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“Fruitvale Station” producer Nina Bongiovi is teaming up with prominent figures in the film and tech industries to launch Aum Group, a fund dedicated to acquiring and developing IP and financing multicultural movies.

Among Aum’s (pronounced “om”) other co-founders are Gold House chairman Bing Chen, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and Bongiovi’s Significant Productions partner Michael Chow.

Together with Forest Whitaker, Bongiovi co-founded Significant Productions. In addition to “Fruitvale Station”–which helped launch director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan to mainstream success–the company has been behind other critically acclaimed movies helmed by filmmakers of color, like “Sorry to Bother You,” directed by Boots Riley, and “Songs My Brother Taught Me,” Chloé Zhao’s feature debut.

“It’s come to our attention that there are not that many producers of color, so that’s why this is a producer-led initiative,” Bongiovi told Variety. “To have a fund backed by me,...

Hong Kong film director Philip Yung and his cast were in Shanghai on Monday to promote their upcoming film “Where the Wind Blows.” They revealed new details while cautiously sidestepping — for the most part — the awkward issue of last week’s massive civil protests in Hong Kong against a controversial bill that would have deepen ties with China, which have been entirely censored from mainland Chinese media.

The film, which used to be titled “Theory of Ambitions” in English, stars Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Aaron Kwok, Patrick Tam and Michael Chow and Chinese actress Du Juan. The actors play four notoriously corrupt police officers who rose to power in 1960s Hong Kong, and Du one of their wives. The stylish crime thriller covers a particularly long time span, said Kwok, saying he had to play officer Lui Lok from age 20 up until around 80.

“As a born and bred Hong Konger,...

W magazine’s pre-Golden Globes party on the Friday night before the big show is often one of the hardest fetes to get into, and this year’s bash was no exception.

As always, the soiree took place in the penthouse suite of the iconic Chateau Marmont hotel.

But Keegan-Michael Key and Sarah Hyland were among some guests who had trouble making it past the velvet rope because they were duped — as was this Variety reporter — into handing over their party tickets to a scammer posing as security.

The scammer — a tall white male in a black suit and white shirt — asked guests for their tickets before they hopped on the elevator in the lobby to get to the sixth floor. But, when they stepped off the elevator, they were asked for their tickets again. Confusion ensued as more guests coming up the elevator also explained that they already handed...

James Crump on Antonio Lopez seen at work with Karl Lagerfeld in admiration: "He has this magnetic aura that draws people in."

In the final installment of my New York conversation with James Crump at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo we discuss Bill Cunningham's relationship to the world of Antonio Lopez, Luca Guadagnino and Call Me By Your Name, Francis Bacon and the "void of the mouth", and Charles James as inspiration for Daniel Day-Lewis's character in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread.

Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco, the magnetic documentary on the famed fashion illustrator, executive produced by Ronnie Sassoon, features Jessica Lange, Grace Jones, Jerry Hall, Bill Cunningham, Yves Saint Laurent, Donna Jordan, Pat Cleveland, Jane Forth, Corey Tippin, Grace Coddington, Patti D’Arbanville, Karl Lagerfeld, Joan Juliet Buck, Bob Colacello, Paul Caranicas, Juan Ramos, Tina and Michael Chow.

James Crump: "I like the magic...