China’s e-commerce and media giant Alibaba recorded lower profits in the 12 months to March 2022, following a year of turmoil for tech companies, a weakening Chinese economy, a COVID revival and Russia’s war in Ukraine.. Group revenues increased by 19% in the year to March, reaching $135 billion (RMB853 billion). In the fourth quarter,
Revered cinematographer Darius Khondji loves to shoot on film but has made his peace with digital, he revealed in a masterclass at Cannes on Thursday. “It’s just so sexy to shoot on film, the texture is beautiful, it looks great on skin tones,” Khondji said. Khondji said that digital can be very beautiful too but
Veteran Hollywood multi-hyphenate George Gallo (“Bad Boys,” “The Comeback Trail”) is attached to direct “Gambino,” a high-end biopic about organized crime boss Carlo Gambino that Gallo is co-writing with two-time Oscar winner Nick Vallelonga (“Green Book”). The ambitious project, announced in Cannes, is being lead produced by Julius R. Nasso, also a Hollywood veteran, best
The BBC Board has said it “welcomes” the government’s mid-term charter review, which will examine the governance and regulation of the BBC. The process, which will take 12 months, will be undertaken by “officials” from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which is currently led by minister Nadine Dorries. At the end of the
The “Elvis” team was on hand in Cannes for a little more conversation about Baz Luhrmann’s boisterous musical drama — but how Tom Hanks landed on his mysterious European-American accent as Colonel Tom Parker in the movie will remain a mystery for now. The Oscar-winning actor received the first question from journalists at the Thursday
Jimmy Kimmel broke down in tears during a monologue on his ABC late night series in which he addressed the massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. The school shooting left 21 people dead, including 19 kids. Kimmel opened the May 25 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” without a studio audience and demanded Texas senators
Chinese video streamer iQiyi unveiled a rare quarterly profit in the three months to March, amidst a mixed picture on revenue and subscriptions. The company, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange but is predominantly controlled by Chinese tech conglomerate Baidu, said in a filing that it had achieved net income attributable of RMB169
In a historical first, the Cannes Festival and its market, the Marché, hosted the inaugural Venezuela Film Hub (VFH), surprising many international participants by its presence, given the mostly abysmal news coming from the South American country, crippled by the government’s economic mismanagement and U.S. sanctions. Spearheaded and fully financed by The Visionist Advisers, a
Justin Timberlake, one of the most successful pop singers of the past 20 years, has sold a song catalog to Hipgnosis Song Management, the company has announced. Hipgnosis has acquired 100% of all of Justin Timberlake’s copyright, ownership and financial interests of the writer and publisher’s share of public performance income, and the catalog of musical compositions written
Global streamer and distributor MUBI has struck again, this time snapping up select markets for Lukas Dhont’s keenly anticipated “Close.” MUBI has acquired the U.K., Ireland, Latin America, Turkey and India for the Cannes competition title, which will have its world premiere on Thursday at the festival. The film stars Lea Drucker, Émilie Dequenne, Kevin
In the first leg of what it hopes is an industry revolution, Zurich-based A Film Company has raised north of $2 million in crowd investment from 560 people across 19 counties to co-finance “Mad Heidi,” an action-adventure horror comedy reimagining of the Swiss icon. The OTT re-set includes portraying the Swiss icon Hedi as she’s
CASTING Nomzamo Mbatha (“Coming 2 America”) is set to star in period drama “Shaka Ilembe” about the iconic African king. The series is set in 1700s and will also star Lemogang Tsipa and newcomer Ntando Zondi, who will both play Shaka at different ages, Thembinkosi Mthembu as King Dingiswayo and Senzo Radebe as King Senzangakhona.
