Congo Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival has unveiled the program for its 27th edition, which will take place in the Czech city of Jihlava between Oct.

confirmed to the news to The Hollywood Reporter that Coates died of natural causes in a manner that was “very peaceful.” at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills where she resided.“She gave a lot to the industry,” said Press. “Her career passed through so many genres,” she added referring to Coates’ career that spanned over 50 years.Her film career included roles in the Western and in the Western “Panther Girl of the Congo” (1955), “Girls in Prison” (1956), “I Was a Teenage Frankenstein” (1957), “Blood Arrow” (1958), “Cattle Empire” (1958), “The Incredible” Petrified World” (1959), “The Baby Maker (1970) and “Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn” (1989).Despite her expansive film carer, Coates was most known for her role as Lois Lane.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has scored further deals on “Omen,” the feature debut of artist and musician turned director Baloji. The film world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, where it won the New Voice Award, and was acquired by Utopia for North America. “Omen” follows Koffie, who after spending years in Belgium, returns home to the Congo to find himself confronted by his past and culture at a family event.

Strictly Come Dancing fans were left 'feeling ill' during the latest spectacular trip to the ballroom as they couldn't help but notice the same thing surrounding Craig Revel Horwood. It was all about the lights, camera and action on Saturday night (October 7) as it was the first big themed show of the series.

The power couple spoke with ET on Thursday at the 2nd annual Clooney Foundation’s Albie Awards in New York City.

Strictly Come Dancing will be returning to the small screen this weekend and will feature a new wave of familiar faces learning to dance. The popular BBC One dance contest is back with its launch show on Saturday, September 16.

Belgium has selected Omen, the debut feature from rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji, as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.

Ellise Shafer Plimsoll Productions, an ITV Studios company, has promoted veteran producer James Smith to head of adventure. In his new position, Smith will focus on adventure programming and report to Martha Holmes, Plimsoll’s chief creative officer of natural history and science.

A post shared by Ashley Judd (@ashley_judd)In one of the photos, the California native was seen from behind as she walked along a trail with trekking poles. Judd was pictured beaming as she stood at the base of a waterfall in another snap. The Emmy Award nominee was seen sitting in front of a traditional alpine stone cabin in another photo.Judd previously detailed her “grueling 55-hour” after the injury, which landed her in the ICU.

Ashley Judd is celebrating her "stunning recovery" as she marks two and half years since she shattered her leg in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In February 2021, the actress suffered a horrific injury after she tripped over a fallen tree while walking through a rainforest in the African country. On Saturday, Judd, 55, shared photos in which she was seen hiking the Alps while on a trip to Switzerland.

Scientists in the UK have started work on developing vaccines against a new pandemic caused by an unknown "Disease X".

With just weeks left to go until Strictly Come Dancing returns to our screens, the fifth star hoping to scoop the glitter ball trophy has been revealed to be Eddie Kadi. Recognised as one of the most globally celebrated stand up comedians, British-Congolese star Eddie is hoping to impress the judges in the coming weeks with his fancy footwork and expert showmanship.The exciting news he would be competing was revealed on Sunday, 6 August on his live radio show for BBC 1Xtra, The Official UK Afrobeats Chart Show with Eddie Kadi.

A kiler virus is spreading in Europe and experts warn it could reach the UK.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Utopia has acquired the North American rights to the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard New Voice Prize winner “Omen,” the debut feature from artist-musician turned director Baloji. The film follows a young man, Koffi, played by Marc Zinga (“Spectre”), who after spending years in Belgium returns home to the Congo to find himself confronted by his past and culture at a family event. Koffi visits his birthplace after being mysteriously shunned by his family and spending years abroad in Europe. With his soon-to-be wife and unborn child in tow, Koffi’s arrival sets in motion a sprawling, nightmarish and psychedelic fairy tale about ancestry, belief, wrestling, witchcraft and sorcery in Africa today.

People in the UK are now facing the "highly likely" arrival of a potentially fatal disease that kills nearly every second patient, which has been brought about by climate change.

Christopher Vourlias What’s in a name? For the Congolese Belgian rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji, whose directorial debut, “Omen,” bows in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section on May 22, it’s a question that poses itself whenever flustered immigration officials inspect his passport at the airport in Congo. “Always the same question, every time,” Baloji tells Variety. “Do you know what it means?” In the pre-colonial era, baloji meant “man of science” in Swahili, but the word became corrupted by Christian evangelists during the years of Belgian colonial rule. Today it is more akin to a man of occult sciences and sorcery. “Some people of faith do not dare to say my name in public for fear of invoking evil spirits and the suspicions that may accompany it,” the director says. “In such an animistic culture it is equivalent to being called devil or demon in the West.”

