Movies

Iranian authorities are exerting heavy pressure on director Mohammad Rasoulof to pull his latest work “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from the Cannes Film Festival by harassing the film’s producers and actors who have been summoned for questioning and banned from leaving the country. Human rights lawyer Babak Paknia, who is Rasoulof’s lawyer, said

Spain’s push to position itself as a premier player in the world’s film and TV industries extends to the documentary zone, as both audiences and industry delegates discovered in the impressive display of the country’s finished and work-in-progress films and co-production know-how at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival this week. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory’s

Simon Curtis (“My Week With Marilyn,” “Downton Abbey: A New Era”) has lined up a quartet of stars for upcoming comedy “Encore” from “Twilight” banner Temple Hill Entertainment. The film — announced by Protagonist Pictures, which is launching worldwide sales ahead of Cannes — will reunite eight-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close with Oscar winner Jeremy Irons

Memento International has boarded “Gazer,” the debut feature of American filmmaker Ryan J. Sloan which will world premiere at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Set in New Jersey, the paranoia thriller stars Ariella Mastroianni as Frankie, a young mother with a rare degenerative brain condition called dyschronometria. Struggling to perceive time, she uses cassette tapes for guidance and

The Hot Docs Forum, the festival’s industry centerpiece, wrapped Wednesday with its most lively awards announcements in recent memory—complete with flamenco guitar, song and dance courtesy of Spain, this year’s country in focus—as hundreds of industry delegates assembled under the sun in the courtyard of Toronto’s Hart House. Elaine Epstein’s “Arrest the Midwife”—one of 20

In “Streets Loud With Echoes” filmmaker Katerina Suvorova captures a youth-powered civil movement sparked by the shocking murder of Denis Ten, who made history when he became the first ever Kazakhstani figure skater to win an Olympic medal. The doc follows Kazakhstan citizens who want to challenge the political regime and make them take notice

David Wnendt, the German director behind controversial coming-of-age movie “Wetlands,” Hitler satire “Look Who’s Back” and teen crime drama “Sun and Concrete,” is once again pushing boundaries with his next feature film project. Backed by distributor-producer Constantin Film and with Seven Elephants lead producing, Wnendt has embarked on the feature film adaptation of the award-winning

Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films has revealed its production slate, with projects by Nastia Korkia, Vytautas Katkus, Ernst de Geer and Anna Roller. Totem Atelier, the development and production arm of the company, has revealed that it has boarded Korkia’s “A Short Summer.” Korkia’s short documentary “Dreams About Putin” premiered at IDFA

Following the success of “The Curse,” Emma Stone, Nathan Fielder and A24 are teaming up again to take on the cutthroat world of chess. The studio has won the rights to the hot feature package “Checkmate,” based on a book proposal by author Ben Mezrich, whose works were adapted into “The Social Network” and “Dumb

“The Battle for Laikipia” offers a prescient perspective by focusing on the communities that are living with the consequences of climate change right now: the ranchers and pastoralists of Laikipia, located on the equator in Kenya. These people, their cattle, their farms — their means of life — have been dealing with drought. Over a

The long-awaited live-action “Masters of the Universe” movie is one step closer to becoming a reality, with Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel Films dating the project for worldwide theatrical release on June 5, 2026. Travis Knight (“Kubo and the Two Strings,” “Bumblebee”) is on board to direct the film adaptation of the popular franchise, with

Chris Hemsworth is quite happy about not playing the hero in George Miller’s upcoming “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel movie “Furiosa.” The action tentpole casts Hemsworth as the villainous Dementus, a sociopathic warlord who steals the title character from her home as a child. It’s a far cry from his Marvel superhero Thor, who Hemsworth

Victoria Justice, best known for her starring role on Nickelodeon’s “Victorious,” recently said on SiriusXM’s “Hits 1 LA with Tony Fly and Symon” that her upcoming role in the movie “Depravity” required her to film her first sex scene. The experience was “uncomfortable” but the crew pulled it off with “taste.” “My first day on

A film adaptation of author Colleen Hoover‘s bestselling romantic thriller “Verity” is in development at Amazon MGM Studios. Hillary Seitz (“The Unforgivable,” “Insomnia”) is currently writing the script. Eat the Cat’s Nick Antosca and Alex Hedlund will produce. “Verity” follows Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job

Alfred Molina has gone viral for sharing an emotional story to Vanity Fair about his father, who never vocally supported his son’s acting career. Molina once had the chance to become the manager of a restaurant for a higher salary. He turned it down to pursue the arts, which baffled his father. This was long

