Movies

Frieze and Deutsche Bank announced the winner for their second annual Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award, a $10,000 prize awarded to an emerging L.A.-based filmmaker. The award, presented in association with Endeavor Content and Ghetto Film School, went to John Rizkallah, while Jane Chow earned the initiative’s first-ever audience award, which was voted

Actor and activist Thandiwe Newton, who was named to the Queen’s New Year’s Honors List, receiving an OBE for services to film and charity, has joined documentary “President” as executive producer. The film won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival this year and will screen at AFI Docs on Thursday. The film captures

The “Fast & Furious” franchise has made it very clear — through nine films, a theatrical spinoff series and roughly $6 billion at the worldwide box office — that family is everything. Perhaps the most undeniable member of that family is Sung Kang, the actor whom fans single-handedly resurrected through social media fanfare. Kang played

Frances O’Connor is in week two of the edit for her debut feature as writer-director, “Emily,” which brings to life the world of author Emily Brontë in the years leading up to the creation of her seminal novel “Wuthering Heights.” Variety speaks to O’Connor about the film, which has been pre-sold by Embankment Films to

Distributor Well Go USA Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to “Raging Fire,” the latest action thriller featuring martial arts superstar Donnie Yen. The pic is set to hit U.S. theaters later this year before landing on martial arts streaming channel Hi-YAH!. “Raging Fire” is the final title from the late Hong Kong helmer

Despite an unprecedentedly difficult year, the Chinese film industry has come roaring back. In August 2020, China became the first country in the world to achieve “full box office recovery,” according to the U.K.-based industry analytics firm Gower Street. Remarkably, Chinese box office data as of mid-June 2021 is tracking 1% ahead of the same

To what lengths will a desperate mother go to recover her kidnapped daughter? That’s the central question posed in Belgian-Romanian director Teodora Ana Mihai’s first fiction feature “La Civil,” which is set to debut at the Cannes Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. “La Civil” was produced by Hans Everaert’s Menuetto with the assistance

It’s a face off between Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba and Regina King in “The Harder They Fall,” and if the western’s trailer is any indication, audiences need to get ready for a dirty, dusty and dangerous ride. On Thursday, Netflix released the first full look at the highly-anticipated western starring Majors, Elba, King, Zazie Beetz

As Europe’s summer film festivals restart after taking a year of COVID-prompted pause — the notable exception being Venice — the Cannes Film Festival shift into July has caused an August overload. But the disruption hasn’t dampened enthusiasm on the circuit. With no shortage of movies to launch and vaccinated local audiences keen to get

The British Film Institute has issued a briefing note for industry professionals travelling to France for the Cannes Film Festival (July 6-17). The note is drawn from guidance on the U.K. and French government sites. The guidance is accurate as of now but it is subject to change at very short notice, given the fluid

The Locarno Film Festival will open this year’s 74th edition on Aug. 4 with the world premiere of Italian director Ferdinando Cito Filomarino’s latest thriller “Beckett,” starring John David Washington, Boyd Holbrook, Vicky Krieps and Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander. After the film’s Locarno premiere, Netflix will launch the film worldwide on Aug. 13. “Beckett’s” presence marks

With “The Deep House,” the French director duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo have revamped the haunted house genre by shooting almost the entire film under water. The buzzy title, which was produced by Radar Films with Logical Pictures and is releasing in French cinemas next week, caught the eye of Jason Blum’s horror film

“My Emptiness and I,” “The Barbaric,” and “Saudade Became Home Inside” have all won big at a key industry section at Spain’s Malaga Festival, its Work in Progress, which first shone a light on such titles as “The Platform,” Netflix’s most-watched movie in the U.S. for some days last year. This year round, at the 4th

The Match Factory has released the trailer for feature “Amparo,” which marks the return to the Cannes Festival of Colombia’s Simón Mesa Soto, a Palme d’Or winner in 2014 for his short “Leidi.” Playing Cannes Critics’ Week, Mesa Soto’s jump from short to long feature is produced, alongside with cinematographer Juan Sarmiento G., by Colombia’s

The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the jury for the competition, which will be powered by a majority of women, including American actor-filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal, French actor-helmer Mélanie Laurent, French-Senegalese actor-director Mati Diop, Austrian director Jessica Hausner and cult French singer Mylene Farmer. Spike Lee will presider over the jury which will also include French

