News

The British Urban Film Festival (Buff) has unveiled the winners of the 2024 edition, with Marcus Flemmings’ White Guilt taking home the best feature award.

The festival took place across Halifax and east London, and drew to a close with the awards ceremony on October 25 at London’s Genesis Cinema.

Flemmings’ film follows 11 affluent white individuals who go off in search of a pay-to-play service with the aim of relieving themselves of ‘white guilt’, by experiencing reverse slavery.

Uche Aguh’s Dyanmite took home two awards – best soundtrack and best script supervision. The film tells the story of a musician in an unhappy marriage,...

Tara Fitzgerald enjoyed "lugging" a dead dog around for her role in new movie 'Portraits of Dangerous Women'.The 57-year-old actress plays Tina in Swiss filmmaker Pascal Bergamin's comedy drama film about three women - school caretaker Tina, unhappy teacher Steph (Jeany Spark) and smart teenager Ashley (Yasmin Monet Prince) - who are thrown together when Steph and Tina both runover a dog in their separate cars.Tara enjoyed shooting the comedy scenes with the prop pooch, assuring any viewers that "no animals were harmed at all in the making of this film".Speaking exclusively to Bang Showbiz, she said: "I really enjoyed lugging this dead dog. No animals were harmed at all in the making of this film, or even used. But I loved that sequence and they’re comic inability to sort of deal with the situation.“Tina, who has actually lived through some pretty heavy things,...

In a career that lasted four decades, the great character actor Ned Beatty worked with a number of the greatest film directors in history, starting out with John Boorman and 1972’s “Deliverance,” in which he made his spectacular screen debut. From there, he went on to work with such screen legends as Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet, John Huston, Mike Nichols and Spike Lee.

Beatty was nominated for an Academy Award for 1976’s “Network,” directed by Lumet, as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination for portraying an Irish tenor in 1991’s “Hear My Song.” Beatty did not appear in films until he was 35 years old and was immediately pegged as a character actor, a category in which he flourished. His other film credits include “Nashville,” “Superman,” “Wise Blood” and “Toy Story 3.” He died in 2021.

Tour our photo gallery ranking his 12 greatest screen performances from worst to best.

Shirley Anne Field, the British leading lady who starred alongside Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer, Albert Finney in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and Kenneth More in Man in the Moon — all in 1960 — has died. She was 87.

“It is with great sadness that we are sharing the news that Shirley Anne Field passed away peacefully on Sunday, Dec. 10, surrounded by her family and friends,” a spokesperson announced.

“Shirley Anne will be greatly missed and remembered for her unbreakable spirit and her amazing legacy spanning more than five decades on stage and screen.”

For her first Hollywood film, Field passed up John Schlesinger’s A Kind of Loving to star opposite Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner in the World War II drama The War Lover (1962). It was a decision she would regret, she explained in a 2009 interview.

“I finally had a chance to go to Hollywood and become a worldwide name.

Glasgow-born McCallum moved to America in 1961 and was best known recently for NCIS.

David McCallum, the veteran Scottish-born actor best known for TV hits The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and NCIS, has died aged 90.

According to a statement from CBS, the broadcast network that airs NCIS in the US, McCallum died of natural causes surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Born in Glasgow in 1933, McCallum began his career in the UK working on BBC radio and in repertory theatre. He moved to the US in 1961.

His early feature films included Hell Drivers, A Night To Remember, The Greatest Story Ever Told...

The actor on playing trouser billiards with Hugh Grant, bonding with the flugelhorn in Brassed Off, and the magic of working with Peter O’Toole

Hello Tara! Loved you in Hear My Song and Frenchmen’s Creek. Were there anything resembling intimacy coordinators for nude scenes back in the 90s? repoman71

No is the short answer. Everyone was very “respectful”. That word was used a lot: we’ll all be very “respectful”. I used to slightly dread those days on set. People poised with towels and dressing gowns is what I remember the most.

Has your attitude to nudity changed? Splutterer

I think it probably has. I’m older, so people don’t ask me to take my clothes off any more. I would look at some of the scripts I read in my 20s in terms of how much nudity there was, and what would be called for. I was...

