Berlinale Declares Fest A Place Of Open Discussion Amid Middle East Crisis: “We Are concerned To See Anti-Semitism, Anti-Muslim Resentment & Hate Speech Are Spreading”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Nele Wohlatz‘s “Sleep With Your Eyes Open,” which has its world premiere in the Encounters section of the Berlin Film Festival, has debuted its trailer (below). Rediance has taken world sales rights. Wohlatz’s fiction debut “El futuro perfecto” won Locarno’s Golden Leopard for the best first feature in 2016, and was invited to more than 70 international film festivals.

Rylan Clark has candidly spoken about his breakdown and opened up about how he "pressed the nuclear button" on his life when things were at an all-time-low.The TV presenter, 35, shared how he had to learn to walk and talk again after the breakdown he suffered in 2021 in the aftermath of his split from ex-husband Dan Neal.The star attempted suicide and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Years after being unfaithful to Neal, he confessed and their marriage ended, it was the catalyst for Rylan's mental health to plummet. Now Rylan has detailed how, in hindsight, the breakdown was the "best thing" that could ever have happened to him as it's helped make him who he is today.

Good afternoon, it’s been a huge week in international TV and Max Goldbart is here to guide you through. Read on.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Qatar, which put itself on the global entertainment map by hosting the 2022 soccer World Cup, isn’t known as a moviemaking hub. But Doha-based Katara Studios, which is keen on fostering filmmaking and content production in the minuscule gas-rich Gulf nation, is getting the ball rolling.

ENHYPEN has been arrested for allegedly misusing a boarding pass to entering the transit area of Singapore’s Changi Airport in order to meet the band.A 25-year-old woman was arrested on January 22 after she allegedly misused a boarding pass in order to gain access to the airport’s transit area in an attempt to meet K-pop ENHYPEN, per local news outlet The Straits Times. The group were departing from Changi Airport after performing in Singapore on January 20 and 21, as part of their ongoing world tour.Local police told The Straits Times that she was arrested in violation of Singapore’s Infrastructure Protection Act 2017, which bars people from entering protected places in the airport with no intention of leaving the country.

Supermodel Christie Brinkley has not closed the door on love, but the ageless beauty is not sure there is a suitable person open for her.Brinkley recently admitted that while she “remains open” to a relationship, she is unsure about the dating pool.“There just doesn’t seem to be anybody out there,” she lamented to People magazine. Brinkley has been married four times, famously to singer Billy Joel and most recently to architect Peter Cook. “At the same time,” she continued, “I am pretty comfortable with my life the way it is, so, que será, será!”“I always said my whole life that I think that you have to be happy alone so that you get with a man for the right reasons and you’re not clinging to him because you need to, you know?”As recently as 2022, Brinkley was adamant she would not utilize one frequented avenue for finding love.

open letter from the Strike Germany movement, which called for a boycott of state-funded cultural events, claiming that the “use of McCarthyist policies” suppressed “freedom of expression” in relation to displays of solidarity with Palestine and criticism of the Israeli state.The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism cites examples including “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” and “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor”.Strike Germany claimed that the IHRA definition was “increasingly becoming official state policy, effectively censoring criticism of the state of Israel and anti-Zionist perspectives from the German cultural sphere, furthering a dangerous false equivalency that ultimately harms the fight against anti-Semitism”.A post shared by STRIKE GERMANY (@strikegermany)As of Monday (January 22), however, the clause has been dropped. “I must take the legal and critical voices that saw this clause as a restriction on the freedom of art seriously,” said Joe Chialo, Berlin’s culture senator, in a statement (via The Art Newspaper).

