Tag: Entertainment-HollywoodReporter

Big Brother, Survivor, Deal or No Deal, MasterChef, Temptation Island – those are just some of the non-scripted hit shows of independent production powerhouse Banijay Entertainment.

As Banijay‘s chief content officer, development James Townley is responsible for not resting on those laurels and instead driving the development and creation of original non-scripted intellectual property (IP), format acquisitions and documentaries across the company’s 23 territories and its network of production banners. Co-leading the firm’s unscripted unit Creative Networks, “he supports and champions a strong pipeline of new formats with international appeal,” Banijay says. “He also manages group-level investment in non-scripted via the company’s Creative Fund and internal creative incentivization schemes.”

Townley, who previously served as global head of Creative Networks at Endemol Shine Group, as Endemol Shine U.K.’s director of operations and held roles at Princess Productions and Sky, has a particularly busy week ahead. On Monday afternoon, he will be part of a MIP London panel entitled “Disruption in Formats Acquisitions and Sales,” and on Wednesday, Banijay’s London TV Screenings events take place.

Ahead of London’s big annual TV week, THR talked to Townley about the state of unscripted content, cross-collaboration across Banijay, the company’s London TV Screenings lineup, including sport adventure reality format Football Island, culinary competition 100 Knives, quiz show How Old Is Your Brain?, and psychological reality game The Dinner.

How do you approach your role, given the size and reach of Banijay across its various territories?

It is a significant footprint, and the beautiful thing about having around 130 production companies is that it’s about that creative community. They’ve all got their own identity. But in that creative community, what we’re fully focused on now is creation. It’s about taking advantage of opportunities, because we’re still working in a very risk-averse market. So we are working on the development and creation of big new shows to launch globally to complement our current catalog, and in the industry’s current catalog of big shows.

So, we’re looking for what’s our next MasterChef, what’s our next Big Brother, our next Survivor. They all sit at the top of their genres, whether it is competitive reality, whether it is adventure, whether it’s romantic reality, or the world of social experiment. Reality feels like it is still absolutely king.

What are the key opportunities you see in this risk-averse market you mentioned?

I think there are opportunities because we’re able to do co-development, collaborations, partnerships, and these have been really, really successful. And when we spot a new embryonic creation, we’re really lucky in that we have an internal investment creative fund with which we can supercharge those new ideas and try and get them launched with a partner somewhere in the world.

Absolutely, that big new IP that can sit alongside current super brands. And whether it is reality and all those sub-sections of reality, or whether it is the next big quiz, game or talent show, there’s opportunity.

Coming into the [soccer] World Cup, you will probably hear everyone talking about how expensive sports rights are. But we also know that it’s not just about those. Those channels need more than sports to complement those live events.

Your team at Banijay has talked about finding new hits in that space where sports and entertainment meet, right?

The infamous “where sport meets entertainment” – I present to you: sportainment! We’ve got a big show coming out of Holland called Football Island, a collaboration between SimpelZodiak and Southfields for Videoland. The clue is in the title. Yes, it absolutely is under the banner of football [aka soccer]. I think football fans, certainly Dutch football fans, will watch that show. There’s fantastic talent. What we want to do, though, is to bring in that family viewing audience. We want them to watch it for other layers that are in that format. The show has that survival element, with 13 Dutch ex-footballers stuck on the island, and they talk about a lot of stories from when they were players on the field, but also off the field.

I guess it’s a special twist on Survivor and the like. Any other new twists you are presenting to the market?

As the home of MasterChef, we’re always looking for ideas under this banner of big, competitive reality food shows. And we’ve got one from Mastiff Sweden, Bunim/Murray Productions and Smart Dog Media [for TV4] called 100 Knives, which has just shot in Sweden. It really looks fantastic.

The twist is essentially that it’s not about individuals at all. It’s about teams. They’re actually called brigades in the format. So, there’s that competitive element. But what I love about it is the camaraderie of bringing people together. Audiences are incredibly savvy, and I think we have to bring that positive tone, that tone of where you are stronger together and people wanting other people to succeed. We’ve seen lots of reality shows where everyone’s competitive, and there’s the evil contributor on the side – absolutely, there still is that element when you have a competition. But what I love about 100 Knives is brigades all working together, and the bond that they develop.

What’s also fantastic is that it’s got real scale, but we have the ability to produce it as a huge scale show, a medium scale show, or a slightly smaller show. So we can fit these formats to various global needs, because each territory is slightly different.

Any other new themes or trends you are seeing?

