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  • And the Winners Are… Locarno Open Doors Program Unveils 2026 Awards

    And the Winners Are… Locarno Open Doors Program Unveils 2026 Awards

    Open Doors, the Locarno Film Festival’s Locarno Pro-organized co-production platform and talent development program for filmmakers from regions where artistic expression is at risk, has wrapped up its 24th edition, its second with a focus on the African continent. And on Monday, its winners were unveiled.

    Following a three-year cycle dedicated to Latin America and the Caribbean, the program’s current focus is on voices from Africa through its Projects, Producers, and Directors programs. It provides training, mentoring, and networking opportunities.

    The 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival  runs through Aug. 15.

    Check out the Open Doors 2026 winners below.

    Open Doors Grant  
    A total of CHF 50,000 sponsored by visions sud est (with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation), the City of Bellinzona, and the Open Doors initiative.   

    CHF 20’000  to
    A Vineyard for A Lobster by Talemwa Pius, produced by Emmanuel Gashumba (Gripmagic Uganda Limited), Uganda.

    Synopsis: “The equatorial village of Rukumba has endured months of drought when suddenly snow falls overnight, an impossible event blanketing the land in white. Kamuturaki (48), a failed trader once mocked for selling winter jackets under the blazing sun, becomes an overnight success. Byeitaka (40), a disgraced preacher, declares the snow divine and sells melted snowflakes as holy water to frightened followers. Kagoro (38), the timid chairman, watches his authority erode as the village reorganizes itself around the miracle. When British envoys arrive promising support for Rukumba’s independence from Uganda in exchange for access to the snow for scientific research, the village committee embraces the deal as progress. As competing ambitions take hold across the village, tensions rise and unrest erupts, forcing Ugandan military forces to intervene. By the time the snowfall melts, Rukumba is no longer a community but a collection of competing interests, each convinced the miracle belongs to them.”
      
    CHF 20’000  
    Accept My Plea for Burial by Mohammed Sheikh, produced by Kadir Harbi (Aleel Films), Somalia/Djibouti .

    Synopsis: “In a remote Somali pastoral village, two 12-year-old boys, Waasuge and Warmooge, spend their days herding goats and playing games. Their playful rivalry turns tragic when Warmooge dies after falling into a steep dry riverbed during a game. No one sees exactly what happened, and the only witness, a mentally unstable man, gives conflicting accounts that deepen the uncertainty. As the village gathers, grief hardens into accusation. Warmooge’s mother, Saluugla, refuses to bury her son without justice, believing burial without accountability would erase his death. The elder, Alamagan, attempts to resolve the conflict through customary law and religious counsel, but the absence of truth fractures the community. Rituals are performed, oaths proposed and broken, and tensions escalate as the unburied body decays. Despite Waasuge’s age and the lack of evidence, the village demands resolution. Understanding what the adults cannot admit, Waasuge makes a choice that ends the conflict.” 
     
      
    CHF10’000  
    Too Much Music by Aseye Fiagbe, produced by Aseye Fiagbe (Aseye Fiagbe Creative Studio), Ghana.  

    Synopsis: “Too Much Music is a feature documentary about Kiki Gyan, a Ghanaian keyboard prodigy who rose to international fame as a teenager with Afro-rock pioneers Osibisa. As his musical contributions expanded without recognition, tensions around credit and ownership led him to leave the band and pursue a solo career across London, Lagos and New York, shaping African disco and funk in the process. Over time, the same system that profited from his brilliance proved indifferent to his vulnerability, and his life became reduced to a singular narrative of addiction and demise. Through archival material and testimonies from family and collaborators, the film reconstructs the forces that shaped his journey and asks how artists are remembered, who controls their stories, and what is lost when brilliance is reframed as failure.”

    CNC Development Grant   
    The CNC development prize is an incentive for the development of a project for the value of 8,000 euros.  
     
    Chapa 100 by Ique Langa, produced by Lara Sousa (Kulunga Filmes), Mozambique.  

    Synopsis: “In the busy streets of Maputo, 80-year-old flower vendor Sitóe offers brief moments of beauty to strangers passing through the city’s crowded “chapas”, the local minibuses that carry thousands of people every day. One morning, he meets Valentina, a vegetable seller in her seventies, and a simple flower sparks a quiet romance. Together, they dream of owning a small piece of land where flowers and vegetables can grow side by side. When a thief steals Valentina’s rented wig, Sitóe runs after him and is struck by a speeding chapa. The city moves on, but Sitóe does not. His spirit becomes tied to the very minibus that killed him, traveling through Maputo day after day among passengers carrying their hopes, grief, and exhaustion. Flowers slowly begin to bloom inside the vehicle, subtle signs of his lingering presence. One day, Valentina boards the chapa carrying the flower Sitóe once gave her. Surrounded by the quiet traces of his spirit, she feels his love beside her once again.”
     
