Movies

The year just keeps getting stranger and even more unpredictable. This week, we saw the exits of several major awards contenders from this extended eligibility year — most notably “West Side Story” from Steven Spielberg. A large portion of Latinx talent in contention this year came from the 20th Century Studios picture (Rachel Zegler, Ariana

London-based sales agent WestEnd Films has sold multiple territories on romantic comedy “Falling For Figaro,” starring Joanna Lumley (“Absolutely Fabulous”) and Danielle Macdonald (“Patti Cake$”). The film has sold to Entertainment Film Distributors for the U.K., Twelve Oaks for Spain, Splendid for Benelux, Huanxi Media Group for China, United King for Israel, Investacommerce for the

John Carpenter’s original “Halloween,” “Halloween 4” and “Halloween 5” are returning to theaters and drive-ins in more than two dozen U.S. markets in October. The showings have been booked for a total of 225 screens, including 104 drive-ins through a partnership between CineLife Entertainment, Compass International Pictures and Trancas International Films. “We are so excited

Just judging by the slate, last year’s New York Film Festival offered a testament to the nearly six-decade-old fest’s place in the fall awards circuit firmament, and in New York filmgoing culture. Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” world premiered on opening night last year, and a strong slate of future Oscar nominees (“Marriage Story,” “Parasite,” “Beanpole”)

Sega is developing a live-action adaptation from its “Yakuza” video game franchise with 1212 Entertainment and Wild Sheep Content, Variety has learned exclusively. Erik Barmack, Roberto Grande and Joshua Long will produce. 1212 and Wild Sheep are searching for writers for the script. Yakuza is Sega’s bestselling franchise after “Sonic The Hedgehog.” The game was

Tribeca Film Festival is expanding its focus on video games at next year’s planned fest in New York City: For the first time, Tribeca will open submissions for games to join the 2021 festival as official selections — and will bestow the inaugural Tribeca Games Award from the entries. The festival also announced a new

“Love Mooning,” a drama by veteran Japanese director Manda Kunitoshi, has been set as the opening film of Tokyo Filmex. The festival announced the line-up for its 21st edition on Thursday. Filmex, which has long specialized in Asian art films and usually starts in late November, will be held Oct. 30-Nov. 7 this year. It

The 51st Edition of the International Film Festival of India, scheduled to be held at Goa from Nov. 20-28, 2020, has been postponed to Jan. 16-24, 2021. India’s minister of information & broadcasting Prakash Javadekar discussed the matter with Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant. Together they arrived at the postponement decision. Like many festivals around

IFC Films has nabbed Chad Hartigan’s “Little Fish,” a love story set in a post-pandemic world that will have an eerie resonance when viewed in light of the coronavirus crisis. The deal is for North American rights. IFC, which has remained active during COVID-19, releasing films such as “The Nest” and “The Trip to Greece,”

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquires U.K. distribution rights from FilmNation Entertainment for Justin Simien’s “Bad Hair,” which will be released in British movie theaters on Nov. 27. The film received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year, following in the footsteps of Simien’s directorial debut “Dear White People” in 2014. A satirical horror

Underscoring a larger perceived global market potential for Spanish movies, Warner Bros. Pictures Intl. España is upping its bet on Spanish film production, in volume, budgets and talent. Once largely acquiring, and then releasing in Spain, around six national films annually, the Hollywood studio now plans to invest in, or officially produce, eight-10 features a

Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut “The Human Voice” and British artist Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock” have been added to the British Film Institute London Film Festival. Almodovar’s short, loosely based on Jean Cocteau’s play, presents a woman on the edge portrayed by Tilda Swinton, who is waiting for her lover to call. It will

Multiplex giant Cineworld Group’s half-year results have been severely impacted by the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, as expected. All cinemas remained shuttered from mid-March to late June or early August in some cases. Consequently, the Group reported an operating loss of $1.34 billion, compared to a profit of $389.2 million in 2019. Group revenue plummeted

Hollywood studios have become more innovative in recent months, hosting drive-in launch events and virtual screening parties to celebrate new projects in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. So, for the release of their latest film, Miranda July’s “Kajillionaire,” Focus Features planned something new. The studio has launched a virtual retrospective of the award-winning filmmaker’s

NewFest, New York’s LGBTQ film and media organization, has announced its program for the 32nd New York LGBTQ Film Festival. This year’s event will feature virtual events, as well as drive-in screenings at the Queens Drive-In at Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The festival will open on Oct. 16 with the New York City premiere of