In the vein of entertaining audiences, comedy entertainment is something we’re really keen on. It’s no secret that Amazon has had huge success with LOL, and we’re lucky to produce that in 11 territories. We’re keen to work on comedy entertainment inside the studio, comedy entertainment outside the studio, and hybrid formats that have a comedy entertainment edge. There’s a big show coming from Metronome in Denmark called Who’s Guilty?, which is filming as we speak. That is using comedians and celebrities who have to guess who the guilty comedian is. [In each episode, a group of comedians is thrown into a fictional crime and interrogated in a courtroom in front of a celebrity jury. One comedian is secretly assigned to play the guilty party; the others are innocent, but they all work together to convince the jury to convict one of them of the crime.]

So, how do you balance the familiar and popular, in this case, maybe a dash of The Traitors, with the new?

There are some big psychological reality shows in our industry, such as The Traitors. And when we are creating these big shows, you have to make sure they’ve got their own DNA. You have to make sure that they stand on their own. You have to [look for] what’s the new unique element. They’ve got to have this element.

Banijay is also working with third-party partners on some of their big IPs, right?

That is also a huge priority for the business. We’ve seen such success from LEGO Masters in the past in that regard. So we nurture that third-party format and are always looking for new partners. Other third-party successes include [strategic reality format] Werewolves, Ninja Warrior, and [digital-first format] All Star Hide and Seek. 

Our teams within Banijay want to work on the best formats, and our partners want to create the best formats and work with the best people. I talked about 100 Knives and the brigades. It feels like we’re creating quite a few internal brigades in that regard. We’re just trying to bring everyone together, because there’s so much that these teams learn and that they can share – on third-party and our own [IP].

Who is willing to take risks in this risk-averse market?

Probably from our pipeline’s point of view, the streamers are the ones who are taking the biggest swings. When we are launching a huge amount of new IP, actually, sometimes the hardest part is to prioritize what we feel is the biggest international hit of the future.

You can’t wait to make a format strong. You have to make it strong before it launches. If you don’t put the time and effort into it at Base Camp One, it will die, it will fizzle out in an industry and in a content market that is as competitive as it has ever been. So, we really do put a huge amount of time, effort, blood, sweat, tears, and investment into those potential opportunities that we can see traveling around the world.

In the U.K., at the moment, we have The Summit on ITV, which is a format that’s now traveled to nearly 10 territories, having originated in Australia. [The ITV version sees 14 strangers trying to summit a mountain in New Zealand, competing in a test of resilience and strategy. “Can teamwork prevail or will £200,000 ($270,000) tempt betrayal?” asks a synopsis.) The Australian team didn’t take a few weeks to come up with that format. It was in their pipeline for 18 months of rigorous development and investment stages.

What do you think is appealing to audiences about non-scripted shows?

It’s still escapism, nostalgia. Because the news is not always the most positive, that is appealing. And for others, they’re just a brand new audience that has never seen anything like this before.

But you have to keep formats fresh. One in particular that seems to be hugely successful out in the U.S. is [the Fear Factor revival] Fear Factor: House of Fear with Johnny Knoxville, which has done brilliantly in overnight numbers that apparently no one cares about anymore. And it is also incredibly successful on Hulu. And I think where you have that opportunity to drive audiences to [networks and] streaming, so you have a dual purpose, that’s great.

I heard you will also be talking about a new format called The Dinner this week. What’s that about?

The Dinner isn’t really about the dinner and what you eat. It’s a fantastic partnership of SimpelZodiak and Talpa Studios [for SBS6] that has elements of psychological and strategic reality. It’s also one of those scenarios where it’s like a mirror moment for the audience. You know, when you sit with friends around a dinner table, there are always friends who’ve got lots of different stories. But in this particular case, it’s more of a game show where money is at stake. The individuals, who in this particular case are celebrities, are telling stories, and the other diners at the table have to guess whether that story is real or fake.

There are some fantastic stories in there, and some of them you just would never, ever believe were true. It’s incredibly watchable and very bingeable as well. We’ve got a great legacy with panel shows. So we have the expertise and know how we can appeal to audiences, but now put it into a totally different environment. And if you get the cast right, it’s fantastic, so the casting is absolutely integral. And this one is very addictive. It doesn’t need to be a quiz show to play along at home, so this is a way to bring the family together.

Speaking of quizzes: any new quiz formats?

Our team at DMLS in France has created a show originally called Brain Master, which is now known as How Old Is Your Brain? What’s great about it is that you have all these different questions, so people can play along together at home. It’s a great quiz that goes across all sorts of demographics. And there is a little sidebar for the format with a scientist giving you tips and tricks on how to keep your brain fresh. So you get a little bit of science into it, as well as the game show, making it a hybrid.

You mentioned the opportunity to super-charge hot ideas with your fund. Can you tell me a bit more about that fund?

