Category Archives: Awards and prizes

Golden Globes 2023: The Banshees of Inisherin and The Fabelmans win big

Posted on by

The 80th annual ceremony saw a diverse slate of winners as host Jerrod Carmichael took shots at its troubled history

A year after going on mute – no red carpet, no stars, no television broadcast in 2022 – the Golden Globes returned to form at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles: open bottles of champagne, over time and overstretched, gesturing toward improving its longstanding diversity issues while taking shots from host Jerrod Carmichael.

The night’s big winners were The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical family drama that also won him best director, and Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, while the network darling Abbott Elementary, HBO’s prequel House of the Dragon and The White Lotus took home the top TV awards.

Continue reading...

‘I’m not humble’: Artist Ken Done delivers colourful speech as 2022 Australian fashion laureate

Posted on by

The painter known for his vivacious Australiana prints accepted the award with a 10-minute speech that elicited laughter and some uncomfortable silences

Ken Done, the artist known for his riotously colourful Australiana paintings and prints, has been named the Australian fashion laureate for 2022. The lifetime achievement award honours individuals for their significant contribution to the Australian fashion industry.

“I’m not humble, fuck it,” Done said upon receiving the award at a ceremony in Sydney on Tuesday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

British-Egyptian hunger striker may die in prison, Nobel laureates warn world leaders attending Cop27

Posted on by

Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been on hunger strike for six months and will refuse water from 6 November, the first day of the climate summit

The majority of living Nobel prize for literature laureates have called on world leaders attending the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt this week to help free thousands of political prisoners in the country, including the writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah who is six months into a hunger strike and “at risk of death”.

The letter, organised by Abd El-Fattah’s UK publishers Fitzcarraldo Editions and Seven Stories Press, has been signed by 13 Nobel prize for literature winners: Svetlana Alexievich, JM Coetzee, Annie Ernaux, Louise Glück, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Kazuo Ishiguro, Elfriede Jelinek, Mario Vargas Llosa, Patrick Modiano, Herta Müller, Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka and Olga Tokarczuk.

Continue reading...

Photos of lockdown mundanity win £15,000 Taylor Wessing prize

Posted on by

Judges commend Clémentine Schneidermann for simple series capturing neighbour in Wales

A series of portraits documenting the mundane, daily chores of life in lockdown have won one of the world’s most prestigious photography prizes.

The National Portrait Gallery has named French photographer Clémentine Schneidermann as winner of the 2022 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize for her series Laundry Day. The photographer, who lives and works between Paris and south Wales, wins £15,000.

Continue reading...

Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker prize for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Posted on by

Judges described the Sri Lankan author’s second novel as a ‘rollercoaster journey through life and death’ and praised its audacity and ambition

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the Booker prize for fiction. The judges praised the “ambition of its scope, and the hilarious audacity of its narrative techniques”.

Karunatilaka’s second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida comes more than a decade after his debut, Chinaman, which was published in 2011. The Booker-winning novel tells the story of the photographer of its title, who in 1990 wakes up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. With no idea who killed him, Maali has seven moons to contact the people he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos of civil war atrocities that will rock Sri Lanka.

Continue reading...

Aria awards 2022: Rüfüs Du Sol and Amyl and the Sniffers among top nominees

Posted on by

Dance group leads with seven nominations, with Flume, the Kid Laroi, Baker Boy and Vance Joy also winning multiple nods

Rüfüs Du Sol has dominated the 2022 Aria award nominations, featuring in a total of seven categories, followed by Amyl and the Sniffers and Flume.

The Sydney electronic trio’s latest album, Surrender, continues to pay dividends for the band, who won best group and best dance song for their track Alive at last year’s Arias. Alive also won them best dance song at this year’s Grammy awards.

Continue reading...

‘Immensely brave’: Abduljalil al-Singace named international writer of courage

Posted on by

The Bahraini activist who is serving a life sentence in prison for his role in anti-government protests was chosen to share the PEN Pinter prize by Malorie Blackman

The academic, activist and blogger Abduljalil al-Singace from Bahrain has been named this year’s international writer of courage by Malorie Blackman. Al-Singace is serving a life sentence in prison for his role in Bahrain’s 2011 anti-government protests.

