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She’s the breakout star of the cult banking drama who went on to play Amy Winehouse and has now been handpicked by Steven Soderbergh for his latest thriller. But at 23, a shock diagnosis changed her world

Marisa Abela finds it very difficult to go to the gym. Not for the usual reasons – lack of time or motivation – but because she says the reception she gets there is “insane”. The actor lives near the City of London, and her local gym is nestled between the gigantic, glinting glass offices of the capital’s financial district – which also happens to be the natural habitat of Yasmin Kara-Hanani, the hyper-privileged and extravagantly troubled junior banker Abela plays in the hit BBC drama Industry. And it’s not just while she’s exercising – that swarm of real‑life bankers desperate to tell Abela how much they love the show means meals out can be an issue,...

Every year, Hollywood pumps out at least one or two musician biopics. Last year alone saw the release of "Back to Black," a portrait of the late Amy Winehouse, and the Oscar-nominated "A Complete Unknown," the Bob Dylan origin story as told by James Mangold. It's easy to understand why we keep getting these films: they're pretty popular. Sure, some of them flop, but more often than not, there seems to be an insatiable hunger from the public to watch actors slap on a wig and do an impression of a famous singer. And studios are often all-in because not only are there box office dollars at work, but if filmmakers and actors play their cards right, awards season glory comes calling.

"Bohemian Rhapsody," the 2018 film about Queen singer Freddie Mercury, did boffo box office and scored several nominations, winning Rami Malek a Best Actor trophy, and all of this...

Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender unite in the new action thriller movie, Black Bag. Ahead of the movie's arrival in theaters on March 14, the film has garnered some very high marks from critics, earning a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes with its early reviews.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Black Bag has debuted with an approval rating of 96%. This number may fluctuate as more reviews are added to the website, but debuting with such a high score is a very promising start for the film. How much this might translate into added ticket sales remains to be seen, but the good reviews should help the movie get some attention. Critics are praising Black Bag for being visually appealing as well as telling a story that's gripping from start to finish.

"A sleek, tightly wound 90-minute spy thriller, [Black Bag is] brimming with tension and irresistibly stylish filmmaking," The Cinematic Reel critic David Gonzalez said of the movie.

Steven Soderbergh’s third collaboration with David Koepp in two years (Kimi and Presence), and already the second to be released in 2025, proves to be the charm for both. Black Bag is an exceptionally sophisticated and adult spy thriller that’s also the story of a marriage made more complicated by the fact both husband and wife work in the same spy agency. With an A+ cast at the top of their game, a tight 93-minute running time and dialogue with wit and bite, this finds the director with one of his best opportunities to do what he does so well and give that older audience a reason to go back to the movies.

Set in London, Michael Fassbender plays George Woodhouse, an intelligence operative for the National Cyber Security Center, a kind of opposite of Mi as it deals more in the technology side of things and crucially has...

French TV outfit Canal+ Group unveiled on Tuesday solid full-year financial results for 2024 and plans to pursue its international M&a strategy, even though its market value has dropped drastically (to an estimated $2.1 billion) since being listed as a standalone entity by its parent company Vivendi at the London Stock Exchange.

Canal+ posted total revenues of €6.45 billion ($6.8 billion), a 3.6-percent increase on 2023 while its Ebita was up by 5.4% to €503 million ($529 million). The pay TV group is also still on track to complete its acquisition of MultiChoice, the leading PayTV operator in English and Portuguese-speaking Africa, which was initially planned for April and has now been delayed by six months (to Oct. 8) due to local regulations.

Enders’ senior analyst Francois Godard said the Canal+’s full-year result confirm that it’s a “value stock,” but that “it’s not a company that will see tremendous growth.”

“When you see tech companies who are posting 20% growth every year,...

New casting picks have just been announced for the third season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Actor Jamie Campbell Bower, best known for playing Vecna in Netflix's hit series Stranger Things, is one of two additions newly revealed to be coming into The Rings of Power for Season 3. Bower will be playing a series regular role, described as a "handsome high-born knight" who's being referred to under the code name "Arlen." It's believed that he could be a new love interest for Morfydd Clark's Galadriel after her fallout with Charlie Vickers' Halbrand/Sauron.

Per Deadline, another newcomer for The Rings of PowerSeason 3 will be actor Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan). He will be featured in a recurring role, and the code name being used for the character in the casting information is "Dromm." All that's known about this character is that he "has a brother,...

Jamie Campbell Bower and Eddie Marsan are about to get in the ring...of power, that is. The acclaimed British actors are no strangers to fantasy and genre fare, given the former's time on Stranger Things and the latter's time appearing in, well, seemingly everything else, but neither have played in the acclaimed and beloved universe of author J. R. R. Tolkien — until now.

