Saudi Arabia’s Ithra Film Production Launches Film Fund Open to International Directors Who Engage With Local Industry

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Taormina Film Festival, one of Italy’s oldest movie celebrations, has undergone many makeovers through the years. Held since the mid-1950s in the Sicilian resort that recently got a promotional boost as the location of “The White Lotus” Season Two, this storied summer fest boasts an 8,000-seat open-air ancient Greek amphitheater in the shadow of Sicily’s active Mt. Etna volcano. In 2000, Tom Cruise stood on stage, greeted by hundreds of lit candles and a standing ovation to celebrate his 38th birthday while he was promoting “Mission: Impossible 2.” Ups and downs followed, as several chiefs took the Taormina reins over the the ensuing decades, until more recently the event fell off the international radar.

Pageboy, actor Elliot Page has opened up about their past romance with Kate Mara.Page revealed the relationship happened “right after” they came out as gay in 2014. In 2020, Page later came out as a trans man.In an extract from the book shared with People, Page said: “The first person I fell for after my heart was broken was Kate Mara.”“She had a boyfriend at the time, the lovely and talented Max Minghella.

AO is to create over 250 jobs at its Bolton headquarters and revealed successful applicants could receive a 20% pay rise within a year.

Jennifer Lopez's movie Unstoppable stopped on Friday due to the ongoing writers strike. Production on the wrestling drama flick — which stars the 53-year-old Maid In Manhattan actress — paused amid picketing by the Writers Guild of America, according to Deadline.   It is unknown when the biopic — from her husband Ben Affleck's indie production company with Matt Damon, Artists Equity — will resume filming but is expected to pick back up at the end of the strike at the very latest, the publication reported.

Thania Garcia Taylor Swift shared the first round of international tour stops for her “Eras Tour,” on Friday morning. Swift will play three dates in Mexico’s Foro Sol stadium starting Aug. 24 and will also run through Argentina and Brazil, with a closing show on Nov. 26 in São Paulo, Brazil at Allianz Parque. The Latin American dates will see support for pop singer Sabrina Carpenter. “Really thrilled to tell you this!! Mexico, Argentina and Brazil: We are bringing the Eras Tour to you this year! Sweet angel princess [Sabrina Carpenter] will be joining us on all of the shows,” Swift tweeted, adding that “Lots more international dates to come soon, promise!”

Taylor Swift has announced the first round of international dates for The Eras Tour!

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel went to town on CAA, said his company almost invested $1 billion in the new LIV Golf tour, and projected that COO Mark Shapiro will take over the company whenever Emanuel calls it quits.

ITV tonight launch an external inquiry into Phillip Schofield's relationship with a much younger colleague in an attempt to save embattled This Morning. In a humiliating climbdown, the channel told its employees, following a crisis staff meeting, that it has begun a review, which will be led by a barrister as the pressure mounts for the bosses to tell what they knew and when about the affair.

Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos have much to celebrate. After dating for five years, the couple has shared the news of their engagement. According to a new report, their celebration took place in an exclusive restaurant in Cannes, France, where they cheered with a bottle of a $4,000 wine.

La Petit Maison in Cannes, France, a source told People Magazine.According to the magazine, the happy couple sat with Bezo’s sister Christina Bezos Poore and her husband Steve Poore in a vine-covered gazebo overlooking the Mediterranean. A source said they were in good spirits but “didn’t want to make a fuss” with an insider adding that the Amazon founder is usually a low-key customer at the exclusive restaurant, which regularly features a late night cover band.Last week, The Post broke the news that Bezos popped the question to his lady love of five years. At the time, they were in southern France for the Cannes Film Festival, but TMZ reported that he asked for her hand in marriage somewhere near Mallorca or Ibiza, Spain.

Edward James Olmos is opening up about his battle with throat cancer.

Charna Flam Early into Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ Bollywood career, the Indian-born actress paid back a film production after she backed out of filming within days, due to the “dehumanizing” director on site. In a recent interview with The Zoe Report, the actress explained how nearly two decades ago, as an actress new to the industry, she took money out of her own pocket to remove herself from a set with a degrading crew. Chopra Jonas recalled in the interview that she portrayed a character who was going undercover, and how the unnamed director spoke about her and her appearance to the other crew members.

