Macedonia Showbiz Latest News and Updates

England are preparing to continue their qualifying campaign for Euro 2024 against North Macedonia.

England manager Gareth Southgate has confirmed he plans to restore some members of Manchester City's Treble-winning squad to his side ahead of Monday night's European Championship qualifier against North Macedonia at Old Trafford.

Marcus Rashford will congratulate the Manchester City players when they arrive at St. George's Park for international duty but admits it's 'not nice' to see his club rivals secure a historic treble.

Manchester United ace Marcus Rashford has revealed that he switched his TV off ahead of Manchester City laying their hands on the Champions League trophy in Istanbul last Saturday evening.

Marcus Rashford has given his nod of approval to Olympic great Usain Bolt after the Jamaican superstar replicated his celebration at Soccer Aid on Sunday.

Sam Heughan is best known to many as Jamie Fraser in the hit TV show Outlander but before his rise to fame, he starred in various other productions.

Former centre-back Rio Ferdinand believes Harry Maguire must leave Manchester United this summer for the sake of both his club and international careers.

Gareth Southgate has warned Harry Maguire that his lack of minutes for Manchester United 'can't continue forever' if he wants to retain his England place.

part in a bi-coastal drug ring.The hip-hop star — whose real name is Willie Junior Maxwell II — and five others were accused of driving to Long Island about six times in the spring of 2020 and buying kilograms of cocaine that was then sold in New York and New Jersey.The Paterson, NJ, native was personally accused of dealing 25 kilograms of the drug in the Garden State.The 31-year-old “Trap Queen” rapper pleaded guilty in August to one count of conspiracy to possess and distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine and faced a minimum of five years and a maximum of 40 years behind bars for the crime.Central Islip federal Judge Joanna Seybert handed down the sentence.Last week, prosecutors recommended that Maxwell — who has been locked up since August — receive from seven years and three months to nine years behind bars, claiming he was a “large-scale narcotics trafficker” who “continues to use his fame, sizable platform and influence to glamorize the drug trade.”The feds cited as an example his breakout hit “Trap Queen,” which Maxwell wrote about an ex-girlfriend who helped him peddle drugs in Paterson.Maxwell’s lawyer, Elizabeth Macedonia, said her client should be sentenced to the minimum, claiming he’s taken “full responsibility for his crimes.” The lawyer said Maxwell was motivated to start dealing drugs so that he could continue to provide for his family and friends — including his eight children — after his concert revenues dried up because of the pandemic.Maxwell was arrested on Oct. 29, 2021, and had been free on $500,000 bond until he allegedly violated the conditions of his release by threatening someone on a FaceTime call with a gun on Dec.

Eight feature documentaries and eight short docs have been selected as finalists for the 16th Doc Alliance Awards, presented by the Doc Alliance – the association of European documentary festivals.

Eurovision Song Contest.The finale is set to take place tomorrow (May 13), following the closing of the two semi-final rounds which occurred on Tuesday (May 9) and Thursday (May 11).This year’s instalment will take place in the UK city of Liverpool, which is hosting the ceremony on behalf of last year’s winners, Ukraine, due to the country’s ongoing war with Russia. Despite this, however, it has been revealed that the Ukrainian president will not be granted permission to address the public at tomorrow night’s final.As per reports, this lack of airtime is because the organising committee of the annual song contest wish to retain the programme’s non-political basis, and “strict rules” prohibit such statements from being made using Eurovision as the platform.“The Eurovision Song Contest is an international entertainment show and governed by strict rules and principles which have been established since its creation,” read a statement from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organisers behind Eurovision (via the Independent).It continues: “As part of these, one of the cornerstones of the contest is the non-political nature of the event.

Netflix‘s Queen Cleopatra.In the documentary, which is narrated by Jada Pinkett Smith, Cleopatra is portrayed by biracial actress Adele James (Casualty).Her casting has sparked a debate in Egypt, with various figures accusing the docudrama of “blackwashing” the country’s history. One lawyer even filed a lawsuit against Netflix, claiming the project had contradicted and distorted Egyptian history in favour of promoting Afrocentrism.On Thursday (April 27), the antiquities ministry in Egypt weighed in on the debate, saying that Cleopatra had “white skin and Hellenistic characteristics”.“Bas-reliefs and statues of Queen Cleopatra are the best proof,” the ministry’s statement read (via The Independent).Queen Cleopatra, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was born in 69 BC and died in 30 BC in Alexandria.

The director of “Queen Cleopatra” is addressing critics.