That's right, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has upped the star power ante in season three, tapping Bower and Marsan to join the cast for the series' next installment. The show is currently in pre-production in England, working out of a new home in Shepperton Studios. According to Prime Video, Bower will be a series regular, while Marsan will appear in a recurring capacity. Further details are currently being kept under lock and key, too precious for this world as it currently...

This is a match made in genre heaven — Jamie Campbell Bower, star of Netflix’s blockbuster supernatural drama Stranger Things, is joining one of biggest fantasy franchises of all time. Bower has been tapped as a series regular for the upcoming third season of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Additionally, Ray Donovan alum Eddie Marsan is set to recur on the new season, which is currently in pre-production.

As usual, details about the role are being kept under wraps but I hear Bower plays Rings of Power’s biggest new cast addition, a character described as a handsome high-born knight (code name Arlen) in casting information that has been circulated around. He could be a new love interest for Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) who spent the second season facing the reality of her Season 1 love interest Halbrand’s (Charlie Vickers) true identity as arch-villain Sauron.

The Guild of Music Supervisors Awards revealed its 2025 winners Sunday night (Feb. 23). The 15th annual ceremony was held at The Wiltern in L.A.’s Koreatown and honors the year’s best work in songs and scores for screen.

Sunday’s ceremony began with a video about January’s deadly wildfires, in which guild president Lindsay Wolfington lost her home. She thanked the community for rallying behind her during opening remarks with vp Heather Guibert.

The opening remarks didn’t shy away from addressing the Academy’s decision to “move away” from best original song live performances at the 2025 Oscars. “We are proud that our awards for best song written and or recorded for film and for television, acknowledges the collaborative efforts of the songwriters, the performers, and of course the music,” Guibert told the crowd.

“This year in particular, unlike other awards bodies, we are especially proud to be...

Picture: StudioCanal / Sony Pictures Classics

Nora Fingscheidt’s indie adaptation of the 2016 Amy Liptrot novel is coming to both Netflix in the United Kingdom and the United States following the movie’s theatrical run and marks the first time it’s been available on a streaming platform. It comes to the two countries under different pay-1 streaming deals.

Saoirse Ronan headlines the movie as Rona, a 29-year-old who heads back to her home in the Orkney Islands to reconnect with her past and the isolated home she grew up in. It’s a time to reconnect after now spending the last decade in London. The cast is rounded out by solid performances by Saskia Reeves, Stephen Dillane, Lauren Lyle, and Paapa Essiedu.

Certified Fresh on RottenTomatoes, the movie achieved widespread critical acclaim following its initial launch at Sundance and then its wider theatrical rollout in late 2024. Julian Roman for MovieWeb wrote,...

Jack O’Connell has been set to star in Legendary’s next venture into the monsterverse in ‘Godzilla x Kong’ follow-up.

Plot details are being kept under lock and key however, it is said the story will feature “several new human characters alongside the beloved and iconic Titans Godzilla and Kong as they face off against a cataclysmic world-ending threat.”

‘Booksmart’s’ Kaitlyn Dever will lead the cast which also sees the return of Dan Stevens, who played laid-back monster veterinarian and dentist Trapper in ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.’ O’Connell is taking on the role of Dever’s brother.

Also in news – Chris Pine set for crime thriller ‘Nowhere Fast’

Grant Sputore (I Am Mother) is directing the creature feature from a script penned by Dave Callaham.

O’Connell’s upcoming projects include starring in ‘Sinners’ playing one of the villains opposite Michael B. Jordan and Danny Boyle’s...

The BBC has released first-look pictures for the brand-new four-part thriller ‘Reunion,’ starring Matthew Gurney, Lara Peake, Anne-Marie Duff, Eddie Marsan and Rose Ayling-Ellis.

The thriller is an emotional thriller of revenge and redemption following the journey of Daniel Brennan, played by Matthew Gurney, a deaf man determined to right his wrongs while unravelling the truth behind the events that led him to prison. Brennan embodies the struggle of a man caught between two worlds, unable to fully integrate into the hearing world and shunned by his closest friends and the wider deaf community following his heinous crime. Amidst this isolation, Brennan’s only meaningful relationship is with his estranged daughter Carly, played by Lara Peake, who he has not had any contact with since his arrest over a decade ago.

The first-look pictures set against the striking landscape of Sheffield and the Peak District offer a glimpse of the lead cast in their roles.