When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, director Maksym Nakonechnyi – whose debut feature “Butterfly Vision” world premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard – was developing his next film – a comedy about flat-Earth conspiracy under the working title “The Earth Is Flat – I Flew Around It and Saw It.” But he is putting it
In a panel discussion provocatively entitled “Content Scramble for Africa,” guests at the Cannes Film Market’s Cannes Docs sidebar were invited to interrogate the sustainability of current forms of collaboration between the African continent and the Global North in documentary filmmaking. Moderated by IDFA programmer Sarah Dawson, the panel included Laurent Bitty, president of Africadoc-Côte
The Saudi Film Commission has announced its long gestating incentive for film productions in the kingdom which consists of an up to 40% cash rebate. Ever since it lifted its 35-year-old religion-related ban on cinema in 2017, Saudi has been experiencing a boom in all aspects of film industry activity, becoming West Asia’s top-grossing territory
On the heels of Critics’ Prize wins for Andres Ramirez Pulido’s “La Jauria,” Variety can reveal an exclusive clip from the Colombian film. The pic on Wednesday won the Grand Prize at Critics’ Week, the Cannes Film Festival’s sidebar dedicated to first and second features. It also picked up the SACD prize. “La Jauria” centers
Any number of directors could have shot Andrea Seigel’s straightforwardly moving screenplay for “The Silent Twins” and turned out a straightforwardly moving film in the process. It’s hard to imagine any of those movies looking, sounding or feeling quite like the one Agnieszka Smoczyńska has made, however. Based on the desperately sad true story of
Sony Music Group (SMG) chairman Rob Stringer touted a strong fiscal year (for the period between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021) and revealed plans to expand the company’s Legacy Unrecouped Balance Program in a briefing to the company’s senior executives and investors delivered on May 25. Speaking from New York, Stringer hailed what
Production has wrapped in both Singapore and Japan on Nicole Midori Woodford’s supernatural art house drama “Last Shadow at First Light.” It stars Nagase Masatoshi, Tsutsui Mariko (“Harmonium,” “A Girl Missing”), Peter Yu (“A Land Imagined”) and newcomer Shirata Mihaya. The story examines the intangible nature of trauma and the ripples of its aftermath through
“Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart” won big at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards, scooping four prizes including audio of the year. On Wednesday night, the Game Audio Network Guild announced the winners of their annual ceremony celebrating the music, dialogue and sound design of this year’s greatest games. The virtual event was streamed via
Henry Muñoz III is the first to admit that he was a surprise bidder for Funny or Die when the digital comedy brand was put up for sale last year. “It was kind of a surprise to me too,” Muñoz jokes on the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business.” The entrepreneur and activist sees
In the longtime parlance of music retail, the vinyl format’s biggest enthusiasts over the years are sometimes known as “crate diggers.” But it might be time to put that image to bed… unless you consider the display racks at Target to be crates, and the young women who are flipping through contemporary releases by Harry
Just before the Cannes Film Festival midnight-show premiere of the David Bowie documentary “Moonage Daydream,” the film’s writer, director, and editor, Brett Morgen, didn’t simply stroll down the red carpet. As Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” blared from the promenade speakers, Morgen danced — and pranced and pogo-ed, and flashed a cheeky madman grin, and by the
Lifetime has delayed the premiere of Mckenna Grace’s horror film “The Bad Seed Returns” in light of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The network confirmed to Variety that “The Bad Seed Returns” will now premiere later in 2022. Lifetime has notified the Television Academy that the film will no longer debut during the eligibility
Omar Chaparro, one of Mexico’s top talents, has signed with Authentic Talent & Literary Management. The actor, comedian, TV host and singer is looking to expand his international presence and appeal to audiences across a variety of mediums. His past credits include films such as Mexico’s fourth highest grossing film of all time, “No Manches Frida,”
Anna Konkle, Lisa Zwerling, and Katherine Collins are the official mentors of ScreenCraft’s 2023 pilot competition. Additionally, Colin Trevorrow and Emily V. Gordon have joined ScreenCraft’s annual Writers Summit as speakers. Konkle, Zwerling and Collins will each select one grand prize winner from the pilot competition, which is accepting submissions through Sept. 30 and will
When Maisie Williams was first offered “Pistol” — the FX limited series created by Craig Pearce and directed by Danny Boyle, about punk rock band the Sex Pistols for FX — she knew little about the band or the world of 1970s counterculture London that surrounded them. But the “Game of Thrones” star was instantly
The Federal Trade Commission levied a $150 million fine on Twitter, alleging that the social network let advertisers use private data to target specific users — without informing users of the practice. According to the agency, Twitter violated a 2011 FTC order that “explicitly prohibited” the company from misrepresenting its privacy and security practices. In
Early in “Stars at Noon,” Yank journalist Trish gazes wistfully at a yellowed black-and-white photo of Nicaraguan resistance fighters, framed and tacked to the wall of the grim Managua hotel room where she’s having businesslike intercourse. “Young rebels used to be so sexy,” she sighs. It’s a direct jab at the unformidable army lieutenant on
Josh Duggar, who appeared on the TLC reality series “19 Kids and Counting,” has been sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison for possession of child pornography. The sentencing was announced Wednesday, after Duggar was found guilty by a Fayetteville, Ark. jury last December. Duggar will spend 151 months in prison, and after