Movies

Revelations that Canadian director Michelle Latimer’s self-proclaimed Indigenous roots may be nonexistent — an inconvenient truth that led to her film “Inconvenient Indian” being pulled from Sundance — have become a rallying cry for the global Indigenous film collective that the festival and its institute have been fostering for years. Throughout this community, which spans

It takes two (or more) to create a performance in an animated film. The actor who records the dialogue and the artists who put together the character’s physical performance. And because the dialogue is recorded first, it can not only influence the script, but also the way a character looks or moves. In fact, during

The 2021 edition of the Sundance Film Festival will look very different. With the coronavirus pandemic raging, Sundance has opted for a virtual gathering, following in the footsteps of the Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. But Sundance has made important technical innovations that its leaders claim will re-create the communal atmosphere

Lily Collins and Daveed Diggs will serve as the announcers for the 27th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations on Thursday, Feb. 4. The nominations will be made at 8 a.m. PT live on the SAG Awards’ Instagram account — a first for the awards show — producers revealed on Thursday. SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris

Stanley Tucci has been a professional actor for nearly 40 years. He’s earned three Emmy Awards, been nominated for an Oscar and a Tony, held his own with Meryl Streep twice and stolen scenes in everything from tiny indies to giant blockbusters. And then, in his words, “I made a cocktail on the internet.” It

The looks in animated films combine lots of research, wild imagination and thought. For Pixar’s “Soul,” the artists had to construct the real world of New York City as well as the abstract world Great Before, where protagonist Joe ends up after he plunges down a manhole and hovers between life and death — that

Shout! Studios has taken North American rights to the action thriller “Fire,” and Russian production and distribution powerhouse Central Partnership has closed a host of other territories, the company announced during the Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Alexey Nuzhniy, “Fire” is a splashy, big-budget actioner about heroic smokejumpers racing against disaster. Since its Christmas Eve

The craft of acting is the crux to any cinematic experience — and this year, there seems to be no shortage of talents that have the promise of executing some amazing performances. As we look ahead to a year of movies that seems like anything but assured, we can examine some of these actors and

Academy Award and Emmy-winner Nicole Kidman will executive produce a television series based on Maria Sødahl’s European Cinemas Label-winning “Hope” under her Blossom Films banner. “Hope” is currently in the running as the Norweigan entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards. The rights to the film’s adaptation were acquired

During their conversation for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, presented by Amazon Studios, Steven Yeun and Riz Ahmed talked intensely about such topics as the immigrant experience as reflected in “Minari,” how Ahmed learned sign language for “Sound of Metal” and the idea of “code switching” — how, as actors of Asian descent, they’ve been

The Brussels-based International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), which represents European cinema’s main trade associations, is launching an appeal for more government support to face an estimated 70.6% drop in total 2020 box office grosses across Europe, which it says accounts for a loss of €6.2 billion ($7.5 billion) in theatrical revenues compared to 2019. “National

Box office in Australia fell by 69% in 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak forced cinema closures, capacity restrictions, the postponement of film releases and public health concerns about attending theatres. Data published on Thursday by the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia showed nationwide annual revenues slumped from A$1.23 billion($937 million) in 2019 to just

Songs or scores from “Soul,” “Minari,” “Tenet,” “News of the World,” “”Euphoria” and “The Queen’s Gambit” were among the winners Wednesday night at the 11th annual (and first virtual) Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Breaking down categories by genre affords the HMMAs the opportunity to cast a wide net in its awards. Film-related trophies went

Paramount’s animated feature “Rumble” has been moved to Feb. 18, 2022, Variety has confirmed. “Rumble” had most recently been delayed to May 14 from Jan. 29, 2021. It was originally scheduled for release on July 31, 2020, and was first delayed in November 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Produced by Paramount Animation in partnership with Reel

Hong Kong auteur Stanley Kwan will be featured as the filmmaker-in-focus at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. It will run a retrospective screening of 13 Kwan-directed films, including the director’s cut of “Center Stage.” “[Kwan] has developed a highly personal aesthetic style in his [portrayal] of the female psyche while capturing the nuanced transformation