Jack O’Connell has joined the cast of Legendary’s follow-up to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Plot details are naturally being kept under wraps at this time, but Legendary has teased that the sequel will feature “several new human characters alongside the beloved and iconic Titans Godzilla and Kong as they face off against a cataclysmic world-ending threat.“

Kaitlyn Dever (The Last of Us) is set to star in the new MonsterVerse project, with O’Connell said to be playing the brother of Dever’s character. Dan Stevens is also expected to reprise the role of Trapper, Monarch’s Titan veterinarian who memorably replaced Kong’s infected tooth with a metallic one in the last movie.

Related Interview: Sam Taylor-Johnson and Marisa Abela Talk Amy Winehouse and Back To Black

After directing the last two films in the MonsterVerse franchise, director Adam Wingard will be sitting this one out. He...

Jack O’Connell, currently vamping it up in the trailer for Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Sinners, has joined the cast of the Legendary’s latest installment of its Godzilla-King Kong creature feature franchise.

Grant Sputore (I Am Mother) is directing the project, which is part of the company’s Monsterverse. Dave Callaham wrote the script.

Plot details are being kept under the Earth’s crust, but Legendary has said the story will feature “several new human characters alongside the beloved and iconic Titans Godzilla and Kong as they face off against a cataclysmic world-ending threat.”

Kaitlyn Dever is headlining the human cast, which also sees the return of Dan Stevens, who played laid-back monster veterinarian and dentist Trapper in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

O’Connell is playing Dever’s brother.

The British actor became known to American audiences when he nabbed the lead role in Unbroken, Universal and...

BAFTA winner Jack O’Connell (Sinners) has closed a deal to join the next theatrical feature in Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise, Deadline can reveal.

Character details are being kept under wraps. O’Connell joins a cast that includes Kaitlyn Dever, as well as Dan Stevens, who reprises his role as veterinarian Trapper Beasley from last year’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the franchise’s highest-grossing installment to date.

Grant Sputore is set to direct from a script by Dave Callaham. Plot details have been kept vague so far, though we’re told the next entry will feature several new human characters alongside Titans Godzilla and Kong, as they face off against a cataclysmic world-ending threat. Sputore took over the directorial reins from Adam Wingard following the latter’s work on The New Empire and 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong.

10+ years in, Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise launched with 2014’s Godzilla and also...

For cinema owners, “Survive till 25” has become a mantra as one catastrophe after another has kicked their business’s recovery down the road. But the end of that long and winding road is here, so will the upcoming slate result in a true box office revival?

Over the next 11 months, Hollywood will unveil blockbuster hopefuls like “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” “Jurassic World Rebirth,” “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” “Wicked: For Good” and “Superman” with the goal of boosting the business to something resembling its pre-covid stature. With the pandemic and strikes in the rearview, domestic revenues are projected to reach $9.3 billion to $9.5 billion for the year. Those returns would rank as the best post-pandemic stretch though still down from before times, when North American ticket sales regularly climbed to $10.5 billion to $11 billion.

“We’re post Covid and post strikes. This is the new normal now,” says Shawn Robbins, Fandango’s director of movie analytics.

Yet another 20th century music icon is having their life story told in a new biopic as '60s pop star, Marianne Faithfull, will be the subject of a brand-new biopic by director Zaida Bergroth (Tove). As well as piling on to the increasingly popular musical biopic genre -- 2024 saw the release of A Complete Unknown, Bob Marley: One Love, Back to Black, Maria, and Better Man -- the new biopic also features some rising talent, as the stars of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Those About to Die are set to lead the new film. Per Variety, Freya Allen will play Marianne Faithfull in the new movie, Faithfull. Allen is best known for starring in the recent Kingdom of the Planet of the Apesand her ongoing role in Netflix's The Witcher franchise. As well as being a musician in her own right, Marianne Faithful was...

The best and brightest of the U.K. and Ireland were celebrated last night in a star-studded bash at the Newport Beach Film Festival UK & Ie Honours event in London. Those receiving honors included Icon Award honoree Stephen Fry, “Nosferatu” and Artist of Distinction honorees Emma Corrin, Sharon Horgan and Felicity Jones.

Before receiving her honor, Jones was seen admiring Variety’s cover story on her “The Brutalist” co-star Adrien Brody, now considered a frontrunner for the best actor Oscar. Jones too, is in the running, nominated for best supporting actress at both the BAFTAs and Oscars for her performance in Brady Corbet’s American epic. “It’s so nice when you put in all the work for a campaign and it actually pays off,” she told Variety.

Three actors nominated for this year’s BAFTA Rising Star Award were celebrated – Nabhaan Rizwan was named one of Variety’s 10 Brits...

