Movies

When Jeff Lima, an actor of Puerto Rican descent (“Chicago Fire”), began auditioning for television and film work, he noticed something dejecting. “Early on, I can’t tell you how many of the same characters I was going out for,” says Lima, 30, of the stereotypical hardened-Latino roles he was presented with. “Back then I tried

Hong Kong’s FilMart wrapped up its 2021 edition – and second successive wholly online edition on Thursday. Organizers reported that the four day event (March 15-18) had welcomed “nearly 7,000 industry participants from 81 countries and regions over four days, with the release and promotion of some 2,200 film and television productions.” That total was

Altered Innocence has picked up U.S. rights to Kateryna Gornostai’s debut feature film “Stop-Zemlia,” which just had its world premiere in the Generation 14plus section of the Berlin Film Festival. The film follows Masha, her two best friends, and the rest of their class through parties, field trips and romance in their last year of

After years of pining for Hollywood accolades, China has more to celebrate about the Academy’s nominations this year than it has in nearly a decade. But its own politics have prevented its media and many of its citizens from rejoicing. While Beijing’s submission, the propagandistic volleyball drama “Leap,” fell flat, Taiwan’s “A Sun” was shortlisted

Oliver Twist meets “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” in Ferit Karahan’s sophomore feature, “Brother’s Keeper.” Set in a snowbound boarding school on the eastern edges of Turkey, the film tells the story of a boy desperate to get help for his sick friend yet stymied at every turn by bullying teachers and corrupt administrators. While

“Did you think you were making a French independent film?” rails literary agent Vincent (Mikaël Chirinian) in French independent film “The World After Us.” He’s angry with his callow young client, Labidi (Aurélien Gabrielli), because Labidi has abruptly changed tack on a novel that’s already been optioned, and has also changed its title to, inevitably,

“The things of my mother’s that I kept don’t suit the place now,” says Glenda (Nia Roberts) absently as she preps dinner in her modernist sculpture of a house, set on a remote hillock. “They feel … primitive.” Lee Haven Jones’ sharp, striking Welsh-language SXSW midnight movie “The Feast” is designed as a critique of

Around the same time that Emmy-nominated writer-director Sally Aitken’s latest film was debuting in the World Documentary section at Sundance, the New York Times ran a piece on the alarming decline in the worldwide shark population, citing a 70% reduction since the 1970s. It’s a statistic — possibly conservative given the underreporting from some parts

Seasonal beach towns feel haunted once balmy temperatures start to tumble. Remove the cheery masses, ice cream vendors and sizzling sands overtaken by crowds, and you’ll be left with eerily quiet streets, alongside waves echoing with distant memories of summer days. Set on one such mostly vacant (and likely fictional) island getting ready to shutter

A North American rights deal for mainland Chinese fantasy action film ‘God of War II, was one of several film sales deals struck by Hong Kong’s Media Asia at the recent European Film Market and the ongoing FilMart. Directed by Cai Cong, and starring Charles Lin, Liu Yuxi and David Wu, the film was completed

U.S. entertainment financier Library Pictures International has struck a three-year deal to co-finance a slate of Korean-language movies from Next Entertainment World (N.E.W.). Library’s investment will include finished films, films currently in pre-production, as well as projects developed over the course of the next three years. The company was started in 2008 as a local distributor

Striking a middle ground between teen fantasy “The Craft” and deadly serious political allegory “The Handmaid’s Tale” is “Witch Hunt,” writer-director Elle Callahan’s second feature. Her first, the 2019 “Head Count,” was a strikingly assured supernatural mind-bender, albeit one a little too understated for some genre fans. By contrast, this sophomore effort is comparatively conventional

Zamunda might be King Akeem’s kingdom, but the “Coming to America” wouldn’t be complete without its Queens. While Shari Headley’s Lisa McDowell captured fans’ attention and Akeem’s (Eddie Murphy) heart with her confidence and headstrong attitude in the 1988 original, “Coming 2 America” boasts a new crop of ladies who are ready to speak their

Low-budget necessity is often the mother of low-budget invention, but sadly not so much in Travis Stevens’ “Jakob’s Wife,” a thin, half-hearted reworking of the vampire mythos that can’t quite decide if it’s spoofy or serious, and doesn’t have the smarts to be both. While it’s theoretically promising to attempt a hybrid tone in which

Netflix is to lease two sound stages at Toho Studios in order to help the streaming platform expand its production of original Japanese content. The move was announced Thursday (local time) in a blog post by Ozawa Teiji, Netflix’s manager for production management and live action in Japan. The streamer will have access to both

