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War and conflict have affected every corner of the globe in one way or another, so it’s only natural that filmmakers worldwide have made incredible movies depicting warfare from their perspective. While big-budget American war movies often dominate the conversation when it comes to this genre, it’s important not to forget all the astounding non-English-language war movies that have left their mark on cinema. From global conflicts to lesser-known national crises, war movies have the power to educate and inform viewers about historical conflicts.

Many of the best war movies ever made were foreign films that shone a light on different countries' experiences of war. Some of these were all-time classics like Roberto Benigni’s Oscar-winning triumph Life is Beautiful, while others were not as well known but are equally deserving of attention and praise. The greatest war movies leave their mark on viewers long after the credits...

Who said the French and British couldn’t get along? When they’re not lighting up the screen together in films like Anthony Minghella’s “The English Patient, the 1992 adaptation of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” and recently in “The Return,” based on the last chapters of Homer’s “Odyssey,” pals and collaborators Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes enjoy just getting to spend a little time with one another. And thankfully, Criterion gave them the chance to do just that.

Stepping into the Criterion Closet, Binoche and Fiennes pretended not to know one another, but soon became quite intimate, a not-so-unforeseen side effect of the tight quarters they found themselves in. Binoche led most of the selection efforts, with the “Conclave” star serving as the curious pupil, having heard of many films she pulled down, but not actually having seen them. After coming across Jim Jarmusch’s moody prison comedy “Down by Law,...

Marisa Paredes, the admired Spanish actress who collaborated with Pedro Almodóvar in such films as The Flower of My Secret, All About My Mother and The Skin I Live In, has died. She was 78.

Her death was announced Tuesday by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, which called her one of the country’s “most iconic actors … her body of work was defined by women who were strong, ambivalent, broken, passionate, enigmatic, but who were, above all, very human.”

Almodóvar told Spanish public broadcaster Rtve that “it is as if I woke up from a bad dream … I am struggling to come to terms with Marisa’s death.” In their country, she was known as “an Almodóvar girl.”

Paredes also portrayed Roberto Benigni’s socialite mother-in-law in Life Is Beautiful (1997) and the head of the orphanage in Guillermo del Toro’s horror film The Devil’s Backbone (2001), set during the Spanish Civil War.

Roles in All About My Mother and Life is Beautiful cemented her status as one of Spain’s ‘most iconic’ actors

The award-winning Spanish actor Marisa Paredes, best known to international audiences for her work with directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo del Toro and Roberto Benigni, has died at the age of 78.

Announcing her death on Tuesday, Spain’s film academy said the country had lost one of its “most iconic actors” and a beloved veteran of more than 75 films.

Marisa Paredes, a well-known personality in Spanish cinema and close colleague of famed director Pedro Almodóvar, has died at the age of 78. The Spanish Film Academy reported her death, writing, “Spanish cinema is losing one of its most iconic actresses.”

Paredes’ career lasted nearly six decades, including over 75 films and a similar number of television shows. She is largely recognized as one of the most accomplished actresses of her time. Her work with Almodóvar includes remarkable performances in films like High Heels (1991), The Flower of My Secret (1995), All About My Mother (1999), and The Skin I Live In (2011).

Her journey to popularity was fueled by personal dedication. In an emotional interview with Spain’s Tve in June, Paredes discussed her poor beginnings as “the daughter of a doorkeeper.” At 15, she went on a hunger strike to encourage her father to support her acting career.

Desolado por la noticia del fallecimiento de Marisa Paredes,...

Marisa Paredes, the star of Pedro Almodóvar’s High Heels and The Flower Of My Secret, has died aged 78.

Paredes’ extensive career spanned nearly 80 feature films and a similar number of television productions over six decades.

Paredes also served as president of the Spanish Film Academy from 2000-2003 and received the industry’s highest awards, including an honorary Goya for lifetime achievement in 2018, the National Cinematography Award in 1996, and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts in 2007.

Her final film, road movie Emergency Exit, was directed by Luis Miñarro; it filmed earlier this year and is still to be released.

Marisa Paredes, the Spanish actress who starred in several Pedro Almodóvar features, has died. She was 78.

The Spanish Film Academy announced her passing, saying “Spanish cinema is losing one of its most iconic actresses.”

Paredes appeared in more than 75 films, but was best known for her partnership with director Almodóvar, for whom she filmed 1991’s High Heels, 1995’s The Flower of My Secret, 1999’s All About My Mother and The Skin I Live In in 2011.

She was nominated a Goya Award for Best Actress for her role in The Flower of My Secret, having first worked with Almodóvar in 1983’s Entre Tinieblas, and ultimately gained the moniker ‘Almodóvar’s Girl.’

She also acted in Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful, Arturo Ripstein’s Deep Crimson and Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone.

