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Category: Entertainment

  • Puerto Rico Film Festival Welcomes Costa Rica as Official Country in Focus (EXCLUSIVE)

    Puerto Rico Film Festival Welcomes Costa Rica as Official Country in Focus (EXCLUSIVE)

    The Puerto Rico Film Festival has announced Costa Rica as the official country in focus for its upcoming 17th edition, taking place August 19–23. The announcement marks the first time the festival elects a country of honor, and comes ahead of this year’s Costa Rica Media Market, a leading industry event taking place in San José on July 14-15.

    According to the festival, the choice reflects a “growing relationship between both territories and opening new opportunities for artistic and industry collaboration.” The special spotlight will see a series of dedicated initiatives, including welcoming a delegation of Costa Rican filmmakers and a showcase of contemporary Costa Rican cinema. Costa Rica Film Commissioner Marysela Zamora-Villalobos will also attend the festival, where she will take part in industry activities focused on international collaboration, production incentives and regional partnerships.

    A festival statement highlighted how having Costa Rica as the festival’s country in focus emphasizes the event’s “long-term commitment to building stronger bridges between Caribbean and Latin American film industries at a time when international co-productions, shared funding opportunities and cross-border distribution have become increasingly important for independent filmmakers.”

    “The partnership offers an opportunity to deepen ties with Puerto Rico while introducing audiences and industry professionals to a new generation of Costa Rican storytellers,” the statement continued. “For Puerto Rico, it reinforces the island’s ambition to become a strategic hub where Caribbean and Latin American cinema can collaborate, develop projects and create sustainable industry relationships.”

    Lester Rivé, founder and festival director of the Puerto Rico Film Festival said: “For Puerto Rico, having Costa Rica as our Country in Focus represents much more than a cultural exchange. It creates new opportunities for our filmmakers to connect internationally, showcase their work, develop co-productions and explore new business and distribution opportunities across Latin America. Building these relationships today will strengthen the future of our regional film industry.”

    Speaking with Variety, Zamora said the festival’s invitation “reflects the growing recognition of Costa Rica as an active player in the regional audiovisual ecosystem.” 

    “It gives our filmmakers, producers, and companies another platform to build international partnerships and showcase the quality of the work being created in the country,” she added. “It’s also a sign that Costa Rica is increasingly contributing to regional conversations—not only through its locations, but through its talent, stories and industry initiatives.”

    Costa Rica’s audiovisual industry has grown exponentially in the last decade, with breakout films by directors such as Valentina Maurel, Antonella Sudasassi Furniss, Paz Fábrega and Sofía Quirós Ubeda making waves at major festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Rotterdam.

    Well-known for stunning landscapes and rich biodiversity, the small but mighty Central American country has also emerged as a hungry player on the international production scene. In 2021, the country introduced its Law of Attraction of Film Investments, consolidating VAT refunds and tax exemptions for foreign productions. Today, the country offers an up-to-90% VAT refund on local services for qualifying projects, which equates to an around 11.7% tax rebate with a promise to repay within 90 days. 

    Last year, Costa Rica attracted $11.2 million in audiovisual investment through 87 international business opportunities, more than double the 41 from the year prior. The country lured projects from Warner Bros. Discovery, Universal and BBC Studios, with the film commission closely supporting their production by minimizing bureaucracy and expediting technical documents.  

    Beyond the Costa Rica-tied activities and a full program of screenings, the Puerto Rico Film Festival has become known for a growing industry platform designed to connect Puerto Rico with the global film community while celebrating diverse voices and emerging talent from around the world. This year’s full program is yet to be announced. 

  • ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ Getting Rebooted by Paramount in Deal With Wes Craven Estate

    ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ Getting Rebooted by Paramount in Deal With Wes Craven Estate

    Freddy Krueger is ready for another close up.

    Paramount has closed a deal for the U.S. rights to adapt the original screenplay for “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” under its new genre label Paramount Primal. Domestic rights are being licensed from the Wes Craven estate, which includes Craven’s widow Iya Labunka and son Jonathan Craven. The duo will produce the film with Marc Toberoff, an attorney who helped the filmmaker’s family regain ownership of the kickoff film.

