Innholdsfortegnelse for 9/13/2023 i Variety

AWARDS CIRCUIT Lights, camera, Oscars. When you chat with someone about filmmakers and mention Steven Spielberg, even the most oblivious Hollywood consumer knows who you’re talking about. Yet the helmers of the most critically acclaimed and top-grossing movies of the year typically aren’t household names. Just ask your neighbors if they know who Michel Hazanavicius is. No, Spielberg isn’t in the awards race this year. However, with plenty of multi-hyphenate artists and cinema masters in the mix, more well-known directors are hunting for Oscar glory this season than in almost any in recent memory. Actors turned directors who’ve been snubbed before will once again bring the A-list power. Those include Bradley Cooper, whose Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro” follows 2018’s “A Star Is Born,” and Ben Affleck, whose Nike sports drama…

THE CW systematically stripped away its superhero dramas and teen-centric soaps during the 2022-23 television season, taking the foundation of its primetime programming slate down to the studs. Now comes the reveal of a renovation that leans heavily on niche sports, noisy unscripted series, procedural dramas and broad-skewing comedies. The change comes a year after Texas-based Nexstar Media Group acquired a majority stake in The CW from its founders, CBS and Warner Bros. (the “C” and “W” in “CW”). A new owner inevitably brings new priorities and a new regime, and The CW’s freshly appointed leadership team of president Dennis Miller and entertainment president Brad Schwartz have a nail-biter of a season ahead. There’s little doubt that The CW will see a ratings drop, at least early on, as it…

The entertainment industry can be brutal and punishing even during the best of times, let alone amid disruptive WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. But it’s even tougher for those with disabilities. While there have been highly publicized donations to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation from superstars such as Dwayne Johnson, Oprah Winfrey and other A-listers to help their fellow union members through this challenging time, philanthropic organizations such as the Inevitable Foundation, launched in 2021, have stepped up while keeping their focus on their mission, helping writers with disabilities. “The higher up you get up in the industry, the less representation there is offscreen,” says Richie Siegel, the organization’s co-founder and president, noting that America’s largest minority group, the disabled, is the least visible. “We said if you really want to solve this…

Spain’s extraordinary landscapes, historical heritage and geographic sweep — from lush forests and snow-capped Pyrenees mountains in the north to Almería’s scrub desert and Canary Island volcanoes — have inspired artists, tourists and ever more international productions looking for a new place to shoot. As the search for uniqueness in a more standardized broadcast-like streaming landscape becomes crucial, real-life locations are likely to become more, not less, important. Introduced in 2023, incentives offered by Spain rate among the most muscular in the world, now capped at €10 million ($10.9 million) per TV episode, €18 million ($20 million) in the Canaries and up to 70% deductions in Bizkaia. Spain’s lengthy history as a major European power is seen in its landscapes. Look up a hillside in many parts of northern Spain, and…

The Latin Grammys are headed to Europe — the Spanish city of Seville, specifically — for the first time in the awards show’s 23-year history. The move has been the catalyst for a long list of changes to the Spanish-language ceremony set for Nov. 16, including a ramped-up week of events that boasts the annual Best New Artist Showcase. The new location is thanks to a three-year partnership between the Latin Recording Academy and the Regional Government of Andalusia, Spain, which means the Latin Grammys are likely to be staged outside the U.S. for at least that term. The show also is taking place against the backdrop of a booming Latin music industry. In 2022, Latin music revenue in the U.S. reached an all-time high of $1.1 billion, a second…

Steven J. Horowitz has joined Variety as senior music writer. In his new role, he will be a key voice in music reporting and criticism, writing news articles, reviews, commentary, appreciations and cover stories across all of Variety’s platforms. Horowitz joins after two years at TikTok, where he was music editorial lead. Over the course of his career, he has also held posts at YouTube, Billboard and Myspace; he began his career at HipHopDX. Horowitz will report to executive music editor Jem Aswad, joining a music team that includes chief critic Chris Willman and associate editor Thania Garcia, along with several web staffers and freelancers. “Steven and I have known each other for 10 years: We worked together at Billboard, and he was later one of our top freelancers, so…

In 2017, Movistar Plus, Spain’s biggest SVOD-pay TV player, rocked the San Sebastian Festival, a key movie event in the region, with “The Plague,” the biggest series ever made in Spain. Movistar Plus, owned by Telefónica, looks set to make waves again at this month’s San Sebastian by world premiering another big, bold series: “La Mesías.” It’s written, directed and produced by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, marking their follow-up to overseas breakout “Veneno,” a raunchy but highly grounded bio of Spanish trans icon Cristina Ortiz. “Veneno” was picked up by HBO Max for the U.S. market and made Ambrossi and Calvo among the most courted young showrunners in Europe. The very existence of Movistar Plus is itself an innovation. In continental Europe, no other telecom has driven so determinedly…

