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  • Oliver Jones Exits Apple TV to Join Amazon MGM Studios as U.K. Scripted Senior Commissioner

    Oliver Jones Exits Apple TV to Join Amazon MGM Studios as U.K. Scripted Senior Commissioner

    Oliver Jones is departing Apple TV after six years to join Amazon MGM Studios as senior commissioner for U.K. scripted, according to an internal email sent by Nicole Clemens, the studio’s VP and head of international originals, to her teams.

    Jones will work closely with Clemens on the commissioning of new U.K. scripted series and is set to begin in May.

    Jones relocates from Los Angeles back to London for the position, where he will spearhead commissioning of new U.K. scripted series. Existing scripted commissioners Gemma Brandler and Punit Mattoo will report to him.

    “Oliver is a seasoned scripted executive with a proven track record in developing premium international content,” Clemens wrote in the email. “This appointment underscores our continued investment in world-class U.K. scripted programming as we expand our slate for U.K. and global audiences.”

    At Apple, Jones served most recently as senior creative executive for international scripted television, a role in which he shaped the streamer’s international originals strategy from its early phases and guided projects across development, production, and global launch. His credits include “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” starring Kurt Russell, which delivered a record-breaking Apple TV premiere in November 2023; “Masters of the Air,” the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks World War II series starring Austin Butler, which topped the platform’s charts following its January 2024 debut; and Alfonso Cuarón’s “Disclaimer,” starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline. His most recent project in production is “Berlin Noir,” written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Peter Straughan and starring Colin Firth, Jack Lowden and Jessica Gunning. Earlier credits include “Tehran,” winner of the 2021 International Emmy for best drama, and “Sunny” (A24).

    Prior to Apple, Jones held senior positions at Fremantle, where he worked on “The Mosquito Coast,” “Fellow Travelers” and “American Gods.” He also spent time at The Weinstein Company, where he oversaw Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone,” and at Imagine Television on “Empire.”

    The hire comes as Amazon MGM Studios accelerates its U.K. scripted push. In her note to staff, Clemens pointed to recent launches including “The Girlfriend,” starring Robin Wright; “Steal,” starring Sophie Turner; “Harlan Coben’s Lazarus”; and Riz Ahmed’s “Bait,” describing them as “fan favorite and genre defying series that have delighted customers not just in the U.K., but globally.” The studio has also recently greenlit “Dirty,” an original police thriller from writer Matt Charman, and an adaptation of Chloe Walsh’s BookTok novel “Boys of Tommen.”

    “It has been a privilege to work alongside my brilliant colleagues at Apple TV for the past six years, and to collaborate with the remarkable artists I was lucky enough to work with,” Jones said. “It’s always a tough decision to leave a job I love, but the time is right to come back home and start a new adventure. Amazon MGM Studios’ commitment and momentum in telling ambitious, provocative, premium stories, together with the scale of their increased investment in the U.K., means it couldn’t be a more exciting moment to be joining Nicole and her phenomenal team.”

  • Memecoin Watchlist: 3 Tokens Gearing Up for Big Moves This Week

    Memecoin Watchlist: 3 Tokens Gearing Up for Big Moves This Week

    • Dogecoin shows a cup-and-handle pattern and a bullish divergence in the RSI, pointing to a potential breakout above $0.103.
    • The $TRUMP token expects volatility due to an event at Mar-a-Lago on April 25, while maintaining critical support at $2.77.
    • Pepe ($PEPE) leads the sector’s momentum with a weekly rise of 7.3%, facing decisive resistance at the $0.00000416 level.

    The fourth week of April begins with an average growth of 8% for the memecoins segment; the marked lagging of the main assets suggests an imminent rotation of capital towards the leaders.

    Currently, Dogecoin (DOGE) is trading near $0.09482, making sideways movements while the rest experience rallies. This technical understatement, combined with a clear positive divergence in the RSI oscillator, could skyrocket the price by 12% towards $0.115.

    The market appears to be calm, but the formation of a “cup and handle” on the daily chart reinforces the analysts’ bullish thesis. If the buying volume passes the $0.095 barrier, it would confirm the start of a massive recovery phase for the largest meme cryptocurrency by capitalization.

    Political catalysts and technical breakout structures

    On the other hand, the price of the Official Trump ($TRUMP) token stands at $2.83 with a key event scheduled for this April 25. The gala organized for the main holders acts as a fundamental catalyst that has historically driven speculative demand for the asset.

