Movies

Disney Plus is celebrating its second anniversary on Friday with Disney Plus Day, a morning full of looks at upcoming shows and films for its streaming service. Disney is also releasing new titles for subscribers to watch right now, such as “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Jungle Cruise.” Many of the

If you’re looking for someone to throw a punch or take on a zombie horde, well, Jon Bernthal’s probably your guy. But when you’re looking for an actor who can credibly serve-and-volley, he might not spring to mind. That was the dilemma facing “King Richard” director Reinaldo Marcus Green when he was looking for someone

Henry Zaga, the actor known for roles in “Teen Wolf,” “13 Reasons Why” and “The New Mutants,” is playing the leading man in Netflix’s upcoming Brazilian romantic comedy “Depois do Universo.” Giulia Be, a singer who was nominated for best new artist at this year’s Latin Grammys, is starring alongside Zaga. Diego Freitas wrote and

PRODUCING “The Crown” actor Derek Jacobi has boarded David Bartlett’s short film “Mousie” as executive producer, Variety can exclusively reveal. The film, which is produced by Will Poole (“Waffle the Wonder Dog”), tells the story of a seven-year-old Roma girl who seeks sanctuary from the Nazis in a decaying Weimar Cabaret Club. “’Mousie’ is such

Nearly two decades ago, Megan Mylan co-directed “Lost Boys of Sudan,” a memorable documentary chronicling hope and upheaval among seven young men who landed in the U.S. after surviving village massacres during that nation’s second civil war. (There has since been a third.) Enough has happened in the interval that Mylan’s new “Simple as Water”

The first reactions to Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” promise a film that is a “warm, funny memory-driven coming of age fever dream” and “definitely a vibe.” Starring Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, the film follows the adventures of high schooler Gary Valentine (Hoffman) and Alana Kane (Haim), an enthralling woman in her 20s. Set

“What if the mob, but funny?” is the question asked by “Love Songs for Tough Guys,” and if your answer is “Isn’t that just ‘Analyze This?’” you aren’t alone. Still, this French spin on the thug-with-a-heart-of-gold story distinguishes itself somewhat with a romantic bent that is, at least in fits and starts, genuinely romantic. The

The titular matriarch in Jeremiah Lemohang Moses’ “Mother, I Am Suffocating. This is My Last Film About You.” is not really — or not only — a person. She is a concept, a country, an entire continent. The roving black and white cinematography that underscores a clipped, poetic voiceover (courtesy of Sivan Ben Yishai) addresses

A man arrives at an airport. Situated in a remote place, surrounded by vast desolate landscapes, this modern building feels like a mirage, not so much out of place as out of time. The airport, he knows, is empty though not abandoned. There may be no planes but there are employees ambling about, traffic controllers

Strand Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to Georgis Grigorakis’ feature debut “Digger,” Greece’s official entry for the Oscars’ international feature film race. Set in the rich forests of Northern Greece, “Digger” is a modern-day psychological Western starring Vangelis Mourikis as an iconoclastic farmer at war against the encroachments of a ravenous industry and the demons

Coronji Calhoun Sr., the actor who played Tyrell, the son of Halle Berry and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ characters, in the 2001 film “Monster’s Ball,” died on Oct. 13. He was 30.  Calhoun died of congestive heart failure and lung problems, CBS affiliate 4WWL confirmed. The news was shared by his mother Theresa Bailey with 4WWL

Swiss sales outfit Lightdox has acquired “Museum of the Revolution,” the feature debut of U.S.-based, Serbian director Srđan Keča, ahead of its world premiere in IDFA’s Luminous strand, Variety has learned. The documentary is set in Belgrade, where, in 1961, there were plans to build a grand museum as a tribute to Socialist Yugoslavia. Meant

Jackie Chan’s latest martial arts comedy “Ride On” wrapped shoots on Thursday. It is set to release next year. Local media reports showed a teary-eyed Chan congratulating the crew on the successful production holding a bouquet of pink and orange flowers from director Larry Yang Zi, best known for his work on the 2019 heart-warming

The Museum of Modern Art and Cinecittà announced that Federico Fellini, a retrospective honoring the Italian director, will run from Dec. 1 to Jan. 12, 2022 at MoMA’s Debra and Leon Black Family Film Center in the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. The retrospective will open with “I Vitelloni,” Fellini’s semi-autobiographical 1953 film translating to

