News

On March 13, 1990, 13 paintings worth hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in a brazen heist that still remains unsolved. Any Day Now creates a fictitious backstory where a downtrodden pushover is forced to aid the robbery by a loquacious gangster and his goofy goons. We're supposed to take pity and root for the wet blanket protagonist as he's used like a doormat from start to finish. That doesn't happen because the black comedy is a stretch at best and the narrative has plot holes you could drive a truck through.

The cocky Marty Lyons (Paul Guilfoyle) sits in his prison cell, interrogated by a pair of angry cops who think he orchestrated the museum robbery. Marty sarcastically responds that he wishes he'd thought of it. The scene then flashes back to the hapless Steve (Taylor Gray) being chased into a restaurant. He doesn't get...

Alan Rachins, an actor known for his work on the series “L.A. Law” and “Dharma & Greg,” died early Saturday morning. He was 82.

Rachins died in his sleep of heart failure, his manager Mark Teitelbaum confirmed to Variety.

Rachins played lawyer Douglas Brackman Jr. on NBC’s “L.A. Law” for its entire eight-season run from 1986 to 1984, as well as in the 2002 made-for-tv film, “L.A. Law: The Movie.” He received nominations for a Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe in 1988 for his performance as Douglas.

“In the pilot episode, there was nothing of the more flamboyant or bizarre side of Douglas; he was going to be the hard-line office manager, the penny pincher,” Rachins said in a 1990 interview with The New York Times. “It was kind of limited, and I didn’t know where it was going. But quickly it developed a lot more color and flamboyance.”

After “L.A. Law,” Rachins portrayed Larry Finkelstein,...

Sheldon Pinchuk, a partner in the Finnegan-Pinchuk Company, which produced more than 40 TV movies during the genre’s 1980s-90s heyday as well as TV series Any Day Now and Northern Exposure and features Reality Bites and The Fabulous Baker Boys, died August 28 of Parkinson’s disease at his home in Calabasas, CA. He was 84.

After getting a Bachelor’s and law degrees from UCLA, Pinchuk began his career as a business affairs executive at NBC. While working there, he earned an additional degree from UCLA’s film school and segued into a programming role. Stints at David Dortort’s company and as Head of Development at Warner Bros followed before Pinchuk made another Hollywood career shift, becoming an agent at CAA. There, he represented the husband-and-wife producing team of William and Patricia Finnegan. Based on his lifelong love of aviation, Pinchuk pitched them an idea that became his first TV movie,...

Charles Cyphers, best known for his role as Leigh Brackett in the Halloween films, died Sunday, August 4 from a brief illness in Tucson, Az, his manager Chris Roe confirmed to Deadline. He was 85.

“Charles was a lovable and sensitive man,” Roe said in a statement. “He always had the best stories, and you got a full performance while he told you. He was a close friend and client of many years who will be dearly missed.”

“His family asks for privacy at this time,” Roe added. “Details on a celebration of life ceremony will happen at a date and location to be determined.”

Cyphers worked extensively with Halloween‘s John Carpenter, first in the 1976 action film Assault on Precinct 13, in which he played Starker, one of the ill-fated police officers gunned down by gang members. He next appeared in Carpenter’s 1980 horror film The Fog, playing Dan O’Bannon, and...

Annie Potts is no stranger to series finales, having experienced several through the years. But there’s something different about the end of “Young Sheldon,” the “Big Bang Theory” prequel that concludes on May 16. “I still don’t understand why they canceled it,” she says. “It just seemed like such a stupid business move.”

Potts, who plays saucy Connie “MeeMaw” Tucker on “Young Sheldon,” says she remains puzzled by CBS’s decision to end the series — even though it’s still a strong ratings performer for the network.

Nonetheless, “Young Sheldon” did wrap production on its seventh and final season last week. A few days later, Variety talked with Potts, and co-star Iain Armitage (the socially awkward 14-year-old genius Sheldon Cooper), about how they’re feeling about the show’s end. The duo also shared their reaction to Jim Parsons’ return as the adult Sheldon in the finale episode and previewed this week’s episode,...

Exclusive: Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons (The Accountant 2) is among the final additions to the cast of Sony Pictures’ film SNL 1975 (working title), based on real-life behind-the-scenes accounts of the opening night of Saturday Night Live. Other new cast members for the Jason Reitman pic include Billy Bryk (Friendship), Joe Chrest (Stranger Things), Taylor Gray (Star Wars: Rebels) and Mcabe Gregg (Teenage Badass).