The very-well stocked Creative Fund we have is there to invest solely in creativity, because that sits absolutely at the heart of what we all do. The people who have the creativity sit at the heart. When we are looking for those big, new ideas, we set up various creative initiatives.

Last year, we launched the Genre Accelerator Fund that is really simple. We have six genres, in which we feel there is a multi-territory, multi-buyer opportunity: romantic reality, adventure reality, quiz and game shows, talent shows, sportainment, and social experiment. And we asked every single non-scripted label at Banijay to submit one big idea. They were allowed to decide which genre they wanted to submit to, and we chose a winner whose bounty was an investment in that idea. So we ended up with six winners, and we’re currently talking with all of them at the moment about the best use of that investment. Some are further down the line than others.

Banijay has talked about using AI in the development of shows. What role does AI play in some of the shows/formats Banijay is showcasing at the London TV Screenings – whether on screen or in the development and production process?

AI is increasingly part of our creative workflow, both on-screen and behind-the-scenes, and you’ll see that reflected across our London TV Screenings showcase this week. A ground-breaking example is Staying Alive, our new music entertainment format from EndemolShine Germany, where cutting-edge technology enables today’s artists to perform showstopping duets with legendary voices like Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse and Freddie Mercury. Creating a performance entertainment format like that simply wasn’t possible before. Beyond that, AI now helps our teams visualize concepts faster, streamline production, and unlock new ways to elevate storytelling and amplify creativity. 

Anything else you’d like to highlight?

You have to hook people early, and you have to give them what they want. But sometimes the premise of a format can be incredibly simple, and that’s the beauty of it. Staying Alive is an example of that.

The beautiful thing about the Banijay pipeline and the new shows is that it is not monotonous, and we’re always looking for what is different enough from everything else, not only within our catalog, but within the world.

John Oliver started out Sunday’s Last Week Tonight by recapping the news of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest last week.

The former Prince Andrew, who is the son of the late Queen Elizabeth II and brother of King Charles III, was arrested in the U.K. three days ago on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was released after several hours in custody. 

Police arrested him after emails came to light as part of the Epstein files being released by the U.S. Department of Justice. His ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have put him under scrutiny for years, leading to his being stripped of his royal titles, including that of Prince and  also the Duke of York.

On his HBO show Sunday, Oliver showed video from a news report wherein the reporter noted that the arrest came after “growing revelations about the alleged connections” between the two men. The report showed a photo of Epstein and Andrew walking side by side, appearing to be in conversation.

Said Oliver: “It’s true, they arrested former Prince Andrew, and I don’t know why they’re still going with ‘alleged’ connections to Epstein there, while also running a photo that makes them look like the two closest friends I’ve ever seen. It looks like they’re brainstorming a new podcast. It looks like Andrew’s soft-launching, ‘Hey, would it be crazy if we moved in together?’ I’m just saying, maybe drop the ‘alleged’ part when you’re dealing with two guys that look so close they could finish each other’s prison sentences.”

Oliver continued: “And if you’re thinking, ‘Well, what was the new revelation that did it? Was it the grotesque new photo of Andrew on all fours over a young woman? Incredibly, no, it was apparently this.”

He then showed a clip from another news report noting that the arrest reportedly was linked to emails that Andrew forwarded to Epstein when the former was the U.K. trade envoy. Some of the emails were dated 2010, which was after Epstein’s conviction, and contained files from Andrew’s trips overseas.

“Yeah, they got him on forwarding documents, which is a little underwhelming,” Oliver said. “Though, to be honest, when it comes to bringing down monsters, I don’t really care if it’s for a boring computer crime, the same way I’m not that mad if what finally ends a toddler throwing a tantrum is a cardboard box [on his head]. The method doesn’t matter. What’s important is, you have been stopped.”

“Now, Andrew has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing and has been released, although that does not mean he’s been found not guilty,” Oliver added, showing the widely circulated photo of Andrew being released from custody, in which he can be seen slumped down in the backseat of a car. “All we really have to go on right now is this fantastic picture of him leaving custody, and you can draw your own conclusions there. Reasonable people can disagree on whether this makes him look guilty — or dead.”

Oliver then showed a report from the Australian version of 60 Minutes in which a former officer who was assigned to guard Andrew hesitantly revealed that the nickname given to him by some of his staffers was “the c***.”

“According to that guy, that was Andrew’s unofficial nickname, and it’s a little weird he was so wary of saying that word on TV given he was appearing on Australia’s 60 Minutes, and Australians say c*** all the time. I’m pretty sure Bluey’s said it at least three times,” Oliver joked.

