Comcast-backed pay-TV operator Sky is setting out to support more Black-owned and led businesses in the U.K. through a £1 million ($1.3 million) fund, with plans to grow diversity in Sky’s supply chain in the future. The initiative is targeted specifically at Black entrepreneurs and is in addition to the £30 million that was earmarked over
Global sales of British TV shows in 2020/21 declined 3.3% to £1.4 billion ($1.8 billion), the TV Exports Report from U.K. screen sector trade body Pact reveals. COVID-19 affected production in the U.K., but producers enjoyed robust back catalogue sales. Library content more than four years old accounted for a third of sales, a 22%
Japanese actor and musician Kanda Sayaka died on Saturday evening in Sapporo, Hokkaido. She was 35. Her sudden death was confirmed by her agency and on her official website which removed all other content and replaced it with a notice. “I would like to report to everyone who has supported Sayaka Kanda so far. Kanda
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” shrugged off new health restrictions in South Korea to earn the biggest box office opening weekend since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The film earned $15.0 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. Over the full five days
In another quiet weekend in China, Korean War blockbuster “The Battle at Lake Changjin” was at last eased out of the top five for the first time since its Sept. 30 debut. It was replaced by a new Korean War film with lower production values. “Crossing the Yalu River” from China Media Group debuted Friday
Elizabeth Warren has tested positive for COVID-19. The Mass. Senator announced her diagnosis on Sunday. “I regularly test for COVID and while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case,” Warren stated through her official Twitter. “Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms and am grateful for the protection
Jay-Z may be a rap icon, but he doesn’t carry as much weight with today’s average hip-hop head like he used to, especially compared to someone like Future — so says … well, Future. Mr. Hendrix himself made the bold statement this weekend — going on a little tweet spree to declare he’s not only
In a year-end movie landscape marked, on the one hand, by a stream of prestige adult dramas that struggle more than ever to find actual adults to see them, and on the other hand by the kind of oversize fantasy event films (“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the upcoming “The Matrix Resurrections”) whose job it now
Disney and Google said they reached a deal to restore ESPN, ABC and other channels to YouTube TV, two days after a contract dispute knocked them off the streamer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Google said the price for YouTube TV would remain $64.99/month with the Disney renewal but that it would still
As the Covid-19 Omicron variant continues to spread, particularly in New York, Brooklyn Steel has canceled the remaining three dates of LCD Soundsystem’s “You Are Here” 20-night residency at the venue: tonight (Sunday) through Tuesday. A statement from the venue reads, “LCD Soundsystem’s shows at Brooklyn Steel on December 19, 20 and 21 have been
Peter Kerekes’s “107 Mothers,” a Slovak drama about women living and working in a Ukrainian prison, won the Crystal Arrow Award at the 13th edition of Les Arcs European Film Festival. The festival, which wrapped on Dec. 18, took place as an in-person event with “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius presiding over the jury which
Peter Kerekes’s “107 Mothers,” a Slovak drama about women living and working in a Ukrainian prison, won the Crystal Arrow Award at the 13th edition of Les Arcs European Film Festival. The festival, which wrapped on Dec. 18, took place as an-person event with “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius presiding over the jury which also
The BBC has released a first look image of Alison Oliver as Frances in the broadcaster’s upcoming adaptation of Sally Rooney novel “Conversations With Friends.” Newcomer Oliver (above as Frances) plays a 21-year-old college student who confronts her vulnerabilities as she navigates a series of relationships. Oliver is joined in the adaptation by Sasha Lane
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is turbocharging the global box office, generating a mighty $587.2 million over the weekend despite rising concerns about the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The film, starring Tom Holland as Marvel’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, isn’t only crushing pandemic box office benchmarks — it’s notching all-time records. With this weekend’s global tally, it
The final show of iHeartRadio’s annual Jingle Ball tour, scheduled for Sunday night in Miami, has been canceled due to Covid-19 outbreaks, Y100 Miami announced. “Due to the increased transmission of the new Covid-19 variant and to further minimize any potential risks, as a precautionary measure and for the safety of our staff, talent and
Don’t underestimate Peter Parker. That’s the takeaway this weekend after Sony’s comic book adventure “Spider-Man: No Way Home” crushed box office expectations, generating a mammoth $253 million from 4,336 theaters in North America. It was easily the best domestic opening weekend turnout of any movie in pandemic times. Prior to this weekend, no other COVID-era
Rapper Drakeo the Ruler died after being stabbed backstage at the Once Upon a Time in L.A. multi-artist concert at the Banc of California Stadium, a rep for the performer has confirmed to Variety. Superstar Drake, who appeared on a Drakeo the Ruler single earlier this year, was among those posting condolences on social media.
