Movies

For the Power of Pride issue, Variety talked to eight LGBTQ couples in entertainment about their love stories. To read more, click here.  An actor and her stunt double falling in love while working on a movie in Fiji sounds like the premise of an escapist romantic comedy more than real life, but it is, in fact,

For the Power of Pride issue, Variety talked to eight LGBTQ couples in entertainment about their love stories. To read more, click here.  Greg Berlanti — the prolific TV producer behind such hits as “Riverdale” and “Supergirl” — couldn’t have scripted meeting his husband better if he’d written it himself. At a 2013 rooftop Pride party, a

Director Rapman endured the unthinkable around the U.K. release of his feature film debut, “Blue Story,” about warring South London gangs. After a brawl broke out at a Birmingham cinema following the film’s release, exhibitors Vue and Showcase temporarily pulled “Blue Story” from screens claiming a spate of other incidents, and sparking a national debate

Like many of us stuck at home, moviedom — or our recent virtual version of it — has been rummaging through the archives intrigued by films it never quite made the time for. So consider the streaming of  Leilah Weinraub’s “Shakedown” (which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2018) an example of a movie

Clocks in Asia seem to be synchronized differently from the rest of the world and from each territory. In the last week of January, China was the first country in the world to shut down its film industry after the coronavirus was shown to be capable of human-to-human transmission. The entire city of Wuhan was

Korean disaster action film has been set as the opening movie of the Far East Film Festival in Udine. Due to coronavirus and social distancing measures still in place in Italy, the festival will be held entirely online this year. The festival is normally held in late April and early May. This time it will

While the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival was announced yesterday, Critics Week, the strand dedicated to first and second films which traditionally runs parallel to the fest, has unveiled the titles that will get the “2020 Semaine de la Critique” label. Critics Week was canceled along with with Directors Fortnight and ACID in

Dwayne Johnson posted a passionate video on Twitter, showing support for Black Lives Matter and appearing to question President Trump’s lack of leadership during nationwide protests against George Floyd’s death. “Where are you? Where is our leader?” Johnson starts out by asking. “Where is our leader at this time when our country is down on

Forget everything you think you know about filmmaking and narrative continuity. Forget production values and matching eyelines. Divorce yourself from your over-reliance on the 180-degree rule and your addiction to sumptuous cinematography and slick — or even barely adequate — visual effects. Instead, for 65 glorious, gonzo minutes, put aside the troubles of this crazy

Bong Joon-ho’s multi-Oscar winning “Parasite” keeps winning. A year after its triumphant Cannes debut, the film took home five trophies at Korea’s Daejong Awards (a.k.a Grand Bell Awards) held in Seoul on Wednesday. Awards included best film; best director for Bong; best supporting actress for Lee Jung-eun; best script for Bong and Han Jin-won; and

In today’s film news roundup, Studio Movie Grill hires an industry veteran to handle marketing, the HFPA elects its board, and “Sometimes Always Never” and “Never Too Late” get virtual releases. EXECUTIVE HIRED Studio Movie Grill has hired former AMC Entertainment executive Tonya Mangels as head of revenue and marketing for the chain, which operates

Writer Bruce Jay Friedman, who received an Oscar nomination for the 1984 comedy “Splash,” died Wednesday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 90. His death was confirmed by his son Josh, who told the New York Times that the cause had not been determined. Friedman, a native of the Bronx, emerged in the 1960s

Film festivals are indefinitely on hold, canceled so long as the global coronavirus outbreak makes it unsafe to hold mass gatherings — especially those that bring together guests from different corners of the world. And yet, the lineups keep coming, even though the programmers know their festivals won’t be happening this year. Case in point is

“12 Years a Slave” and “Shame” director Steve McQueen has dedicated his pair of Cannes-selected films to George Floyd. McQueen’s films “Mangrove” and “Lovers Rock” — both part of the director’s BBC-commissioned “Small Axe” anthology, consisting of five feature-length stories — have been selected for Cannes, which revealed its line-up today despite not going ahead

Dan Guerrero was 13 years old when he realized he was gay. “I’ve always been very self-aware, and I decided I was going to look in a mirror and see what I had to offer the world — what do I have, what the hell am I going to do with my life and what

