‘Inshallah a Boy,’ ‘Black Light’ Among Final Cut Winners in Venice

MGM and The Black List have named Alex Liu as the third recipient to receive a two-step Guild minimum open script deal as part of their two-year feature film script writing partnership.

Sandra Bullock owns a ranch in Southern California that she just put on the market!

The Black List has finalized the names of the six writers that will be part of their 2022 Feature Lab and will partake in a hybrid workshop that will include virtual sessions culminating in an in-person weekend intensive in Los Angeles.

Brad Pitt is revealing all the details on the movie that he and Sandra Bullock almost got made.

Brad Pitt is opening up about a movie he had planned to do with Sandra Bullock that never materialized. The actor revealed that he and Bullock would be playing a divorced couple that are hosts on QVC.

Zack Sharf Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock swapped cameos this year when Pitt showed up in Bullock’s $105 million-grossing romantic-comedy “The Lost City” and Bullock showed up in Pitt’s late summer action tentpole “Bullet Train.” But would the two ever headline a movie together? It turns out they planned to years ago by developing a comedy in which they were going to play warring ex-spouses on QVC. The Pitt-Bullock comedy never made it past early development. “Actually, Sandy [Sandra Bullock] and I did once try to develop a whole idea of a husband and wife team, who were QVC’s most successful salespeople, but we’re getting a divorce, we hate each other, and we’re taking it out on air as we sell things,” Pitt recently told Vogue UK. “That’s as far as we got.”

Bad Bunny has a big night ahead, as he leads the pack for this year's Latin GRAMMY Awards with a whopping 10 nominations. The Latin Recording Academy announced on Tuesday the nominees for this year's 23rd annual awards ceremony, which is set to take place on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 8 p.m.

Emanuel Okusanya After a nearly three-year hiatus, the Afropunk festival returned last weekend to the borough where it was born: Brooklyn, New York’s Commodore Barry Park. The two-day gathering was anchored by its headliners — Philadelphia’s the Roots and Nigerian superstar singer Burna Boy (pictured above) — and featured its usual broad but Afro-centric range of genres: From alternative rap artists like Doechii and Tierra Whack to Afrobeats star Adekunle Gold, there was a sound for nearly everyone, and the event as a whole struck an inspiring balance between social consciousness and joie de vivre. The festival grounds were curated with African and Caribbean food vendors, Black-owned beauty brands, and a plethora of photo installations.

Sandra Bullock says goodbye to a friend after grabbing a bite on Tuesday (September 13) at San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood, Calif.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Gianni Amelio’s “Lord of the Ants,” a biopic of Italian poet and playwright Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law, has reached the top spot at Italy’s box office following its launch from the Venice Film Festival. “Ants” on Monday reached the numero uno position at the local box office roster with a €483,474 ($487,000) intake from more than 300 screens following its September 8 release. While far from stellar in normal times, this result is being hailed as an encouraging sign for the country’s still sagging post-pandemic theatrical sector. Amelio’s film is now ahead of Japanese anime pic “Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo,” which was released as an event on Monday for a three day run, and “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which is at the end of its run, following it’s Aug. 18 Italian outing.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Retiring ABC series “Black-ish” picked up one more honor on Friday, a Humanitas Prize for comedy teleplay, while Apple TV+’s “Pachinko” and ABC’s “Women of the Movement” also were recognized at the event. Held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and hosted by comedian Larry Wilmore, the 46th annual Humanitas Prize event centered on awards and $10,000 cash prizes to screenwriters across ten categories. In addition, Humanitas board president Jenny Bicks presented Filmmakers for Ukraine with the Kieser Award “in recognition of their work to connect the Ukrainian film and TV community impacted by the Russo-Ukrainian War with resources, jobs, and funding to meet basic needs.”

Marta Balaga Amjad Al Rasheed’s feature debut “Inshallah a Boy” – co-produced by Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar – was awarded La Biennale di Venezia Prize at Final Cut, an industry program at the Venice Film Festival dedicated to films from African and Arab countries. Shot in February, with mostly Jordanian crew, it was lensed by Kanamé Onoyama. In the story, a mother and a housewife – played by Mouna Hawa, known for “In Between” – has to face the sudden death of her husband. According to the inheritance law, his family is entitled to most of her belongings, including the home she paid for herself – just because she doesn’t have a son. Desperate, she pretends to be pregnant.

Tilda Swinton takes over the red carpet in a dazzling lavender gown at the premiere of The Eternal Daughter during the 2022 Venice International Film Festival on Tuesday (September 6) in Venice, Italy.

 A US judge has again dismissed the legal claim against Nirvana by the man who, as a baby, appeared nude on the famous cover of their ‘Nevermind’ album. And this time there won’t be the option to file new proceedings in relation to this claim.Spencer Elden sued Nirvana, their label and other people involved in creating the ‘Nevermind’ artwork in August 2021.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iranian cinema is having a great year despite the many impediments film directors face there, including being jailed. Reflecting this burst of irrepressible cinematic energy, after strong showing of Iranian cinema at Berlin, Cannes and Karlovy Vary, Venice has five films from the country, two of which are in competition. Also, Leila Hatami, star of Cannes festival jurist Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation,” is a member of Venice’s main jury panel. “We have never received so many submissions from Iran, and many of them are good,” says Venice chief Alberto Barbera. He notes that “the paradox is that this is happening at a time when the Iranian regime is among the most rigidly conservative and repressive in the world,” and is responding to uprisings sparked by the country’s harsh economic conditions by re-incarcerating directors such as Jafar Panahi, whose latest film “No Bears” launches from Venice, fellow dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, and others “who try to freely express their opposing points of view.”

Irina Shayk and Stella Maxwell are looking so chic on the red carpet!

There’s been a lot of drama in the lead-up to the premiere of Olivia Wilde‘s “Don’t Worry Darling” at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Like Wilde’s drama with Shia LaBeouf, who exited the film before production.

Clayton Davis At 8:45 PM mountain time, the Werner Herzog theater looked about halfway full with patrons sitting down for the North American premiere of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s latest film “Bardo (or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths)” at the Telluride Film Festival. Maybe it was the 174-minute runtime after a long day of screenings that kept viewers at bay. Nevertheless, just shy of midnight, there was a round of applause as the credits rolled. Though, it’s unclear what exactly what everyone was clapping for. Perhaps themselves for having survived this rambling opus of cinematic over-indulgence.   After debuting in Venice, where the Oscar hopeful was pummeled by critics, the Netflix awards pony was looking for a comeback stateside to at the very least lift its Rotten Tomatoes score, which currently sits in the low 50s. Those numbers are likely to remain depressed. To be frank,  Iñárritu probably doesn’t need to clear out his calendar this awards season. It would be hard to imagine “Bardo” having the chops to even represent Mexico for the international feature category, let alone make the shortlist. But it’s not clear what else the country would even choose.