Variety

Netflix, Prime Video, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery Bet on Local Content and Fandom to Drive APAC Growth

Executives from Netflix, Prime Video, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery converged at APOS 2026 in Bali this week with a shared conviction: Asian IP and local storytelling are no longer regional plays but the streaming industry’s most valuable global assets. During the session “Asia’s Streaming Advantage: Growth, Profitability and What’s Next,” Netflix VP of content […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘There’s a kind of magic to her work’: Maren Hassinger’s one-of-a-kind sculptures

The artist has her most significant retrospective to date in a new exhibition that encourages attenders to take partFor 50 years, the American artist Maren Hassinger has created fascinating site-specific sculptures out of the simplest of actions: tying a square knot, twisting metal into organic shapes, blowing breath into a plastic bag, walking through a room. With Maren Hassinger: Living Moving Growing, the Berkeley Art Museum (BAMPFA) offers a suitably comprehensive, yet ephemeral retrospectiv

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

‘April X’ Director Michel K. Parandi Says Casting Connor Storrie Before ‘Heated Rivalry’ Felt Like Casting Harrison Ford in ‘Blade Runner’: I Was ‘Telling Everybody He’s Going to Be a Movie Star’

Producers urged Michel K. Parandi to take his time and audition as many actors as possible for the main role of Baxter in his long-gestating sci-fi “April X,” but the French-American director knew early on who his man was: Connor Storrie. What he did not know is that, a few months after wrapping production, Storrie […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

COL Group, Virtue Asia Team for Southeast Asia Microdrama Brand Push

V47 Entertainment’s specialist agency Virtue Asia has struck a deal with China-listed microdrama company COL Group to develop and distribute brand-funded entertainment across Southeast Asia, the companies announced on the sidelines of the APOS conference in Bali. Under the partnership, Virtue Asia and COL will work together to package opportunities for regional marketers across microdrama, […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘That’s when the shark fins appeared’: your horrifying holidays – from natural disasters to missile threats

With Two Weeks in August and the return of The Four Seasons, TV dramas about nightmare getaways are having a moment. Here are Guardian readers’ tales of their ownIn early 1969, my parents booked a holiday in Belfast for one week and a bed and breakfast in Dublin for one week. When we arrived at our Belfast destination, The Elsinore Hotel, there wasn’t another car in the parking lot and the hotel was empty except for the aged husband and wife owners. Being 12 years old, I didn’t think too much at

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Locarno’s Inaugural Open Doors Connect: Meet the Four Participants and Their Sponsors

"Bringing together film professionals from Benin, Madagascar, Brazil and Mongolia, the goal is "to ideate and facilitate opportunities for South-South collaborations."

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

Juno Hong’s ‘Only the Moon Knows’ Wins Annual Focus at Shanghai Project Market

Juno Hong’s “Only the Moon Knows” claimed the Annual Focus award at SIFF Project, the project promotion component of the Shanghai International Film Festival. It also took home the Regent Presents “Cinematic Escapes” Special Focus Award, worth 200,000 IHG One Rewards Points. “I’m so excited and also got complicated feelings,” said Hong after the ceremony. […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘It goes so hard in both directions’: John Early and Kate Berlant on making you laugh and cry in new influencer satire

In his directorial debut Maddie’s Secret, Early plays a food influencer with bulimia in a wild flip on the modern melodramaThey don’t make film heroines quite like Maddie Ralph any more. As the creation of comedian and actor John Early, the titular character of Maddie’s Secret is a bright-eyed ingenue who greets the day like the sun came out just for her, no matter that she’s trudging to her job as a dishwasher. Like the leading ladies of ’50s Women’s Pictures, she longs for something more than

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Your Fault: London review – British-set remake of Spanish step-sibling romance lacks passion or fizz

A second helping of the English-language adaptation of Mercedes Ron’s trilogy sustains little chemistry between its supposedly besotted lead charactersHere is Amazon Prime’s sequel to its hit My Fault: London. If you’re new to the franchise back-story, it started with a bestselling trilogy of romance novels by Spanish author Mercedes Ron (who self-published the first one). It’s a tale of the forbidden love between step-siblings Noah and her smouldering bad boy step-brother Nick. The books have b

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

BBC to Cut 550 Jobs, Eye More Staff Reductions, Slash Content Spend by $107M, “Review” Channels

The moves are part of the effort by the team of new BBC director general Matt Brittin, a former Google top executive, to slash costs across operations and functions.

