Accounting for 40% of all selected projects, French productions will dominate this year’s Toulouse-set Cartoon Forum for reasons that far exceed home field advantage. Underpinning the 33 projects presented at this year’s pitch sessions as well as the relatively robust state of the Gallic animation ecosystem – which produced 295 hours of content in 2020
Bloody Disgusting, the horror fandom and entertainment outfit first launched 20 years ago, is under new ownership: Streaming media company Cinedigm has acquired Bloody Disgusting to beef up its horror portfolio. The amount Cinedigm is paying for Bloody Disgusting in the cash-and-stock deal was not disclosed, but Cinedigm said it expects the acquisition will be
Just in time for Halloween, supernatural comedy podcast series “Haunt the Johnsons” — starring Aisha Dee as a teen with paranormal powers who moves to the most-haunted town in America — is coming to Audible. The 16-episode scripted series launches exclusively as an Audible Original on Oct. 7. In addition to Dee (“The Bold Type”),
Hasbro’s My Little Pony has gone through quite a few different overhauls since the popular plaything’s initial creation in the 1980s. Not only have the toys themselves changed, morphing from a traditional cutesy cartoon style to a pushed anime-inspired appearance, but so have each of the films and televised series, progressively modernizing their aesthetics and
A24 has released a trailer for “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Joel Coen’s new adaptation of the classic play by William Shakespeare premiering at the New York Film Festival in September. Shot in black-and-white, Coen’s take on the Scottish Play stars Denzel Washington as Lord Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. As in the source
From the Venice Film Festival to the Met Gala, the Emmys to training for a half marathon, Cynthia Erivo manages to find moments of pause in her jam-packed schedule. While blurs of kinetic energy roil around her, the London-born multi-hyphenate sits serene at the center. “Sometimes I’ll get a nice couple of hours of sleep
Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel of the hip-hop group Fugees have reunited to announce their first tour in 25 years and first shows in 15 years, celebrating the anniversary of their blockbuster 1996 “The Score,” the group announced Tuesday morning. The 12-city tour launches Wednesday (Sept. 22) with a show in New York at
Nathalie Trafford’s Paraiso Production Diffusion and Jérôme Vidal’s Noodles from France and Roberto Rodríguez’s Elamedia and Luis Miñarro’s Eddie Saeta from Spain have teamed to co-produce Javier Rebollo’s “Dans la chambre du Sultan.” A multi-prized Spanish film director, Rebollo won San Sebastian’s best director with “La mujer sin piano” (The Woman Without a Piano) and
This year’s Tokyo International Film Festival will give gala positions to two American movies. Clint Eastwood’s “Cry Macho” has been set as the opening night title and will play on Oct. 30. Stephen Chbosky’s “Dear Evan Hansen” has been announced as the title for the feelgood closer on Nov. 8, 2021. “TIFF plans to hold
Nigerian media conglomerate EbonyLife Media and Sony Pictures Television (SPT) have set Alo, an initiative offering a platform for writers of African heritage. The word Alo is from the Yoruba language and translates as “once upon a time.” The initiative will open Sept. 24 through Nov. 5, when writers can submit their television scripts and
Reggaeton star, actor and philanthropist Don Omar has signed a multiyear partnership with Saban Music Group (SMG). The label founded by entertainment giant Haim Saban and headed by CEO Gustavo López is home to such acts as Static and Ben El, Nakkia Gold and Chesca, among others. “I am thrilled to be joining forces with
Influencer marketing platform company CreatorIQ is acquiring analytics provider Tribe Dynamics in a deal worth around $70 million, sources tell Variety. For marketers, the deal combines Tribe Dynamics’ analytics and benchmarking solutions — which have focused on beauty and fashion brands — with the ability to make those insights actionable through CreatorIQ’s Creator Intelligence Cloud,
Narrowing down the best Basque projects on the horizon has become increasingly difficult in recent years, as the region is experiencing a boom in both the quality and quantity of local production that has made prognostication more difficult than ever. Below, Variety has picked 20 projects from that crowded field which we will be tracking
A fast-changing audiovisual ecosystem in Europe has spawned new initiatives in a bid to level the playing field among established media companies and streaming platforms. The European Union has adopted the new Creative Europe 2021-2017 program with a hefty budget increase that is now being implemented with a Media and Audiovisual Action Plan introduced last
In “Blue Moon,” young Irina dreams of University in Bucharest while her chaotic, rural family serves to undermine her future. Alina Grigore’s directorial debut premiers in competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival, and follows Irina’s psychological take on ‘blood for blood.’ Grigore – who wrote and starred in Berlinale prize-winning film “Illegitimate” – moves
