Tag: Entertainment – Variety

The Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) will present its Screen Icon Award to Indian actor, director and producer Aamir Khan at its 37th edition, with a 25th-anniversary Special Presentation screening of “Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India” alongside director Ashutosh Gowariker.

The festival opens with South Korean thriller “The Assassin(s),” directed by Hur Jin-ho and starring Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho. Hur and supporting cast members Shim Eun-kyung and Park Sung-hoon will attend the opening.

As previously announced, SGIFF will give its Cinema Honorary Award, the festival’s top prize for lasting contributions to Asian cinema, to Japanese filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu, with his film “Look Back” screening as part of the program.

SGIFF executive director Jeremy Chua said the edition brings some of the most respected talents and consequential work being made across Asia to Singapore. “Around it, we have also reconsidered how audiences encounter a festival with new presentation formats and points of entry, a ticketing platform that is markedly more intuitive, an industry programme expanded into a resource centre for artists, technicians and storytellers at every stage of practice, and a new free-to-attend section at the intersection of creativity and technology, attending to the forms storytelling will take next,” Chua said.

SGIFF’s “In Conversation With” dialogue series will also feature Shim Eun-kyung, filmmaker Peter Chan Ho-sun and Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong, who will take part in a post-screening dialogue tied to his first acting role in “My Name Ain’t Suzie.” Korean New Wave director Yim Soon-rye will serve as jury head of the Asian Feature Film Competition, while Fukada Koji, director of “Nagi Notes,” cinematographers Ashizawa Akiko and Tom Harari, and director Jacob Cheung will also take part in the festival.

The lineup spotlights more than 25 Singapore productions and co-productions that have earned recognition at festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Venice and Melbourne. Among them, “Ah Girl” star Ong Xuan Jing won best actress at the Hong Kong International Film Festival’s Young Cinema Competition, while director Ang Geck Geck won the Youth Jury Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Nelson Yeo’s “The House on the Moon” premiered in competition at Locarno, and Tan Si En of Momo Film Co. co-produced “Nagi Notes,” which premiered in competition at Cannes. Daniel Hui edited “Sleep No More” and “The Burning Giants,” which premiered at the Berlin and Venice film festivals, respectively. Anthony Chen of Giraffe Pictures co-produced “Four Seasons in Java,” and Lai Weijie of E&W Films co-produced “9 Temples to Heaven,” which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.

SGIFF program director Thong Kay Wee said, “Singapore’s film industry is enjoying its hard-earned recognition on the world stage. This year’s selection of Singapore films and co-productions reflects an increasingly diverse creative ecosystem that is producing internationally competitive work. We are proud to share that many of these filmmakers found their first mentorships through SGIFF, so sharing their stories and work on Singapore screens this year is, in that sense, a homecoming.”

The SGIFF Film Fund also returns after a hiatus. The Tan Ean Kiam Foundation, previously a backer of the Southeast Asian Documentary Grant, will now also support the Southeast Asian Short Film Grant, with both programs falling under the Tan Ean Kiam Foundation-SGIFF banner as SEA-Doc and SEA-Shorts. SEA-Doc shifts this cycle to backing feature documentaries in late edit or finishing stages, while SEA-Shorts continues supporting emerging Southeast Asian filmmakers. The open call for both grants runs Nov. 5 to Dec. 5.

The festival will introduce a Junior Explorers section with sensory-friendly screenings for younger audiences, opening with stop-motion feature “Brave Cat.” Its Undercurrent section will open with three live performances: Taiwanese puppetry piece “Corporeal Forms: Four Stories,” live video gaming work “The Compression Zone” and analog film and music performance “Imagination + The Rest Is My Ghost.” SGIFF Pro, the festival’s industry arm, adds three new programs this year: Parallax, a free public program on filmmaking and immersive technology; Off Campus, a student initiative connecting classroom training with industry exposure; and the Pitching Forum, aimed at co-production between Singapore and international partners.

