Category Archives: Film

Film about children living in darkness on Madrid’s doorstep up for award

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Even Though it’s Night, which chronicles the conditions of Europe’s largest shantytown, Cañada Real, in running for a Goya

A short film that chronicles the lives of the forgotten, deprived and marginalised children who live in Europe’s largest shantytown, just outside Madrid, is in the running for Spain’s equivalent of an Oscar at the Goya awards on Saturday.

Aunque es de noche (Even Though it’s Night), which was shot on location in the Cañada Real informal settlement, using a cast of residents, follows 13-year-old Toni as he prepares to say goodbye to his best friend, Nasser, who is moving to France, and to his own childhood.

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Rape inquiry opened after Judith Godrèche files complaint against director

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French actor alleges arthouse film-maker Benoît Jacquot groomed her when she was 14 and he was 39

French prosecutors have opened a rape inquiry after the actor Judith Godrèche filed a complaint against the arthouse film director Benoît Jacquot, who she says groomed her when she was 14 and he was 39.

A formal complaint was filed against Jacquot, 77, for the alleged rape of a minor by a person in a position of authority. The French police’s specialist juvenile protection unit is handling the inquiry, which will investigate several allegations, including rape of a minor by a person in a position of authority, rape, domestic violence and sexual assault.

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Flemish film awards under fire after men win most prestigious gender-neutral categories

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Actors say non-specific categories benefit men as industry still offers them more interesting roles

The Flemish film and television awards are facing calls to temporarily do away with gender-neutral categories amid concerns that the switch has left women routinely shut out of the top awards.

At the Ensors awards on Saturday male actors cleaned up the categories for best lead and supporting actors. It was an echo of 2022 – the first year that the awards ceremony axed gendered categories – when men also walked away with each of the four awards recognising the best actors.

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And the winner is… the Scottish chocolatier creating sweet treats for the Oscars

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Fiona McArthur’s vegan sweets began as an experiment – and now they’re food for the Hollywood stars

It’s a long way from the windswept waterfront of Campbeltown to Hollywood: but for next month’s Oscar nominees a taste of this remote corner of Scotland awaits, after the owner of the town’s chocolate shop was chosen to produce the sweet treats for the famed $125,000 award ceremony goodie bags.

Fiona McArthur, who started creating her chocolates in her mother’s kitchen four-and-a-half years ago, says she’s still pinching herself at the coup. “It’s blowing my mind that my chocolates are going to be eaten by people like Bradley Cooper and Margot Robbie,” she says.

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Brad Pitt set to star in Quentin Tarantino’s final movie – report

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Pair are rumored to be reuniting for 70s-set drama The Movie Critic after last working together in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Brad Pitt is reportedly starring in Quentin Tarantino’s final film The Movie Critic, according to a Deadline report.

The pair previously worked together in 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with the role bringing Pitt his first Oscar for best supporting actor. Pitt also starred in 2009’s Inglourious Basterds and featured in 1993’s True Romance, which was co-written by Tarantino.

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Dying man who stole Dorothy’s Wizard of Oz ruby slippers escapes jail term

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Terry Jon Martin, 76, who is living in hospice care, stole slippers from Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005

A dying thief who confessed to stealing a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz because he wanted to pull off “one last score” was given no prison time at his sentencing hearing Monday.

Terry Jon Martin, 76, stole the slippers in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s home town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He gave into temptation after an old mob associate told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1m insured value, his attorney revealed in a memo to the federal court ahead of his sentencing in Duluth.

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Italian actor Sandra Milo, star of Federico Fellini’s 8½, dies aged 90

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Renowned figure in Italian film died in her sleep at her residence in Rome, according to a family statement

The Italian actor Sandra Milo, a renowned figure in Italy’s film industry known for her performance in Federico Fellini’s 8½, has died aged 90.

Milo died in her sleep at her residence in Rome surrounded by her family and her dogs, Jim and Lady, according to a statement from the family carried by state-run RAI television.

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Jennifer Lopez to produce Bob the Builder movie

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The artist once known as Jenny from the block is spearheading an animated feature about a Latino construction worker voiced by Anthony Ramos

Move over Barbie: the latest Mattel property set for cultural domination has been unveiled as Bob the Builder, the chirpy construction worker who debuted 25 years ago on CBBC and is being belatedly brought to the big screen by booty-shaking multi-hyphenate Jennifer Lopez.

In something of a spin on the original series, the film’s plot will see Roberto (AKA Bob) travel to Puerto Rico for a major construction job, where he “takes on issues affecting the island and digs deeper into what it means to build”.

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Norman Jewison, director of In the Heat of the Night, dies aged 97

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Canadian-born director of Moonstruck and Fiddler on the Roof was a three-time Oscar nominee

Norman Jewison, the acclaimed and versatile Canadian-born director whose Hollywood films ranged from Doris Day comedies and Moonstruck to social dramas such as the Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night, has died at the age of 97.

Jewison, a three-time Oscar nominee who in 1999 received an Academy Award for lifetime achievement, died “peacefully” on Saturday, according to his publicist Jeff Sanderson. Additional details were not immediately available.

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Berlin film festival announces eclectic lineup including Rooney Mara, Stephen Fry and Gael García Bernal

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Films include a sci-fi about a man who rents out his dead wife’s body and a documentary about a hippo owned by Pablo Escobar

Colombian cocaine hippos, a Star Wars parody set in northern France and an unlikely father-daughter pairing of Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham all feature in an eclectic lineup at this year’s Berlin film festival, which was unveiled on Monday.

