Netflix’s First Arabic Film Causes Controversy with Gay Character

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian director Roberta Torre, known for campy Mafia musical “Tano to Die For” and other anarchic pics, is making “Le Favolose,” about a group of transgender women who reunite after 20 years to commemorate a dead friend and do right by her after her identity has been violated.“Le Favolose,” which translates as “The Fabulous Ones,” is being produced by Donatella Palermo, who is at the Berlinale with auteur Paolo Taviani’s competition entry “Leonora Addio.”Palermo, who has a longstanding rapport with Torre, is the Italian producer behind two Berlin Golden Bear winners: the Taviani brothers’ “Caesar Must Die” and Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fire at Sea.” “When a person decides to face the [gender] transition from man to woman it can be a very painful process in several different ways: social, physical, etc.,” said Palermo, who notes that “when a trans dies, most of the time their body is returned to their families.” Torre’s new pic is based on a real-life story of Antonia, one of the “Fabulous Ones,” who is buried by her family dressed as a man under her original name, Giampaolo, amid the indifference of most.

Lily James has appeared to address the infamous photos of her kissing fellow actor Dominic West, which caused a huge scandal back in October 2020.The Pam and Tommy star, 32, who filmed Pursuit of Love with The Affair's lead star, was shown having a cozy meal with then-married Dominic. The 52 year old father-of-four, who shares Dora, 16, Senan, 14, Francis, 13, with his wife Catherine Fitzgerald, and 24 year old daughter Martha with ex Polly Astor, was then pictured leaning in to kiss Lily.

Naman Ramachandran Protagonist Pictures has closed multiple deals for several key territories on Sundance selection and Berlin Film Festival competition title “Call Jane.”Territories sold include DCM for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Umbrella Entertainment for Australia and New Zealand, Mis.label for Scandinavia, Eagle for Italy, Shaw for Singapore and Empire for South Africa.Directed by Phyllis Nagy, the Oscar nominated writer of “Carol,” the film stars Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Mara and Chris Messina. The film follows Joy (Banks), a traditional 1960s housewife who unexpectedly falls pregnant and finds the Janes, an underground abortion movement led by Virginia (Weaver).

Selome Hailu Film Independent has named the winners of three unrestricted $25,000 Spirit Awards cash grants for emerging filmmakers: Alex Camilleri, Lizzie Shapiro and Jessica Beshir. The announcements were made by Ekwa Msangi (“Farewell Amor”), Gerry Kim (“I’m No Longer Here”) and Elegance Bratton (“Pier Kids”), who received the grants last year.Camilleri, director of “Luzzu,” received the Someone to Watch Award. The award is in its 28th year and recognizes talented filmmakers of singular vision who have not yet received appropriate recognition.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentOne of Scandinavia’s leading film distributors, Scanbox Entertainment is changing ownership with a new board including CEO Thor Sigurjonsson. The company was bought back from Scanbox Chairman Joni Sighvatsson. New owners include COO Kim William Beich, commercial director Torben Thorup Jorgensen, and producer Chris Briggs.

I’d always imagined our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple would be full of romance and passion. But on 14 February in 2019, I instead found myself lying on a hospital bed next to my husband Ciaran, who was going through chemotherapy. Sweetly, he’d still managed to get me a balloon and a teddy with some help from the nurses.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentIn a new series, Variety catches up with the directors of the films shortlisted for the International Feature Oscar to discuss their road to the awards, what they’ve learned so far, and what’s taken them off guard.Paolo Sorrentino, who won an international Oscar for “The Great Beauty” in 2014, is back in contention with autobiographical film “The Hand of God,” which marks the director’s return to filmmaking in his native Naples 20 years after his debut, “One Man Up.”This Netflix Italian original film is the story of a goofy kid named Fabietto who starts harboring a passion for filmmaking in the tumultuous Naples of the late 1980s. As Sorrentino has put it, “it’s a tale of destiny and family, of sport and cinema, love and loss.” It’s a great honor and a great responsibility to represent my country once again. Being a candidate for the second time fills me with joy because it means that the first time wasn’t just a fluke.

Married At First Sight Australia is a rollercoaster experience. One minute you’re loving a contestant, the next they score a villain edit.

As anticipation builds for “The Offer“, Paramount+ shared the first teaser for the limited series, which chronicles the making of the acclaimed 1972 film “The Godfather” and captures a long gone era of Hollywood. The first footage for the real-life story gives viewers a closer look at Miles Teller as producer Albert S. Ruddy, who also serves as executive producer on the 10-part TV event, and Matthew Goode as notorious Paramount Studios chief Robert Evans.

, Paramount+ shared the first teaser for the limited series, which chronicles the making of the acclaimed 1972 film and captures a long gone era of Hollywood. The first footage for the real-life story gives viewers a closer look at Miles Teller as producer Albert S.