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In 2018, she was given an honorary Goya award after twice being nominated for Best Actress,...

Julia Louis-Dreyfus began her career in comedy, as so many comedians do, with the Second City, the stalwart and long-lived comedy troupe based in Chicago. She was only 21, but Louis-Dreyfus gave such an impressive performance at a Second City event that she was immediately asked to join the cast of "Saturday Night Live." It seems that NBC talent scouts lurk at Second City performances all the time. She starred on "SNL" from 1982 until 1985, becoming friends with writer Larry David during her tenure. A few years later, David and comedian Jerry Seinfeld created the sitcom "Seinfeld," wherein Louis-Dreyfus starred as Jerry's friend Elaine.

"Seinfeld," once might recall, was something of a hit, lasting 180 episodes over nine seasons. Louis-Dreyfus was nominated for seven Emmys, winning one. She would go on to win another Emmy for her performance in "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and an additional nine Emmys for "Veep," eight of them for acting.

In a world dominated by Hollywood blockbusters, many films from beyond the English-speaking lands fly under the radar. From the most comforting and heartwarming films to awe-inspiring and thrilling movies are being made in different parts of the world. They fail to reach a widespread audience because of accessibility issues and because people are not welcoming to the idea of foreign-media consumption. With the boom of K-pop and Korean dramas, Korean media does not fall into the unwelcome category of things. However, many countries have made exceptional films.

Why Watch Non-English Movies?

When Hollywood as an entertainment industry churns out gems left, right, and center; American audiences are not very likely to tap into the international cinematic landscape. Frequently, foreign language cinema is passed up for pretentious people’s activity. This perception leads to many cinematic gems being undiscovered. As South Korean director Bong Joon Ho rightfully said in his...

After a nearly 5-decade run in Hollywood, Tom Cruise has become one of the industry’s most bankable stars. The actor has become known for his dedication, physical stunts, and larger-than-life roles. However, some of his roles have required a more immersive style of method acting. While the actor has always gone all-out for his films, he revealed that drawing from his own life experience was not something he believed in.

Tom Cruise at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con International | Credits: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0

Cruise always chose to forge a different path for himself. This was especially evident in one of his best performances in the 1999 film, Magnolia, which many of his fans believe deserved an Oscar win.

Tom Cruise shared his acting approach for Magnolia

In 1999, Tom Cruise stunned the world with his performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. In fact, it even...

Exclusive: Vincent Cassel has built a reputation over his 30-year career for playing bad and good guys with a menacing, violent edge from Vinz in La Haine, to ruthless gangster Jacques Mesrine, or a tough-talking mercenary in the Apple TV+ series Liaison.

It is a surprise then to discover the French star in the role of the Greek mythology figure of Charon, the ferryman of the underworld, reimagined as a gentlemanly taxi driver, with charmingly accented but grammatically perfect English in The Opera!, which world premieres in the Rome Film Festival on Friday evening.

Based loosely on tragic love story Orpheus and Eurydice, Davide Livermore and creative director Paolo Gep Cucco’s original telling of the ancient legend mixes opera arias from Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Mozart, Vivaldi, Boito and Gluck with pop classics such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “The Power of Love.”

Cassel tops a cast also featuring Caterina Murino,...

Having already collected a screenwriting award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, “A Real Pain” scripter Jesse Eisenberg poses quite a serious threat in the upcoming Best Original Screenplay Oscar contest. Since he also stars in the dramedy from Searchlight due out November 1, he has the potential to become the 12th person to earn both acting and writing nominations at the Oscars. Scroll through our photo gallery to learn more about the nine single and two double entrants currently on that list.

All 11 stars wrote themselves leading roles. Although none of them won both of these Oscar races, five picked up prizes for their scripts while one – Roberto Benigni – won for his acting. Unlike Eisenberg, a vast majority of his possible predecessors shared their screenplay nominations with other writers.

All but one of the nine who also directed their films (as did Eisenberg) were nominated for their helming, while the entire...

Jim Carrey became a significant name in the industry for his slapstick roles. However, apart from his contributions to comedy, the Canadian actor also garnered widespread fame for dramatic roles in films like The Truman Show and Man on the Moon. Sadly, Carrey never got his deserved respect for his serious roles. His role in The Truman Show did not even get an Oscar nod.

Jim Carrey in a still from The Truman Show | Credits: Scott Rudin Productions

Jim Carrey became a comedy sensation worldwide for his roles in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Liar Liar, and Bruce Almighty. The first three films led the actor to create a unique record of leading three box office no.1 films in a year. But, this also raised a massive problem in his career as he was typecasted as a comedic actor.

Jim Carrey’s The Truman Show faced...

