#Oscars 2025: India Selects ‘Laapataa Ladies’ for Best  International Feature Race

#Oscars 2025: India Selects ‘Laapataa Ladies’ for Best International Feature Race

India has selected Kiran Rao’s comedy of errors Laapataa Ladies (Lost Ladies) to represent the country in the 2025 Oscar race in the Best International Feature category. The Hindi-language film, which premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, beat out Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, which had been considered the frontrunner for the…

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#‘Happy Holidays’ Director Scandar Copti on Finding Love Across the Israeli, Palestinian Divide

#‘Happy Holidays’ Director Scandar Copti on Finding Love Across the Israeli, Palestinian Divide

Scandar Copti doesn’t like polemics. In his Oscar-nominated debut Ajami (2009), Copti, a Palestinian director and Israeli citizen, avoided easy answers, and obvious finger-pointing, to tell a story of crime and corruption, family belonging, and political divisions set in his hometown of Jaffa, a mostly Arab city just south of Tel Aviv. Co-directed with Jewish…

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#Saudi Arabia’s Neom Hub Names Acting Media Sector Head Amid Allegations of Racism, Inappropriate Behavior

#Saudi Arabia’s Neom Hub Names Acting Media Sector Head Amid Allegations of Racism, Inappropriate Behavior

Veteran arts and culture executive Michael Lynch has been named acting sector head for media at Neom in Saudi Arabia, a hub for media, entertainment, tourism, and more amid allegations of racism, misogyny and inappropriate workplace behavior by top executives. The Wall Street Journal reported that former Fox and Universal executive Wayne Borg, managing director of Neom Media Industries,…

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#“Rape, Violence, Abuse”: The Threats That Led the Toronto Film Festival to Pull ‘Russians at War’

#“Rape, Violence, Abuse”: The Threats That Led the Toronto Film Festival to Pull ‘Russians at War’

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has revealed that “hundreds” of threats made against staff led to the festival taking the unprecedented decision to pull controversial documentary Russians at War  from the line-up last week – including threats of violence and sexual assault. TIFF said last Thursday it had been “forced to pause” three upcoming public…

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#Disney to Spend B a Year in Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery Exec Looks to 2026 Max Launch in U.K.

#Disney to Spend $1B a Year in Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery Exec Looks to 2026 Max Launch in U.K.

Everyone agrees: the U.K. is and will remain a production hotspot. TV bosses from Warner Bros. Discovery, Sky, Disney, and Paramount Global on Tuesday hailed the knock-on impact of investment in the British and wider European market at the Royal Television Society’s London Convention on Tuesday. The conversation, which included Disney’s Nami Patel, senior vp,…

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