The festival, supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), runs Oct. 21 to Nov. 1.

The new MS NOW streaming “Membership” comes with perks.

The Versant-backed news outlet will give subscribers to its recently-launched subscription app a chance to win tickets to attend the first Power to the People Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., on Saturday, Oct. 3.

People interested in taking part can enter by answering the prompt: “What song from the past feels newly meaningful in America today, and why?” at ms.now/power-to-the-people-contest. Terms and conditions apply. The contest opens Thursday, Sept. 24, and closes at 11:59 p.m. eastern on Saturday, Sept. 26. Winners will be announced Monday, Sept. 28, on “The Beat with Ari Melber,” which airs at 6 p.m. eastern on MS NOW, ms.now, or on the MS NOW app.

The sold-out festival is curated by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist and songwriter Tom Morello. Among those slated to perform are: Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Joan Baez, Public Enemy, Brittany Howard, Killer Mike, Cypress Hill, The Linda Lindas, Dropkick Murphys, Serj Tankian, Jack Black, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Taylor Momsen, Matt Cameron and Bruce Springsteen.

Other streaming services offer off-screen benefits, including Disney’s Disney+, which on occasion makes available access to products and services tied to its broader entertainment portfolio.

MS NOW will serve as the exclusive livestream destination for Power to the People. The event will stream live on MS NOW’s YouTube channel. The livestream will be produced by Tenth Planet Productions and directed by Joel Gallen.

Ari Melber will be on the grounds of the festival throughout the day, connecting audiences with the artists across MS NOW’s television, digital and social platforms.

MS NOW will also host its new Members Lounge at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Members can use the pop-up as place to meet others and connect, as well as recharge between performances. The Lounge recently debuted alongside a live telecast of the MS NOW program “The Weeknight” in Dallas.

Everyone knows Jeff Koons or Marina Abramović, but the art world has been hiding another celebrity: star auctioneer and former Sotheby’s chairman Simon de Pury.

“He’s in the shadows but also in the spotlight. It’s precisely this contrast that fascinates me and makes him a good character for a film: someone who’s reserved and almost shy at times but then becomes the ‘Mick Jagger of auctions.’ This nickname suits him well,” says “The Hammer” director Simon Wallon.

His documentary, world-premiering at Zurich Film Festival, was produced by Kiss & Kill, AIG, Formapro Films, On a Whim Films, Lazy Mike Gallery and Black Square Magazine.

It debuts an exclusive clip here:

Wallon – also behind “Bonnie,” about casting director Bonnie Timmermann – was immediately drawn to de Pury’s “magnetism, knowledge of art and larger-than-life personality.” Not to mention his exuberant style when conducting auctions.

“When we come from the outside, we often assume that what he does could hurt artistry or art in general. But within the art world, it’s not perceived that way at all,” he notes.

In the doc, which delves into his past – and past auctions, including the one in Moscow, which felt “like a historical event where communism and capitalism collided,” says Wallon – artists like Chloe Wise, Lou Zhenggang, Koons and Abramović also sing his praises.

And as for Simon de Pury himself? He doesn’t mind these Jagger comparisons at all.

“Decades ago, [writer] Bob Colacello introduced me this way. Other monikers mentioned ‘Leonard Bernstein or [conductor] Herbert von Karajan of the auction world,’ but it’s the Mick Jagger one that stuck,” he recalls.

“As an unconditional admirer of the Rolling Stones, I have, of course, done nothing to dissuade anyone from saying it.”

Still, he doesn’t expect apprentice auctioneers to do the same.

“Whenever I train young auctioneers, I tell them: ‘Don’t try to imitate anyone – be yourself.’ The style of the auctioneer I’ve most admired, Peter Wilson [the chairman of Sotheby’s from 1958 to 1980], could not have been more different from mine.”

He still gets nervous picking up the gavel, though.

“I have extreme stage fright before every single auction,” he admits.

