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  • Tucker Carlson Returns to ‘SNL’ to Review ‘The Odyssey,’ Gender-Neutral ‘Spider-Man’ and Left-Wing ‘Obsession’

    Tucker Carlson Returns to ‘SNL’ to Review ‘The Odyssey,’ Gender-Neutral ‘Spider-Man’ and Left-Wing ‘Obsession’

    On the first “Weekend Update” of “Saturday Night Live” Season 52, Jeremy Culhane revived his fan-favorite impression of Tucker Carlson to offer his thoughts on some of the summer’s biggest blockbusters.

    On “The Odyssey,” Carlson mentioned the specialty format of Imax 70mm, saying, “The Hollywood cabal shoots its filth with millimeters — or as I like to call it, the gay inch.” He added, “I like ‘The Odyssey.’ It’s so nice to see Greek people do something other than make women feel uncomfortable.”

    Carlson then turned his attention to the biggest movie of the year, saying, “Everybody loves ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Gender.’”

    “That’s not what it’s called,” Colin Jost asserted, but the conservative commentator was already inventing a theme song: “Spider-They, Spider-Them uses whatever bathroom it feels like.”

    Carlson then congratulated the movie’s stars on getting married, but stopped himself as he said, “I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. — huh? She refused to take his last name.”

    As Jost reminded him that Zendaya “doesn’t have a last name,” Carlson said, “But where did it go? And who took it? And why? Sorry kids, you don’t get two names anymore. You only get one name, like a dog. That’s the rule. That’s the goal now.”

    When asked about “Obsession,” Carlson said, “The left’s idea of a horror movie — that a woman is forced to love a man. Oh, no, help! I’m being chased by a heterosexual relationship! Is this what we want? I don’t. Do you? You shouldn’t. But you do. Why? Is that allowed? Maybe.”

    Carlson continued on, equating “Minions and Monsters” to “Trump’s cabinet” and then saying, deadpan, “That’s right. I’ve turned on Trump. I’m so brave.”

    And, finally, the pundit made a raunchy “Toy Story 5” joke. “You’ve got a friend in me?” Carlson asked. “And his name is Woody?”

    Culhane debuted his Carlson impression in Season 51 of “SNL” and reprised the character on “Weekend Update.” This marks the third appearance of the character. Watch the segment below.

  • John Turturro on Joining the Oscar Race — and ‘Severance’ Season 3

    John Turturro on Joining the Oscar Race — and ‘Severance’ Season 3

    Hot on the heels of his Golden Eye award ceremony on Saturday night, John Turturro entertained another crowd at a Zurich Film Festival masterclass on Sunday.

    The Emmy-winning U.S. star has been recognized for his performance in Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, a project that is already garnering awards buzz. In the film, Turturro plays Harry, a seasoned pickpocket whose carefully controlled life is thrown into turmoil when a job goes wrong, setting off a tense chain of events that unfolds over the course of 36 hours.

    In a career-spanning conversation with Deadline‘s Melanie Goodfellow — the actor’s shining Golden Eye trophy neatly nestled between them — Turturro discussed growing up in an immigrant household, his decades-long friendship with Spike Lee, and the transition from acting to filmmaking.

    Turturro, who has steadily become one of the industry’s most formidable actors yet to put “Oscar nominee” on his resume, was asked about joining the best actor race this year with the Sundance success The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. “I never really have gone the whole hog with it,” he responded about the upcoming awards campaign. “But now I’m the lead in the film, so I’m going to support the film because I love the film.”

    He explained that being pulled into awards conversations is “helpful to help you do the next thing.” Turturro continued: “Is it nice to be acknowledged? Great, but that’s not why you do it. […] Just because a film is really popular doesn’t mean it will have staying power, but it’s nice to be in the conversation. I don’t look upon myself as being a competitive person. I’m competitive with myself,” he added. “I want to get the most out of what I can do, but it’s not sports!”

    However, he admitted to feeling surprised by the positive critic reaction out of Sundance. “Finally,” he thought, “I’m in something that people will see… My job is I like to try to improve, and I feel like being an actor is one of the few things you can improve in. You may not be able to run as fast as you did when you were younger, but I have a lot of life experience, and as you get older, you accumulate that, and you can distill things in a way that you couldn’t do when you were young, because you didn’t really experience all those things. And now I’ve experienced life, death, loss, being a parent, being married — what it is to really love someone versus falling in love. That’s a huge difference,” he giggled.