    The yet untitled film is in development under Paramount Primal. Plot details have yet to be revealed, but it will be set in the world of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and based on the first 1984 film. That means more of Kruger, the iconic child killer with the burned face and metal claws.

    Paramount’s new genre label is being led by J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, the producing team behind “Weapons,” “Barbarian,” “Companion” and “Friendship.”

    “Jonathan and I are so excited to be partnering with J.D. and Rafi along with the terrific team they’ve assembled at Paramount Primal,” Labunka said in a statement. “We look forward to bringing the world of Wes Craven’s ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ to a new and completely engaged generation of fans. We know that Wes would have been thrilled to see how horror is taking its long overdue place in the cultural canon. We can’t wait for all of us to sit together in a dark theater — around the campfire of today — as the next chapter of the ‘Nightmare’ story unfolds.”

    Paramount Pictures also revealed that its previously announced label will be known as Paramount Primal. The label will partner with up-and-coming storytellers and established filmmakers to produce smartly budgeted films across the horror, comedy, action and science fiction genres.

    Lifshitz and Margules will executive produce for Paramount Primal. WME, Industry Entertainment and Ziffren Brittenham LLP represent the Wes Craven estate.

    Kruger has appeared in nine films, as well as a TV series and video games. He was last seen slicing and dicing on screen in 2010’s reboot, “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” which grossed more than $117 million on a $35 million budget. New Line previously released the “Elm Street” movies and retains international rights to the series. Paramount is in the process of buying New Line’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.

  • Top 5 Most Memorable ‘Love Island USA’ Season 8 Moments

    Top 5 Most Memorable ‘Love Island USA’ Season 8 Moments

    From Kenzie’s “Clam Slams” to Zach and Bryce’s bromance, here are some of the most viral moments from the latest season of the hit Peacock reality series.

    'Love Island USA' season eight cast.

    ‘Love Island USA’ season eight cast.

    Ben Symons/Peacock

    Love Island USA season eight delivered not only romance, friendship and heartbreak but also plenty of memorable moments viewers will be thinking about long after Sunday night’s finale.

    When you stick a group of sexy singles in a Fijian villa for six weeks and film almost all of their interactions, there’s undoubtedly going to be viral moments, especially from season eight Islanders Melanie, Sol, Tierra, Kenzie, Bryce and Zach.

    While there are probably too many iconic moments in the villa to count, The Hollywood Reporter is highlighting some of the best and worst moments from the latest season of Peacock’s Love Island USA, below.

  • Would David Ellison Really Pull Paramount Out of California if the State Tries to Block Warner Bros. Merger?

    Would David Ellison Really Pull Paramount Out of California if the State Tries to Block Warner Bros. Merger?

    Is David Ellison considering a nuclear option of relocating Paramount’s headquarters from California — and potentially diverting billions of production dollars from the Golden State — if California Attorney General Rob Bonta files his expected challenge to the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal?

    That was the suggestion in an anonymously sourced item published by Semafor on Sunday, which said that Ellison’s “friends and advisers” have been “pushing the media executive to consider shifting his business out of the state.” The report cautioned that Paramount has made no decisions on this front and that such talk “may just be a show of brinkmanship.”

    Indeed, the Semafor report comes as California’s AG appears to be moving forward with plans to file a lawsuit to block Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery “as soon as this week,” the New York Times reported Sunday. California would be joined by states including New York, Washington and Connecticut in the legal challenge, in arguing the deal would “harm competition in the market” for tentpole films among other claims, per the Times report.

    Representatives for Paramount Skydance did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

    The message in the suggestion that Ellison’s Paramount might exit California: If you try to block or slow down our Warner Bros. takeover, we’ll take our business elsewhere. It’s obviously a saber-rattling move, but it isn’t clear whether the threat will give pause to California or other states with Democratic attorneys general who are opposing the deal.

    Paramount last year moved corporate headquarters after buying Paramount Global, relocating from New York City to Los Angeles. Other companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Larry Ellison’s Oracle, in recent years have moved their HQs out of California for tax reasons or over objections to California laws and regulations.

    It would be one thing for Paramount to shift its corporate headquarters out of L.A. That would potentially affect a few hundred jobs. But the logistics and repercussions of diverting Paramount-Warner Bros. film and TV productions out of California would be daunting — not only would it take several years to do that, it would poison the merged company’s relations with Hollywood professionals, who are already concerned that Paramount-WBD will curtail job opportunities.

