Tag: Entertainment – Variety

Rapper Yung Miami has signed with WME for worldwide representation in all areas. The South Florida rapper and former member of the City Girls will release her solo debut on the relaunched Uptown Records later this year. The album’s lead single, “Spend Dat,” topped the Billboard Rap Airplay charts and is currently at No. 17 on the Hot 100, and she performed it during the New York Knicks’ Championship Parade last month.

+ New York’s City Parks Foundation will honor SummerStage festival founder and executive producer Joe Killian and Alex Blavatnik, Vice Chairman of Access Industries and Director of the Blavatnik Archive, at its 2026 Dinner & Concert benefit fundraiser, taking place September 10 at the SummerStage venue at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. Killian, who founded SummerStage and served as its executive producer from 1986 to 1993, will receive the SummerStage Icon Award, as the storied festival celebrates its milestone 40th anniversary this season, and Blavatnik will be honored with the 2026 City Parks Foundation Icon Award. The evening will also feature a performance by New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band and others to be announced.

City Parks Foundation, through its Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage Festival, is one of the largest presenters of free arts and cultural programs in New York City parks, and serves nearly 300,000 New Yorkers each year through arts, education, sports and community building initiatives.

“As we celebrate SummerStage’s 40th anniversary this year, we are truly honored to be presenting our trailblazing festival founder Joe Killian with this year’s SummerStage Icon Award. Joe had a groundbreaking vision to bring free, world-class performing arts programming to New Yorkers, and we are so proud to be continuing his mission across the city to this day” said Heather Lubov, Executive Director of City Parks Foundation.  “We are also equally excited to present Alex Blavatnik with the City Parks Foundation Icon Award and shine a spotlight on the longtime commitment and philanthropic support that he and his Foundation have provided to preserving cultural history and making it freely accessible to all – something we strongly believe in.”

+ Sony Music Publishing Nashville has signed Adam James to a global publishing deal. James has penned songs for Luke Combs, Dierks Bentley, Nate Smith and more. He recently contributed four songs on Cody Johnson’s CMA Album of the Year winner “Leather,” including “Whiskey Bent” featuring Jelly Roll. He also penned the “Knowing You” by Kenny Chesney, which was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2022 Academy of Country Music Awards.

James said, “I’m so grateful for this opportunity to be at Sony Music Publishing. The energy I feel from the team when I walk through the door every day is truly inspiring. I’m sincerely fired up to work with all y’all. It also makes me super happy to know my songs will be hanging out with Roger Miller’s and Dennis Linde’s on a massive cloud storage database somewhere. Dreams do come true!” 

+ Traditional country artist Colton Dawson has signed with WME for global representation. The 19-year-old Arizona native recently signed with Warner Records Nashville and is managed by TKO Artist Management.

“Signing with WME is a huge milestone for me,” said Dawson. “I grew up loving country music and dreaming about playing these kinds of stages, so to now have a team that believes in what I’m building means the world. I’m ready to get out there and keep earning it every night.”

+ Universal Music Group has named Tseyin Foo has been appointed President of Global Supply Chain, reporting to Boyd Muir, Chief Operating Officer, and based in Los Angeles.

Foo will lead UMG’s global supply chain, strengthening the capabilities that underpin the company’s worldwide business across its ecosystem of digital partnerships and direct to consumer destinations, as well as physical formats, merchandise and other consumer products, according to the announcement. She joins UMG from Skechers, where she served as Head of Global Supply Chain Planning & Strategy. and previous held senior positions at VF Corporation, across Timberland, Vans and 7 For All Mankind.

“As we continue to create more opportunities for growth throughout the music ecosystem, it’s increasingly important that we operate as one global organization with greater speed, flexibility, and precision,” said Boyd Muir. “Tseyin brings a rare combination of strategic leadership, operational excellence, and technology expertise that will help us deliver greater impact at greater scale, driving even more value for artists, songwriters, labels and entrepreneurs around the world.”

+ Detroit-based producer and executive Justin “Jay” Norman, who most recently served as Global Director of Creative Strategy and Global Head of Music Marketing at Spotify, has left the streamer to lead Verse + Hook (V+H); the creative strategy, branding, and marketing consultancy he co-founded.

Co-founder Miso Brown steps in as Head of Brand Amplification, Partner Tierra Filhiol assumes the role of Head of Cultural Intelligence & Strategy, and Kyle Bernhardt will take on the position of Executive Director, Head of Creative. Rounding out the team, Chelsea V Huguley will manage Client Partnerships & Business Development as Director, Apryl Gordy joins as Director of People & Operations, and Joe Zimmer will serve as Director of Project Management. According to the announcement, Verse + Hook operates across five practice areas: Strategy, Brand + Creative, Production + Content, Experiential, and Music + Sync via its sync licensing arm, Soundry.

Wonder Project is expanding its investment in international scripted programming with three projects from the U.K. and Ireland. These include the “Leonard and Hungry Paul,” narrated by Julia Roberts, “You & Me,” executive produced by Russell T Davies and “Rewarding,” a new original commission with BBC Northern Ireland.