Ghostpoet has described the new German culture strike as “misdirected”, while also declaring his support for Gaza.In recent weeks figures from the arts and entertainment industry have voiced their support for the Strike Germany movement in response to the government’s “use of McCarthyist policies that suppress freedom of expression” related to showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.An open letter from the movement claims that Palestine solidarity protests have been “mislabeled as anti-Semitic and banned” while activist spaces are “raided by police, and violent arrests are frequent”.It adds that Strike Germany is a “call for international cultural workers to strike from German cultural institutions”.However, British artist Ghostpoet – real name Obaro Ejimiwe – has expressed scepticism over the strike’s “wave of blanket cancellations”.In an Instagram post shared last week, the Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter wrote that while he shares the anger over “Germany’s unforgivable support of Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians”, it will not “achieve the desired results”.A post shared by Ghostpoet (@ghostpoet)He added that the strike is “misdirected”, because many of the affected institutions are “spaces for dissent against these genocidal policies” but are the ones “paying the price for the government’s position”.Other shortcomings he claimed to be hindering the strike included that there was “no mutual aid plan” that would help provide financial, political, legal and logistical support to strikers, while also noting that arts and culture workers in Germany were “not a cohesive category”.He said most were freelancers whose income depended on exhibitions, gigs and events.“Ultimately, instead of bearing

The upcoming 74th Berlin Film Festival looks set to be its starriest edition in years with Kristen Stewart, Adam Sandler, Cillian Murphy, Lena Dunham, Sebastian Stan, Amanda Seyfried and Rooney Mara among the talent due to attend this year.

Berlinale Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian announced his final Competition and Encounters line-ups on Monday ahead of bowing out of the festival alongside Managing Director Mariette Rissenbeek at the end of the upcoming 74th edition in February.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Match Factory has secured the rights for Berlinale Competition title “Dying,” by German director Matthias Glasner. Wild Bunch will be distributing the film in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. Glasner credits include Golden Bear nominees “Gnade” (2012) and “Der Freie Wille” (2006).

There are so many mystery franchises on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, that it’s almost hard to keep track of which are still around, and which ones aren’t coming back at all.

Manchester United reportedly want to sign Ajax striker Brian Brobbey this month.

Manchester United have reportedly been put on alert with reports that Bayern Munich centre-back Matthijs de Ligt could be available for transfer in the summer.

Cillian Murphy will open the Berlin International Film Festival this year.Small Things Like These, directed by Peaky Blinders’ Tim Mielants, is based on the 2021 book by Irish author, Claire Keegan, and the screenplay has been written by Enda Walsh.The Oppenheimer star plays a devoted father and coal merchant named Bill Furlong. Set in 1980s Ireland, he discovers unsettling truths about the Magdalene Laundries, which were dreadful asylums run by the Roman Catholic church, said to house “fallen women”, mainly sex workers.The cast includes Belfast‘s Ciaran Hinds, Emily Watson (Chernobyl), Game Of Thrones’ Michelle Fairley, and Irish actor, Eileen Walsh, who also starred in a 2002 movie about the infamous asylums, titled The Magdalene Sisters.Murphy produced the film with Alan Moloney through their company, Big Things Films, alongside Catherine Magee.

K.J. Yossman Amazon Prime Video is restructuring its international business to focus on European originals. The re-org includes cutting content and staff in Africa and the Middle East.

K.J. Yossman The BBC has been plunged into crisis after its highest paid anchor has been accused of breaching the broadcaster’s impartiality rules for the second time in less than a year.

Kate Middleton has been admitted to surgery for abdominal surgery and will not return to public duties until after Easter as she is advised to take 10 to 14 weeks to recover. A shock statement from Kensington Palace read: “Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales was admitted to The London Clinic yesterday for planned abdominal surgery.The surgery was successful and it is expected that she will remain in hospital for ten to fourteen days, before returning home to continue her recovery. Based on the current medical advice, she is unlikely to return to public duties until after Easter.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Be For Films, an independent film sales company based in Brussels, has acquired international rights to German filmmaker Michael Fetter Nathansky‘s “Every You Every Me,” which has been selected in the Panorama section of the Berlinale. “Every You Every Me” won two Work-in-Progress Awards, under its previous title “Mannequins,” at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Manchester United winger Amad Diallo appears to have responded to links with a January move to Middlesbrough on social media.