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At today’s star-studded press event hosted by Scandinavia’s leading regional film Fund Film I Väst, star actresses Sofie Gråbøl and Sidse Babette Knuden as well as Oscar-nominated Jasmila Žbanić raised their voices in the name of all mums and women in the world, in times of peace-and war.

“We’re seeing what’s happening now in Ukraine and Palestine [Gaza], and it’s crazy. We see and hear only men’s side of what’s going on. But the female side of war needs to be told,” said a passionate Žbanić, discussing her upcoming project “Quo Vadis, Aida – the Missing Part”.

One of eight new projects co-produced by Film i Väst, the sequel to the 2021 Bosnian Oscar nominated film “Quo Vadis, Aida” will be produced by Deblokada in co-production with Ruben Östlund’s Swedish outfit Plattform Produktion.

The story explores the aftermath of the tragic consequences of the 1990s’ Bosnian War,...

Jasmila Zbanic is planning a sequel to her Oscar-nominated drama Quo Vadis, Aida?, about the Srebrenica massacre, which will follow the aftermath of the genocidal killings in Bosnia in 1995.

Quo Vadis, Aida?: The Missing Part will trace the story of the women left behind after Bosnian Serb forces under commander Ratko Mladic murdered more than 7,000 civilians, primarily men and boys, in the most violent incident of the Bosnian War. Jasna Djuricic will return to star as Aida, a local translator for the Un peacekeeping forces who tried, in vain, to save her husband and sons from being massacred and who now leads the fight to uncover the truth of the killings and bring those responsible to justice.

Quo Vadis, Aida? premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020 and picked up two BAFTA nominations and the best film prize at the European film awards, as well as an Academy Award nod for best international feature.

South Korean writer Han Kang, whose international breakthrough novel The Vegetarian was made into a film, has won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2024.

The Swedish Academy unveiled the honoree Thursday, lauding “her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Han’s 2007 novel The Vegetarian, her first novel to be translated into English, won the International Booker Prize in 2015. The story of Yeong-hye, a part-time graphic artist and homemaker, whose decision to stop eating meat leads to mental health struggles and problems in her familial life, was adapted as a feature film by Woo-Seong Lim and screened at Sundance in 2010.

The honor is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in 1895. The others are prizes in chemistry, physics and medicine, as well as the Nobel Peace Prize.

Han Kang is the first South Korean to win the literature Nobel.

One of Norway’s biggest export names, whose credits include Juliette Binoche starrer “1,000 Times Good Night” and Golden Bear nominee “Utøya- July 22,” director Erik Poppe will kick off the Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund on Aug. 18, with his much-anticipated drama “Quisling – The Final Days,” ahead of the film’s international premiere at Toronto’s Special Presentations.

Although set in Norway during WWII, the film explores today’s pressing issue of the rise of right wing extremism and its threat to democracy.

It centres on the last days before his execution on Oct. 24, 1945, of the infamous Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, whose name has become a byword for traitor. As Quisling sits in his dark cell, he receives the visit of the priest Peder Olsen. Their encounters – documented in a diary written by Olsen that served as a key source for the script – turn into a psychological battle between the humanist and the fascist.

The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia will be the recipient of the 2024 Regional Theatre Tony Award, an annual honor recognizing a regional theatre company that has displayed “a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally.”

The award is accompanied by a grant of $25,000.

“We are delighted to announce The Wilma Theater as the recipient of the 2024 Regional Theatre Tony Award,” said Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing and Jason Laks, interim president of the Broadway League. “The Wilma has made outstanding contributions to the world of theatre over the course of 45 years, maintaining an unwavering dedication to contemporary theatre and a commitment to the arts that began with its visionary introduction of avant-garde theatre to Philadelphia in 1979.”

Established in 1973 as The Wilma Project, the Wilma challenged the Philadelphia cultural community to create theatrical productions of original material and to develop local artists.

The European Film Market (EFM) has crossed the 12,000-visitor attendance barrier for the first time, setting a new record for the event.

