“She’s the jewel, and I had to create the jewelry box.” The “jewel” for “Maria” production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas was Angelina Jolie who embodies the famed opera soprano Maria Callas in “Maria,” now streaming on Netflix. That was the directive the film’s Dyas received from director Pablo Larrain when approaching their latest film together. […]

“Nurse Unseen” and “The Glassworker” are both set to screen at the inaugural Napa Valley Asian American Film Festival (NVAAFF). The festival celebrates Asian and Asian American excellence in storytelling and highlights the creativity and innovation at the forefront of contemporary American cinema. This partnership was inspired, in part, by IW Group, a creative multicultural […]

The Costume Designers Guild is set to honor Janelle Monáe as the recipient of the Vanguard Spotlight Award at the Costume Designers Guild Awards (CDGA). “Celebrating a trailblazer who ignites the imaginations of cognoscenti and audiences alike, the Costume Designers Guild Vanguard Spotlight Award is a tribute to a performing artist who sets new standards in their […]

When “The Piano Lesson’s” hair designer Andrea Mona Bowman was first told she was tasked to create a wig for singer Erykah Badu, she was elated. She immediately began designing what would be fitting for the Queen of Soul’s cameo as Lucille, the rousing bandleader at a jazz club, in Malcolm Washington’s film adaptation of […]

If watching “Nosferatu” makes you feel uneasy and uncomfortable, that’s exactly what filmmaker Robert Eggers had in mind. Eggers and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke played with the idea of confusion in this gothic horror retelling of F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic. This time, Bill Skarsgård plays the fearsome Count Orlok who torments Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen, […]

Back in 2019, Cynthia Erivo received the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Breakthrough Performance Award. Just six years later, she will be lauded with Variety’s Creative Impact in Acting Award, commemorating the Emmy, Grammy and Tony award-winning performer’s latest achievement: playing Elphaba in “Wicked.” Her performance has received rave reviews, and she has been nominated […]

“Conclave” and “The Brutalist” are among the nominees for this year’s Set Decorators Society of America Awards. “Anora,” “Emilia Perez” and “The Substance” are also among the films recognized by the SDSA. The awards celebrate excellence in the art of set decoration for film with the decor and design categories. Now in its fifth year, the […]

Georgia’s Savannah College of Art and Design has launched the second phase of its film studio backlot. The 11-acre, three-phase expansion now includes the backlot, new state-of-the-art production, modern costume design sewing labs, classrooms, an LED volume stage for virtual productions, a hair and makeup studio and a massive, high-tech prop making shop with tools […]

Angel Studios will distribute the documentary “Breaking Into Beautiful” which is based on the life of Kim White, one of the world’s first “illness influencers.” She has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram by sharing her journey with cancer.   “Kim’s story is a testament to the human spirit’s ability to find beauty in […]

When Robert Eggers decided to reimagine F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic “Nosferatu” with his new remake, he wanted everything to be as practical and authentic as possible. That meant six hours of makeup for Bill Skarsgård to become the fearsome Count Orlok, a traditional orchestra of strings for composer Robin Carolan and more than […]

The score to Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” (now in theaters) gets under your skin, and that’s exactly what composer Robin Carolan hoped to achieve. Carolan gathered 60 string players to play a “spiral effect sound that is supposed to feel really disorienting and hit you in the gut.” Eggers reimagines F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent German […]

SPOILER WARNING: This story discusses minor plot details for “Mufasa: The Lion King,” now in theaters. Lin-Manuel Miranda and composer Dave Metzger both knew the mighty musical legacy they had to uphold when writing the music for Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King.” The “Lion King” prequel tells the story of young Mufasa, voiced by Aaron Pierre, […]

Criterion Collection’s art director Eric Skillman is constantly collecting names. Skillman is the mastermind behind finding the artists who design or illustrate Criterion Collection’s DVD artwork, and that’s why he has thousands of artists in an archive. He’s always looking for new artists, but he’s also looking for the perfect match. Speaking with Variety over […]

There was never any question about what format director Brady Corbet would shoot “The Brutalist” on. Cinematographer Lol Crawley says, “We’ve always shot on film.” “The Brutalist” tells the story of Hungarian Jewish architect László Tóth, played by Adrien Brody. He escapes the Holocaust and moves to the U.S., where he gets a taste of […]

When Steve McQueen was casting “Blitz,” his World War II drama about the bombings over London, actress Saoirse Ronan expressed interest. But there was a hitch. The role of a mother in search of her young son who has gone missing required some singing. So he hopped on a Zoom with Ronan, and they had a […]

James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown” follows the rise of Bob Dylan, played by Timothée Chalamet, as a young musician who moves to New York in 1961, and it culminates with the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and his move to electric guitar. Mangold is no stranger to the period (his “Ford v Ferrari” was mostly set […]

Pamela Anderson’s eldest son Brandon Thomas Lee is getting emotional. It’s taken years, but he might have helped shatter a Hollywood stereotype that has been a cloud over Anderson’s career for years. The actor-turned-producer is sitting on Zoom discussing her recent success in Roadside Attractions “The Last Showgirl,” which Gia Coppola directed. In the film, […]

Angelina Jolie completely transforms into opera superstar Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” through the hands of the Oscar winner’s personal makeup and hair team, Adruitha Lee and Pamela Goldammer. While subtlety was key to the transformation, Lee and Goldammer worked to establish what that specific look needed to be. “You do have to look […]

Greg Kwedar’s “Sing Sing” is a one-of-a-kind film set in the prison of the same name. Rather than look at the broken justice system, the A24 film focuses on a group of inmates and their rehabilitation through the arts. Colman Domingo stars as John “Divine G” Whitfield, a playwright who is incarcerated at Sing Sing […]