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The 19th Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival has wrapped in Yogyakarta (Jogja), Indonesia, with local feature “Yohanna” dominating the Indonesian Screen Awards while Neo Sora’s “Happyend” secured the festival’s top Golden Hanoman Award.

“Yohanna,” directed by Razka Robby Ertanto, collected five honors including best film, director, storytelling, performance, and cinematography (Odyssey Flores). Truong Minh Quy’s “Viet and Nam” took home the Silver Hanoman Award.

In other awards, “Ma – Cry of Silence” by The Maw Naing won the Netpac Award and Geber Award, while Hung Chen’s “When the Wind Rises” secured both the Blencong Award and Jaff Student Award. Behzad Nalbandi’s “Anita, Lost in the News” received a Special Jury Mention.

The festival program featured a masterclass with Taiwan-based auteur Tsai Ming Liang, which attracted filmmakers like Riri Riza, Mira Lesmana, Kamila Andini, and Jaff director Ifa Isfansyah. Three of Tsai’s works were screened: “Vive L’Amour...

“Moana 2” is still making a splash at the domestic box office.

The Disney animated sequel added $11.7 million on Friday, on its way to $50.8 million for its second weekend of release. After setting a new Thanksgiving box office record last week with $225 million over the five-day holiday frame, the film’s domestic total is expected to reach $300 million through Sunday.

“Moana 2” was originally conceived as a Disney+ series, but the studio’s decision to rework the project into a theatrical sequel has proven worthwhile, despite mixed reviews. Dwayne Johnson and Auli’i Cravalho reprise their voice roles as the tattooed demigod Maui and the titular Polynesian heroine, respectively, in the film.

Other holdovers at the top of domestic charts include “Wicked,” “Gladiator II” and “Red One.” Universal’s “Wicked” nabbed second place after earning $9.5 million on Friday. The big-budget adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande,...

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” won best film, director, screenwriter and actress at the 37th European Film Awards, which were held Saturday in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The best film nominees included narrative features “The Room Next Door,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” “The Substance” and “Vermiglio,” as well as documentaries “Bye Bye Tiberias,” “Dahomey,” “In Limbo,” “No Other Land” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” and animated films “Flow,” “Living Large,” “Savages,” “Sultana’s Dream” and “They Shot the Piano Player.”

The statuette for actress was won by Karla Sofía Gascón for “Emilia Pérez.” The other nominees were Renate Reinsve in “Armand,” Trine Dyrholm in “The Girl With the Needle,” Vic Carmen Sonne in “The Girl With the Needle” and Tilda Swinton in “The Room Next Door.”

The director award went to Audiard for “Emilia Pérez,” who beat Andrea Arnold for “Bird,” Pedro Almodóvar for “The Room Next Door,” Mohammad Rasoulof...

“Anora” breakout star Mark Eydelshteyn has been added to the cast of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” Season 2, TheWrap has learned.

Eydelshteyn joins the Prime Video series as Mr. Smith. But there were notably many Misters Smith in the first season because of the mysterious spy agency’s secretive ways, meaning only time will tell if he is indeed taking over the titular role.

Additionally, co-creators Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane are set to return as executive producers. However, there’s still no word on whether Glover or fellow Season 1 lead Maya Erskine will be reprising their characters after the season finale cliffhanger.

“We are excited to announce that a second season of our groundbreaking spy series, ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith,’ is in the works for our global Prime Video customers,” Amazon MGM Studios head Jennifer Salke said when renewing the show in May. “The success of the first season, with its incredibly modern,...

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca), one of the most respected voices in cinematic recognition, is unveiling its selections for the best in film for 2024. Lafca’s picks often serve as a strong bellwether for the Oscars.

Since 2000, Lafca’s choice for best picture has closely aligned with the Academy Awards’ Best Picture nominees, with only four exceptions: “About Schmidt” (2002), “American Splendor” (2003), “Wall-e” (2008) and Steve McQueen’s anthology project “Small Axe” (2020). Of those selected, five films went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture: Kathryn Bigelow’s war drama “The Hurt Locker” (2009), Tom McCarthy’s journalism exposé “Spotlight” (2015), Barry Jenkins’ poignant coming-of-age tale “Moonlight” (2016), Bong Joon-ho’s genre-defying “Parasite” (2019) and the multiverse sensation “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022).

Lafca’s Best Director selections are equally predictive, with a remarkable consistency in aligning with the Academy. Since 2009, only one of their chosen directors has failed to receive an Oscar...

Alisyn Camerota will exit CNN. Her last show will be Sunday afternoon.

Camerota announced the news on social media just hours before her final show. In a brief message, the news anchor encouraged fans to tune in at 1:50 p.m. Pt for her sign off.