An experienced cinematographer before he turned to directing, Warwick Thornton has a feel for the Central Australian desert and the craggy MacDonnell Ranges that’s both epic and intimate. His refined sense of composition is directly informed by the landscape around Alice Springs where he grew up and his subcutaneous connection to it imbues his films with soulful beauty. Wolfram is no exception. A four-chapter saga of escape, pursuit and survival, the film, for all its brutality, ultimately becomes less a lament for stolen lands and stolen children than a stirring account of endurance.

Family and community are the thematic foundation of this sequel of sorts to Thornton’s 2017 drama Sweet Country, again co-written by Steven McGregor and David Tranter. It picks up a few years after the events of the earlier film in and around the same fictional Northern Territory town of Henry, though all but two of the principal characters here are different. That gives the two movies the feel of a shared ancestral map, marked by overlaps and diverging tangents.

The nominal center this time is Pansy, played with an expressive gaze and few words by the invaluable Deborah Mailman, first seen clutching her newborn and hacking off locks of her hair with a rusty knife. With minimal preamble or exposition, Pansy and new partner Zhang (Jason Chong) set off on a horse and cart for Queensland, their last shot at finding her lost children. She beads the braids of hair with seeds, hanging them on shrubs to mark the way, like a trail of breadcrumbs.

Meanwhile, Indigenous child laborers Max (Hazel May Jackson) and Kid (Eli Hart) chip away at the walls of a tight mine shaft, removing chunks of the ore used to make wolfram (now more commonly known as tungsten) for their ill-tempered boss Billy (Matt Nable).

A separate thread follows the arrival in Henry of criminals Casey (Erroll Shand) and Frank (Joe Bird), all mean attitude and swagger as they look to stake a claim in the area and prospect for gold. Ignoring the advice of the local storekeeper (John Howard) to avoid the back trails where they are likely to encounter “wild Blackfellas,” they head off in that direction. When they come upon young Max, left behind to keep an eye on Billy’s camp, Casey and Frank rob the camp and forcibly take the child with them.

Once Kid discovers his sibling is gone, he steals a donkey from the mining site and goes after him, his exit timing helped by a convenient snake bite.

Further off the dusty track on a run-down cattle station, belligerent drunk Kennedy (Thomas M. Wright) benefits from the virtual slave labor of his 18-year-old mixed-race son Philomac (Pedrea Jackson), the two main characters carried over from Sweet Country. (Philomac, then 14, was played by twins Tremayne and Trevon Doolan.)

When Casey and Frank roll up, they pretty much take over, claiming they found Max wandering alone. Kennedy is oddly deferential to the strangers as they start antagonizing Philomac, whose suspicions about them are confirmed when he talks to Max alone.

Just as he did in Sweet Country, Thornton evokes the Old West-style lawlessness of the time and place, particularly as sneering villain Casey and cocky dope Frank go from vaguely menacing to outright ruthless. Their heartless treatment of Black petty thief Archie (Gibson John), another Sweet Country holdover, shocks Philomac into action as the movie shifts gears into a chase thriller. Blood is shed in killings both horrific and gratifying. In the latter case, Thornton reclaims the dignity of First Nations Australians with a rousing image of strength.

Much of the story comes from oral history passed down by his great-grandfather to Tranter, whose family roots on both sides — Indigenous and Chinese — come into play. That said, the narrative feels a tad shapeless at times and the plot turns — one surprise revelation in Part Four aside — often familiar.

The number of significant characters and story strands makes it a challenge for the director and writers to settle on a focus and maintain it until the threads are stitched together. But even when it ambles along rather than races, the movie’s heart and integrity keep Wolfram engrossing, buoyed by sterling work from the entire cast.

Pedrea Jackson, sporting an excellent mustache, is a standout as Philomac, contemplative, observant, simmering with indignation and longing to be with his people; Shand makes Casey chillingly contemptible, treating the Aboriginal characters like animals; despite her role being largely symbolic, Mailman is enormously touching, her grace and quiet fortitude standing in for countless mothers whose children were taken from them; and the young actors playing Max and Kid are terrific.

Two Chinese gold prospectors introduced toward the end, Shi (Ferdinand Hoang) and Jimmi (Aiden Du Chiem), indicate the sense of solidarity among victims of discrimination. They become a key part of an affecting conclusion, which maybe ties up the story too neatly, but few will be unmoved by seeing people so dehumanized by colonial rule show their resilience.

Thornton once again serves as his own DP, drawing texture from the rich palette of reds, oranges, golds and browns in the sun-blasted landscape. The movie has no original score as such but makes distinctively atmospheric use of Charlie Barker’s saw playing. The director has still not surpassed the poetic simplicity of his lauded 2009 debut, Samson & Delilah. But Wolfram represents a very solid entry in his impressive body of work and a return to form after his more uneven last feature, The New Boy.

