Category: Entertainment

The AMC A-List theater subscription program now offers something more than free popcorn and drink size upgrades: the best seats at private American Film Market screenings in November.

A partnership between AFM, AMC Theatres and the Los Angeles-based B-List Movie Club unveiled on Monday will see film fans attend private market screenings and slate presentations alongside industry buyers at the AMC Century City 15 multiplex, directly across from the AFM headquarters at the Fairmont Century Plaza.

As it expands its slate of market screenings in Century City for sales and production companies, the leading indie movie bazaar will look to AMC’s A-List subscribers and B-List Movie Club members to help film buyers gauge audience responses, whether hushed focus or laughter and cheering, ahead of possible acquisition and distribution deals.

Jackie Brenneman, president and CEO of the Independent Film & Television Alliance in a statement explained: “AMC A-List has become a powerful model for theatrical audience engagement, and our collaboration creates a unique opportunity for participating films to connect with frequent moviegoers and gain valuable audience response as they’re introduced to the global marketplace. Together with our expanded screening options, it’s another way we’re creating greater value for the companies and filmmakers who come to AFM.”

Opening up private AFM screenings to movie fans follows the indie business looking to diversify beyond traditional big-budget actioners at the multiplex. That includes high-concept genre plays like Backrooms and Obsession and concert movies that surprise by popping at the box office.

The AMC A-List program is aimed at avid moviegoers, and allows subscribing members to see Hollywood tentpoles and now upcoming movies being shopped to buyers at AFM.

“AMC A-List members are among the most passionate moviegoers in the industry, and we’re always looking for new ways to connect them with unique theatrical experiences. We’re excited to collaborate with AFM and engage communities like The B-List Movie Club to give movie fans access to special screenings, discover upcoming films, and experience content that isn’t typically available to general audiences,” Carrie Trotter, senior vp of marketing at AMC Theatres added in her own statement.

AFM will also this year expand its screening options with world and market premieres, slate showcases and other screenings with hospitality and concessions and red-carpet entrances by film talent during screenings from Nov. 10 to 13 at the AMC Century City. AFM’s 47^th edition is now at 215 exhibiting companies looking to do business, including around pre-sales.

The finance, production, sales and distribution company list includes Gaumont, AGC Studios, Voltage Pictures, HanWay Films, Lionsgate, Neon and Embankment Films.

Sutton Foster charmed an appreciative audience on Saturday night at The Soraya in Northridge, California, with a nearly two-hour performance filled with show tunes and classics, backed by the Pacific Jazz Orchestra — with a surprise appearance by her romantic partner, Hugh Jackman.

Foster kicked off the show by introducing a few folks, including her music director and collaborator, Michael Rafter, who was on piano during the night, and Pacific Jazz Orchestra conductor Chris Walden. She then noted the importance and value of live shows: “We are all live humans, and this is a live orchestra, and you are a live audience. And we are so lucky that we get to gather and celebrate live music,” she said, to applause from the audience.

The Tony-winner sang several Cole Porter songs, including “I Get a Kick Out of You” and “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” from Anything Goes and “Don’t Look at Me That Way” (“It’s quickly becoming one of my favorites,” she said of the latter). She also sang Porter’s “Miss Otis Regrets,” which she noted she’d performed a dance number to when she was young. Marc Shaiman arranged the version she sang, which was based on a Bette Midler rendition, and Foster revealed that Shaiman connected her with Midler, who gave her approval to use that arrangement, much to Foster’s delight.

Foster also shared stories of her 9-year-old daughter, Emily (“She’s my favorite person that I’ve ever met”), and segued into urging the audience to live in the moment before singing “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” She also shared a funny description of her dad, who loves the Weather Channel and the Atlanta Braves, apparently tracks her flights and says humorous things to her, like: “You know, you can really tell when someone else does your hair and makeup.”

While Foster’s singing chops are nearly superhuman, she did have a moment that showed her more endearingly human side just before intermission. She ended the first “act” with “Anything Goes” from Anything Goes, noting that she knew “only one way to and an act one, and it’s with this song.” However, just a few bars into the song, she noted she had “this thing in my throat” and asked Walden and the musician to pause the music.

