Movies

Michael B. Jordan’s upcoming college basketball showcase, spotlighting men’s teams from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) added Turner Sports and Invesco QQQ as partners. The newly named Invesco QQQ Legacy Classic will take place on Saturday, Dec. 18, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. TNT will televise the doubleheader competition between Hampton University

New Europe Film Sales has closed several deals for “Leave No Traces,” from Polish director Jan P. Matuszyński (“The Last Family”), which has its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer. Produced by Aurum Film, the production house behind Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated “Corpus

L.A.’s Whip Media, a leading international enterprise software platform and aggregator of entertainment-related data, has appointed Jaime Otero to the newly created role of VP of business development and content strategy. The company also announced that Brazil’s Globo – the largest media group in Latin America, Univision’s VIX AVoD platform and Spain’s Onza are joining

Two films each from India, Iran and South Korea feature in the eleven-title New Currents competition that is at the heart of the Busan International Film Festival. The festival this year will be operated as an in-person event Oct 6-15, 2021. But with Korea’s ongoing restrictions on cross-border travel, it may be a less international

The 78th Venice Film Festival gets underway Wednesday with a slew of Hollywood stars expected on the red carpet for the Sept. 1-11 event, beginning with Penelope Cruz for Pedro Almodovar’s opening film “Parallel Mothers,” in competition, and Isabelle Huppert for French drama “Promises,” which opens the fest’s more cutting-edge Horizons section. They will soon

On Tuesday night, the eve of the 78th annual Venice Film Festival, Variety hosted a rooftop party at the Hotel Danieli honoring fest topper Alberto Barbera and the Biennale, its parent organization, with its International Achievement in Film Award. Variety international editor Manori Ravindran presented the prize to Barbera and Roberto Cicutto, the president of

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the election of its expanded board of directors, naming 12 members — five of whom have never served on the board — and is next set to select three more outside non-members, for a total of 15. Also next up, the HFPA will vote on a new president

Elliot Page has inked a first-look deal with UCP to develop scripted and unscripted projects across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms for the Universal Studio Group division. “I’ve always had great experiences working with UCP,” the Academy Award nominee said in a statement announcing the deal. “Beatrice and the rest of the leadership team support

IATSE told members on Tuesday that little progress has been made in recent negotiations on the basic agreement with the major studios, and that the two sides “remain very far apart.” The basic agreement was set to expire on July 31, but has been extended to Sept. 10 to allow for further negotiations. The union’s

Not bad for a feature debut. “They Carry Death” (“Eles Transportan a Morte”), from first-time Spanish film directors Helena Girón y Samuel M. Delgado, is participating in two prominent film festivals back to back. After its world premiere at the Venice Festival’s 36th Critics Week sidebar, it competes in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section of Spain’s most important film festival,

“Euphoria” star Hunter Schafer, John Malkovich and Gemma Chan of “Crazy Rich Asians” fame will team up for “Cuckoo,” an upcoming horror movie from Neon. Tilman Singer is writing and directing the film, which begins production in 2022. Additional cast members include Sofia Boutella (“Atomic Blonde”), Jan Bluthardt, Zita Hanrot and Proschat Madani. “Cuckoo” marks

Nina Dobrev, Jamie Chung, Michael Hitchcock and Chace Crawford will round out the cast of “Reunion,” an ensemble comedy from Artists Road. They join the previously announced Lil Rel Howery, Billy Magnussen and Jillian Bell in the film about a murder that takes place during a high school reunion party. The story puts a whodunit

Before the latest James Bond film “No Time to Die” comes to theaters, fans will be able to watch a retrospective of Daniel Craig’s career as super spy 007 for free on Apple TV. “Being James Bond,” a 45-minute special reflecting on Craig’s Bond films, will be available as a free rental exclusively on the

“ 2,” the planned sequel to one of Netflix’s most successful original movies, will now shoot in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. The Chris Hemsworth-starring actioner had been set to lens in Australia. Crew who had already begun preparations in New South Wales, Australia were informed on Friday by Netflix and the Russo brothers’

Female directors had a better chance of having their documentaries screened at film festivals than their narrative features, according to a new study. Women accounted for 42% of directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers on documentaries that were featured in Sundance, SXSW, AFI, New York Film Festival and other annual celebrations of moviemaking.