The United States was always going to have a good Winter Games. The country jumped from sixth in the medal count to second between the 1998 Nagano Games and the 2002 Salt Lake Games and has been holding in the top five ever since — thanks to impressive results in relatively newer disciplines like snowboarding and curling and newfound competitiveness in classic realms like bobsledding and speed skating.

In Milan Cortina, the United States managed 33 medals, good for second overall and the most ever for the country at a Games outside North America. When you’re out-medaling Germany and the Netherlands at winter sports, you’re doing something right.

But it’s not just how many you win — it’s how you win. And the U.S. had some truly wild and miraculous triumphs, from a figure skater who had been retired just two years go to a cross-country skier who raced with a badly damaged rib to a TikToker who waited at the last possible moment to grab his gold. Here in ascending order are Team USA’s seven most inspirational moments (from among many) as they played out on Peacock/NBC over the past two weeks. Read it and feel all over again.

7. The U.S. Women’s Hockey Team Wins Gold By Beating Canada in OT

In one sense, the U.S. women’s hockey gold was not a surprise: The team had come in a favorite and only got hotter from there, outscoring opponents 31-1 in the six games entering the final. But in another sense, the victory over Canada on Thursday night at Santagiulia Arena was a stone-cold shocker. The U.S. was down 1-0 to its archival with the clock coming up on two minutes and superstar goalie Aerin Frankel heading to the bench. Canada had beaten the U.S. in five of the previous seven gold-medal games they played, and it was about to be a sixth.

Then the improbable happened. Veteran captain Hilary Knight tipped in a Laila Edwards shot to tie the score with 2:04 left and send the game into OT. That led to the snapshot moment: Taylor Heise springing Megan Keller with a stretch pass that the streaking defender took before deking a Canadian defender and tucking the puck into the goal on her backhand. Narrative reversed — the U.S. now had its third gold medal and a possible sendoff of sendoffs to a possibly retiring Knight. It was just a prelude of what was to come between the two hockey powers, but it was plenty gratifying in its own right.

6. Jessie Diggins Skis 10 Kilometers — and Medals — While in Agonizing Rib Pain

Remember that time you had a cold and didn’t go to work? Jessie Diggins may have something to say to you. The decorated U.S. cross-country skier (she previously was a part of the best television Olympics moment of the 2010s with the stir-to-patriotism  “Here comes Diggins” in PyeongChang) had badly bruised a rib in a nasty crash in skiathlon at the start of this Games. She seemed done, destined to head into retirement with her memories and three previous medals. “It’s easy to stress and think ‘this isn’t how it was supposed to happen,’” she posted meditatively on Instagram. “But there are always so many things that are totally out of our control.” 

Yet just days later, Diggins skied the 10 km freestyle and somehow ended up finishing in bronze position; at the finish, she collapsed, writhing in more pain than James Caan when Kathy Bates picked up that ax in Misery. “I thought i was gonna maybe pass or die. it would have been nicer if I could have passed out,” she said later. Fortunately she didn’t, and got to experience the bronze as it happened. Us too.

5. Alex Ferreira Wins His First Gold Medal on His Last-Ever Olympic Run

Some Olympic athletes are phenoms. Then there’s Alex Ferreira. At 31, Ferreira had been a professional halfpipe skier for more than a decade, including at three Olympics. The ski TikToker landed on plenty of podiums, but he never has won an Olympic gold medal. After two runs at the freestyle halfpipe ski run, that didn’t seem likely to change — he was in fifth place and ready for the double cork 1260 in the sky (or, like, the exhibition circuit). But the halfpipe just takes your best run, and Ferreira came out for his third and and laid out exactly that — a beauty — in the final run of his final Olympics to take a gold.

How did he do it? Risk taking and technical skill, of course. But also, a mantra. “I am greatness, and this is my moment,’” he would tell himself at the top of the halfpipe before the runs. “I can feel it in my bone marrow.”

4. Elana Meyers Taylor Wins Gold Medal for Her Deaf Toddler Sons

Speaking of waiting a while for gold, consider Elana Meyers Taylor. The 41-year-old  bobsled mainstay was entering her fifth Games and, despite five previous medals, had never won a gold. Yet somehow in the new sport of monobob — one pilot doing everything — she finished four one-hundredths of a second faster than the 27-year-old German competitor Laura Nolte to win her first gold and become the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Games history. 

If Meyers Taylor’s win along wasn’t enough to tug at the heartstrings, the athlete  is mom to two deaf toddlers, Noah and Nico (he also has Down syndrome), who come with her and her husband-coach Nic to many of their competitions and were present at the sliding track in Cortina. Meyers Taylor spoke with NBC’s Mike Tirico about how all the training and triumphs were for her sons, prompting an “I’m not crying, you’re crying” outpouring on social media. “Parenting my two sons with disabilities has done everything for me,” she said, “If I win medals or lose medals, it doesn’t matter because I’m still mom to them.” Then she added, “Hopefully when they’re older they’ll look back and realize what actually happened. I was just so happy to be able to hug them and hold them for a brief moment while everything played out.” (We can’t embed this one but check out the interview here.)

