The man, identified as Beran A, was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison. He has been in custody since his arrest in August 2024.

An episode of the series, which first aired in December 2025, showed his parents’ home in a town an hour’s drive from Vienna for a matter of seconds but did not name him.

“He doesn’t live there. He hasn’t lived there for two years,” Judge Nicole Baczak ruled, adding that there was no prospect of him living there again in the near future.

Baczak added that the fact his name had been widely reported in the news media did not matter, and home addresses in general do not deserve the highest level of legal protection.

Beran A did not attend the one-hour trial. His lawyer Ulrike Zeller said he would appeal.

Taylor Swift lands top trophy at MTV’s Video Music Awards

The show is available to stream in Europe on Disney+, but the segment showing the address was removed in May.

A lawyer for Disney, Georg Kresbach, told the court Beran A’s parents had each been paid €3,000 ($3,400) in compensation for their home being shown in the series in a separate settlement.

He was found guilty in May of various, mainly terrorism-related offences, including trying but failing to illegally buy weapons including a machinegun and hand grenade, and following instructions in an Islamic State video entitled “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom” to produce a small amount of the explosive triacetone triperoxide.

The Sony-distributed movie is directed by Zach Cregger and stars Austin Abrams, who plays a medical courier battling mutant creatures to deliver a package to a remote hospital.

“Resident Evil” displaced last week’s top performer, Warner Bros’ “Practical Magic 2,” a long-awaited sequel starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, into a distant second place.

The story of the modern-day witches, who face a curse that sees any man they fall in love with doomed to an early death, took $12.2 million after last weekend knocking Sony’s “Spider-Man” from its weeks-long perch at the top.

Spidey took another $6.5 million this weekend, bringing its total take in the United States and Canada to $944.5 million. It was followed by another of 2026’s strongest performers, “The Odyssey,” which took $4.9 million.

For the second consecutive weekend, “Coyote vs Acme” took fifth place, with Will Forte and an animated Wile E. Coyote snaring another $4.5 million for Falling Forward Films.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“The Runner” ($3.2 million)

“Daniel and the Fiery Furnace” ($3.1 million)

“Transformers: The Movie” ($3.1 million)

“The Weight” ($2.3 million)

“Buddy” ($1.9 million)

The 40-year-old “Bad Romance” singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, began dating Polansky in 2020, and became engaged to the entrepreneur in 2024.

A source confirmed news of the child’s birth to Page Six and People, but no additional details about the baby, including its name, sex or date of birth, were immediately available.

The musician affectionately referred to as “Mother Monster” by her fans has spoken in recent years about her desire to have a child.

Lady Gaga-mania as ‘Joker’ sequel brings pop star to Venice

She wrapped up her most recent world tour, the Mayhem Ball, in April, and her latest album “Mayhem” garnered multiple Grammy nominations, winning the award for “Best Pop Vocal Album” earlier this year.

“NAZA”, which features Israeli whistleblowers analysing the mass killing of civilians in Gaza, earned a record 25-minute standing ovation at its premiere on Thursday and is the highest-scored film by international critics, according to film magazine Screen.

But it faces competition from other well-received movies, including poignant relationship study “Possible Love” by South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong, and dark comedy “Wild Horse Nine” by British-Irish director Martin McDonagh. 

The latter features Malkovich playing a jaded CIA agent taking a break with a colleague on Easter Island in Chile ahead of the 1973 American-backed military coup there in a performance that has seen him tipped by some critics for Oscar glory.

As a director of one of the few films that had audiences laughing in Venice, director McDonagh said his acid sense of humour was his way of coping with the state of the world.

Venice Film Festival turns to politics as Hollywood retreats

“The only way to deal with it is through humour and to try not to be ground down by it,” he told AFP.

Others tackled issues from war, corruption or economic inequality, with intensely personal stories about people faced with clear moral choices but who end up compromising themselves.

That was the case for the widely hailed “DAU” about Soviet nuclear scientist Lev Landau, Danny Boyle’s “Ink” about Britain’s The Sun tabloid newspaper, or “Primetime” starring Robert Pattinson as an ambitious paedophile-hunting TV presenter.

The only feature film directed by a woman in competition was the ironically titled “Woman Unknown” by Danish-Egyptian director May el-Toukhy –  and a victory on Saturday night would send a clear message about gender representation at the festival.

“I would have loved to have more female colleagues in competition,” the director told AFP after the premiere of the World War II drama about a bride-to-be hiding the shame of her past relationship with a Nazi.

Providing some more tender fare about the wonder of friendship was Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda who presented “Look Back”, an adaptation of a top-selling manga about two schoolgirls who dream of becoming manga artists.

Toronto International Film Festival targets younger audience with independent premieres

Jury decision

The Venice Golden Lion for best film is one of the industry’s most prestigious awards and serves as marketing gold dust for a film while also boosting its chances in Hollywood’s end-of-year awards season.

If chosen, Israeli-made “NAZA” by Oscar winners Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor would be a politically charged decision from the jury, which is headed this year by US actress-director Maggie Gyllenhaal. 

Based on testimony from 24 Israeli whistleblowers, all of them with digitally altered identities, “NAZA” provides detailed first-hand accounts of the AI-powered bombing of Gaza, where 73,500 have been killed since October 2023, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.

“It’s like a video game because everything is done remotely,” one interviewee said of using the targeting system which has been used to flatten most of the besieged enclave.

The Israeli military criticised the use of anonymous testimonies in the film, saying on Friday the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified”.

Venice premiere charts Russell Crowe’s lifelong love of music

The film’s hand-aching 25-minute ovation at the premiere is no guarantee of success – documentaries are a relatively new inclusion in the main competition of film festivals and rarely emerge as winners.

Last year, docudrama “The Voice of Hind Rajab” about the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl by Israeli troops in Gaza was given a then-record 23-minute ovation by shell-shocked festival-goers, but went home with second prize.

Amid rumours of resignation threats and rows on the jury, American director Alexander Payne and his team of fellow panellists opted instead for the uncontroversial “Father Mother Sister Brother” from Jim Jarmusch.

The closing ceremony starts in Venice from 7 pm (1700 GMT)

The “My Heart Will Go On” singer will perform her first full concert in six years, marking a major milestone in her comeback after Stiff Person Syndrome forced her to cancel shows and left her struggling to sing.

Around 30,000 fans are expected to pile into the Plenitude Arena outside Paris for the sold-out opening night of the 58-year-old Canadian’s 26-date run in the French capital.

Some made the pilgrimage a day early, heading to the venue on Friday evening to soak up the atmosphere ahead of the Quebec-born hitmaker’s return.

“She’s a legend, she’s iconic,” said Chloe Rydquist, who travelled from London with her wife, Katy.

“For her to have this comeback, we were like, we need to be there for the first night,” she added.

The couple paid around 1,500 pounds ($2000) for their tickets, but said seeing Dion back onstage was worth the price.

“It’s going to be very emotional for her and for everyone,” said Katy Rydquist.

They “didn’t know if she was ever going to come back, so if you can get there, you get there,” she added.

‘Massive karaoke session’

Over her four-decade career, Dion has sold around 260 million albums in English and French, with hits including “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” and “Because You Loved Me”.