    Jury statement: “By awarding the CNC grant to the fiction project Chapa 100, directed by Ique Langa, the jury aims to support the development of a work imbued with genuine sensitivity and poetry. The jury was particularly moved by the film’s portrayal of a love story between two elderly characters – a rare theme in cinema – set against the vibrant backdrop of Maputo. Furthermore, the project’s artistic potential is reinforced by the director and producer’s strong commitment to establishing a robust international distribution strategy that would match the film’s universal appeal.”  
      
    ARTEKino International Award  
    Providing an incentive for the development of a project for the value of 6,000 euros.  

    The Ones With the Tempered Flowers by Neema Ngelime, produced by Ivy Kiru (LBx Africa), Tanzania/Kenya.

    Synopsis: “For Neema, being a woman has always meant a script: school, marriage, babies. When a doctor tells filmmaker Neema having children might be hard, she doesn’t expect it to confuse her. Those expectations wound her. Raised in a multi-religious home, her identity was forged by questions of what is haram and what would please Jesus. All Neema cared about was which hell she’d end up in. To her, the older women in her family are a mystery beyond work and family. Their lives feel prophetic to her own. Her sister and her try to rewrite their scripts through tarot. Her father taught her that anything is possible. Now he reminds her of her fate. She stages performances with her family, reenacting fragments of their lives. They believe these are fictions. But they’re memories, repurposed, hidden truths surfacing through play. This is the story of a woman studying her body’s relationship to self, society, and the political weight placed on women’s bodies in Tanzania, challenging duty masked as love.”
     
    Jury statement: “ARTEKino aims to support emergent contemporary cinema through the ArteKino International Award and the ARTEKino festival. ARTE has decided to reward a young director, whose project is a performative essay and a personal journey that explores the expectations placed on women by family, society and tradition. This is the story of a woman studying her body’s relationship to self, society and the political weight placed on women’s bodies in her country.”  

    Sørfond Award  
    The prize consists of the participation at the Sørfond Pitching Forum at the Films From the South festival for one of the Open Doors Projects, which will be held in November this year in Norway.   
     
    The Ones With the Tempered Flowers by Neema Ngelime, produced by Ivy Kiru (LBx Africa), Tanzania/Kenya . 
     
    EAVE Award  
    Together with the Film Fund Luxembourg, professional training organization EAVE will offer a scholarship for the EAVE Marketing Workshop worth EUR 4,000.   
     
    Mamounata Nikiema (Pilumpiku Production), Burkina Faso  
      
    Tabakalera-San Sebastian Film Festival Residency Award  
    The prize consists of a residency in Tabakalera and taking part in the industry activities of the San Sebastian Film Festival, given in collaboration with the International Culture Center Tabakalera and San Sebastian Film Festival.  
     
    I Live in V.I., by Ugochukwu Azuya, produced by Olubunmi Ogunsola (ENSEMBLE), Nigeria  
     
    Jury statement: “We wanted to highlight the following project because it follows a great story that is set and represents a unique and specific spot of its country and has the power to connect with universal concerns like displacement, class struggle and housing and labor pressures.  It is also a project that could benefit from the platform of our festival so that it can open new ways of collaboration, and searching partnerships that allow the film to strenghten and fulfill its necessities. And also: because we believe that every each of us carries a little Florence that tries to make its way in a varied and complex world, we want to welcome the team behind I Live in V.I., so that its producer Olubunmi Ogunsola can come to San Sebastian and make it through with their amazing project.”
      
    Rotterdam Lab Award  
    In collaboration with IFFR Pro, a participant from the Open Doors Producers will have the chance to take part in the training workshop Rotterdam Lab in January 2027, together with a delegation of more than 70 emerging international producers.   
     
    Adja Mariam Mahre Soro (Studio KÄ), Ivory Coast  
     
    Jury statement: “For her highly professional approach to her work as a producer and entrepreneur, and for the integrity and commitment she has demonstrated in building and developing her company. Her dedication to strengthening the local ecosystem through training initiatives and international collaborations is equally remarkable. She is now ready to build meaningful collaborations and co-productions across the continent and throughout Europe.”
      
    Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)  
    A consultancy prize to one selected feature film or series project directed by a national of an OIF Member State within the French-speaking Global South, produced or co-produced by a production company based in one of those same Member States.  
     
    Sarah, by Pocas Pascoal, Angola  
     
    Jury statement: “A film of revolution and independance, based on a moment in life of a revolutionary and independent woman, one of the first Black female filmmakers: Sarah Maldoror. Sarah by Pocas Pascoal is very promising narratively and visually and it will give space to a beautiful, multilingual, coproduction between several countries from Africa and Europe.”  
      
    AFP Critics Prize  
    Presented by African Film Press (AFP) LLC, a cross-regional publishing alliance covering the African film, television, and digital media markets. The AFP Critics Prize comprises a USD 500 cash award, a certificate, and ongoing editorial coverage of the recipient and their future work across AFP’s three founding publications: Akoroko, Sinema Focus, and What Kept Me Up.  
     
