Joey King is in talks to star in “Practical Magic 2” alongside Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.

She’s reportedly playing the daughter of Bullock’s character. Bullock and Kidman are reprising their roles as Sally and Gillian Owens, two sisters who descend from a long line of witches. In the original 1998 movie, the duo finds themselves fighting off a curse that kills the men they fall in love with. Plot details for the second film haven’t been revealed, though sources say the story is based on a later installment in Alice Hoffman’s “Practical Magic” book series.

Susanne Bier is directing “Practical Magic 2” from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, who co-wrote the first film. It’s aiming to start production in London later this summer, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which broke the new of King’s casting. Warner Bros. will release the witchy sequel in theaters on Sept.

Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier returns to Cannes with Sentimental Value, which had its world premiere Wednesday night in the festival’s Competition section.

Trier and his cast, including Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning, strolled up the famous steps of Palais des Festivals.

The film marks Trier’s follow-up to The Worst Person in the World, which premiered in Competition at Cannes in 2023, launching the international career of star Reinsve, who won the festival’s best actress honor. Worst Person became a crossover art house hit and was nominated for two Oscars, including best international feature and best original screenplay for Trier and co-writer Eskil Vogt.

Sentimental Value is a family drama centered on the estranged relationship between Gustav (Skarsgard) and his two daughters, Nora (Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). In an attempt to reconnect, Gustav, a film director, offers Nora, an actress, the role of playing a...

In Cannes to promote The History of Sound, the actor said ‘I don’t see the parallels at all, other than we spent a little time in a tent’

The actor Paul Mescal has hit out at critics who have drawn comparisons between The History of Sound, a gay romance in which he stars opposite Josh O’Connor, and Ang Lee’s landmark western Brokeback Mountain.

Speaking at a press conference in Cannes the day after the film’s premiere, Mescal – who followed a supporting performance in Andrew Haigh’s acclaimed gay ghost story All of Us Strangers with playing the lead in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II – said he believes cinema is “moving away” from alpha male roles.

We know for sure that Danny and Michael Philippou, the sibling directing duo behind the Australian horror film Talk to Me are going to be making a sequel to that movie. The film not only racked up over $90 million at the global box office, it also earned praise from the likes of Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Jordan Peele, George Miller, and Ari Aster… so it was no surprise when A24 announced they had given a greenlight to the a follow-up, titled Talk 2 Me. But two years have passed and there’s no sign of the sequel going into production any time soon, as the Philippous have been busy with a different horror project, Bring Her Back (which reaches theatres on May 30th). Now, the directors have revealed that they actually have two different...

Mubi has acquired writer/director Mascha Schilinski’s acclaimed drama “Sound of Falling” after the film’s Cannes debut, marking the distributor’s second major pickup of the festival thus far. It comes on the heels of Mubi nabbing Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,” a domestic drama starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.

“Sound of Falling” follows four girls in Germany, each who spend their youth on the same farm. As the home evolves over a century, echoes of the past linger in its walls. Though separated by time, their lives begin to mirror each other.

“Mubi is an oasis for everyone who loves cinema,” Schilinski said in a statement.

“Here arthouse classics stand shoulder to shoulder with new exciting cinema as well as little movie gems that we would otherwise not get to see. We are very happy that ‘Sound of Falling’ is now part of Mubi’s movie family.

Oscar and Emmy winner Kieran Culkin has joined “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” as magnanimous host Caesar Flickerman. Stanley Tucci played the role in the original quartet of films.

Culkin joins previously announced cast members Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy, Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, Lili Taylor as Mags, Ben Wang as Wyatt, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket and Ralph Fiennes as President Snow. MollyMcCann will also appear as Louella, while Iona Bell will portray her Capitol-assigned lookalike Lou Lou.

The new film, based on Suzanne Collins’ novel of the same name, revisits the world of Panem nearly a quarter of a century before the events of those films, where Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch Abernathy served as a mentor to Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen and Josh Hutcherson’s Peeta Mellark.

“Michael,” the biopic on the life of the King of Pop Michael Jackson that is being directed by Antoine Fuqua, is expected to be pushed back well into 2026.

During the company’s earnings call on Thursday, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said that the film will “likely” be moved out of the company’s fiscal year 2026 financial results and into fiscal 2027. Lionsgate on Thursday was recapping its fiscal 2025 Q4 results, so Lionsgate’s fiscal ’27 won’t begin until calendar year 2026.

Feltheimer said “we’re excited about the three and a half hours of amazing footage from producer Graham King and director Antoine Fuqua, and we will be announcing a definitive release strategy and timing in the next few weeks.”

“Michael” was already delayed from a planned release in April 2025 to instead open October 3, 2025, but it appears unlikely to make that date either. Lionsgate had excitedly teased footage from “Michael” during its...

