Category Archives: Film

Horror show: North American box office records lowest monthly total since 1997

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Halloween weekend failed to make numbers jump, adding up to the weakest monthly performance – other than during the pandemic – for three decades

Box office earnings in October have crashed to levels not seen since the late 1990s, with Halloween weekend becoming the worst of the year so far.

According to a report in Variety, cinema takings for October in North America totalled $425m (£323m), the lowest figure since October 1997, when it was $385m – not counting October 2020, when North American cinemas only took $63m as moviegoing was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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My Father’s Shadow looms over competition at British independent film awards

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Akinola Davies Jr’s Nigeria-set drama has 12 nominations, including best film and besr director

Nigeria-set drama My Father’s Shadow is the leading contender at this year’s British independent film awards (Bifas), after it scooped 12 nominations, including best British independent film, best director for Akinola Davies Jr, and best screenplay for Davies’s brother Wale. The film came out ahead of Pillion, adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’s coming-of-age relationship story, which got 10 nominations, and biopic I Swear, which got nine.

My Father’s Shadow, which stars Sope Dirisu and is Davies’s debut feature as a director, premiered at the Cannes film festival to admiring reviews. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described it as “a transparently personal project and a coming-of-age film in its (traumatised) way, a moving account of how, just for one day, two young boys glimpse the real life and real history of their father who has been mostly absent for much of their lives”. The film is yet to be released in the UK, but has already come out in Nigeria.

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Veteran actor Tchéky Karyo, star of Nikita and The Missing, dies aged 72

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French-Turkish actor appeared in a string of high-profile films, as well as hit BBC series The Missing

Tchéky Karyo, who appeared in some of director Luc Besson’s biggest hits and a string of international films, died on Friday at the age of 72, his family have announced.

A statement from his wife and children sent to AFP said he had “succumbed to cancer”.

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Madrid regional government co-funding Woody Allen’s new film – but it must feature ‘Madrid’ in the title

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Regional authority is investing €1.5m in the project but has stipulations about featuring ‘identifiable locations’ on screen and the film premiering at an international film festival

The Madrid regional government is hoping to harness the power of film tourism by investing €1.5m (£1.3m) in a new Woody Allen movie that will be shot in and around the Spanish capital and which will be contractually obliged to feature the word “Madrid” in its title.

Regional authorities are confident the 89-year-old film-maker’s next project could do for Madrid what Roman Holiday did for Rome tourism in the early 1950s, and what Sex and the City and Emily in Paris have more recently done to increase visitor numbers to New York and the French capital.

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House of Dynamite writer ‘respectfully disagrees’ with Pentagon’s complaints about nuclear missile thriller

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Noah Oppenheim responded to complaints from the Pentagon over the accuracy of the film’s depiction of the US’s defence systems

Warning: contains a spoiler for the plot of House of Dynamite

Noah Oppenheim, the writer of Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear-missile thriller House of Dynamite has responded to complaints from the Pentagon over the accuracy of its depiction of the US’s defence systems, saying he “respectfully disagree[s]”.

In an internal memo dated 16 October obtained by Bloomberg, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said: “The fictional interceptors in the movie miss their target and we understand this is intended to be a compelling part of the drama intended for the entertainment of the audience,” but results from real-world testing “tell a vastly different story.”

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Björn Andrésen, Swedish actor who starred in Death in Venice, dies aged 70

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Actor who also starred in Midsommar and became a musician was nicknamed ‘the most beautiful boy in the world’ – a title he struggled with all his life

Björn Andrésen, the Swedish actor best known for his breakout role in the 1971 film Death in Venice, has died aged 70.

At 15, Andrésen was cast in Italian director Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice, based on Thomas Mann’s novella, in which he played Tadzio, a beautiful boy with whom an older man, played by Dirk Bogarde, becomes obsessed.

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Actor June Lockhart of Lost in Space and Lassie fame dies aged 100

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Lockhart started out on stage at age eight and appeared in scores of television series and feature films

June Lockhart, the popular actor known for her work in film and television, has passed away at the age of 100.

She died on Thursday night of natural causes, with daughter June Elizabeth and granddaughter Christianna by her side, according to People.

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Story of Indigenous activist’s murder takes top prize at London film festival

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Jury says documentary about killing of Argentinian campaigner Javier Chocobar brings ‘a measure of the justice’ denied by the courts

A documentary about the murder of the Indigenous activist Javier Chocobar has taken the top prize at the London film festival, with the jury calling it “a measure of the justice” that has long been denied by the courts.

The Argentine film-maker Lucrecia Martel’s first documentary, Landmarks, won the best film award in the festival’s official competition, it was announced on Sunday.

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Warner Bros Discovery says Israeli film boycott ‘violates our policies’

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In response to pledge, company has claimed in a statement that its policies ‘prohibit discrimination of any kind’

Warner Bros Discovery has rebuked a pledge signed by more than 4,000 film industry figures to not work with Israeli film institutions “implicated in the genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”, saying that such a pledge would likely violate its internal policies.

In a statement to Variety, a spokesperson said the company “is committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful environment for its employees, collaborators, and other stakeholders”.

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Ken Jacobs, mainstay of New York’s underground film culture, dies aged 92

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Experimental film-maker’s works included Little Stabs at Happiness, Blonde Cobra, and Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son

Renowned experimental film-maker Ken Jacobs, whose works such as Little Stabs at Happiness, Blonde Cobra and Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son made him a key member of the underground film circuit of the 1960s, has died aged 92. His son Azazel Jacobs, also a film-maker, told the New York Times that he died of kidney failure in hospital on Sunday.