Rozonda «Chilli» Thomas appears on Friday's episode of , and in ET's exclusive clip of her visit, the TLC artist opens up about finding love with her boyfriend, Matthew Lawrence, after searching for romance on her VH1 reality series, .«On my show, I always hoped that women would see the importance of having high standards. And I got a lot of flack for that, but I don't care,» the 52-year-old tells Hall about the 2010 series that chronicled her quest to find love with the help of Tionna T.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Girls Supports Girls, the French film sorority launched by producer Vanessa Djian and publicist Karolyne Leibovici, made its debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with the backing of Orange, in association with Kering. A flurry of French female talent, notably “Simone” actress Elsa Zylberstein and “Houria” director Mounia Meddour, took part in the networking luncheon which was hosted on the rooftop terrasse of Kering’s Women in Motion event at the Majestic hotel. Djian, whose production banner Daïdaï Films recently became part of Newen Group, and Leibovici, the founder of A&K communication, launched Girls Supports Girls four years ago to connect and create opportunities for female producers, actresses, executives and diverse talent coming from the film, TV and media industries.

Pierre Creton, has won the SACD Prize, awarded by France’s Writers’ Guild for the best French-language movie in the section. Written by Mathilde Girard, Cyril Neyrat and Vincent Barré, and directed by Creton, who combines his film career with work as an agricultural labourer, “A Prince” has weighed in at this year’s Directors Fortnight as one of the most singular of titles, whose central narrative turns on a horticultural student, Pierre-Joseph. His mentors, botany teacher Alberto and plant nursery owner Adrien, soon become his lovers.

China’s film market is recovering, now the country’s cinemas and borders are open, and more films are being released, but producers and investors are playing it safe with a limited range of movies, said speakers at Bridging The Dragon’s annual Cannes Marche panel. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor In one scene in Mona Achache’s “Little Girl Blue,” which world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings section, the director is seen insisting that lead actor Marion Cotillard stays in character even on her tea break, to the extent that she must drink tea noisily as her character, Carole – based on the French filmmaker’s own mother – used to do. Does this suggest a manipulative relationship between director and actor? Cotillard disagrees. “I don’t see a director and an actor as being in relationships of manipulation. It’s more a collaboration,” she tells Variety. “It happened to me only once where I felt that I was being manipulated by a director, and I really didn’t like that.”

Eva Longoria has shifting her focus to behind the camera, utilizing the experience she’s gained directing episode television for her feature directorial debut with “Flamin’ Hot”.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Kirsten Niehuus, CEO at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, which funds films and TV series production in the Berlin region, and Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films, which promotes and supports the release of German films abroad, welcomed a wide array of guests to their garden party at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday. Three Medienboard-funded films are in this year’s Competition: Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters,” Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero,” and U.S. helmer Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City.” Niehuus told Variety: “Those are three very different productions, but it shows the spectrum [of films] that Medienboard supports.” Tunisian films, like “Four Daughters,” need international co-production funding to get made, she said, and “we believe in world cinema, so were very happy [to back it].” Hausner is “one of the most impressive female filmmakers [in the world], and I think there should be more female filmmakers on the Croisette and every other ‘A’ festival,” she said. “Asteroid City” is “the best of American arthouse filmmaking; very stylish, with a great narrative – so we love it,” she said.

Naman Ramachandran “Doctor Who” star Jodie Whittaker will lead a short film fund aimed at championing female and non-binary filmmakers. The Empower fund, a community-led initiative backed by Primetime, a global vetted platform to help the industry find and hire more women above and below the line behind the camera, and Bournemouth Film School, was launched at the Cannes film market. It aims to remove the barriers of access to finance and star power that restrict underrepresented filmmakers. The fund will focus on championing female and non-binary filmmakers and grant them access to a minimum of a £10,000 ($12,430) grant in addition to other perks. Whittaker will feature in or voice the final film, with the intention of increasing the visibility of the project and the filmmaker selected. The actor will also collaborate to create a prompt for filmmakers as a starting point for a character or story she would like to explore. There will be a focus on accessibility and reaching filmmakers who might not traditionally put themselves forward for grant funding. A brief will then be distributed and U.K.-based female and non-binary filmmakers will be encouraged to submit their short film project for consideration. Five projects will be shortlisted via an industry jury, and from that Whittaker will select the live action or animation film she would like to take part in or voice.