Italian film critic and academic Beatrice Fiorentino has been appointed new general delegate of the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, the Lido’s independently run section dedicated to promising first works from around the world. Fiorentino — who was previously a member of the section’s selection committee — had been widely expected to replace her predecessor
Spain-based Onza Distribution will use Singapore’s Asian Television Forum as the launchpad in Asia for a slate of recent series hits and some upcoming shows. The Madrid-based company handles sales of its own content, as well as telenovelas from TVI and fiction series from Movistar Latam. Under a recent deal, Onza also added representation of
Spain’s Luis López Carrasco picked up the Best International Film prize for his documentary “The Year of the Discovery” (“El año del descubrimiento”) on Sunday at Argentina’s Mar del Plata, the only Latin American film fest granted a Category A status by producers assn. FIAPF, placing it in the same league as Cannes, Venice, San
This week, Variety published a digital Guadalajara Film Festival Spotlight, diving into one of Mexico’s most important market and festival events, rescheduled and reorganized after it was forced to cancel in March. FICG 35.2, as it was playfully dubbed, hosted the first-ever Un Festival Mexicano, offering a platform to other events which were canceled or
Spearheaded by Cannes Film Market and Argentina’s INCAA agency, Ventana Sur, Latin America’s biggest movie market, will put through an out-of-the-box reset of market dynamics. Running Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, it will also register the energetic and exciting build up of women on the Latin American film scene, as directors, producers and market playmakers.
Two leading lights on the international Spanish film-TV scene, sales agent Geraldine Gonard, director of Spain’s Conecta Fiction co-production forum, and Luis Collar, a partner and CEO of The Circular Group, a diversified film company, have joined forces to create Feel Content, which makes its public market bow at Ventana Sur. A dedicated sales company,
In a powerful Spanish talent package, “Patria” director Felix Viscarret is set to direct “House of Flowers” Paco Leon and “Nasdrovia” star Leonor Watling in psychological thriller “From the Shadows” (“Desde la Sombra”), adapting a novel by Spanish writer Juan José Millas, winner of most of Spain’s foremost literary awards, including the Planeta, Nadal and
Japanese entertainment group Nippon Television is using the Asian Television Forum in Singapore this week to launch hit series “A Girl of 35” as a scripted format. The underlying drama has been airing on Nippon TV since October. The show follows a young girl who in 1995, age 10, has a freak accident and is
Eric Bana, Isla Fisher, Guy Pearce, Jacki Weaver, Tim Minchin and Keith Urban have joined the voice cast of Netflix’s animated comedy adventure “‘Back to the Outback,” which will make is global debut in the fall of 2021. The voice cast will also include Miranda Tapsell, Angus Imrie, Rachel House, Keith Urban, Celeste Barber, Wayne
Among Ventana Sur’s most buzzed titles, and a strong indicator of the heft that animation production now carries, “Unicorn Wars” from Alberto Vazquez (“Birdboy: The Forgotten Children,” “Homeless Home”), holds the unique distinction of being the first-ever non Latin American animated film to feature at the Argentine event’s Animation! Sidebar. Having participated at several high-profile
The box office outlook in South Korea, which last year was the world’s fourth largest theatrical market, turned from bad to worse. Gross revenues over the weekend dropped to just $2.24 million, a slump of 40% compared with the already depressed $3.70 million total of the weekend before. In the intervening period cinemas in the
Timothy Leary, the rock-star professor of 1960s acid-head mysticism, had a grin that said a lot about him. He was quite handsome, with that mane of silver-dark hair, the jutting chin and Irish eyes, that gleaming wall-of-teeth smile. He looked like a Kennedy brother who never was — a counterculture guru who could have doubled
“Waikiki” and “Hawaiian Soul” won the Made in Hawai’i awards at the the 40th edition of the Hawai’i International Film Festival. The awards were announced at a virtual gala held Sunday. “Waikiki” is described as a dramatic and visceral allegory for the contemporary issues that plague Hawaii’s people, including mental illness, physical abuse and the
Over a decade later, Carey Mulligan may finally be able to return to an Oscars ceremony as a nominee with “Promising Young Woman.” In 2009, the London-born performer delivered her breakout role in Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” and mustered an Oscar nomination for best actress. Since then, she’s been caught in what I call “one-nomination
“Orange Is the New Black” star and LGBTQ+ advocate Laverne Cox took to Instagram on Saturday to share that she and her friend were the victims of a transphobic attack that has left her “in shock.” In an IGTV video, Cox detailed that she went for a socially-distanced walk with a friend in Los Angeles’
