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“Los Frikis,” the Spanish-language film from producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller and directors Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson, has landed U.S. distribution from Wayward/Range releasing and will open in select markets, including L.A., New York, and Miami, on Dec. 25, 2024.

The film marks directing duo Schwarz and Nilson’s follow-up to their critically acclaimed drama “The Peanut Butter Falcon” (2019), which earned them a DGA nomination for outstanding directorial achievement for a first-time feature film. Produced by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Lord and Miller (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”), it features a stellar Latino cast, including Adria Arjona (“Hit Man”) who also executive produces, Héctor Medina (“Viva”), Jorge Perugorría, Luis Alberto García and newcomer Eros de la Puente.

Inspired by true events, the film follows a young man, Gustavo, in 1990s Cuba as he idolizes his older brother Paco and his punk bandmates — the “Frikis.” As oppression and extreme poverty grip Cuba,...

Trying to figure out what the watch on Max and can’t seem to find something that catches your eye? Well, don’t worry, as Max will be adding over 100 new titles across the month of September including dozens of movies and new original programming to enjoy!

The biggest new original series coming in September on Max is without a doubt The Penguin, which will see Colin Farrell reprising his role as Oz Cobb aka The Penguin from Matt Reeves’ The Batman. The new 8-episode limited series kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 9/8c with the series premiere with new episodes then released weekly on Sunday nights beginning on Sept. 29 (a rerun of the season premiere will stream on Sept. 22).

The Penguin will pick up following the events of The Batman, as Oz makes a play to seize the reins of the crime world in Gotham which will be no...

Updated with new release date: Sony said Tuesday that it will now open Miramax’s Here, the reteam of Forrest Gump filmmaker Robert Zemeckis and its stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, on November 1. It’s the only studio theatrical release going wide on that day after Samuel Goldwyn’s Liam Neeson title Absolution, Viva’s animated Hitpig and the George Huang-directed Luke Evans movie Weekend in Taipei. There’s been no buzz that Here will land a place at the fall’s film festival troika of Toronto, Venice and Telluride.

Previously, June 21: Sony said Friday that its new film Here, reuniting the director, writer, and stars of the classic Forrest Gump, will open wide via TriStar Pictures on November 15.

Previously, the film had been scheduled for an exclusive run in Los Angeles in New York on that date, with a limited and wide release to follow on November 22 and November 27, respectively.

The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) has selected Irish language feature Kneecap to represent Ireland in the International Feature Film category of the 97th annual Academy Awards.

Set in West Belfast in 2019, the drama revolves around a hip hop trio who rap in their native Irish language, to create their own genre of Irish punk rap, melding the Irish and English language with electrifying energy.

The film, written and directed by Rich Peppiatt (One Rogue Reporter), stars the members of the West Belfast rap trio Kneecap, Móglai Bap, Mo Chara, and DJ Provaí alongside an ensemble cast including nominee Michael Fassbender, Simone Kirby, Josie Walker, Fionnuala Flaherty, Jessica Reynolds and Adam Best.

Kneecap was selected by IFTA’s 2024 Selection Committee, which includes nominated actor Stephen Rea (The Crying Game, The English); award-winning directors Colm Bairéad (The Quiet Girl) and Lisa Mulcahy (Lies We Tell, Ridley Road); award-winning actors Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones,...

Manu Chao has announced his first new full-length album in 17 years, Viva Tu. Out September 20th via Because Music, the artist has also shared the single “São Paulo Motoboy.” Stream it below.

Arriving nearly two decades after his 2007 effort, La Radiolina, Viva Tu sees Chao finding inspiration in the daily lives of those he’s met during his world travels. Through such tales, Chao seeks to address the current state of the world over the course of 13 tracks sung in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and English.

Chao is also bringing along some friends to contribute to the new record, including Willie Nelson on “Heaven’s Bad Day” and French singer Laeti on “Tu Te Vas.”

Following the release of the record’s lead single and title track “Vita Tu,” “São Paulo Motoboy” is a swirling, eclectic rock tune that serves as a tribute to the couriers of São Paulo. A previous courier himself,...

Since the turn of the millennium, notable genre movie releases from the Philippines are few and far in between. In recent years, the action genre became more prominent in local television as a supplement to daily soap operas that at times when action movies are made recently, they carry with them some of the tendencies of those tv dramas. Viva Films' latest offering, “Karma,” is a sample of those that exhibits this tendency.

In an unnamed rural region, a team of assassins roam around executing justice against the corrupt and the criminals. The most talented in the team, Angel (Rhen Escano) believes in the just cause of their dark existence. His partner Rommel (Sid Lucero), however, is starting to question their activities and gets more weary as days go by. Along with Keana (Krista Miller), the team answers to the commands of someone they refer to as Chief (Roi Vinzon), a friend of Angel's father.