Going into the documentary “From Darkness to Light,” most reasonably well-informed movie fans would know three things about “The Day the Clown Cried,” the Jerry Lewis Holocaust movie that is the subject of this doc: It was ahead of its time, it was never finished and it probably wasn’t any good.

Coming out of “From Darkness to Light,” which premiered on Sunday at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, you’d likely know the same three things, but at least you’d have more context and more evidence that Lewis’ legendary but unseen film is indeed a bad movie. There aren’t any real revelations in the doc, just the sad and tangled story of a questionable idea being undermined by creative choices, business conflicts and a comic icon’s determination to bury something that embarrassed him.

At one point early in the film, Lewis, in a conversation described as...

There really hasn’t been a filmmaker quite like Blake Edwards. He could go from the silly-billy comedy of his “Pink Panther” comedies starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau to “Days of Wine and Roses,” a devastating drama dealing with alcoholism to the gender-bender musical comedy “Victor/Victoria” starring his wife Julie Andrews to the underrated Western “The Wild Rovers” with William Holden and Ryan O’Neal. Edwards even turned the diminutive British comedian Dudley Moore into a leading man thanks to his 1979 romantic comedy “10.” And let’s not forget the extraordinary collaboration he had with composer Henry Mancini who earned four Oscars including best song “Moon River” from 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and the title tune from 1962’s “Days of Wine and Roses.”

Still, there was no love lost between Edwards and Hollywood.

In my 2003 Los Angeles Times interview with Edwards, who had personality to spare, said “I have been a...

Image Source: Warner Bros There’s an exclusive list of Hollywood celebrities who have won both Oscars and Razzies for their acting: Laurence Olivier, Faye Dunaway, Liza Minnelli, Brad Pitt, Marlon Brando, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Kline, Roberto Benigni, Charlton Heston, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Al Pacino, Eddie Redmayne, Kim Basinger, Jared Leto, Tom Voight, and Halle Berry. But only two of them have actually accepted their Golden Raspberry Awards: Bullock (for 2009’s All About Steve) and Berry, who famously (and sarcastically) called 2004’s Catwoman “a god-awful movie” when she turned up at the Razzies ceremony. These days, even though Catwoman is saddled with an 8% Rotten Tomatoes score, Berry is more charitable when she talks about the movie in interviews. But she says there are several things she would have changed about the film, and she would welcome the opportunity to direct a new Catwoman movie, assuming she was given creative...

Exclusive: The Day The Clown Cried is getting another chance at the big screen. Rewritten by Jerry Lewis, who starred in and directed a 1972 feature drama that went unfinished and unreleased, the script for the Holocaust tale is being revived by K. Jam Media founder Kia Jam. Jam has been part of the financing and producing of films ranging from The Killing Game to In the Heart of the Sea, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and numerous others.

Jam said he has executed a purchase agreement on the original script by Joan O’Brien and Charles Denton. Lewis took a hand in reshaping it as a starring and directing vehicle. Jam is going back to the original screenplay. He said he has the production financing, and the next step is to secure a filmmaker with the guts to tell a most harrowing story.

Lewis disavowed the film and did...

The ‘90s are back – also in Naima Mohamud’s upcoming “Halima,” produced by Finland’s It’s Alive Films, behind Oscar entry “Euthanizer,” and No-Office Films.

“It was a wild time. The hair! The clothes! I really wanted to go back to when boybands, Tamagotchis and popper pants were all the rage. And Aqua, the greatest ‘90s pop band in the world, [behind] ‘Barbie Girl’!” enthused the director, who used to be “obsessed” with its singer Lene Nystrøm.

“I tried cutting my own bangs and dyeing my hair with food coloring to rock her hairstyle. It didn’t work, of course, and the following months were agony. I got told off for wasting food coloring my mother needed to make Somali dessert halwa.”

In Mohamud’s partly autobiographical “down-to-earth dramedy about loneliness, childhood and conquering your fears” – currently in development and eyeing a 2025 shoot – it will be Halima’s turn to experience such “heartwarming and humorous” misadventures.

The Eternal City’s glitterati celebrated Sofia Coppola on Wednesday at an American Academy in Rome gala in the 17th century Villa Aurelia on Janiculum Hill.

The Oscar-winning director of “Lost in Translation,” “Marie Antoinette,” “Bling Ring” and, most recently, “Priscilla” was honored with a McKim Medal that “marks the profound relationship between Italy and the United States and recognizes the works of individuals who have contributed to the intense artistic and humanistic dialogue between the two nations,” as a statement put it.

Coppola’s ties to Rome comprise directing a 2016 production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata at the Italian capital’s Teatro dell’Opera featuring costumes by Valentino and the fact that “Priscilla” — which got a seven-minute standing ovation at its 2023 Venice Film Festival premiere — is produced by Rome-based producer Lorenzo Mieli.

