Tag: Entertainment-Variety

The Motion Picture Association will honor Francis Lawrence with its 2026 MPA Creator Award.

Lawrence is best known for directing five films in the “Hunger Games” franchise, as well as “The Long Walk,” an adaptation of a Stephen King novel that was a hit when it opened last fall. His credits also include “I Am Legend,” “Water for Elephants,” “Red Sparrow” and “Constantine.” Lawrence’s next film is “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” which opens in theaters on Nov. 20.

The 2026 MPA Awards will also recognize U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers (R) with 2026 MPA Industry Champion Awards for their “policy efforts to promote and protect the creative community.” The 2026 MPA Creative Protector Award will be presented to the Egyptian Ministry of Interior for their partnership with the MPA on theshutdown of the piracy network, Streameast.

Last month, the MPA presented filmmaker Steven Spielberg with the MPA America250 Award, a one-time honor recognizing his impact on American storytelling at CinemaCon.

“Our industry is strongest when stories catch fire, policies spur growth, and creators and audiences can make, produce, and watch content free from piracy — and all of our honorees play a starring role in bringing that message to life,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the MPA. “The MPA Awards showcase the leadership and contributions of brilliant artists, determined lawmakers, and key law enforcement partners who understand the impact of our creative community on and off screen. I can’t wait to congratulate these leaders in person on their stunning achievements.”

The MPA said it is recognizing Lawrence for “his ability to blend raw emotion with surreal action on-screen.” It also credits him with making films that combine “polished craftsmanship with a strong sense of character and scale.”

“It’s truly a privilege to build worlds that visually inspire and emotionally resonate with audiences around the world,” Lawrence said in a statement. “Every time I step on set, I’m joined by remarkable casts and crews who allow my early concepts to become lasting impressions. I am deeply grateful to the MPA for this award and their work to support voices industry-wide.”

Sen. Warnock is receiving a 2026 MPA Industry Champion Award for his efforts to boost U.S. film and TV production. The senator has championed legislation, like the CREATE Act, designed to stimulate more film production in the U.S.

“I’m incredibly honored and deeply grateful to the MPA for this award,” Warnock said in a statement. “Georgia is the Hollywood of the South and has become a national leader in the arts and entertainment industry through our commitment to investments in domestic production. That’s why so many film and TV productions call Georgia home. Georgia’s film industry not only fuels job creation but has helped set the bar high for storytelling. I am proud to champion the bipartisan CREATE Act to support domestic entertainment productions in Georgia and across the country, and to ensure good-paying jobs and opportunities are available for our nation’s creative workforce.”

Sen. Stivers is receiving a 2026 MPA Industry Champion Award in recognition of his impact on Kentucky’s entertainment sector. His leadership in the General Assembly has included an effort to attract larger-scale productions to his state, including his recently enacted legislation to overhaul Kentucky’s film incentive program.

“It’s an honor to receive a 2026 MPA Industry Champion Award,” Stivers said. “During my tenure as Senate President, our creative economy has made immense strides and put Kentucky on the map as a destination for production. We are eager to keep building a welcoming ecosystem for filmmakers whose projects benefit our talented crews, small business owners, and overall economic development.”

The Ministry of Interior of the Arab Republic of Egypt is receiving the 2026 MPA Creative Protector Award, which honors an individual or organization whose work has been critical in the global fight to combat digital piracy. The Ministry’s partnership with the MPA’s anti-piracy coalition, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), led to the takedown last year of Streameast, live-sports piracy ring. Working with global partners and law enforcement authorities, ACE places a leading role in identifying and disrupting live sports piracy networks.

“I am proud to accept this MPA Award, which recognizes the great appreciation for all authorities in charge of fighting digital piracy,” said Brigadier General Hany Saleh. “Digital piracy is often a profit-driven criminal enterprise that consumers, rights holders, distributors, and broadcasters rely on. The threat is particularly acute for live content, where illegal streams erode the value of rights in real time. Our collaboration with the MPA and ACE to dismantle Streameast shows that even the most sophisticated piracy networks can be identified and shut down through coordinated enforcement. It also represents a model for international cooperation at both the bilateral and multinational levels in the protection of intellectual property rights.”

All 2026 honorees will attend the MPA Awards Ceremony later this year at the MPA’s headquarters in Washington.

Mindy Kaling is moving through the stages of life. With Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever,” the comedy mogul took on high school; with HBO Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” she (literally) graduated to college. Hulu’s “Not Suitable for Work” — Kaling’s first show with sole creator credit since “The Mindy Project,” showrun by her longtime collaborator Charlie Grandy — continues this progression into the uncertain time after the diploma, with characters struggling to establish both careers and adult relationships. But while college shows are notoriously difficult to nail, making the three-season run of “Sex Lives” a notable achievement, and “Never Have I Ever” painted a specific portrait of an Indian American family in Los Angeles as narrated by John McEnroe, “Not Suitable for Work” is a bland take on a well-trodden setup. The glimmers of a more biting, memorable take on young people juggling jobs and love in New York City throughout the nine-episode season end up being just that: glimmers.

The series was originally titled “Murray Hill” after the notoriously basic (sorry, residents, you know it’s true!) neighborhood just south of midtown Manhattan. “I’m not cool enough for Brooklyn — they’d eat me alive!” says AJ (Ella Hunt), one of five ambitious singles split between two apartments across the hall from each other. AJ works long hours at an investment bank as a first-year associate with her neighbor Davis (Will Angus) and lives with aspiring celebrity stylist Abby (the mononymous Avantika). Davis rooms with his childhood friends Kel (Nicholas Duvernay), who quits medical school in the premiere to pursue his dream of acting, and Josh (Jack Martin), a journalist whose idealism and sense of ethics do not extend to using his media CEO dad to land a gig as a PA on a news show.

The friend group quickly forms a complex web of crushes that expand the love triangle to new frontiers of geometry. Davis, a bro-y romantic who tends to come on too strong, fixates on Abby, who once hooked up with Josh on a Model UN trip, but he doesn’t even recognize her — except that might not even matter, because she has a spark with her and Davis’s shark of a boss Bill (Jay Ellis, a Kaling-verse veteran who also appears in the Netflix basketball series “Running Point,” which she co-created). Kel has eyes for Abby, who’s busy trying to convince her client Austin Blanchett (Harry Richardson) — nephew of Cate, of course — to take fashion seriously, leaving Kel free to hit up his ex-hookup Kate (Ego Nwodim) for a subsequent teaching job. Chemistry does not necessarily abound, apart from Hunt and Ellis, but permutations certainly do.

In addition to the dating lives of its protagonists, “Not Suitable for Work” has to develop four separate professional environments, which is entirely too much for one breezy half-hour to do with much success. Placing AJ and Davis in the same infamously grueling rat race makes the bank the most fleshed-out of the secondary settings, though “Not Suitable for Work” sands the edges off the cutthroat world of finance with cutesy subplots like winning over a client who makes undergarments by having the entire deal team reveal their matching girdles. But while Josh is a magnet for easy jabs about NPR tote bags and Sierra Club memberships, there’s almost nothing in his storylines to suggest an aptitude for or even interest in the work of actual journalism. Instead, he spends his days placating vain anchor Wes (Victor Garber) and grouchy producer Paula (Judy Gold), a potential comment on the real work of television news that still feels lacking in substance.