Michael Jackson fans will have to wait a bit longer for Antoine Fuqua’s biopic “Michael.”

During Lionsgate’s Q4 2025 earnings call, CEO Jon Feltheimer shared an update on the film starring Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson, who makes his screen debut in the project.

“In regard to our Michael Jackson biopic, we’re excited about the 3½ hours of amazing footage from producer Graham King and director Antoine Fuqua, and we will be announcing a definitive release strategy & timing in the next few weeks,” he said. “I would note that it is likely we will move ‘Michael’ out of the fiscal year which will impact fiscal ’26 financial results but will bolster an already strong fiscal ’27 slate.”

The fiscal calendar ends on March 31, 2026, so Feltheimer’s statement indicates that the film (or films) will likely debut after April 1, 2026. Last month, Variety reported that the film would likely be split into two...

Many film fans are starved for romantic stories right now, so when a sophisticated romantic comedy comes along, it’s a welcome balm in tough times. French writer Laura Piani had been churning out dark cop procedurals when she realized she wanted to spend her time writing comedies.

What became the charming “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” took some years to grow into its final form, and even Piani didn’t know she was going to direct it at the start. The film has already opened in France, where it performed well for a small-budget movie starring theater actors. Sony Pictures Classics picked it up for domestic release at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and is rolling it out against blockbuster counter-programming like “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.” Audiences should delight in it.

The mystery of Jane Austen’s enduring power is at the heart of this comedy,...

The Hollywood Commission, the organization chaired by Anita Hill that has the mission of addressing harassment and abuse in Hollywood, has expanded its reporting platform MyConnext to now be accessible to all film and TV workers industry-wide.

Last year, the Hollywood Commission launched its MyConnext platform, which is an independent reporting tool and online resource for entertainment workers to address harassment, discrimination, and bullying. The platform also gave access to the Ombuds Office, which acts like your own personal human resources department, a person who can provide free, independent, informal, unbiased, and confidential information about how someone can report and what their next steps are.

When the platform launched in 2024, it was only available via partner organizations, specifically DGA, IATSE, WGA West, Amazon MGM Studios, and Netflix. But it’s now accessible widely for people who work at any studio and whether or not they belong to a union or guild.

Lionsgate’s revenue for the first three months of 2025 rose 22% and its movie division profitability soared to its highest level in a decade helped by the box office performance of “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” and “Flight Risk” in the period.

Lionsgate on May 7 officially completed the long-gestating split with Starz premium cable and streaming business, which is now a separately traded company. The quarterly earnings for the period ended March 31, which are the company’s fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, excludes the results of the divested Starz operations.

For the most recent quarter, Lionsgate reported revenue of $1.1 billion (up 22%) and operating income of $94.2 million (up from $19.4 million in the year-earlier period). Net income attributable to shareholders was $21.9 million (or 10 cents per diluted earnings per share), compared with a loss of $54.2 million in the year-ago period.

“We are pleased to report a strong quarter despite a difficult operating environment,” Lionsgate CEO...

"Ballerina," the fifth official film in the "John Wick" saga, is two weeks out from release, which means the gun-fu faithful are itching to find out how Ana de Armas measures up to Keanu Reeves as a high-caliber badass assassin. De Armas solidified her action bona fides as the deadly Cuban secret agent Paloma in "No Time to Die," and did nothing to suggest her sleek lethality was a fluke in the Russo Brothers' distracted-viewing product "The Gray Man," so it won't qualify as a revelation if she aces this assignment.

After all, she's in great hands. The 87North Productions team has yet to make a less-than-invigorating "John Wick" installment. Though they're tempting fate by handing the directorial reins of "Ballerina" over to "Underworld" creator Len Wiseman, who has never made a good movie, he'll likely be working within the house style. I don't want to call "Ballerina" a sure thing,...

The selection of a film from India at Cannes the year after Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine As Light” beat the odds and some rigorous competition to win the Grand Jury Prize was bound to cause excitement. When it turned out to be Neeraj Ghaywan’s “Homebound,” starring rising Hindi cinema actors Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor, and Vishal Jethwa, produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, one of the most iconic Bollywood studios, and as a later announcement revealed, executive produced a certain Martin Scorsese, folks were a bit gobsmacked. A heady cocktail of talents was Cannes bound.

Ghaywan returns to Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section exactly a decade after his widely loved feature debut “Masaan” premiered there. Just as Kapadia’s film showcased friendship and solidarity between two migrant nurses in Mumbai, Ghaywan’s “Homebound” charts the vicissitudes in the friendship between two young men from North India aspiring to become police constables.