She kicks off her 26-date residency with 16 sold-out shows in September and October, before returning for another 10 next May.

Fans who missed out on tickets have found other ways to catch a glimpse of their idol.

Dion has regularly stepped outside the Royal Monceau hotel in Paris’s 8th district to greet waiting fans, at times breaking into song and dance with them well into the early hours.

And the celebrations have spread far beyond her hotel, with Paris playing host to costume contests, giant karaoke parties and tribute cruises on the Seine.

On Friday, hundreds turned out for a free singalong in the city’s northeastern 19th district, swaying and warbling along to some of Dion’s best-known tunes ahead of her opening show.

“I really wanted to go to her concert, but I didn’t get a ticket, so I thought I might as well have a massive karaoke session, sing all her songs again and have a good time,” said Eva Ingelaere, 24.

‘Going to be ready’

Dion’s return caps a remarkable journey back to the stage after years of uncertainty over whether she would perform again.

In December 2022, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare and incurable autoimmune disorder that can cause severe muscle stiffness and agonising spasms.

Dion has described the condition as making her feel as though she is being strangled, with cramps so intense they have left her with broken ribs.

The illness forced her to cancel concerts, but Dion remained determined to perform again.

She gave fans a glimpse of what was to come at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, making a surprise appearance on the Eiffel Tower to sing Edith Piaf’s “Hymn to Love”.

Two years ago, she spelt out her ambitions for a full comeback.

“I’m going to come onstage because I’m ready. And my vocal cords will not scare me, because I’m going to be ready, and I’m going to hit those notes,” she told NBC at the time.

Now, her fans are about to see that promise fulfilled.

“What Love Builds” traces Crowe’s long relationship with music through performances, archive footage and personal musings, seeking to answer a question he says he is repeatedly asked — whether he prefers music or acting.

“As I think the film attempts to explain, the two things are just completely intertwined for me. There is no difference. Everything comes from the same creative source,” Crowe told reporters.

Toronto International Film Festival targets younger audience with independent premieres

Mismanaging Hollywood

Crowe said he first conceived the project 15 years ago and initially thought it would take a year to complete. Instead, he continued filming as new musical projects emerged, eventually accumulating what he says was an “excessive” 18 million feet (5.5 million metres) of footage.

The New Zealand-born actor won an Academy Award for “Gladiator” in 2001 and became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars through films including “A Beautiful Mind”, “Master and Commander” and “Cinderella Man”.

He is also the lead singer with his band Indoor Garden Party, whose music blends rock, blues, country and gospel influences.

Crowe said there had never been any master plan.

“I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I’ve mismanaged my relationship with Hollywood. But always to my benefit,” he said.

“I didn’t have a plan and I still don’t have a plan. I just do what becomes apparent to me and pursue the things that I feel connected to.”

Venice Film Festival turns to politics as Hollywood retreats

That approach still guided his choice of roles, he said.

“I can read 100 scripts, but I’m only going to do the one that, when I was reading it, I start to feel it on my skin,” he said. “If I get that feeling, I have to do it.”

Crowe, 62, said music had given him a particular understanding of audiences that he carried into his acting.

“Everything that I do as a film actor is informed because I know how to drive an audience live,” he said. “Even if they’re not in the room, I still carry an understanding of what the audience is.”

While the documentary looks back over decades of work, Crowe also struck a reflective note when discussing the future.

“I am starting to have those thoughts about how many summers I really may have,” he said.

Venice film shows Murdoch shaking up hidebound Britain

Although he listed several upcoming projects, including new film and television roles, Crowe said he increasingly wanted to spend time in Europe with his sons.

“My sons and I call it the Euro Dad project,” he said, adding that he expected to choose family more often over additional work commitments.

Despite this, Crowe announced that Indoor Garden Party would embark on a major tour of eastern Europe in 2027.

“What Love Builds” is running out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, which ends on Saturday.

The festival returns for its 51st edition on Thursday with close to 300 films, at a time when studio-backed big-budget movies have taken a backseat, as they did in Venice and Cannes this year.

“I think for us as a festival, we really are seeing a very significant demographic shift, and younger audiences coming back to cinema, and younger audiences really seeking content, cinema experiences also outside of just mainstream offerings,” Anita Lee, chief programming officer at TIFF, told Reuters.

Lee said TIFF wants to “meet the moment” with that in focus.

“I do think it also speaks to a younger audience that’s coming of age as a very global audience, much more familiar… with films and cinema from across the world,” she said.

Among the films premiering at the festival are “Rescue,” a documentary film by Sine Plambech exploring the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, and Afsaneh Salari’s “Tehran, Under the Skin,” which looks at Iran’s beauty industry even as a conflict with the U.S. and Israel lurks in the background.

Alex Gibney’s marathon documentary on the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, will mark its North American debut. Musk has Canadian citizenship.

Venice Film Festival turns to politics as Hollywood retreats

Lee is looking forward to the Canadian premiere of “Elsinore,” in which Andrew Scott portrays the late Scottish actor Ian Charleson’s struggle through AIDS.

The world premiere of director Peter Farrelly’s “I Play Rocky” — recreating the story of how Sylvester Stallone got the eponymous film produced — and the North American launch of South Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s drama “Possible Love” are also highly anticipated, she said.

The festival will lay the red carpet for stars such as Penelope Cruz, Seth Rogen, Naomi Watts, Courteney Cox and Helen Mirren.

TIFF chose Oscar-winning director Sian Heder’s “Being Heumann” as the opening film, starring Ruth Madeley as disability rights activist Judy Heumann. The 11-day festival will end on September 20.

Teacher of Oscar-winning Russian filmmaker behind ‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ calls him a traitor

Festival slate reflective of the world

The annual event has not been immune to criticism, with screenings of documentaries on Israel and Russia facing protests in recent years.

Lee highlighted that the films and the stories chosen for the festival are reflective of the world today, which she said would invariably invite scrutiny.

“We cannot escape the fact that currently we are living in very complex geopolitical times,” she said.

“It’s something that we balance, where we want to be a festival and a place that supports dialogue, that is actually able to coexist and reflect the world around us, but at the same time always put the film, the art, and the actual filmmakers at the heart of what we do,” she said.

“Ink” opens the 83rd Venice Film Festival, giving Boyle a high-profile launch for a project he joked many people initially thought was about tattoos rather than the newspaper industry.

The film, adapted from James Graham’s stage play, charts Murdoch’s acquisition of “The Sun” in 1969 and the transformation of Britain’s once-staid newspaper industry.

“It was important to us that the audience felt complicit,” Boyle told reporters. “We were all complicit in this journey to begin with. Then the journey is taking you into a darkness.”

Reshaping the old order

Boyle, whose credits include Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire” and zombie thriller “28 Days Later”, said Murdoch, then a young Australian newspaper proprietor battling Britain’s old media order, injected energy into a rigid society.

Venice’s Gyllenhaal says women directors face ‘systemic’ barriers

“It didn’t monsterise Rupert Murdoch, which of course a lot of people do now,” Boyle told reporters.

It shows Murdoch squaring up to the English establishment and to trades unions, while suggesting he disapproved of his paper’s excesses, including publishing daily photographs of topless models.