Prominent Middle East distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired all Middle East and North Africa distribution rights for potentially explosive documentary “ENOUGH! Lebanon’s Darkest Hour,” directed by Lebanese-born Australian filmmaker Daizy Gedeon, which it plans to release theatrically across the region. Front Row on Tuesday announced closing the deal with Australian production company Dream

The Sheffield Doc/Fest board of trustees has apologized to its programming team who departed on acrimonious terms last week, following the departure of artistic director Cintia Gil. In an emotional statement last week, the festival’s group of seven programmers — Juliano Gomes, Qila Gill, Carlos Pereira, Christopher Small, Rabz Lansiquot, Soukaina Aboulaoula and Herb Shellenberger

Bleecker Street has released a trailer for “Mass,” which will be in limited release in theaters in Los Angeles and New York City on Oct. 8, with a national rollout to follow. Starring Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton, the film follows two sets of parents who agree to talk privately in

Break out the Batman and Wonder Woman cosplay because DC FanDome, a virtual event catered to comic book enthusiasts, is returning this fall. DC FanDome will take place on Oct. 16 at 10 a.m. PT and will be available to watch on its official website or via Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The free event

Manuel Alduy, a well-respected French film and TV industry veteran who joined France Televisions as head of cinema and international development in January, discussed the broadcaster’s strategy to ramp up its scope and attract younger audiences. Alduy, who worked at Canal Plus Group for 22 years before joining Twentieth Century Fox in 2016, is making

PREMIERE Sky will premiere its upcoming Sky Original documentary “Hawking: Can You Hear Me?”, described as the human story behind one of the 20th century’s best known scientific minds, Stephen Hawking, on Sept. 20. The broadcaster has also shared a new first-look image – a family photograph made available to the public for the first

For the seventh consecutive year, the Filmarket Hub platform and Catalonia’s Sitges Festival are co-organizing the Sitges Pitchbox, an international pitching event focused on genre feature films and series currently in development. New this year, the traditional pitching competition will be complemented by the Showrunners LAB, an introductory and advisory seminar on the role of

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society is to streamline the industry support measures that it operates under the leadership of Jacob Wong, in time for what it hopes will be in-person events in March 2022. Wong will oversee HKIFF Industry, a new umbrella that coordinate HKIFFS’ industry initiatives, including: Hong Kong Asia Film Financing

Production of thriller “Poker Face” directed by and starring Russell Crowe has been shut down in Australia by a confirmed coronavirus case among the film’s crew. A second case is under investigation. The film had been shooting in and around Sydney, despite a local lockdown, and was six days away from wrapping. Crowe announced the

Diane Kruger and Ray Nicholson are set to star in a new thriller from writer-director Neil LaBute, titled “Out of the Blue.” The filmmaker behind “The Wicker Man” and “In the Company of Men” will bring the stars together this week in Rhode Island for principal photography on the feature, billed as a contemporary tale

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is something of an anomaly within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in that when the title character makes his debut in theaters on Sept. 3, it will be with zero preamble from the world that’s been established by Marvel’s previous 24 features and four TV series on Disney

Paramount sued its insurer on Monday for refusing to cover the vast majority of its losses due to pandemic-related shutdowns on “Mission: Impossible 7.” According to the suit, the studio’s insurer, Chubb, has said it will pay only $1 million for COVID-19 losses under its “civil authority” policy. Production was delayed seven times between February

HollyShorts Film Festival Announces Dates and Lineup Short films starring Taika Waititi, Jessica Chastain, Tiffany Haddish and those produced by Octavia Spencer and Leonardo DiCaprio are among highlights of the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, running Sept. 23-Oct. 1 at the TCL Chinese Theatres and online. Selections include Spencer Susser’s “Save Ralph,” starring Zac Efron, Waititi

From “There’s Something About Mary” to “The Sweetest Thing,”  the talented Cameron Diaz, who is said to be retired from acting, has delivered a wide range of impeccable performances. In celebration of her birthday, Variety is ranking her 10 best film performances to date. Diaz blazed onto the scene as the stunning Tina Carlyle, the

BAFTA-winning Welsh director Philip John, whose credits include “Downton Abbey” and “The Good Karma Hospital,” will direct “Arrangements of Love,” the sole Asian project selected at the Toronto International Financing Forum, which sits alongside the Toronto film festival. The film is an adaptation of the bestselling 2004 novel of the same title by Indian author