Norway’s famous landscapes will be gracing screens around the world in a fresh crop of blockbusters and domestic productions set to be released internationally. Premiering in Venice out of competition, Denis Villeneuve’s long-awaited “Dune” features scenes shot on the West Cape plateau, one of the most spectacular view points on the coast of Norway. The
Eighteen months after the outbreak of the COVID crisis, the Norwegian film industry has never been busier. A combination of strict protocols, generous government programs and film-friendly measures has enabled the industry to resume production to answer the ever-growing demand for both domestic content and international co-productions. Norway’s cinematic landscapes have become a prized destination
Rising Russian director Vladimir Bitokov’s sophomore effort, “Mama, I’m Home,” bows this week in the Horizons sidebar of the Venice Film Festival. Following on the heels of his 2018 Karlovy Vary premiere “Deep Rivers,” it’s produced by two-time Academy Award nominee Alexander Rodnyansky (“Loveless,” “Leviathan”) and Sergey Melkumov. Wild Bunch Intl. is handling world sales.
From an immersive look at female immigrants in 17th century Amsterdam to a forensic analysis of a pre-World War II home movie, approaching history from different angles is a key theme among the Dutch films selected for Venice’s 78th edition. Running in Venice Days, “Three Minutes — A Lengthening” is a poetic documentary that centers
A perfect storm of titles previously delayed by the pandemic combined with features set to launch on the back of the Netherlands Film Festival later this month means that a bumper harvest of home-grown films is set for release in Dutch theaters this autumn. Anticipated titles include Alex van Warmerdam’s latest feature “No. 10,” which
Fran Drescher claimed victory in her race for president of SAG-AFTRA on Thursday night, and vowed to lock arms with her fellow union members and “rise up out of the melee.” Easier said than done. Drescher takes charge of a union that is famously fractious, and more divided than it has been in recent years.
With “Certified Lover Boy,” Drake’s has broken the 2021 record for most-streamed artist in a day on Apple Music. “Certified Lover Boy” is also Apple Music’s most-streamed album within a 24-hour period in 2021, achieving the honor just days after Kanye West’s “Donda” broke the record on the streaming platform.. The album debuted on Thursday
Reinaldo Marcus Green’s sports drama “King Richard” is shaping up to have the same advantage that propelled “The Blind Side” to a best actress Oscar for Sandra Bullock. Its centerpiece is Will Smith, who’s now at the forefront of what is going to be a cutthroat best actor race. “King Richard” is the “Rocky” of
2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The nation has continued to process the terrorist event over the past two decades in many ways, including through television specials, documentaries and dramatized retellings. On and before the anniversary, networks will air content unpacking the politics of the event, commemorating the victims, speaking with
SPOILER WARNING: Do not read this story if you haven’t seen “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” currently playing in theaters. While “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is one of the most stand-alone movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in years, the movie does contain one memorable callback to a
Last month, in response to being doxxed by Kanye West, as their feud escalated while their respective album releases approached, Drake posted the most carefree possible video of himself — chuckling in a convertible, the Toronto night sky gliding behind him, a lover’s heart etched into his hairline, beaming and seemingly even tickled by the threat.