Camerota anchored CNN’s morning show New Day from 2015 to 2021. Since then, she has hosted and co-hosted programs such as CNN Newsroom with Victor Blackwell and CNN Tonight with Jake Tapper and Laura Coates. More recently, she became a floating political commentator for the network, as well as a correspondent for The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.

Prior to CNN, Camerota worked for 16 years in several roles at Fox News, including Fox & Friends and Fox & Friends Weekends. She is also the author of a novel, Amanda Wakes Up, and a memoir, Combat Love.

Camerota announced in September that her husband of 23 years, Tim Lewis,...

Selena Gomez has responded to Eugenio Derbez after he criticized her “Emilia Pérez” performance.

While appearing on the Spanish language entertainment podcast “Hablando de Cine”, the “Coda” star slammed Gomez’s use of Spanish in the film as “indefensible.” Gomez, who is not a native speaker, plays Jessi del Monte in Jacques Audiard’s musical crime drama about a drug lord who escapes his life of brutality to transition in secret with the help of a sentimental lawyer (Zoe Saldana).

“Selena is indefensible,” Derbez said of the performance. “I [watched ‘Emilia Pérez’] with people, and every time she had a scene, we looked at each other to say, ‘Wow, what is this?’”

“Hablando de Cine” host Gaby Meza echoed Derbez. Although she acknowledged Gomez as a “very talented actress,” she emphasized that “Spanish is not her main language, not her secondary or fifth,” which severely dampers the “nuance” of her performance.

“Moana 2” has notched $600 million in global ticket sales, standing as the sixth-biggest movie of the year after just two weeks of release.

Disney’s animated sequel, which was developed as a TV series before pivoting to theaters, has generated $300 million overseas and $300 million domestically for an even global tally of $600 million. In the coming days, it’ll overtake the lifetime gross of its predecessor, 2016’s “Moana,” with $643 million worldwide.

Over the weekend, “Moana 2” added a sizable $103.5 million from 52 international markets as well as $52 million in North America. Outside of the United States and Canada, France has enjoyed the biggest turnout with $32.5 million to date, followed by the United Kingdom with $27.2 million, Germany with $19.7 million and Mexico with $19.1 million.

Among new offerings, the Warner Bros. anime fantasy film “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” faltered with $2 million from 3,410 screens in 31 territories. The movie, based on...

Why? That one-word question bobs up more than once in “Freediver,” director Michael John Warren’s often fascinating documentary about Alexey Molchanov, a champion in a sport to which audiences may not have given much thought but won’t soon forget.

Based on a piece by Daniel Riley published in GQ magazine in 2021, the movie begins with an explanatory text block that is pretty much verbatim: “The goal of competitive freediving is simple: go as deep as you can on a single breath and return to the surface without blacking out or dying.” The article mulled the broader human implications of Molchanov’s remarkable breath-holding dives, as well as captured some of the communal bonhomie of Molchanov’s fellow divers. The documentary hews even more closely to Molchanov’s into-the-deep ascendance.

Alexey’s mother, Natalia Molchanova, figures mightily — not just in her son’s backstory but also in the sport itself.

Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted from power early on Sunday in a stunning bloodless coup by Islamist rebels who took control of Damascus, the Syrian capital after a 13-year civil war that has caused more than 500,000 deaths and forced millions of Syrians to leave their homeland.

The rebels, who are called the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters, moved swiftly, entering Damascus and taking over the city as government military fled, hours after Assad had absconded.

The rebels’ fast-paced offensive was facilitated by a changing geopolitical scenario in which Assad was no longer able to rely on support from Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, according to several analysts.

State TV in Iran, which has been Assad’s main backer in recent years, reported that Assad had left the Syrian capital for an undisclosed location, while Syrian state television aired a video statement saying that he had been overthrown and...

Disney’s animated adventure “Moana 2” remained the de facto choice at the movies, collecting a leading $52 million from 4,200 North American theaters in its second weekend of release.

Ticket sales for the family friendly sequel declined by 63% from its record-breaking Thanksgiving debut of $139 million over the traditional frame and $225 million during the five-day holiday stretch. According to Disney, “Moana 2” secured the biggest post-Thanksgiving weekend, overtaking the benchmark set by “Frozen II” with $35.2 million. However, the second “Frozen” opened prior to Thanksgiving and had been in theaters for three weekends at that point.

“Moana 2” has been a huge boon for movie theaters owners considering the Polynesian-set sequel was originally commissioned as a TV series. So far, the second “Moana” has grossed $300 million domestically and $600 million globally. Any minute now, it’ll overtake the lifetime gross of its predecessor, 2016’s “Moana,” with $643 million worldwide. Though the original film performed solidly at the box office,...

