9 d. ago Claudia Cardinale, glamorous star of The Leopard and Once Upon a Time in the West, dies aged 87

Tunisian-born actor worked with the great Italian auteurs of the era, including Visconti, Fellini and Sergio LeoneClaudia Cardinale, a glamorous symbol of post-war Italian cinema who enjoyed a long and varied acting career on film and in the theatre, has died at age 87, according to AFP and other French media.Raised in Tunisia to a family of Sicilian origin, Cardinale’s introduction to the movie world came in 1957 after she won a beauty contest in Tunis and was rewarded with a trip to the Venice film festival. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago ‘It’s silent but does the heavy lifting’: the soft power of the white shirt

The white shirt speaks of formality without trying too hard and is making a comeback on the catwalk and on screenVictoria Beckham has positioned herself as a pop star, mother, perfumier, TikToker and fashion designer. But whatever job next month’s Netflix documentary focuses on – details are scant, but it’s thought the early October series will end at her Paris catwalk show – she will always be scrutinised over how she looks. How to temper that? Wear a plain white shirt.The documentary poster released this week shows Beckham wearing a diamond tennis bracelet, open-collar white shirt – and nothing else. Last week, the Princess of Wales appeared in public at the Natural History Museum, also in a plain white shirt. Earlier this month, the Duchess of Sussex launched her Netflix series in a white shirt (one of seven in fact), and when Taylor Swift recently announced her new album she did so wearing a white shirt. Laura Dern wore hers twice at the Venice film festival, and the woman with ...

Events

3 w. ago Journalist responds after Ayo Edebiri excluded from Me Too and Black Lives Matter question

The exchange at the Venice Film Festival made headlines after going viral

Politics

3 w. ago The Voice of Hind Rajab should have won Venice’s top prize. But the result wasn’t a cop

Many felt Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza docufiction was robbed when Jim Jarmusch’s latest took the top prize. Yet accusations of moral cowardice on the part of the jury are naive and unfairThere are standing ovations and there are jury decisions.Jim Jarmusch’s droll, quirky, very charming film Father Mother Sister Brother got a mere six minutes for its standing ovation at Venice – though one day we’re going to have to introduce some Olympic-style standardisation to these timings. But it got the top prize, the Golden Lion, from Alexander Payne’s jury. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The Voice of Hind Rajab was better than the film which won Venice. But that result wasn’t a cop

Many felt Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza docufiction was robbed when Jim Jarmusch’s latest took the top prize. Yet accusations of moral cowardice on the part of the jury are naive and unfairThere are standing ovations and there are jury decisions.Jim Jarmusch’s droll, quirky, very charming film Father Mother Sister Brother got a mere six minutes for its standing ovation at Venice – though one day we’re going to have to introduce some Olympic-style standardisation to these timings. But it got the top prize, the Golden Lion, from Alexander Payne’s jury. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The 2025 Venice Film Festival is over. Here's everything you need to know

The 82nd Venice Film Festival has wrapped up, but the buzz continues

Culture

3 w. ago Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, starring Cate Blanchett, surprise winner of Venice Golden Lion

The Voice of Hind Rajab, a harrowing account of a Palestinian child’s death in Gaza, won the runner-up Silver LionUS indie director Jim Jarmusch unexpectedly won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice film festival on Saturday with Father Mother Sister Brother, a three-part meditation on the uneasy tie between parents and their adult children.Although his gentle comedy received largely positive reviews, it had not been a favourite for the top prize, with many critics instead tipping the Voice of Hind Rajab, a harrowing true-life account of the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl during the Gaza war. In the end, the film directed by Tunisia’s Kaouther Ben Hania took the runner-up Silver Lion. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Venice Film Festival, by the numbers: From standing ovations to Campari spritzes

From a record-breaking standing ovation to the ever-present Campari spritzes to even on-screen subtitles, the 2025 Venice Film Festival was a bounty of interesting numbers

Culture

3 w. ago Photos from Venice Film Festival awards ceremony where Jim Jarmusch wins top honor

The 2025 Venice Film Festival wrapped up with Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother” taking the top prize, edging out higher-profile contenders. The film, starring Adam Driver, Vicky Krieps and Cate Blanchett, is a quietly humorous look at family relationships.

Culture

3 w. ago Alessandra Ambrosio, 44, sizzles in a sweeping embellished gown as she attends the Venice Film Festival closing ceremony

The model, 44, stunned in a sweeping gold gown embellished with silver detailing.