Got something you’d like to ask the flugelhorn-tooting forensic scientist and all-round star of stage and screen? Send it our way and we’ll put it to her

You might think of her as forensic scientist Eve Lockhart from BBC series Waking the Dead, or as Queen Selyse Baratheon in Game of Thrones, but Tara Fitzgerald is a long-termer when it comes to film. Her first big role was in Peter Chelsom’s 1991 nightclub comedy Hear My Song, after which she went on to a couple of roles opposite Hugh Grant: Sirens in 1994 and The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain in 1995. In between the two she was in A Man of No Importance with Albert Finney. Then came the flugelhorn-tooting Brassed Off, and the Czech war film Dark Blue World. More recently she played Miriam in Ridley Scott’s biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Domestic theaters, now mostly reopen even with five new studio movies in the last three weeks, could only muster a total gross of $45 million this past weekend. That’s less than a quarter of what the same weekend in 2019 took in. That week was dominated by “Toy Story 4.” Disney released the Pixar sequel targeting the Father’s Day audience. That timing only added to an already monster hit that took in $121 million initially, and $434 million domestic all told.

This weekend, two new films were timed to Father’s Day, at least in part. Unfortunately for struggling theaters, neither had them in mind.

“Luca,” Pixar’s latest, debuted on Disney+ free for subscribers (unlike some other recent Premium VOD offerings). No viewership reports have emerged. But the figure might have been in the millions just in the U.S. And with the low end of a Pixar opening this century at $39 million,...

Exclusive: Two-time BAFTA nominee Peter Chelsom is making his second feature, the revenge thriller The Beauty of Sharks with Indiana Production in Italy. The news comes as Chelsom’s Italian thriller Security drops on Netflix today.

Written by Rob Green with rewrites by Chelsom and Tinker Linsday, the pic, set in 1958, follows Mrs. Joy Hamilton, a recently widowed American socialite on the brink of ending her life when she sees the chance to avenge a famous millionairess, whose son she raised as her own. Believing the son to be dead, Mrs. Hamilton recruits a handsome gigolo to be the imposter in a dangerous confidence trick. The Beauty of Sharks will shoot in Amalfi in January and casting is underway. Colin Vaines and Lee Brazier will produce.

Chelsom tells Deadline, “It’s very much a ‘modern period film’ – a story that addresses issues of privilege, prejudice and fluidity which, by virtue...

It's a sad day as word has come in that veteran character actor Ned Beatty has died. Per TMZ, the Deliverance star's manager says Beatty passed away in his sleep at around 7:30 A.M. on Sunday due to natural causes while surrounded by his family, friends, and loved ones. He was 83 years old.

Ned Thomas Beatty was born on July 6, 1937, in Louisville, Kentucky. When he was about 19, he got a part in the play Wilderness Road, and the experience gave him the acting bug. He moved around the country performing on stage which includes appearing in the original production of The Great Whiote Hope with James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander. He made his Broadway debut in the play when it came to New York in 1968.

In 1972, Beatty made his movie debut in the acclaimed thriller Deliverance, and this would also become one of his most well-known roles. Also...

If the only performance Ned Beatty had ever given was the six minutes he appeared in “Network,” he’d be an actor the world would remember. In that visionary satire-that’s-not-really-a-satire, Beatty, who died Sunday at 83, does one of the most towering one-stop scene steals of all time as Arthur Jensen, the corporate communications overlord who comes in to read the riot act to Howard Beale (Peter Finch), the mad prophet of the airwaves. Ushering Howard into an empty boardroom, he closes the blinds, which makes the room look like something out of “The Godfather Part II.” He then says, “You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale,” not just shouting the words but roaring them, then adding, with an up-the-ante flourish, “And I won’t have it!”

In the mesmerizing monologue that follows, Beatty proceeds to explain The Way Things Are. He sounds like a Pentecostal preacher,...

Prolific supporting actor also appeared in All the President’s Men, Nashville, The Big Easy and Hear My Song

Peter Bradshaw writes: The good ol’ boy who made playing the ordinary guy look easy

Ned Beatty, the Oscar-nominated character actor who in half a century of American movies, including Deliverance, Network and Superman, was a booming, indelible presence in even the smallest parts, has died. He was 83.

Beatty’s manager, Deborah Miller, said Beatty died on Sunday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, surrounded by friends and loved ones.

Film and TV actor Ned Beatty, who was Oscar nominated for his supporting role in “Network” and appeared in a number of the most significant American films of the 1970s, has died. He was 83.

Beatty’s management confirmed his death to Variety, adding that he died from natural causes on Sunday morning surrounded by his loved ones at his home in Los Angeles.