    Meanwhile, Pepe ($PEPE) shows an enviable technical setup called a “pattern within a pattern.” The asset is attempting to invalidate a long-term bearish channel by consolidating a handle just below its main resistance in the Fibonacci zone.

    If $PEPE manages to close a daily candle above $0.00000416, it would trigger a measured move towards $0.00000526. This advance would represent a return close to 30%, consolidating its position as the asset with the best relative momentum of the analyzed group.

    The memecoins market is going through a critical period of technical and fundamental reconfiguration. The combination of high-impact in-person events and signs of bearish exhaustion positions these three tokens as the indisputable protagonists of this weekly session in the crypto ecosystem.

  • Solana Price Prediction: Key Support Test in Focus

    Solana Price Prediction: Key Support Test in Focus

    Solana is pulling back into an area that now matters most for the short term trend. One chart shows price testing a micro support zone, while another keeps the bullish case alive as long as $SOL holds above the broader reversal area.

    Solana Pullback Tests Key Micro Support Zone

    More Crypto Online says Solana is moving toward a micro support zone while a broader wave two correction may still be in play. The chart shows $SOL trading near $83.53 after a pullback from the recent local high, with price now approaching the first key support area around $81.75 to $80.53.

    Solana / U.S. Dollar 1 Hour Chart. Source: More Crypto Online on X

    That zone matters because it lines up with several retracement levels shown on the chart. The structure suggests this drop could still fit a wave two correction if buyers hold support and price stays above $78.81. The chart marks that level as the deeper invalidation point for the current bullish interpretation.

    At the same time, the rebound setup remains incomplete. $SOL has already lost the rising short term support line, which signals weaker momentum. Therefore, traders will likely watch whether price stabilizes inside the marked support band or continues lower toward the high $78 area.

    If support holds, the chart leaves room for another move higher after the correction. If $SOL breaks below $78.81, the current wave count would weaken and the broader pullback case would gain more weight.

    Solana Reversal Setup Keeps Bulls in Control

    BitGuru argues that Solana has shifted from breakdown fears to a cleaner recovery structure. The chart supports that view. It shows $SOL rebounding after the late March decline, then moving into a consolidation phase before breaking higher and pulling back without losing the broader recovery shape.

    The key point is support. Price rejected from the recent high near $90.95 and moved back toward the mid range area around $85. However, the chart still shows $SOL holding above the marked reversal zone near $82. As long as that area stays intact, the pullback looks more like a retest inside an uptrend than a fresh bearish breakdown.

    The earlier fall from around $93.45 formed the base for this structure. Since then, Solana has built higher lows and pushed into a stronger range. Therefore, the current dip does not yet cancel the bullish case. Instead, it suggests the market is testing whether buyers can defend support after the breakout.

    If $SOL holds this zone, the chart keeps the door open for another move toward the recent highs. If support fails, the reversal setup would weaken and the bullish structure would need to be reassessed.

  • Molly Shannon Recalls Will Ferrell Predicting That “Actors Are Eventually Going to Be Replaced by Robots”

    It seems Will Ferrell can add predicting the future to his list of talents.

    Molly Shannon made a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where she opened up about her decades-long friendship with the beloved actor.

    She recalled working at a “cappuccino, scone place” in Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, when she was introduced to Ferrell through the Groundlings comedy troupe. “We clicked right away,” she said, noting that they met for the first time at the restaurant where she worked, and that she served him a scone and a latte. “We’ve been friends ever since. 30 years.”

    They were later hired on Saturday Night Live in 1995, which not only launched them both into stardom but also became a defining era for the NBC sketch comedy series.

    While reflecting on her early SNL days with host Jimmy Kimmel, the Divorce actress remembered one conversation she had with Ferrell that was surprisingly predictive of modern-day Hollywood.

    “One night when we were at SNL, we had just started, and I was so excited like, ‘Oh my god, this job’s so great,’” Shannon explained. “And Will was kind of dark and he was like, ‘I don’t know. Who knows how long this is going to last?’”

    “‘I just think it’s not going to last long, and I think actors are eventually going to be replaced by robots, and they’re not going to need human actors anymore,’” The Other Two actress recalled Ferrell telling her.

    Shannon admitted she dismissed the idea at first, focusing on a more optimistic view of the future: “I was like, ‘What? Are you crazy? You’re being so dark.’”

