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Freeform has ordered an animated comedy series about a New York City It girl starring Annie Murphy, John Cho, Christine Baranski.

The youth-skewing network has handed Praise Petey (w/t) from SNL head writer Anna Drezen, who created the series, and exec producers including Monica Padrick, Mike Judge and Greg Daniels a series order.

It comes as the Disney-owned network takes another crack at animation, having previously developed a number of series in this space.

Praise Petey follows Petey, voiced by Schitt’s Creek star Murphy, a New York City “it” girl who has it all until her life comes crashing down around her. As luck would have it, a mysterious gift from her father gives her a new lease on life: she’s going to lean into modernizing his small-town cult.

Cowboy Bebop star Cho voices Bandit, a potential love interest for Petey and a cult member since childhood whose mother was a high-ranking member.

The Palm Springs International Film Awards has announced that Lady Gaga will be honored at its upcoming ceremony. The “House of Gucci” star will receive the icon award for performance in Ridley Scott’s latest drama.

The awards body made the news public with an announcement on Thursday morning.

“To many Lady Gaga is an icon through her music, but she continues to impress audiences with her iconic acting roles,” festival chairman Harold Matzner said in a statement. “Following her memorable performance in ‘A Star is Born,’ Lady Gaga yet again raises the bar in her portrayal of Patrizia Reggiani in ‘House of Gucci,’ the shocking true story of the family behind the Italian fashion empire. For this tour-de-force performance, it is our honor to present the icon award to Lady Gaga.”

Past recipients of the group’s icon award include Glenn Close, Willem Dafoe, Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

Lina Wertmüller, the first woman to score a best director nomination at the Academy Awards, died on Thursday in Italy. She was 93.

Wertmüller’s death was reported in the Italian press. According to a friend, the writer and director died “peacefully at home, next to her daughter and loved ones.”

Born in Rome as Arcangela Felice Assunta Job Wertmüller von Elgg Espanol von Brauchich, Wertmüller’s family was Swiss, of aristocratic descent and devoutly Catholic. Her first job in show business was touring in a puppet show, after which she spent a decade as an actress, director and playwright for the stage. It was during this time she met actor and later frequent collaborator Giancarlo Giannini.

Her first mention in Variety came in a Jan. 13, 1965, review of “Il giornalino di Gian Burrasca,” an eight-episode musical TV series about a mischievous street kid, which the reviewer described as “clever and intelligent.

The 2022 SXSW Film Festival will kick off with the world premiere of “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

The genre-blending project is led by Michelle Yeoh, and comes from directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Billed creatively as “Daniels,” their past credits include the festival title “Swiss Army Man.”

Premiering on March 11 in Austin, Texas, the film is described as a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman (Yeoh) who can’t seem to finish her taxes.

“We are thrilled to premiere Daniels’ latest work, which is fantastically inventive, entertaining, emotionally grounded, and crammed with the exceptional creativity that makes their projects so satisfying,” said Janet Pierson, SXSW director of film. “Audiences are going to have their minds blown by this extraordinary feat of filmmaking.”

Kwan and Scheinert made their names in the music video genre, with clips like DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s “Turn

The winners of the 2021 People’s Choice Awards were revealed on Tuesday night, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson earning two awards: Male Movie Star of the Year and Comedy Movie Star of the Year for Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Marvel’s Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Loki all earned multiple awards.

Kenan Thompson hosted the show, which was aired simultaneously on both NBC and E! Tuesday night from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica and was produced by Den of Thieves, with executive producers Jesse Ignjatovic, Evan Prager and Barb Bialkowski.

In addition to SNL‘s Thompson ...

“Parasite” star Song Kang-ho will reteam for the fifth time with leading Korean director Kim Jee-woon on their upcoming feature film “Cobweb.”

Kim describes the project as “experimental” and said that it will be shot entirely on sound stages in support of a film-within-a-film narrative.

