The competition section of China’s Pingyao Intl. Film Festival on Friday awarded top prizes to Russia’s Philipp Yuryev, Serbia’s Ivan Ilkic, and Chinese directors Li Dongmei and Wang Jing. The films of the first three helmers debuted at the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Venice Days section in September, where Yuryev’s “The Whaler Boy” won
British actor Amir El-Masry has been ubiquitous on international screens in the last five years, but like most Arab actors in the U.K., he’s reached his threshold for backward stereotypes, and is trying to forge his own narrative in the industry. Born in Egypt but raised in the U.K., El-Masry, who leads Ben Sharrock’s refugee
Tony-nominated actor Anthony Chisholm, known for his work in venerated playwright August Wilson’s final installment of the “Pittsburgh Cycle,” has died, his talent management company confirmed. He was 77. “The Katz Company is saddened to announce the passing of our longtime friend and client, Tony-Nominee, Anthony Chisholm,” president Jeremy Katz said. “Affectionately called ‘Chiz,’ he was
After a change of realtors and more than a year on and off the market, English former boybander Louis Tomlinson has finally succeeded in unloading his white elephant of a Hollywood Hills home, albeit at a precipitous loss. The 28-year-old’s 6,000-square-foot mansion, an architecturally fluid structure perhaps best-described as a neo-Georgian meets Art Deco-inspired contemporary
Mary Rahmani has been named Triller’s new global head of partnerships, the company announced today. She was most recently director of music content & artist partnerships, North America at TikTok, where she was responsible for cultivating and overseeing music entertainment collaborations, and appeared at Variety’s Music for Screens conference last year. Prior to joining TikTok,
Rhonda Fleming, star of the 1940s and ’50s who was dubbed the “Queen of Technicolor” and appeared in “Out of the Past” and “Spellbound,” died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif., according to her secretary Carla Sapon. She was 97. Fleming appeared in more than 40 films and worked with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock on
If you’re a fan of Pedro Pascal — the star of the Disney Plus series “The Mandalorian,” and the cover subject of the Oct. 14 issue of Variety — odds are high the first time you learned about the actor was during his run on Season 4 of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Pascal played Oberyn
A series of suicides in the Japanese entertainment world, including reality TV star Kimura Hana in May, actor Miura Haruma in July and actresses Ashina Sei and Takeuchi Yuko in September, have raised questions about not only their specific tragedies, but also conditions in Japanese society as a whole that may have contributed to an
Michael B. Jordan will produce “Static Shock,” a movie adaptation of the comic book unveiled by Reginald Hudlin during August’s DC FanDome. Jordan revealed on Friday that he will produce the pic through his Warner Bros.-based Outlier Society banner. Static, aka Virgil Hawkins, was created by Milestone Media and DC Comics in the 1990s. The
In today’s TV news roundup, ABC released a trailer for the fifth season of “American Housewife,” and Apple TV Plus is making the “Helpsters” Halloween special available for free. DATES ABC will debut its five-part docuseries, “Our America: Living While Black,” during the network-owned television stations’ newscasts from Oct. 19 to Oct. 23 and premiere
The Sinclair Broadcast Group will hold a town hall with President Donald Trump next Wednesday, one day before the final presidential debate. The event will be taped at the White House and moderated by Eric Bolling, the former Fox News host who left the network amid sexual harassment allegations in 2017. Bolling is now host
Courtesy Toe Lace-Up Balenciaga balenciaga.com $1,290.00 If you were concerned that it’s been quiet on the ugly shoe front, Balenciaga is here to shake things up. As they do. The label debuted a collaboration with the Italian brand Vibram on its fall-winter runway back in February, but they’re finally hitting the market today to fulfill
Sean “Diddy” Combs talked about his endorsement of Joe Biden for president and the launch of a Black political party during a conversation with Charlamagne Tha God that premiered Thursday. In a video uploaded by Revolt TV, the rapper also addressed his comment from earlier this year that Black people should “hold the vote hostage”
Writers Guild of America leaders have told their 15,000 members that powerhouse agencies CAA and WME still cannot represent them again after an 18-month standoff. The WGA, in an email sent on Friday afternoon, said the holdout agencies have not supplied enough details as to how they will comply with the guild’s demand that they
Variety‘s 10 Screenwriters to Watch panel at the Mill Valley Film Festival brought together a group of talented screenwriters who have penned some of the year’s most exciting films. The virtual event also included a one-on-one conversation with Variety‘s creative impact in screenwriting award recipient, Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look at his
