Brendan Fraser’s ‘The Whale’ and Ray Romano’s ‘Somewhere In Queens’ Announced for Middleburg Film Festival, Actress Stephanie Hsu and Writer Rian Johnson Among Honorees

Brent Lang Executive Editor Both Brendan Fraser and Darren Aronofsky have had some high-profile setbacks when it comes to the comic book genre. The two men, who are collaborating on the acclaimed indie drama “The Whale,” opened up about their struggles during recent interviews with Variety. Fraser spent months in Glasgow, Scotland portraying Firefly, a pyromaniac who faces off against Leslie Grace’s costumed heroine in “Batgirl.” That film was supposed to debut on HBO Max, but it was scrapped, a victim of the merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia, the streaming service’s parent company. “It’s tragic,” Fraser told Variety as part of a cover story on “The Whale.” “It doesn’t engender trust among filmmakers and the studio. Leslie Grace was fantastic. She’s a dynamo, just a spot-on performer. Everything that we shot was real and exciting and just the antithesis of doing a straightforward digital all green screen thing. They ran firetrucks around downtown Glasgow at 3 in the morning and they had flamethrowers. It was a big-budget movie, but one that was just stripped down to the essentials.”   

Clayton Davis The depth of Hugh Jackman, the Australian leading man whose multi-talented arsenal has graced the screen and stages over the last three decades, is one of the entertainment industry’s most versatile actors. His movies have a collective gross of more than $5 billion worldwide, placing him in the top 25 earners of all time.   To celebrate Jackman’s birthday, Variety ranks his 12 best film performances of his career so far.   His big break came when he landed the superhero Wolverine in 20th Century Fox’s inaugural “X-Men” (2000), which was followed by several sequels and spin-offs, most notably “Logan” (2017).   An actor’s actor, he’s worked alongside some of the industry’s finest actors such as Nicole Kidman (“Australia”) and Meg Ryan (“Kate and Leopold”) and visionary directors like Christopher Nolan (“The Prestige”) and Denis Villeneuve (“Prisoners”).   After hosting the 81st Academy Awards in 2009, his personal invitation to the Oscars when he took on the famous role of Frenchman and former prisoner Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables” (2012), which earned him a best actor nomination, in addition to a Golden Globe prize for lead actor (comedy/musical).

his role in “The Whale.”After the screening of the film at the London Film Festival on Tuesday, the audience gave a five-minute standing ovation, according to the Daily Mail.The 53-year-old actor broke down in tears as he bowed to the audience’s cheers and applause. This isn’t the first time Fraser was moved to tears by a standing ovation. At the Venice Film Festival in early September, he got emotional during a six-minute standing ovation for his performance in the film. Audience members got déjà vu from the standing ovation.“Am I at Venice? 5 min standing ovation for Brendan Fraser’s masterpiece performance in #TheWhale.

Brendan Fraser got emotional again on Tuesday after he received another standing ovation for his role in “The Whale”.

Brendan Fraser was the recipient of a very rare event at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival.

English teacher Charlie trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter, played by Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The Middleburg Film Festival, running Oct. 13-16 in Virginia, will open with Noah Baumbach’s“White Noise,” starring Adam Driver, and the centerpiece “Knives Out” sequel “Glass Onion.” Other films announced for the 10th edition are “The Whale” from helmer Darren Aronofsky and Ray Romano’s “Somewhere in Queens.” More films are expected to join the slate. So far the fest has announced it will honor Stephanie Hsu with the Rising Star Award; Baumbachwith its 10th anniversary Spotlight Filmmaker Award; “Nope” composer Michael Abels with the Distinguished Composer Award; and Rian Johnson with its Distinguished Screenwriter Award.

Nick Clement Celebrating its 10th year as a major east coast destination for cinema lovers, the Middleburg Film Festival, held in scenic Middleburg, Virginia from October 13th to 16th, continues to highlight an outstanding selection of titles while presenting informative special events and forums. “We’re extremely excited because this year is a true milestone, and it’s a chance to celebrate how far we’ve come as a group, and to celebrate all of the filmmakers who have helped to make the festival a success. We cater to true cinephiles, so it’s not unusual for people to see 10 films over the course of the weekend. And because the festival draws a great mix of Washington DC influencers and people in the film industry, there’s lots of tremendous insight being shared before and after screenings,” says Susan Koch, Executive Director.

K.J. Yossman “White Noise” director Noah Baumbach spoke about his career highlights – and low points – as well as his creative partnership with Greta Gerwig during the BFI London Film Festival on Friday afternoon (Oct. 7). Asked about the eight-year gap between making “Mr. Jealousy” and “The Squid and the Whale,” Baumbach quipped: “I thought, you know what? I really needed about eight years off.” “No, it wasn’t by design, it was by accident,” he quickly clarified. “I sort of had two careers in a way. I had this early career very quickly and I was really figuring it all out as I was doing it. I had never really been on a movie set before I made ‘Kicking and Screaming.’ But I had this sense of how a movie should be and what I wanted a movie to be. And then after ‘Mr. Jealousy’ [the way] I experienced it at the time is that I was having trouble getting things made. I think, also, I didn’t really know what I wanted to make. And I think maybe, in some ways, my ambitions sort of exceeded my ability.”