However, Boyle said he was drawn to the story not primarily by Murdoch, played by Guy Pearce, but rather by Larry Lamb, the hard-driving editor recruited to remake The Sun, who is portrayed by Jack O’Connell.

The film seeks to capture the excitement of a period when Fleet Street’s dominance appeared ripe for disruption, before showing how that upheaval ultimately led to the rise of a global empire that wielded outsize political influence.

Although set more than half a century ago, Boyle said he wanted the film to feel contemporary, reflecting modern concerns about media power, information and truth.

“Journalism is one of the great uprights of any civilisation,” he said, adding that advances in artificial intelligence could threaten its traditional role as a watchdog.

“The danger is, with the tech giants and their AI, that they will be able to replace journalism,” he said. “Will that AI journalist speak truth to the power that’s created it? That’s going to be very, very tough.”

The director also reflected on Murdoch’s legacy as a newspaper proprietor at a time when print journalism is in retreat.

“Ink was in his blood. He was a journalist. He was a print man. He loved print,” Boyle said. “I’m sure it drives him to despair, the disappearance of the print industry.”

The writer Graham said Murdoch had seen his play in London and then New York, suggesting he had liked the piece.

He has yet to see the film, but Pearce said he had received an unexpected endorsement from within the Murdoch family.

“I had some messaging with Elisabeth, his daughter,” Pearce said. “And she did say to me, ‘Dad’s very happy that you’re playing him’.”

The Venice Film Festival runs from Wednesday until September 12, with 21 movies vying for the prestigious Golden Lion award.

Speaking on the festival’s opening day, Gyllenhaal said films foster empathy at a time of global turmoil and argued that female filmmakers often struggle to secure financing because the stories they want to tell are not considered important.

“Could it be possible that the things that women, having had a different experience of being alive in the world want to make movies about are not always deemed high art? … Who decides what’s good?” she said when asked about the scarcity of women directors in Venice.

“There’s a systemic problem,” she added.

Only two of the 21 films in the main programme at this year’s festival, which runs from September 2-12, are directed or co-directed by women.

Venice Film Festival turns to politics as Hollywood retreats

Festival President Alberto Barbera has deflected criticism over the line-up, saying just 24% of submissions for the event came from female directors against 30% last year, and saying he also had a responsibility to ensure the programme’s quality.

Gyllenhaal began her career as an actor before making her directing debut with “The Lost Daughter” in 2021, which premiered in Venice. She told reporters she felt more comfortable behind the camera but lacked female role models when she was younger.

“I was probably always a director. But I didn’t see anyone around me that was a woman doing it,” she said.

She also weighed in on debate over cinema’s role during periods of war and upheaval, following controversy at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year when jury president Wim Wenders faced criticism for saying filmmakers “have to stay out of politics”.

Gyllenhaal rejected the idea that films could be separated from politics, saying movies that honestly depict people’s lives are “fundamentally, unavoidably political”.

“Personally, I don’t believe that there is any subject or any filmmaker that shouldn’t be heard,” she said, even those concerning the “most corrupt, the most perverse people.”

Such films could help audiences find empathy and reflect on darker aspects of human nature, she added.

Sony and Warner said in the complaint, filed on Friday, that Anthropic pirated hundreds of song lyrics and sheet music from The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson and hundreds of other artists to train Claude to respond to human prompts.

The lawsuit is the latest in a wave of cases brought against tech companies by copyright owners including authors, publishers, music labels and news outlets over the use of their work to train AI systems. Universal Music Group sued Anthropic in 2023 over the alleged use of copyrighted song lyrics in AI training, in a lawsuit that is still ongoing.

Anthropic became the first AI company to settle one of the disputes last year, when it paid $1.5 billion to resolve a class action from a group of authors.

“Anthropic clearly considers that to be just the cost of doing business given that its entire business model continues to be built on copyright theft,” Sony and Warner said in their complaint. “And $1.5 billion is obviously not a large enough settlement to deter infringing conduct by a company that has parlayed such mass infringement into a staggering $2-trillion-dollar valuation.”

AI-generated music barred from Australian charts after Madonna cover controversy

Spokespeople for Anthropic, Sony Music and Warner Music did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The complaint alleges Anthropic illegally obtained the publishers’ lyrics and sheet music through torrent downloads to train Claude, and that Claude can reproduce copyrighted lyrics “verbatim” when prompted.

Sony and Warner also said Anthropic used their lyrics to teach Claude to “generate vast quantities of purportedly ‘new’ AI-generated song lyrics, which compete with Music Publishers’ legitimate copyrighted works as harmful market substitutes.”

The labels are seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each infringed copyright and a court order barring Anthropic from using their works.

The documentary, by Talankin and David Borenstein, was based on two years of footage that Talankin recorded at a school where he was employed in the Chelyabinsk region, some 1,500 km (930 miles) southeast of Moscow.

Banned by the Russian authorities, the documentary shows how the school changed after Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine in 2022 and how some of the teachers — via history lessons and activities such as newly introduced patriotic hours — justified the war and sought to instil patriotism.

Talankin, who fled Russia in 2024, has said it was important to tell the world how Russian school children were being indoctrinated. He has defended the film as a record for posterity to show how “an entire generation became angry and aggressive”.

But in an interview with TV programme Vesti, Nina Zabugornova, whom the broadcaster described as Talankin’s first teacher in his hometown of Karabash, also in the Chelyabinsk region, said he was an ordinary boy not much different from others.

Venice adds Gaza documentary by Oscar-winning team to main competition

“I wanted to watch the documentary, to see what did Pashka film,” said Zabugornova, standing in front of an Orthodox church in Karabash, where she is a bell-ringer.

“But it turned out that Pashka had decided to turn his back on his motherland. Isn’t that a betrayal? Isn’t that an evil?”

In March, Russia designated Talankin, who fled the country in 2024, as a foreign agent. Those given the label are subject to exacting bureaucratic requirements.

Zabugornova, who she said was a teacher for four decades, blamed herself that Talankin had committed “a betrayal”.

“So I think that when he was little, when all these things were being formed in him, I must have overlooked something somewhere, didn’t give him enough good lessons,” she told Vesti.

Fans across continents, from prime ministers to pop stars, sent out messages of grief and affectionafter the news came through that the country music legend, songwriter and actress had died on Tuesday aged 80.

Many paid tribute to an artist they said had a rare ability to appeal to audiences across a wide range of political persuasions, age groups, genders and cultures.

“Your songs taught us to fall in love and how to express,” Uganda’s exiled opposition leader Bobi Wine wrote on X. “We will always love you,” the rapper-turned-politician added.

‘A GIANT OF AN ARTIST,’ SAYS ELTON JOHN

British pop icon Elton John called her a “giant of an artist” who had the kindest heart.

“It is hard to imagine living in a world without Dolly,” Paul McCartney wrote. Her songwriting, singing and philanthropy were unrivalled in the world of country music, he added.

Britain’s Royal Family took to social media to say it was “Remembering the late, great Dolly, who brought joy, comfort and inspiration to so many.”

In a message on its X account, it remembered her charitable work, including her Imagination Library that had given free books to millions of children. It signed off with “We will always love you,” echoing Wine’s tribute to one of her best-loved songs.

