A half a century later, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws still has plenty of bite as the troubled 2025 summer season comes to a close.

The original summer blockbuster, celebrating its 50th anniversary, is opening in second place at the four-day Labor Day box office office behind Zach Cregger’s August sleeper hit Weapons, which remains in first place for the fourth weekend in a row with an estimated four-day gross of $12.4 million and $10.2 million for the three-day weekend proper. The horror pic, yet another win for Warner Bros. and New Line, looks to finish Monday with a global tally of $234.6 million.

Booked in 1,975 cinemas, Jaws is looking at a four-day haul of $9.8 million — rival studios show it coming in north of $10 million — and $8.1 million for the three from 1,975 cinemas. Either way, that’s enough to swim past Darren Aronofsky‘s new movie starring Austin Butler and Zoë Kravitz, as well as Searchlight’s The Roses.

The debuts of Austin Butler’s crime thriller “Caught Stealing,” Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman’s comedy “The Roses” and an unrated remake of “The Toxic Avenger” all won’t beat out the fourth weekend of “Weapons” for the top spot at the box office, as the summer season officially winds down over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Sony Pictures’ “Caught Stealing” will get closest of those three, popping up with a $3.2 million opening day across Friday and previews from 3,578 locations. The Darren Aronofsky-directed New York noir got a lead off with screenings last Saturday too. It’s now projecting a $9.5 million debut over the four-day holiday frame, coming in short of eight digits. That’s a very muted start for the well-reviewed R-rated original, which carries a $40 million production budget. Audiences are mildly positive, with moviegoer pollster Cinema Score turning in a “B” grade.

Meanwhile, Searchlight Pictures has...

The fourth and final season of the reimagined "Battlestar Galactica" was the show's most divisive. Perhaps that was unavoidable given how "Galactica" had threaded long-running mysteries and philosophical questions throughout its run. When you keep the audience guessing for years, the resolutions can't satisfy them all.

The finale of "Battlestar Galactica," the three-part episode "Daybreak," leaves nothing to chance and no door unclosed. It gives answers and you can take them or leave them — there is an Earth, the God whispered about throughout the show is real (but remains unseen), and the series is set thousands of years in the past. The humans and humanoid Cylons are, collectively, the ancestors of modern mankind.

If AI is coming for filmmakers, don’t tell that to director Damien Hauser.

In his latest feature, “Memory of Princess Mumbi,” which premieres in the Venice Days sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, the young Swiss Kenyan filmmaker imagines a retro-futuristic Africa set in the aftermath of a cataclysmic war, creating a rich visual tapestry that makes ample use of artificial intelligence.

The result — a playful, bittersweet meta-fiction that is part love story, part mockumentary — is a film that Hauser readily admits he could have never made without AI, even as he set out to “make a movie that AI could never make,” the director tells Variety.

“Memory of Princess Mumbi” is set in 2093, as a young documentary filmmaker, Kuve (Abraham Joseph), travels to the kingdom of Umata to document the aftermath of the great war. There he meets Mumbi (Shandra Apondi), a free-spirited actress who challenges him to...

China’s 2025 summer box office season generated RMB11.97 billion ($1.67 billion), up 2.7% from last year, with admissions reaching 321 million — the second-highest in five years, according to a new report from Maoyan Research Institute.

The average ticket price dropped to $5.04, the second lowest over the period, driven by reduced distribution fees and ticket subsidy campaigns. The report notes that flexible pricing helped lift audience enthusiasm, with occupancy rates ranking second-highest among the past five summer seasons.

Two films crossed the RMB1 billion ($140 million) mark, on par with 2024, while the number of titles grossing between RMB500 million and Rmb 1 billion increased. Local films slightly increased their market share, while imported films continued a two-year recovery. The top three releases accounted for nearly half of the season’s revenue, underscoring what analysts call the “Matthew Effect” — a dynamic where a few blockbusters capture a disproportionate share of the market, leaving smaller titles with less visibility.

Venice film festival

An intensely personal interview of the 92-year-old Hollywood star delivers showstopping moments for fans of the golden age of movies

At 92 years old, Hollywood movie star Kim Novak – legendary of course for her doppelganger starring role in Hitchcock’s Vertigo – is a vivid and, in fact, yearningly romantic and demanding presence in this gallant, cinephile documentary-interview filmed by director and Novak superfan Alexandre O Philippe. She is one of the very few golden age stars still with us, and maybe the title of this film is a playful pun: at the very apex of Hollywood history, perhaps Novak feels dizzy looking down from her mythic height.

Philippe...

