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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 […]
Robert Pattinson delighted London Film Festival on Sunday night as he introduced his latest film, “Primetime,” to an eager audience at BFI Imax. Sporting a dark grey suit and slicked-back hair, Pattinson explained why he decided to come on board the psychological thriller not only as its lead — he portrays former “To Catch a […]
John Malkovich has been highly tipped for an Oscar nomination for his performance in Martin McDonagh’s CIA black comedy “Wild Horse Nine,” making it his first real shot at an Academy Award in three decades. The 72-year-old actor was previously nominated for best supporting actor in “Places in the Heart” (1984) and “In the Line […]
Taiwanese director Lee Yun Chan has returned to feature filmmaking after two decades away with “To Be Ordinary,” the only Taiwanese film in competition at the Busan International Film Festival. Lee made her feature debut with 2005’s “The Shoe Fairy” and more recently directed the Disney+ series “Women in Taipei.” The Mandarin title literally means […]
The world premiere of Netflix’s animated feature “Ray Gunn” at the London Film Festival on Saturday coincided with a special day for one of its key creatives. As director Brad Bird noted in the introduction at the Royal Festival Hall, the premiere for the neo-noir sci-fi was also composer Michael Giacchino’s birthday. Bird then invited […]