TNGHT member Lunice has announced his second album ‘Open’ and has shared its first single ‘No Commas’. Check it out below.‘Open’, the Montreal producer’s second album, is set for release on June 23 via LuckyMe. The LP follows his 2017 debut ‘CCCLX’.

Glastonbury 2023.The art sculpture is made by revolutionary underground artist Joe Rush, who is also the founder of the Mutoid Waste Company, and the “builder of rock’n’roll environments”. The design — which is named after Stonehenge — is developed out of 24 mutated vintage cars and will be displayed in the middle of the festival.According to the festival organisers, the design was made to highlight the outcasts of society and pay tribute to those who embody “punk ethos”.“[It is] dedicated to the pillars of Counterculture, a culture liberated from conformism and consumerism, a culture of subversion that stems from the uncompromising desire of a few rare visionary and revolutionary originators,” the description reads.

Adam Brace, the British playwright and director who was set to make his Broadway debut this summer with longtime collaborator Alex Edelman, died Saturday following a short illness. He was 43.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Anime legends, producer Masao Maruyama and director Gisaburō Sugii, as well as U.S. animation producer and distributor Gkids, have joined global multimedia company N Lite and N Lite Japan to produce “Mfinda,” a first Afro-anime film which will be the subject of an in-depth first look at June’s Annecy Int’l Animation Film Festival.  Selected amongst the pitches this year at Annecy’s MIFA market in the feature film category, the N Lite original was created by Congolese-American artist Patience Lekien and Christiano Terry, founder-CEO of N Lite. “Mfinda” follows a 12-year-old Congolese girl who is taken to the mfinda, a primordial forest teeming with spirits, gods and ancestors. There she meets up with another young girl from a different time and together they set out to find the magical Nkisi, vessels that hold ancestral spirits as well as empowering materials or medicines, that will help her find her way home.

Lise Pedersen American director Daniel McCabe and his team have opened up to Variety about the making of “Grasshopper Republic” at Swiss international documentary film fest Visions du Réel, where the pic is nominated in the main competition. Based on a book of photographs by Michele Sibiloni, a photographer and long-time friend of McCabe, who co-shot the film with him and his brother Michael, “Grasshopper Republic” takes viewers on an immersive vérité style journey alongside Uganda’s grasshopper trappers as they set out to make the catch they hope will make them rich: prices and demand for grasshoppers are high in Uganda, where they are considered a delicacy.

elskes editor Memento International is set to represent global rights to “Omen,” the feature debut of Belgian-Congolese artist-turned filmmaker Baloji Tshiani which is slated to world premiere at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. Tshiani previously directed several short films including “Zombies” which played at the BFI London film festival. Blurring the lines between reality and the realm of dreams, “Omen” follows Kofi, who return to his birthplace after being ostracized by his family. The movie explores the weight of beliefs on one’s destiny through four characters accused of being witches and sorcerers, all of them intertwined and guiding each other into the phantasmagoria of Africa.

Lise Pedersen Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel (VdR) has unveiled the lineup of its 54th edition, which features a broad panorama of both established names and newcomers from around the world. The festival kicks off on April 21 with the world premiere of “Nightwatchers” by Juliette de Marcillac and runs through April 30. The event will screen a total of 163 films from 46 countries, with a 50-50 parity between female and male directors. No fewer than 12 out of 14 films in the main International Competition and 13 out of 15 in the Burning Lights section, the festival sidebar dedicated to new documentary expression, are world premieres, bearing testimony to the fest’s reputation for setting the trend on the global doc scene.

Gloria Dea, the first magician to perform on the Las Vegas Strip in the 1940s, has died. She was 100. Dea, who was born Gloria Metzner in Oakland, California, died Saturday in hospice care at her residence in Las Vegas, the director of clinical services for Valley Hospice confirmed with the Associated Press.

