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			<title>How films like 'Item' damage Pakistani cinema</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2586468/how-films-like-item-damage-pakistani-cinema</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2586468/how-films-like-item-damage-pakistani-cinema#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 10 Jan 26 20:21:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Omair Alavi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Entertainment]]></category><category><![CDATA[T-Magazine]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2586468</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Huma Shaikh’s 'Item' may have looked good on paper—but it should have been written, filed, and forgotten in the 1960s.]]>
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				<![CDATA[There are bad films. Then there are worse films. And then some films sit beyond the worst&mdash;an unenviable category that Huma Shaikh&rsquo;s Item proudly occupies. From a poster that screams cringe to a trailer that confirms it, the film ultimately blossoms into a full-fledged cringe fest. Achieving this level of discomfort is no small feat.

Item claims to be a film about female empowerment. It also claims to highlight the plight of women labelled &ldquo;items&rdquo; for daring to step outside their homes to earn a living. In reality, it does neither. Instead, it operates on two deeply flawed assumptions: that all men are evil and the audience is stupid.

Thankfully, neither are all men evil, nor is the audience stupid. That is why most critics endure 142 minutes of cinematic torture&mdash;so you don&rsquo;t have to.

After enduring Item, I decided to do a good deed: explaining, in five simple steps, why films like Item deserve to remain in the can. Releasing them actively harms genuine filmmakers&mdash;those who know how to pull audiences toward Pakistani cinema rather than push them away. Our industry needs those filmmakers far more than these so-called &ldquo;items,&rdquo; which do little for anyone&rsquo;s mental health.

Item should have stayed in the can 

The film that doesn&rsquo;t know what it is saying claims to be &ldquo;a bold and full commercial mainstream feature film&rdquo; with a &ldquo;subtle message&rdquo; exposing society&rsquo;s hypocrisy&mdash;where women are idolised on screen but disrespected in real life. Let&rsquo;s start with the basics: the film is neither bold nor commercial. It is not even a modern mainstream feature film and looks like something that you might catch on Filmazia while switching channels. If anything, it&rsquo;s a cringe fest that opens with a mujra masquerading as an item song. At the end of that number, an actor who has been throwing money on the dancer like his colleagues says, &ldquo;Kia item hai,&rdquo; and kick-starts a painful journey that lasts more than two hours.

The director appears confused about what an &ldquo;item&rdquo; even is. When was the last time a successful model was randomly picked to perform an item number without any groundwork? Sadaf Kanwal comes to mind, but she had the personality, grace, and prior acting experience to justify her item number in Na Maloom Afraad 2. Amna Ilyas did something similar in Mehrunisa V Lub U and Chaudhry &ndash; The Martyr, but she was already a far more accomplished actress.

By contrast, the total of Mahi&rsquo;s (Aliya Ali) journey is conveyed via a slide that reads: Five Years Later. That&rsquo;s it, from being advised to try modelling to becoming an item girl&mdash;five words on a screen. In my book, that&rsquo;s neither feminism nor empowerment. It&rsquo;s lazy filmmaking dressed up as social commentary. The audience isn&rsquo;t stupid, which is why they will be as bewildered as I was when an office-going girl from a lower-middle-class neighborhood magically transforms into a successful model without a hint of struggle, but with a wig that doesn&rsquo;t even look well-made.



Laziness has never helped any industry

Aliya Ali may be a competent TV actress, but as popular TV and film actress Humaima Malick once put it, &ldquo;a film heroine has to be someone the audience can gloat over and fantasise about.&rdquo; The refreshments I consumed during the screening had more spark than the film&rsquo;s item numbers, which were shot on the same stage, performed like a school tableau, and featured dances best forgotten the moment you exit the cinema. Why one of the songs randomly incorporates the James Bond theme is anyone&rsquo;s guess.

In interviews, and a clip that has gone viral due to its insanity, Aliya Ali claimed that during the shooting of the bold songs, the male crew was instructed to look away. Ironically, that may be the most accurate statement made during the film&rsquo;s promotions, because the songs look as if they were filmed without any supervision at all&mdash;as if the choreographer was sleeping, the cameraman was out of the room, and everyone else was, quite literally, &ldquo;made to look away.&rdquo; Had the film truly been bold, it would have earned a bolder rating from the censor board, which it didn&rsquo;t. Worse, the lead performance throughout is so laid-back and so aggressively 1960s that even the dance numbers fail to land.

Scenes like the father dying after slapping his daughter, an aunt blaming her niece&rsquo;s job for her father&rsquo;s death, a young couple getting stranded in a rest house during a weather calamity, and a girl singing in the mountains with the hero as the sole onlooker should have been killed on paper, as they became irrelevant in the last millennium. Yet they are part and parcel of Item and make you want to check the calendar&mdash;only to be surprised that it&rsquo;s 2025 or 2026, not a year starting with 19, belonging to the 20th century.

Pakistani-American actor Azad Khan (Hala, The Vineyard, Mumtaz Mahal) is the film&rsquo;s lone saving grace, though even he feels misplaced. He would have thrived in a 1960s setup&mdash;three-piece suits, rich men falling for courtesans or women with &ldquo;bad reputations,&rdquo; and mama&rsquo;s boys with hearts of gold. Why he chose this project remains a mystery. His unfamiliarity with contemporary Pakistani cinema may have helped the film, but it certainly didn&rsquo;t help his career.

Behroze Sabzwari appears as the girl&rsquo;s injured father&mdash;both physically and mentally&mdash;and is granted exactly two scenes, much like his senior co-star Sangeeta Rizvi, who continues to shout her way through roles for reasons unknown. Their banter about a young woman seeking work in a male-dominated world might have felt relevant in the 1960s. In 2025, it feels like the script was written by someone who woke up after a 50-year nap and decided to lecture us on empowerment.



There is no place for a terrible soundtrack in 2025

Pakistani cinema owes much to composer M. Arshad, whose work on Jeeva, Chor Machaye Shor, Hawayein, and Salakhain defined an era. Unfortunately, he hasn&rsquo;t produced anything memorable in the last two decades&mdash;and Item makes that painfully clear.

The soundtrack sounds ripped straight from the 1990s, complete with the outdated trope of recycling the same sad song with different singers. One of them is Humera Channa, the undisputed queen of &rsquo;90s filmi music&mdash;but nostalgia alone can&rsquo;t save a weak composition.

M. Arshad&rsquo;s remake of Bijli Bhari Hai (originally composed by his father, M. Ashraf) feels more personal than professional. While Maan Jao Na paid tribute to the song far more effectively&mdash;only to be reprimanded by rights holders&mdash;this version collapses under bad choreography, cheap sets, and uninspired vocals. Aima Baig&rsquo;s Velo Sound Station rendition from five years ago feels more contemporary than this butchered remake. Had the film been named Bijli, it might have seemed relevant, but unlike the original Bijli girl Mumtaz, this one feels like it&rsquo;s running on an old generator.



Scam films like item need to be studied

Why call Item a scam film? Because films like this&mdash;and there are many&mdash;deserve academic scrutiny. How did any investor agree to fund a project that looks unviable to the trained eye? What convinced seasoned actors like Ismat Zaidi and Mariam Mirza to sign on? Why did the filmmakers ignore distributors who surely warned them that releasing the film alongside Avatar: Fire and Ash would be commercial suicide?

Every filmmaker believes they are doing something new&mdash;at least in their own head. Huma Shaikh seems inspired by Bollywood films like Fashion and Heroine, which critiqued the entertainment industry with depth and craft. What she failed to realise is that replicating that level of filmmaking here may take decades. A smaller, simpler film&mdash;a rom-com, perhaps&mdash;might have helped her test the waters. Instead, she aimed for Titanic without realising that even James Cameron had to struggle before reaching a point where he could make the award-winning classic. No struggle leads to scam films like Item.

Bashir Noman was the real &ldquo;Item&rdquo;

Watch the trailer closely, and you&rsquo;ll notice a TV anchor&mdash;clearly inspired by Shahzeb Khanzada or Kamran Khan&mdash;interviewing Miss Mahi. Frankly, had the director made a film about this man alone, it might have been a hit. Earlier, he appears as a fashion photographer who gets slapped by a novice Mahi and vows revenge for that thapparr.

How this vengeful photographer transforms into a prime-time anchor with massive ratings is the most fascinating arc in the film&mdash;sadly unexplored. Perhaps Item 2 will be his story: a journey from nobody to somebody, hopefully told with more substance than a lonely Five Years Later slide.

In the end, the film concludes with a brain-fade moment: women should study martial arts if they want to survive in a male-dominated world. It may be one of many things they could do, but presenting it as the only solution exposes the mindset behind Item.

All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer

Omair Alavi is a freelance contributor who writes about film, television, and popular culture]]>
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			<title>'Dhurandhar' is out, and the familiar India-Pakistan arguments are back online</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2581670/dhurandhar-is-out-and-the-familiar-india-pakistan-arguments-are-back-online</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2581670/dhurandhar-is-out-and-the-familiar-india-pakistan-arguments-are-back-online#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Dec 25 12:58:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2581670</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Propaganda, misrepresentation and the question of who owns the story dominate social media]]>
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				<![CDATA[How many times are we going to watch this same story play out? Bollywood takes a slice of Pakistan&rsquo;s history, strips away the political context, sprinkles in some glossy action, and wraps it up in familiar patriotic overtones. With the release of Dhurandhar on December 5&mdash;very loosely based on Karachi&rsquo;s Lyari gang war&mdash;audiences on both sides of the border found themselves trapped in yet another round of d&eacute;j&agrave; vu.

The film, stacked with high-profile actors, has sparked mixed reactions. But for once, the divide is not between India and Pakistan&mdash;people within each country are split among themselves. Pakistanis quickly clocked the propaganda, but many were also frustrated with their own entertainment industry for refusing to tell the stories that actually belong to them.

Content creator Bilal Hassan, better known as @mystapaki, summed up the conflicted reaction perfectly. &ldquo;It is very, very well-made. Action sequences fantastic, Akshaye Khanna&rsquo;s acting was&hellip; I wanted to be upset at it, but I couldn&rsquo;t be upset at it,&rdquo; he said. But when the anti-Pakistan dialogue crept in toward the end, he didn&rsquo;t hold back: &ldquo;If that isn&rsquo;t propaganda, I don&rsquo;t know what it is.&rdquo;

For Hassan, the issue isn&rsquo;t the politics, it is ownership. &ldquo;I grew up seeing the Lyari gang wars. Chaudhry Aslam&rsquo;s house was in front of my school. When there was a bomb blast on top of his house, my school&rsquo;s windows broke. That&rsquo;s how close to home this story was for me.&rdquo; And that&rsquo;s precisely why watching someone else tell it&mdash;again&mdash;stung. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t tell this story. Why? Because our politicians will get dirty. Our government will get dirty. So instead, we choose to just greenlight shitty scripts like Love Guru.&rdquo;

Indian audiences were not blind to the messaging either. Actor Hrithik Roshan praised the storytelling but disagreed with its politics, stressing the &ldquo;responsibilities filmmakers should bear as citizens of the world&rdquo; when handling sensitive histories. Film critics and social media users echoed the sentiment. &ldquo;When propaganda starts looking like a spy blockbuster with catchy songs, people forget to question it,&rdquo; wrote one X user.

Viewers were also frustrated by the caricatured depiction of Karachi: bomb blasts, relentless violence, and a Lyari that looks more like an action-movie set than a real neighbourhood with a complicated history and decades of resilience. BBC Asian Network journalist Haroon Rashid posted a video titled &ldquo;The Karachi you see in Dhurandhar v/s the Karachi I saw last week,&rdquo; contrasting the film&rsquo;s chaos with the city&rsquo;s food, music, and everyday warmth.

Some Pakistanis reflected on their own role in consuming this content. &ldquo;We forget things very easily. For us, entertainment is important no matter how much India bans and boycotts us&hellip; But we are always promoting their stuff full of propaganda against us,&rdquo; wrote one user. Then there were the smaller inaccuracies that didn&rsquo;t escape notice: &ldquo;Someone needs to tell them that no one, absolutely no one wears shalwar kameez with half sleeves in Pakistan,&rdquo; joked another.

And once again, social media spiralled into the same cyclical debate&mdash;propaganda, misrepresentation, why Pakistanis still watch these films, why Bollywood keeps making them. It&rsquo;s the same conversation that resurfaces every time, almost like a script of its own. But there&rsquo;s a point people like @mystapaki keep returning to: Pakistan isn&rsquo;t telling its own stories, and the vacuum leaves room for others to narrate our history on our behalf&mdash;messily, inaccurately, and often with a political agenda.

The fatigue is certainly real. Audiences seem tired not just of Bollywood&rsquo;s formulaic portrayals, but of the predictable online storm that follows each release.]]>
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			<title>Meesha Shafi returns to Karachi stage at World Culture Festival</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2579841/meesha-shafi-returns-to-karachi-stage-at-world-culture-festival</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2579841/meesha-shafi-returns-to-karachi-stage-at-world-culture-festival#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 30 Nov 25 11:10:23 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Qaisar Kamran]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Music]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2579841</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[A packed musical night and 'Kamli' discussion mark the festival’s final stretch]]>
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				<![CDATA[The 30th day of the 39-day World Culture Festival at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, concluded with Mega Musical Concert 3.0 and a session with creators of film Kamli. The concert marked Meesha Shafi&rsquo;s return to Karachi&rsquo;s stage after a long time.&nbsp;

&ldquo;You have made my heart happy,&rdquo; Meesha announced to the crowd during her performance.&ldquo;I am performing in Karachi after many years, and it&rsquo;s an absolute pleasure to be here and party with you all.&rdquo; She added that such festivals are a &ldquo;much-needed and wonderful initiative.&rdquo;

The concert included several other performances featuring&nbsp;Faris Shafi, Meesha Shafi, Sahib Pashazade from Azerbaijan, Darabu, and Pakistan&rsquo;s emerging artists Gizri and Junoon Elia Lawn packing the crowd to its capacity.

Read more:&nbsp;&lsquo;World Culture Festival 2025&rsquo; set to kick off with the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi

Earlier in the day, a discussion on Pakistani film Kamli, released in 2022,&nbsp;was held with director Sarmad Khoosat and writer Dr. Umair Ahmed in the panel. Arts Council President Muhammad Ahmed Shah and Noor-ul-Huda Shah attended the session too.

Sarmad expressed gratitude for the audience&rsquo;s appreciation of the film, saying that he is happy people connected with it. &ldquo;Art never divides; it brings us together and this festival is proof of that,&rdquo; he added.&nbsp;

He reflected on Pakistan&rsquo;s cinematic past, noting that cinema was once a thriving cultural force and stressed the importance of experimentation and music in storytelling. &ldquo;When you talk about culture and heritage, music becomes essential,&rdquo; he said. Noting that he took the ownership of including six songs for Kamli.&nbsp;

The director discussed the themes of migration and relationships. Stating that no one leaves their home without a reason. He believes decline happens because of relationships or circumstances. During the discussion, he&nbsp;added&nbsp;that cinema should move people.&nbsp;

Lastly, Sarmad mentioned his preference for personally messaging close friends rather than making public social-media posts. Announcing the release of another project in 2026 that he hopes to bring before the audience in the same lowkey manner.]]>
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			<title>'Zootopia 2' explores the growing pains of a new partnership</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2579190/zootopia-2-explores-the-growing-pains-of-a-new-partnership</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2579190/zootopia-2-explores-the-growing-pains-of-a-new-partnership#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 26 Nov 25 05:38:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2579190</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The sequel picks up where the first film left off]]>
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				<![CDATA[For Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan, Disney&rsquo;s animated buddy cop comedy, Zootopia 2,&nbsp;has a healthy message about the importance of confiding in others for emotional support.

Quan, who voices Gary De&#39;Snake &mdash; a pit viper determined to help his family &mdash; told Reuters, &ldquo;I grew up in a very traditional Chinese family and was taught to really internalize a lot of my feelings and not share them.&rdquo; However, the Everything Everywhere All at Once&nbsp;actor added that it&rsquo;s unhealthy to keep emotions bottled up.&nbsp;For him, the sequel creates an avenue for people to explore the importance of sharing their experiences to foster empathy.

Zootopia 2&nbsp;continues the story of the highly acclaimed 2016 film Zootopia,&nbsp;which follows rookie police officer rabbit Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, and the con artist fox named Nick Wilde, voiced by Jason Bateman, as the unlikely pair team up to investigate the disappearance of predator animals.

The sequel picks up where the first film left off, quickly sending Judy and Nick on their latest adventure to uncover the truth surrounding the new reptilian character, Gary De&#39;Snake. It&nbsp;is co-directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush, who also worked on the first film.

The voice cast includes actor Idris Elba as Chief Bogo, the Zootopia police chief, singer Shakira as the pop star gazelle named Gazelle, and newcomers Patrick Warburton as Mayor Brian Winddancer, a stallion, and Fortune Feimster as the beaver named Nibbles Maplestick.

In Zootopia 2,&nbsp;Judy, the overachieving bunny, and Nick, the laidback fox, must come to terms with their differences to become a stronger team.

For Bateman, the core of what the movie is conveying is that &ldquo;differences can be a plus&rdquo; for those who have the courage and curiosity to be with someone unlike themselves.