    However, she said they “die laughing about it now,” seeing just how on the nose the Barbie actor’s comments were with the rise of artificial intelligence and AI actors in the industry over the last few years.

    At the time, though, Shannon said Ferrell quipped that he would be alright with whatever happens: “He said, ‘I could have a job working as a dog groomer or as a UPS driver or as a coach and still be happy.’”

    In response, Kimmel joked that he had some “bad news” for Ferrell about the UPS driver job, as “that’s going to be a robot situation, too. He can probably groom dogs, but I feel like they’re going to figure out dog grooming robots before they figure any of the other stuff out.”

    In addition to SNL, Shannon and Ferrell have appeared in numerous movies together, including Superstar (1999), A Night at the Roxbury (1998) and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), among others. They’re also both starring in the upcoming TV series, The Hawk, which Ferrell created.

  • Disney+ Inks Development Deal to Boost Output of Japanese Live-Action Originals

    Disney+ Inks Development Deal to Boost Output of Japanese Live-Action Originals

    Disney+ is making moves to boost its output of live-action originals from Japan, a longstanding ambition for the company’s Asia-Pacific content team that has been given greater urgency as the House of Mouse works to grow its streaming business worldwide.

    The company unveiled a multi-year development deal on Tuesday with Tokyo-based production company The Seven, one of Netflix’s most frequent partners on Japanese-language films and series. Disney described the deal as a “long-term, ongoing content development collaboration.” The duration of the pact was not disclosed, nor were financial details.

    “Since the launch of Disney+ in Japan, general entertainment and local originals have become an increasingly important part of our content offering, making this collaboration a natural evolution in accelerating our content investment,” said Carol Choi, Disney’s executive vp of original content strategy in APAC. “It builds on the strong relationships we’ve developed over time and represents a meaningful step forward in deepening our storytelling roots in Japan,” she added.

    Under the framework, Disney’s content team will be embedded at the earliest stages of project development, working alongside The Seven’s producers to shape Japanese-language series exclusively for Disney+. The deal represents a notable shift for the platform in Japan, where it has typically acquired or co-produced titles on a project-by-project basis rather than locking in dedicated development partners.

    The Seven was established in late 2021 as a subsidiary of TBS Holdings (Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings), one of Japan’s major commercial broadcasters, with an initial investment of ¥30 billion (then approximately $205 million). Led by president and CEO Katsuaki Setoguchi and vice president and chief content officer Akira Morii, the company has become one of the country’s most prolific producers of live-action originals for the global streaming market. Its highest-profile credits have come through a five-year strategic partnership with Netflix, signed in 2022. Morii and his team produced the hit dystopian survival series Alice in Borderland and manga adaptation Yu Yu Hakusho, among other titles. The Seven also produced the upcoming jidaigeki series, Song of the Samurai, which was recently scooped up by HBO for release in May, and it has a co-development deal with Hollywood producer David Permut (Hacksaw Ridge, Face/Off) for film projects straddling the U.S.-Japan market.

    The Disney deal positions The Seven as the rare Japanese production house with partnerships at two of the world’s dominant streamers — a reflection of how scarce experienced live-action producers with global ambition remain in Japan’s once stagnant but now fast-changing production landscape.

    The agreement also comes at a moment of accelerating competition for Japanese content. Japan’s premium streaming sector grew 15 percent in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2 billion, according to a recent report from Media Partners Asia (MPA). The country is estimated to be the world’s third-biggest premium streaming market by revenue, behind the U.S. and China (the latter of which does not permit foreign platform operators). According to MPA’s estimates in February, Netflix leads the Japanese market with a 22 percent share of premium VOD revenue, while Amazon Prime Video holds the largest subscriber base at 19.3 million (although the company’s flagship e-commerce offering is a major draw in Japan). Disney+ currently trails both significantly, commanding just 3 percent of total viewing hours, though it recently expanded its footprint through a joint bundle with Hulu Japan.

    Simultaneously, global appetite for Japanese-themed content has surged in recent years. Anime has long been a youth-culture juggernaut, but live-action Japanese storytelling has also begun to break through in a major way — as witnessed with Disney’s own Shōgun, the samurai epic that swept the 2024 Emmys with a record-setting 18 wins, including best drama series. Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said last year that Japanese titles on the platform have been viewed for a cumulative 25 billion hours, making them the second-most-watched form of non-English content globally, behind only Korean.

