Category Archives: Awards and prizes

Blackpool, Sheffield, Milton Keynes and Wrexham shortlisted for UK city of culture 2029

Posted on by

Each place, selected from longlist of nine, will be given £125,000 to develop bids before winner is announced in new year

Blackpool, Sheffield, Milton Keynes and Wrexham have been shortlisted to be the UK city of culture 2029, an award viewed as a way to boost local economies, foster civic pride and, above all, have some fun.

The four places were chosen from a longlist of nine and each will be given £125,000 to develop their bids before the winner is announced in the new year.

Continue reading...

Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza denies using AI to write prize-winning story

Posted on by

Article in Atlantic claims The Blue Fighter was artificially generated, days after it won Caine prize for African writers

The Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using AI to write a prize-winning short story after an article in the Atlantic said software had flagged it as almost completely AI-generated.

Kundizeza’s story The Blue Fighter was announced as the winner of the prestigious Caine prize for African writers on 6 October. Five days later, The Atlantic published an article by the author and journalist Vauhini Vara titled: “Yet Another Literary prize winner Seems to Be AI.”

Continue reading...

Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson to watch Bafta Scotland awards in separate ‘relaxed’ space

Posted on by

Decision follows independent review into handling of February ceremony, where his involuntary tics caused a BBC crisis

John Davidson, the Tourette syndrome campaigner whose outburst at the British Academy film awards in February led to a crisis for Bafta (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and the BBC, will attend the Bafta Scotland awards and watch the ceremony from a separate “relaxed” space.

In a letter sent to Bafta members on Thursday, the organisation’s chair Sara Putt and CEO Jane Millichip said that, after an independent review, Bafta had “strengthened and centralised our safeguarding, risk assessment and compliance processes” and had made arrangements in consultation with “safeguarding and inclusion experts” for Davidson’s attendance at the awards ceremony organised by Bafta’s Scottish branch, which is due to take place in November.

Continue reading...

Novelist accused of using AI to write book removed from French prize list

Posted on by

Thélyson Orélien had been in the running to win a top literary prize before the AI claim emerged on social media

The organisers of France’s most prestigious literary prize said they had removed a critically acclaimed novel by a Canadian-Haitian writer from the longlist after an anonymous online account claimed the book was “almost entirely” written by AI.

The Académie Goncourt, a Paris-based literary organisation, said on Friday its decision to withdraw Thélyson Orélien’s novel C’était ça ou mourir (It Was That or Die) was “driven by the desire to preserve the integrity of the Goncourt prize and the academy itself, whose central role is to promote and honour literature written by women and men”.

Continue reading...

Venice best actress winner says she signed on at Danish job centre days before her victory

Posted on by

Mathilde Arcel, who won the Volpi Cup on Saturday for her role in Golden Lion winner Woman Unknown, said job offers have now begun to arrive

The winner of this year’s best actress prize at the Venice film festival has revealed that she is on unemployment benefits and had to fly to back to Copenhagen to report to the job centre before receiving her award.

On Saturday night, Danish actor Mathilde Arcel won the prestigious Volpi Cup for her first leading role in a feature film, May el-Toukhy’s post-second world war drama Woman Unknown, which also won the Golden Lion award for best film.

Continue reading...

Venice best actress winner says she signed on at Danish job centre days before her victory

Posted on by

Mathilde Arcel, who won the Volpi Cup on Saturday for her role in Golden Lion winner Woman Unknown, said job offers have now begun to arrive

The winner of this year’s best actress prize at the Venice film festival has revealed that she is on unemployment benefits and had to fly to back to Copenhagen to report to the job centre before receiving her award.

On Saturday night, Danish actor Mathilde Arcel won the prestigious Volpi Cup for her first leading role in a feature film, May el-Toukhy’s post-second world war drama Woman Unknown, which also won the Golden Lion award for best film.

Continue reading...

Venice best actress winner says she signed on at Danish job centre days before her victory

Posted on by

Mathilde Arcel, who won the Volpi Cup on Saturday for her role in Golden Lion winner Woman Unknown, said job offers have now begun to arrive

The winner of this year’s best actress prize at the Venice film festival has revealed that she is on unemployment benefits and had to fly to back to Copenhagen to report to the job centre before receiving her award.

On Saturday night, Danish actor Mathilde Arcel won the prestigious Volpi Cup for her first leading role in a feature film, May el-Toukhy’s post-second world war drama Woman Unknown, which also won the Golden Lion award for best film.

Continue reading...

Venice best actress winner says she signed on at Danish job centre days before her victory

Posted on by

Mathilde Arcel, who won the Volpi Cup on Saturday for her role in Golden Lion winner Woman Unknown, said job offers have now begun to arrive

The winner of this year’s best actress prize at the Venice film festival has revealed that she is on unemployment benefits and had to fly to back to Copenhagen to report to the job centre before receiving her award.

On Saturday night, Danish actor Mathilde Arcel won the prestigious Volpi Cup for her first leading role in a feature film, May el-Toukhy’s post-second world war drama Woman Unknown, which also won the Golden Lion award for best film.

Continue reading...

Venice best actress winner says she signed on at Danish job centre days before her victory

Posted on by

Mathilde Arcel, who won the Volpi Cup on Saturday for her role in Golden Lion winner Woman Unknown, said job offers have now begun to arrive

The winner of this year’s best actress prize at the Venice film festival has revealed that she is on unemployment benefits and had to fly to back to Copenhagen to report to the job centre before receiving her award.

