Italy’s Kino Produzioni, which is in competition at Visions du Réel with Sicily-set “Il Mio Corpo,” has teamed up with Sweden’s Fasad on “About the End,” a timely apocalypse-themed doc. Described in promotional materials as being “about the apocalypses that we have survived, and those that we are still waiting for,” this creative doc backed by the Sundance
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Broadcasting under lockdown from her home in Paris, director Claire Denis presented a three-hour masterclass this past Wednesday, offering insights into her career as she accepted an honor from the Vision du Réel film festival. Vision du Réel artistic director Emilie Bujès and Swiss filmmaker Lionel Baier moderated the in-depth discussion, which will soon be
Movie theaters in Norway will reopen on May 7 after being shut down on March 12 when the country went into a partial lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, Variety has confirmed. In line with the policy in Sweden – where cinemas were never obliged to close during the pandemic – the admissions in Norwegian
2019 Oscar-nominated “The Edge of Democracy” filmmaker Petra Costa and Switzerland’s Visions du Réel Film Festival weren’t going to let a global pandemic stop them from hosting a highly anticipated masterclass on Thursday. For nearly three hours the filmmaker fielded questions from moderators Delphine Jeanneret of the Geneva University of Art and Design, Giona Nazzaro,
Jed Benedict has joined Danny Perkins’ newly launched British movie distributor Elysian Film Group Distribution as head of acquisitions and development. The company launched at the Berlinale as part of Elysian Film Group, Perkins and Kate Solomon’s film and television production company. It is backed by a minority investment from CAA, marking the first time
The Czech Republic has accelerated its plans to ease lockdown restrictions and will now reopen cinemas and theaters on May 11, two weeks ahead of the government’s previous May 25 target. Audiences attending movie screenings and theater performances will be limited to 100 people, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch announced Thursday. Vojtěch also announced that sporting
Two feature film projects and three documentaries are to receive grant funding from the Bangkok-based Purin Pictures fund. Unusually, the fund made no post-production disbursements. Receiving $15,000 each, the three features are: Indonesian director Mouly Surya’s “This City Is A Battlefield”; and The Maw Naing’s “The Women,” a Myanmar-set drama about a female protest movement.
Talk about using the power of #FilmTwitter for good. On Thursday, director Ava DuVernay and her film collective ARRAY unleashed the power of Twitter to educate and inspire the film community with a 10-hour tweet-a-thon event for cinephiles to ask their favorite filmmakers all about how and why they make the movies they’ve made. More
Everybody get up, it’s time to slam now because “Space Jam 2” has an official title, thanks to NBA superstar LeBron James. On Thursday, the Lakers player posted a video of himself wearing a hat on his Instagram with the logo of “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” the apparent title of the Looney Tunes sequel.
The Tokyo International Film Festival is to expand its market and business functions this year with the establishment of a gap financing project market. It will run Nov. 4-6 at the The Prince Park Tower Tokyo, where the festival’s associated TIFFCOM rights market will relocate. Organizers said that they are launching a call for projects
At the beginning of the documentary that bears her name, 26-year-old Jacinta, daughter of Rosemary (45), mother of Caylynn (10), has been incarcerated in Maine Correctional Center, where her mother is also doing time, for eight months, with one to go. Even if she did not later ruefully admit — in one of those asides
Filmmaker Alice Wu admits that she is someone who needs deadlines. “I guess I respond to external pressure,” she says with a laugh when discussing how she was trying to write her second film, “The Half of It.” Prone to procrastination, she went to extreme measures. “I wrote a check for a thousand dollars to
There’s a scene in “All Day and a Night” that cuts you to the quick. Jahkor Lincoln (Ashton Sanders), a freelance thug and aspiring rapper in Oakland, CA., who wears a permanent hot glare of suspicion, is seated in the living room of a gang leader named Big Stunna (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Jahkor is trying
In today’s film news roundup, the Dakota and Elle Fanning’s World War II drama “The Nightingale” gets a 2021 release, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival selects its closing film, the Palm Springs Short Festival cancels in-person events and college comedy “CRSHD” finds a home. RELEASE DATE Sony Pictures has set Dec. 22, 2021,
Director Jon M. Chu said while sequels to the hit romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” are in the works, he and producers are not currently casting for “new lead roles,” as falsely indicated by a phony press release and social media post, which have since been taken down. Chu took to his Twitter account on
