Category: Entertainment

The British Academy has further addressed Sunday night’s N-word controversy at the Film Awards.

In a letter to members sent Tuesday, BAFTA Chair Sara Putt and CEO Jane Millichip discussed the incident, in which Tourette’s syndrome activist John Davidson involuntarily shouted the N-word while Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting on stage. In the letter, they said they wanted to “acknowledge the harm this has caused, address what happened and apologise to all.” They also said that a “comprehensive review” was now underway.

The letters comes a day after BAFTA issued out a public statement in response to mounting anger over the situation, asserting that it took “full responsibility” for putting its “guests in a very difficult situation and we apologise to all.”

The new review comes just six years after BAFTA underwent a major internal review aimed at addressing the lack of diversity in the film awards. The seven-month process resulted in more than 120 wide-ranging changes across its voting, membership and campaigning processes.

See the full letter to members from Putt and Millichip below.

We would like to address the situation that arose during the EE BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday night, in which highly offensive language that carries incomparable trauma and pain for so many was heard. We issued a statement last night, and we want members to hear from us directly, too. Please find our public statement here.

We recognise this has impacted members in a multitude of ways – we want to acknowledge the harm this has caused, address what happened and apologise to all.

One of our guests, John Davidson MBE has Tourette Syndrome and has devoted his life to educating and campaigning for better understanding of the condition. John is an executive producer of one of the nominated films, I Swear. The film highlights that Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disability that causes involuntary verbal tics, that the individual has no control over. Such tics are in no way a reflection of an individual’s beliefs and are not intentional.

We take the duty of care to all our guests very seriously and prepared extensively in order for John to be able to be present in the room. We made those in attendance aware of the tics, announcing to the audience before the ceremony began, and throughout, that John was in the room and that they may hear involuntary strong and offensive language, noises or movements during the ceremony. We fully understand our intention to be inclusive in no way diminishes the impact of what happened.

Early in the ceremony loud and involuntary tics, including one in the form of a profoundly offensive term, were heard by many people in the room. Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage at the time, and we have apologised unreservedly to them, and to all those impacted. We have also thanked Michael and Delroy for their incredible dignity and professionalism – and regret they were put in this position in the first place.

During the ceremony, John chose to leave the auditorium and watch the rest of the ceremony from a screen, and we have also thanked him for his dignity and consideration of others, on what should have been a night of celebration for him.

We are in contact with the studios involved and conversations are ongoing.

We want to assure all our members that a comprehensive review is underway. You may have also seen the BBC have issued their own apology for the broadcast.

It was a very complex situation and we understand you will have many questions – please rest assured how seriously we are taking this. If you’d like to contact us, please email membership@bafta.org.

We take full responsibility for putting our guests and members of the academy in a very difficult situation and we will learn from this.

We will keep inclusion at the core of all we do, maintaining our belief in film and storytelling as a critical conduit for compassion and empathy – as firmly demonstrated by this year’s nominated and winning films.

Fangoria Studios has partnered with filmmaker-actor Luke Barnett on the upcoming horror short “Goodbye, Monster,” starring Barnett and Kue Lawrence with voice performances by Patton Oswalt and Tina Majorino. The film marks one of the first projects from the studio’s expanding slate of original genre projects.

The horror short is written and directed by Barnett. Per an official synopsis, “‘Goodbye, Monster’ centers on Wilson, a 12-year-old boy who receives one final visit from the creature under his bed. The short continues Barnett’s signature blend of empathy, emotional storytelling, and genre craft.”

“Luke is someone we’ve watched make incredible choices over the past few years with his shorts, and we knew we wanted to be part of what he’s creating,” Tara Ansley, co-owner of Fangoria, said in a statement.

“Goodbye, Monster” was shot using practical effects, with creature makeup designed by Dan Crawley (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Terrifier 3”). Vince Masciale and Natalie Masciale produced the short alongside Barnett. Executive producers include Tara Ansley, Armen Aghaeian, Abhi Goel, Jake Morgan and Cole Travis. Co-producers are Jake Bootz, Adam J. Losoya and Michael Brodner.