Beatty appeared in four films that were nominated for the Oscar best picture award in the 1970s: “Deliverance” (1972), “Nashville” (1975), “All the President’s Men” (1976) and “Network” (1976). In addition, he voiced a character, Lotso, in 2010’s “Toy Story 3,” which was also nominated.

The actor was equally at home in the drama of “All the President’s Men,” in which he played a reporter who uncovers part of the conspiracy, and the buffoonery of his role in 1977’s “Superman,” in which he played Lex Luthor’s sidekick Otis.

Beatty was...

Monumental Pictures co-founder was delivering the keynote address at Film London’s Production Finance Market.

UK producer Alison Owen has spoken out about “inequality” in rates of pay offered to male and female film executives.

Owen, joint managing director of Monumental Pictures with Debra Hayward, made her remarks after delivering the keynote address at Film London’s Production Finance Market.

“It has always struck me that people I would have thought were the same level as me in my pay scale, you find the guys are being paid considerably more,” Owen said. She wouldn’t be drawn on specific examples,...

Happy 82nd birthday to the great Ned Beatty, born on July 6, 1937! In a career that lasted four decades, the now-retired Beatty worked with a number of the greatest film directors in history, starting out with John Boorman and 1972’s “Deliverance,” in which he made his spectacular screen debut. From there, he went on to work with such screen legends as Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet, John Huston, Mike Nichols and Spike Lee.

SEESpike Lee movies: 15 greatest films ranked from worst to best

Beatty was nominated for an Academy Award for 1976’s “Network,” directed by Lumet, as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination for portraying an Irish tenor in 1991’s “Hear My Song.” Beatty did not appear in films until he was 35 years old and was immediately pegged as a character actor, a category in which he flourished. His other film credits include “Nashville,” “Superman,” “Wise Blood” and “Toy Story 3.

In the 1990s, she was everywhere – on film and TV and in the theatre – but then she almost disappeared. She talks about eschewing Hollywood – and being close to Harvey Weinstein

Although 1990s British pop culture is now generally discussed through the prism of Britpop, there was another equally pervasive storyline: the rise of young British female actors. Everyone from Kate Winslet to Sadie Frost was eagerly pitched as the next big thing, and the general assumption was that Hollywood was the focus and eternal fame the reward. But of the many young, posh and pretty female faces that smiled from the magazine covers then, few seemed as much of a sure thing as Tara Fitzgerald.

One 1996 interview described her as falling “somewhere in between established British actresses like Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson and young upstarts like Winslet and Minnie Driver”, which was right, but underestimated how ubiquitous Fitzgerald was.

Garrett Wareing (Perfect) is set for a recurring role on Freeform’s upcoming Pretty Little Liars spinoff The Perfectionists. Wareing will play Zach, a Bhu sophomore currently working three jobs to stay in school, and still manages to maintain stellar grades. His tough exterior hides a sensitive soul who can make anyone melt. The spinoff hails from the same auspices as the original series, writer/executive producer I. Marlene King, Alloy Entertainment and Warner Horizon Scripted Television, and it is based on the popular book series The Perfectionists, written by Pll author Sara Shepard. It’s set to premiere in 2019. Wareing recently starred opposite Abbie Cornish in Perfect, which premiered at SXSW. He previously appeared in Independence Day: Resurgence opposite Joey King and starred in Boy Choir/Hear My Song opposite Kathy Bates and Dustin Hoffman. He’s repped by Paradigm Talent Agency and 23 Management Group.

Melissa de Sousa...

Nominees for inaugural Sue Gibson award revealed.

The National Film and Television School (Nfts) has announced the launch of the Sue Gibson Bsc Cinematography Award, which will recognise an Nfts cinematography alumni who has “advanced the profession of cinematography in a significant way”.

Sue Gibson, who passed away last year, was an award-winning Nfts alumna and also the first female president of the British Society of Cinematographers (Bsc).

She was known for her work on feature films including Alien v Predator, The Holiday, Hear My Song and Mrs Dalloway as well as numerous TV series such as The Forsythe Saga, Spooks, Lewis, Poirot and Death in Paradise.

The five nominees have been voted for by Nfts cinematography alumni including Roger Deakins and Suzie Lavelle.

The winner of the award will be announced in September 2017 and the presentation will follow at an event which will include a masterclass by the winner.

The nominees...

Simon Brew May 7, 2017

As Line Of Duty series 4 arrives on disc, we chat to the man who plays Britain's newest superhero, Adrian Dunbar. Diesel sucking ahead...

