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“The Debut” ended London Film Festival on a high note Sunday night as director Jesse Eisenberg and star Julianne Moore gushed over each other to a packed audience at the Royal Festival Hall. “I mean, this movie stars my favorite person, Julianne Moore,” Eisenberg began as the duo came onstage to introduce the musical comedy. […]
Sergei Loznitsa’s “Imperium,” which revisits the Soviet Union of the early 1970s through footage shot by Italian cameramen, has won the best film award at the 70th BFI London Film Festival competition. The prizes were unveiled Sunday as the festival drew to a close. The competition jury was led by filmmaker Sam Pollard, whose credits […]
Mahershala Ali broke down in tears on stage at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday as he recalled the young boy at the heart of “Moonlight.” The Barry Jenkins drama won him one of his two Oscars and recently marked its 10th anniversary. During a Screen Talk hosted by Amon Warmann, Ali was discussing […]
London Film Festival’s surprise film on Friday night was “I Play Rocky,” Peter Farrelly’s biographical drama about the beginnings of Sylvester Stallone’s beloved boxing franchise. Farrelly was on hand to introduce the movie and shouted out his star, newcomer Anthony Ippolito, who has already earned praise for his portrayal of Stallone. “I could do a […]
At a recent World Soundtrack Awards industry panel, composer Simon Franglen struck a common chord when talking about his work on “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” “We had hundreds of musicians in a room, pouring their emotion out in that precise second,” he recalled. “How can that ever be replicated by AI?” This year’s WSA Film […]
Jenna Ortega hopes that her new film, the dystopian sci-fi “Klara and the Sun,” can remind people to live in the moment in the age of AI and all-consuming technology. “I think we gotta put our focus on one another and put down the computers and phones,” the star told Variety on the red carpet […]
Marking the awards season kickoff, a starry crowd of filmmakers and talent including Jack O’Connell and Danny Boyle (“Ink”), Sandra Hüller (“Rose”), Taron Egerton (“Everybody Wants to F*ck Me”), Rosalind Eleazer (“Misty Green”), Billie Piper (“Elsinore”), Gemma Chan (“Josephine”) and Florian Zeller (“Bunker”) turned up at Variety‘s intimate yet glamorous dinner at Soho Mews House […]
Kirti Kulhari’s first feature as a producer, “Kinaare” (“Shores”), will premiere at the 15th Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF), which will open with Rima Das’ Berlin-awarded “Not a Hero.” The festival will run Oct. 29–Nov. 1 at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Upper Dharamshala, with an online edition to follow Nov. 2–9. Written and directed […]
Academy CEO Bill Kramer is set to make his first trip to Asia later this month. He will collect a leadership award at the Tokyo International Film Festival and also sit down with Toho president and CEO Matsuoka Hiro for a public conversation. The festival’s 39th edition runs Oct. 26–Nov. 4 and has built a […]
Sakhya Byamba’s “Zogsool” was the biggest winner at the Busan International Film Festival’s Vision Awards on Wednesday, taking home four prizes. The film won both the Netpac Award and the Fipresci Award, along with the Vision of Jiseok Award. It also shared the Hylife Vision Award with Sailesh Rathnakumar’s “Selvi,” which separately picked up the […]
British director Joanna Hogg (“The Souvenir,” “The Eternal Daughter”) will preside over the jury of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, which runs Oct. 15-23. Hogg, who is one of the U.K.’s leading auteurs, will also be giving a masterclass titled “Life Into Film” during the festival. Joining Hogg on the El Gouna jury panel will […]
On the night of Feb. 3, 1972, the prints of “Pakeezah” arrived at Bombay’s Maratha Mandir cinema in a palanquin pulled by four horses. Military bands played outside, police held back the thousands crowding the gates, and inside, the film’s star, Meena Kumari, sat beside her husband, director Kamal Amrohi, and gripped his wrist so […]
The upcoming Doha Film Festival will feature the world premieres of four feature films from Qatar, in what is being touted as a milestone. The tiny Arab state, which is rich in oil and gas, is branching out from the energy sector into the media and entertainment sphere. The revamped fest, now at its second […]
Oscar-winning French actor Marion Cotillard will preside over the competition jury at the 23rd Marrakech Film Festival in November. Alongside her to be announced jury members, the “Inception” and “Dark Knight Rises” star will lead the decision of which film is awarded the Étoile d’Or out of Marrakech’s international competition, which consists of first and […]
Cannes animated comedy “Jim Queen” has picked up a new batch of international sales after screening at the Busan International Film Festival, its first outing in Asia. Global Constellation, the sales arm of pan-European studio Vuelta, has closed deals with Prorom for the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. HBO has secured first-window […]
Cynthia Erivo spoke candidly about the importance of working with an intimacy coordinator on her new movie “Prima Facie” at a London Film Festival screen talk on Monday, saying that often “not enough credit is given” to them. In her first film role post “Wicked,” Erivo leads “Prima Facie” as Tessa Ensler, a successful defense […]
Isabelle Huppert has yet to be pushed aside by AI, the French star said at the Busan International Film Festival, though she has heard she may soon be speaking Korean and Japanese. “I didn’t know I spoke Korean. I just know how to say ‘annyeonghaseyo’ [hello],” Huppert said at a press conference for Marc Fitoussi’s […]
“Artificial” isn’t hitting theaters until December, but Andrew Garfield is already sparking Oscar buzz for his performance as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Luca Guadagnino’s tech tale, which follows the five-day period in 2023 when Altman was fired and then rehired, earned rave reviews after its world premiere at New York Film Festival last week. Both […]
A homecare nurse whose working day stretches from 12 hours to 72 sits at the center of “Selvi,” the first feature from Tamil filmmaker Sailesh Rathnakumar, which premieres in the Busan International Film Festival’s Vision–Asia section. Anjali Patil plays the title role and produces through her banner Anahat Films. Rathnakumar wrote the screenplay with cinematographer […]
For several years after the biggest run of her career, Moon Choi, known in Korea as Choi Hee-seo, kept her trophies out of sight. The haul was substantial. Her turn as Japanese anarchist Kaneko Fumiko in “Anarchist from Colony” swept Korea’s new actress prizes, and her lead role in independent feature “Our Body,” which bowed […]
