Hollywood didn’t have a lot to celebrate during a muted Labor Day holiday weekend, as “Weapons,” now in its fourth weekend of release, took the top spot, and “Jaws,” a 50-year-old blockbuster, beat out two new films, “Caught Stealing” and “The Roses,” that failed to generate much heat.

“Weapons,” which lost its No. 1 position last weekend to Netflix’s “Kpop Demon Hunters,” reclaimed its crown, earning an estimated $12.8 million over the four-day holiday. So far, the horror hit has earned $135 million domestically and $235.2 million globally. That’s an impressive result considering it only cost $38 million to produce. It extends a winning streak for Warner Bros., which has recently fielded successes like “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “F1: The Movie” (which the studio distributed for Apple) and “Superman.” It’s a remarkable comeback for the studio’s chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, who were on the...

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.

“Looking for goshawks is like looking for grace: it comes, but not often, and you don’t get to say when or how,” writes Helen Macdonald in “H Is for Hawk,” a book I picked up by accident and which proved to be the greatest tool I had when one of my own parents passed away. When someone around you loses a loved one, it’s all but impossible to know what to say. I recommend reading “H Is for Hawk.”

For Macdonald, that most eloquent of memoirs emerged from the death of her father, photographer Alisdair MacDonald, Aka Ali Mac. But what Helen really did to process her grief was to adopt a goshawk. The book is partly about what a wild and uncommon thing that is to do, but it’s mostly about what was going on in Macdonald’s mind through the process. Sometimes our brains need...

Disney’s “The Roses” opened in first place at the U.K. and Ireland box office, grossing £2.1 million ($2.9 million) in its debut frame, according to Comscore. The film was the clear market leader in a weekend where several new entries helped shake up the chart.

Universal’s 50th anniversary re-release of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” made a strong showing at No. 2, pulling in $1.4 million across its first weekend. The classic thriller outpaced the fourth-week run of Warner Bros.’ “Weapons,” which moved to No. 3 with $1.1 million, bringing its cumulative total to $14 million.

Universal’s animated sequel “The Bad Guys 2” held well at No. 4, taking $1.09 million for a running total of $16 million. Disney’s body-swap comedy “Freakier Friday” rounded out the top five, collecting $1.01 million in its fourth weekend to lift its total to $10 million.

Sony’s “Caught Stealing” launched at No. 6 with $772,462, while event cinema drew crowds with “Andre Rieu...

It’s the 1990s and a famous pop star is taken hostage by a fan in Jimmy Warden’s stylish but confused film, loosely inspired by a real-life stalker case involving Madonna

Paul Duerson (Raymond Nicholson) has got it bad for world famous pop star and actor Sofia (Samara Weaving). It being the 1990s, he doesn’t have the option of simply being creepy on social media; instead, he takes her hostage and attempts to marry her, as you do, in a period-comedy-horror-thriller that is entertaining enough moment-to-moment, but doesn’t add up anything very substantial overall. Standing in the way of Paul’s deranged scheme is bodyguard Bell (a...

Indian filmmakers Kiran Rao and Biju Toppo have joined as executive producers on “Humans in the Loop,” the Fipresci India Grand Prix-winning feature about an indigenous Adivasi woman working as an AI data-labeller.

The move represents a significant boost for the indie feature, which explores urgent themes around artificial intelligence, labor and indigenous knowledge systems. Set in Jharkhand, northern India, the film follows Nehma, an Oraon Adivasi woman whose AI data-labelling work exposes the hidden labor powering “smart” technologies. Adivasis are India’s indigenous tribal communities, comprising roughly 8% of the country’s population.

Directed by Aranya Sahay and produced by Mathivanan Rajendran, Sarabhi Ravichandran, Shilpa Kumar and Aranya through Storiculture’s Impact Fellowship and Sauv Films, the drama examines how technological progress can entrench exclusion while sidelining indigenous knowledge systems.

Rao, whose “Laapataa Ladies” served as India’s official Academy Awards entry in 2024, continues her support of independent cinema following...

In anime master Mamoru Hosoda’s latest feature, “Scarlet,” the innovative Japanese filmmaker looks West for inspiration: to Shakespearean themes, classic European fantasy and the tradition of Walt Disney princesses.

