‘Barbie’ and ‘Ashoka’ Take Home Top Honors at ICG Publicists Awards

Steve Clarke won’t throw the baby out with the bathwater after a Dutch drubbing as he looks to earn a first win in seven games when Northern Ireland visit Hampden for a friendly.

Lise Pedersen The ongoing war in Gaza was high on the agenda at the awards ceremony of CPH:DOX, Copenhagen’s international documentary film festival, with numerous filmmakers calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as they picked up their awards. Opening the ceremony following a concert by the locally-based Middle East Peace Ensemble, artistic director Niklas Engstrøm told the crowd gathered in Copenhagen’s historic Kunsthal Charlottenborg, which is home to the fest throughout the 10-day event: “It felt right to start with this basic human message of hope and peace.” On the theme of conflicts past and present, Italian director Alessandra Celesia picked up the top Dox:Award for “The Flats,” a powerful, timely and haunting film about a community living in the shadow of the pain and trauma of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Series Mania was Warner Bros. Discovery’s European roll-out timeline for Max, announced Thursday at the climax of the Series Mania’s Lille Dialogues. The most keenly anticipated session was nearly Series Mania’ Forum first: a Netflix showcase hosted by a confident Larry Tanz who significantly proved the only goal streamer exec to drill down on volume commitment.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Filmmaker duo Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero have signed with CAA. Valadez and Rondero co-directed and co-wrote “Sujo,” which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for World Dramatic competition. The film currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent In one of the most anticipated keynotes at Series Mania Festival, JB Perrette, president/CEO of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery, dropped the launch date for Max across the first nine European countries on May 21.

Andrew Garfield is getting to work!

Bruno Fernandes has heaped praise on Marco Reus following Borussia Dortmund's win over PSV Eindhoven. The 34-year-old midfielder fired his side into the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday night with a brilliant effort in stoppage time.

Guns, cash and a huge amount of drugs were seized by police across Greater Manchester during a week-long 'county lines' crackdown.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has closed a raft of deals on “Fremont,” a critically acclaimed film starring Anaita Wali Zada, an Afghan refugee and first-time actor, and featuring “The Bear” actor Jeremy Allen White. Directed by BAFTA-nominated Iranian-born director Babak Jalali, the black-and-white movie tells the story of Donya, a young woman working at a Chinese fortune cookie factory in the San Francisco bay. Formerly a translator for the U.S.

Alex Ritman Fresh from his Academy Award win for best actor, “Oppenheimer” star Cillian Murphy now has a chance to claim the same honor at his local awards. The Irish Film and TV Academy (IFTA) has unveiled the nominees for its 2024 awards, with Murphy going up against “Saltburn’s'” Barry Keoghan and “All of Us Strangers” star Andrew Scott in the best actor category.

Nominations are out for the 21st Irish Film & Television Awards with Lisa Mulcahy’s thriller Lies We Tell leading the pack on the feature side at 13, and crime drama Kin heading up the TV fields with 11 (scroll down for the ful list of nominees). The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) will hand out its prizes on April 20 in Dublin.

Non-English language movies stormed the Oscars this year, with five foreign language films taking home statuettes, which is the highest number ever in one ceremony.

Barbie and Ahsoka took respective top film and TV prizes at the 61st annual ICG Publicists Awards, which were handed out today at a luncheon at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. See the full list of winners below.

Carolyn Giardina In advance of Friday’s 61st annual International Cinematographers Guild (Local 600) Publicists Awards luncheon, the Guild gathered several nominees who spoke with Variety about their favorite campaigns, issues that will affect them during IATSE‘s contract negotiations, and how they embraced “the art of the pivot” during a challenging year. The luncheon, which also raises funds for the Guild’s scholarship fund, will be held Friday at the Beverly Wilshire hotel. It’s an exciting but rapidly changing time to work in publicity, says Chris Garcia Nutley of Warner Bros.

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here taking you through what has been a whirlwind of a week in international TV and film. Do not stop here — please do read on. And sign up here.

Angelique Jackson Queen Latifah will return to host the 55th annual NAACP Image Awards after emceeing the ceremony for the first time last year. The NAACP also announced that writer, poet and activist Amanda Gorman will be honored with the prestigious Chairman’s Award, while this year’s Vanguard Award will go to costume designer, designer and tastemaker June Ambrose in honor of her decades as a pioneer in the fashion industry.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Following its world premiere in the competition section of the Berlin Film Festival, Beta Cinema has revealed first sales across Europe and to Australia and New Zealand for Andreas Dresen’s “From Hilde, With Love.” The drama about anti-Nazi activists in Berlin, which is led by “Babylon Berlin’s” Liv Lisa Fries and introduces Johannes Hegemann in his first big screen appearance, will be released in France by Haut et Court, in Italy by Teodora and throughout Scandinavia by Angel Films. Beta Cinema also closed deals for Benelux (September Film), Portugal (Outsider), former Yugoslavia (Discovery), Hungary (Cirko) and Czech Republic (Film Europe). Palace Film picked up the film for Australia and New Zealand.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent A rare flagship indie producer left on the French market, Bruno Nahon‘s Paris-based company Unité is preparing to conquer international audiences with “Rematch,” a period psychological thriller chronicling the historical battle between world chess champion Garry Kasparov (Christian Cooke, “That Dirty Black Bag”), and IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997. The sprawling show, directed by Yan England (“The Red Band Society”) and co-created with Nahon and André Gulluni (“Sam”), was commissioned by Arte in France and has already been sold by Federation Studios to major outlets around the world, including HBO Europe for Spain, Portugal, the Nordics, Iceland, Baltics, Central Europe, Greece and the Netherlands.

Ellise Shafer Catherine McCormack has joined Colin Firth in Sky and Peacock’s upcoming limited series “Lockerbie,” about the 1988 flight disaster in which 259 passengers and crew members were killed. The “Slow Horses” actor will play Jane Swire, the wife of Dr. Jim Swire (Firth).

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor That’s all, Oscar folks! In just 12 days, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will crack open 23 illustrious envelopes to unveil the victors of this year’s 96th Oscars. It’s a night where predictability usually reigns supreme, but hey, there’s always room for a curveball or two. During the past six days of intense voting, Variety has been on the scene, chatting it up with over 50 AMPAS members to get the lowdown on which movies and performances have been getting the thumbs-up on their ballots.