    Submergido, by Ariel Añez, produced by Joseph Mata, co-produced by Ariel Añez (Maochas Filmes), Mozambique  
      
    Jury statement: “Sad and poignant yet ultimately hopeful, it offers a moving and incisive exploration of the human cost of conflict, especially for those whose loved ones are directly involved in war.”  
     

  • Grayscale Withdraws ETF Application for Three Major Altcoins, SEC Approves in 190 Seconds! Here Are the Details

    Grayscale Withdraws ETF Application for Three Major Altcoins, SEC Approves in 190 Seconds! Here Are the Details

    Grayscale, one of the largest crypto asset managers based in the US, has withdrawn its ETF applications for three major altcoins.

    At this point, Grayscale withdrew its ETF applications for Cardano, Hedera, and Polkadot, three altcoins that have recently caused significant disappointment with their price drops.

    Grayscale has filed three Form RW withdrawal requests with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), seeking the withdrawal of S-1 registration statements for the Grayscale Cardano Trust ETF, Grayscale Hedera Trust ETF, and Grayscale Polkadot Trust ETF.

    The SEC responded to this request in record time, with data showing that the ETF registrations were accepted just 190 seconds after the application was submitted.

    Why Did Grayscale Withdraw Its ADA, HBAR, and DOT Applications?

    The documents submitted to the SEC showed that all three applications contained standard and general justifications. Grayscale stated that it did not intend to proceed with the planned distribution of ETF shares under these registration statements. It was also noted that the registrations had not yet taken effect and no shares had been issued or sold.

    In this context, neither Grayscale nor the SEC has explained the actual and clear reason for the withdrawal.

    Finally, Grayscale currently has pending applications for Bittensor (TAO), Aave (AAVE), BNB, Near Protocol (NEAR), and Zcash (ZEC) ETFs. According to experts, this indicates that Grayscale is becoming more selective in its ETF applications.

    *This is not investment advice.

  • Standard Chartered Sees $4T Tokenization Driving Chainlink to $200 by 2030

    Standard Chartered Sees $4T Tokenization Driving Chainlink to $200 by 2030

    In brief

    • Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Chainlink on Monday with a price target of $200 by end-2030, up from around $8 today.
    • The bank expects tokenized assets on-chain to reach $4 trillion by end-2028 and assets deployed in DeFi to grow 37-fold to $2.7 trillion by 2030.
    • LINK was trading at around $8.25 Monday, down 0.8% on the day, according to CoinGecko.

    Standard Chartered has initiated coverage of Chainlink with a price target of $200 by the end of 2030, implying a roughly 25-fold gain from around $8 today and outperformance of both Bitcoin and Ethereum over the period.

    Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, laid out staged targets in a note published Monday: $13 by the end of this year, then $41, $82 and $133 before reaching $200. The same note pencils in Bitcoin at $500,000 and Ethereum at $40,000 by end-2030.

    Kendrick expects the value of tokenized assets on-chain to climb roughly 12-fold to $4 trillion by end-2028 from about $340 billion now, and assets deployed in DeFi to grow 37-fold to $2.7 trillion by 2030. Because Chainlink charges for delivering data and moving assets between chains, the bank estimates its fees should rise about 25 times over that period, and assumes the token price follows fees.

    Chainlink’s incumbency is the other half of the argument. The note puts its total value secured above $110 billion, covering roughly 70% of oracle-dependent value in DeFi globally and more than 80% on Ethereum. Aave V3 alone accounts for 44% of that secured value.

    Wall Street on the client list

    Kendrick named Swift, DTCC, Euroclear, JP Morgan, Mastercard, UBS, Fidelity and S&P Global among institutions using Chainlink services, and expects off-chain customers to become a growing share of fees. Tokenized funds and bonds need net asset values, rates and reserve attestations, making them more data-hungry than crypto-native assets.

    On interoperability, Chainlink still trails LayerZero. The note says more than $7 billion in token value has moved from legacy bridges to Chainlink’s CCIP since a $292 million exploit in April, with quarterly CCIP volume reaching $4.9 billion in the second quarter, up 353% year on year. Decrypt reported in May that KelpDAO blamed LayerZero for that exploit and planned to rebuild on Chainlink, a characterization LayerZero disputes.

    The note is the latest in a run of DeFi initiations from Kendrick, all built on the same 37-fold forecast. He set targets of $100 for Uniswap and $3,500 for Aave in June, and $60 for Morpho in July. UNI jumped double digits after its note landed. Chainlink’s response has been more muted, with LINK currently trading at $8.25, down 0.8% on the day, per CoinGecko data.

    Risks flagged in the note include institutional tokenization scaling more slowly than expected, pilots failing to become recurring production workflows, specialist providers taking share, and technical failures denting confidence.