    Turturro regaled attendees with stories about his impressive stage career. He naturally came on to two major TV performances of his in the last decade: HBO’s The Night Of and Apple’s Severance.

    He coyly confirmed a return for his character, Irving Bailiff, in season three of the Emmy-winning Severance with Adam Scott. “Yeah,” he (eventually) told the room. “As long as they give me interesting things to do, then I’m interested.” He swiftly took the opportunity to gush over friend and colleague Christopher Walken, whose character, Burt Goodman, began a romance with Turturro’s Irving in season one. “‘Who’s going to be my love interest?’” Turturro asked before joining the show. “And they were like, ‘All these younger guys.’ I said, ‘Well no, I’ve worked with Chris Walken,’ and I said, ‘I want Chris, because I love Chris.’ And I don’t have to act that I love him because I love him.”

    Though Walken “didn’t understand a lot of the show,” Turturro was able to guide him through their authentic, real-life friendship. “I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. You just look at me.’ We have so much fun because I directed him like three times, and we’ve acted, and we’ve worked together a lot. And he’s a wonderful theater actor, and people obviously think he plays only strange [characters] but he can do a lot of different things. He’s also very sensitive, but he has a childlike joy in his work, and when that happens, anything is possible.”

    Turturro received a round of applause when discussing the HBO crime drama The Night Of, which ran for one season in 2016 and co-starred Riz Ahmed. It would later win five Emmys, and Turturro was nominated for his role as the eczema-stricken defense lawyer John Stone. “The Night Of is something I’m very proud of,” said Turturro on Sunday. “It was originally a BBC thing, which I actually never watched because I didn’t want to be influenced.”

    He even confirmed that he actually wanted to do another season of it. “But they couldn’t agree on what the story would be,” revealed the actor. “But I loved doing it. It was one of those great experiences in my life.”

    Turturro’s career spans four decades, having worked with acclaimed directors such as Spike Lee, the Coen brothers, Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, Nanni Moretti and Pedro Almodóvar.

    He first gained international recognition through his collaborations with Lee, appearing in Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever. With Joel and Ethan Coen, he acted in Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Big Lebowksi, in which Turturro created the iconic Jesus Quintana. For his lead performance in Barton Fink, he won best actor at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, an experience that Turturro reflected on at his Zurich masterclass. He even confessed to feeling like he lands “more normal” roles in Europe than across the Atlantic, and said he has turned down scripts “again and again” that involve his character being violent towards women.

    At his Zurich Golden Eye ceremony Saturday night, Turturro collected the award and quoted Italian novelist Cesare Pavese. “[He] once said that the only great thing in life is to begin. I still consider myself a beginner in many ways,” said the star. “I’m very fortunate. I wanted to make a living doing something that interested me and to do interesting work — to share that with an audience, [and that] wouldn’t diminish their intelligence at the same time,” he laughed. “I consider this an encouragement to continue.”

    Turturro joins 2026 Zurich honorees Julianne Moore and Tom Hiddleston. The 22nd edition runs Sept. 24-Oct. 4.

  • Jia Zhangke Readies Zhao Tao Road Movie ‘Mamma Dunhuang,’ Rules Out AI in Production (EXCLUSIVE)

    Jia Zhangke Readies Zhao Tao Road Movie ‘Mamma Dunhuang,’ Rules Out AI in Production (EXCLUSIVE)

    Jia Zhangke will turn his attention to location scouting and production design for his next film, road movie “Mamma Dunhuang,” once the 10th Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival wraps on Sept. 30.

    As revealed by Variety, the film follows a woman who drives from Dunhuang, in western China near Central Asia, all the way to the sea. It is set to shoot in early winter.

    “I really love western China, and I go to Dunhuang quite often. Dunhuang was a vital transit hub on the ancient Silk Road, keep going west and you can arrive in Rome. Yet, it is so far from the ocean,” Jia tells Variety. “So this whole film is a continental story that starts in Dunhuang and travels from the west to the eastern coastline – she drives until the sea comes into view.”

