Variety and IllumiNative to Host Rising Native Voices Event at SXSW

William Earl Variety is pleased to announce additional speakers for its annual Entertainment Marketing Summit, presented by Deloitte, on April 19 in Los Angeles, including Christian Parkes, CMO, Neon; Catherine Halaby, head of entertainment, North America, TikTok; Deon Graham, chief brand officer, Combs Global; and Rachel Delphin, CMO, Twitch. Parkes and Halaby will join a Keynote Entertainment Marketing Leaders panel, also including Karen Bronzo, CMO, Warner Bros. Discovery; Dwight Caines, president, domestic marketing, Universal Pictures; and Marc Weinstock, president, worldwide marketing and distribution, Paramount Pictures. Graham, who oversees campaigns for Sean Combs’ businesses such as Revolt TV and Cîroc Vodka, will join a multicultural marketing conversation featuring Ellene V. Miles, SVP intersectional marketing, Sony Pictures Entertainment/ Motion Picture Group; Christine Benitez, SVP multicultural marketing, Paramount Pictures; and Claudia Chagui, SVP marketing and creative, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.

Jordan Moreau Variety’s 2023 Power of Women: New York event will honor Judy Blume, Natasha Lyonne, Rosie Perez, Kelly Ripa and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez. The Power of Women issue will release on Wednesday, March 29, and the event, in partnership with Lifetime, will celebrate the honorees in New York on Tuesday, April 4. This year’s honorees include: The program will be hosted by actress, comedian and writer Ego Nwodim, who has been a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” since 2018.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large On Sunday, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” appeared to be everything, everywhere, all at once. The film, of course, dominated the 95th Oscars with seven wins — including best picture. Virtually all the stars (except Stephanie Hsu — hey Daniels, can you spare one of your SIX Oscars and share one with her??) received wins, on what was truly a historic night. And an emotional one. As the opening clips of this week’s Variety Awards Circuit Podcast illustrates, family was on the minds of this year’s winners. Listen to our Mega Roundtable edition, in which Clayton Davis, Jenelle Riley, Jazz Tangcay and myself (that’s me, Michael Schneider) recount the show and dissect the winners — from Jimmy Kimmel’s excellent monologue to how every single category panned out:

“Birth/ Rebirth” Mali Elfman became a producer almost by accident: after co-writing her first film, “Do Not Disturb,” as an acting vehicle for herself. The former entertainment journalist realized there were a few jobs on set she didn’t want after all — and others she did.

Todd Gilchrist editor Producer Nina Yang Bongiovi admits her enthusiasm for being recognized for the profound social and cultural weight of her output. “Usually producers are kicked to the curb when a movie is released,” she says, laughing.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter In the 24 hours following the start of the 2023 Oscars red carpet, Variety notched its highest-ever day of social traffic, racking up 122 million video views across platforms.  Top performing videos include Marc Malkin’s interview with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson about the negative reviews that plagued “Black Adam” and fashion footage of stars like Pedro Pascal and Lady Gaga.  Twitter video racked up 59.4 million views, while TikTok accounted for 47.5 million. Instagram earned an additional 15.1 million views for the brand.  Variety’ssocial team, led by social media editor Katcy Stephan with coordinator Rachel Seo, previously saw success through the record-breaking launch of “Actors on Actors” Season 17, which earned over 35 million views on TikTok. Under Stephan’s leadership, the brand gained over 1.5 million new followers across social platforms in 2022.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Heavy-hitters from show business and the global beauty industry put their best faces forward over Oscar weekend, celebrating the 2023 honorees at the annual Variety + Armani Beauty’s Makeup Artistry Dinner. The Edition West Hollywood’s Ardor restaurant played host for an evening celebrating the work of transformative artists Allan Avendaño, Alex Babsky, Kelsey Deenihan Fisher, Kathy Jeung and Cedric Jolivet — each given an emotional tribute by Sabrina Carpenter, Tessa Thompson, Lucy Hale, Natasha Bedingfield and Kathryn Newton, respectively. Champagne and cocktails were served on a lush garden patio before dinner indoors, where the likes of supermodel Winnie Harlow, Emma Roberts, Meg Stalter, Kristine Froseth and Cara Santana mingled. Team Armani stayed true to their Italian roots by inviting several players from the Sicily-set second season of “The White Lotus”: actors Meghann Fahy, Leo Woodall, Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Grannò.

Julia MacCary editor “There’s nowhere you can walk in this country that is not Native land,” said IllumiNative founder and executive director Crystal Echo Hawk at Rising Native Voices, the Variety and IllumiNative event in partnership with SXSW on Saturday. IllumiNative, which is a Native woman-run social justice organization, DIGA Studios and Madica Productions recently announced their documentary-style podcast “American Genocide: The Crimes of Native American Boarding Schools.” The six-episode podcast examines the human rights violations against Indigenous children at Native American boarding schools, looking for answers specifically at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, S.D.

Variety is still celebrating the winners who have graced our covers, spoke on our podcasts and participated in Actors on Actors this season. Revisit our best coverage and interviews with the big winners below. Variety covers: Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”), best actor: Brendan Fraser’s Triumphant Comeback: How Playing a 600-Pound Gay Man in ‘The Whale’ Resurrected His Career Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), best actress: Women Do It Better: Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh on Creating Iconic Characters From Roles Written for Men

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor AUSTIN, Texas — Patton Oswalt, Phoebe Robinson, Eric Andre, Chelsea Handler and others were in fine form on Friday night as Variety helped kick off the 2023 SXSW festival and conference with its Power of Comedy event. The kudos pay tribute to innovators in the business of being funny. Presenters and honorees who gathered at the Creek and the Cave nightclub in downtown Austin made mention of comedians facing a fraught moment as social norms and cultural attitudes are changing. Mike Lawrence, who hosted the second half of the night, noted that he had to show more identification when registering to get his SXSW conference badge than he would have to buy a gun.

