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Fifty years ago today, 18-year-old Vera Brandes organized a concert for jazz pianist Keith Jarrett in Cologne, West Germany, which went on to make music history: a recording of the concert became the best-selling solo jazz album ever as well as the best-selling piano recording ever. Now director Ido Fluk and producers Sol Bondy and Fred Burle from One Two Films have made a film, titled “Köln 75,” that dramatizes the events leading up to the concert, with its world premiere to be held at the Berlinale next month. Variety spoke to Brandes about her memories of the night. Bankside is handling the international sales on the film, whose poster is exclusively revealed below.

“Köln 75” starts with Brandes meeting Ronnie Scott, a British jazz musician and owner of a London jazz club. Scott asks Brandes to arrange some concerts for him in Germany and so, from that chance encounter,...

The 1995 film "12 Monkeys" was one of the few times a Terry Gilliam film wasn't beset with chaos and production problems. Gilliam is notoriously unlucky — not to mention incredibly headstrong — so many of his features were only made after last-minute disasters, deaths, or other major catastrophes. One can see Gilliam's unluckiness in play in Keith Fulton's and Louis Pepe's 2002 documentary "Lost in La Mancha," which traced the director's first, stalled attempt to make "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote." Also, one doesn't need to be a deep-cut cineaste to know all about the issues Gilliam had with his 1983 sci-fi film "Brazil," a picture that was re-cut multiple times.

For "12 Monkeys," though, everything seemed to work out okay. Based on Chris Marker's 1962 short film "La Jetée," the film begins in 2035 after most of humanity has been killed by a lethal virus. Survivors were forced into underground prisons,...

Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers from the Season 32 finale of “Dancing With the Stars.”

“Dancing With the Stars” has officially crowned the winner of Season 32! The season came to an end on Tuesday night, with the Len Goodman Mirrorball trophy being awarded to Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy.

The Season 32 finale kicked off with an opening number that included this season’s couples performing on the dance floor. The eliminated stars — including Barry Williams, Lele Pons, Mauricio Umansky, Harry Jowsky, Mira Sorvino and more — danced to “Young Hearts Run Free” by Candi Staton alongside the five finalists.

Season 31 champions Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas also returned to the stage to perform a routine to “Give It to Me Baby” by Rick James.

During the finale, each pair danced twice — a redemption dance, redoing one of their routines from earlier in the season, and a freestyle.

Below is a breakdown...

The “Dancing with the Stars” Season 32 finale is the show’s biggest one yet. Not only are five couples vying for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy for the first time, but the episode will be three hours long. That’s a whole “Oppenheimer,” but just shy of a full “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

The five couples will perform two routines on Tuesday: a redemption dance and the always anticipated freestyle. Jason Mraz will perform three times as he’ll also croon his tune (and Week 1 song) “I Feel Like Dancing” while the tour pros hit the hardwood in a routine choreographed by Mandy Moore.

To fill out the 180 minutes, the finale will also feature all Season 32 couples performing to “Young Hearts Run Free” by Candi Staton and a holiday routine set to Mariah Carey‘s “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” featuring the song and dance styles of Alfonso Ribeiro,...

Most of us know the illicit rush of the sick day slyly pulled when you’re not really sick. The turning you ignore on your commute, but that one day, for no real reason, you take. Oh, that sudden, intoxicating sniff of freedom! It’s perhaps the closest thing that many of us get as adults to the ceaseless adventure we thought, as children, we’d be living. Argentinian writer-director Rodrigo Moreno’s delightful “The Delinquents” knows the feeling too. Over the course of its droll, meandering, indefinably strange three hours, it may well persuade you that the crazy thing is not to break from your normal routine. The crazy thing is to ever go back.

Filmmakers have long been attracted to the heist format for the high drama it can generate, but Moreno begins his movie with a bank robbery so banal it’s hard to believe that’s actually what is going on.

As expected, the Cannes Film Festival has made several additions to its lineup for the 74th edition which runs July 6-17. Among the major new titles are the latest from Gaspar Noé and Ari Folman, as well as a concert film starring Bill Murray who will be present in Cannes.

Noé’s Vortex, starring Dario Argento, Françoise Lebrun and Alex Lutz will run in the new Cannes Première section. It’s billed as a quasi-documentary about the last years of a loving couple suffering from senility.

