Newport Beach Film Fest Adds Screening and Talk on ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,’ Along With Mark Ronson, Rainn Wilson Discussions

Valerie Wu Intern The 2023 annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF), hosted from Oct. 12 to Oct. 19, has announced its slate of awards winners.

Mumbai Film Fest To Honor Luca Guadagnino & Mani Ratnam

Godzilla Minus One, the latest edition in Toho’s monster franchise and the closing film at this year’s Tokyo Film Festival, has locked a deal for distribution in the UK and Ireland. 

EXCLUSIVE: Ted Sarandos may have insisted today that he and other studio CEOs want to end the over three-month long actors strike and “get everyone back to work,” but for SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, the Netflix boss is full of nothing but hot air.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome Film Fest opener “There’s Still Tomorrow,” a bold period dramedy that marks the directorial debut of popular Italian actor Paola Cortellesi, has scored a slew of international sales. The film, shot in black-and-white and set in post-World War II Rome, riffs on Italy’s neorealist past, albeit with a female empowerment element angle and a contemporary A-list Italian cast.

The Wrestler, directed by Bangladeshi-Canadian filmmaker Iqbal H. Chowdhury, and September 1923, from Japan’s Tatsuya Mori, picked up the New Currents Awards as Busan International Film Festival wrapped a busy 28th edition on October 13. 

Movie Week is done and dusted and what a spectacle it was, but this weekend on Strictly Come Dancing, the 13 remaining couples will once again be vying to impress the judges with their routines and you - the voting public.

Adam Sandler kicked off the fourth leg of his ongoing tour that began back in October 2022.This time around, he’ll perform 24 more shows at venues that he didn’t get around to earlier on the run including Rochester, NY’s Blue Cross Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 8.Appropriately, he’s calling these gigs the ‘We Missed You Tour.’At all shows, the “Happy Gilmore” star will perform his own unique hybrid of stand-up, music and storytelling.A special guest or two may drop in as well.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Co-founder and CEO of the Newport Beach Film Festival Gregg Schwenk muses that there are several reasons the fest, which will run Oct. 12-19 this year, has grown in popularity over the last 24 years. There are, of course, the movies: over 300 films this year, including about 100 features and over 200 shorts from countries all over the world.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Tiger Stripes,” the Malaysian coming-of-age, body horror film that debuted in Cannes’ Critics Week section has been set as the opening title for this year’s Singapore International Film Festival (Nov. 30 – Dec.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Lionsgate‘s adaptation of the Judy Blume novel “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” has been submitted for the Golden Globes in the comedy/musical categories, Variety has learned exclusively. With the expansion from five to six nominees this year, the movie will compete for recognition against Warner Bros’ “Barbie,” Searchlight Pictures’ “Poor Things” and Focus Features’ “The Holdovers.” Written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, the film tells the story of 11-year-old Margaret, who is uprooted from her life in New York to New Jersey, where she deals with the challenges of new friends and a new school. Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

Cailee Spaeny dazzles while promoting her new film Priscilla at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival on Monday (October 9).

Marta Balaga Warsaw Film Festival sets out to spotlight a slew of new local releases, from “Anxiety” by Sławomir Fabicki – Oscar-nominated for his short “A Man Thing” – to this year’s opener “Song of Goats” by Andrzej Jakimowski. The latter, featuring “EO” star Mateusz Kościukiewicz and set in Greece, will show characters living close to an active volcano, exploring the question of how “each of us is responsible for maintaining our fragile heritage,” says the director.

Sharareh Drury Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival GEMS has announced the full lineup for its 2023 festival, which will run from Nov. 2-5. The 10th edition of the fest will feature 26 films from 14 countries, all taking place at MDC’s Koubek Center and Silverspot Cinema.

McKinley Franklin editor Season 10 of Bravo’s “Vanderpump Rules” garnered the reality series an Emmy nomination while drawing record breaking viewership, thanks to the #Scandoval cheating scandal — but star Lala Kent tells Variety that the aftermath of the controversy that bled into Season 11 left her feeling “numb.” “I think it’s gonna be really hard for me to watch this season, because I’m in a very different place,” she said. “It’s the first season that I felt a little bit numb, and a little checked out.” In Season 10, which concluded in June, Kent’s “Vanderpump Rules” cast members Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss — who has since left the show — were at the center of one of reality television’s greatest controversies, after it was revealed that he’d cheated on his long-term partner Ariana Madix with Leviss.

International execs from Unifrance, MK2 and TrustNordisk kicked off the annual Zurich Summit on Saturday to discuss the importance of film festivals when promoting a title and if fests are drifting away from what works in cinemas. 

Tom Sandoval has had a lot on his mind lately.

Caroline Brew editor The Newport Beach Film Festival has announced its 2023 Festival Honors. Among this year’s honorees are William Shatner, Patricia Clarkson, Eugenio Derbez, Todd Haynes, Glenn Howerton, Jack Huston, Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Jesse Williams. The festival will be held in person from Oct.

The Tokyo Film Festival has set Gu Xiaogang and Mouly Surya as the recipients of the Kurosawa Akira Award at its upcoming 2023 edition, running October 23 — November 1. 

Marta Balaga “Death Is a Problem for the Living,” now also in Italy. The Finnish black comedy, directed by Teemu Nikki of “Euthanizer” fame, will premiere at the Rome Film Festival in October. “I am so proud of everything we have made together, especially ‘Euthanizer’ and [Venice Horizons Extra winner] ‘The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,’ but this one is certainly the most consistent.