    Zhao Tao, who won the David di Donatello Award for best actress for “Shun Li and the Poet,” will once again lead a Jia film, playing a homebound woman who uses AI to help her on the journey.

    “I will not use AI in making ‘Mamma Dunhuang,’” Jia says. “It only plays a role in the story.”

    Jia founded the Pingyao festival, which marks its 10th edition this year. He says that although it’s only been a decade, “the changes in the broader film ecosystem and the media landscape, as well as technological advancements, are drastic. Pingyao has remained nimble. We’ve been able to adapt continuously alongside the shifts in the film industry and surrounding media, capturing new developments for our curation. Looking ahead, I believe cinema will continue to evolve rapidly, so we will maintain this festival’s agility in the future. That very flexibility allows us to respond in real time to the most pressing cinematic and cultural topics on people’s minds today.”

    Jia wants Pingyao to remain a haven for cinephiles rather than a hall of fame. Where most international festivals program hundreds of films, he intends to keep Pingyao’s lineup lean, built around the year’s newest boutique titles, so the spotlight falls on the selected films and helps them reach the market. This year’s official program has just 51 films.

    “As a festival, not only must it have great programs, but also a vibe of equality, freedom, and ease, setting a tone where the filmmakers and audiences can merge together,” Jia says. “We put effort into bringing in films with great artistic value, and meanwhile cover as many countries and regions as possible, prioritizing regions less familiar to Chinese audiences, such as northeastern Europe and South America, hoping to introduce a broader spectrum of cinema to the Chinese audience.”

    Pingyao’s online ticketing system logged more than 70 million visits this year.

    Jia says part of the problem is Pingyao’s limited capacity, as the ancient city “is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage [Site]. We’ve been working on building one more theater, ideally inside the ancient city walls, with 300–500 seats to enlarge the capacity. But it is very difficult to realize this plan, we are still discussing.”

    For its fifth edition, the festival partnered with visual artist Xu Bing on “AI-IF,” a project that invited audiences to make films using AI. Jia says the festival’s AI projects have all been exhibitions, and none of this year’s official selections were made with AI.

    “We’ve been prudent,” Jia says. “But we maintain an open, observant, and inclusive stance toward AI. When it comes to technology advancement, each of us holds a different perspective, but there should be one fundamental attitude: we must understand and discuss it, not shy away from it. Pingyao upholds a spirit of prudent inclusivity.” Earlier this year, Jia created an AI-generated video.

    Jia also co-founded Unknown Pleasures, a Chinese art-house distributor named after his 2002 film, and says the company is negotiating to acquire two Cannes titles. In June, it announced deals for Russian auteur Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur” and French cinematographer Marine Atlan’s debut feature “La Gradiva.”

    “We hope Unknown Pleasures’ acquired titles all have a great showcase in Pingyao,” Jia says.

  • Beyond Frontman Doc ‘Because of You Ka Kui’ to Open U.K.’s Odyssey Film Festival, Lands Local Distribution (EXCLUSIVE)

    Beyond Frontman Doc ‘Because of You Ka Kui’ to Open U.K.’s Odyssey Film Festival, Lands Local Distribution (EXCLUSIVE)

    “Because of You Ka Kui,” a documentary on the late Beyond frontman Wong Ka Kui, will open the sixth Odyssey Film Festival in the U.K., with NGO U.K.-China Film Collab also picking up the Hong Kong film for local distribution.

    Discussions began in March at FilMart in Hong Kong, which U.K.-China Film Collab attended with the U.K. Film Pavilion. The NGO deployed a similar approach last year with Robin Lee’s Hong Kong documentary “Four Trails,” which opened Odyssey and then played more widely in cinemas in 2025.

    The film, from Hong Kong director Rosa Pang, revisits Wong, the singer-songwriter who drove Beyond creatively and whose songs shaped a generation of Cantonese-speaking listeners in Hong Kong and further afield. The producers are Yip Sai Wing, one of Beyond’s founding members, and Leslie Chan, the manager who is credited with finding the group.