Walt Disney Animation’s blockbuster Moana 2 continues to smash records in its second weekend, hitting an early global haul of $600 million, already ahead of the first film’s global take of $582 million at current exchange rates.

The sequel remained safely ensconced at No. 1 with an estimated three-day gross in of $52 million from 4,300 theaters in North America — the top gross of all time for the weekend following Thanksgiving by a mile. The previous record-holder was fellow Disney pic Frozen II at $35.1 million, not adjusted for inflation. And on Friday — in yet another milestone — Moana 2 earned a hefty $11.7 million, passing up the entire lifetime domestic gross of Moana ($248.7 million) after only 10 days in release. The pic fell 63 percent from the three-day Thanksgiving weekend.

Overseas, the animated blockbuster took in another $103.4 million for a foreign tally of $300 million and $600 million worldwide, already making it the fifth-biggest film of the year and...

Hollywood legend already has it Darren Aronofsky took ten years to find an actor to play a 600 lb man in The Whale, before setting his sights on Brendan Fraser.

But Fraser, during an informal conversation at the Red Sea Film Festival on Sunday, revealed the real reason Aranofsky cast him in the Oscar-winning role of Charlie. “He was looking for an actor who hadn’t been seen in a while. He told me. And that was me. He wanted to reintroduce that actor through a performance that would be transformative and have an element of this is the last person you might expect to do this role,” Fraser recalled.

And that was all fine for Fraser, who added he’s quite happy with the “Brenaissance” memes to underscore one of Hollywood’s most memorable career comebacks. “Yes, look at me,” he said from the stage of Old Town Al-Balad in Jeddah,...

McLaren’s 26-year wait for a Formula 1 Constructors’ title has officially come to an end.

The team’s drivers — Lando Norris, 25, and Oscar Piastri, 23 — brought the trophy home to the papaya family on Sunday after maintaining the team’s lead ahead of Ferrari during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the 2024 season.

After taking pole position in Qualifying on Saturday, Norris ultimately won the race. As for Piastri, who was right behind his teammate on the grid going into the final race, he came in 10th place after an early incident with Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen.

Although there was only a 21-point gap between McLaren and Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings, Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc weren’t able to overtake the lead, especially since the team was already facing hurdles heading into the race as Leclerc had a 10-place grid penalty.

At the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia Sunday, Brendan Fraser, who won an Oscar for his work in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” revealed the real reason why the director chose him for the role.

Fraser said Aronofsky was looking for “an actor who hadn’t been seen in a while” to play Charlie, the reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher, “and that was me.”

The actor also announced that he just wrapped shooting Anthony Maras’ “Pressure,” a ticking-clock thriller based on the true story of the 72 hours leading up to D-Day. Fraser plays Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower in the film. “Hence the short hair. It is all growing back, thank you very much.”

Andrew Scott plays a meteorologist in the film, which focuses on the crucial role that weather forecasting played in the decisions leading up to D-Day. “All these conversations that weekend before, from the Thursday onward,...

Jack Reacher’s got a new opponent.

A teaser for Season 3 of “Reacher” reveals a Feb. 20 premiere date and shows the title character (Alan Ritchson) meeting his latest rival: Paulie, a bodybuilder played by real-life bodybuilder Olivier Richters. First introduced in Lee Child’s 2003 novel “Persuader,” the seventh “Jack Reacher” book that serves as the basis for Season 3, Paulie works as a bodyguard for Zachary Beck (new cast member Anthony Michael Hall), a businessman who Reacher suspects of illegal dealings.

Though Reacher is notably tall and muscular — Ritchson stands above six feet and is known for roles like Aquaman and...

U.S. actor Omar Benson Miller who is known for roles in “8 Mile,” HBO’s Ballers, and Apple’s “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” stars in Italian immigration-themed drama “Naples to York” by Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores that is having its festival premiere at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival.

Interestingly, Federico Fellini co-wrote this tale of two Neapolitan kids who embark on a ship to New York to escape Italy’s early postwar poverty with his frequent collaborator Tullio Pinelli, a writer on the Italian maestro’s “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2,” as well as other titles.

In the film Benson Miller plays the ship’s cook who, during their travels, takes the kids under his wing.

He spoke to Variety about being back in Italy more than a decade after working in Tuscany with Spike Lee on “Miracle at St. Anna”; why this movie, conceived by Fellini,...

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot-button issue in Hollywood and beyond this year. So it just made sense for the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) to put a spotlight on AI in during a Sunday panel at its market, the Red Sea Souk.

“Can AI be a creative partner?” was the title of the session held as part of another full day of activities in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The panel, moderated by Saudi businesswoman and AI expert Fatmah Baothman, featured Chris Jacquemin, partner and head of digital strategy at WME, Diana Williams, CEO and co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment, and Jennifer Howell, chief creative officer at Deep Voodoo, the AI and deepfake video company of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. And it explored the opportunities and challenges of AI, how it may affect creative jobs, and how AI is currently being used in the entertainment industry.