    Paramount has lobbied Bonta about the alleged pro-competitive benefits of its Warner Bros. deal, and why specifically it would be a good thing for the state. In May, Paramount chief legal officer Makan Delrahim a letter to Bonta in which he “reiterate[d] our continued commitment and support to Californian movie theaters and audiences” coming “in response to certain misinformation about the marketplace expressed in recent public commentary.” Delrahim also noted Ellison’s repeated pledges that the merged company will release at least 30 films per year.

  • MrBeast Producer, Disney, Women in Fan LatAm Fuel Costa Rica Media Market

    MrBeast Producer, Disney, Women in Fan LatAm Fuel Costa Rica Media Market

    Revitalized last year as an offshoot of the Central America and Caribbean Audiovisual Market, the Costa Rica Media Market (CRMM) promises a packed two-day conference over July 14-15, followed by fam tours for most of its participants.

    Organized by Costa Rica’s Film Commission, its Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Promocomer), and tourism agency Essential Costa Rica, CRMM aims to bolster its position as a key platform for regional projects in the international market.

    Spearheaded by film commissioner Marysela Zamora, the market expects to host 900 business meetings among a host of international players numbering some 350, an uptick from last year’s 275.

    Round Table Talks, CRMM

    “One of the most exciting developments this year is the mix of industry perspectives coming together. We’re welcoming Disney, MrBeast, a new generation of producers working in Hollywood and leading players from countries like Mexico and Colombia—two of the region’s strongest audiovisual industries,” Zamora tells Variety.

    “Bringing them into conversation with talent from Central America and the Caribbean creates a unique space for new ideas, partnerships and a more connected regional industry.”

    Ari Cheren, the producer of MrBeast, the YouTube and TikTok phenomenon known for his fast-paced videos built around elaborate challenges and philanthropic efforts, will have the opportunity to meet with local producers and location managers, as well as join CRMM’s familiarization tours. “For us, it’s a valuable opportunity to showcase the talent, capabilities and locations that Costa Rica offers to international productions,” says Zamora.

    Among this edition’s highlights is the launch of Women in Fan LatAm, an extension of the WomanInFan initiative founded by the Sitges Int’l Film Festival as well as the continuation of Fantastic Lab Central America & Caribbean, introduced last year.

    “Through Fantastic Lab and Women in Fan LatAm, we’re opening new doors for genre cinema in Central America and the Caribbean, while showcasing 24 curated projects across fiction, documentaries and series. Together, they reflect a region with increasingly ambitious stories that are ready for the international stage,” Zamora notes.

    Tuesday’s Day 1 kicks off with a conversation with Costa Rica’s first-ever Oscar-nominated talent, Felipe Pacheco, who was recognized in the best sound category for his work on Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”

    This is followed by a much-anticipated talk on how studios choose where to film and questions what drives these all-important decisions. Panelists will include reps from Disney, 20th Century Studios and The Mediapro Studio’s Cimarrón Cine, known for a host of noteworthy credits, including J.A. Bayona’s Oscar- nominated “Society of the Snow.”

    The second panel, titled “The Future of Storytelling,” features Julye Cuartas from 11:11 Films & TV, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, CEO Alegría Films and Greta Talia Fuentes, Development VP of Macro.

    On Day 2, Charlye Sextro, senior VP of acquisitions & business development, Utopia will address one of the most perplexing issues that filmmakers face: “What Makes a Film Break Through? How Festivals, Buyers and Distributors Decide.”

    This is followed by a panel comprising TIFF programmer Diana Cadavid, Puerto Rico Film Festival’s Lester Rive and Patricia Velázquez of the Costa Rica Film Festival who will discuss how festivals drive talent, industry and audiences.

    The thorny issue of AI will of course be debated with Adriana Ramírez of Megatrax leading the discussion. Pitches and Workshops also form part of the agenda.

    Lastly, Sitges Festival director general Mónica García and director-producer Luis Javier Enaine will discuss the notable expansion of genre cinema in Latin America with Pablo Guisa, CEO Grupo Mórbido, moderating.

