Without Wendy Chinchilla Araya, the dancer and first-time film actress playing the title role, “Clara Sola” would be a finely wrought tale of a later-life coming-of-age, in which mysticism, marginalization and sudden sexual jealousy collide on the fringes of a teeming Costa Rican forest. With her, and her feral movements and her keen but wary
Kanye West is claiming that Universal Music Group, parent company to the label Def Jam, released his new album “Donda” without his approval. In an Instagram post on Sunday — just hours after the long-anticipated “Donda” was released around 8 a.m. — West wrote: “UNIVERSAL PUT MY ALBUM OUT WITHOUT MY APPROVAL AND THEY BLOCKED
The term “forced assimilation” has a violence encoded into it that brutalizes the bleak heart of Vladimir Munkuev’s “Nuuccha,” a meticulously re-created if unevenly dramatized portrait of the hardships and humiliations suffered by the indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia’s Yakutia region in the waning years of the Russian Empire. Based on a short story by
Does life, once you’ve lived it for a little while, always have to get in the way of love? The simple question posed by German director Lisa Bierwith’s sedate but absorbing class- and culture-clash mid-life romance “Le Prince,” is one that can’t be answered simply, in grand declaratives or sweeping generalizations. So it feels right
When news broke Sunday that Ed Asner died at 91, Hollywood took to social media to pay tribute to the legendary actor, activist and philanthropist. The former president of the Screen Actors Guild, Asner is best known for playing Lou Grant in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spinoff series “Lou Grant.” He also
Seven-time Emmy-winning actor Ed Asner, who starred as Lou Grant on both sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and hourlong drama “Lou Grant” before a late-career rejuvenation through his poignant voicework in 2009 animated film “Up,” has died. He was 91. His publicist confirmed the news to Variety, writing that he died on Sunday surrounded by
Portugal’s SPi and Iceland’s Glassriver have attached Sérgio Graciano to direct Icelandic-Portuguese crime drama “Cold Haven,” a project which links two of the fastest-expanding TV producers on the western Europe seaboard. Lisbon-based SPi is the company behind Portugal’s first Netflix Original series, the upcoming “Gloria.” It also co-produced “Dry Water,” a pioneering drive into premium
Seven-time Emmy-winning actor Ed Asner, who starred as Lou Grant on both sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and hourlong drama “Lou Grant” before a late-career rejuvenation through his poignant voicework in 2009 animated film “Up,” has died. He was 91. His publicist confirmed the news to Variety, writing that he died on Sunday surrounded by
SignUp, a new Google Chrome extension, overlays ASL captions on three Disney Plus movies — “Moana,” “Zootopia” and “The Incredibles.” Founded by Mariella Satow, the free tool was created because many members of the deaf community find that written captions lack vibrancy or aren’t descriptive enough, or are absent from media sites entirely. According to
Everyone keeps asking average German 30-somethings Michael and Dina when they’re going to get married, long after they’ve moved in together, and still after they have a child. Their non-answer is always the same: They’ve been thinking about it; they’ll get around to it; there just hasn’t been time. It’s not as if anyone’s really
Keshet International (KI) has completed high-profile licensing deals with WarnerMedia Latin America and Spain’s Filmin TV on “Pørni,” the heartwarming Norwegian comedy-drama created by and starring “Lilyhammer” actor Henriette Steenstrup. Steenstrup, who won a Dragon Award at Goteborg Festival in 2020 for her performance in “Beware of Children,” stars in the bittersweet series as a
ABC News will turn to an insider to lead its flagship morning program, “Good Morning America,” one of the most critical roles in live television. Simone Swink, a longtime senior staffer at the show, has been named its senior producer, according to a memo sent to employees by Kim Godwin, president of ABC News Sunday.
