Melbourne Film Festival Launches $100K Best Film Prize; Southern Hemisphere’s “Richest” Feature Competition

Storm Keating has paid an emotional tribute to her husband Ronan Keating in honour of his 45th birthday on Thursday. Sharing a series of throwback pictures of The One Show host, the Australian producer made reference to Ronan's late mum, Marie.MORE: Ronan Keating and ex-wife Yvonne reunite 12 years after split for daughter's 21st birthday"This day 45 years ago, Marie and Gerry created the best human being ever [heart emoji]," she remarked.

Married at First Sight season nine is in full swing introducing a whole new batch of brides and grooms. Ella Ding is one of this year's singles signed up to walk down the aisle with a total stranger.The 27 year old's appearance on the reality show has left viewers curious to find out more about her life before the experiment. Ella lives in a trendy three bedroom home located in Melbourne's Bayside suburb of Brighton East.Thanks to social media, she is often sharing updates from her home giving glimpses into her interior style.

EXCLUSIVE: Australia’s Stan and 9Network have commenced production on Bali 2002, based on the terrorist attacks on the nation’s tourist hotspots 20 years ago, with distributor Banijay Rights launching at yesterday’s London Screenings showcase.

Kate McKinnon and Jimmy Fallon are trying to outsmart Alexa!

Zack Sharf Former Netflix-Marvel comic book series “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage,” “Iron Fist,” “The Punisher” and “The Defenders” will officially call Disney Plus their new streaming home. Disney confirms all six series will begin streaming on the platform in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand starting March 16. The shows left their original home at Netflix on Feb.

Kate McKinnon and Jimmy Fallon played a game with Alexa on Monday’s “Tonight Show”.

Download Festival has announced the latest additions to its 2022 line-up, with Skindred and Yonaka among the new names.The festival will return from June 10-12 at Leicestershire’s Donington Park. KISS, Iron Maiden and Biffy Clyro are due to headline.Today (February 24) festival organisers confirmed that Skindred, Yonaka, Alestorm, Banks Arcade, Bimini, Dana Dentata, Dirty Honey, Heriot, Kid Brunswick, Orbit Culture, Red Fang, The Velveteers and Will Haven have joined the line-up.It follows a previous announcement last September that A Day To Remember , Mastodon, Creeper, Shinedown, Black Veil Brides, Code Orange, Ice Nine Kills and more had been added to the line-up.

GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics has announced its Dorian Award nominations for the best in movies.  Netflix and Neon dominate the nominations this year.

Elon Musk, 50, was spotted exiting his private jet in Los Angeles on Thursday, Feb. 17, with a beautiful red-haired “mystery woman” – who HollywoodLife revealed to be Australian actress, Natasha Bassett, 29! And now, less than one week after Elon’s new budding romance became widely known, the same source that clued us into who she was told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY everything that there is to know about Elon and Natasha’s relationship — and their “unbelievable chemistry!”

Grimes, it looks like Elon Musk might have a new love interest.According to reports from Daily Mail, the billionaire’s new girlfriend has been revealed as Australian actress Natasha Bassett. On Thursday, the pair were spotted on Elon’s private jet after his plane touched down in Los Angeles.The 27-year-old grew up in Sydney, Australia before relocating to New York at the age of 19 to attend drama school.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“The Novelist’s Film,” which Wednesday earned Korean director Hong Sang-soo the Grand Jury Prize in Berlin, has scored multiple rights deals. With Seoul-based Finecut handling the rights sales, the film was licensed to Ama Films for Greece and Cyprus, Mimosa Films for Japan, L’Atalante Cinema for Spain, Arizona Films Distribution for France and to The Cinema Guild for the U.S.Finecut also did European Film Market business with “Contorted,” an unorthodox horror about a family tragedy.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKicking off at its 70th anniversary edition in August, the Melbourne International Film Festival is to introduce a trio of new prizes. The best film award will come with a A$140,000 (approximately $100,000) cash reward, making it the richest film prize in the southern hemisphere.Contenders in the new, annual, ten-title MIFF Film Competition can be from any genre, including documentary or animation.

Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has announced that its 70th anniversary edition in August will include the debut of the annual MIFF Film Competition. Already the Southern Hemisphere’s largest and longest-running film festival, MIFF will now also offer one of the world’s most substantial festival prize pools.Initially comprising three awards, the MIFF Film Competition‘s flagship prize will be the AUD$140,000 (approx.

EXCLUSIVE: Abbey Lee (The Neon Demon, Lovecraft Country) and Christopher Abbott (Black Bear, Catch-22) are attached to lead Fear is the Rider, a chase thriller from BAFTA-nominated director John Michael McDonagh (The Guard, Calvary, The Forgiven) that The Exchange is introducing to international buyers at the 2022 virtual EFM.

Liam Neeson had quite the time in Melbourne, Australia, while shooting his new film “Blacklight” in 2020.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorWide has come on board to represent international sales on Slovenian-Australian writer/director Sara Kern’s debut feature “Moja Vesna,” which premieres in the Generation Kplus section at the Berlin Film Festival.“Moja Vesna” stars newcomer Loti Kovačič as Moja, a 10-year-old girl who lives with her grief-stricken Slovenian dad and pregnant 20-year-old sister Vesna in an outer suburb of Melbourne. Unable to accept the reality of her mother’s sudden death, Moja focuses on preparing for the baby while Vesna is lost in troubles of her own.Adamant and full of light, Moja carries on, hoping in vain that Vesna will eventually fill the mother-shaped hole in her life.

Storm Keating has taken a step back from her row with a cleaner over the "disgraceful state" she and her team left her £5million former house in.The 40 year old, who recently unveiled the glass living room of her gorgeous new family home, took to her Instagram feed to post a photo of her stepdaughter Missy, 20, competing in Dancing with the Stars Ireland.The snap showed Ronan's daughter, who he shares with ex-wife Yvonne Connolly, posing on the dancefloor with partner Ervinas Merfeldas. Storm simply captioned the pic: "Tango time," with a rose emoji alongside the hashtags: "#MissyandErvinas #whataphoto #dwtsireland #throughtoanotherweek #proudfamily".