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FIFA president Gianni Infantino appears to have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

A month after the final of 2026 World Cup, which earned FIFA a record $15 billion in revenues, Infantino is fighting to keep his job. His controversial plan to sell off a stake in the World Cup to a group of private investors led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, sparked a global backlash that shows no signs of abetting. The past week, soccer legends, sports authorities and even world leaders have called for Infantino to resign.

“Infantino must go,” wrote Portuguese soccer legend Luis Figo in an op-ed for the Daily Mail. “The Infantino era is over,” added Javier Tebas, president of Italy’s La Liga, an interview with French newspaper Le Monde. “It should be fatal,” said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, on Infantino’s misstep with the sell-off plans. “Certainly I don’t have confidence in Mr. Infantino.”

The pile on has continued despite Infantino dropping his plan, officially ditching the proposal on July 31. The deal would have seen FIFA, a 96-year-old nonprofit, spin off its commercial interests into a new division, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE). Kushner’s private equity group Thrive Capital would then buy a 21 percent stake in FFE for $4.2 billion. FIFA had argued the arrangement would raise billions to fund global sports development.

European soccer body UEFA called it an attempt to sell “the soul” of soccer and threatened to boycott future FIFA tournaments if the deal went through. The Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF, which represents national organizations in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. also rejected the proposal.

FIFA quickly backed down. UEFA has not. Last week it said its boycott is still in place. The group reiterated its position that it has “lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency.” UEFA’s boycott will be tested at FIFA’s Under-20 Women’s World Cup, which kicks off in Poland Sept. 5.

On Friday, Norwegian soccer association directly called for Infantino to resign. “The trust is now gone for us,” Norwegian Football Federation president, Lise Klaveness, told The Guardian. “There is no way back for Infantino.”

Adding to the pile on was a report on Friday that a female employee alleged to have been in a relationship with Infantino when he was general secretary at UEFA, received a six-figure “departure payment.” UEFA confirmed the payment but FIFA said the allegations of inappropriate conduct by Infantino are “categorically untrue” and “defamatory,” adding that “no employee at UEFA and FIFA has ever raised a complaint regarding Mr Infantino’s behavior because there never was an incident where he was involved.”

FIFA on Saturday fired back at Infantino’s critics, accusing them of trying, “through allegation, insinuation or misinformation” to undermine “FIFA’s established democratic processes” by trying to oust Infantino before presidential elections next March.

UEFA is reportedly seeking support from other soccer confederations to call an emergency FIFA Congress to trigger a vote of no confidence in the president. UEFA, with 55 members, easily meets the threshold of 43 votes to call an emergency meeting. To topple Infantino, however, would require a majority of FIFA members, or 106 of the 211 national associations. The Confederation of African Football and South American confederation CONMEBOL have both publicly announced their backing for Infantino. Last week, Mexico broke with North American confederation CONCACAF to support FIFA’s beleaguered president.

The pressure is mounting on Gianni Infantino, but there is still time on the clock for him to turn this defeat back into a win.

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.”  
 

[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, 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.