“For anyone who loves horror, Fangoria is sacred ground,” said Barnett. “They’re champions of practical effects, fearless storytelling, and filmmakers who take big swings. It’s a dream come true to collaborate with a team so passionate about the art form. Long live practical effects.”

Barnett recently appeared in the anthology drama film “Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake),” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025. His script “Epilogue” was announced last year, with Mike Flanagan attached as executive producer and David Dastmalchian and Kate Siegel set to star.

“Goodbye, Monster” is currently in post-production and will premiere on the festival circuit later this year.

Netflix co-founder, chairman and former CEO Reed Hastings is continuing his long-standing support of Ukraine and aid for its war efforts. As Ukraine’s war with Russia enters its fourth year, Hastings just donated $5 million to White Stork, a charity that will use the funds to support combat medics along the frontline with anti-drone jamming systems and other help.

Hastings previously donated $2 million last year to White Stork, and before that, gave $1 million to Razom for emergency relief.

White Stork, which is named for the national bird of Ukraine, bills itself as the largest non-governmental organization supplying individual first aid kits and anti-drone jamming systems to Ukraine. That’s key because Russia is flying weaponized first-person view drones into casualty evacuation vehicles.

“The resource needs of Ukrainian combat medics are shifting as technology evolves on the battlefield. While evacuating wounded soldiers, medics must navigate a gauntlet of killer Russian drones that are persistently monitoring, and relentlessly targeting, anything that moves along the front line,” said White Stork head of mission William McNulty, who is also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. “With Reed’s gift, White Stork is increasing production orders to 80 jamming systems per month. I am grateful for his enduring support to democracy in Ukraine.”

The anti-drone jamming systems, which blast electromagnetic noise at the radio frequencies that the drones use to operate, cost up to $7,000.

White Stork has delivered more than 174,000 combat first aid kids and 471 jamming systems since the start of the war. The aid organization notes that 100% of jamming systems expenses and 67% of individual first aid kid component costs are invested into Ukranian manufacturers, in order to build up Ukraine’s domestic production capacity and reduce its reliance on foreign hardware donations.

“I have discussed with Reed our need to maintain the technological edge on the battlefield. His donation provides Ukrainian soldiers with lifesaving technology and helps build up our defense industry through domestic production,” said Alexander Kamyshin, Ukraine’s presidential advisor for strategic affairs. 

Other aid supplied by White Stork include de-mining equipment, kevlar blankets, trench shovels, flame resistant flight suits and body armor.

Hastings has been known for his generous donations over the years, including $50 million to fund AI research for the humanities at Bowdin College; Netflix shares worth $500 million to Silicon Valley Community Foundation; $7 million to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign; $20 million to San Francisco’s Minerva University; $10 million to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College, as well as $120 million to other historically Black colleges and universities; $1 million to police reform research group Center for Policing Equity; and $30 million to nonprofit immunization org Gavi Alliance, among others.

Every time Noah Cyrus drives by a billboard for the upcoming Universal movie “Reminders of Him,” she gets giddy. It’s not because she’s a Colleen Hoover super fan per se, but Cyrus plays a key part in the project: the Grammy nominee penned the end credits song “Light Over the Hill” — her first track for a movie.

“I feel like I’m on that billboard, even though I’m not,” Cyrus tells Variety, practically bubbling over with excitement. “I’m just so proud of it. Every time we pass the billboards, I say, ‘Oh my god, there’s my movie!’ It really is such a loving project; everything just feels so light and authentic about it.”

Writing a song for a film had been one of Cyrus’ goals for years. (“There are two things you can’t do without music, and that’s fashion and movies and TV. They all go together,” she says.) So, when “Reminders of Him” director Vanessa Caswill reached out to discuss the prospect of writing a piece for the end credits, Cyrus was elated.

Caswill wanted to show her the movie, starring Maika Monroe as Kenna, a young woman who returns to her hometown in Wyoming after serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake and hopes to reconnect with Diem, the daughter she’s never known. Everyone is intent on keeping them apart, but Kenna grows a bond with local bar owner Ledger (Tyriq Withers), who has become an important part of Diem’s life. Rudy Pankow (Scotty, Kenna’s first love and Diem’s late father), Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford, Nicholas Duvernay and Grammy winner Lainey Wilson round out the ensemble cast.

