Movies

TAT Productions and production-distribution outfit Miam! Animation, both from France, and Belgian broadcaster Ketnet-VRT have won the Tributes Awards at this year’s in-person Cartoon Forum, Europe’s premier animated TV series forum which closed today in Toulouse. One of leading studios in the flourishing animation region of Occitania, which includes ­Toulouse, TAT Productions took the Producer

Uruguayan filmmaker Manuel Nieto’s social thriller “The Employer and the Employee,” starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“Persian Lessons” and “BPM” (Beats Per Minute), comes to the San Sebastian Film Festival to close the Horizontes Latinos sidebar on Thursday, Sept. 23. It’s a journey that began at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight where it world premiered after winning development prizes at Toulouse’s Latin Film Festival,

“Dune” is seeking to lure in China viewers with a new trailer revealing not-yet-seen scenes billed as a “China exclusive.” Without dropping spoilers, the clip shows new images of story’s legendary sandworms and the character Paul Atreides’ visions, among other things. The trailer is slightly more explanatory and less action-oriented. Text inserted into the clip

Character actor Basil Hoffman, who had more than 100 roles in television shows and movies, died Sept. 17, according to his manager Brad Lemack. He was 83. He had recurring roles on several series, playing Ed Greenglass on “Hill Street Blues,” Joshua Friendly on “Santa Barbara,” Principal Dingleman on “Square Pegs,” and Simeon Trapp in

COVID has played havoc with production schedules across the globe, and for the first major Russian movie to shoot on location in Europe since the pandemic struck last year, it’s been a case study in compromise and adaptation. Restrictions on crew movements, the director’s COVID infection and a delay by local authorities in granting permission

FESTIVAL The 65th BFI London Film Festival (Oct. 6 – 17) has added George Clooney’s “The Tender Bar,” starring Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan and Lily Rabe, to the program. Clooney is expected to be in attendance. The film follows a boy growing up on Long Island who seeks out father figures among the patrons at

If close female friendships were a dance, they could well be ballet: intimate, harmonious, demanding and — when friends mean everything in one’s formative years — brutally high-stakes. In “Birds of Paradise,” writer-director Sarah Adina Smith (“Legion”) tells a scrumptious and entertaining tale about the go-for-broke nature of youthful companionship, spinning a cunning yarn of

In San Sebastian to receive the festival’s highest honor, the Donostia career achievement award, American actor, producer and director Johnny Depp has announced his involvement in a new development fund for film and TV projects, headed by his own upstart London-based IN.2 Films and Adolfo Blanco’s Contracorriente in Spain. IN.2 is Depp’s newly-launched U.K.-based production

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Peter Hedges’ drama “The Same Storm” is set to open the 2021 Austin Film Festival and Writers Conference (AFF). Festival organizers announced Thursday that the pandemic-set movie starring Noma Dumezweni, Mary-Louise Parker, Sandra Oh, Elaine May, Raúl Castillo, Ato Blankson-Wood, Corey Michael Smith, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston, and Alison Pill will lead

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies from film awards editor Clayton Davis. Following history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar and Emmy predictions are updated regularly with the current year's list of contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies from film awards editor Clayton Davis. Following history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar and Emmy predictions are updated regularly with the current year's list of contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four

French director Claire Simon is putting the spotlight for her next documentary on the steps of life from birth to death for the bodies of women. Simon, who was at the San Sebastian Film Festival with her latest film “I Want to Talk About Duras,” starts shooting this week at the Paris public hospital, Hopital

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies from film awards editor Clayton Davis. Following history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar and Emmy predictions are updated regularly with the current year's list of contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four

Selected at TIFF’s Filmmaker Lab, Cannes’ Sources 2 program and Madrid’s ECAM Incubator, “Still Life with Ghosts” marks the first feature from Spain’s Enrique Buleo, director of shorts such as “Decorosa” and “Hell and Such,” which played Clermont-Ferrand and Palm Springs, Slamdance, Nashville and many other events, garnering praise and plaudits. A five-part black comedy, “Still Life with

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies from film awards editor Clayton Davis. Following history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar and Emmy predictions are updated regularly with the current year's list of contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four

“Madeleine Collins,” a psychological thriller with “Benedetta” star Virginie Efira, has been sold by Charades in major territories. The movie world premiered at Venice Days and played at San Sebastian. Charades has sold “Madeleine Collins” to Movie Inspired (Italy), Rialto (Australia / New Zealand), Best Film (Poland) and Weird Wave (Greece). Helmed by Antoine Barraud,

