Category Archives: Festivals

Female film-makers still being squeezed out of industry, London film festival director says

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Over 40% of films in LFF programme are female-made, but only two of 21 gala films are directed by women

Female film-makers are still being squeezed out of the industry as they progress beyond their debut films, the director of the London film festival has said, adding that “the dial does not seem to be moving”.

Kristy Matheson’s comments came as LFF announced its full programme for this year’s event, which runs from 7 to 19 October. Of the 251 titles, 109 (43%) are made by female film-makers, but only two of the 21 gala films are directed by women.

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Fourth time lucky as Chris Cantrill’s spoof whodunnit wins Edinburgh comedy award 2026

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Nominated in three previous years, the rambunctious standup – one half of The Delightful Sausage – wins the prize for his show Rewilding while Marty Gleeson is named best newcomer

The annual Edinburgh comedy award has been won by the standup Chris Cantrill, two years after his comedy partner Amy Gledhill – in the raucous northern double act The Delightful Sausage – won the same prize.

Cantrill, 42 and from Bradford, received the so-called “Oscar of live comedy” for a show, Rewilding, about his new life in rural Northumberland, where an act of vandalism shocks the local community – and a spoof whodunnit ensues. It builds on the foundations laid in 2024 by Easily Swayed, which documented his move to the countryside and secured what was then Cantrill’s third nomination (but first as a solo act) for the award.

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‘No precedent’: Lorde and Little Simz to star at world-first festival run on clean power

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A zero-emission compact hydrogen power plant will drive the main stage at Clifton Down in Bristol

When Lorde, Little Simz and Wet Leg stride on to stages in Bristol this weekend, they will not only be entertaining tens of thousands of festivalgoers but taking part in what is being billed as a world-first clean power project.

The two stages at Forwards festival on Clifton Down are being driven almost entirely by green power – a combination of hydrogen and mobile batteries charged with sustainable energy.

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Madonna will not be playing Glastonbury in 2027, Emily Eavis says

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Festival organiser says she has booked next year’s headliners but would not say if Taylor Swift is among them

Madonna will not be performing at next year’s Glastonbury, the festival’s organiser, Emily Eavis, has said.

The singer, who has the most top 10 singles in UK chart history of any female artist, has never featured at Britain’s biggest music festival.

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In Venice, it’s not politics as usual as film-makers aim to recapture our attention

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As social media shrinks and distorts the EU’s crises, the Venice film festival is delivering politically forthright epics from directors such as Sergei Loznitsa and Alex Gibney

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Europe is in an economic crisis that, unlike the eurozone downturn at the beginning of the millennium, cannot be measured in ratings downgrades and borrowing costs. For metrics, try engagement depth and consumer trust instead.

The unedifying spectacle of the European Union’s falling out over the Ceuta crisis looks like the latest symptom of Europe’s shrinking attention economy. When more than 70,000 people crossed over from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta at the start of the month, Rome hastily reintroduced air and sea border checks with Spain for one month; Madrid retaliated with spot-checks on travellers to Italy.

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Murdoch and Musk in the crosshairs at Venice film festival

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Danny Boyle’s drama about the acquisition of the Sun and a four-hour Elon Musk documentary will premiere alongside new films from Martin McDonagh and Werner Herzog – but only one female director has a movie in competition

The Venice film festival promises to take a swing at media moguls of the print and digital era this year, with Trainspotting director Danny Boyle’s new film about Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of the Sun and a new documentary about Elon Musk included in the lineup of the films for the festival’s 83rd edition.

In Boyle’s Ink, which will open the festival on the Lido on 2 September, Australian actor Guy Pearce plays compatriot newspaper tycoon Murdoch, whose purchase of the Sun in 1969 sensationalised the media landscape and transformed public life in Britain. The script is written by Olivier award-winning playwright and screenwriter James Graham (Dear England, Brexit: The Uncivil War).

