Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been sentenced in absentia in Iran to one year in prison, according to his lawyer via the Afp news agency.

Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said the sentence includes a two-year travel ban and prohibition of Panahi from membership of any political or social groups. He added that they would file an appeal.

The charges against the filmmaker were that he had engaged in “propaganda activities” against the state, but Nili did not elaborate.

Variety has learned Panahi, who has been in the U.S. promoting his Cannes-winning film “It Was Just an Accident,” is expected to be at the Gotham Awards in New York City tonight. The director is nominated for best director and best original screenplay, and his film is nominated for best international feature. He is due to attend the Marrakech Film Festival on Thursday, where the film screens, and...

“Zootopia 2” stuffed the box office competition over Thanksgiving.

Disney’s animated sequel, a buddy-cop comedy about anthropomorphic animals, debuted to $158 million in North America and $401 million overseas, delivering a stunning $559 million global tally over five days. The family film, which opened on Wednesday, cemented several records, including the fourth-biggest worldwide debut in box office history, as well as the largest global launch of all time for an animated film.

“The incredible response to ‘Zootopia 2’ reflects both its worldwide appeal and the remarkable work of our filmmakers and cast,” says Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman. “It’s a proud moment for Disney Animation and all of us at Disney, not to mention a great way to start the holiday season.”

“Zootopia 2” is turbocharging the box office, which has been majorly struggling since the summer. This was the second consecutive weekend that movie theaters were booked and busy after...

A creepy horror short has inspired two of the biggest names in horror to unite. Sam Raimi ("The Evil Dead") and Jordan Peele ("Get Out") are teaming up with one another for the first time to produce a new feature film based on "Portrait of God," a short from filmmaker Dylan Clark that was first released in 2022. It got big enough — and was impressive enough — to capture the attention of both Rami and Peele. That's no small thing.

According to Deadline, Clark is set to direct a feature-length expansion of "Portrait of God" for Universal Pictures, in what was described as a competitive situation. Clark co-wrote the script for the...

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another was named best feature at Monday night’s 35th annual Gotham Film Awards in New York, converting the only one of its field-leading six nominations on a night when studio films rubbed shoulders with true independents.

This was the first Gothams ceremony with 10 best feature nominees after the number of slots was doubled. Two years ago the Gothams removed the $35m budget cap and the evening’s winners ranged from One Battle After Another and Sinners at Warner Brothers by way ofIt Was Just An Accident at Neon todocumentary winner Undesirable Friends:...

Indonesian director Yosep Anggi Noen (“The Redemption of Sin”) is bringing Leila S. Chudori’s acclaimed novel The Sea Speaks His Name” (Laut Bercerita) to the screen.

The ensemble cast features Reza Rahadian, Dian Sastrowardoyo, Yunita Siregar, Eva Celia, Christine Hakim and Arswendy Beningswara.

The film, unveiled at the Jaff Market, is currently in production through PAL8 Pictures in cooperation with Vms Studio, Jagartha, Lynx Films and Brandlink, centers on the Wibisono family whose eldest son, Biru Laut, vanishes during the 1990s. While parents Arya Wibisono and his wife maintain hope their son survives, daughter Asmara Jati becomes convinced her brother is gone.

Set against Indonesia’s democracy movement of the 1990s, the narrative follows university student Biru Laut, whose commitment to justice leads him into the Winatra group, a secret circle of activists writing and speaking in defiance of authoritarian rule. The story unfolds through dual perspectives: Laut’s own voice,...

If it’s the first Monday in December, most of the NYC film world can be found at the Gotham Film Awards, back in its traditional venue at Cipriani Wall Street. The ceremony is typically viewed as the first big live awards show of the season, and offers a glitzy entry into the weeks (and months!) to come. As ever, IndieWire was in the room for this year’s event, and watched a pretty thrilling evening unfold.

This year’s nominees were led by Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” which picked up six nominations, but only walked away with one: the night’s crown jewel, Best Feature.

Despite an influx of tributes for other films from the studio and streaming world, including “After the Hunt,” “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Frankenstein,” “Sinners,” “Hedda,” and “Jay Kelly,” it was comparatively smaller films that made off...

