Movies

Peter Chan’s volleyball drama “Leap” has jumped above its competition in China this weekend with a $24.6 million three-day debut, highlighting Chinese audiences’ continued preference for well-crafted local titles, according to data from the Maoyan industry tracker. The score is higher than the $23 million opening of Disney’s “Mulan” the weekend of Sept. 11, but

Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” has topped $280 million worldwide, dominating a mild U.S. box office with $3.4 million at 2,850 locations in its fourth weekend to go past $41 million domestically in four weeks. The Warner Bros. tentpole, which carries a hefty $200 million price tag, took in a weekend total of $19.2 million worldwide in

Currently shooting her new film and unable to travel to Switzerland due to new COVID-19 restrictions, British actress Olivia Colman tuned in live on Saturday to accept her Golden Eye Award at the Zurich Film Festival, taking place physically and celebrating its 16th edition. One of the festival’s most prestigious recognitions, counting the likes of

During the live-streamed case study “Seven Grams: Solution Journalism and Augmented Reality,” presented on Thursday at the NewImages Festival, director Karim Ben Khelifa explained the origins of his next VR project – once again made with the help of executive producer Chloé Jarry of Lucid Realities. As mentioned also in the short trailer, shown to

It was all about the “Independent Creation in Times of COVID-19. The Impact of Pandemic on XR Artists” on Thursday, courtesy of the NewImages Festival – partnering up with French Immersion and Kaleidoscope. Moderated by Ana Brzezińska, the online discussion saw Olivier Fontenay of CNC [National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image], Novelab’s Amaury

Winner of the XR financing market prize at this year’s NewImages Festival, the allegorical fairy tale “A City of Foxes” situates a live performance within a detailed, mythic landscape reminiscent of the work of Hayao Miyazaki and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. After developing the project at Venice’s Biennale College Lab in 2018, director Nihaarika Negi partnered

Introducing a NewImages panel about parity in the XR field, moderator Oriane Hurard lost no time setting the scene. “I’m a VR producer based in Paris,” Hurard began. “I’m also a feminist. Sorry, not sorry.” And so launched this year’s “Women in XR” panel, which brought together a group of producers, filmmakers, and executives united

Speaking at a virtual panel organized by the NewImages Festival Thursday, leaders from the tech world shared a common message: The future durability of the VR market requires cultivating a user-base still in need of considerable development. Panelists Deborah Papiernik (Ubisoft), Colum Slevin (Facebook), Ethan Stearns (MWM Interactive), and Sarah Steele (YouTube VR) all more

Japanese actress Takeuchi Yuko was found dead by her husband, actor Nakabayashi Taiki, in their Tokyo apartment early Sunday morning. Forty years old at the time of her death, she was the mother of two, including an infant boy who was born in January.  While Takeuchi left no note, death by suicide is being presumed. If that

13 films were in the running for prizes in this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival competition, but it doesn’t appear to have been much of a contest at all. In a stunning sweep, Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s debut feature “Beginning” took four of the jury’s seven prizes, including Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress for

Making its world premiere at Paris’ NewImages Festival ahead of an October berth at Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, the Canadian-French production “The Passengers: Her and Him” presents an interactive, location-based VR piece that covers a chance encounter from two different perspectives – and still only tells half the story. This work-in-progress, written by French

In down-to-the-wire San Sebastian Festival business, Madrid-based Latido Films has pounced on world sales rights to Nicolás Postiglione’s debut feature “Immersion” (“Inmersión”), a Chilean suspense-thriller – and potential political metaphor for those who want to see it – starring Pablo Larraín regular Alfredo Castro (“The Club,” “No”). “Immersion” is based on a screenplay by Postiglione

Director M. Night Shymalan has finally revealed the title to his new movie. On Saturday morning, he took to Twitter to announce the official name for his film: “Old.” “Feels like a miracle that I am standing here shooting the first shot of my new film. It’s called ‘Old,’” he wrote on Twitter, along with

The immersive VR piece “Bodyless,” director Hsin-Chien Huang’s dreamlike exploration of his own childhood growing up under Taiwanese martial law, took home top honors at Paris’ NewImages Festival on Friday evening. Along with its newly minted Masque d’Or for best VR work, the 25-minute piece walked away with €6,000 ($6,978) in prize money. Led by

Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, and Jurnee Smollett will lend their combined star wattage to Netflix’s “Spiderhead,” Variety has confirmed. The film is an adaptation of a George Saunders short story that first ran in The New Yorker and was later included in the author’s book, “Tenth of December.” It unfolds in the near future and