Echoing Bateman, Howard felt that Judy and Nick needed to show both the pros and cons of a new professional partnership.]]>
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			<title>Bollywood never misses a chance: 'Dhurandhar' becomes latest embarrassment</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2578146/ranveer-singh-steps-into-lyari-in-new-anti-pakistan-film</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2578146/ranveer-singh-steps-into-lyari-in-new-anti-pakistan-film#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 19 Nov 25 07:41:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2578146</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Viewers, including in India, criticise film for portraying Karachi’s Lyari as war zone]]>
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				<![CDATA[Bollywood&rsquo;s latest anti-Pakistan propaganda film Dhurandhar has triggered strong backlash after its trailer release, with much of the criticism coming from Indian social media users.

The trailer portrays Karachi&rsquo;s Lyari as a war zone, showing Ranveer Singh as a RAW agent entering &#39;hostile&#39; Pakistani territory, while Arjun Rampal appears as a Pakistani intelligence officer. Rampal&#39;s character, Major Iqbal, also known as the &#39;Angel of Death&#39; is shown to be obsessed with &quot;making India bleed.&quot;

Actor R. Madhavan plays Ajay Sanyal, a character inspired by India&rsquo;s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. In the story, Sanyal is convinced that Pakistan, particularly the Lyari district, needs to be infiltrated to tackle terrorism, with Lyari portrayed as the &quot;heart of terrorism in the country.&quot;

The film also uses Pakistani political imagery, including a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rally, photos of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, and party flags, drawing further scrutiny.

Observers in Pakistan note that India&rsquo;s anti-Pakistan narrative appears to be intensifying, particularly with Bollywood casting Sanjay Dutt as the late SSP Chaudhry Aslam and Akshaye Khanna as Rehman Dakait, choices widely mocked online.

Set for release in early December, Dhurandhar has already become a source of embarrassment for Bollywood, as viewers, including many in India, criticise its distortions, sensationalism, and unrealistic portrayal of Pakistan.

Bollywood seems to be following the trend of Indian nationalism, where every aspect of Pakistans history has to be touched in some way by India. The Lyari gang wars were a strictly internal, domestic dispute that sprang in the slums of Lyari between rival gangs with rival political opposition.

Rehman Dakait, Arshad Pappu, Chaudhry Aslam and Uzair Baloch were real individuals who shaped the history of Karachi, who were a personafication of the intricate ethnic and political lines that dominate Karachi. They represent a darker, more tumultour time of this city&#39;s history when dead bodies lay scattered and blood flowed in rivers. The pain of the Lyari gang wars is not for India to appropiate.

No credit of this city&#39;s history should be handed over to Indian simply because they put the banner &quot;based on true events&quot; at the start of every movie. The Indian film industry has exhausted every aspect of their own history they could touch, and then the more recent history that they cannot touch. So whats left for them is to take our internal struggle, imagine their role in it, and posit themselves as our masters.]]>
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			<title>Lux Style Awards set to return to Karachi</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2577570/lux-style-awards-set-to-return-to-karachi</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2577570/lux-style-awards-set-to-return-to-karachi#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 15 Nov 25 09:28:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2577570</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Show adds new digital creators’ category to honour online storytelling]]>
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				<![CDATA[Lux Style Awards is gearing to return to a physical stage in Karachi in December. This year&rsquo;s ceremony theme, Mirror the Magic&nbsp;promises new collaborations, a renewed vision and an event that celebrates &ldquo;Pakistan&rsquo;s creative spirit&rdquo; for the world to see, according to a press release issued on Friday.&nbsp;

This will be the award show&rsquo;s proper comeback after being halted twice. In 2020, the LSAs opted out as the Covid-19 pandemic staggered global events. Unilever instead donated the ceremony&rsquo;s budget to the Akhuwat Foundation to support fashion industry workers affected by lockdown closure. The brand later acknowledged the winners of the 19th edition online. Then, in 2025, the awards were disrupted again, following heightened India&ndash;Pakistan tensions in May. The winners of the 23rd Lux Style Awards were announced digitally again, with no formal ceremony. &nbsp;

This year, the LSAs are introducing a new award category dedicated to digital content creators, to honour a space that has grown considerably after the lockdown. &ldquo;As an audience-driven platform, the 24th Lux Style Awards introduced this category to acknowledge their growing impact on the creative economy and their role in shaping the future of storytelling,&rdquo; said Samir Sultan, general manager of Personal Care, Unilever Pakistan.

The show is aiming for &ldquo;infused collaborations between real and reel achievers,&rdquo; a phrase that likely points towards influencer crossovers and pop culture mash-ups.&nbsp;

The organisers promise a broader reach this year, with nominations to be announced in the following weeks.]]>
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			<title>‘Now You See Me’ film sent new cast members to magic school</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2577066/now-you-see-me-film-sent-new-cast-members-to-magic-school</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2577066/now-you-see-me-film-sent-new-cast-members-to-magic-school#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 25 05:42:29 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Director Ruben Fleischer wanted the tricks to look as real as possible]]>
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				<![CDATA[For Ariana Greenblatt, learning magic tricks at The Magic Castle clubhouse in Los Angeles was the best part of starring in the third installment of the American heist film, Now You See Me: Now You Don&#39;t.

&quot;Before opening hours, we would spend a couple hours in there and just learn as much as we possibly could in the time given, and it was so much fun,&quot; the former Disney Channel star said of the month the actors spent at the home of the Academy of Magical Arts learning illusions seen in the film. &quot;It&#39;s so weird. I feel like we have newfound skills, which is my favorite part of this job,&quot; said Greenblatt, who received several film award nominations for her role in Barbie.

The new film, directed by Ruben Fleischer, features returning actors Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher and Morgan Freeman, along with newcomers Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Rosamund Pike and Greenblatt.

The film, distributed by Lionsgate and opening in US&nbsp;theaters on Friday, continues the story of The Four Horsemen&nbsp;as they reunite to recruit three skilled illusionists for a high-stakes robbery of the world&#39;s largest &quot;queen diamond&quot; from a crime syndicate.

&quot;We learned so much, a lot of card tricks,&quot; said Sessa, whose debut in The Holdovers&nbsp;earned him the Critics&#39; Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer. &quot;Ariana did a lot of pickpocketing (in her role), and she was constantly trying to use me as her prop to practice on.&quot;

For franchise veteran Franco, the magic tricks he learned over years of working on the films paid off. &quot;We&#39;re playing the greatest magicians in the world. So, as an audience, when you&#39;re watching us, you want to believe that we&#39;re actually doing some of these tricks,&quot; he said.

&quot;Our director, Ruben, encouraged us to learn as much as we could to make it look as real as possible,&quot; he added, noting that his card-throwing skills have become especially advanced. It was important to Fleischer and the cast that the illusions looked convincing.

&quot;The director really wanted to make sure that the magic was real, that it wasn&#39;t just computer-generated effects, which meant for us as actors, practicing every day, the tiniest little hand moves,&quot; fellow franchise veteran Eisenberg said.]]>
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			<title>'You shouldn’t have to beg for your own money,' says Romaisa Khan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2576612/you-shouldnt-have-to-beg-for-your-own-money-says-romaisa-khan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2576612/you-shouldnt-have-to-beg-for-your-own-money-says-romaisa-khan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 09 Nov 25 07:44:52 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category><category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2576612</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor’s remarks add to growing artist outcry for timely payments in entertainment industry]]>
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				<![CDATA[Romaisa Khan has joined Pakistani celebrities that are calling out the film industry for untimely payment for their work. Agreeing that we cannot deny that late payments exist in the industry, she shared her take on the matter in a recent interview.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&ldquo;I feel like it&rsquo;s your own money and you shouldn&rsquo;t have to beg for it time and again,&rdquo; said Romaisa. The Hadsa actor shared that it is something she struggles a lot with herself. &ldquo;I often don&rsquo;t get paid because of this because I feel so hesitant and shy to ask for it. I just let it go and my friends and family are angry on my behalf.&rdquo;&nbsp;

The actor&rsquo;s statement was part of a bigger problem that many industry professionals like director Mehreen Jabbar, veteran actor Mohammed Ahmed and actors Ahmed Ali Butt, Ramsha Khan, Nadia Afgan, Yasir Hussain and Alizeh Shah have pointed out.&nbsp;

Previously, Mahira Khan had shed light on the struggles of technicians in the film industry back in September. Taking to her Instagram story, she reminded us of the scale of the problem. &ldquo;Imagine, if senior actors and hit maker directors go through this,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Just imagine what technicians go through.&rdquo;

Before that, Mehreen had burst the bubble of those harbouring the impression that a career in the television industry equates to a thriving bank account in July. &ldquo;Our drama industry has progressed a lot, and there has been a very high viewership,&rdquo; she said during&nbsp;an&nbsp;interview. &ldquo;But behind the scenes, there is a lot of compromise and this industry operates in a very unprofessional way. That is the sad part.&rdquo;

Then, Mohammed thanked Mehreen for starting the conversion back in July. Taking to Instagram, he said: &quot;Mehreen has spoken very clearly about the system and the drama industry, and it makes me so glad. She said plainly what I have been quietly saying for years.&quot; The Cake actor said that a delay of three to four months is extremely normal.

Backing up Mehreen&#39;s beggar analogy, Mohammed continued, &quot;You have to pretty much clasp your hands together and beg them to pay you. Then they dispense a cheque your way, all the while giving the impression that they are doing you a massive favour, just because they have decided&nbsp;to pay you. In every project, I feel their aim is to make actors beg for money. It destroys your dignity.&quot;

Ahmed slammed the industry&#39;s recurring issue with late payments too. &quot;Late payment is an industry standard,&quot; he said in an Instagram story in July. &quot;Production houses, television channels and corporate sponsors all have a 60 to 90-day payment clause, and that too is hardly ever met on time.&quot;

He added, &quot;There are a few rare people who will pay you on time, otherwise everyone will make sure that you have to beg for your money, and that too in installments.&quot; On a lighter note, the actor said, &quot;Work for YouTube. Be your own boss.&quot;]]>
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			<title>Israeli Oscar entry ‘The Sea’ seeks compassion amid conflict</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2576600/israeli-oscar-entry-the-sea-seeks-compassion-amid-conflict</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2576600/israeli-oscar-entry-the-sea-seeks-compassion-amid-conflict#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 09 Nov 25 05:41:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Director Shai Carmeli-Pollak’s film about Palestinian boy’s journey to the sea sparks empathy in a divided homeland]]>
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				<![CDATA[The director of Israel&#39;s entry for the 2026 Oscars about a Palestinian boy&#39;s quest to see the sea hopes it will help arouse compassion in his homeland during&nbsp;so much conflict.

Prospects for lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians have rarely looked so bleak after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, two years of war in Gaza and&nbsp;surging settler violence in the West Bank.

However, director and writer Shai Carmeli-Pollak has taken heart from the reception to his film The Sea&nbsp;which won Israel&#39;s top film prize so was automatically submitted for the foreign-language Oscar prize to be decided in March. &quot;I met the audience that came to watch it and it was amazing that people could be emotional and sometimes shed a tear for this story while violence and atrocities happened not far from here,&quot; Carmeli-Pollak said in an interview this week after a viewing.

The Sea&nbsp;tells the story of Khaled, a Palestinian boy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank who fears growing up without seeing the sea and makes the perilous journey alone and without travel papers into Israel to try to reach the coast. He had recently been turned away at a checkpoint on a school trip to the sea, and his sudden disappearance from home leads his father, an undocumented labourer in Israel, to risk arrest by setting out in search of him.

The Sea&nbsp;won Best Picture at September&#39;s Ophir awards, the Israeli equivalent of the Oscars, prompting condemnation from Culture Minister Miki Zohar, who pulled funding from the ceremony over the movie&#39;s portrayal of the Israeli military.

Israel&#39;s government since 2022 has been among the most right-wing in its history, adamantly opposed to Palestinian statehood and committed to expanding settlement in the West Bank. The 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people, has hardened many Israelis towards Palestinians and made criticism of the army more sensitive.

&quot;Compassion and love&quot;

Carmeli-Pollak and the Israeli-Palestinian producer of The Sea, Baher Agbaria, said it was important to make films that helped people hear each other&#39;s stories. &quot;I hope that the film will open other channels - channels of compassion and love - and give other ways that we can live together in this place,&quot; he told Reuters.

Agbaria said it felt surprising to bring a Palestinian story to mainstream cinemas in Israel against the backdrop of the war. &quot;Because (of) what is happening this is time also for this film, you know, for this kind of story, to listen to the others,&quot; he said.

The film was released in cinemas in Israel in July and is still running.

At the 2025 Oscars, an Israeli-Palestinian film&nbsp;No Other Land, about the Israeli displacement of a Palestinian community in the West Bank, won the documentary feature film award, also angering Israel&#39;s government.

Carmeli-Pollak, a longtime peace activist, said that even though the government did not want him to represent Israel, he was proud to be part of a community of filmmakers who chose to honour The Sea.&nbsp;&quot;I represent every people, like both Israelis and Palestinians, that aspire for peace and for equality and for living together in a different way than this government is working for.&quot;]]>
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			<title>Tessa Thompson stars in 'Hedda', exploring love, power, and identity through Hedda Gabler</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2574926/tessa-thompson-stars-in-hedda-exploring-love-power-and-identity-through-hedda-gabler</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2574926/tessa-thompson-stars-in-hedda-exploring-love-power-and-identity-through-hedda-gabler#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 25 06:35:17 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2574926</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Nia DaCosta reimagines Ibsen’s classic through a modern lens]]>
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				<![CDATA[For director Nia DaCosta, adapting the acclaimed 19th century play Hedda Gabler&nbsp;into her 2025 film Hedda&nbsp;was like forging a &ldquo;self-insert fanfiction.&rdquo;

&ldquo;What would it be like if I were there or like literally any Black woman?&rdquo; DaCosta recalled asking herself. Beyond the desire to see a lead actor who looked more like herself in the period story, DaCosta fell in love with the role of Hedda in the play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in 1890.

The Candyman director loved debating the character Hedda with her friends and interrogating the motives of the fictional literary woman.

Hedda&nbsp;is set in 1950s England and follows the titular character Hedda Gabler, played by Tessa Thompson, as she navigates dissatisfaction in her marriage to George Tesman, portrayed by Tom Bateman, and explores her complex feelings toward Eileen Lovborg, played by Nina Hoss.

The film arrived in theaters on October 22 and will be available for streaming on Prime Video on Wednesday.

Thompson feels her role as Hedda is career-defining, not just for the spotlight it shines on her, but for its substance. &ldquo;The provocation of the material&rdquo; demands that people unearth something in themselves, she said, adding that it took bravery to go to some of the psychological places the character took her.

Similarly, Hoss felt that playing Eileen and exploring the struggles and successes of queer women in the 1950s was a worthy role.

Eileen and Hedda have a romantic past that Hoss was interested in exploring.

&ldquo;What was the dance with them before?&rdquo; Hoss said of how she tried to imagine their backstory prior to the film&#39;s events. &ldquo;And what is it that draws Eileen back into the room, facing Hedda and kind of provoking her again? They both feel, it&rsquo;s still not done,&quot; she said.]]>
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			<title>Fans shave head for screening of Emma Stone's film ‘Bugonia’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2573606/fans-shave-head-for-screening-of-emma-stones-film-bugonia</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2573606/fans-shave-head-for-screening-of-emma-stones-film-bugonia#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 25 06:08:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2573606</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Film distributor invites filmgoers to go bald to watch sci-fi comedy]]>
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				<![CDATA[Fans arrived for an early screening of the absurdist sci-fi comedy film Bugonia, on Monday night in Los Angeles with one unique condition&mdash;the theater only admitted bald people.

The film&#39;s distributor, Focus Features, challenged audiences to shave their heads to see Bugonia, starring Oscar-winning actor Emma Stone.

Stone and Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos gained a powerful fanbase after teaming up for Oscar-nominated films Poor Things and The Favourite.

Bugonia will be released in select theaters on Friday and then across the US on October 31.

In Bugonia, Stone plays a powerful pharmaceutical CEO named Michelle Fuller, who is kidnapped by two conspiracy theorist-cousins who are convinced that she&#39;s an alien - so much so, they shave her head.

With a barber in the foyer, fans like Sam Sherman from Los Angeles stepped up to get their buzz cut to gain entry to the screening. &quot;I was already thinking of shaving my head,&quot; Sherman said.

&quot;I saw, like, a post about this and I was like, that&#39;s a perfect excuse because I want to see Bugonia anyway and I get to see it two weeks early or whatever it is, and then I get a free haircut and a free movie. It&#39;s hard to say no to that,&rdquo; he added.

Matthew Lopez, 29, from Los Angeles, thought the bald screening inspired by Stone&#39;s shaved head was a great idea. &quot;It&#39;s almost feeling immersive, like, ok, &#39;I did it, she did it.&#39; I can feel some connection to the story,&rdquo; he said.

For Richard Chong, 36, it was a chance to appease his friends and family. &quot;I like the director. I think he&#39;s really good, very weird and my friends hate my bowl cut, so this is for them, also my wife, she really hates it,&quot; Chong said.]]>
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			<title>Global film industry shrugs off renewed Trump movie tariff threat</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2573264/global-film-industry-shrugs-off-renewed-trump-movie-tariff-threat</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2573264/global-film-industry-shrugs-off-renewed-trump-movie-tariff-threat#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 25 08:53:26 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2573264</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Studios continue filming abroad despite US calls for trade restrictions on overseas productions]]>
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				<![CDATA[Star Wars: Starfighter&nbsp;is filming in Britain, soundstages in Hungary are packed and post-production houses in Australia are humming, as the global film industry keeps rolling despite US&nbsp;President&nbsp;Donald Trump&#39;s renewed threats to&nbsp;impose tariffs on movies made outside of the United States.

