Variety

Australian Screen Producers Call for Fairness Rules to Counter Streaming Giants’ Market Power

Screen Producers Australia has lodged a 22-recommendation submission to the Australian government’s National Cultural Policy consultation, putting the market power of streaming platforms over independent producers at the center of its push for structural reform. The body’s submission argues that the shift to digital streaming has fundamentally altered commissioning practices, leaving small and medium-sized production […]

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

The Guardian Culture

From Vecna to Mr Burns: TV’s greatest ever villains

Violent drug barons, brutal monarchs, interdimensional murderers … television has no shortage of horrifying baddies. Here’s our pick of the worstJavier Bardem biting off toes in Cape Fear. Richard Gadd stomping on heads in Half Man. Nightmare neighbour David Morrissey whipping up mob violence in Tip Toe. Yes, TV villainy is everywhere. Which got us thinking about the biggest baddies in small-screen history.When compiling our list, we discounted children’s TV, which is a whole separate category.

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Stop! That! Train! review - RuPaul-led zany drag comedy is a riot

With a whip-smart drag queen cast and celebrity cameos, Adam Shankman’s film is a refreshingly kooky twist on the summer movie caperGiven the grip it exerts on the drag world in the US and beyond, it’s almost quaint to remember the janky beginnings of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which debuted in 2009 with cheap plywood sets, a “lounge” sponsored by Absolut Vodka and special guests including Michelle Williams (the less famous one). Now, it’s a high-gloss spectacle that has won 14 Emmy awards, is credited

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Kelsey Lu: So Help Me God review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Dirty Hit)Aided by Jack Antonoff, Kim Gordon, Sampha and more, the cello-playing singer-songwriter’s abstracted yet tuneful second album is worth the seven year waitSeven years separate the release of cello-playing singer-songwriter Kelsey Lu’s debut album, Blood, from its follow-up. Lu has suggested the long gap was an act of artistic rebellion against a music industry obsessed with providing a constant stream of new product – “tuning into my intuition, trusting myself and building a team to s

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘She slept in the hallway on a lawn chair’: how Bettina’s astonishing art outgrew her Chelsea Hotel room

The reclusive figure spent decades filling every surface of her apartment at the legendary New York hotel with artworks that rose in teetering piles. Some are now on display for the first time in GlasgowWhen the artist Yto Barrada stepped through the door of room 503, up on the fifth floor of New York’s Chelsea Hotel, she was overwhelmed by what she saw. Every inch of the walls was plastered with Xeroxed word art, graphic reproductions of geometric sculptures, hundreds of photographs of passersb

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Variety

Emily Watson to Serve as Jury President at 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, and Receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo

British actress Emily Watson will serve as president of the jury for the Feature Film Competition Program at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival. She will also receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at the festival, in recognition of her contribution to world cinema. Jovan Marjanović, director of the festival said Watson was an actress “whose […]

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Variety

‘Jane Eyre’ Musical Sets U.K. Stage Debut With West End Stars Charlie Burn and Ashley Gilmour (EXCLUSIVE)

Charlie Burn and Ashley Gilmour are set to lead the cast of “Jane Eyre,” the musical by John Caird and Paul Gordon, when the show makes its U.K. premiere at Southwark Playhouse Elephant in London. The play opens Aug. 28 and plays through Oct. 24. Burn, who recently starred as Cady Heron in “Mean Girls” […]

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

At Tribeca, an All-AI Iran Movie Shows Film’s Future (Or at Least Its Messy Present)

'Dreams of Violets' premieres at the festival, as an industry watches nervously.

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Variety

‘The Struggle for Mother Water’ Director Michael Zelniker on His Taormina Film Festival Prize: ‘It’s Validation for Those Who Are on the Front Lines’

Canadian filmmaker Michael Zelniker, who will receive the Taormina Film Festival’s Special Sustainability Award on Thursday evening, is on a mission to try and heal the damages humanity is inflicting on planet Earth. Zelniker, who previously helmed the acclaimed 2022 deforestation docuseries “The Issue With Tissue — a Boreal Love Story” — which will soon […]

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Variety

DR Sales Closes With WDR/Arte, VRT, NRK in Multi Buyers Pact on Norwegian Wildlife Doc ‘Frost Without Snow and Ice’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Copenhagen-based DR Sales, sales rep of the Oscar-winning “Mr Nobody Against Putin” and Sundance hit “A New Kind of Wilderness,” has closed a raft of deals on the Norwegian wildlife documentary “Frost Without Snow and Ice” (“Frost uten Snø og Is”) on the heels of its world premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Broadcasters and […]