In a sense, that makes it the mirror image of what’s fueling the headline-grabbing success of “KPop Demon Hunters,” the American-made, Asian-culture-imbued animated hit that just became Netflix’s most-watched original film.

Beyond hinting that “Scarlet” is “very relevant to kind of our current social climate,” Hosoda has been fairly secretive about this new project, which premieres out of competition at the Venice Film Festival Sept. 4.

“Simply put, this is a story of vengeance,” he confides. “Our protagonist Scarlet is a princess from this kind of Middle Ages society who failed to exact revenge on her sworn enemy. She then gets transported to a different world, where she doesn’t give up on her quest for revenge.”

From “The Boy and the Beast...

The Oscar race has one established frontrunner, which is often not the ideal place to be. As it happens, “Sinners” (Warner Bros.) auteur Ryan Coogler was checking out the competition at Telluride this Labor Day weekend, which unveiled a healthy slate of Oscar contenders.

Best Picture Contenders

One movie emerged that could challenge “Sinners” in multiple categories: Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) delivered heart-wrenching family drama “Hamnet” (Focus), featuring two powerhouse lead performances from Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley as William and Agnes Shakespeare. Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 bestseller, the film tracks their early romance and marriage and the birth of three children, two girls and a boy, Hamnet. Their lives are rocked by grief when they lose Hamnet to the plague, and Shakespeare buries himself in writing the tragedy “Hamlet.”

The directors will support Zhao’s meticulous period craftsmanship and scriptwriting with O’Farrell, along with the tech categories Cinematography,...

After joining the long-running medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" at the start of its sixth season, Sarah Drew's trauma attending Dr. April Kepner bid farewell to the fictional Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital (née Seattle Grace Hospital) during the season 14 finale. At the time, Drew seemed happy with her nine-year turn as the timid, anxious intern turned trauma surgeon and U.S. Army veteran. When news broke that she and Jessica Capshaw, who played pediatric surgeon Dr. Arizona Robbins, would both leave after the season 14 closer "All of Me," Drew was effusive in her praise for the show and its creator, Shonda Rhimes.

"I got to tell stories I believed in. I...

On the surface, it would appear that Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead II" was a late-arriving sequel, but, according to the director, the first installment did "very poorly domestically" during its initial theatrical release. Though I grew up a little over an hour south of Raimi's hometown, Detroit, Michigan, where it premiered in 1981, I knew nothing of the movie until I beheld a series of gloriously gnarly glossy stills in Fangoria Magazine at some point in 1983. Soon after, the movie turned up at my local video store, and my torrid love affair with the cinema of Sam Raimi began.

Four years was still a long time to wait for...

Focus Features killed it in Colorado with two “Jesses” and one Emma Stone.

On the ground, the story of what resonated — or flopped — at the Telluride Film Festival can look far different from the headlines. Still, one fact was hard to miss: Focus Features reigned over the mountains with Yorgos Lanthimos’ kaleidoscopic “Bugonia” and Chloé Zhao’s devastating “Hamnet,” both receiving near-universal acclaim from critics and festival-goers.

Telluride has long been a launchpad for eventual Oscar juggernauts. Recent alumni include Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” Zhao’s “Nomadland” and Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water.” If this year’s best picture winner was present in the Rockies, Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel feels like the strongest candidate. A win would deliver Focus Features its first best picture statuette.

“‘Hamnet’ is a masterpiece,” one woman told Variety. “It could be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

Robert Altman's 1980 film "Popeye" is a baffling creation indeed. Altman had risen to fame with a series of ultra-naturalistic dramas that employed overlapping dialogue, casual editing, and documentary-like camera work. Critics loved his films "M*A*S*H" in 1970 and "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" in 1971. His 1974 music epic "Nashville" was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and his 1977 movie "3 Women" may be one of the director's best. His films were moving, thoughtful, adult, and often intense. He told stories, but also managed to capture an ineffable quality of real life. He is beloved by film students to this day.

"Popeye," then, was a massive departure for the director.

Graham Greene, the Canadian actor best known for his Oscar-nominated turn in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves,” died on Monday in Toronto after a battle with long illness. He was 73.

A pioneer for Indigineous actors in Hollywood, Greene made his debut in the 1979 Canadian drama series “The Great Detective” and in the 1983 film “Running Brave.” But his big Hollywood break came with “Dances with Wolves,” in which he co-starred as “Kicking Bird.” The role earned him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor in 1991. The film was nominated for 12 Oscars and won seven, including for best picture and best director for Kevin Costner.

