The Berlin Film Festival has revealed its juries, and the addition of Liu Jian’s animated feature “Art College 1994” to its competition lineup, which now has 19 films and is complete. In addition to the already announced actor Kristen Stewart as president, the International Jury members will be actor Golshifteh Farahani (Iran/France), director and writer
Producer Gene Klein has joined P3 Media, the production banner behind Netflix’s “The Recruit,” as a partner. Klein will lead development efforts for the company formed in 2018 by journalist and producer Adam Ciralsky. Klein and Ciralsky are already working together as executive producers on “Recruit,” which was inspired by Ciralsky’s early career as a
Melissa McCarthy has won notice for films ranging from “Brideesmaids” to “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” Preparations for her next project have been pretty intense. “A Super Bowl ad requires a lot more raw eggs and squats!” McCarthy tells Variety via email. She ought to know. After making an appearance in a Super Bowl commercial
“Mutt,” the Sundance prize-winning feature debut of New York-based filmmaker Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, has been boarded by Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever. “Mutt,” which just won the Special Jury Award for actor Lío Mehiel (“WeCrashed”) at Sundance, will next play at the Berlin Film Festival in the Generation 14+ strand. CAA Media Finance is handling North
The 52nd annual Juno Awards, Canada’s answer to the Grammys, will take place on March 13 in Edmonton, Alberta. Leading the contenders is the Weeknd with six nominations, including the TikTok Juno Fan Choice prize, the only category voted on by the public. He is also up for single, album, artist, songwriter and pop album.
Berlin market-bound “The Trouble With Jessica,” which stars Rufus Sewell, Shirley Henderson and Olivia Williams, has launched its first trailer. It is being repped for global sales by Parkland Pictures. The black comedy tells the story of two couples who find themselves having to move a dead body to ensure their imminent house sale doesn’t
A new independent film academy has launched out of Belarus to support the country’s independent artists. The Belarusian Film Academy (BIFA) will officially launch during this month’s Berlin Film Festival, where an industry presentation will be made in partnership with the European Film Market. The org has been set up in response to a “constant
Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz and Todd Haynes’ “May December,” starring Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, are among the new titles added to the Sky Cinema 2023 original films slate. The slate also includes “Bonus Track,” a coming-of-age queer love story created by Josh O’Connor and Michael Gilbert, starring
Indian production house Reliance Entertainment, best known in the streaming space for Netflix’s “Sacred Games,” has 10 shows greenlit for development and four in production. The company, which is a producer on Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” entered the streaming space in 2018 and produced 13 shows in five years. These include “Ghoul” and “Family Tandoncies”
Returning to Johannesburg cinemas for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Joburg Film Festival kicked off its 5th edition with a joyful relaunch on Tuesday night, as local luminaries walked a gold carpet in Nelson Mandela Square in honor of the festival’s slogan, “Our Stories. Our Gold,” and
Filmmakers Milad Alami (“Opponent,” “When the Dust Settles”), Kasper Barfoed (“The Chestnut Man,” “Trom”) and up-and-coming creatives Emma Sehested Høed and Jennifer Vedsted Christiansen are some of the Scandi talents plotting projects for the new Danish production banner Uma Film, formerly Good Company Films. The Copenhagen-based shingle is run by three pedigreed female producers with
Ozzy Osbourne, a defining singer of heavy metal, has apparently retired from touring for health reasons, he announced in a statement late Tuesday regarding the cancellation of his European tour . The announcement is buried in the fourth paragraph of the statement, but its intent seems clear: “Never would I have imagined that my touring
Netflix is re-teaming with SF Studios on “The Conference,” a high-concept Swedish comedy slasher film based on a novel by Mats Strandberg, one of Scandinavia’s most successful horror writers. Patrik Eklund (“We Got This”) directed the film with a cast led by Katia Winter (“Sleepy Hollow”), Adam Lundgren (“Hilma”) and Eva Melander (“Border”). Penned by
The Shanghai International Film Market will relocate to new premises as it makes a return in June 2023 as an in-person event. The Shanghai International Film Festival and the accompanying market were both cancelled last year due to the COVID crisis and China’s strict disease prevention response. This year’s festival will be a silver jubilee,
GÖTEBORG — Indie distributor Intramovies has signed on to handle international sales for the upcoming Finnish feature “Light Light Light.” Directed by Inari Niemi (“My Husband’s Wife,” “Wonderland,” “Summertime”), and produced by Oskari Huttu (“Summertime,” “Fanatics”) at Lucy Loves Drama, the film is an adaptation of the 2011 book “Valoa Valoa Valoa” by Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen. Writer-actress Juuli