Culture

3 w. ago Emma Watson is the queen of class in Gucci mini dress as she steps out for the last day of Venice Film Festival

The Harry Potter legend, 35, made a stylish appearance in the Italian city as she put on a very leggy display in the beige sleeveless number, featuring chic leather pockets.

Culture

3 w. ago Move over fashion week: Chanel and Dior soft launch creations at Venice film festival

Big brands use red carpets and gondolas in Italian city to show looks from newly installed designersAfter a year of musical chairs in the fashion industry, September is poised to be one of its biggest show months ever, with debut collections from 15 creative directors.Rather than waiting for the catwalk, over the past 10 days brands including Chanel and Dior have given themselves a head start at the Venice film festival, using its starry red carpets and even gondolas to soft launch looks from their newly installed designers. Continue reading...

Culture

3 w. ago Venice Film Festival draws to a close and will announce its awards, which can give an Oscars boost

The 82nd Venice Film Festival is wrapping up as juries decide on the awards Saturday

Events

3 w. ago ‘Humanity is facing a reckoning’: Venice shrugs off the glamour to take aim at politics

Stars waved as usual from the city’s water taxis, but there was a repeated focus on films that help audiences interpret a chaotic worldFor most of its 82 years, Venice has been perceived as the world’s most glamorous film festival. This year was no exception: stars including Julia Roberts, Cate Blanchett, Jude Law and George Clooney dutifully waved from canals and trooped down red carpets (although Law tripped while on a water taxi and Clooney got ill).But the films themselves struck a different note. Jury president Alexander Payne may have rebutted questions about current affairs during his opening press conference, declaring himself concerned only with discussing cinema, but cinema at Venice this year was concerned largely, it turned out, with discussing current events. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Meet your descendants – and your future self! A trip to Venice film festival’s extended reality island

A flourishing lineup of immersive storytelling experiments are taking visitors into novels, nightclubs and outer spaceIn the largest cinema at the Venice film festival, guests gather for the premiere of Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro’s lavish account of a man who dared to play God and created a monster. When the young scientist reanimates a dead body for his colleagues, some see it as a trick while others are outraged. “It’s an abomination, an obscenity,” shouts one hide-bound old timer, and his alarm is partly justified. Every technological breakthrough opens Pandora’s box. You don’t know what’s going to crawl out or where it will then choose to go.Behind the main festival venue sits the small ruined island of Lazzaretto Vecchio. Since 2017, it’s been home to Venice Immersive, the event’s groundbreaking section dedicated to showcasing and supporting XR (extended reality) storytelling. Before that it was a storage facility, before that a plague quarantine zone. Eliza McNitt, this ...

Culture

4 w. ago Lingerie model tennis star makes shock return home after 'fleeing for alleged tax evasion'

Camila Giorgi was a surprise guest at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival over the weekend, just months after the former tennis star was accused of tax evasion

Events

4 w. ago The Voice of Hind Rajab review – docufiction is fierce, vehement and heart

In an audacious move, director Kaouther Ben Hania reconstructs the killing of the five-year-old in Gaza using her real voice as she is bombarded by the Israeli armyThere can be no doubt about which movie has set the Venice film festival ablaze – it is this one, from Tunisian film-maker Kaouther Ben Hania. The Voice of Hind Rajab is about the horrifying ordeal of the five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed in 2024 by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza in her uncle’s car along with six family members, and two paramedics who tried to come to her rescue. Rajab herself, who survived the original assault by the IDF which killed those around her, stayed on the phone for hours to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), desperately begging for help. With startling audacity, Ben Hania has used the real audio recording of Rajab’s heart-wrenching voice, while fictionally reconstructing the drama of the emergency responders in their call-centre office, with real people ...

Politics

4 w. ago Kim Novak's emotional return to the spotlight at Venice Film Festival

Kim Novak has made an emotional return to the spotlight at 92

Culture

4 w. ago A House of Dynamite review: The most exciting movie at Venice Film Festival could lead to Kathryn Bigelow's second Best Director Oscar, writes BRIAN VINER

How might the United States respond in the event of a nuclear attack, with less than 20 minutes before an incoming missile lands on Chicago? 

Culture

4 w. ago Jason Momoa disguises his 'ugly' feet with bright pink nail polish at In the Hand of Dante premiere

The US actor, 46, wore a light pink suit on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday

Politics