In an interview with Canada’s Theatre Museum, he discussed auditioning for “Crimson Tide” with director Tony Scott. Scott said, “I can’t really see a Native American working on a submarine.” Greene replied, “If you could, I would let you tell my four dead uncles...

In the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Progress", Nog (Aron Eisenberg) and Jake (Cirroc Lofton) stumble upon a bizarre business opportunity. It seems that Nog's uncle Quark (Armin Shimerman) has accidentally purchased a large volume of yamok sauce, a condiment enjoyed mainly by Cardassians. Because there is only one Cardassian on Deep Space Nine, Quark has no use for the stuff. Nog asks his uncle if he and Jake can have it, and Quark agrees, happy to have it off his hands. 

Nog feels that he and Jake can sell the sauce, and they cleverly find a buyer. Sadly, the Lissepian freighter captain they speak to has no latinum...

Even though she really became a movie star with Amy Heckerling's 1995 screwball comedy, "Clueless," if you were a youngster in the 1990s, there's no way you didn't know Alicia Silverstone from those steamy and rebellious Aerosmith music videos — "Amazing," "Cryin'," and "Crazy" — first. You had to: She was drop-dead gorgeous, cute, and mysterious, and had a lot of opportunities to choose from even before "Clueless" became a hit. She had truly been the Queen of the '90s for a while, and even I know that, as a guy who wasn't necessarily well-versed in the Silverstone universe.

But even before high-schooler Cher Horowitz conquered the big screen next to Brittany Murphy,...

People love Guillermo del Toro, and that’s not hyperbole.

Hollywood’s affection for the Oscar-winning auteur goes far beyond mere admiration. The Mexican filmmaker, who won best picture and director for “The Shape of Water” in 2017, has become one of the industry’s most beloved figures. His presence in any Oscar race is never just about the work he presents on screen — it’s about the depth of trust and loyalty he inspires in colleagues, craftspeople and actors alike. That goodwill may be key to propelling his latest opus, “Frankenstein,” into this year’s Oscar conversation.

After debuting at Venice, the gothic horror film adapted from Mary Shelley’s classic novel held two surprise screenings at the Telluride Film Festival on Sunday night. The 9:30 p.m. showing at the Werner Herzog Theatre and 10 p.m. screening at the Palm — the festival’s two largest venues — both sold out,...

Ciao! The 82nd annual Venice Film Festival is underway and the stars have hit the canals, with this year’s world premieres including Yorgos Lanthimos kidnap thriller “Bugonia,” Noah Baumbach’s showbiz dramedy “Jay Kelly,” Guillermo del Toro’s lavish adaptation “Frankenstein,” Luca Guadagnino’s college campus thriller “After the Hunt” and Benny Safdie’s UFC biopic “The Smashing Machine.”

New films from Mona Fastvold, Kathryn Bigelow, Paolo Sorrentino, Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook, Gus Van Sant, Lucrezia Martel, László Nemes and Kaouther Ben Hania are also in the lineup. This year’s jury is headed by Alexander Payne, the director of films like “The Holdovers,” “Election” and “Sideways.”

Venice often serves as the launch of awards season, coming ahead of an onslaught of other fall festivals including Telluride, Toronto and New York that distributors use to lay the foundation for campaigning in the coming months.

See all of Variety’s...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

In 1969, John Wayne delivered what would prove to be his only Oscar-winning performance as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn in Henry Hathaway's "True Grit." Though Wayne was far from confident going into "True Grit" (he'd just come off one of his worst films with "The Green Berets"), the movie not only proved a critical hit but also a commercial one, earning big box office returns and revitalizing the Duke's career at a time when he was in serious jeopardy of becoming irrelevant.

Had Wayne missed out on "True Grit," he would have only starred in one other film in 1969: "The Undefeated.

The stars came out in force to celebrate the 82nd Venice Film Festival with Armani Beauty on Friday evening.