Sarah-Jane Potts speaks volumes without saying a word as a bereaved, selectively mute woman travelling alone who meets a talkative Irishman

Is it possible to recover after the worst imaginable tragedy? Or are there some things that you just can’t get over? These are the themes of this muted British drama about raw grief from actor turned director Joseph Millson. It stars Sarah-Jane Potts as Anne, a woman in her 40s travelling alone in Lanzarote. Dressed head to toe in black, and unsmiling, Anne stands out from the other holidaymakers. And she doesn’t talk; there is a page in the notebook she uses to communicate with the words: “I’m not deaf.

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You might know Vanessa Kirby for her roles as Princess Margaret on "The Crown," the White Widow in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, or, most recently, her turn as the Invisible Woman/Sue Storm in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."

In truth, however, Kirby has been acting since 2010, having gotten her start via supporting roles in British TV and theatre. Her last television role before her breakout work on "The Crown" was in the 2015 period piece horror/crime series, "The Frankenstein Chronicles." But if you think you already know what the show is about based on its title, guess again.

Created...

“Kim Novak’s Vertigo” has one of the more heartwarming and, frankly, historically significant, codas to a film-focused documentary in recent memory. It’s such a special moment that it mostly justifies the way the film has been assembled before it.

Until then, it’s quite an uneven and unstructured cinematic portrait, and one of the weaker efforts from its director Alexandre O. Philippe. The Swiss-born cinephile has become a kind of cross between Laurent Bouzereau and Mark Cousins with his succession of documentaries about iconic films and film subjects.

Novak is certainly a worthy subject for a documentary. She’s not only the last survivor of the film that many consider the greatest ever made, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” but she is the nexus of obsession in a film about obsession that has inspired so much obsession in the 67 years since its release itself. At 92, her star power is as grand and magnificent as ever.

Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee” tells the story, through hymnal music and choreography, of the founding leader of the Shakers as she attempts to create an ecstatic utopia. Fastvold and her husband, producer/co-writer Brady Corbet, shot the Venice competition premiere in 2024 in Hungary again after “The Brutalist.”

Like the Corbet-directed Oscar-winning film from last year, the filmmakers also shot “The Testament of Ann Lee” on a budget and on film cameras. At one point, they took the cast and crew aboard a fully operational 18th-century ship they found in Sweden, as Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried) transports her followers from pre-industrial Manchester, England to colonial rural America.

Seyfried, Fastvold, Corbet, composer Daniel Blumberg (Oscar winner for “The Brutalist”), choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall (“Vox Lux”), producer Andrew Morrison, and more for the film convened at the Venice Film Festival press conference Monday afternoon ahead of its premiere at the Sala Grande.

Dwayne Johnson takes on his most dramatic role yet in Benny Safdie’s wrestling biopic “The Smashing Machine,” playing UFC champion Mark Kerr. At the film’s Venice Film Festival press conference, the action star revealed that he’s been wanting to expand his repertoire for a while now.

“I have, for a long time, wanted this,” Johnson said, sitting alongside director Safdie and co-star Emily Blunt, who plays Kerr’s girlfriend Dawn Staples. “The three of us have talked for a very long time about, when you’re in Hollywood — as we all know, it had become about box office. And you chase the box office, and the box office can be very loud and it can become very resounding and it can push you into a category and into a corner. This is your lane and this is what you do and this is what Hollywood wants you to do.

Filmmakers Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet got candid about the challenges of independent cinema while at the Venice Film Festival with their sweeping musical drama “The Testament of Ann Lee.” Their latest collaboration — directed by Fastvold who co-wrote the script with Corbet — explores the founding leader of the Shakers, a radical religious moment known for worshipping through ecstatic song and movement. It’s a focus on this lesser-known chapter of American history, which means the movie wasn’t the most obvious sell to financiers.

“It was quite a feat,” Corbet, returning with Fastvold to Venice just a year after 2024’s award season darling “The Brutalist,” said at the official press conference. “As you can imagine, the elevator pitch for shaker musical wasn’t the easiest to get off the ground.”

Producer Andrew Morrison, who worked with the couple on “The Brutalist” and was responsible for cobbling together the lean $10 million price tag for “Ann Lee,...

Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion has unveiled its most international lineup to date, revealing film and series projects that underscore the growing appetite for cross-border collaborations in Asian cinema.

The 2025 selection comprises 50 film projects — 38 new developments (Fpp) and 12 works-in-progress (Wip) — plus 14 series projects announced earlier. Among the projects: 22 international co-productions that span territories from Japan and South Korea to Malaysia, France and the U.K., setting a new record for the event.

The slate reflects contemporary trends while showcasing returning Golden Horse Award winners alongside emerging voices exploring themes from LGBTQ+ identity to Indigenous culture, AI technology and cross-generational family dynamics.