“The UK and Ireland have an incredible track record of developing distinctive voices and building shows that travel internationally without losing what makes them unique,” said Tristen Tuckfield, head of content acquisition at Wonder Project. “That’s exactly what we’re interested in — stories that are deeply rooted in a specific world but broadly relatable because of the people and relationships at their center.”

“Leonard and Hungry Paul” is the critically acclaimed Northern Irish series narrated by Oscar winner Roberts. Wonder has acquired exclusive U.S. streaming rights to the six-part series from Avalon, which will be branded as a Wonder Project Original. Based on the novel of the same name, the feel-good series follows two board-gaming friends in their thirties who meander through leafy suburban life finding solace in their quiet routines. Unexpected events prompt both men to meet a world that is suddenly wider and full of unfamiliar possibilities.

The series stars Alex Lawther, Laurie Kynaston and “Derry Girls” star Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, and premiered on BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two and BBC iPlayer to critical acclaim. “Leonard And Hungry Paul” is a Subotica production for BBC Northern Ireland in association with BBC Comedy, Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland and RTÉ, and a co-production with Avalon.

“Following its critical success in the UK and strong international sales, we’re thrilled to partner with Wonder Project to bring ‘Leonard and Hungry Paul’ to U.S. audiences and continue building the series’ momentum around the world,” said Adam Barth, SVP, scripted & digital distribution at Avalon.

Wonder has also secured exclusive U.S. premiere rights to “You & Me,” the three-part drama from “Happy Prince,” part of ITV Studios, executive produced Davies. Originally produced for ITVX, the series stars Harry Lawtey and Jessica Barden and explores love, loss and the possibility of finding happiness again after a profound tragedy. All three parts of “You & Me” will debut on Wonder on Aug 6.

Rounding out the slate is “Rewarding,” a new six-part comedy series commissioned by BBC Northern Ireland and Wonder Project with support from Northern Ireland Screen. Made by Conker Pictures, part of Banijay UK, the series is set on the frontlines of domiciliary care and follows the messy lives of support workers and their disabled and neurodivergent clients. Banijay Rights handles international distribution for the series.

“Rewarding”  was originally developed as a short pilot episode as part of BBC Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen’s Green Lit scheme — an initiative designed to support and showcase emerging talent in writing, directing, production and acting across Northern Ireland.

“We’re interested in creators who have a deep understanding of the worlds they’re writing about,” said Justin Rosenblatt, head of global TV at Wonder Project. “‘Rewarding’ comes from a place of genuine insight, and that’s what gives the series its humor, specificity and emotional honesty. It’s also what made this partnership with BBC NI such a natural fit. From the beginning, we shared the same creative instincts, vision and ambitions for the series.”

The series features disabled, neurodivergent and learning disabled talent in key roles and draws on Matthew McDevitt’s own experiences in the care system to bring authenticity and nuance to its portrayal of social care. Starring comedian Vittorio Angelone and Hannah McClean, “Rewarding” is expected to premiere on Wonder in late 2026.

“It’s wonderful to see ‘Leonard and Hungry Paul’ and ‘Rewarding,’ both commissioned by BBC Northern Ireland, reaching a wider international audience through Wonder Project,” said Eddie Doyle, head of content commissioning, BBC Northern Ireland.

Paradise City Sales has boarded worldwide sales on Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Gharaei’s latest feature, “Falling House” which is set to world premiere in the Horizons section at the Venice Film Festival.

“Falling House” marks his follow up to “Blockage,” a 2017 drama that portrayed contemporary Iranian society and won best film at Busan before going on to play at Rotterdam and Munich.

CAA Media Finance is handling U.S. rights, while Paradise City Sales represents international sales on “Falling House.”

The film follows a modest family on the outskirts of Tehran who faces the imminent destruction of their home as part of a vast redevelopment project. While Rashid, the father and a prison guard, is being accused of corruption, he discovers that his eldest daughter, Ensi, is secretly planning to leave Iran to become a model. As the bulldozers draw ever closer, the tensions within the household begin to rise.

“The most terrifying structures are the ones that no longer need a tyrant,” said Gharaei. “Their logic has already taken root in the minds of many. They become truly powerful the moment they are no longer recognized as violence. A prison no longer needs walls. It only needs people willing to call it home.”

Written by Mohsen Gharaei and Amir Mohammad Abdi, “Falling House” stars Laleh Marzban, Rima Raminfar, Farhad Aslani and Elena Khakbaz. The film is scored by critically acclaimed composer Max Richter (“Hamnet”), cinematography by Farshad Mohammadi, editing by Evelyn Rack (“Sound of Falling”) and Emad Khodabakhsh, and sound design by Oscar-nominated Ansgar Frerich (“Of Fathers and Sons”).

“Falling House” is produced by Milad Khosravi and Mohsen Gharaei for Seven Springs Pictures (“Divine Comedy”), Oscar-winning producer Odessa Rae for RaeFilm Studios (“The Voice of Hind Rajab”), and Daya Fernández, Amaury Nolasco and Alois Rubenbauer for 3SIX9 Studios. Basis Berlin Filmproduktion (“Of Fathers and Sons”) and Zentropa Germany (“King’s Land”) are co-producing, with Oscar-nominated producer Jon Kilik (“Babel,” “The Hunger Games”) serving as executive producer.