“The responsibility of any auctioneer is to obtain the highest possible price. At Sotheby’s or Phillips, an important part of their yearly [revenue] can be decided within an hour during the big evening sales. For a charity, their yearly budget can depend on it.”

He adds: “For me, every auction I conduct is the most important one I’ve ever done. Being good at the last one doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be good at the next one. It requires maximum mental and physical concentration.”

According to de Pury, Wallon’s film opens up a window to a world that isn’t easily accessible.

“It also demonstrates that passion and curiosity for art ultimately bring everyone in the art world together,” he says.

That’s what Wallon saw in him, too.

“In the film, Simon says that he never stops dreaming, just like when he was a kid. And that the minute you stop dreaming, it’s the end. I couldn’t agree more,” he notes. After all, de Pury is also an artist, photographer – and a DJ known as The Swiss Crocodile.

“Dreaming gives you that energy – dreaming in the sense of wanting to achieve things and believing it’s possible. The difficulty lies in keeping that up for as long as possible, and Simon has managed to keep that little flame lit through the years,” says the director.

“I think that’s what gives him all that energy. He genuinely marvels at the things he sees.”

Hanna Bergholm’s Finnish horror film “Nightborn,” starring “Compartment No. 6” lead Seidi Haarla and Rupert Grint, won best film at the inaugural edition of the Freyas, also known as the Nordic Film and TV Awards.

Accepting the award at the gala ceremony at Helsinki’s iconic Finlandia Hall, Bergholm said, “The most important thing is how we filmmakers in Finland always support each other. We stick together. I’m so happy to have this forum where we Nordic filmmakers can support each other and speak for Nordic films. That’s so precious. I want to thank all of you for the inspiring films I saw growing up. Your films have opened windows for me to understand our world. Thank you everyone at the Freyas for making everyone come together.”

“The Danish Woman” won the prize for best Nordic series and the show’s Trine Dyrholm won best Nordic actor in a series. Accepting the award, French-Danish producer Marianne Slot issued a warning, “These days, AI is threatening originals. We have to take care of originals.”

Icelandic-American actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson won the award for Nordic actor in a series for “Reykjavik Fusion.” He said, “We are proud to be part of this coalition of the Nordic nations. Especially in this strange world we live in now, I’m happy to be here.”

Sweden’s Fares Fares won the Nordic actor in a film award for Alex Schulman’s “Archipelago.” He said, “It’s so nice to be here. When I heard of this award, I thought this was long overdue. Why didn’t we have this Nordic film and TV award before? What a great idea! We have so many talented people here. Hopefully this is going to entice us in Sweden to watch more films from our neighboring countries. In Sweden, we watch Danish, Norwegian films. I really want to see more Finnish and Icelandic films – more stuff from Estonia.”

Icelandic actress Ebba Katrín Finnsdóttir received the Valkyrie Award for her role in crime drama series “Hildur.”

Among the evening’s highlights was the Falcon Award, presented to Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström. Presenting the award, Finnish filmmaker Dome Karukoski paid tribute to Hallström, saying: “ ‘My Life as a Dog’ – one of my favorite films – has shaped numerous young Nordic directors with its humanity and warmth.”

Accepting the award, Hallström paid tribute to his wife, Swedish actress Lena Olin. “Lena has been by my side so many years. Without her, these achievements would have been very few. We’re still working, alive. We have lots to say, lots to do, give us a few more years, Freyas! Give us a decade to get another lifetime to keep doing a little bit better. We can do even better.”

Olin, who received the Goddess Award, said, “When I started in the Nordics, I was told being an actor is a privilege. We were constantly told, ‘No one cares about you. You are there to tell a story. If you’re talented or not, no one cares – just tell that freaking story.’ We felt we’re just getting hammered to the ground. But then when I started working internationally it felt like an honor. We’re not full of ourselves – we are enjoying every moment and constantly feel it’s an honor.”

She added, “Freya is fantastic. It is timely, so long overdue. Now I feel there are so many extraordinary films, TV shows coming out of the Nordics. We have created so much greatness.