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  • Locarno Open Doors: Talemwa Pius’ ‘A Vineyard for a Lobster’ and Mohammed Sheikh’s ‘Accept My Plea for a Burial’ Win Top Prizes at Festival’s Africa Industry Focus

    Locarno Open Doors: Talemwa Pius’ ‘A Vineyard for a Lobster’ and Mohammed Sheikh’s ‘Accept My Plea for a Burial’ Win Top Prizes at Festival’s Africa Industry Focus

    Ugandan Talemwa Pius’ striking magic realist fable “A Vineyard for a Lobster” and “Accept My Plea for a Burial,” a Somalia set critique of ancient custom, emerged triumphant at Locarno’s 2026 Open Doors, winning its two biggest cash prizes.

    Neither prize comes as a surprise. 

    Picturing a miraculous snowfall in a drought-ridden Ugandan village, in “A Vineyard for a Lobster,” Pius cleverly spins a political fable of broader collective breakdown, as characters – a desperate trader, a disgraced priest and a reluctant chairman – react to the miracle in self-serving ways rather than thinking about any common good. As their ambitions escalate, the village threatens to fall apart. From Kampala-based Gripmagic, “in the film, an impossible snowfall in a Ugandan village becomes a political allegory, echoing colonial intrusion,” Pius told Variety. 

    A €20,000 cash prize was also granted by Open Doors to “Accept My Plea for Burial” (“Baryo Aas Iga Gudoon”), by Mohammed Sheikh a Djibouti, Somalia and Qatar. It kicks in when Warmooge, 12, falls to his death while playing with Waasuge, a fellow goatherd. The village elder fails to resolve the case via customary law and religious counsel. Minnesota-based U.S.-Somali filmmaker Sheik’s follow-up to “Barni,” screening at Locarno, this is “a morally complex story where there is no clear truth, told through a rarely seen Somali cultural framework,” Sheikh told Variety.

    Aseye Fiagbe’s “Too Much Music,” a rehabilitating music doc bio of Kiki Gyan, a Ghanaian keyboard prodigy, took in the same prize. Notably, however, Open Doors prizes announced Aug. 10 at Locarno Pro, the industry zone of Switzerland’s Locarno Film festival, were spread pretty evenly, every single titles among its six project focus walking off with some kind of compensation. 

    That prize sweep took in a development grant from France’s CNC national film board for “Chapa 100,” an endearing advanced age love story from Mozambique’s Ique Langa, who impressed with his Rotterdam main competition entry “The Prophet.”

    An ArteKino International Award and a Sørfond Award went to “Tempered Flowers,” a diary-like essay, Tanzania’s Ngelime told Variety. It will use constructed archives, cinema verité performances with her family and stop motion to explore, respectively, Neema’s 1990s childhood, today and imagined future.     

    An EAVE Award was won by Burkina Faso’s Mamounata Nikiema at Pilumpiku Production, a prestigious documentary producer behind multiple doc-features, such as “Djeliya, Memory of Mandingo,” an ambitious, five-county co-pro. 

    “Exploring the lost hope of the Nigerian dream,” “I Live in V.I.,” a social class satire by Ugochukwu Azuya set on Nigeria’s luxurious Victoria Island, won a Tabakalera-San Sebastian residency. The high-energy Adja Soro at the Ivory Coast’s animation-focused Studio KÄ scored an invitation to the Rotterdam Lab.  

    More to come

  • Bitcoin steadies above $65,000 as Iran-Oman deal talk eases Hormuz concerns, lifts risk assets

    Bitcoin steadies above $65,000 as Iran-Oman deal talk eases Hormuz concerns, lifts risk assets

    The crypto market opened the week on a positive note, with bitcoin $BTC$64,978.83 up 0.54% since midnight UTC at $65,209 and ether $ETH$1,916.58 gaining 0.86% to $1,925 as sentiment stabilized following a turbulent July.

    The move was correlated with Nasdaq 100 index futures, which rose by 0.45% since midnight, buoyed by speculation from the Middle East that Iran is ready to strike a deal with Oman to open the Strait of Hormuz.

    The altcoin market is delicately poised, waiting to see if bitcoin can drive higher into the $68,000 to $72,000 range before benefiting from capital rotation.