Not all the work in a show with “work” in the title is without value. The banter between Kel and the bratty private school girls who know more about Jane Austen than he ever will is adorable, and Constance Wu is the best she’s been in years as Abby’s tyrannical, capricious boss Vanessa — a role that channels some of the prickly candor of her breakout role as an immigrant mom in “Fresh Off the Boat,” but with a chilly sheen of urban hauteur. Wu’s performance is a highlight that points to an underutilized tool in the arsenal of “Not Suitable for Work”: the show is at its most distinctive when it embraces how unappealing its characters can be.

No viewer will ever mistake the glossy “Not Suitable for Work” for the anti-glamour of “Girls,” though the former contains echoes of the latter in plot points like one sheltered character getting abruptly cut off from their parents’ financial support. But in its glimpses of the core quintet at their arrogant, entitled worst, “Not Suitable for Work” shows some grit it would be wise to double down on, the way Lena Dunham’s landmark series pierced the zeitgeist by lampooning millennial narcissism and self-pity. My ears perked up when Davis, whose full name is Davis Beau Bradley III, scoffs to a female friend: “Don’t be a bitch — you know I treat women well!”

The line is not quite an isolated incident. AJ cruelly tells her visiting mother that she can’t understand her child’s work stress “because you don’t have a career, you have a job”; Abby blames Kel for her own stupid blunder when she leaves an expensive item she doesn’t own on the train; Jack meets his dad for squash dates while he cosplays poverty. (Davis also gets another banger when Kel asks him to impersonate his nonexistent agent: “I”m an investment banker. You think I don’t know how to be unethical?”) 

But such interludes add up to small specks of stormclouds in the show’s otherwise sunny skies. “Not Suitable for Work” never skewers its protagonists; it raises the salience of their less admirable qualities just enough that we chafe at being asked to spend time with them, yet not enough to make self-awareness a load-bearing part of its disposition. It’s too bad. The world hardly needs another “Friends” photocopy, and a little acidity can go a long way.

The first three episodes of “Not Suitable for Work” are now streaming on Hulu, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Tuesdays.

BTS, Benson Boone and Cardi B are among the acts slated to perform at the iHeartRadio Music Festival presented by Capital One, taking place on September 18-19 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.

Hosted by Ryan Seacrest, the event will also include performances from Goo Goo Dolls, Kenny Chesney, Lainey Wilson, Major Lazer, Muse, Snoop Dogg, Weezer and Zara Larsson. Additional performers are set to be announced ahead of the festival.

The 2026 iHeartRadio Music Festival will be broadcast on iHeartMedia radio stations across the country in more than 150 markets. For those who can’t attend, the performances will be broadcast live on Disney+ and Hulu for subscribers.

General tickets go on sale June 12 at 11 a.m. PT. Capital One cardholders have priority pre-sale starting on June 10 at 10 a.m. PT, and can add a Capital One Access Pass to their purchase for a pre-show party with Weezer on September 18.

“The iHeartRadio Music Festival is all about bringing together the biggest artists across every genre for two unforgettable nights, and this year’s lineup truly reflects the incredible diversity of music today,” said Tom Poleman, chief programming officer, and John Sykes, president of entertainment enterprises, of iHeartMedia. “From global superstars to fan-favorite icons, we’re excited to once again deliver an unmatched live and streaming experience that reaches millions of fans everywhere—whether they’re in the arena, listening across our stations nationwide or watching on Disney+ and Hulu.”

“Through our partnership with iHeartMedia, Capital One is dedicated to giving music fans unparalleled access to some of the industry’s most unforgettable live performances,” added Amit Desai, senior director of brand partnerships at Capital One. “By pairing early ticket access with unique on-site perks like the Capital One Access Pass, we give cardholders premium options to experience the iHeartRadio Music Festival from the very center of the action.”

When top actor Ranveer Singh walked away from “Don 3” in December 2025, he triggered what has become one of Bollywood’s most closely watched industry disputes in years – a conflict that has drawn in around 25 of the film business’s most senior figures, produced a Big Four audit, wound through the Producers Guild of India and landed, ultimately, with a non-cooperation directive from the Federation of Western India Cine Employees. Now, for the first time, people with direct knowledge of the private mediation proceedings are giving a detailed account of what was said in those rooms.

The dispute between Singh and Excel Entertainment – the production company of filmmaker Farhan Akhtar and producer Ritesh Sidhwani – centers on a damages claim of approximately INR45 crore ($4.7 million) and competing accounts of why a collaboration announced with considerable fanfare in August 2023 collapsed three weeks before cameras were due to roll. The timeline, as described by people with direct knowledge of the proceedings, offers a more detailed picture than either side’s public account. Excel shot a first look at its own expense on April 19, 2023, and released the footage publicly on Aug. 9, 2023, with Singh sharing it on his own social media. Yet the formal term sheet recording the principal terms of his engagement was not signed until Aug. 7, 2024, more than a year after he had been publicly presented as the new Don, with the long-form agreement still being negotiated between the two parties thereafter.

Created by Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, “Don” (1978), directed by Chandra Barot, starred Amitabh Bachchan in dual roles – that of a ruthless mafia don and his lookalike Vijay, a slum-dweller who is brought in by the police to masquerade as the gang leader after his death. The film was one of the biggest hits of the year. In 2006, Farhan Akhtar, Javed Akhtar’s son, rebooted the franchise with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead playing the dual roles of Don and Vijay in “Don: The Chase Begins Again.” The film was a smash hit and a 2011 sequel “Don 2” followed, which was showcased at the Berlin Film Festival and featured Hrithik Roshan, another top Bollywood star, in a special appearance.

The sequence of events in the lead-up to Singh’s exit matters because it frames what followed. On March 25, 2025, Excel sent Singh’s manager the latest draft of the script. On August 25, 2025, the production shared a schedule covering action training, costume trials and a principal photography window running from Jan. 9 to the end of July 2026. Singh completed a round of action training between Nov. 3 and 12, 2025, the costs for which Excel covered. Action rehearsal dates on Nov. 17, 18, 23 and 24 were subsequently canceled by Singh’s side; he attended a costume trial on Nov. 27. On Dec. 2 – the day “Dhurandhar” opened in cinemas — his team notified the production he would be unavailable for rehearsals on Dec. 11 and 12. The spy thriller, directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Singh in the lead role, would go on to become the fifth highest-grossing Indian film of all time; its sequel, “Dhurandhar: The Revenge,” released in March 2026, surpassed that to rank second all-time.

On Dec. 15 and 16, Singh participated in script readings with Akhtar and the key cast; multiple sources say a behind-the-scenes video exists of him expressing strong enthusiasm for the project. A look test scheduled for December 17 was cancelled at the last minute. On Dec. 20, Singh communicated to the producers by phone that he was exiting the film. By that date, “Dhurandhar” had crossed INR500 crore (around $52.5 million) at the domestic box office.

