Category: Entertainment

Some people want Washington’s annual “nerd prom” to feature a little more backbone.

A bevy of journalism advocacy organizations and former journalists such as Sam Donaldson, Lynn Sherr and Linda Douglass urged the White House Correspondents Association to “demonstrate opposition” when President Donald Trump makes his first appearance at the group’s annual dinner, which takes place Saturday, April 25.

“The dinner has long served as a symbol of the vital and irreplaceable role of a free press in American democracy and a celebration of the First Amendment and the journalists who uphold it. President Trump’s systematic, sustained, and unprecedented attacks on the free press render his presence at such an event a
profound contradiction of its purpose,” reads a letter addressed to WHCA member and board of directors.,

The signatories include the Society of Professional Journalists; the National Association of Black Journalists; the National Press Photographers Association; the Freedom of the Press Association;. the Coalition for Women in Journalism; and the Radio Television Digital News Association.

The Trump administration and the media covering it enjoy a strained relationship at best. The group’s letter cited a bevy of efforts to undermine the press, including banning the Associated Press from White House pool reporting and taking office space away from credible press outlets covering the Pentagon. Many of these efforts have ended up being litigated in court.

The schism between President Trump and the media has been years in the making. During his first term, he declined to attend the WHCA event, a longtime happening on the D.C. calendar, and the organization has in recent years retreated from business as usual, which calls for a comedian to deliver a few hot takes about the current occupant of the Oval Office. Last year, the WHCA pulled an invite to comic Amber Ruffin, who was scheduled to be featured at the annual dinner. Plans for 2026 call for a demonstration by a mentalist instead of a comic’s routine.

The WHCA has faced difficulties in figuring out how to respond to Trump, who only likes one kind of criticism: none. During Trump’s first term, the WHCA undermined its invited comedian, Michelle Wolf, who led a blistering routine at the 2018 dinner.  “I think she’s very resourceful, like she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye,” said Wolf of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, who attended the event. “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies,” the comedian said, echoing the popular Maybelline advertising slogan. Within a day, the WHCA issued a statement saying that Wolf’s performance “was not in the spirit” of the group’s mission to call attention to the value of a free press as well as great journalism.

Some journalists attending this year’s dinner have unveiled plans to wear pocket handkerchiefs or lapel pins with the words of the First Amendment. But the backers urged the WHCA to “take stronger action by issuing — from the podium — a forceful defense of freedom of the press and condemnation of those
who threaten that freedom, followed by a standing toast to the First Amendment and a pledge to continue upholding such a critical cornerstone of our democracy.” The letter continued: ” Speak forcefully, in front of the man who seeks to undermine our country’s long tradition of an independent, strong, and free press. We also urge the WHCA to reaffirm, without equivocation, that freedom of the press is not a partisan issue and that the Association will not normalize this behavior but instead fight back against any officeholder who has waged systematic war against the journalists whose work the dinner celebrates.”

Whether anyone takes the group up on its counsel won’t be known, most likely, until Saturday night.

Opening the industry section of Swiss doc festival Visions du Réel, with her latest Netflix-produced feature “Cover-Up” serving as the festival’s opening film, Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras pointed to a documentary sector that is not only under pressure but increasingly mobilized – including around opposition to the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal.

Citing an open letter signed by more than 1,000 industry professionals, she said: “There’s recently been a letter calling to block the merger – I know behind the scenes a lot of documentary filmmakers were involved in that, there’s that kind of engagement.”

More broadly, she described a sector defined as much by solidarity as by strain, noting, “It’s no secret that this is a really dire time in the documentary landscape, if we’re talking about funding and distribution, but I also think it’s a time documentary filmmakers are actually showing up for each other and doing risk-taking work that is filling gaps where some of our institutions are failing us.”

Signed by directors including Alex Gibney and Davis Guggenheim, alongside Hollywood figures such as Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Stewart and Jane Fonda, the letter has drawn significant backing across the industry.

The question of funding surfaced sharply following a clip from “My Country, My Country,” the first of Poitras’ 9/11 trilogy, set in Iraq, which was backed by U.S. public television. Asked whether such a project on the current war in Iran could still be financed today, the answer was a clear ‘No.’

“Our public funding is now being completely decimated. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ITVS – one of the organizations that have been key in supporting first-time filmmakers – to lose that is completely devastating, both for funding and for distribution,” she said, referring to a U.S Congress vote last summer to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which led to the shutdown of key grant programs, reducing support for independent and politically engaged films.