Waltz With Bashir filmmaker Folman is back with Where Is Anne Frank?, a contemporary, animated story that begins more than 70 years after the publication of The Diary Of Anne Frank, and brings to life her imaginary friend, Kitty. The film will run in the Out of Competition strand.

Added to Un Certain Regard is Yohan Manca’s Mes Frères Et Moi, a debut feature...

Spain’s Luis López Carrasco picked up the Best International Film prize for his documentary “The Year of the Discovery” (“El año del descubrimiento”) on Sunday at Argentina’s Mar del Plata, the only Latin American film fest granted a Category A status by producers assn. Fiapf, placing it in the same league as Cannes, Venice, San Sebastian and Locarno, among others.

Given the restraints imposed by the pandemic, the festival hosted an online edition and offered free access to all Argentine residents.

Carrasco’s sophomore feature follows his debut film “El Futuro,” which premiered at Locarno and collected numerous awards on the festival circuit. “The Year of the Discovery” portrays the flipside of 1992 Spain, which celebrated hosting the Olympics Games in Barcelona and the World Expo in Seville while in Murcia, south-east Spain, enraged workers from the naval, mining and chemical sectors where companies were shut down, battled alongside students against the police,...

Daniel Rosenfeld’s “Piazzolla, the Years of the Shark,” a biographical documentary about tango musician Astor Piazzolla, world premieres at the Intl. Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa). Rosenfeld talked with Variety about Piazzolla’s legacy, the revelations within the film and his interesting exhibition strategy.

Piazzolla is, along with Carlos Gardel, the most notable tango musician of the 20th century. The film features a previously unreleased collection of interviews with the artist himself, recorded before his death in 1992. The film uses those tapes, video of classic performances and the extensive memorabilia collection of Piazzolla’s son, Daniel, to tell the story of the international superstar.

The film is an Argentine-French co-production between Rosenfeld – an equally accomplished producer and director – and France’s Françoise Gazio from Idéale Audience. Euroarts is handling sales.

Rosenfeld found early success as a documentary filmmaker with his 2000 debut “Saluzzi – Essay for Bandoneon and Three Brothers.” The bandoneon,...

That’s right, it’s finally February! Kick off this new month by taking in some killer performances around London, taking on a new class, or finally stepping up for that audition you’ve had your mind on. Here’s how you can take advantage of all London has to offer this February: Performances“Shen Yun”, the critically acclaimed show that tells the story of ancient China is coming to London’s Dominion Theater from Feb. 16–25. Tickets are selling out quickly so be sure to pick yours up as soon as you can! (Tickets start at £60.) Watch two drastically different styles of dance blend together in “Beats on Pointe – Masters of Choreography” at the Peacock Theatre in London. Classical ballet and skilled street dancers go toe to toe in this high-energy production. Performances run from Feb. 20–24. (Tickets start at £18) Get sultry with The Peacocks Theatre’s “Tango After Dark.” The...

With two stylistically distinct animated shorts under his belt- both of them having screened in the Cannes Film Festival’s Shorts Corner - Argentine filmmaker Nicolás Villarrealhas demonstrated that his repertoire is varied, his ideas unique, and that he can successfully create compelling stories that shine for their brevity and poignancy.

His latest short "Nieta" is a dazzling homage to the love between a young girl and her grandfather. Black & white, minimalist characters appear on the screen at first to then give way to dancing vibrant colors only possible in the untainted imagination of a child. In Villareal's film music is one of the most prominent embellishments. The interaction between image and sound in a short film with no dialogue becomes much more significant. Sweet and warm melodies accompany the touching story from start to finish guiding the viewer through the films imaginative landscape.

Above all Nicolas Villareal is a fan of animation and the great animators that inspired him to make his own drawings and bless them with the spark of movement. Despite it's festival pedigree, " Nieta" was shockingly not shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, but the film is still eligible and in the running for other accolades.

Villareal is working on his first animated feature, which is still in the very early stages and looking for support. He talked to us from San Francisco about "Nieta," his comedic first short "Pasteurized," his artistic heroes and his future plans.

