Poland’s U.S. in Progress Event Looks to Open Doors in Europe for Independent American Filmmakers

A concert venue in Kraków, Poland has canceled two upcoming shows by onetime Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters following recent comments the singer-songwriter made about the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has canceled upcoming concerts in Poland over backlash prompted by his beliefs about Russia's war against Ukraine, which he attributes to "extreme nationalists" in Ukraine. Waters was initially planning to perform two concerts at the Tauron Arena in Krakowin in April, but an arena official confirmed the events have been scrapped. "Roger Waters’ manager decided to withdraw ...

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Camerimage, a film festival focused on cinematography, will honor the documentary director Alex Gibney during its 30th edition. The investigative filmmaker will be present at the event in Toruń, Poland, which runs Nov. 12-19, to accept the award for outstanding achievements in documentary filmmaking. Gibney’s films include “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” exposing the greed and corruption of one of the most influential U.S. corporations; Oscar-winning “Taxi to the Dark Side,” with a harrowing tale of inhumane practices during the early years of the war in Afghanistan; and “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” providing a horrifying account of the decades of sexual abuse and pedophilia in the Catholic Church.

EXCLUSIVE: Barack & Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground media company has signed with CAA for film and television deals.

meeting the late Queen in London in 2009, months after entering the White House, in a video tribute released after her funeral service on Monday. “She welcomed us to the world stage with extraordinary generosity,” he said. He revealed that shortly afterwards his two daughters, Malia and Sasha, made another trip to England and were invited to tea with Elizabeth II.

Former US President Barack Obama has revealed Queen Elizabeth reminded him of his grandmother. The politician has filmed a special video reflecting on the time he and his wife Michelle spent with Her Majesty during their time in the White House and in the film he praised her for treating her guests with such "generosity" as well as recalling anecdotes about the kindness she showed to the couple's two daughters, Malia and Sasha. He posted the film on his Twitter account, writing: "Michelle and I were lucky enough to know Her Majesty The Queen.

Sasha Obama's college compassion has been revealed as Euphoria actress Storm Reid.MORE: Sasha Obama unveils bold new look as she starts new college year In photos published by the Daily Mail the two were seen arriving at the campus of University of Southern California (USC) within minutes of each other, although it was unclear if they were attending the same class.WATCH: Sasha Obama shows off incredible dance movesStorm, 19, who stars alongside Zendaya in the Emmy-winning series wore ripped blue denim jeans with a hot pink crochet crop top, while Sasha showed off her boho fashion sense with a tie-dye purple maxi skirt and whte cropped shirt.The 21-year-old displayed simple earring studs and put her stomach on display to show off her navel piercing.MORE: Michelle Obama wows in a figure-flattering jumpsuitSasha's hair was loose and she looked stoic as she vaped and listened to her trusty AirPods.Sasha moved to Los Angeles after transferring from the University of Michigan. She lives with her older sister Malia, 24, who is working in a writer's room for television.

Barack Obama will provide an in person interview on Sunday, September 25th, at the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel. Michelle and Barack Obama look proud unveiling their official White House portraitPresident Barack Obama reveals Queen Elizabeth II ‘quietly’ invited his two daughters for tea at the palaceA post shared by L'ATTITUDE (@lattitudeevent)The event made the announcement on their Instagram.

Malia Obama and her rumored boyfriend Dawit Eklund were photographed together once more. This time, the pair appear to have coordinated outfits, and were spotted wearing almost identical pants.Sasha Obama masters the college look with a Poppy Lissiman tote and boyfriend jeansMalia Obama wore an oversized denim jacket with these celebrity-loved bootsThe two were photographed as they went on a walk in New York. At one point, the two turned to each other and smiled.

Christopher Vourlias The first time he made the trip to Europe to take part in U.S. in Progress, an event dedicated to independent American filmmaking launched by Poland’s American Film Festival in 2011, L.A.-based director Pete Ohs admits he was “very green.” “It was my first narrative feature…[and I was] very much getting into this world of independent filmmaking,” Ohs tells Variety. U.S. in Progress, which this year takes place Nov. 9 – 11 in Wrocław, Poland, presents a selection of roughly half a dozen American indie titles in the final stages of production to European sales agents, distributors and festival programmers. The event is often a crash course in the European market for directors like Ohs, who participated in 2016 with “Everything Beautiful Is Far Away.” For many it’s the first time that they’re exposed to film industry professionals on the continent, offering insight into an ecosystem of financing, production and distribution that’s a world apart from how independent movies are made and sold in the U.S.