To work with Cloris Leachman was nothing less than liberating. That’s how writer-director James L. Brooks remembered his collaborations with the beloved actor who died Jan. 26 at the age of 94. “Life was not as confining when she was around,” Brooks told Variety of his experiences working with Leachman in the 1970s on “The

Director Fernando Frias new film, Mexican Oscar hopeful “I’m No Longer Here,” gives audiences a look into the American dream, and his deconstruction of it. Rather than cast well-known actors, Frias relied on his casting director to find non-actors to help tell the story of Ulises, played by Juan Daniel Garcia Treviño who goes on

As Twitter tributes rolled in after Cloris Leachman’s death today, she was most remembered for a comedy career which lasted decades, cemented by iconic roles in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Phyllis” in the 1970s all the way up to last year’s “The Croods: A New Age.” But Leachman’s dramatic performance in Peter Bogdanovich’s

Elyse Bridges lives in a glamorous house in Los Angeles, with her husband and son, where she spends most of her days lost in thought. But despite an idyllic opening shot set in a postcard suburban setting, something isn’t right in Stella Hopkins’ directorial debut, “Elyse.” The black-and-white independent movie stars Lisa Pepper in the

Trevor Noah is staying in the Viacom family for his next creative endeavor, an untitled feature film with Paramount Animation, Variety has learned exclusively. The untitled project is based on an original idea from Noah. The plot is under wraps but is said to be timely, poignant and comedic. Jonathan Groff (“Black-ish”) and Jon Pollack

When Bryan Fogel set out to make “The Dissident,” his intrepid and arresting exposé on the assassination of Saudi Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, he knew there were myriad security risks involved. There was the matter of Khashoggi’s killing—a brutal one, his body sawed into parts—at the hands of a Saudi murder squad, a

When Ryder Allen learned he would be auditioning for a starring role in “Palmer” opposite Justin Timberlake, the then 7-year-old actor had one question. “I was like, ‘Who’s Justin Timberlake?’’ Allen recalls with a laugh. “Now he’s like my best friend. So look at me now.” It’s become commonplace to talk about child actors as

Focus Features has nabbed worldwide rights to Luke Holland’s “Final Account,” a documentary about the last living generation from Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. The announcement was tied to International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Focus plans to release the film — in collaboration with Participant Media — in the U.S. on May 21, 2021. Universal Pictures International

Universal Pictures announced a first-look production agreement with producer Dan Lin and his Rideback production banner. In a statement announcing the partnership, Universal Pictures President Peter Cramer said, “Dan and his team at Rideback have an exceptional track record producing major franchises, animation and prestige films.” “Additionally, with Rideback Ranch, he has created a groundbreaking

Songwriter Diane Warren said she named the original song contender “lo Si (Seen)” after reading the script for “The Life Ahead,” where she noticed many of the characters were not seen. In the Variety Streaming Room moderated by Artisans editor Jazz Tangcay, the filmmakers behind “The Life Ahead”(now streaming on Netflix) revealed how they teamed

Of course, 2020 was a year like no other when it came to screen entertainment. As the coronavirus pandemic shut down productions across the U.S., it allowed Netflix to continue churning out content from its deep arsenal of movies and series. Last year, Netflix put forth no fewer than eight original song contenders, including contributions

When the American Film Institute announced that it was giving its 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award to Mike Nichols, the event instantly became the hottest ticket in town. As recounted in Mark Harris’ upcoming biography “Mike Nichols: A Life,” not only did just about all of Nichols’ most celebrated collaborators — Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Tom

Oscar winner and multiple Emmy winner Cloris Leachman, best remembered as the delightfully neurotic Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and her own subsequent sitcom, died of natural causes on Tuesday in Encinitas, Calif. She was 94. “It’s been my privilege to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of

Nicole Kidman and Donald Sutherland make a good team. In “The Undoing,” Kidman stars as Grace, an Upper East Side therapist whose life unravels when her husband (Hugh Grant) is accused of a grisly murder. Sutherland plays Kidman’s wealthy, stoic father. In one of the hit HBO series’ most powerful scenes, Kidman and Sutherland discuss

George Clooney will receive this year’s career achievement honor at AARP The Magazine’s Movies For Grownup Awards in March. “We are delighted to honor George Clooney, whose mastery and — wit — make him one of the most talented and beloved actors of our day, and a director who’d be famous even if we’d never