The film will be the first project to emerge from Anthology Studios, a production house co-founded earlier this year by Kim, Song and Jay Choi, an executive who was previously local production head for Warner Bros Korea. The company had barely been launched before it was acquired for KRW20 billion (approximately $18 million) by Jtbc Studios, a subsidiary of Korean pay-tv network Jtbc.

Anthology aims to produce films and work with talented rookie directors who Kim will mentor. The trio were all previously involved with stylish caper comedy “The Good, The Bad, The Weird,” which debuted in Cannes in 2008, and “The Age of Shadows,” which debuted

If you weren’t around at the time, it’s hard to communicate just what a splashy, dominating place the Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller occupied during the 1970s. Wertmüller, who died on Thursday at 93, was far from the first celebrated woman director — just think of Agnès Varda, Shirley Clarke, Elaine May, Lois Weber, Ida Lupino, Dorothy Arzner, or Barbara Loden. But apart from the infamous Leni Riefenstahl, it’s fair to say that Wertmüller was the first woman filmmaker to become a household name. She was the first to receive an Academy Award nomination for best director, the first to adorn the cover of major magazines, the first to rule and own the zeitgeist.

And rule it she did. “Swept Away,” Wertmüller’s controversial 1974 drama about a wealthy snob (Mariangela Melato) and one of her lowly yacht crew members (Giancarlo Giannini), who wind up swapping roles after the two are stranded on a desert island,

Fall movie season is upon us — though the release schedule has never been more confusing, with some blockbusters heading directly to streaming, others in theaters only and various independent films mixing up strategies between theaters, streaming and VOD releases.

Let Variety help you find that next well-earned bit of escapism, whether it’s the highly-anticipated “West Side Story” or the star-studded comedy “Don’t Look Up.”

Here’s a rundown of the films opening this week that Variety has covered, along with information on where you can watch them. Find more movies and TV shows to stream here.

New Releases for the Week of Dec. 10 Exclusively in Theaters

Being the Ricardos (Aaron Sorkin)

Distributor: Amazon Studios

Where to Find It: In theaters only, followed by Amazon Prime Video Dec. 21

The film is very much a heady helping of Sorkinese — and a beautiful illustration of what can be intoxicating about it. The

The first trailer for “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” has sped out of the gate.

Unveiled at Thursday night’s Game Awards, the trailer gives fans of the original movie and popular Sega video game franchise a first look at Tails and Knuckles, two of Sonic’s animated buddies in the live-action world.

Most of the cast from the first “Sonic” movie is returning, including Ben Schwartz as the voice of the speedy blue hedgehog. The sequel introduces his yellow, two-tailed, flying sidekick Miles “Tails” Prower, who’s portrayed by “Sonic” video game voice actor Colleen O’Shaughnessey. Knuckles, a red echidna with spiky knuckles who’s sometimes a friend and foe of Sonic in the games, is voiced by Idris Elba. The live-action cast includes Jim Carrey as Dr. Ivan “Eggman” Robotnik, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Lee Majdoub and newcomer Shemar Moore.

In the sequel, Sonic is

In the early moments of “Commitment Hasan,” Turkish writer-director Semih Kaplanoglu’s slow-burning morality tale, one could mistake the titular character for a weak, vulnerable individual others routinely walk all over. Portrayed with a quiet sense of stealth by Umut Karadag, Hasan is a fairly prosperous farmer and gardener tending to the family land he inherited from his father, a windswept, fecund place of tomato fields and apple orchards. In the opening sequence, he puts up a silent and losing fight against an arrogant engineer who drops by his plot unannounced and informs Hasan that an electrical pylon would soon be erected right in the middle of his field as part of the government’s plan to enhance the region’s power grid. Hasan sheepishly protests: Why wouldn’t they reroute the expansion and choose the vacant neighboring field instead? Predictably, his objections fall on deaf ears.