3. Corinne Stoddard Posts That She’s “Embarrassed” By How She Keeps Falling — Then Goes Out and Grabs a Bronze

Corinne Stoddard is currently ranked third in short track for 500 and 1,000 meters. She became known for something else for much of the Milan Cortina Games — she fell a shocking four times during races and wrote a self-lacerating Instagram post that “Part of me thinks I haven’t been able to handle the pressure and expectations I put on myself” and said that she feels “embarrassed by how much I’ve choked on the Olympic stage over and over again.” (She also fell in Beijing in 2022.)

But on Friday in the 1,500-meter race, her last, she pulled off a third-place finish for bronze after holding off a pair of hometown heroes, including Italian legend Arianna Fontana. Stoddard has has been public about her battles with anxiety and insomnia, and the sight of her battling through to reach the podium gave hope to anyone familiar with mental-health struggles. Stoddard’s tearful parents were mirrored by broadcaster Katherine Reutter-Adamek, who choked up with emotion. “Forgive us if we all join the parents in shedding a tear,” play-by-play man Ted Robinson said.

It would be the first individual medal for a U.S. woman short-track athlete in 16 years.  “Every person on that ice understands what Stoddard lived through,” Robinson said.

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Reutter-Adamek said.

2. Alysa Liu Skates Like No One Is Watching and Reminds Us Why We Do This

We could use words to describe what Alysa Liu — barely two years ago retired because she didn’t find figure-skating pleasurable anymore — pulled off with her gold-medal skate on Thursday. But nothing compares to the contact high from just watching her pull off the most joyous figure-skating performance in modern memory.

On an Olympics stage where competitors can be uptight, dour and neurotically serious because of the pressure placed on them, Liu reminded us what events should really be all about: fun. Watch the skate here and your day will instantly become 37 percent better.

1. The U.S. Men’s Hockey Team Wins Gold By Beating Canada in OT

Where to start with one of the best hockey games ever played, talent-wise, and also the one with the most TV storylines?

The United States’ first-ever gold medal win in hockey over Canada? The fact that it happened on the anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, aka the event widely regarded as the best TV moment of the 1980s? The vengeance against Canada from last year’s Four Nations tournament? The sheer wizardry of Matt Boldy and Connor Hellebuyck? The touching tribute to the late Gaudreau brothers? The dominance of the ascendant Hughes brothers? The fact that one of said brothers, Jack, poked the puck away from Cale Makar and then sniped the winning shot in OT after having a few teeth knocked out on a high stick near the end of regulation?

Hughes’ goal was the burst of unity and the palliative we need at this moment — not, with the Miracle on Ice, to heal a country fractured by the Cold War but to heal a country fractured by itself. (“I’m so proud to be an American today,” he said.) Plus who doesn’t love a good sports-dentistry story? “Would you trade a couple of broken teeth for a gold medal?” broadcaster Kenny Alert asked. Fortunately for America, Hughes would.

It was a vibrant night at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday as the world of film descended on the British capital for the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards.

It wasn’t just A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessie Buckley, Kate Hudson, Chloe Zhao, Paul Thomas Anderson, Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner waiting with bated breath to see who’d get pulled up onto stage and thrusted a shiny gold BAFTA mask — the Prince and Princess of Wales were also in the house (William is BAFTA president, after all).

The host for the evening was The Traitors U.S. star Alan Cumming, who loosened guests up by asking the entire room to let out a primal scream on the count of three. He soon struck up a reliably humorous bit with Paul Mescal, red-faced next to partner Gracie Abrams, as Cumming repeatedly asked the Hamnet star if he’d heard of various industry professionals. “No,” was usually Mescal’s answer, bar one time when Cumming caught him on his phone.

Behind the scenes, it was quite literally a rotating door of talent as award winners made their way on and off the stage, up and down the stalls. Ryan Coogler and Joachim Trier were particularly drawn to each other throughout the evening, routinely going out of their way to give one another a celebratory hug (Sinners made BAFTA history with three wins, while Sentimental Value nabbed best film not in the English language). Coogler even thanked his “mentor” Trier in his best original screenplay acceptance speech.