Several Golden Horse veterans return with new projects. Wei Te-sheng, director of “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale,” presents “Mount Sancha,” described as a rescue mission examining history and ethnic conflicts.

Geng Jun, helmer of “Bel Ami,” teams with Golden Horse Best Actor winner Zhang Zhiyong for dark comedy “Born After,...

The Marrakech International Film Festival has restructured its industry strand under the banner of Atlas Programs and is launching an event dedicated to distribution for its 2025 edition, which runs November 28-December 6.

Atlas Programs encompasses all four of the festival’s initiatives, including Atlas Workshops, which first launched in 2018 and is aimed at supporting projects from Moroccan, Arab and African filmmakers and producers.

The festival has also added Atlas Distribution Meetings, a four-day event that presents African and Arab films in post-production to 60 international distribution professionals.

Atlas Station, an initiative for Moroccan filmmakers, will also exist under the Programs banner and...

The 69th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled an A-list roster of filmmakers set to participate in this year’s Screen Talks program.

Three-time Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis will sit down for a conversation, marking a rare public appearance for the reclusive actor. Day-Lewis, whose acclaimed filmography includes “There Will Be Blood,” “Lincoln” and “Phantom Thread,” remains the only performer to claim three best actor Oscars. His new film, “Anemone,” is premiering at the New York Film Festival.

Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos, fresh off “Bugonia,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, will also participate in the program. Since his 2009 breakthrough “Dogtooth,” Lanthimos has carved out one of the most distinctive paths in contemporary cinema.

Richard Linklater, the filmmaker behind “Boyhood,” “Dazed and Confused” and the “Before” trilogy, will participate in the conversation series. His diverse filmography spans experimental works like “Slacker” and “Waking Life” to comedies including “School of Rock” and “Hit Man.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is a divisive figure amongst theatergoers. There is an entire generation that considers him the (admittedly tuneful) devil incarnate, a simplistic composer of earworm-y tunes that occupy the space of empty-minded musicals. "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" were excused during Broadway's weird Christian revival in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but Webber hit his creative peak with "Evita." Historically and politically, it's a muddled affair, but Webber and lyricist Tim Rice rouse the audience with one showstopper after another before delivering one of the most astonishing musical numbers in the genre's history with "Don't Cry for Me Argentina."

What do you...

Acolytes of Argentine auteur Lucrecia Martel are accustomed to patience. In 25 years she’s made just five features, of which the latest, the long-gestating “Landmarks,” is her first foray into nonfiction filmmaking. A slow-burning, increasingly incensed unraveling of a horrific murder case underpinned by colonialist privilege and prejudice, it too demands patience of its viewers — though it rewards them with steadily rising emotional impact and a long view of Latin American history that transcends any true-crime trappings. Relative to Martel’s more formally radical fiction films, this is a straightforwardly constructed work, but a disciplined, clear-eyed one. Clearly a passion project for the director, it nonetheless avoids sentimentality or heated rhetoric on a high-stakes subject.

Martel’s name guarantees general arthouse exposure for a documentary that will be ubiquitous on the festival circuit following its out-of-competition premiere at Venice, with program slots in Toronto, New York and San Sebastian lined up,...

The world premiere of Daniel Hendler’s 27 Nights will open the 73rd edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff) on September 19.

The Uruguayan filmmaker also stars in the feature which is playing in competition. The story follows an 80-year-old millionaire forced into a psychiatric ward by her daughters. It is Hendler’s second film screening at Ssiff this year, alongsideA Loose End in Horizontes Latinos, which won the Wip Latam Industry Award at the festival in 2024.

Closing on September 27 is Kasia Adamik’s thriller Winter Of The Crow, playing out of competition. Set in Poland during the Cold War,...

Lav Diaz’s “Magellan” has been selected as the Philippines’ submission for the best international feature film category at the 98th Academy Awards, the Film Academy of the Philippines has revealed.

The historical drama, which chronicles the final months of Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan’s life before his death on the island of Mactan, beat out six other local contenders for the slot. The selection committee, composed of Filipino film industry experts, evaluated submissions based on aesthetic and technical excellence, embodiment of Filipino values and culture, international appeal, and the producer’s campaign capabilities.

Starring Gael García Bernal alongside Filipino performers Arjay Babon, Ronnie Lazaro, Bong Cabrera, and Hazel Orencio, “Magellan” presents what Diaz calls an “uncompromising perspective on history.” Rather than portraying the titular explorer as a heroic figure, the film depicts him as a man “facing his own oblivion,” challenging romanticized colonial narratives.

