Film and TV Producers’ Groups Call for Gov’ts to Regulate Streaming Sector, Protect Indies Against ‘Market Failure’ and Loss of IP

While she is usually up bright and early to grace screens on her eponymous show every morning, viewers have noticed that Lorraine Kelly has recently been missing from the early show on Fridays. While many took to social media to complain about her absence, with some even suggesting it no longer air on a Friday, the presenter has now stepped in herself to give an explanation.

The final report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) on its independent investigation into changes made to the State Pension age is expected to be published early this year. However, Labour MP Alistair Strathern, has asked the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) if any recent assessment of the “potential merits of compensating women born in the 1950s affected by changes to State Pension age legislation” has been made.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Three Japanese films enjoying their world premieres, along with festival favorites “City of Wind” and “Solids by the Seashore,” are set to appear in the 13-title competition section of the Osaka Asian Film Festival in March. The event will be held March 1-10 at venues including ABC Hall, Cine Libre Umeda, T-Joy Umeda and the Nakanoshima Museum of Art. The opening and closing films will be announced in early February. The 19th edition of the festival, which will eventually contain 55 feature and short films, is set to also include three special programs – a “Thai Cinema Kaleidoscope,” “Taiwan: Movies on the Move,” and “Special Focus on Hong Kong” – as well as its regular Spotlight Section on underrated Asian films and the Indie Forum of more challenging and innovative works. The competition titles are: “City of Wind,” by Mongolia’s Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir; “Fire on Water,” by Malaysia’s Sun-J Perumal; “Hyphen,” by The Philippines Joy Arnaldo; “The Lyricist Wannabe,” by Hong Kong’s Norris Wong; “The Missing,” by The Philippines’ Carl Joseph E.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Media and entertainment veteran Kim Williams is to be appointed the next chairperson of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian federal prime minister Anthony Albanese’s office announced on Wednesday. Williams takes over from the departing Ita Buttrose and will have a five-year mandate. He joins at a moment when the ABC is enduring a moment of editorial turbulence.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Australian actor Rebel Wilson has been named as the emcee of the 2024 edition of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) awards. Wilson will take to the stage on Saturday, Feb. 10. Two days earlier, on Feb.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic More actors than ever are now stepping behind the camera to take a shot at directing. To me, they always end up falling into one of three categories. There are the ones who simply aren’t very good at it.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Norwegian director Thea Hvistendahl’s zombie movie “Handling the Undead,” premiering at Sundance and to be released in the U.S. by Neon, sees the reunion of Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie, the stars of Oscar-nominated “The Worst Person in the World,” in a poetic, visually-charged chronicling of a hot summer’s day in Oslo when the dead mysteriously come back to life.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Sound of Freedom,” the indie action-drama film that earned some $184 million at the North American box office, has set a significant theatrical release in South Korea. Angel Studios, the crowd-funded Utah-based production and distribution firm behind the film, initially set up direct-to-theater releases for the film’s first international outings in the U.K., Australia and Latin America. In Korea, rights have been licensed in conventional fashion by the N.E.W. – Contents Panda group, which plans to give the picture a release from Feb. 21, 2024.

A former Cabinet Secretary has said any decision to prosecute Nicola Sturgeon or her husband over SNP fraud claims should not be made by the Crown Office.

The mystery of what Tom Sandoval and Rachel Leviss discussed in the parking lot during the filming of the Season 10 reunion of Vanderpump Rules has been solved!

With temperatures continuing to plummet and the winter blues in full force, many of us will already be in need of a holiday.

Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is set in the last weeks of 1970 and, if attention is paid, you’ll see Da’Vine Joy Randolph pay homage to Isabel Sanford, particularly how the tv legend wore her hair when she played Louise “Weezy” Jefferson in the classic TV comedy The Jeffersons.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief As Russia’s war in Ukraine approaches its second anniversary, leading Russian director Aleksey German Jr. (“House Arrest,” “Under Electric Clouds”), is currently giving “Air,” his state-funded WWII thriller, a commercial release in Russian cinemas. With ferocious action and cruel detail, “Air” has been called out for being a patriotic film.

Scottish Labour has called for a public health levy on booze sales to help fund alcohol and drug treatment services.

Eurovision Song Contest.Organisers of the contest faced backlash and boycott calls in December after allowing Israel to participate in 2024 competition – which is due to take place in Malmö, Sweden from May 7-11 – despite the ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza.Since Hamas forces launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, at least 22,835 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, amounting to one per cent of the territory’s total pre-war population of 2.27million (per CNN).The petition urges a ban over alleged “war crimes” in Gaza, adding that if Israel is not excluded, they want public broadcaster Yle to withdraw Finland’s entry.Yle said it is monitoring the position of the organiser of the contest, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).One of the petition’s authors, Lukas Korpelainen, told newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet (via BBC) that it was not acceptable for Israel to “take part in the Eurovision Song Contest to polish its image”.Others who have signed the petition include Finnish artists Olavi Uusivirta, Paleface and 2011 contestant Axel Ehnström.Signatories have accused Yle of double standards, noting that the broadcaster was among the first to demand a ban on Russia from the 2022 contest after its invasion of Ukraine, saying “we expect the same active defending of values from Yle now as well”.Russia was banned from competing in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, which was won by Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra.Yle representative Ville Vilén said the situation in Israel and Gaza was “not quite the same”.“As gruesome as it is, it is not a war of inter-state aggression like between Russia and Ukraine,” he told Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.Yle’s head of communications, Jere Nurminen, told

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief KCON, the Korean pop music and culture convention operated by CJ ENM, will hold five editions in 2024, organizers said on Thursday. The first of the year will be Hong Kong, a new destination for the convention series, before moving on to KCON Japan in May 10-12 and KCON LA July 26-28. Other editions will be held in Saudi Arabia and Europe at unspecified dates in the second half of the year. The Hong Kong edition will be held at March 30-31 at the AsiaWorld Expo, a 10,000 seater venue adjacent to the airport.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Awards Circuit Column: It’s decision time. After months of campaigning, festivalgoing, splashy premieres, magazine profiles and morning-show appearances, Academy voters will finally get their ballots this week (Thursday, Jan. 11).

By now we’re guessing that your festive season manicure is just about ready for a new lease of life, but if you're anything like us your January budget might be giving you pause for thought when it comes to another year of expensive salon visits. Although there’s nothing wrong with a little splurge in the name of self care and taking care of yourself, when money is tight it might be time to think of other ways you can get some impeccably on-trend nails without splashing out quite so much cash.

The families of two people who took their own lives in a young offenders institution have urged Scotland’s First Minister to take action as a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) begins into their deaths.

Jacob Elordi is taking on a new role that was previously filled by Andrew Garfield!