Jack O’Connell’s (Back to Black) cheeky bravery is paying off in an exclusive to Collider sneak peek of this week’s episode of Rogue Heroes. Now nearly the full way through the second season, audiences have been gleefully catching up with the troops who make up the British Army Special Air Service (Sas), tagging along with them from one mission to the next and feeling the waves of emotions as the team puts it all on the line to help the war effort. Last week’s episode showed multiple members of the squad paying the ultimate price, with today’s exclusive first look at the sophomore season’s penultimate episode teasing the fallout of so many lives lost.

Studiocanal has appointed Alex Hamilton as the company’s Chief International Officer and Katheryn Needham has been promoted to UK CEO.

As chief international officer, Hamilton will oversee direct distribution and operations across the company’s nine European territories as well as Studiocanal’s kids and family business.

Hamilton was previously appointed CEO of Studiocanal UK in 2020. Before joining StudioCanal, he was President of International Film and Managing Director of Entertainment One UK. He also led the company’s film operations outside of North America as President of International Film. He was in that role from 2016 to 2019.

Needham replaces Hamilton as CEO. She has previously held the position of Managing Director at Studiocanal UK and was previously the Interim CEO of the company’s Kids & Family business.

“l am delighted to announce the promotions of Alex Hamilton as Studiocanal’s Chief International Officer and Katheryn Needham as CEO Studiocanal UK,...

Studiocanal is heading into a new era. Not only is the Paddington producer coming off the back of a banner year, with its titles having grossed close to $300M at the global box office in 2024 (up 94% year-on-year), but in December its parent company Canal+ made a headline-grabbing debut on the London Stock Exchange after it was spun off from Vincent Bolloré’s French media conglomerate Vivendi.

While the launch was well below the €6.851Bn (£5.71Bn) valuation Vivendi had hoped for – Canal+ floated on the Lse with an initial market value of £2.5Bn ($3.1Bn) – internally, the IPO (which marked the largest debut on the Lse since 2022) is viewed as a promising next step for the company as it continues the growth trajectory it has been on across the last two decades.

In addition to navigating controversial local shifts in media windowing on its home turf, the French film industry’s biggest...

We’re a couple weeks away from the BAFTAs awards ceremony and one category at the show will celebrate rising stars.

Nominees Mikey Madison, David Jonsson, Marisa Abela, and Nabhaan Rizwan celebrated their nominations at the Vanity Fair Ee BAFTA 2025 Rising Star Party on Wednesday (February 5) at Pavyllon in London, England.

The event featured a who’s who of British talent, including many fan fave actors and plenty of newcomers who probably have a shot at a nomination in the future.

The winner of the Ee Rising Star Award will be announced at the BAFTAs on February 16. Also nominated in the category is Unstoppable actor Jharrel Jerome.

Mikey stars in the new movie Anora and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. David had his breakout in the sci-fi thriller film Alien: Romulus this past year. Marisa stars in the HBO series Industry and led the film Back to Black in 2024.

Steven Soderbergh, the mastermind behind Ocean’s Eleven and Contagion, is back with another banger. His next movie, Black Bag, promises to be a riveting blend of drama, action, and suspense. It’s a spy story with some serious emotional stakes—and it’s dropping this spring!

Steven Soderbergh

Meet George and Kathryn Woodhouse, married spies caught in secrets, lies, and betrayal. This is the premise of the upcoming flick that delivers all the ravishing spy action. Plus, a star-studded cast to seal the deal!

With Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett front and center, plus Soderbergh’s signature brilliance, Black Bag is set to be one of 2025’s must-watch films. So, what is Soderbergh’s upcoming spy thriller all about, and why should it be on your radar? Let’s break it down.

What is the story of Black Bag? Michael Fassbender in Black Bag (Credits: Universal Pictures)

Black Bag dives...

The Serpent star Tahar Rahim and Boiling Point’s Izuka Hoyle are leading Prisoner, the Sky thriller series from Matt Charman.

The pair are joined by Eddie Marsan (Back to Black, The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe), Catherine McCormack (Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, 28 Weeks Later), Leonie Benesch (September 5, Babylon Berlin), Finn Bennett (Black Doves, True Detective), Sam Troughton (Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, Black Doves), Laurie Davidson (The Girlfriend, Mary & George), Ken Nwosu (Black Doves, Sticks and Stones), Brían F. O’Byrne (Conclave, The Wonder) and Youssef Kerkour (Lockerbie: A Search For Truth).

Prisoner follows a principled young prison officer escorting a dangerous, high-value prisoner to court to testify against his elite crime syndicate. Throughout the journey, their relationship twists and turns, with the stakes escalating as the crime syndicate stops at nothing to track them down. Deadline revealed the project several weeks back from Charman, the...

Universal’s Wicked was the highest-grossing release of 2024 in the UK with a £59.6 million haul at the box office.