“‘Falling House’ carries a warning we have felt growing for years,” said Khosravi, who is producing for Seven Springs Pictures. He added that the idea for the film “was conceived long ago, and the screenplay was completed before the present madness in our country could have been imagined.” “Yet today the film feels painfully prophetic, reflecting the long-term suffering of ordinary people who have endured decades of oppression and now face the fear and uncertainty brought by the ongoing war,” he continued.

Rae at RaeFilm Studios pointed “Falling House” is not a film about politics, but rather a “film about people living under its weight.” “Every system eventually arrives at someone’s front door. Mohsen captures this with extraordinary restraint,” she added.

Jeanne Loriotti, sales executive at Paradise City Sales, said “Mohsen Gharaei has crafted a compelling, plot-driven story that combines a true sense of urgency with remarkably rich and layered characters.” She said the company was “struck by the film’s mounting tension, its emotional depth, and its remarkable performances, particularly from the female cast.” Mohsen Gharaei is represented by Seven Springs Pictures.

Paradise City Sales’ Venice slate also includes Andrea Pallaoro’s “The Echo Chamber” and Lili Horvát’s “My Notes on Mars,” opening Venice Days.

Fandango Sales has boarded international sales on “The Girl With the Leica,” directed by Alina Marazzi, just announced by the Venice Film Festival as the opening film of its Horizons section.

The film paints a portrait of pioneering photojournalist Gerda Taro, the German-Jewish war photographer, anti-fascist and artist whose legacy has long been overshadowed. Together with her partner, the Hungarian photographer André Friedmann, Taro created the fictional photographer “Robert Capa” — a pseudonym adopted by Friedmann designed to overcome growing political intolerance in Europe and appeal to the American market. As a result, many of the photographs long attributed to Capa were in fact taken by Taro. While covering the Spanish Civil War, she became the first female photojournalist to be killed on the battlefield.

“The Girl With the Leica” re-centers the story firmly on Taro herself — her work, her deeply held political beliefs, and the vibrant circle of admirers, artists and intellectuals drawn to her beauty, intelligence and independence.

The film is set in Paris on July 14, 1937. Taro spends her final day before returning to the Spanish front with Capa, and the close friends with whom she escaped Nazi Germany. As past and present intertwine, the defining moments of her life resurface: her political activism in Leipzig alongside her first love, her years of exile in Paris, her whirlwind romance with Capa, her discovery of photography, and her growing determination to use her Leica as a tool for resistance and freedom.

Raffaella Di Giulio, managing director, international sales and acquisitions for Fandango Sales, commented, “We are delighted to reunite with Vivo Film and to work for the first time with Alina. Through a beautiful and poetic blend of archival footage and fiction, she has crafted a stunning film that lets audiences rediscover a long-forgotten figure: Gerda Taro. We cannot wait to share her story with distributors and audiences alike.”

Producers Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa for Vivo Film and Jonas Dornbach for Komplizen Film added: “Gerda Taro’s story feels even more urgent and relevant today than when we first began developing the project years ago. Through her work, she fought for freedom and never lost sight of the political power of photography, especially in times of war. Alina Marazzi is one of the most distinctive voices in Italian cinema. With this film she takes a remarkable step into fiction while remaining deeply true to what has always defined her work: an exploration of women’s lives, a creative incorporation of archival material, and a constant dialogue between history and the present.”

The film features Emilia Schüle, Aaron Altaras, Luna Wedler, Lucas Englander and Thomas Schubert, along with Sebastian Schneider, Idan Weiss, Lia von Blarer, Hans-Christian Hegewald, Jeremy Mockridge and Joel Basman.

Schüle, who stars as Taro, is best known for playing the lead role in the Canal+ and BBC Series “Marie Antoinette” and TV roles including Netflix’s “Der Parfumeur” and ZDF’s popular “Ku’damm” series. Her film credits include recent Berlinale breakout “The Trial of Hein,” as well as German box-office hits “Wunderschön” and “Wunderschöner.”

“The Girl With the Leica” was lensed by Chilean-Danish cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro, known for his Lars von Trier collaborations including “Melancholia” and “Nymphomaniac,” and integrates images shot by Taro as well as rarely seen archival material into the drama.

The film is freely adapted from Helena Janeczek’s novel “The Girl With the Leica” (2017), recognized in Italy with the Premio Strega — widely regarded as Italy’s most prestigious literary award. The novel also won the Premio Bagutta, one of Italy’s oldest and most prestigious literary prizes, before being translated into several languages, including English, German, French and Spanish, and published in 15 countries.

Marazzi is an acclaimed director working across documentary, fiction and theater, with women’s subjectivity and the imagery of memory at the heart of her work. Her films include “For One More Hour With You” (Un’ora sola ti vorrei), which received a Special Jury Mention at the 2002 Locarno Film Festival; “We Want Roses Too” (Vogliamo anche le rose), presented at Locarno and winner of the FOCAL Award in 2008; and “All About You” (Tutto parla di te), winner of the Tao Due – Caméra d’Or Award at the Rome Film Festival in 2012. She is also co-artistic director of the UnArchive Found Footage Fest.

The screenplay was written by Marazzi and Valia Santella, freely adapted from the novel by Janeczek.

