Movies

As Ava DuVernay’s narrative change collective ARRAY celebrates its 10th anniversary, the company has added six executives to its ranks: Anne-Marie McGintee, MJ Caballero, Jasmine Mazyck, Eric Fisher, Dià Brown and Meredith Shea. ARRAY president Tilane Jones announced the new hires, saying, “ARRAY continues to expand our mission-driven work to amplify and elevate filmmakers of

UPDATED: Tarak Ben Ammar’s Eagle Pictures is in talks with “Green Book” director Peter Farrelly to team up on the film adaptation of French author Guillaume Musso’s bestselling novel “Seras-tu là,” Variety has learned. “Seras-tu là” revolves around Elliott, a 60-year old widowed and renowned surgeon who lives in San Francisco and has a daughter,

Audrey Diwan’s Venice winner and timely abortion drama “Happening,” Julia Ducournau’s Cannes’ Palme d’Or-winning horror film “Titane,” and Cedric Jimenez’s cop thriller “Bac Nord” have been shortlisted by France’s Oscar committee. The French Oscar candidate is expected to be selected next Tuesday. It’s a milestone year for French cinema and female directors who won the

Film history is filled with examples of screenwriters whose subsequent dazzling directorial careers have often eclipsed their brilliant roots as writers. Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder and Sam Peckinpah are only three of the American wordsmiths-turned-helmers that come to mind. This year’s Variety Creative Impact in Screenwriting honoree, Italian auteur Paolo Sorrentino, has more than two

There’s a certain charm to modest genre offerings that most viewers wouldn’t seek out beyond October, when so many of us spend the entire month immersed in all things horror. Though “Madres” probably wasn’t planning to fall under that umbrella, at least it’s in good company. Arriving as part of Welcome to the Blumhouse, an

Jamie Clayton will play Pinhead in Spyglass and Hulu’s upcoming reboot and re-imagining of the “Hellraiser” franchise. The announcement confirms reports that Pinhead, the demonic creature at the center of the mayhem in the original films, will be portrayed by a woman. “The L Word: Generation Q” and “Sense8” actress joins the previously announced Odessa

Saban Films has acquired U.S., Canadian and Spanish rights to the survival thriller “Borrego” from writer and director Jesse Harris. The film stars Lucy Hale (“Truth or Dare,” “Pretty Little Liars”), Nicholas Gonzalez (“The Good Doctor,” “Narcos”), Olivia Trujillo (“Vivo,” “For All Mankind”) and Leynar Gómez (“Narcos,” “Towards the Battle”). Hale also serves as an

Ann Dowd is best known for her iconic, Emmy-winning role as Aunt Lydia on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but she doesn’t always get recognized right away. Dowd recalls one particular encounter at an airport. “This one woman was fierce,” she told Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “It was like we had met in court and I was

There are infinite anecdotes about what happened to our best-laid plans when the coronavirus hit. But in the context of Hollywood, one must stop and appreciate the unique pain of Erik Feig — a veteran film executive whose rogue production and financing company Picturestart was only months into its infancy when the global shutdown arrived.

This year’s Mill Valley Film Festival marks the much-anticipated return of movies, and audiences, to theaters, but the Northern California event founded in 1977 retains some lingering influences of the pandemic, with both in-person and online viewing options. With the Delta variant raging, the festival’s founder and director Mark Fishkin notes that the logistics for

Every now and then, a country emerges from decades of oppression and a film industry, once squashed lest it tell truths uncomfortable for the powers that be, begins to blossom with new, unfettered voices. The country of the moment is Guatemala, which is being honored at this year’s Guadalajara International Film Festival, and has begun

After a pandemic affected hybrid version this year, the Berlin Film Festival will return to being an in-person event in 2022, festival organizers revealed on Thursday. The 72nd edition of the festival will take place from Feb. 10-20, 2022 as an in-person event. Parallel events, the European Film Market (Feb. 10-17), the Berlinale Co-Production Market

Before a crowd of filmmakers and journalists, Mexico’s Guadalajara Festival reached an industry crescendo on Tuesday with the presentation of prizes for its Co-Production Meetings which brought producers and directors face to face with potential partners as well as giving opportunities to filmmakers to pitch their projects to industry service companies sponsoring in-kind awards. It

As if adolescence is not hard enough, Haroldo Borges’ new feature, “Saudade fez morada aqui dentro” (“Saudade Became Home Inside”) follows the heartbreaking experience of a young, father-less Brazilian teenager confronting a degenerative eye disease that will ultimately leave him blind. As his vision deteriorates, however, he also finds himself experiencing the confusion and pain

