Backing comes after Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor were threatened with having their citizenship revoked and accused of treason Film industry heavyweights across the globe have expressed solidarity with Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, the Oscar-winning Israeli directors of documentary NAZA, who have been threatened with having their citizenship revoked by Israel’s culture minister, who accused them of “treason against the state”. NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, is named for an acronym euphemistically used by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza. It includes interviews with 24 Israeli military or intelligence soldiers and officers who outlined the AI-powered targeting systems used to bombard Gaza, resulting in the mass killing of Palestinian civilians. Continue reading...

From a timeless portrait of Lana Del Rey to an alternative guide to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, experts unpick what makes an enduring, shocking, or alluring print cover ‘We need to rethink what a successful magazine looks like,” says Steve Watson, founder of the subscription magazine club Stack. “It doesn’t make sense to compare the magazines of today to those of the 1960s when many people still didn’t have colour televisions. Print magazines are no longer the best way of reaching lots of people quickly and cheaply but they are still really great at engaging deeply with readers, providing an opportunity to slow down and absorb information. They provide us with an alternative way of seeing the world.” Watson, along with a group of editors, publishers, designers, historians and academics, will be discussing the varying roles and functions that magazines have played over the years during a one-day event at the forthcoming London design festival . In contrast to the doom and gloom we often hear about the print industry, he remains upbeat about the humble mag’s future. “The truth is there are brilliant new magazines launching all the time,” he says. Continue reading...

Musician clarified her own health status after concerns were raised by interview with husband and bandmate Stephen Morris earlier this month Gillian Gilbert, keyboardist with New Order, has announced she is again having treatment for cancer. The 65-year-old musician announced the news on Instagram, as a response to an interview her husband and New Order bandmate, drummer Stephen Morris, gave to Rolling Stone earlier this month. Morris had said: “I’ve got a bit of a health problem at the minute, which precludes leaving the country for any length of time … it’s pretty serious.” Continue reading...

Actor, who made history at the Emmys, thanked the ‘great and the good people of Wales’ for nurturing his talent When Matthew Rhys made history as the first actor ever to win two best lead Emmy awards in one night, he paid tribute to his roots. “To the great and good people of Wales, who were as much a nurturer as anyone else,” said the proud Welshman now living in New York, “We are a small but mighty nation”. “Diolch yn fawr iawn,” he added, meaning “thank you very much” in Welsh. Continue reading...

The characters are dead-eyed waxworks which speak with all the nuance of a satnav. But this AI-created workplace comedy is so bad that even the greatest actors alive couldn’t stop it being unwatchable As you will no doubt be aware, one Anthropic researcher claimed there is a greater than one in 10 chance that AI will end all of humanity as we know it within the next decade. However, now that I’ve given it some thought, I think this statistic might actually be a little conservative. This is because I have just watched an episode of a sitcom created by AI, and if I ever have to do it again I’m genuinely going to die of boredom. The show is No Big Deal, and it premiered on YouTube on Friday. I was apparently only the 376th person to watch it. This is by no means a recommendation that you become the 377th, more a warning to avoid it if your algorithm ever decides it hates you enough to suggest this. Continue reading...

Toronto film festival: riotous lead performance holds together third movie from actor turned film-maker, about a housewife who joins a local musical Jesse Eisenberg’s last two directorial efforts – the prickly comedy When You Finish Saving the World and the slightly softer A Real Pain – are small films rooted in the real world. They have their little idiosyncrasies, their bits of cinematic flair, but they keep their feet grounded in the here and now. For his third film, Eisenberg has said goodbye to all that (or most of that) and run headlong at the surreal and the absurd, borrowing from Charlie Kaufman and other oddballs to tell a small story in a big way. The Debut is about a repressed housewife, Mona (Julianne Moore), who decides to audition for a role in a community theater production of a musical called Nosy Neighbors, one of those gassy Manhattan trifles that were so ubiquitous on Broadway a half century ago. Mona’s kids are about to fly the nest, and her husband barely seems to notice her when she’s standing right next to him. So why not have a little creative adventure? Continue reading...

Mathilde Arcel, who won the Volpi Cup on Saturday for her role in Golden Lion winner Woman Unknown, said job offers have now begun to arrive The winner of this year’s best actress prize at the Venice film festival has revealed that she is on unemployment benefits and had to fly to back to Copenhagen to report to the job centre before receiving her award. On Saturday night, Danish actor Mathilde Arcel won the prestigious Volpi Cup for her first leading role in a feature film, May el-Toukhy’s post-second world war drama Woman Unknown, which also won the Golden Lion award for best film. Continue reading...