Soon though, Kaplanoglu

As timely as last night’s episode of “ESPN Sports Center,” and as riveting as a well-crafted tick-tock suspenser, “National Champions” adroitly avoids most of the pitfalls common to conventional “message movies” by raising and debating issues in the context of a solid and involving drama that can be enjoyed even by people who couldn’t tell an offside kick from a cheerleader’s cartwheel. It’s intent on exposing the inner workings of college football, but don’t expect a lot of gridiron action here. Except for a few — very few — highlight clips sprinkled here and there, the focus remains on the interactions of players, coaches, media scrums, well-heeled boosters, freelance fixers, and NCAA movers and shakers during the countdown to the fictional Snickers College Football Championship.

Three days before the big event in New Orleans, a national title clash pitting the undefeated Wolves against the 13-1 Cougars, Heisman

There has been no better time than now for documentaries to educate and create a platform that enhances dialogue. Two years into the pandemic, documentarians have led the helm in starting conversations for viewers to learn and explore the lives of people and social constructs while audiences are still in their own pandemic bubbles.

At Variety’s FYC Fest Documentary Day, keynote speakers who have directed documentaries that have pushed the conversations forward, including Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s “Summer of Soul,” Emily and Sarah Kunstler’s “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” and Samatha Stark’s “Framing Britney Spears,” spoke about their process of digging deep into their documentary subject, the renewed recognition of the media content and what conversations they hope to inspire.

Making A Documentary Requires Finding the Right Timing

“I met Amin when I was 15,” Jonas Poher Rasmussen said, referring to the Afghan refugee

If you want to win an Oscar, does it help to have a nude scene? That depends on if you’re competing in the best actor or actress category.

In the past, we’ve seen victories for actresses who bare it all onscreen — such as Halle Berry in “Monster’s Ball” (2001) or Kate Winslet in “The Reader” (2008). Still, there haven’t been as many accolades for men who do the same. Just look at Michael Fassbender’s performance as a sex addict in “Shame” (2011), which was egregiously ignored despite critical acclaim.

This year, there seems to be one thing that several of the best male performances of the year have in common — full-frontal nudity. Benedict Cumberbatch coats his nude body in mud before his hand discreetly drops his phallus in Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog.” At the same time, Bradley Cooper’s manhood is submerged but visible in a

Turning Nicole Kidman into Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem into Desi Arnaz in “Being the Ricardos” wasn’t only about creating a facsimile of the iconic 1950s TV duo.

Rather, director Aaron Sorkin instructed hair department head Teressa Hill and makeup department head Ana Lozano, “We are not taking a photograph; we are painting a picture.” The approach is generating awards buzz for the below-the-line duo.

The film, opening Dec. 10, centers on a week of filming “I Love Lucy,” from table read to shooting an episode. Sorkin also re-creates memorable moments from the series, which ran on CBS from 1951-57, and provides snapshots of the couple’s marriage.

That plotline meant creating numerous looks for the TV stars and their real-life personas: Lucille Ball/ Lucy Ricardo and Desi Arnaz/Desi Ricardo, as well as dual looks for the other cast members (including J.K. Simmons as William Frawley/Fred Mertz and

Christopher Nolan is adding more star power to his World War II drama “Oppenheimer.”

Oscar winner Rami Malek, Oscar nominee Florence Pugh and “Uncut Gems” director Benny Safdie have joined an ensemble that already includes Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt.

The film, with its oh-so-commercial-sounding story about the development of the atomic bomb, is an artistic and financial risk for Nolan and Universal Studios. It carries a $100 million budget, and adult dramas have not fared too well at the box office of late, even those with major stars such as Will Smith’s “King Richard” or Damon’s “The Last Duel.” But Nolan usually has a keen sense of what audiences want, making twisty thrillers like “Inception” into blockbusters and scoring with critics and audiences with another World War II epic, “Dunkirk.” It should probably be noted, however, that “Dunkirk” has a much more uplifting

Despite a strong Thanksgiving weekend at the box office, last weekend suffered from a lack of new content and had the weakest box office performance since the doldrums of September. The post-Thanksgiving slump will soon come to an end, though, and the year should end on a high note with titles such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Matrix Resurrections, Sing 2, Nightmare Alley, and The King's Man. Next weekend will likely break pandemic-era box office records, but this weekend is looking more modest with only one major new release, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Broadway and film classic West Side Story.

