Movies

The Irish Film and Television Academy has selected Tom Sullivan’s Irish-language feature “Arracht” as Ireland’s entry for the 2021 Oscars’ best international feature film category. The film is set in 1845 on the eve of the Irish famine. Fisherman Colmán Sharkey takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. Patsy, a former

A new Netflix movie has been announced based on the early career of comedian and film director Kitano Takeshi. Titled “Asakusa Kid,” the film is based on a memoir of the same title written by Kitano. The director and scriptwriter is comic Gekidan Hitori, who also directed the 2014 drama “Bolt from the Blue.” Yagira Yuya

South Korea, a hotbed of contemporary cultural fervor, is to get a significant new development and production company headed by veteran studio executives. The new venture, Covenant Pictures starts operations with solid financial backing, a diverse slate, and a first-look deal with the producers of the hit “Along With The Gods” movie franchise. Covenant sees

MONDAY, Nov. 23 HanWay Films Closes Sales on ‘Peggy Jo’ HanWay Films has closed multiple international sales for Phillip Noyce’s “Peggy Jo,” with Lily James attached to star as Peggy Jo Tallas, who robbed Texas banks in the early 1990s while posing as a man. A deal with Universal Pictures Content Group includes Benelux, German

Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” won the top prize at Mexico’s Los Cabos Film Festival, adding the award to a brace of trophies dating back this year to a Silver Bear at Berlin and the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award in Sundance. Tipped as a contender in 2021’s Oscar race, teen drama “Never Rarely

Anthony Mackie will produce and star in Netflix’s upcoming action-adventure “The Ogun” from producer Jason Michael Berman. “The Ogun” centers on Mackie’s character Xavier Rhodes, who takes his teenage daughter to Nigeria to find a cure for the rare genetic condition that he passed on to her. When his daughter is kidnapped, Rhodes goes on

Netflix could make Oscars history. Netflix’s arsenal of content this year could give the streamer the most best picture nominations from any studio in history, a record held by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which scored five nods at the ninth Academy Awards in 1937. It may even net the streaming giant its first best picture win after falling

Creators and screenwriters from Europe discussed the importance of collaboration in filmmaking during a panel in the Variety Streaming Room. Hosted by international features editor Leo Barraclough, the conversation, titled “Lost in Translation? Visual Story Development from Script to Screen,” included creators from the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival’s Black Room and writers from the Face

In Clea DuVall’s “Happiest Season,” Kristen Stewart plays Abby, an art history Ph.D. student whose girlfriend, Harper (Mackenzie Davis), has invited her home for Christmas. Though she’s at first reluctant to go, Abby then decides she’ll actually propose to Harper, assuming that meeting the family goes well — but Harper tells Abby she hasn’t yet come out to her parents, and they both have to pretend to be straight. It’s a romcom with

If you grew up with Frank Zappa, and he loomed large in your youth-cultural pop rebel sandbox (as he did in mine), he seemed to be many things at once. The outrageous hippie with the thick black T-shaped goatee who looked weird and threatening enough to represent something very far removed from peace and love.

STXfilms has decided to enter this unconventional awards season with a mighty and timely drama, “The Mauritanian,” formerly called “Prisoner 760,” from Scottish director Kevin Macdonald. The film will be released on Feb. 19, 2021, and could echo the same late-breaking awards success that past movies like “Million Dollar Baby” were able to execute. With

“Cops and Robbers,” the animated short directed by Arnon Manor and Timothy Ware-Hill, is written and performed by Ware-Hill in response to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. After the Arbery video surfaced on May 5, Manor was inspired to create an animated version of Ware-Hill’s poem, which resulted in their collaboration. Timothy Ware-Hill and Arnon

Neil Patrick Harris has joined Nicolas Cage’s action comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” along with Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish and Sharon Horgan. Harris will play Cage’s talent agent in the movie. Cage is portraying a fictionalized version of himself who’s creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, leading to accepting a $1 million offer

British actor John Boyega has said he’s had an honest conversation with “Star Wars” producer Kathleen Kennedy after his explosive revelations about working on the franchise. Speaking to GQ magazine in September, Boyega spoke out about the lack of nuance afforded to his character Finn, who was a central character in “Star Wars: Episode VII

This awards season could showcase possibly one of the most diverse group of contenders ever. A record-breaking number of women are directing and writing films; Tara Miele among them with her cerebral drama “Wander Darkly,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Lionsgate is giving the film a strong awards push and will submit Diego

Lili Horvát’s “Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time” has been selected as the official Hungarian entry for the international feature film category at the Academy Awards. The film had its world premiere as part of the Venice Days lineup, and premiered in North America at the Toronto Film Festival. It was