The mediation process that followed unfolded across multiple rounds. Earlier sessions, which Singh did not attend, brought together around 25 senior industry figures including Salman Khan, one of India’s biggest stars, at the first meeting, and Hrithik Roshan, the “War” and “Krrish” franchise star, filmmaker-producer Karan Johar, and actor Alia Bhatt at subsequent gatherings, all convened after Excel filed a formal complaint with the Producers Guild of India – the film industry’s primary trade body for producers. A later joint session, at which both Singh and Excel’s representatives were present, was attended by a smaller group including Aamir Khan, one of Bollywood’s most prominent actor-producers; actor Anil Kapoor; filmmakers Rohit Shetty, Rajkumar Hirani and Ashutosh Gowariker; producer Sidharth Roy Kapur; and Viacom18 studio head Ajit Andhare. The sessions were deliberately kept outside the guild’s formal process so that all parties could speak without committing to official positions.

Singh attended the joint session. He came, sources say, with several pages of handwritten notes and spoke for roughly 90 minutes. His account centered on four grievances: that the script had never reached a standard he was comfortable with; that Akhtar had been unavailable for sustained creative collaboration over the preceding years, citing cancelled meetings and the director’s commitments to concert touring and an acting project; that his fee had been renegotiated downward during the process; and that the film’s budget had been reduced significantly from an originally discussed figure of around INR300–350 crore (around $31.5–$36.7 million) to approximately INR150 crore (around $15.7 million) – a scale he felt was inadequate for the franchise. According to people present at the meeting, Singh also said he had not received any signing advance. Separately, people close to Singh have alleged publicly that Excel explored replacing him with Hrithik Roshan before returning to him in the wake of “Dhurandhar”‘s performance. Roshan subsequently issued a public statement saying he had never been approached for the role at any stage.

When Akhtar and Sidhwani were called in to respond, they arrived with printed records of their WhatsApp correspondence with Singh spanning several years. Those records, reviewed by the assembled group, showed Singh reacting positively – sources describe the messages as enthusiastic – to successive drafts of the script as they were shared. The documented exchange undercut his claim, according to multiple people in the room, that the script had never met his expectations. On the fee renegotiation allegation, Sidhwani’s position, as relayed by sources, was that no one from Excel had formally reopened or reduced the contracted terms — that earlier discussions had formed part of pre-contract negotiations, not alterations after the term sheet was signed. The budget reduction and director availability claims were similarly contested. Sources say the room’s assessment after the full session was that the documentary evidence had largely answered Singh’s allegations.

At one point during those proceedings, sources say, Sidhwani asked Singh directly whether he would have exited the project had “Dhurandhar” not been a hit. Singh, according to people present, said he would not have.

On the financial question, a Big Four accounting firm – described by sources as having no existing relationship with either party – was engaged to audit Excel’s pre-production expenditure. That audit returned a figure of approximately INR45 crore ($4.7 million), covering four overseas recce trips, writing costs including changes requested by or agreed with Singh, adjustments to cast and crew, and contractual obligations to more than 200 workers whose arrangements had been locked ahead of the January shoot. Variety was unable to independently verify the figure. Sidhwani has reportedly made his full accounts available for review from the outset of the dispute.

Following those meetings, Singh put forward a settlement proposal: INR10 crore ($1 million) in immediate compensation and a discount of 25% on his fee for any future Excel project. Sources say the producers rejected the offer, their position being that a discount on a future collaboration they no longer wished to pursue held no value, and that they were seeking straightforward cash compensation for the losses incurred.

Communication then effectively ceased. Sources say Singh traveled to the U.S. after discussions broke down, and that Excel’s subsequent attempts to reach his team went unanswered. The story of his exit leaked before the two sides could agree on a joint statement. The complaint was then escalated from the Indian Film & Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA) – under whose umbrella the matter first formally landed – to FWICE, which on May 25 issued a non-cooperation directive after Singh’s team did not respond to three separate notices. FWICE chief advisor Ashoke Pandit has clarified that the action is not a legal ban – the federation, as a trade body rather than a judicial authority, cannot enforce such a restriction – but constitutes a directive to its members across 30 affiliated crafts instructing them not to work on productions involving Singh until the dispute is resolved.

The legal dimension of the dispute sharpened further on June 1 this year, when veteran producer T.P. Aggarwal – a former president of the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association (IMPPA) and four-time president of the Film Federation of India – filed a petition in the Bombay Civil Court against FWICE and IMPPA. Aggarwal contended that neither body has the authority to issue a non-cooperation directive against any individual in the industry, citing a 2017 Competition Commission ruling to that effect. “Whatever FWICE has done is completely wrong and it’s not within their jurisdiction,” Aggarwal said. “It’s not something they can do.”

The directive also drew a public response from the Cine and TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA), of which Singh is a member. “CINTAA is proud to have Ranveer Singh as our member,” CINTAA VP Padmini Kolhapure said. “We stand by him and for him whenever he needs us. We are here for him, with him.” CINTAA president Poonam Dhillon, speaking to Variety India, said the association had not been approached by any of the parties and expressed regret that it had not been given the opportunity to mediate. “It’s a very strange situation to be in because it’s one of our members, but neither the artist nor the producer or the Federation informed us or took us into confidence,” she said. “We could have tried to resolve the issue. That is what our association is there for.”

Singh has not commented publicly on the substance of the dispute. His spokesperson issued a statement saying the actor had “consciously chosen to maintain silence, believing that professional discussions and personal equations are best handled with dignity, maturity and mutual respect,” and that his focus remained on his work and upcoming commitments. Variety reached out to Singh’s representatives at William Morris Endeavor and had not received a response by the time of going to press. Variety also contacted Excel Entertainment, who said: “At this time we reserve our right to comment as we remain committed to following due process and observing necessary protocols.”

Sources who spoke to Variety were careful to frame the dispute as symptomatic of a wider industry problem rather than an indictment of any individual. A producer who attended multiple sessions noted that Singh himself had raised the issue of stars being wronged by producers – citing cases where directors had committed to projects and then walked away, leaving actors without compensation for blocked schedules. The Producers Guild is understood to be working on broader guidelines around star commitment and producer accountability, with the “Don 3” case as a catalyst.

“A clear message has gone out to anyone intending to back out of a project after investment has been made that it’s not something that anyone is going to take lightly,” one senior producer who attended the sessions told Variety. “These are not decisions that should be taken lightly.” The same producer noted that ultimately no industry body has legal jurisdiction over the two parties. “This can only be a negotiated settlement or something that has to finally get decided in a court,” he said.

“I think at a larger level, we all want an ecosystem to flourish without any bans, limitations, regulations of the world,” another senior producer who attended the mediation sessions told Variety. “That’s not the path we want to choose. There should be a free business and free opportunity for everyone. But … we will have to join hands with each other and try to rectify that.”

As of press time, no resolution between Singh and Excel Entertainment had been reached and the dispute remained at a stalemate.

Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson brought a live recording of their “IMO” podcast to SXSW London on Tuesday, discussing their career journeys and entering the podcasting space — and revealing one of their favorite guests so far.

The former First Lady said that though she never expected to become a podcast host, the other challenges she’s faced in life unknowingly prepared her for it.