“The Girl With the Leica” is an Italian-German co-production, produced by Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa for Italy’s Vivo Film with Rai Cinema, Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski and Maren Ade for Germany’s Komplizen Film, in co-production with ZDF/ARTE, in association with Beatrice Bordone Bulgari for Eolo Film Productions, in co-production with Film i Väst and Zentropa Sweden, with the support of Eurimages – Council of Europe; MIC – Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo; with the contribution of PR FESR Piemonte 2021 – 2027 Bando Piemonte Film TV Fund; with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte; with the support of Avviso pubblico Lazio Cinema International (PR FESR Lazio 2021-2027); with the support of DFFF – Deutscher Filmförderfonds and MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung; with the support of Creative Europe Media.

The film will be distributed in Italy by BIM Distribuzione with a release date to be announced and released in Germany by Port au Prince.

The Sarajevo Film Festival, the leading festival for South-East European cinema, unveiled the lineups for the four competition sections on Thursday, which include 21 world premieres, six international premieres, one European premiere and 23 regional premieres. The 32nd edition runs from Aug. 14 to 21.

The narrative feature films section includes nine films from South-East Europe, of which one film will have its world premiere, one its international premiere, one its European premiere, and six their regional premieres.

Elma Tataragić, the programmer of the section, said, “The selection is dominated by second and third features, alongside one debut and two fifth feature films, reflecting both the emergence of new voices and the continued development of established auteurs. Together, these nine films offer a rich panorama of contemporary regional cinema, spanning intimate family dramas, coming-of-age stories, social realism, and formally adventurous works. With six of the nine films directed by women, this year’s competition reflects not only the artistic diversity of the region but also the growing strength and plurality of voices shaping its cinematic future.”

Competition Program – Narrative Feature Film:
EVERYTHING THAT’S WRONG WITH YOU, Urša Menart (Slovenia, Germany, Serbia, 2026, 97 min.) – World Premiere
After the emotional collapse that follows her mother’s death, Maruša builds an online bond with Alja, a nurse living in a small coastal town in Germany. Bonding through humor over their shared struggles, Maruša and Alja quickly develop a friendship that is put to the test when they finally meet in person.
SMALL THINGS, Zvonimir Jurić (Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, 2026, 80 min.) – International Premiere
During a winter weekend, sisters Anica and Irena, accompanied by Irena’s two children, travel to an island to visit their father and their brother Ivan, a quiet loner. The reason for the gathering is their father’s decision to sell the family land. Confined in the worn-down family house, the members of the family are forced to confront long-suppressed tensions and difficult choices, while one of them will have to make the ultimate sacrifice.
SKATEBOARDING IS NOT FOR GIRLS, Dina Duma (North Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, 2026, 82 min.) – European Premiere
In Skopje, 11-year-old Adela and her elder sister Zara share a deep bond shaped by their navigation of two contradictory worlds. At school, they are typical, rebellious teens with skateboards, social media, crop tops, and boyfriends. After school, in a quiet and disciplined mode, they help their mother with cleaning jobs to make ends meet. When poverty shakes the family, Adela tries to find a way to save her sister – still a minor – from a fate that is becoming almost inevitable: an arranged marriage.
17, Kosara Mitić (North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, 2026, 105 min.) – Regional Premiere
Seventeen-year-old Sara is hiding a secret during a school trip. When the excursion spirals out of control and Sara witnesses her friend Lina being sexually assaulted, the two girls try to break the cycle of casual violence. This seals an everlasting bond between them.
DUA, Blerta Basholli (Kosovo, Switzerland, France, 2026, 101 min.) – Regional Premiere
Pristina, Kosovo, late 1990s. As war looms and ethnic tensions escalate, 13-year-old Dua struggles to find her place among her peers and within her changing body. After an incident shakes her community, she becomes a target herself and bonds with a fearless girl who draws her toward an unexpected form of resistance. Between the daily violence and the growing threat of exile, there is little room for quiet awakenings.
EVERYTIME, Sandra Wollner (Austria, Germany, 2026, 121 min.) – Regional Premiere
A tragedy brings a mother, a daughter, and a teenage boy together. Struggling with blame and forgiveness, the unlikely trio takes a trip to Tenerife for a family holiday that never happens. Under the glow of the sun, past and present quietly start to overlap.
SHAME AND MONEY, Visar Morina (Germany, Kosovo, Slovenia, Albania, North Macedonia, Belgium, 2026, 129 min.) – Regional Premiere
A couple in their forties live with their extended family in rural Kosovo, where they make a modest living from their farm. Following a familial dispute, their livelihood is lost. They are forced to move to Pristina, where the pressure to provide for their family weighs heavily on the parents as they do their best to find work and a place to stay. A journey into a hyper-capitalist society begins.
SUPPORTING ROLE, Ana Urushadze (Georgia, Estonia, Türkiye, 2026, 139 min.) – Regional Premiere
Niaz Ninua has seen brighter days. Once a leading man, he stepped away from cinema some 15 years ago. When he decides to return, he discovers a landscape that no longer revolves around him. He attends a casting session for a supporting role in a debut feature directed by a young woman. The encounter bruises his pride, and he leaves unconvinced, dismissing the role as pretentious. Yet, as he replays the encounter, Niaz begins to sense a pull toward the role he so quickly dismissed. What seemed beneath him starts to reveal contours he did not anticipate.
YOU DON’T BELONG HERE, Florin Șerban (Romania, 2026, 154 min.) – Regional Premiere
Marius, the chief medical officer at a hospital in his small hometown, is raising his teenage son Ioan alone after the death of his wife. Marius is a confident professional who has no idea what his son gets up to at night: cycling through town vandalizing cars with a gang of masked vigilantes. Marius’ world is shaken when he learns the police have come to suspect his son of murder.