    “I am confident that by unleashing the refined creativity of The Seven through Disney’s extensive network and expertise, we can evolve Japanese stories into the ‘next craze’ that people truly fall in love with,” said Katsuaki Setoguchi, CEO of The Seven.

    Added Gaku Narita, Disney’s executive director of content production in Japan: “For our local production team, the focus is on developing stories that audiences will want to come back to again and again. This deal allows us to work closely with creators in Japan from the earliest stages of development, shaping projects that reflect local creativity while meeting the high bar of storytelling that Disney+ is committed to telling.”

  • Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to Receive Award in Honor of ‘Good Will Hunting’ Pal Robin Williams

    Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to Receive Award in Honor of ‘Good Will Hunting’ Pal Robin Williams

    Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have won awards separately and together — most notably an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting — and they will reunite to pick up another honor next week in honor of Robin Williams.

    The pair starred opposite the late legend in Gus Van Sant’s 1997 film, which also earned Williams an Academy Award for best supporting actor. And they will be making the trek up to San Francisco to receive the 9th Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award presented to them by Glenn Close‘s nonprofit, Bring Change to Mind, at the organization’s Revels & Revelations Celebration. The fundraiser is set to take place at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture on April 27.

    Matt Damon and Ben Affleck pose with Robin Williams and their respective Oscars won for ‘Good Will Hunting’ at the 70th Academy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on March 23, 1998.

    (Photo credit should read HAL GARB/AFP via Getty Images)

    Setting the stage for a special night, Affleck and Damon will be presented with their Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award by Robin’s children, Zak, Zelda and Cody Williams. It’s an honor designed to recognize “their impact and the power of storytelling and connection to spark real change.”

    Affleck and Damon also released a joint statement to The Hollywood Reporter about the news and their friend. “Robin wasn’t just someone we admired. He made our dreams come true. We owe everything to him. He said yes to our movie and we got it made. Receiving the Legacy of Laughter Award, created in honor of Robin Williams, is incredibly meaningful to us. His legacy isn’t just about his talent and how much he made the world laugh — it’s about how deeply he cared. This honor carries his spirit, and that means everything to us,” the duo said.

    The event, a milestone moment for Bring Change to Mind as it celebrates 15 years of impact and a decade steering student programming, will also fete philanthropist Pam Baer with a Champion of Change Award to acknowledge her leadership in advancing mental health awareness. The event, supported by lead sponsor American Eagle Foundation, is also supported by individual, foundation and corporate donations. Per official details, it’s already sold out.

    Founded by Close in 2010, BC2M is a national organization dedicated to ending the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness by working with leading scientists to make a difference in the lives of teens and adults. The cause is personal for Close as her sister, Jessie, lives with bipolar disorder and her nephew, Calen, lives with schizoaffective disorder. The Revels & Revelations Celebration was mounted as a “powerful night of storytelling, celebration and impact” by bringing together advocates, partners and community members under a shared mission of making sure that every young person feels “seen, supported and empowered” to talk openly about mental health.

    Williams died by suicide at age 63 on Aug. 11, 2014. His work with the pair on Good Will Hunting left a lasting impact.

    “It was the very first day of shooting and Ben and I went to the set. We weren’t working that day and we just saw them rehearse and we were kind of sitting off to the side of the camera,” Damon previously told E! “By the time they said, ‘Action,’ tears were just falling down my face. I couldn’t believe it. I was just looking at Robin start to speak and say these words that Ben and I had just worked on for five years.”

    He continued: “After the scene ended, [Robin] came over to us and he saw us. He put his hand on our head and just said, you know, ‘It’s not a fluke. You guys really did this. You really did it.’”

    After his passing, they both offered tributes. “Thanks chief — for your friendship and for what you gave the world,” Affleck shared on social media at the time. “Robin brought so much joy into my life and I will carry that joy with me forever,” Damon said in a statement. “He was such a beautiful man. I was lucky to know him and I will never, ever forget him.”

    Prior recipients of the Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award include Amy Poehler and Ryan Reynolds. Affleck and Damon most recently teamed on The Rip for Netflix. Damon next toplines Christopher Nolan’s star-packed The Odyssey.

  • Six women win 2026 Goldman prize, world’s top environmental award

    Six women win 2026 Goldman prize, world’s top environmental award

    First all-women cohort of winners hails from Colombia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, the UK and the US.

