Movies

Mike Goodridge, who was appointed artistic director of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM) in 2017, is stepping down after four editions. The festival will not take place in 2021, as COVID-19 restrictions remain tight in Macau. In 2020, like many festivals, IFFAM went online. Last year, it featured a film screening section

RESTORATION The 20th anniversary 4K restoration of David Lynch‘s iconic surrealist mystery-drama is to get a home entertainment and limited theatrical release from Studiocanal and the Criterion Collection. 20 years after the film’s world premiere at Cannes in 2001, the restoration, supervised by Lynch himself, premiered at the Cannes Classics selection earlier this year. In

While Western cinema all too often equates film noir with retro pastiche and period fare, Chinese filmmakers continue to sustain the genre in bracingly contemporary, socially relevant ways — often sneaking a wealth of political and economic commentary past censors and straight into their sleek underworld narratives. Zhang Ji’s remarkable debut feature, “Fire on the

“Gensan Punch,” the upcoming film by celebrated Filipino director Brillante Mendoza (“Kinatay,” “Ma’ Rosa,” “Alpha: The Right To Kill”), has been set as an HBO Asia Original movie. It will become available on regional streaming service HBO Go in the next few months. Ahead of that, the film will have its world premiere next month

The Busan festival has experienced its share of fandom in previous editions, with everything from frenetic crowds at guest visits in Haeundae, an overflowing BIFF Square in Nampodong, through to star-struck teenagers camping in the entrance to the Grand Hotel. None of these are particularly appropriate in the age of COVID and social distancing. With

Feature debutant Natesh Hegde’s “Pedro,” which has its world premiere at Busan’s New Currents strand and has subsequent play dates at the BFI London Film Festival, explores the theme of outsiders in society. The titular Pedro is a taciturn electrician in a forest village in the foothills of western India. He also does odd jobs

Indian director Jiju Antony’s “A Miracle of Love,” selected at Busan’s Asian Project Market, is informed by the filmmaker’s own life experience. “The script is heavily inspired by an episode from my personal experiences in raising my son who’s living with autism,” Antony tells Variety. “There are thousands of defining moments in our journey with

As a strike authorization vote looms, some IATSE members have decided to cancel their streaming subscriptions in hopes of sending a message that would hit the studios in the pocketbook. Workers in the below-the-line entertainment unions are gearing up to vote to authorize a strike this weekend, amid anger over long production hours without adequate

Leading Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui (“Sacred Games”) is buzzing. He has just been nominated for a best actor international Emmy for Sudhir Mishra’s Netflix film “Serious Men.” Siddiqui’s next big international splash is with Bangladeshi director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s “No Land’s Man,” where he plays the lead. The film has its world premiere at the

“The Rapist,” which has its premiere next month at the Busan International Film Festival is the hardest hitting film that Indian filmmaker Aparna Sen has ever made. A chronicler of different aspects of Indian life, Sen has previously won global acclaim for her eclectic body of work, which includes “36 Chowringhee Lane” (1981), “Paroma” (1985)

Busan’s Asian Film Maker of the Year Award has become almost indistinguishable from a lifetime achievement award. But that need not diminish either the recipient or the festival. Im Kwon-taek is arguably the best-known South Korean film director to have straddled both the modern era and the earlier time when the country and the film

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO and chief content officer, revealed what he said was the “most comprehensive look so far” at the streamer’s top 10 TV shows and movies. Sarandos, in an appearance at Vox Media’s Code Conference at the Beverly Hilton, shared two slides. One showed the most popular Netflix shows based on its proprietary

The talks that led to CAA acquiring ICM Partners came together in secret over a short period of time — so much so that longtime insiders at both agencies learned of the deal moments before the news was formally announced on Monday. To CAA’s trio of leaders — Bryan Lourd, Richard Lovett and Kevin Huvane

China’s box office slowed to one of its lowest points of the year this week, bringing in a total of just $24.6 million over the three-day weekend, the last before the break-out of patriotic National Day holiday blockbusters arriving Sept. 30, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That leaves China’s $5.3 billion year-to-date box