Competition Program – Documentary Feature:
BEAR WITH ME, Martin Genovski (Bulgaria, 2026, 84 min.) – World Premiere
GOOD PEOPLE, Milcho Manchevski (North Macedonia, 2026, 86 min.) – World Premiere
THE BALKAN COWBOY, Dragana Jurišić (Croatia, Ireland, 2026, 93 min.) – World Premiere
THE FORBIDDEN AUNT, Bojana Novaković (Serbia, Australia, 2026, 82 min.) – World Premiere
WE SHALL LIVE TOGETHER, Damir Markovina (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2026, 75 min.) – World Premiere
DON’T ASK ME IF I KILLED, Helena Maksyom (Romania, Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine, 2026, 103 min.) – International Premiere
FRAGMENTS OF BELONGING, Tatjana Božić (Croatia, Netherlands, Germany, 2026, 80 min.) – International Premiere
WHEN I GET OUT, Metod Pevec (Slovenia, 2026, 106 min.) – International Premiere
32 METERS, Morteza Atabaki (Türkiye, Iran, Qatar, 2025, 83 min.) – Regional Premiere
BUGBOY, Lucas Paleocrassas (Greece, France, Denmark, 2026, 87 min.) – Regional Premiere
ELECTING MS SANTA, Raisa Răzmeriță (Moldova, Romania, 2025, 95 min.) – Regional Premiere
FOR LIFE, Ahmet Seven (Türkiye, 2026, 89 min.) – Regional Premiere
TO HOLD A MOUNTAIN, Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić (Serbia, France, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, 2026, 105 min.) – Regional Premiere

Competition Program – Documentary Shorts:
BRO RAM, Branko Schmidt (Croatia, 2026, 14 min.) – World Premiere
FAHRUDIN, Alen Drljević (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2026, 20 min.) – World Premiere
OF LIGHT GHOSTS, Isabella Fellinger (Austria, 2026, 27 min.) – World Premiere
THE CAPTAIN AND THE CASPIAN SEA, Turkan Huseyin (Azerbaijan, 2026, 30 min.) – World Premiere
DEAR ORCHID, Hana Selena Sokolović (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Netherlands, 2026, 18 min.) – International Premiere
ASPARAGUS BEAR, Ivan Grgur (Croatia, 2025, 18 min.) – Regional Premiere
HOLY DEFIANCE, Karla Jelić (Croatia, 2026, 15 min.) – Regional Premiere
THE FERRY FLOWS, Zhora Papoian (Ukraine, United Kingdom, 2026, 18 min.) – Regional Premiere

Out of Competition
YUGO GOES TO AMERICA, Filip Grujić, Aleksa Borković (Serbia, Croatia, 2026, 87 min.) – National Premiere

Competition Program – Narrative Short Film
DITCH, Marianna Vas (Hungary, 2026, 24 min.) – World Premiere
HIDDEN IN FRAME, Anna Sarukhanova (Georgia, United Kingdom, 2026, 16 min.) – World Premiere
MAMAMA, Danica Dakić (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2026, 8 min.) – World Premiere
PATCH, Luka Galešić (Croatia, 2026, 13 min.) – World Premiere
PORKATAL, Sis Gürdal (Türkiye, France, United Kingdom, 2026, 16 min.) – World Premiere
ADGWA-ATA, Zsuzsanna Krief (Hungary, France, 2026, 15 min.) – Regional Premiere
COSMONAUTS, Leo Černic (Slovenia, Italy, 2026, 14 min.) – Regional Premiere
GO OUTSIDE AND HUG A TREE, Irina Alexiu (Romania, 2026, 14 min.) – Regional Premiere
MOTHERHOOD, Anca Damian (Romania, Belgium, France, 2026, 18 min.) – Regional Premiere
NOBODY SAID ANYTHING, Tamara Todorović (Serbia, France, Slovenia, Croatia, 2026, 15 min.) – Regional Premiere

Competition Program – Student Short Film
HYENA, Fanny Rösch (Austria, 2026, 23 min.) – World Premiere
NEIGHBOR, Dan Grabnar (Serbia, 2026, 17 min.) – World Premiere
SISTERS, Sara Ećimović (Serbia, 2026, 21 min.) – World Premiere
THE GO-BETWEEN, Emir Solaković (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2026, 7 min.) – World Premiere
UNWELLNESS, Réka Pinczés (Hungary, 2026, 21 min.) – World Premiere
WATER WALLS, Bianka Szelestey (Hungary, 2026, 34 min.) – World Premiere
THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS, BUT WHY NOT LEND IT TO THE SPECIALISTS?, Alexandra Schinteie (Romania, 2026, 18 min.) – International Premiere
A. WANTS OUT (ON NEUTRALITY), Zorah Berghammer (Austria, 2026, 18 min.) – Regional Premiere
BONEFUZZ, Márk László (Hungary, 2026, 10 min.) – Regional Premiere
OVER THE THRESHOLD, Tara Gajović (Serbia, 2026, 15 min.) – Regional Premiere
RABBIT DON’T RUN, Maximilian Conway, Elisabeth Jakob (Austria, 2026, 30 min.) – Regional Premiere