Trump has proposed levying a 100% tariff on films produced overseas to stem the loss of film jobs to production hubs around the world, reviving an idea he first broached in May.

The initial call for tariffs&nbsp;jolted the film world, and temporarily halted projects and international movie finance deals as producers evaluated the potential impact of the levy on each project&rsquo;s financial viability, two sources familiar with Hollywood motion-picture financing told Reuters.

This time around, the reaction has been more muted.

&quot;Other than the initial flurry of &#39;Oh, he&#39;s said it again,&#39; people are not taking it as seriously as they did the first time around,&quot; said Lee Stone, a partner at London law firm Lee &amp; Thompson, who worked on the Emmy-winning Netflix show Adolescence.

Trump&nbsp;initially called for a 100% tariff&nbsp;on movies produced outside the country in early May, to stave off the &quot;very fast death&quot; of the American film industry as incentives lured filmmakers to production hubs around the world. The announcement - just weeks before the Cannes Film Festival - caused a panic.

&quot;It was terrible timing. Everyone was saying, &#39;What&#39;s going to happen?&#39;&quot; said Stone, noting that Trump&#39;s threat resulted in temporary paralysis. &quot;I&#39;m not getting the impression that there&#39;s the same pause this time.&quot;

Newly released data from industry researcher ProdPro reveals that while overall spending is down 15% from last year, amid a pullback in scripted television series and big-budget feature films, there is no evidence that Hollywood is abandoning global production hubs.

&quot;We&rsquo;re not seeing anything in the data that suggests studios are opting to film more of their production in the US&nbsp;because of concern about the tariffs,&quot; said ProdPro CEO Alexander LoVerde.

The US&nbsp;remains the industry&#39;s largest production hub, accounting for $16.6 billion in spending over the last 12 months, according to ProdPro. However, Hollywood studios and streaming services spent even more - $24.3 billion - on film and television projects produced outside the US&nbsp;over that same period, ProdPro reported, as they took advantage of tax credits, lower labor costs and world-class soundstages.

The United Kingdom has become a major beneficiary of the Hollywood exodus, attracting $8.7 billion in film and scripted TV spending over the past year, including major film productions like Star Wars: Starfighter,&nbsp;the much-buzzed-about next entry in the Star Wars&nbsp;saga set for release in May 2027. Canada comes in a close second with $6.4 billion, according to ProdPro&#39;s most recent report on production trends.

Other regions - Australia, Ireland, Hungary and Spain - together accounted for nearly one-quarter of all production.

COVID-19 supercharged&nbsp;production&nbsp;exodus

The COVID-19 pandemic and the Hollywood strikes by US&nbsp;writers and actors supercharged the exodus that began years earlier.

&quot;Australia became a bit of a production bubble where particularly in Queensland, productions could continue even as the rest of the world shut down,&quot; said University of Melbourne film expert Kirsten Stevens.

Prague increased its tax breaks from 20% to 25% in January, while Britain offers relief of 25.5% on qualifying films and TV productions, with a higher rate for animated films and a new credit for smaller independent films.

In places like Central Europe, a deep filmmaking tradition and lower labor costs have attracted a long list of Hollywood films including the Russo brothers&#39; The Gray Man,&nbsp;Netflix&#39;s Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front&nbsp;in the Czech Republic, and Warner Bros Studios&#39; Dune: Part Three,&nbsp;which began shooting this summer in Hungary.

&quot;Hungarian soundstages are currently operating at full capacity with both international and domestic productions,&quot; Csaba Kael, government commissioner for the development of the Hungarian Motion Picture Industry, told Reuters.

Any change in US&nbsp;trade policy would take time to implement, Kael said.

Hollywood studios have found that distributing work across multiple locations can accelerate the production timetable, allowing films to be completed faster and cheaper.

&quot;It&#39;s not uncommon at high-end films that a bunch of work would come to Australia, but a bunch of work also might go to New Zealand and to London and to somewhere else,&quot; said Mike Seymour, Emmy-nominated visual effects specialist and lecturer at the University of Sydney.

&quot;Sometimes the film is being worked on literally 24 hours a day because of all the time zones,&quot; he said.

Studios&nbsp;push&nbsp;for&nbsp;US&nbsp;tax&nbsp;incentives&nbsp;instead

For the moment, it is business as usual for filmmakers, said Stephen Weizenecker, an entertainment lawyer with Barnes &amp; Thornburg in Atlanta. They are hoping to avoid any interruption that throws off the schedule of a production, which can result in actors, directors or even a filming location being unavailable.

&quot;The film industry dislikes uncertainty,&quot; Weizenecker said. &quot;Once it starts to hesitate, it means a project stops altogether.&quot;

A coalition of American film industry unions and guilds, joined by veteran actor Jon Voight, has asked Trump to consider implementing a federal tax incentive to put domestic film production on a more competitive footing with incentives offered in other countries.

&quot;What we really want is a national tax incentive that would be more effective than any tariffs,&quot; one studio executive said.

Meanwhile, a bill with bipartisan support, known as the CREATE Act, was introduced in the US&nbsp;Congress this past summer. It would extend a tax deduction for US&nbsp;productions, which is set to expire in December, and increase the cap on deductible costs.

The looming threat of tariffs raises concern about the potential impact on the economy and livelihoods in production hubs around the world, if Trump follows through.

&quot;It is hard for anyone here to understand the likelihood of this coming into effect, but if it did, it would have a huge impact,&quot; said a visual artist in the industry who declined to be named over fears of losing financing. &quot;It would be devastating.&quot;]]>
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			<title>Sydney Sweeney brings boxer Christy Martin's battles to the big screen</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2573058/sydney-sweeney-brings-boxer-christy-martins-battles-to-the-big-screen</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2573058/sydney-sweeney-brings-boxer-christy-martins-battles-to-the-big-screen#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 25 06:42:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2573058</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor steps into the ring for powerful biopic]]>
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				<![CDATA[American actor&nbsp;Sydney Sweeney transformed into former professional boxer Christy Martin for the biopic Christy, which chronicles her life in and outside the ring.

Directed and co-written by David Michod, the film tracks two decades of Martin&#39;s life. During that time, she stumbled into the sport and, by virtue of her raw talent, turned into one of the most successful female boxers of the 1990s.

The film also portrays her relationship with her coach-turned-husband Jim Martin, played by Ben Foster, who takes control of her career and her life, with harrowing consequences.

Martin went on to found Christy&#39;s Champs, a non-profit supporting family abuse victims, and telling her story came with responsibility, Sweeney said at the film&#39;s premiere at the London Film Festival on Friday.

&quot;Honestly, it&#39;s a really heavy weight to carry,&quot; she said. &quot;I feel the importance of her story and what it means to other people. And she&#39;s such a huge advocate, and she inspires me to also be an advocate as well.&quot;

Known for her aggressive fighting style and powerful punches, Martin, now 57, was the first woman to sign with boxing promoter Don King and competed from 1989 to 2012. She was closely involved in the production and visited the set often during the film shoot.

Euphoria&nbsp;and Anyone But You&nbsp;star Sweeney spent some three months preparing for the role, working with a boxing coach, a weight trainer and a nutritionist.

&quot;I put on 35 pounds (around 16 kg) and it was definitely a very intense physical transformation. But I felt so strong,&quot; she said, adding that the fighting scenes in the film were very realistic. &quot;I got a concussion. I might have broken someone else&#39;s nose.&quot;

The film&nbsp;celebrates Martin&#39;s boxing achievements and also touches on themes of domestic violence and sexual identity. &quot;We set out to make a film that&#39;s about many things, not just boxing,&quot; said co-writer Mirrah Foulkes.

&quot;I realised there was a larger story to tell about how these kind of coercive-control relationships work, the one that she has in this film with her husband-slash-trainer,&quot; added Michod. &quot;I wanted to understand how they function, because they function all too commonly all over the world and often with horrific consequences.&quot;

Christy&nbsp;begins its global cinematic rollout on November 7.]]>
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			<title>Brendan Fraser builds bonds in Japan-set film 'Rental Family'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2572910/brendan-fraser-builds-bonds-in-japan-set-film-rental-family</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2572910/brendan-fraser-builds-bonds-in-japan-set-film-rental-family#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 25 08:45:27 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2572910</guid>
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				<![CDATA[The actor steps into Tokyo, learning the language and rediscovering purpose through Hikari’s new film]]>
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				<![CDATA[Actor Brendan Fraser immersed himself in Japanese culture and language for his role in the comedy drama Rental Family.

Directed and co-written by filmmaker Hikari, the movie sees Fraser play Phillip, an American actor who travelled to Tokyo to star in a toothpaste commercial and ended up staying.

Seven years on, work opportunities are scarce and Phillip&#39;s life lacks purpose. But things take a turn when he gets booked by a professional stand-in service using actors to portray family members, friends and companions. Initially hesitant, Phillip soon finds himself connecting with his clients and getting deeply involved in their lives.

Attending the movie&#39;s London Film Festival premiere on Thursday, Fraser said he was carefully considering his options after finishing the awards season run that culminated in his best actor Oscar win for The Whale&nbsp;in 2023. Nothing piqued his interest until he came across what he described as an obscure, unusual title.

&quot;This film was going to be shot in Japan. This is a Japanese movie made with Japanese actors, Japanese crew, Japanese artisans, a first for me. I&#39;ve always tried to find something that&#39;s diverse or different or interesting from whatever I&#39;ve done before. It just ticked all the boxes,&quot; he said.

Fraser, 56, found a tutor to help him with the language and travelled to Tokyo weeks before the shoot to acclimatise.

&quot;We all have to communicate somehow, right? What it all really comes down to is we all want the same things,&quot; he said.

&quot;And on top of that, Japanese people are unfailingly polite. If ever I was lost on the street, someone would take you by the hand and walk you to your destination. That sort of noblesse and gentility is everything that I crave and found while I was there,&quot; he said.

Hikari said she wanted to flip her own experiences of living in the United States as a foreigner and tell the story of an American adapting to life in Japan, encountering isolation but also creating meaningful connections.

&quot;The world is a bit in a funky place that feels like technology&#39;s advanced and it&#39;s incredible, but at the same time, there&#39;s isolation between people. I feel like making a movie about people&#39;s connection was much needed,&quot; she said.

Rental Family&nbsp;is released in the US&nbsp;on November 21 and begins its global cinematic rollout in early January 2026.]]>
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			<title>Channing Tatum finds grace in true crime tale 'Roofman'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2572700/channing-tatum-finds-grace-in-true-crime-tale-roofman</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2572700/channing-tatum-finds-grace-in-true-crime-tale-roofman#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 25 06:27:20 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2572700</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Directed by Derek Cianfrance, the film follows a veteran-turned-thief who finds redemption through love]]>
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				<![CDATA[Hollywood star Channing Tatum transforms into a gentle and goofy real-life criminal in the comedy drama Roofman. Directed and co-written by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Derek Cianfrance, the film&nbsp;tells the story of US&nbsp;Army veteran and father of three Jeffrey Manchester, who was nicknamed Roofman&nbsp;for robbing over 40 McDonald&#39;s restaurants by breaking in through the roof.

Described by his friend as the &quot;smartest dumb guy I know&quot;, the film sees Manchester being sentenced to 45 years in prison for his crimes and using his wits and observational skills to escape. Instead of going on the run, Manchester manages to hide in a toy store for months and falls for one of its employees, Leigh, played by Kirsten Dunst.

The film&nbsp;tracks his efforts to evade capture and shows him winning over Leigh&#39;s daughters and charming the congregation of the church she frequents with his caring demeanour before eventually getting caught.

&quot;I grew up in Florida and I&#39;ve known people like Jeff. I was probably like two decisions away from being Jeff myself in certain aspects of my life,&quot; Tatum said as he premiered the film&nbsp;at the London Film Festival on Tuesday. &quot;Jeff&#39;s story is about someone that just can&#39;t get out of his own way and I think a lot of us are like that. I think this film&nbsp;is about empathy and grace,&quot; Tatum said.

Blue Valentine&nbsp;and The Light Between Oceans&nbsp;director Cianfrance said he was intrigued the contradictions in Manchester&#39;s behaviour.&nbsp;&quot;The crazy stuff that happens in the film, I didn&#39;t have to make much up. I just had to tie a few things together for thematics,&quot; he said. &quot;I just followed the crazy truth that I learned about. I felt like a kind of an emotional investigator.&quot;

Manchester has not been able to see the film&nbsp;but has felt the ripples of its release behind the bars, Cianfrance said.

&quot;Some really positive things have happened. There&#39;s people in Jeff&#39;s life who he hasn&#39;t talked to in a long time who have started to see the film, and he&#39;s been starting to get in contact with them. They&#39;re answering his calls now. He called me about a week ago and said, &#39;Derek, if I could give you a hug, I would&#39;,&quot; Cianfrance said. &quot;That was, yeah, that was a moment.&quot;

Roofman&nbsp;is out in US&nbsp;theatres now and released globally in October.]]>
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			<title>Oscar-buzzy 'Hamnet' changed me: Actor Jessie Buckley</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2572130/oscar-buzzy-hamnet-changed-me-actor-jessie-buckley</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2572130/oscar-buzzy-hamnet-changed-me-actor-jessie-buckley#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 13 Oct 25 06:03:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2572130</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Film focusing on Shakespeare's early deceased son was an emotional project for cast]]>
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				<![CDATA[Actors Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal went on a transformative journey in Hamnet,&nbsp;a film that&nbsp;has received rave reviews and early award season buzz.

Directed by Academy Award-winning Nomadland&nbsp;filmmaker Chloe Zhao, the drama offers a fictional account of the relationship of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes and the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet in 1596.

Set in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, it sees the young Shakespeare teaching Latin to pay off his father&#39;s debts and falling in love with the free-spirited Agnes, described by locals as the daughter of a forest witch. With a focus on their family life, the emotion-filled film follows the highs and lows of their love story as well as the grief over the loss of their son, which leads Shakespeare to write Hamlet.

&quot;What was revealed to me through her (Agnes) was a tenderness that I didn&#39;t know I needed to learn and live in. And that tenderness has changed me,&quot; Buckley said on Saturday at the movie&#39;s London Film Festival premiere. &quot;It really reminded me of how potent and powerful storytelling can be. And it&#39;s kind of set a bar, like, I only want to make films that are as brave and as human as this from now on,&quot; the Irish actor&nbsp;said.

Normal People, Aftersun&nbsp;and Gladiator II&nbsp;star Mescal said the movie gave him an opportunity to portray a maturing man. Its depiction of love that transforms through time was &quot;very moving&quot;, he said. &quot;It&#39;s the first time that I&#39;ve spanned the real length of time with him, early twenties all the way through to even a little bit in later life. It was lovely,&quot; the Irish actor said.

The film is adapted from Maggie O&#39;Farrell&#39;s bestselling 2020 novel of the same name, with the author and Zhao co-writing the screenplay. It acknowledges that the names Hamlet and Hamnet were interchangeable in Shakespeare&#39;s day.

The project was an emotional one for Zhao, who was overwhelmed as she arrived at the premiere.&quot;If you see your DP (director of photography), your production designer, your costume designer and just start balling on the red carpet for like 20 minutes, I can&#39;t keep it together, I think it speaks for itself,&quot; she said.

Hamnet, which is produced by Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes, will be released in cinemas globally in late 2025 and early 2026.]]>
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			<title>George Clooney plays filmstar in 'Jay Kelly' in upcoming film</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2571818/george-clooney-plays-filmstar-in-jay-kelly-in-upcoming-film</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2571818/george-clooney-plays-filmstar-in-jay-kelly-in-upcoming-film#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 25 05:36:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2571818</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor pulls from personal experience of balancing work and family life]]>
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				<![CDATA[Two-time Oscar winner George Clooney drew from his own life to play a Hollywood legend in his new film Jay Kelly.&nbsp;The comedy-drama stars Clooney as ageing global superstar Jay Kelly and combines humour with contemplation on the cost of celebrity and fame.

&quot;There are elements certainly about the experience that I&#39;ve had, but not so many regrets, which I think is &#39;thank God&#39;,&quot; Clooney, 64, said while attending the film&#39;s London Film Festival premiere on Friday.

&quot;It&#39;s personal, but I&#39;m not as unhappy as that guy. I have a family that I love and kids who I think still love me. They&#39;re eight, there&#39;s time to screw it up. And I have friends that I don&#39;t pay.&quot;

Directed by Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote the screenplay with actor&nbsp;Emily Mortimer, Jay Kelly&nbsp;sees the titular character reflect on his past and present as he travels to Europe with his large entourage.

The group, including his publicist Liz, played by Laura Dern, and hair and makeup artist Candy (Mortimer), slowly disintegrates along the journey. But Kelly&#39;s loyal manager Ron, portrayed by Adam Sandler, stays by his side and takes stock of his own life.

&quot;You see somebody who, when they make a film, it takes a lot of time away from your family. I&#39;ve always tried to bring family around as much as possible,&quot; said Sandler. &quot;And like anyone who works for a living, you&#39;re away from some stuff you wish you weren&#39;t missing. It&#39;s dealing with that pain and finding out the best balance.&quot;

Baumbach, whose previous films include Marriage Story&nbsp;and White Noise&nbsp;and who co-wrote the hit film&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;with his wife Greta Gerwig, said he set out to make a film&nbsp;about an actor in crisis.