The award is part of the PEN Pinter prize, which goes to an author deemed to have fulfilled Harold Pinter’s aspiration to “define the real truth of our lives and our societies”. This year’s PEN Pinter winner was Blackman, the first children’s writer to be awarded the prize. She chose al-Singace as the international writer of courage, an award for an author who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs, with whom she will share her prize.

Continue reading...

Spielberg’s The Fabelmans wins Toronto film festival People’s Choice award

Posted on by

Director’s most autobiographical film to date picks up audience prize generally seen as indicator of awards success to come

Steven Spielberg’s new film The Fabelmans has won the Toronto international film festival’s People’s Choice award, long regarded in the film industry as a key indicator of awards success over the next few months.

The Fabelmans, directed by Spielberg and co-written with Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner, has been hailed as Spielberg’s most autobiographical film and has won generally admiring reviews. The story of a teenage boy coping with his parents’ disintegrating marriage in the 60s midwest, the Guardian described it as a “rare insight into the world’s most famous director who has usually kept us at arm’s length”.

Continue reading...

MTV VMAs 2022: Taylor Swift wins and Johnny Depp surprises in chaotic ceremony

Posted on by

Taylor Swift announced a new album, Nicki Minaj shouted out female genitals and Johnny Depp made a surprise appearance in a strange, profane evening

Taylor Swift took home the night’s biggest prize – and announced a new album – during the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, a chaotic, bleep-heavy show that nodded to music phenomena past and present, and featured a surprise appearance by Johnny Depp.

Swift, who won best longform video and video of the year for All Too Well (10 Minute Version) for her 2021 re-recorded album Red, was the only artist to double-up on televised awards. Across three hours, MTV moonmen statues went to industry veterans such as Nicki Minaj (best hip-hop) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (best rock); non-English superstars such as Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny (artist of the year) and Blackpink’s Lisa (best K-pop); and newer faces Jack Harlow (song of summer), Lil Nas X (best collaboration, with Harlow, for Industry Baby) and Dove Cameron, a former Disney child star turned actor, who surprised some to win best new artist.

Continue reading...

Academy Awards apologises to Sacheen Littlefeather for Oscars speech moment

Posted on by

Nearly 50 years after speech on behalf of Marlon Brando about depiction of Native Americans, Academy apologises for ‘unwarranted’ abuse she endured

Nearly 50 years after Sacheen Littlefeather stood on the Academy Awards stage on behalf of Marlon Brando to speak out about the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood films, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences apologised to her for the abuse she endured.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Monday said that it will host Littlefeather, now 75, for an evening of “conversation, healing and celebration” in September.

Continue reading...

Will Smith posts emotional apology for the slap: ‘I am deeply remorseful’

Posted on by

Actor releases video answering questions about the incident at this year’s Oscars where he slapped Chris Rock onstage

Will Smith has posted an emotional video to his social channels expressing remorse over the Oscars slap.

The 53-year-old actor caused controversy at this year’s ceremony after he slapped Chris Rock onstage after a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and her appearance. Smith released a statement on Instagram to apologise but has been silent since.

Continue reading...

Deborah James cancer podcast You, Me and the Big C wins top award

Posted on by

Champion prize at the British Podcast Awards given to series co-hosted by bowel cancer campaigner who died in June

Dame Deborah James’ podcast You, Me and the Big C, has been honoured at the British Podcast Awards winning the champion prize.

James, who hosted the podcast alongside Rachael Bland and Lauren Mahon, died last month aged 40 after receiving end of life care for bowel cancer at home. Bland died in September 2018 aged 40, nearly two years after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Continue reading...

Emmys 2022: Succession leads the way with 25 nominations

Posted on by

HBO’s hit drama is out in front with The White Lotus, Ted Lasso, Hacks and Only Murders in the Building running close behind

Succession is leading the way in this year’s Emmys race after today’s announcement that the acclaimed HBO drama picked up 25 nominations.

The hit show, which has previously won nine Emmys, was nominated for best drama series, with stars including Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin all receiving noms.

Continue reading...

Dominic Cummings attempts career reboot as political speaker

Posted on by

Ex-adviser to Boris Johnson holds forth about his hero Otto von Bismarck at Orwell Festival of Political Writing

More than a year since walking out of Downing Street clutching his possessions in a cardboard box, Dominic Cummings has emerged in public again, recasting himself as a political speaker,

From No 10 to a lecture hall in the Darwin Building at University College London, the man who was once Boris Johnson’s senior adviser and de facto chief of staff, appeared on Thursday night in a panel discussion at the Orwell festival of political writing.