The 20th Century/Disney film is finally hitting screens in 2,800 locations after a year’s delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The film opens in roughly 40% of its markets this weekend, including France, Germany, and Brazil. The release coincides with the 60th anniversary of the previous film version,

A new blockchain technology company spotlighting creator equity is rolling out its first series of non-fungible tokens — a collection that includes five unreleased tracks from Dmx and a photograph of jazz legend Miles Davis.

Melanated Nft Gallery, a Black- and female-owned startup in the Nft and metaverse space, is backed by marketing executive and New York Times bestselling author Nea Simone. The company’s mission is empowering creators from the African and Afro-Latinx diaspora and others who have historically been exploited, by creating an equitable platform to share and monetize their work.

The Melanated Nft Gallery features ‘Melanated Originals’ with artwork from emerging and established creatives. Mnftg will officially reveal its first Icon and celebrity Nft collection beginning early December with a variety of drops.

Future NFTs are expected from signed Mnftg clients including: Influencer Mr. Organik, photographer Roger Erickson, sculptor Duron Jackson and multi-media artist Aja.a.x.,

“Our

Jordan’s Royal Film Commission has pulled Egyptian director Mohamed Diab’s drama “Amira” – which was filmed in Jordan and is set in the Palestinian West Bank – as its submission to the 2022 international feature Oscar race following a storm of social media controversy against the film.

Pic, which takes its cue from real-life instances of Palestinian children conceived behind bars in Israeli jails with smuggled sperm, has suddenly prompted a rapidly increasing number of Palestinian activists to protest on Twiter and other social media. The film premiered in Venice in September and subsequently played at the El Gouna fest in Egypt and the Carthage fest in Tunisia.

Since 2012, more than 100 children have been conceived using the smuggled sperm of incarcerated Palestinians, according to the end titles of the film which revolves around a teenage girl who believes she was conceived from the sperm of a Palestinian activist serving a life sentence.

Agents, studio executives and movie lovers will resume their annual pilgrimage to Park City as the Sundance Film Festival, the preeminent showcase for indie film, returns to in-person premieres this January. The 2021 version unfolded entirely digitally as a concession to Covid-19.

What they will find in the that thin mountain air is the standard collection of films from auteurs and established directors such as Michel Hazanavicius, Ramin Bahrani, and Lena Dunham, as well as blazingly original works from newcomers whose names are currently unknown, but whose career trajectories will be turbocharged by the cachet and attention that comes with a Sundance debut.

But they will also discover important changes to the program and the way that movies are shared with the wider public, the most significant of which is Sundance’s decision to debut the films it selected both in theaters and on its digital platform. The hybrid nature of

The Sundance Film Festival released the lineup for the 16th-anniversary edition of New Frontier, the fest’s track for showcasing multimedia, VR and emerging tech creative projects. The 2022 program includes 15 premieres from creators around the world.

The New Frontier program will be “a fully biodigital showcase,” according to Sundance. It will be globally accessible online via Sundance’s The Spaceship virtual venue from Jan. 20-28, 2022, with in-person extensions and live performances at The Craft, a new artist-centered venue in Park City. Ticketed New Frontier performances also will be presented in Park City’s Egyptian Theatre and simultaneously on The Spaceship.

See Also: Sundance 2022 Feature Lineup: Films From Lena Dunham, Amy Poehler and Netflix’s Kanye West Doc

Kicking off the festival on Jan. 20 will be a special hybrid digital/in-person presentation of Sam Green’s “32 Sounds” (pictured above), an immersive documentary film about the powerful effects of sound, featuring live music and narration.