Toronto Film Festival Calls for Release of Jailed Sudan Director Hajooj Kuka

Go Team USA! Nina Dobrev cheered on Shaun White, while he competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics for snowboarding on Wednesday February 9. The 33-year-old actress posted tons of videos of her TV screen while her boyfriend, 35, shredding up the slopes to try to win yet another gold medal for the United States in Beijing. Nina topped it all off with a sweet photo with her boyfriend on screen to show that even miles apart, she’s rooting for him.

Snoop Dogg says he won’t let the big Super Bowl stage rattle his nerves. The ultra-smooth rapper said he will worry about his upcoming halftime performance after the fact.“For me, when performing, I never let the moment get bigger than me,” said Snoop Dogg in a recent interview with The Associated Press from his studio compound in Inglewood, California, a suburb of Los Angeles where the Super Bowl will be held Sunday. He’ll take the stage with Dr.

Zack Sharf The rollercoaster journey of casting the title role in George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” is documented in Kyle Buchanan’s upcoming oral history book “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.” An excerpt published by Vulture reveals that casting Max Rockatansky boiled down to Tom Hardy, Armie Hammer and Jeremy Renner after an exhaustive search that also included Michael Fassbender, Joel Kinnaman, Heath Ledger, Eric Bana and more.Buchanan, who is also the awards season columnist for the New York Times, reports: “Near the end of the process, Hardy emerged as a front-runner alongside Jeremy Renner and Armie Hammer. Hardy and Hammer even read together as part of their audition, and when Hardy gnashed his teeth and spat at his scene partner, Hammer told Miller that Hardy needed to be Max more than he did.” Audition cameraman Todd Matthew Grossman told Buchanan, “Jeremy and Armie were equally wonderful, but there was something about Tom in the room where it felt like that was Max, without a doubt.

After Nelly’s sex tape was leaked on social media, the singer has issued a statement apologizing for the “private” moment being shared publicly.

I'm a Celebrity.The new series will be filmed in Abergele and is set to provide jobs for the local community.This includes a recent recruitment of experienced production runners within the area by ITV.They aren't the only local professionals involved with the upcoming TV project though.North Wales Live can exclusively reveal that furloughed theatre staff are also being used.Technicians from Venue Cymru and Theatr Colwyn began working on the production this month.Eight employees joined the show last Monday (September 14) along with an additional two yesterday.The staff, all of whom had been furloughed, are now expected to remain on set for another 10 days.They will be paid by ITV and are currently assisting crew on location at Gwrych

Angelique Jackson SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not seen “Antebellum,” now available on PVOD.Filmmakers Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz weren’t worried about pushing the envelope too far with “Antebellum,” their twisty tale of a contemporary Black woman, a slave living on a brutal Southern plantation and the way their fates are intertwined. In fact, one could argue that was their intention.“I think that we are in this place where art is being policed in such a way that the potency of the medicine that needs to be delivered, is being greatly diluted.

The film and television industries of Israel and the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi unveiled a historic agreement on Monday that will see the two Middle Eastern regions cooperate on training, co-productions, and a joint film festival. The goodwill agreement between the Abu Dhabi Film Commission (ADFC), the Israel Film Fund (IFF), and the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film & Television School (JSFS), follows the normalizing of relations between Israel and the UAE, long-time adversaries, earlier this month.

Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter.TWITTER went into meltdown last night after a man spectacularly falling down stairs at the swanky MET gala was wrongly identified as singer Jason Derulo.Stunned viewers even started circulating the hashtag #prayforJasonDerulo after the man in a white suit was spotted tumbling down the red-carpeted steps at the star-studded NYC event.But several bloggers were quick to dispel the rumours, with some claiming the pictures were several years old.Perez Hilton wrote: "For starters, this image is from the 2011 Cannes Film Festival - not the Met Gala.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe parade of Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies wraps up with one final, two-hour event on Saturday night — now underway on FXX.

Most people are pleased with the progress the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ has made when it comes to diversity. Bill Maher is not one of them.

Champions League final-eight rules.Scotland’s top-flight clubs should adopt that same policy right now so there’s no future arguing and no debates.Celtic or Rangers could lose half a dozen players ahead of an Old Firm game but, if it happens, we shouldn’t hear a word of complaint.If we start calling games off it could have catastrophic consequences.It might not just be three points a team loses. The snowball effect could shut the game down and see clubs who are already under savage financial pressure get into trouble they just can’t escape.Just take a look at Macclesfield this week if you need an example.We have signed up for this strange season.

