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Jamie Lang Barcelona-based sales company Film Factory has picked up global rights to Alberto Gastesi‘s sci-fi thriller “Singular,” a former Sitges Pitchbox winner that will begin shooting this month. “Singular” is the story of Diana, a university professor who works with artificial intelligence linguistic models.

Gregg Goldstein For more than two decades, French auteur Christophe Honoré has made provocative features, frequently exploring romantic entanglements or focusing on gay characters that reflect his sexuality. His third Palme d’Or-nominated film premiering May 21, “Marcello Mio,” is a comic change of pace that may be his most commercial and entertaining project to date. After Honoré’s longtime collaborator Chiara Mastroianni, playing a version of herself, gets compared to her movie star father, Marcello Mastroianni, she decides to adopt his look and personality, creating chaos with her mother, Catherine Deneuve, and co-stars like Melvil Poupaud, who also play themselves.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Last Frenzy,” a comedy film about a dying man’s last hurrah, returned to the top spot in mainland Chinese cinemas in its third weekend of release. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which a week earlier had been the biggest title, slipped to fourth place. In another China disappointment for Hollywood, “The Fall Guy” opened outside the Chinese top ten.

Alissa Simon Film Critic American helmer Carson Lund uses the baseball diamond as a deeply cinematic space in his feature debut, “Eephus.” The esoteric title is the name of one of the game’s rarest pitches. “Eephus” marks the second film from the L.A. collective Omnes Films to screen in the Directors’ Fortnight along with “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” which Lund shot.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Local blockbuster, “The Roundup: Punishment” extended its dominance of the South Korea theatrical box office for a fourth weekend. That lifted its cumulative total to a powerful $75 million. “Punishment,” the fourth part of a brutal action comedy film franchise produced by and starring Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok), earned $3.05 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read on if you haven’t watched “Tunnel Vision,” the final episode of “CSI: Vegas” that aired on Sunday, May 19. “Things are about to go kaboom.” That’s what Beau (Lex Medlin) says on Friday night’s series finale of “CSI: Vegas” as he prepares to detonate a series of bombs. But he might be describing everyone’s minds, as the show’s characters discover midway through the episode (“Tunnel Vision”) that they’ve been chasing the wrong villain all season.

Carlos Aguilar The lasagna-obsessed feline with a near-pathological aversion to Mondays, who first came into popular consciousness in the late ‘70s as a comic strip, is a diluted version of himself in “The Garfield Movie.” Not only is his suave apathy mostly replaced by an excessive excitedness with only sporadic glimpses of his endearingly negative qualities, but this Garfield jumps off trains, stages a heist, and is subjected to trite physical comedy by way of numerous predictable action sequences. The ordeal mimics a rehashed plot from the dull “The Secret Life of Pets” franchise with Garfield forcefully plugged in.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Lost, completed studio albums by revered trumpet player and jazz vocalist Chet Baker don’t pop up every year. But “In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album,” which was just released after sitting unheard for 52 years, has some even more novel wrinkles to it.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Arriving in the middle of the art smorgasbord that’s the Cannes Film Festival, a three-hour Western directed by Kevin Costner sounded like it might be just the ticket for a perfect night of counterprogramming: a grandly scaled slice of neo-classical Hollywood. That, after all, describes the other two Westerns Costner has directed (“Dances with Wolves” and “Open Range”), as well as his quirky sci-fi pseudo-Western “The Postman.” There’s no question that “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1,” Costner’s fourth outing as a director, gives off some of that traditional flavor.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Shocking and resonant, disarmingly grotesque and weirdly fun, “The Substance” is a feminist body-horror film that should be shown in movie theaters all over the land. By that, I don’t mean that it’s some elegant exercise in egghead darkness like the films of David Cronenberg, or a patchy postmodern punk curio like “Titane.” Coralie Fargeat, the writer-director of “The Substance,” has a voice that’s italicized, in-your-face, garishly accessible and thrillingly extreme.

The Substance” — a body horror thriller from French director Coralie Forgeat starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley — rocked Cannes Film Festival on Sunday night with an 11-minute standing ovation. Its the tale of a once-great actress (Moore) whose certain age has relegated her to a Jane Fonda-style fitness show. When she’s fired, she is offered a trial of the medical treatment the film is named after.

Michaela Zee A24 is closing an eight-figure deal to acquire the U.S. rights to Ruben Östlund’s “The Entertainment System Is Down,” Variety has confirmed.