Cyrus hadn’t read Hoover’s bestseller before the private screening, just her and Caswill, so she was able to react to all the story’s twists and turns in real time. “I’m a movie-before-book person. I have bad ADHD,” Cyrus says. “When I was a little girl, and I saw ‘Twilight’ for the first time, I watched all the [movies] and then read the books.”

That said, Cyrus’ mom, Tish Cyrus-Purcell, is a huge Hoover fan, so she’s a touch jealous that her daughter got a sneak peek at the big-screen adaptation, which hits theaters March 13. (“Oh my gosh, my mom was like, ‘I wish you would have told me. I would have gone,’” Cyrus says, laughing.)

“We watched the film and I took my notes,” Cyrus says. She was particularly touched by the story’s themes about rebirth, which she’d recently explored on “New Country,” a song from her sophomore album. “I had this overwhelming emotion of how freeing it is to make a new start and the chance to rebuild yourself and make a better version of yourself for the people that you love. That inspired me.”

After chatting with Caswill, Cyrus took her notes to the recording studio and got to work with her co-producer and co-writer, PJ Harding. “I was just trying to channel what the movie made me feel,” she says. “We felt this fresh lift of energy and hopefully of having love and family and the chance of a new start. The representation of light and that new beginning.”

As such, the instrumentation on the track became a folky-bluegrass blend. “Everything is so organic. It’s so light and airy [because] that’s what I felt from watching the film from start to finish.”

The song’s title, “Light Over the Hill,” represents a few things. “The light is Scotty. The light is hope. The light is love. The light is moving forward,” Cyrus says. “That’s what life is: every day we wake up and the sun is shining, that’s another blessing.”

Working with Caswill was a dream. “She gave me the artistic freedom to go where I wanted with the song,” Cyrus says. “We had some focal point on what we might want to touch on or specific words that could evoke feelings. But I wanted to create a song that sonically put you in the location and the community they live in, and music that the people in the movie would have liked.”

But writing a song for someone else’s art is a bit different than writing for one’s own vision. “As much as this was my song, I wanted this to complete their film. So, if it wasn’t going to be this song, I was ready to write another song,” Cyrus says. Fortunately, the filmmakers were thrilled with what she’d delivered. “They were just like, ‘This is it. It was everything we all imagined and more,’” she recalls. “We were all very aligned through the whole process. I’m so grateful this was my first opportunity, and it just left me so hungry to do more work with film and TV.”

Coincidentally, Cyrus’ older sister, Miley Cyrus, was recently on the same path, contributing the end credits song for December’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” But Cyrus didn’t ask big sis for advice about writing for the screen; in fact, they didn’t even realize they were both in the studio on the same mission.

“We are so not the family that, like, goes to each other and is like, ‘I’m doing this this week. I’m doing that this week,’” Cyrus says. “I totally didn’t know she was doing the ‘Avatar’ song until it was broadcast on my feed. Then we talked about how cool it was that we both had songs coming out in movies.”

She adds, “I really believe in gifts and blessings and things from the universe that just align, and I think that’s really one of them. It’s been a really, really cool thing to see my sister do her thing, while I also feel like I’m really getting a hold of mine.”

Right now, the younger Cyrus is eagerly anticipating her movie moment. She won’t see the final cut of the “Reminders of Him,” with her song as its coda, until the Los Angeles premiere next month. (And yes, she’s going to make sure her mom sees the movie too.)

“I ran into [Withers], and he was like, ‘I just saw [Caswill] and she was telling me about the song. She is so freaking excited!’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, do you want me to send it to you?’ and he’s like, ‘No! I don’t want to hear it until it’s in the movie.’” Cyrus says, grinning. “So, we’re all gonna see it in the movie together for the first time at the premiere. It’s gonna be such an amazing experience that I’m so, so honored and delighted to be a part of.”