Christopher Vourlias It was as early as 2010, as he likes to tell it, when Polish animator and visual artist Tomasz Bagiński lobbied his friend Andrzej Sapkowski to make a movie. Sapkowski is the author of “The Witcher” series of fantasy novels, and Bagiński — already Oscar-nominated for his short film “The Cathedral” — had dreams of taking the series to the big screen. Among the project’s early boosters was Platige Image, the Polish animation, VFX and post-production studio that Bagiński joined in 2004. When Netflix swooped in to acquire the rights to “The Witcher” in 2017, the company was tapped to executive produce alongside L.A.-based Hivemind. The Polish studio also became one of several houses to handle special effects for the series, earning an Emmy nomination for its VFX work on what has gone on to become one of Netflix’s biggest international hits.

Christopher Vourlias Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has closed a raft of deals on the animated feature film “Yuku and the Himalayan Flower,” from directors Rémi Durin and Arnaud Demuynck. The children’s animated feature, with graphics by Paul Jadoul, tells the story of Yuku, a little mouse who lives with her family in the basement of a castle and decides to embark on a quest to find the legendary Himalayan flower. The film, which premiered at the Annecy fest and played in the Locarno Kids strand of the Locarno Film Festival, is produced by Artémis Prods. (“Mandibules”) and co-produced by Vivement Lundi! (“Flee”), La Boîte Prods. (“March of the Penguins”), Les Films du Nord and Nadasdy Film. 

Barack and Michelle Obama have returned to the White House for a very special reason. On Wednesday, the former president and former first lady unveiled their official White House portraits in the East Room. Robert McCurdy painted the portrait of Barack, who is seen standing tall while wearing a black suit, a gray tie and an American flag pin.

LOONA’s Haseul will not be joining the group on the upcoming European leg of the ‘LOONATHEWORLD’ world tour.Concert organisers MyMusicTaste announced on September 6 via Twitter that Haseul will be withdrawing from LOONA’s concerts in Europe this month, due to the deterioration of a current injury sustained to her shoulder.

Christopher Vourlias A cross-section of works from revered masters and fresh faces will take center stage at Poland’s American Film Festival (AFF), whose 13th edition takes place Nov. 8 – 13 in Wrocław, Poland. Established in 2010 as the sister event of the New Horizons Film Festival, a showcase of independent and arthouse cinema launched in 2001, the AFF bills itself as the first film event in Central Europe solely devoted to the works of contemporary and classic American cinema. “We are searching for those voices, those auteurs, those talents and tendencies, and those waves of American film that are the most original and show some vibes of the current moment,” said festival director Ula Śniegowska.

Manori Ravindran International Editor More than a year since SkyShowtime was first announced, the SVOD is ready to join the streaming fray in Europe, Variety can reveal. The new platform — a joint venture between Comcast and Paramount Global that was first unveiled in August 2021 — will officially launch on Sept. 20 in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, before expanding into the Netherlands later this year in Q4. (The service received regulatory approval in Europe back in February.) Meanwhile, the SVOD will continue its roll out across Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) over the coming months and through Q1 of 2023. CEE markets include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Ethan Shanfeld Barack Obama is officially three-fourths of the way to an EGOT, as the former president of the United States nabbed his first Emmy for outstanding narrator. Obama lent his voice to the Netflix docuseries “Our Great National Parks,” narrating its five episodes that span from Patagonia, Chile, to Tsavo, Kenya. Netflix submitted the first episode, “A World of Wonder,” for Emmy consideration. In 2020, both Barack and Michelle Obama took home Oscars for the documentary “American Factory,” which they produced under their banner, Higher Ground. The doc tells the story of what happens when a Chinese company opens an automotive glass plant at a former General Motors location in Ohio, facing intense community skepticism and cultural differences.

An honor. Many celebs took to social media to talk about Serena Williams’ last game. The tennis champion likely played her final match at the US Open in Flushing, New York on September 2, 2022, after she lost to Ajla Tomljanović.