The star of Widow’s Bay is that rarest of talents – someone who can do whatever he wants and make it utterly believable. No wonder he just made TV history On Monday night, Matthew Rhys made history. He is now officially the first actor ever to win Emmy awards for lead roles in all three categories: drama, comedy and limited series. To make things even more extraordinary, he won two of those awards in a single night. In the comedy category, Rhys won best lead for Widow’s Bay , the superlative Apple comedy horror where he stars as an indecisive mayor whose island suddenly plays host to a supernatural haunting. He also won best lead actor in a limited series or anthology for The Beast in Me , the Netflix drama about a property developer who may (or may not, no spoilers) have murdered his wife. Add this to his 2018 win for The Americans and the trifecta is complete. In other words, the entire world belongs to Matthew Rhys, and we’re all just living in it. Continue reading...

The distinctively British RPG is returning courtesy of the makers of Forza Horizon – with comedy talent such as Richard Ayoade and Natasia Demetriou voicing sweary characters. We had our first play and spoke to its developer When Playground Games was founded in 2010, its objective was straightforward: to make the best cars in video games. Operating out of an unassuming white building in Leamington Spa, the studio sought to challenge Gran Turismo with its critically acclaimed British racing alternative: the acclaimed free-roaming Forza Horizon series. Yet as the team grew, so did their ambitions. Now they are making the most intriguing British fantasy game we have seen in many years. For those who have never ventured into Albion, Fable is a quintessentially British role playing game. Created by Lionhead Studios for the original Xbox in 2004, it boasted cheeky charm alongside world-altering player choices, and its droll writing was brought to life in later iterations by national treasures such as Stephen Fry and Simon Pegg. Thanks to its unique blend of farce and fantasy, Fable grew into a globally beloved franchise – before Microsoft unceremoniously shuttered Lionhead in 2016 , after mandating that the studio turn its star series into a multiplayer game. The result, Fable Legends, was never released. Continue reading...

There were plenty of upsets, and one show in particular failed terribly. But the night was rightfully dominated by Matthew Rhys and the genuinely scary, genuinely hilarious Widow’s Bay To tell the story of how Hacks performed at last night’s Emmys, you have to acknowledge both its incredible success and its terrible failure. The first is undeniable. Last night, Jean Smart won lead actress in a comedy series yet again. This meant that every time Hacks brought out a new season, Smart won the same award for it. This makes her the first woman to ever win an Emmy for every season of a programme’s run. It’s a history-making achievement, and thoroughly well earned. The flipside of that, however, is that this is all Hacks won last night. One Emmy is better than many shows can even hope to dream of, but the reality is that Hacks swaggered into the Emmys with a record 24 nominations – the most ever for a comedy in a single year – and had the momentum of a huge farewell narrative behind it. But it only ended up winning one for Jean Smart and a Creative Arts Emmy for picture editing. In other words, last night Hacks lost 22 Emmys. Continue reading...

The president’s former press secretary has learned all the right lessons, but how come it took him so long? The most interesting chapter in Anthony Scaramucci’s All the Wrong Moves is the one where the hedge funder turned podcaster goes to work for Donald Trump. It’s summer 2017, and he’s been given the job of comms director, which he doesn’t know how to do, but he and Trump think it’ll work out because they’re both from New York. Or maybe he took it because he had “Potomac fever”, which afflicts Wall Street financiers who find themselves on the riverfront in Washington DC thinking they know how to run a country just because they’re “full of power and judgmental insight … about to fix everything”. This appointment lasts only 11 days, not even enough time to be truly tainted by Trump’s first term, though it is enough time for Scaramucci to miss the birth of his son. The account is a mea culpa soup, with the author full of regrets for his hubris, his impulsivity, his “pride, egotism and asinine stupidity”, the fact that, despite the clear-sightedness bestowed by his humble beginnings, he’d come to assume the collective biases of the rich people he hung out with. Continue reading...

Taking the women of the 1950s as her role models, Jo Ann Chaus shoots compelling self-portraits that exhibit both strength and vulnerability Continue reading...

From Obama’s chef to a big cat obsessive, the actor has gathered experts from all over the world for a film about how to heal our besieged planet. He talks about naysayers, elephant tusks – and the wonders of venison Benedict Cumberbatch is dreading stepping outside. He’s speaking to me from his air-conditioned hotel room in Soho at the peak of the summer heat. Few doubt that climate breakdown was a major cause of those scorchers, with nature, farming and water supplies all placed under huge strain. By midsummer, according to a report co-authored by the Met Office , there were 2,700 excess deaths in England and Wales due to the searing heat. But for Cumberbatch, in a bittersweet way, the record-breaking temperatures have come at a good time. The actor has been on a tour to promote his new documentary, How to Live on Earth. “The irony is not lost on anyone,” he says. “We’re living in the results of climate breakdown so stepping outside is – literally – a call to action.” Continue reading...