Even beyond public support, she suggested, the space for politically sensitive work has narrowed across the board: “It’s going to be hard if you’re trying to go to a corporation,” she said, before adding that pitching such material to major platforms also has its limits. “I haven’t tried, but I think it’s going to be hard for a filmmaker to go to Netflix or HBO and say, ‘I want to make a film about the U.S. government’s regime change strategies in Venezuela and Iran.’”

Much of the focus of the conversation centered on Poitras’ long-standing interest in power and surveillance. Recalling the origins of her Oscar-winning film “Citizenfour,” about U.S. national security whistleblower Edward Snowden, she described trying to address a subject that, at the time, struggled to register with the public.

“I was very interested in how to make a film about [state] surveillance in a society that didn’t really seem to give a shit about surveillance.” Around 2010, she added, “people were in love with the internet, their phones, Facebook,” even as she felt, “Wow, this feels really scary and dangerous,” referring to the “long relationship between state power and surveillance.”

Acknowledging that it was “a very hard film to make – very hard to translate into cinematic language because it’s abstract,” Poitras turned directly to the audience: “How many people are worried about being surveilled?” she asked, before following with, “How many of you have engaged in political protests?,” drawing a direct line between fear of surveillance and political action.

Addressing Snowden’s exile to Moscow in 2013, Poitras was keen to underline what she described as a “full-throated effort” by the U.S. to prevent him from being granted asylum in Europe. “His passport was rescinded. He was trying to go someplace else. And he did try to get asylum in every European country. And every European country was pressured by the United States not to give him asylum,” she said.

While Poitras declined to discuss current projects, she returned repeatedly to what she described as a recurrent political pattern in U.S. political history – one that underpins “Cover-Up” – which she describes as “cycles of power and cycles of impunity”: “You have exposure of wrongdoing followed by denials and cover-ups, and ultimately impunity – nobody’s held accountable.”

In a Q&A with the industry audience, Poitras closed by defending freedom of expression at a time of increasing pressure on U.S. institutions. “I fully believe that we have the right to freedom of expression – and to use it,” she said, criticizing universities for “capitulating to pressure” and, in particular, their “silencing” of student protests over the situation in Gaza and Palestine. Calling the situation “shameful,” she added that the response must be to “use these rights that we have to resist and talk about the world that we live in.”

VdR-Industry runs alongside Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland until April 22.

The second edition of SXSW London has unveiled the lineup of films and speakers for its screen program, which will open with the world premiere of “Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day.”

From BAFTA-nominated director Tina Ghavari and screenwriter Justine Waddell, the adaptation features a cast including Haley Bennett, Jack Whitehall, Jennifer Saunders, Lily Allen, Sally Phillips and Misia Butler, with Bennett and Whitehall among those expected to attend.

The darkly satirical “Savage House” — featuring Richard E. Grant and Claire Foy, Bel Powley and Jack Farthing — is also getting its world premiere at the festival, with Grant and Foy reported to be hitting the red carpet.

Elsewhere, SXSW London will feature an exclusive first-look screening of the Adult Swim animated series “Get Jiro,” based on The New York Times bestselling DC/Vertigo graphic novel from renowned chef Anthony Bourdain.

SXSW London has also unveiled six films selected for this year’s Official Competition section, including “The Other Side of the Sun” (Dir: Tawfik Sabouni), “The Red Hangar” (Juan Pablo Sallato), “Roya” (Mahnaz Mohammadi), “Memory” (Vladlena Sandu), “Remake” (Ross Mcelwee) and “Only Rebels Win” (Danielle Arbid).

“The films in our Official Competition embody what we are most excited about in contemporary cinema: no-holds-barred, deeply human and formally audacious films that provoke and challenge us to think wider, deeper and more empathetically,” said Anna Bogutskaya, head of screen at SXSW London.

Alongside the film, the festival has also announced its lineup of panels and speakers. Among them are “Toy Meets Tech: The New Technologies of Toy Story 5” with Thomas Jordan, VFX supervisor on “Toy Story 5” and “BookTok to Screen,” about transforming viral literary trends to streaming, with Prime Video’s head of originals UK and Europe Tara Erer and Banijay’s head of adaptations Hannah Griffiths.

Brazil’s development and training hub BrLab has announced the winners of its 15th edition, with Miami-based FiGa Films acquiring the sales rights to Val Hidalgo and Alice Stamato’s prizewinning drama “Ninho Tinto” (Red Nest).

The film from the Brazilian duo was among 12 projects selected for the annual event, which hosts producers, directors and writers from across Latin America, Spain and Portugal for a week of workshops, labs, mentorship and industry programming in São Paulo. A series of satellite events also take place in Brasília and Recife through early May.

