Middle Eastern Drama About Search for Justice ‘Yellow Bus’ Takes Top Prize at Joburg Film Festival

Kate Middleton and Prince William are “keen” to have the gossip behind them.The Prince and Princess of Wales have been subject to endless conspiracy theories and rumors in recent weeks, about everything from Middleton’s health and well-being to her whereabouts.According to King Charles’s former butler Grant Harrold, the pair are looking to shift their focus to their respective duties and returning to the royal fold officially.“I think they’re keen to close the chapter on the gossip and the conspiracy theories and return the focus to the royals and their duties,” Harrold exclusively told The Post.Over the weekend, the princess was seen looking “happy, healthy and relaxed” as she joined her husband Prince William for a quick visit to a farm shop in Windsor.Video footage and images of the royal obtained by The Sun showed the mom of three looking well as she and William bought some fresh produce during the outing.“She looks like she’s recovering well,” Harrold tells us.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian animation auteur Alessandro Rak – best known for European Film Award-winner “The Art of Happiness” and Neapolitan mob fable “Cinderella The Cat” – is at work on a new project titled “The Little Prince of Shangri-La” set in an imaginary Tibet and involving the search for the Dalai Lama. Rak’s new work, which follows “Yaya and Lenny — The Walking Liberty,” that launched in 2021 from Locarno, was unveiled earlier this month at the Cartoon Movie co-production and pitch forum in Bordeaux, France.

Meghan Markle has reportedly been in touch with Kate Middleton, but it's been more "formal rather than sisterly" than "formal rather than sisterly", amid the recent scandal. Kate has been away from the public eye since Christmas due to her recovery from abdominal surgery.

It’s been less than two months since the end of the 2024 edition, but this morning the Sundance Institute revealed the dates for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. This year’s event will run from Thursday, January 23 through Sunday, February 2nd.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Paris-based film sales agency Cat&Docs has acquired “Kamay,” the debut feature documentary from filmmakers Ilyas Yourish and Shahrokh Bikaran. The film will world premiere at Visions du Réel, which runs in Nyon, Switzerland, April 12-24. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer (below).

Halloween is coming early this year, as Blumhouse and AMC Theatres have partnered to launch the Halfway To Halloween Film Festival, which will take place at over 100 AMC theaters in 40 U.S. cities from March 29 to April 2.

Christopher Vourlias Palestinian director Hana Elias’ “If These Stones Could Talk,” which follows a Palestinian man’s return to his homeland to restore his family’s ancestral garden, and Argentine filmmaker María Silvia Esteve’s “Mailin,” about a woman’s painful struggle to overcome her childhood trauma, took the top prizes at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival’s industry award ceremony Wednesday night. During an emotionally charged conclusion to the festival’s Agora strand, in which several filmmakers voiced their strident support for Palestine and called for a ceasefire to the more than five-month-old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, a tearful Elias took the stage alongside producer Asmahan Bkerat to receive the top prize in the Agora’s pitching forum, a €10,000 ($10,900) cash prize from the International Emerging Film Talents Assn. (IEFTA).

Princes William and Harry are set to reunite as they will both take part in a ceremony paying tribute to their late mother, Princess Diana, at the Diana Legacy Award. William, Prince of Wales, 41, will attend the event at the Science Museum in London on Thursday night in person, where he is expected to give a speech to mark the charity’s 25th anniversary and present awards to 20 recipients. William's estranged brother Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, 39, will then join a video call with the winners, according to reports.

This year’s Cheltenham Festival welcomed royal guests today, including Zara Tindall and Princess Eugenie, who braved the miserable rain in chic outfits, following Kate Middleton's photoshop drama. The annual Cheltenham Festival has been held in mid-March ever since the early 1900s, and the four day long horse racing event is enjoyed by racing fanatics, as well as the Royal family. Today, Wednesday 13 March, was billed as Style Wednesday by festival organisers, with racegoers encouraged to wear sustainable fashion.

Naman Ramachandran India premieres of France’s “The Taste of Things” and Korea’s “Exhuma” will open and close respectively the first edition of India’s Cinevesture International Film Festival. Tran Anh Hung won best director at Cannes 2023 for “The Taste of Things,” which was subsequently submitted as France’s official entry to the Oscars’ international feature category.

Diego Ramos Bechara editor Dwayne Johnson got emotional talking about a potential on-screen reunion with Emily Blunt in Benny Safdie’s upcoming mixed martial arts drama, “The Smashing Machine.” Johnson’s comments came while speaking with Variety’s Marc Malkin at the Oscars during Variety On the Carpet presented by DIRECTV. Blunt has been in talks to join Johnson for what will be Safdie’s solo directorial debut — a biopic about MMA and UFC champion Mark Kerr. Blunt has been eyed to play Dawn Staples, Kerr’s wife.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 44th edition of genre film festival Fantasporto, which runs in Portugal’s second city Porto from March 1-10, has bestowed its best film award on Japanese sci-fi fantasy pic “From the End of the World,” directed by Kaz I Kiriya. The movie follows 10-year-old Hana, whose dreams transport her across various eras in Japanese history, and have the ability to save humanity. The jury’s special award went to “The Complex Forms,” Italian director Fabio D’Orta’s debut feature.

Kate Middleton and Prince William have been praised by royal fans following an outing with their son Prince Louis, 5. The couple also share children Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight.

Christopher Vourlias The sixth edition of the Joburg Film Festival wraps Sunday, putting a bow on a week that saw many in the host nation reflecting on South Africa’s long journey in the three decades since the end of apartheid. But among the filmmakers and executives taking part in the second JBX content market the focus was squarely on the future, as Africa’s streaming wars and an eye toward global dealmaking highlighted how the tide has begun to shift in how the world perceives the continent.

The champagne may be flowing at the kickoff for the 27th Annual Sonoma International Film Festival – for more reasons than one.

Christopher Vourlias Akin Omotoso, the filmmaker behind Disney Plus’ Giannis Antetokounmpo biopic “Rise,” has been attached to direct “The Plot to Save South Africa,” an adaptation of Justice Malala’s gripping book about a 1990s white supremacist plot that almost plunged the young democracy into civil war. “The Plot to Save South Africa” will be produced by Johannesburg-based production outfit Ochre Moving Pictures, which signed a deal with Netflix last year to adapt multiple books for the streaming service alongside Omotoso.

Christopher Vourlias Following on the heels of a successful post-pandemic reboot one year ago, the Joburg Film Festival kicks off its sixth edition on Feb. 27, with the glitzy capital of South Africa’s media and entertainment industry showcasing a selection of top talents from the host country and across the African continent.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Netflix has acquired the Oscar-nominated documentary feature “To Kill a Tiger.” The film, about a father’s pursuit of justice in rural India, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022 and was awarded best documentary at the 2023 Palm Springs International Film Festival. “To Kill a Tiger” was, up until now, the only film this year to be nominated for the best feature doc Oscar without distribution.

When it comes to being a member of the Royal Family and having a normal job, there are very few ways to make both coexist harmoniously.The high-ranking senior royals currently hold roles of constitutional importance or serve as a patron to various charities, among many other crucial duties. While many of those who have married into the Family have previously held normal jobs, there are many royals who still have ordinary jobs today.

From his breakthrough work Family Viewing, which dates back to 1987, Atom Egoyan has been exploring the possibilities of different communication technologies by showing screens within screens, stories within other stories and the ways unconnected stories may merge with each other and with real life. Seven Veils is named for the Biblical character Salome, whose seductive dancing as she shed those veils earned her a grisly prize: the severed head of John the Baptist, the ascetic prophet who predicted the coming of Jesus Christ.