Aaron Neuwirth While the premise of “Antebellum” has been shrouded in mystery, activist filmmakers Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz (credited as Bush + Renz) worked with their crew to deliver a wild ride delving into the current climate of racism.In choosing to deal with the pandemic situation, “Antebellum” will only be available on VOD in the United States, beginning Sept. 18, even though it will see a theatrical release internationally.

Nine Inch Nails multihyphenates Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won an Emmy on Thursday, making the pair one Tony away from EGOT status. On the strength of their work on Damon Lindelof's HBO limited seriesWatchmen, based on theDC Comics graphic novel,they won an Emmy for original dramatic score for a limited series, movie or special.

Woody Allen’s online/on-site press conference for “Rifkin’s Festival,” which world premiered on Friday at the San Sebastian Festival, was probably as much for Allen’s career at large as his latest movie in particular.Opening the festival, and set at the San Sebastian Festival – with at least one scene set in the very Kursaal Center auditorium where the press then caught the film – the movie was received with genteel applause at its end, as well as guffaws at choice gags.The most obvious delight for the mostly local audience at the Friday’s press screening was also the subject Allen warmed to most in a subsequent press conference: the homage paid by “Rifkin’s Festival” to San Sebastian at large and, more specifically, to its festival.

The Gazette, announcing the news.The notice announced: ‘The Queen has directed that the appointment of Harvey Weinstein to be an Honorary Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated January 19 2004, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order.’Honours can be removed with approval from the Queen, with a committee considering whether the honour holder has brought the system into ‘disrepute’.The 68-year-old has been expelled from many top industry bodies since his sentencing including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which awards the Oscars, while the fellowship he received from the British Film Institute has also been

Jamie Lang In today’s Global Bulletin, the global film community calls for the release of Sudanese filmmaker Hajooj Kuka, Jana Bennett is announced as Congress ’20 closing speaker, PBS Masterpiece heads to Amazon in Canada, Leonine gets Oliver Vogel for W&B Television role, the Production Guild of Great Britain opens nominations for 2020 Innovation Awards and The Story Lab sells “Game of Clones” format in Brazil.CALL FOR RELEASESudanese filmmaker Hajooj Kuka, whose films “Beats of the Antonov” and “aKasha” have played the Venice and Toronto film festivals, was among five artists sentenced to two months in prison on Thursday on charges of “public annoyance.”The artists were involved in an altercation in Khartoum in August, after authorities

NEVER one to shy away from a bold statement, Gemma Collins has hailed herself a "work of art" following her epic three stone weight loss. The former TOWIE legend is, quite rightly, proud of her slimming successes and took to her Instagram page for her no-frills comparison to a pretty painting.

Terry Flores Women in Animation revealed the Class of 2020 Best Short Film winners from the organization’s WIA Class of 2020 Showcase during a live Zoom ceremony Thursday, Sept. 17.Because the coronavirus pandemic curtailed most of the festivals where student filmmakers typically unveil their work, the WIA organized the showcase as a way of helping the burgeoning artists get their short films seen by animation professionals, recruiters, hiring managers, agents and studio executives in a virtual setting.

Hungarian filmmakers Kornel Mundruczo and Kata Weber have a reputation as fabulists. In the surreal opening scene of White God (2014), a young girl cycles through the eerily empty streets of Budapest, pursued by a pack of hundreds of dogs.

A new Beatles book is set to be released next year, to accompany the Peter Jackson directed documentary ‘The Beatles: Get Back’. The book will tell the story of the making of the band’s ‘Let It Be’ album in their own words.

Jay Weissberg Among the many praiseworthy qualities of “My Tender Matador,” the most notable is its honesty. It would have been so easy for the film, about a transgender woman in Pinochet’s Chile and her relationship with a straight political activist, to have overplayed its hand with ill-judged sentiment or sensationalism, but instead director Rodrigo Sepúlveda Urzúa guides everything just right, from the refusal to treat anyone with less than full respect to the superb ensemble, and from Sergio Armstrong’s carefully calibrated camerawork to the thoughtful understanding of how daylight changes a person who’s lived fullest under the protection of the night.

Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter.An East Kilbride mum has set up on online group to help make this Christmas one to remember – despite the COVID-19 pandemic.Joanna Rae, 28, is creating an online Christmas fair with the idea generating interest across the country and even overseas.The mum-of-four from Calderwood sells the perfume range Essence.With many small businesses – particularly arts and crafts and cosmetics and perfumes – relying on festive fairs to generate vital income, Joanna decided to try and do something to help.A Christmas to Remember East Kilbride has mushroomed into A Christmas to Remember East Renfrewshire, Falkirk and Lanark just to name a few.And there has also been

THIS Morning fans today spotted Alan Carr's huge artwork of HIMSELF in his luxury London home. The comedian, 44, was on the telly to raise money for Neuroblastoma UK which supports children diagnosed with the rare and aggressive cancer.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterDespite the remoteness that is a virtual Toronto International Film Festival, we will always come together to celebrate the cinema. To quote TIFF Tribute Awards presenter Martin Scorsese, “This remarkable art form has always been and always will be more than a diversion”Watch the TIFF Tribute Awards on Variety’s Facebook page with award recipients Kate Winslet, Shawn Mendes, Anthony Hopkins, Mira Nair and Chloe Zhao.

Also Read: Oscars Set New Inclusion and Diversity Standards for Best Picture EligibilityThe winners were chosen from among 1,474 entries made by 207 domestic and 121 international schools.The winners, listed alphabetically:Alternative/Experimental (Domestic and International Film Schools) Curry Sicong Tian, “Simulacra,” University of Southern CaliforniaAnimation (Domestic Film Schools) Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma, “Ciervo,” Rhode Island School of Design Daniela Dwek, Maya Mendonca and Chrisy Baek, “Hamsa,” School of Visual Arts Kate Namowicz and Skyler Porras, “Mime Your Manners,” Ringling College of Art & DesignAnimation (International Film Schools) Pascal Schelbli, “The Beauty,” Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Germany)Documentary

The Material Girl has lived long enough to tell and express herself on the big screen. Madonna has teamed with screenwriter Diablo Cody, producer Amy Pascal and Universal for a biopic on herself.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaMiranda Haymon has been named resident director of Roundabout Theatre Company, one of New York City’s preeminent non-profit arts organizations. Her promotion comes after three years working with the company.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterLooks like Madonna is her own lucky star.In what seems to be an unprecedented creative move, the pop icon has stepped up to direct a film about her life and career — one that’s been heavily teased on her social media accounts, through script sessions with her Oscar-winning co-writer Diablo Cody.That Madonna, whose staggering five-decade career has seen countless musical reinventions and a run at filmmaking and acting, would direct her own journey from New York City’s slums to the heights of global stardom is beyond rare.

The 27th Oldenburg International Film Festival almost became the world’s first art house cinema event "brought to you by Pornhub." The quirky German fest, known for its eclectic programming, and the internet’s largest adult entertainment site were extremely close to becoming partners. In May, with the world in coronavirus lockdown and film festivals across the globe either canceled or in flux, Oldenburg festival director Torsten Neumann announced that even if Cannes, Tribeca, Venice or Toronto decided to cancel because of COVID-19, Germany’s leading indie fest was going to happen, both in person in local cinemas and online.

Ava DuVernay says the time is long overdue for Hollywood to wake up to being too white and too male and allowing more representation from women and people of color into its top ranks. "I've been in a lot of spaces where I'm the only woman, the only Black person, the only person of color," the Selma director told a masterclass at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday.

NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are teaming to co-host a virtual edition of the annual NFMLA Film Festival InFocus: Latinx and Hispanic Cinema Festival. Scheduled for Sept.

Producer dream hampton says she's happy flying the flag for Detroit but had to leave her hometown for New York City and Los Angeles to build a career documenting abuse of power and celebrity, as with her award-winning Lifetime series Surviving R. Kelly.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaWerner Herzog and his son, Rudolph Herzog, will partner with Gunpowder & Sky on “Last Exit: Space,” a new documentary examining mankind’s push to colonize space. Rudolph Herzog will direct, with Werner Herzog attached to executive produce the film, as well as narrate the picture in his inimitable German-accented growl.In addition to Gunpowder & Sky, Spring Films (“The Act of Killing”) and Taglicht Media (“Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies”) are signed on to co-produce the feature, which will begin production this fall.ICM Partners negotiated the deal on behalf of Spring Films.

Carole Horst  Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s “Wolfwalkers” is set in a very specific time period – 1650 in Kilkenny, Ireland. It was a very important town for Oliver Cromwell’s English troops to take over, and the film opens with an English soldier and his daughter, Robyn, settling into their house in town.