Greek Film Festival Cancels Opening-Night Gala, “All Festive Events” After Fatal Train Crash

EXCLUSIVE: Greek production and sales house Heretic has upped its long-time head of sales and acquisitions exec Ioanna Stais to partner.

Lille’s Series Mania Forum is kicking off today with a packed schedule of talks, screenings and competitions.

Actor Lance Reddick, who starred in the popular HBO series The Wire, has tragically passed away aged 60, his publicist has announced. Lance's publicist Mia Hansen shared the tragic news in a statement, which read: "Acclaimed actor Lance Reddick passed away suddenly this morning from natural causes. Lance will be greatly missed.

Marta Balaga It has been over 20 years since Cédric Klapisch delighted audiences with his 2002 comedy “Pot Luck” about a group of twentysomethings sharing a flat in Barcelona.  Featuring the likes of Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Cécile de France and “Yellowstone” star Kelly Reilly, the film – also known as “The Spanish Apartment” – has spawned two sequels: “Russian Dolls” and “Chinese Puzzle.”  Now, French director is putting the old team back together in the Amazon Prime Video series “Greek Salad,” which opens Series Mania on March 17. But there is a twist. 

Nia Vardalos dished on the third film in her successful franchise and why she thinks her co-star, John Corbett, may be stripping down for season 2. When asked if she knows anything about Corbett's return as Aidan Shaw to the franchise, Vardalos played coy, revealing to ET that she knows «a little about that.» «He told me something right before he went to film,» she told Cassie DiLaura, before suggesting that he may be getting naked in the upcoming episodes. «He got in really good shape.

A Royal Conservatoire of Scotland graduate has been named as one of the victims killed in a fatal train crash in Greece.

Christopher Vourlias The Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival wrapped its 25th edition with a muted closing night on Sunday, with festival organizers scrapping an official award ceremony as Greece continues to mourn the loss of 57 lives in a deadly rail accident on Feb. 28. The awards for this year’s festival — including the Golden Alexander, which went to Heba Khaled, Talal Derki and Ali Wajeeh’s “Under the Sky of Damascus” — were handed out behind closed doors earlier in the day. Artistic director Orestis Andreadakis told Variety prior to the festival’s conclusion, “As a sign of respect, the festival canceled from the very start all ceremonies and festive events. In the same spirit, it was decided to call off the closing ceremony.”

EXCLUSIVE: Drift director Anthony Chen is gearing up to direct his first US-set project, Heartbeat: A New York Story, about the rarely-told experiences of the Asian gay community during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York.

Tara Karajica Cinephil has sold Valerie Kontakos’ documentary “Queen of the Deuce,” which charts the rise of Chelly Wilson, the queen of the porn industry in 1970s New York, to several key territories. The film premiered at Doc NYC and is now playing in the International Competition at the Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival. Greece’s ERT, Canada’s Doc Channel, Switzerland’s Radio Télévision Suisse and Israel’s Channel 8 came on board at the funding stage. It has now been acquired by Spanish streamer FilmIn, Swedish broadcaster UR, and U.S. theatrical distributor Greenwich Entertainment. The film follows Wilson from pre-World War II Greece to New York, where she rose to become a major figure on the porn circuit in Times Square from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s. She is shown to be a trailblazing, taboo-breaking entrepreneur and an unconventional matriarch. It is presented as an empowering story of survival, as well as an alternative take on cultural history at a time of the rise of feminism, the sexual revolution and the emergence of the gay liberation movement.

EXCLUSIVE: The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Northern Greece will cancel its closing ceremony Sunday as the country continues to mourn following a fatal train crash that killed at least 57 people, Deadline can reveal.

K.J. Yossman Dan Harmon’s upcoming animated comedy “Krapopolis” hasn’t yet broadcast a single frame but, in an unprecedented move, Fox has already renewed the show for a further two seasons, president of scripted programming Michael Thorn revealed on Wednesday. “Krapopolis,” which features an all-star voice cast including Richard Ayoade (“The IT Crowd”), Hannah Waddingham (“Ted Lasso”) and Matt Berry (“Toast of London”) is set in Ancient Greece but, despite the olde-worlde get-up, it turns out Ancient Greece has a lot of similarities to the present day. Ahead of previewing the show at London TV Screenings on Thursday, Thorn sat down with Variety to discuss the show and why Fox is betting on it being a runaway hit.

Krapopolis could spawn Fox’s next iconic animated figure to sit alongside Homer Simpson, Bob Belcher and Peter Griffin, according to the network’s President of Scripted Programming Michael Thorn.

Prime Video is delaying the drop of the trailer for “Citadel”.

Prime Video has postponed the release of the first trailer for its global spy series from Anthony and Joe Russo in light of the tragic events in Greece where a passenger train collided with a freight train, claiming at least 38 lives, with scores of others injured.

Christopher Vourlias The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival has called off its opening ceremony on Thursday as the Greek government declared three days of national mourning following a train crash Tuesday night that claimed at least 36 lives. In a statement posted on Facebook Wednesday evening, the festival said it had canceled its official curtain raiser, “as well as all festive events and concerts scheduled to be held within the framework of the 25th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, taking part in the three-day mourning declared following the unprecedented tragedy of the train collision in Tempi. “In these hours of grief and pain, our thoughts are with the families of the victims, to whom we express our most sincere condolences,” the statement read.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Prime Video has delayed the trailer drop for its global spy series “Citadel” following a train crash in Greece. Specific details for the show are still limited, but a first look from last month featured stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden poised for a fight in what looks like a luxury train. The trailer, which was expected to launch on Wednesday, is believed to feature a train accident. Understandably, Prime Video will be cautious in going out with the trailer given a devastating train crash on Tuesday in Greece, which has so far killed at least 36 people, according to the BBC.

Lucy Fallon welcomed her first child with boyfriend Ryan Ledson in January, and the new parents have now shared the name they've selected for their baby son. The ex-Coronation Street actress, 27, who starred in the ITV soap as Bethany Platt until 2020, has exclusively introduced her newborn son, Sonny Jude, in a new OK! interview, where she and footballer Ryan, 25, opened up about their baby's birth and his sweet moniker.The couple have revealed there isn't a specific meaning behind Sonny's name, it was just one of the few monikers they both agreed they liked for their little one.

Lucy Fallon welcomed her first child with boyfriend Ryan Ledson in January, and the new parents have now shared the name they've selected for their baby son. The ex-Coronation Street actress, 27, who starred in the ITV soap as Bethany Platt until 2020, has exclusively introduced her newborn son, Sonny Jude, in a new OK! interview, where she and footballer Ryan, 25, opened up about their baby's birth and his sweet moniker. The couple have revealed there isn't a specific meaning behind Sonny's name, it was just one of the few monikers they both agreed they liked for their little one.

American distribution following its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. Cinema Guild will release the film in theaters following its North American festival premiere later this year. The film tells the story of a a pair of wayward young people who abandon theirnewborn child on a stormy night in the mountains of Greece. Taken in by a family of farmers, Jon grows up without knowing his father or mother. Years later, after a tragic accident, he is sent to prison, where he meets Iro. The two form a connection, expressed through music, that will, by turns, haunt them and uphold them the rest of their days. Freely inspired by the story of Oedipus, Schanelec’s latest is as terrifying as myth and as gentle as a folk song.

Willem Dafoe gets a dream role with Inside, a combo of art film in more ways than one, psychological thriller, heist movie, and survival tale all rolled into one in which Dafoe’s Nemo is center stage, alone, the entire time.