Hollywood star Olivia Wilde warns social media and the embrace of fame pose an existential threat to filmmaking as a storytelling art.

“Directors have to decide at a certain point do you want to be a celebrity or an artist. Because of social media, it’s becoming even more combined to something that is quite dangerous for the art form.,” Wilde said while taking part in an informal conversation at the Red Sea Film Festival on Saturday.

“When you conflate filmmaking or acting with large scale acceptance, you immediately cut off every opportunity to do any risky work. So it was important to me to never become overly focused on being accepted or loved,” she added.

To get away from the Hollywood bubble, the actor-turned-director told the Red Sea Film event she remains inspired by film from far-flung countries not dominated by social media and clichés. “I’m so interested...

Mbc Studios, the production arm of Middle East and Northern Africa media and entertainment giant Mbc Group and Telfaz11 Studios unveiled a landmark partnership to co-develop and co-produce multiple projects that “celebrate the depth and diversity of Saudi storytelling.” The deal was unveiled Sunday during the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“This collaboration combines Telfaz11 Studios’ innovative creative storytelling and box office success with Mbc Studios’ strong regional reach and unparalleled production capabilities, marking a pivotal moment for the Kingdom’s entertainment industry,” they said. “The partnership includes multiple projects, including one based on a compelling true story, highlighting the shared mission of both companies to create meaningful content that captures the richness of Saudi culture and resonates deeply with audiences across the region. Together, they aim to nurture Saudi talent, drive creativity, and contribute to the growth of the region’s film and television industries.

As one of a handful of actresses in Hollywood who have successfully crossed over into directing, Olivia Wilde claims one of the reasons for this small number was the messaging given to children when they express an interest in cinema.

“I think for many young women, when we love movies as little girls, we’re told, ‘Oh, you should be an actress,” she said, speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia. “I think when little boys say they love movies, people say ‘You should be a director.'”

On the subject of female directors and the ongoing domination of men behind the camera, Wilde lay the solution with the those holding the purse strings. “Movies directed by women don’t make less money. It’s not the audience’s problem. It’s the financiers, it’s the studios. They need to take what they perceive as a risk,...

Prominent Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy is branching out into Saudi Arabia by setting up an outpost of his prolific Film Clinic shingle – which has six titles at Saudi’s Red Sea Film Festival – in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

The milestone move comes after Hefzy has been busy forging rapports with Saudi’s film community on a number of projects including Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky’s high-end Saudi-set adventure movie “Hajjan” – which had its regional premiere at Red Sea last year after launching from Toronto. “Hajjan” was produced by Film Clinic in tandem with the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, known as Ithra.

“This is something that’s been in the cards for a couple of years,” Hefzy told Variety. He added that though Film Clinic’s Saudi base will be in Riyadh, the idea is to be active throughout the entire kingdom. “We’re talking about Riyadh.

Nina Dobrev, Candice King and Kat Graham will always find their way back to Mystic Falls.

The three actresses who starred in The Vampire Diaries had a reunion this weekend at the I Was Feeling Festive 2 convention in Covington, Georgia, where they took photos with fans as well as participated in panel discussions.

Dobrev, King and Graham, who played Elena Gilbert, Caroline Forbes and Bonnie Bennett, respectively, posted a joint video on Instagram, which was set to the Simple Plan song “I’m Just a Kid.” The clip featured them recreating a throwback photo from their younger days filming the show.

“We’re still just kids,” they captioned the post.

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Dobrev, Graham and King first appeared onscreen together during the show’s premiere on Sept. 10, 2009. The Vampire Diaries ran for eight seasons before wrapping in 2017, however, Dobrev departed...

“Saturday Night Live” poked fun at one of the most anticipated films of the holiday season, the Timothée Chalamet-helmed Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown,” out Christmas Day, with a sketch portraying the film’s red-carpet premiere.

Chloe Fineman, as Timothée Chalamet, admitted to having a Brat Summer (a reference to the CharliXCX-inspired trend). “Oh, man it was crazy. Nuts,” exclaimed Fineman as Chalamet.

The fictional Buzzfeed reporter, spotting Bob Dylan (James Austin Johnson), gushed, “Oh, my god. And icon alert! Here comes Mr. Bob Dylan himself.” The reporter then asked Johnson as Dylan if he, too, had had a Brat Summer.

The 19th edition of Indonesia’s Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival (Jaff) was its most successful one yet and the inaugural Jaff Market proved to be an auspicious debut. Variety was present to report on both.

