BAFTA Sets Date For 2025 Film Awards

Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro’s vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans.It was the last show of The Celebration Tour, her first retrospective, which kicked off in October in London.The “Queen of Pop” began the show with her 1998 hit “Nothing Really Matters.”Huge cheers rose from the buzzing, tightly packed crowd, pressed up against the barriers.Others held house parties in brightly lighted apartments and hotels overlooking the beachfront.Helicopters and drones flew overhead, and motorboats and sailboats anchored off the beach filled the bay.“Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world,” Madonna, 65, told the crowd. Pointing out the ocean view, the mountains and the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city, she added: “This place is magic.”Madonna performed her classic hits, including “Like A Virgin” and “Hung Up.” For the introduction to “Like A Prayer,” her head was completely covered in a black cape, a rosary gripped in her hands.The star paid an emotional tribute to “all the bright lights” lost to AIDS as she sang “Live to Tell,” with black and white photos of people who died from the illness flashing behind her.Later, she was joined on stage by Brazilian artists Anitta and Pabllo Vittar.Rio spent the last few days readying itself for the performance.An estimated 1.6 million people attended the show, G1 reported, citing Rio City Hall’s tourism agency.That is more than 10 times Madonna’s record attendance of 130,000 at Paris’ Parc des Sceaux in 1987.Madonna’s official website hyped the show as the biggest ever in her four-decade career.In recent days, the buzz was palpable.

Royel Otis are due to embark on a tour of the UK and Europe later this year – check out the full list of tour dates below.Last night (May 2), the pair of Royel Madden and Otis Pavlovic took to social media to announce a number of tour dates across Europe and the UK this year, with a run of four shows in July before returning for a lengthier run between November and December.Stops will include shows in Oxford, Sheffield, Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester among others.Pre-sale tickets for Royel Otis’ Glory To Glory UK and Europe tour will go on sale on Wednesday, May 8 at 10am BST, while general tickets go on sale two days later on Friday, May 10 at 10am. Sign up for tickets here.A post shared by Royel Otis (@royelotis)JULY:09 – O2 Academy – Bournemouth10 – O2 Academy 2 – Oxford11 – Foundry – Sheffield12 – Arts Club – LiverpoolNOVEMBER26 – Trinity – Bristol27 – Electric Ballroom – London28 – O2 Academy 2 – Birmingham29 – SWG3 TV Studio – Glasgow30 – Riverside – NewcastleDECEMBER01 – Stylus – Leeds03 – New Century Hall – Manchester Apart from announce their tour dates for Europe and the UK, the stars of NME‘s The Cover have also released two new bonus tracks from their debut album, ‘Pratts & Pain’: ‘Merry Mary Marry Me’ and ‘Claw Foot’, both of which you can listen to below.Written alongside their debut album, ‘Pratts & Pain’, ‘Merry Mary Marry Me’ is a grunge-tinged tune that chronicles the feeling of being left behind as everyone around you settles into marriage and relationships.

Brillante Mendoza‘s film “Pula” has set a world premiere on Netflix. The narrative unfolds in the devoutly Catholic town of Pula and examines themes of faith, fanaticism, and vigilante justice. In the film, the tranquil life of Senior Master Sergeant Danilo Faraon (Coco Martin) and his family get upended by a tragic event that shakes the foundations of their close-knit community.

Fontaines D.C. have announced a surprise intimate gig in New York set to take place next week.The Dublin band – comprised of Grian Chatten, Tom Coll, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan III and Carlos O’Connell – took to their official social media to announce their one-night-only gig on May 8 at Brooklyn’s Warsaw venue.

Iron Maiden‘s Bruce Dickinson recently called out fans for smoking at a gig after a vape exploded during the show.During Dickinson’s gig on Saturday (April 27) at the Opera Hall in Brasília, Brazil, the singer addressed the crowd and called out a group of fans who were smoking cigarettes and vaping during his set. The smoke and fumes were irritating the singer’s voice and affecting the rest of his band and touring party.In a now-deleted video clip shared by the Instagram account Iron Maiden Brasil, Dickinson told the crowd: “I can’t fucking breathe.

EXCLUSIVE: Vice Media Group has announced a new creative structure for its global production business now dubbed Vice Studios Group, which will oversee five premium production entities: Pulse Films, UnTypical, Vice Studios LatAm, Vice Studios Canada and a news documentary unit. Vice Studios Group will be led by the newly elevated Jamie Hall in London and Danny Gabai in Los Angeles as Co-Presidents. 

Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) and Bowen Yang (SNL) have been tapped to star in a reimagining of Ang Lee’s classic romance The Wedding Banquet from filmmaker Andrew Ahn (Fire Island), Deadline can confirm.

The 2024 Video Music Awards, the trophy show’s 40th anniversary, will air live from New York’s UBS Arena on Tuesday, September 10, MTV announced today. The VMAs will across MTV’s linear and digital platforms in more than 150 countries and territories, reaching a reported 319 million households.

The Roundup: Punishment, the fourth film in the blockbuster Korean franchise, has set a new all-time opening day presales record in its home market. Releasing there today, the crime actioner that stars and is executive produced by Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee), had amassed over 834,000 ticket reservations as of Wednesday morning local time, accounting for 95.5% of all sales, according to local reports. 

Brooke Shields is running for president of the Actors’ Equity Association after Kate Shindle announced she would step down after a nine-year tenure.

An Emmerdale character has been given the boot for gross misconduct on the ITV soap. In a dramatic turn of events, Victoria Sugden found herself jobless after a mishap in the kitchen.

Martin Scorsese is reportedly eyeing Andrew Garfield and Miles Teller to star in his new film about Jesus Christ.According to Variety, the director is looking to bypass the studio system and independently finance the film, titled A Life Of Jesus. He took the same approach with his 2016 drama Silence, in which Garfield also starred.The report adds that Garfield is being eyed for the titular role or to play one of the disciples, while Teller has also been linked to the project.

EXCLUSIVE: Film Independent has named Omer Ben Shachar, Mary Dauterman, MG Evangelista, Naomi Iwamoto, Thomas Kivney, Juan Paulo Laserna and Jhanvi Motla as the screenwriters selected for the 26th edition of its Screenwriting Lab, an intensive program designed to provide individualized story and career development for screenwriters with fiction feature scripts.Over the course of the program, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Jessica Sharzer, Jeff Stockwell and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Bridget Savage Cole, Lauren Craniotes, Ellie Foumbi, Priyanka Kapoor, Danielle Krudy, Amanda Marshall, Josh Peters, Jon Schumacher, Ellen Shanman, Lauren Shelton and Caddy Vanasirikul.

The Cult have announced details of a UK tour, which will celebrate their 40th year as a band. Find upcoming dates and ticket details below.Announced today (April 16), the shows are set for later this year and will see the iconic ‘80s rock group perform in 10 cities across the country.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Crime drama “The Goldfinger” was the numerical winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards, where it won six prizes on Sunday. But it missed out on the best film prize, which went to box office record breaker “A Guilty Conscience.” “The Goldfinger,” a retro financial thriller starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau Tak-wah, earned a slew of technical award (cinematography, art direction, costume and make up, sound design and visual effects) as well as the lead actor prize for Leung. Two films took three prizes each: “In Broad Daylight,” an investigation into abuse at a care home, and “Mad Fate,” Soi Cheang’s grungy examination of superstition in the city.

Legal drama A Guilty Conscience took the top award for best film at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, while crime thriller The Goldfinger was the biggest winner overall with six prizes, including best actor for Tony Leung Chiu-wai. 

The 2024 Olivier Awards take place this evening at the Royal Albert Hall in London with an array of screen names set to be celebrated for performances given on the London stage.

Lise Pedersen Berlinale Forum entry “Shahid,” the debut feature of Iranian-German filmmaker Narges Kalhor, has been picked up by Prague-based doc specialist Filmotor ahead of its premiere at Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel, where it is competing in the more experimental Burning Lights section. Described by Kalhor as a collective work between herself and other artists, including a costume artist and a painter from Iran, a German music composer and a choreographer from Berlin, “Shahid” shifts playfully between genres, challenging conventional filmmaking rules.

First Dates Hotel guest Rachael Leader has revisited the the circumstances surrounding her daughter final moments, as an inquest into her heartbreaking death took place this week. Two year old Oria was tragically killed last year, when her father, Ashley Henry, drove into a lorry as part of a suspected murder-suicide in Anwick, Lincolnshire.

The daughter of a woman who appeared on Channel 4's First Dates Hotel was 'already dead' when her father drove into a lorry in a suspected murder-suicide, an inquest has heard.Two year old Oria passed away last year, when she was killed by her father Ashley Henry in a suspected murder-suicide.The tragic death of Oria occurred in Anwick, Lincolnshire, and was first thought to have been an accidental collision, until police launched a murder investigation two days later. Police initially treated the tragedy, which took place on Father's Day last year, as a straightforward collision but later launched a murder investigation after 'careful consideration'.