Over 12,000 visitors from 143 countries attended the 2024 market, up from around 11,500 at the 2023 edition; and ahead of the pre-pandemic record of 11,423. Final figures will be confirmed in the coming days.

The number of exhibiting companies was also up slightly, to 614 from last year’s 612 – staying well ahead of the pre-pandemic mark of 564. The 614 figure includes those exhibiting at both the Gropius Bau and Marriott Hotel sites.

The number of buyers was down slightly, from last year’s record of...

Actors Christopher Tierney in his first NYC stage role since departing Broadway's Spider-Man and Louis Butelli Cyclops A Rock Opera Sleep No More step into Jon Fosse's I Am The Wind, replacing the previously announced James Patrick Nelson and Jonathan Tindle. Performances still begin on Thursday, January 9 for a limited engagement through Sunday, January 26. Press opening remains Thursday, January 16 at 730 Pm. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 730 Pm Friday - Saturday at 830 Pm and Sunday at 330 Pm. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters 59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues. Tickets are 18 12.60 for 59E59 Members. To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at 212 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.

Film, opera and stage director known for La Reine Margot and his Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 1976

Unusually for a director, Patrice Chéreau, who has died of lung cancer aged 68, had more or less equally prestigious careers in the theatre, cinema and opera. Although he was internationally known from films such as La Reine Margot (1994) and his groundbreaking production of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle at Bayreuth (1976), he was renowned in his native France mostly for his "must-see" stage productions, especially during his long stints as co-director of the Théâtre National Populaire (1971-77) and the Théâtre des Amandiers (1982-90).

At these two subsidised theatres, in Villeurbanne, near Lyons, and Nanterre, in western Paris, respectively, Chéreau was able to introduce modern plays and bring a freshness to bear on the classics, particularly Marivaux, whose La Dispute he directed to acclaim at the Tnp in three different versions in the 1970s. At the Amandiers,...

The visionary French director, whose Bayreuth Ring cycle left an indelible mark on modern opera, has died of lung cancer

Patrice Chéreau, the acclaimed French stage and screen director, has died of lung cancer at the age of 68.

The director is perhaps best known for his films, but was widely credited as a theatrical visionary. He arguably changed the face of modern opera with his legendary production of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle at the Bayreuth festival.

Staged over four years from 1976, Chéreau's epic production – set against the industrial revolution – marked the opera's centenary. On its final performance in 1980, the show received a 45-minute ovation.

Appointed as artistic director of the Théâtre de Sartrouville in north Paris at the age of 22, Chéreau went on to become of France's great cultural figures. Several of his productions played at the Avignon festival, with his 1988 Hamlet headlining the festival from the Cour d'honneur.

With British theatre looking backwards, even the one new play that almost everyone enjoyed was a skilful reworking of an 18th-century classic

The British theatre is living off its past. Just think of the plays that left a strong impression in 2011: Caryl Churchill's Top Girls (1982), Harold Pinter's Betrayal (1978), Edward Bond's Saved (1965), Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen (1959) and his Chicken Soup With Barley (1958), and Terence Rattigan's Flare Path (1942). Even the one new play that almost everyone enjoyed, Richard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors, was a skilful reworking of an 18th-century classic.

I admired Mike Bartlett's 13 at the National and Alan Ayckbourn's Neighbourhood Watch in Scarborough for their ability, in very different ways, to reflect the tenor of the times. Two other old hands, David Hare with South Downs and David Edgar with Written on the Heart, turned in highly accomplished pieces. But, even...

From outraging Wagner purists to snubbing Hollywood, Patrice Chéreau is forever going against the grain. Now the great French director has turned his sights on British theatre.

Patrice Chéreau, the great French theatre, opera and film director, is in London to rehearse the first play he has ever directed in the UK. It's a coup for the Young Vic, and its artistic director, David Lan, tells me people are hanging about near the rehearsal rooms just to feel the presence, touch the hem. I am not ashamed to admit I am one of those hem-touchers, fascinated to meet the man who changed the face of modern opera with his centenary Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 1976, when he infuriated traditionalists by replacing Wagnerian horns and bearskins with the trappings of 19th-century plutocracy.