    Derivatives positioning

    • Long-short ratio flips bullish: The long-short ratio for taker volume in crypto futures has flipped bullish, with longs accounting for 52% of the flow. A taker is an entity that removes liquidity from the order book by trading at available prices.
    • $BTC OI growth remains elusive: Bitcoin futures market activity remains subdued as $BTC attempts to hold above $65,000 amid cooling bets on Federal Reserve rate increases. Open interest (OI) slipped back below 750K $BTC. However, annualized funding rates and 24-hour OI-adjusted CVD remain positive, indicating that the limited interest present in the market is leaning bullish.
    • $ETH OI slides: De-risking continues in $ETH futures, with open interest falling to 13.35 million tokens, the lowest level since May 3, and a significant drop from the late-May peak of 15.98 million tokens.
    • Activity picks up in $SOL futures: Renewed activity is appearing in $SOL futures, as open interest rebounds to 64.60 million tokens from a recent low of around 60 million. This points to fresh capital inflows, coinciding with the token’s price recovery from nearly $70 to over $76 and a break above the widely tracked Ichimoku cloud, signaling a potential short-term bullish trend reversal.
    • Monero leads OI growth: Privacy-focused coin Monero (XMR) has surged 5% over the past 24 hours, briefly topping $400 for the first time since June 12. The rally appears to have staying power, with futures open interest jumping 6% alongside the price gains. The 24-hour CVD is the most positive among major cryptocurrencies, indicating that buyers are acting more aggressively through market orders rather than passive limit orders. In addition, annualized funding rates stand at the highest level among majors at 28%, underscoring growing demand for upside exposure.
    • BVIV hits 2026 lows: Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, fell to a year-to-date low of 35.59% over the weekend. The drop shows expectations for market calm, although some traders warn that put options offering protection from price losses in $BTC are still trading at a premium to calls.
    • Calls dominate volume: The 24-hour volume ranking in options shows increased investor bias for bitcoin calls at strikes $68,000 and $70,000. Ether options show a similar profile.

    Token talk

    • Pump.fun PUMP$0.002740 led the altcoin market with a 5.39% gain since midnight UTC, extending a 24-hour run that has pushed its market cap above $1.1 billion.
    • Ethena (ENA) rose 4.84% to $0.0907, continuing a steady recovery that has seen it gain ground in most sessions over the past two weeks. Still, it remains more than 90% below its all-time high.
    • NEAR protocol gained 3.79% as AI tokens broadly recovered, with FET adding 2.10% after weeks of underperformance against the wider market.
    • Lighter (LIT) slipped 0.94%, one of the only notable altcoins in the red as its slide following July’s 200%-plus rally continues to grind lower.
    • Woldcoin WLD$0.3398 posted a 13% gain over the past 24 hours but remains in a deep downtrend, down 91% from its record high one year ago.
    • CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” indicator is at 37/100, down significantly from last week’s peak of 51/100 as investors focus on bitcoin’s potential move higher.
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  • ‘House of the Dragon’ Star Shares the Bright Side of That Tragic Finale Twist

    ‘House of the Dragon’ Star Shares the Bright Side of That Tragic Finale Twist

    [This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the House of the Dragon season three finale.]

    “Do not trust the queen. Aegon has returned. His dragon lives. Your unborn child is a hostage, a prize by which she can hold power over her enemies. She will never release you.”

    These end up being among the final words Queen Helaena Targaryen ever hears. In the House of the Dragon season three finale, a newly ousted Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) issues her stark warning to the recently imprisoned Helaena (Phia Saban), who internalizes that information and weaponizes it: first, by way of speaking ugly truths about Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) right to her face, and then, finally, by way of an open Red Keep window. Just as King Tommen once plummeted from that very same location in Game of Thrones, so too now has Helaena fallen. The season ends with Rhaenyra coming upon Helaena’s vacant quarters, while Team Green’s queen herself lies on the ground below, impaled on spikes. 

    It’s a haunting image, perhaps appropriately so, given Helaena as a character who knows a thing or two about nightmares and dreams. It’s also a hinge upon which much of the rest of House of the Dragon will turn, according to the folks behind the scenes. In a press event held ahead of the season finale, D’Arcy spoke about Helaena’s death and what it means for the show’s future: “Helaena is sort of the moral heart of the show, I think. She’s maybe the only character who has a proximity to power, but remains kind of uncontaminated. And so, I think her death sort of condemns Rhaenyra to the path she’s chosen. I think there’s sort of no way back after that.”

    If there’s a way back, it exists somewhere far beyond the fallen Helaena. Below, Phia Saban chats with The Hollywood Reporter about building out the dream-seeing queen’s final chapter.

    ***

    How much did you know about Helaena’s fate in advance?

    When I got the job, I spent a lot of time Googling and searching the Wikis, so I’ve always known this was coming. Plus, there are so many fans out there in the world, and I know so many people who knew and would make a point to tell me about what was going to happen to me. 

    When it’s a show this big with a character fate this crucial, is it pretty much impossible to avoid that kind of spoiler on your end?

    Totally. It was never an option not to know. I’m just happy I made it three seasons!

    You’ve had a lot of time to think about her death, then. What are some of your first thoughts when you think about the character, now that her arc ends in this way?

    Objectively, it’s very sad. The story is sad. I love Helaena. I feel for Helaena. I try to find hope, by thinking she felt as though she had been killed already in many ways, but… it’s very sad. But for me? Kind of a bucket list thing: I got to die on TV! (Laughs.) I got to do the thing where you keep your eyes open… everyone wants to do that!

    How was that experience?

