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  • Busan Festival Honors Ahn Sung-ki, Market Names Thailand Country of Honor

    Busan Festival Honors Ahn Sung-ki, Market Names Thailand Country of Honor

    The 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has unveiled a Special Program in Focus honoring the late Korean screen legend Ahn Sung-ki, while the festival’s market arm has named Thailand the first-ever recipient of a new top-tier country partnership.

    “Those Beautiful Years, Ahn Sung-ki” serves as the grand finale to the nationwide tributes paid to the actor, who died earlier this year. The six-film lineup was hand-picked by Ahn himself before his passing and centers on his 1980s and 1990s peak, including “A Fine, Windy Day” (1980), “Whale Hunting” (1984), “Chil-su and Man-su” (1988), “Gagman” (1989), “White Badge” (1992) and “Festival” (1996). Each screening will include a guest visit featuring longtime collaborators, among them directors Lee Jang-ho, Bae Chang-ho and Chung Jiyoung, along with actors Kim Bo-Yeon and Bae Jong-ok. BIFF will also publish an essay collection on Ahn’s career and legacy, co-hosted with the Korean Film Archive. Ahn’s screen career stretched nearly seven decades, from his 1957 debut as a child actor through his later years as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and longtime member of the BIFF festival committee.

    Elsewhere at the festival, the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) has launched a Country of Honor program, its highest-tier country partnership, naming Thailand as the inaugural recipient for 2026. The designation builds on a long history of ties between the two markets, including Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s “Ploy,” picked for the Pusan Promotion Plan in 2006, and Aditya Assarat’s “Wonderful Town,” which took the New Currents prize at the festival in 2007. More than 540 foreign film and TV productions shot in Thailand last year, drawn in part by cash rebates of up to 30% for eligible projects.

    Chookiat Sakveerakul, president of the Thai Film Directors Association, said, “Thailand is deeply honored to be named the first Country of Honor at ACFM 2026.” He added that the partnership would “open new doors for Thai films and content to reach wider international audiences, while strengthening collaboration between Thailand, South Korea, and partners across the global industry.”

    The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs Oct. 6-15, with the 21st Asian Contents & Film Market held Oct. 10-13.

  • Solana Analysis Outlines Validator Trade-Offs in Proposed 200ms Slot-Time Shift

    Solana Analysis Outlines Validator Trade-Offs in Proposed 200ms Slot-Time Shift

    Solana has published an analysis of the validator and market-structure trade-offs involved in a proposal to reduce target slot time from 400 milliseconds to 200 milliseconds. The Aug. 19 analysis describes the change as a staged, feature-gated path through 350, 300, 250 and 200 milliseconds.

    The work discusses SIMD-0525 rather than announcing that 200ms slots are already active on mainnet. That distinction is central: it is an engineering and economic analysis of a proposed change.

    Potential latency and execution effects

    Solana says shorter slots could allow information to reach canonical state more frequently and shorten the time a single leader controls ordering. The analysis also says faster slots may reduce stale-price exposure, while the effect on sandwich activity is not sign-definite and depends on factors including reaction latency, contention and user slippage.

    At 200ms, the four-slot leader window would fall from 1.6 seconds to 800ms, according to the article. The piece frames those outcomes as modeled or potential effects, not as realized mainnet results.

    Validator economics and operational headroom

    The analysis says validators would vote roughly twice as often per unit of wall-clock time at 200ms, increasing voting activity while potentially making leader opportunities more frequent. It also flags limited timing margin around vote arrival and leader handoff as an area for staged monitoring.

    Solana concludes that some effects require empirical mainnet observation. Operators and delegators should therefore treat the published paper as input to an ongoing proposal discussion, not as a completed network migration.

  • India’s Epic Studios, Rusk Media Ink 50-Title Vertical Drama Deal (EXCLUSIVE)

    India’s Epic Studios, Rusk Media Ink 50-Title Vertical Drama Deal (EXCLUSIVE)

    India’s Epic Studios has partnered with Rusk Media Private Limited (RMPL) to produce 50 original vertical drama series, aiming to build the country’s largest library of owned vertical-drama intellectual property.