Simmons plays comedian Milton Berle, with Chrest as Weekend Update co-creator Herb Sargent. Gray and Gregg portray Al Franken and Tom Davis, the SNL writer-performers of duo Franken & Davis. Details as to Bryk’s role haven’t been disclosed.

As previously announced, The Fabelmans breakout Gabriel Labelle leads the ensemble as Lorne Michaels, with Cooper Hoffman, Rachel Sennott, Ella Hunt, Lamorne Morris, Dylan O’Brien, Nicholas Braun, Finn Wolfhard and Kaia Gerber also to star.

It was on October 11th, 1975 that a ferocious troupe of young...

Ronnie Milsap will play his final Nashville concert Tuesday night, a guest-heavy salute to the piano player featuring Kelly Clarkson, Little Big Town, Sara Evans, Parker McCollum, Breland, Ricky Skaggs, and more. Milsap is 80 now and regarded as a pillar of country music — the Country Music Hall of Fame inducted him in 2014 — but at heart, he remains an unapologetic pop vocalist.

Listen to “Pure Love,” his 1974 Number One hit, written by Eddie Rabbitt. Only an expert in pop could successfully sell those lyrics about “milk and honey and Cap’n...

Firefly's Zoe is evoked in stunning cosplay, which perfectly captures the Gina Torres character. The actor made an early impression by recurring on dramas like Alias and Any Day Now, later nabbing the role of Zoe Washburne in Joss Whedon's cult-favorite sci-fi series Firefly. Even decades after the Fox show was canceled, the cast continues to lead notable TV hits and field questions about a possible revival.

Firefly lives on through cosplay as well, as evidenced by a post from Twitter user bendydinosaurs.

It was a good day.

Exclusive: The production and management company Citizen Skull is expanding with the launch of a Btl division to represent cinematographers, production designers, costumers, editors and others.

Leading the charge will be Liz Williamson (formerly of Wpa), who is supported by Gerard George (formerly of Screen Talent Agency) and Mike Diaz. New signings at Citizen Skull that come with the expansion include Emmy winning cinematographer Petr Cikhart (The Amazing Race) and production designer Flora Ortega (God’s Country).

Citizen Skull has previously produced such titles as Collision, 12 Feet Deep, Heartthrob, Oak Room and Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, continuing to produce 5-7 titles a year, with writers, directors and actors also being repped on the management side.

***

Taylor Gray

Exclusive: Taylor Gray (High Expectations) has signed on for a role opposite Frankie Muniz and Violett Beane in Robert Rippberger’s sci-fi thriller Renner, which is heading into production this summer.

On that dreadful Monday, March 27th, when six souls lost their lives in the Covenant shooting, my father-in-law called me to break the news. “There’s been a shooting at a school in Green Hills,” he started, and I dropped to the ground. I couldn’t breathe, my head was spinning. I felt like I might have a nervous breakdown when he continued, “It’s not their school. It’s not their school.” Tears were rolling down my cheeks. My two children were at a different school in the area,...

9-1-1: Lone Star stages a Firefly reunion for lead star Gina Torres. After she'd made an impression by recurring on shows like Alias and Any Day Now, Torres landed the role of Zoe Washburne in the Joss Whedon sci-fi series Firefly. Though the show was famously short-lived, with many deriding its quick cancelation, the cast would go on to have very busy careers in television. That includes Torres, who has starred in dramas like Suits and Hannibal. She currently portrays Captain Tommy Vega in 9-1-1: Lone Star, which is a spinoff of Fox's 9-1-1.

Now, in a new image from 9-1-1: Lone Star season 4, TVLine reveals that Torres will reunite with Adam Baldwin for the May 2 episode.

Baldwin, who played Jayne Cobb on Firefly, joins the 9-1-1 spinoff as Austin Pd Detective Brian McGregor. The character becomes involved with Vega (Torres) after an emergency rescue goes haywire.

The History Of Buffy,...

Chuck Jackson, an R&b singer who took “Any Day Now” to the Top 25 in 1962 and had some two dozen singles hit the Hot 100 during the decade, has died. He was 85.

Ady Croasdell of the UK’s Kent Records, which has worked on re-releasing Jackson’s music, confirmed on social media that the singer died February 16 in Georgia but did not provide other details.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Dionne Warwick Remembers Burt Bacharach: "Like Losing A Family Member" Related Story Julia Michaels, Dionne Warwick & 'Avatar: The Way Of Water' Actress Trinity Jo-Li Bliss Set For Christmas Film 'Glisten And The Merry Mission'

Dionne Warwick, who recorded for the same label as Jackson during the 1960s, paid tribute to her friend today. “Another heartache has come my way. Chuck Jackson has made his transition,” she said in a statement released by her label.