Designer Jeremy Scott is now a puppet master. Instead of a live fashion show for his Moschino spring/summer 2021 collection, Scott teamed up with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for a film showcasing 40 new looks using 30-inch marionettes. Produced by Alex Winter, the seven-minute short, “No Strings Attached,” features a full runway show that even

Female-led volleyball drama “Leap” hit China with an $8.2 million opening day Friday, narrowly topping the premiere-day box office haul of Disney’s “Mulan” earlier this month, according to industry tracker Maoyan. Both films star China-born Singaporean actress Gong Li, who plays a powerful witch character in “Mulan” and the hard-driving, real-life head coach of the

After 25 years, the “Father of the Bride” family reunited on screen, with additional members, for “Father of the Bride Part 3 (ish)” streaming exclusively on Netflix’s YouTube channel and Facebook page on Friday.  The film, a remake of the 1950 original movie of the same name, tells the story of George Banks (Steve Martin),

Virginia’s eighth annual Middleburg Film Festival has announced Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” as its opening night film. Lee Isaac Chung’s critically acclaimed family drama “Minari” will be the festival centerpiece film and “Concrete Cowboy” starring Idris Elba will be the Friday Spotlight film, while Regina King’s feature directorial debut, “One Night in Miami” has been selected

With more than two dozen movies releasing a week — the vast majority of them still straight to streaming — we’re narrowing the focus of our curation somewhat, spotlighting those of sufficiently high profile or merit. Audiences could hardly hope for a more exciting or timely option than “The Trial of the Chicago 7” from

Yara Shahidi is getting her wings. The actor is set to play Tinkerbell in Disney’s “Peter Pan and Wendy,” the studio’s latest live-action adaptation. Shahidi joins a cast that features Jude Law as Captain Hook, with Alexander Molony as Peter Pan and newcomer Ever Anderson as Wendy. “Pete’s Dragon” director David Lowery is on board

African heroes, the plunder of the Amazon, death-defying mountain climbers and 19th-century spiritualists were just some of the subjects filmmakers are tackling in new projects pitched on Thursday at San Sebastian’s Lau Haizetara Documentary Co-Production Forum. The forum offers the opportunity to present new docs to commissioning editors, potential funders and industry experts. Fourteen projects

Aldis Hodge will soar as the DC Comics superhero Hawkman in the New Line production of “Black Adam,” Variety has confirmed. The actor — who most recently starred in “The Invisible Man” and won acclaim for his upcoming performance as Jim Brown in “One Night in Miami” — is in negotiations to join the film,

Ask yourself: What do the words “Black Power” signify to you? That’s the question several of the Mangrove Nine — nine Black activists arrested when a public demonstration against London police harassment on Aug. 9, 1970 devolved into an incendiary example of the very thing they were protesting — put to each and every one

Early September’s Venice Festival celebrated the restart of cinema theater attendance. Opening six days after Venice ended, as second-wave COVID-19 forced parts of Madrid back into semi-lockdown, 2020’s on-site San Sebastian Festival, normally a convivial, festive event, was a more sober affair as Europe’s industry calibrated the cost of the pandemic. More bullishly, industry leaders

A singular entry in San Sebastian’s prestige New Directors section this year, Grigory Kolomytsev’s “Chupacabra” was put through its Ikusmira Berriak residency program in 2019. “Spikes protruding from its sides, a dog-like snout, a massive jaw and large fangs, a species unknown to modern science, a bloodthirsty beast  that hypnotizes its victims, bites into their

The American Film Institute announced an annual scholarship to producers from communities that are underrepresented in the entertainment industry. On Friday, AFI established the Thomas P. Pollock Endowed Scholarship Fund, named after and in memory of the institute’s chair emeritus Thomas Pollock, who died in August. The fund was established in collaboration with members of

On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the representation of people of color in media. Stars Daniel Dae Kim, Joy Villa, Erika Alexander and Edward James Olmos attended as witnesses via Zoom to speak to their experience in the entertainment industry. Kim not only spoke to the importance of diversity on screen

Manuel Nieto’s trans-Atlantic co-production “The Employer and the Employee” scooped San Sebastian’s biggest industry prize this week, the EGEDA Platino Industria Award for the best Latin American work in progress. Its producers will receive $34,850 cash in kind to go towards finishing the film. Seven companies from Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and France make up the

Singer Lata Mangeshkar, dubbed Nightingale of India, turns 90 on Sept. 28 and in honor of the woman who made the Guinness Book of World Records for 25,000 songs recorded we at Variety chose 25 of our favorite tunes from Bollywood. There were many more we could choose, including duets with Hemant Kumar or Mohammed