Variety has released this year’s list of 10 Screenwriters to Watch, and a conversation with the honorees is to be hosted virtually by the Mill Valley Film Festival on Oct. 13. The annual 10 to Watch program celebrates breakthrough screenwriters, actors, directors, comics, animators, producers and cinematographers, and registration for the virtual conversation with 2020’s

“Fantastic Fungi,”  a captivating and revealing new nature documentary from Moving Art, makes the case that the very essence of the world, humanity, of life and death, can be reduced to mushrooms. Cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg directs the docu, which is narrated by Brie Larson. Released in late 2019, the documentary available on Apple TV  and

There is mounting pressure on the U.K. government to better safeguard the country’s beleaguered cultural sector. A Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, led by member of parliament Julian Knight, has urged leadership to take immediate steps to prevent the sector from imminent collapse. The U.K. issued a fresh set of restrictions on Tuesday to

In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix unveiled the trailer for “Deaf U,” and Amazon Prime Video set a premiere date for “Truth Seekers.” DATES Netflix announced that “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet,” a documentary on broadcaster David Attenborough and his past experiences visiting the wild places on Earth, will come to the platform on Oct.

The Asia Pacific Screen Awards, held annually in Queensland, Australia, will run in November in a slimmed down fashion. Earlier this year the event’s future seemed deeply clouded due to financial problems and the coronavirus. Where normally a dozen prizes are awarded to artistic films from across the vast UNESCO-defined Asia region, the event this

Cartoon Saloon co-founder and creative director Tomm Moore will take part in a presentation about his latest film, “Wolfwalkers,” during the 2020 VIEW Conference, along with his co-director, Ross Stewart, and other key artists. “Wolfwalkers,” which generated lots of buzz during the Toronto Film Festival, where it had its world premiere, is the latest film

There is a thin line between fact and fiction in German director Isabel Lamberti’s Dutch-Spanish co-production “La última Primavera” (“Last Days of Spring”) which, sold by Loco Films, is playing in the New Directors competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Shot in La Cañada Real, a shantytown outside Madrid, tensions are running high between

At the San Sebastian Film Festival, American screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin talked about the making of his upcoming Netflix original film, “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” how he always sees himself first and foremost as a playwright and why he is just like a puppy. Speaking via a video link in the Conversations

Director Yulene Olaizola might have already worked on a number of films over the course of her still young career, but nothing could prepare the Mexican filmmaker for what she would encounter with her latest, “Tragic Jungle.” A 1920’s-set, mythology-influenced chase film set on the verdant border between Mexico and Belize, this Mexican-French-Colombian co-production, which

Disney has postponed the release of fall blockbusters such as Marvel’s “Black Widow,” Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” and Kenneth Branagh’s “Death on the Nile” by several months. The results are bad news for the exhibition industry, which is facing fierce headwinds after closing for months due to coronavirus. The studio has kept the late

Jacques Audiard, the French director of Palme d’Or winning “Dheepan” and Oscar-nominated “A Prophet,” is currently filming his next feature, “Les Olympiades,” near Paris. Audiard, who enjoys working with a mix of rising and well-seasoned talents behind and in front of the camera, wrote the script of “Les Olympiades” with two female auteurs, Léa Mysius

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association will present “HFPA Philanthropy: Empowering the Next Generation” on Oct. 13 at 5 p.m. PT. This year’s virtual event will be available to stream on the Golden Globes’ YouTube channel and website. Hosted by James Corden, the philanthropy program will honor organizations that support young artists, filmmakers and storytellers. The

Tahirah Sharif and Julian Feder have joined the cast of the upcoming thriller “Escape the Field.” The actors join previously announced stars Jordan Claire Robbins (Netflix’s “Umbrella Academy”), Shane West (“Gotham,” “Nikita”), Theo Rossi (“Luke Cage,” “Sons of Anarchy”) and Elena Juacto. The film is directed by Emerson Moore, who is billed as a co-writer

“Black Bear,” “Kokoloko,” “Night of the Kings,” “Rosa’s Wedding” and “Undine” have been selected as the competition titles for the Marimba Award at the upcoming Miami Film Festival Gems event. The seventh annual edition of Gems will be held virtually from Oct. 8-11. The juried prize, which carries a $25,000 award, is given for a film that

Netflix has just released the first trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” The almost-two-hour-long drama follows the peaceful demonstration at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which denounced American involvement in the Vietnam War, after it was met with force by members of the Chicago Police Department and National Guard.