Peter Mullan (“Westworld,” “Top of the Lake”) and Charles Dance (“Mank,” “The Crown”) have joined the cast of “The Hanging Sun,” based on Jo Nesbø’s bestselling novel “Midnight Sun.” Frederick Schmidt (“Angel Has Fallen”) and Raphael Vicas (“Grantchester”) are also boarding the production. The Sky Original film is a U.K.-Italian co-production from Sky, ITV Studios’

Juan (Roberto Álamo), a prison security officer, is a man of few words: In fact, in the first near four minutes of “Josephine,” he doesn’t say anything at all as the film fills us in on his daily routine. It’s a sad, solitary existence of bathetic detail: The film begins with a frontal shot of

Picked up by Latido Films at last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, Chilean suspense-thriller “Immersion,” headed by Chile’s biggest star and Pablo Larraín regular, Alfredo Castro, has dropped its first trailer, which Variety bows exclusively. Nicolás Postiglione’s debut feature, which he co-wrote with fellow filmmakers Agustín Toscano (“The Snatch Thief”) and Moises Sepúlveda (“The Illiterate”), revolves around

Buenos Aires-based sales and production company FilmSharks International has scored a number of deals with South Korea, France and Italy in recent days. South Korean indie film distributor Bluelable Pictures picked up all rights to erotic thriller “Bandit Love” and plans a wide theatrical release. It also snagged rights to “Ghosting Gloria,” the Uruguayan supernatural

The devil is in the details. On March 18, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the government will plow €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion) over 2021-25 into a Spain AVS Hub plan –  España Hub Audiovisual de Europa in Spanish. This was aimed, as he explained, to encourage big foreign players to shoot and set up

SF Studios has unveiled the trailer for the action thriller “Omerta 6/12,” one of the biggest-budgeted Finnish films ever. The film is directed by Aku Louhimies with a cast headlined by Finnish star Jasper Pääkkönen (“BlacKkKlansman”) and Swedish actors Nanna Blondell (“Black Widow”) and Sverrir Gudnason (“Borg vs. McEnroe”). Pääkkönen plays Max Tanner, a Finnish

There are more than a few surprises coming for awards watchers and film fans this Christmas. George Clooney’s latest, “The Tender Bar,” looks to be one of them. Amazon Studios will release the film in select theaters on Dec. 17, the studio announced Wednesday, followed by a nationwide rollout on Dec. 22. Amazon Prime Video

The familiar story of a new recruit rising through the ranks of organized crime is given a punchy female Asian twist in “Snakehead.” A gritty and grimy tale set way down deep in the underbelly of New York City’s Chinatown, this first narrative feature by documentary maker Evan Jackson Leong (“Linsanity”) is highlighted by outstanding

As contract negotiations stall between the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, crew members have taken to social media to share their support for a possible strike action and for the terms that IATSE is demanding in the next deal. Health plan funding, pension plans, rest

The controversy has blown over by now (or has it?), but back when “Toy Story 4” came out, a certain contingent of the moviegoing public went nuclear when they discovered that Pixar had included a lesbian couple in the background of two scenes. Appearing briefly in Bonnie’s pre-school class, the women had no lines, but

Melvin Van Peebles, the influential filmmaker behind “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song,” and father of director and actor Mario Van Peebles, has died. He was 89. “Dad knew that Black images matter,” Mario Van Peebles said in a statement from the Criterion Collection. “If a picture is worth a thousand words, what was a movie worth?

Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick and Gael Garcia Bernal have joined the cast of “The Mother,” a deadly thriller starring Jennifer Lopez. Paul Raci, who recently landed an Oscar nomination for “Sound of Metal,” and newcomer Lucy Paez (“Silencio”) have also been added to the call sheet of the Netflix film. The movie follows a deadly

One of this year’s favorites to shine in the main competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival is Fernando León de Aranoa’s “The Good Boss,” starring Javier Bardem. “The Good Boss” takes place in and around the Blancos Básculas factory, where all things must be in balance at all times. There, the seemingly benevolent boss,

Two early and critical precursors to the awards season have announced their voting dates and annual galas. First, the National Board of Review will reveal its 2021 honorees on Tuesday, Nov. 30, with their awards presentation and gala scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 11, hosted by NBC News’ Willie Geist. They will be followed by the