Tim Chan If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The latest winner of “American Idol” will be crowned tonight as the long-running singing competition show bids farewell to judge Katy Perry. Want to watch the “American Idol” finale live? The episode airs tonight, Sunday, May 19, at 8 p.m.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Disney and 20th Century’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” conquered the international box office again with $40.6 million in its second weekend of release. So far, the fourth chapter in the “Apes” reboot franchise has generated $136 million overseas and $237 million globally. It currently stands as the fourth-highest grossing movie of the year, behind “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($533 million), “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” ($561 million) and “Dune: Part Two” ($710 million).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Atoms & Void, the Netherlands-based production and sales company run by Sergei Loznitsa and Maria Choustova, has closed a French sale on Loznitsa’s most recent feature documentary “The Invasion,” which premiered on Thursday as a Special Screening in Cannes. Potemkine Films has taken all rights for France, while the film’s French co-producer ARTE France maintains its exclusive TV/VOD window.

Lexi Carson The 50th Annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) wrapped up on Sunday and announced the winners of the 2024 Golden Space Needle Audience and Juried Competition Awards. The festival began on May 9 and screened 261 films representing 84 countries with “62% of the feature films were created by first or second-time filmmakers; 43% were created by women or nonbinary filmmakers; 35% of filmmakers identify as a BIPOC director; and nearly 60% are currently without U.S. distribution and may not screen commercially in the United States,” according to SIFF.

Tim Chan If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Travel season is in full swing and there are a few essentials you’ll need if you’re heading onto an airplane. Aside from things like a good travel pillow and a portable charger, one of the new must-haves for air travel is a wireless audio transmitter, like this one from Twelve South.

Horizon: An American Saga,” Kevin Costner‘s risk-it-all Western epic, rode into Cannes on Sunday, earning a seven-minute standing ovation. Costner was visibly emotional as the film received huge applause and chants of “Kevin! Kevin! Kevin!” During his speech, Costner thanked the audience and promised “three more” installments of the “Horizon” franchise, which is already due to get a sequel in August. “I’m sorry you had to clap that long for me to understand that I should speak,” Costner said to laughter.

Christopher Vourlias Urban Sales has closed a raft of deals on the upcoming animated feature “Into the Wonderwoods” ahead of its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings section. The film, which bows with a special screening May 22 at the prestigious French fest, has sold to 45 territories, the Paris-based sales outfit announced during the Cannes Market. Pic has sold to Volga for the CIS territories and the Baltics; Selim Ramia & Co.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning director of “The Artist,” makes a first foray into animation with “The Most Precious of Cargoes” which world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival on May 24. Adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s bestselling novel, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is the first animated feature to vie for a Palme d’Or since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008; and it will be the last movie watched by the competition jury, presided over by Greta Gerwig, before the closing ceremony. Hazanavicius developed the project for years and wrote the script with Grumberg, as well as created the drawings.

Tim Chan If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. It’s never been easier to keep an eye on your home thanks to the seemingly endless number of security camera brands available right now. If you’re looking for a great indoor security camera, you’ll want to take advantage of this new Amazon deal, which gets you the best-selling Blink Mini smart security camera on sale for just $19.99.

Catherine Bray Some films prioritize a strident political cause, others set out to terrify or thrill. This touching and simple story from Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama, premiering in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, is a gentler affair, with modest ambitions that it realizes effectively. Set on a small Japanese island, the film’s slight but sweet narrative follows a quartet of characters — young hockey player Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), proficient skater Sakura (Kiara Nakanishi), figure-skating tutor Arakawa (Sōsuke Ikematsu) and his boyfriend (Ryûya Wakaba) — as they navigate subtly shifting interpersonal dynamics while a cold but beautiful winter waxes and wanes around them.

Jamie Lang The first significant deal at last year’s Marché du Film was Neon’s acquisition of Pablo Berger’s eventual Oscar nominee, “Robot Dreams.” Whether or not another Spanish animated film can have that kind of impact in 2024 remains to be seen, but there is a long list of contenders to consider. Perhaps the buzziest Spanish title at this year’s market is adult animation auteur Alberto Vázquez’s “Decorado,” sold by French powerhouse Le Pacte. Like his previous titles, “Decorado” is based on a Vázquez short adapted from one of his graphic novels.

Michaela Zee Sean “Diddy” Combs has apologized for his behavior in a recently surfaced 2016 video, which shows the rapper attacking his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie. “It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you gotta do that. I was fucked up.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Not exactly the opening weekend that dreams are made of. Director John Krasinski‘s “IF,” a fantasy-comedy that promises your imaginary friends from childhood are real, fell slightly short of box office expectations with $35 million. Heading into the weekend, “IF” was expected to bring in at least $40 million in its first weekend of release.

Jamie Lang French distribution company UFO has secured the rights to American filmmaker Ryan J. Sloan’s New psychological thriller “Gazer,” which will world premiere at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight on May 22. Set in New Jersey and starring Sloan’s partner Ariella Mastroianni, “Gazer” is the story of a young mother with a rare degenerative brain condition called dyschronometria.