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In a pickle: US pickle company pulls out of DC fair over Confederate flag

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Mt Olive Pickle Company says it was unaware image of flag was included in exhibit, and cites value of ‘human dignity’

A leading vendor of the US delicacy that is the pickle has withdrawn from the Great American State Fair in Washington DC after North Carolina’s booth displayed a video containing a Confederate flag.

The Mt Olive Pickle Company, which is located in eastern North Carolina and bills itself as the “#1 bestselling brand of pickles, peppers and relishes in the US”, told local news station WNCT it had been unaware that an image of the flag would be included in a video as part of the state’s exhibit.

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‘Put an end to this war’: Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev makes new plea to Putin

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After winning the Grand Prix at Cannes film festival, the exiled auteur sent a direct message to the Russian president urging him to stop the war

Accoladed director Andrey Zvyagintsev has sent a direct message to Vladimir Putin urging him to start listening to the Russian people and end the “senseless” war in Ukraine, continuing a war of words between Russia’s most revered living film-maker and the Kremlin that started at the Cannes film festival awards ceremony over the weekend.

“Except for the limbs torn off from your fellow citizens in the name of an illusory goal, except for the massacre of young people that the country needs to build life and the future – nothing good is on the horizon if we don’t stop,” the exiled auteur said in a message sent to the Russian president’s press secretary through official channels on Tuesday.

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‘Come in for one minute’: exhibition showing horrors of 7 October attacks opens in London

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Commemoration of atrocity at Nova music festival confronts those who deny its gravity, says Elkana Bohbot

Two police vans waited expectantly near the front entrance. Officers patrolled the pavements while suited security men with ear pieces stood stern-faced, casting suspicious looks at those approaching. The location in east London had not been disclosed until that morning but no chances were being taken.

It was not for a visiting dignitary or even an embassy of a country in conflict that all this was deemed necessary but the Nova exhibition, a commemoration of the 378 people massacred at a music festival on 7 October along with the 44 taken as hostages and the 19 of those who died in Hamas captivity.

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‘Extremely cruel and tragic’: Iranian director Asghar Farhadi speaks out against state violence and the war

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The film-maker, who won the Grand Prix for A Hero in 2021, condemned both the killing of protesters and the conflict’s bombing campaigns during a Cannes press conference

Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has described the deaths of civilians in Iran as “extremely cruel and tragic” during a press conference at the Cannes film festival.

Farhadi, whose new Paris-set drama Parallel Tales premiered on the Croisette on Thursday night, was asked about working free from censorship in France, the war involving Iran, the US and Israel, and the repression of protesters in his native country.

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After collapse and controversy, Adelaide writers’ week has a new director: ‘I don’t envy anyone in this position’

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Rosemarie Milsom, who formed and runs Newcastle writers festival, will take over from Louise Adler after the literary festival imploded over invitation to Randa Abdel-Fattah

In January, as the implosion of Adelaide writers’ week made headlines around Australia and the world, Rosemarie Milsom was watching closely.

The Adelaide festival board, which oversees AWW, had overridden the literary festival’s director, Louise Adler, and disinvited the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah over past comments she’d made about Israel and Zionism. This decision resulted not in a quieter, less-controversial festival as the board members may have hoped, but a boycott by 200-odd writers, the resignation of Adler – followed by the whole board – a potential defamation lawsuit against the South Australian premier and the collapse of AWW.

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US Live Nation and Ticketmaster verdict triggers calls for Australian investigation into ticketing rules

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One insider estimates Australians pay A$10 in fees per ticket, with fans bearing the burden of monopolised music tour schedules and inflated artist values

Australia is being urged to improve ticketing transparency after a US federal court found Live Nation Entertainment had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues.

This week, a New York jury found the global entertainment giant and its subsidiary Ticketmaster liable for systematically stifling competition to extract excessive profits from concertgoers. The jury identified a baseline overcharge of US$1.72 for every ticket sold by Live Nation since 2010 – totalling an additional US$595m in 2025 alone.