Things got slightly hairy when Cumming was made to repeatedly read out Tourette’s disclaimers. John Davidson, a Tourette’s campaigner and inspiration behind the BAFTA-nominated I Swear, was heard shouting and cursing at presenters through the opening 20 minutes of the ceremony. “Tourette’s Syndrome is a disability, and the tics you’ve heard tonight are involuntary,” said Cumming, “which means the person who has Tourette’s Syndrome has no control over their language. We apologize if you are offended tonight.” Davidson eventually left the room, which The Hollywood Reporter understands was of his own accord.

One of the lighter moments of the show came when Paddington Bear himself came on stage to present the award for best children and family film, which went to Lakshmipriya Devi’s Boong. The U.K. icon — currently the star of Paddington The Musical, in which he is played by a young woman in a bear suit, Arti Shah — apologized for getting spoonfuls of marmalade over the BAFTA he was dishing out. As he exited, Cumming fawned over Paddington’s cuteness, saying he wanted to take him home. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve taken home a South American bear,” added the host, prompting raucous laughter.

The best of Cumming’s antics came around the midway point when he began handing out British snacks as though he were a flight attendant walking down the plane aisle. Kylie Jenner, partner of Marty Supreme‘s Chalamet, was asked, “Have you ever had your gums around a jammy dodger?” Well, it turns out, she has not. DiCaprio, meanwhile, was given hobnobs, Emma Stone hulahoops, and Rose Byrne twiglets (for our non-U.K. readers, this jibberish is simply various chips and biscuit-adjacent confectionery).

Then came the hotly anticipated performance from the singing trio of KPop Demon Hunters, Huntrix, who performed their first live show outside of the U.S. One Battle After Another‘s Chase Infiniti knew all the words to “Golden” and was seen dancing in the front row.

But the evening belonged to Paul Thomas Anderson, who took home best director, best adapted screenplay and the top prize: best film. He had guests captivated as he dedicated his best director honor to Adam Somner. The late U.K. native was a producer and assistant director to PTA for 20 years.

“You may think that your greatest export is Alfred Hitchcock or Charlie Chaplin, but it wasn’t,” Anderson told the Brits in the room. “To me, it was Adam Somner. … He came over to America, and the line was out the door of people who wanted to work with him because he made us all better. About three weeks into our film, he found out he was sick, and he made it through production. If you’ve ever gone to work before with someone who’s very ill, there’s something miraculous that makes you pay attention and reminds you the privilege of the work that we do. So thank you for sending him to me.”

While closing the show with his win for best film, Oscar nominee Anderson took the opportunity to express his moviemaking optimism: “Anybody that says movies aren’t any good anymore should piss right off,” he said to whoops and applause. “I want to say thank you, and I know that there’s a bar somewhere. I think we should all go there. It’s been a long evening, but we have so much to celebrate. … Let’s keep making things without fear,” he added, quoting pianist, singer-songwriter, and activist Nina Simone. “It’s a good idea. See you at the bar!”

The political talk was kept to a minimum at this year’s BAFTA Film Awards. The most notable mention came from Akinola Davies Jr., who won the award for outstanding British debut by a writer, director or producer for the Nigeria-set My Father’s Shadow. He thanked his family, co-writer and brother Wale Davies for “nurturing the spark and writing this story.”

Davies Jr. finished his speech with a dedication to “all those whose parents migrated,” as well as to those suffering through “persecution, genocide … your stories matter more than ever,” he said, adding “Free Palestine.” His final remark was reportedly cut from the BBC’s broadcast, though the BBC did not respond to a request for comment on this matter.

Best celebrity cameo had to go to Emma Thompson, who appeared alongside Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise in a video lauding the career of BAFTA Fellowship honoree and NBCUniversal chair Dame Donna Langley. Before Langley accepted her trophy from William, the Prince of Wales, Academy Award winner Thompson popped up on the looming screens.

She was the only contributor to film her message for Langley on a phone, her fluffed-up blonde hair charmingly askew. “I look like Boris Johnson,” she began, referencing the former Conservative Prime Minister. The left-wing Britons in the room ate up the sly political dig.

As the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards drew to a close — with a shock win for I Swear‘s Robert Aramayo, as well as strong outings for One Battle and Sinners — talk began to turn to the lavish parties planned. The hottest ticket? Netflix’s bash at the Twenty Two on Grosvenor Square, where three separate DJ sets awaited the glitterati. Among some of the surprise guests spotted at the smoky, candlelit venue were Machine Gun Kelly, Pete Davidson, Patrick Dempsey, Laura Harrier, Vittoria Ceretti, Iris Law, Damson Idris and Damian Lewis. Hollywood titan Ted Sarandos was also seen working the room. It seemed as though most BAFTA attendees decided that was where their night was to end.

Read the full list of winners at the BAFTA Film Awards here.

A debate has been sparked among BAFTA Film Awards attendees and online after a Tourette’s campaigner, John Davidson, was heard cursing throughout the show.

