Movies

The Rotterdam Film Festival’s IFFR Pro Days and CineMart came to a close on Friday with awards for projects from Greece, China and Afghanistan, including the latest work from Kabul-based filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat. Juries handed out a total of five IFFR Pro awards to promising film projects participating in this year’s co-production market. Evi Kalogiropoulou’s

The beleaguered U.K. exhibition sector, reeling from a COVID-afflicted, calamitous 2020 that has continued into 2021, is finally seeing some green shoots. Though the country began 2021 under lockdown with cinemas closed — a situation that’s unlikely to ease in the near future — a combination of decreasing case loads and a robust vaccination rollout

The U.K.’s National Film & Television School (NFTS) and the British Film Institute (BFI) have partnered on an education initiative designed to increase diverse access to quality industry education. The Early Stage Access and Diversity Accelerator Program aims to address the skills gap by widening access to learning opportunities and embedding diversity and inclusion within

Due to COVID-19 cinema lockdowns or restrictions, box office in the Nordic region plummeted in 2020 year-on-year by 64% in Sweden, 57.6% in Iceland, 57% in Norway, 54% in Finland, and 47% in Denmark. The dearth of new U.S .tentpoles, combined with strong domestic titles such as “Another Round,” allowed homegrown movies to punch all-time

Ruben Östlund, the Palme d’Or-winning director of “The Square,” did not binge-watch series on a couch during the pandemic. Instead, Östlund, who received the 2021 Nordic Honorary Dragon Award on Thursday, told Variety that he had the time of his life shooting “Triangle of Sadness,” his most ambitious film to date, in exotic locations with

Next month’s Osaka Asian Film Festival will open with a screening of documentary feature “Keep Rolling.” The festival, which runs in front of live audiences March 5-14, 2021, will close with the world premiere of Ishii Yuya’s “The Asian Angel.” “Keep Rolling” is a touching portrait of the long, up and down career of Ann

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s directorial debut “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” has been acquired by Searchlight Pictures and Hulu after its Sundance premiere, where it won both the Grand Jury prize and Audience award. “I’m so honored to be allowed to manifest my dreams after all this time,” Thompson said

With COVID-19 still raging around the world, a melancholy love story about a 2021 viral pandemic that ravages people’s relationships, romances and sense of self is perhaps not the easiest sell at the moment. Such timeliness proves both a blessing and a curse for “Little Fish,” writer-director Chad Hartigan’s heartfelt tale about a couple struggling

Although he occasionally uses a broad brush dipped in primary colors while fashioning his admiring portrait of Bob Zellner, the grandson of a Ku Klux Klansman who improbably evolved into a civil rights activist during the early 1960s, filmmaker Barry Alexander Brown shrewdly and intelligently avoids most of the “white savior” clichés common to such

Non-fiction film and television studio XTR and documentary production company Optimist are partnering up for a feature documentary about the GameStop, WallStreetBets and short squeeze movement. “This story is still evolving daily,” director Chris Temple said. “It’s so important to have a strong, nuanced documentary that can capture this landmark moment as it unfolds, through

Nearly six years ago, “Rams,” a touching humanist drama from Iceland directed and written by Grímur Hákonarson, won hearts — and prizes — at the Cannes Film Festival. Now, in trots “Rams,” an Australian remake, directed by Jeremy Sims (“Last Cab to Darwin”). Adapted with winning cultural specificity by former newsman Jules Duncan, it’s longer

Authorities on Thursday ordered Beijing cinemas to cut their max capacity to just 50% over the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday to combat the spread of COVID-19, Chinese reports said, slashing prospective returns in what is typically, far and away, their most profitable week of the year. Cinemas in China’s capital received urgent word from

A film driven by themes of addiction and grief, “Eight for Silver” features a French village in the 19th century under threat by a wild, possibly supernatural animal. Still, the cast assured they had a good time on set. “We actually had a lot of fun making it,” Kelly Reilly explained at Variety’s Studio presented by

Focus Features has elevated Kiska Higgs to president of production and acquisitions. In her new role, she will oversee the studio’s films and team across development, production and acquisition for domestic and international titles. Higgs will continue to work from the Focus Features headquarters in Los Angeles. Higgs, who previously served as executive VP of