International documentary film festival IDFA has revealed the first films selected for its 34th edition, which runs Nov. 17-28 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. These are the program curated by the event’s guest of honor, the German filmmaker, media artist and writer Hito Steyerl, and a selection of four films directed by Armenia’s Artavazd Pelechian, who
A bevy of owners of local TV stations have already moved to stop selling ads based on traditional TV ratings. Nielsen intends to start helping the effort next year. The measurement giant, which has been under scrutiny in recent months for what media and advertising companies believe is a slower approach to transforming its long-held
Finnish series “Mister8,” produced by It’s Alive Films and sold internationally by Federation Entertainment, will celebrate its international premiere at Canneseries. The series festival will take place on Oct. 8-13 in Cannes, alongside the 37th edition of the MipTV market. Starring Krista Kosonen (spotted in “Blade Runner 2049”) and Pekka Strang, reuniting after their 2019
Sky Original’s fifth and final season of “Gomorrah,” RTL Group and Beta Film’s German-language “Sisi,” and Canal Plus’ hip-hop themed “All The Way Up” will — rather fittingly — join the David Tennant-led, Slim Film+Televison/Federation co-produced “Around the World in 80 Days” for an internationally accented edition of Canneseries, which plays from Oct. 8-13. Running
There’s a new kid in town, who is actually an old kid in town, at the Basque public broadcaster EiTB. After 15 years working at Discovery in the U.K. – latterly as its VP, editorial department, EMEA – Unai Iparragirre has returned to his native Northern Spain and taken over as director of ETB, the
Eva Longoria, Anne Hathaway, Debbie Allen, Peter Dinklage, Richard Gere, Connie Britton and other Hollywood notables have signed an open letter urging world leaders to make COVID-19 vaccines widely available in developing countries. On Tuesday, humanitarian organization Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) released the open letter with more than 70 signatures from prominent
Transparent Arts, an Asian-American talent management firm, has come on board as producer of Korean drama series “Idol: The Coup.” In South Korea, the show will premiere on JTBC this winter. International rights are held by iQiyi, the Chinese streaming platform. The series is a 12-episode drama about a failing K-pop girl group called Cotton
Shares in Universal Music Group surged by more than a third in the first minutes of trading on Tuesday, following an initial public offering (IPO). Ten minutes into the trading session, shares were changing hands at €25.61 on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. That is a 38% leap compared with the €18.50 figure that the
Undeterred by the pandemic, the Zurich Film Festival kicks off this month with an impressive lineup that includes its biggest ever film, James Bond pic “No Time to Die,” which is set to screen just minutes after its Sept. 28 world premiere in London. Zurich was one of the few major fests to have a
Some 68% of teens say that seeing positive portrayals of mental health conditions on-screen breaks down stigma, a survey commissioned by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has found. The research, conducted by YouGov, also reveals that 48% said that seeing these positive depictions helps them understand issues around mental health, can act as
Fresh off another win at Finland’s Jussi Awards, this time for his short film “The Bouncer,” Aleksi Salmenperä is already in post-production with his upcoming feature “Bubble,” about to be presented at Helsinki International Film Festival’s industry event Finnish Film Affair in its Fiction in Progress section. “I was sort of embarrassed by this win,”
Syrian director and producer Diana El Jeiroudi spent 12 years making “Republic of Silence,” her decidedly non-conventional documentary, perhaps better described as a personal video diary, depicting the turmoil of Syria’s civil war seen from the outside. This sprawling non-linear work that jumps between Syria and her present home in Berlin and comprises the plight
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the series premiere of “Ordinary Joe.” “Ordinary Joe,” NBC’s latest tearjerker drama, starts simply enough with the eponymous young man (played by James Wolk) graduating from college. He is at a time in his life where the world is both widely open to him, but
Following a string of celebrity scandals, Chinese officials have told young filmmakers entering China’s top film school that their foremost task is to develop the “moral cultivation” necessary to further China’s rise in the world. The Beijing Film Academy, cradle of the country’s top filmmaking talent, last week opened a major new campus in the
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the series premiere of “The Big Leap.” “The Big Leap,” the title of Simone Recasner’s new television series, has multiple meanings for the rising star. It is the name of the reality dance competition within the show, on which the main characters are competing, in