    “Our ambition is to establish Costa Rica Media Market as the leading audiovisual market for Central America and the Caribbean. We want it to be the place where international decision-makers come to discover the region’s next stories, talent and production opportunities. Ultimately, we hope the market becomes a catalyst for projects that move from development to production and reach audiences around the world,” Zamora concludes.

    Costa Rica Media Market

  • ‘Pursuit of Jade,’ ‘Midnight Temptation’ Lead iQIYI International’s 130% H1 2026 Viewership Surge

    ‘Pursuit of Jade,’ ‘Midnight Temptation’ Lead iQIYI International’s 130% H1 2026 Viewership Surge

    iQIYI International’s global viewership rose 130% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, the streaming platform said in a report, crediting a dual-engine strategy that pairs premium Chinese dramas with fast-paced microdramas.

    All 10 titles on iQIYI International’s top Chinese drama chart for the period were produced in-house, spanning historical epics, contemporary romance and coming-of-age stories. “Pursuit of Jade” ranked first across every content category on the platform and has topped Google search volume among Chinese historical dramas worldwide since 2025, a standing the company attributed to the show’s female-growth narrative and eastern aesthetic. Two other dramas from iQIYI International’s 2025 annual top 10 – “Fated Hearts” and “Speed and Love” – along with “The Best Thing,” reappeared on the H1 2026 chart.

    Microdramas are increasingly serving as an entry point for international viewers discovering Chinese content, with high emotional intensity and rapid pacing suited to mobile-first viewing habits, per iQIYI. “Midnight Temptation” ranked as the top microdrama globally, built around themes of personal growth and a woman’s push for equal standing. Storylines centered on class reversal, female empowerment and contemporary romance made up the rest of the top 10 microdrama chart.

    Localization has underpinned the growth, with subtitles now available in 13 languages alongside dubbing and a fan engagement effort the company calls the “iQIYI Starship Project,” which sends actors from hit titles out to markets including Thailand and Malaysia for live events. Thai-language dubbing helped push seven Chinese dramas into Thailand’s local top 10 this period.

    Regional preferences varied across markets, per the report. Southeast Asian audiences showed strong demand for premium Chinese dramas and localized content, while in Japan and South Korea, microdramas now make up half of the ten top-trending titles. Expanded Spanish- and Portuguese-language dubbing widened the platform’s reach in Latin America, and Middle East audiences continued to favor realism and military-themed premium dramas.

    iQIYI International launched its Global Trending Content initiative in January to track viewership patterns across its international footprint. The company said it remains focused on building out its slate of Asian dramas, animation, films and variety programming for global audiences.

  • Steven Spielberg Praises ‘Jurassic Park’ Star Sam Neill as ‘Exceptionally Collaborative’ in Tribute to Late Actor: He ‘Will Never Be Forgotten’

    Steven Spielberg Praises ‘Jurassic Park’ Star Sam Neill as ‘Exceptionally Collaborative’ in Tribute to Late Actor: He ‘Will Never Be Forgotten’

    Steven Spielberg has paid tribute to his “Jurassic Park” star Sam Neill, who died on Monday at the age of 78.

    “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park,” Spielberg said in a statement to Variety. “Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him. Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”

    Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for playing Dr. Alan Grant in Spielberg’s original “Jurassic Park” (1993) as well as follow-ups “Jurassic Park III” (2001) and “Jurassic World Dominion” (2022), was diagnosed in 2022 with stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. However, earlier this year he revealed he was cancer free.

    In a statement on Monday, Neill’s family said that his death was “sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.”

    “Jurassic World Dominion” director Colin Trevorrow also honored the actor in an Instagram post, writing: “Sam Neill was a deeply soulful and beautiful man. He was a friend and collaborator at a challenging time, and his strength gave us all strength. I’ll remember him for his tranquility, his love of wine, and for the calm assuredness he brought to his characters. It’s not every lifetime you get to befriend a legend. Forever grateful.”

    Besides his work in the “Jurassic Park” franchise, highlights from Neill’s five-decade career include the films “Dead Calm” with Nicole Kidman (1989), “The Hunt for Red October” alongside Sean Connery (1990) and Jane Campion’s Oscar darling “The Piano” (1993), as well as series “Reilly, Ace of Spies” (1983), “Merlin” (1998), “The Tudors” (2007) and “Peaky Blinders” (2013-14).