Mieli was in attendance along with a mix of prominent film, fashion, arts, academia and business...

The Pink Panther franchise has seen highs and lows, with the Peter Sellers representing the good times. Attempts to revive the series with stand-ins fell flat, like Son of the Pink Panther, leaving fans disappointed. Steve Martin's reboot failed to capture the magic of the original, but the franchise might still have some life in it.

The Pink Panther franchise is one of the longest-running comedy franchises of all time, but there's a massive gulf in quality between its best movies and its worst ones. Most Pink Panther movies focus on the useless French detective Jacques Clouseau as he bumbles his way through another case, but there have been some twists and turns throughout the years.

Peter Sellers made the character famous way back in the 1960s. After his death, the franchise tried to stay alive with a few lackluster stand-ins, but none could hold a candle to Sellers.

2023 was a miraculous year for German actress Sandra Huller. Not only did she receive critical acclaim for her riveting portrayal of a woman on trial for murdering her husband in France’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” she was also praised for her role as the wife of a Nazi commander in the United Kingdom’s German-language “The Zone of Interest.” Indeed, there was much interest in Huller and her two films. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for “Anatomy.” And both “Anatomy” and “Zone” landed slots for Best Picture, as well as Best Director bids for Justine Triet and Jonathan Glazer, respectively.

As I was speaking to academy members ahead of last Sunday’s ceremony, I detected a surprisingly robust amount of support for Huller. And many of those who had voted for her mentioned her work in “The Zone of Interest.” It really did seem...

The 96th Academy Award Ceremony is approaching, and the buzz around the Oscars has evolved to an astounding height. Looking back at history, the Oscars have created several significant moments elevating actor’s career. However, all stars don’t have the same blessing.

Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club

Who wouldn’t want to win an Oscar? The award has been one of the most prestigious accolades for achievement in almost every category related to movies. However, in another turn of events, winning an Oscar may not be as good as you might think. An idea called the Oscars Curse has altered the fate of several celebrities, including Matthew McConaughey and Halle Berry.

Oscars Curse Victims, Matthew McConaughey, and Halle Berry Are Among Prominent

Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball

Several actors have witnessed the downfall of their careers after winning an Oscar. Of course, any filmmaker and actor or anyone...

David Pérez Sañudo (“Ane is Missing”) and Carlos Vila Sexto (“Motivos Personales”) are ready for a different kind of hero in “Detective Touré.”

A six-episode series, backed by Spanish public broadcaster Rtve, Detective Touré Aie, Tornasol Media, DeAPlaneta and Basque state TV Eitb, the series is based on stories by Jon Arretxe.

The series first caught attention when selected as a project at Series Mania’s 2022 Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. Sneak-peaked at Content Americas in January, it was one of the highlights at its Spain Content Goldmine.

Set in Bilbao’s neighborhood San Francisco, it sees an immigrant from Guinea – with acute skills of deduction – who becomes immersed in a complex investigation, with the Nigerian mafia on his trail.

“We are used to having police officers involved in these kinds of shows, but an illegal immigrant? That’s something we have never seen before, at least in Spain,” says Vila Sexto.

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Photo/Video: Mandela Effect in Films like 'Forrest Gump' & 'Star Wars'/Hollywood Insider YouTube Channel

Could it be true? Was it there? Is it missing now?

Fact or fiction?

Introduction

The Mandela Effect gets its name from the misremembering of the death of the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. A Healthline article describes the occurrence of people remembering Mandela dying in the 1980s when he actually died in 2013. The occurrence of this is broken down to collective false memories and confabulation. An event occurs and is misinterpreted by a number of people, then is cemented as fact in their minds.

Examples of the Mandela Effect include the peanut butter company Jif. Many people remember the company as Jiffy. Another example is The Berenstain Bears. A number of people remember picture books from their childhood as The Berenstein Bears. There is a...

Had first-time Senegalese actors Seydour Sarr and Moustapha Fall seen a Matteo Garrone film like “Gomorrah” before being scout-cast in his Italian Oscar nominee “Io Capitano,” they might’ve blinked twice. The 2008 film followed two teens from the Campania slums and into a life of organized crime, ending with them both dead in the mouth of a tractor. “Io Capitano” also follows two teens on a journey — here as African refugees making their way from Dakar to Europe in search of adventure — and as with Garrone’s crowning movie, the Italian filmmaker did not share the full script with his non-professional actors. In other words, Sarr and Fall, who in “Io Capitano” play cousins, had no idea whether their characters would survive the journey across the Mediterranean Sea.

Their voyage to Europe is marked by great danger and peril that Garrone masterfully stages and never dilutes — including a final scene...