Kylo Ren is a pretty unique villain in the landscape of the "Star Wars" galaxy. As the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, he was in touch with the Force but also felt a pull to the dark side, given his familial connection to Darth Vader. The dark side won, which then led to him becoming a crucial member of the First Order before ultimately seizing the position of Supreme Leader in "The Last Jedi." He is a petulant man, and that petulance led to him claiming a wild title for himself along the way.

In the latest issue of the comic "Star Wars: Legacy of Vader," which is filling in the gaps between "The Last Jedi" and "The Rise of Skywalker," Kylo Ren journeys to Naboo as he further explores Darth Vader's past. Naturally, this eventually leads him to both the birthplace of Anakin Skywalker and the planet Naboo.

When Martin Short Zoomed in for our interview, he was backstage at the Javits Center in New York City getting ready for Hulu’s Upfront presentation. He volunteered this information willingly, likely to explain the colossal gray curtains hanging all around him, or the director’s chair he was perched in, or the beauty station just over his shoulder.

That should’ve been that, but my Midwestern manners got the best of me, and my first question to the two-time Emmy winner, one-time Tony winner, and all-time comic great became nothing more than polite, near-rhetorical, small talk. “How are you feeling about the Upfronts?,” I said. “Are you excited?”

“Oh, I’m very excited,” Short said. “I’m very excited.”

Reading his statement in print, Short’s answer may seem neutral. But the context implied otherwise. His unflinching smile, flat tone, and pointed repetition of the word “excited” — plus the...

Zachary Levi is aware that his religious and political beliefs have impacted his acting career. The “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” star has made his views on Christianity, vaccine skepticism, and his support of Trump more prominent in 2025, thanks in part to his very active X page. Levi, who is now building his own studio, told Variety that voicing his views will benefit his work in the long run, despite knowing that certain filmmakers now will refuse to collaborate with him.

“I know that there are people that would prefer not to work with me now because of my opinions,” Levi said. “My team has let me know. They haven’t given me any specific names, but there are people who prefer not to work with me at this time. And it’s unfortunate. I knew that was probably going to happen. I didn’t make this decision blindly or casually.

When the Academy museum first approached production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer about curating an exhibition of their work, the duo thought it was a joke.

But two and a half years later, “Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer” is set to open on May 23, providing an immersive and experiential look at their collaborative work. That same evening, the Academy Museum will screen Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” followed by a Q&a with Spencer and Greenwood.

The collection features set pieces, concept art, miniature models, sketches and an area called “Blank Space,” which shows the evolution of their production office and how ideas come to life. Theirs is a collaboration dating back over 25 years. Their work has landed them Oscar nominations for “Pride & Prejudice,” “Atonement,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Anna Karenina,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Darkest Hour” and “Barbie.” And there...

Hailed by Variety as a “warm and heart-tugging tale,” Hasan Hadi’s “The President’s Cake,” Iraq’s first film selected for Cannes, has won the Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice prize, the first audience award at Cannes and a Directors’ Fortnight plaudit which take into consideration any film from any part of the world.

The prestigious award builds on auspicious early major territory sales for the film, sold by Films Boutique, which bid fair for a broad international roll out.

News of the Director’s Fortnight People’s Choice prize comes as Belgian Valéry Carnoy has won a second partner prize in the Directors’ Fortnight, scooping the Sacd Coup de Cœur des Auteurs prize for “Wild Foxes,” adding to its Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European film at Directors’ Fortnight, announced just an hour ago. The double whammy establishes the Belgian director as a director to track.

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There are nature documentaries that show you things you’ve never seen before. Then there’s “The Americas,” which shows its viewers something literally no human had ever seen before.

Marine scientists had long speculated that sperm whales dive all the way to the ocean floor to hunt for food. But they had never actually observed the whales doing so. How could anyone? As the executive producer of “The Americas” and creative director of the BBC Studios Natural History Unit Mike Gunton said to IndieWire as part of our Usg University virtual panel series, “Sperm whales kind of break all the rules of biology because it’s so challenging for any living creature to go from the surface of the sea all the way down there — the pressure change is huge. And then the camera had to do the same thing.”

The distance from the surface to the seafloor off...

Justin Baldoni’s lawyers have withdrawn a subpoena sent to Taylor Swift and her legal team, after the firm objected that it amounted to an “unwarranted fishing expedition.”

Attorneys for Swift and Blake Lively — who are friends — had filed motions to quash the subpoena, which sought communications between their respective legal teams.

Baldoni is suing Lively, his “It Ends With Us” co-star, and her husband Ryan Reynolds, alleging that they tried destroy his career with false allegations of sexual harassment. Lively has sued Baldoni and a cast of publicists on the grounds that they launched an online whisper campaign against her in retaliation for her harassment complaints.

