Spain is in the middle of a two-pronged talent revolution, with big-name name filmmakers leveraging festival prestige into bigger movie packages and global renown and new voices sporting first features that use genre and emotional uplift to travel faster, without surrendering their auteurist voice. Spain’s emerging talent is sharply visible at Berlin: Ian de la…
OWN has greenlit two new television specials starring Iyanla Vanzant, an Emmy-winning spiritual life coach. While details of the specials are still under wraps, both will continue Vanzant’s goal of helping people “fix” their lives, with production beginning in March. The news of the two specials comes following the launch and rollout of “Iyanla: The…
Modern country great Sturgill Simpson was not kidding around when he redubbed himself Johnny Blue Skies for his last album, 2026’s “Passage du Desir.” He’s coming back next month with a second album under that moniker, or, actually, the expanded band name Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds. And his name as an artist…
Italy’s Nexo Digital, which produces and distributes theatrical event content for the global market, is launching sales at Berlin’s European Film Market on high profile doc “Carlo Acutis – The Millennial Saint” about the 15-year-old who in 2026 become the Roman Catholic Church’s first millennial saint. Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia on Oct. 12,…
MK2 Films has acquired worldwide rights to Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir,” following an agreement signed with Bridgit Folman Film Gang. A new 4K restoration of the film is underway and will premiere this year. “Waltz With Bashir” premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, and broke new ground with its fusion…
Variety is exclusively unveiling a new clip from “Light Pillar,” the feature debut from Chinese writer-director Xu Zao, which is in the Berlin Film Festival’s Perspectives section. Dubai-based company Cercamon recently acquired worldwide sales rights to the production, which screens in competition for the best first feature award in the strand. “Light Pillar” follows a…
“Between a mother-tree and a young seed at the same time” is how Brazilian director Priscilla Kellen felt as she became a mother at 36. A very free and independent woman until then, it was this pregnancy and birth that shaped what would become “Papaya”, Kellen’s feature directorial debut. After being presented in Rio Film…
More than 400 union employees at 29 Hearst Magazine publications including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and Good Housekeeping are ready to hit the picket lines if the Writers Guild of America East and the company fail to agree on a “fair contract” renewal by Friday, Feb. 13. The WGAE Council said it authorized a…
Pete Muller’s doc, his debut feature, is set in Maine in a community “where a man’s worth is often defined by the strength of his back,” and world premieres in Berlin’s Panorama Dokumente section. Image: Andrea Musto / Pexels Source: Hollywood Reporter
Korean sales powerhouse Finecut has bolstered its European Film Market offerings with two new acquisitions: the 3D animated feature “Long Long Night” and auteur Hong Sangsoo’s latest work “The Day She Returns,” which has been selected for the Panorama section at the 76th Berlin Film Festival. “Long Long Night” adapts an award-winning Korean novel that…