Director: Hayao Miyazaki Voices: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Ko Shibasaki More often than not, Hayao Miyazaki’s heroes have been young women — from Ponyo to Princess Mononoke, mischief-seeking Kiki to the two sisters spirited away by furry forest guardians in “My Neighbor Totoro.” That’s the most obvious departure the anime maestro’s fans will notice in “The Boy and the Heron”: It’s about a boy, Mahito Maki (voiced by Soma Santoki), grieving the loss of his mother during wartime. He’s surrounded by women, but this quest falls on the shoulders of a character who’s reportedly closer to Miyazaki than any of his previous protagonists. In 2013, the world-renowned toon auteur announced his retirement from feature filmmaking. He disbanded Studio Ghibli, the company he’d co-founded, and let its artists scatter to find…

Here we are, just days away from the start of the 2023-24 television season … and the major networks still aren’t 100% sure what they’re doing. Just last week, several broadcasters scrambled to make even more last-minute schedule changes — on top of other recently announced tweaks. The fall lineups that viewers tune in to later this month will be remarkably different from the ones first announced in May. At CBS, the Paramount+ Australia import “NCIS: Sydney” has suddenly landed on our shores, and will run on Monday nights. Fox just decided to push the return of its unscripted music gamer “I Can See Your Voice” to midseason and replace it with “9-1-1: Lone Star” repeats on Tuesdays. The CW made the snap decision to swap its Monday and Thursday…

• Peso Pluma Genre: Rap-infused Mexican corridos Flex: He is the first música Mexicana artist to perform on American late-night TV (Jimmy Fallon). • Young Miko Genre: Reggaeton Flex: She opened on select dates of Karol G’s first U.S. stadium trek. • Grupo Frontera Genre: Cumbia, norteño, Tejano Flex: The sixman ensemble got its start putting a twist on popular songs and uploading the covers on YouTube. • Quevedo Genre: Rock, pop, reggaeton Flex: Ed Sheeran recruited him for a remix of “2step.” • Gale Genre: Pop Flex: She grew up in a musical family and was inspired by her father, who played guitar and percussion.…

Chris Keyser, a tuxedoed 23-year-old, stood at a lectern at the Oxford Union to defend the moral superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union. It was 1984. Keyser, now a leader of the Writers Guild of America strike, was then a Harvard Law student. He was also a seasoned debater, often taking the conservative side. In the context of Oxford in the early 1980s, that meant arguing that American influence on the world was not entirely malign. “America is not a lie,” Keyser said, quoting Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington. “It is a disappointment. But it is a disappointment because it is also a hope.” The debate was broadcast on the PBS show “Great Confrontations at the Oxford Union.” As Keyser took his seat to thundering applause, the…

Brian Weinstein and Jessica Pliska have helped thousands of students through their nonprofit Opportunity Network since they launched it 20 years ago in a single New York City high school. With a board of directors that includes heavy hitters from entertainment, law, accounting, and beyond, OppNet’s primary mission is plain in its name: opening doors of opportunity for underrepresented students and getting them on a path of networking through high school to college and beyond. For their work, Weinstein and Pliska are being honored as Variety’s Philanthropists of Year. The pair, who met as college undergrads, both burned with idealism and recognized their privilege could be leveraged for a game-changing idea. As young professionals (Weinstein at a law firm, Pliska as a marketing consultant), their idea for OppNet was simple: to…

Spain’s 71st San Sebastian Film Festival looks on track to welcome an even larger industry presence than in 2022, as its status as the biggest movie event in the Spanish-speaking world remains intact. Here are eight potential highlights and trends that will shape this year’s edition: New Talent Boasting a prestigious New Directors’ section as its biggest sidebar and an Ikusmira Berriak development lab for emerging cineastes, San Sebastian has always been strong on new talent. In 2023, however, it is even stronger: 10 of its 16 main competition entries are first or second features. “Having so many new directors is part coincidence,” says San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos. But the presence of so many emerging directors may reflect new industry dynamics. “My impression is that some young directors…

“Telefónica has been leading by innovation,” says Omdia’s María Rua Aguete of Movistar Plus’ parent, one of Europe’s biggest telecoms. In June, Telefónica launched the Experience Design Lab, a Madrid-based innovation center that includes a gaming room with the latest AR and VR technology and games. It has signed payment carrier systems with Facebook, Google and Microsoft for subscribers in Latin America. Its investment in less traditional format TV dramas aligns with this innovation, Rua Aguete says. Unlike many incumbents, Movistar Plus has stuck with sports, led by the purchase of La Liga and Champions League soccer rights through 2026-27. In July, Movistar Plus relaunched a new souped-up version of its basic tier as an OTT for clients of any telco service in Spain. To date, only clients of Telefónica’s…