Tina Gharavi Guest Contributor Last summer, I was living in Venice Beach and had decided, due to a friend’s persistence, to visit a fortune teller. Me, ever the sceptic but game for a laugh, agreed to go along. What the fortune teller said made me roll my eyes: “I am not saying you are Cleopatra but somehow you share her story and are connected.” Less than a month later, I got a call from a production company making Jada Pinkett Smith’s “African Queens” and was subsequently hired to direct four episodes of a drama-documentary on the life of the controversial leader. The joke was on me. I remember as a kid seeing Elizabeth Taylor play Cleopatra. I was captivated, but even then, I felt the image was not right. Was her skin really that white? With this new production, could I find the answers about Cleopatra’s heritage and release her from the stranglehold that Hollywood had placed on her image?

previously explained that she wanted to be involved in the project because she “really wanted to represent Black women.”But Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, who previously served as the nation’s antiquities minister, is not happy with the “completely fake” portrayal of the famous queen, who he claims was wholly Greek — and “not black.” He’s accused Netflix of “trying to provoke confusion by spreading false and deceptive facts that the origin of the Egyptian civilization is black.”“Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was light-skinned, not black,” the archaeologist told the Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper, per a BBC report on Wednesday.In addition, lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary filed a complaint Sunday with the country’s public prosecutor to demand that Netflix be blocked in Egypt, claiming they are trying to “promote the Afrocentric thinking … which includes slogans and writings aimed at distorting and erasing the Egyptian identity.”A petition titled “Cancel Netflix’s ‘Queen Cleopatra'” has more than 3,200 signatures on Change.org. Another petition for the cause that allegedly garnered 85,000 signatures was meanwhile removed from Change.org.

With a huge night for Anthony Joshua on Saturday night, his fight will be supported by a high quality undercard with a number of recognisable names to watch at the O2 Arena.

Marcus Rashford will not feature for England in their upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine after withdrawing from the squad due to injury.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix, facing more competition globally in the streaming wars, has cut pricing in more than 100 markets worldwide — in some cases, chopping the price of monthly plans in half — to boost subscriber acquisition and retention. The streamer has reduced prices in countries and territories across Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Netflix is not reducing prices in North America or Western Europe, its most mature markets. All told, the price reductions span more than 100 markets, according to research firm Ampere Analysis (see list, below). Those include Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Kenya, Iran, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Yemen, Jordan, Libya, Slovenia and Bulgaria.

EXCLUSIVE: Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has boarded international sales on Goran Stolevski’s Housekeeping For Beginners starring top Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca as an unmaternal, gay woman who suddenly finds herself responsible for her partner’s two young daughters.  

For the last three years, the winner of the International Oscar has pretty much been a given: First came Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, then Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, and then Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car — all anointed by Cannes and eased to the finish line after prominent festival play in the usual cosmopolitan areas.

EXCLUSIVE: Tenderfoot TV, the podcast company behind series including Up and Vanished and To Live and Die in LA, has extended its partnership with studio Cadence13.

Success in Skopje made the travel back home all the sweeter for hard-working boxer Luke Bibby.

‘Survivor UK’ Maker Remarkable Entertainment Sets New Top Team

The Les Arcs Film Festival will launch a new sidebar showcasing this year’s European entries to the Best International Feature Film Oscar category at its 14th edition, running December 10 to 17 in its namesake French Alps skiing resort home of Les Arcs.

Israel’s Sam Spiegel International Film Lab has appointed a new director and unveiled the projects selected for its 11th edition, running from now until the early summer.

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans has been announced as the opening film of 44th Cairo International Film Festival, running from November 13 to 22.

Eurovision 2023 as a result of the costs of taking part in the contest.As previously reported, due to the ongoing war with Russia, this year’s winners Ukraine will not host the 2023 edition of the singing competition and it will instead be held in Liverpool next May.However, both Montenegro and North Macedonia have now announced they will not be heading to Merseyside due to “high costs”.“In addition to the significant costs of the registration fee, as well as the cost of staying in Great Britain – we also faced a lack of interest from sponsors, so we decided to direct existing resources to the financing of current and planned national projects,” Montenegro’s broadcaster RTCG said in a statement.North Macedonia’s state broadcaster added: “Due to the economic and energy crisis and high costs, [North] Macedonia will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, which will be held in May in Liverpool, UK.”It’s not known what each broadcaster has to pay to participate in Eurovision but the total costs for all broadcasters reportedly totals around £5million.Song contest organisers – the EBU – said it is “committed to keeping the costs of taking part as affordable as possible”, explaining that fees are “calculated based on the number of countries competing” while considering “the member’s relative size and financial status”.News of Montenegro and North Macedonia’s withdrawal from Eurovision 2023 comes just weeks after Liverpool was announced as the host city for next year’s contest.

Coleen Nolan took to social media on Wednesday with a sweet update about her rescue dog Filly.MORE: Loose Women star Coleen Nolan's son Jake makes heartbreaking confessionPosting the video on her Instagram feed, the Loose Women panellist revealed that the pup is "doing amazing" despite having "a bit of a way to go."WATCH: Coleen Nolan welcomes new family additionChatting to the camera, Coleen said: "Well you've all been very very lovely and been asking me how my lovely dog Filly, from Macedonia, has been getting on. For those who don't know, I rescued a dog from Macedonia who lived on the streets, she's a labrador crossed with something, I think it's a husky but I don't know.