Songwriter, composer, producer and arranger Burt Bacharach, a dominant force in American popular music for half a century, died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Wednesday. He was 94.

Bacharach’s publicist Tina Brausam revealed the news on Thursday.

As a tunesmith, the nonpareil melodist Bacharach found fame in every medium.

His songs — many of them written with lyricist Hal David — became chart-topping successes, particularly in the hands of vocalist Dionne Warwick. Among ’60s songwriting duos, only Lennon-McCartney rivaled Bacharach-David in terms of commercial and artistic achievement. Bacharach collected six Grammys as a writer, arranger and performer from 1967-2005.

His music was ubiquitous on screens both big and small in the ’60s and ’70s, and he was recognized by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for his work on “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “Arthur” (1981). He collected a 1971 Emmy for a TV recital of his work.

On Broadway,...

Chicago – The spiritual film “Two Eyes” is in the spotlight at the REELING40 LGBTQ+ International Film Festival on Thursday, September 29th, 2022 (7p). Producer Steve Kozlowski will appear on behalf of the film, click Two Eyes for info and tickets.

“Two Eyes” takes place in three eras of American history … 1868, 1979 and present day … following three different characters in those time periods. In the post Civil War story, Dihlon is a immigrant Brit seeking artistic inspiration in the West with a Native American guide. In 1979 Barstow, California, Gabryal’s mundane life is given a shot of adrenaline by the arrival of Alasen, a new exchange student. And finally in present day Wyoming, Jalin is a gifted teenage musician who is trans, works through his self-destructive feelings with his perceptive, non-binary therapist Andrea. With common elements through each era, the stories mesh and get closer to their truth.

’Two Eyes’ at REELING40, September 29th,...

Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” is now streaming on HBO Max, complete with a star-studded cast, glittery and glamorous sets and a flamboyant soundtrack to match. Austin Butler, who stars as the King of Rock and Roll, sang quite a few Elvis songs himself (mixed with the vocals of The King himself).

But as is customary with a Baz Luhrmann film, the songs in “Elvis” aren’t exactly straightforward. The soundtrack features a number of contemporary artists incorporating various Elvis songs into new work, such as like Swae Lee and Dilpo sampling “That’s All Right” for their new song “Tupelo Shuffle” and CeeLo Green and Eminem using the opening of “Jailhouse Rock” in their “The King and I.” Kacey Musgraves lays her velvety voice over “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and Stevie Nicks and Chris Isaak sing “Cotton Candy Land.” Still other artists like Doja Cat came up with songs like “Vegas,...

Endemol Shine Finland Hires ‘The Woodcutter Story’ Line Producer Paria Eskandari

Exclusive: Endemol Shine Finland, the Banijay-owned producer behind upcoming Netflix and Yle drama Dance Brothers, has hired film producer Paria Eskandari to bolster its scripted arm. Starting in August, she will become Producer at the firm, reporting to Head of Scripted Max Malka. Eskandari joins from Aamu Film Company, where she was line producer on Cannes Critic Week title The Woodcutter Story. She has the same role on Cannes Grand Prix winner Compartment No. 6 and award-winner Any Day Now. She has also worked on young adult drama series Zone-b for Finnish public broadcaster Yle, and several docs and short films. “Paria is well-known as a dedicated filmmaker who focuses on both the story and the people,” said Malka. “She has a fantastic reputation within the film community, and her expertise will ensure we further grow our scripted slate and...

The Indie Meme Film Festival, Austin’s leading cinema event curating South Asian independent cinema, returns to movie theaters for the first time in two years. The festival, which was presented virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, comes back in a hybrid format.

The festival will showcase nearly three dozen films from South Asian filmmakers, covering a variety of poignant topics. Each film tells a unique and diverse story of South Asian lives: a child’s struggle in remote India, an Iranian family seeking asylum in Europe, domestic abuse, alcoholism, mental health, patriarchy and colonialism.

Many of the films in this year’s festival focus on issues important to women, including sexuality, education and the family unit.

Through it all, this year’s lineup is a testament to the importance of accepting people for who they are, and each story is told so that audiences of all backgrounds can relate.