    This year’s prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize has been awarded to six grassroots environmental activists from around the world for their efforts to fight climate change and save biodiversity.

    For the first time since the prize was created in 1989 by philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman, all recipients of the award are women: Iroro Tanshi, from Nigeria; Borim Kim, from South Korea; Sarah Finch, from the United Kingdom; Theonila Roka Matbob, from Papua New Guinea; Alannah Acaq Hurley, from the United States; and Yuvelis Morales Blanco, from Colombia.

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    Sometimes described as the “Green Nobel”, the Goldman Prize recipients are chosen from each of the world’s six primary regions. They each receive $200,000 in prize money.

    “While we continue to fight uphill to protect the environment and implement lifesaving climate policies – in the US and globally – it is clear that true leaders can be found all around us,” said John Goldman, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation.

    “The 2026 Prize winners are proof positive that courage, hard work, and hope go a long way toward creating meaningful progress.”

    A young woman wearing a broad hat holds a fish next to a river, smiling
    Yuvelis Morales Blanco, winner of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize, shows a fish caught on a tour with fishermen along the Magdalena River in Colombia [Handout: Christian EscobarMora/Goldman Environmental Prize]

    Morales Blanco, the winner for the region of South and Central America, fought some of the world’s biggest oil companies to successfully stop the introduction of commercial fracking into Colombia.

    The 24-year-old grew up in a family of fishermen along the banks of the Magdalena River in the Afro-Colombian community of Puerto Wilches. “We had nothing but the river – she was like a mother who took care of me,” she said.

    She began organising protests after a major oil spill in 2018, which forced the relocation of dozens of local families and killed thousands of animals. Her activism, which made her a target for intimidation and forced her to temporarily relocate, helped halt projects and elevate fracking as an issue in Colombia’s 2022 election.

    Two of the other five recipients of this year’s prize have also focused their efforts on fighting fossil fuels, which are causing both global climate change and more localised pollution around the world.

    Borim, the winner for Asia who started the Youth 4 Climate Action organisation, won a ruling from South Korea’s Constitutional Court that the government’s climate policy violated the constitutional rights of future generations, the first successful youth-led climate litigation in the continent.

    Finch, Europe’s winner, told The Times newspaper she will use her prize money to keep fighting fossil fuels.

    Together with the Weald Action Group, she fought oil drilling in southeastern England for more than a decade, securing the “Finch ruling” from the Supreme Court in June 2024, stating that authorities must consider fossil fuels’ impacts on the global climate before granting permission to extract them.

    Two other recipients have fought against the destructive environmental impact of mining projects.

    Papua New Guinea’s Roka Matbob, winner for Islands and Island Nations, led a successful campaign that saw the world’s second-largest mining company, Rio Tinto, agree to address environmental and social devastation caused by its Panguna copper mine, 35 years after it was closed following an uprising.

    And the award recipient for North America, Acaq Hurley, from the Yup’ik nation in the US, successfully fought alongside 15 tribal nations to stop a mega- copper and gold mining project that threatened ecosystems in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, including the largest wild salmon runs in the world.

    Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Tanshi, Africa’s winner, rediscovered the endangered short-tailed roundleaf bat and has been working to save its refuge, the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, from human-induced wildfires.

  • Hollywood Film and TV Production in Canada Rebounds

    Hollywood Film and TV Production in Canada Rebounds

    U.S. film and TV production in Canada rebounded in 2025 as the local industry finally put the devastating impact of Hollywood’s year of strikes in 2023 in the rearview mirror.

    The latest annual economic report from the Canadian Media Producers Association, representing local indie producers, points to foreign location and service production in Canada, mostly by American producers, rising 9.5 percent to CAN$5.32 billion (US$3.9 billion, compared to a year-earlier CAN$4.86 billion.

    That production activity includes visual effects work done by Canadian VFX studios for foreign films and TV series. Hollywood production growth was due mainly to TV series production rising 12.1 percent to CAN$3.42 billion (US$2.51 million) and the total volume of other foreign production – including TV movies, specials, pilots and single-episode shoots — increasing by 54.4 percent to CAN$366 million (US$268.2 million).

    The overall increase in Hollywood TV production last year offset a 2.2 percent fall in foreign movie production across Canada. The major American players active north of the U.S. border continues to be led by Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ as they center around production hubs in Toronto and Vancouver.