&quot;I think it was a way to tell a story about all of us in some way,&quot; said Baumbach. &quot;An actor was a kind of stand-in for all of us who are trying to figure out the gap between how we present ourselves to the world and who we may actually be, and as we get older, also how we contend with that.&quot;

Jay Kelly, which features a starry supporting cast including Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Louis Partridge, Isla Fisher, Jim Broadbent and Gerwig, receives a limited theatrical release in November and starts streaming on Netflix on December 5.]]>
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			<title>London Film Festival kick-starts with Daniel Craig starrer</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2571454/london-film-festival-kick-starts-with-daniel-craig-starrer</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2571454/london-film-festival-kick-starts-with-daniel-craig-starrer#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 25 06:45:13 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2571454</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA['Wake Up Dead Man' is third addition to director Rian Johnson's 'Knives Out Mystery' series]]>
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				<![CDATA[Daniel Craig&#39;s third outing as the charismatic detective Benoit Blanc in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery&nbsp;opened the London Film Festival on Wednesday, kicking off 12 days of red carpets, screenings and talks with the likes of Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis and Chloe Zhao.

Craig led co-stars including Glenn Close, Josh Brolin and Mila Kunis on the red carpet for the latest Knives Out&nbsp;whodunit, which has a more gothic and darker tone than 2019&#39;s Knives Out&nbsp;and Glass Onion&nbsp;released in 2022.

&quot;They&#39;re all different from each other, which is what I think we set out to do, we wanted them all to be standalone so that each one had a different flavour,&quot; Craig told Reuters of the three films. Asked what it was like to take on the role once again, he added: &ldquo;I wouldn&#39;t do it unless I had fun doing it.&quot;

In the murder mystery, which also stars Josh O&#39;Connor, Jeremy Renner, Daryl McCormack and Cailee Spaeny, Brolin&#39;s small-town priest Monsignor Wicks is killed, with suspicion turning to one of his parishioners.

Writer-director Rian Johnson, also behind the earlier Knives Out&nbsp;movies, said he and Craig started talking about ideas for Wake Up Dead Man&nbsp;right after screening Glass Onion&nbsp;at the London Film Festival. &ldquo;The idea of doing something a little more grounded seemed like it could be a good challenge,&nbsp;hopefully it&#39;s still funny, hopefully it&#39;s still entertaining and a really fun ride for audiences,&quot; he said.

Some 247 titles will feature during the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival, with famous names including George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Paul Mescal expected in town to promote their respective movies Jay Kelly,&nbsp;After the Hunt&nbsp;and Hamnet.

Also on the line-up are Guillermo del Toro&#39;s Frankenstein,&nbsp;Emma Stone&#39;s latest collaboration with Yorgos Lanthimos, Bugonia, as well as Anemone&nbsp;for which Day-Lewis came out of retirement for his son&#39;s feature-film directorial debut.

Lanthimos and Day-Lewis will also take part in talks about their work alongside Zhao, who will discuss her Hamnet&nbsp;adaptation.

Forty-two percent of the works on the schedule were made by female or nonbinary filmmakers, organisers say. &quot;We really want the programme to reflect the city that we&#39;re in so we&#39;re really looking for an enormous geographic diversity and we&#39;re also just looking for the programme to represent the world around us,&quot; London Film Festival Director Kristy Matheson said.

The London Film Festival runs until October 19.]]>
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			<title>'Commodus Passage' featured in film 'Gladiator' opens in Italy</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2571446/commodus-passage-featured-in-film-gadiator-opens-in-italy</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2571446/commodus-passage-featured-in-film-gadiator-opens-in-italy#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 25 06:13:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2571446</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Emperor's secret corridor allowed people to separately watch arena fights]]>
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				<![CDATA[A once-secret passageway in the Colosseum, named after the fearsome ancient Roman emperor who features in the Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator, has opened to the public for the first time.

The so-called Commodus Passage allowed emperors to enter the arena and watch gladiator fights and other spectacles without mixing with crowds.

It was cut through the Colosseum&#39;s foundations between the end of the 1st century AD and the beginning of the 2nd century AD, in an addition to the original design. The Colosseum was inaugurated in 80 AD.

&quot;This passage is now open to the public, it&#39;s the first time. And so (visitors will) appreciate what it was like to be an emperor,&quot; archaeologist Barbara Nazzaro told Reuters.

The corridor was discovered in the 19th century, and linked to Commodus because historical chronicles say he survived an assassination attempt in an underground passage. &quot;It was very easy to make the connection&quot;, Nazzaro, who oversaw the corridor&#39;s restoration prior to its opening, added.

It once had marble walls, later replaced with plaster decorated with landscapes, the Colosseum Archaeological Park said in a statement. It also had stuccowork showing mythological scenes on the vault, and representations of arena spectacles, including bear fights and acrobats, in niches at its entrance.

Some traces of the decorations remain, but very damp conditions in the underground passageway have made conservation a struggle. Nevertheless, visitors will be able to have an idea of what it looked like in antiquity thanks to a virtual reconstruction shown in a video, Nazzaro said.]]>
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			<title>AI-generated 'actor' Tilly Norwood condemned by Hollywood performers union</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2569971/ai-generated-actor-tilly-norwood-condemned-by-hollywood-performers-union</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2569971/ai-generated-actor-tilly-norwood-condemned-by-hollywood-performers-union#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 25 07:05:13 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2569971</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Studio producer Eline Van der Velden claims the character is a work of art, not replacement for human beings]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The recent debut of an AI-generated &quot;actor&quot; dubbed Tilly Norwood, and its producer&#39;s boasts of interest from studio executives, sparked a backlash on Tuesday from the SAG-AFTRA actors union, condemning the replacement of human performers with &quot;synthetics.&quot;

The Hollywood buzz around Tilly Norwood, introduced on Saturday at a film industry conference in Zurich, and the union&#39;s scathing reaction to it reflected the dread many in the creative community feel about the intersection of artificial intelligence and show business.

The official Tilly Norwood launch consisted of a 20-second appearance of the photo-real character - a twenty-something fictional ing&eacute;nue bearing no particular resemblance to any real celebrity - in a brief video parody about making an AI-generated television show.

Dutch actor-producer Eline Van der Velden, whose London-based AI production studio Particle6 created Tilly Norwood, said during her presentation at the Zurich Summit the project was starting to turn heads.

After months of facing boardroom skepticism, talent agents were starting to tell her: &quot;&#39;We need to do something with you guys,&#39;&quot; Hollywood trade paper Variety quoted Van der Velden as saying. She said an announcement of a first-of-its-kind talent agency deal was a few months away, Variety reported.

Concerns about Hollywood actors and writers being exploited, and even supplanted, by AI-generated scripts and performers was a major issue SAG-AFTRA&#39;s most recent round of contract talks with studios and streaming services.

Computer-generated imagery is nothing new to the film and television industry, and AI-enhanced software has more recently emerged in various effects such as &quot;de-aging&quot; technology allowing actors to portray younger versions of themselves.

The ability to convincingly replicate a feature-length human film performance with AI stand-ins is still seen as far off.

&#39;Very real emotions&#39;

Nevertheless, the prospect of talent agents suddenly showing interest in AI-created figures stirred a swift denunciation from SAG-AFTRA, representing 160,000 actors, announcers, recording artists, stunt performers and other talent.

&quot;Creativity is, and should remain, human-centered,&quot; the union said in a statement. &quot;The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.&quot;

The parody video, which first appeared in July, actually comprises 16 AI-generated characters in all. But Tilly Norwood - a winsome figure with shoulder-length brown hair, brown eyes, a British accent and her own social media profile - was the star.

A separate Facebook post attributed to the character exclaims: &quot;I may be AI generated, but I&#39;m feeling very real emotions right now. I am so excited for what&#39;s coming next!&quot;

SAG-AFTRA officials were not amused. &quot;To be clear, &#39;Tilly Norwood&#39; is not an actor,&quot; the union said in its statement. &quot;It&#39;s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers - without permission or compensation.&quot;

Van der Velden sought to assuage such concerns in an Instagram message, saying Tilly Norwood &quot;is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work - a piece of art. Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.&quot;

Van der Velden was more provocative in an interview in July with the publication Broadcast International, which quoted her as saying: &quot;We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that&#39;s the aim of what we&#39;re doing.&quot;

Not everyone is convinced Tilly Norwood packs such potential. Yves Bergquist, director of AI in media at the University of Southern California&#39;s Entertainment Technology Center, called the hoopla &quot;nonsense.&quot;

&quot;There is a lot of very understandable nervousness and fear out there about talent being replaced,&quot; he said. But judging from his own daily interactions with Hollywood executives, Bergquist said there was zero interest from &quot;serious people&quot; in developing entirely synthetic characters. &quot;Scarlett Johansson has a fan base. Scarlett Johansson is a person,&quot; he said.]]>
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			<title>Meryl Streep shoots 'Devil Wears Prada' scene at Milan Fashion Week</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2569564/meryl-streep-shoots-scenes-for-devil-wears-prada-sequel-at-milan-fashion-week</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2569564/meryl-streep-shoots-scenes-for-devil-wears-prada-sequel-at-milan-fashion-week#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 25 06:04:31 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Fashion]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor accompanied Stanley Tucci to see Dolce &amp; Gabbana collection]]>
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				<![CDATA[Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci were on the front row of Dolce &amp; Gabbana&#39;s Milan Fashion Week show on Saturday, in character as magazine editor Miranda Priestly and her art director as scenes were shot for The Devil Wears Prada 2.

Part of the filming for the sequel to the fashion movie will take place in Milan.

Vogue doyenne Anna Wintour, widely considered an inspiration for the Miranda Priestly character, was also at the show to see the models parade in pyjama-style trousers and shirts, paired with black lace lingerie or oversized jackets.

Accessories included faux fur bags and slippers and black stiletto heel shoes worn with mid-calf socks.

The new collection by designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, titled PJ Obsession &quot;celebrates the freedom to redefine the boundaries between private and public, between power and seduction&quot;, according to the press notes.

Milan Fashion Week, the third leg of the month-long fashion shows showcasing Spring Summer collections, will wrap up on Monday before the fashionistas head to Paris.]]>
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			<title>Diljit Dosanjh defends the release of 'Sardaar Ji 3'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2569258/diljit-dosanjh-defends-the-release-of-sardaar-ji-3</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2569258/diljit-dosanjh-defends-the-release-of-sardaar-ji-3#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 27 Sep 25 07:25:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Music]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Singer points out how Hania Aamir starrer was banned while Indo-Pak cricket is still being played]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Diljit wants to make sure his voice does not go unnoticed. In a recent video circulating on X, the singer spoke out against the hypocrisy to have Indo-Pak cricket matches after banning his film Sardaar Ji 3 from release in India because it had a Pakistani actor in the cast.&nbsp;

Providing justifications for his decision to cast Hania Aamir in the film, Diljit said, &ldquo;My movie was shot in February when the matches were being played,&rdquo; he said at a concert in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. &ldquo;After that, the Pahalgam terror attack happened. At that time, and even now, we have always prayed that the terrorists should receive strict punishment. The difference now is that a match is being played after the attack.&rdquo;&nbsp;

The singer further reminded the audience that the Sikh community is loyal. &ldquo;The national media tried their best to portray me as anti-national, &ldquo; he said, &ldquo;But Punjabis and the Sikh community could never go against the nation.&rdquo;

The decision to skip Indian cinemas followed rising political tensions between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack back in April. Due to the attack, Sardaar Ji 3&rsquo;s release was halted in India. It then had a worldwide release and did not release in India, causing the production house to suffer huge investment losses.&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>AI hologram of Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee debuts at L.A. Comic Con</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2569249/ai-hologram-of-marvel-comics-creator-stan-lee-debuts-at-la-comic-con</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2569249/ai-hologram-of-marvel-comics-creator-stan-lee-debuts-at-la-comic-con#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 27 Sep 25 05:56:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[TV]]></category><category><![CDATA[Art and Books]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Avatar is programmed to interact with fans the way Stan would have, critics call it dystopian]]>
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				<![CDATA[Wearing a green sweater and tan pants against a bright blue screen,&nbsp;Marvel&nbsp;comic&nbsp;book superhero&nbsp;creator&nbsp;Stan&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;will return to&nbsp;L.A.&nbsp;Comic&nbsp;Con&nbsp;in holographic form&nbsp;to meet fans of his characters including&nbsp;Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron&nbsp;Man&nbsp;and Thor.

Fans can interact with a&nbsp;hologram&nbsp;of&nbsp;Lee, who died in 2018 at the age of 95, in an enclosed booth at the Los Angeles&nbsp;Convention Center.

&ldquo;It was obviously sad for&nbsp;many of us when&nbsp;Stan&nbsp;passed,&rdquo; said Chris DeMoulin, chief executive of Comikaze Entertainment, which operates Los Angeles&nbsp;Comic&nbsp;Con. &ldquo;For the last couple of years, we&rsquo;ve been talking about things we might be able to do to help extend&nbsp;Stan&rsquo;s legacy.&quot;

About six months ago, DeMoulin said he came up with the idea of creating an avatar of&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;to serve as an &ldquo;entry point for fans, old and new, into the Marvel universe.&rdquo;

The project was a collaboration of Proto&nbsp;Hologram, a company whose holographic technology has been used in malls to promote films such as The&nbsp;Conjuring and A Minecraft Movie,&nbsp;and Hyperreal, an artificial intelligence firm that creates realistic-looking digital humans.

The&nbsp;hologram&nbsp;was trained on&nbsp;Stan&nbsp;Lee&#39;s myriad appearances on red carpets and at fan&nbsp;conventions.&nbsp;Fans who never met&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;in person might recognize him from his cameo appearances in every live-action Marvel movie made during his lifetime.

&quot;This avatar will never say something that&nbsp;Stan&nbsp;didn&rsquo;t say,&quot; said DeMoulin. &quot;It will never have a point of view about Marvel or the stories or&nbsp;Stan&rsquo;s role in them that hasn&rsquo;t come directly from something&nbsp;Stan&nbsp;has said.&quot;

Mammoth Vision&#39;s George Johnson&nbsp;said that they used technological guardrails to prevent&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;from saying something out of character. &ldquo;We take&nbsp;Stan&nbsp;Lee&rsquo;s words and import them into the model and then we put rails on the side of it,&quot; said Johnson, &quot;So he doesn&#39;t go off and talk about things that&nbsp;Stan&nbsp;wouldn&rsquo;t have said.&quot;

In a demonstration Friday, holographic&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;talked about his love of fan&nbsp;conventions. &ldquo;My favorite thing about being at a&nbsp;comic&nbsp;convention is getting to meet all the amazing fans and hearing their stories about how Marvel has impacted their lives,&rdquo;&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;said in the late actor&#39;s voice.

Not everyone welcomed&nbsp;Lee&#39;s posthumous appearance at the&nbsp;convention. Some commenters on Reddit criticized the&nbsp;Stan&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;Experience. &quot;Even in death, they won&#39;t let the guy rest,&quot; wrote one commenter, posting under the name RGCBlade. &quot;It&#39;s all pretty dystopian.&quot;]]>
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			<title>Fawad and Mahira's sizzling chemistry is back on screen</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2568857/fawad-and-mahiras-sizzling-chemistry-is-back-on-screen</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2568857/fawad-and-mahiras-sizzling-chemistry-is-back-on-screen#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 25 08:09:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2568857</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The duo is back to awe audiences as they drop teaser for latest romantic film 'Neelofar']]>
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				<![CDATA[Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan have dropped the first teaser for their romantic film, Neelofar. Taking to Instagram, the actors posted a black and red movie poster featuring themselves with the caption, &ldquo;Will be waiting for the next meeting.&rdquo;

Co-produced by Fawad himself, the film is written and directed by Ammar Rasool and produced by Qasim Mehmood. The film also stars Madiha Imam as one of the main characters along with Samiya Mumtaz, Atiqa Odho, Behroze Sabzwari, and Gohar Rasheed.





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A post shared by Mahira Khan (@mahirahkhan)




The shooting for Neelofar had begun before the Covid-19 outbreak but the pandemic postponed it. However, the team defeated hurdles and wrapped its shoot on 9 December 2020, according to an Instagram post by Mahira.

Celebrating its wrap, Mahira captioned the post in 2020, &quot;I take with me a piece of you, leaving a bit of my soul with you. My darling Neelofar, I shall miss you, oh so much. Here is a shout out to all those who worked on this film. Each and every one of them put their heart and soul in it. Can&rsquo;t wait for all of you to see our hard work and love on your screens soon, Ameen.&quot;

Mahira had talked about sharing screen space with Fawad in Samina Peerzada&#39;s web show in 2020. &quot;I had so much fun working on this project with him,&quot; she said. &quot;It had been so long. Neelofar is just about these two people, it is very different from our characters in Maula Jatt. In Neelofar, it&#39;s just the two of us, all our scenes are with each other. It was just so great to be back with Fawad as older, more mature actors and people.&quot;

Mahira and Fawad&rsquo;s on- and off-screen chemistry has been one of Pakistani entertainment&rsquo;s most durable pairings. As fans gear for their project, here is a list of some of our favourite appearances of the two:

1. Humsafar (2011)

The drama that turned Mahira and Fawad into a continental talking point. Sarmad Khoosat&rsquo;s Humsafar (based on Farhat Ishtiaq&rsquo;s novel) paired Mahira&rsquo;s Khirad with Fawad&rsquo;s Ashar and became a cultural phenomenon. High TRPs, streaming re-runs, and an export that helped define Pakistan&rsquo;s 2010s TV golden age. It also created global hype for the two actors and they went on to make their Bollywood careers after it. 