She only played once in Japan, in 1979. But Kameda, a prominent music producer and bassist for the rock band Tokyo Jihen, said he had been captivated by Parton’s voice since his first year of junior high school.

“Her voice … will endure forever. Rest in peace,” he wrote on X.

‘SHE LIVED LOUDLY,’ SAYS AUSTRALIAN PM

Politicians praised her contributions to society as well as her music.

“I was a huge fan of what Dolly did around literacy around the world,” British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told reporters.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Parton made an enormous difference through promoting education and funding hospitals, and that there would be many broken hearts across his country.

“She lived loudly, and she lived a great life, and she’ll be much missed,” he told reporters.

In Australia’s eastern city of Brisbane, Dolly Parton tribute artist Brooke McMullen said she woke up to messages about the death of the country music star, and thought it was a hoax.

Parton was “one of those people that you just think is going to be around forever,” McMullen added. “Her loss is huge.”

Part of Parton’s appeal came from the stories she told in her songs, said McMullen, who takes her tribute show across the country.

“All of her stories are real life and you can connect,” she added.

“Everybody’s got at least one of the songs that they connect to, whether it be that was something that their grandmother introduced them to, whether it be they heard that at a wedding that they went to. Everybody has a Dolly Parton song.”

Festival organisers said “NAZA”, directed by the Israeli duo Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, will join the main programme for the September 2 to 12 event — the only documentary among this year’s 21 contenders.

Last year, “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, which tells the harrowing story of the final hours of a Gazan girl trapped in a car under Israeli fire, won second prize at Venice after earning a record 23-minute standing ovation at its premiere.

According to a synopsis released by the festival, “NAZA” was shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv and “reveals in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza”.

Palestinian health authorities say more than 73,000 people were killed in Gaza after Israel launched its military campaign against the coastal enclave in October 2023 following Hamas’s attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its count. Israel says its offensive was aimed against Hamas and that it tried to avoid killing civilians, but that the group hid among the civilian population, an assertion that Hamas denies.

Abraham and Szor were two of the four co-directors of “No Other Land”, which won the Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2025. The film chronicled the destruction of a Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the relentless expansion of Jewish settlements.

“NAZA” was produced by Britain’s Guardian newspaper and James Wilson, and executive produced by Jonathan Glazer, the Oscar-winning director of the 2023 Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest”.

Wilson and Glazer were also producer and executive producer respectively on “The Voice of Hind Rajab”. Israeli authorities last week opened a criminal investigation into the girl’s death.

“NAZA” will premiere in Venice on September 10. The film joins a high-profile field that includes new works from Martin McDonagh, Florian Zeller, Danny Boyle, Werner Herzog and Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Madonna celebrated her 68th birthday on Corfu, sharing a whirl of parties and boat trips against the backdrop of the island’s landscape with her 20 million Instagram followers – earning her rapturous thanks from Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

And experts say the huge popularity of Christopher Nolan blockbuster “The Odyssey” will only fuel the trend – though holidaymakers will be hoping for an easier trip home than the one endured by Matt Damon’s eponymous hero.

While Madonna partied in Corfu, singer Bieber took his family to the Peloponnese. Perry and her partner, Canada’s former prime minister Justin Trudeau, sampled the delights of Mykonos.

All of them chronicled their holidays on social media, giving the Greek tourism industry a massive hit of free advertising.

As Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ draws global audiences, Sicily’s Favignana braces for film tourism

“Celebrities are voting for the Greek summer!” public broadcaster ERT said on Friday, devoting a report to these stars from across the Atlantic.

The newspaper To Vima hailed this “new wave” which “helps raise the country’s international profile”. It cited British singer and actress Rita Ora, who shared her holidays with “her millions of followers” on social media.

Paris Tsartas, professor of tourism development at Harokopio University in Athens, told AFP the deluge of celebrity endorsements gave Greece a powerful boost as a summer destination – particularly with the lucrative American market.

After a decade of financial woes following the debt crisis of 2009, and the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic, Greece has pumped money into the sector, which accounts for nearly 30 percent of GDP, according to the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE).

Around 1.55 million Americans visited Greece in 2025. They represent the third-largest source of tourism income, behind Germans and Britons, according to SETE, with an average spend per tourist of 1,120 euros ($1,300).

To answer growing demand, the main US airlines have significantly stepped up services, American Airlines increasing its total available seat capacity by 30 percent compared with summer 2025.

And this year Greece has had its highest-ever number of direct flights, with 103 connections a week between Athens and the United States.

Matt Damon calls ‘The Odyssey’ the most challenging film of his career

Set-jetting

Some of the new enthusiasm is driven by the phenomenon of “set-jetting” – people travelling to a destination after seeing it in a movie or TV series.

In a study for online travel giant Expedia, 13 percent of American travellers said they had booked a trip after seeing a destination on screen.

Greece is well acquainted with the trend, after hit musical “Mamma Mia”, filmed on the island of Skopelos, triggered a jump in American visitors.

Professor Tsartas predicted “The Odyssey” would have a similar impact.

Key parts of Nolan’s film, recounting the travails of Damon’s Odysseus as he seeks to return home from the Trojan war to his wife Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, were shot in the Peloponnese region of Greece.

According to EasyJet Holidays, cited by the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, bookings to Greece increased by 18 percent in the weeks following the film’s international release in mid-July.

And there is more small-screen exposure for Greece’s charms to come: Netflix had chosen the country for the sixth season of hit series “Emily in Paris”.

Lead actress Lily Collins and the rest of the production team were spotted this spring in Mykonos, Paros and Santorini.

President Donald Trump has ​repeatedly urged broadcasters ⁠to drop comedy or news programs he dislikes or which have been critical, pressing the FCC on numerous occasions to revoke ABC’s licenses.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Disney said the FCC was seeking to coerce and retaliate against “a network that refuses to bow to the administration’s demands”.

Disney and ABC asked the court to quickly issue a temporary restraining order halting the license renewal proceedings and preventing the FCC from scheduling a hearing. The company said the public comment period ended earlier this month and the FCC could act at any time.

The lawsuit alleges the administration is violating the company’s First Amendment free speech rights.

“Again and again, the administration has attacked ABC’s speech — the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air,” the lawsuit said.

Disney names Pakistan-born Asad Ayaz chief marketing officer

The White House did not immediately comment.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who did ​not immediately comment Tuesday, ordered the reviews in April even though the stations’ license renewals were not scheduled to be ​considered before October 2028. The FCC had not ordered an early review in more than 50 years before April.

The reviews were ordered a day after Trump urged ABC to fire late-night ​host Jimmy Kimmel.

Broadcast stations need FCC licenses to use public airwaves. While license revocations are ​extremely rare, critics say the ​threat of losing a license ⁠can pressure broadcasters and raise concerns about government interference in editorial and programming decisions. Networks have broad First Amendment protections over programming choices.

Trump called in November for the FCC to revoke ABC’s licenses after he criticized an ABC News correspondent for asking ⁠Saudi Arabia’s ​crown prince about the 2018 killing of a Washington Post columnist, in ​a question he described as “insubordinate.”

The FCC is also investigating ABC daytime talk show “The View,” which discusses U.S. politics, after saying it may be subject to federal ​rules requiring broadcasters to provide equal opportunities to political candidates.

