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Alice Tan Ridley, who spent three decades entertaining subway riders in New York City as a gospel and R&b singer before wowing viewers on NBC’s America’s Got Talent and releasing her first studio album when she was 63, has died. She was 72.

Ridley died March 25 in New York, her family announced. Survivors include her daughter, Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe (Precious).

The seventh of eight children, Ridley was born on Dec. 21, 1952, in Charles Junction, Georgia. In a 2016 New York Times profile, she recalled being influenced by jazz and gospel and by such artists as Aretha Franklin.

She graduated from Stewart County High School in 1959, moved to New York in 1971, earned her teaching license from the New York State Board of Education and had two children.

Ridley taught special-needs kids at P.S. 134 in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn but lost her job and got divorced, and as a single mother,...

The official website for the forthcoming TV anime adaptation of Ken Kawasaki (story) and Yu Furusawa's (arts) golf-themed manga Oi! Tonbo has announced that the anime is set to premiere in Japan in April 2024. The site has also announced the anime's two main voice cast members — Rika Hayashi as the protagonist Tonbo Oi and Hiroki Touchi (Heiter in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End ) as Iga Igarashi. Synopsis (via official website ): Igarashi, who Left the past behind and running away from the world, moved to the Tokara Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture. On Hinoshima Island, which is said to be "the last unexplored region in Japan," Igarashi meets Tonbo, the only junior high school student on the island. The innocent girl has an incredible talent for golf! This encounter will change the destiny of the two... Related: Oi! Tonbo Golf Anime Releases Teaser Trailer, Visual Additionally, the opening theme song "Habatake" ( Spread Your Wings...

Olympics themed 6 x 9 web-series The Power of the Dream, created by Alexandra Keddie and Bobbie-Jean Henning, will launch this July, just in time for the games.

The comedy mockumentary follows the quest of two athletically challenged cousins trying to fulfill their Olympic dream, and was conceived when Keddie planned to attend an adult gymnastics class.

“Bobbie thought that was an absolutely terrible idea,” she told If. “Considering I have flimsy ankles and weak limbs.

“I was like ‘No, no, I was really good at gymnastics when I was in grade five and not much has changed so it’s going to be fine’.

“She said she’ll support me all the way to the Olympics, so we workshopped this idea of the coach and athlete situation.

“We were excited about the idea of what the Olympics actually looks like if we had a real, normal person trying to do these things.

French cinema saw its international box office receipts fall to €86.6 million ($105.4 million), a near 70% drop, in 2020, according to a study unveiled by French promotion org UniFrance during the virtual Rendez-Vous market.

The drastic decline is explained by the fact that theaters worldwide were closed for several months due to the pandemic. The number of French films released in foreign theaters fell by 30% to 611 titles.

International ticket sales, meanwhile, fell to 13.7 million, down 69.8% on 2019. The extent of the drop in overseas admissions mirrors the decline in admissions for French films at home, which were down 60.7% compared with 2019 levels. UniFrance also points to the absence of a major hit and the downturn in emerging markets such as China.

Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” and Ladj Ly’s “Les Miserables” were the three French films that sold the most admissions overseas...

Nicolas Vanier’s Spread Your Wings (Donne-Moi Des Ailes) and Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s South Terminal (Terminal Sud) screenings cancelled

UniFrance and Film at Lincoln Center’s 25th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, which was to run through March 15 at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, was aborted yesterday due to the announcement by Governor Cuomo on the coronavirus pandemic limiting gathering in public spaces. Rebecca Zlotowski’s An Easy Girl (Une Fille Facile) which started at 4:00pm on Thursday was the last screening of the festival.

Burning Ghost director Stéphane Batut, who was in town and expected to participate in a Q&a had his screening canceled. On Wednesday, March 4, it was announced by UniFrance that the French delegation would not be attending. Who You Think I Am director Safy Nebbou and Rebecca Zlotowski, along with Batut were the only three filmmakers who attended.

Two films, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s...

Even as Netflix and other platforms continued to gain ground, France’s theatrical box office broke a 50-year record with 213 million ticket sales, showing that movie-going and streaming can co-exist. Admissions increased by 6%, and the French B.O. clocked in at about €1.4 billion ($1.57 billion), a slight increase on 2018.

Hollywood titles ruled the roost, breaking a 10-year record by accounting for 59% of all theatrical admissions in France in 2019, with 125 million tickets sold. Disney alone took a 23.4% market share, with “The Lion King” topping the list of highest-grossing films and five other titles – “Avengers: Endgame,” “Frozen 2,” “Toy Story 4,” “Captain Marvel” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which is still in theaters – ranking in the top 10.

Overall, nine of the top 10 films came from U.S. studios. Besides the Disney tentpoles, they included Warner Bros.’ “Joker,” Universal’s “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” and Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Far From Home.