Talaria Media is developing a new comedy series about a retired Navy Seal, Variety has learned exclusively.

The untitled single-camera series hails from writer and director Jame Anderson. It is loosely based on stories from Mark Greene’s book “Unsealed” as well as Anderson’s own life and relationship with her father, who was himself a veteran. Talaria’s Bobby Morgan will executive produce.

The official logline for the series states it is “about a retired Navy Seal struggling to adjust to civilian life after he’s forced to work at a new age spiritual center with his estranged daughter.”

No network or streaming service is currently attached to the project.

Anderson is currently attached to direct the feature film “Pregnant in Las Vegas,” which she also wrote, for Patriot Pictures and Mainstay Entertainment. She will also direct “Summer in Rome” for Filmtrax, “Arigato Tokyo” for Talaria Media, and an...

Elvis Presley began to act in films in 1956 and would go on to fall for a significant number of his co-stars. He reportedly claimed that he slept with all his leading ladies but one. He struck out with his first co-star, though. While Elvis adored her, she wanted nothing romantic to do with him.

Elvis fell for a co-star on the set of his first movie

In 1956, Elvis made his film debut in Love Me Tender. He acted alongside Debra Paget, who transfixed Elvis. His bodyguard, Sonny West, even believed that Elvis tried to model Priscilla Presley after Paget.

“If you look at her in those earlier pictures, you will see she had a decided likeness to Priscilla Presley, whom he was soon to meet,” Sonny West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “She had black hair. When Elvis first met Priscilla he got her to dye her hair black.

Taylor Swift went down to the field and helped her boyfriend Travis Kelce celebrate his big win at the 2024 Super Bowl!

The 34-year-old singer was in a private suite with her famous friends while cheering on Travis, also 34, during the game on Sunday night (February 11) at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Taylor was locked in on the game all night long and was ecstatic to see the Kansas City Chiefs pull of a win in the final seconds of overtime. She was down on the field by the time Travis was giving a post-game speech and brief performance of “Viva Las Vegas.”

Who Sat With Taylor? See the full list of guests in her suite!

After Travis got off the stage, he went right to Taylor and shared a sweet kiss with her!

Head inside to watch the video and browse through the gallery for all of the photos…

Make...

This year, Sundance saw big deals go down for “A Real Pain”, “It’s What’s Inside”, “Presence” (Neon), and “My Old Ass” as well as smaller acquisitions for “Kneecap” (Sony Pictures Classics), “Ghostlight” (IFC Films), and “Ibelin”(Netflix).

It’s not the same bull market as the old days, but we’ll take it. And while streamers made their presence felt with the two largest acquisitions to date, it’s clear that for most of these films theatrical will be part of their lifecycles. But is that a smart move?

Based on last year’s results, the answer is: Could be. Domestic box office from all Sundance 2023 films was the best for any year since Covid. At around $100 million, it quadrupled the take from 2022 Festival titles (around $25 million). All told, about two thirds of the 2023 films have some sort of domestic distribution, including streaming outlets. Of these, about a dozen films have yet to open.

“20.000 especies de abejas”, “La sociedad de la nieve”, “Saben Aquell” y “Cerrar los Ojos” encabezan las nominaciones a los premios Goya 2024.

El pasado jueves se anunciaron los nominados de la próxima edición de los prestigiosos Premios Goya, el destacado evento anual que celebra lo mejor del cine español. La gala de los Goya 2024 se celebrará el 10 de febrero en Valladolid, con la actriz y cantante Ana Belén y por Los Javis como presentadores. Aquí os dejamos con la lista de los nominados de esta edición:

Mejor PELÍCULA

20.000 especies de abejas

Cerrar los ojos

La sociedad de la nieve

Saben aquell

Un amor

Mejor DIRECCIÓN

Víctor Erice, Cerrar los ojos

Elena Martín, Creatura

J.A. Bayona, La sociedad de la nieve

David Trueba, Saben aquell

Isabel Coixet, Un amor

Mejor PELÍCULA Europea

Aftersun (Reino Unido)

Anatomía de una caída (Francia)

Las ocho montañas (Italia)

Safe Place (Croacia)

Sala de profesores...

Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Siobhan Sinnerton of HiddenLight Productions serve as EPs.

The Lebanon-set feature documentary In The Shadow Of Beirut has been selected as Ireland’s entry for best international feature film at the 2024 Oscars.

‘In The Shadow Of Beirut’: Galway Review

Stephen Gerard Kelly, who co-directs with Garry Keane (Gaza), makes his feature directorial debut. Brendan J. Byrne and Myriam Sassine produced and Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and Siobhan Sinnerton of HiddenLight Productions served as executive producers.