On Saturday night, Danish actor Mathilde Arcel won the prestigious Volpi Cup for her first leading role in a feature film, May el-Toukhy’s post-second world war drama Woman Unknown, which also won the Golden Lion award for best film.

Continue reading...

Emmys 2026: the full list of winners

Posted on by

Widow’s Bay dominated this year’s ceremony, with The Pitt, Hacks and Pluribus landing other major categories

The Diplomat
The Gilded Age
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Paradise
The Pitt – WINNER
Pluribus
Slow Horses
Your Friends & Neighbors

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

The Pitt, Hacks and newcomers Widow’s Bay and Pluribus lead 2026 Emmy nominations

Posted on by

HBO and Apple shows head up this year’s nominations while Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer follow-up Half-Man only receives one nod

The second season of hit hospital drama The Pitt and the final season of Hacks dominate this year’s Emmy nominations, announced on Wednesday.

The Pitt leads with 25 nominations while Hacks has 24, both scoring a big win for HBO, the latter series also breaking an Emmy record for most nods ever received by a comedy in a single year.

Continue reading...

Oscar belonging to co-director of Putin film missing after TSA makes him ship it

Posted on by

Agents would not allow Pavel Talankin to carry statuette for Mr Nobody Against Putin on to flight from New York

The Oscar statuette belonging to Pavel Talankin, star and co-director of the Academy award-winning documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin, has disappeared after officials at New York’s John F Kennedy airport confiscated it before he boarded a flight, claiming it could be used as a weapon.

Talankin, whose documentation of Russia’s propaganda machine in grade schools won international acclaim, told Deadline that he had brought the statuette on several flights without incident. But when he arrived at JFK’s terminal 1 on Wednesday morning, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents said he could not take the 8.5lb trophy on board because it posed a security risk.

Continue reading...

Winners and judges out of pocket as £20,000 writing awards appear to have closed

Posted on by

The Plaza Prizes offered 10 awards in 2025 but some judges say they were not paid, while a number of winners hit back over AI accusations

A competition for new writers that promised a £20,000 prize fund appears to have shut down, leaving winners and judges, including a Booker prize-winning novelist, out of pocket.

Established in 2022, the Plaza Prizes last year offered 10 awards that were judged by the “finest poets and writers in the world”.

Continue reading...

One Battle After Another sweeps the Oscars as Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley win big

Posted on by

Paul Thomas Anderson’s revolutionary epic took home six awards while Sinners scored four including for best actor

Paul Thomas Anderson’s counter-culture caper One Battle After Another has won the Oscars war, taking home six awards after a hotly contested season.

The big-budget comedy thriller, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, was named best picture and also won director, supporting actor for Sean Penn, adapted screenplay, editing and the first ever Oscar for casting, a category long-petitioned for within the industry.

Continue reading...

Mr Nobody Against Putin wins the best documentary Oscar

Posted on by

Primary school teacher Pavel Talankin’s record of the indoctrination of his pupils to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine beats contenders

Mr Nobody Against Putin, a primary school teacher’s record of the indoctrination of his pupils to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has won the Oscar for best documentary.

Pavel Talankin, who is now in exile in Europe, picked up the award alongside the film’s US co-director, David Borenstein. It beat favourite The Perfect Neighbor to take the prize, along with other contenders The Alabama Solution, Come See Me in the Good Light and Cutting Through Rocks.

Continue reading...

Barbra Streisand pays tribute to Robert Redford at the Oscars: ‘He blazed his own trail’

Posted on by

The actor and singer remembered her co-star in 1973’s The Way We Were, who died in September

Barbra Streisand has paid tribute to her friend and former co-star Robert Redford at the 98th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

The actor and singer, 83, sang a portion of the title song from their 1973 romantic drama The Way We Were, directed by Sydney Pollack, after remembering the pair’s respect and affection for one another.

Continue reading...

‘Some parents said they’d break my knees’: the teacher who exposed Putin’s primary school propaganda

Posted on by

Grenade-throwing contests replaced PE and ‘denazification’ speeches became homework. Pavel Talankin’s undercover film about his school’s indoctrination drive won a Bafta and is tipped for an Oscar, but has left him in exile

In order to watch the Oscar-nominated documentary in which many of them have starring roles, pupils at Karabash School No 1 have had to source bootlegged copies, viewing the film in private, on their phones or their laptops.

Last week’s Bafta best documentary win for Mr Nobody Against Putin has been studiously ignored by Russian state media, and the prize the film won at Sundance last year was also met with silence. Staff at the school and government officials in the Kremlin seem united in their desire to pretend that they know nothing about the film.

Continue reading...

Brit awards 2026: full list of winners

Posted on by

Olivia Dean tops the winners list with four, while Sam Fender bags two – see all the category winners here

• News: Olivia Dean sweeps the board at 2026 Brit awards, winning four including artist, song and album of the year
• Alexis Petridis: This year’s Brit awards found a flicker of chaos – but the winners were never in doubt

Olivia Dean

Continue reading...

Brigitte Bardot tribute at the César awards greeted with boos

Posted on by

A shout of ‘racist’ could also be heard during the segment at France’s version of the Oscars

A tribute to Brigitte Bardot at the Césars, France’s version of the Oscars, on Thursday was greeted with boos. In a video clip posted on social media, boos can clearly be heard among the applause as the tributes, and a shout of “racist!” is also audible.

Bardot, who died in December aged 91, became arguably the most celebrated figure in postwar French cinema for films such as And God Created Woman and Contempt, but after quitting acting in the early 1970s her later years were marred by increasing political activity on the far right, resulting in a string of convictions for inciting racial hatred.

Continue reading...