Movies

A worrying surge in COVID-19 cases in the U.K. has threatened to unravel much of the progress made across the film and TV industry in recent months, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest round of restrictions won’t impact the production and exhibitor sectors in any major way just yet. With coronavirus cases projected to reach

“It’s really a film about friendship,” says Matt Dillon, about “The Great Fellove” [El Gran Fellove], his documentary chronicling the musical career of Cuban scat singer and showman Francisco ‘el Gran’ Fellove  and the recording of his last album, “Fellove & Joey.” “The whole thing started because of my friendship with bandleader Joey Altruda and

Unspooling in Spain, one of the European countries that’s been the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the San Sebastian Film Festival was allowed to maintain its 2020 edition under strict sanitary guidelines, albeit with a different approach from the Venice fest. The San Sebastian Festival, which kicked off on Sept. 18, just over a

World premiering this week at NewImages Festival in Paris before playing at the London Film Festival in early October, the Franco-British-Taiwanese co-production “Missing Pictures Ep. 1 – Birds of Prey” gives the stage to firebrand filmmaker Abel Ferrara as he plunges into a passion project that never could lift off the ground. Directed by Clément

Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” has remained in pole position at the U.K. and Ireland box-office, collecting £796,309 ($1,011,097) from 616 locations in its fourth weekend, according to final numbers from Comscore. The Warner Bros. release now has a running total of £13,879,635 ($17,617,559) in the territory. Shear Entertainment’s young adult romance “After We Collided” continues to

French outfit Atlas V, the production company behind the critically acclaimed “Gloomy Eyes” and one of the industry leaders in narrative VR, has just launched production on its newest animated project, a 20-minute standalone film called “The Little Mouse.” Sharing details of the project with Variety, Atlas V co-founder Antoine Cayrol called the film “a

The uplifting story of 100-year-old British hero Captain Tom Moore, who kept a nation in lockdown inspired, is being turned into a feature film, fast-tracked for production in 2021. The U.K.’s Fred Films and Powder Keg Pictures won a bidding war for the life rights to the former British Army captain and World War II

The San Sebastian Festival’s new Works in Progress Latam program will unveil from Sept. 22 six film productions from Latin America to potential production partners and sales agents. Examining such topics as militant activism, the relationship between leaders and followers, employers and employees, identity, devoutness and belief systems, this year’s projects reflect universal subject matter

“The Trial of the Chicago 7” from writer and director Aaron Sorkin, a project that has circled Hollywood for more than a decade, has landed in the awards race. The film screened virtually on Tuesday evening before a group of critics, journalists and bloggers. Featuring a hardy ensemble with some of the industry’s most gifted

If you go back and watch Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” (2003), you’ll see that it’s lost none of its shimmer — that airily crafted blend of mood and moment, location and dislocation, all wrapped around the delicate tale of two souls who didn’t know they were lost until they found each other in the

Disney’s top theme parks executive is urging California officials to allow a reopening of Disneyland, which has been closed since March 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney parks, experiences and products, made the request in a Tuesday stakeholder webcast, contending that state officials should allow its signature theme park to

Running Sept. 23-27, this year’s NewImages Festival will work on two different fronts, offering locals a physical rendezvous space at Paris’ Forum des Images, while opening its full program to international attendees participating online. Giving NewImages’ third edition a true hybrid flair, the 16 VR projects playing in competition and the 12 out-of-competition works can

Responding to an online distribution landscape driven primarily by the patterns of the video game industry, organizers of the leading international VR festivals have started on a plan to carve out a niche all for themselves – and for the artistically minded project their festivals champion. “The creative or artistic content in VR do not

Focus Feature and Magnolia Pictures have jointly announced that they will be re-releasing the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic “On the Basis of Sex” and the documentary “RBG” on Friday in theaters. Both film companies will be donating their net proceeds from the films’ theatrical re-release to the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation in support of their Women’s

HBO has acquired award-winning documentary short “The Undocumented Lawyer,” which showcases the fight for immigrant rights through the perspective of an American lawyer on the front lines. (Check out a trailer for the film above.) Directed by Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci, the film world premiered in the short competition at the Tribeca Film Festival