Harvey Weinstein appeared in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday, less than a week after the New York Court of Appeals overturned his 2020 rape conviction. It’s the first time the former movie producer has been seen in public since he was convicted of rape in a Los Angeles court and sentenced to 16 years in prison

The thin line between cheating death and chasing it appears to have been smudged, repeatedly, by maverick video journalist Margaret Moth, the subject of first-time filmmaker Lucy Lawless’ fascinating documentary “Never Look Away.” At least, that’s the impression we’re left with at the end of this compact yet complex portrait of a singularly and aggressively

Divergent PR has announced that veteran publicist Ryan Langrehr, former U.S. Head of Awards at DDA, will join the independent outlet and that Christine Richardson has been promoted to Vice President. Richardson, a veteran film publicist at Divergent, has successfully managed Oscar-winning campaigns for Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale.”

The Writers Guild of America called a strike one year ago today, declaring that the streaming boom had created an existential crisis for writers. The WGA got most of what it wanted from the strike, though it took almost five months for the studios and streamers to come around. But as the boom has gone

Actor In Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” Kessell stars as the version of teen plane crash survivor Lottie Matthews — who happens to be a cult leader. This trait was a draw for Kessell, who considers herself a character actor. “I love an accent. I love physicality. I love a costume — hair, makeup. Things that take me

On April 25, the day that Harvey Weinstein’s New York sexual assault conviction was overturned, those who had been most vocal in the months following the former mogul’s implosion in 2017 were conspicuously silent. The X account of Time’s Up, the organization that raised $26 million in the wake of the Weinstein accusations, appeared to

Say hello to sequel season.  That might as well be the nickname for this summer’s slate of potential blockbusters. Over the next four months, Hollywood is rolling out what it hopes will be a winning mix of follow-ups, reboots and spinoffs from tested franchises like “Despicable Me” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it looks

Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen (“1899, “Borgen”), Clara Rugaard (“Verona,” “I Am Mother”) and Til Schweiger (“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” “Inglourious Basterds”) lead the international cast of “Desperate Journey,” a newly-announced thriller set in the burlesque world of 1940s Paris. The film — which has now wrapped production — comes from Emblem Pictures, and was written by two-time

Dogwoof has boarded international sales for “Thom Browne: The Man Who Fell to Earth,” the first feature documentary about the fashion designer. Dogwoof will present the film to buyers in Cannes this month. “Thom Browne: The Man Who Fell to Earth,” a working title, marks Dogwoof’s third collaboration with director Reiner Holzemer and producer Aminata

Robert Downey Jr. won’t accept Chris Hemsworth‘s gripes over Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As part of Hemsworth’s recent Vanity Fair cover story, the Thor star revealed he grew frustrated playing the Asgardian hero across four standalone movies and several more “Avengers” films. “Sometimes I felt like a security guard for the team,” Hemsworth

Keanu Reeves, Jung Kook and Hayao Miyazaki are among those honored on Gold House’s 2024 Most Impactful Asians A100 list. Gold House’s A100 list honors trailblazers across the industry who are at the forefront of what the organization calls the “new gold age.” Gold House will celebrate these honorees and announce severalnew initiatives at the Gold Gala on

Gemma Arterton, the British stage and screen star perhaps best known for playing Bond girl Strawberry Fields in “Quantum of Solace,” is set to star in upcoming period adventure thriller “Storm Witch.” The independent U.K./Ireland co-production, to be directed by David Blair (a BAFTA winner for “Taking Over the Asylum” and “The Street”) from a

Indian producer Prerna Arora is including intimacy coordination clauses in actors’ legal agreements. Arora, known for acclaimed films “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha” and “Pari” is believed to be one of the first Indian producers to do so. Intimacy coordination is a nascent field in Indian cinema with Aastha Khanna Bhardwaj (Netflix’s “Murder Mubarak”) being one

For British rapper Skepta, music was just the beginning of his creative pursuits. Earlier this year, the multi-hyphenate released his first short film, “Tribal Mark,” in the U.K., followed by a SXSW screening and premieres in L.A. and New York last month. The short follows Mark (Jude Carmichael), a teenaged Nigerian immigrant who is adapting

The Jeffrey Archer Company and Dream Bay Entertainment have entered into a strategic partnership to adapt the bestselling author’s works for television and film internationally, with an initial focus on Indian, Asian and the Middle Eastern markets. DBE was founded in 2023 by former Amazon Studios executive Thomas Drachkovitch. Former CAA agent Jason Hafford recently