Wicked’s UK box office takings were released this morning as part of a report by the British Film Institute.

The film’s takings represent 6% of the year’s total box office. The emerald green musical was closely followed by Pixar’s Inside Out 2, which clocked £59.5 million at the UK box office.

Overall, total admissions for 2024 in the UK reached 126.5 million, a 2% increase on 2023. The BFI said the increase was the result of a surge at the box office in the last quarter of the year thanks to family-targeted franchise releases like Wicked and Moana 2. The figure still lags behind the 176 million admissions in 2019 by 28%. Box office takings totaled £979 million, less than 1% down on 2023’s £980 million, but 22% behind 2019’s pre-pandemic £1.3 billion.

On the indie side, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back to Black...

Film and high-end TV production in the U.K. made considerable gains last year, according to new figures from the British Film Institute.

In its annual report, the BFI said that film and high-end TV production spend in the U.K. reached £5.6 billion ($6.9 billion) in 2024, up 31% on 2023, and ahead of 2019’s pre-covid spend.

This resurgence follows a turbulent few years. In 2022, the U.K. production sector reached an all-time high with £6.27 billion in total spend, with £4.3 billion of that coming from high-end TV and £1.97 billion from film. Inward investment dominated, contributing £5.37 billion, or 86% of the total. However, 2023 saw a sharp 32% decline in production spending to £4.23 billion, due in part to the impact of Hollywood’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, which disrupted production schedules and delayed key projects.

In 2024, production spending rebounded significantly, though it still fell short of 2022’s record-breaking high. Film production spending jumped 24% to £2.1 billion from 2023’s £1.7 billion,...

Film and TV production in the U.K., whose boom came to a grinding halt in 2023 amid the Hollywood writers and actors strikes, rebounded in 2024 and is officially ahead of pre-Covid levels for the first time since the pandemic.

According to the British Film Institute, the total spend on film and high-end TV production last year reached £5.6 billion ($6.9 billion), a 31% increase on 2023 when £4.23 billion ($5.37 billion) on 394 productions was spent, and £6.27 billion ($7.72 billion) in the year 2022.

U.K. production spend is counted in the statistics for the year in which principal photography started.

During 2024, 191 feature films started shooting in the U.K., compared with 207 in 2023, according to the BFI. Among them were Netflix’s Peaky Blinders movie and The Fantastic Four.

65% of total U.K. production spend on film was accounted for by productions from the five major U.S. studios and the three major U.S. steaming platforms (Netflix, Apple...

The winners of the 2025 London Critics’ Circle Film Awards have been announced!

Zoe Saldana, Ralph Fiennes, and Mikey Madison were among the top winners at the awards show that took place on Sunday night (February 2) held at the Mayfair Hotel in London, England.

Along with winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Emilia Pérez, Zoe was also honored with the Derek Malcolm Award for Innovation while Daniel Craig was honored with the Dilys Powell Award for excellence in film.

Other stars in attendance at the event included Colman Domingo, Jesse Eisenberg, Lesley Manville, America Ferrera, Anora director Sean Baker, Back to Black actress Marisa Abela and fiancé Jamie Bogyo, The Brutalist actress Raffey Cassidy, and Abigail actress Alisha Weir.

Head inside to check out the full list of winners…

Keep scrolling to see the full list of winners…

Film Of The Year

“The Brutalist” – Winner

“All We Imagine As Light...

We present our red carpet interviews from the 2025 Critics Circle Awards in London at the May Fair Hotel. Attending were Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Jesse Eisenberg, Sean Baker, Mikey Madison, Alisha Weir, Dan Hough, Elliot Heffernan, Raffey Cassidy, Michelle Austin, Nick Park + Merlin Crossingham, Nykika Adams, Amy Liptrot, and Gints Zilbalodis.

Colin Hart and Ethan Hart were on the red carpet, here are their interviews.

2025 Critics Circle Awards Red Carpet Interviews

2025 Critics Circle Awards Winners

Film Of The Year

“The Brutalist” – Winner

“All We Imagine As Light”

“Anora”

“La Chimera”

“Conclave”

“Emilia Pérez”

“Kneecap”

“Nickel Boys”

“Nosferatu”

“The Substance”

Foreign-language Film Of The Year

“All We Imagine As Light” – Winner

“La Chimera”

“Emilia Pérez”

“I’m Still Here”

“Kneecap”

Documentary Of The Year

“No Other Land” – Winner

“Dahomey”

“Grand Theft Hamlet”

“Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger”

“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story”

Animated Feature Of The Year

“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl...

Brady Corbet’s epic American immigrant saga “The Brutalist” has been given the top prize by the U.K.’s leading film writers and broadcasters.