    The film is built around interviews with people who knew Wong both personally and through work. These sit alongside rare concert recordings, never-before-shown archive material from his early years and footage that has not been released until now. It follows Wong from his first brushes with music through the rise of Beyond and his growth as a songwriter and performer, looking at his approach to music, his character and his ideals. Pang and Leslie Chan described it as a dedication to “a legend, an ordinary person, through memories of those who truly knew him. The film seeks to rediscover the real Wong Ka Kui.”

    Wong died in an accident in Japan in 1993, at age 31. The band’s songs have kept finding new listeners since.

    There is also a U.K. link. The film’s interview with Beyond founding member William Tang was shot in London.

    After an earlier theatrical run in Asia, “Because of You Ka Kui” will have its U.K. premiere as Odyssey’s opening film. The festival will run Sept. 28–Oct. 10 at a number of cinemas as well as online. Each edition is built around a different theme, and this year’s is #Fashion.

    “Beyond did not simply follow the fashion of their generation, in many ways, they helped create it, like Oasis for the U.K.,” said Hiu Man Chan, Odyssey’s artistic director and founder of U.K.-China Film Collab. “Their music, image, attitude and style became part of the cultural memory of Hong Kong and influenced generations across Asia. Fashion is not only about what an era wears; it is also about how a generation chooses to see and express itself. That makes ‘Because of You Ka Kui’ a very meaningful film to launch this year’s Odyssey.”

    Hiu Man Chan said the opening pick reflected the festival’s aim to treat fashion as more than clothing and catwalks, and to explore how film, music, visual identity and pop culture feed into one another. Bringing the film to the U.K. was “my true honor,” Hiu Man Chan added.

    The selection also stretches the fashion theme to cover youth culture and music. Beyond’s sound and look, which mixed international rock influences with a Hong Kong that was changing fast through the 1980s and early 1990s, became bound up with a generation of young fans. Yip has called the documentary a rare chance to find the “ordinary person” behind the bandleader and icon.

    Malaysian company Abnormal Studios launched “Because of You Ka Kui” internationally at FilMart in March, as the lead title of its new international sales arm.

    “‘Because of You Ka Kui’ is not about nostalgia. The honesty of Wong Ka Kui as a person – in what he thought, felt and believed – continues to resonate today,” Pang said.

    Leslie Chan said that after hearing all the interviews, “I really felt that I came to know Ka Kui all over again.”

    Odyssey’s sixth edition will program older films alongside new ones. The festival’s opening and some of its program have backing from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London.

  • Ethena unlocks a $150T market – And USDe holders win

    Ethena unlocks a $150T market – And USDe holders win

    Ethena officially kicked off its $USDe yield reserve expansion to RWA (real-world asset) basis trading on Friday on the Binance exchange.

    In a statement, the protocol said the move into equity or RWA perps was the –

    Most exciting update to the $USDe collateral backing since launch.

    The team first announced final plans for the RWA perps expansion last month, noting that it offers a massive scaling opportunity of +$150T compared to crypto’s $2.5T.

    As part of the arrangement, Ethena will use Binance’s bStocks (Spot tokenized stocks and ETFs) and the $USDT-denominated perps versions for both sides of the trade.

    For the unfamiliar, a basis trade involves buying a spot asset and shorting its equivalent perpetual Futures contract to pocket the price difference and funding rate.

    According to Ethena, the Binance equity basis trade has averaged 11% in the past six months, nearly 2x the returns offered on short-term U.S. Treasury bonds.

    Additionally, Binance was chosen as the first platform for RWA-basis trade expansion because of low-risk and strong equity perps (30% monthly growth).

    Importantly, Binance provides lower ADL priority for eligible delta-neutral accounts, including Ethena’s, adding another layer of risk mitigation for $USDe holders.

    Will $USDe yield expansion boost $ENA?

    $USDe is Ethena’s main flagship synthetic stablecoin product that allows holders to earn yield. As mentioned, the RWA perps basis is just one way it captures the yield shared back to holders.

    Ethena also deploys some of the reserves to DeFi lending (Aave/Morpho), crypto basis trade, institutional lending (BTC), liquid stablecoins, and RWA (syndicated company loans).

    Think of it as Circle’s USDC or Tether’s $USDT. Both park their reserves in U.S. T-bills, but they pocket nearly all the +4% earned interest income. That’s where Tether’s billions in profits come from.