The official sponsor of the festival hosted its annual event on Friday night, this time choosing one of the city’s grandest and most historic buildings. Alongside Armani Beauty brand ambassadors Cate Blanchett, bushy-bearded Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Sadie Sink, Nathalie Emmanuel and Madisin Rian, other notable attendees included Sofia Carson, Leslie Bibb, Rashida Jones, Keith Powers, Emilia Jones, Shailene Woodley, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Gemma Chan, Andria Tayeh, Eugenia Silva, Miguel Angel Silvestre, Clara Galle, Julio Pena, Clara Luciani, Greta Ferro, Romana Vergano and Emanuela Fanelli.

While some of these talent had made the trip for Armani festivities, others also have movies playing at Venice, notably Blanchett, who’s presenting Jim Jarmusch’s next feature “Father Mother Sister Brother” in competition, and Woodley, who’s on the Lido with Potsy Ponciroli’s “Motor City.

Among the many men and women of the hour during this weekend’s Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, Ethan Hawke was soaring arguably higher than even some the other featured guests, due to having two very different films in the program, one a directorial effort and the other an awards-attention-attracting starring role. He also received a Telluride medallion and tribute as part of the festivities — a moment of triumph that stands at odds with some of the tougher times experienced by the two musical figures who are the subjects of his respective films, “Highway 99: A Double Album,” his documentary about country great Merle Haggard, and “Blue Moon,” which has him starring as the great lyricist Lorenz Hart.

As proof of just how fearless he is, Hawke ventured into what some would consider the very hub of the festival, the Baked in Telluride walk-in eatery, to meet the press, as...

Kevin Feige is one of those nerds whose dream came true. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 1995 and immediately got a gig as the assistant to Lauren Shuler Donner, the executive producer of Hollywood flicks like "Volcano" and "You've Got Mail." Evidently, Feige wouldn't stop talking about his obsession with Marvel Comics, and Donner got him a job working on Bryan Singer's 2000 film "X-Men" as a result. Feige has an associate producer credit on that film, and it went on to be a big hit. Not only that, but it was proof that Marvel superheroes were viable for screen adaptation, and a door started to swing open,...

In many respects, the 2023 Caquetá Cessna Stationair crash feels like a story tailor-made for a National Geographic documentary. It has everything you expect from a movie from the channel: human survival against the elements, plenty of nuanced political and cultural context to dig into, a heart-wrenching backstory to untangle slowly through the film, and lots of breathtaking nature b-roll.

The movie that NatGeo ended up producing about the event, “Lost in the Jungle,” is coming a bit late to the party — Netflix beat them to the punch by about a year with their telling “The Lost Children” — and doesn’t really register as a standout from the company’s portfolio. But the subject matter is compelling enough, and the filmmaking sturdy enough, that it’s an engrossing watch despite its minor flaws.

“Lost in the Jungle” was directed by the now-divorced husband and wife directorial team Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin,...

Is Dwayne Johnson headed for the Oscars?

Judging by the rapturous reaction to his performance as wrestler Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine” at the Venice Film Festival on Monday night, that seems to be the consensus out of Italy.

The 53-year-old actor sobbed uncontrollably as the audience on the Lido erupted into 15-minute standing ovation, one of the longest at this year’s festival so far.

Johnson, who once performed as the WWE wrestler known as the Rock, has been the star of such commercial fare as “The Mummy,” “Black Adam” and “Baywatch.” But he goes much deeper in his next project, which will be released by A24 in November, as a ’90s fighter with demons.

Johnson stars opposite Emily Blunt in the film, who plays Kerr’s girlfriend Dawn Staples. During the ovation, Benny Safdie — the film’s director — hugged both his stars and joined Johnson in shedding...

Over the course of its run, "Stranger Things" has featured appearances by several actors who've since gone on to become much bigger names. Joseph Quinn, for example, stole the show in season 4 as Hellfire Club leader Eddie Munson before playing Johnny Storm in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." Similarly, Rob Morgan debuted as dedicated Hawkins lawman Calvin Powell before going on to appear in acclaimed films like "Mudbound," "Just Mercy," and "Smile." And should "Outer Banks" fans ever decide to revisit season 2, they might be surprised to see Madelyn Cline (who was only just terrorized by the latest hook-wielding fisherman killer in 2025's "I Know What You Did Last Summer") playing Tina,...

Gus Van Sant is the vision behind a generous handful of the best independent films of our time. “My Own Private Idaho” gave us an ahead-of-its-time gay road movie with Gen X icons Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix in 1991; one of the most viciously funny performances of Nicole Kidman’s career as a murderous weather reporter in “To Die For” three years later; and 2003 Palme d’Or-winner “Elephant,” still the most devastating film made to date about school shootings. And don’t forget “Good Will Hunting” and “Milk,” which both earned him Best Director Oscar nominations.