Sony had a decision to make. Due to COVID-19, it was unclear when “Greyhound,” a World War II epic starring Tom Hanks, would ride into theaters. Widespread closures had upended the release schedule for films that were due to debut in cinemas for the next few months, and pushed “Greyhound” from its planned June 2020 date. The studio considered moving the

Pixar’s “Soul,” Wes Anderson’s star-packed “The French Dispatch” and Steve McQueen’s “Mangrove” and Lover’s Rock” are among the 56 movies which will receive a Cannes 2020 label as part of the festival’s eclectic Official Selection. Also included in this year’s lineup, are Cannes regulars such as Francois Ozon’s anticipated “Summer 85,” Naomi Kawase’s “True Mothers”

While the Venice Film Festival is poised to lead the way among top-tier film events a trio of smaller Italian summer fests with international standing is now also set to hold physical editions prior to September when the Lido plans to take its post-pandemic plunge. Restrictions are rapidly lifting in Italy, where the coronavirus curve is

Studio Ghibli’s latest feature animation, “Aya to Majo,” (literally, “Aya and the Witch”), will air on NHK during winter 2020, NHK announced today. Based on “Earwig and the Witch,” a children’s novel by Diana Wynne Jones, the film is the first by Ghibli to be animated in 3D3G. The director is Goro Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki’s son,

Opening up multiple shoot possibilities during COVID-19 and beyond, top Spanish producer Adrian Guerra is bowing Orca Studios, a new Spain-based virtual production facility that uses the same LED volume technology employed by ILM on its Stagecraft system for “The Mandalorian” – hailed by some as the biggest technological step-forward since green screen. Head of

Mediawan, the integrated European media group which owns Italy’s Palomar, is rolling out a new screening and distribution platform to fast-track dealmaking and make up for the raft of physical markets that are being canceled due to the coronavirus crisis. The platform will showcase programs produced and/or sold by Mediawan’s companies and will be aimed

When you’re a child, one of the most maddening things adults always say is how fast children grow up. If you’ve only lived a few years, it takes forever: The powers and privileges that come with being older are at once tantalizing and infinitely far away. Yet when the child’s lifetime is a fraction of

Chinese social drama film “Damp Season” was this week named as the Grand Prize winner at the Jeonju International Film Festival. The well-established Korean festival has been held in largely virtual form this year in reaction to the coronavirus outbreak. At the end of April, festival organizers confirmed that JIFF would go ahead May 28

More than 20,000 people took the streets of Paris, France, to support Black Lives Matter protests and demand justice for Adama Traoré, a young black man who, like George Floyd, was killed due to suspected police brutality in July 2016. Shouting “no justice, no peace,” the demonstrators gathered in front of the French capital’s court

In today’s film news roundup, Lionsgate executive Corii Berg joins the USC Board of Trustees, Night Fox Entertainment unveils a trilogy and Newark-based documentary “Why Is We Americans” gets a premiere. NEW TRUSTEE The University of Southern California Board of Trustees has elected Lionsgate executive vice president and general counsel Corii Berg as its newest

Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, has called on Los Angeles County authorities to resume all film and television production, following the submission of a 22-page blueprint outlining coronavirus safety guidelines. Representing the wider industry on a conference call with the county’s Economic Resilience Task Force on Tuesday, Langley highlighted a white paper

Character actor Peggy Pope, who played the alcoholic office secretary in the hit comedy movie “9 to 5,” died on May 27 in Fort Collins, Colo. She was 91. Pope’s family announced her passing and plans for a June 27 celebration of life. Pope was born as Florence Margaret Pope in Montclair, N.J., and  graduated from

Thirteen can be a petulant age, but hell hath no fury like the pubescent heroine of “Becky,” who has the ill luck to confront a gang of escaped cons — though that’s definitely worse luck for them, as it turns out. Offering fairly brutal action on the verge of black comedy, this indie thriller from

The East-West tussle between efficient authoritarianism and the wealthy but decaying democratic-capitalist model has seen blood spilled daily on the streets of Hong Kong — even more so now that coronavirus is on the wane and social distancing is being relaxed. For that reason, there was a palpable sigh of relief from stock markets in

Lea Seydoux, the French star of Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” will headline “Party of Fools” (“Le Bal des Folles”), a high-profile period drama-thriller to be directed by Arnaud des Pallières. The female-driven movie is produced by two of France’s biggest producers, Philippe Rousselet and Jonathan Blumental, at the Paris-based company Prelude. The pair previously