The reclusive head of India’s Yash Raj Films, Aditya Chopra, has recorded his first on-camera interview for “The Romantics,” a Netflix documentary series celebrating his late father, the legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra. The last time Aditya Chopra, director of India’s longest-running film “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,” gave an interview was to a print magazine in
Copenhagen-based DR Sales has boarded the thought-provoking youth series “Get a Life” (“Stadig ikke død”) produced by one of Denmark’s longest running shingles, Nimbus Film, credited for the cult series “The Bridge” and last year’s biggest Danish movie hit “A Lucky Man”. The seven-part YA series, helmed by Daniel Kragh Jacobsen (“The Summerdahl Murders”) premiered
Novelist, screenwriter, film and television producer George Pelecanos has been tapped to receive the 2023 Honorary Orpheus Award in June by the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival (LAGFF). Known for his gritty crime fiction, Pelecanos has penned 21 novels set in and around Washington, D.C., and was a producer and writer on HBO series “The
Prolific actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu has been confirmed as the co-lead alongside Varun Dhawan in the Indian instalment of “Citadel,” an espionage action series created by the Russo brothers’ AGBO for Amazon’s Prime Video. Ruth Prabhu, who works primarily works in the southern Indian film industry, was the lead in 2022 thriller “Yashoda” and made an
In collaboration with “Clerks” mastermind Kevin Smith, Logic’s newest music video for his stoner anthem “Highlife” reunites the film’s cast. The video features Logic as the star at the original New Jersey Quick Stop set. “Clerks” (1994) follows clerks Dante and Randal’s daily debauchery at a New Jersey convenience store. “Clerks II” premiered in 2006
Courtney Valenti is in talks for a leadership film position at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, now under ownership of Amazon. The development comes after five months of speculation regarding MGM targeting Valenti, a seasoned production executive with decent talent relationships. Valenti exited her role as president of production and development for Warner Bros. Pictures in October 2022. Her
“Pathaan,” the new Bollywood espionage action spectacular, opened wide this past weekend in the U.S., where it took home an impressive tally of $9.5 million. That’s exactly what “RRR” made on its opening weekend in the U.S. close to a year ago — though, of course, that was before “RRR” went on to become a
Netflix has revealed the first images from “Hunger,” an upcoming Thai drama film in which a woman in her twenties chases her dreams in the unsavory world of fine dining. The film stars Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, locally known as ‘Aokbab’ and internationally recognized as the star of “Bad Genius,” in the lead role. She plays alongside
SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the Jan. 31 “9-1-1: Lone Star” on Fox. You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you? “9-1-1: Lone Star” fans were reminded what show they are watching with Monday’s installment of Ryan Murphy’s Fox first-responder drama, when fiancés T.K. Strand (Ronen Rubinstein) and Carlos
“The 1619 Project” creator Nikole Hannah-Jones needed just one word to describe what it was like to pose on the red-white-and-blue carpet with Oprah Winfrey. “Insane!” Hannah-Jones told Variety as she made her way down the line of reporters outside the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on Thursday night. “This was a
“Dr. Phil,” one of daytime TV’s stalwart talk shows, will end its run of original episodes in the spring after 21 seasons on the air. Dr. Phil McGraw, 72, made the decision to stop producing new episodes at the close of the current 2022-23 season. Distributor CBS Media Ventures hopes to keep the syndicated “Dr.
Mexican singer Marco Antonio Solis is still having a moment, and it will last all of 2023. On Jan. 30, the esteemed balladeer announced he’s going to embark on a solo tour that will make stops in 40 cities in North America and Spain later this year. The artist was in Miami to attend Marc Anthony’s
Producer and distributor, Media Ranch has begun representation of two Korean formats from DiTurn, the company of “The Masked Singer” creator Park Wonwoo. “Round Table” is a proven singing game-show format created by Park that was a hit in Korea on KBS 2. It involves celebrities without singing ability needing to sing to win the contest. “Love
CBS has ordered pilots for a reboot of “Matlock” starring Kathy Bates and a spinoff of “The Good Wife” starring Carrie Preston, Variety has learned. The new version of “Matlock” hails from Jennie Snyder Urman, who will write and executive produce the pilot under her Sutton Street Productions banner. Bates will executive produce in addition
BritBox has dropped the trailer for its miniseries “The Confessions of Frannie Langton,” which will premiere all four episodes March 8 in the United States. Starring Karla-Simone Spence in the lead role, “The Confessions of Frannie Langton” depicts a woman who is forcibly employed as a maid in a wealthy London household. When the estate’s