  • Major League Soccer Bets on a Star-Studded Ad Campaign to Help It Capitalize on World Cup Fever

    Major League Soccer Bets on a Star-Studded Ad Campaign to Help It Capitalize on World Cup Fever

    As the 2026 FIFA World Cup nears its end, Major League Soccer is using the global event to try and turbocharge its future, launching what the league says is the largest coordinated marketing campaign in its 33-year history.

    The effort features the somewhat audacious tagline “Thanks World, We’ll Take It From Here,” while leaning into the star power of its owners and top athletes, including Inter Miami megastar Lionel Messi, LAFC star Son Heung-Min, Inter Miami owner David Beckham, Austin FC owner Matthew McConaughey, LAFC owner Magic Johnson and Philadelphia Union owner Kevin Durant.

    “The FIFA World Cup is going to bring millions of new fans into the game, and our job is to make sure their soccer journey doesn’t end when the tournament does,” Radhika Duggal, the CMO of MLS, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “This campaign is about showing people that there’s a club, a community, and a story waiting for them every week in MLS. We’re meeting fans through culture, music, and entertainment, making it easy to discover the league, whether that’s on Apple TV or at their local stadium. MLS has never been more ambitious or more connected to the moments shaping culture, and we’re excited to welcome a whole new generation of fans.”

    The campaign will kick off during Fox‘s coverage of the World Cup semifinals and final this week, and will continue via Apple TV and other linear, streaming, digital, social, and out-of-home platforms.

    The campaign will also include elements from all 30 MLS clubs, with 22 of them offering “first match on us” promotions with free tickets. And it will include an Amazon Music Original cover of the Tribe Called Quest song “Can I Kick It?” — created exclusively for MLS. Produced by legendary producer DJ Premier and featuring new vocals and lyrics from breakout artist Samara Cyn.

    “At a defining moment for soccer in North America, MLS is turning global excitement into lasting engagement and connection,” said Camilo Durana, executive VP & chief business officer of MLS. “As the World Cup inspires new fans, our clubs and communities are ready to welcome them as the season resumes and the next chapter of their soccer journey begins with MLS.”

    MLS is betting big that enormous interest in the World Cup can translate into invigorated interest in its league, particularly if fans follow, say, Messi or Son. The World Cup has been a ratings bonanza for both Fox and Telemundo, garnering NFL-like numbers for games featuring the U.S. team, and Mexico-England’s blockbuster battle last week drawing more than 44 million people between the two networks and their streaming platforms.

    MLS, of course, used the 1994 World Cup (the last one to be played in the U.S.) to launch, but the interest in this one is off-the-charts, and it is hoping that it can be just the thing to kickstart the sport as something that can be viewed as on par with the top leagues in a sports-obsessed country.

  • ‘Digger’ Trailer: Tom Cruise Spent Days Listening to Alejandro G. Iñárritu Read Him the Script

    ‘Digger’ Trailer: Tom Cruise Spent Days Listening to Alejandro G. Iñárritu Read Him the Script

    Tom Cruise is known to be a student of film, the rare movie star who likes to speak at length about camera lenses and the crafts behind filmmaking. But one secret to his success? Getting directors to read to him aloud so he can better understand their visions.

    He says he’s done this with multiple directors, including Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the filmmaker behind Cruise’s upcoming prestige play Digger.

    “Alejandro took several days during which he was just reading the script to me and I’m listening to everything that’s in his mind, so that I can understand that, and then I know how to contribute to it, and bring that collaboration together,” Cruise said at a recent trailer event launch for Digger on the Warner Bros. lot.

    During the event, he said multiple times that Digger is the culmination of his 40-year career, and it seems that will be the selling point in the coming months as promotion ramps up in preparation for release and an eventual awards campaign.

    Indeed, the project is both a departure from his recent history and a return to form for the actor, who has spent the past decade almost exclusively in the world of franchise filmmaking. His $1.49 billion box office grossing Top Gun: Maverick “saved Hollywood’s ass” (to quote Spielberg), while his Mission: Impossible pushed the boundaries of action filmmaking and generated countless headlines for Cruise’s commitment to doing his own stunts.