The production, shot across the Philippines,...

At AmfAR Venezia, filmmaker Julian Schnabel accepted a tribute award from Jude Law before auctioning off a one-of-a-kind experience: The director and artist, at the Venice Film Festival to premiere his new drama “In the Hand of Dante,” offered to paint one of his signature portraits for the highest bidder in the room.

As the offers flew from auctioneer Simon du Pury, suddenly a woman in a black dress with a very short bob raised her hand to place a bid of €475,000. As the auctioning continued — she was caught in a heated bidding war with an art deal on the phone with an anonymous proposer — Schnabel agreed to sell two portraits for €500,000 a piece. In total, Schnabel’s efforts raised €1 million ($1.17 million) for AmfAR Venezia, the charity gala devoted to raising money for research for HIV and AIDS.

He turned to his new portrait subject and reached out for a...

Albert Serra’s riveting documentary follows star matador Andrés Roca Rey as he confronts the raw force of nature – but it’s a tough watch for animal lovers

For anyone looking for an ethical statement on bullfighting, this is not that film. Composed primarily of a series of corrida at which Peruvian star matador Andrés Roca Rey performs, this is an extremely tough watch for those with any kind of sympathy for animal rights. Director Albert Serra – lauded for his 2022 thriller Pacifiction – is not especially interested in the lives of the bulls, who all die desultory deaths, depicted with horrible intimacy here. What is even more shocking is the abuse...

Netflix Argentinian family drama “27 Nights,” directed by Daniel Hendler will open the San Sebastián Film Festival on Sept. 19, playing in competition. The opening night gala screening will mark the film’s world premiere.

One of Hanway Films big sales plays at Toronto and slice of Polish period neo-noir, “Winter of the Crow,” from Poland’s Kasia Adamik, will close San Sebastián on Sept. 27.

Hendler, a filmmaker and actor who won Berlin’s best actor award for Daniel Burman’s “The Lost Embrace,” will also star in “27 Nights,” based on the same titled novel by Natalia Zito, inspired in turn by a real-life case. The film turns on a 88-year-old millionaire who is interned by her daughters against her will in a psychiatric ward. Co-starring Marilú Marini, “27 Nights” is produced by Netflix and Buenos Aires-based La Unión de los Ríos, founded by Agustina Llambi Campbell and Santiago Mire, and behind Mitre’s Oscar-nominated “Argentina,...

Upcoming projects from directors Geng Jun, Wei Te-sheng and Giddens Ko and producers Philip Yung, Tom Lin Shu-yu and Katie Leung have been selected for Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Fpp), which runs November 17-19 in Taipei.

The Chinese-language film project platform has revealed 50 feature-length projects, comprising 12 work-in-progress (Wip) and 38 in-development titles covering a wide range of genres and themes. A record number of international co-productions are also featured.

The Wip lineup includes Dangling by We Are Champions director Chang Jung-chi, about a window cleaner trapped on a skyscraper; Dating Omakase, in which Far Far Away director Amos...

Zar Amir, the French-Iranian star of Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider,” will be honored at New York’s Metrograph Theater with a special tribute including a screening of the Oscar-qualifying short film “Two People Exchanging Saliva.”

Amir stars alongside Luàna Bajrami (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”) in the dystopian short which is directed by Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh. The film, which has qualified to enter the Oscar race, world premiered at Telluride and won a prize at the AFI Fest.

Titled “Zero Compromise: The Films of Zar Amir,” the tribute will kick off September 27 at Metrograph Theater.

The Tehran-born Amir, who won best actress at Cannes with her performance in Abbasi’s thriller “Holy Spider” in 2022, is also a filmmaker. She directed her first short, “Khat,” when she was only 18, and has since established herself as a politically engaged artist who has rebelled against Iran’s oppressive regime.

The Oscar-nominated star of Bend It Like Beckham, Pride and Prejudice and Atonement – and now children’s author – will answer your questions

Keira Knightley’s big break arrived in 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham, Gurinder Chadha’s comedy-drama about female footballers, which put her into the premier league. Before that, she’d had smaller parts in the 2002 gritty British drama Pure, about a mother with a heroin addiction, and the 2001 thriller The Hole, set in an eerie abandoned nuclear fallout shelter. Before that, she’d played Natalie Portman’s decoy in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The reasoning being, well … Portman and Knightley do look a bit similar,...