    The big U.S. series to shoot in Canada last year included IT: Welcome to Derry, The Last of Us, Doc and Happy Face, while big budget movies to shoot in Canada included Frankenstein, Tron: Ares and Final Destination: Bloodlines.

    Last year’s foreign production rebound was down, however, from the record CAN$6.62 billion in budgetary spending reached in 2023, just before the impact of the Hollywood actors and writers strike was felt by the Canadian industry as local soundstages went dark and production crews were left idle.

    The Hollywood industry consolidation and the end of the Peak TV era is also working to reduce American production levels. U.S. film and TV production accounted for 398 projects in Canada last year, or 87 percent of overall foreign location shooting north of the U.S. border, with much of that concentrated in Ontario and British Columbia.

    That compares to in all 425 U.S. film and TV series projects shot in Canada in 2024, which represented 86 percent of overall foreign production activity. The rebound in American production last year offset a 2.2 percent fall in local homegrown film and TV series production to $3.62 billion (US$2.65 billion), according to the CMPA report.

    The overall volume of production in Canada rose last year by 4.6 percent to CAN$10.17 billion (US$7.54 billion, but that was 15.8 percent down on the peak of CAN$12.07 billion reached in 2023.

  • ‘Predators’: Amnesty slams Netanyahu, Putin, Trump as human rights decline

    ‘Predators’: Amnesty slams Netanyahu, Putin, Trump as human rights decline

    London, United Kingdom – Israel, Russia and the United States are leading the destruction of global human rights, Amnesty International has said, describing the three countries’ leaders as “voracious predators” intent upon economic and political domination.

    “A global environment where primitive ferocity could flourish has been long in the making,” Agnes Callamard, the head of the global rights group, wrote in an annual report on the state of the world’s human rights that was released on Tuesday.

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    In 2025, “sharp U-turns were taken away from the international order that had been imagined out of the ashes of the Holocaust and the utter destruction of world wars, and constructed slowly and painfully, albeit insufficiently, over these past 80 years,” she said.

    In a news conference on Monday in London, Callamard said that most governments tend to appease the “predators” rather than confront them.

    “Some even thought to imitate the bullies and the looters,” she said.

    Spain, however, which is an outlier in Europe for its criticism of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and US-Israeli attacks on Iran, “is standing above the double standard that is destroying the international system”, Callamard said.

    She argued that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who in 2022 sent his forces into neighbouring Ukraine, have had an “absolutely dramatic” impact on the world.

    Their conduct is “emboldening all of those that are tempted by similar behaviours,” said Callamard. “It is allowing for the multiplication of copycats around the world, and therefore what we are confronting now is much more aggressive and ferocious than what we had to confront three or four years ago.”

    ‘Authoritarian practices have intensified worldwide’

    Amnesty’s review of the state of the world’s human rights makes for grim reading, documenting attacks on fundamental civil liberties in most nations.

    “Authoritarian practices have intensified worldwide”, the report reads, before running through abuses alleged in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe in 400 pages.

    Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Russia’s “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine, and the US-Israeli war on Iran were noted as examples of conflict in which international laws have been ignored.

    In a section on repression, the United Kingdom is blamed for cracking down on the Palestine solidarity movement and Palestine Action, the direct-action group that targets sites associated with the Israeli military and is currently fighting a legal battle against its UK proscription as a “terrorist” organisation.

    Afghanistan’s Taliban was responsible for further gender-based discrimination in 2025, the report noted, citing measures excluding women from education and work, while Nepalese authorities were said to have failed to investigate instances of gender-based violence against Dalit women.

    Amnesty’s report comes as multiple conflicts rage across the world.

    The US-Israeli assault on Iran has killed more than 3,000 people, while Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed nearly 2,400. In Gaza, the confirmed number of people killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023 has surpassed 72,500 as the decimated territory is continually threatened by Israeli bombardment. In Ukraine, more than 15,000 have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began more than four years ago.

    Conflicts in the Middle East are a “product of the descent into lawlessness, made possible by a vision of the world in which war-making and the killings of civilians are normalised”, said Callamard.

    “No effective steps have been taken against Israel for its repeated, constant violation of basic standards of humanity.”

    However, there is some room for optimism, Amnesty said.