It was date night for Emma Roberts and her boyfriend Cody John!

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large It all comes down to this weekend. Variety’s Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider dissect the Oscar categories one last time and share final predictions on this week’s edition of the award-winning Variety Awards Circuit podcast. It’s a Mega Roundtable of the podcast, as the team goes through every category and offers up their final thoughts. Will “Everything Everywhere All at Once” sweep the night? Or are some surprises in store? Listen along as you fill out your office Oscars pool: Here are some of the potential wins that the team is rooting for:

Rosé of girl group BLACKPINK and Oscar-winning actress Youn Yuh-Jung are set to co-host an event at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.Today (March 9), The Met announced that Rosé and Youn, along with Chinese actress Song Jia, will co-host an event for Korean beauty brand Sulwhasoo at the museum later this month on March 29. Notably, all three celebrities are global ambassadors of the beauty brand.In its press release, The Met revealed that it is partnering with Sulwhasoo in a year-long agreement that aims to boost programmes and activities at the Museum to help “celebrate global heritage”.

wcinkala pmc-editorial-manager Rapper, singer and actor Tobe Nwigwe will participate in a panel about his installment of Audible’s latest original music storytelling podcast and Audible Original, “Origins,” which debuted in the fall and is currently available. The panel, titled “Variety’s Music Storytelling Panel presented by Audible,” will be moderated by Variety’s Selome Hailu and will include Audible’s executive producer of original music-storytelling, Preston Copley. The conversation will explore Nwigwe’s music career, while highlighting the inspiration for “Origins,” the Audible Original series featuring eight groundbreaking artists who answer the question: “Where are you from?” In the series, Nwigwe speaks about his influences and journey breaking into the music industry, and during the SXSW panel Nwigwe will dive deeper into his unique story. The panel will also discuss the creation of the Audible Original, innovating in audio and the unique storytelling opportunities available through this exciting entertainment medium. The panel will take place at the Audible Sound Studio located at the Sunset Room on Saturday, March 11, from 12 – 1 p.m. CT.

Bad Bunny is bringing one of his passions to his home of Puerto Rico. He’ll serve as host of WWE’s “Backlash,” one of the sport’s most famous and viewed live events. The show will be hosted on May 6th, at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan.

Variety asked editors Peter Debruge, Clayton Davis, Tim Gray, and Jenelle Riley, to answer four questions about this past year in film and discuss its standout moments. The questions are: 1. How would you rate 2022’s films against previous years? 2. What was the most important issue this year for the industry?  3. What film inspired you the most this year?

EXCLUSIVE: Pat Sharp, the British presenter known for his work on Top Of The Pops and Fun House, has said he is “truly sorry” after making a lewd remark to a woman while hosting an events industry awards show.

Jordan Moreau IllumiNative, a national Native woman-led social justice organization is launching a documentary-style podcast, titled “American Genocide: The Crimes of Native American Boarding Schools,” to uncover a horrifying truth about one of the United States government’s best kept secrets. The podcast examines the atrocities and human rights violations committed against Native children at Native American boarding schools by the U.S. federal government and Catholic Church and follows the ongoing federal investigation into these crimes. In the six-episode series, Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee), founder and executive director of IllumiNative, and Lashay Wesley (Choctaw), director of communications and storytelling at IllumiNative, investigate and search for answers and justice at Red Cloud Indian School, a former boarding school in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

William Earl Music superstar Bad Bunny is set to host the live WWE event “Backlash” in his native Puerto Rico. It will take place on Saturday, May 6, at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan. It’s the first live WWE event taking place in Puerto Rico since 2005. “In 2005 when I was a kid, I wasn’t able to attend New Year’s Revolution at el Coliseo,” Bad Bunny said in a statement. “Finally, 18 years later WWE returns to the island with a massive event and this time I won’t miss it.” Bad Bunny is no stranger to the world of the WWE. In 2021, he performed “Booker T” at that year’s Royal Rumble event, and then started appearing on Monday Night Raw. He eventually won the WWE 24/7 Championship that year. In 2022, he appeared at the Royal Rumble as a contender, advancing past noted wrestlers Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler to make the final five. He will also be a character in the upcoming wrestling video game “WWE 2K23.”

Paul Plunkett The SXSW Comedy Festival will feature Variety‘s Power of Comedy Awards, presented by Inspire,on March 10 at Austin’s the Creek and the Cave. Variety is thrilled to present these awards atSXW for the very first time, recognizing comedic achievements across stand-up, film, TV anddigital platforms. This year’s honorees, including Eric André, who’s receiving the Cult FavoriteAward, will be joined by Bob Odenkirk. Chelsea Handler  Comedy Icon Award  Comedian, host, writer, producer, and six-time New York Times best-selling author, Handler burst on the scene in 2007, as the host of E!’s “Chelsea Lately.” She followed that up with multiple talk shows and specials for Netflix and HBO. She earned a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album for her 2020 HBO Max special “Evolution,” and in 2021 launched her iHeart Radio advice podcast “Dear Chelsea.”