2. Lux Style Awards commercials (since 2015)

The duo reunited for award-show promos and Lux commercials that gathered fans through nostalgia. The advertisements and behind-the-scenes footage were widely shared and whetted fans for live-show reunions and red-carpet moments.





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3. Aquafina TV commercial (2012)

One of their early post-Humsafar pairings on screen came in a heartwarming TV commercial for Aquafina mineral water. A glossy and emotional story that reminded viewers why the pairing had such strong recall.



https://www.instagram.com/reel/BUfkP_iD2RP/



4. Brides Today photoshoot (2018)

Mahira and Fawad fronted a bridal fashion editorial for Brides Today (showcasing Sadaf Fawad Khan&rsquo;s SFK bridals). The photoshoot, shot in Dubai, was a big media moment: editorial, glamorous, and a reminder that the duo&rsquo;s chemistry works equally well on glossy covers as it does on screen.

5. The Legend of Maula Jatt (2022)

A major reunion: Bilal Lashari&rsquo;s The Legend of Maula Jatt cast Fawad and Mahira in a high-budget, stylised reboot that became Pakistan&rsquo;s highest-grossing film on release, and a headline maker for both stars. The pairing here moved from television romcom energy into large-scale cinematic drama.

The pair will also be seen together in Netflix&rsquo;s Jo Bachay Hain Sang Samait Lo. Not only will it be Pakistan&rsquo;s first-ever Netflix original adaptation, but will also bring the two together on a global platform. The cast features Hania Aamir and Hamza Ali Abbasi as well.

Now, all eyes are on Fawad and Mahira as they reunite in a deeply emotional love story. According to IMDB, it is &ldquo;a love story between a writer and a blind woman.&rdquo; Mahira plays the role of a blind girl which according to her, was her most-challenging role yet.]]>
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			<title>Chinese film on WW2 germ warfare unit by Japan creates tension between the two countries</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2567932/chinese-film-on-ww2-germ-warfare-unit-by-japan-creates-tension-between-the-two-countries</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2567932/chinese-film-on-ww2-germ-warfare-unit-by-japan-creates-tension-between-the-two-countries#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 20 Sep 25 07:29:00 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[It depicts 'evil' military research base Unit 731 in China that experimented on humans]]>
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				<![CDATA[Evil Unbound, which depicts Japanese germ warfare during World War Two, set a first-day box office record among the war films released in China this year, as Beijing seeks to highlight Tokyo&#39;s war-time actions and what it calls a lack of accountability.

The film dramatises the Japanese military research base Unit 731 in northeastern China that was notorious for live human experiments. Evil Unbound&nbsp;took in more than 345 million yuan ($48.5 million) on Thursday, according to ticketing platform Maoyan.

The depiction risks inflaming tensions between China and Japan, which occupied parts of China before and during World War Two.

According to Chinese state media, Unit 731 conducted tests from the mid-1930s to 1945 on an estimated 3,000 Chinese, Korean, Russian and Mongolian prisoners to develop germ weapons, including anthrax and bubonic plague bombs. None survived the experiments.

Japan&#39;s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the film and on Unit 731&#39;s activities.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, asked in parliament earlier this year about Unit 731&#39;s actions, said the means to verify the facts had been &quot;lost with history&quot;, Japanese media reported.

&quot;The film focuses on the wartime atrocities of Japan&#39;s Unit 731, exposing long-concealed truths in certain countries and serving as part of China&#39;s efforts to promote historical justice and strengthen its voice on the global stage,&quot; the state-run Global Times wrote, citing an associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, Zhang Peng.

The movie follows the tribulations of fictional Chinese prisoner Wang Yongzhan, depicted as an anti-Japanese hero leading prisoners to escape. Several graphic scenes of torture are shown as Wang uncovers the various laboratories and a crematorium.

The movie is set to be released in numerous countries including Australia, the United States, Singapore, and South Korea. It will not be screened in Japan.

The Japanese embassy in China last week issued a security advisory cautioning Japanese nationals to be &quot;vigilant against anti-Japanese sentiment&quot; due to related films, drama and events held in conjunction with the World War Two anniversary.

China has released at least four World War Two films this year retelling events including the 1937 Nanjing massacre and the 1942 sinking of Japanese cargo liner Lisbon Maru as it marked 80 years since the end of the war, as well as hosting a lavish military parade.&nbsp;

($1 = 7.1113 Chinese yuan renminbi)]]>
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			<title>Paris DVD rental store struggles to compete with streaming giants</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2567930/paris-dvd-rental-store-struggles-to-compete-with-streaming-giants</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2567930/paris-dvd-rental-store-struggles-to-compete-with-streaming-giants#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 20 Sep 25 07:03:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2567930</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[JM Video has launched crowdfunding call in order to survive]]>
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				<![CDATA[JM Video, one of only two remaining DVD rental stores in Paris, is a focal point for film lovers and visited by actors like Brad Pitt when they are in the city, but the ever-growing competition of streaming platforms means this Paris institution is fighting for survival.

Choice is not the problem: JM Video has a library of more than 50,000 films, more than some 5,000 on offer at any time on Netflix (NFLO.X),&nbsp;opens new tabs&nbsp;and more than the catalogues of all the major streaming actors combined.

&quot;It&#39;s one of the few places in Paris with a real film collection, you can find things here that you cannot find anywhere else,&quot; said movie buff Virginie Breton, who rents DVDs several times a week. But not enough to keep JM Video afloat.

Sky-high Paris property rents and a dwindling customer base, combined with the arrival of ever-more streaming services like Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+ and Apple TV+ are squeezing the life out of the cave-like shop, where DVDs spill out from floor-to-ceiling racks.

Founded in 1982, JM Video was one of around 5,000 video rental shops in France at the end of last century, well before Netflix switched from being a DVD rental outfit to a streaming pioneer around 2010.

Now, France has only about 10 DVD rental shops, two of which are in Paris. Store manager Theo Bancilhon said JM Video is struggling to pay rent and the salaries for its three employees, and has lost close to 20,000 euros ($24,000) in the past two years.

This month, the store launched a crowdfunding call, raising around 26,000 euros from over 1,000 donors in less than two weeks. But it needs 35,000 euros to secure its immediate future and 65,000 to be safe in the long run, Bancilhon said.

He firmly believes in the DVD rental concept, noting young people in particular are interested in high-quality formats. &quot;We are a beacon in the night that goes against the new ways of consuming a certain culture. It&#39;s good for people to know there is another way of approaching cinema, not driven by algorithms,&quot; Bancilhon said.

($1 = 0.8445 euros)

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			<title>Brett Goldstein and Imogen Poots' natural chemistry in 'All of You'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2567739/brett-goldstein-and-imogen-poots-natural-chemistry-in-all-of-you</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2567739/brett-goldstein-and-imogen-poots-natural-chemistry-in-all-of-you#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 25 05:29:02 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2567739</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The actors got along on camera and off camera]]>
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			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The chemistry between actors Brett Goldstein and Imogen Poots in the romance film All of You,&nbsp;felt very natural for Goldstein.

&quot;I thought she&#39;d (Poots) be very serious because she&#39;s done so many serious films&rdquo; the Ted Lasso&nbsp;actor told Reuters. &ldquo;But she was so funny and within five minutes we were, like, crying with laughter and I genuinely felt like I&#39;d known her before,&quot; he said.

The movie distributed by Apple TV+ arrives in American theaters next Friday and follows two best friends from college; Laura, played by Poots, and Simon, portrayed by Goldstein, who have an undeniable chemistry.

However, Laura takes a test that determines her soulmate is Lukas, played by Steven Cree, which creates tension in her relationship with Simon in the years that follow.

While her fictional character decided to take the soulmate test, Poots said she would avoid anything like it in real life. &quot;I would hope I would not, because I believe in finding it (love) naturally,&rdquo; the actor in The Awkward Moment&nbsp;said.

&ldquo;And I think that we&#39;re living in an age where everything is so controlled and everything sort of needs to be solved and fixed. I think that love is an ageless philosophical theme, and you should be open to it,&rdquo; she said.

The film has several jumps in time in which the two lead characters either grow apart or reunite to rekindle their steamy romance.

Despite the time spent on set, Poots and Goldstein also spent time together after the project ended. &ldquo;We then hung out even more, didn&#39;t we? Then we went to full hangout mode,&rdquo; Poots said.]]>
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			<title>Mahira takes a stand for off camera crew</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2566593/mahira-takes-a-stand-for-offcamera-crew</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2566593/mahira-takes-a-stand-for-offcamera-crew#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 13 Sep 25 08:55:32 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[TV]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2566593</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor took to social media and joined industry call out of late payment by production houses]]>
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			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Shedding light on the struggles of technicians in the film industry, Mahira has chosen to stand up for the little guy. Joining the chorus of the entertainment fraternity speaking out on late payments, Mahira took to her Instagram story on Thursday and reminded us of the scale of the problem.

&ldquo;Imagine, if senior actors and hit maker directors go through this,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Just imagine what technicians go through.&rdquo;

Mahira&rsquo;s comment was a nod towards earlier callouts by director Mehreen Jabbar, veteran actor Mohammed Ahmed and other industry professionals like Ahmed Ali Butt, Ramsha Khan, Nadia Afgan, Yasir Hussain and Alizeh Shah.

Mehreen had burst the bubble of those harbouring the impression that a career in the television industry equates to a thriving bank account in July. &ldquo;Our drama industry has progressed a lot, and there has been a very high viewership,&rdquo; she said during a virtual interview with Drama Pakistani. &ldquo;But behind the scenes, there is a lot of compromise and this industry operates in a very unprofessional way. That is the sad part.&rdquo;

The Jackson Heights director further said that the US may have many problems but payment schedules are always kept. However, in Pakistan, with every channel and production house, the entertainers have to chase their money like beggars.

Confirming Mahira&rsquo;s statement, the Dobara Phir Se director said that this is not an issue limited to just actors. &ldquo;Everyone faces this, from actors to the spot boy to the director,&rdquo; said the filmmaker. &ldquo;There is no system. You ask anyone, and you will get thousands of stories about payment issues.&rdquo;

Mohammed thanked Mehreen for starting the conversion back in July. Taking to Instagram, he said: &quot;Mehreen has spoken very clearly about the system and the drama industry, and it makes me so glad. She said plainly what I have been quietly saying for years.&quot;

The Cake actor said that a delay of three to four months is extremely normal.

Backing up Mehreen&#39;s beggar analogy, Mohammed continued, &quot;You have to pretty much clasp your hands together and beg them to pay you. Then they dispense a cheque your way, all the while giving the impression that they are doing you a massive favour, just because they have deigned to pay you. In every project, I feel their aim is to make actors beg for money. It destroys your dignity.&quot;

Ahmed slammed the industry&#39;s recurring issue with late payments too. &quot;Late payment is an industry standard,&quot; he said in an Instagram story in July. &quot;Production houses, television channels and corporate sponsors all have a 60 to 90-day payment clause, and that too is hardly ever met on time.&quot;

He added, &quot;There are a few rare people who will pay you on time, otherwise everyone will make sure that you have to beg for your money, and that too in installments.&quot; On a lighter note, the actor said, &quot;Work for YouTube. Be your own boss.&quot;

With Mahira joining the chorus and reminding us how it might affect the people behind the camera, some accountability is needed from production houses.]]>
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			<title>Paramount disagrees with Hollywood's boycott of Israeli film institutions</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2566575/paramount-disagrees-with-hollywoods-boycott-of-israeli-film-institutions</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2566575/paramount-disagrees-with-hollywoods-boycott-of-israeli-film-institutions#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 13 Sep 25 06:22:56 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category><category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Studio criticizes pledge signed by 4,000 entertainers]]>
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			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Paramount&nbsp;said on Friday it condemned a pledge&nbsp;signed earlier this week by more than 4,000 actors,&nbsp;entertainers, and producers, including some Hollywood stars, to not work with&nbsp;Israeli&nbsp;film&nbsp;institutions&nbsp;that they see as being complicit in the abuse of Palestinians by Israel.

Why it&#39;s important&nbsp;

Paramount&nbsp;became the first major studio to respond to the&nbsp;pledge&nbsp;released on Monday.

Some organizations have faced calls for boycott&nbsp;and protests over ties with the&nbsp;Israeli&nbsp;government as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel&#39;s military assault grows, and images of starving Palestinians, including children, spark global outrage.

Key quotes&nbsp;

&quot;We do not agree with recent efforts to&nbsp;boycott&nbsp;Israeli&nbsp;filmmakers. Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace,&quot;&nbsp;Paramount&nbsp;said. &quot;We need more engagement and communication - not less.&quot;

The&nbsp;pledge&nbsp;from earlier this week said it was not urging anyone to stop working with&nbsp;Israeli&nbsp;individuals but instead &quot;the call is for&nbsp;film&nbsp;workers to refuse to work with&nbsp;Israeli&nbsp;institutions&nbsp;that are complicit in Israel&#39;s human rights abuses.&quot;

Israeli&nbsp;film&nbsp;institutions&nbsp;had engaged in &quot;whitewashing or justifying&quot; abuse of Palestinians, it said, drawing parallels with how&nbsp;entertainers&nbsp;had made a similar&nbsp;pledge&nbsp;in the past against apartheid-era South Africa.

Signatories included actors Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Tilda Swinton, Riz Ahmed, Javier Bardem, and Cynthia Nixon, among others.

Context&nbsp;

U.S. ally Israel&#39;s assault on Gaza since October 2023 has killed&nbsp;tens of thousands of people, internally displaced&nbsp;Gaza&#39;s entire population, and set off a starvation crisis. Multiple rights experts and scholars assess it amounts to genocide.

Israel casts its actions as self-defense after an Octuber 2023 attack&nbsp;by Palestinian Hamas militants in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.]]>
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			<title>Apple takes creative risks and receives Emmy recognition</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2566385/apple-takes-creative-risks-and-receives-emmy-recognition</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2566385/apple-takes-creative-risks-and-receives-emmy-recognition#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 25 07:20:41 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Hollywood talent talks about fresh experience of working with streaming service]]>
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				<![CDATA[Nearly six years after technology giant&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;AAPL.O&nbsp;made its&nbsp;Hollywood&nbsp;debut with the launch of&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;TV+, the iPhone maker&nbsp;is positioned for primetime glory at Sunday&#39;s&nbsp;Emmy&nbsp;Awards.

Apple&#39;s streaming service earned 81&nbsp;Emmy&nbsp;nominations for 14 titles this year, the company&#39;s strongest showing to date at the annual celebration of television excellence. Its science-fiction series Severance&nbsp;and&nbsp;Hollywood&nbsp;satire The Studio&nbsp;are frontrunners for best drama and best comedy, awards experts say.

The company known for its carefully cultivated image has taken chances on unconventional stories, trusted script writers and provided&nbsp;creative&nbsp;freedom, according to producers, writers and actors who have worked with&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;TV+.

Its approach has helped&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;attract A-list&nbsp;talent&nbsp;and elevated its reputation in&nbsp;Hollywood.

How Apple TV+ lures top talent&nbsp;

Actor Seth Rogen said one reason he brought The Studio&nbsp;to&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;TV+ was because of the latitude provided on another comedy of his, Platonic.

&quot;I was really worried that maybe they&#39;d be restrictive,&quot; Rogen said. &quot;And then there&#39;s a scene in Platonic&nbsp;where we snort cocaine and ketamine off of an iPhone.&quot;

&quot;We were allowed to do this!&quot; Rogen said. &quot;They were not as corporate overlord-y as maybe I was worried they were going to be.&quot;

Apple&nbsp;TV+ launched in 2019 with a handful of original series including The Morning Show,&nbsp;Jennifer Aniston&#39;s first TV foray since Friends.&nbsp;At the time, industry insiders criticized the company&#39;s strategy of providing limited offerings without a collection of previously released shows.

Studio executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg stayed the course, building&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;TV+&#39;s library of programming, one bespoke series at a time. The company acheived a milestone in 2021, when Ted Lasso&nbsp;became the first streaming series to win the best comedy&nbsp;Emmy.

Apple&nbsp;has increased spending on original programming to $4.9 billion this year, from $660 million in 2019, according to Ampere Analysis. That investment has helped Apple TV+ reach about 60 million subscribers, according to Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, who believes the service is likely breaking even.&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;TV+ does not disclose subscriber numbers or financial details.

Netflix&nbsp;NFLX.O, by contrast, spends roughly $17 billion and has more than 300 million subscribers.

Investing in award-winning content&nbsp;

Now,&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;TV+ is considered a top&nbsp;Hollywood&nbsp;destination, said Endeavor&nbsp;talent&nbsp;agency co-founder Rick Rosen.

&quot;They&#39;ve shown a lot of patience, and they&#39;ve really built a very high-quality slate that&#39;s gotten people&#39;s attention,&quot; Rosen said.

Ben Stiller, an executive producer and director of Severance, said no other studio wanted to make the mind-bending show about characters who undergo surgery to separate their work and personal memories. Erlicht and Van Amburg, and programming head Matt Cherniss, &quot;got the concept completely,&quot; Stiller said.