Multihphenate Castille Landon added writing and directing to her resume after she couldn’t find “roles that I loved and I was getting cast in a bunch of indie things that never got the financing altogether. It’s hard enough trying to get cast in something, but then when it falls through, it’s heartbreaking,” she says. She wrote and directed family drama

“Brighton 4th” tells a gentle, naturalistic story of parental devotion and sacrifice, unfolding mostly in the former Soviet émigré enclave of Brighton Beach, N.Y. The tragicomedy nabbed a trifecta of awards at the recent Tribeca Festival, including best international narrative feature, screenplay and actor. It marks the third fiction outing by Georgian helmer Levan Koguashvili

Monoduo Films, the leading distributor of feature-length music documentaries, has acquired world sales rights to “Faith and Branko,” an intimate story that chronicles the relationship between two musicians over the course of seven years. The deal was announced on the eve of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, where the film screens in the Agora Doc Market.

“Table for Six,” an ensemble comedy directed by and starring Sunny Chan, has joined the Cannes Market and pre-Cannes sales slate of Hong Kong’s Edko Films. The setup is a familiar one: family gatherings gone wrong. In “Table For Six” big brother Dai (Dayo Wong) nothing is more satisfying than dining with his two younger

From “Pokémon Detective Pikachu,” which pulled in $433 million globally in 2019, to “Sonic the Hedgehog,” which grossed $319.7 million worldwide last year before the pandemic shut down theaters, the message is clear: Gamers and nongamers alike are looking to explore their favorite video game characters and narratives in different mediums. Gaming developers are getting

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival got an early 25th birthday present in the form of James Gunn’s “Suicide Squad,” which will receive a special screening on Aug. 4, the day before Fantasia officially kicks off with the world premiere of Julien Knafo’s zombie thriller “Brain Freeze.” Gunn is a long-time friend of the fest, having

What goes great with coffee? Pop Tarts — naturally. After the success of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” Netflix has nabbed Jerry Seinfeld’s latest venture, a new movie about the creation of the Pop Tart. Seinfeld will produce, direct and star in the comedy, co-written with Spike Feresten and Barry Marder. The concept for the

Welcome to the oh-so-awkward grand reentry! A top industry executive privately recounted a recent experience that I believe speaks for many of us who are beginning to make that foreign-feeling transition back to the real world of in-person meetings, screenings and other live events. The insider said he had had an appointment on his calendar

To get revved up for “F9,” Variety asked Jordana Brewster, who stars as Mia in the high-speed franchise, looks back on some of her fondest memories behind the wheel. In addition to Dom’s (Vin Diesel) iconic Dodge Charger and Brian’s (Paul Walker) Nissan Skyline, Brewster names her favorite cars from the “Fast & Furious” movies.

For years, costume designers have been fighting for pay equity — an issue thrown into sharp relief by the difference in remuneration between the largely female Costume Designers Guild and the predominantly male members of the Art Directors Guild. But an equally growing concern bubbling away under the surface has been a lack of costume

International distributors will get a first look at action thriller “Gasoline Alley” at the upcoming Cannes Market. The film, which stars Bruce Willis, Luke Wilson and Devon Sawa, is represented by Highland Film Group. The project was first announced at the European Film Market in Berlin, around the time that it was moving into production.

Most studios have struggled to keep high-level productions free of COVID-19 in the past year: Blockbusters such as “Mission: Impossible 7” and “The Batman” periodically paused as a result of positive cases. But AGC Studios’ sci-fi thriller “Moonfall” — one of the most expensive indie pics in years, with a budget of $140 million (second

“Moneyboys,” the China-set first feature from up-and-coming helmer C.B. Yi, dropped its first trailer Wednesday. It will play at Cannes as an official selection in the Un Certain Regard section. (Watch the exclusive trailer above.) Chinese-Austrian director, screenwriter and producer C.B. Yi immigrated to Austria at age 13 and went on to study at the

Mark Duplass and Natalie Morales are taking their “Language Lessons” around the world. Blue Fox Entertainment has acquired the international rights to the pair’s secret pandemic film. News of the acquisition comes only a few months after “Language Lessons” made an eye-catching debut at the Berlin Festival and won an Audience Award at the SXSW

Quiver Distribution isn’t a major name in the entertainment business, but that is gradually changing as the Canadian entertainment company has managed to snag a series of notable projects and used the pandemic to bolster its library of content. Launched in 2019 by former eOne executive Berry Meyerowitz and former Lionsgate Films president Jeff Sackman,