    The slate will span genres including mythology, drama, mystery, thriller and romance. The series will premiere on Alright! TV, Rusk Media’s platform for original vertical-drama content, combining Epic Studios’ background in television, streaming and film development with Rusk Media’s digital-first distribution reach.

    Aditya Pittie, managing director of The Epic Company, said, “Vertical dramas are experiencing massive global and domestic growth, reshaping how content is consumed. For us, this partnership is about driving true scale and building the biggest library of owned vertical-drama IPs in the country. A slate of 50 original series is just the beginning – by the middle of next year, we aim to have over 250 titles, and becoming one of the largest independent IP owners in this space. Partnering with Rusk Media and Alright! TV creates a seamless, one-stop ecosystem that blends powerful storytelling with unprecedented volume.”

    Karanvir Sofat, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Rusk Media, cast the deal as a continuation of Alright! TV’s push to build high-quality content for younger Indian audiences, saying, “Epic has been a long-standing partner and this slate collaboration reinforces the commitment to deliver premium, engaging entertainment for digital audiences, that combine compelling storytelling with the pace and accessibility today’s viewers expect.”

    The Epic Company, formerly known as IN10 Media Network, is the parent of Epic Studios and is led by Pittie. Epic Studios, itself formerly Juggernaut Productions and MovieVerse Studio, is headed by Vivek Krishnani as CEO of its film division and Samar Khan as CEO of its OTT and TV division.

    Rusk Media, founded in 2019, produces mobile-first entertainment aimed at Gen Z and millennial audiences. Beyond Alright! TV, its content reaches viewers through platforms including Amazon MX Player and JioHotstar, alongside its advertising arm, Rusk Ads.

  • Trader who made $49 million shorting crypto lost $24 million on ether in 12 seconds

    Trader who made $49 million shorting crypto lost $24 million on ether in 12 seconds

    The wallet known as “pension-usdt.eth” had been short ether for two months. On Thursday morning it was closed out after a surge across all major tokens, and lost nearly $24 million on the trade.

    The address had been one of the more successful short sellers of the year, with roughly $49 million in profits from betting against crypto. Its recent record was a run of wins — nearly $6 million on a 60,000 $ETH short closed in June, $3.6 million on a 1,400 BTC short in the same month, $1.7 million on another bitcoin short in March.

    This single trade cost half of everything the wallet had made. Hyperliquid’s records show the liquidation ran from 04:51:03 to 04:51:15, in five separate forced sales. First 9,989 $ETH at $2,193, then 20,698 at $2,209, then 15,830 at $2,214, then 1,871 at $2,236.

    By the end there were no buyers left for the last 1,417 $ETH, so Hyperliquid absorbed it into a fund it keeps for exactly that purpose.

    Ether rose $43 over those 12 seconds. The trader’s own forced buying was part of what moved it, and every dollar it climbed made the remaining chunks more expensive to close.

    Twelve seconds, five forced sales, and a price that climbed with every one. (Shaurya Malwa/CoinDesk)

    The position was held for 1,445 hours, or a little over two months, through a stretch when bitcoin traded in a range below $65,000 and betting against it looked like the easy side. Wednesday’s Treasury buyback announcement ended that, with ether surging up 18% in the past 24 horus and bitcoin zooming from $64,000 to nearly $70,000.

  • Trump vows ‘economic warfare’ on countries helping Iran

    Trump vows ‘economic warfare’ on countries helping Iran

    US President Donald Trump has threatened ‘economic D-Day’ on any countries that help or do business with Iran. Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna explains how the threat, though vague, signals a renewed focus on economic, rather than military, action.

