Senegal Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Casemiro's injury has left Manchester United in a midfield lurch ahead of their busy winter period - and the club could search for a long-term replacement.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Matteo Garrone’s “Io Capitano” is getting a special screening on Wednesday in Brussels, where hundreds of EU parliament members will watch the timely immigration drama on which Pathè has announced a slew of sales. The film, which is Italy’s Oscar candidate for best international feature film, world premiered to strong reviews in September at Venice Film Festival, where it won best director for Garrone and best emerging actor for its co-star Seydou Sarr.

Agence France-Presse.The video footage shared on local and social media shows people gathered around a large fire, filming the scene on their phones. Homosexuality and consensual same-sex relations, deemed “against nature” in the Muslim-majority country, are criminalized and carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.While homosexuality is largely not accepted in Senegalese society, the incident offended many because it was viewed as disrespecting the dead.

National Geographic has given a green light to No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski, a docuseries hosted by the Queer Eye star, from Gordon Ramsay’s Studio Ramsay Global.

Ben Croll Introduced last year, MIA’s dedicated animation program heads into its sophomore edition with a more firmly entrenched industry position and a resoundingly global outlook. With the program scaffolding already in place, MIA curators spent the past year shoring up support and scouting for projects at key markets in Berlin, Cannes and Annecy, resulting in a program of roughly 30 co-production pitch projects and works-on-progress that altogether spans more than 40 countries.

Aramide Tinubu Hair is sacred to Black women, as are the institutions that shift and mold our tresses, styling them for seasons and occasions. Beauty salons are staples in the Black community, but the braiding shop is a particular type of pillar that draws in Black women and femmes from across the diaspora to one central location. Sitting for hours or even a whole day getting their hair neatly tucked into box braids or cornrows, the experiences and expectations of customers become interwoven with the lives of the ladies who work there.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sophia Loren is recovering from emergency surgery for a fractured hip following a fall on Sunday in her home in Geneva, Switzerland, according to Italian press reports. Italy’s most famous living movie star, who turned 89 on Sept. 20, suffered multiple fractures after accidentally falling at home on Sunday morning.

Iconic actress Sophia Loren was hospitalized on Sunday following a fall at her home in Geneva. The Italian star reportedly sustained fractures to her hip and femur, and underwent surgery with what has been described as a positive outcome.

Police are searching for three men suspected of being linked to a break-in at the home of England footballer Raheem Sterling.

Italy has submitted Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano as its candidate for Best International Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has revealed a raft of deals for key territories for Ramata-Toulaye Sy‘s feature film debut, “Banel & Adama,” which played in competition in Cannes and makes its North American premiere in Toronto. Variety reviewed it as “a dreamlike debut” in May. The film just won the Melbourne International Film Festival’s top prize, the Bright Horizons Award.

Even if the critical reactions have been mixed, Italian films have proven much stronger than usual at this year’s Venice Film Festival, with a notable resurgence of genre filmmaking in the likes of Adagio and Enea. Ironically, Matteo Garrone, the one local director in the selection whose actual stock in trade is genre of all stripes — gangster realism (Gomorrah, Dogman), satirical comedy (Reality), and baroque fantasy (Tale of Tales) — arrived this year with a blisteringly topical drama that might be his most traditional, and best, yet.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Though it’s become a convenient catch-all term for journalists covering the subject, the phrase “European migrant crisis” can’t help but leave a sour taste in the mouth — implying as it does that Europe, the destination for so many hard-up voyagers from variously ailing or hostile countries, is the disadvantaged party in all this. That bias carries through to the bulk of well-intended films on the matter, which tend to pick up migrants’ stories, however sympathetically, on European turf.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, who is a two-time Cannes jury prizewinner, with “Gomorrah” in 2008 and “Reality” in 2012, is in competition at the Venice Film Festival for the first time with his immigration-themed drama “Io Capitano.” Shot in Senegal, Italy and Morocco with a cast of largely non-professional actors, “Io Capitano” narrates the Homeric journey of two young African men, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe. Garrone’s own company, Archimede, produced with RAI Cinema and Belgium’s Tarantula Film as a co-producer. The drama is backed by Pathé, which is handling world sales through Pathé International.

A man has been charged with conspiracy to commit burglary in connection with a break-in at the home of England winger Raheem Sterling, Surrey Police have confirmed

Aberdeen have agreed a deal and terms for Pape Habib Gueye – with the contract subject to a work permit being issued.

Ron Cephas Jones, an Emmy-award-winning actor for his role as William Hill on This Is Us, has died. He was 66.

Gal Gadot‘s new Netflix movie Heart Of Stone have been reacting to a character spotted wearing an old Middlesbrough FC football shirt.It comes after a scene in the new spy thriller, which was released on Friday (11 August), shows Gadot being chased by a gang in Senegal bribed by her MI6 colleague Parker (Jamie Dornan).During the scene, many viewers noticed that one of the locals chasing the Wonder Woman actress was wearing a Middlesborough FC shirt from the 2009/10 season.“Not often you see a ⁦@Boro shirt on a bad guy in a movie,” wrote one user while another called it a “wild inclusion”, adding: “Did not expect to see an old @Boro shirt in #HeartOfStone.”Another added: “Watching ‘Heart of Stone’ on Netflix with Gal Gadot and the bad guy in it is wearing a Boro top. Howling.”Did not expect to see an old @Boro shirt in #HeartOfStone.

It’s turning out to be quite a summer for superspies and supercomputers.

Naman Ramachandran Auteurs Agnieszka Holland, Wim Wenders, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Aki Kaurismaki are among the filmmakers featured in the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Centrepiece program. The strand, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema, which honors and celebrates global cinematic achievements, features 47 titles from filmmakers representing 45 countries.

