Viewers react to Switzerland’s Eurovision win: “Non binary folks rule the world”

Jack Dunn Melinda French Gates, American philanthropist and ex-wife of tech mogul Bill Gates, has pledged $1 billion through 2026 to advance the global power of women via her Pivotal Ventures Foundation. In the May 28 announcement made on the Pivotal Ventures website, French Gates broke down how the $1 billion would be donated. $200 million will go toward organizations in the U.S.

The Splendour of Life” (“Une splendeur de vivre”) is set to start principal photography at locations across Canada and the Philippines, the producers revealed at the Cannes Film Festival. The ensemble cast includes Camille Rutherford (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Garance Marillier (“Raw”), Sue Prado (“Your Mother’s Son”), Kyrie Samodio (“Hito”) and Amaryllis Tremblay (“Genesis”). Set against a lush countryside backdrop, Marie (Rutherford) questions her relationship, while Noée (Marillier) grieves her father.

Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino ascended the red carpet here this evening for his latest Cannes competition entry, Parthenope, which was welcomed by a nine-minute standing ovation.

EXCLUSIVE: Paolo Sorrentino‘s anticipated new movie Parthenope has sold around the world for Pathé here in Cannes where the film is playing in Competition.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off its buzzy world premiere at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, Oscar-nominated Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson’s poignant drama “When The Light Breaks” has sold to a raft of territories. Represented in international markets by The Party Film Sales, the movie has been picked up for Italy (Movies Inspired), Switzerland (Xenix), Norway (Arthaus), Denmark (Ost for Paradis), Finland (Cinemanse), Hungary (Vertigo), Greece (Cinobo), Israel (New Cinema), Poland (Aurora), Turkey (Bir Film) and Baltics (Estofilm).

EXCLUSIVE: One of the market’s biggest-budget projects, the Will Smith action-crime thriller Sugar Bandits, has sealed multi-million dollar deals across the world for AGC ahead of a planned September start date.

Gregg Goldstein Raoul Peck‘s life is as fascinating as his films, filled with unexpected twists and turns. From his early stints as a cab driver and journalist, to a minister of culture post in his native Haiti, to teaching, to founding his Velvet Film production shingle to his breakthrough when he earned an Oscar nomination as producer/director with the James Baldwin doc, “I Am Not Your Negro,” the common denominator is Peck’s drive to make life better through his work.

The first iteration of the Cannes Film Festival, planned for 1939, was scuppered when Germany invaded Poland to trigger the start of World War II. But when the festival finally got off the ground in 1946, Indian cinema came out swinging. Mounted shortly after the conclusion of the war, the first “real” Cannes Film Festival featured competition entries from Billy Wilder (The Lost Weekend), Roberto Rossellini (Open City), and David Lean (Brief Encounter). In the spirit of post-war peace and reconciliation, the competition jury, headed by French historian Georges Huisman, handed the top prize — then the Grand Prix — to films from 11 of the 18 countries represented that year.

Prime Video’s German series Maxton Hall – The World Between Us has been handed a swift recommission after becoming the streamer’s most-watched international show of all time in its first week.

Jack Dunn Paramount+ has unveiled a teaser for its seventh “South Park” streaming special, “South Park: The End of Obesity,” which premieres May 24 in the U.S. and Canada, and May 25 in Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In “The End of Obesity,” weight loss drugs take the quiet mountain town of South Park by storm.

Paramount+ announced on Wednesday that South Park: The End of Obesity, its latest South Park exclusive event, will premiere in the U.S. and Canada on Friday, May 24, debuting in the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria the following day.

Alex Ritman Paris-based sales house Charades has sold the Argentinian Western-inspired documentary “Gaucho Gaucho” across much of Europe. The film — which won a Sundance Jury Prize in January and recently played at CPH:DOX — has landed deals with Tandem (France), Filmin (Spain), Selmer Media (Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Denmark), M2 (Romania, Poland, Hungary. Ex-Yugoslavia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria), Praesens (Switzerland) and Bantam Films (Benelux).