In a statement on Thursday, Lively’s spokesperson said that Baldoni had sought to exploit Swift’s celebrity to distract from the real issues in the case.

“We are pleased that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties have withdrawn their harassing subpoenas to...

The Tribeca Festival has named jury members for the 15 competitive categories in its 2025 edition, running June 4-15 in New York City.

The winning films and filmmakers in each category will be announced at the festival’s awards ceremony on June 12.

The jury for the event’s US Narrative Feature competition comprises filmmaker Nia DaCosta, veteran producer Art Linson, filmmaker Joshua Marston, Bleecker Street head Kent Sanderson and author Colson Whitehead.

The International Narrative Feature competition jury consists of Polish-born actress Dagmara Dominczyk, Italian actress Valeria Golino, UK talent Toby Jones, Metrograph Pictures executive David Laub and actor Kyle MacLachlan.

Judging...

This article contains light spoilers for both "The Last of Us" and "The Last of Us Part II." If you're unfamiliar with the larger arc of the video games, turn around and come back later! Spoilers ahead!

Even if you've never played the Naughty Dog games "The Last of Us" and "The Last of Us Part II," released in 2013 and 2020, you're probably familiar with them — especially considering that they're the source material for one of HBO's biggest and most popular shows at the moment. So will Neil Druckmann, who created and directed the game alongside Bruce Straley, ever make the game into a trilogy?

During an appearance on the Sacred Symbols podcast, Druckmann addressed the possibility of a third video game, despite the fact that he's currently fully committed to the HBO series "The Last of Us." (Druckmann serves as a co-showrunner alongside Craig Mazin, who previously worked with the premium network on "Chernobyl,...

Every step of the development and production process has its own unique hurdles to overcome. Whether it’s adjusting the tone of the script for an actor who’s just been cast or scaling back on locations due to budget constraints. In this sense, the project you envisioned when you began this process may be very different from the one that ends up on screen. Making sure that the best version of whatever you set out to make is the one that ends up being the final product is a huge part of what being a producer is all about and what keeps Pinky Promise founder Jessamine Burgum focused as she shepherds work from Scarlett Johansson, Andrea Arnold, Gia Coppola, and more.

The producer behind Johansson’s directorial debut “Eleanor the Great,” which recently had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, Burgum understands how to collaborate with top talent.

Courtney Martin, Isaac Finn, Alex Jankovich and Madeline Petrovich have all been promoted to agents at Innovative Artists Entertainment.

Martin has been promoted in the endorsements department while Finn, Jankovich and Petrovich will work in the talent department. The news comes following Innovative’s recently announced strategic partnership with Coral Tree Partners in March, which has a minority stake in the company.

“Courtney, Isaac, Alex and Madeline each represent the fundamental principles we’ve long valued at Innovative: they each have the tenacity, foresight and zeal to best serve clients in our ever-evolving business. We’re excited to see how they continue to grow here,” Innovative CEO and founder Scott Harris said in a statement.

Martin and Jankovich will be based in New York, while Petrovich and Finn will be in Los Angeles. Martin was recently the communications coordinator and assistant to endorsements department head Maury Dimauro and graduated from Ball State University,...

Jimmy Kimmel is the latest star to lend his voice to Paramount’s “Smurfs.”

The live-action animated hybrid film features Rihanna as Smurfette, John Goodman as Papa Smurf, as well as James Corden, Nick Offerman, Jp Karliak, Daniel Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Billie Lourd, Xolo Maridueña, Kurt Russell and DJ Marshmello. It’s unclear who Kimmel will be voicing in the sprawling ensemble.

“Smurfs” follows Smurfette as she leads her tiny, blue-skinned kin into the real world to save Papa Smurf after he’s mysteriously captured by evil wizards. The reboot is directed by Chris Miller, whose credits include “Shrek the Third” and “Puss in Boots.” Pam Brady wrote the script, based on the comics created by the Belgian artist known as Peyo. The film opens in theaters on July 18.

The Smurfs have been the subject of...

Horrified by the country of his birth and heavy with the weight of its sins, Nadav Lapid has created modern cinema’s most splenetic filmography by fighting his Israeliness as if it were an incurable virus infecting his body of work. 2019’s eruptive “Synonyms” was a semi-autobiographical identity crisis about a man who flees to Paris because he’s convinced that he was born in the Middle East by mistake, while 2021’s “Ahed’s Knee” was a similarly personal scream into the wind — this one rooted in the blue-balled impotence of artistic resistance amid an exultantly genocidal ethnostate.

Spasming with anger where Lapid’s previous features (“Policeman” and “The Kindergarten Teacher”) searched for hope, both of these movies were fringed with a sense of resignation that they fought tooth-and-nail to shake off. As a result, I naturally assumed that his follow-up feature — written in Europe before the events of October...