“I have a small dog called Bradley Cooper. I can’t walk him because he is in love with his dad – when I want to take him on an adventure, he looks back – where is Lasse, where is dad? I feel that’s the way I’ve been working for the last four decades. I’ve been filming, acting – without looking at what’s been going on at home. Now, the last few years, I’ve been looking at my fellow actors. There is so much talent. I feel so proud and honored.”

Finnish and Norwegian documentary “The Secret Reading Club of Kabul,” directed by Shakiba Adil and Elina Hirvonen, won Nordic Impact Award. Hirvonen said, “The women in the film have defied one of the cruellest regimes in the world. Shakiba has sent greetings to you all. She is in Afghanistan. She said: ‘I grew up with the Taliban, spent six years in the world of my home. If I had known then that our film would be honored here, I would have had hope. I would have believed that if the world hears, at least someone cares.’”

Hirvonen added: “For me, Shakiba and the other protagonists are role models. They show how to fight totalitarian regimes.”

The Local Nordic Hero Award recognized Finnish actress Laura Birn, whose performance as Demerzel in Apple TV’s “Foundation” introduced her to an international audience. Birn said, “In Finland, we have these strange peculiar honest, weird filmmakers, and weird, great financiers who give money to these filmmakers, and we have found a voice in cinema that didn’t exist when I started a decade ago. I feel joy to witness something unique.”

The Icebreaker Award, created to celebrate a younger Nordic professional whose work signals an international breakthrough, went to Norwegian actress Thea Sofie Loch Næss.

The ceremony was hosted by Finnish actor Pekka Strang, currently shooting the fourth season of “White Lotus.” He joked, “In Finland we say, ‘Last year summer was on a Tuesday.’ Maybe our climate was one of the creators of Nordic noir. It’s been replicated all around the world. What they see as fiction is everyday life for us. Silence, darkness and grayness and naked female bodies on the shores – welcome to the Nordic audiovisual family!”

Beta Film, which is heading to Cannes with the world premiere of Swedish royal romance drama “Queen Silvia,” has acquired world distribution rights to Italy’s “The Man from Milan” and, from Ukraine, “Silent Nava.”

The two new eight-part crime series will likewise make their market debut at Mipcom.

Directed by Simone Spada (“Rocco Schiavone: Ice Cold Murders”) and produced by Cross Productions, RAI Fiction and Beta Film, “The Man from Milan” follows a notorious criminal who joins a rehabilitation program as his ticket to freedom, only to discover that the hardest escape is from himself. The series stars Alessandro Tedeschi (“The Hummingbird”), Vittoria Puccini (“Kiss Me Again”) and Alberto Astorri (“Rose Island”).

Ukraine’s first true-crime series, “Silent Nava” offers a haunting portrait of a corrupt and complicit society that protects predators and betrays their victims. Produced by Sfera Film for Kyivstar TV, the series is directed by Dmytro Andriyanov (“Tabun”) and stars Oleksandr Rudynskyi (“Two Sisters,” “The Agency”), Anastasiia Pustovit (“When the Trees Fall”) and Andrii Saminin (“Shepherd”).

“Queen Silvia,” meanwhile, is inspired by the real-life romance between Sweden’s Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf. It celebrates its world premiere at Cannes’ Grand Auditorium, which will be open to the public. The six-part series recounts the love story of young Crown Prince Carl Gustaf and German Brazilian interpreter Silvia Sommerlath, who later became Queen of Sweden. Directed by Miguel Alexandre (“Sisi,” “Gran Paradiso”), “Queen Silvia” stars Alicia von Rittberg (“Charité,” “Becoming Elizabeth”) and Edvin Endre (“Vikings,” “Hammarskjöld: Fight for Peace”). The series is jointly produced by Pyjama Pictures in Germany and Sweden’s Unlimited Stories for Prime Video in the German-Austrian-Swiss region and Nordic countries as well as for Sat.1 in Germany.