    The prosthetics were amazing. It made me want to do a thing where I’m entirely in prosthetics. It was so genius, getting to work on that. You really work with the most talented people on House of the Dragon. I could go through every department right now and tell you all about them, but the people I had never really worked with much before were the prosthetics people, and it was amazing. I sat there while they created my neck, which had this incredible spike, and they painted it on me in a way that was so lifelike. It was so fun. 

    What went into crafting the force-feeding scene?

    It involved a few weeks of what we’d call “gruel meetings.” I would try all these different slops, and they would say, “Choose the one you want to get force-fed.” The one we picked, it was a dal, low spice level. It was okay! 

    Before that goes down, literally, you have one final scene with Emma. What do you remember about it?

    I really loved it, because it came from a conversation I had with executive producers [Ryan Condal and Sara Hess] about it. I felt a lot of ownership over Helaena and have loved building that character. And I felt it was important to get across some of the things that I had always had as Helaena mantras in my mind in that moment. And I felt like that was the justice for Helaena. So we spoke a lot about Joan of Arc, and this idea that there’s more to life than not being dead. I found it really delicious that Helaena could be like, “There are things in the world that you’ll never know how beautiful they are, and they’re not even beautiful.” And that’s truly what she wants to get back to: having a relationship with the world and not being kept and silenced and used.

    That links up with the scene in the courtyard, when Helaena looks out at all the birds in cages being taken away.

    Is there a shot of her holding something in her hand? If there isn’t, what might be some context is that when we shot that scene, I was holding a dead caterpillar. To me, that moment became more about her relationship with nature, mourning her freedom and how strongly she feels for her creatures — and exactly as you say, how it strikes her that to see something that won’t live and fly again. I think to me, that’s what that was about, but they might’ve done some clever editing and just not got me holding it.

    What was your last day on set like?

    I saw Fabien talk about this, and I wonder how much it’s clever scheduling from the team, but the last thing I shot was my death shot. I was on a soundstage surrounded by spikes feeling pretty proud of myself in my prosthetics, trying to keep my eyes open with the whole team. And then Ryan came out and he said some nice things and lots of lovely people were there. And yeah, it was really amazing. It’s very hard in the moment to take in the finality of it. This is something I’ve been working on, and a character I’ve been caring for, for five years now. But there is joy in this. There’s pride and there’s excitement. It will probably hit me once I see the full episode and it’s out there, or perhaps when they all get back to work without me. 

    ***

    House of the Dragon season three is now streaming on HBO Max; read THR‘s finale coverage.

  • Tedde Moore, Who Played Ralphie’s Teacher in ‘A Christmas Story,’ Dies at 79

    Tedde Moore, Who Played Ralphie’s Teacher in ‘A Christmas Story,’ Dies at 79

    Tedde Moore, an actress who is best known as playing young Ralphie Parker’s teacher in A Christmas Story, has died. She was 79.

    Moore died Wednesday in Huntsville, Ontario, according to a post on her Facebook page. A cause of death was not given.

    “On Wednesday August 5th under sunny skies overlooking Fairy Lake, Tedde passed away surrounded by family physically and spiritually in her beloved Huntsville Muskoka,” the post reads. “Her bravery in this choice was almost overwhelming, beyond beautiful and also difficult. Forever the teacher, she had a quote for every occasion and a special way of touching the lives and hearts of everyone she met. Her magic and love will be remembered by all she took under her generous and welcoming wings.”

    Moore played Miss Shields in the 1983 Christmas classic opposite Peter Billingsley. She memorably gives Ralphie a bad grade on his paper about wanting the Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas and also has to deal with Flick (Scott Schwartz)’s getting his tongue stuck on a ice-cold flagpole. Moore was nominated for a Genie Award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, for best performance by an actress in a supporting role. She reprised her role for 1994’s My Summer Story, which, like A Christmas Story, was based on Jean Shepherd’s semi-autobiographical stories.

    Her other TV appearances include spots on Friday the 13th: The Series, RoboCop: Prime Directives, Odyssey 5 and This Is Wonderland. 

    Moore played Mrs. Claus in the 2011 TV movie Mistletoe Over Manhattan and also portrayed Nanny Shaw in the miniseries The Kennedys that same year. According to iMDB.com, her final credit was the 2017 TV movie Magical Christmas Ornaments.

    Born April 11, 1947, Moore was the daughter of Darwina Faessler Moore and actor Mavor Moore, best known for playing the title role in a Canadian radio drama adaptation of Nero Wolfe in 1982. Her grandmother was Canadian theater pioneer Dora Mavor Moore.

    She attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, graduating in 1967 with the Principal’s Medal of Honor. After graduating, she starred opposite Christopher Walken in the Stratford Festival production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

    In 2009, Moore was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

    Moore had two children with Canadian film and television director Donald Shebib, who directed many documentaries, including 1970’sGoin’ Down the Road and 1973’s Between Friends. Their children are daughter Suzanna, a child actor (Are You Afraid of the Dark?) turned teacher, and Noah, a child actor (Goosebumps) turned Grammy-winning music producer, also known as “40,” who is a frequent collaborator of Drake’s. 40, who produced the Drake hits “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” “One Dance,” “God’s Plan,” “Toosie Slide” and “Take Care,” was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007, two years before his mother.

