The breakout success of LGBTQ+ dating series “The Boyfriend” has turbocharged Netflix‘s Japanese unscripted slate, with Ota Dai, who oversees the streamer’s Japan unscripted division, crediting a deliberate rejection of conventional reality television formulas for its unexpected international resonance. The expanded slate now includes renewed series “Badly In Love,” which hit No. 8 on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English Series list, along with new launches “Final Draft,” Japan’s first physical survival series, and “Offline Love,” which removes phones entirely from the dating equation.

Chile’s much-lauded documentarian Maite Alberdi, after making her first fiction feature “In Her Place,” has returned to her roots with her latest opus, “A Child of My Own” (“Un hijo propio”). Not unlike her Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent,” Alberdi toys with the docu-fiction hybrid format, but in “Child,” she also breaks the fourth wall in some key moments. 

A house in Nancy Guthrie‘s Arizona neighborhood is being investigated in connection to her disappearance, police said late Friday night. Nancy, the mother of “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been missing for nearly two weeks. “Law enforcement activity is underway at a residence near E Orange Grove Rd & N First Ave related to the Guthrie case,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement on X.

It’s a high-stakes gambit to assemble a cast of relative newcomers for a first feature film — especially when that film is set against the sprawling, kinetic, unpredictable backdrop of the Nigerian megacity of Lagos. But if early returns are anything to go by, British Nigerian writer-director Olive Nwosu struck paydirt with the ensemble cast of her debut, “Lady,” which took home the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting Ensemble after its world premiere last month at Sundance. 

Sales and finance outfit Global Constellation has secured a first wave of pre-sales on its upcoming World War II drama “Crux” as it debuts first footage at the European Film Market. Helmed by Ulrike Toni Vahl in her feature debut and produced by Martina Haubrich (“Michael Kohlhaas”) and Berlin competition jury member Ewa Puszczyńska (“The Zone of Interest,” “Cold War”), the film delivers a stark and timely portrait of moral collapse in wartime, examining the cost of survival as humanity itself frays.

Casey Wasserman has decided to put his namesake talent agency and marketing firm up for sale while he grapples with the intense fallout from the revelations of his past relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell as detailed in the Epstein Files disclosure. Wasserman confirmed his plan in a memo to Wasserman staff that was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The sale will also include the Brillstein Entertainment Partners talent division that has long handled A-listers such as Brad Pitt.

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the first three episodes of “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette,” now streaming on FX and Hulu. Born in Sun Valley, Idaho, Dree Hemingway spent most of the ’90s living between her home state and her mother’s film sets. Her memories of the decade consist of piles of Old Navy clothing, long, unbrushed hair, sitting outside in the backyard with her family and listening to the Beatles.

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. “WWE SmackDown” is getting a temporary new home on Friday nights thanks to the 2026 Winter Olympics. “SmackDown” normally airs on the USA Network, but the channel has switched over to 24/7 Olympic programming until Feb. 22.

Sony Pictures Animation’s “Goat,” opening in theaters Feb. 13, is an original action-comedy set in an all-animal world and centered on the high-stakes sport of roarball — a version of basketball that’s co-ed, full-contact and dominated by the biggest, fastest and fiercest animals on the planet. At the center of the story is Will Harris (voiced by “Stranger Things” star Caleb McLaughlin), a small goat with oversized ambition, whose unlikely rise challenges the long-held belief that smalls don’t ball.

Stephen Amell has landed a lead role in Fox‘s upcoming “Baywatch” reboot, Variety has learned. This is the first confirmed casting for the series, which was picked up for the 2026-2027 broadcast season by Fox back in September 2025 with a 12-episode order. Fox is set to host an open casting call for the show on Feb. 18, with production set to begin this spring in Los Angeles.

In the high-concept world of Sony Picture Animation’s, “Goat,” what happens off the court is just as important as the game played on it.  In this case, that game is roarball, a co-ed, enormously intense version of basketball that Will Harris (Caleb McLaughlin), a Boer goat with big dreams, is desperate to play professionally — despite his small stature.

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Emerald Fennell‘s “Wuthering Heights,” in theaters now. Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” has just been released in theaters, but there have already been weeks of discourse surrounding her adaptation (or “reinterpretation”) of Emily Brontë’s groundbreaking novel. Actually, make that years — social media has been buzzing ever since the film’s stars, …

In the riveting family drama “Yellow Letters,” German-born Turkish director İlker Çatak employs a culturally tilt-shifted backdrop for his tale of authoritarian crackdowns. The film announces, upfront via enormous on-screen text, that its setting is “Berlin as Ankara,” with the German capital standing in (sans disguise) for its Turkish equivalent, as though the film itself were in political exile.