Since its first edition in 2011, BrLab has grown from a small workshop for regional filmmakers into a key player in the development of independent cinema in Brazil, Latin America and the wider Ibero-American region, with projects from over 15 countries invited to take part this year. 

“Reaching 15 years is both a celebration and a statement of persistence,” said BrLab founder, director and curator Rafael Sampaio. “Also, it’s a moment to evaluate and reaffirm our purposes and structures, considering all changes and challenges we’ve been facing in different countries in Latin America and everywhere.” 

Sampaio noted that “this a region full of talents and creativity where producers and filmmakers constantly navigate instability — financial, political, institutional. In this international context, BrLab has become a regular solid event where projects are challenged and supported, experiencing this initial and fundamental moment in which a film is still only words and intentions.”

Along with its carefully curated line-up and hands-on approach to the development and support of each project, BrLab functions as a crucial bridge connecting filmmakers to both the regional and the international industry.

“Filmmakers and producers don’t just develop their films in isolation — they connect not only with themselves and tutors but also with co-producers, festivals and decision-makers that we bring to be part of each edition of BrLab, helping to position the curated projects internationally from an early stage,” said Sampaio. “In a context where structural support can be inconsistent, that mix of rigor, continuity and real access is what allows projects to move forward — not just as ideas, but as films that can exist and circulate.”

This year saw organizers introduce a raft of changes, including a shift from the event’s traditional October slot to early April, the launch of BrLab Kids, a new workshop dedicated to film and series projects for children and young audiences, and the introduction of a green initiative focused on sustainable industry practices in Latin America, backed by the event’s new presenting partner and lead sponsor, Petrobas. 

“It is not about changing what already works — it’s about consolidating it and expanding its reach,” said Sampaio. “Rather than a shift in format, what we’ve done is to solidify the core of BrLab — the depth of the labs, the close mentorship, the international dialogue — while creating new layers around it. The idea is to strengthen the ecosystem that surrounds the projects, not just the projects themselves.” 

One of the key additions this year was the Think Tank, which the lab developed in partnership with Petrobras and Cinema Verde. “It opens a space for broader, more strategic reflection on the Brazilian and Latin American industry — bringing together different players to discuss structural challenges, sustainability and the future of audiovisual production in Brazil and Latin America,” said Sampaio. “It’s less about immediate outcomes and more about long-term positioning.”

As of 2025, 62 feature films that participated in BrLab’s various sections have been produced and released, among them Diego Céspedes’ “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo” (Chile), which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section last year; Lila Halla’s “Levante” (Brazil), which screened in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2023; and “Légua,” by Portuguese filmmakers Filipa Reis and João Guerra, which premiered at Directors’ Fortnight the same year.

That track record is a tribute to the work that Sampaio and the organizing team continue to do to pursue their vision despite what he refers to as “institutional fragility,” particularly with funding for Brazil’s national film agency, Ancine, slashed under right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro. Ancine was not among the supporters of the 15th edition of BrLab, which took place through partnerships with Programa Ibermedia, Spcine, Projeto Paradiso and Petrobras.

“The absence of Ancine was something unexpected that had an impact on the co-pro forum, but…our trajectory taught us we need to be more solid than our institutions,” Sampaio said. “The history of Latin American cinema and of BrLab reflects much more the struggle of professionals than institutions. It’s the effort of an international industry against the fragility of our politics and governments.”

Here’s a rundown of this year’s BrLab winners:

Vitrine Films Distribution Award: “Irmã Mais Velha” (The Older Sister)
Director: Rafaela Camelo
Producers: André Pereira, Mariana Muniz
Screenwriters: Rafaela Camelo, André Pereira

After her older sister dies tragically, 11-year-old Isabel is forced to live with her mother, Verônica, who hides a long-suppressed gift: the ability to channel the dead. Camelo, whose first feature, “The Nature of Invisible Things,” premiered at the Berlinale last year, noted: “I like to say that [my first film] shows how not every death has to be a tragedy. In ‘The Older Sister,’ the perspective on death changes radically. Here, death is inherently the tragedy that sets the story in motion. Isabel and Verônica must face this loss together, experience grief in its full intensity, and deal with the consequences it brings to their lives.”

Pop Up Film Residency Award: “El Umbral” (The Threshold)
Director: Inti Jacanamijoy
Producers: Jorge Forero, Inti Jacanamijoy
Screenwriter: Inti Jacanamijoy, Óscar Adán

A coming-of-age story about grief, memory and ancestral knowledge, “The Threshold” follows a young boy who returns to his family home after the death of his grandfather, a renowned shaman. When his grandmother also falls ill and prepares to cross the Kuriyako, the sacred place where her people go to die, an ancestral presence arrives in the house, blurring the boundary between the living and the dead. It’s a film that “connects a family story with the spiritual and metaphysical universe that inhabits our territories,” according to Forero, presenting “a cinematic proposal with the potential to become a standout film in today’s landscape.”