Gravitas Ventures Acquires North American Rights to Documentary ‘Lady Buds’ Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, acquired North American rights to the documentary “Lady Buds,” directed, produced and written by Chris J. Russo. “Lady Buds” tells the story of six women in cannabis who left their livelihoods behind in the underground market to forge

Deborah McIntosh and Alex Walton will lead WME Independent, a new division of WME that will handle domestic and international film sales and film financing consulting services. Both were most recently at Endeavor Content, which WME’s parent company Endeavor Holdings is selling a majority stake in as part of a settlement agreement with the Writers

Bruce Berman is stepping down as chairman and CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures, the company behind such hits as “The Matrix,” “Joker,” and “Edge of Tomorrow.” He leaves after a 24-year run. “I am incredibly grateful to have been involved in the inception of VRP and the impact our films and franchises have had not

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the latest step in its ongoing reform efforts, tapping five outside journalists to join its credentials committee, who will be tasked with helping to screen and select new members. The HFPA notes that a third of its board is now made up of members of color, and is

The first trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” is here. The film will have a limited release on Nov. 26 and expand nationwide on Dec. 25. Set in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley during the 1970s, “Licorice Pizza” stars Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Valley native Alana Haim and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper Hoffman,

“Aline,” the biopic loosely based on French Canadian hitmaker Celine Dion, has been acquired by Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films for U.S. distribution. The critically acclaimed musical comedy-drama world premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It will be released theatrically in the U.S. in early 2022. Lemercier, one of France’s most

The world’s biggest Imax screen will open to the public on Sept. 30 in Germany, kicking off with the premiere of the latest James Bond film “No Time to Die.” The screen, located at the Traumaplast Multiplex in Leonberg, weighs over 500 pounds — another Imax record — and is wider than a Boeing 737

Talks with Edward Enninful, editor-in-chief of British Vogue and European editorial director of Vogue and Ed Guiney, producer of “Normal People” and “Room,” are among the highlights of the BFI London Film Festival’s industry program. The festival’s LFF Connects strand, which celebrates the intersection between film and other creative industries, features Enninful and will explore

The London world premiere of “No Time to Die” will stream exclusively on Facebook, Variety can reveal. The social media platform has secured access to the live red carpet at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday (Sept. 28), and will broadcast the event on both Facebook and through Oculus Venues, an experiential space for the Facebook-backed

James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the long-time custodians of the iconic spy, have said the prospect of replacing Daniel Craig isn’t something they’re entertaining until 2022. In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s popular Today program on Monday morning, the half-siblings and heads of Bond outfit Eon Productions were asked if

Discussing her career at Zurich Film Festival, Sharon Stone also commented on the referendum taking place on the same day in Switzerland, with nearly two-thirds of Swiss voters backing the introduction of same-sex marriage. “It should be more because when is anyone else’s sex life your business? You may not like it, you may not

“Fever dream” has lately become an overused term in film marketing and criticism alike, often generically applied to anything faintly strange or surreal with fractured storytelling trickery and a lick of gauzy ambience. As a title for the latest feature from Peruvian director Claudia Llosa, it serves a similarly loose, woolly purpose, despite not being

The route that took composer Mychael Danna from the basement of a Toronto church to an office on Hollywood and Vine and all the way to the stage of Zurich Film Festival, where he will receive a career achievement tribute on Sept. 30, kicked off – as such things often do – with an offhand

Indian film producers have set release dates for long-delayed Bollywood films that star the cream of the industry and have blockbuster potential. The moves follow an announcement by authorities in the state of Maharashtra, India’s biggest box office territory, that cinemas can re-open on Oct. 22 as the pandemic dies down. From Reliance Entertainment, Rohit

Local thriller “On The Line” held on to top spot at the South Korean box office charts. But its weak total showed that the boost to cinemas from the Chuseok holidays had been short-lived. “On the Line” managed $1.56 million in its second weekend, a score which was only 28% down on its debut, according

The New York Film Festival premiere of Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” was greeted by a small group of protesters on Sunday. The biographical drama, starring Virginie Efira, tells the story of a 17th century nun who falls in love with another nun. It opened to wide acclaim at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, receiving a five-minute