    Instead, $USDe diversifies the reserve backing to scale the yield beyond the short-term bond yields of 4%. And a portion of the yield is shared back to $USDe holders.

    Source: Blockworks

    During the peak of crypto winter in June/July, basis trade accounted for only 1% of $USDe yield backing. As of writing, the basis trade share has risen towards 20%, and Ethena believes it could drive $USDe demand.

    We expect the market opportunity size for equity perpetuals to far exceed the $15B+ of crypto perpetuals captured by Ethena last cycle.

    The $USDe market supply currently stands at $4.8B. But analysts project that growth will spill over to $ENA, the protocol’s native ecosystem and governance token.

    Sam Ruskin, Investment Associate at VC firm Reciprocal Ventures, echoed the same.

    There are very, very few projects in crypto with as much potential upside as Ethena.

    Already, $ENA posted 105% gains over the past two weeks, rallying from $0.13 to $0.28.

    Source: $ENA/$USDT, TradingView

    Final Summary

    • Ethena kicked off its equity perps basis trade on Binance to tap its 11% yield.
    • $USDe’s yield-basis trade backing increased from 1% to 19% in H2 2026.
  • This Altcoin Refused to Freeze the Assets Stolen from Bitget

    This Altcoin Refused to Freeze the Assets Stolen from Bitget

    While efforts continue to track the funds stolen following the security incident at Bitget, it has been reported that the attackers have begun transferring some assets across chains via THORChain. SlowMist’s on-chain tracking platform, MistTrack, stated that the funds were used in exchange and cross-chain bridging transactions via THORChain.

    MistTrack previously recalled that a significant portion of the approximately $1.2 billion in funds stolen in the Bybit attack was also moved between chains via THORChain. The platform stated that addresses linked to the Bitget attack have been publicly identified across the industry and are being actively tracked.

    According to MistTrack, the fact that funds originating from a publicly known large-scale attack could still be processed through large-scale cross-chain transactions raises a new debate about the responsibility of decentralized protocols. The platform argued that the principle of “decentralization” should not be used as an automatic justification for processing known stolen funds, and that the responsibility that protocols like THORChain should bear in such cases needs to be discussed industry-wide.

    Following this announcement, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated that the addresses associated with the attackers had been publicly shared and were still being actively monitored, and issued a formal call to THORChain. Chen requested that the protocol reject transactions originating from those addresses.

    Chen said that decentralization is a design principle, but it should not be seen as “a shield to facilitate the movement of stolen funds with known origins.”

    THORChain responded to the criticism by emphasizing that the protocol operates in a decentralized and permissionless manner, just like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and $BNB Chain. While expressing regret over the Bitget attack, the team questioned, “How much responsibility should Bitcoin, Ethereum, and $BNB Chain bear when processing known stolen funds?”

    *This is not investment advice.

  • Major Bitcoin Bull Michael Saylor Issues New Statement Following Recent Developments

    Major Bitcoin Bull Michael Saylor Issues New Statement Following Recent Developments

    Strategy founder Michael Saylor proposed a comprehensive policy framework for the digital economy, arguing that Bitcoin should be more broadly integrated into the banking and insurance systems.

    In his published article, Saylor stated that artificial intelligence will significantly increase the productivity of individuals and businesses, and that the digital asset era needs a “digital rights declaration.” According to Saylor, individuals and companies should have five fundamental rights regarding the creation, issuance, holding, transfer, and use of digital assets.

    Saylor, who advocates for simplifying the rules regarding digital asset issuance, said that applying different disclosure obligations based on project size could lower the cost of accessing finance for companies. Saylor suggested that this approach could help approximately 10 million new companies access capital.

    Saylor also stated that a clear regulatory path should be created to allow banks, fintech companies, and technology platforms to issue digital dollar products. He argued that organizations issuing digital dollars should also be able to compete on terms of yield.

    Saylor, who described Bitcoin as “digital capital,” called for banks to be allowed to offer Bitcoin custody services and provide Bitcoin-backed loans. He also said that a viable regulatory framework should be created so that insurance companies can incorporate Bitcoin into their balance sheets and product designs.