At a Jaff Market panel, leading creators from Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea argued that Asian animation is shifting into a higher gear, driven by breakout hits like Visinema’s ‘Jumbo,’ Malaysia’s expanding teen-leaning storytelling and Korea’s growing global ambitions.

Across the board, panelists stressed that the region now needs scale, investment and better distribution pipelines to meet surging demand for quality animation.

Malaysian marketing firms have made it possible for the country to investigate narratives in animation. These include slice-of-life neighborhood tales in “Upin & Ipin” to stories like “Boboi Boy” and “Ejen Ali,” which tackle issues of grief and beyond.

In Malaysia, animation has evolved topics appropriate for viewers aged 13 and up, rather than just 12 and under. Ahmad Izham Omar, chief explorer at Malaysia’s Komet Production, described the upcoming animated comedy series “Kisah Bawah Tanah” as “something new, giving them a sense of entering adulthood.

Harry Lighton, the Pillion filmmaker who won Monday night’s Gotham in New York for best adapted screenplay, thanked A24 for getting his travel arrangements back on track after hearty Bifas celebrations In London the night before.

“There was a British awards ceremony last night [Bifas] and I got carried away and missed my flight,” Lighton told the audience at Ciprianis for the 35th annual Gotham Film Awards. “So I want to thank A24 for being kind about me being hopeless and booking me a new flight.”

Lighton, whose film collected four Bifas on Sunday, accepted the award from Amanda Seyfried and Stellan Skarsgard,...

Visinema — the studio behind Indonesian and Southeast Asia’s all-time animated box-office champ “Jumbo” — used its Jaff Market platform to urge the country’s entertainment sector to prioritise long-term IP creation, with CEO Herry B. Salim calling for a shift away from one-off projects and for stronger government support to help local players compete globally.

“When we talk about evergreen IPs it’s not just an end product we try to sell. It’s about storytelling [as its medium] in creating a sustainable creative ecosystem,” he told Variety. “When they create a storytelling product, they have to think of IP and not merely a one-off anything.”

At the Jaff Market Visinema booth over a mini talkshow regarding the future of Indonesian film industry, Salim discussed how much more mainstream film products are; so far as to say it’ll become “similar to Fmgc [Fast-moving consumer goods].” “The way people consume these [film] ‘goods’ will definitely be up to par,...

If you were the star of a beloved network sitcom with a huge ensemble back in the 20th century, then chances were good that you also had to operate as a walking advertisement for something the network in question had a stake in. Does anyone else remember those special episodes of 1990s ABC sitcoms like Family Matters" and "Full House" where all the characters went to Disney World? I sure do. It wasn't exactly a new concept, of course, as "The Brady Bunch" had already devoted an entire episode in its fifth and final season to the Cincinnati theme park Kings Island in 1973. Since the '70s sitcom was produced by Paramount Studios,...

Guillermo del Toro shared an emphatic message about artificial intelligence in filmmaking while accepting the Vanguard Tribute for “Frankenstein” at Monday night’s Gotham Awards: “Fuck AI.”

Flanked by stars Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac, de Toro opened his acceptance speech by paying homage to Mary Shelley’s immortal horror story. Del Toro said when he first picked up the book at age 11, he knew he would one day adapt it to film.

“I understood that back then, through her work and the first glimpse of Boris Karloff, that I did not belong in the world the way my parents, the way the world expected me to fit,” de Toro said. “That my place was in a faraway land inhabited only by monsters and misfits. They have been my kin ever since.”

He continued, “So to return to this tale now at 61 with artists as extraordinary as Oscar and Jacob...

Almost 40 years later, "Predator" remains the gold standard for subversive genre switcheroos. At first, director John McTiernan's 1987 classic plays like your typical '80s testosterone fest, with Arnold Schwarzenegger posturing alongside other muscleheads and cheerily killing nameless baddies (but not without chucking out a winking one-liner). It's only then that the Sword of Damocles that is the film's opening, in which something from outer space is shown entering Earth's atmosphere, comes crashing down. With that, the movie seamlessly transforms into a sci-fi slasher in the jungles of Central America, with Arnold's Dutch and his fellow paramilitaries becoming more or less the equivalent of Laurie Strode and the other...

This post contains major spoilers for Netflix's "Wednesday."