In The Shadow Of Beirut is a portrait of modern-day Lebanon as seen through the eyes of four families living in the city.

The French animation film is the second in a franchise sold internationally by Snd.

Viva Kids has picked up North American rights to French family animation hit The Jungle Bunch - World Tour from France’s Snd, the feature film arm of broadcasting group M6, and will release the film in theatres in the US in January 2024.

France’s Tat Productions produced the 3D film (titled Les As de la Jungle 2 - Operation Tour du Monde in French) directed by Laurent Bru, Yannick Moulin and Benoît Somville and written by David Alaux, Eric Tosti and Jean-François Tosti.

It is the...

San Francisco, Aug 12 (Ians) Microsoft is bringing generative AI to frontline field workers by incorporating its Copilot AI assistant into its field services platform, which not only streamlines workflows but also allows supervisors to see what technicians are doing on the job.

Copilot will be added to the Dynamics 365 service, which will be used by field workers such as cable technicians and electricians, as well as a wide range of other jobs in facilities, manufacturing and healthcare, according to The Verge.

When using Copilot, service requests sent via Outlook will automatically pre-populate information, such as how many times the same customer has requested service in the past.

Supervisors can review work orders before distributing them to field workers.

These work orders will also recommend specific people for the job based on their travel time, availability, and skill set by fall this year, according to the report.

According to Lili Cheng,...

The comedy series "Minx" takes viewers back to the 1970s and the very beginnings of magazines centered around women's sexuality. The series follows a exuberant young feminist named Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond), who seeks to create a magazine focused on women's rights and dismantle the rigid gender norms of the 1970s. In an industry dominated by men, this proves to be difficult until she teams up with adult-magazine publisher Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson). Together, they work to create the first-ever erotic magazine targeted toward women. In season two (which airs on Starz after the show was dropped by Max), the company has to balance its early success with staying true to their roots.

"Minx" takes place during one of the most influential periods in history for feminism and sexual expression, but is it based on a true story? While "Minx" is not based on one singular story, it is inspired by real events of the 1970s.

The teaser of Sundaram Master, a comedy film produced by Mass Maharaja Ravi Teja, was released today and it has received a positive response from the audience. The film marks the debut of Kalyan Santosh as a director and features Harsha Chemudu, who rose to fame with his Viva videos, and Divya Sripada in the lead roles.

Sundaram Master is about a teacher who tries to teach English to the villagers despite his own poor command over the language. The teaser showcases his hilarious attempts to teach the alphabets and some basic words to the tribal people who have no clue about English.

Sundaram Master Teaser

The teaser also promises a lot of fun and entertainment with Harsha’s comic timing and expressions.

Ravi Teja, who is bankrolling the project under his banner Rt Team Works in association with Sudheer Kumar Kurra’s Goalden Media, released the teaser on his...

This month, free streaming service Pluto TV will premiere the new kids’ animated series “Shaq’s Garage.” The show focuses on the secret adventures of basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal’s extraordinary collection of cars, trucks, and other unique vehicles, known as the Shaq Pack. The show will debut on June 5.

The 1994 Australian road comedy “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” was eye-opening at its debut. The movie centers on two drag queens and a transgender woman crossing the Outback en route to a nightclub performance. Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Terence Stamp star in the comedy that helped introduce LGBTQ themes to a mainstream audience. The film arrives on the service on June 1.

Interestingly, it’s just one of three movies coming to Pluto in June that led to a stage musical adaptation. In addition to “Priscilla” is the British comedy “Kinky Boots.” That film’s musical version won...

New Delhi, April 21 (Ians) Microsoft has announced “Copilot for Viva”, along with the introduction of “Viva Glint”, to help organisations create a more engaged and productive workforce.

Viva is Microsoft’s employee experience platform, which integrates goals, staff communications, learning, workplace analytics, and feedback.

Copilot in Microsoft Viva will begin rolling out to customers later in 2023, while the company will start to roll out Viva Glint to customers in July 2023.

With Copilot, Microsoft Viva takes advantage of next-generation AI to accelerate this new performance equation, where engagement and productivity together lead to better business outcomes and success.

Other than Viva Glint, Copilot is being introduced in Viva Goals, Viva Engage, Viva Learning, Viva Topics and more.

Viva Glint is a survey tool that helps measure and improve employee engagement.

Moreover, “Viva Goals” simplifies goal setting by assisting leaders through the process of generating objectives and key results (OKRs), as well...

San Francisco, April 7 (Ians) Microsoft has announced that it is adding its new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered “Microsoft 365 Copilot” assistant to OneNote.