    Saylor argued that the 1,250% risk weighting applied to some crypto asset risks under Basel regulations is too strict. He stated that regulations should differentiate between client-based custody services, Bitcoin-backed loans, and banks’ own Bitcoin positions, adding that bank adoption of Bitcoin could be a significant catalyst for the sector’s growth.

    Saylor, also touching upon tokenized securities, said that simply moving existing securities onto the blockchain is not enough. He argued that investors should be able to store their assets directly, transfer them freely, and choose different custody or lending service providers.

    Regarding privacy, Saylor stated that ordinary and legitimate transactions under $10,000 should not be automatically reported to government agencies simply because they involve the transfer of money or digital assets.

    According to Saylor, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the U.S. Treasury Department, banking regulators, and the White House will play a key role in advancing reforms over the next two years.

    Saylor, who also criticized the Clarity Act, argued that the regulation placed too much emphasis on restrictions.

    *This is not investment advice.

  • Djibouti urges world to help as Yemen war drives refugee influx

    Djibouti urges world to help as Yemen war drives refugee influx

    Djibouti’s foreign minister has told the United Nations General Assembly that the country cannot handle the arrival of thousands of refugees fleeing renewed fighting across the Red Sea in Yemen without international support.

    Published On 27 Sep 2026

  • ‘Saturday Night Live’ Opens Season With Riff On Donald Trump’s Need For More Time With Zohran Mamdani: “Please Let Me Stay Here With You”

    The cold open of the new season of Saturday Night Live featured Ramy Youssef as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, getting another visit from President Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson).

    It was a riff on their latest meeting earlier this week, an unlikely lovefest between the left-wing mayor and the right-wing commander in chief.

    On SNL, though, it was Trump who couldn’t seem to get enough of Mamdani who, in contrast to the president, has enjoyed high approval ratings.

    The skit presented Trump as susceptible to even the slightest hint of attention from Mamdani, who in reality has skillfully managed the relationship with moments that have flattered the president.

    RELATED: ‘SNL’ Season 52 Premiere Delayed In Many Areas Due To College Football

    “Mr. President, you are here again,” Youssef’s Mamdani told Trump.

    “I missed my day one, Zohran Mamdani,” Johnson’s Trump said. “For some reason I can’t really figure out, I really, really like you.”

    The mayor responded, “That’s very kind, but wouldn’t you rather be in D.C.? We’re in the middle of El Nino.”

    “Oh, El Nino. We don’t like big storms, especially when they are in Spanish.”

    The skit opened with Mamdani monitoring the storms on the East Coast, before he gets an unexpected visit from Trump.

    “Somehow when I am with you I’m just firing on all cylinders,” Trump told him. “Maybe it is because we’re both from Queens.”

    “Isn’t it funny to think I could have grown up in one of your apartment buildings in Queens?” Mamdani then asked.

    “Not with that last name,” Trump said.

    RELATED: How ‘SNL’ Introduced Season 52’s New Cast Members Saidah Belo-Osagie & Grace Reiter

    The skit also featured the first appearance of Trump aide Natalie Harp (Ashley Padilla), who makes an unexpected appearance at the Trump-Mamdani lovefest. “I came here in case you needed anything,” she said, before singing a Beyoncé verse, Baby boy, you’ve been on my mind.

    “Isn’t she great? She’s like the girl from Obsession but blonde,” Trump then said to Mamdani.

    Before she left, she told Mamdani, “If you hurt him, I will end you.”

    The Trump-Mamdani relationship has complicated the president’s midterm message, that Democrats have fallen prey to the extremes, whether that be socialism or communism. Mamdani is one of the most prominent democratic socialists following his election last November.

    Mamdani told Trump that he was “still riding high on that Knicks championship.”

    Trump responded, “I went to one game, ruined the vibe, and then dipped.”

    The skit ended with Trump telling Mamdani of D.C., “Don’t make me go back there.”

    “Please let me stay here with you,” Trump pleads with the mayor.

    “Okay, only if you give us $21 billion for a housing project in Queens,” Mamdani said.

    “Are you out of your mind?” Trump said.

    “What if I follow you back on Instagram?” Mamdani asked.

    “It’s a done deal,” Trump said.