“It’s that courageous thing, right? The feeling that, OK, I guess we can do this because we did all these other things. The bravery makes you brave to try anything at any age,” she said. “I mean, I lived in the White House. I was the First Lady. That wasn’t my plan, I had no training for that. Wasn’t my idea! But we figured it out.”

Obama added: “I figured, if I can be First Lady, I can do a podcast with my brother!”

Obama and Robinson launched the “IMO” podcast in March 2025 through her and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground productions, dedicated to “conversations about life, leadership and the challenges we all face,” according to its synopsis. Over the past year or so, they have interviewed guests including Jimmy Kimmel, Dave Chappelle, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ayesha and Steph Curry, Halle Bailey, Conan O’Brien and more.

During the SXSW London conversation, Obama revealed that Chappelle has been “one of our favorite guests” while speaking on the topic of financial freedom. She and Robinson traveled to Yellow Springs, Ohio — the small town where Chappelle grew up and still lives — to record the episode, which premiered last month.

“Dave Chappelle is one of the smartest people on the planet, the funniest, all get out,” she said. “Once he became himself, he moved back, bought a farm and has raised his family on this farm. One of the questions was, ‘Why here?’ And he said, ‘I wanted to have the financial freedom to be courageous.’ And I was like, ‘Bars,’ you know? And that’s the truth, and what I would say to young people and to my girls: Live smaller than you need to.”

The comedian has been a controversial figure over the last few years due to his jokes about transgender people. When Obama and Robinson asked him about the subject on “IMO,” Chappelle said that the media has gotten his comedy “wrong.”

“People would think it’s me vs. the gay community. I never looked at it like that,” Chappelle said. “I always thought it was corporate interest and culture negotiating itself. So, you know, most of those people who were critical of what I was doing didn’t seem like they were of it. It’s like they had their faces pressed against the glass, commenting on what we were doing in there, but they weren’t in there doing it.”

He added: “Nothing makes a comedian madder than reading his joke wrong in the paper. You know, and reading a joke is nothing like hearing one or being one, and the intention of a comedy show is a very unique intention. We are playing with whatever the culture is made of, and we break it down and we get it right or we get it wrong. But in all art, if it’s going to be good or even hopefully great, you gotta have a margin of error.”

Obama’s dive into podcasting comes after the release of her memoir, “Becoming,” which sold over 11.5 million copies. In addition to podcasts like “IMO,” Higher Ground has also been behind the doc “Crip Camp,” the biographical film “Rustin” and more.

Rosamund Pike has called out a member of the audience for texting during the climatic scene of “Inter Alia,” for which the actress won an Olivier award in April.

The play follows Jessica Parks, a crown court judge dedicated to challenging the legal system’s approach to sexual violence, who is forced to contend with her own son being accused of rape.

“Inter Alia” was written by the Australian playwright Suzie Miller, who also wrote one-woman-play “Prima Facie,” starring Jodie Comer.

After a performance of “Inter Alia” on Saturday at Wyndham’s theater in London, according to the Guardian, Pike returned to the stage after the final bows. “I just wanted to say for anyone going to the theater, it’s a huge thing that we’re trying to give you. I am trying to tell you a story, and I’m feeling you, and I hope you’re feeling me too,” she said to the audience.

“Somebody was texting in this part,” she said, indicating a section of the theater. “You know who you are and I’m not going to single you out.

“Maybe it was very important, and maybe you’re a doctor, and you’re saving someone’s life, and I hope you are, but we do see these, we do feel them. I’ve got you. I feel like I’ve got to hold you all, so when I feel that and see it, it’s hard.”

Pike received a round of applause for her speech, The Times reported.

It was assumed by one audience member the actor was returning to the stage for a solo ovation, only to watch her gesture for people to sit down and listen.

“She suggested that spotting someone texting in the climax of this devastatingly emotional play broke this bond,” they said, “She seemed genuinely upset.”

A growing number of actors have criticized audience etiquette during theater performances. Last month, Lesley Manville told BBC Radio 4 that audiences should not take photos and videos during curtain calls. “Clap or don’t clap, but don’t just stick up your phone in our faces,” she said. “I find it insulting.”

In April, Cynthia Erivo stopped her performance of “Dracula” after spotting an audience member filming the show. Andrew Scott halted a performance of “Hamlet” in 2024 during the “to be or not to be” soliloquy when he saw an audience member had taken out a laptop to send emails.

And then there was… one? Going into this past weekend, there were two out of nine artists booked for the “Freedom 250” concerts in Washington, D.C. that were still proclaiming an eagerness to do the gig: Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli‘s Fab Morvan. Now that number has been halved, as Morvan, who said he was still into it on Friday, went on CNN Monday night to declare he’s now decided to follow most of the other artists out the exit door.

“This is not what I signed up for,” Morvan said on the news network. “When I saw Young MC pulled out, I was like, ‘Well, that’s weird… What does he know that I don’t know?’ So I was a little worried there, and then one after the next, people started to leave. But I was told by my team, who was told by another team, ‘There’s nothing, there’s no political alignment.’ … I was there to unite the people, to have them walk down memory lane, celebrate life. It was a way to say, ‘Hey, I’m still here, you’re still here. Let’s have a good time together.’ But throughout the week it turned into a circus. I’m not into politics, so you hear it first here: I’m not attending the June 26th celebration.”

It may be a moot point now, anyway, after President Donald J. Trump posted over the weekend that would like to just “cancel it,” apparently referring to the entire concert series. Whether Trump’s Truth Social comment means all the music has been officially canceled or it might still be up to a Freedom 250 commission is unclear. But if the series is indeed toast, Morvan saying he wants to opt out now could be a case of saying “You can’t fire me, because I quit.”

On Thursday of last week, as other artists dropped out, Morvan was insistent he was sticking with it. “I am here to entertain and unite people, not divide them,” he said then. “Let’s celebrate life & music and take a trip down memory lane. I feel honored to be a part of the Great American State Fair as it will celebrate the 250 Year Anniversary of America with so many other accomplished artists. Looking forward to reconnecting with you across the USA this summer and to finally sing Milli Vanilli songs live in person!”

The death watch for the series began when Morris Day insisted that his appearance was only a “rumor,” only hours after the concerts were first announced Wednesday, in response to immediate backlash he got for seeming to have signed up for a Trump-related event. Young MC soon followed, then Martina McBride, then the Commodores, then Bret Michaels. C&C Music Factory’s Freedom Williams posted an infamous video from his commode in which he waffled about whether to still do the show. Flo Rida just refused to say anything about it. That left Vanilla Ice and and Morvan as the two openly enthusiastic participants, until the surviving Milli Vanilli frontman changed his tune Monday night.

It probably didn’t help that over the weekend Trump appeared to be referring to all of the acts booked for the concerts as “overpriced singers who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring,” seemingly not carving out any exceptions for the couple who were sticking with the program.

Said Morvan Monday night, “I don’t even try to enter into this arena. You know, I deal with everyday people… I have a very special story. I fell, I stood back up, I reinvented myself, and I’ve moved forward, and for many, I am an example,” he added, referring to the Milli Vanilli lip-synch scandal he and Rob Pilatus got caught up in in the ’90s, before trying to prove themselves as actual singers. “So when you fall into a, a storm like this one, all I can do is say, ‘I don’t want none of that.’… I know what it’s like to have a narrative being changed over and over until you don’t even recognize this narrative, and that’s what happened to me.”

