M&S wins 2023's best hot cross buns as £1.85 pack beats Sainsbury's, Lidl and Iceland

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The blockbuster French cast of Amazon Prime Video’s third season of “LOL: Qui rit, qui sort” speaks volumes about the Japanese variety format’s tremendous popularity in France. The Amazon Original series, adapted from the format “LOL: Last One Laughing,” scored its biggest launch to date on Prime Video in France since bowing on March 10. The show is one of the streamer’s first unscripted originals in France and has been a major coup as a brand exercise that’s succeeded with limited resources — certainly in comparison to scripted comedy. Adaptations of “LOL” have also thrived in Italy and Germany where they have ranked as the most watched local titles on the service, respectively. Local versions are also available in Spain, Canada, Mexico and Australia (hosted by Rebel Wilson).

2023 Oscars on Sunday.Will Smith didn’t return to violently clobber Chris Rock. He couldn’t.

awards season with the 2023 Oscars. The 95th annual Academy Awards will be handed out live at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, during a ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Going into the ceremony,  led the pack with 11 nominations total, including nods for Best Picture and Best Director, while its stars -- Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu — all competed in the acting categories.  The four co-stars are among the acting categories' record 16 first-time Oscar nominees, which also included Ana de Armas (), Austin Butler (), Colin Farrell (), Hong Chau () and Paul Mescal ().

Alissa Simon Film Critic Icelandic writer-director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson (“Under the Tree”) makes a smooth transition to English-language directing with the high-concept comedy “Northern Comfort,” co-written with longtime collaborators Halldór Laxness Halldórsson and Tobias Munthe. It centers on a disparate group of people who share a disabling fear of air travel, which they are trying to overcome through a high-end fearless flyers course. As a final challenge, the class is scheduled for a short, roundtrip “exposure” flight during which they should face and conquer their phobias. But this practical plan soon runs into some literal and figurative turbulence. Combining human drama and absurdist comedy, “Northern Comfort” should fly into other festivals before making a comfortable landing at a boutique art-house distributor or streamer.

Björk has revealed that Frank Ocean asked her to perform with him at Coachella 2023.The Icelandic singer-songwriter was being interviewed on the radio when she spoke about her excitement playing the upcoming edition of the music and arts festival in Indio, California that’s again held over two weekends this summer.“[Coachella] is going to be a fun challenge,” Björk told Rás 2 radio last month, according to translations and recordings of her interview by people on Twitter.“I’m going to take a bit of a risk and I’m going to have Orkestral. Just strings and me.

Dr Brenda Page penned an ominous letter calling off her relationship with ex-husband Christopher Harisson just days before he murdered her.

95th Academy Awards are finally here, set to be handed out live on Sunday, March 12. Presented at the end of the awards season, the Oscars will put a definitive stamp on what was considered the best in film from the past year. Among this year's top contenders is, which has the most nominations, 11, going into the ceremony and is up for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and several other major categories.

A restaurant manager has won more than £15,000 after she was sacked following her announcement she was pregnant and texted 'no hard feelings' by her boss.

Many people dream of the perfect proposal and spend months planning out every last detail in order to create a magical memory they will never forget. It’s rarely smooth sailing to achieve a dreamy proposal without encountering any bumps in the road along the way - and for one man from Cheshire it was no different.

Rylan Clark was stunned as he was able to tick seeing the Northern Lights off his bucket list – from his own mansion in Essex.Traditionally, many people make the trip to Iceland in an attempt to see the incredible light phenomenon, however, the Aurora Borealis lit up the skies in some parts of Britain on Sunday and Monday night, with some lucky viewers seeing gorgeous pinks and greens up above. Rylan, 34, who has enjoyed presenting stints on shows such as This Morning and Big Brother's Bit on the Side, couldn't contain his excitement as he took to Twitter to post a snap of his view from his home.