Clayton Davis Can Will Smith overcome the controversy surrounding the slap heard around the world to win his second Oscar? That’s the question facing Apple after it announced that it will release “Emancipation,” a drama about an escaped slave that it paid Smith $35 million to star in and produce. The streamer is betting that the furor over Smith’s assault of Chris Rock at the Oscars has died down, particularly after Smith recorded an awkward apology video. But even if Smith becomes the first performer since Tom Hanks to score back-to-back Oscars for best actor, he won’t be able to pick up his prize in person. Nor will he even be able to accept it via satellite. That’s because in April, facing almost certain expulsion, Smith decided to resign from membership of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. That was followed almost immediately by the Academy Board of Governors’ decision to ban him from the Oscars telecast and Academy-sponsored events for 10 years.

‘Power Of The Dog’ Producer Tanya Seghatchian To Lead London Film Festival Jury

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “The Woman King” director Gina Prince-Bythewood will be feted at the 10th annual Middleburg Film Festival with the Agnès Varda Award, while “Triangle of Sadness” star Dolly De Leon will receive the festival’s Breakthrough Performance Award. “Empire of Light” actor Micheal Ward is being honored with the Spotlight Actor Award. The Sam Mendes film has also been named as the closing night film of the festival. 2019 Distinguished Composer Award recipient Terence Blanchard and his band, the E-Collective, will return to the festival and close out with a music performance.

Brendan Fraser will receive the American Riviera Award at the 38th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The 53-year-old actor, whose critically-acclaimed role in Darren Aronofsky‘s upcoming psychological drama "The Whale" is sparking best actor Oscar buzz, will be honored on Feb. 14, 2023, at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara, California, the festival announced on Tuesday.

Brendan Fraser will be honored at this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival for his decades’ worth of contributions to American cinema. Going into the 38th annual festival, he is the 2023 recipient of its American Riviera Award. Fraser will attend the event on Feb.

Gearing up for phase two of the Oscar season even before we have even scratched the surfaces of phase one, the Santa Barbara Film Festival said Tuesday that The Whale star Brendan Fraser will be the recipient of its American Riviera Award on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2023.

arrivederci the week before that. So, at this point, critics and pundits have viewed just about every Oscar hopeful.There are just two holdovers that could crash the Hollywood hootenanny: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” out Nov.

Clayton Davis The love for Brendan Fraser continues to grow following his acclaimed turn in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” generating tons of Oscar buzz. “It’s the right actor, for the right part, at the right time,” Darren Aronofsky says in the Variety Studio presented by King’s Hawaiian at TIFF. While at the Toronto International Film Festival for the movie, Fraser, along with writer Samuel D. Hunter and his fellow cast members Sadie Sink and Ty Simpkins, spoke with Variety about taking on the difficult role of a 600-pound man, which required up to four hours of prosthetics and makeup. “It was designed specifically to obey laws of gravity and physics,” Fraser says. “It wasn’t built for just a silhouette or a one-note joke.”

Fourteen years after they last appeared together onscreen, former co-stars Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh reunited at TIFF.

Clayton Davis It’s more than prosthetics. More than the comeback. Brendan Fraser’s work as Charlie in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” is a profound performance for the ages. The A-list star that brought us “The Mummy” and “Encino Man” goes above and beyond the calling of an actor, showcasing the vulnerability of a broken, 600-pound man. Like Aronofsky’s resurrection of Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler” (2008), Frase delivers one of the best performances of the year. “The Whale” will surely land him an Oscar nomination for best actor. The drama is a stark, dour examination of regret and addiction, wrapped into the script written by Samuel D. Hunter, who adapts his play of the same name. Distributed by A24, “The Whale” tells the story of Charlie, am obese gay man who reconnects with his estranged 17-year-old daughter Ellie (played by Sadie Sink) after leaving her and her mother for his younger male lover.

Clayton Davis “Glass Onion: A Knives Out” from writer and director Rian Johnson is another uproarious take on the whodunit series that outdoes its predecessor in nearly every way. Turning in killer performances, Janelle Monae and Edward Norton lead an invigorating ensemble that makes this awards observer hope Netflix will put every available dollar behind making this its leading awards contender for 2022.  Daniel Craig reprises the role of Benoit Blanc, throwing himself into the funniest performance seen this year. It’s impossible to explain what the film is about without spoiling it, so we won’t do that. What we will do is tell you that the award for SAG ensemble is going to be a cutthroat race with “Glass Onion” in the mix alongside “Women Talking” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”