There was confusion from the start about Milli Vanilli’s involvement, as the initial announcement was quickly followed by a woman who sang on the original Milli Vanilli albums, Jodie Rocco, issuing a statement that she and others who sang the real vocals on those albums would not be taking part. But she was not speaking for Morvan, who said he bought the rights to the name and has continued to tour under the Milli banner.

As for Vanilla Ice, he was on CNN earlier Monday, still sticking up for his participation. “All we’re doing is celebrating the birthday of our country. What’s the big deal here? … I’d play for anybody. I’d go play for Biden’s family or anybody. It doesn’t matter.” In an earlier interview, Ice declared that he’d “never voted in my life” and said he would perform for “Putin, whoever you want — I’d go to Iran. Don’t matter.”

The main gripe cited by several artists who pulled out earlier was that the concerts, the Great American State Fair and Freedom 250 were officially billed as “nonpartisan” but weren’t really turning out that way. Now that Trump has proposed replacing the concerts with one of his MAGA rallies (claiming that, as a speaker, he has a bigger audience than any musician, even Elvis), that would seem to negate any ongoing argument that the events are meant to be nonpartisan.

Trump has taken criticism from the right as well as from the center and left over how the Freedom 250 fracas ended up.

MAGA commentator Matt Walsh has been especially critical of this as a black eye for the president, and in a video posted Monday, he mocked the idea that the president replacing music with one of his customary speeches was a good idea.

“It’s not the kind of main event that’s going to draw in huge audiences,” Walsh said. “And more importantly, it’s not the best way to highlight the achievements of this country going back hundreds of years. America 250 should be a party, a celebration, not something that is about Donald Trump, or where Donald Trump is the main act. And the fact is that nobody in the entire history of parties has ever wanted to sit and listen to a 90-minute speech from a politician. You’ve never showed up to a party and said ‘Hey, this is great, when do the speeches start?’ A political rally is not a party.

“And what’s more,” Walsh continued, “several of the acts that pulled out claimed they were doing so because the event was more political than they had been told. Well, turning the event into a literal political rally would seem to legitimize their concerns, so Trump is handing them a PR victory on top of everything else.”

Karel Och, artistic director of Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival, has unveiled a lineup of almost 40 titles in the main program, premiering at the 60th edition of the event in the Czech spa town at the beginning of July.

Och said, “One of the defining characteristics of the films in this year’s main program is the directors’ impressive effort to comprehend the diversity and complexity of the world through firsthand confrontation, and through a relentless search for the relationship between the artistic and the political, the intimate and the societal.”

CRYSTAL GLOBE COMPETITION
“3 nedelje posle” (3 Weeks After)
Director: Miroslav Terzić
Serbia, Bulgaria, 2026, 94 min, world premiere
A group of high school students set off for a class trip to Bulgaria. When their bus breaks down, they find themselves stranded in an old hotel near the mountains. The atmosphere grows tense when the quiet and withdrawn Zoza decides to talk about his best friend’s recent suicide. Why did Andrij choose to end his life? And wouldn’t it have been better if Zoza hadn’t brought it up? Like his previous outings, Serbian director Miroslav Terzić’s third film is characterized by an overwhelming, meticulously crafted sense of tension. “3 Weeks After” takes us into the vulnerable world of adolescents, where innocence is mixed with cruelty. It also exposes the mechanisms of bullying in a society that closes its eyes at decisive moments when looking away is the last thing we should do.

“Cherni pari za beli noshti” (Black Money for White)
Director: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov
Bulgaria, Greece, 2025, 94 min, world premiere
After years of saving money from the small bribes they collect, 60-year-old Marina and her husband Gosha from Bulgaria are preparing for their dream trip to St. Petersburg to witness the White Nights. But when Russia invades Ukraine and the travel agency vanishes with all their savings, the couple’s dream collapses along with their illusion of control over their moral principles and the relationship they have with each other. Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, recipients of the 2019 Crystal Globe, return to Karlovy Vary with a tragicomic portrait of a generation forced to reassess its values as they question everything that is considered black and white in post-Soviet society.

“Chica Checa”
Director: Šimon Holý
Czech Republic, France, Slovak Republic, 2026, 96 min, world premiere
Following a trilogy of low-budget films, two of which (“Mirrors in the Dark” and “And Then There Was Love…”) were screened in Karlovy Vary, Šimon Holý returns with the international co-production “Chica Checa.” Once again, the story revolves around a female protagonist: here, the widowed village mail carrier Zdena (Pavla Tomicová), who tries to fulfill the last wish of her ailing mother. A series of unexpected events brings her closer to her son Lukáš (Jan Cina) and awakens in her a longing for a different life. Holý once again confirms his talent for observation and his ability to create a vibrant portrait of his characters’ inner conflicts, all while giving Tomicová ample space to fully express her acting abilities.

“Cinco años, cuatro meses” (Five Years, Four Months)
Director: Esteban Hoyos García, Juan Miguel Gelacio Ramírez
Colombia, U.S., 2025, 83 min, world premiere
Not only did Martha lose her oldest son, but to this day she doesn’t know what happened to him or his remains. After years of searching in vain, she meets Sandra, who offers her one more possibility, perhaps her last hope: to set out for a remote place where the line between the living and the dead is blurred. The directorial duo of Juan Miguel Gelacio and Esteban Hoyos García gives voice to Colombian women who, after their children’s disappearance, took the search into their own hands. The film’s subdued, focused narrative calls attention to one of the most painful consequences of the country’s long-lasting armed conflict while portraying the search for peace and reconciliation in a place that has never witnessed a farewell.

“Detrás de la Lluvia” (Behind the Rain)
Director: Valeria Sarmiento
Chile, 2026, 97 min, world premiere
In all her films, director and editor Valeria Sarmiento has questioned the relationship between memory and the unconscious. Is it better to remain silent, hiding secrets so that things do not change (as in “Secretos,” 2008), or to seek true access to the most painful memories (as in “Huellas,” 2023)? In “Behind the Rain,” Sarmiento reflects on the very concept of repression. Sofía has just finished her psychology studies in Valparaíso (the city where Sarmiento was born) and returns to her hometown, Valdivia. Her return coincides with the discovery of a young girl’s body, which awakens in her memories of childhood sexual abuse. Like a scratched film that looks like rain, Sofía must decide whether to stop the memory from resurfacing or to look beyond the rain, beyond the buried fears of an entire country.

“Gæsten” (The Guest)
Director: Mads Mengel
Denmark, 2026, 99 min, world premiere
Fresh parents Karl and Emilie are looking forward to a weekend at a seaside hotel, where they plan to announce their child’s name and thus officially welcome him to the world. A day before the celebration, however, Karl’s mother Vibeke shows up, with whom he hasn’t spoken in several years. Building on the tradition of contemporary Nordic cinema, debut filmmaker Mads Mengel tells the intimate story of a family that threatens to fall apart when old wounds are opened up. What begins as a close-knit celebration turns into an uncomfortable confrontation with an unresolved past that won’t let the film’s protagonists forget who they really are – or where they come from.