    Digger unveiled its first trailer to the world Monday, with Cruise almost unrecognizable under makeup and prosthetics. It’s the type of film Warner Bros. hopes will remind the world that in addition to being one of the last remaining movie stars, Cruis is also an Oscar-level performer who has been nominated for acting three times (1989’s Born on the Fourth of July, 1996’s Jerry Maguire and 2000’s Magnolia, in addition to a nom for producing Top Gun: Maverick).

    A few days before the trailer hit online, Cruise assembled a group of journalists to the Warner Bros. lot for a moderated Q&A and meet and greet (complete with a giant shovel that he scaled for a photo-op).

    Cruise revealed that he was an instant fan of Iñárritu’s 2000 film Amores perros, inviting people to his home to screen it, even though the two would not meet for a few years later.

    Iñárritu was not available to join Cruise for the Warners event, but he sent a video from London, where he is finishing Digger. He said that after 2015’s The Revenant (for which he won the second of his back-to-back directing Oscars), he had the idea for Digger, and spent years developing the movie, before approaching Cruise around seven years ago.

    It’s Cruise’s first character actor style role since he wore prosthetics to play studio exec Les Grossman in the comedy Tropic Thunder.

    “The transformation he went through was astonishing. ‘Alejandro, it took me 40 years to become this character,’ he told me once. And I think we both know what it means to carry an entire career into a single moment like this. We both knew that throughout our journeys, we had never done anything even close to this,” said the filmmaker in the video sent to the event.

    Cruise re-iterated that the film is unlike anything that he’s made before.

    “I have never had something that could challenge me in this way and neither has Alejandro when we went in, ever. And when you see this film, it’s totally original,” said Cruise.

    Audiences will find out for themselves on Oct. 2.

  • Catherine Cohen Had Hailey Bieber’s Stroke. Now She’s Staging a One-Woman Show About It With Broadway Royalty.

    Three years ago, Cat Cohen was lying in a hospital bed feeling despondent. She’d suffered a small stroke — terrifying enough given she was only 31 years old — and the doctors discovered that she had a hole in her heart and needed surgery to repair it, and it felt, for a brief moment, like the end of the world. But then Cohen, an actress, podcaster, and comedian known for her blend of cabaret and standup, had an epiphany: This was incredible material. “It really was a spark,” she says. She started taking notes on her iPhone about what was happening to her, things the doctors were saying, how her family was reacting — all elements that, trauma aside, she says were genuinely funny.

    While she was on her phone after the stroke, she also saw a piece of reassuring news. “I read that Hailey Bieber had the exact same kind of stroke that I had, and it was my first flash of, I’m going to be okay,” she says. “She was already okay! She had a baby, she had her shit together. I was looking through her Instagram like, this is going to be me.”

    The experience eventually became the fodder for her new one-woman show Broad Strokes, which she’ll perform at New York’s famed Lucille Lortel theater from July 14 to Sept. 5. Though she’s a veteran of the stage, and the show will include a half-dozen songs in her signature style, it’s her off-Broadway debut and her first foray into work with a specific narrative thru-line.

    “The show begins with me discussing that I’ve always wanted to be exceptional, to be the main character, until something so intense and story-defining happened and I was like, fuck this shit,” says Cohen, who first performed the show during a monthlong residency at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “I discuss my healing, too, and the ending is open because I’m really still processing it.”

    Cohen has had dreams of being on Broadway (and “in the movies,” as she put it) since the very beginning. She grew up in Houston, Texas, and though she’s half Jewish, went through the traditional Southern experience of attending Christian youth groups. The east coast eventually beckoned, and she went to Princeton; she found her way into comedy after graduating and moving to New York without a clear path to a career onscreen. “When I was starting out, it was like I don’t know what auditions are, I don’t have an agent, I don’t know anything,” she says. “But you can write stuff and then get onstage anywhere in New York.” She studied the work of comedians she was inspired by, did time at Upright Citizens Brigade, and started doing standup, later settling into regular gigs at Joe’s Pub and Club Cumming (co-owned by the actor Alan Cumming).