When the Screen Actors Guild nominations were announced earlier this month, many pundits were surprised to see three “Succession” stars nominated in the drama actor category: Jeremy Strong, Brian Cox and Kieran Culkin. After all, that had never happened before in this race, as the guild forces leads and supportings to compete against each other for only five slots. Is it possible there will now be a “Succession” SAG Award vote-split in this category? Co-nominees Lee Jung-jae (“Squid Game”) and Billy Crudup (“The Morning Show”) certainly hope so, as they’d be the ones to benefit.

June-jae is one of the breakout performers of 2021, thanks to starring in Netflix’s number one show of all time, “Squid Game.” The Korean actor plays down-on-his-luck father Seong Gi-hun, who agrees to enter the deadly games in order to win money to support his family. He is one of the most sought-after stars in South Korea,...

Mexico’s Oscar-shortlisted Prayers For the Stolen directed by Tatiana Huezo won the Fipresci Prize for Best International Feature Film at the Palm Springs Film Festival, which revealed its juried winners Wednesday despite being forced to cancel its 2022 edition.

The festival, which had been scheduled to run January 6-17 before being scrapped amid the latest Covid surge, is considered a must-stop for International Feature Oscar contenders, with 36 of the 93 official submissions this year slated for the lineup.

The Fipresci jury also awarded Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian Oscar hopeful A Hero two prizes, for Farhadi’s screenplay and best actor for Amir Jadidi. It won three prizes overall, also taking a Mozaik Bridging the Borders Award.

Agathe Roussell, the star of France’s Palme d’Or winner Titane, was named best actress by Fipresci jurors.

Huezo’s Prayers for the Stolen, which was released by Netflix in theaters and on the streaming platform in November,...

After receiving zero nominations for its first two seasons, “Succession” finally broke through at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, receiving five nominations on Wednesday. Not only that, but the Emmy-winning series made some history to boot: It’s the first show to earn three nominations in the drama actor category in the same year.

Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong were all shortlisted alongside former nominee Billy Crudup (“The Morning Show”) and “Squid Game’s” Lee Jung-jae. All three “Succession” men were predicted to be nominated in our odds, with Culkin making a late surge into the top five over former champ Sterling K. Brown (“This Is Us”). “Succession” also received a drama ensemble nomination and a drama actress bid for Sarah Snook.

See Full list of SAG Awards TV nominations

Until now, no show had yielded more than two co-star nominees in the drama actor category, the most recent being “The Morning Show,...

Swedish director Katarina Launing’s ‘You Can Dance’ named the winner of Screen International ’s best pitch award.

The 2021 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has named the winners of its Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event awards.

The industry showcase took place as a hybrid of in-person and virtual events, with the winners announced today (November 26) following a week of presentations and networking with around 700 delegates.

Swedish director Katarina Launing’s feature project You Can Dance was named the winner of Screen International’s best pitch award at the Baltic Event Co-Production Market, which guarantees coverage on Screen throughout the project’s lifecycle.

Finnish writer-director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, born in Mogadishu, continues to enjoy his first feature’s successful festival run. Screening this week in Toronto, “The Gravedigger’s Wife” premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week in July.

“We finished the shoot in 2019. We were invited to Cannes last year, but decided to wait for better times,” explains the helmer. “In Cannes, me and my family, and my actors, we were the only Somalis in the audience. Now, in Toronto, there is this big Somali community. They are excited and waiting for the film – people are sending me screenshots of their tickets!”

Inspired by a sudden death that happened in his family 10 years ago in Helsinki, the film shows a man who “hunts bodies for a living,” waiting in front of hospitals for new corpses to bury. But when his wife (Canadian model Yasmin Warsame) needs expensive surgery, gravedigger Guled (Omar Abdi) and his young...

Fresh off Juho Kuosmanen’s win at Cannes – where his “Compartment No. 6” was awarded the Grand Prix in July, sharing the prize with Asghar Farhadi’s “A Hero” – Finland’s Aamu Film Company will focus its attention on Tia Kouvo’s “Family Time,” scheduled to shoot in February and March 2022.

Produced by Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Haukka, the film, primarily set at Christmas, will show a family of eight struggling to communicate and echoing Tolstoy’s statement that while all happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

“I have been working with the same directors for years, saying no to many interesting projects. Then I saw Tia’s graduation short and realized we have to find room for one more,” says Rantamäki, also behind Kuosmanen’s Un Certain Regard winner “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki” and Hamy Ramezan’s Berlinale entry “Any Day Now.

Lou Ye’s embattled 2019 film “Saturday Fiction” will have a theatrical outing in the Chinese auteur’s home country nearly two years after its planned high-profile premiere there was abruptly cancelled.

