Javier Marco’s “Face to Face” (“A la cara”), the spin-off from a 2021 Goya winning short, was one of the big winners at this year’s RECLab in Tarragona, Spain which is celebrating its 10th anniversary by doing what it does best: Innovation, which questions many of the often set-in-stone conventions of festivals.  Also among winners […]

Tilda Swinton will be celebrated by the Berlin Film festival with its Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement. “The range of Tilda Swinton’s work is breathtaking,” said the festival’s artistic director Tricia Tuttle in a statement. “To cinema she brings so much humanity, compassion, intelligence, humour and style, and she expands our ideas of the […]

FESTIVAL FLOURISHES BookMyShow‘s Red Lorry Film Festival has landed two Academy Award-shortlisted films to anchor its sophomore edition, set for March 21-23, in Mumbai and Hyderabad. “Hollywoodgate,” from the producers of “Navalny,” shortlisted for documentary feature, offers an on-the-ground examination of Taliban-ruled Kabul. “Universal Language,” contending in the international feature category, presents an absurdist comedy-drama […]

The Sundance Institute will honor Cynthia Erivo and James Mangold with special awards at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival Gala. Mangold, writer-director-producer of Searchlight’s “A Complete Unknown” will be honored with the Trailblazer Award, while “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo will receive Sundance’s Visionary Award. Both Erivo and Mangold’s honors will be presented at the 2025 […]

Marisa Paredes, a grand dame of Spanish cinema, died on Tuesday in Madrid from heart failure. She was 78. While she acted in 75 movies, she will be best remembered for the five films she starred in directed by Pedro Almodóvar: “Dark Habits” (1983), “High Heels” (1991), “The Flower of My Secret” (1995), “All About […]

Magnify has acquired the international and U.S. sales rights to “Obex” ahead of its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by and starring “Sylvio” and “Strawberry Mansion” filmmaker Albert Birney, “Obex” is a black and white fantasy film that marks Birney’s first live-action directorial effort. Written by Birney and Pete Ohs, the […]

Spike Lee began his interview with Variety at the Red Sea Film Festival — where he’s serving as jury president — in a jocular mood, talking about soccer and his love for the U.K. Premiere League team Arsenal. Asked whether he’ll be in Saudi Arabia for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, he laughs: “The key […]

Having conquered Bollywood before moving to Hollywood in the mid-2010s, Priyanka Chopra Jonas now has her sights on new challenges. In October 2024, she hired veteran producer Anne Carey as president of film and TV of her shingle, Purple Pebble Pictures. Attending the Red Sea Film Festival for a special tribute – which will be […]

With snow on the ground and a cloud of uncertainty hanging over its next-to-last edition in Park City, the 41st annual Sundance Film Festival returns to its high-altitude Utah home, where the country’s most important showcase for independent cinema will unspool in person from Jan. 23-Feb. 2, 2025. While “discovery” remains the focus of the […]

Singapore director Chiang Wei Liang and co-director Yin You Qiao’s “Mongrel,” a portrayal of disenfranchised migrant workers in Taiwan, won Best Asian Feature Film at the 35th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF). The jury praised the film’s “dense, shadowy and violent world” and its innovative approach to depicting contemporary issues of forced migration. The film […]

Pamela Anderson and director Gia Coppola jointly received the Sun Valley Film Festival Pioneer Award on Dec. 6, the second day of the festival’s 2024 Winter Screening Series. Appearing after a screening of their film “The Last Showgirl,” the duo accepted their belt buckle-shaped trophies from SVFF executive director Teddy Grennan and director Candice Pate […]

The fourth edition of the Red Sea Film Festival is currently taking place in Jeddah, bringing some of the international film community’s biggest names to Saudi Arabia for a lavish celebration of global cinema. Among the many attendees was Bollywood icon Kareena Kapoor Khan, who remarked on the span of international guests in attendance. “Last […]

“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” director Mohammad Rasoulof has shared new details of his upcoming animated feature, telling Variety that the project will span the life of absurdist Iranian playwright Abbas Nalbandian, beginning a decade before the Iranian Revolution and covering the country’s turn until the playwright’s death a decade later. With this animated […]

The 19th edition of Indonesia’s Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival (JAFF) was its most successful one yet and the inaugural JAFF Market proved to be an auspicious debut. Variety was present to report on both. To put matters in context, films from Indonesia now routinely get selected and win prizes at major international festivals. The local […]

The 19th Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival has wrapped in Yogyakarta (Jogja), Indonesia, with local feature “Yohanna” dominating the Indonesian Screen Awards while Neo Sora’s “Happyend” secured the festival’s top Golden Hanoman Award. “Yohanna,” directed by Razka Robby Ertanto, collected five honors including best film, director, storytelling, performance (Laura Basuki, Kirana Putri Grasela, Iqua Tahlequa), and […]

Scandar Copti’s “Happy Holidays” won top honors at the Marrakech Film Festival on Saturday, capping an emotional and politically resonant ceremony, while adding Marrakech’s Étoile d’Or to a list of accolades for the film that also includes best screenplay from Venice’s Orizzonti and best in show from the Thessaloniki Film Festival. The acclaimed title also […]

Latin American super-producer Daniel Dreifuss was in his father’s hometown of Montevideo this week to speak to the Ventana Sur film market about how to craft an awards season campaign. It’s clear why the market would want to host Dreifuss as he’s a qualified authority on the subject, having backed Oscar-nominated fare such as Pablo […]

Hollywood heavyweight director Fede Alvarez returned to his home country of Uruguay this week to host a masterclass at the Ventana Sur market, held in Montevideo for the first time this year. Eliciting loads of laughs and several enthusiastic rounds of applause, Alvarez reflected on his personal journey from a teenage filmmaker shooting superhero movies […]

Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has taken global distribution rights for two Saudi Arabian short films premiering at the Red Sea International Film Festival that were developed under Film AlUla’s AlUla Creates program. The small but significant distribution deal will give global visibility to the shorts, respectively titled “Malika” by Maram Taibah and “When […]