“As your notetaking partner, Copilot uses your prompts to draft plans, generate ideas, create lists, organise information, and more. Copilot can transform existing text by summarising, rewriting, formatting, and adding visual context,” said Greg Mace, a product manager for OneNote.

Moreover, the company said that this tool combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with users’ data from the Microsoft Graph — notes, calendars, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and more — and the Microsoft 365 apps to turn their words into a powerful productivity tool.

All of this is done in accordance with the company’s existing enterprise data security and privacy commitments.

Further, users can also ask the AI assistant to create a plan for an event or generate topics and talking points for meetings in OneNote.

However,...

All hail the King, and his blood-spattered blue suede shoes, in a berserk “adult” animated series unlikely to follow Baz Luhrmann’s reverential Elvis film biopic onto the awards circuit. That’s hardly the intent of Netflix’s 10-episode folly, Agent Elvis. With Matthew McConaughey lending his velvety drawl to the music legend’s garish reinvention as a shoot-first secret operative, Agent Elvis spoofs the espionage genre with gory split-screen ultraviolence befitting a graphic novel and crude humor typified by his psychotic trigger-happy chimp sidekick, Scatter. It’s Archer with a Beavis and Butt-Head sensibility, which will either endear this to you instantly or send you back to your turntable (or digital equivalent) to remember the good old Viva Las Vegas days. (Credit: Courtesy Of Netflix) Lest you think his survivors might not get the feeble joke, his ex Priscilla is a cocreator, voicing a ’60s sex-kitten version of his soulmate,...

San Francisco, March 7 (Ians) Tech giant Microsoft has announced the “next generation” of AI product updates across its business applications portfolio, including the launch of the new “Dynamics 365 Copilot”, to provide interactive, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered assistance across all business functions.

With Dynamics 365 Copilot, organisations can provide their workers with AI tools built for sales, service, marketing, operations and supply chain roles, the tech giant said in a blogpost on Monday.

According to the tech giant’s recent survey on business trends, about 9 out of 10 workers hope to use AI to reduce repetitive tasks in their jobs.

To automate “tedious” tasks and open up the workforce’s full creative potential, Dynamics 365 Copilot makes use of recent developments in generative AI.

“Dynamics 365 Copilot puts Customer relationship management (Crm) and enterprise resource planning (Erp) to work for business users to accelerate their pace of innovation and improve business outcomes in every line of business,...

Welcome to the weird world of theatrical movies, the weekly scramble to find a formula that fills seats. “Knock at the Cabin” returned Universal to #1 for the first time since October, despite several big hits including “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” and “M3GAN.”

“80 for Brady” closely followed, with most theaters (with Paramount’s encouragement) capping prices all day to matinee cost. It grossed 12.5 million, significantly above expectations, to take second place. After seven weeks at the top, “Avatar: The Way of Water” dropped to #3.

That meant three films over 10 million and its the first time that’s happened on this weekend since 2017. (This February weekend usually faces Super Bowl competition, which we’ll see next week.) In 2017, the #1 film was another M. Night Shylamalan title, “Split.” It also opened to 14 million; with today’s higher ticket prices, it would be around 17 million.

The industry hoped for a bigger...

Bankside handles international sales.

Irish-language drama The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin) has been selected as Ireland’s entry for best international feature film at next year’s Academy Awards.

Writer-director Colm Bairéad’s debut feature has enjoyed a lengthy run in Irish and UK cinemas and grossed €870,000 at the box office. It premiered at the Berlinale and since then has since secured further releases in international territories including New Zealand and Australia. Bankside handles international sales.

Told almost entirely in the Irish language, the film recounts the story of a neglected young girl named Cáit (Catherine Clinch) who spends...

“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” (Warner Bros.) fell short of its two prior entries with a 43 million weekend, but this weekend it was the biggest contributor to an estimate 110 million total domestic gross — on par with the same weekend three years ago, a rarity since theaters reopened.

From a franchise perspective, “Dumbledore” is a disappointment. Going into April, it joined “Morbius” (Sony) and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” (Paramount) as one of three films this month that could open over 50 million. The J.K. Rowling adaptation seemed like a particularly strong candidate; not only did its predecessors open to 74 million and 62 million, but it also nabbed the potentially lucrative Easter weekend.

Like “Morbius,” it failed to reach that mark — but since “Sonic” beat projections with a 72 million start, the three films combined grossed over 150 million on their openings. This weekend take improves our four-week rolling comparison to the same dates in 2019 to 73 percent.

Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you have not seen “A Scintillating Conversation About a Lethal Pesticide” and “You Happened to Me,” Episodes 9 and 10 of “Minx,” now streaming on HBO Max.