The sirens on the rocks are summoning everyone back. The Nashville Film Festival will celebrate the impending 20th anniversary of the release of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” with an online reunion of principal cast members, plus musical performances from figures who appeared on the soundtrack and others. George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson

The European Producers Club, a lobby of Europe’s biggest independent film and TV producers, has called on European Union governments to ensure that global OTT services are obliged to invest at least 25% of their European Union turnover into European works. 80% of that should be reserved for independent producers and at least 50% dedicated

South by Southwest, the giant annual music, film and digital festival in Austin, Texas that was canceled due to the pandemic just days before it was to begin in March, has made its first announcements for 2021: A digital festival, with “plans for a 2021 physical event.” The digital experience, “featuring conferences keynotes and sessions,

WME has signed actress, director and producer Eva Longoria. The multi-hyphenate joins the agency from CAA, where she will be repped in numerous categories. Longoria was the breakout star of ABC’s resonant primetime soap “Desperate Housewives,” and for nearly two decades has risen as a prolific television producer and director, brand ambassador, and activist. She

Dementia is a syndrome that brings with it a unique grief: the only kind that can be shared, for a time at least, between the mourned and their mourners, until the latter are left to it themselves, awaiting a second, more sudden, farewell. Its liminal nature — blurring conceptions of life and death, self and

AGC Studios will fully finance an untitled biopic about Lang Lang from Oscar-winning director Ron Howard. The film about the world-renowned pianist will be produced by Howard’s longtime partner Brian Grazer, as well as Imagine Entertainment President of Features Karen Lunder and AGC Studios Stuart Ford. The screenplay by Michelle Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney, the

U.K. broadcasters ITV and Channel 4 win International Emmys; Sundance Now buys Stan’s “The Night Caller”; ZDF wraps factual series; GoQuest takes Czech drama “Rats”; UKTV joins Creative Diversity Network; and “Chef In Your Year” format bows in Chile. “Undercover: Inside China’s Digital Gulag” by the U.K.’s Hardcash Productions and ITV, has won the International

Pathé has sold Roger Michell’s Venice title “The Duke,” starring Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent to Sony Pictures Classics for the U.S., Latin America and Scandinavia. Written by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman, the comedy drama follows a 60-year-old taxi driver who, in 1961, stole Francisco Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the

The gym in the basement of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s apartment complex was small and dank, with low-tech equipment and fluorescent lighting, not a promising setting for what we hoped would be one of the most important shoots of our documentary about Justice Ginsburg’s life. After the justice had surprised us by agreeing to our request

Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci star as a couple traveling through England in an old RV visiting friends and places from their past in “Supernova.” Check out the trailer for the film above, shared exclusively with Variety. Written and directed by Harry Macqueen (“Hinterland”), “Supernova” is billed as a modern love story centered on Sam

An emerging generation of new Basque filmmakers is making its mark in the San Sebastian Festival, building on the foundations of now consolidated creative and industrial infrastructures. Only time will tell if the Basque Country can follow in the footsteps of Catalonia, another richer region of Spain, and launch a modern day new wave. Expectations

“Gull,” Kim Mi-jo’s poignant South Korean drama, follows a woman whose life becomes increasingly difficult when she seeks justice against the man who raped her. The 61-year-old O-bok works as a seafood vendor in a Seoul street market that has been slated for redevelopment. One evening, after drinks with her colleagues, she is raped by

In its first year out, the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Works in Progress Europa showcase has selected five films that explore such timely themes as imprisonment, neo-colonialism, exploitation and morality. Running Sept. 22-24 – and taking place both on site and online, attracting a powerful lineup of companies, especially from Spain and France – WIP

Headlined by Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, The Mediapro Studio’s “Official Competition,” one of the year’s highest-profile international Spanish productions lensing in Spain, has resumed shooting. Compounding the difficulty of going into production for a second time, the film features an international cast including Argentine heavyweight Oscar Martínez, a former San Sebastian, Venice and Argentine

Director of 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week short film winner “The Disinherited,” Laura Ferrés will direct her awaited feature debut “The Permanent Picture,” which is a co-production between Barcelona-based Fasten Films and Le Bureau, based out of Paris and London. International sales will be handled by The Bureau Sales, the sales arm of the French-British label.