The latest in our series of writers detailing their most rewatched comfort films is a reminder of Anthony Minghella’s starry, sad and sinister 1999 thriller

Sixteen is a great age to see a movie, there on a threshold between wide-eyed wonder and something like maturity. That’s how old I was when I first laid eyes on The Talented Mr Ripley, Anthony Minghella’s ravishing, exquisitely grim 1999 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s flinty 1955 novel. I’d been a movie fan for years at that point, but something about its elegant menace, its beauty flecked with blood, grabbed ahold of me like little had previously. It is by no means a feelgood film,...

Screenis running this regularly updated page with the latest film festival and market dates from across the world.

To submit details of or alter your festival dates, pleasecontact us herewith the name, dates, country and website for the event.

Ongoing

Venice International Film Festival, Italy - August 27-September 6

September

Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival, US - September 2-7

Armenian Film Festival, US - September 3-7

Jakarta World Cinema, Indonesia - September 4-October 4

100% Manusia Film Festival, Indonesia - September 4-14

Toronto International Film Festival, Canada - September 4-14

Jakarta International Documentary Experimental Film Festival,Indonesia - Setptember 5-13

London Rolling Film Festival,...

Exclusive: Lhb ✕ An Attitude, an alliance of top Taiwanese producers Lee Lieh, Roger Huang and Justine O, has lined up a trio of international co-productions starring hot Taiwanese talents Ethan Ruan, Hsu Kuang-han and Tseng Jing-hua.

Justine O is at Venice Film Festival with Competition title The Sun Rises On Us All and Critics’ Week selection A Dance In Vain, both of which she produced outside of the alliance.

The upcoming projects include Arrested Memory, starring Ruan whose recent hit The Pig, The Snake And The Pigeon grossed $93m (RMB665m) in China alone, and is directed by Japan’s...

Japanese blockbuster “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle” held the top spot at the Korean box office for a second weekend, grossing $6.3 million from 800,819 admissions over Aug. 29–31.

According to Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, the film has now accumulated $24.4 million since opening on Aug. 22. Directed by Sotozaki Haruo and produced by ufotable, “Infinity Castle” adapts the climactic final arc of Gotouge Koyoharu’s blockbuster manga. Returning voice cast members include Hanae Natsuki, Kitō Akari, Shimono Hiro, and Matsuoka Yoshitsugu. The film follows the Demon Slayer Corps’ all-out assault on Kibutsuji Muzan’s stronghold in a bid to end the war between humans and demons. The film is currently No. 2 on the global chart.

South Korean film “My Daughter is a Zombie” remained in second place with $1.4 million, bringing its total to $36.3 million since its July 30 release. Brad Pitt’s racing drama “F1” followed closely with $1.1 million,...

The Marrakech Intl. Film Festival has created Atlas Programs, a banner that brings together all of its initiatives for industry professionals. The festival has also launched the Atlas Distribution Meetings, which brings together 60 distribution professionals from the Arab world, Africa and Europe.

The launch of the new name comes as the festival seeks to up its commitment to Moroccan, Arab and African cinema by structuring its support and assistance programs for the new generation of filmmakers and producers from the region in “a clear and coherent manner,” it said.

The Atlas Programs are gathered around four pillars:

The Atlas Workshops, launched in 2018, remain at its core. This artistic and professional support program is aimed at Moroccan, Arab, and African filmmakers and producers, with the goal of supporting film projects at the development and post-production stages.

Each year, the heads of projects receive “tailored guidance” in consultations with professionals from the international industry.

Theo Montoya collages an unfinished phantom horror film, gothic Medellín cityscapes and interviews with lost friends into a transgressive work of cine-protest

The best kind of goth is the Latino goth. That much is clear throughout this documentary lament for the Colombian city of Medellín, for which director Theo Montoya narrates his elegy from within a casket. Luckily, he is still alive – unlike eight of the doomy-looking LGBTQ+ renegades who speak about their lives on camera here, having killed themselves or died of drug overdoses since filming. It is implied they are victims by proxy of a kind of ambient socio-cultural violence that is a hangover from the cartel days.

Exclusive: Italy’s Minerva Pictures has acquired international sales rights to Lilian T. Mehrel’s Tribeca selection Honeyjoon.

The comedy drama centres on Persian-Kurdish Lela and her sensual daughter June who take a trip to the romantic Azores after a big loss — with opposite ideas about why they’re there, how to grieve and June’s tiny bikini.

Between honeymooners, Woman Life Freedom, and their hot philosophical-surfer tour guide João, they find each other and come back to life.

Filmed in Portugal’s Azores islands, the film stars Ayden Mayeri (Jackpot!), Amira Casar (Call Me By Your Name) and Jose Condessa...

Zee Studios’ upcoming Bollywood romantic drama “Love in Vietnam” has secured a 10,000-screen theatrical release in China, with Shanghai Yc Media and Film acquiring distribution rights for a Christmas 2025 rollout.