Madonna earned 11 nominations for next month’s VMA ceremony, including nods for video of the year with “Confessions II - The Film“ and for artist of the year. That eclipsed the nine nominations for Taylor Swift, who will compete for the video of the year honor with “The Fate of Ophelia” from her most recent album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”

Both musicians already own several VMA Moon Person trophies. Madonna claimed her first in 1986 when she was given the Video Vanguard Award for helping to pioneer the music video format. In 1987, she won best female video for “Papa Don’t Preach” and has hauled in 20 VMAs over her career to date.

It was her performance at the first VMAs in 1984 that created one of the show’s most iconic moments. Madonna took the stage in a wedding gown adorned with a “Boy Toy” belt buckle and rolled on the floor as she sang “Like a Virgin,” pushing the boundaries of what was considered permissible on cable television at the time.

Taylor Swift and ‘Showgirl’ dominate iHeartRadio Music Awards

This year she faces off with powerhouse Swift, who recently concluded the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. Swift is tied with Beyonce for the most lifetime VMA wins at 30 apiece.

Other VMA nominees this year include Ariana Grande, winner of last year’s VMA for video of the year, and Sabrina Carpenter. Each received seven nominations.

Fans can vote online in 13 of this year’s categories. Winners will be announced September 27 at a ceremony broadcast live on CBS and MTV and streamed on Paramount+.

The biennial D23 gathering is Disney’s biggest showcase for upcoming films and television series, and the “X-Men” cast reveal was among the most anticipated announcements of the event.

The stars of the film, which will be released in May 2028, took to the stage in Anaheim on Friday, including Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Professor X, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm and Adam Driver as Nathaniel Milbury, also known as Mr. Sinister.

Disney also unveiled details of “Frozen 3,” which picks up as Anna is getting married and arrives in cinemas in November next year. First-look footage teased a new female antagonist whose identity and voice actor remain undisclosed.

Marvel unveils ‘Ghost Rider,’ ‘Black Panther 3’ at Comic-Con

Cast members Kristen Bell, the voice of Anna, and Idina Menzel, the voice of sister Elsa, performed a new version of “Frozen Heart,” while Josh Gad, who voices living snowman Olaf, debuted a new song, “Ooooh, Samantha.”

Other highlights included first-look footage from “Star Wars: Starfighter,” starring Ryan Gosling, who is also attached to Disney’s upcoming Marvel Studios project, “Ghost Rider.”

Disney screened footage and announced an October 14 release date for “VisionQuest”, a Disney+ miniseries created by Terry Matalas based on the Marvel Comics character Vision. The “WandaVision” spin-off sees Paul Bettany reprising his role alongside James Spader, who returns as Ultron.

Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter announced a summer 2028 “Incredibles 3” release, with the superhero family reuniting to face a powerful new villain.

“It’s the kids turn,” Docter said. “They’ve been sneaking out at night to protect the city.”

Docter also shared details about “Coco 2,” which takes place several years after the original 2017 animated film set in the land of the dead, with protagonist Miguel now a teenager.

Benjamin Bratt, who voices antagonist Ernesto de la Cruz, appeared on stage to discuss the sequel.

“Ernesto de la Cruz is out for revenge, taking Miguel back to the land of the dead,” Bratt said of the film scheduled for a November 2029 release.

Docter said an animated series based on the “Kingdom Hearts” video game franchise was in development, while the fourth installment of the Disney and Square Enix game would feature a “Coco” world. Footage shown at the convention showed the main character from “Kingdom Hearts”, Sora, exploring the animated setting.

“Listeners have been clear in telling us that they don’t like seeing an artist profile that seems human, only to find out that the persona is AI-generated,” Spotify said in a statement.

The move is the Swedish company’s latest effort to be transparent about how the music on its platform was made, amid growing concern across the music industry over AI-generated content overwhelming streaming catalogues.

In April, the company launched its “Verified by Spotify” badge, signalling that a profile has been reviewed and meets its authenticity standard. 

Spotify reaches 777 million active users

“Alongside artist profiles that self-disclose as AI Personas, we will also start applying badges to relevant profiles,” the company said.

Spotify will not include AI Personas in editorial or personalised recommendations, unless a user follows an AI Persona, it said.

The Spanish-language Apple TV series centres on four women in pursuit of personal growth and social change in patriarchal Mexico of the 1970s.

The sophomore season opens a day after a paramilitary force known as Los Halcones attacked a student protest in Mexico City in June 1971, killing or wounding dozens of demonstrators.

When a young man is found dead in murky circumstances, the four “Azules” indirectly take the lead in an investigation that points to the police force and ties back to the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, in which dozens of leftist student protesters were gunned down by the army shortly before Mexico hosted the Olympics.

‘Ted Lasso’ returns to the pitch with a new challenge on Apple TV

“The investigation is going to delve deeply into the subject, not just the institution of the police force itself, but also the 1971 student massacre, bringing all of that back into the present to see what was behind it all; what wasn’t seen, what wasn’t said, what wasn’t resolved, because the killings continue, and people are still disappearing in Mexico,” said Bárbara Mori, who plays María, now promoted to lieutenant.

“It’s a pretty intense season, just talking about it gives me goosebumps.”

The show’s co-creator, writer, director and executive producer Fernando Rovzar wanted to tell a gritty crime story with a touch of traditional Mexican melodrama that exposes wrong-doing in the establishment. A lot of research went into ensuring the events were portrayed with honesty, responsibility and respect, he said.

“One of the things I love about Mexico is that it’s one big grey area. I think this season was an opportunity to really test the moral compass of the four ‘Azules’,” said Rovzar. “Do they defend the system that they know is wrong or do they defend their own principles, even though they have to go against the system?”

Apple TV teases ‘Matchbox,’ ‘Neuromancer,’ ‘Mayday’ at Comic-Con

The eight-episode season shows the foursome navigating new territory on and off duty, said Ximena Sariñana, who plays Ángeles, with “all going through transitions, trying to adapt to what the expectation is of a woman in their specific situation.”

Season two starts streaming on August 12, with one episode released weekly through September 30, and Rovzar is ready to carry on.

“There’s so many stories we can still tackle, issues from the past that are also relevant today that we can continue to take over,” he said. “The pen’s in my hand and I’m ready for another one.”

That is good news for Britain’s live music sector, which has been hit hard by a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of living and which industry body UK Music estimates contributed £8 billion ($11 billion) to the economy in 2024.

Download, the around 80,000-person event headlined by Linkin Park, and jazz-focused We Out Here sold out in record time. The Isle of Wight and End of the Road also sold out, while Shambala and Womad reported quicker-than-usual sales.

Some festivals say the absence of Glastonbury, which is on a planned break this year, has helped, although others say that the high-profile event helps drive sales when it is on.

“We’ve had a rough time through the pandemic and through Brexit, but we’re coming out of the other side,” said Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) CEO John Rostron, adding that better weather in recent years had helped.

“People are more often talking about sun cream and water and shade than they are talking about wellies and rain,” he added.

Nevertheless, it remains a very challenging time for the industry, especially for smaller festivals.