Ilker Çatak’s ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ Wins Europa Cinemas Prize In BerlinIlker Çatak’s The Teachers‘ Lounge has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Berlinale’s Panorama section. The award was voted on by a jury of four exhibitors from the Europa Cinemas network consisting of Marius Bălănescu (Cinema Victoria, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Will Fitzgerald (Pálás, Galway, Ireland), Tanja Helm (Cinematograph & Leokino, Innsbruck, Austria) and Ola Starmach (Kino Pod Baranami, Kraków, Poland). Members of the Europa Cinemas network will receive a financial incentive when they program the film, ensuring it a wider release. “The Teachers‘ Lounge is an intense and very well-made drama set in a German primary school. The film explores key subjects like the prevalence of bureaucracy in schools and issues of race and class, but above all, it is a compelling rollercoaster of a drama,” read the jury statement. The title is sold internationally by Brussels-based Be For Films and produced by Ingo Fliess for Munich-based if…Productions.

Those who undertake the valiant task of the weekly food shop will have noticed the rising cost of food in recent months. And as the cost of living continues to bite, many will be looking for ways to save a few bob here and there to help out.

Iceland is popular among shoppers for their eclectic range of frozen and fresh products and the latest item fans are raving about costs just £1 and rivals a famous fast food chain.

EXCLUSIVE: In a seven-figure deal finalised over the last week, Sony Pictures’ Stage 6 Films has beaten out competitors for UK rights to Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid, which A24 is releasing in the U.S. on April 21.

The weekly food shop seems to be creeping up in price as many continue to feel the pinch of the cost of living crisis. However, shoppers can bag £20 off their big shop this week, if they shop at certain supermarkets.

76th annual EE British Academy Film Awards were announced live during a ceremony hosted by Richard E. Grant and Alison Hammond at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Lise Pedersen New and boosted tax breaks, plus state-of-the-art facilities and a lean, skilled crew base are drawing a growing number of productions to Scandinavia, a region whose content continues to be in high demand both locally and globally. Denmark remains the exception and does not offer tax incentives or rebates for film and TV production. In addition, its production studios have been hard hit by a war over rights between talent and streamers that brought TV production to a virtual standstill in 2022. Iceland, on the other hand, which upped its tax incentive from 25% to 35% last year, has seen its film industry grow by a whopping 85% over five years. An added benefit for productions is a 25% incentive for music recording, which includes studio costs, travel and lodging.

The 76th British Academy Film Awards will take place tonight, as stars of film from around the world descend on London to celebrate the best achievements in filmmaking from the past year. The nominations were announced by Captain America actress Hayley Atwell and Ted Lasso’s Toheeb Jimoh via a live broadcast from London on January 19.

Ed Meza @edmezavar After a hugely successful year for domestic films, Austria’s movie industry is looking forward to another impressive crop of titles, including many international co-productions that reflect not only cultural and historical ties with neighboring countries but also the sector’s strong cross-border partnerships. Highly anticipated films this year include Hans Steinbichler’s “A Whole Life,” the story of a humble man’s existence in an Alpine valley that spans more than eight decades; Dieter Berner’s “Alma and Oskar,” which explores the passionate and tumultuous affair between Viennese composer and socialite Alma Mahler and artist Oskar Kokoschka in the early 1900s; and Timm Kröger’s “The Theory of Everything,” a black-and-white, 1960s-set mystery-thriller that takes place in a scientific conference in the Alps.

Ed Meza @edmezavar International exhibitors gathered at Berlin’s majestic Kino International on the eve of the Berlin Film Festival on Wednesday to discuss challenges and innovative concepts that are pulling audiences back into theaters. Opening the Berlinale edition of Cinema Vision 2030 conference, Christian Bräuer, chairman of Germany’s AG Kino – Gilde e.V. cinema association, which organized the event, said the country’s cinemas were “still suffering from the effects of the pandemic and we still find ourselves in a world in crisis, we feel the consequences of the war, such as the massive increase in energy prices.” He therefore welcomed the opportunity to hear about new ideas and business models that could bolster the sector.