The Rahhat Shah Kazmi-directed musical love saga, starring Shantanu Maheshwari, Avneet Kaur, Vietnamese actor Kha Gnan, and Bollywood veterans Farida Jalal, Raj Babbar, and Gulshan Grover, is set for its Indian theatrical release on Sept. 12.

Shot across locations in Vietnam and Punjab, India, “Love in Vietnam” is a rare cinematic collaboration between India and Vietnam.

The film is produced by Captain Rahul Bali, Blue Lotus Pictures, Innovations India, Rahat Kazmi Film Studios, And Productions, Zebaish Entertainment, Tariq Khan Productions, Mango Tree Entertainment, and Samten Hills, Dalat.

“Love in Vietnam” Zee Studios

“‘Love in Vietnam’ has been a dream project. We have put our heart and soul into this film, and it is truly a matter of pride as we...

“The Shadow’s Edge” (iQIYI Pictures) held the China box office for a second weekend, grossing RMB189.1 million ($26.3 million) for a running total of RMB878 million ($121.9 million), according to Artisan Gateway. The Jackie Chan thriller is directed by Larry Yang.

The film follows retired Macau surveillance expert Wong Tak-Chung (Chan), who’s brought back to track a high-tech heist carried out by a mastermind criminal known as the “Wolf King.” Assisting him is rookie cop He Qiuguo (Zhang Zifeng), as they face off against Tony Leung Ka-fai’s cunning Fu Longsheng and his criminal gang. The film topped the global chart as well, per Comscore.

“Nobody” (Shanghai Animation Film) took second place with $15.2 million, lifting its cume to $202.1 million. Directed by Yu Shui, the film draws inspiration from “Journey to the West,” reimagining the classic mythology through the eyes of minor demons on their own spiritual pilgrimage. It occupied sixth place on the global chart.

The first Indian fiction feature to win the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at Sundance has unveiled its official trailer. “Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears),” written and directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, will hit Indian theaters via Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media.

As revealed by Variety, Strand Releasing has secured North American distribution rights, with worldwide sales handled by MPM Premium.

Set against the rugged landscape of western India, the film follows Anand, a city-dweller dealing with personal loss and family pressures as he undertakes a 10-day mourning ritual in his ancestral village. There, he reconnects with Balya, a childhood friend facing similar societal expectations. The cast includes Bhushaan Manoj, Suraaj Suman and Jayshri Jagtap.

The project has attracted heavyweight Indian film industry support, with acclaimed filmmakers Nagraj Manjule, Nikkhil Advani, Saie Tamhankar and Vikramaditya Motwane coming aboard as executive producers.

The production represents an international collaboration, developed under the...

Racheal Cain’s debut feature feels derivative, with plotlines that are forced together and cartoonish reductions that sell its characters short

Hard on the heels of The Substance comes another film about a dodgy Los Angeles experimental clinic and showbiz obsession – only this medical outfit, Somnium, is a shonky mind-fixing operation à la Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Wannabe actor Gemma (Chloë Levine) lands a “sleep-sitting” job at the firm, watching over patients in pods who are hoping to improve their lives by having helpful dreams injected into their subconsciouses. Already working the audition circuit hard, she doesn’t appear to need that kind of assistance – but flashbacks to...

Two longtime friends will make for among Venice’s most-discussed red-carpet pairings.

Sofia Coppola is the director of “Marc by Sofia,” a new A24 documentary premiering at Venice Sept. 2. Coppola was approached by producers R.J. Cutler and Jane Cha Cutler to make the film, which is a kaleidoscopic exploration of Jacobs, tracing both his production of a single collection and his influences over time.

Coppola and Jacobs spoke to Variety the day before one important milestone. “I’m excited for my dress fitting tomorrow, with Marc,” Coppola said. “That’s always exciting and scary.” Jacobs was anxious about how the film will go over, but told Variety, “I know I’m in good hands with Sofia.”

Marc, you’ve lived in the public eye, but was there a new vulnerability in allowing Sofia to tell your story?

Marc Jacobs: I always feel pretty vulnerable when I show work or when I share work,...

Paris-based Miam! Distribution has pounced on the international distribution rights to “Trash!” (“Ordures”), a live-action, stop-motion hybrid series told from the points of view of those pesky disposable items littering our planet, including used condoms, broken eyeglass frames, bottles and cans.

The series is made up of four 13-minute episodes.

Set in the streets and sewers of Paris, it follows Gobi, a single-use coffee cup which faces an existential crisis after it’s discarded after just three minutes by “sweet” Marie. Convinced this was a mistake, it sets out to find her, meeting fellow trash in its journey across a world of waste “where trash piles high, self-esteem runs low and every step is a new disaster waiting to happen,” per the synopsis.