Carlos Aguilar: Each of your animated shorts, “Pasteurized” and “Nieta” showcases very distinct styles of both animation and storytelling. What are some of your favorite animated films or animators that have influence your vision?

Nicolas Villareal: I love Disney classics. “Robin Hood” is one of my favorite films, but I also love more recent films like “The Lion King,” “Tarzan” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” My favorite animation style is the one used in Disney’s “ Robin Hood,” “The Sword in the Stone” and Sylvain Chomet’s “The Triplets of Bellville.” In these films the drawings are made in pencil, but the color is added on top and underneath, so we still see the lines. I love those films because you can still see the drawing. These days those in charge of 2D animation make a sort of sterile line to remove everything done by the animator. I understand it’s done so it looks better, and so it looks more alive, but I personal liked the old fashioned way better because you could still see the handmade work on the screen

Chuck Jones was also one of my favorites directors. He worked on all of Warner’s classic Looney Tunes cartoons like Bugs Bunny or Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. I remember watching “Tom and Jerry” when I was kid, and there were certain episode in which the opening credits were a bit different. Then I realized that those were the episodes that Chuck Jones directed. When I was a kid, of course, I had no idea who he was, but I liked those episodes better. They had a much more slick design.

There is also another short I love called “The Man Who Plated Trees” by Frederic Back. It’s similar to the animation used in the Colors in the Wind sequence in “Pocahontas”

Aguilar: Tell me a bit about “Nieta.” On the surface the plot is incredibly simple, but there are emotional layers there that are surprisingly heartwarming and told without the need of dialogue or overly complex situations.

Nicolas Villareal: This was a story I had in my mind for a long time, but before it was much more complex. It’s a story that’s inspired by a photograph of my mother when she was a young girl and my grandfather. Also, a photograph of my grandmother inspired the last image in the film, but I added the mustache because I wanted it to look like a smile.

I started drawing sketches and I started thinking about those colors one sees when you close your eyes tightly and then you open them again. I used to do that a lot when I was a kid, and thinking of that brought these fluorescent colors to mind. Since the little girl in the short is blind, I thought that perhaps the colors in her world were more beautiful that the ones we see.

I was also very fond of the idea of showing the grandfather’s love for her. He was teaching her how to use the walking cane, but they end up using it together. It’s something small but very personal that only they understand. I love to hear how people interpret the short. Every person gets something different from it. It’s has very strong visual but they are equally abstract. The short lends itself for interpretation. It’s different to my previous animated short “Pasteurized,” which is more straightforward. The story in “Nieta” is subtle.

Aguilar: Coming from a much more complex and elaborate film like “Pasteurized” in term of backgrounds and set pieces within the story, how was the process of decompressing and develop something smaller in scale, but perhaps more emotional poignant, like “Nieta”?

Nicolas Villareal: I worked on “Pasteurized” for 27 months and I devoted my time to creating a layered backgrounds and characters. Some of the backgrounds took over two weeks two create. While I was working on that film, I started drawing different versions of this little girl in “Nieta” and I decided that I wanted to do something totally different visually. I wanted to know if relying on the story I could manage to use this graphic visual style. I wanted to test how graphically minimalist I could do it make and still tell the story.

I had this idea of starting in black and white and then switching to color as the story goes on. The color had to be like paint drops coming to life. I started making basic conceptual art using Photoshop, and then I showed them to our visual effects artist and he started doing some tests. We worked on it for some time testing different versions. When he managed to do something that was perfect in terms of the look of this colorful and vibrant paint drops, we decides to change it a bit more to make it more abstract.

Aguilar: How long did it take you to complete “Nieta”? I understand it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Nicolas Villareal: “Nietat” took about a year to complete. I started working on the first storyboard on animatics in December 2012. At this point I had a rough idea of the character design. We started production in February of 2013, and finished it in March of 2014, not that long ago. As soon as it was finished we sent it to Cannes. It premiered there in the Shorts Corner. With my other short “Pasteurized,” Cannes was one of the last film festivals where it screened and my producer would tell me it was a shame that Cannes wasn’t the first one. When we were done with “Nieta” we decided to send it and wait for their decision. Luckily we got in.

