Innholdsfortegnelse for 9/22/2021 i Variety

When the New York Film Festival opens on Sept. 24, it will not only signal another key stop on the awards season circuit — it will be a key marker in New York City’s long, painful reemergence from COVID-19. “People are so hungry for communal experiences,” says Eugene Hernandez, the festival’s director. “It’s been heartening to go on Instagram or social media and see people posting pictures from the audience of Broadway shows or concerts. We have this opportunity to be part of bringing culture back to the city.” Once again, the 17-day event will play host to new works from auteurs like Pedro Almodóvar (“Parallel Mothers”), Joel Coen (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”), and Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”), all of which are expected to be contenders in…

By the time Cedric the Entertainer opened the Emmycast on Sept. 19, Apple TV Plus’ “Ted Lasso” and Netflix’s “The Crown” had seemed like locks for best comedy and drama for weeks, if not months. The extent to which they would go on to sweep their respective categories, though, was startling. Throw in a convincing showing from HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” — which won in three of the four limited series acting categories before Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” took the ultimate prize — and this year’s Emmys felt dominated by fewer shows than ever. Variety’s chief TV critics Caroline Framke and Daniel D’Addario discuss the winners, and the show at large. Caroline Framke: I was curious to see just how “normal” the ceremony might look one year after Jimmy Kimmel…

Sept. 14 ‘Blue Bayou’ Premiere DGA, Los Angeles Justin Chon wrote, directed and stars in the movie as a Korean adoptee who finds himself facing deportation after learning he is not a U.S. citizen. Chon is hopeful the movie is another step toward more Asian-focused storytelling in Hollywood. “There’s been some really positive change,” he told Variety. “I do think we have … a lot of work to do. But I think it’s a good time. I think that the fact that a film like this is coming out is very encouraging. And we’ve got to continue to tell our stories.” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” actor Benedict Wong pointed to the success of the MCU film. “We’re in our second week, and it’s No. 1, and…

When most of us hear the word “animation,” we think of cuddly imagery from Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse cartoons. We generally don’t think about sexual assault, racism and violence. But the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ core exhibition, “Stories of Cinema,” showcases a more problematic side of animation history. A three-gallery experience titled “Inventing Worlds and Characters” looks back at questionable imagery and tropes. “When you have a completely unlimited craft by the laws of physics, you can have wondrous examples of pure imagination,” says assistant curator Dara Jaffe. “Still, you also get these extremely grotesque depictions that reflect the racism of the current time.” One such example: 1941’s “Dumbo,” made during the era of Jim Crow laws and pervasive racism in the U.S., has a black bird named…

I think as artists and as theater artists of color, the last year and a half has opened a chamber in our souls that I don’t think we can shut again and just continue to function the way we used to function. The Tony Awards is a very institutionalized opportunity to reflect on: How are we arbitrating excellence in our field? Who gets to do that? To be honest I’m dreading the Tonys, and I’m also excited by it. Because it is a new frontier, and now I’m looking at it through this sense of community and how are we defining that. The more I talk about it, the more I realize this could actually be a touchstone moment. I think we can’t forget that we are in a moment…

It is such welcoming news that television veteran Lesli Linka Glatter has been elected president of the Directors Guild of America. For years, Glatter has mentored and advocated for women directors and has been a force within the union fighting for members’ rights. Presumably her position will give her an even bigger platform to continue pushing for more parity in Hollywood’s male-dominated director ranks. Recent studies from “The Celluloid Ceiling” and “Boxed In,” two reports from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, show us just how egregiously wide the gap in the business still is: Women comprised just 16% of directors working on the top 100 (domestic) grossing films of 2020; women accounted for 31% of directors working on U.S.…

In 2016, Esteban Arango enrolled in Hola Mexico Film Festival’s mentorship program, Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today, with a short film — a coming-ofager about two brothers from Colombia who love metal music and feel disillusioned by the American dream. Arango and his co-writer, Erick Castrillon, needed guidance on adapting the piece into a full-length project, and the pair found that support in the program. “Blast Beat” had its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and is available on Hulu. Now, Arango returns to Hola Mexico (which takes place in Los Angeles through Sept. 25) for a special screening of the film on Sept. 23. “I always thought that the movies that Hollywood put out about Latino experience were victimizing. We were always portrayed in negative ways,” says Arango, who is…

JOSH O’CONNOR learned the hard way that an Emmy can be a royal pain as an unintentional weapon. Hugging someone at the end of the Sept. 19 ceremony in downtown Los Angeles while holding his new statuette, the “Crown” star — who had just prevailed for lead drama actor — accidentally knocked himself in the forehead with one of Emmy’s sharp wings. Things got crimson for a second, but thankfully, O’Connor’s bloody Sunday moment was short-lived. Fellow drama actor nominees Regé-Jean Page and Sterling K. Brown came to his aid and had a laugh about the award season capper of a war wound. For O’Connor, it was a memorable end to an Emmy Awards that also marked the close of his reign as Prince Charles on Netflix’s much-praised chronicle of…