Davidson is the inspiration behind the BAFTA-nominated I Swear. Robert Aramayo, who depicted the Scotsman in Kirk Jones’ widely acclaimed film, nabbed the BAFTA for best actor on Sunday night — over Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothee Chalamet, Ethan Hawke and Michael B. Jordan.

The film follows a man’s struggle growing up with Tourette’s syndrome, a condition characterized by sudden, involuntary and repetitive movements or sounds. These are known as tics, and they often manifest as outbursts such as loud swearing, which occurred numerous times over the first 20 minutes of the BAFTA ceremony as Davidson shouted, “Boring!” while guests were taken through some of the housekeeping rules before the show began, and “Bullshit!” when people were asked not to curse.

He also exclaimed, “Shut the fuck up,” while BAFTA chair Sara Putt made her introductory remarks and, later, prompted gasps when he said the n-word as Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for best visual effects to Avatar: Fire and Ash.

In keeping with the celebratory tone of the evening, Cumming interrupted his hosting several times across the show to remind viewers: “You may have noticed some strong language in the background. This can be part of how Tourette’s syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience,” he said, referencing I Swear. “Thanks for your understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone.”

After Davidson left the ceremony at London’s Royal Festival Hall around 25 minutes into the proceedings — which The Hollywood Reporter understands was of his own accord, and not the result of being asked to by BAFTA — Cumming said again: “Tourette’s Syndrome is a disability and the tics you’ve heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette’s Syndrome has no control over their language. We apologize if you are offended tonight.”

Guests were also notified before the awards show began that they might occasionally hear Davidson’s tics. A floor manager welcomed him, saying: “John has Tourette’s Syndrome, so please be aware you might hear some involuntary noises or movements during the ceremony.”

BAFTA referred THR to the BBC when asked for a statement about the incident, though the broadcaster, airing the show on a two-hour delay across the U.K., did not immediately respond.

But the incident has prompted discussion among the film community in attendance at the BAFTA Film Awards, with many Brits maintaining that Tourette’s is a deeply misunderstood condition. Others, including those from across the pond, were seemingly less tolerant of Davidson’s outbursts.

Aramayo, who also won the BAFTA Rising Star Award on Sunday, told the crowd while accepting the prize: “John Davidson is the most remarkable man I ever met. He’s so forthcoming with education and he believes there should be still so much more we need to learn about Tourette’s.”

“For people living with Tourette’s, it’s us around them who help them define what their experience is,” Aramayo said. “So, to quote the film, they need support and understanding.”

The discussion moved online, where some users commented that Tourette’s is “debilitating” and “really, really awful.”

Netflix on Monday revealed a buzzy addition to its already expansive Korean content slate: rom-com feature Messily Ever After, starring Kim Min-ha and Noh Sang-hyun.

Production on the film is now underway in Seoul, with the project reuniting the two actors after their shared appearance in Apple TV+’s Pachinko, this time placing them at the center of a contemporary relationship comedy that tracks a couple over the ups and downs of a romantic-but-rocky decade together.

The story follows Su-hyun (Kim) and Hyun-tae (Noh), college sweethearts whose long-term romance oscillates between devotion and exasperation as the years accumulate. Rather than dwelling in the early intoxication of love, the narrative leans into the more complicated terrain that follows: “Messily Ever After (working title) explores what it really means to stay together after the honeymoon phase has long ended — capturing the messy mix of loyalty, irritation, desire and doubt that comes with truly knowing someone,” Netflix’s official summary says.

Kim plays a perfectionist museum curator whose professional composure falters when jealousy and emotional uncertainty intrude, while Noh portrays an installation artist fiercely committed to his creative identity and resistant to compromise.

The film marks the feature directing debut of emerging filmmaker Seo Jung-min. Producers Bombaram Film — the Seoul-based banner behind the youth romance Love Untangled and the socially resonant hit Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 — are backing the project, which Netflix positions as part of its ongoing effort to elevate new voices in Korean cinema.

The project adds to Netflix’s characteristically ambitious Korean slate for 2026. As previously announced, the streamer is rolling out a 33-title lineup spanning scripted series, feature films and unscripted formats, ranging from star-driven romantic comedies like Boyfriend on Demand (led by Blackpink’s Jisoo) to large-scale genre projects such as the superhero drama The Wonderfools starring Park Eun-bin and Cha Eun-woo, and prestige fare including Lee Chang-dong’s long-awaited latest feature Possible Love. The slate also leans heavily on returning franchises — with new seasons of hits like Singles Inferno, Culinary Class Wars and The Devil’s Plan — alongside big-name scripted projects such as Tantara, pairing Song Hye-kyo and Gong Yoo.

A release date for Messily Ever After has not yet been announced.