Beta’s autumn/winter line-up also features such premium international series as:

German TIFF entry “Blindspot Berlin,” which examines how institutional failures, bureaucracy and political blind spots prevented authorities from stopping one of Germany’s deadliest terrorist attacks;

“The Panini Family – Album of Dreams,” the story of the Italian family that turned a humble newsstand into a global phenomenon with their iconic Panini collectible soccer stickers and albums — a business that exploded with the 1970 World Cup;

“Portobello,” the critically acclaimed series from Marco Bellocchio (“The Traitor,” “Kidnapped”) that premiered at the Venice Film Festival, chronicles the true story of a beloved Italian television host who was falsely accused of Mafia involvement in the 1980s;

Spain’s “In Vitro: The Creation of Happiness” — which opens this year’s Serielizados fest in Barcelona — follows a brilliant biologist at a fertility clinic who is confronted with her partner’s desire to start a family and begins to question her own understanding of motherhood.

In addition, returning premium programs in Beta’s lineup include the fifth and final season of historical drama “Babylon Berlin”; Canadian canine cop show “Hudson & Rex”; British mystery series “Bookish”; and “El Immortal,” the Spanish drama that chronicles the rise of infamous Madrid gang Los Miami and its control of the city’s drug trade.

For director Mikel Gurrea’s latest he didn’t have to travel far in search of a story.

“I live in Barcelona’s district of Sants and, having done my previous film in the woods, this time I wanted to find fiction at my doorstep,” Gurrea told Variety of “Saints,” picked up for international by M-Appeal.

“So I started interrogating that name, Sants, which means Saints in Catalan.”

His curiosity led him to a church, a locked one.

“Every time I passed by, I found it closed. So I thought, a closed church is almost like a vault. Someone could steal it and I started reading about religious art robberies.”

But before the mechanics of the thefts could take over, the character of Lali arrived.

“The very first thing I wrote was Lali crying in a hospital chapel looking at the statue of a saint, at night. Once the other person in the chapel left, Lali dried her tears instantly, like an actress who was playing a role to get her way, she got up and stole the statue.”

Immediately, she was difficult to pin down: a thief who might also be grieving, a performer whose performance like the best of them still contains something real.

“There was an ambivalence there, a playfulness and perhaps some real sorrow too. I started following this character and everything else came from that scene.”

That ambivalence extends to Lali’s relationship with her estranged mother, Gloria played by Ariadna Gil (“Pans Labyrinth”). A woman whose instinct is to disappear finds herself wrenched back to Barcelona and into a role that demands precisely the opposite: staying put and caring for someone.

“The clash between duty (to have to care) and want (she wants to escape, be careless, be free). I found that tension very human and powerful.”

Playing Lali is Victoria Luengo, reuniting with Gurrea in this bigger production after “Suro.”

“Since ‘Suro,’ Victoria has become a dear friend. She happens to be one of the best actress that I have ever seen. So, I always want to work with her. When it was time, I offered her the part.”

At that point, Lali was still evolving. Luengo became part of that process, helping to build a character who exists caught between her restlessness and her responsibility.

“There was a draft of the script, but it was early stages. From that moment onwards, Victoria and I opened a process of workshopping ideas, trips to the desert where we first encounter Lali in the film, we gave Lali a past and we bounced many ideas. All of that influenced the later drafts Francisco Kosterlitz and I wrote for the script.”

With “Saints,” intimate family drama collides with thriller and heist movie. Within and between the competing genres is always care.

“There is a heart to the film: it is Lali’s relationship towards caring for her estranged mom Gloria. That is the internal. Then, there is an external journey, which relates to Rosario and her group.”

Rosario and her gang bring Lali into the world of theft, but their approach to stolen religious objects is surprising.

“That brings the thieving, the thrill and the heist, but also a knowledge of delicacy, appreciation and care. There is a certain ode to the gesture, which can connect to both the stealing and the caring.”

