‘Happening’ to Open 2022 New Directors/New Films Festival (EXCLUSIVE)

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorWelcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.”Donatella Versace was in Los Angeles for the Oscars, attending the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards gala and the Vanity Fair party. She also caught up with her friend Britney Spears. Versace is designing a wedding dress for the newly liberated pop princess.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentAlong with its premium scripted lineup, Newen Connect is launching a pair of timely investigative documentaries, “Ukraine” and “Wagner,” which are providing insight into the current war. Now filming, “Ukraine” is being co-directed by Ksenia Blochakova, the Russia correspondent of the news channel France 24, and Philippe Lagnier, a journalist working at Newen-owned production banner Capa.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterContinuing his streak of using the magnetic child stars of awards season in his advertising campaigns, New York-based designer Thom Browne has cast Jude Hill as the face of his spring childrenswear line.This year’s Critics Choice Award winner for best young actor, 11-year-old Hill and his delightful Irish accent stole hearts all season in Kenneth Branagh’s Academy Award winner “Belfast.” The Thom Browne campaign was shot by Cass Bird and imagines Hill in a series of cinematic moments alongside a young girl and one of the brand’s most visible symbols — Hector, the silhouette of a wire-haired dachsund, who happens to be a giant. Browne himself also makes a cameo.The designer dressed Hill for the recent Oscars telecast and has also appeared on a slew of notable Hollywood men in recent months.

Naman Ramachandran Arrow Films have acquired U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland rights to Berlinale title “Incredible But True,” by French writer-director Quentin Dupieux (“Mandibles”).The quirky comedy, which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, sees a husband and wife move into a suburban house of their dreams only to discover that a mysterious secret is hidden in the basement, which may change their lives forever.

Sweden has become the latest territory to order a local version of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the first from Scandinavia, as the hit format’s producer World of Wonder pushes it at this week’s Mip TV.

Netflix has released eight new photos from the final 12 episodes of the hit series Grace & Frankie.The final season was broken up, with the first four episodes airing in August 2021, and the final 12 announced last month to debut on April 29.The photos offer new looks at the title characters - Grace Hanson (Jane Fonda) and Frankie Bergstein (Lily Tomlin) - in what will become Netflix's longest-running original show at seven seasons and 94 episodes. New photos:Netflix has released eight new photos from the final 12 episodes of the hit series Grace & FrankieThe photos don't reveal too much in terms of plot details, with one showing the title character enjoying some huge margaritas at a Mexican restaurant.Another snap shows the dynamic duo literally putting their heads together, while sharing a tender moment A solo shot of Frankie at the Mexican restaurant shows her in quite the festive mood with a drink in front of her.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorFeature documentary “The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft,” directed by German filmmaker Werner Herzog and distributed by Abacus Media Rights, has been acquired by Arte for France and Germany.In addition, ahead of its official launch at MipTV in Cannes, AMR has pre-sold the feature, about French volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft, to BBC Storyville for the U.K., DR in Denmark, SVT in Sweden and NRK in Norway.Written, directed and narrated by Herzog, “The Fire Within” pays homage to the Kraffts, who left an archive of more than 200 hours of footage.Herzog has produced, written and directed more than 60 narrative and documentary feature films, including “Grizzly Man,” “Invincible,” “Encounters at the End of the World” and “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” He was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009. The film is produced by Brian Leith Productions, Bonne Pioche and Titan Films.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThree-part documentary series “Delphine: My Story” tells how the artist Delphine Boël, the illegitimate daughter of King Albert II of Belgium, fought for legal recognition, and is now known as Princess Delphine of Saxe-Coburg. It has been sold to multiple territories, Warner Bros. announced at MipTV in Cannes Tuesday.HBO Max has picked up the show in numerous territories in Europe.

The 2022 Canadian Screen Awards kicked off on Monday, announcing the winners in Broadcast News and Documentary & Factual– which was hosted by ET Canada’s own Sangita Patel.

Kanye West has pulled out of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival where he was to have headlined both of the fest’s two weekends, according to multiple media reports.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentStrand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Alain Guiraudie’s “Nobody’s Hero” which is handled by Films du Losange and world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. The movie, which opened the Berlinale Panorama section, is set in Clermont-Ferrand revolves around Frederic, a 35 year-old man who falls in love with with a middle-aged sex worker who is married.

Love and basketball! Whether it’s a college matchup or the NBA, celeb couples love a date night that involves courtside seats.

A new operator could soon be at the helm of a former Wetherspoons which closed suddenly last month. Punters were left 'devastated' when The Robert Peel pub, in Bury, ceased trading without warning.

New York City.  The Brooklyn-born painter and Oscar-nominated director took charge of pushing the baby's carriage as the couple walked through the West Village on Saturday in exclusive photos obtained by DailyMail. com.

Paramount+ is locking phasers in advance of the latest new series in the Star Trek saga, releasing the first official trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which debuts next month on the streamer.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticYou could say, going back to Hitchcock or the silent-film era, that the thriller is the quintessential form of cinema. You could also say that the quintessential moment of a thriller is one that makes you go “Oh. My.

Is art imitating life? Pete Davidson‘s Saturday Night Live sketch seemed to mirror a recent evening he spent with Scott Disick.

EXCLUSIVE: With Mip TV almost underway, Banijay Rights has kicked off the market by picking up the rights to two buzzy BBC formats: The Drop and Extraordinary Portraits. 

Stephanie Beatriz and Sandra Oh will be this year’s Outfest honorees. The awards they’ll receive are meant to celebrate their LGBTQA+ allyship and contribution to the arts.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentWarnerMedia Kids & Family EMEA has acquired broadcast rights to “Jade Armor,” a banner martial arts action comedy animated series from France’s TeamTO, one of Europe’s foremost kids entertainment production companies.As part of Cartoon Network’s declared commitment to broadcasting more animation targeting girls, “Jade Armor” will be released on both HBO Max and Cartoon Network in Europe, West Asia and North Africa later in 2022.An instance of platforms’ drive into local animation and diversity which is galvanizing animation in Europe, the new licensing deal builds on last year’s sale of “Jade Armor” to WarnerMedia Kids & Family in the U.S., ensuring classy powerful premium platform distribution for the series. Produced by multi-award winning TeamTO founder Corinne Kouper and co-created by showrunners Chloé Miller whose anime passions shines through in the series, “Jade Armor” turns on Lan Jun, who bucks any kind of gender stereotyping, as Miller noted for Variety: She likes pink but likes to fight and likes to watch soccer games and paint her nails.Martial-arts loving, she also becomes an unexpected and unlikely teen hero when she dons a mysterious jade bracelet, obliging her to learn the ancient secrets of her family and uncover the unexpected, including a cohort of super villains, while navigating the typical challenges of teen life.Kouper and Miller are supported by an all-female key creative team: Head writer M.J.

Christopher Vourlias CAA Media Finance is representing worldwide distribution rights to a new documentary feature from the producers of “The Lost Leonardo,” Variety can reveal.The untitled project follows a Swiss art dealer and Russian oligarch caught in a web of secrets, lies and mad money, telling the inside story of an international, billion-dollar game where power is the ultimate currency. The film is produced by Elk Film (Denmark) and Pumpernickel Films (France) and directed by Andreas Dalsgaard, whose previous credits include “The Lost Leonardo” and “The War Show.”The pulled-from-the-headlines documentary follows the scandal that erupted in 2015 with the arrest of the Swiss businessman and free port magnate Yves Bouvier, “a very discreet guy who was suddenly arrested in Monaco, accused of swindling a billion dollars from the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev…[through] the purchase of 38 masterworks,” according to Dalsgaard.