Lise Pedersen Swiss sales agent Lightdox has acquired international rights for “The Other Profile” by French director Armel Hostiou (“Day,” “Stubborn,” “The Invisible Pyramid”), which is nominated for the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival’s top Dox:Award. The film’s starting point is when he discovers the existence of a Facebook doppelganger whose friends are mostly women based in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This other Facebook profile organizes auditions for an upcoming film to be shot in the DRC. After notifying Facebook about what clearly seems to be identity theft, Hostiou receives an answer informing him that it is not a fake profile and cannot be shut down, leading to what he describes as a “Kafkaesque” situation.

Forever love! Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez celebrated their relationship with some permanent body art.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez celebrated their relationship with some permanent body art.In a Valentine's Day post shared by Lopez to Instagram on Tuesday, the songstress revealed that she and Affleck have thematically matching tattoos featuring each other's initials.«Commitment ♾️» Lopez captioned a slideshow of snapshots featuring different cute pics of the happy couple. «Happy Valentine’s Day my love.»The cover pic of the carousel post reveals that Lopez got an infinity symbol, bisected by a vintage arrow, tattooed on her side, across her ribs.A post shared by Jennifer Lopez (@jlo)Meanwhile, the post also shows Affleck's tattoo, which features two arrows crossing over each other, with the letters J and B — standing for Jen and Ben.The post also shares numerous smiling selfies of the couple, from their time together on a yacht to their lavish wedding, and more.

One of the most surprising A-lister ads during Sunday night’s big game featured Ben Affleck working the drive-thru at a Dunkin’. The Argo filmmaker turned his favorite brand into a business opportunity — and fair enough after all the free advertising he’s given them in paparazzi pics over the years.

Ben Affleck is running to the bank on Dunkin’! The 50-year-old actor turned his obsession with the brand into a lucrative multimillion-dollar deal.A source tells ET that the actor-director signed a deal with Dunkin' Donuts worth «over $10 million dollars.»  In addition to the paycheck, Affleck's partnership with the franchise includes a donation to his non-profit, the Eastern Congo Initiative. As for his wife, Jennifer Lopez's, cameo in Sunday's Dunkin' Super Bowl spot, the source tells ET that her «involvement in the commercial was a total surprise.»«When she showed up to set, Ben told her to go through the drive-thru and film something,» says the source. «Dunkin’ loved the interaction and added it to the ad.”The source adds that the 53-year-old star's appearance in the commercial garnered her „just over a $1 million dollar paycheck.“A post shared by Dunkin’ (@dunkin)Decades before his seven-figure payday, Affleck also got a check from another doughnut shop. The Oscar winner once told ET that his first paycheck was for washing dishes at a doughnut shop in Boston.»My very first paycheck I got — got a job as a dishwasher, in high school.

This is the horrifying moment a sadistic thug began stamping on his dog's head after it went to the toilet on the floor.

EXCLUSIVE: Action icon Jean-Claude Van Damme (Kickboxer) is set to star in action feature Silent Kill, which Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment will be introducing to buyers at this week’s AFM.

Marcelo Cajueiro The Rio Intl. Film Festival wrapped Monday amid political tension and with a strong local competition that awarded Marcelo Gomes’ “Paloma” the top film prize. It is based on the true story of a poor trans woman who struggled to marry her partner in a religious ceremony. Following compact editions over the past three years, Rio Fest – traditionally Latin America’s main film fest – regained part of its original size and importance, as it premiered locally about 120 features selected from the top international film fests, resumed outdoor screenings and featured a hybrid market. The highlight was Premiere Brasil, the competition of 86 features and shorts for the Redentor kudos.

Dikembe Mutombo, the gravelly voiced center whose finger-wagging shot-blocking made him a Denver Nuggets legend and built a cult following among basketball fans worldwide, is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, the NBA said in a statement Saturday on behalf of him and his family.

Lauren Sanchez pulled all of the stops for a dinner date with Jeff Bezos. The journalist wore an all white outfit that showed off her toned stomach as she held Bezos hand and made their way to Nobu, an elegant restaurant in Malibu. Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos spotted out for dinner in MalibuJeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are committed to restoring Africa’s landscape through the Bezos Earth FundSanchez wore a white ensemble made up of a pleated skirt and a crop top, showing off her fit stomach.

Sophie, Countess of Wessex appeared to get emotional as she read a book of condolence for the late Queen Elizabeth II during her royal visit to Ethiopia. Dressed in a smart blazer over a white top, Sophie, 57, collected herself as she looked down at the book and brought a hand to her mouth as she flipped through the pages, at the Residence of the British Ambassador to the east African nation in Addis Ababa.