Iranian Debut Director Aliyar Rasti on Faith, Magic and Miracles in Berlinale Encounters Premiere ‘The Great Yawn of History’

Sandra Hüller (a Best Actress nominee) and Christian Friedel, stars of Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest — nominated for Best Picture, Best International Picture, Director, Sound, and Adapted Screenplay — are familiar with Shakespeare’s famous verse from Hamlet: ”All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players …” That’s because both thespians have been playing the Danish prince on stages around Germany for years.

EXCLUSIVE: Strand Entertainment, the newly launched management/production company of industry veterans Jeff Golenberg and Jason Shapiro, has signed actress Robin Tunney.

Lisa Vanderpump is launching a brand new reality show on Hulu – Vanderpump Villa!

Savina Petkova Women dancing, women singing, women burning their hijab: these acts of defiance shape Iranian filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi’s feature-length debut, “My Stolen Planet.” After premiering in Berlinale’s Panorama section and winning a second place Audience Award, the film now competes for the Golden Alexander at Thessaloniki International Doc Fest. Prior to her feature, Sharifi made eight shorts while working as an editor for documentaries, including Firouzeh Khosrovani’s IDFA winning “Radiograph of a Family.” Using the essayistic style of a diary, “My Stolen Planet” presents the joy and vivaciousness in contrast with the regimented oppression in Tehran using both the director’s personal archives and 8mm recordings of strangers’ lives.

Prior to making headlines the next day after a short-lived health scare that required a brief stay in hospital, Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins arrived at Dublin’s Complex arts center last Wednesday to present the Dublin film festival’s highest honor to Steve McQueen. Introduced in 2007 and named the Volta Award, after the first commercial cinema set up in Dublin in 1909 by writer James Joyce, its previous recipients include Daniel Day Lewis, Claudia Cardinale and Al Pacino. The famously serious director was in high spirits, enthusing that “festivals are about passion, a passion for film.” “There’s always a buzz, isn’t there?” he continued. “[As you] go to the next picture, the next film, you tend to give people tips and say, ‘Oh, you’ve got to see this, you’ve got to see that…’”

Following the accession of King Charles in September 2022, a number of changes that come with a new reign were automatically enacted - including one which affected Queen Camilla and Princess Beatrice. This move saw the pair both added to the list of Counsellors of State - meaning they can step in for the King if he is abroad, ill or becomes otherwise incapacitated and hold the powers of the sovereign in an emergency.

Married At First Sight Australia has made a welcome return to TV screens, with a new set of singletons hoping to meet their perfect match at the end of the aisle.The Australian edition landed on screens in the UK on Monday, 26 February on E4 - delighting MAFS fans. In the first episode, we saw Cassandra and Tristan get hitched as well as Sara and Tim. However, it was Sara and Tim who had viewers talking, as things between them quickly took a downwards turn.

Academy Awards are right around the corner. The event will be hosted on March 10th, with the first round of presenters being announced. The line up has a mixture of actors that include Zendaya and Lupita Nyong’o.

The latest series of Married At First Sight Australia has landed on TV screens, with viewers becoming hooked on the reality show once again.The Australian edition will also kick off in the UK on Monday, 26 February on E4 - delighting even more MAFS fans. The new series sees experts Alessandra Rampolla, Mel Schilling and John Aiken attempt to help a set of singletons find their perfect match at the altar. One couple that have proven to be a hit with fans is Cassandra and Tristan.

Six bank branches around Greater Manchester are set to close this year with some being the last branches available in their respective areas. Around 250 banks are set to close, or have already shut, as financial services continue to be stripped away from UK high streets.

A new weather map has shown exactly when and where it could snow in the UK this week with temperatures plummeting as we head into March. The mercury will drop to -3C in Scotland this weekend, while England and Wales will struggle to stay two or three degrees above freezing, according to WX Charts.

Siddhant Adlakha Aliyar Rasti’s excellent Iranian feature debut, “The Great Yawn of History,” wrestles with faith and disillusionment during a woebegone treasure hunt. Pious, middle-aged Beitollah (Mohammad Aghebati) believes his recurring dreams of finding gold coins at the end of a dark cave.

Palme d’Ors don’t grow on trees, so it’s small wonder that the world has fallen for Justine Triet’sAnatomy of a Fall, and the outstanding lead performance of Sandra Hüller, since it won the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize. Hüller’s turn dominates the ‘sort of’ courtroom drama of the film, in which her German novelist — also called Sandra — is accused of pushing her French husband Samuel (Samuel Theis), also a writer, from the top floor of their alpine home. Sandra maintains he fell, or jumped, and the film spends much of its runtime chewing over the truth, though never revealing it.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Scarlett Johansson is assembling the cast of her directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great.” June Squibb, the Oscar-nominated actor of “Nebraska” will be joined by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Broadway veteran Jessica Hecht and Erin Kellyman. The movie, formerly titled “Eleanor, Invisible,” follows Eleanor Morgenstein (Squibb), a 90-year-old woman trying to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

Amanda Kloots and Elvis are soap stars!

They finished fifth on the Love Island All Stars final on Monday evening and now Anton Danyluk and Georgia Harrison are bidding fairwell to South Africa and heading back to the UK.

Christopher Vourlias Following on the heels of his Oscar-shortlisted “Refugee,” veteran U.S. producer Brandt Andersen (“Everest,” “Lone Survivor”) makes his feature directorial debut with “The Strangers’ Case,” a kaleidoscopic and deeply felt portrait of the refugee crisis that world premieres Feb. 23 as a Berlinale Special Gala.

Christopher Vourlias Greek filmmaker Yorgos Zois, who’s set to bow his sophomore feature, “Arcadia,” in the competitive Encounters strand of the Berlin Film Festival Feb. 18, is developing his first TV series. “Play” follows a lone cinephile who joins a mysterious group of strangers that reenact scenes from movies in real life.

“Bobi has inspired our generation and the nation at large,” Bobi Wine: The People’s President co-director Moses Bwayo said of the famed Uganda performer now politician seeking to preserve his country’s waning democracy.

Five international-themed films are competing for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards this year, stories set in Uganda, Chile, Tunisia, Ukraine, and India. To Kill a Tiger, which has brought director Nisha Pahuja the first Oscar nomination of her career, centers on a poor couple in the Indian state Jharkhand who bravely fought for justice after their teenage daughter became the victim of a brutal sexual assault.