Eurovision this year “until the last second”.This year’s song contest has seen multiple controversies arise in the build up to the finale, which aired last Saturday (May 11).On top of the shock disqualification of Dutch entry Joost Klein, Eurovision organisers the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) had faced significant criticism for the inclusion of Israel amidst the Israel-Palestine crisis.Additionally, there were reports of a “crisis meeting” between four countries and the EBU just hours before the finale was due to begin. These four countries were later revealed to be the United Kingdom, Portgual, Ireland, and the eventual winner of this year, Switzerland.Now, Norway’s entry Gåte have spoken to Norwegian media about their own threat to pull out.

Eurovision Song Contest 2024.This year’s competition, which was ultimately won by Switzerland’s Nemo, was surrounded by controversy for allowing Israel to compete amid the ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza.A statement shared by the EBU to both The Mirror and The Irish Times read: “We regret that some delegations at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö didn’t respect the spirit of the rules and the competition both onsite and during their broadcasts. We spoke to a number of delegations during the event regarding various issues that were brought to our attention.It continued: “The EBU’s governing bodies will, together with the heads of delegations, review the events surrounding the ESC in Malmö to move forward in a positive way and to ensure the values of the event are respected by everyone.A post shared by European Broadcasting Union (@ebu_hq)“Individual cases will be discussed by the event’s governing body, the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group made up of representatives from participating broadcasters, at its next meeting.”The statement’s release comes after the slew of controversies that took over this year’s edition of the song contest.

BBC's Eurovision viewership plummeted as a global boycott impacted figures for its broadcast of the Song Contest this year with a significant drop in viewers.The grand finale on Saturday night was snubbed by millions, following a widespread boycott, leading to the BBC witnessing a loss of nearly two million viewers from last year's numbers.The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is a Palestinian-led campaign advocating for various forms of protest against Israel, called for a boycott of this year's contest.This action came after the decision by the Eurovision Broadcasting Union to allow Israel to participate despite its conflict with Palestine, while Russia was excluded from the competition in 2022 due to its military actions in Ukraine.The boycott seems to have made a dent, with a noticeable dip in the viewership compared to previous years. On Sunday, TV critic and podcast host Scott Bryan tweeted: "Eurovision was watched by 7.6 million last night, down from 9.9 million - a 23% fall.

Eurovision winner Nemo hit out at the competition’s “double standard”, branding its organisers as “unbelievable”, moments after their victory.The Switzerland entrant won the contest last night (May 11) in Malmö, Sweden with their song ‘The Code’, after topping the jury vote and coming in fifth in the public vote.Nemo’s victory is the first for the country since Celine Dion picked up the win in 1988 with ‘Ne partez pas sans moi’. They are also the first ever non-binary winner in the competition’s history.During their appearance at the post-show press conference, Nemo took the opportunity to criticise the way that the contest was run by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), making specific reference to their policy of not allowing non-binary flags into the arena.“I had to smuggle my flag in because Eurovision said no, but I did it anyway, so I hope some people did that too,” they said.

Bambie Thug has spoken out against the EBU during post-Eurovision interviews, claiming that they don’t fully represent “what Eurovision is”.The self-described ‘ouija-pop’ artist came sixth in the annual contest, which was won by Switzerland representative Nemo. At the end of their performance, they proclaimed “Love will triumph over hate!”The Cork singer has also faced significant challenges throughout the competition due to their pro-Palestinian stance. It was revealed they were forced to remove the words ‘ceasefire’ and ‘freedom for Palestine’ in a medieval script from their costume due to Eurovision’s political neutrality clause.

The Eurovision Song Contest was certainly dramatic with calls for the competition to be boycotted and one act disqualified the day of the Grand Final. But despite the drama, the Contest went ahead on Saturday night in Malmo and reigning champion Loreen handed over the trophy to a new winner. Let's take a look at the final result.

Switzerland’s Nemo has won the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest!

K.J. Yossman Switzerland has won the Eurovision Song Contest. Swiss entry Nemo stormed the contest with the song “The Code,” walking away with 591 points — a combination of a jury vote and public vote.