  • Julianne Moore Accepts Zurich’s Golden Icon Award — in German

    Julianne Moore Accepts Zurich’s Golden Icon Award — in German

    What can’t Julianne Moore do?

    The U.S. actress accepted Zurich Film Festival‘s lifetime achievement honor, the Golden Icon Award, in perfect German on Friday night.

    She was joined at the ceremony by Jesse Eisenberg, who directs her in his latest feature The Debut, a musical-comedy co-starring Paul Giamatti, which is screening at the 22nd edition in Switzerland this week.

    Moore called upon her own childhood growing up in Europe while making her acceptance speech. “Thank you for this wonderful honor,” said a translated version of her words. “I know that I am in Switzerland right now, but as a teenager, I lived in Germany. And my teacher there told me that I could become an actress. Had I not moved to Europe with my parents, I would not have had this wonderful life. And I wouldn’t be here with you tonight to speak my bad German to you.”

    On the carpet ahead of the presentation, the Oscar-winning actress beamed and said she was feeling “pretty good” about the prospect of receiving the prestigious Golden Icon. “And it’s really wonderful to be here with Jesse Eisenberg, who’s such a tremendous talent and has been an unbelievably wonderful creative partner,” she added. “He’s such a genius, so I’m just happy to be sharing this experience with him, and to be here with our movie. Every day was phenomenal. It really was. There’s actually a shot of me that Jesse said was so, so funny because I was making so many dumb faces. But I said, ‘That was just my dumb face!’ I was enjoying it so much.”

    Eisenberg’s third directorial feature follows Mona Friedman (Moore), who is cast in a bit part at a small community theater and transforms from a shy, unassuming housewife into a zealous method actor willing to do anything to protect the artistic integrity of her marginal role — even if it means waging war against the show’s domineering director (Giamatti).

    The filmmaker-actor-writer told reporters on the Zurich carpet on Friday: “Mona is me. When I was seven years old in New Jersey in 1990, I was a sad little kid, and then I joined a community theater and I found a home.” On the brilliance of Moore, who starred in Eisenberg’s directorial debut When You Finish Saving the World (2022), he said: “When I started writing it, it was only her, and if she did not want to do it, the movie would have not been made. There’s no one else on the planet, alive or dead or yet to be born, who could play [the role] as good as she [does].”

    Among Moore’s best-known performances are Still Alice, for which she won the Academy Award, as well as The Hours and The Kids Are All Right. Recent credits include Apple TV’s Echo Valley, Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door and Netflix limited series Sirens. Next year, she will return to the stage to star in the title role of the Off-Broadway play Faydra.

    Also on Friday night in Zurich, In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin filmmaker Martin McDonagh was given the fest’s A Tribute To… Award. The honor was in celebration of his most recent film, Wild Horse Nine, which is currently making its way around the festival circuit and already generating Oscar buzz, particularly for lead actor John Malkovich.

    Set shortly before the 1973 military coup in Chile, Wild Horse Nine stars Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as Chris and Lee, longtime CIA partners stationed in Santiago who are dispatched to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ (Buscemi) to assist in the U.S.’s covert campaign to undermine the democratically elected Chilean government. Against the surreal backdrop of the island’s monumental Moai statues, the pair begin reckoning with their murky shared past.

    “I love coming to Zurich, and it’s a tremendous honor,” said the British-Irish creative on the carpet ahead of his ceremony. “I’m excited. I know it’s a great, very cine-literate audience, so I hope they’ll like [Wild Horse Nine] as much as the other ones.”

    He said about travelling to Easter Island: “I visited maybe 15 years ago, and was just struck by the beauty of the place, [and] also the mystery of the Moai heads, and I thought it could be almost a character in a film, and it’s turned out to be that way. I’d worked with Sam Rockwell obviously a bunch of times before, so that’s always a joy. But John Malkovich was new to me, and he’s just perfect for the part. He’s funny and he’s dangerous. And Steve Buscemi and Parker Posey were fantastic too.”

    These aren’t the only awards Zurich is dishing out. Tom Hiddleston received the Golden Eye on Thursday night as the fest opened with his Everest drama, Tenzing, and John Turturro will also be given the same honor for his starring role in this year’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.

    The 22nd Zurich Film Festival runs Sept. 24-Oct. 4.