To put matters in context, films from Indonesia now routinely get selected and win prizes at major international festivals. The local market in Indonesia, which has the fourth-largest population in the world with 283 million, is rapidly expanding with homegrown productions accounting for a significant share of the local box office. Indonesia is also bolstering its cultural policies that include an annual $13 million international co-production grant.

Here are some key takeaways from the festival and market:

An energetic and buzzing festival and market

“Energy” and “buzzing” were the two words most bandied about during the festival and market and with good reason too. Despite running on similar dates to the 25th edition of neighboring Singapore’s...

“Gladiator II” star Paul Mescal made his hosting debut tonight during the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” and riffed on everything from his lack of comedic performances to his Irish roots.

Clad in all black and sporting a mustache, Mescal took to the stage at Studio 8H, saying, “I’m Paul Mescal and it is great to be here. I’ve always loved SNL. This place has such history.”

Mescal, who’s from Maynooth, Ireland, continued, “Growing up back home I never expected to be here. I’m also excited to be here because I’m not really known for comedy,...

Dana Carvey’s Church Lady character opened “Saturday Night Live” with her talkshow guests including a parade of “sinners” representing the “most Satanic year in history”: Sarah Sherman as Matt Gaetz, David Spade as Hunter Biden and Marcello Hernandez as baseball free agent Juan Soto.

“Are you okay, Matt? You look a little surprised to be here,” Carvey says.

“No, this is just how my face is,” Gaetz’ Sherman replies.

“Matt, let’s see if I have this straight. You were involved in some little sexual peccadillos? They wrote a whole report about it, but somehow we never got tosee it,...

Church Chats at Saturday Night Live are back in session.

Dana Carvey reprised his iconic character, the Church Lady, during the newest episode’s cold open, sitting down to scold Matt Gaetz, played by Sarah Sherman, Hunter Biden, played by David Spade, and baseball player Juan Soto, played by Marcello Hernández.

“Welcome to Church Chat. I’m the Church Lady,” Carvey says. “You know, it’s great to be back to ring out the end of 2024, the most satanic year in history. Instead of Mother Mary, little girls are looking up to the Hawk Tuah girl. Well, you know what I say, instead of hawk tuah-y, you need to walk tuah-y to a church.”

Carvey continues, “Have you seen Wicked? It’s just like The Wizard of Oz, but instead of saying, ‘Lions, tigers and bears, oh my,’ they say, ‘Lions, tigers and sluts, oh yes.’ A little bit different.

Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy and Algerian director Merzak Allouache will be honored this week by Variety at the Red Sea Film Festival in the port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Hefzy will receive the Variety International Vanguard Producer Award, while Allouache is being bestowed with the Variety International Vanguard Director Award. Both honors are given in recognition of their achievements over the course of their careers.

Hefzy will receive his award on stage on Dec. 9 before the Red Sea screening of his film “Abdo & Saneya,” which starts 5 P.M. Allouache will receive his award before the premiere of his film “Front Row” on Dec. 8, starting at 5.15 P.M. Both screenings take place in the auditorium in Culture Square in Jeddah.

Hefzy and his Cairo-based production company Film Clinic have a reputation for promoting emerging Egyptian filmmaking talents such as Abu Bakr Shawky (“Yomeddine”), Omar El Zohairy (“Feathers”) and Mohamed Diab...

Selena Gomez is clapping back at Eugenio Derbez after he criticized her performance in Emilia Pérez.

The Radical actor-producer made an appearance on an upcoming episode of the Hablando de Cine podcast, where he expressed his disapproval of Gomez’s Spanish in the film, given that she’s not fluent in the language. The actress plays Jessi del Monte in director Jacques Audiard’s musical crime thriller.

“Selena is indefensible,” Derbez said of her performance. “I was there [watching the movie] with people, and every time a scene came [with her in it], we looked at each other to say, ‘Wow, what is this?’”

Host Gaby Meza recognized that while Gomez is a “very talented actress,” “very good singer” and has an Emmy nomination for her role in Only Murders in the Building, “Spanish is neither her primary nor secondary language nor fifth. And that’s why I feel she doesn’t know what she is saying,...

The teams behind five Oscar-qualifying live-action and documentary short films gathered Friday evening at The Culver Theater in Culver City, California, for TheWrap Screening Series‘ shorts showcase. They discussed the origins of their films in a 45-minute conversation moderated by TheWrap’s Executive Editor of Awards, Steve Pond.

First on tap was “A Place to Fall Down,” a live action short film written and directed by Duane Hansen Fernandez that delves into the life of a mechanic struggling to deal with grief and loneliness. Those feelings and emotions were things Fernandez was interested in investigating “coming out of the pandemic,” and a 15-minute short film was an intriguing way to go about telling that story.