Described by the New York Times as “the éminence grise of the American avant garde”, Jacobs and his wife Flo, with whom he collaborated on much of his work, straddled the worlds of experimental art and American new wave film-making, along with the likes of Jack Smith, Andy Warhol and Jonas Mekas. He was a founding member of New York’s Film-Makers’ Co-Operative and the first director of the Millennium Film Workshop in 1966, both of which offered a space for film-makers working outside the mainstream and which are still operating today.

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George Clooney says his children have a ‘much better life’ being raised in France than LA

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The actor said that their French farm will be free of paparazzi, teach them self-sufficiency and let them see his handyman skills, such as fixing the coffee machine

George Clooney has said that his decision to base himself in France was informed by the desire to give his children a better start in life than if they had remained in the US.

The actor, 64, who has eight-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander, with his wife, the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, gave a lengthy interview to US Esquire magazine while staying at his Italian villa on Lake Como.

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He-Man poised to be next retro name to join UK toy ‘newstalgia’ trend

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Films of old favourites help lift toy sales 8% this year, with 2026 Masters of the Universe movie tipped for similar

A wave of “newstalgia” has fuelled a step up in growth of UK toy sales, with the muscle-bound 80s hero He-Man the latest retro name tipped for a revival thanks to the big screen.

After falling almost 4% in 2024, UK toy sales are up 8% so far this year, buoyed up by the Minecraft and Lilo & Stitch films as well as parents rebuying toys they once owned as children such as Care Bears and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, according to new data.

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Liev Schreiber and Debra Messing among names rejecting pledge to boycott Israeli films

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More than 1,200 industry figures claim the pledge is ‘a document of misinformation’ and that much of the Israeli film and TV industry are ‘often the loudest critics of government policy’

More than 1,200 entertainment industry figures have signed a new open letter rejecting the recent high-profile pledge by thousands of their peers to boycott Israeli films over the war in Gaza.

Stars including Liev Schreiber, Mayim Bialik, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Debra Messing are among those who have lent their names to the letter, which says the previous pledge “advocates” for “the erasure of art”.

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Horror film digitally altered in China to make gay couple straight

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Viewers outraged after same-sex wedding scene changed in Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie

An Australian horror film featuring a scene with a same-sex wedding was reportedly digitally altered for release in mainland China, transforming the gay couple into a heterosexual one, provoking outrage from viewers who spotted the change.

The critically acclaimed film Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie, was released in selected cinemas in China on 12 September. It follows the journey of a young couple who move to the countryside and encounter mysterious and grotesque changes to their bodies.

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Angelina Jolie says ‘I don’t recognise my country’ now amid threats to freedom of speech in US

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Oscar winner’s comments come days after suspension of Jimmy Kimmel by ABC and Disney, a decision heavily criticised by major stars including Pedro Pascal and Olivia Rodrigo

Angelina Jolie has said “I don’t recognise my country” amid the threats to free speech in the US, saying “anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from anyone, I think, is very dangerous”.

At Spain’s San Sebastián film festival on Sunday, the Oscar winning actor was asked by a journalist: “What do you fear as an artist and an American?”

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Norway finds place in spotlight during ‘golden age’ of film-making

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Distinctive and critically acclaimed films and drama series from ‘a big hub of talent’ are appealing to audiences around the world

When it comes to film-making, Norway has long been left watching on while its Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark put out hit after hit by luminaries such as Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and Ruben Östlund.

But after years in the shadows, the country has finally found its place in the international spotlight with a number of distinctive, relationship-centred and critically acclaimed films and television shows in what many are describing as a Norwegian “golden age”.

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Israel’s culture minister threatens national film awards after Palestinian story takes top prize

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Miki Zohar says he will cancel funding for the Ophir awards after The Sea, about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who is denied entry to Tel Aviv, wins best picture

Israel’s culture minister, Miki Zohar, has announced that funding for the Ophirs, the country’s national film awards, would be cancelled after The Sea, a film about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, won the best feature film prize.

In a statement on X, translated by Israeli news media, Zohar said: “There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir awards ceremony. Starting with the 2026 budget, this pathetic ceremony will no longer be funded by taxpayers’ money. Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.”

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Chadwick Boseman play about police brutality to receive UK premiere in London

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Deep Azure, written by the Black Panther star in response to the death of a fellow college student, will open at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse next year

A play by the Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer aged 43 in 2020, is to receive its UK premiere next year.

Deep Azure was written by Boseman in response to the death of Prince Jones, his fellow college student at Washington DC’s Howard University, who was killed in 2000 by a police officer. The play was first performed in 2005 in the US and will be staged at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London in February, directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu.

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Oscar-winning Palestinian says home in West Bank raided by Israeli soldiers

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Director Basel Adra reports his property was stormed while he was at a hospital with relatives injured in settler attacks

Palestinian Oscar-winning director Basel Adra has said that Israeli soldiers have conducted a raid at his West Bank home, searching for him and going through his wife’s phone.

Israeli settlers attacked his village on Saturday, injuring two of his brothers and one cousin, Adra told the Associated Press. He accompanied them to the hospital. While there, he said that he heard from family in the village that nine Israeli soldiers had stormed his home.

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Steven Spielberg reflects on Jaws at 50: ‘I thought my career was over’

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Director, marking new exhibition in LA, tells of chaotic filming – and says he’s ‘never seen so much vomit in my life’

Before Jaws became a cinematic classic, and the very first American “summer blockbuster”, director Steven Spielberg thought the 1975 film would be the last one he would be allowed to make.

Spielberg, who was just 26, had decided to shoot his second film, a thriller about a killer shark, on location on the east coast island of Martha’s Vineyard.

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