Variety

In the 97-year history of the Academy Awards, 611 films have been nominated for the top prize, best picture. Only 23 of those films were helmed by a woman director. While the statistic is startling, there has been an increase in female-led stories gaining notoriety. Women filmmakers are taking the reins of their destinies in […]

Courtney Henggeler, who starred as Amanda LaRusso in all six seasons of Netflix’s “Cobra Kai” series, is moving on from acting, she wrote in a Substack post on March 30. “After 20 plus years of fighting the good fight in the acting business, I hung up my gloves on Friday,” she wrote. “I called my […]

American Cinematheque’s annual ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair’ festival will expand beyond Los Angeles to seven cities across the United States and internationally to London in June. In addition to continuing operations at the Aero, Egyptian and Los Feliz 3 Theatres across Los Angeles, ‘Bleak Week’ will come to the Portland’s Hollywood Theatre, Chicago’s Music […]

¡Ay, caramba! Nancy Cartwright, the iconic voice of Bart Simpson and other characters from “The Simpsons,” will pull back the curtain on the long-running animated hit show in her first podcast. The voice actor is launching “Simpsons Declassified With Nancy Cartwright” in partnership with radio and podcast company Audacy. The audio and video podcast hails […]

The Newport Jazz Festival will feature Janelle Monáe, the Roots and Jacob Collier as its headliners for its 71st edition this August, with Raye, Jorja Smith, Esperanza Spalding, Willow, De La Soul and Thee Sacred Souls among the other artists joining the 2025 bill. The event takes place Aug. 1-3 at Fort Adams State Park in Rhode […]

Jury selection began for Harvey Weinstein’s retrial Tuesday morning in New York City after his landmark #MeToo conviction was overturned last year. Weinstein, in a wheelchair and carrying a book with the cover torn off, had a brief smile on his face as he approached his legal team in the courtroom. The first group of […]

Jimmy Kimmel was asked in a new Rolling Stone interview about what is acceptable in comedy today, which prompted the ABC late-night host to say that increasingly attacking what comedians can or can’t say is one of the reasons Donald Trump is president again. “I don’t put limits on what I laugh at,” Kimmel said. […]

The Locarno Film Festival has re-upped Italian film critic Giona A. Nazzaro as its artistic director for the next three years. Nazzaro, a former head of the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, has been leading the prominent Swiss event dedicated to indie cinema since 2021, under a five-year mandate that expires this year. During his […]

Iconic Hong Kong director Tsui Hark will be celebrated with a lifetime achievement award at Italy’s Far East Film Festival in Udine, where his latest film “Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants” will have its international festival premiere. Tsui will receive Udine’s Golden Mulberry Award from Tony Leung Ka-fai, best known for his roles […]

Actor Judith Light, who has won multiple Emmys and Tony awards, and French journalist, director and producer Mireille Dumas will preside over the fiction and news and documentaries juries, respectively, at the 64th edition of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, taking place from June 13 to 17 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. Light gained recognition […]