COVID has played havoc with production schedules across the globe, and for the first major Russian movie to shoot on location in Europe since the pandemic struck last year, it’s been a case study in compromise and adaptation. Restrictions on crew movements, the director’s COVID infection and a delay by local authorities in granting permission to shoot on location in Germany have combined to push the schedule of the €10 million ($11.8 million) historical drama “Nuremberg” back by a year. The film — an international co-production with Russia, the Czech Republic, Germany and the U.K. — incorporated COVID safety protocols in order to shoot on location near Prague, which is buzzing with productions right now. But ambitious plans to shoot in the actual prison that housed top Nazis during the…

Photographer, cinematographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado would like you to know that Paradise exists. He is referring to the Amazon rainforest, and he should know. Born on a Brazilian farm, Salgado has been traveling to the rainforest since the 1980s and journeyed there almost 50 times for his latest project. “Amazônia,” published by Taschen, is the result of Salgado’s six years capturing the Indigenous inhabitants and celebrating the terrain, the mountains and the water in a series of black-and-white gelatin silver prints. An exhibit featuring highlights from the project is making its American debut at Danziger at Fetterman gallery in Santa Monica, accompanied by the music of composer Jean-Michel Jarre. Salgado got the idea while working on his previous exhibition and book, “Genesis.” Speaking via Zoom from his studio in…

The disappearance of beloved and sometimes controversial actor Zhao Wei epitomizes many aspects of the Chinese government’s campaign to tear down fandom, celebrity and the driving forces behind them. Zhao attained major stardom in the late 1990s with TV series “My Fair Princess,” starred as the leading lady in John Woo’s epic “Red Cliff” and directed 2013 hit YA film “So Young.” Along the way, she shook off a scandal about wearing a dress that looked like a Japanese flag, became unfeasibly wealthy and got banned for five years by China’s securities regulator — none of which, incredibly, fazed her meteoric rise. Now, suddenly, the star, who had accumulated 86 million Weibo followers, hasn’t just disappeared from public view (supposedly glimpsed only this week via unverified photos in her hometown),…

Tatel Joins Buzzy BevHills Scene Let the games begin at Tatel in Beverly Hills, the glamorous new Spanish-accented spot with investors including soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo and L.A. Lakers champion Pau Gasol. Partners Manuel Campos Guallar, Abel Matutes Prats and tennis star Rafael Nadal launched Tatel in Madrid and Ibiza with a menu offering classics like paella for two and a Spanish tortilla with black truffle. Start off with a peppery, herbal Spanish gin and tonic and Iberico ham or Osetra caviar before moving on to grilled Spanish turbot, veal Milanese or the signature risotto. Brando Juris, USA director of Tatel Restaurants, promises “an authentic Spanish restaurant with late-night supper club hours,” along with live music with “a different theme each night: jazz, modern and cultural Spanish sounds, atmosphere dancers…

AT THE NEW Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, 20 significant Oscar wins are featured in the “Academy Awards History” gallery, which is housed within the gorgeous golden rotunda of the Saban Building, formerly known as “the lipstick” of the May Co. Building on Wilshire Boulevard. The actual statuettes are on display in a glass case. But perhaps most notable is the one that’s missing from this collection. Hatttie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Oscar, for supporting actress for “Gone With the Wind” (1939), but her trophy is lost. It’s a heart-breaking tale wrapped in a web of suspicion and ongoing legal battles. Before McDaniel died of breast cancer in October 1952, she specified that her prize should be donated to Howard University. There are countless myths…

We all love the Tonys. It’s our Oscars. It’s an opportunity to flex and celebrate our friends. But it’s also an opportunity to look in the audience to see who is flexing and what they look like. It’s mostly a white audience who can even get to the Tonys. I was never that critical before. I hope that this Tony Awards is an opportunity to look around and say: We have so much to celebrate after coming back, but people also need to understand how freaking critical it is to know who’s in the room. We’re all charged to be more aware of who’s included. I don’t think this Tonys will reflect that, but the next one should, and the one after that. Our Special Tony award feels so good.…

TV REVIEW Horror: Netflix (seven episodes; all reviewed); Sept. 24 Starring: Zach Gilford, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Rahul Abburi Around the midpoint of Mike Flanagan’s new Netflix horror serial “Midnight Mass,” in the middle of a conversation about loss, Kate Siegel’s character Erin asks Zach Gilford’s Riley: “What happens when you die?” Humanity’s been grappling with with that big question for millennia, and a single conversation likely won’t crack it. But Riley tries, delivering a monologue about the body’s atoms “scattered across the goddamn cosmos” and becoming one with everything, his speech underscored by plaintive piano. The character is reaching beyond his grasp in order to deliver emotional catharsis and meandering into well-meant cliché. So, too, is the show. Flanagan’s third limited series for Netflix, taking Catholicism as its subject,…