Legendary Entertainment has closed a deal for Macon Blair to write and direct the upcoming feature film project “Brothers” starring Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage, sources tell Variety. Andrew Lazar, who was a producer on the Bradley Cooper hit “American Sniper,” will produce via his Mad Chance banner. Brolin is also producing via his shingle,
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has hired former Starbucks executive Shelli Taylor as chief executive officer, effective Friday. Taylor spent nearly two decades at the coffee chain and most recently served as president of United Planet Fitness Partners, overseeing over 169 facilities across the country. Founder Tim League will assume a new role as executive chairman, leading
Tribeca Film Institute and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced the winners of their 2020 Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize and Sloan Student Discovery Awards on Thursday, which have been awarded to Matthew Jackett for his screenplay “White Coffins” and Zoe Fleer’s “Clamming,” respectively. The Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize has supported 15 student filmmakers
Rose Byrne is quarantining in New York City with her husband Bobby Cannavale and their two kids. “Listen, I feel lucky,” Byrne says on Friday’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket.” “We’re safe and we’re okay, but it’s scary. We have two little kids. We’ve just been inside, but I have
Val Kilmer crafted the persona of a serious, brooding (often labeled “difficult”) actor in such films as “Heat” and “Tombstone,” so it’s interesting to remember that his film debut was in the goofy spy spoof “Top Secret!” in 1984, followed by the comedy “Real Genius” in 1985. Kilmer would go on to show his comedy
On Monday, Amazon Prime launched a streaming version of the SXSW Film Festival, partnering with the Austin-based event to deliver a handful of movies free until May 6. In theory, it’s a brilliant solution: Going virtual gives any cinephile access to the spring’s coolest pop-culture gathering — a gathering at which no one was actually
Adam Driver will star in an adaptation of “Yankee Comandante,” Variety has learned. “Mud” director Jeff Nichols is writing and helming the pic, marking a reunion for the pair, who worked together on 2016’s “Midnight Special.” While production start dates are up in the air due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shuttered the industry,
MADRID — June’s Annecy Festival, the world’s highest-profile animation event, has shared first details of its 2020 online edition and confirmed that Hollywood studios and major streaming platforms will continue to have a presence at this year’s totally online event. Even before France’s COVID-19 lockdown, “we were getting strong support from the studios and platforms,”
President Trump recently addressed the nation with a message of hope and reassurance, noting, “‘While we may be physically apart, we can use this time to pray, to reflect and to focus on our personal relationship with God.’” Non-fans of the president, whose polls steadily measure at least half of the country’s voters, will take
Imax Corporation posted a loss of $49.4 million in the first quarter of 2020, as theater closures — due to the coronavirus pandemic — were a drag on earnings. In the prior-year quarter, Imax had reported a profit of $8 million. Revenues for the company also sank to $34.9 million, a sharp drop from the
LevelK has sold the Swedish adventure-filled family film “Faunutland and the Lost Magic” to the U.S. and several territories across Europe. Directed by Marcus Ovnell, “Faunutland and the Lost Magic” was acquired by Uncorked Entertainment for North American rights and Kinologistika for Russia/CIS. Other deals were closed for Germany and Luxembourg (MFA) and Estonia (Estin
Rishi Kapoor, one of India’s most beloved film actors who was best known for his romantic roles, has died. He was 67. Kapoor was hospitalized in Mumbai on Wednesday. “He is suffering from cancer and he has some breathing problems, so he has been admitted to the hospital,” his brother Randhir told Indian media on
Cis Corman, distinguished casting director and president of Barbra Streisand’s production companies, died in New York on Monday. She was 93. Born in Brookline, Mass., Corman began her career as a casting director in 1974, selecting roles for films such as Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull,” Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America,” Michael Cimino’s
An untitled animated prequel to the “Transformers” franchise is in the works at Paramount Pictures and Hasbro’s eOne with “Toy Story 4” director Josh Cooley. Screenwriting partners Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari have written the script for the untitled project, while Paramount Animation and eOne will develop and produce the film. The film is in
China’s National Film Administration predicted Wednesday that box office will drop by nearly half this year, due to cinema closures necessitated by the coronavirus epidemic. At a meeting to discuss how the film industry has responded to the epidemic on Wednesday, the director of China’s National Film Administration and executive deputy minister of the higher