Strictly Come Dancing professional Graziano Di Prima has revealed that his first dance with fiancée Giada Lini will be the 'easiest' performance 'ever'. The 27 year old Italian choreographer, who won the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special with singer Anne-Marie in December 2021, popped the question to fellow professional dancer Giada, 32, in 2019 and the couple plan to tie the knot in Sicily on Saturday 9 July 2022.

CAIRO -- A Lebanese father tells his teenage daughter she is free to choose whether to have sex with her boyfriend despite his reservations.An Egyptian wife discreetly slips off her black, lacy underwear from under her clothes before heading out for dinner, and it’s not her husband she’s trying to tantalize.And in a dramatic moment, a man reveals that he is gay, a secret he has kept from his longtime friends who are shocked — but seem mostly accepting.The scenes in the first Arabic Netflix movie have sparked a public drama as intense as the one that plays out onscreen. On social media and TV talk shows and among friends in Egypt and other Middle East countries, a torrent of critics have denounced the film as a threat to family and religious values, encouraging homosexuality and unfit for Arab societies.Others have rallied to the film’s defense, saying detractors are in denial about what happens behind closed doors in real life.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAs we enter the final countdown to the Feb. 8 Oscar nominations announcement, Isabella Rossellini is clearly rooting for Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” which is Italy’s candidate for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and among the shortlisted titles.To help promote the pic with Academy voters, Rossellini engaged in an online chat with the director and young Italian actor Filippo Scotti, who plays Sorrentino’s alter-ego Fabietto in the pic. She also wore a gold horn amulet that belonged to her father, the late great Italian master Roberto Rossellini, for good luck.Here are edited excerpts of the conversation, to which Variety has been given exclusive access.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’s True Colours has taken international sales on “Perfect Strangers” director Paolo Genovese’s new movie, a comedy drama titled “The First Day of My Life.”The Rome-based sales company will be launching pre-sales at the upcoming online EFM market on Genovese’s latest concept pic, which has echoes of Frank Capra’s classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”Based on Genovese’s novel of the same title, which was a bestseller in Italy, “The First Day of My Life” revolves around four characters on the brink of taking their lives who make a pact with a stranger with supernatural powers, played by “The Great Beauty” star Toni Servillo. The mystery man gives them a chance to travel forward in time to see for a week how their friends and relatives would react to their deaths and what the world would be like without them.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentNaples-set young adult series “The Sea Beyond,” which depicts the world of a juvenile jail in the crime-ridden Italian city, is scoring a slew of international sales prompted by its phenomenal ratings on pubcaster RAI.Germany’s Beta Film, which is selling the show about kids behind bars produced by Rome-based Picomedia and RAI Fiction, has inked deals with WarnerMedia Latin America for HBO Max, Sweden’s free-to-air channel TV4, cabler HOT for Israel, and streamer Blu TV in Turkey.The deals mark a rare case of an Italian young adult series traveling abroad.Set in a youth detention center overlooking the bay of Naples, “The Sea Beyond” depicts a world populated by kids apparently without hope, “given that they mostly belong to [the Camorra] organized crime syndicate that Naples is known for,” said Picomedia chief Roberto Sessa, who added that the show also has “all the color and vitality of that city.” Instead, “It’s like the flip side of ‘Gomorrah’ in that it gives a sense of hope,” Sessa noted, because “there is light at the end of the tunnel for these kids.”Sessa also pointed out that they took some poetic license by making the youth penitentiary a place for both men and women who get to interact “with all the relationships and passions that stem from this.”The jail warden is a woman named Paola Vinci, played by Carolina Crescentini (“Bastards of Pizzofalcone”).Directed by Carmine Elia, Milena Cocozza, and Ivan Silvestrini, “The Sea Beyond” is now at its second season which debuted on RAI in mid-November 2021 both on the pubcaster’s linear RAI 2 channel and on its RAI Play streaming platform.It has become a minor phenomenon in Italy because it’s the first show that proved a

Macauley Culkin and Brenda Song are engaged, according to reports.  Song, 33, was photographed wearing a diamond ring on her left hand while out and about in California on Monday, according to People magazine. A source also confirmed the news to the outlet. Neither Culkin or Song has publicly commented on the engagement news.

Perfect Strangers,” has quickly hit No. 1 in several countries across the Middle East and won critical acclaim, but it’s also been the subject of controversy and outrage from more conservative citizens and even lawmakers in Egypt.Attacks on social media against one of the film’s Egyptian stars, Mona Zaki, spread online since its debut on Jan.

The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival has confirmed its various juries, including who will be joining M. Night Shyamalan to award the International Competition prizes.

Chris Willman Music WriterDick Halligan, who won two Grammys for his early work with the group Blood, Sweat and Tears and later turned to film and television work, died Jan. 18 in Rome, Italy at age 78.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Arabic adaptation of hit Italian movie “Perfect Strangers,” which is Netflix’s first Arab original film, is sparking controversy in Egypt and across West Asia due to a gay character and taboo-breaking storylines, prompting the U.S. streaming giant to respond.Since its release, the Beirut-set “Perfect Strangers” redo has been among the top trending topics on social media in West Asia, a region also referred to as the Middle East.