The AIF said 36 events have been cancelled so far in 2026, although this could be the lowest number since COVID-19 and compares with 43 cancellations in 2025 and 78 in 2024.

There were 800 to 900 festivals at the peak in 2018 and 2019, the AIF estimates, but that fell to 592 in 2025 as costs rose and competition intensified.

‘They want the very best’

Survivors say glamping, wellness events and other extras are helping people opt for a festival over a foreign holiday, although organisers say rising prices mean higher expectations.

“Customers are being more selective with their spend and their disposable income,” said Toby Gwazdacz, managing director at Boomtown, which offers add-ons such as wellness experiences.

“If they’re going to go to a festival this summer, they want it to be the very best,” he added.

Attendees can expect to pay around £200 to £380 for bigger multi-day camping festivals, meaning the whole experience with travel and spending money can cost over £800.

For example, a ticket to Reading or Leeds in 2026 can cost as much as £361, up from around £230 in 2019. The most expensive VIP packages, which involve a luxury bell tent with beds, can add more than £500 extra per person.

Shambala co-founder Chris Johnson said it is spending more on non-musical acts and experiences such as poetry and speakers as well as offering a luxury camping area for the first time.

“Nicer toilets, a pamper parlour, a 24-hour reception, free charging, access to Wi-Fi,” he said.

Payment plan use has risen sharply, Kaboodle said, with about 45% of tickets for Britain’s camping festivals typically bought using one on its ticketing platform. Tiered ticketing is also now used by almost all British music festivals.

And 2026 is set to be the strongest year yet for ticket resales, said Tixel’s European head Matt Kaplan, adding that the fallow year at Glastonbury, which normally attracts 200,000 people, was likely to have driven demand on the resale platform.

Tough backdrop

Chris Smith, festival director at Womad, whose inaugural Glasgow edition was cancelled this year after low ticket sales, said Brexit was still an issue and that 15 artists were still waiting for visas to perform at the main Womad in England in late July, only four weeks out from the festival.

He said the latter event’s sales were boosted by a “love it or lose it” campaign to highlight the importance of independent festivals.

Heritage Live, which cancelled three festivals in July, said the “might of huge multi-nationals” has driven up supplier, artist and staffing costs.

A spokesperson for a major festival company said the UK market is driven by a range of factors, including inflation and rising production costs, and not by any single company.

Mighty Hoopla and Boomtown are among those to have sold stakes to major companies, which now own nearly all the biggest events, including Isle of Wight, Reading and Leeds and Download.

While many independents say having deep-pocketed competition has squeezed them, Gwazdacz said such sales, which in Boomtown’s case was to companies including Live Nation, are often needed to stabilise a festival’s finances as it grows.

Released last month, “The Odyssey” grossed more than $264 million worldwide on its opening weekend, the biggest debut of Nolan’s career. The film retells Homer’s epic tale of Odysseus’ journey home after the Trojan War.

Favignana, the largest of the Egadi Islands, lies 7 km (4 miles) off Sicily’s western coast and stands in for Ithaca, Odysseus’ homeland. The Castello di Santa Caterina, a fortress atop Favignana’s highest hill, serves as the hero’s palace.

Local authorities want to turn the association with Nolan’s film into a lasting attraction for Favignana, home to around 3,000 people.

With support from Sicily’s culture department and Universal Pictures, a permanent exhibition could open as early as October at the former Florio tuna-processing plant, which served as the production’s headquarters.

Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ boosts sales of mythology tales in UK

“The idea is to allow visitors to experience the different stages of the production and see some of the costumes and equipment used in the movie,” Favignana Mayor Giuseppe Pagoto told Reuters in an interview.

Local businesses are banking on a trend that has turned film locations into tourist hotspots, much as the long-running “Inspector Montalbano” television series boosted tourism along Sicily’s southeastern coast.

“We believe all of western Sicily could become more attractive to American visitors thanks to The Odyssey,” Giacomo Incarbona, head of the local hotel operators’ association, told Reuters.

Nolan riding a bike, Zendaya reading a book

Film tourism is a growing factor in the travel industry. The U.N. World Tourism Organization estimates that destinations featured in hit films can boost visitor numbers by 25% to 40%, while consultancy Future Market Insights forecasts the sector could be worth almost $157.5 billion globally by 2036.

‘The Odyssey’ sparks IMAX stampede – and a backlash

The production team for “The Odyssey” spent several months on the island between late 2024 and spring 2025, employing about 500 extras and workers.

Pagoto estimated that the shoot generated between €1 million and €2 million ($1.15 million and $2.3 million) in local spending.

Incarbona, whose three-star hotel hosted members of the hair and make-up departments, said he was struck by the relationship that developed between the production teams and islanders.

“Nolan would cycle through town and greet everyone. Hollywood actress Zendaya, who played Athena, would sit in the square reading a book,” he said.

Managing a tourism boom

International investors from North America, the Middle East and India have approached the municipality about high-end tourism opportunities ahead of the 2027 season, Mayor Pagoto said.

‘The Odyssey’ brings in $264.1 million in worldwide ticket sales, studio says

The abandoned former Valtur holiday village is due to be redeveloped as a five-star resort, while the historic Palazzotto Florio in the island’s main square is being converted into a luxury hospitality project scheduled to open in June 2027.

“For years, people renovated homes and turned them into B&Bs. Now we are seeing entrepreneurs invest in and redevelop major assets across the island,” Pagoto said.

Favignana is keen to avoid the curse of overtourism that has strained established destinations including Venice, Florence and the Dolomites.

“A shock wave could hurt us,” Incarbona said, hoping the film would extend the tourist season rather than drive a surge in visitor numbers at peak times.

The population can already swell from 3,000 to between 40,000 and 50,000 on summer days, putting pressure on services.

“We will have to prepare for growing demand, starting with beach cleaning,” Pagoto said.

Matt Damon calls ‘The Odyssey’ the most challenging film of his career

The municipality has installed 200 mooring buoys around the island to stop boats anchoring close to shore and is considering further measures to regulate visitor flows.

One option is to tie permits for vehicles brought on to the island to a minimum-stay requirement. Authorities want to raise the average visit from five or six days to between 10 and 15 days.

Emanuela Amico, a frequent visitor from Rome, said Favignana currently felt largely as it always had.

“It hasn’t changed much so far,” she said.

“The castle is newly illuminated at night, and fishermen offering boat tours are eager to tell visitors about the production and point out where scenes were filmed.”

Under the agreement, a curated selection of videos will stream on TikTok and also on the Disney+ streaming service, thecompanies said in a statement. Videos will appear on Disney+ under a Verts tab designed to capture younger audiences who devour vertical video on mobile phones. It is the first time TikTok videos will be shown on another platform.

TikTok will offer creators access to assets from hundreds of Disney films and series from brands including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and FX, the companies said.

A pilot program will start in the U.S. in the coming months with plans to bring it to other markets, the companies said.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Disney+ and other streaming services are starting to embrace vertical video, a format that is growing rapidly in the United States. Peacock, owned by Comcast, and Paramount+ have started to offer vertical series, and Netflix features Clips, or short TikTok-style videos.

Disney names Pakistan-born Asad Ayaz chief marketing officer

In addition to providing new content for Disney+, the deal with TikTok could help the company attract additional viewers to the streaming service.