Continue reading...

Miles Franklin 2022: shortlist revealed for Australia’s prestigious literary prize

Posted on by

A self-published novel by Michael Winkler joins Alice Pung, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Michelle de Kretser and Jennifer Down to compete for $60,000


A self-published book has been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin for the first time in the award’s 65-year history, with Michael Winkler’s cult hit Grimmish clearing the final hurdle before Australia’s most prestigious literary prize is announced on 20 July.

Announced on Thursday evening, Grimmish joins Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s The Other Half of You, Michelle de Kretser’s Scary Monsters, Jennifer Down’s Bodies of Light and Alice Pung’s One Hundred Days to compete for the $60,000 prize.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

Samuel L Jackson criticises Oscars for sidelining Poitier and losing mystique

Posted on by

The actor, who received an honorary Oscar this year, spoke out against the producers’ handling of the in memoriam section, as well as the choice of presenters

Samuel L Jackson has criticised this year’s Oscars ceremony for its handling of the death of pioneering actor Sidney Poitier, as well as their attempts to reach a wider demographic by expanding the pool of presenters.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Jackson said he was “still a little ticked that the greatest actor we had in Hollywood died and they gave him, what, 10 fucking seconds. No. It should have been a whole Sidney Poitier section.”

Continue reading...

Miles Franklin prize removes novel from longlist after author apologises for plagiarism

Posted on by

Exclusive: The Dogs by John Hughes withdrawn from $60,000 prize after novelist admits he used parts of nonfiction work of Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich ‘without realising’

Australia’s most prestigious books prize, the Miles Franklin literary award, has pulled The Dogs by John Hughes from its 2022 longlist, a day after Hughes apologised for plagiarising parts of the work of a Nobel laureate “without realising” in his acclaimed novel.

Following a Guardian Australia investigation that uncovered 58 similarities and instances of identical text between parts of Hughes’ 2021 novel The Dogs and the 2017 English translation of Svetlana Alexievich’s nonfiction The Unwomanly Face of War, Hughes apologised to Alexievich and her translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky “for using their words without acknowledgment”.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

‘Unflinching’ debut written ‘for something to do’ during lockdown wins top book prize

Posted on by

Diana Reid’s Love & Virtue wins book of the year and literary fiction category at Australian Book Industry Association’s annual awards in Sydney

First Nations writers and female authors have dominated the 2022 Australian Book Industry Association’s (Abia) annual awards, with a debut novel by one of the nation’s most promising young writers taking out top honours.

Diana Reid’s Love & Virtue won the Abia book of the year and literary fiction book of the year at a ceremony in Sydney on Thursday night. Judges praised the novel as “a darkly funny yet unflinching glimpse of early adulthood”. In her review for Guardian Australia, Zoya Patel praised Love & Virtue as “a multilayered page-turner on power, unrequited love and campus rape culture, wrapped in a coming-of-age narrative”.

Continue reading...

Ukraine winery in area shelled by Russia wins gold at Decanter wine awards

Posted on by

Exclusive: Beykush winery struggled to get bottles to judges in UK from its site on edge of Russian-occupied territory

A small Ukrainian winemaker whose vineyards sit on the edge of territory newly occupied by Russia has won gold in the prestigious Decanter World Wines awards.

“I can’t say we were surprised that we won because our wine is really, really good,” said Svitlana Tsybak, the chief executive of Beykush winery and president of the Ukrainian association of craft winemakers.

Continue reading...

Bangarra’s Stephen Page and artist Destiny Deacon win $50,000 lifetime achievement awards

Posted on by

Page and Deacon both won the Red Ochre prizes at the 2022 First Nations Arts awards on Friday night for their life work

Last year, choreographer, dancer and director Stephen Page announced that he was stepping down as artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, after 31 years in the job. On Friday night, Page was named the recipient of a $50,000 lifetime achievement award, at the Australia Council’s First Nations Arts awards – and it could not have come at a more opportune moment.

The descendant of the Nunukul people and the Mununjali clan of the Yugambeh nation in south-east Queensland, Page has created more than two dozen works for Bangarra over the past three decades and won many accolades, including being named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). Now, it is time to take a break.

Continue reading...