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Pepsi drops Wireless sponsorship amid criticism of Kanye West booking

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Sponsor pulls out after Keir Starmer calls decision to book rapper who wrote song titled Heil Hitler ‘deeply concerning’

Pepsi has said it is withdrawing its sponsorship of a UK music festival that is due to be headlined by Kanye West after Keir Starmer joined criticism of the event.

The musician is understood to have not yet made an application to come to Britain and could be blocked under powers allowing the authorities to do so if his presence is deemed not conducive to the public good.

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Berlin film festival head to keep job after Gaza free speech row

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The German government convened a crisis meeting after several prize winners at this year’s event condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians

The American head of the Berlin film festival, Tricia Tuttle, will keep her job after a free speech row over Gaza, but the event will have to consider a new code of conduct to “fight antisemitism”, the German culture ministry has said.

Tuttle’s position came under threat after an awards gala at the end of the 76th edition last month in which several prize winners condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians from the stage.

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Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton among those to condemn Berlinale’s ‘silence’ on Gaza

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At least 80 film-makers and stars sign open letter after German festival jury president Wim Wenders says they should keep out of politics

More than 80 current and former participants of the Berlinale, including Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Adam McKay have signed an open letter condemning the festival’s “silence” on Gaza.

It comes after the film festival was swept up in what it called a “media storm” over the alleged sidelining of political discourse at the event.

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James McAvoy reportedly assaulted in Toronto bar

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Actor promoting his directorial debut California Schemin’ at the city’s film festival is reported to have been punched by another drinker

The actor James McAvoy was assaulted in a bar in Toronto, it has been reported.

According to People magazine, McAvoy was “sucker punched” by another visitor to Charlotte’s Room bar on Monday evening, two days after the premiere of his directorial debut, California Schemin’, at the Toronto film festival.

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Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, starring Cate Blanchett, surprise winner of Venice Golden Lion

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The Voice of Hind Rajab, a harrowing account of a Palestinian child’s death in Gaza, won the runner-up Silver Lion

US indie director Jim Jarmusch unexpectedly won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice film festival on Saturday with Father Mother Sister Brother, a three-part meditation on the uneasy tie between parents and their adult children.

Although his gentle comedy received largely positive reviews, it had not been a favourite for the top prize, with many critics instead tipping the Voice of Hind Rajab, a harrowing true-life account of the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl during the Gaza war. In the end, the film directed by Tunisia’s Kaouther Ben Hania took the runner-up Silver Lion.

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Notting Hill carnival came ‘very close’ to not happening, says chair in funding appeal

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Ian Comfort calls for government to recognise cultural importance of event and guarantee its sustainable future

About 2 million people are expected to take to the streets this weekend at the annual Notting Hill carnival for its mix of music, food and Caribbean culture, but for the man who runs it, there is a sense of relief to see it taking place at all.

The chair of Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, Ian Comfort, told the Guardian that the event needed to secure a sustainable future after a year of funding rows, public disagreements with the Met police, and negative press after violence last year.

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Madrid cultural diversity festival ban is ideological, its organisers claim

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Kúpula se Mueve, which celebrates African and Latin culture, has been held without problems since 2013

Madrid city council has banned a festival celebrating cultural diversity, claiming that it may lead to public disorder and complaints about noise from residents.

The Kúpula se Mueve (Kúpula Moves) festival has been held without incident since 2013. Josias Ndanga, president of the association, insists the claims are an excuse, saying: “We’re convinced we’re being discriminated against on ideological grounds.”

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Toronto film festival: Angelina Jolie, Saoirse Ronan and Keanu Reeves lead lineup

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The 50th edition of the Canadian film festival will also feature world premieres starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Sydney Sweeney and Matthew McConaughey

World premieres starring Angelina Jolie, Saoirse Ronan and Keanu Reeves lead this year’s lineup for the Toronto film festival.

The 50th edition of the festival will again feature a string of films hoping to gain awards traction, taking place after the Venice film festival.

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