Tim Gray

This month marks the 40th anniversary of my joining Variety, which sets off a number of thoughts. The first is a realization: 40 years? I’m old! (This is startling, because for many years I wasn’t.…

Principal photography has begun on “Unspoken,” toplining Chinese star Zhang Hanyu and written and directed by Chen Daming. Filming is taking place in China and Canada for a 2022 release…

Hollywood has given us a wide range of mothers, including the hard-working and devoted (“Claudine”), the self-sacrificing (“Bambi”) and the monstrous (“The Manchurian Candidate”). It’s hard to come…

“Don’t Look Up” has hit a nerve in a way that’s rare for films to do. That’s partly because it addresses an urgent, hot-button topic — climate change — with a film that’s partly a cry f…

Oscar is a perfect metaphor for COVID. Or maybe COVID is a metaphor for Oscars. Either way, both center on a sense of uncertainty, with people loudly advocating a “return to normal.” The Academy of…

A column of random thoughts: Whatever you think about the year’s movies, you have to admit the titles were confusing. For example, we had “Pieces of a Woman,” “Promising Young Woman,” “I’m Your Wo…

Though it’s set 50 years ago, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is contemporary and important. Writer-director Aaron Sorkin tells Variety, “Even from the beginning, I didn’t want the film to be about 19…

Oscars are a time capsule, reflecting both the industry and the year’s audiences. As such, nominations for the 94th Academy Awards detail progressive and surprising transition across several catego…

There’s no logic to any showbiz career, but some paths are more surprising than others. Lesley Paterson, one of the screenwriters for the German-language “All Quiet on the Western Front,” is a worl…

After 42 years of covering awards at Variety, I recently became executive VP of the Golden Globes and, like Joni Mitchell, I’ve looked at life from both sides now. Here are a few conclusions: Campaigning is a business.More than 2,500 years ago, ancient Greeks honored the best plays at their spring festivals. Did Sophocles and […]