Cinéma en Développement + Projeto Paradiso Award: “Dentro do Rio” (Inside the River)
Director/screenwriter: Bárbara Matias Kariri
Producer: Maurício Macêdo

When the construction of a dam threatens to submerge the indigenous community of Barro Vermelho, Lourdes, a teacher and single mother, is torn between accepting compensation and moving to the city or resisting alongside her family and community, for whom ancestry is a force of resistance and renewal. Matias Kariri said the story is “rooted in the Kariri cosmovision, bringing a perspective from Brazil’s deep interior with authenticity, imagination and a strong sense of authorship.” It uses a unique combination of animation with influences from theater and poetry to “reimagine trauma while opening space for other ways of being and understanding the world.”

Cesnik, Quintino, Salinas, Valerio and Fittipaldi Award: “A Última Cachorra” (The Last Dog on Earth)
Director: Nina Kopko
Producer: Letícia Friederich
Screenwriters: Tainá Tokitaka, Nina Kopko

Set in the very near future in São Paulo, where a new pandemic is thought to have eradicated the planet’s canine population, a rideshare driver is forced to decide if she’s going to stick to her plan to take her own life or find a way to protect what may be the last dog on earth. “Stories involving dogs create an immediate connection with a large part of the audience, due to the emotional place they occupy in our lives,” said the filmmakers. “Imagining a world where they are disappearing generates even more curiosity, especially as it takes place in the near future — both strange and familiar.”

BrLab Audience Design

Vitrine Lab Award: “Show da Xoxa” (Xoxa’s Show)
Director/screenwriter: Rastricinha Dorneles 
Producer: Hilda Pontes Lopes

The dystopian parody “Xoxa’s Show” is set in a world where Brazil’s most popular TV show stars are subjected to humiliations and violent challenges disguised as entertainment. When members of the crew begin to die, the line between spectacle and extermination starts to blur. Led by a trans crew and cast, “Xoxa’s Show” is “a celebration of the creativity of trans people,” said Dorneles. “Participating in BrLab is very important so that our careers, mine as a transvestite and Hilda’s as a non-binary person, are recognized and we can realize this work that plays with the collective imagination of the trans population with extreme intimacy.”

BrLab Rough Cut

Tanto Award: “Ninho Tinto” (Red Nest)
Directors: Val Hidalgo, Alice Stamato
Producer: Thiago Briglia

Set in northern Brazil, “Red Nest” follows a Venezuelan immigrant, Frangela, whose stable life is upended by the unexpected arrival of her 11-year-old son. With Alejandro’s arrival, both Frangela and her partner try to build an emotional bond with the boy as they attempt to create a new home. “What is a home?” the directors asked. While the word can mean many things, “there is something that always runs through it: the affections we weave around it, the people we form bonds with, and the small gestures through which we offer and share parts of ourselves,” they said. “Red Nest” offers “a sensitive portrait of how these bonds are rebuilt within a migratory context shaped by vulnerability. Yet it is also, above all, a gesture of resilience and an affirmation of life.”

“The Sentinels,” Canal+‘s hugely ambitious French TV series blending superhero, steampunk and sci-fi themes into a WWI action drama, has found at home in the U.K.

In a deal with Studiocanal, the BBC has acquired the series, which is produced by Federation Studios France and Esprits Frappeurs and was already simultaneous released by Canal+ last year across more than 30 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Based on the comic book series “Les Sentinelles” by Xavier Dorison and Enrique Breccia (éditions Delcourt), “The Sentinels” was created by Guillaume Lemans in collaboration with Xabi Molia, written by Guillaume Lemans, Molia and Raphaëlle Richet, and directed by Thierry Poiraud and Édouard Salier.

The story takes place at the outbreak of WWI, when a severely wounded soldier named Gabriel Ferraud is selected for a top-secret research program headed by the French Army that aims to create a whole new breed of combatant. After being injected with a mysterious serum, Gabriel is endowed with unprecedented abilities. Now stronger, faster, and more resistant than the average human, he joins an elite unit of augmented soldiers known as the Sentinels. But he is soon confronted with a terrifying reality that could change the course of the war.

The series is produced by Lionel Uzan and Thierry Sorel for Federation Studio France, and Delphine Clot and Guillaume Lemans for Esprits Frappeurs.