Daniel Wu received the Best from the East Award at the New York Asian Film Festival, capping a stretch that has put him back at the center of Hong Kong’s two biggest franchises: “Cold War 1994” and the “Twilight of the Warriors” series.

“Cold War 1994” is the third installment in the “Cold War” series, a prequel written and directed by Longman Leung and produced by Bill Kong and Ivy Ho, set in the run-up to Hong Kong’s 1997 handover. The first two films, released in 2012 and 2016, were the highest-grossing Hong Kong productions of their respective years. In the new film, Wu plays Peter Choi opposite Terrance Lau’s M.B. Lee, a character previously portrayed as a full-blown villain by Chang Kuo-chu in “Cold War 2.”

Wu tells Variety he never consciously stepped away from Hong Kong film. The pandemic simply thinned out a schedule that had settled into a rhythm of one American project and one Asian project a year. When “Cold War” came along, the pull was the production itself.

“It’s going to be a quality production, the scale of it, the script,” Wu says of what drew him back, pointing also to the chance to work alongside three generations of Hong Kong actors, including Lau, whom he singles out as representative of the industry’s new generation.

The film folds a police procedural into a much larger political canvas, tracking the British colonial government, the Hong Kong police, a powerful business dynasty and the criminal underworld as the territory changes hands. Wu, who was 22 at the time of the actual handover, says the setting let the production dig into a period of corruption and upheaval he lived through but never fully understood until now.

Playing a younger version of a character already established as an antagonist gave Wu a different kind of challenge than he’s used to. He calls the role the most morally ambiguous he’s taken on, since it required tracing how a man who becomes an “evil mastermind” gets there gradually, through a series of compromised choices, rather than starting out that way.

Returning to a Hong Kong set after several years away felt less like a job and more like a reunion, Wu says. He recalls arriving for his costume fitting and recognizing nearly everyone in the room, a small-industry familiarity he doesn’t get on American productions, where he’s lucky to know one or two people on a given crew. Sitting down on set with his rice box for lunch, eating char siu fan alongside people he’d worked with for decades, brought back what he calls a genuinely warm feeling. He credits Hong Kong crews with a particular work ethic: “efficient, fast, and no bullshit,” a directness he links to a broader Hong Kong attitude of simply getting things done.

Wu spent much of his “Cold War 1994” press tour in Hong Kong wearing a hat that, it turns out, was hiding a new haircut for his role in “Twilight of the Warriors: The Final Chapter,” the sequel to director Soi Cheang’s “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.” That 2024 film, adapted from Yu Yi’s novel “City of Darkness” and the manhua of the same name by Andy Seto, became Hong Kong’s second-biggest commercial hit ever and swept the Hong Kong Film Awards. Where “Walled In” was set in the 1980s, the new installment moves the story to 1993, the year Kowloon’s Walled City was demolished.

Wu, who studied the Walled City’s architecture in school, calls the setting a rare chance to build a mainstream action franchise around a genuinely singular piece of Hong Kong urban history. He sees both projects as part of a broader shift in how Hong Kong cinema treats its own past, using the 1990s, a decade he says filmmakers “glossed over” while living through it, as material for reflection rather than backdrop.

That shift, Wu says, is happening at a moment when Hong Kong productions can draw on newer digital tools while still leaning on the practical, in-camera stunt work the industry built its reputation on, recalling a time when performers “threw themselves off the top of a building and just did it for real in camera.” He pushes back on the long-running narrative that Hong Kong film is dying, arguing instead that it’s in something closer to a renaissance, even with a fraction of the annual output it had in the 1980s and ’90s. “There’s a lot of interesting films being made, whether big scale or small scale, a lot of great performances, a lot of great scripts being written,” he says.

The kinds of roles Wu is offered in Hong Kong have shifted too, from the younger leading-man parts that defined much of his career to more mature, fatherly characters, a change he credits partly to age and partly to the character work he’s done in the U.S., where his credits have included the AMC martial-arts series “Into the Badlands,” HBO’s “Westworld,” the film “Tomb Raider” and the animated series “American Born Chinese.” He says that kind of opportunity has thinned out generally, arguing Hollywood has moved past a period of genuinely interesting roles for Asian American actors and back toward “crumbs” or stereotypical parts. He’s more pointed about the ceiling he still sees in the industry, where he says opportunities for Asian American actors, and especially Asian American males, remain narrow.

Moving between the two industries has left Wu with what he describes as an unusual sense of identity, neither fully of one world nor the other, but both at once. He notes that his experience differs from most Asian American peers, many of whom have never topped a call sheet, while his own career has run the opposite path: character roles in the U.S., leading roles in Asia. He also points to a structural difference between the two systems: Asian productions tend to run through a single director’s vision, while larger American productions are often shaped by committee, with multiple producers weighing in, leaving him unsure at times whose direction to follow.