“I could feel it coming on, you know that thing when you get like a tickle in the back of your throat,” she told the audience, noting the moment was unplanned. “It feels super daunting to sing this song anyway, but not like this. … I’ve never had to do that, but I’m really glad I stopped. This is a lesson. It is OK to stop. I’ve got young performers here [in the audience]. You know what? it’s just a show.”

During the second half of the show, Foster performed a mash-up of “If I Were a Bell” from Guys and Dolls and “Singin’ in the Rain” from the musical of the same name as well as Duke Ellington’s “I Like the Sunrise,” among others.

But it was during “A Doodlin’ Song” that Jackman came out onstage, much to the delight of the crowd. After Foster sang the lyrics, “Why don’t you join the group? It’s better than being a party-poop,” Jackman then joined in, to loud applause. The couple, who have been dating for nearly two years, engaged in some fun onstage banter: “What are you doing?” she asked him. “You said you wanted me to join the group,” he replied. “No, you’re supposed to stay backstage? … Why do you have a microphone?” she asked him. “It’s 2026; everybody has a microphone,” he quipped.

After the song was over, Foster began, “So now that you’re onstage … ” to which he joked: “Yeah, do you want five or six numbers from me?” Jackman continued: “Well, I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but we sang this, and we’re gonna sing a song that we sang together many or a couple of times.”

Indeed, Jackman did stay to perform for another song — a complete surprise to the audience as it wasn’t listed in the program — with Foster. That song, “A Million Dreams,” from Jackman’s 2017 film The Greatest Showman, was something the couple workshopped together 12 years ago. “It took eight years for The Greatest Showman to be built, and I was a part of two of the workshops,” Foster said. “It was many years ago, so this is a song that we did sing together and we would love to sing it for you tonight.”

In a sweet moment, Jackman gave Foster a kiss before departing the stage. “I don’t know how we recover from that, so we’re just gonna end the show now,” Foster quipped of Jackman’s cameo. She thanked Jackman for coming out onstage with her “and singing and for getting my daughter Taco Bell today.”

Foster then sang “Meantime” before being given a standing ovation. She indulged the crowd in one last bonus tune: “Till There Was You,” from The Music Man. That musical, of course, had a revival on Broadway that debuted in 2022 and starred Foster and Jackman. The crowd happily obliged her request to sing along.

Foster’s performance kicked off The Soraya’s 2026-27 season, which marks its 16th season overall, and the first under new executive and artistic director Chad Hilligus. See the full schedule.

The sixth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival has been postponed, the event’s Foundation has confirmed.

A note released to press on Monday explains that this year’s installment, originally set for Dec. 3-12 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has been pushed back to the fourth quarter of 2027.

It comes as the entire region deals with ongoing military tension amid the U.S.-Israeli-Iran war, with the threat of missile and drone strikes active and Saudi Arabia dealing with targeted attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis.

The decision follows “a comprehensive review of a range of considerations relating to the timing of the next edition, including the logistical requirements involved in staging an international event of this scale,” said the statement.

“It reflects the Foundation’s commitment to ensuring the Festival takes place at the right time and under the right conditions to deliver the experience for which the Red Sea International Film Festival has become known,” it continued. “As part of this continued commitment, the Foundation will introduce year-round programming at Culture Square in Historic Jeddah beginning in November 2026, establishing it as an ongoing destination for film screenings, cultural events and specialised film-industry programmes.”

Organizers have vowed that the festival will return in 2027 with a “renewed vision and a programme that continues to celebrate cinema and filmmakers from Saudi Arabia, the region and around the world.”

The Red Sea Film Festival has gone from strength to strength in recent years and funnelled much of its investment into attracting Hollywood A-listers to Jeddah, as well as its Red Sea Fund, Red Sea Labs and wider initiatives, which will continue to operate within the Foundation’s “year-round ecosystem.” Among the attendees last year were Michael Caine, Johnny Depp, Sean Baker, Juliette Binoche, Adrien Brody, Kirsten Dunst, Jessica Alba and Queen Latifah.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico are suing the Trump administration after the White House revoked their press credentials, effectively banning them from the White House complex and making it a challenge to cover the President and his staff.