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

Harry Styles Trades Disco for Classical and Plays Some Deep Cuts in Heavenly, Intimate Orchestra Show: Concert Review

Harry Styles took a break from his record-smashing run at London’s Wembley Stadium on Tuesday night to do something the pop star has never done before: perform with a full orchestra. From the start, the one-off show seemed quite the opposite from Styles’ current modus operandi: his latest album “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

Studiocanal Sets True Crime Art Heist Docu-Series ‘The Paris-Tokyo Job’ With Sunny Side of the Doc Launch (EXCLUSIVE)

One of the world’s most notorious art heists is getting a true crime documentary from Studiocanal. “The Paris-Tokyo Job (Or How To Rob A Yakuza),” a four-part series, is set to debut at La Rochelle’s Sunny Side of the Doc festival this month before bowing on Canal+ in France later this year. The doc tells […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

The Guardian Culture

UFC 6 review: a bloody, brilliant MMA fighting game

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S; EA Vancouver/Electronic ArtsMicromanaging your fighter is a little tedious, but the action is thrilling in this authentically detailed sporting simulationBecoming a professional fighter takes years of repetition, drilling techniques and training footwork until everything is instinctual. Your body needs an automatic answer for every limb, from every angle. In MMA, which encompasses every martial art, it’s even harder.EA Sports’ UFC 6 realistically captures the grin

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

‘Thelma & Louise’ Musical Reveals Full Cast for Young Vic World Premiere

London’s Young Vic has unveiled the complete cast for its upcoming world premiere of “Thelma & Louise,” filling out the ensemble around previously announced leads Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker. Among the new additions are Trevor Dion Nicholas, Jordan Luke Gage, Samuel Edwards, Alex Gibson-Giorgio, Letita Hector, Tamlyn Henderson and Jack Butterworth. Nicholas (“Hercules,” “Hadestown”) […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

Prime Video Pushes Beyond Streaming to Build APAC Entertainment Hub, Top Executives Reveal at APOS

Prime Video is doubling down on its ambition to become a unified entertainment destination across Asia-Pacific, with executives highlighting the company’s expanding ecosystem strategy during the APOS conference session “The APAC Playbook: How Prime Video Is Shaping Streaming’s Future.” Gaurav Gandhi, VP of APAC and ANZ at Prime Video, described the region as a powerful […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Collapse by Édouard Louis review – coming to terms with a brother’s death

In the latest autofictional instalment of his family saga, the French writer makes sense of his sibling’s violent homophobia and short life At 33, the French writer Édouard Louis has already seen all seven of his slim novels translated into English. In his breakout debut, The End of Eddy (2017), and again in Change (2024), he wrote about being the promising child of a poor family, the bullied gay son who became a bestselling author. Several of his other books have offered sympathetic sociologica

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Nino review – time is running out for young man faced with cancer in shrewd sperm sample portrait

After being told he has throat cancer on the eve of his 30th birthday, Nino spends a fraught weekend in Paris in Pauline Loquès’ heartfelt feature debutFrench film-maker Pauline Loquès makes her feature directing debut with this meanderingly real-time-style portrait of a young man in Paris over a fraught weekend, somewhat in the manner of Agnès Varda’s New Wave classic Cléo from 5 to 7. It is heartfelt and affecting, if a little flimsy.Théodore Pellerin plays Nino, a young guy who has never quit

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

‘We Won’t Get Old Together,’ From ‘Monsters.’ Director, Explores One Man’s Midlife Meltdown During the Pandemic in Bucharest

Romanian filmmaker Marius Olteanu (“Monsters.”) is readying his sophomore feature, “We Won’t Get Old Together,” a pandemic-set drama about a man struggling to rebuild his life from the ground up when everything around him comes crashing down. Olteanu is presenting the film this week in the Works in Progress program of the Transilvania Intl. Film […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

Andy Serkis Says AI Brings New Responsibility to Storytelling: ‘The World Is Changing Fast but Human Creativity Will Evolve Alongside It’

The opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence took center stage during the APOS conference’s “The New Creative Pipeline: AI, IP & Human Craft” session on Wednesday, as actor, director and producer Andy Serkis joined Google executive Jon Zepp and filmmaker Josh Nelson Youssef to discuss the future of storytelling in an increasingly AI-driven landscape. Serkis, […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026

Variety

Toronto Film Festival Reveals More Than 130 Buyers to Attend First Edition of Market

The Toronto Film Festival has revealed that more than 130 buyers from 49 countries have confirmed they will attend the first edition of its market, which is referred to as TIFF: The Market. Among the buyers attending the market, which takes place Sept. 10-16, are Picturehouse, Tanweer, Cineart, Bona Film Group, Metropolitan Film Export, Tobis, […]

entertainment  Jun 17, 2026