    Moore has another daughter, Zoë, from a previous relationship with actor Patrick Christopher Carter, and raised a foster daughter, Chaunce Drury.

  • Windows 11 Pro Is Down to Just $11 Until August 9

    Windows 11 Pro Is Down to Just $11 Until August 9

    TL;DR: Get a Windows 11 Pro lifetime license for $11.23 (reg. $199) through August 9 with code AUG25.

    Why spend hundreds on new hardware when one of the cheapest, most powerful PC upgrades costs less than a Cava bowl? Right now, you can get a Windows 11 Pro license key for just $11.23 (MSRP $199) through StackSocial with code AUG25.

    And here’s something else to keep in mind: Microsoft has ended support for Windows. That means no more security updates, patches, or tech support, so now’s the time to upgrade.

    Windows 11 Pro Key Enhancements:

    • DirectX 12 Ultimate for ray-traced graphics and high frame rates

    • Auto HDR to add contrast and color to even older games

    • DirectStorage (with compatible hardware) for lightning-fast game load times

    You’ll also get improved window management, faster boot speeds, and a more intuitive layout built to streamline your workflow. Windows 11 Pro is engineered to work with your PC—not against it—so your system finally runs like the powerhouse it was built to be.

    Upgrade to Windows 11 Pro for just $11.23 (MSRP $199) through August 9 with code AUG25.

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  • ‘House of the Dragon’ Star Emma D’Arcy and Creator Ryan Condal on Rhaenyra-Daenerys Finale Connection and What All That Death Means for Season 4

    ‘House of the Dragon’ Star Emma D’Arcy and Creator Ryan Condal on Rhaenyra-Daenerys Finale Connection and What All That Death Means for Season 4

    SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “House of the Dragon,” now streaming on HBO Max.

    HBO’s “House of the Dragon” ended its third season Sunday with a bang, then a whimper.

    Following a slew of casualties (including James Norton’s Ormund Hightower) during a massive battle between the Blacks and the Greens at Tumbleton, Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) jumps to her death off screen in King’s Landing.

    While players on both sides of the battle for the Iron Throne are to blame for the carnage, Season 3 of the “Game of Thrones” prequel has put forward the quickly unraveling Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) as the one most responsible for the fire and blood. And “House of the Dragon” co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal is prepared for Rhaenyra’s heel turn to be compared to that of her descendant Daenerys Targaryen (played by Emilia Clarke) in 2019’s “Game of Thrones” series finale.

    “I think that’s wonderful if people draw parallels between this and the original series,” Condal said during a press conference Friday. “For sure, there’s going to be mirroring and echoes and reflections across the two series, and people will see things that are either intentional or subliminal. And I will just say that I think this is a one of those existential themes that goes across this entire universe, which is the draw of the Iron Throne — what it does to a person in its thrall, or the people that are trying to get to it.”

    Condal notes the “big difference” here is that “Daenerys only got to the Iron Throne at the very end, after she had destroyed the city,” while “Rhaenyra goes through this experience of having the throne, trying to hold it and being, in a way, turned and changed by it — altered by the experience.”

    “They’re very different things, but I think the parallels do call to the greater themes of the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ universe, which is pride and power, and how power corrupts, and how far it corrupts. And it can change good people into corrupted people,” Condal says. “It can take corrupted people and make them real villains, and other people, like Viserys, it can simply just destroy.”

    It seems the Iron Throne is doing a mixture of both to Rhaenyra by the end of the third season of “House of the Dragon.” She’s been pricked and bloodied by it, and is now making the choice to turn violent herself, becoming responsible (directly or inadvertently) for more than one death in the finale.

    “I really wanted to make sure that that journey was a legible one,” D’Arcy says. “I think, broadly, if we’re to be more practiced at protecting democracy, which seems increasingly fragile at times, we have to be smarter about understanding the behaviors of dictatorial leaders. I think Ryan and I both, this was an opportunity to attempt to try and make a certain type of behavior at least understood by an audience. And from an acting perspective, it felt much more playable to think about empathy and the sort of empathetic machine and how that gets damaged and affected by events, than it did to sort of solely think about her relationship with authoritarianism or something.”

    Rhaenyra orders Daemon (Matt Smith) to take Tumbleton, and kill every Hightower he can while leaving its people as unharmed as possible. Daemon brings troops and his dragon Caraxes, but holds out on laying siege for as long as possible, especially as Ormund has stationed children on the battlements and in front of the gates to the city. Eventually, Daemon uses Caraxes to burn down the entrance so that the Blacks can storm the town in search of Ormund and his Rhaenyra’s latest rival, Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth). The plan is to take those Hightowers out before turning to the matter of a revived Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his dragon Sunfyre.