Van Sant, one of the leading voices of the New Queer Cinema of the ’90s and into today, suffered a scurry of critical and box office misses with “Promised Land,” “The Sea of Trees,” and “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” between 2012 and 2018. Ryan Murphy, though, brought him back to directing for...

Former pro wrestler Johnson takes on the role of man-mountain Kerr who goes into meltdown when the unthinkable happens – he loses

Benny Safdie has written and directed a solid bro drama for the UFC fanbase and maybe a little way beyond. It is about the central crisis in the life of man-mountain Mark Kerr, America’s pioneering Mma and ultimate fighting champ, who in 1997 found himself in the ring, or maybe the cage, with his demons after the unthinkable humiliation of losing for the first time.

This feature is in fact developed from a 2002 documentary about Kerr with the same title. He confronted his substance abuse, relationship anxieties and the...

After the success of his "Lord of the Rings" movies, director Peter Jackson could do no wrong. He was beloved by the Hollywood establishment, beloved by the Academy, and beloved by fantasy nerds the world over. His "Rings" movies were phenomenal productions, telling an epic story that took a trio of three-hour movies to cover, and Jackson was rewarded with geek world canonization and permission to make whatever dream movie he wanted. So, he followed "Lord of the Rings" with a slick, expensive, and utterly self-indulgent remake of "King Kong," a $207 million, 187-minute spectacular featuring cinema's favorite giant ape.

With "King Kong" out of his system, it was time for...

After years of retirement and general seclusion, Kim Novak returned to the public eye as a presenter at the Oscars in 2014 — a welcome surprise for classic film buffs and a vicious snarking opportunity for tabloid media and social media’s worst, including one Donald Trump, who seized on the 81-year-old star’s physical appearance and vocal delivery with crushing cruelty.

For Novak, who hit back with a comparatively gracious statement against bullying and ageism, it was proof that Hollywood misogyny endures decades after her 1950s heyday — and perhaps a reminder of why she took early leave of the industry in the first place. She doesn’t bring up the matter in “Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” and one hopes she doesn’t think of it much. But her legacy, and sentiments binding past and present, are much on her mind in Alexandre O. Philippe’s warmly conversational documentary portrait.

If you’re...

Italy’s Fondazione Prada, on Monday at the Venice Film Festival, officially launched its film fund to sustain independent cinema from around the world without any restrictions on theme, genre, or language.

As previously announced, the fund is starting out with a €1.5 million ($1.6 million) pot and will support 10-12 selected feature films per year, including docs and animation.

The idea is “to assemble a very diverse selection and give priority to projects that push boundaries,” said Paolo Moretti, the former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight chief who is managing the fund in collaboration with film programmer Rebecca De Pas.

The Fondazione Prada Film Fund – the call for which is open Sept. 1- Oct. 17 – offers three types of support: development, production and post. The maximum amount of funding a project can get is €250,000 towards production.

“It’s not a lot of money, but still it’s a start. It’s the beginning of something,...

The star-studded Venice Film Festival is underway, with numerous stars and renowned filmmakers making the trek to Italy by plane, train and vaporetto.

Those attending the annual celebration on the Lido include Julia Roberts, Chloe Sevigny, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri for Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” George Clooney and Adam Sandler for Noah Baumbach “Jay Kelly,” Emma Stone for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” and Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac for Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein.”

Though Clooney is cutting back his activities due to a sinus infection, other stars hitting the red carpet or spotted on a vaporetto include Kim Novak, Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig, Alicia Silverstone and Jesse Plemons.

The Venice Film Festival dury includes director Alexander Payne heading the jury plus director-screenwriter Stéphane Brizé; Italian director and screenwriter Maura Delpero; Romanian director, writer and producer...

Newsflash, slugger: "Murphy Brown" is still one of the best sitcoms of all time. Even though over 35 years have passed since it premiered on CBS, no other series -- not even Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom" -- has yet managed to recapture what Murphy and her team at "Fyi" managed to uncover, largely through their ability to balance top-notch comedy writing with a refreshingly sincere respect for what it means to report the news.