After its long time in the dark, the black-and-white drama will return triumphantly to the official limelight as the closing film of the Beijing Intl. Film Festival on Sept. 10, then go on to light up Chinese theaters Oct. 15. Its star, the iconic Gong Li, is this year’s chairman of the international jury for the festival’s top Tiantan Awards.

“Saturday Film” originally debuted in competition at Venice in 2019 and was set to premiere in China soon after as the opening film of the country’s highly politicized government-run Golden Rooster Film Festival. It was yanked without warning from the line-up the night before due to unspecified “internal production problems” and replaced by a low-budget documentary about traditional bamboo flutes.

Discussions around increasing diversity and representation across the film industry have been multiplying in the past few years after global movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter spurred systemic change. Confronting these issues head-on was one of the main topics of discussion in Haugesund at this year’s Norwegian Intl. Film Festival, notably through the panel event, Status Quo – Diversity Seminar.

Organized in collaboration with Nordisk Film & TV Fond (Nftf) as part of the Audiovisual Collaboration 2021 project, the panel invited filmmakers and key decision makers from across the region to tackle how and why the Nordic film industry needs to diversify.

Nftf’s Liselott Forsman moderated the event, and guests included Iranian-Finnish writer-director Hamy Ramezan, whose film “Any Day Now” – about a refugee family seeking asylum in Finland – was just nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize, Guatemalan-Norwegian film producer Elisa Fernanda Pirir from Mer Films in Norway; Silje Riise Næss,...

Zac Brown Band have announced plans for a new album due this fall. Titled The Comeback, the group’s upcoming full-length studio project will be released October 15th via Warner Music Nashville and Brown’s Home Grown Music.

The 15-track release includes the band’s current single “Same Boat,” which came out in June and urges people to embrace coexistence. Brown had a hand in writing every song on The Comeback, working with frequent collaborators like Ben Simonetti and Wyatt Durrette as well as Luke Combs, Jonathan Singleton, and the Cadillac Three’s Neil Mason.

Two internationally-acclaimed documentaries from the Nordic region – “Flee” and “Gunda” – are among the five films nominated for a Nordic Council Film Prize.

This is the most prestigious film award in the Nordic region, celebrating films with unique artistic visions that actively engage with Nordic culture. It’s the eighteenth year the Nordic Council Film Prize is awarded, and the winner will be announced on Nov. 2 in Copenhagen, taking home a prize of Dkk 300,000 to be shared equally among the screenwriter, director, and producer. Here are the five film nominations:

“Flee,” (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Denmark)

Co-written by Amin (a pseudonym), and produced by leading Danish company Final Cut for Reel (nominated for an Oscar for both “The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence”), the film has already had a hugely successful festival circuit run. At Sundance, it won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary section, while...

Gong Li heads the jury of the international competition, which also includes Nadine Labaki, Renny Harlin and Leste Chen.

Beijing International Film Festival (Bjiff), which is scheduled to take place in a physical format next month (August 14-21), has unveiled the line-up for its international competition section, the Tiantan Awards.

The 15-title selection includes Russian co-production Conference, which won best director and actress at last year’s Cairo film festival; Rotterdam Youth Jury Award winner Night Of The Kings; Indian director Pan Nalin’s Last Film Show; and Cannes 2020 Label entry Slalom, directed by Charlene Favier (see full list below...

The musical of the summer was supposed to be a life-affirming celebration of one of New York’s most vibrant neighborhoods, full of color, romance, and big group dance numbers. Instead for many viewers, the musical of the moment was filmed and performed by one man, alone in isolation from the comfort of his own home, with songs centered on techno paranoia, mental health, and the fear of aging. Maybe after a year stuck in their homes, audiences could relate to the existential dread and general anxiety on display in Bo Burnham: Inside more than a conventional movie musical.

Billed as a stand-up special, Burnham’s latest musical comedy endeavor finds the former wunderkind holed up and feeling more uncomfortable than ever. Writing, editing, directing, and performing from a claustrophobic studio, Burnham’s stand-up special skews more toward being a straight-up musical, and not because the special is light...

The festival will also world premiere Tippett’s long-awaited personal project Mad God.

US special effects producer Phil Tippett will receive the Locarno Film Festival’s Vision Award Ticinomoda at its upcoming 74th edition, which is due to run from August 4-14 this year.

Tippett is due to attend the Swiss festival in person and will receive his award in a ceremony on the Piazza Grande on August 5.

