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News, reviews and interviews from Austin's big festival
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Latest updates and tributes for the Oscar-winning actor
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All the winners, fashion and speeches from the big night

JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA - DECEMBER 05: Yusr Feature Jury Member, Spike Lee attends the Opening Ceremony at the Red Sea International Film Festival 2024 on December 05, 2024 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival)

Top Story

Cannes Starts to Take Shape

Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, Kristen Stewart, Jim Jarmusch, Ari Aster and Richard Linklater are looking at potential premieres in competition.

By Elsa Keslassy

‘Ted Lasso’ Is Back

'Ted Lasso' is renewed for Season 4 by Apple TV+, with star Jason Sudeikis returning.

By Joe Otterson

(L to R) Cate Blanchett as Kathryn St. Jean and Michael Fassbender as George Woodhouse in director Steven Soderbergh's BLACK BAG, a Focus Features release. Credit: Claudette Barius/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

Film

Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender on Playing Married Spies in Steven Soderbergh’s Thriller ‘Black Bag’: ‘It’s Got to Be Sexy’

“Black Bag,” an elegant, quick-witted new thriller that finds Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender playing married spies, isn’t the pair’s first time together on…

By Brent Lang

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 20: Sean "Diddy" Combs aka Puff Daddy performs onstage during the Puff Daddy and The Family Bad Boy Reunion Tour presented by Ciroc Vodka And Live Nation at Barclays Center on May 20, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Live Nation)

Music

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Pleads Not Guilty to New Criminal Indictment

Sean “Diddy” Combs appeared in Manhattan court today for a pretrial hearing in his federal case, pleading not guilty to a superseding indictment. Earlier this…

By Steven J. Horowitz

Ben Stiller Unpacks That Pivotal Irving and Burt Scene in 'Severance' Episode 9

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 9 of “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+. Does the penultimate episode of “Severance” Season 2…

By Ethan Shanfeld

Film

SXSW Highs and Lows

From Matthew McConaughey singing to Nicole Kidman's 'Holland' fizzling out, plus plenty more ups and downs through the festival.

By Variety Staff

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‘Anora’ Leads With 5 Wins

'Anora' won best picture, director, lead actress, original screenplay and editing.
Sean Baker Makes Oscars History With Four Wins for One Movie With ‘Anora’

Baker ties Walt Disney for most Oscars won in a single night.

‘Novocaine’

A disorder that makes some people feel no pain turns Jack Quaid into the world's unlikeliest John Wick. The love story keeps us going more than the film's delight in poking Quaid full of holes.
Critics Pick
‘Black Bag’

Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett are married British agents forced to question whether one of them might be a mole in Steven Soderbergh's rivetingly smart and sexy genre exercise.
‘Mickey 17’

Bong Joon Ho's disappointing follow-up to 'Parasite' has a dark look and blunt satire, but the prospect of an endless supply of gawping Robert Pattinson clones really starts to wear on us.
‘Last Breath’

Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu in a true-life undersea rescue thriller that takes you down and lifts you up. It recreates a saturation-diving accident with a specificity that's nearly journalistic.

‘Interior Chinatown’

'Interior Chinatown' Struggles to Turn an Allegorical Novel Into a Show
‘Dune: Prophecy’

HBO Prequel Series 'Dune: Prophecy' Capably Tailors the Epic Franchise to Television
‘Landman’

Taylor Sheridan's 'Landman' Gives the West Texas Oil Fields the 'Yellowstone' Treatment
'The Day of the Jackal’

Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch's 'The Day of the Jackal' Is an Exhilarating Assassin Thriller

‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’

Billie Eilish and producer Finneas keep up their winning streak with a surprising and intimate third album.
‘Atavista’

Childish Gambino's latest is a masterpiece, and a kaleidoscopic showcase for his seemingly endless talents.
‘Dark Times’

Vince Staples searches for light on his new album, his most vulnerable project to date.
‘Radical Optimism’

Dua Lipa's new album is a joyous blast of pop savvy.

‘An Enemy of the People’

Sam Gold's production is an actorly face-off between Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli, but the script ultimately let's the audience off the hook.
‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’

Patricia Clarkson gives a luminous performance in an otherwise uneven revival of Eugene O'Neill's family drama.
‘Tommy’

Strictly for the boomers.
‘Water for Elephants’

The stage adaptation has escapism, enchantment and heart, all elevated to new, literal heights that blend theater and cirque.

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Video

Jodie Foster and Robert Downey Jr. Variety Actors on Actors

Popular on Variety

Jodie Foster & Robert Downey Jr. — Actors on Actors (Full Conversation)

Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!