According to TikTok data, the platform’s users shared an average of 6.5 million film- and TV-related posts each day last year. Nearly half of viewers in a survey said they watched a movie or TV show after discovering related content on TikTok.

“The best storytellers are fans first,” said Asad Ayaz, Disney’s chief marketing and brand officer. “This collaboration creates a new bridge between the stories we tell and the creativity they inspire.“

The Swedish company also warned that it expected its growth to slow in the third quarter, saying it anticipated around 11 million new net subscribers.

That cooled investor sentiment, with Spotify shares down 2.6 percent in opening trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Spotify registered 300 million paying subscribers in the quarter, as opposed to people who listen free but with ads – seven million more than in the previous quarter and one million more than expected.

The group’s quarterly operating profit jumped by 61 percent from a year earlier, to 655 million euros ($754 million). Revenue rose by 14 percent to 4.8 billion euros, in line with the group’s expectations.

The earnings reflect “a business that is healthy and compounding, and opportunities only we are positioned to pursue,” Alex Norstrom, the group’s co-chief executive, said in a statement.

“Spotify lives across your whole day – the commute, the workout, studying, gaming, the dinner table, and sleep. At our scale, that is rare… Our position gives us an opportunity space as wide as our users want it to be,” he said.

The company frequently refreshes its offerings to attract new users, and recently launched “Personal Podcasts”, short AI-generated podcasts tailored to individual users.

Spotify will also allow artists’ most dedicated fans, who are paying subscribers, to buy concert tickets before official ticket sales begin.

Lasso brings his unfailing optimism as he takes command of AFC Richmond’s Lady Greyhounds, a second-division squad facing challenges familiar in women’s sports. For starters, they have a smaller budget than the men’s Premier League team, and a cramped locker room they must share part of the week.

The switch puts Lasso, played by series co-creator Jason Sudeikis, in new territory after a career coaching male athletes from a man’s perspective.

“There is a fundamental difference with the way (Lasso) personally interacts with men and boys” versus women, Sudeikis said in an interview ahead of the season’s debut on Wednesday. “He doesn’t know what he’s allowed to do or say and what’s appropriate.”

Sudeikis said he can relate to Lasso’s challenges as a real-life father of a boy and a girl. The actor said he catches himself treating his daughter and son differently, and he’s not sure why.

“I’m still figuring that out,” Sudeikis said. “I think Ted’s just doing that, times 22 players and a doozy of an assistant.”

Lasso’s new assistant is Coach Chilton, played by Tanya Reynolds. Chilton is trying to bring out the best in the team, Reynolds said, but she is “incredibly socially anxious” and often comes across as “a prick.”

“She coaches with a kind of sharpness rather than with softness,” Reynolds said.

Returning characters include team owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and chief marketing officer Keeley (Juno Temple). Both examine whether they are doing enough to support the women’s team, or defaulting to society’s ingrained expectations.

“Keeley is a girl’s girl,” Temple said, and is thrilled to promote a women’s team. Even so, she makes mistakes with the new venture.

“It’s not a bad thing to not know, but then educate yourself,” Temple said. “That’s going to be something important with Keeley this season.”

Players on the team include Gemma, who is juggling soccer and law school; a single mother named Lizzie; and Boots, a goalkeeper who refuses to wear gloves.

The show’s writers consulted with leading figures in women’s soccer to better understand the needs of female athletes. They learned that women are less likely to blindly follow a coach’s instructions, said Brendan Hunt, the show’s co-creator and the actor who plays Coach Beard.

“A women’s team is less apt to say like ‘Yes sir’ and like immediately do what the coach is asking,” Hunt said. “They’re more prone to have follow-up questions, they’re more prone to really need to know why something is happening.

“Once they have that, they’re like thank you and off they go,” he added. “The amount of return engagement from this team is different than what we’ve experienced before.”

The comments come a week after Venice unveiled a programme with virtually no studio-backed U.S. films and just one woman director among the 20 titles competing for the main Golden Lion award, sparking concern about the quality of the programme.

Writing in the Italian daily La Stampa, Barbera said it would be “difficult, if not wrong” to blame Venice for no-show by U.S. studios, arguing that Hollywood was going through a period of upheaval marked by rising costs, falling box office revenues and growing competition from streaming platforms.

“The only major film we could realistically have hoped for was ‘Digger’, which Warner Bros decided to release by relying on the element of surprise, bypassing all the autumn festivals,” he wrote, referring to a movie directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu and starring Tom Cruise.

“There simply were no other titles, or they were not ready in time for our dates,” Barbera said.

Danny Boyle’s Rupert Murdoch drama to open 2026 Venice Film Festival

Barbera says film industry holds back women

Recent editions of Venice and the Cannes Film Festival have benefited from a strong Hollywood presence, with studios and streaming platforms using Europe’s leading festivals to launch awards campaigns and generate publicity for prestige releases.

This year, however, both events have seen a markedly lighter studio footprint.

The 76-year-old Barbera, who has been in charge of the world’s oldest film festival since 2012, and previously led from 1998 to 2001, said it was too early to conclude that Hollywood had abandoned the festival circuit altogether.

“I would be cautious about drawing hasty conclusions regarding the Americans’ decision to stay away from festivals,” he wrote. “Next year we may better understand what new film-promotion strategies there will be, if any.”

Barbera also defended Venice against criticism over the lack of women directors in competition, saying the industry was hindering gender parity.

“It is easy to place responsibility on festivals when the problem lies further upstream,” he wrote, citing barriers for women to entering the profession, funding difficulties and unequal access to production budgets.

The only woman to secure a coveted berth in the main competition was Danish director May el-Toukhy, who will be premiering her drama “Woman Unknown”.

This year’s festival runs from September 2-12. Among the most buzzy titles are “Wild Horse Nine” by Martin McDonagh and tarring John Malkovich, Danny Boyle’s “Ink” about the early days of media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and “Possible Love”, the first film in eight years from the Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong.

Irish police said a man in his 50s had died after a single-vehicle motorcycle collision in the west of Dublin. Emergency services were alerted shortly before 04:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) and the man was pronounced dead a short time after being treated at the scene.

‘Beyond the Oscar’: Travolta gets surprise Cannes prize

Newstalk Radio and the Irish Independent reported that Hansard died in the crash. A representative for Hansard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shares of the Leawood, Kansas-based entertainment company jumped 16.5% in premarket trading on Monday.

The cinema industry entered 2026 with a broader slate of theatrical releases after years of disruption from the pandemic and Hollywood strikes.

Major studios, including Disney and Universal, have committed to supporting exclusive theatrical release windows for many major films, a trend movie theater operators say helps drive cinema attendance.

Marvel Comics to move publishing operations to California, source says

During the second quarter, AMC reported its highest-ever revenue of $1.60 billion. Analysts on average estimated sales of $1.47 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at 14 cents, compared with a 6-cent loss expected.

During the second quarter, six different films delivered domestic opening weekend grosses exceeding $75 million, AMC said.

Attendance at AMC’s U.S. and international markets rose 12% and about 18%, respectively, during the quarter ended June 30.