Personal and political life in Haiti are brought sharply into focus in “Freda,” a powerful and resolutely unsentimental drama about a determined young university student who must decide whether to stay in her deeply troubled country or seek a future elsewhere. Weaving documentary footage of civil unrest into an intelligent and compassionate screenplay that examines
The trusty old tale of a city slicker teacher being posted to a school in the sticks is given a fresh coat of paint in the delightful Bhutanese comic drama “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.” Gloriously filmed on staggeringly beautiful locations around the most remote school on Earth and wonderfully performed by a cast
Trevor Noah will never be the same after he says a hospital and surgeon messed him up for life. Noah says in the lawsuit … he went under the knife last year for an undisclosed condition and the defendants — the Hospital for Special Surgery and Dr. Riley J. Williams — were “careless in failing
In an age of television where nothing is more attractive to networks than established I.P., it’s not enough to build a solidly performing drama on a humble plot of land. It’s all about the hydra-headed franchise these days, with even a series like “Law & Order” clawing back its territory following a decade of austerity
“Saturday Night Live” bowed to the rising threat of COVID-19, opening its final show of 2021 with a pre-taped segment that featured Tom Hanks, Tina Fey, Steve Martin and Kenan Thompson welcoming host Paul Rudd into the “Five-Timers Club.” Production of tonight’s “SNL” was thrown into disarray late this week when numerous cast members tested
The second film submitted for Oscar international feature contention by Southeast African nation Malawi, following Shemu Joyah’s “The Road to Sunrise” in 2018, “Falsani: A Tale of Survival” offers an earnest depiction of struggle against poverty and corruption. Director Gift Sukez Sukali and writer Gilbert Moyo’s debut is technically competent if more haphazard in storytelling
Longtime “Spider-Man” series producer Amy Pascal and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige have an offbeat filmmaking partnership, as they demonstrated in a new interview. In a conversation with the New York Times’ Brooks Barnes about “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and the future of the franchise, the pair addressed Pascal’s previous comments that Tom Holland would
Series 19 of British dance competition series “Strictly Come Dancing” has its winner. Actress Rose Ayling-Ellis became the first deaf contestant ever to be crowned the series’ winner on Saturday night. Along with her professional dance partner Giovanni Pernice, she beat out competitors including chef and 2012 winner of “The Great British Bake Off” John
Charli XCX will no longer perform on tonight’s holiday episode of “Saturday Night Live” due to the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in New York City and NBC’s decision to limit the number of crew members working at 30 Rock’s Stage 8H. The musician made the announcement this evening, just hours before the
The surge in Omicron variant infections in New York has sent “Saturday Night Live” into an eleventh-hour scramble to contain the health threat posed by the latest highly contagious iteration of COVID. IATSE crew members on the show are said to have became vocal on Thursday and Friday amid the increasingly dire reports of infection
If you’re sick of finding pandemic parallels in everything, no need to worry about Péter Bergendy’s period horror “Post Mortem,” the Hungarian Oscar entry. It manages to avoid saying anything about our current moment despite being set during the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918, when that virus was well on its way to killing 50
“Holy Beasts” doesn’t work on every level, but it hits the bullseye where it matters most: as a cinematic reclamation project in honor of the late Dominican director Jean-Louis Jorge. Murdered in 2000 at age 53, Jorge only completed three feature films, but his predilection for kitsch and blurring the line between dreams and reality
Henry Vallejo’s unassuming, near-vérité drama “Powerful Chief” takes its title from the originary figure who founded the Incan Empire. Yet that historical reference, no doubt lost on those not well-versed in Andean indigenous history, serves less as necessary context for the film than as an added bit of perspective. The specter of the vast Incan