It’s time to raise a glass to the Disney+ “Muppet Show” special. Per the Mouse House, the revival of the beloved variety series has delivered 7.58 million multiplatform viewers across Disney+ and ABC since it debuted on Feb. 4. That viewership comes on top of rave reviews for the show, which has garnered a 98% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

ARP Selection, a leading French arthouse distribution company that recently produced and released Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” has acquired Anthony Chen‘s “We Are All Strangers,” the first Singaporean film to compete at the Berlinale. The film, represented internationally by Paradise City Sales, completes Chen’s acclaimed “Growing Up” trilogy, after “Ilo Ilo,” which won Cannes’ Camera d’Or for best first film, and “Wet Season.”  

Matt Johnson knows his way around the law protecting fair use and parody. Johnson’s “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie” opens in theaters Friday via Neon, and it’s a true labor of love. The lore of the film goes back to 2007, where Johnson and his real-life best friend Jay McCarrol debuted the web series “Nirvana the Band the Show,” in which the pair play fictionalized versions of themselves, and documents their hapless attempts to perform at the Rivoli, a local venue in their native Toronto.

In many ways, R&B music is like reggae or other highly specialized genres of music that are ultimately more about feeling than technique, which is why novices and dilletantes fall so hard when they try and fail. That’s also a reason why an album by an artist like Brent Faiyaz, hailed by many as a leading light for R&B, crushes so many of the other hopeful entries into the genre: The man is such a gifted singer and songwriter that he could probably sneeze and it would sound soulful.

If there’s one universal truth about Jill Scott, it’s that she contains multitudes. It’s been a recurring revelation across her discography, dating back to her 2000 debut, “Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1,” which radiated warmth and introduced her as a raconteur who embraced the comforts of romance while pointedly analyzing its complexities. Each Scott album has invited something of a similar experience: a flip through her diary, a journey across the human experience as threaded through her vision.

Netflix has acquired the U.S. rights to the forthcoming “Lord of the Flies” series from “Adolescence” co-creator Jack Thorne. Sony Pictures Television announced the deal on Friday as “Lord of the Flies” prepares for its premiere at Berlin Film Festival. In addition to the U.S. sale to Netflix, the series — which launched on the BBC in the U.K.

British rockers Bring Me the Horizon have revealed the trailer for immersive concert film “L.I.V.E. in São Paulo,” and tickets for the cinematic event are on sale now. With “L.I.V.E.” standing for “Live Immersive Virtual Experiment,” the film brings the band’s biggest headline show ever in São Paulo, Brazil to theaters for two nights only on March 25 and 28. The sold-out performance, played to 50,000 fans at Allianz Parque Stadium, saw the Brit Award-winning and Grammy-nominated band reach new heights and has been hailed by the band as their best show yet.

Hasbro Entertainment and Animaj have launched Lumee, a joint venture aimed at spearheading digital advertising sales and striking brand partnership in the kids’ content space. Lumee will bring together Hasbro’s and Animaj’s portfolios of flagship brands, ranging from “Peppa Pig” to “Transformers,” “Pocoyo” and “Maya the Bee.” Through the new banner, Animaj – which is a next-generation kids media company backed by strategic investor HarbourView Equity Partners — will handle these IP’s across film, television, animation and digital, through YouTube, connected TV and AVOD/FAST platforms.

Black Mandala Films and Red Owl Films are loading up for Berlin’s European Film Market with eight genre titles spanning Lovecraftian horror, queer mockumentary and an award-winning Ecuadorian fantasy. The slate includes several market premieres alongside recent acquisitions and festival selections. Black Mandala’s lineup includes “The Behemoth,” a supernatural horror film from director Kai E. Bogatzki that draws on Lovecraftian mythology and employs practical effects.

There aren’t many movies merrily described by their writer/director as the “most naughty, feral, fucking crazy ensemble film about a group of kids in remission who go to a summer camp and all they want to do is takes loads of drugs and have a fun time.” But then there aren’t many filmmakers like 26-year-old Brit George Jaques, who opens the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus strand with his sophomore feature “

Despite its setting in 1870s Wisconsin, Dara Van Dusen’s feature debut, “A Prayer for the Dying,” is an eerily timely story touching on deadly epidemics and wildfires. The film bows in Berlin’s Perspectives section. “I’ve been working on this film for over a decade and it’s based on a book  published in 1999. Then the pandemic happened. I was stuck at home with a 2-year-old and my husband, and suddenly everything felt just too real,” she recalls. 

Indian sarod virtuosos Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash are channeling their musical prowess toward environmental activism with the Feb. 20 release of “Celebrating Our Tigers,” a seven-track album dedicated to India’s wild tiger population and conservation efforts. The announcement comes as the brother duo has been appointed Goodwill Ambassadors for WWF-India, the conservation organization established in 1969.