Nolan became the first director ever to use the highest resolution 70mm IMAX film with a specially designed camera to shoot the whole of his epic movie about ancient Greek hero Odysseus.

With demand high for the best possible viewing experience, some IMAX cinemas have been booked out weeks in advance, with screen owners putting on extra showings in late or even midnight slots.

The catch? Only 41 cinemas worldwide can actually project Nolan’s special 70mm film print – while tickets for the standard digital IMAX screens are premium-priced at usually double the cost of a regular cinema place.

Over half of all 70mm IMAX theatres are in the United States, while a country as large as India, with its population of around 1.5 billion, doesn’t have a single one.

‘The Odyssey’ brings in $264.1 million in worldwide ticket sales, studio says

“Creating a film in a format that most people can never experience as intended is not how an auteur of world cinema should work,” journalist Harsh Tiwari argued in The Print, an Indian online news and opinion site.

Also, because Nolan optimised his film for the larger, immersive IMAX screens, the vast majority of viewers watching at their local cinemas are seeing an adapted, more tightly cropped version of what he intended.

IMAX confirmed that its screens revealed “substantially more image than standard theatrical presentations” in a statement emailed to AFP.

“This isn’t fair. Only a few people will get to experience Nolan’s true vision,” social media user CinemaRythmes complained on X.

On TikTok and Instagram, jokers have been posting videos poking fun at Nolan’s supposed format snobbery by showing themselves watching the movie on a small screen or while distracted – noting sarcastically how that was “as Nolan intended”.

Matt Damon calls ‘The Odyssey’ the most challenging film of his career

Difficult film’

IMAX, a Canada-headquartered company, produces high-resolution cameras, large-format screens and top-end sound systems that are designed to give theatre-goers the best possible experience.

Nolan, the British-American director of “Oppenheimer”, “Interstellar” and “The Dark Knight”, has been using IMAX cameras for some scenes in his films for nearly 20 years.

For “The Odyssey”, IMAX developed a new camera called the Keighley Film Camera, a 200-kilogramme (440-pound) behemoth with sound-proofing to make it as quiet as possible.

“It was a difficult film. It should be difficult: it’s the Odyssey, it should be hard, and that’s fine,” Nolan told a select group of media including AFP earlier this month.

The New York-listed company told AFP that audience response to the film had been “extraordinary, and with it we’ve seen tremendous interest in IMAX technology across the entire filmmaking process”.

The group added 11 new 70mm theatres worldwide in anticipation of demand, each capable of projecting the film reel, which is 18 kilometres (11 miles) long when unspooled and weighs 270 kilogrammes.

Ticket revenues at IMAX theatres broke a record at $52 million on the first weekend.

AMC posts surprise profit, record revenue as blockbuster films lift ticket sales

The move into the premium IMAX format is part of a broader industry trend in which cinema owners are seeking to make a night out at the movies as comfortable and luxurious as possible.

Improving the user experience is seen as necessary in order to tempt people off their sofas and away from their home cinema systems and streaming sites.

“The Odyssey” has already grossed an estimated $320 million worldwide since its release on July 15 – more than its blockbuster budget of $250 million.

The two biggest movies of 2026 so far, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and Michael Jackson biopic “Michael”, have each grossed just over a billion dollars.

Brown, 37, and his vocal coach Omololu Akinlolu, 40, stood in the dock at London’s Southwark Crown Court and spoke only to confirm their names and their guilty pleas over the incident at London’s Tape nightclub in February 2023.

The pair had been charged with attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm and a less serious charge of assault causing actual bodily harm to Abraham Diaw, which the pair had denied and were due to go to trial in October.

Brown and Akinlolu pleaded guilty to the charge of affray, admitting they “used or threatened unlawful violence towards another and their conduct taken together was such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness … to fear for their personal safety”.

Prosecutor Heidi Stonecliffe said the other charges would not proceed to trial and Brown and Akinlolu were granted bail ahead of their sentencing at the same court on October 26.

The maximum sentence for affray is three years’ imprisonment and Judge Tony Baumgartner said that “all options” would be open to the court.

Fans cheer brown’s appearance

Claire Campbell from the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement: “This was a vicious and unprovoked attack by Brown and Akinlolu in a crowded nightclub where Brown used a glass bottle as a weapon to strike the victim’s head twice.

“This kind of violence is entirely unacceptable, and the Crown Prosecution Service will work tirelessly – with the police and partners across the criminal justice system – to pursue cases like this, and prove that no one is above the law.”

Prosecutors had alleged Brown launched an “unprovoked attack” on Diaw with a tequila bottle, with Akinlolu and Brown said to have continued to attack Diaw as he tried to flee.

He was arrested in May 2025 having returned to Britain for the first time since the incident and initially denied bail, throwing his worldwide “Breezy Bowl XX” tour into doubt.

But Brown was eventually released after promising to pay a £5 million ($6.66 million) security fee, allowing the tour to go ahead.

The singer left court to cheers from fans chanting “Breezy! Breezy!” before signing autographs and then getting into a waiting car.

The film, based on the ancient Greek poem by Homer, stars Matt Damon as the Greek hero Odysseus, and follows his perilous journey home after fighting the Trojan War. It is Nolan’s first movie since the 2023 blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” which won Academy Awards in several categories, including directing and best picture.

“There’s just palpable excitement across the domestic market this weekend for ‘The Odyssey’,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic theatrical distribution.

READ MORE: Matt Damon calls ‘The Odyssey’ the most challenging film of his career

The film topped the weekend’s domestic and global box office, according to Rentrak. It had broad appeal with movie-goers, with half of ticket-buyers between the ages of 18 and 34 years old, Orr told Reuters.

The strong opening performance of the film is a testament to Nolan’s popularity among moviegoers.

“Modern audiences should not be underestimated on their knowledge of film and filmmakers,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak’s head of marketplace trends. “And that passion they have for film is manifest in their devotion to Christopher Nolan. It really is a thing.”

“The Odyssey” cost $250 million to make. It received an A CinemaScore from filmgoers who attended opening-night screenings, and an audience rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film ranks among Nolan’s biggest opening weekends. Factoring in inflation, “The Odyssey” ranks as his third-highest-opening film globally, behind 2012’s “The Dark

Knight Rises“ and 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” which brought in inflation-adjusted totals of $358.5 million and $304 million, respectively, in worldwide ticket sales during their opening weekends.

Half the movie-goers elected to see “The Odyssey” in an enhanced format in the U.S. and Canada, including 23% at IMAX, according to Universal. Fans began snapping up tickets for “The Odyssey” a year ago when seats at select IMAX theaters went on sale.

IMAX said demand for tickets was so high that more than 50 theaters across North America added show times between midnight and 7 a.m. IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond said the company had booked $50 million in advance ticket sales, its strongest presales ever. He has extolled the use of IMAX cameras and 70 mm film to capture the sweeping narrative, generating more buzz around the movie.

“It was just a well-made — almost perfectly made — movie in many respects,” said Gelfond.

Most scholars believe the epic poem attributed to Homer was composed in the seventh or eighth century BC and was sung and passed on orally before it was written down. Nolan’s film centers on a portion of Odysseus’ homecoming, where he encounters gods and monsters, storms and tragedy.