“A Happy Family”
Director: Jan-Eric Mack
Switzerland, 2026, 120 min, world premiere
Niki works two jobs, but the little money she earns is barely enough to cover the living expenses for her and her two young children. One day, when the children are left unsupervised, they accidentally set the kitchen on fire, and so the Swiss authorities place them with a foster family on the other side of the country. Though forbidden from contacting her children, Niki decides to track them down. Based on a true story, the first Swiss film to be screened in Karlovy Vary’s Crystal Globe competition draws its strength from a determined yet ambivalent protagonist whose actions shed light on a rigid social system while reflecting the conflict between parental instinct and personal responsibility. Adding to the film’s strong dramatic arc is an exceptionally compelling performance by Anna Schinz.

“Hijamat”
Director: Nader Saeivar
Germany, 2026, 103 min, world premiere
Fifty-year-old Murad’s life is shaken to the core when he learns that his younger brother is gay. Murad would like to support his brother, but their traditional Muslim family is against it. As a result, he finds himself subjected to pressures from all sides – from his father, who has close ties to the local imam, and from his brother’s circle of friends as well. He would like to help everyone, but as he slowly falls into a spiral of conflicts and mounting difficulties, he finds that he, too, is in need of help. Another integral part of this family drama is the theme of migration and dialogue – not just between different religions, but within communities themselves. For his fourth feature film, director Nader Saeivar collaborated with Jafar Panahí, who contributed as producer and editor.

“The Lion at My Back”
Director: Tonia Mishiali
Cyprus, Luxembourg, Greece, 2026, 106 min, world premiere
Mariama, an asylum-seeker from Senegal, has just turned 18. Stella, at first glance a withdrawn woman in her 40s, has recently decided to break free from the clutches of addiction and to give her life a fresh start. In their attempt at finding their place in a world where nothing comes for free, the two women meet and form an unexpectedly strong bond. Following her 2018 debut “Pause,” Cyprian producer and director Tonia Mishiali returns to Karlovy Vary with a vivid, heartwarming and hopeful story about how family bonds and motherly love can be found in the most unlikely places.

“Pipes”
Director: Karim Kassem
Lebanon, 2025, 112 min, world premiere
Although Hassan has retired from his job at the water authority, his neighbors are used to him always helping them out. This time, the situation is serious: The entire town is without water, and tensions are rising among the population with every passing day. Hassan would like to help them all, but he also needs time to mourn a friend who recently died under unclear circumstances. Lebanese director Karim Kassem skillfully works with various cinematic genres to create an elegant double portrait of an aging man and the town of which he has been a part all his life. He does so with a sense of nostalgia, subtle humor, and an almost meditative melancholy, mixed with a touch of detective work.

“Prameň” (Only Beautiful Things to Look At)
Director: Ivan Ostrochovský
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Hungary, 2026, 90 min, world premiere
The film is set in the mid-1980s, when the state used its laws to continually influence the most intimate facets of its citizens’ lives. Ingrid (Aňa Geislerová) is an ambitious doctor, whose mission is to bring children into the world, to terminate unwanted pregnancies, and to participate in the sterilization of Romany women. The melancholy woman has greater misgivings about her private situation than she does about her professional life, that is, until she is caught “off guard” by a new friendship with a charismatic Romany orderly. Spontaneous Agáta presents to Ingrid the human contours of a national minority reduced by the communists to a demographic problem. Ostrochovský’s beguiling drama returns to a hitherto unresolved issue of Czechoslovak history, where the option of having children was determined by the state.

“Thit-thee Khu” (Fruit Gathering)
Director: Aung Phyoe
Myanmar, France, Czech Republic, 2026, 97 min, world premiere
Seen through the eyes of two young women, life in contemporary Myanmar can look quite oppressive. Working at a textile factory in industrial Yangon, they face exhausting work, social repression and economic uncertainty. Although the grueling pace of everyday life stifles opportunities for human connection, both women continue to dream of intimacy and escape. When they grow closer, they set in motion the previously silenced fibers of their own emotions. Aung Phyoe’s long-anticipated directorial debut unfolds in shades of silence, subtle gestures and unspoken wishes. In a captivating rhythm that oscillates between tenderness and harshness, the film explores how women’s desires survive in a country where intimacy and love between women remain socially unacceptable.

PROXIMA COMPETITION
“33 krokov” (33 Steps)
Director: Anna Domček, Šimon Domček
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, 2026, 71 min, world premiere
Thirteen years after Milan Daniel suffered a serious head injury in a racially motivated attack, his assailant is set to be released. What feelings does this moment awaken in a traumatized man who, though he survived, will forever suffer the consequences of that fateful day? Straddling the line between fiction and documentary, the feature debut by Slovak directors Šimon and Anna Domček is a mosaic of fragmentary pieces of everyday life, memories, dreams and subjective perceptions. Besides exploring the experience of someone seeking to escape the shadows of the past – shadows that weigh heavily on future generations as well – the film also takes an unusual approach to the subject of racial intolerance.

“Camionero” (Truck Driver)
Director: Francisco Marise
Spain, Argentina, 2026, 84 min, world premiere
One would think that every road movie needs its central setting: the road. But Francisco Marise’s hybrid film senses that every trip, road or journey requires us to stop every now and then. It is just such moments, when the film’s Argentinian truck driver protagonists turn off their engines and stop driving, that form this film’s starting point. Interweaving intimate observations with subtle glimpses of transcendence, “Truck Driver” paints a collective portrait of people who share a strange dimension of time within the silence of the asphalt wilderness – at motels, on the side of the road, and in tire shops, savoring the pure joy of the present moment while longing for loved ones far away.

“Contra la Naturaleza” (Against Nature)
Director: Axel Bertha
Mexico, 2026, 86 min, world premiere
After many years away, Jonás returns to the countryside to start work as a stonemason. In a place marked by the harshness of life, he opens himself up to something intangible – a force that permeates the landscape, bodies and time itself. An evocatively told story of a silent man whose enigmatic nature stems from the dark side of humanity and from his contact with the sacred, the film moves along the boundary between the physical and the spiritual. Thanks to compelling sound design, a hypnotic visual style, and a rejection of traditional storytelling, Axel Bertha delivers an absorbing cinematic experience that explores human cruelty as part of a cycle of destruction from which humanity has yet to find a way out.

“Enas olokliros anthropos schedon” (A Whole Person Almost)
Director: Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis
Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Cyprus, Romania, 2025, 111 min, world premiere
Ilias arrives on a remote island to claim his late father’s inheritance. But the longer he is forced to stay on the island, the more his initial indifference begins to fade. As he interacts with the local community, he uncovers his father’s past and, with it, a portrait of a man which differs significantly from his own memories. His gradually awakening emotions are intensified by his encounter with the local girl Kalliopi, by sudden spasms in his body, and by mysterious power outages that affect the entire island. This feature-length debut paints a tender picture of a world that is both real and mystical – a place where, despite distant echoes foreboding the possible end of the world, we encounter love, reconciliation and unexpected understanding.