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Variety

DR Sales Closes With WDR/Arte, VRT, NRK in Multi Buyers Pact on Norwegian Wildlife Doc ‘Frost Without Snow and Ice’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Copenhagen-based DR Sales, sales rep of the Oscar-winning “Mr Nobody Against Putin” and Sundance hit “A New Kind of Wilderness,” has closed a raft of deals on the Norwegian wildlife documentary “Frost Without Snow and Ice” (“Frost uten Snø og Is”) on the heels of its world premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Broadcasters and […]

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Emily Watson Named Sarajevo Film Festival Jury President and Honorary Heart Recipient

Watson, who most recently starred in Chloé Zhao's 'Hamnet,' has left "a profound mark on contemporary cinema," according to Sarajevo director Jovan Marjanović.

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

The Guardian Culture

The best games of 2026 so far

If you fancy roaring around Japan’s open roads, scaling impossible mountains and playing with post-apocalyptic Pokémon, this year’s highlights mean you can do so without leaving your chair Continue reading...

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘Life has always managed to crawl through’: docuseries takes us back to mass extinction events

Co-creator of Walking with Dinosaurs returns with Surviving Earth, a blockbuster new series that shows ‘how life bounced back’ from deadly events throughout historyAlmost three decades have passed since producer Tim Haines reimagined natural history with Walking with Dinosaurs, using CGI and animatronics to bring to life the beasts that roamed these lands millions of years ago.With his latest project, Haines is applying that same visual magic to look even further into the past. Surviving Earth,

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Variety

Sundance Prizewinning Documentary ‘Birds of War’ Sells to Several Territories, Lines Up Oscar-Qualifying Run, Debuts Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

London-based sales, production and distribution company Dogwoof has closed a raft of international deals on Sundance prizewinning documentary “Birds of War,” which has been lined up for an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run in the U.S. as Dogwoof launches the film’s trailer ahead of its U.K. premiere at Sheffield DocFest. Dogwoof revealed Thursday it has secured international […]

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

‘Try!’ Director on His Sports Doc That Is a “Trojan Horse for a Film About People and Their Abilities”

The film from Irish director Oisín Mistéil, premiering at Sheffield DocFest, follows four Irish teams on their journey to the Mixed Ability Rugby World Cup, where "inclusion isn't an aspiration but the starting point."

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Variety

Tony Leung Lines Up Johnnie To Film, India Project and Serial Killer Series as He Chairs Shanghai Jury (EXCLUSIVE)

Thespian Tony Leung Chiu-wai has three productions in the pipeline: a film to be directed by Johnnie To, a separate India-set project and a six-or-seven-episode streaming series in which he will play a serial killer. The Hong Kong screen legend disclosed the projects while speaking to Variety ahead of his role as jury president of […]

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Strictly Ballroom review – Baz Luhrmann’s dizzying, dance-tastic swirl of fun is a classic ugly-duckling tale

Luhrmann’s goofy and lovable film is reissued for generations who don’t know where TV’s Strictly Come Dancing got part of its nameGenerations who don’t know why TV’s Strictly Come Dancing is called that (or even what the old Come Dancing show used to be) need to catch up with Baz Luhrmann’s debut directing feature from 1992; it is goofy, lovable and as sweetly romantic as you like. It was the feelgood crowdpleaser from Australia that made Luhrmann a star, and that “strictly” sounded a defiant no

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

Variety

BigBang Sets 31-Show Worldwide Stadium Tour for 20th Anniversary

K-pop group BigBang will reunite for a 31-show stadium world tour celebrating the group’s 20th anniversary, marking its first trek since 2017. The group – G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung – announced Thursday that the run will begin Aug. 21 at Goyang Stadium in Goyang, South Korea, and continue through Feb. 28, 2027, with dates scheduled […]

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026

The Guardian Culture

The Evil Lawyer review – gripping, twisty and ludicrously hammy

The lead character in this Thai courtroom drama may have more than a whiff of pantomime villain about her, but this a fun, very watchable show – albeit one that is faintly ridiculous at timesIf the title of this Thai crime-thriller-cum-courtroom-drama feels a little splashy, wait until you meet the scoundrel in question. Her name is Jittri and she is, at least at the show’s outset, a pantomime villain in a power suit, her hair even bigger than her ego. Known for getting murky clients off the hoo

entertainment  Jun 11, 2026