Severance&nbsp;leads all series with 27&nbsp;Emmy&nbsp;nominations. &quot;As a startup, they had a lot on the line,&quot; Stiller said. &quot;I found them to be very deferential to&nbsp;creatives, but also with smart thoughts.&quot;

Jason Segel, star of best comedy nominee Shrinking,&nbsp;credited&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;executives with seeing the promise in a story about a therapist who tries to help others while often making bad choices for himself, such as taking drugs and entertaining sex workers while his daughter is upstairs.

&quot;This is pretty dangerous territory for a feel-good comedy,&quot; Segel said. &quot;But right from the beginning there was trust, like these guys can pull this off.&quot;

Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain said&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;TV+&#39;s domestic programming director, Michelle Lee, reached out as the actress and her producing partner were pitching the upcoming thriller The Savant,&nbsp;about an undercover investigator who infiltrates online hate groups. Working with&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;was so positive, Chastain said, that she has two more projects with the streamer.

&quot;All of the notes that were coming our way were really specific and moved the story forward,&quot; she said.

TV Achievements follow movie success

Breaking Bad&nbsp;creator Vince Gilligan said he took his coming sci-fi series, Pluribus,&nbsp;to&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;TV+ in part because they made &quot;a very generous offer&quot; among multiple bidders.

Gilligan said other factors counted more than the dollar figure, which he declined to disclose. A major plus, he said, was the opportunity to reunite with Erlicht and Van Amburg, who led Sony Pictures Television when it produced Breaking Bad&nbsp;and spin-off Better Call Saul.&nbsp;He lauded&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;for supporting an ambitious show.

Recent TV achievements follow success for&nbsp;Apple&#39;s original movies, which play in theaters before heading to&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;TV+. Coda&nbsp;won the best picture Oscar in 2022, and Brad Pitt racing drama F1: The Movie&nbsp;was a summer box-office hit.

Apple&nbsp;&quot;understood that the movie had to be made in the right way,&quot; said F1&nbsp;producer Jerry Bruckheimer, noting that meant filming during actual Formula 1 races and building a race car.

&quot;They realized that the value of doing it in a very accurate way would be the best way to present this movie as something from&nbsp;Apple,&quot; Bruckheimer said. &quot;It&#39;s really well designed and beautifully done.&quot;]]>
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			<title>Third IVS Film Festival will take place this weekend</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2566220/third-ivs-film-festival-will-take-place-this-weekend</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2566220/third-ivs-film-festival-will-take-place-this-weekend#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Sep 25 09:30:10 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2566220</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Several local productions are nominated for awards]]>
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				<![CDATA[The IVS Film Festival 2025, now in its third iteration, is organized by the Indus Valley School of Art &amp; Architecture. It will run from 12th to 14th September 2025. The screenings, workshops and talks will take place on the 13th &amp; 14th September. Attendees are encouraged to arrive on the 12th if they wish to take part in early events or preparatory sessions.

This year&rsquo;s competition is split into 4 categories. These include Youth Films (ages 18-22, under 30 minutes), Short Films (ages 23-32, under 40 minutes), Animations (ages 18-32, under 40 minutes) and Documentaries (ages 18-32, under 40 minutes). The festival has revealed parts of the official selection. Among highlighted films are KHOJ, WASWASA and Sabr O Shukr, all of which will be shown during the festival. Selected films will compete for Jury Awards.

IVS aims to attract creatives, storytellers and poets from around the city. The institution took submissions for films up till the 30th of July 2025. All film submissions require approval from the Sindh Censor Board before screening. Only Pakistani films that have also been produced locally are eligible for selection. The event will serve as an intersection between young filmmakers, actors, critics and film enthusiasts in an effort to highlight new Pakistani productions.





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The event will consist of film screenings, panel discussions, workshops by industry experts and awards for each of the different categories. Cash prizes up to Rs75,000 will be given to winners of these awards.

All festival events are being held at the IVS campus in Karachi. The event is open to the public. Seating is limited, so early arrival is recommended.

As of now, the jury members have not been officially published. Similarly, comprehensive synopses for every selected film are not yet available. But delayed announcements suggest they will follow ahead of the festival weekend.

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			<title>Pakistani film 'Permanent Guest' to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565830/pakistani-film-permanent-guest-to-premiere-at-toronto-international-film-festival</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565830/pakistani-film-permanent-guest-to-premiere-at-toronto-international-film-festival#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 25 11:52:06 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2565830</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[It is the only Pakistani film at the festival this year]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has selected the Pakistani short film Permanent Guest (Mustaqil Mehmaan) for its world premiere this year. The film is directed by Sana Jafri, who is also credited as its writer.

The story is set in Lahore and follows Fatin, a 26-year-old preparing for a neighbourhood wedding with her mother, Yasmeen. Their preparations are disrupted by the sudden arrival of Fatin&rsquo;s uncle, Shabeer. His presence stirs difficult memories for Fatin, shaping the central conflict of the narrative.

The cast includes Rasti Farooq, Nadia Afgan, Salman Shahid, Ali Tahir, and Hiba-i-Zahra. According to the official description, the film examines the lasting effects of childhood sexual abuse within South Asian households and the silence that often surrounds such experiences.

Jafri has previously worked as a co-producer and casting director for the film Joyland. In describing her new project, she explained that it addresses intergenerational silence within families, where older members often overlook or normalize issues that younger members continue to carry. She said the film attempts to present this silence while also showing how it is challenged.

The project was developed through crowdfunding. Support came from contributors in Pakistan as well as members of the Pakistani diaspora abroad. With no backing from state institutions or large scale investors, the film relied on this funding model to reach completion.

Permanent Guest marks a notable entry for Pakistan at TIFF. The festival, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has previously featured only two Pakistani short films,&nbsp;Darling by Saim Sadiq and Bhai by Zarrar Khan. Jafri becomes the first Pakistani woman to have a short film debut at TIFF.

TIFF is regarded as one of the major film festivals worldwide and frequently serves as a platform for international filmmakers to present their work to global audiences. The selection of Permanent Guest adds to the growing list of Pakistani projects gaining recognition at major festivals in recent years.

Permanent Guest will premiere tomorrow during the festival&rsquo;s 2025 edition.&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Historical drama 'Nuremberg' wins audience over at Toronto International Film Festival</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565827/historical-drama-nuremberg-wins-audience-over-at-toronto-international-film-festival</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565827/historical-drama-nuremberg-wins-audience-over-at-toronto-international-film-festival#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 25 11:28:21 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Russell Crowe and Rami Malek deliver stellar performances in post-World War Two film]]>
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				<![CDATA[Academy Award winners&nbsp;Russell&nbsp;Crowe&nbsp;and&nbsp;Rami&nbsp;Malek&nbsp;captivated their&nbsp;Toronto&nbsp;audience in&nbsp;historical&nbsp;drama&nbsp;Nuremberg, which received a roaring four-minute standing ovation after its world premiere on Sunday.

Director James Vanderbilt&#39;s film chronicles the eponymous war crimes trials of 22 major Nazi figures after the end of World War Two.

Crowe&nbsp;plays the role of infamous German Nazi leader Hermann G&ouml;ring, while&nbsp;Malek&nbsp;portrays U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who is assigned the task of evaluating him&nbsp;and&nbsp;other Nazi captives.

&quot;There have been a lot of World War Two films but there haven&#39;t been a lot of post World War Two films,&quot; Vanderbilt told Reuters on the red carpet ahead of the premiere at the&nbsp;Toronto&nbsp;International Film Festival.

He said having an all-star cast that also includes Michael Shannon, Richard E. Grant, John Slattery&nbsp;and&nbsp;Leo Woodall, made working on the project easier, which is based on Jack El-Hai&#39;s 2013 non-fiction book The Nazi&nbsp;and&nbsp;the Psychiatrist.

G&ouml;ring was a fascinating character to play,&nbsp;Crowe&nbsp;said, as he dipped into explaining the different stages of the Nazi leader&#39;s life&nbsp;and&nbsp;ambitions, leading into the Nuremberg trials.

&quot;You get to the end of the war, they decide there&#39;s gonna be a trial.&nbsp;And&nbsp;Hermann, he still thinks he can talk his way out of this,&quot;&nbsp;Crowe&nbsp;said.

Grant, who dons the role of British lawyer David Maxwell Fyfe, spoke of Vanderbilt&#39;s exhaustive research on the topic. &quot;There wasn&#39;t a question that anybody could ask that he didn&#39;t have the answer to,&quot; the English actor said.

The film&nbsp;will be released in theaters in November.]]>
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			<title>Aziz Ansari takes inspiration from old classics for directorial debut film 'Good Fortune'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565588/aziz-ansari-takes-inspiration-from-old-classics-for-directorial-debut-film-good-fortune</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565588/aziz-ansari-takes-inspiration-from-old-classics-for-directorial-debut-film-good-fortune#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 25 07:23:48 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Keanu Reeves starrer highlights wealth disparities and challenges faced by average wage workers]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Actor-comedian Aziz&nbsp;Ansari&nbsp;said he was inspired by films from the 1930s and 40s for his directorial debut Good Fortune, a fantasy-satire about an angel swapping the lives of a gig worker and an affluent Silicon Valley venture capitalist.

The film,&nbsp;starring&nbsp;Ansari, Canadian actors Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen and Sandra Oh, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday.

Reeves plays an angel named Gabriel with limited powers who swaps the lives of broke gig worker Arj, played by&nbsp;Ansari, and tech millionaire Jeff, played by Rogen, hoping the two learn that money is not important. The outcome is not as he expected.

&quot;You look at films from the 30s and 40s, there were a lot of movies that dealt with these kind of issues (wealth, equality and class) that were comedies. The idea of doing that kind of movie today felt really fun,&quot;&nbsp;Ansari&nbsp;said in an interview before the premier.

The movie touches upon the challenges of the average worker today and the&nbsp;disparities&nbsp;in&nbsp;wealth&nbsp;between those at the top and those living paycheck-to-paycheck. &quot;In those&nbsp;old&nbsp;movies whenever they showed really&nbsp;wealthy people, they&#39;d have a top hat, the modern version of that (is) cold&nbsp;plunge and a sauna, wearing a bathrobe,&quot;&nbsp;Ansari&nbsp;said.

Ansari, known for playing Tom Haverford on&nbsp;the&nbsp;TV series Parks and Recreation and&nbsp;creating the show&nbsp;Master of None,&nbsp;said he was inspired by films such as Sullivan&#39;s Travels and My Man Godfrey.

Reeves&#39; part as Gabriel is a contrast from his popular role in John Wick&nbsp;where he plays a hit man who comes out of retirement to seek revenge against the men who killed his dog.

&quot;(The film) gives you a good hug. It&#39;s funny. It&#39;s smart. (It gives you) things to think about,&quot; Reeves said.

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			<title>Daniel Craig set to return as detective Benoit Blanc in 'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565579/daniel-craig-set-to-return-as-detective-benoit-blanc-in-wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565579/daniel-craig-set-to-return-as-detective-benoit-blanc-in-wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 25 06:43:00 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Director Rian Johnson says the third installment in franchise will be gothic and dark]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The charismatic, sharply dressed detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, is back to solve another murder case in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,&nbsp;the third installment in the franchise. It&#39;s big, it&#39;s dark and it&#39;s fun.

Writer-director Rian Johnson takes viewers to a small-town church in upstate New York for his latest in the whodunit genre, giving it a much more grounded tone.

&quot;We&#39;re trying to do something kind of different each time,&quot; Johnson told Reuters on the red carpet ahead of the film&#39;s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. &quot;The first one was kind of a cosy mystery. The second one was a big kind of broad vacation comedy mystery. This one is a little more gothic in tone, it&#39;s a little darker, but I think it&#39;s still very fun,&quot; he said.

Craig couldn&#39;t agree more. &quot;It&#39;s a departure. It&#39;s a different kind of movie. But it&#39;s still a Benoit Blanc mystery,&quot; the former James Bond star told Reuters.

The ensemble cast includes Josh O&#39;Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack and Thomas Haden Church.

O&#39;Connor was full of praise for Johnson, who he described as an &quot;idol&quot; of his. &quot;He is a genius writer and director,&quot; he said.

The rising British actor, who played Prince Charles in the TV series The Crown,&nbsp;received some of the loudest applause following the premiere for his performance as a young priest.

Spaeny, who plays a cellist in the mystery film, said she was grateful for the opportunity and tried to take in every moment while on set. The American actress learned to play the instrument in preparation for her role and stars in a comedy for the first time in her career. &quot;It felt wrong that we were getting paid to do this job,&quot; she said.

Craig was also full of praise for the &quot;bubbly&quot; cast. &quot;We&#39;ve been incredibly lucky with the whole series and we nailed it again,&quot; he said.

The film will have a limited theatrical release on November 26 before making its way to streaming on Netflix on December 12.]]>
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			<title>Angelina Jolie opens up about family history of cancer</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565576/angelina-jolie-opens-up-about-family-history-of-cancer</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565576/angelina-jolie-opens-up-about-family-history-of-cancer#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 25 06:28:25 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gossip]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor promoted new film 'Couture' at the Toronto International Film Festival]]>
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				<![CDATA[Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie had a strong message about hope and living her best life as she reflected on her family&#39;s history of cancer before the world premiere of Couture&nbsp;on Sunday.

The Salt&nbsp;and Mr. &amp; Mrs. Smith&nbsp;actor was at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting her film Couture,&nbsp;the story of an American film director navigating the Parisian fashion industry while she is given a serious medical diagnosis and is in the midst of a divorce.

&quot;I&#39;m 50 now. My mother and grandmother by this age were in chemo,&quot; Jolie said, walking down the red carpet with her co-stars. &quot;We all have these things we worry about or people we love. And it&#39;s either going to make us slow down and almost feel we can&#39;t move, take a step, or we&#39;re going to make the most of this life before it&#39;s over.&quot;

Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 after learning she had inherited a high risk of breast cancer and said she hoped her story would inspire other women fighting the life-threatening disease.

She went through with the operation in part to reassure her six children that she would not die young from cancer, as her own mother did at age 56.

&quot;She has a personal connection to the subject of illness and what that does to a body and being confronted to that. And I believe she talks the best about that,&quot; co-star Ella Rumpf said.]]>
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			<title>Pakistani film ‘The Curfew’ makes it to Venice Biennale</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565185/pakistani-film-the-curfew-makes-it-to-venice-biennale</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565185/pakistani-film-the-curfew-makes-it-to-venice-biennale#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 25 06:09:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Entertainment Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[The 19-minute film is Pakistan’s only selection at festival this year]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistani filmmakers are adorning international screens. Director Shehrezad Maher&rsquo;s recent film The Curfew took stage at Venice Biennale on 4 September.

The film stars Sathya Sridharan, Balinder Johal, Sara Haider, Rajesh Bose, Chris Thorn and Salwa Khan. It is produced by Lindsay Blair Goeldner and Meetra Javed. Its cinematography has been done by Dustin Lane and production design by Ana Novacic. It is being distributed by Fae Pictures and Baby Daal Productions.

The 19-minute film is about Pakistani American Ayaan who cares for his frailing grandmother. As he does so, the two fight the silence of a language barrier and try to learn each other&rsquo;s language. The film shows how histories and ghosts from a colonial past can affect the present. 

Shehrezad Maher won the 2023 Islamic Scholarship Fund&rsquo;s National Film Grant for The Curfew. She is a New York-based artist and filmmaker and her films have been screened at institutions and festivals such as Visions du R&eacute;el, RIDM, the LA Film Forum, Anthology Film Archives, UnionDocs, and Experiments in Cinema.

Her feature film script, Theory of Colors, was one of the three projects selected for the 2023 Hamptons Film Screenwriters Lab and received the Melissa Mathison Screenwriters Fund and the Cinestory Feature Retreat&rsquo;s Hagan Hicks Underrepresented Women&rsquo;s Voices Scholarship. 

The Curfew was the only Pakistani film that was screened at the Venice Film Festival this year. Previously, Saim Sadiq&rsquo;s Darling screened and won Best Short Film at the Venice Film Festival in 2019.

After the film&rsquo;s distribution, it will be available for streaming online.]]>
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			<title>Albert Camus' book 'The Stranger' takes stage at Venice film festival</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565002/albert-camus-book-the-stranger-takes-stage-at-venice-film-festival</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2565002/albert-camus-book-the-stranger-takes-stage-at-venice-film-festival#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 04 Sep 25 06:56:17 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Art and Books]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Director François Ozon thinks the French classic still resonates with present day]]>
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				<![CDATA[Adapting a book for the screen is always &quot;a betrayal&quot;, French director Fran&ccedil;ois Ozon says, but in bringing Albert Camus&#39; The&nbsp;Stranger&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Venice&nbsp;Film Festival he hopes to generate fresh debate around a French classic.

Shot in black and white, the film follows Meursault, a detached young Frenchman living in colonial Algeria in the 1930s who kills an Arab on a beach and is put on trial, with a possible death sentence hanging over him.

Ozon, 57, is one of France&#39;s most prolific filmmakers, known for works such as Swimming Pool, 8 Women&nbsp;and By the Grace of God. He said his latest project was born after he revisited Camus&#39; novel, which he had first read in his teens.

&quot;I realised how much the book still resonates with the present day,&quot; he told Reuters. &quot;I launched into this adaptation with a bit of fear, because I&#39;m tackling a masterpiece of French literature.&quot;

Published in 1942, the book was brought to the screen in 1967 by Italian director Luchino Visconti, in a film starring his compatriot Marcello Mastroianni.

