Movies

Gravitas Ventures, an independent film distributor, has acquired worldwide rights to Charlie Minn’s next three documentaries. Those projects — “7 Murders a Day,” “Who Shot Colosio?” and “Miracle on 4th Street” — complement Minn’s background in investigative journalism. Minn directed and produced the non-fiction films, which were shot both prior to and during the coronavirus

The popular social media app TikTok will be the focus of a new feature documentary from “Coded Bias” director Shalini Kantayya. The film is the latest offering from the team behind Hulu’s upcoming “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn,” which is set to premiere at this year’s SXSW. It’s being

Disney is taking fire from conservatives complaining about so-called “cancel culture” for a change the company made to Disney Plus — five months ago. In October 2020, Disney Plus added a new content warning that appears as a slate prior to several older movies on the service that contain racist depictions, including “Dumbo,” “Peter Pan,”

Following the presentation of exclusive footage at the European Film Market last week, highly anticipated title “Official Competition” – reuniting Spanish stars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz – has seized sales to major distributors for sales agency Protagonist Pictures and producer The Mediapro Studio. Banderas, Cannes best actor winner and Academy Award nominee for “Pain

“The Mountain Bride,” a new feature film by Italian director Maura Delpero, whose 2019 drama “Maternal” made a splash on the international arthouse circuit, is among projects selected for the TorinoFilmLab’s ScriptLab development workshop. Delpero, who is the winner of last year’s annual Women in Motion Young Talent Award bestowed by the Kering Group and

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you haven’t seen “The Series Finale,” the ninth and final episode of “WandaVision” on Disney Plus. From their very first meeting about “WandaVision” to shooting the final scene of the game-changing Marvel Studios series for Disney Plus, actor Elizabeth Olsen and head writer and executive producer Jac Schaeffer have

Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan will be the 2021 recipient of the annual award presented by the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). The FIAF Award was introduced in 2001, when it was presented to Martin Scorsese for his film archival efforts. It has since recognized personalities from outside the archival scene who have worked to

The Hong Kong International Film Festival has unveiled a familiar lineup of titles, talks and retrospectives for its 45th edition, which will return to its normal springtime slot (April 1-4, 2021) after disruptions last year caused by the coronavirus. “For the first time in our history, we will be presenting a hybrid festival consisting of

A COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Pasadena, Calif., set to take place on Thursday was cancelled on Tuesday after the majority of its time slots were filled with those who work in Hollywood and the media. As first reported by the Los Angeles Times, 900 of the clinic’s 1,500 vaccination slots were claimed by those ineligible

Elizabeth Banks has set her next directing gig — inspired by an (almost unbelievable) true story involving cocaine smuggling and a 175-pound bear. Banks has signed on to direct “Cocaine Bear,” which is described as a “character-driven thriller inspired by true events that took place in Kentucky in 1985,” produced by “The Lego Movie” filmmakers

Tracey Deer, an indigenous filmmaker who hails from the Mohawk Nation, has signed with CAA. Deer recently made her narrative feature debut co-writing and directing the coming-of-age film “Beans,” which captures a young Mohawk girl’s experiences during the 1990s Oka Crisis. The feature debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and also screened at the

Zhang Yimou has been hard at work alongside his daughter Zhang Mo shooting his upcoming blockbuster “Sniper,” which is now set for an October release, its production firm said. The project was explicitly conceived as a nationalistic commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, known in China as the “War to Resist U.S.

China is belatedly scrambling to fill in its post-Lunar New Year screening calendar, announcing Tuesday that it would round out its March offerings with foreign title “Persian Lessons” and a re-release of “Avatar.” “Avatar” will hit in just three days’ time on March 12. The official screening green light comes so close to the film’s

Florian Munteanu, the Romanian boxer turned actor, is in final talks to join Eli Roth’s adaptation of “Borderlands.” He will play Krieg, the hulking protector of Tiny Tina, the teenage explosives expert in the video game series that is inspiring the upcoming movie. It’s a natural fit for Munteanu, who clocks in at 6’4”, 235

Elle Fanning has been cast in “Francis and the Godfather,” a movie about the making of the classic mobster film. Fanning will portray actor Ali MacGraw, who was married to Robert Evans, Paramount’s head of production. Shortly after winning a Golden Globe for promising newcomer, MacGraw starred in Paramount’s blockbuster “Love Story,” a role that