Looking back over 25 years, Wu points to his collaboration with director Derek Yee, spanning six films including “One Nite in Mongkok,” “Drink-Drank-Drunk,” “Protégé” and “Triple Tap,” as the turning point that pulled him away from the romantic leads he was initially cast in and toward the darker, more complex characters he prefers. He likens the partnership to Robert De Niro’s with Martin Scorsese, a shorthand so complete that he’d commit to a Yee project without reading the script. “That put my career in a direction that I wanted it to go,” he says.

Wu is now developing two scripts for the American market and one for the mainland Chinese market, a deliberate move toward more proactive control over his own projects, with an eye toward eventually returning to directing, nearly two decades after his 2007 feature debut, “Heavenly Kings.” Whatever comes next, he says the appeal hasn’t changed. Whether it’s a script’s demands or the actors around him, every project still teaches him something new. “I would say the craft, the craft still challenges me,” Wu says.

The Venice Film Festival is about to reveal its 2026 lineup, promising a plethora of buzzy titles from international directors.

Like Cannes this year, Venice is expected to have a lighter Hollywood presence than in previous editions. But that does not mean there won’t be a robust roster of awards contenders.

As previously announced, the festival will open with the world premiere of Danny Boyles “Ink,” which will also compete for the festival’s prestigious Golden Lion. The 1960s-set biographical drama stars Guy Pearce as divisive business magnate Rupert Murdoch and Jack O’Connell as Larry Lamb, the editor of Murdoch-owned U.K. tabloid The Sun. Netflix recently acquired the U.S. rights to the film.

Closing Venice this year is “Dio Ride,” the latest work from Italian filmmaker Giovanni Veronesi, in the out of competition section. The film, whose title translates to “God Laughs,” stars Pierfrancesco Favino (“Maria,” “World War Z”) as a friar in 17th-century Tuscany who manages to speak about God in a more joyful way. However, his light-hearted approach provokes the hostility of the church.

“The Bride” and “The Lost Daughter” director Maggie Gyllenhaal is set to preside over the competition jury, the third woman to do so in the past five years following Isabelle Huppert, Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett. She will be joined by Hong Kong filmmaking giant Johnnie To, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat, French director and screenwriter Xavier Giannoli, “The Brutalist” composer Daniel Blumberg and U.S.-based Italian film academic Francesco Casetti.

George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn will be honored with lifetime achievement awards.

The 83rd Venice Film Festival runs from Sept. 2 to 12.

See the full lineup below, updating live.

COMPETITION

“Ink,” Danny Boyle (opening film)

VENICE OPEN (OUT OF COMPETITION — FICTION)

“Dio Ride,” Giovanni Veronesi (closing film)

OUT OF COMPETITION — NON-FICTION

FILMS ON FILMS

OUT OF COMPETITION — SHORTS

OUT OF COMPETITION — SERIES

HORIZONS

Elsa Keslassy contributed to this report.

French animation and visual effects company STIM – whose credits include “The Wild Robot,” “The Garfield Movie” and “Coyote vs. Acme” – is opening a production center in Spain’s Canary Islands, with plans to create more than 100 jobs as it expands its European operations.

STIM Tenerife is set to begin operating in August and expects to employ 60 people by the end of 2026. Recruitment is already underway for character modelers, set and prop modelers, look-development artists and supervisors, among other high-skilled positions.

The company has chosen to establish the operation within the Canary Islands Special Zone, or ZEC, a low-tax regime for qualifying companies operating in the Spanish archipelago.

“The opening of STIM Tenerife in the Canary Islands marks a strategic stage in STIM’s evolution,” said STIM Tenerife CEO Amélie Houpline. “We have found an environment here that brings together talent, strong development potential and a dynamic creative community.”

The new base, she added, will allow STIM to increase its production capacity “without compromising the artistic and technical excellence that defines our identity.”

Founded by Félix Ferrand, Jordan Soler and Benoit Gielly, STIM specializes in 3D animation, VFX and digital production for film, TV and advertising. With operations in France and Belgium, it has evolved from a character-focused studio into a company capable of handling projects from design and pre-production through to final delivery.

STIM collaborated with DreamWorks Animation on the facial and body rigging of several characters for “The Wild Robot.” Its other credits include the Sony release “The Garfield Movie,” Warner Bros.’ “Coyote vs. Acme,” FX’s Emmy-winning “Shōgun” and the Annecy-selected Franco-Belgian toon feature “Girl in the Clouds.”

The Tenerife operation will expand the company’s production capacity while supporting financing structures spanning France, Belgium and the Canary Islands. STIM said that footprint could give producers additional options for assembling European animation and VFX financing.

“Our ambition is not limited to producing international projects from the islands,” Houpline said. “We want to build a studio with a long-term future, generate highly qualified employment and contribute to the development of the Canary Islands ecosystem.”

STIM’s arrival comes as the archipelago continues to build its animation, VFX and digital-arts sector. According to figures provided by the ZEC, the Canary Islands now host more than 30 specialist companies and close to 2,000 professionals, up from a comparatively small industry less than a decade ago.