Created by Diane English and starring Academy Award-nominee Candice Bergen as the titular journalist, the series' first 10 seasons broadly followed her journey to rebuild her career after seeking treatment for an addiction disorder while also navigating...

There are a lot of magical links to a person's identity in the wizarding world of "Harry Potter." What does that mean? Well, if you live in the United Kingdom, you prepare for your enrollment at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by picking out your very first magic wand, and everything from the wood used to make the wand to its flexibility and magical core (like a phoenix feather or dragon heartstring) says something about the individual witch or wizard who wields it. Picking a pet for Hogwarts is even its own form of a personality test — what does it say about you if you pick a toad?! — and when you arrive at Hogwarts,...

Woody Allen wants Donald Trump for his next movie.

During a recent appearance on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, the four-time Oscar winner said Trump was “a pleasure to work with” when he appeared in his 1998 film “Celebrity,” and that he’d be happy to work with the president again if given the chance.

“I’m one of the few people who can say he directed Trump. I directed Trump in [‘Celebrity’],” Allen recalled. “He was a pleasure to work with and a very good actor. He was very polite, hit his mark, did everything correctly and had a real flair for show business. I could direct him now. If he would let me direct him now that he’s president, I think I could do wonders.”

Trump briefly played himself in Allen’s ensemble dramedy. During his scene, he is interviewed by a celebrity reporter about his latest real estate developments.

"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" changed the game for animation. In fact, it's already cemented its place as one of the biggest turning points in the history of how animation is made, right up there next to "Toy Story." By using 2D textures, 2D and 3D animation techniques, and different frame rates, the movie truly feels like a comic book that's been brought to life. It's also led to more experimenting in mainstream animation, with films like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," "The Wild Robot," and "Nimona" having since put their own spin on the "Spider-Verse"-pioneered method of combining 2D elements with 3D animation.

Sony Pictures Imageworks, which worked on "Spider-Verse,...

More than a decade after his death, treasured American filmmaker Mike Nichols still inspires contemporary masters like Noah Baumbach.

Writer-director Baumbach was honored for 30 years’ worth of distinctive vision and indelible movie moments from “France Ha,” “The Squid and the Whale” and “Marriage Story” at this year’s Telluride Film Festival. He used the opportunity to reflect on the enduring legacy of his friend and touchstone, Nichols.

“He was the wisest person on every subject, and would say things in a way that would distill it,” Baumbach shared at Q&a following his thunderous tribute to Telluride’s Palm Theater.

“I was going through a painful personal time, a breakup, and I had lunch with him. I just went on and on, at that point I was telling anybody who would listen,” Baumbach said. The filmmaker then laid out a course of action for Nichols, suggesting he was trying to change the outcome of the breakup.

Amanda Seyfried was overcome with emotion as her new film “The Testament of Ann Lee,” directed by Mona Fastvold, shook Venice up with a 15-minute ovation — topping “Frankenstein” as the longest of the festival so far.

Co-writer Brady Corbet worked the crowd while a teary-eyed Seyfried pumped her fists in the air as the applause stretched into its seventh minute. Fastvold, the co-writer of last year’s Silver Lion and three-time Oscar winner “The Brutalist,” beamed at the crowd, overwhelmed by the booming reception. By minute eight, Seyfried whispered to nobody in particular, “What are we supposed to be doing now?”

Most of the crowd in the orchestra dwindled after 10 minutes in, though the packed audience members in the balcony — including members of the production and potential buyers — continued to clap. Corbet and Fastvold made their exit before the applause fully dissipated.

“I think people quite liked it,” Seyfried told...

In the opening scene of “The Smashing Machine,” Benny Safdie’s bracing, clear-eyed, and laceratingly humane sports biopic, we see grainy staged video footage of Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson), the mixed martial arts and Ultimate Fighting Championship star, in his very first amateur bout. Kerr originally won notoriety as a wrestler, and in case anyone has wandered into the movie thinking that it might be about “fake wrestling,” this fight will dispel that delusion: It ends with Kerr crouching on top of his opponent, assaulting him with one merciless bare-knuckle punch after another, reducing his face to a bloody pulp.

As all of this is happening, we hear Kerr’s voice on the soundtrack — it’s a voice that’s disarmingly gentle and sweet — describing, to an interviewer, the high he gets when he’s destroying his opponent in the ring and he can feel that turning-point moment when the other fighter crumples and submits.