The darkly wry series, produced by Darjeeling and currently airing on Arte France, throws a glaring spotlight on the global problem of mounting trash, asking: “What if it had a voice?...

Kim Novak decided to walk away from Hollywood in 1966, at the height of her fame, because it felt like the right thing to do. The screen legend, now 92, also trusted her instincts last year when director Alexandre O. Philippe asked her to be the subject of a documentary.

“I felt somehow that it was meant to be,” says Novak.

Philippe’s doc “Kim Novak’s Vertigo” blends rare archival footage with personal reflections from Novak to trace her path from mid-century cinema icon to a fiercely private artist.

“I thought it was a good idea to make [this film] in a way because it was a chance to wrap up my life,” says Novak. “Like you would in a confessional, I expressed the things that mattered and meant something to my life.”

The film debuted Sept. 1 at the Venice Film Festival, where Novak will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Novak inadvertently...

Get ready for an onslaught of Italian movies on the post-Venice fall festival circuit.

Seven Italian titles are set launch into North America from Toronto. Seven will be bowing into Asia from Busan. Four will screen at the New York Film festival, and six in London.

The most significant aspect of these numbers is probably the fact that the New York fest selected four Italian films: Gianfranco Rosi’s “Below the Clouds,” Pietro Marcello’s “Duse,” Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia” and Francesco Sossai’s “The Last One for the Road.”

Oh, and the New York fest is opening Sept. 26 with Luca Guadagnino’s Julia Roberts-starrer “After the Hunt”; though it’s not an Italian-language movie, is certainly by an Italian director.

“It’s a signal of great resurgence,” says veteran sales agent Catia Rossi, who heads international distribution at PiperFilms.

“New York usually just selects one Italian film,...

Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s first European film ever, “Silent Friend,” is about to premiere in Venice. But he already wants to reunite with director Ildikó Enyedi.

“I would like to work with Ildikó again, if we get a chance,” he tells Variety. Two years ago, he picked up the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the Italian fest.

“When I was still in Hong Kong before the shoot, I asked her: ‘What do I need to do to prepare for this character?’ She said: ‘You just need to be there.’ This was my first time doing anything like this. So I went there, and went with the flow,” he laughs.

In 2021, Tony Leung Chiu-wai made his long-awaited English-language debut in Marvel Studio’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” alongside Simu Liu, with fans calling out for his return as Wenwu. But following delays, its sequel is still in development.

You have to see “Bugonia” to appreciate how far out there Jesse Plemons goes with Teddy, the obsessed conspiracy freak beekeeper who kidnaps Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of Big Pharma company Auxolith, convinced that she is an alien out to destroy the earth. This week, “Bugonia” played Venice and Telluride to upbeat response from critics and audiences. It’s one of two Focus films at Telluride likely to figure in the Oscar race, along with Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet.” Will Emma Stone and Plemons both go for lead? That is the remaining question.

All Plemons knew to begin with, he said, was what Yorgos Lanthimos told him: The movie was an adaptation of a Korean film (“Save the Green Planet!”) from the early 2000s. Plemons looked up the synopsis. Then he finished “Kinds of Kindness” (2024). Then he read the script. “Are you kidding me?” he said.

How did it read that first time?...

It might be time for the Academy to invite the “Sandman.”

Adam Sandler has long been one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, but his work in Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” could finally land him where critics and cinephiles have long wanted to see him: in the Oscar race.

The U.S. premiere at the Telluride Film Festival marked a career-defining moment for Sandler, who joined Baumbach and co-star Laura Dern on stage as the filmmaker received a Silver Medallion tribute. Dern, who won her supporting actress Oscar for Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” (2018), praised her longtime collaborator, while Sandler reflected on Baumbach’s ability to “write the most beautiful words.”

Despite his box office dominance, Sandler has rarely been considered a serious Academy Awards contender. Over the years, critics have championed his work in films like Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love,” the Safdie brothers’ frenetic “Uncut Gems” and...

As viewers, it's always kind of strange to discover an actor has a very different accent than the one you've gotten used to hearing them use. So, one can only imagine how weird it must've been for the "Peacemaker" cast when they discovered that one of their co-stars sounds nothing like the character he plays (or how he had previously spoken on set). Freddie Stroma, the actor who plays Peacemaker's somehow sweetly sociopathic sidekick Vigilante, is actually British (with a super-fancy full name: Frederic Wilhelm C. J. Sjöström) but he hid his real accent from everyone on-set until well after filming had wrapped on the show's first season. Even John Cena,...