He acknowledged the challenges of digging into someone’s personal journey. “I can’t even describe how special it is when people share their stories with me and it creates a connection and a conversation,...

Updated: After being denied entry into Saudi Arabia to present her film “Sima’s Song,” which is playing in competition at the Red Sea Film Festival, and denouncing this, Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat has been cleared to visit the kingdom.

“On Wednesday, the 4th, I was stopped at Dallas Airport and prevented from boarding my flight to Jeddah. The airline claimed that Saudi Arabia does not accept extended Afghan passports. Extended passports are issued by Afghan embassies abroad and are not recognized by the Taliban, as these embassies operate independently of their control. The Taliban have requested that countries reject these passports, but since countries do not recognize the Taliban as a legitimate authority, they do accept them,” Sadat said in a statement emailed to Variety.

“I was shocked when the airline representative stated that Saudi Arabia does not accept extended Afghan passports. Many Afghans travel to Mecca every year,...

A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” sold at auction Saturday for $28 million.

In an email sent to CBS News, Robert Wilonsky, vice president of communications at Dallas-based auction house Heritage Auctions, revealed that, including the buyer’s premium, the price tag for the iconic slippers rounded out to $32.5 million.

Estimations by Heritage were initially set at a modest $3 million. It only took a couple of days for the bid to shoot to $1.55 million, with over 800 potential buyers tracking the item.

In 2005, the slippers were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum by ex-mobster Terry Martin. Because the slippers had been insured for $1 million, he had falsely assumed they were made from real rubies. Martin was indicted by the Minnesota U.S. District Court and charged with theft of a major artwork in October 2023. The slippers were recovered by the FBI in...

Barry Keoghan has deactivated his Instagram account due to the “disgusting commentary” and “absolute lies” he has received about his character and family.

The Oscar-nominated actor took to X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday to respond to rumors surrounding his relationship with his infant son, whom he shares with ex-partner Alyson Sandro, and his recent breakup with Grammy-nominated singer Sabrina Carpenter.

“I can only sit and take so much,” Keoghan wrote in a lengthy post. “My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I usually don’t respond to. I have to respond now because it’s getting to a place where there are too many lines being crossed. I deactivated my account because I can no longer let this stuff distract from my family and my work. The messages I have received no person should ever have to read them. Absolute lies, hatred, disgusting commentary about my appearance,...

Timothée Chalamet stopped by College GameDay to share his predictions for a slew of today’s college football matchups, impressing the panel of Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis and Nick Saban.

Social media was buzzing amid Chalamet’s picks, with former NFL coach Blake Williams sharing on X, “Lisan Al Gaib...

A pair of the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz fetched an all-time auction record for entertainment memorabilia when they sold on Saturday afternoon for $28 million. The sale was handled by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. With the buyer’s premium, the total is $32.5 million, and the buyer currently remains anonymous.

Auctioneer Mike Sadler announced at the podium at the conclusion of the lot’s bidding that the slippers had far surpassed the previous auction record of $5.52 million for the white halter dress designed by William Travilla and worn by Marilyn Monroe in 1955’s The Seven Year Itch. That costume also was sold at Heritage in 2011 and was part of the famed collection of Debbie Reynolds.

“There is simply no comparison between Judy Garland’s ruby slippers and any other piece of Hollywood memorabilia,” said Joe Maddalena, executive vice president of Heritage Auctions, in a statement released following the sale.

Timothée Chalamet has the internet’s approval to add “football analyst” to his résumé now.

The Oscar-nominated actor served as a guest picker on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday ahead of the SEC championship game in Atlanta, where he came prepared and fully researched to speak. He held his own among host Rece Davis and analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Nick Saban, Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee.

The A Complete Unknown star picked his guesses for winners during his appearance, starting with Jackson State University competing against Southern University for the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship. “Eight wins in a row, 11 all-conference players,” Chalamet said of Jackson State, which ended up winning. “This should be a comfortable, easy win for them.”

Up next, he correctly predicted the Ohio University Bobcats would beat the Miami University Redhawks, also from Ohio, and that Arizona State would beat Iowa State. He’s also guessing that on Saturday night,...

Prime Video is ready to give another turn to The Wheel of Time.

The Amazon-owned streamer has set a March 13 premiere date for the fantasy drama’s third season. Prime Video also released a first teaser for the coming season at São Paulo’s CCXP24 convention.

In the teaser (watch it below), Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) warns that she has seen “a thousand thousand futures” — and that there are none in which both she and Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski), the young man who may hold the future of humanity in his hands as the Dragon Reborn, survive.

Prime Video’s description for season three of The Wheel of Time reads, “The threats against the Light are multiplying: The White Tower stands divided, the Black Ajah run free, old enemies return to the Two Rivers, and the remaining Forsaken are in hot pursuit of the Dragon … including Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe), whose...