The Tribeca Festival has unveiled the lineup for its 2025 jury, which is responsible for selecting this year’s top projects from across film, games and audio storytelling categories. The panel will award honors across 15 competitive categories at the festival, which takes place June 4 through 15 in New York City.

This year’s jurors include Jennifer Beals, Matthew Broderick, Ilana Glazer, Art Linson, Kyle MacLachlan and Mira Sorvino. In addition, Tribeca’s Nora Ephron Award will honor an exceptional female filmmaker who represents the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer.

“We’re proud to welcome an eclectic group of jurors to this year’s Tribeca Festival,” said Nancy Lefkowitz, EVP at Tribeca Enterprises. “Their breadth of expertise across genres will be instrumental in recognizing standout storytellers and honoring bold new voices from around the world.”

More from VarietyTribeca Festival and Chanel Announce 2025 Artist Awards Program ParticipantsTribeca X Sets Speakers Including Bryan Cranston,...

In what the company is claiming as a first, Lionsgate is making tickets for its upcoming John Wick spin-off Ballerina available for purchase in the US through TikTok Shop.

US TikTok users will be able to buy tickets directly within the social media app during a livestream of the film’s world premiere in the UK.The film is set for release on June 6.

Lionsagate says the arrangement marks the first time a physical movie ticket can be purchased on TikTok Shop in the US.

Starring Ana de Armas, Ballerina takes place during the event of John Wick: Chapter...

Prequels are tricky narrative propositions. In many cases, they're cynically conceived to wring out whatever juice still remains in a film or television franchise. They're often unsatisfying in a storytelling sense, leaving viewers ticking off the minutes or episodes until they arrive at the starting point of the thing they loved in the first place.

And yet there are exceptions. Tony Gilroy just completed a "Star Wars" prequel masterclass with the second season of "Andor," which leads into the emotionally devastating "Rogue One." Meanwhile, Vince Gilligan arguably topped the towering achievement of "Breaking Bad" with the crushingly tragic Slippin' Jimmy spinoff "Better Call Saul." Prequels are not automatically artistic dead ends. Many fans of "The Big Bang Theory" have discovered this over the last eight years with the surprisingly poignant "Young Sheldon" and its follow-up "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage."

Creators Chuck Lorre, Steven Molaro, and Steve Holland have taken...

Belgian Valéry Carnoy’s “Wild Foxes” (“La Danse des renards”) has won this year’s Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European Film at the 2025 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Announced Thursday by Europa Cinemas, ahead of the Directors’ Fortnight closing ceremony this afternoon, the prize is one of three at Directors’ Fortnight and awarded by one of the sidebar’s partners, given the section is non-competitive.

The section’s People’s Choice audience award and a second partner plaudit, the Sacd Prize, handed out by France’s Writers’ Guild, will be announced later today at an awards ceremony. There, French writer-director Thomas Cailley (“The Animal Kingdom”) will receive the inaugural Alpine Prize, which aims to highlight “filmmakers who dare to shatter conventions and blaze new trails in French and international cinema.”

Reconfirming his star potential, in “Wild Foxes,” France’s Samuel Kirchner, who scored a promising actor Cesar nomination for Cathérine Breillat...

“Nouvelle Vague” is not like any other movie you’ve seen. It’s not a prequel, sequel, or remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s debut film “Breathless” (“À Bout de Souffle”). It’s not a documentary about the making of the film, nor is it based on any known IP. You could conjure memories of the fictional “Day for Night,” from Godard’s fellow Cahiers du Cinéma critic and French New Wave member François Truffaut, which takes place on a movie set, or the recent Paramount series “The Offer,” which chronicles the production of “The Godfather” from the Pov of producer Al Ruddy (Miles Teller). Some have compared Linklater’s ensemble of icons from French cinema to Woody Allen’s ex-pat literary figures from “Midnight in Paris.”

The fact that Richard Linklater wanted to recreate the 1959 filming of “Breathless” on the streets of Paris, in French, in black and white, in the Academy aspect ratio,...

Maris Curran found a creative partner in the documentary “Jeannette.” The personal feature, which was shot in a vérité style, captures the bond between director Curran and subject-turned-confidante Jeannette Feliciano who survived the Pulse Nightclub massacre. “Jeannette” centers on how queer single mother Feliciano turned to competitive bodybuilder to navigate her trauma and help heal other survivors. The film won the Audience Award at Siff and an Outfest Jury Award during its tour on the festival circuit.