After two seasons, Al Gough and Miles Millar's "Wednesday" has proven its unique potential. The Netflix show not only resurrects a beloved franchise but filters it through coming-of-age tropes with Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) at the center. This combination has been a success (for the most part) — the story embraces a tongue-in-cheek irreverence that complements the tone of "The Addams Family" franchise, and the show's supernatural bent makes space for genuine thrills. No one, however, expected "Wednesday" to be a whodunnit, with the titular protagonist snooping around in desolate graveyards and dense forests in search of true danger.

As neither Gough...

It was a night of surprises and stunners as the 35th annual Gotham Awards kicked off the film awards season, where Paul Thomas Anderson’s action epic “One Battle After Another” took home the top prize for best feature — the sole win from its six record-breaking nominations.

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi emerged as the evening’s biggest winner, pulling off a hat trick with international feature, original screenplay and director for “It Was Just an Accident.”

Presented by the Gotham Film & Media Institute and held at Cipriani Wall Street, this marked the third year since the organization removed budget caps for awards consideration. In previous years, a film’s budget could not exceed $35 million to be eligible.

Past best feature winners have included “Spotlight” (2015), “Moonlight” (2016) and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022), all of which went on to win best picture at the Oscars.

Among the shockers of the evening...

Anyone who's listened to the popular film-centric podcast "Blank Check" should be familiar with that title phrase. A visionary storyteller establishes a solid body of work, builds up enough cred to make their most ambitious passion projects, and then cashes in that check to the tune of even more success — ideally so they can repeat that cycle all over again. After spending his earlier years delivering gems such as "Brick," "The Brothers Bloom," and ultimately the sci-fi thriller "Looper" (along with directing episodes of "Breaking Bad" and "Terriers" in between), Rian Johnson found himself on a similar track when he ended up in charge of "Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi.

Dick Van Dyke started celebrating his upcoming 100th birthday early by hosting a two-hour sing-a-long charity event with fans on Nov. 30 in Malibu, Calif. (via People). The event, which the icon co-hosted with his wife, Arlene Silver, raised funds to benefit the Dick Van Dyke Museum and The Van Dyke Endowment of the Arts.

“There are several reasons for having these — all good — but mine is to revive the art of conversation,” Van Dyke told the audience. “I don’t care if you’re on a street, you’re in a bus or in a restaurant, everybody’s looking at their phones. Nobody talks. I’ve seen young couples having dinner together and they’re both looking at their phones. I may be the only person in the United States over 10 who does not have a cell phone. I don’t have a phone.”

Van Dyke will turn 100 years old on Dec.

Executives are constantly trying to figure out what kind of programming will keep audiences glued to their screens, and in our current era, the answer is to connect a series to existing, already-popular intellectual property. HBO Max's Stephen King prequel series "It: Welcome to Derry" continues to crush it in the ratings, and both "The Last of Us" and anything related to George R.R. Martin's "Game of Thrones" are awards darlings for the service. But HBO Max's latest hit isn't a show it produced in-house; it's one it merely acquired the United States streaming rights to from the Canadian platform Crave, the same folks that gave us huge...

Indonesia’s Jaff Market 2025 concluded with the announcement of industry awards and development grants supporting Indonesian film projects, providing recipients with financial backing, technical services and pathways to international markets.

The three-day gathering, powered by Amar Bank, distributed 10 awards during its closing ceremony. Support ranged from travel grants to major international festivals to substantial production equipment packages valued at approximately $30,000.

“Ghost Island” emerged as a multiple award recipient, securing sound design post-production support worth $10,000 from Kongchak Studio and editing and color grading services valued at $15,000 from Prodigihouse Ecosystem. The project also received a $3,000 development grant from Visinema.

“A Life Full of Holes” similarly collected multiple honors, including production equipment support from Brandlink Indonesia, facilitation to Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum 2026 through Mtn International and Ycci, and a $4,000 development grant from The United Team of Art.

The Motion Picture Association awarded travel and accommodation support for two producers to attend...

Survey also reveals Britons’ favourite festive film, views on tear-jerkers and family cinema trips

When Macaulay Culkin recently said he didn’t consider Die Hard to be a Christmas film – wading into one of pop culture’s most heated holiday debates – he was booed by a live audience.