Topic Studios and “The Climb” filmmakers Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin have wrapped production on their second collaboration, a pandemic-set comedy from filmmaker Daniel Antebi titled “God’s Time.” The new project comes as part of Covino and Marvin’s first-look deal with Topic Studios after working together on the Cannes-winning hit “The Climb,” which is

On the heels of two momentous performances on Sunday’s American Music Awards and ahead of the arrival of a new Netflix documentary, singer/songwriter Shawn Mendes, along with his longtime manager Andrew Gertler, have announced their entry into original content with Permanent Content, a new film and television production company that will develop scripted and documentary

In a year when so many international film festivals have gone dark, it comes as no surprise that, as soon as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, IDFA’s annual public performance strand—IDFA on Stage—came very close to being canceled. Ironically, however, not only did it survive to see another day, this year’s selection is bigger and

Taking to the stage of the eerily quiet Tuschinski cinema in Amsterdam—just after the sad news of the death of Italian documentary filmmaker Valentina Pedicini, at the age of 42, had been made public—Gianfranco Rosi, Guest of Honor at documentary festival IDFA, put on a brave face as he settled down for his masterclass with

The Chilean director-producer team of Juan Cáceres, Alejandro Ugarte and Esteban Sandoval are back in Guadalajara, where their first feature “Perro Bomba” dominated the 2018 Guadalajara Construye works in progress section, scooping the Chemistry, Yagán, Mondragon-Disruptiva and Habanero awards, ensuring a strong post-production and aiding in the film’s highly successful international festival run. Variety can

Heading into this year’s Guadalajara’s Co-Production Meetings, the team behind Michelle Garza’s maternal horror flick “Huesera” has shared with Variety news of a new minority co-producer, choreographer and key casting details. “Huesera” is produced by Paulina Villaviencio from Mexico’s Disruptiva Films and Edher Campos of Machete Producciones. Villaviencio’s recently produced Simon Hernández‘s 2019 Sitges Documenta

Chile’s Storyboard Media and Cine Matriz are teaming with Colombia’s Romeo on documentary feature “Still Stares,” the debut feature of director Patricia Correa. Gabriela Sandoval and Carlos Núñez will executive produce for Storyboard Media, with Consuelo Castillo filling the role on behalf of her company Romeo. Storyboard’s latest doc “The Sky Is Red” is playing

Treasure hunt film, “Collectors” held on to top spot at another depressed Korean box office. The film earned $1.32 million with a 36% market share, ahead of U.S. film “Run,” which debuted in second place with $964,000. After nearly three weeks on release “Collectors” has passed the $10 million mark, finishing Sunday with $10.6 million,

Hong Kong-produced “Caught in Time” gave fresh life to the mainland China box office over its opening weekend. The fantasy crime thriller about a cop chasing a gang through different eras earned $30.3 million. Produced by Emperor Motion Picture, the film stars the popular Daniel Wu and Wang Qianyuan, and was directed by Lau Ho-leung.

Beleaguered Regal cinema chain operator Cineworld Group has found a lifeline by securing a new debt facility of $450 million and the issue of equity warrants. The company has agreed bank covenant waivers until June 2022 and has extended the maturity of its $111 million incremental revolving credit facility from Dec. 2020 to May 2024.

It seems unimaginable: a relationship driven more by affection than the dynamics of power between a Jewish prisoner and an Austrian SS officer at Auschwitz? But the taboo romance between beautiful, young Slovak inmate Helena Citron and her not-much-older captor Franz Wunsch is superbly documented in the fascinating “Love It Was Not” from Israeli helmer

War is blood and bombs and politics, but not in Alina Gorlova’s fascinating, fraught documentary “This Rain Will Never Stop.” Elliptically following 20-year-old Andriy Suleiman, a student Red Cross worker who “left one war for another” when his family fled Hasukah, Syria for his mother’s hometown of Lysychansk, Ukraine, this defiantly oblique, uncannily composed film

“Monty Python” actor John Cleese is being accused of transphobia following a series of tweets in which he defended “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling. In June, Rowling made headlines for stating that she believes one’s biological sex is their “real sex” and criticizing transgender people for “erasing the concept of sex.” In September, Cleese signed

“Aquaman” star Jason Momoa became a real superhero on Wednesday when he surprised 7-year-old fan Danny Sheehan with a video call. Sheehan, who has a rare form of brain cancer, went viral earlier in the week for his reaction to receiving an “Aquaman” figurine as a gift. “Oh my gosh, my favorite one,” the boy