This will be followed on August 6 by an in-conversation event and screenings of Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop and Starship Troopers, for which he created key effects.

The festival will also world premiere...

Documentary follows Zimbabwean refugees who entered the world of competitive wine tasting.

UK outfit Protagonist Pictures is to launch sales of Warwick Ross and Rob Coe’s Blind Ambition, which will world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival next month.

Protagonist will launch global sales at Tribeca, where the feature will screen in the documentary competition on June 10. This year’s hybrid festival will offer titles online as well as through a series of outdoor, Covid-compliant screenings across New York.

Blind Ambition tells the story of four Zimbabwean refugees-turned-sommeliers who shook up the international wine establishment and made history when they...

Documentary follows Zimbabwean refugees who entered the world of competitive wine tasting.

UK outfit Protagonist Pictures has boarded sales of Warwick Ross and Rob Coe’s Blind Ambition, which will world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival next month.

Protagonist will launch global sales at Tribeca, where the feature will screen in the documentary competition on June 10. This year’s hybrid festival will offer titles online as well as through a series of outdoor, Covid-compliant screenings across New York.

Blind Ambition tells the story of four Zimbabwean refugees-turned-sommeliers who shook up the international wine establishment and made history when they entered...

The much-anticipated final season of famed TV show The Kingdom is shooting now on location in Copenhagen.

Several members of the original cast of Lars von Trier’s hospital series The Kingdom have returned for the third season, including Danish actors Ghita Nørby, Peter Mygind and Søren Pilmark.

They are joined by actors new to the series, Nicolas Bro (Riders Of Justice), who plays a hospital porter named Balder; and Bodil Jørgensen, who will play a sleepwalker named Karen. The latter worked with von Trier on The Idiots.

The third and final season of the famed TV show, entitled The Kingdom Exodus,...

Any Day Now is the debut feature of Finnish-Iranian director Hamy Ramezan and screened in Berlinale’s Generation Kplus.

New Europe Film Sales has added a trio of deals on Any Day Now, the debut feature of Finnish-Iranian director and screenwriter Hamy Ramezan.

The film has sold for France (Urban Distribution), Poland (New Horizons Association) and Taiwan (AVjet).

Any Day Now screened in Berlinale’s Generation Kplus and will soon travel to the competition selection in the Generator +13 section of Giffoni (July 21-31).

The story follows a 13-year-old Iranian boy in Finland as his family waits to hear news about their asylum application.

Saturday 15 May is International Day of the Family so we’ve decided to turn our Streaming Spotlight on films about families of all shapes and sizes. Not all of them are child friendly or even focused on children, but they remind us of what family means and how, for many people, it’s something that can be relied upon no matter what. These families face more challenges than most but they’re all worth fighting for.

Any Day Now

Any Day Now - Chili, Amazon, Apple TV

Travis Fine's touching and heartfelt drama stars Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt as a newly established gay couple who try to give disadvantaged Down's syndrome teenager Marco (Isaac Leyva) the loving family that he has never had. In doing so, they face the institutionalised racism of Seventies America, a situation fraught with prejudice and injustice. Cumming has rarely been better than here,...

Lithuania’s Eglė Vertelytė set to shoot comedy cookery feature in 2022.

Lithuanian filmmaker Eglė Vertelytė has revealed plans to begin shooting her second feature Tasty in 2022, after winning Screen’s Best Pitch Award at Tallinn’s Baltic Event Co-Production Market.

The €720,000 comedy focuses on two best friends who work in a local canteen and enter a national TV cooking competition, which challenges not only their skills in the kitchen but also their friendship.

The project was pitched at the virtual event in November by Vertelytė with producer Lukas Trimonis and junior producer Viktorija Cook. It will be produced by the...

Lorraine Toussaint has signed with Paradigm, Variety has learned exclusively. She continues to be represented by Frontline Management, Jill Fritzo PR, and Myman Greenspan.

Toussaint currently stars in the CBS reboot of “The Equalizer” opposite Queen Latifah. The show was renewed for a second season earlier this week. She will next be seen alongside Idris Elba in the Netflix film “Concrete Cowboy” on April 2. The film had its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Toussaint’s other recent credits include the Showtime drama series “Your Honor” with Bryan Cranston as well as the feature “The Glorias” with Julianne Moore.

She received widespread critical acclaim for her starring role in Season 2 of the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black” as the villainous inmate Vee. She would go on to win a Critics Choice Award for her time on the series. Her other TV credits include shows such as “The Village,...