The official synopsis reads: “In the aftermath of Orlando’s Pulse nightclub mass shooting, Jeannette seeks support and healing through her community while she continues to coach fellow survivors at the gym. As her life begins to calm, Hurricane Maríahits Puerto Rico and Jeannette is thrown back into crisis mode. Skirting sensationalism to focus on the tenderness of healing, this portrait of competitive bodybuilder and lesbian single mother Jeannette unfolds as an intimate...

Movie studios are always looking for means to reach their audience wherever they are, and Lionsgate is experimenting with a new delivery method to getting people to see its “John Wick” spinoff “Ballerina,” by selling movie tickets to the film via TikTok.

In a move that Lionsgate is positioning as the first such example of it, moviegoers in the U.S. can purchase a ticket to see “Ballerina” directly through the TikTok Shop. It’s a neat enough idea that it’s surprising no one has tried it before.

Granted, Lionsgate isn’t circumnavigating Fandango or other ticketing services with this move. For anyone watching the livestream of the “Ballerina” premiere, which is taking place now in London, those viewers will be able to directly within the app visit the TikTok Shop and buy a package of merch tied to the film. With that purchase, you’ll get a physical...

Last year at this time, “Anora” played like gangbusters at the Palais, earned raves from the Screen International jury grid, and inevitably, won the Palme d’Or. That gave Neon confidence to play its long Oscar hand, successfully, gaining five Oscar wins including Best Picture, Director, Editing, Actress, and Screenplay.

This year the late-festival movie that performed as well is Joachim Trier’s likely Norwegian Oscar entry “Sentimental Value,” an intense family drama about an established actress (Renate Reinsve) with anxiety issues whose estranged father (Sweden’s Stellan Skarsgård) seeks to regain his foothold in the film industry with a new movie starring his daughter. When she’s not interested, he casts an American actress (Elle Fanning) instead. Both Reinsve and Skarsgård give towering performances that will not be denied at Oscar time, given that Neon, which bought the film a year ago at Cannes before production, is adept at...

Ritchie’s derivative yarn whisks John Krasinski off to picturesque spots on an uninspired search for treasure and excitement – neither of which arrive

Trying to make John Krasinski happen may be a misguided endeavour, but the campaign to mould him into a new Harrison Ford is bananas. After starring as Jack Ryan on TV, he now plays Luke Purdue, an Indiana Jones knock-off and son of an adventurer-archaeologist in Guy Ritchie’s soulless business-class yarn. Despite plucky work from Natalie Portman as Luke’s disapproving sister Charlotte, this hodgepodge of plundered elements adds up to nothing more than Indiana Bourne and the Thomas Crown Da Vinci Code.

Bankrolled by dying billionaire Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson), Luke and his dad’s old team are on the trail of the mythical Fountain of Youth. He even has a PowerPoint presentation to show how he intends to find it: hidden on the backs...

Director Guy Ritchie exploded onto the film scene back in 1998 with the frenetic "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels," a scrappy but earnest crime flick that established the young director's iconoclastic voice and propensity for bloke-forward, sweatily masculine stories. Ritchie's films are rarely elegant, and only look as polished as his budgets will allow. He tends to vaunt flippant, laidback protagonists, who would just as soon fire up a bong with you than go on an adventure. His Sherlock Holmes was less a detective as a brilliant dude with his own man-cave and a membership to a fight club. In his "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," when Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) released he had been drugged, he casually laid down on a couch, careful not to muss his hair; he knew what being drugged felt like. Even Ritchie's King Arthur (Charlie Hunnam), in the ultra-bomb "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,...

The Africa International Film Festival (Afriff) has launched the Ariff Film and Content Market (Afcm) via a partnership with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism, and Creative Economy.

Afcm will debut at the 2025 Ariff in Lagos, Nigeria, as an international marketplace for film, television and digital content. Dates for the event are still to be confirmed.

Former European Film Market director Dennis Ruh will be lead consultant for Afcm, which will look to welcomer creators, investors, distributors and policymakers from around the world.

A memorandum of understanding for the market was signed on Tuesday, May 20 in Cannes, by Afriff founder Chioma Ude.

Neon has acquired North American distribution rights to Jafar Panahi’s Cannes Competition title It Was Just An Accident from mk2 Films,with Mubi taking rights to multiple international territories.

Mubi has bought the film for UK-Ireland, Germany, Latin America, Austria, Turkey and India.

It Was Just An Accident is Iranian auteur Panahi’s first film since his release from prison in Iran in February 2023 after seven months’ incarceration.

Inspired by his time in prison, the film follows a man, his heavily pregnant wife and their young daughter, as they get in a minor car accident and the chain of...

A rich, powerful family with control issues? Welcome back, “Succession.” Sort of.