Aguilar: One of the most important components in “Nieta” is the music. How was your relationship with the composer when deciding what would be best for this film? It’s a very short film I’m sure finding the right tone was pivotal.

Nicolas Villareal: The music was created by Michael Brennan, who is a good friend of mine. He is incredibly talented and very easygoing. It’s a pleasure working with him. He worked as the conductor’s assistant for “The Lion King” on Broadway, and has also worked on other Broadway shows. He is now working making music for features and short films, and he is the main conductor for the show Le Reve (The Dream) in Las Vegas. He also made the music for “Pasteurized,” which is completely different. I’m always impressed by his range.

I showed him “Nieta” and I told him, “In “Pasteurized” the music accompanied the images, in this one I want the opposite, I want the music to be the star. The images will accompany your music. Give it all the sensibility you have.” I showed him the music of Astor Piazzolla, which is some of my favorite music. He was an Argentine tango composer who died in the early 90s. His tangos were much more modern. I showed his music to Michael and he asked me what instrument I would like. I told him I wanted it to be only piano. He then asked, “Would you like me to add some bells, violins, and bandoneon, which could sound really good.”

I told him to add whatever he thought would work. One of the things I enjoyed the most about working with a team is that many times someone can have a better idea than your original one. I said “I want piano only” and he said, “I imagine it with a little something more.” I gave in and I told him to do it. I like these spontaneous ideas.

There were two versions of the soundtrack. I loved the first one. In that version, the music at the end was very soft, almost melancholic. Then Michael told me, “Don’t you think we should end on a happier note?” He tried it. I told him to add just 10% more of happiness [Laughs]. He did and now in the short you can tell that near the end the music becomes more joyful. Thanks to that I think the short became a joyful but emotional piece.

Aguilar: Given that you’ve shown to be able to create great films with different styles, what’s your favorite animation style?

Nicolas Villareal: I love traditional animation, but I appreciate all other styles. I believe that the story defines the best style to use. This story seems to me like it needed to be much more simpler because what was important was what the characters felt. I wanted it to be very basic so that the emotion could shine. Another style I like a lot is stop-motion. I’m working on a feature film that will use stop-motion combined with traditional animation. I have the script ready and we are working on getting it off the ground. I might even make a dream sequence with the style I used in “Nieta.”

Aguilar: Why do you think certain stories should be told using animation today?

Nicolas Villareal: I think now with VFX the lines between animation and live action have blurred. One can do many more things using a blend of live action and VFX these days. Years ago animation allowed you to create images that wouldn’t work as well in live action. I particularly love animation because I can develop the characters in a way that works different from live action in terms of its visual aesthetic. I’m not sure that “Nieta” would work as a live action short.

Aguilar: Latin American animation has grown rapidly as a viable medium in the region, but I still feel like it’s in its early life in comparison to the rest of the world. Have you seen any Latin American animated films you like recently?

Nicolas Villareal: The medium has grown a lot in Latin America. Campanella’s “Underdog” (Metegol) was the first Latin American CG animated film that was developed with the same quality as international productions. I enjoyed it a lot. On the other hand, “Anina,” the Uruguayan film reminded be of “The Triplets of Belleville,” it has a much more European style. Although it seems like a relatively new art form in the region, there are Argentine animated shorts from the 1940s such as “Usa en Apuros” (Usa in Trouble) or “Patoruzito.” These show impressive technical abilities. They have the same production value and quality as Disney shorts from that time.

Aguilar: What can you tell me about your next project? You mentioned is a feature with a very unique visual style.

Nicolas Villareal: My next project is a feature film titled “The Aces,” and it’s based on a children’s book I wrote and illustrated. It’s a story I’ve been thinking about for a long time. When I draw the first sketches for it I was in middle school. We have the script but we are reworking it. We are developing the characters, and as I mentioned before, it will be a combination of stop-motion and 2D animation. We are working on a trailer to show producers and studios. The trailer shows a little bit of the story, but focuses on highlighting the animation style. We will be working on this project for the next few years.

Buenos Aires -- Argentine couples recovered their dominance of the world's top tango dancing competition, sweeping both the Salon Tango and Stage Tango categories as the annual festival drew to a close.