Ecommerce grocer Thrive Market has launched a new movie theater-style popcorn, sourced from farmers who were left with a massive surplus of kernels after cinemas began to shut down during the pandemic. Now, Thrive members are able to purchase butterfly kernels, a fluffier variety typically only found at the movies, instead of the mushroom kernels
Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus announced on Thursday that in the wake of Texas Senate Bill 8 — which makes the country’s second-most populous state’s abortion ban the most restrictive not only the U.S., but one of the most restrictive in the world — she will donate the proceeds from the four Texas dates on her forthcoming tour
First a little girl goes missing, then her doll, in “The Lost Daughter,” a daring psychological drama in which what should have been an idyllic summer vacation on the Greek island of Spetses instead becomes a kind of overdue emotional workout for Olivia Colman’s character, Leda, who collapses on the beach, bleeding from her abdomen
The crowds outside the historic Sale Grande theater were chanting the name of an American superstar in Italy like it was the Oscars. On Friday night, Warner Bros. premiered “Dune” at the 78th annual Venice Film Festival, with a star-studded movie premiere that brought to mind how Hollywood used to throw a party in the
As a chef, Julia Child made no claims for herself as an innovator: Her mission was not to create new recipes, but to interpret and archive age-old French ones in ways the average American home cook could tackle without fear. Given her dual priorities of traditionalism and accessibility, then, she might well have appreciated “Julia,”
“You’re a Terminator,” Tokyo teen Ani (Miku Patricia Martineau) gapes to Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) after witnessing the bloodshed her kidnapper has brought down on two dozen yakuza now lying shot, stabbed, sizzled on a yakitori grill and very, very dead. Kate, the titular antihero of director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan’s vicious vengeance flick, is a grown-up
Alex Borstein, Yvette Nicole Brown, Justin Hartley, Padma Lakshmi, Mj Rodriguez and Brittany Snow have been named the 2021 honorees for the Creative Coalition’s 7th annual Television Humanitarian Awards. The event, to be held in-person on Saturday, Sept. 18 at the private residence of Academy Award-nominated producer Lawrence Bender, celebrates the charitable work of honorees
Award-winning Slovak documaker Peter Kerekes (“66 Seasons,” “Cooking History,” “Velvet Terrorists”) dips a toe in the fiction world with his rigorously researched Venice Horizons competitor “107 Mothers,” set inside a women’s prison in Ukraine. Made over five years and 86 shooting days, it reveals a cloistered world populated only by women: inmates, nurses and wardens,
The Rockaway Film Festival in Queens, N.Y. has announced its 2021 lineup for the Sept. 12-19 edition. Coinciding with the opening of a new outdoor theater, the first in Rockaway in over 20 years, the festival will play 12 feature films and 38 short films with a focus on highlighting filmmakers from the Rockaway Peninsula
It’s a bad day for everyone who only discovered “Dawson’s Creek” in recent years and had gotten married to the idea that Jann Arden’s “Run Like Mad” was the theme song for the 1998-2003 teen television series. For all of the show’s other fans, apart from that tiny, tiny sliver, it’s a good day, as
Amidst all the horrors of a war-torn decade that she would largely like to forget, one memory stands out for Kosovar filmmaker Kaltrina Krasniqi: the day her mother surprised the family with a VHS player. “We were so, so excited,” she tells Variety. “We really didn’t believe until she opened it that it was true.”
Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction masterclass “Dune” is looking like a prime candidate to follow movies like “Life of Pi,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Gravity” that amassed numerous nominations in the technical achievements categories. Though it’s early days for the awards season, the epic could be a contender in nearly every technical category: production design
Coming out the gate with his most personal and career topping achievement as a writer and director, Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” is a touching and moving portrait of childhood and family and the first movie I’ve seen this year that can be a best picture winner. Introducing the film with co-star Jamie Dornan, Branagh spoke about
The work of “Dune” costume designers Jacqueline West and Bob Morgan has caught the attention of fashion writers as well as film fans. It was an epic undertaking for the veteran costume designers. “Well, we’ve worked together many times and when this came up — when it was so large — she said, ‘would you collaborate on this with me?’ And I said, ‘of course.’ I adore
The first reviews for Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” are in, and the reactions are split. Ravenous sci-fi fanatics waited with bated breath as cast members Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem walked down the Venice Film Festival red carpet before the first-ever screening on Friday. After being delayed for more
Broadway took its next step toward reopening Thursday night, carefully and deliberately on the backs of two shows telling stories of fear and resilience. “Hadestown,” the 2019 Tony-winning best musical, and “Waitress,” returning again for a revival engagement starring Sara Bareilles, welcomed audiences into their theaters for the first time in nearly 18 months —
HBO Max has ordered a pilot for a potential “Dead Boy Detectives” series, Variety has learned exclusively from sources. Based on the DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman, the one-hour series would follow the Dead Boy Detectives — Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine — who decided not to enter the afterlife in order to
The past year and a half has been tumultuous for the television industry and world at large: The global COVID-19 pandemic caused production shutdowns that shifted series orders and release dates. Additionally, social unrest around the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others last summer, as well as the Jan. 6 riot at the
Maura Tierney is known for a slew of great television dramas that run the gamut from medical (“ER”) to complicated marriages (“The Affair”). But her two most recent series took on the timely topic of justice, and more specifically how far one might go to save a loved one from having to pay for his