In its continued bid to explore new fiction content, Spain’s Mediacrest has joined forces with Chilean shingle Maria Wood Prods. to co-produce sci-fi series, “Humanity.” This is the fledgling three-year-old company’s first collaboration with a Chilean producer and also its first with a Latin American company. To be presented at Series Mania, the Mars-based series
Newen Connect, the distribution arm of the TF1-owned group Newen Group, has boarded “Balaton Brigade,” a prestige historical spy thriller series directed by Ildikó Enyedi, the Oscar-nominated Hungarian director of “On Body and Soul” and “The Story of My Wife” which competed at Cannes. Created by Gábor Krigler (“Terapia”), Balázs Lengvel (“Thos Janos”) and Balázs
Lee “Scratch” Perry, the eccentric, revolutionary Jamaican producer, songwriter and performer whose influence extended far beyond his historic role in the development of reggae music, died Sunday at a hospital in Lucea, Jamaica at age 85. No cause of death was immediately given. The news was confirmed in a tweet from Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew
In the run up to Series Mania, European network Arte and German public broadcaster NDR have boarded “Helsinki Syndrome,” a contemporary Nordic Noir thriller series headlined by “Vikings” star Peter Franzén and created by Mikko Oikkonen (“Bordertown”). “Helsinki Syndrome” is the first series jointly produced by Beta Film and leading Finnish production banner Fisher King
“Candyman” was summoned to the top of domestic box office charts, collecting an impressive $22.37 million in its first three days of release. The R-rated slasher film, written by Jordan Peele and directed by “Captain Marvel 2” filmmaker Nia DaCosta, surpassed industry expectations despite fears the delta variant would keep people from going to the
After five weeks, four official public listening sessions and millions of words of speculation from the media, Kanye West finally released his “Donda” album to streaming services on Sunday morning. It is unclear when the album was actually posted, but a press release from West’s label, Def Jam, arrived at around 8:15 a.m. ET. The
The industry centerpiece at Series Mania’s Forum, Monday’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions take on a special relevance this year as the number of admissions have almost doubled – up to 560, near twice the usual number, says Series Mania director Francesco Capurro. “Producers have had more time to develop with COVID-19. Projects run a wide gamut. The idea is tat there
Chosen as this year’s recipient of the President’s Award at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Ethan Hawke discussed his career, projects – including a potential new film with his long-time collaborator Richard Linklater – and the ongoing pandemic. At a roundtable discussion with journalists, Hawke opened up about his next possible movie project with Linklater. The
The recent horrors in Afghanistan have once more exposed the callousness with which too many residents of Europe and the U.S. speak of refugees, whereby displaced human lives become numbers, coldly counted and ranked on a long list of national priorities: not people to be saved, but problems to be solved. If there’s room for
Kanye West and Drake‘s beef has trickled into real life harassment — some fan(s) of the latter took it upon themselves to hit up Ye’s childhood home with some hateful words in tow. Photos surfaced this weekend of three different signs that appear to have been left on the front steps of the South Shore
The Rolling Stones posted a video on Friday honoring their late drummer Charlie Watts, who died on Tuesday. The two-minute video, shared on the band’s official Twitter and Instagram, is a slideshow of photos and videos of Watts playing in the band, appearing in music videos, addressing the press and more, edited to the beat
On the one-year anniversary of Chadwick Boseman’s death, several of his friends, collaborators and admirers took to social media to honor him and his work. Boseman, famous for playing the titular role in Marvel’s “Black Panther” among many other films, died of colon cancer at age 43 on Aug. 28, 2020. His passing came as
Migration drama “As Far as I Can Walk,” directed by Stefan Arsenijevic, won the top prize at the 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Saturday, commended by the critics for its nuanced portrayal of the realities of refugees’ lives. The joint Serbia/France/Luxembourg/Bulgaria/Lithuania production, starring Ibrahim Koma and Nancy Mensah-Offei and inspired by a Serbian
Marvel Studios is searching for a Latino actor to lead an untitled Halloween special for Disney Plus, Variety has confirmed. The special could be based on “Werewolf by Night,” which would denote two separate characters in the Marvel comic book universe. The first, Jack Russell, debuted in the comic “Marvel Spotlight #2” in February 1972. Russell has
Rory Kennedy, documentary filmmaker and daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, posted a statement signed by five of her siblings condemning the recent parole recommendation of Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated her father. A California parole board recommended Sirhan, 77, for release from prison on Friday. Sirhan’s case now goes to Gov. Gavin Newson for
Matthew Mindler, a child actor known for his role in the 2011 film “Our Idiot Brother,” was found dead on Saturday after being reported missing from his university. He was 19. His college, Millersville University in Pennsylvania, announced the news in an email to its student body on Saturday. “It is with a grieving heart
The upcoming Venice Film Festival is set to become a focal point for discussion on the crisis underway in Afghanistan and how it is impacting filmmakers and Afghan artists in general as the Taliban take power. As previously reported by Variety, Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi, who is the first woman president of the country’s national
Netflix has picked up “Manifest” for a fourth and final season 10 weeks after NBC canceled the drama. The streamer has also announced that this upcoming new season will consist of 20 episodes, which is more than any one season received on NBC. (The first consisted of 16 episodes, while the second and third consisted