“The Wheel of Time” will be back for it’s third season in a few short months.

Announced during Ccxp 24 in São Paulo, Brazil, a teaser trailer and accompanying art revealed the third season of Prime Video’s fantasy series lands on March 13, 2025. The teaser also teased bleak things ahead for Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine.

“I have seen a thousand thousand futures,” she says in the teaser. “In every future where I lived, Rand dies. And the only way he lives is if I don’t.”

The fantasy series follows Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) as he learns he’s the Dragon Reborn – a figure from legend who is constantly reincarnated and whose reappearance means he can either save the world or break it.

“The world is changing,” the teaser continues. “Who knows how deep the shadow’s roots have taken hold here.”

Watch the trailer here:

https://www.youtube.

Ever since the debut of his surreal comedy horror short, “Too Many Cooks,” Casper Kelly has cultivated a reputation for doing the disturbing and unexpected. That’s why, when it came to Adult Swim’s “Yule Log 2: Branching Out,” Kelly decided to turn his very reputation on its head.

“A lot of sequels will go darker and grittier, so I thought maybe I’ll slightly do the opposite,” Kelly told TheWrap.

The first “Yule Log” premiered as a surprise on Adult Swim in December of 2022. That movie started as a video of a crackling fireplace. But the longer the camera focused on the comforting pops of the cozy fire, the more it descended into madness, as it told the story of a winter vacation gone horribly wrong, complete with an incestuous serial killer family, aliens, and a vengeful and sentient yule log. By its end, the movie becomes a...

Euphoria star Barbie Ferreira, who played Kat Hernandez in the show’s first two seasons, is giving insight into her inspiration for her character on the Emmy-winning series.

The actress spoke to People magazine about her upcoming run in Broadway play Cult of Love opposite Shailene Woodley and Zachary Quinto. During their conversation, Ferreira reflected on her time on the show, following the news she would not be returning for season three. She noted that joining the series when she was young allowed her to bring her own experiences into the role.

“I was 21. I brought a lot of my vulnerability and my own exploration of my own sexuality,” she told the publication. “And it wasn’t too long before that I was in high school, so … it was very raw and real. I got to bring a lot of my own experiences to it. I’m really happy that it read.

Scandar Copti’s “Happy Holidays” won top honors at the Marrakech Film Festival on Saturday, capping an emotional and politically resonant ceremony, while adding Marrakech’s Étoile d’Or to a list of accolades for the film that also includes best screenplay from Venice’s Orizzonti and best in show from the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

The acclaimed title also claimed a shared best actress prize for leads Manar Shehab and Wafaa Aoun.

Split into four chapters, the Palestinian film follows an ensemble of characters – Arab and Jewish alike – living in contemporary Haifa. Family secrets and domestic tensions underscore scenes from everyday life as the film traces out an expansive social circle with a novelistic attention to cultural and interpersonal dynamics.

This year’s jury – led by Luca Guadagnino alongside Andrew Garfield, Jacob Elordi, Virginie Efira, Patricia Arquette, Zoya Akhtar, Ali Abbasi, Nadia Kounda and Santiago Mitre – together awarded the winning title with a unanimous vote.

Barry Keoghan took to X on Saturday to announce that he deactivated his Instagram account following heavy speculation surrounding his relationship with his infant son and his breakup with pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter.

After Keoghan had a son with his now ex-partner Alyson Sandro in August 2022, the pair broke up the following summer. Shortly after, Keoghan started dating Carpenter, a quick pivot that led to social media backlash for the 32-year-old actor. Carpenter and Keoghan have now broken up, and their split has been plagued by rumors that Keoghan had cheated. The compounded controversies seemingly led Keoghan to leave Instagram.

“I can only sit and take so much. My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I usually don’t respond to,” Keoghan said. “I have to respond now because it’s getting to a place where there are too many lines being crossed. I deactivated my account...

Montevideo, Uruguay — “As a meeting place, Ventana Sur was fantastic, the sales agent presence was good, focused on companies which really do buy, and the organization was impecable, run by highly dedicated and nice people,” said Antonio Saura, at Madrid-based sales agency Latido Films.

Most other attendees would buy into that.

Transferred for the first time since its launch in 2009 from its traditional Buenos Aires base to the heart of Uruguay’s Montevideo, this week’s Ventana Sur proved an upbeat affair, highlighting a clutch of titles likely to make A-List festival selection, plus some of the Latin America’s movers and shakers in the region and beyond, and the latest trends in an ever evolving regional industry.

Following, some first takeaways from Ventana Sur, Latin America’s weightiest film-tv market, co-hosted by the Cannes Festival’s Marché du Film, Uruguay’s Acau agency and Argentina’s Incaa.