Working on “Minx” has turned creator Ellen Rapoport into a spam sender.

“I got banned!,” says Rapoport, who also serves as showrunner and executive producer. “None of my emails were going through to WarnerMedia for weeks — and then we found out I was placed on some sort of do-not-accept-emails-from list by their It department because of all the pornography.”

By “all the pornography,” she means the pride and joy of Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond) and Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson): Minx, a feminist magazine that doubles as erotica for women. Joyce dreamed up the magazine as a little girl, first calling it The Matriarchy Awakens and envisioning heady features about issues like birth control access and marital rape. But when Doug,...

In HBO Max’s new comedy series Minx, Ophelia Lovibond plays Joyce, an idealistic young writer who has spent most of her life dreaming of launching a magazine dedicated to trumpeting her feminist ideals. She pitches this idea to members of the magazine publishing elite but her invitation for them to “be on the right side of history” — the show takes place in 1971 — is not well-received. One of them looks at the woman on Joyce’s mocked-up cover and asks, “Why is she so angry?”

Joyce does manage to find one potential backer,...

San Francisco, Feb 5 (Ians) Tech giant Microsoft has announced that its employee experience platform called Viva, launched a year ago, has now over 10 million monthly active users. The company mentioned that Viva is being used by more than 1,000 paid customers, including Blum, Nationwide, Old Mutual, PayPal, Rei and Unilever. “By connecting employees, […]...

Wake up, Neo.

It’s December 2021 and to celebrate HBO Max is bringing back a classic sci-fi franchise for one last ride. The list of new releases on HBO Max this month is highlighted by The Matrix Resurrections on Dec. 22. This is the long-awaited return to the reality-bending saga from The Wachowskis. Writer/director Lana Wachowski returns as do stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as Neo and Trinity, respectively. This time around it’s 20 years after The Matrix Revolutions and “Neo lives a seemingly ordinary life as Thomas A. Anderson in San Francisco where his therapist prescribes him blue pills. Neither he nor Trinity recognize each other. However, Morpheus offers him the red pill and reopens his mind to the world of the Matrix.”

While The Matrix Resurrections is the big draw this time around, HBO Max has some other intriguing originals to speak of. The David Thewlis and...

Looking to add to its series roster that includes Narcos, Lupin, Barbarians and El Presidente, Gaumont has partnered with Tessa Thompson’s Viva Maude to develop for HBO Luster, the bestselling debut by Raven Leilani.

Scripting will Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview), and Lileana Blain-Cruz, recipient of the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. They are joint winners of the Obie Award for Marys Seacole, and are among the founders of the exploratory theatre collaboration, Afrofemononomy.

Edie is a young Black artist living a precarious existence in New York City when she takes a white lover in an open marriage, eventually moving in with him and his wife in the suburbs. There she not only finds herself in an increasingly tense relationship with the couple, but also becoming an unlikely mentor to their adopted Black daughter Akila. The debut novel quickly became a number one bestseller on the Nyt,...

San Francisco, Feb 4 (Ians) Microsoft on Thursday unveiled a new employee experience platform called Viva designed to help people learn, grow and thrive, with new experiences that integrate with the productivity and collaboration capabilities in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.

The announcement comes as economic and social trends are driving huge changes in workforce engagement.

Amid the shift to an increasingly distributed and digital work environment, demand has grown for solutions that support corporate culture, knowledge discovery, on-the-job learning and employee well being.

"We have participated in the largest at-scale remote work experiment the world has seen, and it has had a dramatic impact on the employee experience," Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, said in a statement.

"Every organisation will require a unified employee experience from onboarding and collaboration to continuous learning and growth. Viva brings together everything an employee needs to be successful, from day one, in a single, integrated experience directly in Teams.

Drafthouse Films is stepping back into the world of distribution after a five-year hiatus with the North American co-release of India’s Oscar entry, “Jallikattu.”

The company — which is the film distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema — is partnering with XYZ Films, which picked up the phantasmagorical “Jallikattu” for North America back in December. The title, which is Drafthouse Films’ first new acquisition since 2016, marks a new directive by the distributor to support emerging filmmakers.

“[‘Jallikattu’] blew us away because it felt like it was beamed in from another dimension and left a permanent imprint on our brain,” said Drafthouse Films in a statement shared with Variety.

XYZ and Drafthouse are planning a spring release that will include theatrical support, as well as all digital platforms along with a Blu-Ray edition of the film. Drafthouse parent company Alamo Drafthouse launched curated VOD platform Alamo on Demand in May.

Directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery,...

Exclusive: XYZ Films has acquired North American rights to India’s Best International Oscar entry Jallikattu.