Worldwide box office: August 29-31 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (world) Cume (world) 3-day (int’l) Cume (int’l) Territories 1 The Shadow’s Edge(various) $26.8m $108m $26.8m $107.6m 6 2 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle(various) $20.4m $257.9m $20.4m $257.9m 12 3 Weapons(Warner Bros) $19.6m $232.4m $9.4m $100m 75 4 The Bad Guys 2(Universal) $17.3m $176.5m $12.5m $103.5m 76 5 The Roses (Searchlight) $15.6m $15.6m $9.2m $9.2m 41 6 Nobody(various) $15m $189.7m $15m $189.7m 1 7 Caught Stealing (Sony) $13.2m $13.2m $5.4m $5.4m 49 8 Freakier Friday(Disney) $11.1m $130.9m $4.6m $50.4m 51 9 The Fantastic Four: First Steps(Disney)

$9.2m $505.1m $4.4m $240.5m 53 10 Dead To Rights(Disney)

$8.5m $393.9m $8.5m $392.5m 7

Credit: Comscore.

Worldwide box office: August 29-31 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (world) Cume (world) 3-day (int’l) Cume (int’l) Territories 1 The Shadow’s Edge(various) $26.8m $108m $26.8m $107.6m 6 2 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle(various) $20.4m $257.9m $20.4m $257.9m 12 3 Weapons(Warner Bros) $19.6m $232.4m $9.4m $100m 75 4 The Bad Guys 2(Universal) $17.3m $176.5m $12.5m $103.5m 76 5 The Roses (Searchlight) $15.6m $15.6m $9.2m $9.2m 41 6 Nobody(various) $15m $189.7m $15m $189.7m 1 7 Caught Stealing (Sony) $13.2m $13.2m $5.4m $5.4m 49 8 Freakier Friday(Disney) $11.1m $130.9m $4.6m $50.4m 51 9 The Fantastic Four: First Steps(Disney)

$9.2m $505.1m $4.4m $240.5m 53 10 Dead To Rights(Disney)

$8.5m $393.9m $8.5m $392.5m 7

Credit: Comscore.

Worldwide box office: August 29-31 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (world) Cume (world) 3-day (int’l) Cume (int’l) Territories 1 The Shadow’s Edge(various) $26.8m $108m $26.8m $107.6m 6 2 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle(various) $20.4m $257.9m $20.4m $257.9m 12 3 Weapons(Warner Bros) $19.6m $232.4m $9.4m $100m 75 4 The Bad Guys 2(Universal) $17.3m $176.5m $12.5m $103.5m 76 5 The Roses (Searchlight) $15.6m $15.6m $9.2m $9.2m 41 6 Nobody(various) $15m $189.7m $15m $189.7m 1 7 Caught Stealing (Sony) $13.2m $13.2m $5.4m $5.4m 49 8 Freakier Friday(Disney) $11.1m $130.9m $4.6m $50.4m 51 9 The Fantastic Four: First Steps(Disney)

$9.2m $505.1m $4.4m $240.5m 53 10 Dead To Rights(Disney)

$8.5m $393.9m $8.5m $392.5m 7

Credit: Comscore.

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Richard Dean Anderson is television royalty, beginning with his first high-profile gig on "General Hospital" in 1976. He played Dr. Jeff Webber on that series, appearing in a whopping 611 episodes over five years. He also had leading roles on the short-lived shows "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "Emerald Point N.A.S." before landing the lead on the hit spy series "MacGyver" in 1985. That show lasted for seven seasons and 139 episodes, cementing Anderson as one of TV's most reliable leading men. Other viewers likely know Anderson as Jack O'Neil, the military tough-guy from the long-running series "Stargate Sg-1." He played the role...

Ondi Timoner doesn’t sit around. She was prepping a documentary feature about the Nazis in Budapest when she found out her house of 14 years had burned down in the Altadena fire. And she kept on shooting. Now more than ever she realizes that home is her work. And sure enough, when she got back to Altadena and started to deal with the myriad of things, she kept recording her life. It’s who she is.

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It is a cliché by this point that once a movie star achieves a certain degree of success, they begin telling everyone that what they'd really like to do is direct. Sometimes it works out. Kevin Costner won Best Picture and Best Director for his 1990 feature debut with "Dances with Wolves," and then you've got Charles Laughton, whose only directorial effort, "Night of the Hunter," is considered one of the greatest movies ever made. On the other end of the spectrum, there's Dan Aykroyd and the inexplicable horror-comedy debacle that is "Nothing But Trouble" (once titled "Valkenvania"). This was a passion project for Aykroyd (he wrote and directed it), and...