Cherokee Nation Launches Cherokee Film As An Expansion Of Their Current Filmmaking Ecosystem

Zach Bryan is being applauded by the National Police Association after he apologized for the behaviour that wound up with the country singer being arrested after a traffic stop in Oklahoma.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent British director Luna Carmoon’s first feature “Hoard” has scored three prizes at the Venice Critics’ Week where the other standout title is Chilean documentary “Malqueridas.” In “Hoard,” which is set in 1984 London, 7-year-old Maria and her mother live in their own loving world built on sorting through bins and collecting shiny rubbish. One night, their world falls apart, and the film joins Maria a decade later, living with her foster mother.

The new stars of Strictly have offered a glimpse behind the scenes as the show counts down to its first episode. One of this year's celebrity contestants, Angela Scanlon, revealed she was filming at the BBC show's studios in Elstree and described it as "wild times with the best gang".

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian hotshot Pietro Castellitto is in competition in Venice with his second feature “Enea,” in which he also stars as the titular character, a young Roman sushi restaurant owner and cocaine dealer whose best friend Valentino just got his license as an airplane pilot. There is a lot going on in this fresh and frenzied film lensed by ace cinematographer Radek Ladczuk (“The Babadook”). “Enea” is produced by Lorenzo Mieli’s the Apartment, which is a Fremantle company, and Luca Guadagnino’s Frenesy.

Israel has defied the international film community by striking a filmmaking pact with Russia.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Vicky Krieps, best performance prize winner in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard for “Corsage,” will star as Sophie Toscan du Plantier in six time-Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan and David Merriman’s “Re-creation,” which is being presented in the Venice Gap-Financing Market. The docu-drama, which centers on the brutal murder in 1996 in Ireland of French film and TV producer Toscan du Plantier, has been co-written and will be co-directed by Sheridan, best known for “My Left Foot” and “In the Name of the Father,” and Merriman.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Carlo Chatrian is to step down as Berlin Film Festival artistic director after the next edition of the event. In a personal statement posted on the festival website Saturday, he wrote: “For the past four years at the Berlinale, I have been fortunate enough to work along with extraordinary people, as in love with movies as I am, who are totally dedicated to revitalizing one of the world’s great film festivals.

EXCLUSIVE: Keshet International is doubling down on its German business by launching a standalone scripted arm in the European country.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief CAA China has teamed up with the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society to unveil a joint initiative that will foster Chinese-language genre film projects. The HGC initiative will operate an open call for projects from Monday until the end of October.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “Not a Word,” which is being sold by international sales agency Beta Cinema, will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in the competitive Platform section. Variety speaks to the film’s writer-director, Hanna Slak, and debuts its trailer. “Not a Word” tells the story of a relationship crisis between a parent and her teenage son.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Fandango Sales will launch international distribution at the Venice Film Festival on Tommaso Santambrogio’s “Oceans Are the Real Continents,” set and shot in a run-down contemporary Cuba. The film opens the festival’s independently run Venice Days section.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival will host a Ukrainian Day on Sept. 6 with a series of panels and meetings to support war-torn Ukraine and its film industry.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent It’s official: Adam Driver, Caleb Landry Jones, Mads Mikkelsen and Jessica Chastain are among the stars set to attend the upcoming Venice Film Festival. Following multiple unsourced reports, the festival has confirmed that Driver is expected on the Lido’s red carpet to promote Micheal Mann’s “Ferrari,” in which he plays the titular character, Italian car racing pioneer Enzo Ferrari; Landry Jones is coming for Luc Besson’s “Dogman”; Mikkelsen will make the trek for Danish director Nikolaj Arcel’s “The Promised Land” and Chastain for Mexican auteur Michel Franco’s “Memory,” her first role since her Oscar-winning performance in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” Also expected on the Lido are Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, who play Priscilla and Elvis Presley in Sophia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” as well as Priscilla Presley herself.

Box office analytics firm EntTelligence which is monitoring 13.5 million seats in over 100K showtimes for Sunday’s National Cinema Day is currently seeing that day’s presales outstripping Saturday by more than 700%.

It’s an unusual theatrical weekend as the second National Cinema Day rolls out Sunday with $4 tickets for all shows and formats at participating theaters — the bulk of the nation’s circuits big and small. The event was announced Monday with a dedicated clip of new openings, recent returning (The Super Mario Bros. Movie) and re-releases (Jurassic Park, America Graffiti, Lady Bird).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety has partnered with brand and culture consultancy BSBP to curate a series of exclusive Q&A screenings in London of some of the industry’s most anticipated films. The screenings, which are targeted at BAFTA and AMPAS voters as well as key players in the showbiz community in the U.K., will take place at London’s The Cinema at Selfridges.

Ilker Çatak’s drama The Teachers’ Lounge will represent Germany in the Best International Film Category at the 2024 Oscars.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent TrustNordisk has unveiled the international trailer and poster for “The Promised Land,” Nikolaj Arcel’s historical epic drama starring Mads Mikkelsen (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”), which is slated to world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. “The Promised Land” tells the true story of an impoverished captain, Ludvig Kahlen, who set out to conquer the harsh, uninhabitable Danish heath with a seemingly impossible goal; to build a colony in the name of the King. TrustNordisk is describing the film as “a gripping story about the conquest of the heath, the tale of a proud and uncompromising man, and the woman who becomes his ally in the fight against evil, death and perdition.” Mikkelsen stars opposite Amanda Collin (“Raised by Wolves”).

Ahead of its world premiere in competition at the 80th Venice Film Festival, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, which follows the Presleys from the perspective of the King’s young bride, has secured a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement.

Scooter Braun, one of the most powerful and well know managers in the music world, has lost two major clients. Billboard reports that Ariana Grande is no longer represented by Braun while Demi Lovato also recently ceased working with the 42-year-old.