12 h. ago Berlin film festival 2025 roundup – a new boss, a flawless fairytale and Ethan Hawke’s finest hour

At a snowy Berlinale, against a backdrop of political divisions, this year’s standouts include Lucile Hadžihalilović’s The Ice Tower, Richard Linklater’s Broadway biopic of Lorenz Hart, and intensely sexual romance starring Jessica ChastainBerlin can be a touch inhospitable in February; this year was no exception, with visitors to the film festival enduring heavy snow, treacherous pavements and a two-day, city-wide transport strike. But the Berlinale itself is contending with a frosty climate. Traditionally a hub for film-makers of forthright, oppositional persuasions, it must now attempt to flourish in the face of Europe’s swing to the right, with Germany’s elections imminent and the troubling rise of the extremist AfD party.Every new festival head faces the challenge of reinventing the event they have inherited, and in the Berlinale’s 75th year, the bar was set especially high given the scrutiny the festival has received. Last year’s closing night brought controversy, with some Ge...

Society

28 h. ago Queen Letizia of Spain oozes glamour in a maroon Massimo Dutti dress as she attends Tudela Film Festival

The royal, 52, looked in high spirits as she arrived in at the Tudela Film Festival where many crowds were waiting to catch a glimpse of the Queen.

Culture

52 h. ago Grand National 2025: Date, start time, prize money and when are entries announced?

Last year’s winner, I Am Maximus, is a strong contender to triumph at Aintree for Gordon Elliott

Politics

56 h. ago BFI Future Film Festival 2025: Jury, nominees, and £15,000 in prizes announced for UK’s top filmmakers event

With Sony gear, exclusive mentorship, and global streaming, the festival has become the premier platform for young talent

Economics

3 d. ago Drømmer (Dreams) review – teen’s high romantic hopes throw adults into disarray

When Johanne, at 17, writes a memoir about her passion for teacher Johanna, the precocious result rattles three generationsHere is the third in a playful trilogy from Norwegian novelist and film-maker Dag Johan Haugerud (after Sex and Love, which appeared last year at Berlin and Venice respectively). This one is a sly, garrulous, mischievous piece with something of Lukas Moodysson’s early film Show Me Love; it saunters lightly and entertainingly along, breaking all the screenplay-seminar rules against voiceovers (of which it has lengthy stretches but it never feels oppressive). I can imagine two different sorts of US English-language remake: one which ramps up the wry indie comedy, and another which transfers the emphasis to a dead-serious generational family drama. Neither would have this insouciant flavour.The setting is Oslo and Ella Øverbye plays Johanne, a 17-year-old at high school who is dissatisfied with her life; she lives with single mum Kristin (Ane Dahl Torp) and is also...

Politics

3 d. ago Glasgow Short Film Festival: 'First' animated opera leads 'unleashed' programme

Scottish Opera has created a 14-minute animated film which will be screened at the Glasgow Short Film Festival

Culture

3 d. ago Finalists announced for Lukas book prizes, which champion 'serious research and social concern.'

Books on slavery, the justice system, poverty and gender identity are among this year’s finalists for J

Sport

3 d. ago NS&I announces changes to Premium Bond prizes from April 2025 draw

The prize fund rate - which is the closest thing Premium Bonds has to an interest rate - is being reduced from 4.00% to 3.80% from the April 2025 draw

Politics

4 d. ago ‘The most important thing was getting to the truth’: how Claude Lanzmann broke all the rules to create Shoah

French director Guillaume Ribot’s new film shines a light on the making of Lanzmann’s nine-hour Holocaust opus – a tale of obsession, deception and dangerForty years after its release, Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah (1985) is regarded not just as one of the greatest documentaries ever made, but a film that had to be made in order to shake the world into engaging with its still recent trauma. A new documentary, however, shows how the French director’s seminal “fiction of the real” was almost never completed.In preparation for All I Had Was Nothingness, which premiered this week at the Berlin film festival, French director Guillaume Ribot revisited the entire 220 hours of raw footage that Lanzmann filmed between 1976-81, before he then edited it down into the nine-and-a-half hour film released in cinemas. The outtakes reveal unseen insecurities and self-doubt on behalf of an auteur famed for his subsequent grandeur, all while coupled with an earth-shattering persistence and determination. It...

Politics

4 d. ago 39th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival full programme announced

39th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival full programme announced  British Film Institute

Culture

4 d. ago Robbie Williams' daughter, 12, seen filming with Rebel Wilson as she lands first movie role

Robbie Williams' daughter Teddy is proving to follow in her parents' footsteps as the 12-year-old has been spotted filming festive scenes with Rebel Wilson for their upcoming film

Politics

4 d. ago The Birthday review – cult Corey Feldman movie arrives after 20 years in film wilderness

Given a boost by Jordan Peele, this hyped ‘lost’ movie from Eugenio Mira about freaky goings-on at a hotel finally gets a proper releaseThis amusingly overwrought mystery-horror-thriller is both a new release and a reissue all at once. Originally made in 2004, and shown at a few genre-specific film festivals, it never secured distribution. Still, it found a way to get seen on alternative platforms like YouTube and homemade DVDs. Frustrated with the lack of appreciation for his work, director Eugenio Mira started sending copies of the film to directors he admired like Quentin Tarantino and Guillermo del Toro among others, exactly the right kind of guys who like to champion neglected cult classics. Meanwhile, lead actor Corey Feldman (once a child star in the likes of Stand By Me and The Goonies back in the 1980s) was conducting his own under-the-radar campaign on the film’s behalf. After it ended up getting shown via a scratchy master print at a screening hosted by director Jordan Pe...

Culture

4 d. ago Shocking moment Mark Hamill's trousers fall down while he's presenting an award at the BAFTAs

The 73-year-old Star Wars actor was left scrambling after his suit trousers suddenly dropped to his knees while he was presenting the Best Film gong at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Events

5 d. ago Ariana Grande puts on a showstopping display in a blush pink and black gown as she joins stunning Selena Gomez, Demi Moore and Camila Cabello on the red carpet for the 2025 BAFTAs

Gwendoline Christie was among the glamorous early arrivals as the 2025 EE British Academy Film Awards red carpet kicked off at London's Royal Festival Hall on Sunday.

Politics

5 d. ago BAFTAS 2025 – The Brutalist and Conclave win huge awards while Molly

Adrien Brody and Mikey Madison were among the big winners at the BAFTA film awards, which was presented by David Tennant and celebrates the biggest and brightest in film at London's Royal Festival Hall

Events

5 d. ago Jacob Elordi doesn't look like this anymore! Actor stuns fans as he reveals shock new look at the 75th Berlinale International Film Festival

He is best known for his roles in The Kissing Booth and Euphoria.

Culture