Aniplex, a Sony business unit best known as a major producer and distributor of anime films and series including the hit “Demon Slayer,” is to acquire Japanese IP development and talent management firm Origamix Partners. The firm will be expanded into live-action production. The deal was announced Wednesday and will…
Directors
After 15 years in the game, English-born Carey Mulligan has proven herself to be one of the most talented and exciting actresses working today. With two Oscar nominations to her name, she’s delivered an incredible array of characters and performances, many of which should have been recognized by the Academy.…
During the early days of the 2007-08 writers strike, even after pens went down, many showrunners were still at work. They weren’t writing, but they were handling other aspects of production as cameras continued to roll on preexisting scripts. Eventually, they realized that showrunners might take themselves out of writing,…
There are few fears more universal than one of a monster under the bed or in our closet, and few filmmaking techniques more viscerally effective than the jump scare. These tropes collide — effectively, if without much originality — in “The Boogeyman,” a loose adaptation of Stephen King’s 1973 short…
Brazil’s on fire, and rapidly putting into place the policies that will rebuild its film and TV industries, which look set to transform it into the film-TV powerhouse of Latin America. That cuts several ways. Under Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian president over 2019-2022, ApexBrasil, the Brazilian Trade and Investment Agency, saw…
Denmark’s “Norwegian Offspring,” by Marlene Emilie Lyngstad, from Den Danske Filmskole, was chosen as the winner of the 26th edition of La Cinef. In the story, a mother passes away and her estranged son – obsessed with theories about the repression of male sexuality in modern society – starts longing for…
In the second prize announcement by a Directors’ Fortnight partner, “A Prince,” the fifth feature from singular French auteur Pierre Creton, has won the SACD Prize, awarded by France’s Writers’ Guild for the best French-language movie in the section. Written by Mathilde Girard, Cyril Neyrat and Vincent Barré, and directed…
Soulful diva Tina Turner, who had a lengthy run of ’60s and ’70s R&B hits and struck major pop stardom in the ’80s, died Wednesday in Switzerland. She was 83. “Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock’n Roll’ has died peacefully today at the age of 83 after a long illness…
There’s just something about Cannes. No film festival can rival it for delivering old-school Hollywood glamour. And the 76th edition hasn’t suffered from a lack of star power during its first half, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman all shining on the red carpet. But Cannes isn’t just…
Jewish Story Partners (JSP), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit film funding organization, has announced its new slate of grants to 19 documentary film projects. The org, which was launched in April 2021 with support from Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation, will distribute $490,000 among these independent films, all of…
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “NMB NMP,” the fifth episode of “Somebody Somewhere” now streaming on HBO Max. Season 2 of HBO’s slice-of-life dramedy “Somebody Somewhere” has, up to this point, put its platonic love story between Sam and Joel in a slowly ascendant bubble, according to star…
Christopher Nolan has finally weighed in on the “Oppenheimer” runtime, confirming to Total Film magazine that it is his longest movie to date. The director’s confirmation means “Oppenheimer” at least runs longer than 2 hours and 49 minutes. That was the runtime on “Interstellar,” the director’s longest movie until “Oppenheimer.”…