But it looks like the British people are behind the actor, with a survey revealing that Home Alone is the UK’s favourite festive film, while Die Hard has officially been voted not a Christmas movie.

In 1975, a 25-year-old Jeff Bridges starred opposite Sam Waterston in a comedy neo-Western that wasn't a hit upon its debut but has since earned some solid retrospective reviews. It's also kind of a cool watch if only to see what was happening with the Western in the mid-70s. Luckily, you can now stream the movie free on Tubi.

The 1970s has to be one of the most fascinating times for the Western genre. This was the decade when sci-fi became the new fascination, and Old West adventures quickly became old hat. As a result, the genre transmogrified in often strange and bizarre ways in what was the cultural equivalent...

Guillermo del Toro nailed it when he told Roar Uthaug during a recent conversation that his “Troll” movie showcased a playful blend of Norwegian sensibility and American flair.

Uthaug, whose anticipated Norwegian monster sequel “Troll 2” drops Monday on Netflix, grew up watching the same 1990s sci-fi and disaster movies that shaped a generation of Hollywood filmmakers.

“I got the idea for a troll movie like this back in the ’90s,” he tells Variety in an interview alongside Jenny Stjernströmer Björk, VP of Nordic content at Netflix. “That was after watching ‘Armageddon’ and ‘Independence Day’ and ‘Jurassic Park.’ I was thinking, ‘How could we do this in Norway? What would that be about?’”

He then stumbled on a century-old drawing by Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen portraying a troll striding down Oslo’s main street, and the idea for his action-adventure movie crystallized. “I thought, What would happen if a troll,...

Prime Video's sweeping fantasy series "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" offers its own telling of J.R.R. Tolkien's stories set in the world of Middle-earth. Starting millennia before the events of "The Hobbit," "The Rings of Power" changes Tolkien's "Lotr" timeline in one key way by significantly compressing it. The history of Middle-earth is divided into three eras known as Ages, with "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" taking place in the Third Age. The majority of "The Rings of Power" takes place in the Second Age, albeit admittedly not always as explicitly chronicled in various published works by Tolkien describing the era.

For...

Jimmy Buffett was only ever about a good time. The singer-songwriter crooned about boozing and screwing with addled aplomb; he was also a marijuana advocate for most of his life (though he did stop toking in 2017). His devoted fanbase, known as Parrotheads, revered him as a champion of free, fun living. He was carefree and rarely one to judge. Get out, live your life, enjoy the ride, and when your journey gets a little rocky, it is always five o'clock somewhere.

I've always found Buffett's music to be lightweight and compositionally bland, but I understand the appeal of his ethos. I can't hate on anyone for digging on his vibe.

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” director James Cameron is weighing in on who should — and definitely shouldn’t — be the winning bidder in the highly publicized sale of Warner Bros. Discovery. The company currently has major offers on the table from Netflix, the newly merged Paramount Skydance, and Comcast.

Last week, during an appearance on Matt Belloni’s podcast “The Town,” the “Titanic” filmmaker echoed many industry experts’ view that Paramount, now under the direction of David Ellison, should be the next owner of Warner Bros. But he went one step further, saying point-blank that Netflix taking over the studio “would be a disaster.”

“Sorry, Ted [Sarandos], but geez,” Cameron said, referring to the CEO of the streaming giant. “Sarandos has gone on the record saying theatrical films are dead. ‘Theatrical is dead. Quote, unquote.’”

Cameron also criticized Sarandos’ publicly expressed belief that going to the theater to watch films is “an...

"Red One" didn't appear to be quite the success Amazon desired when it arrived in late 2024. But a year later, the movie is fulfilling its purpose as a major hit on Prime Video, where it's currently at number three on the streaming charts. It seems stars Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans got the evergreen Christmas hit they wanted after all.

"Red One" didn't have the best time at the box office in 2024, and it certainly didn't recoup its budget. But as /Film's Ryan Scott wrote at the time, calling "Red One" a flop isn't exactly fair. Amazon did spend a ridiculous $250 million on the movie, which, when coupled with the $100 million marketing spend,...

[Editor’s note: This interview was originally published during the 2025 New York Film Festival. “The Secret Agent” is now in theaters.]