Non-violent War films can offer a unique perspective by focusing on individuals' experiences and challenges away from direct conflict. Some of the best war movies transcend the need for battle scenes, instead exploring drama, political intrigue, and moral dilemmas. Non-violent war films like Life is Beautiful and Oppenheimer can still be incredibly heavy and impactful.

War movies are often famous for their vivid portrayal of battlefields, realistic explosions, or the gruesome realities of combat, but war films without violence can offer a unique perspective on the genre. Some war films focus on the diverse experiences and challenges faced by individuals away from the direct conflict. Amazing films like The Great Escape can show the pervasiveness of war, demonstrating the hardships and the lives of those who may not bear arms but are nonetheless caught up in its effects, all without having to depict violence on screen.

While typical war films...

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are emerging in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.

This week we explore Italian movie hit There’s Still Tomorrow, which begins rolling out on cinema screens worldwide this spring with other key deals underway after a stellar release back home last fall, where it is now the ninth highest-grossing film in the history of the country’s box office.

Name: There’s Still Tomorrow

Country: Italy

Producer: Wildside

Seller: Vision Distribution

Where you can watch: In cinemas worldwide (see distributor list below)

For fans of: Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful, Ettore Scola’s A Special Day,...

French President Emmanuel Macron made history on Tuesday as he appointed 34-year-old politician Gabriel Attal as France’s youngest ever prime minister.

Macron has a complex relationship with France’s cinema industry, where his pension reforms, attitude to cultural funding and support of Gérard Depardieu have come under fire from some quarters, but his new prime minister comes with interesting film world connections.

The new rising star of French politics is the son of late lawyer and film producer Yves Attal, who took credits on Pedro Almodóvar’s High Heels, Roberto Benigni’s The Monster and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty.

Attal’s mother Marie de Couriss also worked in a production company.

As a teenager, Attal had a small role in Christophe Honoré’s 2008 drama The Beautiful Person co-starring Louis Garrel and Léa Seydoux.

But Attal chose not to follow in his parents’ footsteps.

After private schooling at Paris’s prestigious École Alsacienne,...

January 1999. One quarter of a century ago. I attended the Golden Globe Awards for the first time (as an accredited member of the press) — and it was a night that I’ll never forget.

Interestingly enough, the most memorable moment of the night for me wasn’t having Best TV Supporting Actress co-winner Camryn Manheim (“The Practice”) quiz me on lines from 1997’s hit comedy “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.”

Rather, it was when I was practically escorted out of the backstage press room for expressing my shock when Lauren Bacall announced Jim Carrey as the year’s Best Drama Actor for “The Truman Show,” beating out the likes of Tom Hanks in “Saving Private Ryan,” Ian McKellen in “Gods and Monsters” and Nick Nolte in “Affliction.” (My money had been on McKellen.)

Even Carrey himself was in a state of disbelief, wisecracking that the Globe made him a...

Three decades after the 1915 Armenian Genocide, an optimistic American Armenian returns to his Sovietized homeland, only be thrown in prison under flimsy circumstances. From his squalid jail cell, he peers daily into the home and inner life of one of his Armenian prison guards, and inadvertently finds the cultural connection he’d been searching for. This broad premise informs the sentimental comedy-drama of “Amerikatsi” (or “The American”), Armenia’s shortlisted international Oscar submission. Written and directed by Michael A. Goorjian, who also stars in the leading role, it’s a moving work about diasporic yearning, coming to us as history repeats itself, after more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians were forced to flee Nagorno-Karabakh earlier this year.

The movie’s dreamlike prologue follows a young Armenian boy escaping the brutality of the Ottoman Army during World War I, peering out of a tiny hole in an ornate luggage trunk. The interior of...

The current Oscar frontrunners for Best Actor and Best Actress according to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users are Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”). However, they both face serious competition from the stars of “Maestro,” Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan. If the co-stars both win, “Maestro” would be the first film since “As Good As It Gets” to win both lead acting Oscars.

SEEBradley Cooper (‘Maestro’) makes Critics Choice Awards history

“Maestro” chronicles the decades-long relationship between conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and actress Felicia Montealegre (Mulligan). Their love story spans over 30 years from the time they met at a party in 1946 and continuing through their quarter-century marriage. But winning matching Oscars isn’t easy. To date only seven films have won both lead acting awards. They are:

“It Happened One Night” (1934) – Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) – Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher...

Roberto Benigni, whose film “Life Is Beautiful” won three Oscars in 1999, has come out of the woodwork to support Matteo Garrone’s Golden Globe-nominated “Io Capitano,” which is Italy’s current Oscar candidate for best international feature film.

The revered yet reclusive Italian actor/director, whose most recent big screen role is playing Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s hit 2019 live-action adaptation of “Pinocchio,” is clearly a big fan of “Io Capitano” (the title translates to “Me Captain”). The movie narrates the Homeric journey of two young African men, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe.