    Published On 20 Aug 2026

  • ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Aims to Swing Past ‘Insidious’ Sequel for Fourth Box Office Win

    ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Aims to Swing Past ‘Insidious’ Sequel for Fourth Box Office Win

    Spider-Man: Brand New Day looks to continue its indefatigable run at the box office against such new challengers as horror sequel Insidious: Out of the Further and the Jason Statham-led Mutiny.

    Sony Pictures releases Insidious: Out of the Further in roughly 3,000 North American theaters on Friday, with the studio projecting an opening weekend around $23 million. Hailing from Screen Gems, Stage 6 Films and Blumhouse Atomic Monster, Out of the Further is the sixth title in the franchise that kicked off with 2011’s Insidious and carries an $18 million production budget.

    Amelia Eve, Brandon Perea and Lin Shaye star in writer-director Jacob Chase’s film that centers on a young mother who can bring spirits back with her to the real world. Out of the Further follows 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door, which saw the return of original series stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne and opened to $33 million domestically before hitting a global total of $189 million for its run.

    Insidious: Out of the Further holds a 65 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Frank Scheck wrote that the film “proves routine in its elaborate plot machinations that remind you how tiresome a place the Further can be.”

    Jason Statham as Cole Reed in Mutiny.

    Dan Smith/Lionsgate

    Opening in roughly 2,700 North American locations is Mutiny, starring Jason Statham as a former Marine who sets out to prove his innocence after he is framed for murder. Lionsgate releases the movie that is tracking to open in the high single-digit range and carries a $40 million production budget. MadRiver Pictures and Punch Palace Productions produced the project.

    Jean-François Richet helmed the feature that holds a 49 percent approval score from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Statham’s recent films include Shelter, which opened to $5.5 million domestically earlier this year, while 2025’s A Working Man launched with an initial weekend of $15.5 million in North America. Next year sees the star leading The Beekeeper 2.

    Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

    Jay Maidment/Sony Pictures

    Other new theatrical offerings this weekend include the Andrew Garfield-led The Magic Faraway Tree and Spa Weekend, starring Isla Fisher, Leslie Mann and Anna Faris.

    Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues its historic run into the waning days of summer, as the Sony Pictures juggernaut that stars Tom Holland and Zendaya is set to lead the box office for its fourth consecutive weekend. Having recently set the record as the fastest movie to hit $800 million domestically, director Destin Daniel Cretton‘s feature is expected to surpass 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home as the No. 3 highest-grossing title ever in North America.

    The success of Brand New Day — along with other titles like The Odyssey and Toy Story 5 — has helped bring the 2026 summer box office to a total of $4.24 billion domestically as of Sunday, according to Rentrak, putting the season 23.7 percent above last year’s tally to that point. The all-time summer mark remains 2013’s $4.75 billion.

  • Naomi Watts to Receive Zurich Fest Golden Eye Award

    Naomi Watts to Receive Zurich Fest Golden Eye Award

    The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) will honor two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts this year with a Golden Eye Award for her performance in Ben Shirinian’s The Housewife.

    In the ’60s-set drama, based on a true-story, a young New York Times journalist, played by Tye Sheridan, tracks down a man he suspects of being a Nazi officer living secretly in Queens (Luke Evans). But when the reporter befriends the suspect’s elegant and enigmatic wife (Watts), the implications of his investigation become much more unsettling.

    The Housewife will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival before heading to Zurich. Watts will accept her Golden Eye honor in person in Zurich on Sept. 26 and take part in a ZFF masterclass.

    “Since her breakthrough in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Naomi Watts has been one of the most fascinating actresses of our time,” said Zurich Festival CEO Christian Jungen, announcing the honor on Thursday. “Her greatest performances thrive on the tension between glamour and darkness, between what a character reveals and what she conceals — making her the kind of character actress Hitchcock would have loved.”

    In The Housewife, said Jungen, Watts “masters this ambiguity as an elegant and mysterious woman [and] delivers one of the most compelling performances of her career.”