The well-received genre pic charts the catastrophic events that unfold when a butcher’s buffalo escapes and runs amok through a remote village in the hill ranges of Kerala.

The film, directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery, is an Indian Malayalam-language action film with a screenplay by S. Hareesh and R. Jayakumar, based on the short story Maoist by Hareesh.

Starring are Antony Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, Sabumon Abdusamad and Santhy Balachandran. Producer is O Thomas Panicker, and executive producers are Naushad Salahudin and Guneet Monga (The Lunchbox) who recently joined as EP, and is on board to help promote the film.

XYZ Films has also come on board in an executive producer capacity, and will be joining the team to spearhead the film’s Oscar campaign. The film is currently available on Amazon Prime...

Written and directed by Tom Sullivan, the film is set on the eve of the Irish potato famine.

Irish-language feature Arracht has been selected by the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) as Ireland’s entry for the best international feature film category at the Academy Awards.

Told almost entirely in the Irish language, Arracht debuted to strong reviews at the Tallinn Black Nights film festival in 2019. The film is set in 1845 on the eve of the Irish potato famine (known as The Great Hunger), when a fisherman takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. The stranger,...

The erratic world of VOD consumption saw a lift this week with debuts of “The New Mutants” (Disney) and “Unhinged” (Solstice), films that were the first wide releases when theaters began to reopen in August. Ninety days later, normal windows dictate that it’s time for non-premium availability. (They each rent for $5.99.)

Disney’s Marvel spin-off took the top spot at Apple TV and FandangoNow, while Russell Crowe’s stalker thriller is #1 at Google Play. Two items of note: “Mutants” shows its strength by taking the top spot at Fandango, which ranks by revenue, not transactions; that’s impressive for a standard-price title. Unlike “Mutants,” “Unhinged” had a PVOD release and now sees a revival at its lower price.

These two titles were the only ones to place on three charts. (Spectrum’s weekly chart lags behind and will likely show them next week.) “Unhinged” placed #2 and #3 elsewhere, while “Mutants” was #5 on Google.

Sony Pictures Television has sold its 50% stake in Israel’s Dori Tlv to Dori Media. The deal will allow Dori Media Group to fully consolidate its ownership of Dori Tlv’s Israeli channels and operations.

Sony Pictures Television had a stake in Dori Tlv since 2014. Dori Tlv owns and operates two daily telenovela channels, Viva and Viva Plus which are carried by all Israeli multi-channel platforms. A third channel, Viva Vintage was launched in April and is carried by Hot and Yes, Israel’s top pay-tv services.

Viva ranks among the four most popular entertainment cable TV channels in Israel, according to Hot Telecom’s audience measurement system. Dori Tlv is also a prominent provider of Electronic Program Guide (Epg) services to platforms in Israel.

The banner operates an AVOD service, and owns Dori Media Ot, a technical services banner offering subtitling, dubbing, video and audio editing and format conversions.

This year, the motion picture academy achieved its five-year goal of doubling the number of women among its membership. In all, 819 film professionals were invited to become part of the organization that hands out the Oscars. Compare this intake to the totals of the previous five years: 842 in 2019; a record 928 in 2018; 774 in 2017; 683 in 2016; 322 in 2015; and 271 in 2014.

While Academy Awards nominees are automatically eligible for consideration, the rest of the candidates must go through a fairly cumbersome process. A candidate must meet certain branch specific requirements before even being eligible.

For example, actors must “have a minimum of three theatrical feature film credits, in all of which the roles played were scripted roles, one of which was released in the past five years, and all of which are of a caliber that reflect the high standards of the Academy.” For writers, directors and producers they need have just two of these credits.

Dennis Joseph “Denny” O’Neil, the writer and editor who redefined the Batman, the Joker, Green Arrow, the Shadow, and the Question for the modern era; created or co-created R’as al Ghul, OPtimus Prime, Azrael, Leslie Tompkins, Madame Web, Richard Dragon, and Lady Shiva; and was a beloved contributor to ComicMix, has passed away at the age of 81.

He started his career in comics almost by accident, when Roy Thomas suggested that O’Neil take the Marvel writer’s test, which involved adding dialogue to a wordless four-page excerpt of a Fantastic Four comic. O’Neil’s entry resulted in Lee offering O’Neil a job. O’Neil had never considered writing for comics, and later said he’d done the test “kind of as a joke. I had a couple of hours on a Tuesday afternoon, so instead of doing crossword puzzles, I did the writer’s test.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Well-intentioned but at times insensitive, “Papi Chulo” is a complicated movie. It wants so badly to do the right thing when the situation is all wrong.