Michelle Williams is on board to portray another classic Hollywood icon, in the Peggy Lee biopic “Fever” for director Todd Haynes, Variety has confirmed. MGM is in talks to back the film. Marc Platt, Reese Witherspoon, and Killer Films’ Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon are producing. Doug Wright (“Quills”) is writing the screenplay. Billie Eilish, her

Writer-director Deon Taylor will direct the upcoming film “Freedom Ride,” based on first-person accounts of the original freedom riders, including the late Congressman John Lewis. Taylor and his Hidden Empire Film Group partner Robert F. Smith will executive produce the project, joining a producing team that includes civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and his company,

In a movie where the female protagonist finds her inner strength after joining an army of girls, it was only right the cast and crew reflected its story. “The idea of working with all women, I’ve never done that before and I hope to do that forever and way more because it was the best

Lionsgate’s revenues fell during the most recent fiscal quarter, as the media company behind the “Hunger Games” and “John Wick” franchises recorded a loss of $13.9 million. The company did manage to beat Wall Street’s expectations, however, with its earnings bolstered by the growing popularity of its Starz service and through lucrative licensing deals for

Over the course of her three features, Paz Fábrega has gradually stripped her films down in search of an essence. In her debut “Cold Water of the Sea,” she played with ambiguity and inscrutability while foregrounding a casual naturalism. In her followup “Viaje,” she reduced her scope with a playful, intimate story of a couple’s

Emerald Fennell’s pitch meetings for “Promising Young Woman” were telling, to say the least. Explaining her 2017 process to fellow director Olivia Wilde (of “Booksmart” fame), Fennell recalled the stunned faces of male studio executives after she detailed the brutal, pre-title sequence of her film. “One guy said, ‘Oh, I got it. So she’s a

Rapper Lil Yachty is developing an action heist comedy based on Uno — yes, the card game — with Mattel Films. Marcy Kelly wrote the screenplay for the movie, set in the underground hip hop world of Atlanta. Though the cast has not been announced, Lil Yachty is being eyed for the lead role. “I’m

It’s been worth the wait. Mexican indigenous filmmaker Angeles Cruz and her producing team could have bowed her feature debut “Nudo Mixteco” at one of the many virtual film festivals last year, but they decided to wait for an in-person film festival to launch it to the world. “Premiering ‘Nudo Mixteco’ during the maelstrom of

“Nomadland” director Chloé Zhao is tackling the classic Universal monster Dracula, as the writer, producer and director of a new take on the character in the vein of a futuristic sci-fi western. “I’ve always been fascinated by vampires and the concept of the Other they embody,” Zhao said in a release. “I’m very excited to

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety“… Rupert Grint may have co-starred as Ron Weasley in all eight “Harry Potter” movies, but he hasn’t actually watched most of them. “I’ve probably seen the first three at the premieres, but after that I stopped watching them,” Grint, 32, tells me from his home in the U.K.

Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar will team once again on the Oscar-winning director’s upcoming feature “Madres paralelas,” (Parallel Mothers), as teased when the project was announced in June. Cruz will be joined on screen by former San Sebastián best actress winner Aitana Sánchez Gijón and newcomer Milena Smit (“No matarás”). Additional casting announced includes Israel

“Saint Maud,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Nomadland,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Ammonite” are among the leading films on the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ (BAFTA) longlist for annual British Film Awards that were announced Thursday. The publication of the longlists follows the BAFTA 2020 Review, where over 120 wide-ranging changes

The Golden Globes were announced on Feb. 3 where Netflix’s “Mank’ from David Fincher led the nominations with six. The categories have been analyzed and what they mean for the awards season. Down below are the five big takeaways to the overall narrative and how it relates to the Oscars. “Nomadland” is the one to

“Mank” and “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins and “Snowpiercer” and “Hamilton’s” Daveed Diggs will announce this year’s nominees for the 27th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Thursday beginning at 8 a.m. PT. The announcement will be made available on the SAG Awards’ Instagram page, marking the ceremony’s first time announcing nominees through a

IFC Films has acquired “Holler,” a drama about a woman who joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay for her college education. The deal is for North American right. IFC will release the film in June 2021. “Holler” received critical claim both for Nicole Riegel’s work behind the camera and for the

In what is the first official glimpse of the pandemic’s impact on U.K. film and television production, British Film Institute (BFI) data reveals that film and high-end television production spend exceeded £2.84 billion ($3.9 billion) in 2020, only 21% down on 2019 levels. BFI boss Ben Roberts tells Variety that the speed with which the industry