One quoted William Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht. Another spoke of paradigm shifts in cinema. While a third said that the festival has become a successful springboard for Asian films. Jurors for the New Currents competition section of the Busan International Film Festival were in high spirits on Thursday. Speaking at a press conference held at

Race-against-time social drama “Full Time” (À plein temps), which won the best actress prize for “Call My Agent” star Laure Calamy and the best director award for Eric Gravel in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival, has scored multiple territory deals for Brussels-based sales company Be For Films. The territories sold on the

After multiple delays due to COVID-19 disruptions, the Sydney Film Festival was Thursday finally able to announce a program for this year’s in-person event. It will now take place Nov. 3- 14. Originally slated for June, the festival was initially shifted to August. But as Sydney returned to strict lockdown from June due to a

Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho was on hand to present an award to Im Kwon-taek as part of the Wednesday night opening ceremony of the Busan International Film Festival. The in-person event included many of the trappings of past ceremonies, but it was smaller due to reduced numbers and ongoing social distancing precautions. Held at the

With the Emmy-decorated, too-many-people’s-favorite-show-to-count triumph of his role on “Ted Lasso,” Jason Sudeikis has joined the rarefied club of all-stops-out comedians who make the transition to becoming full-on dramatic actors. That said, “Ted Lasso” is a drama streaked with comedy. So you could say that Sudeikis, for all the adoration and acclaim he’s earned, still

This weekend marks the much-noted 50th anniversary of “The French Connection’s” release. “The Manor” perhaps inadvertently stirs memories of another William Friedkin joint, 1990 horror “The Guardian,” which was so disliked by the director that he omitted mentioning it in his otherwise fairly comprehensive memoirs. This addition to the second “Welcome to the Blumhouse” quartet

Contract talks between the studios and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees were still underway late Wednesday and are expected to continue on Thursday. As is typically the case during collective bargaining, the negotiators were abiding by a media blackout. The blackout and the fact that talks are going into a third consecutive day

France has been a supreme force in the Oscars’ international feature race for decades. This year, three acclaimed films from women directors — Céline Sciamma, Audrey Diwan and Julia Ducournau — are believed to be at the top of the list to represent the country for the upcoming 94th ceremony, set to take place on

Charles “Jerry” Juroe, who shepherded publicity campaigns in Europe for 14 James Bond films starting with the first, “Dr. No,” died Sept. 30 in southern Spain. He was 98. Juroe was born in San Francisco and began his career as a publicist at Paramount in the 1940s. When America entered World War II, he joined

The world premiere of Jeymes Samuel’s “The Harder They Fall” at the BFI London Film Festival was the hottest ticket in town on Wednesday evening, with the red carpet boasting a stream of bold-face names including the film’s stars Idris Elba and Regina King and Netflix boss Ted Sarandos. They were joined by a host

When Jason Richman joined United Talent Agency nearly 12 years ago, his division was commonly referred to as “the book department” or the book-to-film arm. From those humble beginnings — scouring the publishing landscape for the next hit movie or TV series — the agency has built a team that was rebranded as the “media

Bron Studios, the production company that churns out highbrow fare alongside studio films, was sued on Wednesday for allegedly misusing loan proceeds and failing to repay $14 million to an investor. Hudson Private LP filed the suit in federal court in New York. Hudson has invested in numerous Bron titles and alleges that the company

Halle Berry, Anthony Anderson, Jennifer Hudson and Barry Jenkins are among the honorees at this year’s edition of the Critics Choice Association’s annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television event. This year’s ceremony, which takes place on Monday, Dec. 6 at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel, includes TV recognition for the first time. The Celebration

Where have all the Black cowboys gone? They are raging in the heart and mind of debut filmmaker Jeymes Samuel’s “The Harder They Fall,” an advantageous and stylistic western that could become one of the most popular flicks on Netflix and a populist selection in the major Oscar categories, which could include rapper Jay-Z. Brutal,

In March 2020, just after New York City shut down due to COVID-19, Matthew Heineman picked up his camera and embedded with a group of healthcare workers at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. For the next three months, the director and a skeleton crew captured doctors, nurses, and medical technicians as they battled

There’s a cruel irony working against Hollywood’s efforts to diversify: For nearly a century, the industry depicted the world as a place dominated by white, straight, able-bodied men. The movies typically relegated women and people of color to supporting and subservient roles, while excluding (or else vilifying) queer and handicapped characters. As a result, entire