Manori Ravindran International Editor European training program School of Film Advancement (SOFA), which aims to strengthen regional film industries across Europe with a focus on Eastern partnership, has launched its ninth edition and 2022-2023 project selection. The first SOFA workshop, running through Sept. 30, kicked off on Sunday outside the Polish capital of Warsaw. After two virtual years, the program returns with an expanded edition that comprises a line-up of 16 projects and 20 participants, composed of up-and-coming film industry executives, curators and cultural managers from 17 countries including Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Bangladesh, Switzerland and Germany.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Les Films du Losange has closed a raft of major deals on Kasja Naess’s animated feature “Titina” which is produced by the teams behind the Oscar-nominated film “The Triplets of Belleville” and Oscar-winning short “The Danish Poet.” “Titina” will world premiere at Animation Is Film Festival, which takes place Oct. 21-23, and is produced by GKids, in collaboration with Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Variety. Budgeted at $8.5 million, the Norwegian animated movie was produced by Mikrofilm (“The Danish Poet”) and Vivi Film (“The Triplets of Belleville”). The film tells the real-life story of a fox terrier that accompanied her master on an expedition to the North Pole in an air balloon in the 1920’s. It will be released in Norway by Norsk Film Distribusjon, and in France by Les Films du Losange.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, who directed the Oscar winners “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” U.S. producer Christine Vachon, whose credits includes Oscar winner “Boys Don’t Cry,” and Oscar nominees “Far from Heaven” and “Carol,” and Romania’s Alexander Nanau, the director of the Oscar nominated “Collective,” are among the jury members at the 18th edition of the Zurich Film Festival, which takes place from Sept. 22 to Oct. 2.  Farhadi will head the jury for the International Feature Film Competition. He is joined by the U.K.’s Clio Barnard, who directed the BAFTA nominated “The Arbor,” “The Selfish Giant” and “Ali & Ava”; L.A.-based Brazilian Daniel Dreifuss, a producer on the Oscar nominated “No” and “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Germany’s Oscar entry; Swiss/Italian screenwriter and director Petra Volpe, whose credits include Tribeca prizewinner “The Divine Order”; and  Sweden’s Peter “Piodor” Gustafsson, the producer of Ali Abbassi’s “Border,” which won the main award in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.

Katherine Tulich Writer and director Goran Stolevski has had a whirlwind two years. He recently returned to Australia after shooting his third film, “Housekeeping for Beginners” in Skopje, North Macedonia to attend the world premier of his second film “Of An Age.” That took him to the Melbourne International Film Festival and before traveling on to Western Australia for CinefestOz where the film won the festival’s only recurring award, and one of the industry’s richest, worth A$100,000 (or $65,000). The Macedonian-born, Melbourne-raised film maker broke onto the international stage earlier this year with his feature debut “You Won’t Be Alone”, a supernatural folk-horror tale about a girl who becomes a shape-shifter in a 19th century Macedonian village. The film won critical acclaim at Sundance and received a limited theatrical release in the U.S. through Focus Features, which also holds worldwide distribution rights.

Ed Meza @edmezavar France TV Distribution is ratcheting up global sales for the hit Gallic crime series “Bright Minds,” with deals ranging from Japan to the U.S., Canada and Latin America. In its third season, the show, which airs on France 2, follows a police detective who finds a brilliant partner in a young autistic woman with encyclopedic knowledge of criminal investigations who works in the police records bureau. Together, they realize their complementary skills are the key to solving cases. France TV Distribution, which is presenting its current lineup this week at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous market in Biarritz, sold the show to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, which has been airing it since July.

Manori Ravindran International Editor More than a year since SkyShowtime was first announced, the SVOD is ready to join the streaming fray in Europe, Variety can reveal. The new platform — a joint venture between Comcast and Paramount Global that was first unveiled in August 2021 — will officially launch on Sept. 20 in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, before expanding into the Netherlands later this year in Q4. (The service received regulatory approval in Europe back in February.) Meanwhile, the SVOD will continue its roll out across Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) over the coming months and through Q1 of 2023. CEE markets include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Cinesite has continued to bolster its international footprint with the purchase of a majority stake in the Balkans-based visual effects studio FX3X.

Katherine Tulich Goran Stolevski’s “Of An Age” won Australia’s richest film prize of A$100,000 ($65,000) at CinefestOz at a gala closing night over the weekend in Busselton, Western Australia. The Macedonian born, Melbourne based writer and director Stolevski also presented his much-lauded first feature “We Are Not Alone” at the festival. The CinefestOZ film prize is dedicated to new Australian-made films and consisted of four finalists.The others also included Gracie Otto’s comedy “Seriously Red,”, the world premiere of Matt Nable’s intense drama “Transfusion,” starring Sam Worthington and audience favorite, “Sweet As,” the first-time feature by local indigenous director Jub Clerc.