Carlos Aguilar For about the first hour of their documentary “The Falling Sky,” Brazilian directors Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha introduce us to the traditions and ongoing plight of the Yanomami Indigenous people — namely, fending off invaders — without making their presence known. There are no title cards stating where we are and why, and the only voiceover we hear comes directly from the Yanomami, most often Davi Kopenawa, their current leader and co-author of a 2010 book bearing the same title as the film.

Naman Ramachandran Oscar-, BAFTA-, Golden Globe- and Grammy-winning composer A.R. Rahman has unveiled music documentary “Headhunting to Beatboxing” at the Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Rohit Gupta, the documentary follows the Naga tribe in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, once engulfed in the depths of violence and bloodshed, that resurrects itself through the healing power of music and emerges through a musical renaissance.

Jessica Kiang That the name Limonov is pronounced Lee-MWAH-nov is one of two main things that Kirill Serebrennikov‘s “Limonov: The Ballad” teaches us about Eduard Limonov, the Russian radical, poet, dissident, emigré, returnee, detainee, bête noire and cause célèbre who in 1993 co-founded the ultra-nationalist National Bolshevik Party. The second is that, as imagined in this adaptation of Emmanuel Carrère’s 2015 fictionalized biography, for all the shifting identities and attitudes he assumed over the course of his controversial life, his persona as an aggravatingly self-aggrandizing solipsist never wavered.

Ellise Shafer With only her second film, Coralie Fargeat has gone from admiring body horror king David Cronenberg to being in competition with him at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Fargeat’s “The Substance,” described as a feminist take on the body horror genre and starring Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore, bows at Cannes on Sunday night, the day before Cronenberg’s latest frightful offering, “The Shrouds,” will do the same.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Cynthia Erivo may not be a green witch but that doesn’t mean she can’t relate to Elphaba, the sorcerer she plays in the upcoming “Wicked” movies. “As I stand here in front of you: Black, bald-headed, pierced, and queer, I can say I know a thing or two about being the other,” the Tony winner said Saturday night at the Los Angeles LGBT Center Gala, where she was presented with the Schrader Award by Jada Pinkett-Smith. “Elphaba’s story is… about how a colorful, powerful, magical woman—despite being disparaged, demonized, and discriminated against—becomes a hero.” “Wicked is a reclamation and a reimagining of the labels used against her.

Alex Ritman Julianne Moore says the film industry has “changed dramatically” since she started out in the early 1990s when it comes to female representation. Speaking as part of Kering’s Women in Motion program at the Cannes Film Festival, the Oscar winner said one of the most noticeable differences is when it comes to career longevity for actresses. “Meryl [Streep] said this too the other day [during the festival’s opening ceremony], this idea that when she was 40, she thought it was all going to be over,” she said.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Depending on who you talk to, the world is either in crisis, on fire, at war and/or simply lurching toward a frankly deserved final judgment. So what can be done to save it? Why, a carefully worded provisional statement, of course, from the global leaders currently in possession of both the gas canister and the lit match, but not a surfeit of great ideas for the future.

Ellise Shafer “Emilia Pérez,” the latest Cannes-premiering film from French auteur Jaques Audiard, is many things at once: a gritty crime film, an ambitious musical and a spotlight on trans issues. At the center of the Spanish-language movie are three women – Rita (Zoe Saldaña), Jessi (Selena Gomez) and the title character Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón) — who become forever bonded by their traumatic experiences in Mexico City’s cartel-run underbelly. The confounding elements of the film are what first attracted Saldaña to her role, an overworked lawyer who is kidnapped by a druglord (Gascón) and tasked with assisting her character on a mission to get gender-affirming surgery.

Christopher Vourlias There’s a scene early in the documentary “Nasty,” a rollicking portrait of the ’70s Romanian tennis bad boy Ilie Năstase, where the Grand Slam champion’s mentor and longtime doubles partner Ion Țiriac recalls teaching Năstase how to ski. The young prodigy was a fast study — perhaps too fast. “He skied down perfectly,” says Țiriac, “except he ran into the fence because I hadn’t taught him to stop.” You’d be hard-pressed to find a better metaphor for the free-wheeling, fast-living Năstase, a “wild child,” “rock star” and “insolent, elegant, angry, whimsical bon vivant” who makes a fitting subject for the documentary, which was directed by Tudor Giurgiu, Cristian Pascariu and Tudor D.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov (“Leto,” “Petrov’s Flu,” “Tchaikovsky’s Wife”) is back in the Cannes competition with “Limonov,” an epic about Russian punk poet Eduard Limonov that the director describes as “probably the most complicated project in my life.” Based on the best-selling book by Emmanuelle Carrere, “Limonov” delves into the story of its titular character who lived many lives. He was an underground writer in the Soviet Union who escaped to the U.S. where he became a punk-poet and also a butler to a millionaire in Manhattan.