Movies

Cate Blanchett-produced mini series “Stateless” and Shannon Murphy’s feature film directing debut “Babyteeth” dominated proceedings at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (AACTA Awards). At a ceremony on Monday night at The Star in Sydney, immigration drama “Stateless” grabbed 13 awards including best telefeature or miniseries, best screenplay in television and all

The period action animation “Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train” has passed “Titanic” at the Japanese box office, to become the territory’s number two all-time hit, according to figures announced on Monday by distributor Aniplex. Based on a hit comic by Gotoge Koyoharu that has sold more than 100 million copies in all formats, including

Italian film critic and academic Beatrice Fiorentino has been appointed new general delegate of the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, the Lido’s independently run section dedicated to promising first works from around the world. Fiorentino — who was previously a member of the section’s selection committee — had been widely expected to replace her predecessor

Spearheaded by Cannes Film Market and Argentina’s INCAA agency, Ventana Sur, Latin America’s biggest movie market, will put through an out-of-the-box reset of market dynamics. Running Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, it will also register the energetic and exciting build up of women on the Latin American film scene, as directors, producers and market playmakers.

This week, Variety published a digital Guadalajara Film Festival Spotlight, diving into one of Mexico’s most important market and festival events, rescheduled and reorganized after it was forced to cancel in March. FICG 35.2, as it was playfully dubbed, hosted the first-ever Un Festival Mexicano, offering a platform to other events which were canceled or

Spain’s Luis López Carrasco picked up the Best International Film prize for his documentary “The Year of the Discovery” (“El año del descubrimiento”) on Sunday at Argentina’s Mar del Plata, the only Latin American film fest granted a Category A status by producers assn. FIAPF, placing it in the same league as Cannes, Venice, San

Among Ventana Sur’s most buzzed titles, and a strong indicator of the heft that animation production now carries, “Unicorn Wars” from Alberto Vazquez (“Birdboy: The Forgotten Children,” “Homeless Home”), holds the unique distinction of being the first-ever non Latin American animated film to feature at the Argentine event’s Animation! Sidebar. Having participated at several high-profile

Eric Bana, Isla Fisher, Guy Pearce, Jacki Weaver, Tim Minchin and Keith Urban have joined the voice cast of Netflix’s animated comedy adventure “‘Back to the Outback,” which will make is global debut in the fall of 2021. The voice cast will also include Miranda Tapsell, Angus Imrie, Rachel House, Keith Urban, Celeste Barber, Wayne

In a powerful Spanish talent package, “Patria” director Felix Viscarret is set to direct “House of Flowers” Paco Leon and “Nasdrovia” star Leonor Watling in psychological thriller “From the Shadows” (“Desde la Sombra”), adapting a novel by Spanish writer Juan José Millas, winner of most of Spain’s foremost literary awards, including the Planeta, Nadal and

Two leading lights on the international Spanish film-TV scene, sales agent Geraldine Gonard, director of Spain’s Conecta Fiction co-production forum, and Luis Collar, a partner and CEO of The Circular Group, a diversified film company, have joined forces to create Feel Content, which makes its public market bow at Ventana Sur. A dedicated sales company,

The box office outlook in South Korea, which last year was the world’s fourth largest theatrical market, turned from bad to worse. Gross revenues over the weekend dropped to just $2.24 million, a slump of 40% compared with the already depressed $3.70 million total of the weekend before. In the intervening period cinemas in the

Timothy Leary, the rock-star professor of 1960s acid-head mysticism, had a grin that said a lot about him. He was quite handsome, with that mane of silver-dark hair, the jutting chin and Irish eyes, that gleaming wall-of-teeth smile. He looked like a Kennedy brother who never was — a counterculture guru who could have doubled

Over a decade later, Carey Mulligan may finally be able to return to an Oscars ceremony as a nominee with “Promising Young Woman.” In 2009, the London-born performer delivered her breakout role in Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” and mustered an Oscar nomination for best actress. Since then, she’s been caught in what I call “one-nomination

“Waikiki” and “Hawaiian Soul” won the Made in Hawai’i awards at the the 40th edition of the Hawai’i International Film Festival. The awards were announced at a virtual gala held Sunday. “Waikiki” is described as a dramatic and visceral allegory for the contemporary issues that plague Hawaii’s people, including mental illness, physical abuse and the