    That work earned her a manager, and the chance to start auditioning in earnest. Her first “real” (Cohen’s words) job was a 2019 episode of the HBO dramedy High Maintenance, which kicked off a steady flow of guest roles: Search Party, What We Do in the Shadows, Girls5eva, and then a larger arc on season four of Only Murders in the Building. At the time, she says, the wait felt interminable. “You’re watching people in your circle pop off right away, and you’re going on Instagram thinking, I want to do that, I want to go to that, why am I not? And then you realize, okay honey, why don’t you sit down and write something and then maybe someone will care. Stop being a bitch.”

    After leaving the hospital in 2023, Cohen couldn’t stop writing. It mostly flowed, but she was mindful of the tone. “Since I’ve never dealt with material that is more serious, my fear was being maudlin,” she says. “I feel maudlin every day! I felt it in the hospital, too. But onstage, I’m like, who cares? I was desperate to keep it light.” She went on Mike Birbiglia’s podcast Working It Out and told him she was scared of introducing something upsetting in her comedy and alienating people. “He is the master of the one man show — Sleepwalk With Me was just so fucking good — and he was really encouraging that I would be fine.”

    Once it became clear that she had something special — and very specific — on her hands, she started looking for collaborators. She teamed up with producers Mike Lavoie and Carlee Briglia, who produced Oh, Mary! as well as standup specials for Colin Quinn and Mike Birbiglia. The pair suggested Alex Timbers, the Tony-award winning director of Moulin Rouge!, also known for David Byrne’s American Utopia, Gutenberg! The Musical and Nick Kroll and John Mulaney’s Oh Hello!, to helm the show. “Timbers had reached out to me years ago just to say I like your work and we should know each other, which was a dream come true, and it was one of those things where there wasn’t much for us to talk about work-wise but it was nice to know him,” she says. “But then we met again for Broad Strokes and the connection was instantaneous.”

    Cohen has released two comedy specials, 2022’s The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous, with Netflix, and the 2024 VEEPS hour Come For Me. But this is her first time developing her work with someone else in such close collaboration. “I’ve never had someone to talk through structure, and storytelling. He changed my life, because the end of the show really wasn’t clicking for me. He pointed out there should be a song, and then I went and wrote it and it was literally fixed.”

    At the same time that Cohen was developing Broad Strokes, her onscreen career was popping off. Her audition strategy is, in her words, to put herself on tape for literally everything. “I’ll fly across the country to do an audition, I don’t care.” That strategy scored her a small but memorable role in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, playing publicist to Elle Fanning’s Rachel Kemp. Her time in the film even brought her to the Academy Awards for the first time, an experience she describes as both magical and more nuanced than it may have appeared on her Instagram posts. “I want people who saw that I went to know, by the way, that I was there by myself and that it was awkward,” she says with a laugh. Trier pushed for the entire cast to get tickets to the big event, and the invite came through last minute (and with no plus-one). After missing out on Sentimental Value‘s Cannes Film Festival premiere (“I was invited, but I would have had to pay for my own flight”), she decided to go despite the occasionally-humbling circumstances.

    “The Oscars were like, ‘You can do the red carpet, but you’re going to have to come at 1:30pm,’” she says, which meant she was the first to arrive and then waited for hours for the show to start. When they won best international feature film, she watched from the nosebleeds. “Elle made sure to tell me that I won, I should come onstage with everyone, because she is the best, but I was up in the mezzanine and would have had to repel down,” says Cohen. “I was like, ‘That’s so sweet of you to think I’m sitting that close.’ Honey, I’m repelling.’”

    After the Oscars, she shot a romantic comedy for Prime Video, alongside Kiernan Shipka, Cole Sprouse and Megan Mullally (who Cohen says has her dream career), and she’s shopping a few pilot ideas to networks. She hopes to get the chance to film Broad Strokes for a wider release on a streaming platform, and that its iconic venue lures in a few local celebrities. “I would love for Sarah Jessica Parker to come and then I want her spreading the word,” she says. And, ultimately, Cohen is searching for new material for the next show. As her personal circumstances improve — her career is blossoming, she’s planning a wedding — her standup ideas tend to dwindle. “For so long comedy has been about men just fucking around, and I don’t want to have to be a disaster just for material,” she says. “The real question is, how do I make sure my life is going well, and keep one foot in things that are interesting and funny?”