The hero we need right now? That’s Si Ted Hastings, the unbreakable – well, he better be – chief of AC-12, the unit that’s held us rapt for four series of Line Of Duty and counting. Ted is the man with morals of iron. He sucks diesel like no other. And the man who brings him to the screen, Adrian Dunbar, spared us some time for a chat, before he had to get back to bringing down bent coppers.

See related God Of War 4 may take in Norse mythology

Hello! How are you?

Yeah, mate! Good [I’ve never met Si Hastin… Adrian Dunbar before, but clearly I'm thrilled he’s called me mate]. Just got the news that we’ve been commissioned for a sixth series!

I just saw that. I trust you’re going to fill me in with spoilers...

Robin Bell Feb 2, 2017

Blackpool, Lee Evans, Jerry Lewis and Oliver Platt converge in Funny Bones. Here's why it's a film worth seeking out.

"Why do all the best things in life belong to the past?"

It seems a strange thing to be obsessed about, it wasn't a franchise, and didn't come with much buzz, but when Peter Chelsom's Funny Bones was released in 1995 I instantly latched on to it. It didn't even receive a general release in the cinemas around my area. It was released during that period when you had to check the local newspaper adverts to discover the cinema times. Disappointingly it didn't appear, not until a few weeks later when it had just one showing, on a Thursday night. I'd been talking about the film for ages to my brother, who was now at university, and once I found that it was screening I practically begged...

Stx Entertainment has released the second trailer for their upcoming sci-fi adventure The Space Between Us. The movie stars Gary Oldman, Asa Butterfield, Carla Gugino, Britt Robertson. And it will be in theaters this December just in time for the holidays.

This story of a boy (Asa Butterfield) born on Mars' first colony has an added element of timeliness with this week's real life Mars news! SpaceX Founder Elon Musk just delivered a keynote address on Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress. As it turns out, he plans to colonize Mars!&#160Which is a subject explored with great depth in The Space Between Us.

Peter Chelsom directs The Space Between Us. He is an actor turned filmmaker who made his directorial debut with the 1991 comedy Hear My Song starring Ned Beatty. He went onto direct Sharon Stone in the 1998 comedic drama The Mighty, before finding true big screen success with...

There is not a cynical or mean-spirited moment in Peter Chelsom's new film "Hector and the Search For Happiness," and the film's observations about life are in some ways so direct, so fundamental, that it would be easy to shrug it off and laugh at its sincerity. Happiness is a subject I've been thinking about quite a bit this year. At 44, I find it elusive, temporary. I've upended my life this year, moving out of my house, negotiating a divorce, building a new life to share with my kids, and even exploring the notion of new love, and all of it has been life-altering and shattering and scary and exhilarating, and above all else, necessary. Completely and totally necessary. When I was a young man, I saw happiness as something that landed on you, something that was simply a by-product of living life. I took happiness for granted, and...

Director Peter Chelsom on Hector, Pegg, Miley Cyrus, Syd Field, live action PG movies and Being There...

Peter Chelsom started life as an actor, before moving behind the camera when he hit 30. His films have included Hear My Song, Funny Bones, The Hannah Montana Movie, Serendipity and The Mighty. His latest? The big screen take on Hector And The Search For Happiness. And over a bowl of soup, he spared us some time for a chat...

Let's start at the beginning! I’m a great fan of your first film, Hear My Song, which was always a bit of a tricky one to track down.

Thank you! There was a DVD re-release, that was really did well. They did a great job on it.

Well, let’s start there. How much control do you have over your films once they’ve left a cinema, and headed to home formats?

It varies.

Simon Pegg tries to find the secret to happiness in his latest film. He chats to us about its making, British cinema and more...

Simon Pegg is back in cinemas this week, in Peter Chelsom's Hector And The Search For Happiness. Ahead of that, the man himself sat down with us for a chat, that led to us - genuinely - being locked in a hotel room together for a minute or two.

It was not helped by us holding a packet of Love Hearts at the time. It's probably best you don't ask.

Anyway, we kept our professional composure, and this is what happened...

Given what a globetrotting movie this one is, how are your passport stamps looking?

It's ridiculously stamped now!

Did you film any of it in Liam Neeson's fake plane from Non-Stop? That would have made it easier.

We were working out how long...