At the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards on Sunday night, the feature was named film of the year in a ceremony that saw the honors widely shared across a number of titles, although notably both “The Substance” and “A Complete Unknown” came away empty-handed.

Edward Berger’s Vatican thriller “Conclave” took two awards, including British/Irish film of the year and actor of the year for Ralph Fiennes, while RaMell Ross’s radical Colson Whitehead adaptation “Nickel Boys” was recognised with director of the year and the technical achievement award for Jomo Fray’s first-person cinematography.

Elsewhere on the night, Jesse Eisenberg’s dark comedy “A Real Pain” was another multiple prizewinner, awarded screenwriter of the year for the actor-filmmaker, and supporting actor of the year for co-star Kieran Culkin.

Talia Ryder and Spike Fearn kept close while attending Paris Fashion Week!

The young actors and rising stars were seen holding hands while stepping out for the Saint Laurent fashion show on Tuesday (January 28) in Paris, France.

Talia and Spike sat together in the front row and looked very cozy. They held hands while leaving the event side-by-side.

The two actors just worked together on the upcoming movie 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, which marks Frankie Shaw‘s directorial debut and also stars Liam Neeson. Filming took place in December 2024 in Ireland.

THR reports that Liam plays “ex-bank robber Danny, whose teenage granddaughter Paige (Ryder) means the world to him. So when she overhears that his former gang is pulling him back in for one more score to pay a debt, she comes up with the only logical solution: She enlists her three ride-or-die best friends to rob the...

Musical biopics have become so regular in today's Hollywood landscape that movies are trying anything and everything to stand above the rest. Interestingly, in 2024, several musical biopics were released, such as Bob Marley's One Love, Back to Black and the Academy Award-nominated A Complete Unknown. Although technically a documentary with major artistic license, Pharell Williams' Piece by Piece told his professional and life story through the lens of LEGOs. It was an incredibly inspired and fascinating choice that interested audiences who weren't aware of how impactful Pharell Williams had been on the music industry. The movie went as far as to show real-life interviews and testimonials in Lego form, adding a beautifully colorful and nostalgic view to one of music's modern savants. Another movie that took an incredibly inspired chance in 2024 was the musical biopic of British superstar Robbie Williams: Better Man, where Williams is portrayed by a CGI monkey.

Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance took the award for Best Feature at the annual Girls On Film Awards while Emilia Pérez and Hard Truths star Marianne Jean-Baptiste took awards for Best Ensemble and Best Actress respectively.

The fourth edition of the awards, which were held at London’s Curzon Bloomsbury on Sunday, celebrated exceptional achievements by women and people of marginalized genders in the film space. Hosted by Girls On Film co-founders Anna Smith and Hedda Lornie Archbold, the awards put a spotlight on women-led filmmaking with a particular focus on diversity, inclusion and representation.

Fargeat, who is nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards this year, was in attendance to collect her award and she told the audience that The Substance “was meant for me to mirror what women have to face in their everyday life by society and it’s not nice, it’s not subtle and it’s not delicate.

We live in an age of biopics, and musicians are an unusually common theme that dominates that genre. In recent years, we've seen biographical dramatizations of Elton John ("Rocket Man"), Elvis Presley ("Elvis"), and Amy Winehouse ("Back to Black"). As of this writing, the most recent entry to the musical biopic genre is "A Complete Unknown," where Timothée Chalamet channels what can only be described as a "pretty good" iteration of Bob Dylan. The cascade of musically-infused biographies won't slow down any time soon, either. We've got projects on Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Louis Armstrong, and The Beatles (among many others) on tap for the next few years.

The barrage of pop chart biopics begs the question, which one is the best? Is there a biopic of a musician that is considered better than all the rest? The answer, according to IMDb, is yes. In fact, there is one film...

If any backstage pop institution deserves a biopic of his or her own, it would be Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ tragic manager, champion, and supporter through rough and giddy times alike. Epstein has been portrayed here and there in films, but Midas Man (available on streaming services starting today) is the first full feature devoted to him. According to a report in Variety, the making of the film was fraught, encompassing multiple directors, distribution issues, and a bigger budget than expected. But in light of music-biopic mania and the ongoing...

Rank Film (origin) Distributor Jan 17-19 gross Total Week 1 A Complete Unknown(US)

Disney £2.6m £2.6m 1 2 Mufasa: The Lion King (US) Disney £1.6m £26.1m 5 3 Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (US)

Paramount £1.1m £22.3m 4 4 Nosferatu (US)

Universal £1.1m £10.9m 3 5 We Live In Time (UK-Fr) Studiocanal £860,881 £6.8m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.22

Disney’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown opened to £2.6m this weekend across the UK-Ireland, landing in the top spot.