    By the end, many of Rhaenyra’s supporters, including Northmen Roddy the Ruin (Tommy Flanagan), have been killed by a traitorous Ulf (Tom Bennett) and his dragon Silverwing — but so has Ormund, who went up in flames when Ulf double-crossed him, too.

    Daemon, Corlys (Steve Toussaint) and Hugh (Kieran Bew) make it out alive, and the last we see of Ulf, he is being chased by Daemon on Caraxes and Hugh on Vermithor. Back in the burnt Tumbleton, Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) is barely left standing, while the fate of Daeron and his dragon Tessarion are unknown.

    “All season long, we’re setting up this classic medieval siege, which is really where we wanted to get to, and the fun of that, the concept of that battle was that Ormund had basically done all he could to blunt the threat of Rhaenyra’s greatest power — which is that she has, or had, six dragons, under her command at that point,” Condal says. “So how do I take the dragons off the board and make this an even fight, man-to-man? And he sees his army as better trained and better suited than the rivermen that are coming to attack. He knows the ground, he’s inside the city, they have to come over the walls, sacrifice a bunch of their men. It was a very, very, very complex thing to fold all together, but we wanted to do a classic Medieval siege. That was the elevator pitch for the finale.”

    Back in King’s Landing, Rhaenyra is making moves she thinks will keep her firmly on the Iron Throne as long as Daemon and his team pull through. She kicks Mysaria out of the Red Keep, and has a captive, pregnant Helaena forcefed to keep her alive. Rhaenyra dons some Joan of Arc-esque armor, and has Alyn (Abubakar Salim) escort her and her young son and new heir Joffrey (Oscar Eskinazi) to the sept, where she demands to be annointed as the queen in front of all her people. When the High Septon refuses this request yet again, in favor of supporting Aegon’s return, she orders his execution.

    Then Rhaenyra takes to the streets, and tells the people of King’s Landing the prophecy her father, Viserys, entrusted to her: Aegon the Conqueror’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” vision of the Targaryens and their dragons being the only ones who can defeat the whitewalkers in the future. She tells the crowd (which Mysaria is hiding in) that she is the “prince that was promised,” and they look on in shock, confusion and fear.

    It’s a big moment for fans who will recall the importance of this prophecy to the original “Game of Thrones” series, and how “House of the Dragon” has incorporated it into its own mythology in a break from its source material, George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood.”

    “It’s not in the book, and it’s not in the history, but there is a bunch of talk about how Rhaenyra became very despotic, and became a tyrant at the end, and was very unpopular with the people,” Condal says. “So we saw it as, this could just be something that happened, and there was disagreement over exactly, what it was, so it didn’t make the historical record. My glib toss-off from the historians is, ‘Oh, well, Targaryens say crazy shit all the time.’ But so much of their existence is this self-aggrandizement. And for the stonemasons standing there in the crowd just looking up at this, it could just sound like somebody trying to make something of themselves, because they have no idea of all the quote-unquote real history that went into Rhaenyra making that speech.”

    Condal says the scene was written into the “House of the Dragon” storyline because the writers wanted “a real seismic change, a sea change in Rhaenyra’s relationship to her people” leading into the final season.

    “She’s seen to the death of their religious leaders, she’s standing outside of the church of the faith of most of the people standing there, as a member of a totally different faith, this old Valyrian faith of dragons and fire gods and blood magic,” Condal says. “And [she’s] pronouncing herself this chosen one, the leader that is going to take them through the fire and out of the darkness.”

    When Rhaenyra returns to the Red Keep, she receives the terrible news that Helaena has jumped to her death. (Read Variety‘s interview with Phia Saban here.) In Helaena’s room, Rhaenyra finds a tapestry Helaena had just finished sewing that predicts a dark and fiery end for Rhaenyra in the future. Now, she’s left to wonder how the people — including Helaena’s traveling mother, Alicent (Olivia Cooke), her childhood best friend — will react when they learn of Helaena’s death. And who they will blame.

    The “House of the Dragon” team has already broken the “superstructure” story for the final season, and Condal has handed in a draft of the first episode to HBO, but there’s no timeline for when Season 4 will air just yet. Condal says he has been on a break throughout the airing of Season 3.

    “No, I’ve actually taken time off,” Condal says. “I needed to step away from all of this. But we have an incredible season coming. As crazy and big as Season 3 was, I think Season 4 is going to be even bigger.”

    Condal adds: “It’s a great privilege to be able to tell a story, and to be able to control and write the ending, and to control when and where that happens. This is not a given in making television, certainly. So, we’re very excited to get back in, and we have new characters, and new dragons and new locations all to come, that I think are gonna make it a very worthy, final season.”

    For more of Variety’s “House of the Dragon” finale coverage, read this interview with Phia Saban, who plays Helaena Targaryen and this interview with James Norton, who plays Ormund Hightower. This interview has been edited and condensed.