The 2026 Oscar race is starting to resemble last year’s in at least one sense: The Cannes movies are doing well. They boast the prestige of either a competition berth or, better still, a prize, as Palme d’Or and eventual Best Picture Oscar-winner “Anora” did last year.

It’s still early days, but some fall festival hopefuls are losing steam. Three Venice premieres include box-office disappointment “The Smashing Machine” (A24), starring Dwayne Johnson as a mixed martial artist, critically flayed “After the Hunt” (Amazon/MGM) starring Julia Roberts, and show-business story “Jay Kelly” (Netflix), starring George Clooney. And two TIFF crowdpleasers could use a box office boost: the Channing Tatum-starring true story “Roofman” (Paramount) and poignant Brendan Fraser vehicle “Rental Family” (Searchlight). Their distributors know how to ride Oscar potential for extra press attention, but sustaining them through the season is another matter.

James Cameron's "Avatar" remains the biggest movie of all time. Even though it had to briefly surrender that title to "Avengers: Endgame," "Avatar" stands alone with $2.92 billion at the box office to its name. It also birthed a multi-billion-dollar franchise, with "Avatar: The Way of Water" becoming the third-biggest movie ever in 2022 with $2.34 billion. The third entry, "Avatar: Fire and Ash," hits theaters in December. It's a franchise that made Sam Worthington's career and, undoubtedly, made him a wealthy man. That wealth and fame could have easily gone to someone else.

In a recent breakdown of his career for Vanity Fair, Cameron explained that Worthington had some competition...

December is a time for taking stock of the year that was, catching up on all the movies and shows we might've missed the first time around, and making sure all our "Best of the Year" lists are fully in order. But it's also an underrated, eleventh-hour goldmine for new releases that tend to sneak up on most audiences. Anyone who's anyone knows about the major titles that remain on the horizon, like "Avatar: Fire & Ash" or the second season of "Fallout" on Prime Video. But those looking for their next binge need look no further than the biggest streamer around and the next project by one of the...

Paramount has scheduled Sonic Universe and hybrid live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tentpoles for 2028, and will re-release Top Gun for its 40th anniversary on May 13, 2026.

Untitled Sonic Universe Event Film will open on December 22 2028 and is being produced by Neil Moritz’s Original Film and Sega Sammy Group. Plot details remain under wraps.

The Sonic trilogy has grossed more than $1.2bn worldwide and the last instalment, Sonic The Hedgehog 3, opened in December 2024 and grossed $492m at the worldwide box office. A separate fourth Sonic instalment is scheduled for March 19 2027.

Moritz is a producer on Untitled Hybrid Live Action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

As cool as the space battles that "Star Wars" popularized are, there is something undeniably thrilling about a high-flying aerial battle sequence. Whether it's biplanes in the earliest days of aerial combat or modern fighter jets breaking the speed of sound while carrying out dangerous missions, these scenes are just breathtakingly cool. Though advances in CGI have made for exciting airplane battles on a larger scale, there is also something still timelessly effective when real planes are involved in filming. These sequences have been keeping audiences on the edge of their seat since the first-ever Best Picture winner at the Oscars, 1927's "Wings."

From aerial battles depicting real-life wartime events...

"Television has taken the place of the art film in a lot of ways," said James Gunn in a semi-recent episode of the Smartless podcast, to highlight the point he was making to his agents about why he considered quitting the film business entirely over 11 years ago. And he was not wrong. Of course, this happened way before he got hired and hit the jackpot with "Guardians of the Galaxy," but it's easy to see where he was coming from. From the mid-aughts to the early 2010s, the writer-director was primarily making niche stuff in comedy television as well as on the big screen. His quirky directorial feature debut, "Slither,...

New “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies will race to theaters in 2028.

Paramount has added an untitled “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film to the calendar on Nov. 17, 2028, as well as an untitled “Sonic Universe Event Film” on Dec. 22, 2028. The studio also announced plans to bring “Top Gun” back to the big screen on May 13, 2026, in honor of its 40th anniversary.

Paramount is keeping the details for its “Tmnt” and “Sonic” films under wraps. All that’s confirmed is producer Neal H. Moritz, best known as the brains behind the successful “Sonic the Hedgehog” trilogy, is also behind the new “Ninja Turtles” adventure.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” will be a family friendly live-action/CG animation hybrid take on the turtle brothers known as Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo. It will be the first live-action “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” since 2016’s theatrical disappointment “Out of the Shadows.” Paramount since...