Despina Athanassiadis, France Born in France and with Greek roots, Athanassiadis is currently focusing on her Alliance4Development project “The Young One,” about female truck drivers – “It’s a story of transmission, from older to younger generation” – which was awarded script consultancy residency at DreamAgo. “As a filmmaker, I’m interested in people who struggle. I find it fascinating, watching how they find ways to fix their problems.

French pay-TV giant Canal+ has acquired French and African rights for the Saudi Pro League for the coming two seasons.

Issa Rae just gave Us a very important reminder that two-pieces are always a good idea.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Matteo Garrone, who is a two-time Cannes jury prizewinner with “Gomorrah” in 2008 and “Reality” in 2012, is set to be in competition in Venice for the first time with his immigration-themed drama “Io Capitano.” Shot over 13 weeks in Senegal, Italy and Morocco with a cast of non-professional actors, the Italian auteur’s new film – the title for which translates to “I Captain” – narrates the Homeric journey of two young African men, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe. It depicts their plight through the pitfalls of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya and the dangers of the sea.

Akon has confessed to lying about being an “African prince” when he was younger in a recent podcast appearance.The pop-rap star – real name Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam – was born to Senegalese parents in St. Louis, Missouri before relocating to New Jersey. However, due to his family spending a lot of his childhood in Senegal, he thinks of the country as home.Whilst talking to N.O.R.E and DJ EFN on Drink Champs, he revealed that he would lie about being an “African prince” while living in New Jersey because “he wanted to feel accepted.”“I used the excuse that I was a survivor because it made me feel better about it,” he said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Melbourne International Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 2023 edition, with “Shayda,” by Australian-Iranian director Noora Niasari, set as the opening title. The festival will run as a live event August 3-20, at venues around the city and its suburbs, and online Aug 18 – 27. The hybrid format was developed during the COVID pandemic and MIFF found it useful as a tool to reach further away audiences and wider demographics than a strictly in-theater edition. The ‘Bright Horizons’ competition section open to films by first- or second-time feature directors contains an 11-title mix of new and recently-debuted works.

Yaya Toure has revealed that he recommended Sadio Mane to Manchester City during the winger's spell at Southampton.

Netflix has released a clip of Lupin Part 3 which features Omar Sy’s Assane Diop back in Paris where danger awaits. The streamer released the clip during the French heist thriller’s panel at the Tudum fan event Saturday in São Paulo, Brazil.

Senegalese and French director Ramata-Toulaye Sy is only the second Black woman to make it into Competition in Cannes. Her debut feature, Banel & Adama, which had its debut Saturday, follows in the footsteps of Mati Diop’s 2019 Atlantics.

“You cannot go against your destiny,” 18-year-old Banel is warned in Banel & Adama (Banel e Adama), a visually striking and deceptively heavy debut from French-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy, only the second Black woman to make it into the Cannes Competition since Mati Diop’s Atlantics in 2019. At first sight, Sy’s film seems a bit of an outlier in a lineup sprinkled with veterans, and the extra scrutiny that comes with a Competition slot may well work against it. But it’s entirely possible that it might strike a chord with the jury, notably Rungano Nyoni, whose debut I Am Not a Witch took a similarly subversive and sophisticated approach to themes of African tradition and folklore.

Jessica Kiang The interlinked names of the lovers have an unusual power in Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s haunting, halting  “Banel & Adama.” They play over and over as a whispery lullaby on the soundtrack. They cover the sheets of paper on which Banel (Khady Mane) compulsively writes their names, like a schoolgirl practicing cursive on the name of her crush. There’s an innocence to it at the beginning, as though Banel, whose strange mind we mostly occupy, is simply delighting in the sound and shape of their togetherness. But that’s when “Banel & Adama” is a love story, and before it descends, a little too hesitantly but with a subtly seductive power nonetheless, into drought and madness and maybe, cosmic retribution. The sun-and-superstition-soaked tale of an African girl contending with fate and folk tradition has some precedent in Rungano Nyoni’s excellent “I Am Not a Witch.” But here, as the bright imagery begins to hint paradoxically at creeping darkness, we can no longer be sure that witchcraft is not exactly what is at work. 

Christopher Vourlias Debutante director Ramata-Toulaye Sy will join one of world cinema’s most select clubs when she climbs the stairs of the Grand Theatre Lumière on May 20 for the premiere of “Banel & Adama,” which unspools in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It marks just the second time in the French fest’s 76-year history that a Black woman will compete for the Palme d’Or, a glass ceiling that was shattered only four years ago by Sy’s French Senegalese compatriot, Mati Diop (“Atlantics”). While acknowledging the honor, it is a club, Sy admits, about which she has some ambivalence. “I really hope that soon all this will be taken for granted — that we won’t be counting the Black directors, that we won’t be counting women,” the helmer tells Variety. “It means that there’s still something wrong, that there’s still something that hasn’t become completely normal and natural.”

Rose Ayling-Ellis To Lead ITV Drama ‘Code Of Silence’

Amal Clooney, dazzling in a head-to-toe sequinned and feathered Julie de Libran’s ensemble, opened the awards ceremony. A post shared by Dimitris Giannetos (@dimitrishair)Clooney had the whole theatre in tears after a rousing speech citing the cases ‘The Clooney Foundation For Justice’ had been tirelessly fighting for in the past few years.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sales banner Best Friend Forever has unveiled the teaser for Ramata Toulaye-Sy’s buzzed-about Senegalese drama “Banel & Adama,” which is the sole feature debut slated for the competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The lushly lensed female emancipation drama, set to bow on May 20, takes place in a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues. The film was shot in Pulaar language with a cast of local non-professional actors, including Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine Sy and Moussa Sow.