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Dubai-based distribution and production outfit Oceana Studios has picked up worldwide sales rights to thriller “Tonic,” starring Billy Blair (“Doc Holliday”) and Ed Westwick (“Gossip Girl”). Written and directed by Derek Presley (“Boon”) and produced by U.S. production company Muscular Puppy, the film follows Sebastian Poe (Blair), a washed-up piano player performing across seedy jazz

The third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, wrapping Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, felt like a direct response to a burning question from executives and investors present at the festival’s market arm last year: Could Saudi Arabia step out from drama and comedy and head into genre filmmaking? The answer offered by the

A documentary on revered filmmaker James Ivory is part of an eclectic slate from Min(d) Studio, New York, it was revealed on the sidelines of Singapore’s Asia TV Forum and Market. The boutique studio, the brainchild of Dev Benegal (New York City), Maya Patel (London and Hong Kong), Neeraj Jain (Los Angeles), came together during

Singapore‘s Robot Playground Media (RPM) and Valencia-based co-producer TV ON Producciones (TOP) have commenced production on animated feature film “The Violinist,” it was revealed at the Asia TV Forum and Market. The film was unveiled at a presentation attended by the representatives of Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Spanish Embassy in Singapore.

With her debut feature “Tiger Stripes,” Malaysian writer-director Amanda Nell Eu joins an exciting group of directors who provide subversive takes on genre and body horror. Julia Ducournau and “Raw” comes to mind, as do Agnieszka Smoczynska and “The Lure” and John Fawcett and “Ginger Snaps” — like David Cronenberg before them. Eu, an MA

Greed may not be good, but it is universal. And while America would appear to have a monopoly on movies about the pursuit of wealth for wealth’s sake, plenty of other nations have exported their version of the rags-to-riches tale — of which Saudi Arabia’s Oscar submission, “Alhamour H.A.,” is just the latest. Like its

The prospect of a picket line outside the Beverly Hilton on Golden Globe Awards day has been averted now that the hotel has reached a tentative agremeent to end the weeks-old walkout. The hotel and Unite Here Local 11 released a joint statement on Friday afternoon. “Together the iconic Beverly Hilton and its employees set

Palestinian refugees have been arriving in the slum district of Sabra and Shalila on the outskirts of Beirut since what Israel calls the War of Independence in 1948. Forty-four years later, their presence (and that of suspected PLO fighters) got targeted in a mid-September massacre by the Christian militia known as Lebanese Forces, executed while

Julia Roberts is an icon of the romantic-comedy genre, but there’s one famous rom-com the Oscar-winner happened to turn down: Nora Ephron’s 1998 classic “You’ve Got Mail.” Roberts revealed the scoop during a recent appearance on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live.” Ephron’s film memorably paired Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the story of business

The toxicity of patriarchal masculinity has become such a well-worn trope in pop culture (and especially in recent Colombian cinema) that it’s hard to remember its effects continue unabated in streets and households all over the world, and in that Latin American country specifically. And so, while Fabián Hernández’s central concerns in his simply-titled film,

Shot in dense, high-contrast black and white, writer-director C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s “Mami Wata,” unspools like a mysterious dream. It’s both inscrutable and hypnotic, delivering indelible images while remaining narratively opaque. Billed as a “West African folklore,” its story could be taken as a straightforward fable about tradition vs. modernity and how power corrupts. But as

Oscar-nominated actor Ryan O’Neal, who came to prominence on TV’s “Peyton Place” and became a top star of the 1970s in films including “Love Story,” “What’s Up, Doc?,” “Paper Moon” and “Barry Lyndon,” died Friday, his son Patrick said on Instagram. He was 82. O’Neal was diagnosed with chronic leukemia in 2001 and with prostate

Netflix‘s board has approved 2024 pay packages of its top execs, with co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters each to receive compensation worth $40 million. For Sarandos, $40 million is the same level of pay he is set to receive in 2023, while Peters is getting a 5% step-up from the $34.65 million in target

It’s impossible to imagine “The Devil Wears Prada” without Meryl Streep‘s icy, Oscar-nominated performance as Miranda Priestly, but it turns out there was initial resistance to casting the acting icon in the 2006 classic. During a recent appearance on the “Hollywood Gold” podcast, producer Wendy Finerman revealed Streep was almost passed over for the role because

Lena Waithe can’t be anymore direct when talking about “A Thousand and One,” writer-director A.V. Rockwell’s feature film debut. “Films like this oftentimes are not always seen or recognized by the Academy,” says Waithe, a producer on the Sundance Film Festival winner. The film follows Inez (Teyana Taylor), a woman recently released from prison who

A judge on Friday certified a class action lawsuit that alleges that Disney paid 9,000 women less than their male counterparts. The suit is the largest ever certified under California’s Equal Pay Act, which makes it illegal for workers to be paid less for substantially similar work based on their gender. Lori Andrus, the plaintiffs’

Jonathan Majors‘ ex-girlfriend finished her testimony Friday — her fourth day on the witness stand in the “Creed III” actor’s trial for his alleged assault earlier this year. Two more witnesses, including the police officer who arrested Majors in March, also testified. After the defense’s cross-examination on Thursday, Grace Jabbari returned to the stand for

George C. Wolfe has a way with actors, having worked with the best of the best on stage and screen, from the original staging of “Angels in America” to guiding Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis to Oscar noms in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” In his latest film “Rustin,” now playing on Netflix, Wolfe has again

A young boy is fleeing war after his father is killed. All alone in the world, he finds a treasure map that will change his life — and give him the chance to heal from trauma. The plot of “Saleem” — Jordan’s first feature-length animation — is a universal story of the horrors so many

It didn’t take long for America Ferrera to find the personal connection in the speech she delivers as Gloria in the box-office smash “Barbie.” “I think when we’re not historically meant to be in a room, it’s very difficult to show up in those spaces as your whole self,” she says on Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “Because