“Homo Sive Natura”
Director: Giovanni C. Lorusso
Italy, 2026, 115 min, world premiere
In the remote forests of eastern Cambodia lives a community of indigenous inhabitants. An unnamed 40-year-old businessman arrives with seemingly selfless intentions: he claims he is merely a tourist seeking to discover the life of his “brothers.” In truth, however, he is gathering information for the possible expropriation of their land. Italian globetrotter Giovanni C. Lorusso lives up to his reputation as a filmmaker balancing on the line between fiction and documentary. Through unique locations, mesmerizing camera work and immersive sound design, he captures the slow inner transformation of his protagonist along with the rich cultural and spiritual life of a community facing a modern form of colonialism.

“The Ink-Stained Hand and the Missing Thumb”
Director: Yashasvi Juyal
India, 2026, 120 min, world premiere
If the world had an edge, it might look something like the remote corner of northern India where Santosh and Rajji live, collecting highway tolls in dilapidated booths. Work and endless waiting are blurred together. Bound by the power of love, but also by the need to constantly move around in search of work, they dream of the happiness that awaits them in a new place… until one day, a sudden tragedy turns their lives upside down. As melancholic as it is tender, “The Ink-Stained Hand and the Missing Thumb” is the story of everyone who has suffered an unexpected loss. It is a heartfelt romance bordering on magical realism, a fleeting memory of a loved one who has vanished into the past, never to return.

“Mein Freund der Pornostar” (My Friend the Porn Star)
Director: Rosa Friedrich
Austria, 2026, 94 min, world premiere
Rosa – the director Rosa Friedrich herself – was never that interested in porn, until her friend Timo expresses a wish to star in an erotic film. So Rosa agrees to help him get his project off the ground. However, the closer it gets to the shooting date, the more Timo feels embarrassed and doubtful about having involved himself in the first place. His face is ultimately replaced with the help of AI, and Rosa, together with a dominatrix, three trans women, a food-porn creator, a sex coach and other protagonists, continues with the film. A playful look at the kind of porn that can be worlds apart from the depersonalized, omnipresent industry, the kind which gives rise to emotions, misgivings and the uniqueness of each, individual body and experience.

“Milovník, nie bojovník” (Lover, Not a Fighter)
Director: Martina Buchelová
Slovak Republic, 2026, 108 min, world premiere
Andrej wants to stop causing trouble and start behaving himself. To spend the summer helping his grandmother, and mainly not to drink alcohol – because when he drinks, he does things like climb a tree from which he can’t get down anymore. But his plan doesn’t count on him meeting and falling in love with Míša. And sometimes love is worth fighting for, even if it’s alongside your boring cousin Peter. A summer full of challenges can begin. This debut by Slovak director Martina Buchelová is a celebration of cinematic freedom that is humorous and inventive in terms of both style and narrative.

“Paris Paris”
Director: Isabelle Tollenaere
Belgium, 2026, 78 min, world premiere
An allegory of searching, loss, displacement and the discovery of new meanings and commonalities. Three men – Yi-En from China, Junior from Congo and Hamzah from Palestine – share a spartan apartment in a seemingly abandoned building in Paris. Besides this joint living arrangement, the group is bound together by their shared experience of life in exile and the fleeting nature of their possessions, relationships, and sense of home. Director Isabelle Tollenaere’s fiction film debut is set in one of Europe’s great cities and in a replica of Paris built in China – a metaphor for the immigrants’ old dream of life in a new home and its gradual transformation into a new dream about their old home.

“Rain Catcher”
Director: Michele Fiascaris
Italy, United Kingdom, 2026, 109 min, world premiere
On dark and rainy nights, Miles creeps the streets of London, photographing the city’s hidden corners and the people that populate them. The products of these voyeuristic forays, published under the pseudonym Rain Catcher, earn him great renown on social networks and among high culture. With time, however, he starts to notice the same mysterious woman in his photographs – a woman who follows his every move and slowly begins to threaten all his work and his very existence. Michele Fiascaris’s suggestive feature-film debut uses his film’s gloomy atmosphere to explore the city’s underbelly – and the disquieting human mind. The audience is invited to immerse themselves in Miles’s paranoia as he uncovers reality one step at a time.

“Shokyakuro” (Incinerator)
Director: Shuntaro Uchida
Japan, 2026, 97 min, world premiere
Ten-year-old Kozue, who definitely is not one of the popular kids at school, secretly spends her time tossing various objects into the school’s incinerator. When university student Jinta comes to her classroom and invites the children to a shadow play performance, something awakens inside Kozue, and her path toward adulthood begins. In this poetic tale based on a short story by Japanese author Kaori Ekuni (nicknamed the “female Murakami”), sunny summer days mix languidly with scenes of everyday life to reveal a silent yet unsettling confrontation with a world that often seems impenetrable to children’s eyes. Understanding family relationships, mortality, and one’s own emotions is significantly more complicated than turning things into ash.

“Sitni lopovi” (Petty Thieves)
Director: Mate Ugrin
Croatia, Germany, France, 2026, 106 min, world premiere
It’s summer, and the tourist season on the Adriatic is in full swing. Loner Rio earns extra money as a kitchen help at a local hotel, but he also commits minor thefts at the expense of foreign visitors. When the young Serbian worker Andrea learns about his thieving, the two come to an unusual agreement: they will steal together and share the profits. But this pragmatic alliance grows into an unexpected closeness. Croatian filmmaker Mate Ugrin’s feature debut follows on from several distinctive Balkan films from recent years. Through clever metaphors, subtly elliptical editing, and an evocative use of atmosphere, “Petty Thieves” paints a portrait of solidarity among people who never stop dreaming of a better future in the face of a tourism industry that pushes them to the margins.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
“Bára Basiková” (Bára – Diary of a Rockstar)
Director: Helena Třeštíková
Czech Republic, 2026, 97 min, world premiere
Bára Basiková is an icon of Czech rock and other music genres. To what extent can her public, media-distorted image differ from the person she really is? The answer comes in the form of the latest long-term documentary study from Helena Třeštíková, whose empathy, coupled with self-reflection and openness on the part of the protagonist, gives rise to a fascinating film portrait: over the course of 50 years we follow a woman who demonstrates remarkable strength as she faces the challenges of both her professional and private lives.

“Dvě deci tuše” (A Pint of Ink)
Director: Ester Geislerová
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2026, 83 min, world premiere
If the quality of a biographical documentary is measured by its ability to instill in viewers previously unfamiliar with the subject the desire to get to know that person, then “A Pint of Ink” is a successful film. Another reason is that Ester Geislerová, daughter of the Japanologist, translator, journalist, educator and calligrapher Petr Geisler (1949–2009), has managed to capture her father’s exceptional status in late-20th-century Czech culture without losing sight of the intimate, familial, joyful and painful dimensions. Through photographs, home videos, letters and personal recollections, she composes a portrait of a charismatic charmer who remained mysteriously elusive even to his closest family.