Garrone’s immigration drama realistically depicts their plight through the pitfalls of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya and the dangers of the sea. Variety critic Guy Lodge in his review called “Io Capitano” the director’s “most robust, purely satisfying filmmaking since Garrone’s international breakthrough with ‘Gomorrah’ 15 years ago.

White Bird.The repeatedly delayed film White Bird, based on the 2019 graphic novel by R.J. Palacio, follows an elderly Jewish woman looking back on her youth in France during World War II, particularly the time she spent hiding from the Nazis. The framing is odd: She is telling this tale to impart a lesson to her grandson, a bully character from a different, earlier novel by Palacio, Wonder. Both stories are part of a wider fictive universe authored by Palacio, the “World of Wonder,” which comprises spinoff books, film adaptations, and merchandise, all branded with the poptimistic slogan/hashtag “Choose Kind.” A friendly schoolmate refusing to persecute White Bird’s protagonist for being Jewish is implicitly an example of “choosing kind,” divorced from any historically based understanding of solidarity or resistance to fascism. More problematically, White Bird has as its epigraph George Santayama’s famous quote “Those who can’t...

Is this the year of Sandra Hüller?

The German actress is currently starring in not one, but two high-profile projects that might have the goods to carry her through awards season.

Hüller’s versatility is on display in Neon’s Palme d’Or-winning courtroom thriller “Anatomy of a Fall,” where she plays a woman accused of murdering her husband, and A24’s Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest,” where she plays a woman whose husband was one of history’s most notorious murderers. In the former, Hüller speaks English, with a smattering of French; in the latter, she appears as Hedwig Höss, the wife of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, registering her evil in her native German. The roles couldn’t be more distinctive, and the rare double act is already earning Hüller comparisons to international screen sirens like Ingrid Bergman, Isabelle Huppert and Liv Ullmann.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit...

It isn’t easy directing a major Hollywood feature film. It’s perhaps equally challenging starring in one. But to do both is perhaps the most daunting task of all. This helps explain why, in nearly a century of Oscar ceremonies, only 19 times has a performer directed himself to an Academy Award acting nomination – a feat that could be repeated this year by either Bradley Cooper for “Maestro” or Ben Affleck for “Air.” Cooper is among the frontrunners for Best Actor, while Affleck is in the running for Best Supporting Actor. If the latter were to pull off the feat, he would be the first ever to direct himself to a nom in supporting.

See Oscar Best Actor gallery: Every winner in Academy Award history

Yes, typically performers who are also directing their projects all contend in lead. Laurence Olivier did it three times, Warren Beatty and Clint Eastwood twice apiece.

“The Zone of Interest” is a remarkable fourth film from Jonathan Glazer. The film, which A24 releases in the US on December 8, follows Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) as they try to live a normal life just outside of the concentration camp.

The movie is about the banality of evil — how monstrous people live almost boringly while, in the background, some of the worst horrors in human history are being carried out. Daring is probably the best word to describe this film, particularly with one very late sequence that throws the film forward to modern-day Auschwitz, wherein we see women cleaning the buildings and grounds of the camp. Critics have hailed Glazer for his work.

David Rooney (The Hollywood Reporter) called the film a “devastating Holocaust drama like no other, which demonstrates with startling effectiveness [director Jonathan Glazer]’s unerring control of tonal and visual storytelling.

After premiering at the Venice Film Festival, Netflix’s awards season pony “Maestro,” the Leonard Bernstein biopic from sophomore director Bradley Cooper, in which he also stars, is gearing up for its next major stop at the New York Film Festival on Monday.

Ahead of its New York bow, the streamer invited a small group of journalists and friends of the Bernstein family to the Academy Museum on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. The famed composer’s daughters, Jamie Bernstein and Nina Maria Felicia Bernstein, introduced the screening, followed by an intimate discussion with some of the filmmaking team, including Oscar-nominated producer Kristie Macosko Krieger (“The Fabelmans”) and three-time nominated sound mixer Steven Morrow.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

“Maestro” follows Bernstein through decades of creating music and teaching while he’s married to Felicia Montealegre, played fiercely by Carey Mulligan.

The...

Just a reminder that tomorrow, September 18, is the Regular Deadline to submit your 2023 features and episodic projects to the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The extended Member Deadline is Tuesday, October 3. See you in Santa Monica!

Well, look at you. The independent filmmaker, your project completed. Sitting there utterly dazed, short of breath, atop of a pile of warm DCPs—a ticker tape Elder’s scroll of SVOD rental receipts choking your ankles like a low coastal fog. You ask yourself: What the hell just happened? And: How did we pull that off? And possibly: What’s next? Well, just when you thought your obligations as a steward of cinema were nearing the finish line, there’s still a long and winding road to travel paved with awards season gold, glass and bronze.