The Buckley family controls everything down in their corner of Havenport, North Carolina — the name graces restaurants while also supporting a significant fishing industry in the scenic, coastal town — but faces financial trouble in Netflix’s “The Waterfront.”

Father Harlan (Holt McCallany) is recovering from not one, but two heart attacks, and even that won’t keep him from taking the reins when he feels that no one else has what it takes to lead the family. The series comes from “Scream,” “Dawson’s Creek,” and “The Vampire Diaries” showrunner Kevin Williamson.

The family is rounded out by Harlan’s wife Belle (Maria Bello), son Cane (Jake Weary) — who gets a hit in later in the trailer — and daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist). While mother and son do their best to keep the lights on and the Buckley name untarnished,...

Cannes film festival

Saeed Roustaee’s new film takes aim at a slippery, entitled male who thinks he can lord it over a widow he plans to marry

A strange, sad, sombre movie from Iranian director Saeed Roustaee whose last entry at Cannes was the family drama Leila’s Brothers in 2022. This is a story about the randomness of life in the big city, a melodramatic convulsion of grief, rage and pain which has a TV soap feel to its succession of escalating crises. Like Leila’s Brothers, it is about the entitlement of Iran’s menfolk, and how a man – however shiftless, casual and low-status – can somehow pull rank on a woman in the marriage market.

Payman Maadi (from Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation) plays Hamid, an ambulance driver in his late 40s with a certain roguish ladies-man charm whose unmarried status raises eyebrows among some of his acquaintances, but who...

One of the thrills of watching what we once called “foreign” films is discovering a movie from an entirely different culture and realizing just how similar we all are: Our dreams aren’t so different, nor the things that make us laugh or cry. But there’s always the risk of having the opposite experience, bumping up against a story where nothing corresponds and the behavior seems so illogical or inexplicable that we may as well be watching science fiction. Iranian director Saeed Roustaee’s “Woman and Child” strikes me that way, despite the fact it takes place in a modern metropolis and hails from a director with the most Hollywood touch of his compatriots.

Returning to Cannes after being censured for his 2022 film “Leila’s Brothers,” Roustaee seems undeterred by the six-month prison sentence and since-lifted filmmaking ban the regime imposed on him. No surprise, Iranian authorities don’t take...

Most of us don’t appreciate where our problems sit on a scale from ordinary to tragic. One day your frustrations relate to impressing the family of your intended husband, or to the local school’s struggles to contain your tearaway son. The next day, there are no footholds for this conventional social anxiety because the bottom has fallen out of your world.

Selling a descent from stress into a state of devastation that can never be shed (only briefly reprised) is the formidable actress Parinaz Izadyar. Remarkably, considering how often she is tasked to cry or yell, there is nothing repetitive to her performance. She keeps reacting to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with fresh volatility, not letting her character, Mahnaz, become passive or automated.

Returning to the Cannes competition lineup after 2022’s “Leila’s Brothers” Iranian melodramatist, Saeed Roustayi, proves that he has an Almodovarian flair for...

Longtime PR pro Ina Treciokas has unveiled her next venture: Ingenuity Group, a talent and brand consultancy, launching in partnership with the Acceleration Community of Companies and its public-relations firm Dkc subsidiary.

Treciokas was previously a partner at Slate PR, which dissolved last month after 15 years. She formed Ingenuity Group, based in the Los Angeles office of Dkc, within the umbrella of Acc’s portfolio of specialized marketing service companies.

With Ingenuity Group, Treciokas brings with her an A-list client roster that includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Harrison Ford, Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Liev Schreiber, Allison Janney, Camila Mendes, Owen Wilson, Mike Myers, Ben Kingsley, John Leguizamo, Jon Favreau, George Lopez, Charlie Cox and David Schwimmer.

According to Treciokas, her new firm will combine “high-level communications strategy” with brand development, content positioning and brand partnerships. She will work “in close partnership” with Dkc CEO Sean Cassidy and Acc founder and CEO...

Blumhouse and Meta have announced “Blumhouse Horrorverse,” a new immersive horror experience launching in Meta Horizon on May 22. The new world will transport fans into Blumhouse horror franchises including “M3GAN,” “Wolf Man,” “The Black Phone” and “Happy Death Day.”

The official event description reads: “Dare to enter Blumhouse Horrorverse! Hunt victims as M3GAN, Babyface, or Lady Liberty. Role play as villains from ‘M3GAN,’ ‘The Purge,’ and ‘Black Phone’ across thrilling minigames.”

The “Blumhouse Horrorverse” will feature the “Survival Lockdown” game, in which players can throw a lever assigning everyone in the house a random role: victim or villain. As victims work together to locate missing keycards to end the lockdown, players assigned the “villain” role will embody Blumhouse characters like M3GAN, the Babyface Killer from “Happy Death Day” and Lady Liberty from “The Purge,” to eliminate survivors before they can escape.