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, currently in the United States to support the awards campaign and theatrical release for his “It Was Just an Accident,” has received a prison sentence in absentia.

As IndieWire learned from journalist Mansour Jahani, Panahi was sentenced to one year in prison and a two-year ban from leaving Iran, as well as a ban on membership in any political or social groups. IndieWire confirmed the news with a source close to Panahi.

Per Jahani, who sent a dispatch to journalists, “On Monday, December 1, 2025, attorney Mustafa Nili wrote on his social media X: Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran has sentenced Mr. Jafar Panahi in absentia to one year in prison and a two-year ban on leaving the country, as well as a ban on membership in political and social groups or factions, for propaganda activities against the regime. We will take the necessary legal steps to appeal this ruling.

It always looked like we were going to end 2025 on a high note at the box office thanks to some heavy-hitters arriving in theaters over the last handful of weeks of the year, but nobody could have predicted this. Disney's "Zootopia 2" just posted a record-smashing debut over the Thanksgiving holiday, obliterating expectations to deliver the biggest global opening ever for an animated movie.

Over the five-day, Wednesday to Sunday holiday stretch, "Zootopia 2" earned an absolutely mind-melting $559.5 million globally. That includes $158 million domestically, easily taking the crown away from "Wicked: For Good" after its $147 million opening. The "Wicked" sequel was still mighty, taking in another $93 million over the long weekend.

On December 4, the IndieWire Honors Winter 2025 ceremony will celebrate the creators and stars responsible for crafting some of the year’s best films. Curated and selected by IndieWire’s editorial team, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the filmmakers, artisans, and performers behind films well worth toasting. In the days leading up to the Los Angeles event, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new interviews and tributes from their peers.

Ahead, Jim Belushi tells IndieWire about the many qualities that set our Maverick Award winner, “The Chronology of Water” writer/director Kristen Stewart, apart from the crowd.

As told to Anne Thompson. The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.

I got a call from my agent. They said, “We want to send the script over. You have an offer to play Ken Kesey, and Kristen Stewart wrote it and directed it.”

“I don’t need to read it.

Mexico’s Tulip Pictures, formerly Barraca Prods., is opening offices in Austin, Texas and Spain as it seeks to tap their respective incentives and foster new co-productions.

Both places offer vibrant and infinite possibilities, said Lorena Villarreal, co-owner-founder of Tulip Pictures alongside her husband, Darian de la Fuente. Move comes as more Latin American companies are setting up shop in Madrid, including Chile’s Clara Films and Peru’s Tondero, among others.

Villarreal’s third directorial outing, “Life Is” (“La vida es”) is also bowing its official international teaser trailer with Variety. The dark comedy had its world premiere at Argentina’s Mar del Plata Film Festival, the only A-list festival in Latin America, where it was well received by critics and audiences alike.

“Experiencing the film with the audience in the festival was priceless,” said Villarreal who was deeply moved by the “great creative exchanges and level of appreciation for independent cinema in Argentina.

Daniel Woodrell, the author of popular books such as “Winter’s Bone,” “Tomato Red,” “Give Us a Kiss” and more, died on Friday, Nov. 28, from pancreatic cancer, his wife Katie Estill-Woodrell confirmed. He was 72.

Born in Springfield, Missouri, Woodrell dropped out of high school to join the Marines. He later attended the University of Kansas, where he earned a BA and an Mfa from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His writing often followed small-town criminals and detectives, coining the term “country noir” for his style.

He wrote his first book, “Under the Bright Lights,” the first in a trilogy following bayou cop Rene Shade who solves murders and mysteries throughout Louisiana. Woodrell wrote multiple books in the ’80s, such as “Woe to Live On” and “Muscle for the Wing.” His earlier works followed the lives of the residents of St. Bruno, a fictional town in the Louisiana bayou.

Woodrell’s breakthrough came...

The 10th anniversary edition of production event Focus, which takes place at Business Design Centre, London, on Dec. 8–9, includes case studies of “Frankenstein,” “Warfare” and “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.”