Odd List Simon Brew Ryan Lambie 26 Sep 2013 - 07:09

The year 1991 is the focus for our latest underappreciated films list, which includes dramas, thrillers, and a smattering of horror...

Ah, 1991. The year Robert Patrick ran after cars in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and Kevin Costner grew a spectacular mullet for Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. But outside the top ten blockbuster list, there lies an entire world of other, less celebrated films to discover.

Some of the movies on this list have been included because they were overlooked in theatres, while others have been added because they were unfairly dismissed by critics. One or two others were modest successes, but (whisper it) we decided to include them anyway because we really, really like them.

So here, for your delectation, is our pick of 25 underappreciated films from 1991.

25. Deceived

You think Goldie Hawn, you tend to think comedy, or her Oscar-nominated turn in Private Benjamin.

Odd List Simon Brew 20 Sep 2013 - 07:14

They don't make funny movies any more, right? Wrong. If you're looking for a laugh, then here are some you may have missed...

For this list, blame The Hangover Part III. It was whilst walking out of that film that I got into a chat with someone, who was bemoaning the lack of genuinely funny movie comedies. Certainly, big budget Hollywood comedies have no end of problems right now - with the occasional exception - but I couldn't help thinking of the many neglected gems that had gone through my DVD player over the past decade or so.

As such, I started to put this list together. It's inevitably subjective, as one person's comedy is another person's snore fest. But I've tried to dig out a mix of comedies from the past three decades that have either flown under the radar completely, or...

Actor Stellan Skarsgård (The Avengers, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Mamma Mia!) has joined the cast of Peter Chelsom.s drama comedy Hector And The Search For Happiness, it was announced today by The Solution Entertainment Group.s (.The Solution.) founders and partners, Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel, and producers Judy Tossell of Egoli Tossell Film and Christine Haebler of Screen Siren Pictures.

Skarsgård joins the previously announced Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), Rosamund Pike (upcoming Jack Reacher) and Oscar winner Christopher Plummer (Beginners). Also appearing in a cameo will be cult German actress Marianne Sägebrecht (Bagdad CAFÈ).

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by François Lelord, the script is written by Maria von Heland, Chelsom and Tinker Lindsay. The film is a German/Canadian co-production produced by Judy Tossell for Egoli Tossell Film and Christine Haebler for Screen Siren Pictures, with Jens Meurer and Trish Dolman executive producing.

Rosamund Pike (An Education, Johnny English Reborn, Clash Of The Titans) and Academy Award Winner Christopher Plummer (Beginners, The Last Station, The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus) have joined the cast of director Peter Chelsom.s upcoming drama comedy Hector And The Search For Happiness in which Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible -Ghost Protocol, Paul) will play the lead. The announcement was made by producers Judy Tossell of Egoli Tossell Film (The Last Station, Carlos, Black Death) and Christine Haebler of Screen Siren Pictures (Hard Core Logo, Daydream Nation, Foreverland). The Solution Entertainment Group (.The Solution.) is handling international rights to the film and will be selling to buyers in Toronto; United Talent Agency are representing Us rights.

Adapted for the screen from the bestselling novel of the same name by François Lelord, the film is a German/Canadian co-production produced by Egoli Tossell Film and Screen Siren Pictures currently in pre-production...

Northern Irish actors Bronagh Gallagher (Pulp Fiction), Jayne Wisener(A Kiss For Jed) and Andrew Simpson have all been cast in upcoming BBC series 'The Life and Adventures of Nick Nickleby', which is currently shooting in Belfast. Adrian Dunbar (Hear My Song) also stars. David Innes-Edwards is directing all five episodes, four of which have been written by Joy Wilkinson (Doctors) and one which was written by Dominique Moloney (Land Girls). Sue Breen is producing for London-based Kindle, while Melanie Stokes and Anne Brogan are executive producing. Northern Irish Jim Creagh (Give My Head Some Peace) is the director of photography, and Nick Emerson will edit. Ifta-winning Hazel Webb-Crozier (Your Highness) is the costume designer on the project.

British comedic actor Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible -Ghost Protocol, Paul) has been cast in the lead role in director Peter Chelsom.s (Shall We Dance?, Funny Bones,) next movie – drama comedy Hector And The Search For Happiness, it was announced today by Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel, founders and co-partners of The Solution Entertainment Group (.The Solution.) who are handling worldwide rights to the film.

Adapted for the screen by Chelsom and Tinker Lindsay from the bestselling novel of the same name by François Lelord, the film is a German/Canadian co-production produced by Egoli Tossell Film and Screen Siren Pictures currently in pre-production and set to shoot straight after Pegg.s The World.S End.

