

Those uncertain just how seriously Paul Verhoeven intended us to take the alternately earnest and lurid nunsploitation of “Benedetta” will be even more flummoxed by Mickey Reece’s “Agnes.” The prolific, idiosyncratic Oklahoma auteur’s latest is half exorcism thriller, half character drama of lost faith. But those two sharply differentiated parts add up to much less

There are lost-at-sea thrillers that make a virtue of the leanness of their narratives. J.C. Chandor’s “All Is Lost,” Wolfgang Fischer’s “Styx” and Chris Kentis’ legitimately traumatizing “Open Water” (not to mention Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” if we switch in space for ocean) all spun gripping tales of survival — or not — using minimal dialogue

“He’s a talker” is a phrase that has never been used to describe Brian Wilson, then — in the Beach Boys’ original 1960s heyday — or especially now. So director Brent Wilson might have been taking on one of the more quixotic filmmaking quests of all time when he set out to make a documentary

Humans are stupid and can’t be expected to agree on anything, even if their existence depends on it. That’s the “hilarious” insight Adam McKay wants to impart with “Don’t Look Up,” a smug, easy-target political satire in which two earnest astronomers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) have one hell of a time trying to convince

Mónica Barbaro (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Unreal”) has been cast opposite Mexican star Diego Boneta as the female-lead in Boneta’s film “At Midnight,” one of Paramount Plus’ banner upcoming Latin American originals produced by ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS). Set to start production shortly for a 2022 release on Paramount Plus, the romantic comedy turns on two

The Critics Choice Association held its fourth annual Celebration of Black Cinema and Television during an in-person ceremony on Monday evening at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel, which will be the new home to the Critics Choice Awards on Jan. 9. Hosted by Emmy winner Niecy Nash, some of the honorees included Jennifer Hudson from

As the Red Sea Film Festival, Saudi Arabia’s first international film event, gets underway, it’s become clear that the artistic director of the fest’s milestone first edition won’t be in charge of programming the second one. Edouard Waintrop, a former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight chief, was conspicuously absent Monday at the opening night gala at the

Paul Verhoeven (“Basic Instinct”), whose latest films “Benedetta” and “Elle” competed at Cannes, is set to make a Hollywood comeback with “Young Sinner,” an erotic political thriller which he’s developing with “RoboCop’s” co-writer Edward Neumeier. Verhoeven and Neumeier recently spoke about the project during an interview with Movie Maker. The Dutch filmmaker said “Young Sinner”

Academy’s Science and Technology Council Adds New Members The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have appointed David Pierce, Andy Serkis and Jeffrey White to it’s Science and Technology Council 2021-2022 membership, bringing its roster to 25 individuals. Pierce’s previous roles include working as an assistant chief and chief operations officer at the National

RANK SERIES NETWORK CAST 1 “Succession” HBO Hiam Abbass, Nicholas Braun, Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, Peter Friedman, Natalie Gold, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck, Sarah Snook, Jeremy Strong, Rob Yang, Dagmara Domińczyk, Arian Moayed, J. Smith-Cameron, Justine Lupe, David Rasche, Fisher Stevens 2 “Squid Game” Netflix Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, Jung Ho-yeon, O Yeong-su,

Harvey Weinstein’s attorney argued Tuesday that his Los Angeles case should be thrown out because the prosecution improperly relied on an expert on “rape trauma syndrome” during grand jury proceedings. Defense attorney Mark Werksman argued that psychologist Mindy Mechanic should not have been allowed to testify to rebut “rape myths” that had not been raised

Alamo Drafthouse, the quirky Texas-based movie theater chain, has appointed Michael Kustermann as chief experience officer. In his new role, Kustermann will lead Alamo Drafthouse’s experience team, which includes marketing, digital and guest experience. “We’re so excited to bring Michael on board to our growing team,” said Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor. “As the chief

Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci,” starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, continued atop the U.K. and Ireland box office in its second weekend. The Universal release collected £1.5 million ($2 million) and now has £5.5 million at the box office, according to numbers released by Comscore. Disney release “Encanto,” took £1.2 million in its second

As the spread of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant prompts uncertainty around how the winter film festival calendar will play out, two events in the Arab world — the Cairo Film Festival and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea fest — have soldiered on, providing a measure of hope for the global festival circuit. Cairo, which kicked

Kyle Richards is reprising her original “Halloween” role once again in “Halloween Ends,” the final installment in David Gordon Green’s new trilogy of films in the iconic horror series, Variety has learned exclusively. Richards recently closed her deal for “Halloween Ends,” which heads into production next month and is set to be released in Oct. 2022. Richards

Contrary to popular belief, not every piece of drama with Aaron Sorkin’s name on it has the inimitably timed, exquisitely percussive sound of I-top-you-no-I top-you combative patter known as Sorkinese. “The American President,” in its way, had a sweet flow to it. “The Social Network” was as supple an evocation of the formative tech culture

Apple Original Films will back “Bad Blood,” a feature film from “The Big Short” writer and director Adam McKay that will star Jennifer Lawrence as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. The project, which reunites McKay with his “Don’t Look Up” leading lady, has been in the works for some time. McKay will write, direct and produce

Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket” utilizes *NSYNC’s 2000 pop song “Bye Bye Bye” throughout the movie in various forms, but it wasn’t easy for “The Florida Project” director to secure rights to use the track as he searched for the perfect breakup song. At one point, Strawberry (Suzanna Son) plays a stripped-down version on her keyboard.

FIM LAB Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”), the Goteborg Film Festival and the Sten Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture have teamed on a new, three-year film training program aimed at increasing diversity in film and inspiring promising young talent. Aimed at high-school-aged students, the program will be made available to educational institutions