Where previous generations preferred neatly resolved stories, embracing films that reassured them that everything was under control, Gen Z movies aren’t afraid to leave things messy, as if to say it’s OK to feel overwhelmed. The same goes for television offerings such as “Euphoria” and “I May Destroy You,” which recognize that the world is

When “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” premieres on HBO Max this Thursday, it will mark the culmination of years’ worth of grassroots campaigning by Snyder’s fans, typified by the ubiquitous hashtag #ReleasetheSnyderCut. In November 2019, several “Justice League” stars — including Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot — joined Snyder to tweet out the hashtag, a critical

A sense of rising U.S. governmental secrecy and punishment of whistleblowers is the primary political takeaway from “United States vs. Reality Winner.” Sonia Kennebeck’s documentary chronicles the incarceration and trial of the titular young intelligence specialist who leaked an NSA document revealing Russian attempts at interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections — intel the Trump

Sony Pictures has again delayed the theatrical release of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” The superhero sequel — starring Tom Hardy — will now debut on the big screen on Sept. 17. The “Venom” sequel has been postponed several times during the pandemic and was most recently set for June 25. Despite the reopening of

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has begun inviting talent to present at the upcoming 93rd Oscars. With those invitations, more details have emerged about how producers intend to keep the ceremony COVID-safe. The ceremony will likely be an open-air production at Los Angeles’ historic Union Station. The Academy had previously announced that

“Nahuel and the Magic Book” and “A Costume for Nicholas” and TV shows “Petit Season 2” and “I, Elvis Riboldi,” are nominated for the 4th Quirino Ibero-American Animation Awards. The Awards will be held in the Spanish Canary Island city of La Laguna, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife over May 27-29. Targeting family audiences, German

Egypt has had a serious problem with sexual harassment for a long time: Speak to nearly any woman in the capital and you’ll hear horror stories of verbal and physical abuse. Just last year, Cairo topped a survey of the world’s most dangerous cities for women, and the third most dangerous for sexual violence. Public

It’s easy — and understandable — for a movie about parents coping with the death of a child to slide into a glum depressive haze. Yet one granddaddy of the genre is neither glum nor depressing; it turns parental despair into something spine-tingling. “Don’t Look Now,” Nicolas Roeg’s 1973 classic of fractured anxiety, may or

Francois Ozon, one of France’s most prestigious and prolific filmmakers, will next direct Isabelle Adjani and Denis Menochet (“Custody”) in “Petra Von Kant,” a film adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s cult play “The Bitter Tears.” “Petra Von Kant” will star Menochet as Fassbinder, while Adjani will play the German director’s muse, according to Satellifax, which

After a story in Variety in November exposed the fact that registered sex offender — and noted cinematographer — Adam Kimmel has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2007, the organization has taken action and removed him. An Academy source confirmed to Variety that Kimmel is no longer a

Kenneth Brangh’s upcoming drama “Belfast” will be released theatrically on Nov. 12. Written and directed by Branagh, the film stars Caitriona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciaran Hinds and newcomer Jude Hill. “Belfast” tells the story of one boy’s childhood amid the music and social tumult of the late 1960s. Dornan and Balfe play a

The toughest of the five senses to transmit through the screen, smell compels writer-director Grégory Magne’s “Perfumes,” an enchanting journey into life’s assorted aromas. Smell is also at the center of Anne Walberg’s existence and profession as “a nose” — meaning, someone blessed with highly advanced olfactory receptors, like a sommelier, but for fragrance. A

When someone insists they’re “fine,” it’s seldom the case. Take Danny, the recently widowed mom in the low-budget charmer “I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking),” which directors Kelley Kali and Angelique Molina’s made on coronavirus stimulus check funds. Having lost her apartment during the COVID-19 crunch, Danny roller skates around a neighborhood of housing projects, fast-food

Utopia Media, the fledgling sales and distribution company co-founded by filmmaker Robert Schwartzman, has picked up North American rights to artist Amalia Ulman’s debut feature ‘El Planeta.’ The dark comedy was one of the buzz titles at Sundance’s World Dramatic competition. Danielle DiGiacomo, Utopia’s Head of Content commented: “Amalia Ulman’s “El Planeta” is a pure, transportive

Leading documentary festival Hot Docs has selected the 20 projects that will be presented during the online edition of its project market, Hot Docs Forum, which runs May 4-5. Among the projects’ 25 filmmakers, 10 helmers are Black, Indigenous or People of Color, and 20 directors are women. The projects represent 16 countries. Lisa Valencia-Svensson,