Pegg plays Hector, an eccentric yet irresistible London psychiatrist in crisis: his patients are just not getting any happier! He.s going nowhere. Then one day, armed with buckets of courage and an almost child-like curiosity,...

'At my first audition, they asked me things like: How are you? It didn't seem hard enough'

What got you started?

An uncle I loved got me into Fred Astaire when I was young. We had a scratchy old album of the Top Hat musical. I'd pretend I could tap-dance and my uncle would say: "Go, Tara, go!"

What was your big breakthrough?

My first job: a film called Hear My Song. I was still at Drama Centre, an intense, method-based school in London, and after three years of that, I couldn't believe the audition. It involved things like people saying: "Hello, how are you?" It didn't seem hard enough.

Are women in theatre and film under excessive pressure to look good?

Everybody's under pressure to look good – men and women. People want to see beauty, something above the ordinary. Think of what the Hollywood greats put themselves through: corsetry,...

CBS Films has hired Peter Chelsom to direct "Last Vegas," a Dan Fogelman-scripted comedy on track to begin production early next year.According to Variety, Laurence Mark is producing.The comedy, which CBS originally acquired as a $1 million pitch, centers on four semi-retired baby boomers who head to Las Vegas when the last of the Coney Island buddies, a successful lawyer in his 60s, decides to tie the knot.This project will be a departure for Chelsom, who last directed "Hannah Montana: The Movie," a film which grossed $150 million worldwide for Disney. Before that, Chelsom directed "Shall We Dance," "Hear My Song" and the infamous 2001 Warren Beatty bomb "Town and Country."In Variety, Chelsom stated: "I don't think I fit a...

Peter Chelsom, the British director whose eclectic CV includes movies as diverse as Hear My Song, Funny Bones, Serendipity and, erm, Hannah Montana: The Movie, has lined up his next project.Fresh from the commercial success of that Montana movie, the talented Chelsom has signed to direct Last Vegas, a comedy about four older gentlemen who decamp to Sin City for a stag weekend when one of their number decides to get hitched.Sounds familiar? Well, it’s The Hangover with colostomy bags. Very Bad Things with a free bag of Werther’s Originals. What Happens In Vegas with bus passes, and a faint smell of urine.But, while it may sound thuddingly unoriginal, Chelsom is a fine director, and we trust him to elevate the material. However, he’s also acutely aware of the comparisons that will be made, and welcomes them, even telling Variety that The Hangover’s...

There was a reason to feel queasy after watching the trailer for "The Hannah Montana Movie," and it wasn't just the sight of Miley Cyrus fighting off Tyra Banks for a pair of garish high heels. No, it was seeing the end credits that read "Directed by Peter Chelsom." That name may not mean much to most, but for those who discovered Chelsom during the mid-'90s by way of his trilogy of Blackpool-set showbiz dramedies -- the short "Treacle," 1992's "Hear My Song" and his best, the 1995 Jerry Lewis-Oliver Platt father-son vaudeville comedy "Funny Bones" -- an adaptation of a Disney Channel show is nothing short of a crushing disappointment.

Now, times are tough and filmmakers have to eat. And perhaps such disappointment comes as a result of investing too much in the auteur theory, but there is a class of filmmakers whose careers haven't gone the...

Tony Award-winning Irish actress Anna Manahan has died of multiple organ failure at the age of 84.

Manahan, whose career on the stage, television and film spanned over 60 years, died on Sunday in Waterford, Ireland.

She made her Broadway debut in Brian Friel's Lovers in 1969, which earned her a Tony nomination for Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a Drama.

But it was her role as Mag Folan in famed Irish playwright Martin McDonagh's 1996 production Beauty Queen that finally earned her the Tony in 1998 for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama.

She also starred in plays written by Irish writers including J.M. Synge, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and Sean O'Casey, and appeared in numerous TV series, most recently in 2004's Fair City.

Her film career saw her star alongside the likes of Sir Laurence Olivier, Peter Cushing, Kenneth Moore, and Dame Maggie Smith, while her best-known roles were in 1991's Hear My Song and 1994's A Man of No Importance, featuring Albert Finney and Sir Michael Gambon.

In 2002, Manahan was granted the freedom of the city of Waterford for life achievement in the arts.

She is survived by two brothers, Val and Joe.