That Ring made the then 31-year-old Chéreau's career. It remains the achievement with which he is most often linked,...

Berlin International Film Festival

BERLIN -- "Nightsongs" (Die Nacht Singt Ihre Lieder) is a spectacularly bad movie. Based on a Norwegian play by Jon Fosse that seldom leaves an apartment living room, Romuald Karmakar's film is essentially a 95-minute quarrel between a young couple in a disintegrating marriage. When the movie's first line is "I can't take it anymore", you have nowhere to go but into a downward spiral of repetitious dialogue, bitter recriminations and abject misery. Even festival directors will shy away from booking this house-emptier.

A young couple lives in Berlin's Mitte district, where old and new collide in a postmodern hodgepodge. The woman (newcomer Anne Ratte-Polle) has just had a baby but still wants to go nightclubbing, see friends and enjoy life. The man (Frank Giering, a dynamic actor handcuffed here by a role of complete inertia) lies on a sofa and reads all day. Depressed by continual rejections of his writing from publishers, he has retreated into an agoraphobic stupor.

She harangues him, and he answers in monosyllables. You get the feeling they have this fight daily. He only displays energy when he suspects her of infidelity. He turns out not to be wrong as a third-act entrance by one Baste (Sebastian Schipper) makes clear. ("You're still probably the father," Baste comforts the husband.)

Ultimately, the woman can't bring herself to leave. She says she will miss her kitchen pots. Yes, she actually says that.

Some in the film's festival debut audience took much of this to be an intentional comedy. But director Karmakar (who adapted by play with Martin Rosenfeldt) and his cast lay too much stress on the angst-ridden drama and bitter words for this notion to be fully persuasive. Celebrated cinematographer Fred Schuler's camera glares steadily at the forlorn characters, as even the walls appear to close in on them, driving them further into despair.

Marthe Keller, always a welcome presence onscreen, turns up briefly as the man's mother in a sequence designed to drive home the point that even his parents can barely stand him. Long before the end, one has grown convinced that these two deserve one another.

Berlin International Film Festival

BERLIN -- "Nightsongs" (Die Nacht Singt Ihre Lieder) is a spectacularly bad movie. Based on a Norwegian play by Jon Fosse that seldom leaves an apartment living room, Romuald Karmakar's film is essentially a 95-minute quarrel between a young couple in a disintegrating marriage. When the movie's first line is "I can't take it anymore", you have nowhere to go but into a downward spiral of repetitious dialogue, bitter recriminations and abject misery. Even festival directors will shy away from booking this house-emptier.

A young couple lives in Berlin's Mitte district, where old and new collide in a postmodern hodgepodge. The woman (newcomer Anne Ratte-Polle) has just had a baby but still wants to go nightclubbing, see friends and enjoy life. The man (Frank Giering, a dynamic actor handcuffed here by a role of complete inertia) lies on a sofa and reads all day. Depressed by continual rejections of his writing from publishers, he has retreated into an agoraphobic stupor.

She harangues him, and he answers in monosyllables. You get the feeling they have this fight daily. He only displays energy when he suspects her of infidelity. He turns out not to be wrong as a third-act entrance by one Baste (Sebastian Schipper) makes clear. ("You're still probably the father," Baste comforts the husband.)

Ultimately, the woman can't bring herself to leave. She says she will miss her kitchen pots. Yes, she actually says that.

Some in the film's festival debut audience took much of this to be an intentional comedy. But director Karmakar (who adapted by play with Martin Rosenfeldt) and his cast lay too much stress on the angst-ridden drama and bitter words for this notion to be fully persuasive. Celebrated cinematographer Fred Schuler's camera glares steadily at the forlorn characters, as even the walls appear to close in on them, driving them further into despair.

Marthe Keller, always a welcome presence onscreen, turns up briefly as the man's mother in a sequence designed to drive home the point that even his parents can barely stand him. Long before the end, one has grown convinced that these two deserve one another.