World Mourns Pop Legend Jackson

The filmmakers behind Netflix’s latest documentary—How to Rob a Bank— do not want viewers to take its title literally. Although the film, out June 5, features accounts from real bank robbers who explain how they got people to hand over cash, directors Seth Porges and Stephen Robert Morse hope nobody gets ideas after watching it.

Production has begun on a second season of “Scrublands,” the Australian crime thriller series starring Luke Arnold (“Black Sails”) and Bella Heathcote (“The Neon Demon,” “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”). With action set a year after the events of the first season, award-winning investigative journalist Martin Scarsden (Arnold) has returned to his coastal hometown, Port […]

The Newport Beach Film Festival will return to London Feb. 13 2025 for its U. K. Honors, recognizing outstanding work by British and Irish actors across film and television. The U. K. Honors will take place at Raffles London at The OWO in partnership with Variety, which will unveil Variety’s 10 Brits during the event, highlighting the […]

Toronto-based Syndicado Film Sales has picked up international rights to “Petroleo,” the fiction debut of doc Spanish filmmaker Álvaro F. Pulpeiro, lauded worldwide for his sensory and lyrical filmmaking, most recently displayed in the CPH:DOX-selected “So Foul a Sky.” The Galician-born filmmaker said the project was significantly influenced by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s unfinished book “Petrolio,” […]

Programmers from Sundance, Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, Toronto, and Rotterdam, sales agents such as Goodfellas and Coproduction Office and U. S. distributor Magnify Pictures are among 50 top international guests expected at the inaugural ECAM Forum co-production market in Madrid, which is due to unspool June 10-14. More than 300 delegates have signed up for the co-pro […]

Going all-in on its exploration of the role of artificial intelligence in filmmaking, South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) has unveiled a 15-title AI Film competition. The films will compete for jury-selected and audience awards and cash prizes of up to KRW1.5 million ($11,000). “We were able to see the new creative possibilities […]