Written and directed by John Butler (“Handsome Devil”), “Papi Chulo” follows Sean (Matt Bomer), a popular Los Angeles weatherman, on the heels of an on-air mental breakdown. Forced to take time off from work, he struggles to cope with his loneliness after the loss of his relationship some months before. Looking to do something with the free time on his hands, he enlists the help of a day laborer, Ernesto, to help repaint the deck outside his home. Instead, Sean ends up more or less hiring Ernesto to be his friend.

Many of the jokes in “Papi Chulo” are rooted in this unequal-buddy comedy routine. Sean feels entitled to this friendship with a stranger he barely knows. His behavior comes across as inappropriate even...

Sarah Davies-Goff hit novel is set in a post-apocalyptic Ireland.

Irish production company Treasure Entertainment has acquired the film rights to Last Ones Left Alive, the acclaimed dystopian novel by Sarah Davis-Goff.

The debut novel - described by The Observer as “a fiercely feminist, highly imaginative novel” - is set in a post-apocalyptic Ireland.

Treasure Entertainment’s feature Papi Chulo, written and directed by John Butler, opens theatrically in the Us this weekend via Blue Fox Entertainment following its world premiere at Tiff. Further recent projects from the high-profile Irish outfit include Butler’s Handsome Devil, Paddy Breathnach’s Viva...

L-r: Fred Schepisi, Minister Martin Foley, Andrew Knight, Film Victoria CEO Caroline Pitcher, Film Victoria president Ian Robertson, Claire Dobbin, Jan Sardi, John Howie and Tony Reed.

Film Victoria’s annual screen awards were held yesterday evening, honouring writer/producer Andrew Knight, director Daina Reid, games advocate Tony Reed and Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) chair Claire Dobbin.

Knight, whose credits include TV shows such as Fast Forward, Full Frontal, SeaChange and Jack Irish and features like The Water Diviner, Ali’s Wedding and Hacksaw Ridge, was recognised with the Jan Sardi Award for his significant achievements as a screenwriter.

Daina Reid was presented Fred Schepisi Award for significant achievement in directing. Reid began her career in television as a comedy writer and actor, before moving into directing. Her creidts include Blue Heelers, The Secret Life of Us, Rush, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Offspring, Nowhere Boys, The Secret River,...

Lisa Simpson may be the newest Disney princess.

With Disney finally completing its purchase of 21st Century Fox assets, the company could technically add Lisa Simpson to its ranks of iconic princesses like Snow White, Rapunzel, and Cinderella.

Lisa’s voice actor, Yeardley Smith, told Variety’s Marc Malkin at the GLAAD Media Awards on Thursday that Fox nearly referenced her character’s new royal status on air.

“What’s funny is we actually almost recorded a promo where Lisa was excited that she gets to be a Disney princess,” she said. “I’m excited. Any tiara, anytime, anywhere and any form, sign me up.”

Smith has played the saxophone-playing middle child since the show began in 1989, lending her voice to more than 600 episodes across 30 seasons and making her one of the most tenured voice actors on TV. In addition to “The Simpsons,” Disney now owns “Family Guy” and the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises.

Kobe Bryant, the former Los Angeles Laker Mvp shoot guard and Oscar winner for the animated short film Dear Basketball, unveiled the upcoming 2019 projects for his multi-platform entertainment company Granity Studios this morning .

Granity is zeroing on creating and producing inspiring, youth-oriented sports-meets-fantasy-themed content with a diverse array of characters within publishing, television, feature and live theater genres.

The company plans to publish five Middle Grade and Young Adult novels for release next year and in 2020, under their own label and in a distribution partnership with Two Rivers Distribution, an Ingram brand. Each book, conceptualized by Bryant and written with a notable fiction author, will thematically revolve around athlete protagonists who, through the use of their imaginations and hearts, overcome obstacles to become their best selves.

Next March The Wizenard Series: Training Camp will hit store shelves. The novel features a diverse cast of young male characters and their mysterious...

Kobe Bryant’s Granity Studios has unveiled a slate of inspirational sports-themed projects aimed at young people, including books, theater, animation and live-action.

The slate, announced Thursday, comes eight months after the retired basketball superstar and animator Glen Keane won the Academy Award for best animated short feature for “Dear Basketball.” Granity is also in production of its second season of scripted podcast, “The Punies”; and produced the series “Detail” on ESPN+. Bryant’s first book “Mamba Mentality: How I Play the Game” was published on Oct. 23.

“I built Granity Studios as a platform to create and share original stories to inspire today’s young

athletes,” said Bryant. “There’s surprisingly little content that combines the passion of sports and the traditions of original storytelling. Granity Studios will fill that void.”