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

There was a minor scandal in the pop culture world when actor Barry Williams (writing with Chris Kreski) published his 1992 autobiography, "Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg." Williams famously played the wholesome teenager Greg Brady on Sherwood Schwartz's hit 1974 sitcom "The Brady Bunch," and he revealed that, behind the scenes, he dated Maureen McCormick, the actress who played Greg's sister, Marcia. He also talked about how he often butted heads with Robert Reed, who played Greg's father, Mike, and sometimes even argued with Schwartz himself. Williams also spread some gossip about how his other co-stars Eve Plumb...

Headlining action-movie idol and wrestler Dwayne Johnson drops “The Rock” from his identity in all senses to reveal a heartfelt core in Benny Safdie’s nimbly executed and oddly endearing “The Smashing Machine.” Johnson, rarely considered a quote-unquote serious actor but most certainly a bona fide movie star thanks to the “Fast and the Furious” films and an abundance of popcorn outings often dismissed by critics, emotionally strips down to play pioneering Mma fighter Mark Kerr in the hole of painkiller addiction while trying to mount a post-rehab comeback.

Safdie’s first solo-directed feature after helming episodes of TV’s “The Curse” and creatively breaking up with his brother Josh sounds like the stuff of awards-season bait: An actor going out of his range to play a tortured athletic soul, physically transformed in a steroidal, vein-bulged-muscles sense, on the rocky path to redemption.

But “The Smashing Machine” is not that,...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Despite three new Hollywood releases making their way into theaters over the long Labor Day holiday weekend, Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" outshined them all at the box office. Indeed, the blockbuster classic was re-released by Universal Pictures as part of the studio's ongoing celebration of the movie's 50-year anniversary. As it turns out, people still really love this film, so much so that it was the number two title overall this past weekend.

Overall, "Jaws" earned an estimated $9.8 million over the Friday to Monday holiday frame, including $8.1 million from Friday to Sunday. That was good enough for the number two...

Multiple top indie distributors have acquired Maryam Touzani’s crowdpleaser “Calle Malaga,” following its premiere in Venice Film Festival’s Spotlight section. The film, which stars Carmen Maura, will have its North American premiere at Toronto Film Festival next week.

“Calle Malaga” will be distributed in France (Ad Vitam), Benelux (Cinéart), Spain (Caramel), Germany (Pandora), Italy (Movies Inspired), Australia and New Zealand (Potential), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Austria (Panda), Denmark (Camera Film), Sweden (Folkets Bio), Norway (Selmer Media), Finland (Future Film), Greece (Danaos), Hungary (Cirko) and Portugal (Leopardo Filmes).

It is the third collaboration between the Moroccan filmmaker and sales agency Films Boutique, and follows the theatrical success of her previous film, “The Blue Caftan.”

“Calle Malaga” centers on Maria Angeles, a 79-year-old Spanish woman, who lives alone in Tangier, Morocco, and enjoys her daily routine. However, her life is turned upside down when her daughter arrives from Madrid to sell the...

Riz Ahmed thinks Shakespearean scholars don’t get what makes Hamlet tick. The Danish prince, he

says, isn’t on the verge of suicide in his “To be or not to be” soliloquy — he’s trying to man up.

“It’s not ‘Should I end it all?’” says Ahmed, who speaks the iconic lines in a new “Hamlet” that debuted at the Telluride Film Festival and will screen at the Toronto Film Festival. “It’s about ‘Are we willing to live under injustice? Do you fight or do you give up?’”

Nor does Ahmed accept the usual portrayal of Hamlet as a man plagued by indecision. On-screen,

his Hamlet is a coiled ball of outrage waiting for the right moment to avenge his father. “He’s continuously active,” Ahmed says. “He’s investigating, strategizing, gathering evidence while he psyches himself up to do the unthinkable.”

This adaptation of “Hamlet” breaks with tradition in other ways,...

Irene Shubik's BBC horror anthology, "Out of the Unknown," is nothing short of groundbreaking. The series, which ran from 1965 to 1971, celebrates science fiction as a genre while embracing the humanity inherent in stories that evoke awe or terror on a grand scale. Series creator Shubik understood that few genres could provide commentary on topical issues like sci-fi, as even the most outlandish genre plots could serve as an allegory for something more pressing and immediate. What's more, our relationship with technology is always on the cusp of change — a theme that "Out of the Unknown" captures by alternating between taut drama and playful satire, brought to life with stories...