Ozon has said he was very keen to produce a French-language version of Camus&#39; existentialist classic, although he was aware that not everyone will appreciate his effort. &quot;Adapting a book always involves a degree of betrayal, but it&#39;s a reinterpretation in another language. It&#39;s not the language of literature; it&#39;s the language of cinema.&quot;

He said the novel&#39;s themes of absurdity, alienation and colonial injustice remain pressing. &quot;When you see what&#39;s happening, the wars, the rise of the far right, the misdeeds of colonialism, the destruction of nature, all these philosophical questions are in Camus&#39; book.&quot;

Actor Benjamin Voisin, who plays Meursault, said it was extremely tough to portray such an emotionally detached and indifferent character. &quot;It was hard for me to be asked to never &#39;act&#39;. But I had to find a compromise between the role, Camus&#39; philosophy and Ozon&#39;s film,&quot; he said.

The&nbsp;Stranger&nbsp;is one of 21 films competing for the prestigious Golden Lion, which will be awarded on September 6.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Jim Jarmusch is concerned about Israeli ties in corporate financing for latest film</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2564420/jim-jarmusch-is-concerned-about-israeli-ties-in-corporate-financing-for-latest-film</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2564420/jim-jarmusch-is-concerned-about-israeli-ties-in-corporate-financing-for-latest-film#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 01 Sep 25 07:10:10 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Director talks about 'dirty' cash from company Mubi]]>
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				<![CDATA[Veteran US&nbsp;Director Jim Jarmusch said on Sunday he was concerned that one of the distributors of his latest film had taken money from a company with ties to the Israeli military.

However, Jarmusch, an independent filmmaker who made movies such as Stranger Than Paradise, Dead Man and Broken Flowers, said he considered all corporate cash to be &quot;dirty&quot;.

Jarmusch is showing his latest film Father Mother Sister Brother at the Venice Film Festival, with Mubi, a boutique distribution company and streaming platform, due to promote the picture in many markets.

However, Mubi has courted controversy this year by accepting a $100 million investment from Sequoia Capital, which has also backed Israeli defence-tech start-ups -- ties that have come under close scrutiny because of Israel&#39;s war in Gaza.

Jarmusch said he had raised the issue with the firm and stressed that his dealings with the distributor pre-dated the Sequoia Capital deal, which was signed earlier this year.

&quot;My relationship with Mubi started much before that, and they were fantastic to work with on this film. I was, of course, disappointed and quite disconcerted by this relationship,&quot; he added.

Jarmusch acknowledged the complexity of film financing for arthouse directors, such as himself, saying he had taken money from various sources over the years.

&quot;I consider pretty much all corporate money is dirty money. If you start analysing each of these film companies and their financing structures, you&rsquo;ll find a lot of nasty dirt,&quot; he said. &quot;We could avoid it and not make films at all,&quot; he said, adding that the onus on responding to such controversies lay with the companies involved and not the filmmakers.

Responding to the initial outcry in June, Mubi said its investors, including Sequoia Capital, helped the company grow, but that their personal views did not reflect its own, arguing that it remained independent and founder-led.

A representative for Mubi declined to comment further at Venice.

Israel&#39;s war against Hamas in Gaza has cast a shadow over the Venice festival. Some 1,500 film industry figures signed an open letter last month urging the festival to take a robust stand over the Gaza war and promote Palestinian voices.

Festival director Alberto Barbera told Reuters that Venice welcomed open debate, but dismissed calls for Israeli filmmakers and actors to be barred from the 11-day event.

Jarmusch&#39;s latest picture is divided into three chapters, each exploring relationships between adult children and their distant parents in three different countries -- the United States, Ireland and France.

The film features Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat. It is one of 21 movies competing for the top Golden Lion prize, which will be awarded on September 6.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Jude Law fearlessly plays Putin role at Venice Film Festival</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2564402/jude-law-plays-putin-role-without-fear-at-venice-film-festival</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2564402/jude-law-plays-putin-role-without-fear-at-venice-film-festival#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 01 Sep 25 05:52:21 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2564402</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Cast of film 'Wizard of the Kremlim' reflects on tackling a tricky script]]>
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				<![CDATA[Jude Law said on Sunday he did not fear reprisals for playing Russian President Vladimir Putin in The Wizard of the Kremlin, a new film premiering at the Venice Film Festival that offers a chilling, fictionalised look at Putin&#39;s rise to power.

The Wizard of the Kremlin, directed by France&#39;s Olivier Assayas and also starring Paul Dano, shows Putin ruthlessly disposing of people who cross his path.

Asked by reporters if he was worried about possible retaliation for taking on the role, Law said: &quot;I hope not naively, but ... I didn&#39;t fear repercussions.&quot;

The British actor added that the film recounted Putin&#39;s single-minded ascendancy &quot;with nuance and consideration. We weren&#39;t looking for controversy for controversy&#39;s sake&quot;.

Based on a best-selling novel by Giuliano da Empoli, the movie imagines the life of Vadim Baranov, a shadowy Kremlin insider who rises from artist to television producer before becoming a spin doctor to a young Putin.

From his office in the Kremlin, he crafts narratives that blur truth and propaganda, faith and manipulation, renouncing his values to serve his master who is determined to restore Russia to greatness after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Scary and dangerous situation

Law said he shunned a strict impersonation of Putin, but nonetheless tried to capture the essence of the man. &quot;It&#39;s amazing what a great wig can do,&quot; he joked. &quot;The tricky side was that the public face (of Putin) that we see gives very little away ... I felt that conflict of trying to show very little, but feel an awful lot and portray an awful lot from within,&quot; he said.

Assayas, best known for films such as Carlos (2010) and Personal Shopper (2016), said his latest movie resonated beyond Russia. &quot;We made a movie about what politics has become and the very scary and dangerous situation we all feel we are in,&quot; he said.

&quot;We took the case of Vladimir Putin, but it applies to many authoritarian leaders. Politics has changed in a major way during our lifetimes, and what&#39;s going on right now is terrifying,&quot; he added.

American actor Jeffrey Wright, who plays a U.S. writer in the movie, said he hoped it would get widely seen in his home country, which he feared might shed its ideals and aspirations. &quot;If that is lost as it is now, then we become the thing we see in this film,&quot; he said.

Dano, who plays the main protagonist Baranov, said the project avoided simple moral labels. &quot;If you were to just label a character bad, it would be a massive oversimplification,&quot; he said. &quot;Asking why, and looking into the gray, even if it&#39;s scary, is better than letting us go further and further into black and white.&quot;

The Wizard of the Kremlin is one of 21 films competing for the prestigious Golden Lion prize, which will be awarded on September 6.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Imran Abbas is secure in his masculinity</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2563923/imran-abbas-is-secure-in-his-masculinity</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2563923/imran-abbas-is-secure-in-his-masculinity#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 25 09:03:09 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Entertainment Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2563923</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor claps back at Babrik Shah, says he isn’t manly enough]]>
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				<![CDATA[Imran Abbas refuses to listen to the opinions of people who &lsquo;haven&rsquo;t made it in life&rsquo;. In a recent Instagram video shared over the weekend, the actor clapped back at Babrik Shah who said, &ldquo;Imran Abbas does not look like a man.&rdquo;

In a recent appearance on Hina Niazi&rsquo;s talk show Suno To Sahi, Babrik said that, &ldquo;Imran Abbas does not look like a hero. He is zero percent filmy material&rdquo;. The actor also remarked that Hamza Ali Abbasi is a seven out of ten in terms of acting and called Fawad Khan &lsquo;overrated,&rsquo; declaring he is a 50/50.

Imran did not shy away from answering back and counting his blessings. &ldquo;Whether anybody believes it or not, God keeps giving me more,&rdquo; he said in the video. &ldquo;So I don&rsquo;t care what people say because it comes with the package. These people have an inferiority complex, they are all left behind in life.&rdquo;

The actor pointed out a pattern in his haters. &ldquo;Whoever has written negatively about me, just open their profiles,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You will get an idea where the person is from, what they are deprived of, what is in their heart. You will understand that their hearts are very sad because they don&rsquo;t have anything in their life. This happens in the profession too. They have the right because they are not doing too well themselves.&rdquo;

Offering some kind words, he said, &ldquo;I pray that God gives them success and guidance.&rdquo;

Following this incident, film star Reema Khan came out in Imran&rsquo;s support and penned a supportive message on Instagram. &ldquo;Dear Imran Abbas, don&rsquo;t let someone&rsquo;s sarcasm dim your light,&rdquo; she wrote. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re one of the most genuine, talented, hardworking, self-made, extremely handsome, humble and a wonderful human being I know and anyone who matters sees that.&rdquo;

Reema expressed her love for the actor. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud of you, actually we are all proud of your journey, love and will always stand on your back,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Keep rocking and attach more feathers on your cap.&rdquo;

Fans were quick to chip into this feud. &ldquo;How can anyone insult a co-actor like this,&rdquo; said one Instagram user. 

Another pointed out the host&rsquo;s fault in starting a bitter conversation, &ldquo;It is all the host&rsquo;s fault. Why don&rsquo;t celebrities boycott such hosts?&rdquo; 

A few agreed with Babrik and criticised Imran&rsquo;s acting. &ldquo;Imran Abbas does not know how to act. He used to be good looking but now he looks weird with so much make up on,&rdquo; shared one user. 

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>'KPop Demon Hunters' cast shares how their voices were so good, people thought it was AI</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2563708/kpop-demon-hunters-cast-share-how-fans-thought-their-voices-were-ai-because-they-were-so-good</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2563708/kpop-demon-hunters-cast-share-how-fans-thought-their-voices-were-ai-because-they-were-so-good#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 25 07:10:38 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Voice actors EJAE and Arden Cho reflect on film experience]]>
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				<![CDATA[From K-pop trainee to songwriter and now a leading singer in KPop Demon Hunters,&nbsp;South Korean artist EJAE poured everything she knew about popular Korean music into the Netflix NFLX.O project.

The animated film that has become a cultural phenomenon includes the chart-topping hit &quot;Golden,&quot; which EJAE performs.

&quot;I just love how &#39;Golden&#39; is a very hopeful song, so not just America, but globally, everyone&#39;s resonating with it,&quot; the singer told Reuters.

&quot;It feels like we&#39;re all like connecting together,&quot; she added.

The 33-year-old was signed by South Korea&#39;s SM Entertainment when she was in her teens as a trainee, learning singing, dancing and performing in anticipation of launching a career as a K-pop artist.

Instead of singing, she initially became a songwriter and producer who worked with popular groups such as Aespa, Twice, Red Velvet, Nmixx and others to capture the authentic sound of the genre.

KPop Demon Hunters&nbsp;debuted on the streaming platform on June 20, quickly garnering global praise from critics and audiences. The story follows a trio of demon hunters that perform K-pop music to both impress fans and combat demons.

A sing-along version of KPop Demon Hunters&nbsp;topped the domestic box office over the weekend, in what appears to be a historic first for streaming giant Netflix.

The movie brought in an estimated $18 million from U.S. and Canada box offices, according to IMDb&#39;s Box Office Mojo, surpassing the $15.6 million for horror movie Weapons.

KPop Demon Hunters&nbsp;centers on Rumi, the lead singer of the group, with musical vocals provided by EJAE and a speaking voice from Arden Cho. Rumi struggles with her identity and fears that her two best friends, Mira, voiced by May Hong, and Zoey, voiced by Ji-young Yoo, won&rsquo;t accept her for who she really is.

The film was produced by Sony Pictures Animation.

While the fictional K-pop girl group called HUNTR/X has achieved enormous real-life success, Cho has been surprised by some of the audience reactions to the movie&rsquo;s music.

&quot;Someone was saying that HUNTR/X voices were A.I. (artificial intelligence) because it&#39;s so good,&rdquo; Cho said. &ldquo;It&#39;s so good that they were like, &lsquo;Oh, those singers must be AI. &rsquo;&lsquo;No, we&#39;re real. We&#39;re here,&rsquo; she added.

The action-packed movie is also the highest-charting soundtrack of 2025 so far with songs &quot;How It&#39;s Done&quot;, &quot;What It Sounds Like&quot; and &quot;Free&quot; also ranking with &quot;Golden&quot; in the top 10 most streamed songs for the week ending on August 14, according to Luminate.

To create &ldquo;Golden,&rdquo; which is getting Grammy Award buzz, EJAE had to hit some high notes. &quot;Whenever Rumi sings, you know, they (the directors) really wanted her to belt, show off her vocals because that&#39;s her role, right?&rdquo; EJAE said.

&ldquo;So, yes, I put as many high notes as possible. And like, I honestly found my range while singing &#39;Golden,&#39;&rdquo; she added.]]>
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			<title>Anime house Studio Ghibli turns 40 this year</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2563115/anime-house-studio-ghibli-turns-40-this-year</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2563115/anime-house-studio-ghibli-turns-40-this-year#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 25 11:34:12 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2563115</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The Oscar-winning house has garnered worldwide fame for films like 'Spirited Away' and 'The Boy and the Heron']]>
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				<![CDATA[The two-time Oscar-winning Japanese Studio Ghibli that has won the heart of fans of different generations turns 40 this month. With films like Spirited Away&nbsp;and The Boy and the Heron, the anime house established by Hayao Miyazaki and the late Isao Takahata has been a cultural sensation since 1985.

Japan&#39;s Studio Ghibli turns 40 this month with two Oscars&nbsp;and legions of fans young and old won over by its complex plots and fantastical hand-drawn animation.

But the future is uncertain, with latest hit The Boy and the Heron&nbsp;likely, but not certainly,&nbsp;the final feature from celebrated co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, now 84.

The studio behind the Oscar-winning Spirited Away&nbsp;has become a cultural phenomenon since Miyazaki and the late Isao Takahata established it in 1985.

Its popularity has been fuelled of late by a second Academy Award in 2024 for The Boy and the Heron, starring Robert Pattinson, and by Netflix&nbsp;streaming Ghibli movies around the world.

In March, the internet was flooded with pictures in its distinctively nostalgic style after the release of OpenAI&#39;s newest image generator &ndash; raising questions over copyright.

The newly opened Ghibli Park has also become a major tourist draw for central Japan&#39;s Aichi region.

Julia Santilli, a 26-year-old from Britain living in northern Japan, &quot;fell in love with Ghibli&quot; after watching the 2001 classic Spirited Away as a child.

&quot;I started collecting all the DVDs,&quot; she told AFP.

Ghibli stories are &quot;very engaging and the artwork is stunning&quot;, said another fan, Margot Divall, 26.

&quot;I probably watch Spirited Away&nbsp;about 10 times a year still.&quot;

Whiff of death&nbsp;

Before Ghibli, most cartoons in Japan, known as anime, were made for children.&nbsp;

But Miyazaki and Takahata, both from &quot;the generation that knew war&quot;, included darker elements that appeal to adults, Miyazaki&#39;s son Goro told AFP.

&quot;It&#39;s not all sweet &ndash; there&#39;s also a bitterness and things like that which are beautifully intertwined in the work,&quot; he said, describing a &quot;whiff of death&quot; in the films.

For younger people who grew up in peacetime, &quot;it is impossible to create something with the same sense, approach and attitude,&quot;&nbsp;Goro said.

Even &quot;My Neighbor Totoro&quot;, with its cuddly forest creatures, is in some ways a &quot;scary&quot; movie that explores the fear of losing a sick mother, he explained.

Susan Napier, a professor at Tufts University in the United States and author of Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art, agrees.

&quot;In Ghibli, you have ambiguity, complexity and also a willingness to see that the darkness and light often go together&quot; unlike good-versus-evil US cartoons, she said.

The post-apocalyptic Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind&nbsp;&ndash; considered the first Ghibli film despite its release in 1984 &ndash; has no obvious villain, for example.

The movie featuring an independent princess curious about giant insects and a poisonous forest felt &quot;so fresh&quot; and a change from &quot;a passive woman... having to be rescued&quot;, Napier said.

Natural world

Studio Ghibli films also depict a universe where humans connect deeply with nature and the spirit world.

A case in point was 1997&#39;s Princess Mononoke, distributed internationally by Disney.

The tale of a girl raised by a wolf goddess in a forest threatened by humans is &quot;a masterpiece &ndash; but a hard movie&quot;, Napier said.

It&#39;s a &quot;serious, dark and violent&quot; film appreciated more by adults, which &quot;was not what US audiences had anticipated with a movie about a princess&quot;.

Ghibli films &quot;have an environmentalist and animistic side, which I think is very appropriate for the contemporary world with climate change&quot;, she added.

Miyuki Yonemura, a professor at Japan&#39;s Senshu University who studies cultural theories on animation, said watching Ghibli movies is like reading literature.

&quot;That&#39;s why some children watch Totoro 40 times,&quot; she said, adding that audiences &quot;discover something new every time&quot;.

French connection

Miyazaki and Takahata, who died in 2018, could create imaginitive worlds because of their opennes to their cultures, Yonemura said.

Foreign influences included writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery and animator Paul Grimault, both French, and Canadian artist Frederic Back, who won an Oscar for his animation The Man Who Planted Trees.

Takahata studying French literature at university &quot;was a big factor&quot;, Yonemura said.

&quot;Both Miyazaki and Takahata read a lot,&quot; she said. &quot;That&#39;s a big reason why they excel at writing scripts and creating stories.&quot;

Miyazaki has said he was inspired by several books for Nausicaa, including the 12th-century Japanese tale The Lady who Loved Insects, and Greek mythology.

Studio Ghibli will not be the same after Miyazaki stops creating animation, &quot;unless similar talent emerges&quot;, Yonemura said.

