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Hundreds of WGA East members who work for Hearst Magazines Media are planning to stage a walkout Thursday to demand a fair contract. The half-day action is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Et and will last the remainder of the day.

“WGA East members at Hearst have been bargaining a first contract for over two years and their last scheduled day of negotiations is March 28,” the guild said. “With only one bargaining session left, the Hearst Union is taking collective action with a unit-wide walkout in their fight for a fair first contract.”

Rallies in support of the walkout will be held at four locations: outside the Hearst Tower in Manhattan; at the Hearst offices in Easton, Pa; at the Hearst offices in Ann Arbor, Mi; and the Hearst offices in Birmingham, Al.

The guild represents some 500 of the publishing giant’s editorial, video, design and photo staff at more than 25 brands including Esquire,...

Indian festival favorite and box office success “Dostojee” (“Two Friends”), directed by Prasun Chatterjee will release across the U.S., U.A.E. and Australia and New Zealand on March 17.

California-based film distribution company Bioskope Films LLC has acquired U.S. theatrical rights and will release the film across 75 cities in 26 states. The theatrical release is an Oscar-qualifying run making the Bengali-language “Dostojee” eligible for consideration at the 96th Academy Awards, 2024. The film will have a premiere in New York City.

“Dostojee” will also release theatrically across 15 cities in Canada, 10 cities in Australia and New Zealand, and Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman in the U.A.E. Phars Film Co Motion Pictures will handle the U.A.E. distribution and Bongoz Films Australia and New Zealand.

Set in 1992-93, when Hindu-Muslim tensions escalated in India in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Bombay bomb...

Top Bangladeshi actor Nusrat Imrose Tisha is in Cannes to promote her new film “Mujib: The Making of a Nation.” A trailer for the film, a biopic of the late Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was unveiled at the Cannes Film Market.

Popularly known as Bangabandhu (friend of Bengal), Rahman was one of the founders of the Awami League party and led the movement for political autonomy for East Pakistan and the subsequent formation of independent Bangladesh in 1971. He served as the first president and then the first prime minister of Bangladesh until he, his wife and sons were assassinated in an army coup in 1975. His daughter Sheikh Hasina is the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

Arifin Shuvoo, best actor winner at the Bangladesh National Film Awards for “Dhaka Attack,” plays Rahman. Tisha plays his wife Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib.

“Everyone knows about Bangabandhu, but many people don’t know about Fazilatunnesa,...

This year’s Mill Valley Film Festival marks the much-anticipated return of movies, and audiences, to theaters, but the Northern California event founded in 1977 retains some lingering influences of the pandemic, with both in-person and online viewing options. With the Delta variant raging, the festival’s founder and director Mark Fishkin notes that the logistics for the fest’s hybrid-style return are even more challenging than before.

“This year everything has been changing so rapidly it has caused a lot of sleepless nights,” he says.

But the fest, which runs Oct. 7-17, also features a bevy of screenings and events that stand to make the Bay Area gathering one of its most hotly anticipated. Joe Wright’s “Cyrano” will bow opening night, with Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” closing the fest. Mike Mill’s “C’mon C’mon” is the centerpiece feature film. The fest will also spotlight Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino,...