New Europe Film Sales handles sales for Hamy Ramezan’s debut feature.

Screen can exclusively reveal the trailer for Hamy Ramezan’s debut feature Any Day Now, which is selected for Berlinale’s Generation Kplus.

New Europe Film Sales handles sales for the Finnish feature.

The story follows 13-year-old Ramin Mehdipour and his Iranian family, who are living in a refugee centre in Finland. Just as Ramin starts to enjoy the school holidays, the family receives the terrible news their asylum application has been denied. The Mehdipours file a final appeal, and they continue with their everyday lives.

The cast...

The Berlin International Film Festival has set its full slate for the upcoming 2021 edition. Berlinale usually follows Sundance with a February festival, but the pandemic has forced organizers to develop a new festival format for 2021. The 71st Berlin International Film Festival is set to take place with the “Industry Event” from March 1 to 5, which will include the European Film Market (EFM), the Berlinale Co-Production Market, the Berlinale Talents, and the World Cinema Fund in online forms. From June 9 to 20, 2021 the Berlinale will launch a “Summer Special” with numerous film presentations in Berlin, both at indoor and outdoor cinemas.

Included in the March event is the traditional film festival slate, which includes the main Berlinale Competition lineup as well as sidebar sections such as Berlinale Special & Berlinale Series, Encounters, Berlinale Shorts, Panorama, Forum & Forum Expanded, Generation, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, and Retrospective. With the exception of the Retrospective, the films will be shown at the March event.

Record numbers of industry attendees from 46 countries virtually attended Nordic Film Market at TV Drama Vision.

Goteborg’s industry activities attracted a record 734 delegates for the Nordic Film Market and 566 for TV Drama Vision, from across 46 countries. Like the festival, the industry programme was held online for the first time this year due to the pandemic.

One hot film project being pitched at script stage was Stranger, which unites Danish production company Motor with Poland’s Opus Film (Ida). Mads Hedegaard will make his fictional feature directorial debut with the film, which he co-writes with Jesper Fink (Margrete-Queen Of The...

Generation, the Berlin Film Festival’s section for youth-centric movies, has unveiled its lineup, with a majority of its films directed by women.

Sixty per cent of the films are directed by women, and many of them feature “strong willed” female protagonists, the festival said, such as “Ninjababy,” in which Rakel is six months pregnant, but doesn’t want to become a mother. Other such films include “Short Vacation,” “Mission Ulja Funk” and “Nelly Rapp – Monster Agent.”

Many of the films immerse themselves in the worlds of young people, such as “The White Fortress,” “Stop-Zemlia,” “The Fam” and “Fighter.”

Generation features eight world premieres across its two competition programs, Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus, with the films coming from 17 countries. With four contributions each, productions from the Asian and Scandinavian countries are particularly well represented.

“The 15 films in this year’s Generation selection are an open invitation to go beyond the obvious,...

The 2021 festival will take place in two parts.

The Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled the first films selected for its 2021 edition which will take place in two parts, starting with the industry-focused, online-only event from March 1-5.

They are the titles that will comprise the Generation and Retrospective strands, and come nearly two months later than last year’s equivalent announcement as organisers prepare to host the first virtual edition of the festival.

A second event, titled Summer Special, is scheduled to run June 9-20 and set to include physical screenings of the selection and their filmmakers, at 10 venues in Berlin.

The 71st Berlin International Film Festival unveils its program this week, with the Generation and Retrospective sections kicking off proceedings today.

A total of 15 films are selected across the two youth-focused Generation competitions – Kplus and 14plus. Of the titles chosen, 60% are directed by female directors. Scroll down for the full list.

The movies come from the likes of Canada, China, and Korea. There are eight world premieres and six debuts. Films arriving from other festivals include the animation Cryptozoo, which was at Sundance and features Lake Bell and Michael Cera in its voice cast.

The 2021 Retrospective program will focus on the comedic work of three actresses – Mae West, Rosalind Russell, and Carole Lombard during the era when the Motion Picture Production Code (“Hays Code”) was coming into effect. There are 27 films in total, released between 1932 and 1943. They are also listed below.

Buyers will get the chance to view these movies during the virtual EFM,...

If you’re a TV actor, breaking through at the Screen Actors Guild Awards is especially difficult. That’s because the guild combines lead and supporting actors in their categories, so everyone in your genre competes for just five slots. That makes it even more impressive when one show manages to get multiple nominations in a category anyway. “The Crown” could be one of those shows this year. It could even get three female drama actors into the race, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in that category since “The Sopranos” in 2000.

