film: Last News

Naman Ramachandran Film Movement has landed North American rights to “Stranger Eyes,” the surveillance-themed thriller from Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua that competed for Venice’s Golden Lion in 2024. The psychological thriller stars Taiwanese cinema icon Lee Kang-sheng (“Days”) alongside Chien-Ho Wu and Anicca Panna.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Tommy Gulliksen’s documentary “Facing War,” which depicts Jens Stoltenberg’s final year as NATO secretary general, has been selected as the opening film of the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, a.k.a. CPH:DOX.

Naman Ramachandran ABS-CBN‘s Star Cinema is betting big on romantic comedy again, setting a March 28 theatrical release for “My Love Will Make You Disappear” across the U.S. and Canada. The film marks the first big-screen team-up of Filipino stars Kim Chiu and Paulo Avelino, whose combined social media following tops 40 million.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Romanian filmmaker Corneliu Porumboiu will be the special guest at the 56th edition of documentary festival Visions du Réel, which runs April 4 – 13 in Nyon, Switzerland. There will be a retrospective of all Porumboiu’s feature films, and he will deliver a masterclass.

Annika Pham Hollywood Icelandic mogul Joni Sighvatsson, producer of David Lynch’s Palme d’Or winner “Wild at Heart” and head of L.A.-based Palomar Entertainment, has partnered the Scandinavian powerhouse The Global Ensemble Drama and South Africa’s Diprente Media for the feature adaptation of Jonas Jonasson’s best-selling book “The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden.” The majority English-language project in development will be directed by high profile South-African talent Kagiso Lediga from a script by Karabo Lediga, both credited for Netflix’s first African series “Queen Sono.” “The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden” is the second Jonas Jonasson movie adaptation for Sighvatsson, after the executive produced “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared” which grossed over $51 million worldwide. Published in 2013 and sold by Albatros Agency to around 30 territories including to Harper Collins for English language countries, “The Girl…” is the empowering story of Nombeko Mayeki, “a young woman from Soweto who finds herself caught in an international whirlwind from South Africa to Sweden,” per the official logline.” “A heroine born in the slums of South Africa, she rises from obscurity to become the key player in an international nuclear conspiracy, accidentally saving the Swedish monarchy and averting global catastrophe with her quick-witted resourcefulness.” Nombeko’s journey is described as “an absurd and heart-warming tale of how one underestimated person can inadvertently save the world from disaster.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In “Kinda Pregnant,” Amy Schumer has her comic fury back, and it looks great on her. So does the prosthetic baby bump that her character, a needy high-school English teacher named Lainy Newton, wears for much of the movie — though on occasion, when she runs into someone she has fooled into thinking she’s pregnant, and the prosthetic isn’t around, she’ll swap in a kid’s birthday-party balloon or even a roast chicken. That makes the movie sound awfully broad, and “Kinda Pregnant” is an overlit middle-of-the-road Netflix comedy.

Guy Lodge Film Critic For many of us, periods of intense grieving don’t leave clear, linear memories. Time stretches, compresses and fragments, words and faces and gestures emerge irregularly from an overwhelmed blur, and often it’s everyday banalities — what we ate, bought or wore — that stick faster than more consequential events.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic So much of the American cowboy mythos — the way they talk, the silhouette they cut, the clothes they wear — has been codified, if not invented wholesale, by Hollywood. From first shot to last, Kate Beecroft’s “East of Wall” expands our perception of those iconic horse wranglers to consider the women so often overlooked.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has unveiled a five-series Chinese-language lineup for 2025, headlined by major stars and spanning genres from supernatural thrillers to romantic comedies. International film stars Shu Qi and Lee Sinje will make their Netflix series debut in “The Resurrected” (Q3), a dark thriller following two desperate mothers who resurrect a deceased scam ring leader to avenge their kidnapped daughters. Another high-profile project is “Had I Not Seen the Sun” (Q4), starring Tseng Jing-hua and Moon Lee.

Bryan Cranston and Lily Gladstone are hard at work on their new movie!

A young woman has shared her shocking experience of an extreme allergic reaction to tattooed lipstick, which she says left her resembling a character from the Disney Pixar film Monsters Inc.

Angelina Jolie is the incredibly well-dressed guest of honor while attending the Maltin Modern Master Award ceremony honoring Angelina Jolie during the 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Wednesday night (February 5) in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Ariana Grande is enjoying some quality time with her mom Joan in Hollywood, Calif.

Priyanka Chopra is enjoying a night out with her in-laws!

Annie Kilner has reportedly declined a £750,000 offer to appear on Celebrity Big Brother. It's understood that the influencer and wife of Manchester City and England legend Kyle Walker turned down the opportunity primarily due to her son Rezon being less than a year old and the show requiring three weeks of filming.

Although many Indiana Jones fans were unhappy with the last installment, Harrison Ford has made his peace with the character.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Zoe Saldaña is speaking out about the controversy surrounding her “Emilia Pérez” co-star Karla Sofía Gascón, whose past social media posts have resurfaced, drawing criticism for their offensive and Islamophobic rhetoric. The backlash has overshadowed the film’s historic Oscar recognition, including Saldaña’s first Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. In an interview for an upcoming episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, Saldaña expressed her sadness over the situation, emphasizing that the film was created with the intention of inclusivity and love.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events When it was announced that Jon M. Chu would be developing a Britney Spears biopic at Universal after the studio acquried rights to her memoir, fans immediately flooded social media with their top picks to play the pop princess. Among the hopefuls is Olivia Holt.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Will Ferrell recently appeared on “The Late Show” and humorously roasted the Oscars for snubbing “Will & Harper” in the best documentary category. The movie, which got picked up by Netflix after an acclaimed premiere at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, centers on a road trip Ferrell took with Harper Steele after she came out as transgender 30 years into their friendship. While “Will & Harper” did make the Oscars shortlist of 15 documentaries, it did not end up as one of the five nominees.

William Earl Welcome to Horror Explorer, a curated column showcasing the month’s best movies, series, books and everything else spooky worth checking out. I’m William Earl, the editor of Variety.com and the publication’s resident horror enthusiast. Please drop me a line at wearl@variety.com if there’s something I should check out for next month’s missive. Heart Eyes (In theaters Feb.

Kensuke’s Kingdom, directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry, based on the novel by Micheal Morpurgo, is a hand-drawn animated feature that managed to snag both BAFTA and Annie Award nominations this year. The action-adventure centers around a young boy named Michael (Aaron McGregor), who is taken by his family (played by Cillian Murphy, Sally Hawkins and Raffey Cassidy) on a sailing trip. When a storm rolls in, he and his dog, Stella, are pushed overboard and end up on a remote island where they must learn to survive on their own. On the verge of losing all hope, Michael encounters a stern, elderly Japanese soldier (Ken Watanabe) who was stranded there after his military boat capsized during World War II.