The session titled “Crafting Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’” features Tamara Deverell, production designer on “Frankenstein,” Kate Hawley, the film’s costume designer, and Mike Hill, who worked on creature design and character prosthetics make up FX.

The session “The Art of Collaboration: Blending Effects and Design for ‘Warfare'” sees Ryan Conder, a SFX supervisor at Cinesite, and Mark Digby, freelance production designer, talking to Simon Stanley-Clamp, a VFX supervisor at Cinesite, about “Warfare,” directed by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza.

The session “A U.K. Location Filming Masterclass: From Westeros to ‘The Bone Temple’ to Dept. Q,” includes speakers Hugh Gourlay, supervising location manager at Dept. Q, Naomi Liston, supervising location manager on “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” and “Game of Thrones,...

When Michael Mann's "The Insider" was released in 1999, he was fresh off the impressive commercial success of "Heat," which had also cemented him as a solid directorial talent. "The Insider" is a fictionalized account of a true story — namely, Marie Brenner's 1997 Vanity Fair article that examines tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand's controversial segment on CBS' "60 Minutes." Working closely with screenwriter Eric Roth, Mann wove together an electrifying tale about an enraged industry insider who helps expose the darkest corners of corporate America.

While Al Pacino takes on the mantle of CBS producer Lowell Bergman, Wigand is played by Russell Crowe. Crowe's layered performance is the beating heart of "The Insider,...

On December 4, the IndieWire Honors Winter 2025 ceremony will celebrate the creators and stars responsible for crafting some of the year’s best films. Curated and selected by IndieWire’s editorial team, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the filmmakers, artisans, and performers behind films well worth toasting. In the days leading up to the Los Angeles event, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new interviews and tributes from their peers.

The first time most of us saw IndieWire Honors Maverick Award winner Kristen Stewart was in David Fincher’s 2002 thriller “Panic Room,” as the terrified 12-year-old whose mother (Jodie Foster) whisks her to safety as an intruder terrorizes their home.

We watched Stewart grow up onscreen, playing a diverse range of teenagers and young women, from the tough older sister in Jon Favreau’s space adventure “Zathura,” and hard rocker Joan Jett in “The Runaways,” to winsome Jean Seberg in “Seberg.

A backer of Eleanor the Great, about a woman who pretends to be a Holocaust survivor, dropped out after Johansson refused to make changes

Scarlett Johansson has said she was pressed to remove Holocaust references in her feature directing debut Eleanor the Great, which stars June Squibb as an elderly woman who pretends to be a Holocaust survivor.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Johansson said that during the film’s pre-production phase, one of the film’s backers threatened to pull out unless the plot elements relating to the Holocaust were cut out.

The 2nd Jaff Market wrapped on Monday (December 1) after three days of intense activities in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, reinforcing the event as an emerging hub for business and creative exchange between Indonesian and international industry partners.

“Everyone was excited about coming to Jogja,” said Jaff market director Linda Gozali. “People spent time and budget to come here to formalise business, making Jaff Market as a new hub.”

This year, the market drew 122 companies and hosted 144 market stands at Jogja Expo Center (Jec), which ran from November 29-December 1 alongside the 20th Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival (Jaff).

After a notable launch last year,...

The term "Bollywood," as most film students will be able to tell you, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (the former name of Mumbai), and "Hollywood." The term is used to describe the many, many films that come out of the Mumbai film industry, all presented in the Hindi language. Bollywood films are not to be confused with the many films produced in Telugu (like the recent hit "Rrr" featuring Ram Charan and Jr. Ntr), Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, or any of the many other languages spoken in India.

Bollywood films also tend to be characterized by a very particular flavor of gorgeously overwrought largesse. No matter the genre, Bollywood films are known for their melodrama,...

On today’s episode, Variety‘s Rebecca Rubin unpacks the Thanksgiving feast at the box office with “Zootopia 2” and “Wicked: For Good” lighting up screens around the world. And Marc Malkin sits down with Jeremy Allen White as the actor turns his attention back to filming “The Bear.”

More to come

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Ronald D. Moore's small screen reboot of Glen A. Larson's 1978 series "Battlestar Galactica" was far more successful than its forebear. The original "Battlestar Galactica" lasted for a single 24-episode season, but it wasn't renewed. It remained on the air thanks to reruns, however, and retained a certain amount of cultural cache throughout the 1990s. 