    It listed moments of “resistance” such as Gen Z-led protests; the growing number of states joining South Africa’s case against Israel’s genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ); the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) crimes against humanity charges against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte; the Council of Europe’s special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine; and the ICC’s arrest warrant against two Taliban leaders for “gender-based persecution”.

  • Sean Baker Scores Massive Payday for ‘Anora’ Follow-Up at Warner Bros. Label Clockwork: Inside the Deal for “Ti Amo!” (EXCLUSIVE)

    Sean Baker Scores Massive Payday for ‘Anora’ Follow-Up at Warner Bros. Label Clockwork: Inside the Deal for “Ti Amo!” (EXCLUSIVE)

    Oscar winner Sean Baker has found an unexpected way to inspire future generations of independent filmmakers — at the bank. 

    The auteur has secured the first big payday of his career for his follow-up to best picture winner “Anora,” the sex-worker dramedy that made history in 2025 when the Oscars handed Baker four trophies in one night, tying the record set by Walt Disney.

    The project in question is “Ti Amo!” which Baker has described as “an ode to the Italian sex comedies of the ’60s and ’70s.” Warner Bros. announced it had won the film last week at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. It was a major flex for the studio’s new indie-centric label Clockwork, run by Christian Parkes (former marketing chief for Neon). 

    What they didn’t say onstage at Caesars Palace is that Clockwork bought the distribution rights to “Ti Amo!” for an eye-popping $22 million, five sources familiar with the deal tell Variety. Baked into that number is the film’s budget, which is being financed by FilmNation and is expected to be north of $10 million. The final cost of the film won’t be finalized until Baker completes a script.

    However, the surplus will be divided among FilmNation, a few other key production players and Baker, who is poised to earn a multimillion-dollar salary for his work as writer, director, editor and producer of “Ti Amo!” 

    For Baker, the pact means greater financial security after years of roughing it in service of his art. His brand is scrappy, by-the-skin-of-our-teeth filmmaking with shoestring budgets and, in early days, shooting “Tangerine” on an iPhone. With Clockwork, Baker will have one distributor overseeing release, marketing and strategy (except in France) for the first time in his career.

    “Isn’t it great to see a filmmaker like Sean who has earned his way up finally get rewarded so he can keep getting to make movies his way?” said one executive with knowledge of the deal. 

    Baker shopped the project last year to multiple bidders, including Neon and A24 and Disney’s Searchlight Pictures. One offer, for U.S. rights alone, came in at roughly $5 million, two sources say, while others came closer to Clockwork’s deal for global distribution. Baker is not signed to a major talent agency but had Lichter Grossman lawyer James Feldman to negotiate on his behalf. He is managed by Adam Kersh, an indie veteran whose clients include other auteurs like Ira Sachs and Amy Seimetz.

    The project was sold as a pitch, sources add. Cameras are expected to roll in September. Another sign of Baker’s post-Oscar power is that the Clockwork sale was not contingent on cast, nor is he expected to hire an A-lister.

    The “Ti Amo!” deal comes as indie filmmaking stars are finding it difficult to get fairly compensated for their work. Many projects leave festivals like Sundance or Cannes without distribution, and even those filmmakers that get deals have seen their residuals and back-end participation shrink as streaming has upended the economics of Hollywood. That’s led some to experiment with alternative ways of getting their passion projects to the screen.

    “The Brutalist” director Brady Corbet is putting together his next project — an epic tale about the history of the occult in America — without a studio partner. Similarly, Tom Ford has adapted Anne Rice’s novel “Cry to Heaven” as an independently financed feature starring Adele. The hope in both cases is that the movies will get a bigger sale price after screening at a high-profile festival than they would if distribution rights were sold ahead of filming. That’s a bet Baker isn’t taking with “Ti Amo!,” and given the rich deal he secured, why would he?

    As revered as he may be among cinephiles, Baker would normally have to pivot to directing a mid-budget or tentpole film or work for a streamer like Netflix to receive this kind of compensation. The latter is a nonstarter, given that Baker is a passionate defender of cinemas. Baker has long been underpaid in comparison with his reputation and influence in the market.

    Most of his projects take three years to produce, and he tends to put any money he makes back into his next films. During the awards season run for 2017’s “The Florida Project,” Baker lived in a small West Hollywood apartment. On Oscar night 2025, he and partner Sammy Kwan went home to walk their dogs in-between the ceremony and the after-party. It’s doubtful that Christopher Nolan or Martin Scorsese did the same.