“I don’t see how we could have made the film now had we not shot in Chicago,” writer and director Aaron Sorkin says of his new film “Trial of the Chicago 7,” now streaming on Netflix. Five decades after it took place, Aaron Sorkin tells the story of the seven defendants who were charged by
The sheer range of genres represented by this week’s new releases — from Liam Neeson thriller “Honest Thief” to romantic weepie “2 Hearts” — suggests that distributors of all kinds are doing their best to give audiences the kind of selection they enjoyed before the lockdown. Well, nearly all kinds of distributors. The major studios
The National Association of Latino Independent Producers has announced the winners of this year’s Latino Media Fest Awards. Winners will be announced at a virtual ceremony on Friday afternoon. “Pose” was named best Latinx TV show. Co-creator, writer, producer and director Steven Canals will accept the honor on the series’ behalf. Netflix’s Walter Mercado documentary
Jerry Harris will remain in custody until he stands trial in his child pornography case. A federal judge just denied bond for the star of Netflix’s popular docuseries, “Cheer.” As we reported, Harris’ had a bond hearing Wednesday in Texas, where the judge heard arguments for and against cutting him loose before his trial. The
Not that we haven’t said this often in the months since this column debuted, but what a week to drop a new jam, huh? We’ve already written at length about Demi Lovato having her “VOTE” message muzzled by NBC after she performed her new song “Commander in Chief,” which slams President Trump and his policies
President Donald Trump said on Friday that Savannah Guthrie had gone “totally crazy” during the NBC town hall on Thursday night. Speaking to a group of seniors in Fort Myers, Fla., Trump also weighed in on Joe Biden’s appearance on ABC, which he said he did not watch. “He wasn’t looking too good,” Trump said.
With characteristic modesty and humor, the Dardenne brothers opened up about their career at a masterclass in Lyon for the Lumière Festival, where they are receiving the Lumière Award for lifetime achievement. But before they answered the questions put to them by festival director Thierry Frémaux, the Belgian brothers graciously gave way to a couple
Early on in “Cicada,” a secondary character drops the old maxim, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, that art is never finished, only abandoned. It’s a pointed moment of self-awareness in a film of many. Writer-director-producer-editor-star Matthew Fifer’s debut feature processes lived experience into a cracked, anguished work of autofiction, raggedly cathartic and needfully unresolved as
“Star Trek: Discovery” has been renewed for Season 4 at CBS All Access. News of the renewal was announced in a video featuring series stars Sonequa Martin-Green and Doug Jones as well as executive producers and co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise. In addition, they announced that production on Season 4 will officially begin on
Executives at NBCUniversal, NBC News and the NBC broadcast network are not-so-quietly thanking an employee who has only limited command over the Comcast-owned company’s corporate direction: Savannah Guthrie. Guthrie’s handling of President Donald Trump during a town-hall broadcast organized in last-minute fashion by NBC News helped blunt waves of criticism of the media conglomerate, which
After more than two decades leading Warner Bros.’ television operations, chairman Peter Roth has decided to leave his perch at the storied TV studio. Roth is slated to step down in early 2021. He and WarnerMedia studios and networks group chief Ann Sarnoff had been discussing the transition for “some time,” per a statement from
Bea Kristi, the British singer-songwriter behind the tongue-twisting moniker Beabadoobee, is bringing ’90s indie-rock back — even though she was born in 2000. Some may recognize the Beabadoobee name from her 2017 hit “Coffee” — which boasts over 50 million streams on Spotify — or from Powfu’s recent remix of the track, “Death Bed (Coffee
Kate Hudson has signed on to star in Season 2 of the Apple drama series “Truth Be Told.” In her first regular television role, Hudson will appear alongside series lead Octavia Spencer. Spencer returns as Poppy Parnell, a true crime podcaster, in the second season. Hudson will play Micah Keith, a lifestyle guru and longtime
Thom Tillis received more than $30,000 from entertainment companies and their trade associations last quarter, as he tries to fight off a challenger in one of the key races that will determine control of the Senate. Lindsey Graham, who is also in a tough race, has received contributions from the Motion Picture Association, Comcast, AT&T
In the satirical horror film “Bad Hair,” which debuts Oct. 23 on Hulu, Elle Lorraine plays Anna, a young woman who adopts a new look in order to land a hosting gig at a “106 & Park”-like music countdown show. The hairstyle gets Anna the recognition she’s after, but it comes at a price. Though