Soon, the distinction between Lali’s two worlds begins to collapse. “Little by little, Rosario becomes like an alternative mother” the director said, “and when her people get inside Gloria’s house, the layers converge.”

For Gurrea, these different versions of family and paying attention aren’t necessarily in opposition.

“I think they are related and they feed each other. The type of care that I wanted to explore in the film, we can only do it if we take the time to appreciate, if we take into account, if we feel a connection. Be it objects or people.”

That idea also complicates the film’s relationship with religion. The gang steals sacred objects, but their movements around them can resemble ceremony not desecration.

Researching religious-art theft, Gurrea came across Erik the Belgian, a notorious thief who targeted churches across Spain during the 20th century.

“The way he described the robberies – procedural, coordinated, silent – felt almost ritualistic to me. He also talked about the buyers’ feelings towards the stolen objects when delivered to them and it seemed like worship.”

An irresistible contradiction.

“I found these ideas very ambiguous and powerful and I wanted to explore them cinematically. After all, iconoclasm and idolatry could be understood as two faces of the same coin.”

Her encounter with sacred objects does not simply turn into a rejection of the Catholic world associated with her mother. Instead, it creates space for another kind of discovery.

“And here, between those two faces, between those two poles, Lali opens herself to some wonderment. Beyond duty and guilt, both very Catholic things, Lali discovers that she wants to be next to her mom in the last stages of their relationship.”

After the rural setting of “Suro,” “Saints” moves into the city. That shift was one of the few things the director planned from the beginning.

“The only really premeditated thing was to find fiction in the district where I live, so this was going to be an urban film.”

Its tone, however, tracks its elusive protagonist.

“I wanted it to be playful, because it is Lali’s nature.”

And underneath the family tensions, robberies and shifting allegiances, Gurrea kept returning to one idea.

“As per the rest, I wanted to make a film full of mystery. Both cinematic mystery but also playing with the idea of religious mystery.”

Dentsu has struck a partnership giving clients in the Americas access to a broad swath of anime and manga intellectual property owned by Japanese publisher Kodansha Ltd., including “Attack on Titan,” “Ghost in the Shell” and “Blue Lock.”

The agreement positions Dentsu as the central point of contact for brand marketers looking to tap into Kodansha’s IP for sponsorships, tie-in campaigns, live events and fan experiences throughout the Americas.

Dentsu is folding its proprietary Japanese intellectual property research into its Dentsu.Connect data and identity platform, with Kodansha’s catalog positioned as an early beneficiary of that integration.

The tie-up arrives as anime graduates from niche fandom to mainstream commercial territory. The global anime market is projected to hit $60.27 billion by 2030, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of about 9.8% from 2025 to 2030, according to Grand Review Research. The U.S. market alone was valued at $2.58 billion in 2024 and is forecast to climb to $7.93 billion by 2033, a CAGR of 13% over 2025-2033, per the same research firm.

Dentsu’s own research, titled “Anime – A Growing Opportunity for Brands,” found that 36% of U.S. consumers watch anime at least weekly.

For Dentsu, the deal offers clients a streamlined route into Kodansha-owned IP for use in campaigns and experiential marketing, along with what the company describes as a competitive edge for participating brands looking to signal cultural relevance to anime and manga fans.

“Anime has evolved from a niche to a mainstream cultural phenomenon,” said Caroline Hughes, global integrated client partner at Dentsu. “By partnering with Kodansha, we are offering our clients access to some of the most powerful and culturally embedded IP in the anime and manga universe and enabling brand-first activations and fan-centric opportunities across the Americas.”

“We are excited to collaborate with Dentsu in bringing our IP to brands in the Americas region,” added Moriguchi Tomoki, director at Kodansha’s rights merchandising department. “Our characters and stories resonate with fans globally, and this partnership enables new experiences and commercial pathways.”

Dentsu was founded in 1901 in Tokyo and now has a footprint spanning 120 countries and territories.