Companies operating in the islands include Fortiche, the studio behind “Arcane,” as well as Atlantis Animation, 3 Doubles Producciones, Tomavision, Gigglebug, Amuse Studios and Ánima Kitchent.

Recent expansion has also included Surfing Giant Studios’ Tenerife operation and DNEG’s investment in Ánima Kitchent, backed by the Spanish government’s SETT, as part of a broader effort to scale the sector.

“A few years ago, there was practically no animation industry in the Canary Islands,” said ZEC President Pablo Hernández. “Today, we have dozens of studios, close to 2,000 professionals and projects for some of the world’s largest entertainment companies.”

STIM’s arrival, he added, shows that the archipelago “has ceased to be a promise and has become an established reality within the international animation industry.”

Hernández said the significance of the latest investments goes beyond attracting individual companies or productions.

“We are seeing the creation of a genuine industrial ecosystem, with local talent, specialist training and companies capable of leading global productions,” he said. “We have moved from attracting specific projects to attracting permanent centers for decision-making, production and creative development.”

The next phase, according to Hernández, will involve strengthening local intellectual property, developing original content and attracting larger-scale international investment.

Industry projections suggest the Canary Islands could reach between 3,000 and 4,000 specialized animation and digital-arts jobs over the coming years.

It took fourteen and a half years, but Jason Alexander finally apologized.

On Wednesday, the “Seinfeld” actor issued a public apology to Courtney Stodden for a “comedy” sketch the two filmed together wherein Alexander, who was 52 at the time, fondled a 17-year-old Stodden’s breasts with a cell phone and said that when she turned 18, he would take her behind the couch and have his way with her.

“Looking back at the comedy sketch in which Ms. Stodden and I participated in 2012, I completely agree that it was inappropriate and I truly regret it,” Alexander said in a statement to Variety. “But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”

The sketch, a parody of “Dr. Phil” dubbed “The Donny Clay Show” with Alexander playing a creepy talk-show host, was released in Jan. 2012 on the Funny or Die website and its YouTube channel (it has since been taken down). Stodden is featured in the video alongside Doug Hutchison, a journeyman actor who notoriously married her in 2011 when he was 51 and she only 16. At the time, the media mainly treated Stodden as a punchline while failing to hold Hutchison accountable for his predation. Alexander gave his apology after Stodden, who is now 31 and divorced from Hutchison, made an Instagram post recounting how “alone” and exploited she felt making that video.

Stodden tells Variety she was pleasantly surprised that Alexander took responsibility for his role in the disturbing sketch, which he also co-wrote, but could take it a step further. “I’m very taken aback that an adult was actually able to take accountability because I haven’t heard a lot of adults take accountability,” Stodden explains. “When I first got word that he publicly apologized I was grateful because I think that’s the first step in change. At the same time, I think it would be even better if he put that into action, so I would urge Jason Alexander to support AB 1267 and support what’s happening in California or even donate to Unchained at Last.”

Recently, Stodden has been working with the group Unchained at Last, the only nonprofit in the U.S. dedicated to ending child marriage, to convince California to pass AB 1267, a bill that would effectively ban child marriage by making the legal minimum age to wed 18 years old.

“It’s really frightening that there’s no minimum age for someone to get married in California,” Stodden asserts. “There are only two other states that allow this, Mississippi and New Mexico, and to think that California allows this is shocking.”

As for the Funny or Die sketch, Stodden says it was only years after appearing in the video that she realized just how foul it was. The realization came as she was watching “Pretty Woman” for the first time and arrived at the scene where Jason Alexander’s villain assaults Julia Roberts’ prostitute in a hotel suite.

“I was in shock,” she says of watching the “Pretty Woman” scene. “It felt very close to home, and like he pulled from ‘Pretty Woman’ and thought it would be funny to recreate that with a child. I didn’t know he was going to be feeling me up on set.”

Stodden continues, “I was very manipulated. Even if I didn’t look like a child, or what a ‘victim’ should look like, there was a child buried under there. I really just trusted the adults around me, and this is the effect of that. Looking back on it, it’s really damaging. This isn’t about revisiting my past but changing the experiences for minors going forward so they don’t have to experience what I had to experience.”

Even though she’s received public apologies from Chrissy Teigen for cyberbullying her, and now Jason Alexander, Stodden never received any sort of mea culpa from Dr. Drew Pinsky who, when she was only 16 years old, performed an ultrasound on Stodden’s breasts on his show “Lifechangers” to prove they were real.

“Dr. Drew actually doubled down and had his wife sarcastically invite me on his podcast to further exploit me,” Stodden recalls. “Getting an apology from an actor and not a doctor is kind of diabolical.”

Stodden, along with a group of other survivors affiliated with Unchained at Last, will be visiting the California State Capitol again next month to speak to legislators about ending child marriage in the state she calls home. She’s also focused on finishing her memoir and may be participating in a docuseries chronicling her fight to end child marriage.

“At the end of the day, I don’t want to be remembered for what happened to me,” Stodden states. “I want to be remembered for helping make sure that this doesn’t happen again to another child.”