With just shy of 700 sites reporting, and a few still to report, the film has a location average of £3,714.

Timothee Chalamet plays the AmericanBlowin’ In The Wind singer from his early...

Rank Film (origin) Distributor Jan 17-19 gross Total Week 1 A Complete Unknown(US)

Disney £2.6m £2.6m 1 2 Mufasa: The Lion King (US) Disney £1.6m £26.1m 5 3 Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (US)

Paramount £1.1m £22.3m 4 4 Nosferatu (US)

Universal £1.1m £10.9m 3 5 We Live In Time (UK-Fr) Studiocanal £860,881 £6.8m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.22

Disney’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown opened to £2.6m this weekend across the UK-Ireland, landing in the top spot.

With just shy of 700 sites reporting, and a few still to report, the film has a location average of £3,714.

Timothee Chalamet plays the AmericanBlowin’ In The Wind singer from his early...

Twisters and The Idea of You are the most nominated films for the 2025 Guild of Music Supervisors Awards, the nominees for which were unveiled Friday.

Twisters’ Rachel Levy earned a nod for best music supervision among major budget films, while Frankie Pine with the romantic comedy The Idea of You received a nomination for best music supervision in a mid-budget film. And in the best film song competition, the Twisters action thriller got a nod for “Out of Oklahoma,” while The Idea of You will contend in the category with the title song “The Idea of You”.

Music supervisors Steve Schnur, Raphaella Lima, Codie Childs, Mike Ladman and Mara Tacham received the most individual nominations with three each, and Netflix earned the most nominations among major studios with 13 in all.

Other film contenders in the music supervision and songwriting competitions include Wicked, Deadpool & Wolverine, Emilia Pérez and The Brutalist. And on the TV side,...

UK cinema admissions increased 2.3% in 2024 compared to the previous year, but the average ticket price fell, according to figures from the Cinema Advertising Association.

The total number of admissions in 2024 was 126.5m.

Overall, thebox office takings for 2024have remained flat year-on-year across UK-Ireland, at £1.06bn – just 0.2%, or £3m down from 2023, and 8% up on 2022.

December was the strongest month of the year, with 15.7m admissions, almost 36% up on the same month in 2023. November admissions were 77% up on the same month in 2023.

Films released in November that boosted the box office at the end of the year included Paramount’sGladiator II, Universal...

Disney’sBob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown,opens wide in around 700 sites across the UK and Ireland this weekend.

Timothee Chalamet plays the US musician from 1961, when the Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door singer was an unknown 19-year-old, freshly landed in New York from Minnesota. James Mangold directs the Searchlight title, with Elle Fanning and Edward Norton also in the cast.

Music biopics have – for the most part – performed robustly at the UK-Ireland box office of late. Studiocanal’s Amy Winehouse film Back To Black opened to £2.7m in April of last year and finished on £12.3m. Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love...

Director James Mangold explores a pivotal chapter in Bob Dylan’s early career in A Complete Unknown. Our review:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that music biopics must follow The Formula. Whether they’re about Ray Charles or Elton John or Amy Winehouse or Brit rock outfit Queen, their stories follow a path of pivotal childhood experiences, chance meetings, paths to fame and the scourge of drink and drugs, before everything’s wrapped up with a rousing concert at the end.

The Formula was so well understood by 2007 that Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story fired a silver bullet at the wretched thing – and yet still the template staggered on, showing up largely unscathed in the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody and Back To Black.

Almost 20 years after he made Walk The Line – a film openly lampooned by the above-mentioned Dewey Cox Story – its director, James Mangold is back in...

The last few years have been especially fortuitous for music biopics, but recent months have seen a couple of major bombs. In May, Focus Features debuted the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black in American theaters; the movie concluded its global run with just over $50 million, against a reported budget of $30 million. But a far more expensive music biopic is currently performing at a much lower level. Better Man, based on the life and career of pop-star Robbie Williams, only recently passed its first global box office milestone, and has now accomplished a rather unfortunate achievement; the film has recovered a tenth of its reported budget.

The total box office at German cinemas in 2024 fell almost 8% year-on-year, according to provisional figures from Comscore.

Overall ticket sales totalled €792.5m, down 7.8% on 2023’s € 859m, while total admissions slipped year-on-year by 7.3% from 87.2m to 80.9m.

This compared to the 23.7% year-on-year increase in box-office takings and 18.5% in admissions that had been posted between 2022 and 2023.