Ventana Sur...

Greek-Portuguese writer and director Paulo Marinou-Blanco (Empty Hands, Goodnight Irene) screened Dreaming of Lions, his absurdist black comedy film about assisted suicide and euthanasia, in the 10:30 p.m. slot at the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival on Friday night. But the cinema in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s Culture Square, its “new home of film,” was packed, and the audience reacted with much applause after experiencing the tragicomic rollercoaster ride that the movie provides.

Brazil’s Denise Fraga (The Other End) leads the cast of the film, which premiered at the recent Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, alongside 2022 European Film Promotion Shooting Star João Nunes Monteiro from Portugal. Asun Planas, Dinarte Freitas, António Durães, Alexander Tuji, Victoria Guerra, Sandra Faleiro, Joana Ribeiro (The Man Who Fell to Earth), and Roberto Bomtempo round out the cast.

Dreaming of Lions is the story of Gilda (Fraga), a terminally...

Jessica Chastain highlighted the importance of female voices while being honored at the 38th Annual American Cinematheque Awards on Friday evening at the Beverly Hilton.

In her acceptance speech, Chastain detailed the struggles of her childhood. She was the first woman in her family without a teenage pregnancy as well as the first to graduate high school and attend college. Chastain studied at Julliard thanks to a scholarship funded by Robin Williams, who received the American Cinematheque Award in 1988.

“We existed on the margins of society, but theater became my lifeline,” Chastain said. “It was a way to feel seen, to use my voice and to break free from the expectations that have bound my family for generations. I became determined to escape the cycle.”

Chastain said when she entered the industry, most films centered around male-dominated perspectives and regulated female actors to reductive archetypes. The “Molly’s Game” star wanted to change this,...

Billie Eilish has heard that Rihanna wants to collaborate with her. She is entirely shocked by the news, and 100 percent here for it.

The Hit Me Hard and Soft artist sat down with Complex for its most recent cover. While speaking with the magazine, she was asked what she thought when she heard the “Umbrella” singer wanted to work with her.

“I literally thought it was AI, first of all,” she told the publication, laughing. “I’ve never met Rihanna. She’s literally my idol. She’s the greatest of all time. She’s my complete dream collab.”

Eilish added that she doesn’t typically answer when she’s asked who she would like to work with on a song, but she always thinks about Rihanna.

“I’m not going to say that, though! Why would I say that?! It’s not real,” she said. “I would think, like, ‘She...

The past is coming back to haunt hunt the surviving Yellowjackets once again.

A terrifying new teaser trailer that was released on Saturday during fan event Ccxp 2024 in São Paulo, Brazil, dropped the first hints at what season three of the hit coming-of-age survival horror series has on its menu when it returns on Feb. 14.

The footage (below) opens with a warning that the past will come back to “hunt,” and the words are overlaid on top of someone wearing the Yellowjackets team survivors’ infamous cannibalism mask, indicating what creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson and co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco have warned us along: More cannibalism is coming.

Yellowjackets follows dual timelines in the past and present to tell the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players (the Yellowjackets) who become the unlucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness.

In the past timeline,...

Things are only getting more difficult for the crash survivors in both the past and the present timelines with “Yellowjackets” Season 3.

The first teaser trailer for the hotly anticipated third season makes it plain what’s coming: the past. The warning is blasted loud over the first look, saying, “The past will come back to you.”

“Once upon a time, a bunch of teenage girls got stranded in the woods and they went completely nuts,” the Showtime teaser opens.

What follows is a smattering of images that show the ’90s crash survivors devolving further into their tribal and cult-like thinking – some even saying things like “can’t believe we didn’t eat that bitch first” – while the present day survivors try to figure out who is hunting them.

“The only people who know about this are either us or dead,” Van (Lauren Ambrose) theorizes as she and the remaining survivors...

Timothée Chalamet joined ESPN’s “College GameDay” as a Guest Picker ahead of the Conference Championship Week and immediately impressed fans, viewers and his co-hosts, all of whom were surprised with the wealth of his college football knowledge.

“I’ve been doing my research all night,” Chalamet announced when it came time to share his picks toward the end of the program. “I’m going to come with the sharpest picks anyone has ever seen on ‘College GameDay.'”

Timothée Chalamet on ESPN’s College GameDay.

pic.twitter.com/7dfiDOXLA9

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) December 7, 2024

In a series of picks shared on social media, Chalamet deftly predicted wins for the Ohio Bobcats, Louisana, Arizona State, and Oregon. The actor said he believes Louisana’s Tyrone Lewis Jr, Cody Jackson, and Tyree Skipper will “step that defense up,” and that Smu quarterback Kevin Jennings is “a legit Heisman contender” next year.

The...