Basically that’s our fancy way of saying Submissions For The 2024 FiLM iNDEPENDENT Spirit Awards Are Still Open.

Actor Sandra Hüller could be the critical darling of awards season with two acclaimed performances in two high-profile international feature contenders, France’s “Anatomy of a Fall” from Justine Triet and United Kingdom’s “The Zone of Interest” from Jonathan Glazer.

The German performer has opted to campaign her work in Glazer’s Holocaust-era drama for best supporting actress, Variety can reveal exclusively, greatly increasing her chances for possible double acting recognition this year. Her work in Triet’s French Oscar hopeful will be submitted for lead actress consideration.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

Both “Anatomy” and “Zone” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where the former won the prestigious Palme d’Or prize, marking the third time a woman director has won the award. The two films are coming off screening at the Telluride Film Festival and will stop...

Eddie Murphy is reportedly set to star in a new animated live-action hybrid version of The Pink Panther. The actor will portray police inspector Clouseau, who several actors have played in the past. In the original 1963 film, Peter Sellers portrayed Clouseau and continued playing the character until 1983's Curse of the Pink Panther. Roberto Benigni took over the role in 1993's Son of the Pink Panther, and in the 2006 reboot and its 2009 sequel, comedy legend Steve Martin became Clouseau. The film hasn't been remade since, but allegedly MGM is producing a new Pink Panther film with Murphy as the lead.

The difference between the new version and the others is that the actual animated Pink Panther character is set to star in the film. In the original movies, the panther only appeared in the title and end sequences and then got his own animated spinoff shows. This time the film...

Eddie Murphy is reportedly in talks to star in a remake of the classic comedy The Pink Panther. Starring the legendary Peter Sellers as bumbling Inspector Clouseau, 1963’s The Pink Panther was a smash hit heist comedy that spawned a long-running Sellers-led series, culminating with 1983’s Curse of the Pink Panther. Following Sellers’ death, the Pink Panther franchise made a return in 1993 with Son of the Pink Panther, starring Roberto Benigni as Clouseau’s progeny. A proper reboot was later attempted with 2006’s Shawn Levy-directed The Pink Panther, starring Steve Martin, who reprised the role of Clouseau in 2009’s The Pink Panther 2.

Now over a decade after Martin’s second and apparently final outing in the Pink Panther series, MGM is developing a new reboot, with Shrek star Murphy reportedly in talks to play Clouseau (via THR). Sonic the Hedgehog’s Jeff Fowler was previously reported to be directing,...

A lot of Academy Award winners get weepy, sentimental and downright ugly in their speeches. One such Oscar winner is Gwyneth Paltrow, who gave an over-the-top speech that began humbly enough before it quickly turned into a sobfest that is often cited as one of the cringiest acceptance speeches ever.

On the Call Her Daddy podcast, Gwyneth Paltrow discussed both the origins of her emotions and the backlash she faced after winning Best Actress for Shakespeare in Love. “I cried and people were so mean about it and I just thought, ‘Wow there’s this big energy shift that’s happening. I think I’m going to have to learn to be less openhearted and much more protective of myself and filter people out better.’…I remember I was working in England…and I remember the British press being so horrible to me because I cried. And they didn’t...

Brendan Fraser took the prize for Best Actor at the 95th Academy Awards. He was nominated for his performance as the 600-pound Charlie in Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale" — not everyone liked the movie, but seemingly everyone liked his performance in it. But this isn't the first Oscar winner featuring Fraser that had a "whale" as its subject. What was the first one? "Gods and Monsters," a 1998 biopic about James Whale (played by Ian McKellen), the director most famous for giving the world the first two Universal "Frankenstein" films.

Directed by Bill Condon, the film adapted "Father of Frankenstein," a speculative novel by Christopher Bram about Whale's death in the 1950s. Condon's script won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 71st Academy Awards. Bizarrely enough, "Gods and Monsters" actually does have some similarities to "The Whale" other than Fraser's presence and the cetacean-inspired naming. True to history, Whale is a lonely,...

Piovani composed the Oscar-winning soundtrack to Roberto Benigni’s ’Life Is Beautiful’.

Italian composer Nicola Piovani will receive a lifetime achievement at the 2023 World Soundtrack Awards, held at Film Fest Ghent on October 21.

Piovani is best known for composing the score to Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful for which he won the Oscar in 1999.

The composer began his career in 1971 with Silvano Agosti’s N.P. Il Segreto and has gone on to compose the music to more than 200 films and series.

He worked with Federico Fellini on a number of his films including Ginger & Fred (1986), Intervista (1987) and...