Tonight’s ceremony has been dominated by the Apple TV comedy-horror series, with Pluribus and Hacks also garnering honors. Follow live updates Emmys 2026: red carpet looks and outfits at TV’s biggest night – in pictures Emmy winners 2026: the full list With a little under an hour till showtime, the stars are starting to trickle in, including a very glam Detective Olivia Benson AKA first-time host Mariska Hargitay : Well, it wouldn’t be a red carpet without Hacks’s Meg Stalter and Paul W Downs stunting with a coordinated costume … and for the show’s final Emmys go-around, Stalter is going as Miss Emmy Trophy herself, gold overhead globe and angel wings and all. Which is making for some amazing cutaways from the more serious folk posing for photos nearby. Continue reading...

Rhys becomes first actor to win lead acting awards for different shows in the same night, while Hacks’ Smart is the first woman to win for every season of a show Emmys 2026: red carpet looks and outfits at TV’s biggest night – in pictures In the Hacks v Widow’s Bay Emmys battle, it’s we – the audience – who are the real winners Emmys live blog: as it happened Emmy winners: the full list Matthew Rhys has become the first actor in 78 years of Emmys history to win multiple lead actor awards for performances in different shows in the same year, for Widow’s Bay and The Beast in Me . The 51-year-old Welsh actor won outstanding lead actor in a comedy for Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay and outstanding lead actor in a limited series for his role in Netflix’s The Beast in Me at the ceremony on Monday night. With his 2018 win of outstanding lead actor in a drama for The Americans, he is the first male performer to win all three lead acting categories. Continue reading...

Zendaya, Nicole Kidman and Selena Gomez are among the stars at the 78th Primetime Emmys in Los Angeles, with actors from The Pitt, Pluribus, Hacks and Widow’s Bay walking the red (well, blue) carpet Emmys 2026: Widow’s Bay dominates as Matthew Rhys and Jean Smart land historic wins Emmys live blog: as it happened Emmy winners: the full list Continue reading...

Greenwich House Theater, New York The Oscar-winning actor transfixes in Marin Ireland’s masterfully nuanced play about a woman reeling from a toxic relationship Paradoxically, the more stars step into the lead role in Pre-Existing Condition , the more the brilliance of Marin Ireland’s domestic abuse play takes center stage. Not that it ever suffered from a lack of acting talent – when it premiered in 2024, at New York’s tiny Connelly Theater Upstairs, it counted Tatiana Maslany , Edie Falco and Deirdre O’Connell among the actors who played its central character in quick succession, for only a few weeks each. And this return engagement, at the larger Greenwich House Theater across town, kicks off with Lupita Nyong’o , before making way for Phillipa Soo, Susannah Flood, Hari Nef, Falco again and Whitney White. It’s a straightforward conceit, perfectly calibrated for a 75-minute run time. A woman (whom the script refers to as A, currently played by Nyong’o) is dealing with the aftermath of a breakup triggered by her partner hitting her. When we meet her, someone (perhaps a lawyer, or a therapist) is laying out the reality of her situation: even with the deep pockets required to go to court, it’s been seven months since the incident, it happened across state lines and she never called the police. “You have to be ready for a fight,” she tells A. “Which, just from our short time with each other, I can already tell that you’re not.” Continue reading...

Toronto film festival: the actor gives his greatest screen performance to date as the Chariots of Fire star who spends his final months playing Hamlet on stage It was an endlessly parodied cliche that any queer film released during a certain period would be about one thing and one thing only: Aids. In 1993, Philadelphia showed a wider audience a mostly clean and palatable version of the crisis, and won Oscars for doing so, and for a time, when gay men weren’t acting as sassy friends to women in need, they were coughing up blood in lonely hospital beds. The inevitable and understandable pushback, allowing for a wider breadth of stories, brought us more “queer joy” and “chosen family” but it also allowed some to forget just what a time of unimaginable annihilation it was. It also reframed the period as an onslaught of Aids movies when the majority of them existed on the outskirts still , films such as Buddies, Longtime Companion and Jeffrey seen by mostly queer arthouse audiences. If anything, I’d argue that something so relatively recent and horrifying has been rather under-explored on screen especially in comparison with other, even fresher tragedies (Aids has killed more than 44 million people worldwide compared with just more than 7 million for Covid). Continue reading...

The fashion designer became known for his larger-than-life creations made for stars who wanted to make a lasting impression • Bob Mackie, costume designer to stars daring to be noticed, dies aged 87 Continue reading...