See‘The Crown’s’ Josh O’Connor and Emma Corrin are now predicted to score his-and-hers lead Golden Globe nominations

That year, which was at the very start of the “Sopranos” phenomenon, the guild nominated Edie Falco, Lorraine Bracco and Nancy Marchand against Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files”) and Annie Potts (“Any Day Now”). Though they ran the risk of splitting votes,...

Lithuanian writer-director Eglė Vertelytė’s Tasty was named the winner of Screen International’s best pitch award.

The 2020 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has named the winners of its Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event awards.

The industry showcase was held online this year, with the winners announced yesterday (November 26) following a week of online presentations and networking with around 850 delegates.

Lithuanian writer-director Eglė Vertelytė’s second feature film Tasty was named the winner of Screen International’s best pitch award, which guarantees coverage on Screen throughout the project’s lifecycle, at the Baltic Event Co-Production Market.

The €700,000 comedy focuses on two...

Bob Dylan’s music has always attracted an unusually high number of cover artists, both because he’s such a brilliantly original songwriter and because something about the way he performs his songs makes other people think they can do better. This has happened since the beginning of his career, when Peter, Paul, and Mary hit pay dirt by making “Blowin’ in the Wind” sound a little sweeter, and it’s still going on today: The first song on this playlist comes from a new Dylan covers album whose other...

Damien Navarro’s first day on the job as the executive director of Outfest LA was the day after the festival’s closing night last year. Of course, no one could have imagined that this year’s edition of the LGBTQ festival would be taking place during a pandemic.

Navarro and his team quickly pivoted to putting together a virtual event. As a leading digital media entrepreneur, Navarro knew the virtual space well and it was his mission even before the pandemic to expand Outfest’s digital footprint.

“They specifically sought out somebody that had the skillset to be able to do that,” Navarro tells Variety. “It was just supposed to be over three to five years….But with covid, now it’s not a matter of trying to stay ahead — it’s a matter of survival.”

The 38th Outfest opens today with a line-up of more than 160 films. The 11-day fest includes 35 world premieres,...

A wide range of Scandinavian films, including the politically-charged Danish drama “Shorta,” the supernatural Icelandic drama “Lamb” with Noomi Rapace, and the Finnish-Iranian refugee tale “Any Day Now,’ were some of the highlights at this year’s Nordic Film Market.

They were presented, along with 13 other films in post-production, as part of the Work-in-Progress section. Half of the lineup was made up of first features, notably “Lamb” from Iceland’s Valdimar Johannsson, “Any Day Now” by Finnish-Iranian helmer Hamy Ramezan and “Shorta,” by Denmark’s Fredrik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm.

This 21st edition of the Nordic Film Market, which also boasts the popular Drama TV Vision conference, saw record participation with 450 attendees from 25 countries. These included more than 37 sales agents from the Nordics, France, Poland, Germany, Israel and the U.K., among others, as well as 67 festival programmers and 47 buyers. Cia Edström, the head of the Nordic Film Market,...

GÖTEBORG, Sweden — Norwegian helmer-writer Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Beware Of Children,” a complex, almost novelistic examination of how people reveal their true colors under pressure when crisis strikes, came away the biggest winner at the 43rd Göteborg Film Festival, scoring the generously endowed best Nordic film prize.

The film’s lead actress, Henriette Steenstrup, also nabbed the fest’s award for best actor for her role as a compromised school principal at a Göteborg Film Festival prize ceremony which took place Saturday night.

The endearing Swedish film “Uje,” from debuting feature director Henrik Schyffert, also claimed two prizes: the Fipresci critics’ nod and the audience choice award for a film in the Nordic competition. Popular musician and radio host Uje Brandelius, who wrote the script and most of the film’s songs, stars along with his real-life family in a creative, meta-fiction version of his life.

Norwegian DoP Marius Matzow Gulbrandsen...

Buzzy works-in-progress presentations include Lamb from Iceland and The Innocents from Norway.

Beware Of Children, directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, has won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film in Goteborg tonight (1 Feb).

The prize money of $104,000 (Sek 1m) makes it the world’s largest film prize. The backers are Volvo Car Group, Region Västra Götaland and the City Council of Gothenburg.

The jury, led by Mia Hansen-Love, said Beware Of Children was “inspiring reflection about the intricacy of education from an adult perspective. It questions the innocence of one’s childhood in a captivating way. Human relationships...