Cristian Sosa and Maria Sciuto won Tuesday night's stage final with a score of 8.42, followed by four other Argentine couples at the top of an international field. Five Argentine couples also came out on top in the Salon competition the night before, besting a total of 487 couples from 32 countries.

Couples from Japan and Russia, Colombia and the United States have frequently wowed the judges in previous finals, but this year none managed to impress the panel as much as the hometown couples who danced before thousands of fans in the Luna Park stadium in the Argentine capital.

To the rhythm of "El Gordo Triste" (The Sad Fat Man), the champions swirled across the floor, smoothly nailing the genre's...

Associated Press Hyung-ki Joo, left, and Aleksey Igudesman.

Here’s how violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-ki Joo perform Bach. With blissful expressions on their faces, they start with the gentle strains of Prelude in C—then John Malkovich interrupts, Igudesman falls to his knees in prayer and the piece somehow erupts into tango master Astor Piazzolla’s “Libertango.”

Known as Igudesman & Joo, the duo lampoons the perceived stuffiness of classical music using daffy comedy skits and genre-blurring music mashups.

Mel Gibson in The Beaver

Photo: Summit Entertainment Depressing, occasionally disjointed and somewhat overly sentimental, Jodie Foster's The Beaver remains a solid film thanks to a fitting lead performance by Mel Gibson, considering the man's all too public, private life, which caused this film to sit on the shelf for nearly a year.

Originally designed as a comedy for Steve Carell, Foster came on board and found darker corners to explore, which isn't all that surprising considering the roles Foster has gravitated toward throughout most of her career. Here she tells the story of Walter Black (Gibson), a man so depressed he's ready to check out. His family life has fallen apart and his eldest son, Porter (Anton Yelchin), hates him to the extent he's taken the time to note all the negative similarities he shares with his now aimless father. What's Walter to do?

For Walter the choice is obvious,...

The ideal arthouse film is set in a part of the world few of us know and even fewer intend to visit. The steppes of Central Asia or a forlorn village in Central America are fine, but rural Slovakia will do in an emergency. The arthouse film should make us feel that we understand the world better than we do, even though we don't. It should give us a sense of moral and intellectual superiority over people who go to see Tom Cruise movies. It should star Tilda Swinton, or seem like a film in which she would be likely to appear. It should be a bit grainy. Gypsies, often in distress, may be in the mix, but generally not the Amish. Ideally, a proper arthouse film should have mangled subtitles. Children should be abandoned, or on a long trip over the mountains, or trying to recover lost shoes, or...

BUENOS AIRES -- The 22nd edition of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the most important in Argentina and arguably all of South America, opened Thursday on Argentina's Atlantic coast.

The 10-day gathering will screen more than 300 titles from 56 countries at cinemas around the beachside resort town, with a particular focus on Latin American films.

The first-ever Ernesto "Che" Guevara Award will be given to a Latin American film that carries on the spirit of the late Argentinean revolutionary.

"We are focusing on the idealism of Che Guevara, a man who was willing to die for his ideals. What we hope to find is a parallel with young Latin American filmmakers, who need a great deal of idealism just to make a film here," festival president Miguel Pereira said.

Honorary Astor awards (named after another Argentinean legend, tango innovator Astor Piazzolla) will go to Italian director Mario Monicelli and Argentinean composer Gustavo Santaolalla, fresh off his best score Oscar for "Babel".

Hollywood is notably absent from this year's festival.

BUENOS AIRES -- The 22nd edition of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the most important in Argentina and arguably all of South America, opened Thursday on Argentina's Atlantic coast.

The 10-day gathering will screen more than 300 titles from 56 countries at cinemas around the beachside resort town, with a particular focus on Latin American films.

The first-ever Ernesto "Che" Guevara Award will be given to a Latin American film that carries on the spirit of the late Argentine revolutionary.

"We are focusing on the idealism of Che Guevara, a man who was willing to die for his ideals. What we hope to find is a parallel with young Latin American filmmakers, who need a great deal of idealism just to make a film here," festival president Miguel Pereira said.

Honorary "Astor" awards (named after another Argentine legend, tango innovator Astor Piazzolla) will go to 91-year-old Italian director Mario Monicelli, and Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla, fresh off his best score Oscar for "Babel".

Hollywood is notably absent from this year's festival.