After news broke Sunday morning that David Prowse — the actor behind Darth Vader’s armor in the original “Star Wars” trilogy — had died, members of the franchise came together to honor him. Prowse died on Saturday at age 85 after suffering from an illness. Though James Earl Jones voiced the famous villain in “Star

Disney Plus has updated the Marvel logo introduction to “Black Panther” in honor of what would have been Chadwick Boseman’s 44th birthday. Disney Plus redesigned the Marvel logo intro to “Black Panther” to honor Boseman on Nov. 29. Boseman, who played T’Challa/Black Panther, died on Aug. 28 following a four-year battle with colon cancer. Walt

Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the most popular times to go to the movies. Crowd pleasers like “Frozen,” “Coco” and “Knives Out” have propelled attendance and generated many, many millions in ticket sales over the holiday weekend in years past, cementing various box office records to boot. This year, studios and movie theater owners are

Sam Pollard’s “MLK/FBI” follows the dirty war that America’s FBI declared on civil rights figurehead Martin Luther King, a vendetta that began in the 50s and ended with his assassination in 1968, inspired by recent revelations (as well as credible long-held suspicions), and backed up by declassified secret government documents. Documentary festival IDFA, which runs

Russian director Victor Kossakovsky returned to documentary festival IDFA – where he has been a frequent guest, and won awards with “Pavel and Lyalya” and “Belovy” – with “Gunda,” a film that made a statement in more ways than one. Shot entirely in black and white, without voiceover or music, it documents the life and

Gerardo Naranjo’s “Kokoloko” took home the Premio Mezcal for best Mexican film at the hybrid 35th Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG), which wrapped Friday, Nov. 27. The love triangle drama signals a return to the big screen for Naranjo who has spent nearly a decade after his 2011 hit “Miss Bala” directing episodes of such high-profile

In 2015, desperate to get his favorite band, Foo Fighters, to play in Cesena, a small town near Rimini, Italian marine geologist Fabio Zaffagnini came up with a rather unorthodox solution. Reportedly inspired by the prank pulled by the team of “School of Rock,” which saw Jack Black and Richard Linklater asking Led Zeppelin to

David Prowse, the British actor best known for playing Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, has died at the age of 85, his agents have confirmed. Prowse died on Saturday after an illness. “It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our

The Pakistan Academy Selection Committee has selected Sarmad Khoosat’s “Circus of Life” (aka “Zindagi Tamasha”) as the country’s entry in the 2020 Oscars’ international feature category. The film had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in 2019, where it won the prestigious Kim Ji-seok award. Set in Lahore, the film chronicles the

Alex Winter, the “Bill and Ted’s” actor who is himself a noted director and producer, saw in Frank Zappa’s story an icon who embodied everything about music and culture in the 1970s. At the same time, he wanted to capture the man behind the myth. With the blessing of Zappa’s wife, Gail, he and producer

Citing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, trustees of the Directors Guild of America – Producer Pension and Health Plans have created a premium-free limited benefit health plan for members who lost coverage following the production shutdown. The new plan, dubbed the Bronze Plus Plan, will provide coverage for the period of Jan. 1,

When Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalén were at film school together they had no idea how long it took to make a movie. “We didn’t have any idea,” laughs Kalén. “I remember watching a film that took three years to make, and I was thinking, ‘Oh, shit. Three years? That’s a hell of a

For all the piles of research and miles of column inches that have been devoted to it, the controversy over the creative authorship of “Citizen Kane” — a kerfuffle that’s now 50 years old, and one that’s been given new heat by the release of David Fincher’s “Mank” — would seem to revolve around a

Barack Obama has said “yes, you can” to Drake’s ambition of playing the former president in a biopic. In a new interview with Complex’s Speedy Morman, Obama gave the rapper his official “stamp of approval” should the opportunity arise. “I will say this, Drake seems to be able to do anything he wants,” Obama told

The festival calendar has had its casualties in 2020, and after a brief glimmer of hope in the fall, with Venice and San Sebastian going ahead—almost—as normal, IDFA had high hopes of putting on a hybrid event that would balance physical and online events in almost equal measure. Sadly, in the final weeks before curtain-up,

German filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger has been making films for nearly 50 years now, creating experimental and often transgressive work that frequently walks the line between documentary reality and artistic truth. Nothing has fazed her in this time, even working in the bohemian heyday of the late Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Berlin, but her latest film, in