Last February, just before the pandemic upended virtually everything about how the film industry operates, “Parasite” made history at the Academy Awards. The ingenious South Korean thriller became the first international film to “overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” and win best picture, as director Bong Joon Ho phrased it at the podium. But that

On the same day that the BAFTA Awards weighed in with their choices on the best film and directing achievements of the year, the prestigious (and typically more telling of Oscar nominations) DGA Awards dropped their nominees, with some historic nods. Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) became the eighth and ninth

In today’s Global Bulletin, Steven Knight’s “SAS: Rogue Heroes” starts shooting, Agnieszka Holland’s “Charlatan” cleans up at Czech Lion Awards, BBC Comedy hires “I May Destroy You” producer Tanya Qureshi, Content Catalyst Fund adds executives and reveals slate and George Takei’s “Allegiance” streams on BroadwayHD. Filming is underway on BBC One drama series “SAS: Rogue

Amid controversy over the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s diversity and inclusion practices, Time’s Up has released a set of recommendations the organization “believes are necessary in order for Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Dick Clark Productions, NBCUniversal, and Comcast to radically transform the Golden Globes.” In the notice, Time’s Up urges that action be taken quickly

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Cathy Yan’s feature debut “Dead Pigs” which won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance in 2018. Film Movement will release the film in North America in theaters, virtual cinema, home entertainment and digital platforms in June. “Dead Pigs” is social satire about the trials and tribulations connecting

In the history of the Academy Awards, there have been 52 acting nominations for non-English-language roles. That pool is further reduced to under three dozen, when we exclude nods — like Robert De Niro in “Godfather Part II,” Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and all nine nominated sign-language performances — where the films were

Following a hit flagship voyage with “WandaVision,” Marvel Studios will let fans take a weeklong breather before releasing its next Disney Plus original series “The Falcon and the Winter Solider” on March 18. Ahead of the debut, Marvel’s chief creative officer Kevin Feige connected with Variety to discuss our reigning cover star Anthony Mackie, who

“Judas and the Black Messiah” has been named best film by the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA), leading the list of winners at the 12th AAFCA awards with four awards, including accolades for stars Daniel Kaluuya and Dominique Fishback. Director Shaka King will also be honored with the breakout director prize. “Serving alongside an

U.S indie distributor Film Movement has acquired North American rights from Italian sales company True Colours to Palestinian director Ameen Nayfeh’s drama “200 Meters,” about a Palestinian construction worker who takes huge risks to cross the West Bank wall to reach his hospitalized son. In September, “200 Meters,” which marks Nayfeh’s debut, launched from the

The Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market had a successful 2021 online edition with the participation of 12,000 attendees from 131 countries. The industry event, which took place March 1-5, gathered 504 exhibitors — 215 of which were newcomers at EFM — from 60 countries. The majority of participants was from Europe, followed by the

REinvent International Sales has closed a raft of deals across its slate of family movies, including “A Christmas Tale,” “Twigson and the Sea Monster” and “Nelly Rapp – Monster Agent.” “Nelly Rapp – Monster Agent,” directed by Amanda Adolfsson, has been sold to the U.S. and Canada (Janson Media), Russia and CIS (Volga Films), Poland

Fascinating backroom politics circa WWII are undermined by banal marital melodrama in Danish director Christina Rosendahl’s “The Good Traitor,” resulting in a so-so period drama that raises more questions than it answers. The film centers on the life of diplomat-gone-rogue Henrik Kauffmann (Ulrich Thomsen, stoic), who was posted to Washington, D.C., as Danish Ambassador in

“The Little Things” star Jared Leto enjoyed the physical transformation required by his character Albert Sparma, an unsettling man that may or may not be the serial killer responsible for the havoc unleashed in the film. “It’s a transformation from head to toe,” Leto said. “I had different color eyes, a different nose, different cheeks.

“Rain Song” bookends Lee Issac Chung’s “Minari,” first played as an instrumental in the film’s opening scenes, and closes out with lyrics over the film’s end credits. Composer and songwriter Emile Mosseri intended the song to be a lullaby for Yeri Han, who plays Monica in the film. She sings it to her son, David,

Leon Gast, the Academy Award-winning director behind sport documentary “When We Were Kings,” died on Monday, according to Meira Blaustein, his close friend and the co-founder of Woodstock Film Festival. He was 85. Blaustein shared the news of Gast’s death in a Facebook post. “He was a giant of a filmmaker, an absolute joy of