    Watts is a two-time Academy Award nominee, nominated for best actress in 2004 for her turn as a grieving mother in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams; and in 2013 for her role as a survivor of the 2004 tsunami in J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible. On the small screen, her performance as Baby Paley in the second season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud earned her an Emmy nomination for best actress in a limited/anthology series or TV movie.

    Previous winners of Zurich’s Golden Eye Award include Kristen Stewart, Jude Law, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dakota Johnson. The 2026 Zurich Film Festival runs Sept. 24 – Oct. 4.

  • Naomi Watts to Receive Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye Award for ‘The Housewife’

    Naomi Watts to Receive Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye Award for ‘The Housewife’

    Zurich Film Festival is to honor actress Naomi Watts with the Golden Eye Award for her performance in Ben Shirinian’s “The Housewife.”

    In Zurich, she will present the film, in which she portrays the enigmatic wife of a suspected Nazi. The actress will personally accept the award on Sept. 26 and offer insights into her career during a ZFF Masters session.

    The festival described Watts, who has earned two Academy Award nominations, as “an artist renowned for her emotional depth, versatility and unwavering commitment to her roles.”

    In “The Housewife,” she plays an elegant and inscrutable woman living in 1960s New York whose flawless façade gradually begins to crack when a young journalist from the New York Times uncovers clues about her husband’s dark past.

    Christian Jungen, CEO of the festival, said, “Since her breakthrough in David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive,’ Naomi Watts has been one of the most fascinating actresses of our time. Her greatest performances thrive on the tension between glamour and darkness, between what a character reveals and what she conceals – making her the kind of character actress Hitchcock would have loved.

    “In ‘The Housewife,’ she masters this ambiguity as an elegant and mysterious woman. At the same time, the film tells a true story that powerfully illustrates how indispensable investigative journalism is in uncovering historical crimes. Naomi Watts delivers one of the most compelling performances of her career.”

    Watts said, “It is such an honor to be presented with the Golden Eye Award from Zurich Film Festival. I cannot wait to be there, accepting this award among such great company, and I thank the film festival for honoring my role in this film.”

  • Josh Radnor Is ‘Not Even a Little Bit’ Close to His ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Co-Stars: ‘You Just Go Out and Live Your Life’

    Josh Radnor Is ‘Not Even a Little Bit’ Close to His ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Co-Stars: ‘You Just Go Out and Live Your Life’

    Josh Radnor recently told the “Half the Picture” podcast that he is “not even a little bit” close to his “How I Met Your Mother” co-stars, despite filming together for 208 episodes across 9 seasons.

    When asked if he’s still tight with his “How I Met Your Mother” family, Radnor said, “No. Not even a little bit.”

    He explained, “I don’t mean that in any dramatic way. It’s just… We had Neil [Patrick Harris] on the podcast, and he and I had a really interesting conversation about some of the tension we had on set that was fascinating and kind of healing.”

    Radnor hosts a “HIMYM” rewatch podcast with series co-creator Craig Thomas. Harris appeared on an episode earlier in 2026.

    He explained that he and Jason Segel “send each other texts every once in a while,” but he hasn’t seen him in “a really long time.” As for Cobie Smulders, who’s been on his podcast a few times, he’s “seen her mostly on Zoom.” Radnor recalled seeing Alyson Hannigan last at his wedding in 2024.

    “I have love for all these people,” Radnor said. “It’s like college where you have this very intense time together, and you think you’re going to be — you can’t imagine not seeing each other every day because you’ve seen each other every day for so long. And then it just disperses, and you just go out and live your life.”

    He continued, “I think it’s a little more like family than friends in that you don’t get to choose your family. We were cast. We didn’t choose each other. And family dynamics come out to play when you’re in an environment like that for so long. But you also have love that is quite deep and rich and probably everlasting, but it’s not an active love. Acting is like love affairs that you have, and then you move on.”

  • AI agents could make today’s billion-dollar crypto hacks look like ‘pennies,’ industry leaders warn

    AI agents could make today’s billion-dollar crypto hacks look like ‘pennies,’ industry leaders warn