In addition to the centerpiece “Survival Lockdown” game,...

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"Avatar: The Last Airbender" rose to a whole other level of greatness in its second, and some would say best, season. ("Book 2: Earth.") A lot of that comes down to two new characters the show introduced to its ensemble.

The heroes got a new teammate: Toph (Michaela Jill Murphy), the blind earthbending prodigy. But they also had a new threat to contend with: Fire Nation Princess Azula (Grey DeLisle), who was hunting both Avatar Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen) and her exiled brother Prince Zuko (Dante Basco). Smart, powerful, and ruthless, Azula is seemingly the "perfect princess." She's a firebending prodigy and success comes naturally to her.

Another detail that sets Azula apart is her firebending. In "Avatar," where people can bend one of the four classical elements, Firebenders transmute fire out of their own breath and chi and then control the flames.

Exclusive: Paris-based Outplay Films has boarded sales for Swedish director Ester Bergsmark’s upcoming film A Sweetness From Nowhere, now in post production and forSkifffrom Belgian autuerCecilia Verheyden.

Bergsmark’sSweetness From Nowhere isdescribed as “a sensorial, dreamy, grotesque, and tender journey through hormones, jellyfish, and touch” reflecting on the director’s experience of a transphobic hate crime.

Folkets Bio is already on board to handle the Swedish cinema release, with Stærfilm releasing in cinemas in Norway.

The film was included in Goteborg Nordic Film Market’s works in progress presentations in January.

Stockholm-based Bergsmark works across visual arts and film.

The 2025 Tribeca Festival is bringing the best of the best together to select this year’s festival awards. IndieWire can announce that Nia DaCosta, Andrew Ahn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Kyle MacLachlan, Eliza Hittman, and more acclaimed filmmakers will be among the jury members for festival, which will take place June 4 through 15.

The Tribeca Festival, presented by Okx, will honor works across 15 competition categories. In addition, the Nora Ephron Award will honor an exceptional female filmmaker who represents the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer. The winners in each category will be announced at the Tribeca Festival ceremony on June 12.

“We’re proud to welcome an eclectic group of jurors to this year’s Tribeca Festival,” Nancy Lefkowitz, EVP at Tribeca Enterprises, said. “Their breadth of expertise across genres will be instrumental in recognizing standout storytellers and honoring bold new voices from around the world.”

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple...

The Cannes Film Festival is underway, and while the Marché Du Film is as booming as ever with exciting packages of future films, there are plenty of titles playing in competition or in the Cannes sidebars that could make a big splash at the box office or the awards season race for the right buyer. Last year’s “The Substance” was acquired by Mubi before it landed a Best Picture Oscar nomination and made $77.3 million worldwide.

Here are the 13 films we predicted ahead of the festival could find homes quickly. We’ll update the below list with all the acquisitions as they come in.

“It Was Just an Accident”

Section: Competition

Distributor: Neon

Director: Jafar Panahi

Buzz: The Iranian auteur Panahi returned to Cannes for the first time since 2003 for this deeply personal film that was inspired and ideated during his second stint in an Iranian prison. Starring Mariam Afshari,...

Throughout the first season of the Apple TV+ series “The Studio,” directors Evan Goldberg and Seth Goldberg have risen to a number of elaborate challenges, from shooting every scene as one unbroken take and restaging The Golden Globes to using the production design as a sort of ongoing Hollywood history lesson.

On the season finale, they faced one of their trickiest filmmaking problems yet: filming Bryan Cranston as a studio executive high on mushrooms as he ran wild through a working casino.

“It was insane,” Goldberg told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast of the effort to shoot Cranston and celebrity co-stars including Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, and Dave Franco (playing himself) while just five feet off camera, patrons of the Venetian casino were watching the filming in between spins at the slot machines. “Usually there were three to four famous people per shot. So the odds of someone bothering us were pretty high the whole time.

Neon has taken North American rights on revered Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi’s Cannes competition title “It Was Just an Accident,” which marks Panahi’s first film since being released from prison in Iran.

The film, starring Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, and Vahid Mobasser, was greeted with a long standing ovation and is a Cannes standout title.

“It Was Just an Accident” centers around an outpouring of strong feelings by a group of former prisoners toward a torturous guard.

“When you spend eight hours a day blindfolded, seated in front of a wall, being interrogated by someone standing behind your back every day, you can’t stop wondering what kind of conversation you can have with this man,” Panahi told Variety in one of his first interviews following his 14-year ban on making movies, speaking to the press and traveling.

The film is produced by Jafar Panahi and Philippe Martin...