By the age of 30, Canadian filmmaker Daniel Roher had won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for “Navalny.” His next documentary, “Blink,” premiered at Telluride last year. Wasting little time, he returns to the Colorado Rockies one year later with “Tuner,” but “this one feels a little different,” he told a sold-out crowd Saturday, before its world premiere at the fest’s Galaxy theater. He’s referring to his pivot into narrative feature filmmaking, joining a host of his documentarian contemporaries making this same move of late — including Joshua Oppenheimer whose musical “The End” also played Telluride last year.

“Tuner” continues Leo Woodall’s own move into leading man territory, after “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” earlier this year. The Brit broke out as the conflicted rent boy in Season 2 of “The White Lotus,” and has also starred in recent TV series “One Day” and “Prime Target.” Here he plays Niki,...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

The 1980s were a sea of change for children's television, as the era's deregulatory practices even trickled down to cartoons. During this decade, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took a more lax attitude to limiting advertisements in children's TV. Since then, there have been plenty of cartoons that are toy commercials first and foremost, with one of the premier and longest lasting examples being that of "The Transformers."

In-universe, these shapeshifting robots came from the planet Cybertron. The conflict between the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons had drained their world of all its resources, so they came to Earth to...

Italy’s Fondazione Prada has officially launched its new film fund, which has an annual €1.5m to back 10-12 independent films.

First announced in Cannes in May by the fashion brand’s cultural foundation, the Fondazione Prada Film Fund set out its investment criteria and application deadlines at the Venice Film Festival today (September 1).

Speaking to Screen ahead of the launch, the head of the film fund Paolo Moretti said applications are open to “a first time filmmaker or a very experienced master who maybe wants to try something new or something visionary. We don’t want to put boundaries on this,...

While there were slasher movies before, no movie catapulted the horror sub-genre into the Hollywood mainstream more prominently than "Halloween." Created by filmmaker John Carpenter and co-writer and producer Debra Hill, the movie largely focuses on masked serial killer Michael Myers. The original 1978 film was an enormous success, popularizing slashers and kicking off its own multimedia franchise, including numerous sequels. Since then, the movie series has featured multiple reboots and timelines, repositioning the franchise for new generations.

Like virtually every horror franchise, "Halloween" has wildly diverged in its level of quality over the years, with triumphant highs and embarrassing lows. There are some genuine horror classics in this series, along...

As a massive fan of one of the greatest sitcoms ever made, who watched its seven seasons numerous times, I feel that Rob Lowe's character, Chris "Literally" Traeger, has been a little overlooked over the years. That's only possible because the sitcom featured so many lovable and memorable goofballs (Ron Swanson!) that it was kind of hard to stand out for any character that arrived later in the series and wasn't part of the core cast from the get-go. Lowe's health-obsessed Traeger first turned up at the end of season 2, as an auditor sent from Indianapolis (along with Adam Scott's Ben Wyatt) to review Pawnee's Parks and Recreation department,...

Entriesforthe2026Oscar forbest international feature areunderway, andScreenisprofilingeachtitle onthispage.

The 98th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 15, 2026 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Aninternational feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025. The deadline for submissions to the Academyis October 1, 2025.

Ashortlistof 15finalistsisscheduledtobeannouncedonDecember 16, 2025, with the final five nominees announced on January 22, 2026.

The2024 awards saw 89 submissionswiththefivenominatedfilmscomprising Denmark’sThe Girl With The Needle,...

If you can’t be in Venice this year, Variety is bringing Venice to you. We’re publishing daily digital editions, running Aug. 29 – Sept. 2, including all the latest news, reviews and star-studded red carpet coverage from the Lido.

To catch up on Day 4, please click below.

More from Variety'The Testament of Ann Lee' Review: Amanda Seyfried Shakes, Battles and Extols in an Arresting Religious BiopicGreek Director Evi Kalogiropoulou Brings Genre-Bending, Dystopian, Female-Empowerment Debut 'Gorgonà' to Venice Critics' WeekGuillermo del Toro Praises Kim Novak as 'Vertigo' Star Receives Venice Career Golden Lion: 'She Was Capable of Projecting Frailty, Power, Mystery'...