After news broke Sunday morning that David Prowse — the actor behind Darth Vader’s armor in the original “Star Wars” trilogy — had died, members of the franchise came together to honor him. Prowse died on Saturday at age 85 after suffering from an illness. Though James Earl Jones voiced the famous villain in “Star
The Thanksgiving break has done little to calm the anger over the Grammy Awards’ baffling shutout of The Weeknd and several other artists from the 2021 nominations, and on Saturday Halsey — who was herself shut out from nominations — took to Instagram to air her feelings on the issue, as have Drake, Elton John, Kid
“Doctor Who” is bringing in 2021 with an action-packed New Year’s Day special titled “Revolution of the Daleks.” The trailer highlights the slew of guest stars that appear in the special, including John Barrowman, who will reprise his role as Captain Jack Harkness; Chris Noth as Jack Robertson, Dame Harriet Walker and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. And,
Disney Plus has updated the Marvel logo introduction to “Black Panther” in honor of what would have been Chadwick Boseman’s 44th birthday. Disney Plus redesigned the Marvel logo intro to “Black Panther” to honor Boseman on Nov. 29. Boseman, who played T’Challa/Black Panther, died on Aug. 28 following a four-year battle with colon cancer. Walt
The death of soccer legend Diego Maradona has now triggered a criminal investigation, and his personal doctor appears to be in the crosshairs of the probe. Police searched the office and home of Dr. Leopoldo Luque … Diego’s doctor. The raid followed several witnesses reportedly telling authorities they had seen Diego and the doctor fighting
U.K. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has demanded that Netflix label “The Crown” as fiction, in order to make it clear that certain events depicted in the show should not be taken as fact. In an interview with Daily Mail, Dowden said: “It’s a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions, Netflix
Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the most popular times to go to the movies. Crowd pleasers like “Frozen,” “Coco” and “Knives Out” have propelled attendance and generated many, many millions in ticket sales over the holiday weekend in years past, cementing various box office records to boot. This year, studios and movie theater owners are
Gerardo Naranjo’s “Kokoloko” took home the Premio Mezcal for best Mexican film at the hybrid 35th Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG), which wrapped Friday, Nov. 27. The love triangle drama signals a return to the big screen for Naranjo who has spent nearly a decade after his 2011 hit “Miss Bala” directing episodes of such high-profile
Russian director Victor Kossakovsky returned to documentary festival IDFA – where he has been a frequent guest, and won awards with “Pavel and Lyalya” and “Belovy” – with “Gunda,” a film that made a statement in more ways than one. Shot entirely in black and white, without voiceover or music, it documents the life and
Sam Pollard’s “MLK/FBI” follows the dirty war that America’s FBI declared on civil rights figurehead Martin Luther King, a vendetta that began in the 50s and ended with his assassination in 1968, inspired by recent revelations (as well as credible long-held suspicions), and backed up by declassified secret government documents. Documentary festival IDFA, which runs
In 2015, desperate to get his favorite band, Foo Fighters, to play in Cesena, a small town near Rimini, Italian marine geologist Fabio Zaffagnini came up with a rather unorthodox solution. Reportedly inspired by the prank pulled by the team of “School of Rock,” which saw Jack Black and Richard Linklater asking Led Zeppelin to
David Prowse, the British actor best known for playing Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, has died at the age of 85, his agents have confirmed. Prowse died on Saturday after an illness. “It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our
The Pakistan Academy Selection Committee has selected Sarmad Khoosat’s “Circus of Life” (aka “Zindagi Tamasha”) as the country’s entry in the 2020 Oscars’ international feature category. The film had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in 2019, where it won the prestigious Kim Ji-seok award. Set in Lahore, the film chronicles the
Netflix has enjoyed a run of good luck with a string of music documentaries in the last year: films about Taylor Swift, Blackpink and J Balvin that, even if they were commissioned by the stars or their management, managed to hit upon fascinating aspects of those artists’ careers at a moment that made for solid
Alex Winter, the “Bill and Ted’s” actor who is himself a noted director and producer, saw in Frank Zappa’s story an icon who embodied everything about music and culture in the 1970s. At the same time, he wanted to capture the man behind the myth. With the blessing of Zappa’s wife, Gail, he and producer