“Kdyby se holubi proměnili ve zlato” (If Pigeons Turned to Gold)
Director: Pepa Lubojacki
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2026, 110 min
Have you ever mourned someone who is still alive? Shooting on her iPhone, director Pepa Lubojacki tries to understand why her beloved older brother and two cousins live unhoused while struggling with addiction. Avoiding sentimentality and shot in a DIY aesthetic enriched by the creative use of stylized remembrances, graphic interventions and artificial intelligence, this disarmingly personal film explores family history, the causes and consequences of addiction, and the limits of personal integrity. What is the right expression of love – to save, or to let go? Winner of the Best Documentary Award at this year’s Berlinale.

“Khaneh doost injast” (The Friend’s House Is Here)
Director: Maryam Ataei, Hossein Keshavarz
Iran, U.S., 2025, 96 min, international premiere
Pari and Hanna, roommates and friends, live in modern-day Tehran. Pari is a curator and director of an independent theater group; Hanna is a dancer, who wants to get out of Iran as soon as possible. The situation of both women becomes more complicated, but their friendship is strong in the face of political oppression. “The Friend’s House Is Here” conveys a sense of freedom and hope, even though it originated under the exact opposite conditions. Just a few days after the June War in Iran, the crew, headed by directing duo Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei, took to the streets of Tehran to make a film about a generation that no longer wants to live according to imposed rules and is striving to achieve one of the fundamental human rights: the right to freedom of artistic expression.

“Learning to Breathe Underwater”
Director: Rebekah Fortune
United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland, 2026, 95 min, world premiere
Eight-year-old Leo lives with his dad and a giant shark, which crashed through the roof of their home. Yes, you read that correctly. The shark is Leo’s best friend, to whom he can confide all his secrets. He can’t really talk to his dad; he must be missing mum, who’s been gone five years now. Then Anya the au pair bursts into their lives, and their world suddenly changes. It’s more cheerful and Leo discovers that the metal shark doesn’t have to be his only friend. An enchanting film for parents and children about how to talk together and how to grieve together. About how the world of adults is sometimes hard to understand, and how children’s opinions really should be taken seriously.

“Město otců” (City of Fathers)
Director: Zdeněk Tyc
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, 2026, 100 min, world premiere
Distinctive filmmaker Zdeněk Tyc offers up a story about a father and son, who have nothing in common except their first name, Richard, and an apartment on a housing estate. The burly, good-natured, 30-something factory worker listens to heavy metal and occasionally lets his girlfriend into his life. The frail, retired teacher, who raised the boy after his mother’s departure, is the embodiment of care and understanding. However, their tranquil, shared reality, which embraces both the hardcore band Našrot and Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers,” is disrupted by the sudden death of the mother. Young Richard sets out on a peculiar initiation journey with bizarre encounters and moments of unexpected enlightenment. Tyc plunges headfirst into existential themes with the dependable support of a stellar cast headed by Tomáš Vravník and Vladimír Javorský.

“Mistryně” (Everything as It Should Be)
Director: Bohdan Karásek
Czech Republic, 2026, 101 min, world premiere
Monika, a doctor, is happy in her relationship and is expecting a child. She still gets along well with her former husband Petr, and so she decides to tell him about her pregnancy in person. The two of them had had difficulties conceiving. Their afternoon meeting for coffee extends into evening, so they have plenty of time to talk – about what might have been, and also about what might be. Director, screenwriter and editor Bohdan Karásek pays homage to mumblecore, a genre founded on conversations. The conversation between the two main characters, portrayed by Marie Švestková and Jiří Havelka, opens numerous questions faced by more than a few men and women in middle age.

“Morten”
Director: Ivan Pavljutskov
Estonia, Lithuania, 2026, 101 min, world premiere
Youthful fragility and self-discovery are frequent motifs of the contemporary coming-of-age genre, but few filmmakers also address social issues – and do so in a poetic manner or with a spiritual dimension. Estonian director Ivan Pavljutskov is definitely among the latter group. In his feature debut, 15-year-old photographer Morten finds himself caught between two worlds – between two girls, between nature and civilization, between everyday reality and the mystical, between what is right and what others want. As it explores the depths of the Baltic forests and of a young boy’s soul, “Morten” will charm viewers of all ages with its warmth and understanding for all its characters.

“Robert Richardson: The White Devil”
Director: Jana Hojdová
Czech Republic, U.S., 2026, 105 min, world premiere
Jana Hojdová, a former cinematography student at Prague’s FAMU, sent an email in order to get a contact for Robert Richardson, one of the most distinguished cinematographers on the scene today. What started as a student exercise and master’s degree project soon evolved into a creative partnership and personal friendship. The more improbable the film’s premise seems, the more fascinated we become by its portrait of a distinctive and uncompromising artist, three-time Academy Award winner, and acclaimed collaborator of such directors as Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.

“The Story of Documentary Film – 1980s”
Director: Mark Cousins
United Kingdom, 2026, 120 min, world premiere
After Mark Cousins’ series “The Story of Film: An Odyssey” and “Women Make Film,” the storyteller brings us another saga, this time devoted to documentary film. Of his 16 hour-long chapters embracing the entire history of documentary, Cousins selected for Karlovy Vary the part that centers on the 1980s, an era that was fundamental for the region from a socio-political perspective.

“To Die to Live”
Director: Yuliia Hontaruk
Ukraine, Latvia, Slovak Republic, 2026, 116 min, world premiere
In 2014, Shakhta, Dancer, and Potter volunteered for the army in order to fight in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict in eastern Ukraine. Although the horrible things they experienced during two years on the front accompany them for every second of their existence, they try to return to civilian life. But the Russian invasion in 2022 forces them to again confront the war. Filmed over the course of 12 years, this documentary uses a fragmentary cinematic language to evoke the trauma experienced by its protagonists, and thus to help us imagine the unimaginable: how to accept that some live while others die, and that – faced with one’s own death – what remains above all is the desire to live.

“Vyvolený” (Gregorius, the Chosen One)
Director: Tomasz Mielnik
Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, 2026, 90 min, world premiere
“Puppeteer, tell us a story we don’t know yet!” the audience calls out to a traveling thespian. And so he starts to recount a story about a boy born of the forbidden love between brother and sister, who had many adventures, who spent 17 years tied to a rock, and who perhaps was also… a hedgehog? But that’s not as important as how, after overcoming all these obstacles, he ended up becoming the Pope. Young Gregorius (portrayed by Jan František Uher) is a charming mix of naivete and determination, and it is a pure joy to watch his wanderings through mythical lands. Director Tomasz Mielnik’s wild, absurd comedy is based on the final novel by Thomas Mann.

“Zpráva pro Minervu 2” (A Report for Minerva 2)
Director: Miroslav Krobot, Lubomír Smékal
Czech Republic, 2026, 69 min, world premiere
The lives of a mismatched group of guests and employees become entangled in a run-down hotel. Some have come in search of peace and a brief escape from their daily routine, while others long for change – or even love. A lonely clarinetist crosses paths with a young man looking for a romantic adventure, an unhappily married couple, an idiosyncratic hotel staff member, and also an alien sent from the planet Minerva 2 in order to report on the state of Earth. A mosaic of 14 interwoven stories emerges through fleeting situations, awkward moments, interior monologues, and quiet observations. This experimental film by Miroslav Krobot and Lubomír Smékal is loosely based on the stage production of the same name by the S 23 Theatre Company, whose non-professional actors put together stage performances based on the dialogical acting method.