These are the submissions for the international film Oscar by country. The deadline for entries was Nov. 1. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced Dec. 21 and the nominations will come out Feb 8. The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27 at the Dolby Theatre. The Academy has not yet

Film festivals have been the primary hatching-ground for Oscar contenders ever since the Academy’s tastes shifted predominantly from studio to independent cinema earlier this century — though in the international feature category, this has been the case for far longer. Rare is the non-English-language nominee that captures voters’ imaginations without a profile boost from one

Imax has named veteran film executive Julie Fontaine as senior VP of marketing. In the newly created role, she will lead the company’s promotional efforts across movie theaters and streaming for upcoming blockbusters and prestige films. Fontaine, who recently worked at Netflix as VP of film publicity, will report directly to Imax chief marketing officer

IATSE International chief Matthew Loeb is urging members to vote to approve the master film and TV contract that was reached last month after down-to-the-wire negotiations and a strike authorization vote. In a lengthy message to members sent Thursday, the day before voting begins, Loeb asserted that the hard-fought deal includes “meaningful improvements on all

Last July, after much speculation and rumor, Jonathan Majors entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a big way – appearing in the season finale of “Loki” as He Who Remains, setting up a whole new chapter for the MCU. He is now formally confirmed to appear next as Kang the Conqueror, a variant of He

French auteur Agnès Varda may be gone, but graffiti artist and photographer JR continues the work they collaborated on, and documented, in 2017’s “Faces Places,” creating large-scale installations in which impoverished and/or fragmented locales are plastered with images of their residents. “Paper & Glue” is an unofficial companion piece to JR and Varda’s prior non-fiction

Ben Stiller and Cate Blanchett are teaming up to turn the 1960s espionage television series “The Champions” into a movie. In addition to acting, Stiller is directing the upcoming film adaptation. Blanchett is producing through her company Dirty Films, and Stiller is producing through his label Red Hour Productions. Additional producers include ITV Studios America

Apple Original Films’ post-apocalyptic “Finch,” starring Tom Hanks and dropping Nov. 5 on Apple TV Plus, avoids the familiar sights of zombies and aliens. Instead, it’s a story of a man who survives in a bunker with his dog, Goodyear. When he learns he has a terminal illness, he devises a plan to build an

NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are something of a Rorschach test. The craze for the technology, which verifies ownership of unique digital assets, has swept across content industries in 2021. But will NFTs mature into a long-term business for Hollywood? True believers herald them as a major market-disrupting force, with the full impact unfurling over the

“Home Sweet Home Alone” takes everything audiences loved about the Chris Columbus-directed, John Hughes-penned original and turns it around on them. Holiday sentimentality co-mingling with slapstick violence hits differently when the filmmakers not only swap the roles of the empathetic protagonist and dastardly antagonists, but also take a both-sides approach to rooting interest. While this

When “Eternals,” the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring a gay superhero, rolls out in the Arab world on Thursday, the Disney-distributed blockbuster will, unsurprisingly, skip releases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, mainly due to its LGBTQ+ content. But the star-studded superhero pic will still screen for audiences in the

Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, has acquired North American rights to “Ip Man: Kung Fu Legend.” The film is a currently in-production sequel to “Ip Man: Kung Fu Master,” which Magnet previously released. “Ip Man: Kung Fu Legend” is written and directed by Li Liming and produced by Beijing-based Kai Pictures. International

Mature content means something different when it comes to Eleanor Coppola’s narrative features. “Love Is Love Is Love” — opening Friday theatrically — is the director’s second narrative film. And as with her 2017 debut, “Paris Can Wait,” Coppola writes and shoots what she knows: the lives of women of a certain age — but

Luis Renart’s Canary Islands-based Bendita Film Sales has swooped on one of the big winners at Ventana Sur last year: Venezuelan Nico Manzano’s hotly courted debut feature “Me and the Beasts.” Manzano’s debut, which will world premiere on Nov. 21 at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival, came from seemingly nowhere last December to took home

Initially conceived as a one-man “rock monologue,” then taking on an unexpected new depth after the early death of its creator at age 35, Jonathan Larson’s “Tick, Tick… Boom!” is a show uniquely suited to the musical theater crowd — and not just the masses of fans Larson won over with “Rent.” It resonates especially

Japan’s Hamaguchi Ryusuke earned double honors on Thursday at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. His “Drive My Car” was named best film, while he shared the best screenplay award with the film’s co-writer Oe Takamasa. The 14th APSA ceremony was held at the Home of the Arts in Queensland, Australia and gave prizes to ten