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Walt Disney Pictures’ Inside Out 2 was the year’s most successful new release, grossing $56.9m and garnering 5.7m admissions since its opening week on 678 screens on June 12.The performance of Inside Out 2 as well as other releases such asDeadpool & Wolverine,...

While the biopic genre is often quite hit or miss, with projects that seem to be made only to highlight a celebrity's fame, Better Man, a film about U.K. pop star Robbie Williams, is an example of one that is trying its best to be a unique experience with an intense story to tell. Unfortunately for Better Man, its great reviews aren't enough to save it from an abysmal box office performance. The movie has struggled immensely following its theatrical release, making only $1 million in its first weekend on a $110 million budget.

While biopics have never been enormous box office draws compared to the more mainstream Hollywood films, in recent years many of them have cropped up to become quite well-received, both by critics and audiences. While Better Man has fallen very short at the box office, Timothée Chalamet's Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown has done excellently...

On Wednesday, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced its 78th annual BAFTA Awards nominees, with expected contenders Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, and Emilia Pérez nominated for Best Film.

Conclave led all films with 12 nominations, including bids for Best Film, Best British Film, Best Director for Edward Berger, Best Adapted Screenplay for Peter Straughan, Best Actor for Ralph Fiennes, and Best Supporting Actress for Isabella Rossellini. It’s the second time BAFTA voters have widely embraced a Berger feature in three years after giving All Quiet on the Western Front 14 nominations in 2023.

In second, just behind the nominations leader, was Emilia Pérez. Netflix’s top contender landed 11 BAFTA Award nominations, including Best Film, Best Film Not in English Language, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jacques Audiard, Best Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón, and Best Supporting Actress for Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña.

Other...

Ah, awards season, when cinema stans obsessively track the goings-on at all the film fétes in America and that one in England. While not necessarily as big of an indicator for the Academy Awards race as U.S. shows like the Golden Globes, Oscars prognosticators will factor what goes on...

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) will announce its nominations on Wednesday, Jan. 15, casting a spotlight on an unpredictable awards season. This year’s nods come amid a somber backdrop as the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles have left communities grappling with loss. I’m sure the BAFTA’s announcement will mention the City of Angels and the first responders, the true heroes battling the blazes.

For the approximately 13,500 international members of BAFTA — representing a diverse range of disciplines across film and television — this year’s nominations serve as a cultural barometer, often influencing the Oscar race. With ballots for the Academy Awards due on Friday, Jan. 17, following its announced voting extension, BAFTA (who voted before the wildfires broke out) may provide a clearer picture of where AMPAS’ influential international voting bloc will likely land.

BAFTA’s acting categories have been somewhat unpredictable in recent years due...

Lionsgate’s heist thriller “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” stole the box office crown, debuting at No. 1 with $15.5 million from 3,008 North American theaters.

The sequel to 2018’s “Den of Thieves” opened on the higher end of expectations and landed about even with its predecessor’s $15.2 million launch. The first film also opened in January and powered to $80 million globally by the end of its theatrical run. The second installment needs an even better display of staying power because it carries a $40 million production budget. Moviegoers liked the film more than critics; “Den of Thieves 2” earned a “B+” grade on CinemaScore and a 58% average on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Gerard Butler stars as Big Nick, a gritty Los Angeles police officer on the hunt in Europe to track down ex-marine-turned-robber Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) who is plotting a massive diamond heist.

“These movies are made for audiences, not critics,...

We are living in the golden age of the rock biopic. Until very recently, films like The Doors, Ray, Walk the Line, and Love and Mercy popped up only once every few years. But in roughly the past half-decade alone, we’ve seen Bohemian Rhapsody, Bob Marley: One Love, Back to Black, Rocketman, Respect, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and Elvis. This past Christmas, we got the story of Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown, and Better Man, in which an anthropomorphic chimpanzee “plays” Robbie Williams. And in the coming months and years,...

Gold Derby’s top news stories for Jan. 7, 2025. BAFTA Rising Star Award nominees announced

Marisa Abela (Back to Black), Jharrel Jerome (Unstoppable), David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus), Mikey Madison (Anora), and Nabhaan Rizwan (In Camera) are the 2025 BAFTA Rising Star Award nominees. Now in its 20th year, the Rising Star Award is the only BAFTA honor voted on by the British public. The award has historically gone to Brits, which bodes well for Abela, Jonsson, and Rizwan (all of whom have also been on Industry). Last year’s winner was How to Have Sex star Mia McKenna-Bruce. Past winners include Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Will Poulter, John Boyega, Tom Holland, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, and Lashana Lynch. The last American champ was Kristen Stewart in 2010.

Abela and Madison could find themselves with two nominations as both were longlisted last week in Best Actress for their respective performances. BAFTA nominations will be announced Wednesday,...