Alongside the unprecedented Canal+ rollout, the series has also aired in Australia (SBS), Belgium (BeTV), Benelux (Play Media), Germany (ProSieben), Canada (TV5), Denmark (DR), Greece (NOVA), Portugal (NOS), Spain (Disney), Turkey (Tivibu) and has sold to more than 60 territories worldwide.

“The Sentinels” will premiere in the U.K. exclusively on BBC iPlayer and BBC Four later this year.

Assi Azar is set to host a new celebrity-driven series “Who Wants to Start?” in which a handful of celebrities who share a “defining life moment” sit down together to discuss it on camera.

Each episode will gather five celebrities who have all experienced a life-changing event such as anxiety, divorce, parenthood or grief, to discuss it in front of a studio audience. There is no script and no celebrity will know who else is taking part until they walk onto the set. Other topics include addiction and recovery, body image, illness, betrayal and financial collapse.

Azar, one of Israel’s most prominent TV creator and presenter, will host and moderate. There will also be other devices to keep the conversation flowing, including multiple sealed envelopes in the room which each contain a question or a prompt, plus interactive elements such as quick-fire questions and mini-games. The aim is to build the conversation towards a closing reflection as the group shares what they have taken from the experience.

The show, from Keshet 12, was created by Azar together with Anat Stalinsky (“The A-Talks”) and Keshet Broadcasting. It is conceived as a returnable format.

“Who Wants to Start?” is produced by Baron Productions. Ido Baron (“Off Road”) is a producer.
It is set to premiere later this summer on Israeli network Keshet 12. Keshet are repping global sales for the format, which will launch at this year’s Mipcom.

“Throughout my career, I’ve learned the power of sharing the things we usually keep to ourselves,” said Azar, who is also an LGBTQ+ activist. “Coming out and speaking about my anxiety showed me how not alone we really are—and that’s what inspired ‘Who Wants to Start?.’ It’s a simple idea: we are not alone. And that’s what this show is here to prove.”

Hilik Sharir, CEO of Keshet 12, said: “At Keshet 12, we look for formats that connect with a broad primetime audience while staying true to warmth, humor and real human connection. ‘Who Wants to Start?’ does exactly that—creating meaningful, entertaining television without relying on conflict, and showing well-known personalities in a more open, human way.”

Kelly Wright, Keshet International’s MD of Distribution, added: “‘Who Wants to Start?’ has everything buyers are looking for: a simple, repeatable format with a strong universal hook and genuine emotional payoff. With a changing group of celebrity participants, none of whom know quite what they’re getting into, each episode stays fresh and authentic. The intimacy of the format keeps it cost-efficient, making it compelling content to stimulate broadcaster and platform offerings worldwide.”

Previous Keshet formats that have found success abroad include “Rising Star” (adapted in 17 countries), “Deal With It!” (produced in over 20 territories) and international hit “The Vault” (which aired in 18 markets).

Lionsgate Play has confirmed a second season of “Heated Rivalry” for 2027, alongside a theatrical-first release model for a curated slate of premium Hollywood titles and more than 100 premieres lined up for India in 2026.

The theatrical push, set to begin in September, will see 10–12 titles debut in Indian cinemas before arriving on the platform. Among the films earmarked for that window are Russell Crowe’s “Billion Dollar Spy,” Gerard Butler’s “Empire City,” Robert Pattinson‘s “Primetime,” Mark Wahlberg’s “By Any Means,” and snake creature feature “Titan.”

The wider 2026 lineup is also heavy on high-profile Hollywood talent. Butler returns in “Greenland 2: Migration,” joined by Jason Statham in “Mutiny,” Angelina Jolie in “Couture,” Zac Efron in “Famous,” and Matthew McConaughey in “The Rivals of Amziah King.” The franchise side of the slate grows with “Apollo Has Fallen” and a third season of “Vigil.”

“Over the past few years, we’ve built Lionsgate Play into a destination for bold, high-impact storytelling,” said Rohit Jain, who acquired the platform from Lionsgate earlier this year following an eight-year tenure as its Asia president. “In 2026, we’re delivering on that vision at full scale, with 100+ premieres, returning franchises, and now, the big screen itself under one roof.”

Lionsgate Play operates across eight Asian markets and reaches more than 40 million viewers in India, where it distributes primarily through a B2B2C model via partners including JioHotstar, Airtel Xstream, and Amazon Prime Video Channels. The platform, which focuses on Hollywood content alongside regional originals, operates under a multi-year licensing agreement with Lionsgate covering branding and content.