Updated every Friday 12:00 PM
November 3 - November 9

APPLE TV
Apple TV+ celebrates the holidays this year with an expansive lineup of programming for the whole family. From the debut of the Apple Original special, “The Velveteen Rabbit,” based on the beloved children's classic written by Margery Williams, to the brand-new holiday-themed film “Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas,” which features the Emmy Award-winning “Ted Lasso” actor; along with all-new holiday special episodes from “The Snoopy Show,” “Frog and Toad,” “Sago Mini Friends” and “Shape Island,”...

As the checkered flag prepares to wave over the NASCAR 2023 season's climax in Phoenix, Arizona, the racetrack will morph into a temporary docking bay for an interstellar surprise. Bubba Wallace, behind the wheel of the No. 23 car for 23XI Racing, is set to steer not just any stock car, but one that carries the legacy of the Star Wars saga on its chassis, and a little star-studded help from none other than Mark Hamill. Bubba Wallace will race a NASCAR car adorned with Star Wars designs, showcasing a creative collaboration between Columbia Sportswear and Mark Hamill. Columbia unveiled the design in a playful video where Hamill passes on the keys and a matching helmet to Wallace. The collaboration reflects a culture that celebrates the merging of sports, entertainment, and pop culture...

When Pixar's Brave premiered in 2012, it was a groundbreaking production for the company both on a technical front and from a narrative perspective. Pixar also took courageous leaps in innovation when creating the film by retiring their old in-house animation system (Menv) and shifting to a new proprietary animation software known as Presto. Brave was also the first Pixar film to use Dolby/Atmos Audio, which made the in-theater experience more immersive. However, the most unique and impressive technical advancement to come from Brave was the development of a computer software with the specific purpose of animating Merida's complicated, stunning, and iconic hair. The hair department for this animated film may not have had to worry about hairspray and wigs, but they had their own set of challenges in order to bring their new princess's fiery ringlets to the big screen. Hayley Iben, a software engineer at Pixar, shared about her work on the hair simulator in the film. She explains that the movement of hair was a simulated effect, so no one had to animate it by hand. Instead, the hair's movements were programmed into the computer based on the physics of how it would react. In order to make this possible, production studied real-life curly hair to develop the basis for Merida's own mane. They discovered that curly hair essentially acts like a spring, as they rest in spiraling locks that snap back to shape after being pulled...

JArnold Schwarzenegger revealed that he once hired an accent removal coach to try and do away with his thick Austrian accent for good. “I had an English coach and an acting coach and a speech coach and an accent-removal coach, who has passed away since then, but I should have otherwise gotten my money back,” Schwarzenegger said while looking back on his early days trying to make it big in the industry. “The bottom line is, I worked on it. I remember he’d say, ‘You know you always say s-ree. It’s three, with a T-H.’ So he had me say, ‘Three thousand three hundred and thirty-three and one-third,’ with the T-H and not with the S.”...

Veteran French editor Dominique Auvray says there’s an essential intuitive element to her work. The woman who created the sound for “Paris, Texas” and cut such films as “No Fear, No Die,” “L’Amour Fou,” and “Hu-Man” says her career has been built around one key ability: Tuning in to your eyes and ears. I think the first thing when you are an editor, you have to look and to listen. And to listen at the same time to your heart and your head. And to listen to the director. And to listen to what the images say, you know.”...

With a sister documentary festival held each March and a year-round program of workshops, screenings, special events and other education and outreach initiatives, Thessaloniki has established itself as a hub to “exchange ideas, train, reflect and celebrate cinema with the public,” says festival general director Elise Jalladeau. The curtain rises on this year’s festival Nov. 2 with Tràn Anh Hùng’s “The Pot au Feu” (retitled “The Taste of Things” ahead of its U.S. release), the Cannes best director prize winner that stars Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel as a famous chef and his personal cook and lover whose lush, gastronomy-centered romance unspools in a French château in the late-19th century. It wraps Nov. 12 with Aki Kaurismäki’s minimalist love story “Fallen Leaves,” winner of the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In total, Greek directors will present 35 feature-length and 22 short films at this year’s festival, an output that underscores the resilience of a Greek industry that has weathered successive economic shocks in the past decade, as well as the ongoing fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. “Despite the economic crises it has gone through, Greek cinema is today remarkably resilient and dynamic,” says Jalladeau...

Scarlett Johansson has taken legal action against an AI app that used her name and likeness in an online advertisement without permission. Johansson appeared in a 22-second ad posted on X/Twitter by an artificial intelligence image-generating app called Lisa AI: 90s Yearbook & Avatar. Representatives for the actor confirmed to Variety that Johansson is not a spokesperson for the app, and her attorney, Kevin Yorn, handled the situation in a legal capacity. The advertisement was spotted on Oct. 28 and appears to have since vanished from the internet...