“Our team has worked tirelessly to put together an incredible slate of projects that we believe will change how...

Exclusive: Check out the first footage of Irish writer-director Carmel Winters’ (Snap) Toronto-bound boxing drama Float Like A Butterfly.

WestEnd Films handles sales on the pic about Irish Traveller Francis who has to fight for the right to pursue her passion…boxing.

The film stars Hazel Doupe (Ripper Street), Dara Devaney (Camelot), Aidan O’Hare (The Wind that Shakes the Barley), Lalor Roddy (Hunger) and Hilda Fay. Producers are Martina Niland (Sing Street) and David Collins (A Dark Song). Cathleen Dore (Viva) is co-producer.

The feature is executive-produced by Lesley McKimm for The Irish Film Board, which financed the film in association with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and RTÉ Television. Crew members include editor Julian Ulrichs (Sing Street) and DoP Michael Lavelle.

As revealed yesterday, the film will get its world premiere in the festival’s Discovery Strand.

Goliath just took a whack from David in court in Texas today as a federal judge tossed AMC Entertainment’s attempt to toss out Viva Cinemas antitrust suit over the now shuttered theater’s Spanish-language showings of first-run studio pictures.

A trial is still probably a way off in what has been an over three-year legal battle so far but District Judge Alfred Bennett on Tuesday put things on that route in rejecting AMC’s motion for summary judgement. It is a rejection, with allegations of illegal “horizontal agreements” between AMC and its thousands of screens and The Walt Disney Company Warner Bros, Fox, Paramount, Universal, Sony and Lionsgate, may have the studios already feeling a little heat.

“Though the Court agrees with AMC that such evidence of horizontal agreements is precarious, screening out marginal cases is not an appropriate se of the Court’s summary judgment function,” Judge Bennett...

The first installment of Infinite Fest, a monthly column by festival programmer and film critic Eric Allen Hatch, author of the recent “Why I Am Hopeful” article for Filmmaker Magazine, tackling the state of cinema as expressed by North American film festivalsIllustration by Alice Meteignier.The first film festival I ever attended was the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) in 1998. I was there, improbably, as a bonus from my retail job as a manager at Video Americain, Baltimore’s late, great rental shop immortalized in John Waters’ Serial Mom. With me was the manager of another Video Americain location, Sean Williams (perhaps now better known as the cinematographer of films like Queen of Earth and Good Time). It was a whirlwind trip on a tight budget: a frighteningly compact puddle-jumper from Delaware to Buffalo; a rental-car jaunt across the border; two days, one night in Toronto.I was young, glum,...

Pictures like Midnight Cowboy pulled everyone my age group into the movies, while the entire older generation likely stopped going to movies altogether. John Schlesinger’s masterpiece can boast a number of firsts, and deserves the high praise it receives from every angle — this was the epitome of progressive filmmaking circa 1969.

Midnight Cowboy

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 925

1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen/ 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 29, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, Ruth White, Jennifer Salt, Anthony Holland, Bob Balaban, Viva, Ultra Violet, Taylor Mead, Paul Morrissey, Pat Ast, Marlene Clark, Sandy Duncan, M. Emmet Walsh.

Cinematography: Adam Holender

Film Editor: Hugh A. Robertson

Production Design: John Robert Lloyd

Original Music: John Barry

Written by Waldo Salt, based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy

Produced by Jerome Hellman, Kenneth Utt

Directed by John Schlesigner

Midnight Cowboy is perhaps the...

Emma Norton has been promoted to development producer.

Element pictures is set to expand on the company’s development and production activities after making a number of new and in-house appointments.

The Irish company behind the Oscar-nominated Room and Yorgos Lanthimos’ forthcoming The Favourite has made a number of key promotions.

Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures made the announcement as it prepares to go into production with its latest project, Rosie, directed by Paddy Breathnach (Viva) from a script by Roddy Doyle (The Snapper).

Emma Norton has been promoted to development producer at Element, after previously working...

The third installment of the young adult “Maze Runner” franchise, “The Death Cure” (20th Century Fox), pulled in over $23 million to take the weekend top spot. Strong holdovers and a bigger than usual boost for a wide swath of Oscar nominees led to a weekend total just under the total for the same late January date last year. Two weekends in a row lag behind 2017, but by the end of the first month the tally should pull three per cent ahead.

Big titles led by “Black Panther” (Disney) in February will determine if 2018 can keep pace with a very strong second month last year (led by “Get Out”) — going up against three weeks of Winter Olympics.

But holdover movies in release made most of the noise this weekend, led by non-Oscar nominee “Hostiles” (Entertainment Studios) which scored third place after its initial modest awards-qualifying dates and big city expansion. Two...