Lily Gladstone calls out Kansas City Chiefs for “misrepresentation” of Native Americans

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Atlas Distribution Company, a U.S. indie distributor, has set Vietnamese-American co-production film “A Fragile Flower” on course for a theatrical release in the U.S. Produced by the duo Mai Thu Huyen and Jacqueline Thu Thao, the romantic musical drama, with a screenplay by Vietnamese singing sensation Nhat Ha, is set debut from Mar.

Thania Garcia Los Angeles-based duo the Driver Era is hitting the road for a 17-city tour across North America. With over three albums to date, brothers Ross and Rocky Lynch will again begin touring on April 2 in Pittsburgh’s Roxian Theatre and hit venues in New York, New Jersey, Quebec and more before wrapping in Toronto on May 8.

Alex Ritman “La Cocina,” the Rooney Mara-starring drama that recently bowed in competition at the Berlinale, has been acquired for most international territories. HanWay Films has closed sales for France (Originals Factory), Australia and New Zealand (Vendetta), Spain (Avalon), Italy (Teodora Film), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Scandinavia (Mis.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Just 30 minutes after final voting for the Screen Actors Guild Awards wrapped up, I made a last-minute switch in my best actress prediction — from Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” to Emma Stone in “Poor Things.” Let this be a lesson: Second-guessing yourself is seldom a good idea. Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American and Indigenous person to clinch an individual SAG Award for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, in Martin Scorsese’s gripping crime saga.

Lily Gladstone made history on Saturday night, being named the winner in the outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role category at Saturday’s SAG Awards in Los Angeles.

The AAFCA Awards had a lot of Oscar nominees in attendance!

Holly Jones Yasuo Nakajima and Mariona Carrera’s Barcelona and Tokyo-based b-mount have boarded “Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us,’ (“Quizás Es Cierto Lo Que Dicen De Nosotras”) from Chilean filmmaking duo Camilo Becerra (“El último sacramento”) and Sofía Paloma Gómez (“Quiero morirme dentro de un tiburón”), seen at San Sebastian’s San Sebastián WIP Latam competition. b-mount join a co-production between Carlos Núñez and Gabriela Sandoval at Chile’s Storyboard Media (“The Sky Is Red”), Cecilia Salim at Argentina’s Murillo Cine (“Chaco”) and Lucía van Gelderen at Argentina’s Morocha Films (“El Cinco”) alongside Becerra’s production venture La Jauría Comunicaciones.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent As the European Film Market starts to unwind, the verdict is already in: Even if global economics are rocky, buyers are back and on the lookout. This week, dealmaking has been happening on both star-driven packages as well as arthouse and foreign-language movies.

With a fresh Leading Actress Oscar nomination for the role of Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone is next set to enter sci-fi territory with upcoming movie The Memory Police—a move that will also reunite her with Scorsese, set to executive produce.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor With just four days remaining until final Oscar voting officially opens, the race has taken a few unexpected turns at the BAFTA Awards. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” a biographical drama about the father of the atomic bomb, has continued to surge ahead after seven wins, including best film and director. Its trajectory towards a triumphant night on the Dolby Theatre stage on March 10 seems assured.

After eight straight years of the BAFTA and Oscars failing to match on their choice for Best Picture, you can probably take it to the bank that this year that streak will be broken as Oppenheimer continues its flawless roll toward the Academy Awards and now adding seven wins at BAFTA including the big prize to its previous triumphs at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and DGA awards. It is all going according to plan.

Carole Horst Highland Film Group shared a first look at “London Calling,” an action-comedy that reunites director Allan Ungar with star Josh Duhamel after the success of the action heist thriller “Bandit.” Film also stars Jeremy Ray Taylor (“It,” “and “It: Chapter Two”), Rick Hoffman (“Billions,” “Suits”) and Aidan Gillen (“Game of Thrones”) Written by Omer Levin Menekse and Quinn Wolfe, “London Calling” sees mediocre hit man Tommy Ward (Duhamel) go on the run and get stuck in L.A. after mistakenly killing a relative of London’s biggest crime boss (Gillen).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cohen Media Group, the U.S. distribution company behind Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated “Io Capitano,” has acquired North American rights to “The President’s Wife,” a biting movie starring Catherine Deneuve as the former first lady Bernadette Chirac. The deal closed during the European Film Market currently taking place and running alongside the Berlin Film Festival.

Lily Gladstone is voicing her thoughts on the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.

Lily Gladstone is doubling down on her criticism of the Kansas City Chiefs after speaking out about Native American “misrepresentation” at Super Bowl LVIII.The “Killers of the Flower Moon” star, who is the first-ever Native American to be nominated in the Best Actress category at the Oscars, explained on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast that both the Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers should be held “accountable” for their team names, but Gladstone especially has an issue with the Chiefs’ controversial Tomahawk chop. “Honestly, you could hold both teams accountable,” Gladstone, 37, said in the episode released Thursday.“The 49ers are based on the California Gold Rush, which was an incredibly brutal time for California Indians.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Dark Star Pictures has acquired North American rights to “Zenithal,” a kung fu comedy directed by Jean-Baptiste Saurel, an up-and-coming filmmaker whose previous short, “The Dickslap,” premiered at Cannes’ Critics Week. “Zenithal” is being represented in international markets by Best Friend Forever, which will unveil an exclusive promo reel at the EFM. Currently in post-production, the film will world premiere this year.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Lily Gladstone embraces her monumental responsibility as an Oscar nominee, utilizing her platform to advocate for the Indigenous community and hoping to pave the way for more actors like herself. During a panel conversation at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Virtuosos Awards, Gladstone — of Siksikaitsitapi and Niimiipuu heritage — addressed the harmful depictions and references to Indians in media, notably mentioning the Kansas City Chiefs the day before their Super Bowl win. “Honestly, you could hold both teams accountable,” Gladstone tells Variety.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor AGC Studios and Meridian Pictures has sold U.S. and Canada as well as Asia pay TV rights for the Brad Anderson-directed thriller “The Silent Hour,” starring “Suicide Squad’s” Joel Kinnaman, “1917’s” Mark Strong, “New Amsterdam’s” Sandra Mae Frank and “8 Mile’s” Mekhi Phifer, to the newly revitalized Paramount label Republic Pictures. In the film, Kinnaman plays a Boston police detective who suffers an on-the-job accident that leaves him hearing impaired.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Mark Ruffalo has struck again! During a Q&A about his career at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Sunday, the recent Oscar nominee seemed to confirm that he will be reprising his role as the Hulk in Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World.” Asked by moderator Anne Thompson if he would next appear in the 2025 feature, Ruffalo nodded his head and said, “Yeah.” “Are you allowed to talk about that?” Thompson asked.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent For decades, the Berlin Film Festival has been forging its own iconoclastic path, known for screening the best of world cinema and edgy underground discoveries as well as its cold February temperatures, while the starrier and warmer Cannes and Venice fests have been in fierce competition to grab the limelight (aka Oscar movies). But the Berlinale — a public institution created at the beginning of the Cold War in 1951 — could be changing course next year with the appointment of Tricia Tuttle, a progressive American film journalist and curator who led the BFI London Film Festival during a fast-growing five-year chapter, and has been indirectly tasked by Germany’s culture minister Claudia Roth to turn the Berlinale into a proper rival to Cannes and Venice, while maintaining its political edge and flare for arthouse cinema.