The 74th edition of the 10-day Berlinale will open on 15 February with the world premiere of Small Things Like These, based on Irish author Clare Keegan’s bestselling historical novel. Adapted to the big screen by Enda Walsh, the film sees Cillian Murphy reuniting with Belgian director Tim Mielants, who directed the third series of Peaky Blinders.

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UK curator of African film to receive Bafta award

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June Givanni founded London archive documenting Pan-African cinema over 40 years

A pioneering curator, writer and programmer of African film is to receive Bafta’s outstanding British contribution to cinema award.

June Givanni is the founder of a London archive that has amassed more than 10,000 items – including films, ephemera, manuscripts, audio, photography and posters – documenting Pan-African cinema over 40 years.

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Mia Goth sued by MaXXXine extra, who alleges actor ‘intentionally’ kicked him in the head on set

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James Hunter alleges in a LA court filing that Goth intentionally kicked him while he lay on the ground playing dead

An extra has alleged in a Los Angeles court filing that British actor Mia Goth kicked him in the head on the set of slasher film MaXXXine.

James Hunter, a background actor on the latest instalment in the X series, which follows on from the success of X and Pearl, claims he was covered in fake blood and told to lie in the ground and play dead for a scene filmed in April 2023.

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Parasite director Bong Joon-ho leads artist outcry over death of South Korean actor

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Oscar-winning director leads calls for inquiry into police investigative process following death of Lee Sun-kyun

A group of South Korean artists, including film director Bong Joon-ho, has called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death last month of prolific actor Lee Sun-kyun.

Lee, who played a lead role in Bong’s Oscar-winning film Parasite, died last month in an apparent suicide, at the age of 48.

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Golden Globe awards 2024: Australians win big as Sarah Snook, Margot Robbie and Elizabeth Debicki land gongs

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Snook wins best actress in a TV drama series for her performance as the ambitious Shiv Roy in Succession, which also won best TV drama

Australians have won big at this year’s Golden Globes, with Sarah Snook and Elizabeth Debicki taking home acting awards and Margot Robbie winning for Barbie’s box office success.

Snook won the best actress in a TV series – drama for her performance as the ambitious Shiv Roy in Succession, which also won best TV drama.

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Two Cuban documentaries show effects of US sanctions on island nation

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Liz Oliva Fernández says the sanctions, imposed 60 years ago and upheld through Biden, have led to a ‘desperate situation’

A Cuban journalist is looking to spread awareness of the US trade embargo in two illuminating documentaries arriving in early 2024.

Liz Oliva Fernández says whenever she covered news or events on the island, be it the push for democratic reforms, or the private businesses springing up after the Castros loosened their grip on power, they always intersected with the sanctions.

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Actor Christian Oliver’s ex-wife pays tribute to him and children killed in plane crash

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Actor and daughters, 12 and 10, died along with pilot on Thursday after small plane they were in crashed into Caribbean Sea

A Los Angeles pilates instructor who recently lost her two daughters and their father – actor Christian Oliver – has paid tribute to her girls and her former husband, saying their deaths are “deeply felt by all who knew” them.

Jessica Klepser’s remarks about Oliver and their daughters – Madita Maia and Annik Luna Klepser, ages 12 and 10, respectively – were contained in a statement published late Friday on Instagram by Wundabar Pilates, the studio where she works.

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Shia LaBeouf mulls plan to become deacon after Catholic confirmation

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Actor, 37, received sacrament on New Year’s Eve and Capuchin friar Alexander Rodriguez says he wishes to be a deacon ‘in the future’

The Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf is seeking to becoming a Catholic deacon after receiving the sacrament of confirmation on New Year’s Eve.

A California-based chapter of the Capuchin Franciscans, a Catholic religious order, shared the news in a Facebook post on Tuesday alongside photos of the 37-year-old actor smiling next to several of the organization’s members.

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French actor Alain Delon to file legal complaint against son over ‘media outburst’

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Anthony Delon told a magazine his father was finding it hard to accept his frail state of health

The actor Alain Delon will file a legal complaint against his son over “a media outburst” in France’s most prominent magazine, his lawyer has said.

In an interview published on Thursday, Anthony Delon told Paris Match that his father was finding it hard to accept his frail state of health, adding that there were “major risks” that the 88-year-old had celebrated “his last Christmas”.

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Courtroom drama is Hong Kong’s highest grossing Chinese-language film ever

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Analysts suggest popularity of A Guilty Conscience is down to portrayal of recent abuses in judicial system

Hong Kong’s highest grossing Chinese language film of all time is a courtroom drama exploring themes of power and justice in a city where many feel both have been abused in recent years.

A Guilty Conscience, the directorial debut of the Hong Kong screenwriter Ng Wai-lun, tells the story set in the city of a single mother wrongly accused of murdering her daughter and the legal battle to clear her name.

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Hollywood’s attempts to encourage diversity ‘performative’, study finds

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Two new studies show female film-makers still underrepresented despite recent successes such as Barbie

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie may have been the top-grossing film of 2023, but women are still dramatically underrepresented behind the camera in Hollywood, according to two major studies of the industry.

At the same time, major studios that pledged to re-examine their diversity and inclusion practices in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 still fail to produce many films from people of color, according to USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. The center’s latest report, titled Inclusion in the Director’s Chair, called the entertainment industry’s pledges to promote inclusion “performative acts” and “not real steps towards fostering change”.

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