In the early 2000s, Moore, fresh off of gigs writing for ultra-successful "Star Trek" spin-off series, restarted "Battlestar Galactica" with an all-new cast and an all-new timeline. The new series began with a crackerjack three-hour miniseries and led into a complex, expansive show that audiences loved. The new "Battlestar Galactica" outstripped the 1978 series by a considerable margin,...

Buenos Aires, Argentina — One of the upbeat narratives at this year’s Ventana Sur market will kick in on Dec. 2 as animators, backed by Ibermedia Next, will talk about how they are using digital tools to free up and mix 2D and 3D, enhancing titles’ creativity.

Some of the results – catch Ana Ramírez González’s entrancing Instagram work in progress teaser for “Agua Dulce,” for instance – are now being made known. Further results will be shown to potential financiers at Ventana Sur from both Ibermedia 2.0 and 3.0.

On Tuesday, a panel will examine the impact of Ibermedia 2:0, speakers taking in Ibermedia’s Víctor Herreruela, Jara Ayucar at Spain’s Icaa film agency, José Luis Farias at La Liga de la Animación Iberoamericana and Guillermo Garma, at Argentina’s Incaa film-tv agency.

A second panel will consider how Ibermedia Next has impacted creators’ work. Panelists are Asdrúbal Hiutzilhuitl Rivera, at México’s Sísmica Studio,...

Following every dizzying spin of Chalamet’s table tennis hustler, Josh Safdie’s whip-crack comedy serves sensational shots – and a smart return by Gwyneth Paltrow

This new film from Josh Safdie has the fanatical energy of a 149-minute ping pong rally carried out by a single player running round and round the table. It’s a marathon sprint of gonzo calamities and uproar, a sociopath-screwball nightmare like something by Mel Brooks – only in place of gags, there are detonations of bad taste, cinephile allusions, alpha cameos, frantic deal-making, racism and antisemitism, sentimental yearning and erotic adventures. It’s a farcical race against time where no one needs to eat or sleep.

Built like a two-by-four with acne scars, freckles and a pencil mustache, Marty Mauser is simultaneously blessed and cursed with absurd quantities of unearned self-confidence. The movies have rarely given us such an entitled underdog, and it’s both mesmerizing and maddening to watch this arrogant table-tennis prodigy ricochet from high to low for nearly two and a half hours. In the defining performance of his still-burgeoning career, Timothée Chalamet — aka “Marty Supreme” — makes you want to believe in this instantly iconic character too … even if sometimes you also want to strangle him.

The year is 1952, and hardly anybody (apart from Marty) takes “ping-pong” seriously. Few would even call it a sport. But Marty is convinced that table tennis is his life’s calling, hustling for a chance to prove it over the course of 149 incredibly stressful, undeniably exhilarating minutes. Within that rip-roaring running time, director Josh Safdie volleys audiences...

Timothée Chalamet has never been as good as he is in "Marty Supreme," Josh Safdie's electrifying comedy-drama about a big pain in the ass with a big dream. Chalamet has steadily built up a memorable career in what feels like a short time, but with Marty Mauser, he has landed the part he was seemingly born to play. It's the type of performance you watch while thinking, "I can't imagine anyone else in this role." Marty is the kind of guy who you'd probably not want to be around for very long, seeing as his constant hustle and rude demeanour attract an endless stream of problems. And yet, Chalamet...

Like many great actors and virtually all legitimate movie stars, Timothée Chalamet is a salesman at heart. But where most of them prefer to keep that like something of an open secret, the razor-cheeked Lisan al-Gaib — who’s become a brand unto himself, despite showing up at a time when Hollywood remains far more invested in franchises than faces — has embraced his entrepreneurial zeal with the same winning commitment that he brings to literally everything else he does.

It’s baked into the most basic essence of his image. Chalamet doesn’t co-own a mobile phone company or do an inordinate amount of commercial work (his ads are limited to Super Bowl spots and Scorsese collaborations), but whether accepting an award or simply delivering a turn worthy of one, he never shies away from the sense that he’s selling himself on screen. In that light, it’s no coincidence...