“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the three news outlets said in a statement early Monday morning. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”

In fact, CNN had been slated to be the primary TV press pool Monday, a day in which President Trump is slated to fly to New York for meetings with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

In their lawsuit (led by famed First Amendment litigator Ted Boutros), the news outlets argue that Trump’s decision was in profound conflict with the law.

“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the suit states. “Presidents from the earliest days of the Republic have disagreed with and complained about the tenor and content of press coverage of their administrations. But as the Supreme Court has recognized, the First Amendment, including its guarantee of a free press, reflects “a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.” The suit states quoting a passage from the landmark case, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270 (1964).

“And the Constitution protects the liberty and property interests that news organizations and White House reporters have in their press credentials and the access those credentials afford them to cover the White House for the benefit of the public,” it continues. “No official can deprive Plaintiffs of those interests on a whim—with no notice, no process, and no warning—as the President did here.”

Trump announced his ban in a post Friday, causing some confusion in the White House as crews from the outelts remained onsite. However, on Saturday morning journalists from all three outlets trying to enter the White House complex found that their credentials had been revoked.

In an Oval Office appearance, Trump said that the decision followed cumulative coverage over the past few years, and wasn’t driven by any story in particular.

“The President repeated his straightforward rationale for targeting these three news organizations, calling it ‘wrong’ to ‘allow people to write purposely negative stories,’” the lawsuit recounts. “The President complained about coverage he considers ‘one-sided’ and ‘never good,’ and at one point even referred to his own unprecedented act as the ‘ban on the free press.’”

He also suggested that he knew his move would end up being litigated, suggesting that the outcome would depend on the judge that gets the cse.

In his first term the White House banned CNN correspondent Jim Acosta from the White House, but a judge ordered his pass returned, citing First Amendment protections. The AP had also sued after it was barred from covering certain events after its style guide declined to refer to the body of water as the Gulf of America.

Kit Harington is feeling warmer — a bit — towards the idea of reprising his iconic fan-favorite role of Jon Snow.

The actor — who’s set to return to HBO in the company’s upcoming Harry Potter series — told the Happy Sad Confused podcast Monday that he actually feels more comfortable with the idea of reprising the reluctant Game of Thrones warrior than he did in the past.

The topic was raised when Harington was asked about HBO’s Snow spinoff sequel that was developed several years ago and then shelved.

“We developed it two years or so,” Harington said. “I still think there’s a world in which something could work. I wouldn’t have gone into it in the first place if I didn’t. But I was very insistent at the start — as was HBO and George R.R. Martin — of like: ‘If we don’t find the right thing, let’s not do it. It’s much better if we don’t.’ After a little while of of thinking about it — it kind of was me — [I said], ‘This isn’t quite the right [story].’”

Continued Harington: “[But] now I’ve gone and done all these other things and now I feel more comfortable with that character and that world again and where it sits in my life.”

THR broke the news of the Snow development in 2022. In our cover story profile of Martin in January, we reported the initial idea was a tale of Snow living alone as a broken man with PTSD, having chased off his direwolf Ghost and thrown away his sword Longclaw. Harington wanted Jon to eventually die and to avoid being a hero.

The story echoed, in some respects, Harington’s personal struggles — entering rehab following an intense shooting experience on Thrones. Last year, a new writer (Quoc Dang Tran from Drops of God) came aboard to attempt to revive the sequel idea, possibility shifting the drama to the Mediterranean-like land of Essos.

Yet it was another franchise headed to HBO that helped Harington with his sobriety struggles — Harry Potter. Harington told the podcast that the Potter audiobooks were helpful in the wake of ditching alcohol. “My brain is incredibly busy, especially at night, and I’ve always found going to bed very difficult like and my brain doesn’t turn off,” he said. “When I got sober that got especially bad. So I started listening to Harry Potter audio books, and now they’re the thing I listen to every night.”

Harington was cast as Gilderoy Lockhart in the Full Cast Audio editions of the Potter books, which were released last year. Last month, Harington was cast to join HBO’s live-action Harry Potter series, where he’ll play the dangerously narcissistic Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in season two.

“Lockhart is addicted to himself,” Harington quips. “It’s just a tiny step to my left [for me].”

Harington is currently promoting his role in a four-part TV adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities on MGM+, which was released Sept. 6.