Veteran auteur Mario Martone, whose Naples-set drama “Nostalgia” launched last year from Cannes, has quite a lot in common with Massimo Troisi, Italy’s beloved late comic actor-director who is best known internationally as the star of Oscar-winning film “Il Postino.”

Which is why Martone was well-suited to direct the multi-layered doc about Troisi’s legacy “Somebody Down There Likes Me” that is screening in the Berlinale Special sidebar.

For starters, they are both Neapolitan, and were born only a few years a part. Troisi – who in “Il Postino” played the simple postman who rides his bicycle on a sandy Italian island to deliver mail to his sole client, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda – died tragically of congenital heart failure at age 41 in June 1994, the day after “Il Postino” finished shooting at Rome’s Cinecittà studios.

Martone in Berlin spoke to Variety about capturing Troisi’s combination of humor,...

In hoping producers continue the lengthy tradition of inviting last year’s acting winners to return… let’s hope Jessica Chastain, Troy Kotsur and Ariana DeBose are already signed up. Will Smith will not be returning to present Best Actress.

Whenever there has needed to be a replacement, the general tradition for the last 30+ years is that someone from the same category would be chosen. Assuming that means they are narrowing down to a previous Best Actor winner, who should present Best Actress on March 12?

Nominees are Cate Blanchett (“Tar”), Ana de Armas (“Blonde”), Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”), Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”) and Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”).

SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

Here is a list of all the living Best Actor winners. Make you case for your top 2-3 choices in our special forums thread.

Gene Hackman (71) — retired

Jack Nicholson — retired...

Exclusive: Italian director Mario Martone, who has been on the festival and awards circuit over the past year with Oscar submission and Cannes title Nostalgia, is at the Berlinale with his passion project Somebody Down There Likes Me.

The documentary pays tribute to late Italian actor and fellow Neapolitan Massimo Troisi who died tragically young at the age of 41 in 1994, just hours after filming wrapped on Michael Radford’s Il Postino (The Postman).

Selected for the Berlinale Specials sidebar, the documentary plays at a sold-out screening on Saturday, on the eve of what would have been the actor’s 70th birthday on February 19. Deadline can reveal a trailer.

Martone says he wants to shed light on the popular actor who he believes has never been properly celebrated.

“Massimo has always remained alive in the collective consciousness because he was a great actor and a great artist,” says the director.

Il Postino,...

Claudia Squitieri with her mother Claudia Cardinale on Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo: “it’s one of her most adventurous experiences.” Photo: courtesy of Claudia Squitieri

In the second instalment with Claudia Squitieri we discuss more of the films her mother, Claudia Cardinale, starred in. Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Mick Jagger, Jason Robards, Thomas Mauch, My Best Fiend, and filming Fitzcarraldo; encountering Fernando Trueba (The Artist And Model) in Deauville and reconnecting with Jean Rochefort; Manoel de Oliveira and an “atmosphere of mysticality” during the making of Gebo and the Shadow with Jeanne Moreau and Michael Lonsdale, shot by Renato Berta; Blake Edwards and The Pink Panther, the problem with sequels and playing Roberto Benigni’s mother in Son Of The Pink Panther all came up in our conversation.

Claudia Squitieri from Paris on Roberto Benigni with Claudia Cardinale: “He was going “Claudia!!!!” Jumping around every time he saw my mother.

A movie masterpiece that will go down in history as one of the greatest Italian films of all time, here is where to watch Life Is Beautiful online now.

A film that merges romance, comedy, and tragedy together into one amazing story, Life Is Beautiful allows viewers an insight into the horrors of the Holocaust and shows us that even in the darkest of times, there is always a glimmer of hope lingering nearby.

Directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, the movie received financial and critical acclaim, winning three Academy Awards in 1998, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor for Benigni. It also won the Grand Prix Award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival and is listed as number 26 on the IMDb Top 250 Movie Chart. Life Is Beautiful is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video right now.

Watch Life Is Beautiful on Amazon Prime

What to Expect from Life Is Beautiful...

Delivering a great Oscar acceptance speech requires a bit of magic, with the winner having to strike just the right balance of charm and humility.

However, often the speeches most remembered are those that end in disaster.

Over the years, many actors have been booed, pitied or laughed at for their podium faux pas. Some speeches are too saccharine, others too long. The worst are when an actor thinks only of themselves.

Despite Frances McDormand’s empowering speech about Hollywood’s gender imbalance a few years back, attempts to inject the ceremony with political messaging haven’t always been handled so well. Oscars history is peppered with the uncomfortable silences and jeers that have invariably greeted bad political jokes and clumsy protests.

As the clock counts down to the 94th awards ceremony, all of the nominees will be hoping to bring home a statue. But more than that, should they win,...