Miyazaki is &quot;a fantastic artist with such a visual imagination&quot; while both he and Takahata were &quot;politically progressive&quot;, Napier said.

&quot;The more I study, the more I realise this was a unique cultural moment,&quot; she said.

&quot;It&#39;s so widely loved that I think it will carry on,&quot; said Ghibli fan Divall.

&quot;As long as it doesn&#39;t lose its beauty, as long as it carries on the amount of effort, care and love,&quot; she said.]]>
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			<title>Dakota Johnson brings depth to her performance in 'Splitsville'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2562557/dakota-johnson-brings-depth-to-her-performance-in-splitsville</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2562557/dakota-johnson-brings-depth-to-her-performance-in-splitsville#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 22 Aug 25 07:01:44 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2562557</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actors shares experience of acting and producing film together]]>
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			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[For Dakota Johnson, it was important to showcase both her acting and producing talents for the romantic comedy film &ldquo;Splitsville.&rdquo;&nbsp;

&quot;I&#39;m more valuable, I think, on set and in post (production), because I know the beat, like the heartbeat of the film while we&#39;re making it,&rdquo; Johnson told Reuters on Thursday.

&ldquo;I&#39;m good at helping on set. And then in post, I&#39;m good at remembering the energy of what it felt like while we were filming so I can implement that in the edit,&rdquo; the Fifty Shades of Grey&nbsp;actor added.

Splitsville,&nbsp;distributed by Neon, will arrive in theaters on Friday.]]>
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			<title>Fawad Khan and Vaani Kapoor's upcoming film ‘Abir Gulaal’ set to release worldwide on 29 August</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2560756/fawad-khan-and-vaani-kapoors-upcoming-film-abir-gulaal-set-to-release-worldwide-on-29-august</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2560756/fawad-khan-and-vaani-kapoors-upcoming-film-abir-gulaal-set-to-release-worldwide-on-29-august#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 25 06:08:57 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Entertainment Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2560756</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor will appear opposite 'Befikre' star in romantic comedy feature]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Fawad Khan&rsquo;s latest Bollywood film is finally set to release following a ban on Pakistani artists in India. Playing the role of a UK-based chef, Fawad appears opposite Bollywood actor Vaani Kapoor.&nbsp;

Directed by Aarti S. Bagdi, known for Chalti Rahe Zindagi, Abir Gulaal is expected to be a cross-cultural film that highlights the chemistry between Fawad and Vaani. The film is produced by Indian Stories, A Richer Lens, and Aarjay Pictures. It&nbsp;is co-produced by Vivek B. Agarwal, Avantika Hari, and Rakesh Sippy.&nbsp;

Abir Gulaal will be an addition to the romantic comedy genre. Lisa Hayden and Farida Jalal are also part of the cast. It will mark Fawad&rsquo;s return to Bollywood after nine years.&nbsp;

The film remains banned in India but will be released worldwide this month.&nbsp;

The ban on Pakistani actors was implemented by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) following the Palagham attack in April. The release of Sardaar JI 3 which starred Pakistani actor Hania Aamir and Abir Gulaal that casted Fawad in lead role were both halted. Abir Gulaal was originally slated to release on May 9.&nbsp;

The film had generated buzz among fans, particularly due to Fawad&#39;s return to the Bollywood scene. Fawad made his Bollywood debut in 2014 with Khoobsurat, starring opposite Sonam Kapoor. He went on to appear in Dharma Productions&#39;s Kapoor &amp; Sons and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which was his last Indian project before the ban on Pakistani artists in 2016.&nbsp;

Abir Gulaal will be hitting global cinema screens on 29 August this year.&nbsp;

Have something to add to the story? Share in the comments below.&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>When I watch Nora Fatehi on-screen, I forget about our item number: Yasir Hussain</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2560119/when-i-watch-nora-fatehi-on-screen-i-forget-about-our-item-number-yasir-hussain</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2560119/when-i-watch-nora-fatehi-on-screen-i-forget-about-our-item-number-yasir-hussain#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 25 08:08:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Entertainment Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2560119</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor-screenwriter shares his stance on Pakistani item songs]]>
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				<![CDATA[Yasir Hussain is no stranger to speaking his truth off screen. Last month he&nbsp;shared his views on extra-marital affairs. Now, in an exclusive interview with Nukta Life, Yasir had some thoughts about &lsquo;item numbers&rsquo; in Pakistani films. These are songs that feature a scantily clad &quot;item girl&quot; seductively dancing to provocative lyrics. The song itself usually has little to no link with the plot, the sole purpose being only to draw crowds to the theatre.

Yasir pointed out this double standard where our culture indulges in item songs but widely disapproves it too. &ldquo;We first need to understand what our culture is. Is it the one before partition or is it after that?&rdquo; he said.

As Pakistani commercial films have taken off recently, many productions in Pakistani cinema&nbsp;feature an item number with A-list actors such as Ayesha Omar dancing in song Tutti Frutti and Saba Qamar twirling in&nbsp;Kalabaaz Dil.&nbsp;

Yasir continued&nbsp;to elaborate on how this&nbsp;culture of watching dancing women goes back to the pre-partition era.&ldquo;This did not start today,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;People have always paid to watch women dance so why not acknowledge that? Heeramandi has been around since the Mughal era so there is nothing new about it. We closed all of this down in the 80s but it has sprouted back again in the form of these songs.&rdquo;

He mentioned how item songs were featured in olden Pakistani films. &ldquo; If you watch old movies, you see madam Noor Jehan singing item songs and actresses dancing. It wasn&rsquo;t a big deal.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;How did it suddenly disappear from our screens? Did we experience a shift in our culture or did we go back in time.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Expressing his own stance, he said ,&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like item numbers in Pakistan. The reason for that is when I watch Nora Fatehi on screen, I forget about Pakistani item numbers. I can&rsquo;t drop my standards that low.&rdquo;

To improve these songs, Yasir&nbsp;had a piece of advice for Pakistani filmmakers. &ldquo;If you want to make item numbers, then make them of the same level. You can&rsquo;t be trying to create boundaries and want to see women dance too,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;

Finally, the actor suggested that if filmmakers insist on adding them, there should be regulations around them. &ldquo;What the government can do is charge heavy taxes on them so at least it benefits us,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t really close them.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Despite the criticism and hate directed towards the artists, it cannot be denied that the locally produced item numbers rack upto millions of views on YouTube.&nbsp;&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Ayesha Omar, Dananeer Mobeen wrap up shooting Lyari football film</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2557793/ayesha-omar-dananeer-mobeen-wrap-up-shooting-lyari-football-film</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2557793/ayesha-omar-dananeer-mobeen-wrap-up-shooting-lyari-football-film#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 25 Jul 25 07:13:54 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Entertainment Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Director Abu Aleeha is set to release the film this year]]>
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				<![CDATA[Filmmaker-writer Abu Aleeha has wrapped up the filming of his latest sports thriller Behnaz. Starring Ayesha Omar and Dananeer Mobeen, the film aims to highlight the rich sports culture of Lyari.

Abu took to Instagram and posted a picture with the cast and crew, captioning, &ldquo;The camera has closed on Behnaz, one of my most layered films.&rdquo;

The film revolves around a Baloch woman footballer, played by Dananeer.

This will be Dananeer&rsquo;s debut on the big screen. The actor&rsquo;s venture into films had previously divided the internet about her suitability for the role. Some congratulated the actor, writing,

&ldquo;So proud of her. She&rsquo;s rising high and Inshallah will keep going higher.&rdquo;

Whereas others pointed out that the actor was too white to play an Afro-Baloch person, sharing,

&ldquo;Casting Dananeer in a film on football in Lyari probably based on or inspired by stories of baloch footballers, especially afro-baloch communities is not it. She&rsquo;s the big new star but this also reeks of colorism and co-opting stories.&rdquo;

Adding,

&ldquo;People in Lyari don&rsquo;t look like her.&rdquo;

This will be Ayesha&rsquo;s second project with Aleeha, where she will play the role of Dananeer&rsquo;s coach.

The filmmaker extended his gratitude to everyone, penning, &ldquo;A huge thank you to everyone who helped make this film possible. I&rsquo;m deeply grateful for your support.&rdquo;

He took time to mention some of his older projects, &ldquo;If you enjoyed Taxali Gate even a little, this movie will blow you away.&rdquo;

Taxali Gate was a crime thriller released in 2024. Starring Ayesha Omar alongside Yasir Hussain, the film revolved around the residents of Taxali Gate who rose against the judicial system of Pakistan.

The film received positive reviews for its storytelling and acting but was criticised for technical shortcomings.

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.]]>
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			<title>I was missing the squirrel: James Gunn on the ‘Superman’ moment he fought to keep</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2557618/i-was-missing-the-squirrel-james-gunn-on-the-superman-moment-he-fought-to-keep</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2557618/i-was-missing-the-squirrel-james-gunn-on-the-superman-moment-he-fought-to-keep#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jul 25 09:21:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Entertainment Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2557618</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Director reveals test screen audience did not enjoy the superhero’s furry rescue scene]]>
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				<![CDATA[There is a key moment in James Gunn&rsquo;s Superman where the superhero saves a small squirrel while it is being attacked by a rampaging Kaiju monster in Metropolis - a moment that the first screening test audience hated.&nbsp;

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Gunn revealed that he fought to put the scene back on because according to him, it showed the empathetic and kind side of the Man of Steel.&nbsp;

&ldquo;It was probably the second or third most hotly debated moment in the movie.&rdquo; Gunn said. &ldquo;We showed it to test audiences and some people did not like the squirrel. They asked, &lsquo;Why is he saving a squirrel? Why is he taking time out, saving a squirrel?&rsquo;&rdquo;

Gunn shared, &ldquo;There was a cut where I cut it out and I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;I really miss the squirrel. He&rsquo;s got to save the squirrel.&rsquo; In addition, there were also some geographic problems with where he ended up if I didn&rsquo;t have him fly over with the squirrel. So I put the squirrel back in despite the protests of some people on my crew.&rdquo;

Previously in an interview with the New York Times, Gunn had said, &ldquo;A lot of people were anti-squirrel. They thought it was too much. And I think it really comes down to, do you like squirrels or not?&rdquo;

Test screen audiences have also regularly complained that the pacing in Gunn&rsquo;s films is &ldquo;too fast&rdquo;.&nbsp;

&ldquo;When you test movies, especially in the early test screenings, one of the main questions they ask is, &lsquo;Is it too slow? Is it too fast? Is it just right?&rsquo; And my movies have always had an overabundance of &lsquo;too fast&rsquo; compared to &lsquo;too slow&#39;,&rdquo; revealed the director.

Defending his choices, Gunn explained, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not indulgent. I just don&rsquo;t care about my little precious moments that are so important to me in making a movie. I want to create something that&rsquo;s as streamlined as possible, and if that means I go too fast, sometimes I do. And so it really is about pulling back.&rdquo;

Test screenings have become a regular process for studio films. However, they do not always reflect public taste. For example, Marvel director Kevin Feige once hyped up Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania by commenting, &ldquo;Jonathan Majors, playing the villain Kang, was the highest-testing villain we&rsquo;ve ever had in any of our &lsquo;friends and families&rsquo; [screenings].&rsquo;&rdquo;&nbsp;

Despite this, the theatre audience remained unimpressed. The film flopped at the box office with $476 million worldwide and became one of Marvel&rsquo;s lowest grossers.

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.
&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>How to shoot your reboot: 'How To Train Your Dragon' is the perfect blueprint for a soulful tribute</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2557125/how-to-shoot-your-reboot</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2557125/how-to-shoot-your-reboot#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 25 20:12:04 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Urooba Rasool]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2557125</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[This live-action remake of a beloved animation is the very opposite of a soulless cash grab]]>
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				<![CDATA[As most parents of small children can attest, one of the world&#39;s greatest places to take a nap is a cinema. This holds particularly true if that cinema&#39;s head honchoes have had the foresight to install reclining leather seats and an industrial-strength air conditioning unit blasting out shades of the Arctic. It is why so many brave souls will fork over hard-earned money to sit through the Smurfs film this summer, probably the reason Inside Out 2 was able to rake in over a billion dollars last year, and must be why filmmakers deem it perfectly acceptable to toss out a sequel to Bad Guys next month. There is nothing that primary caregivers of young children love more than a good nap, and they are willing to pay to get it.

However, if scheduling a decent daytime nap is your primary goal when you cave to child-originated requests to watch the live action remake of Dreamworks&#39; How To Train Your Dragon at the cinema (which has already been out for about five weeks, so it is time you stopped dragging your feet), then you are urged to reconsider. No naps will be had here today. For a solid two hours, writer and director Dean DeBlois and his How To Train Your Dragon team have just one goal: to blow your mind, completely and utterly.

How to make a remake

You are defenceless against this incoming mind-blowiing no matter which side you are approaching this remake from. It doesn&#39;t matter if you are a taking your first baby steps into this franchise, or are a devoted fan of the animated original, or if have only the wispiest of memories of when you watched it twice 15 years ago.

Whatever your current state of mind is, Gerard Butler&#39;s blue eyes - lifted straight from the animation (as is Butler himself) - will give you an electric shock. As Stoic the Vast, Butler&#39;s beautiful Scottish lilt and the soliloquies of seething frustration he spits out at his son (and our hero) Hiccup are lifted straight from the original. You will either swim in an ocean of nostalgia as memories of the original ticker-tape before you, or squirm as the tiniest hidden part of you begins to relate - for the first time - to this unreasonable mountain of a man. Stoic desperately wants his son to live up to his dragon-slaying Viking heritage, and is genuinely flabbergasted at how he can produce a boy so unlike him in every way. Fifteen years later, we may still swear our allegiance to Hiccup, but now, with Butler there in the flesh to make us understand Stoic better than ever, is it possible that we understand his growing desperation over the generation gap that threatens to cleave them apart?

You will see Vikings of unorthodox ethnicity as the cast expands to include diversity, but Stoic offers the simplest of explanations to explain as to how they came to be here in the cold and dragon-infested Isle of Berk. However, it is our most important Viking, the almost twig-like Hiccup, who will abscond with your heart. A hero in the purest form, Hiccup&#39;s struggles for acceptance will twang a chord in anyone who has ever struggled to gain acceptance, be it at school or at home or anywhere else. His story speaks to everyone in that movie theatre, whether you are the child who dragged your parents, or the parents who gave in to the child. You cannot help but adore this boy with a beautiful soul, who does everything he can to protect the dragon he once vowed to kill.

If you somehow remain unmoved by the boy, the first time you see Toothless the dragon slide open one giant cat-like emerald eye, you may understand that love at first sight does, in fact, exist. It is a love that will blossom with every tentative step both boy and dragon take towards one another, and burgeon to bursting point when you take to the skies with Toothless and Hiccup for the very first time. As you soar above mountains, dive through valleys and glide over seas, you will realise only now that you are doing what neither Peter Pan nor Aladdin&#39;s magic carpet could pull off. You are flying without wings, transported far beyond the confines of your cinema leather chair.

However, all of this is a moot point, regardless of whether or not you cherished that longstanding childhood ambition of flying; from the moment those opening credits roll across the screen, the music will swallow you whole with no intention of letting you go. It really doesn&#39;t matter what Stoic, Hiccup or Toothless get up to. At the end of the day, you get the&nbsp;gift of a plaintive orchestra that conveys Vikings&#39; struggle with dragons, a boy&#39;s bottomless love for the pet who gave him a purpose, and a dragon&#39;s undying devotion for the one person who ever understood him. Close your eyes, and you will picture it all playing out in the screen of your mind. If music could speak words, John Powell&#39;s score says as much as every word in the script - and beyond.&nbsp;

And now, because we are also happy to include even the most reluctant filmgoer, if you still find yourself checking your Instagram notifications during this mesmerising two hours, then it is possible you are cyrogenically frozen and you are watching this after time-travelling&nbsp;from a dystopian future. In which case you probably have bigger problems than one live-action remake.

A final lesson

If Disney could somehow learn how Dreamworks and DeBlois harness all the devotion and attention to detail that goes into creating a true faithful remake, nitpickity fans could perhaps stop complaining about the off-centre sunrise in the 2019 Lion King or the muted lifeless colours of the 2019 Aladdin. (For one thing, they wouldn&#39;t have to complain because no one filmmaker would have been idiotic enough to allow it to happen.) Because this is 2025, and we have thus already suffered through numerous Disney reboots that are best watched through tightly shut eyes&nbsp;(Mulan, The Little Mermaid, and the catastrophic travesty that was Snow White), by now we are astutely aware that the phrase &#39;live-action remake&#39;,&nbsp;is really code for &#39;soulless cash grab&#39;. We have no one but ourselves to blame for production houses&#39; predeliction for soulless cash grabs when it comes to children&#39;s films, because, if you recall, parents are by no means averse to very expensive naps in a dark room.

DeBlois, however, is the man responsible for the first animated How To Train Your Dragon in 2010, and has thus sidestepped all these Disney-esque pitfalls to give us the direct opposite of a soulless cash grab. With consummate surgical precision as he reconstructs his original&nbsp;film shot-by-shot, he has given us&nbsp;a faithful, soulful tribute - one that is emboldened with a rich orchestra and a cast and crew who treat the original with reverence it deserves. There are is no new and&nbsp;decidedly unimproved&nbsp;music, no additional preaching to pander to an easily offended&nbsp;crowd, and no slappable new side characters. DeBlois has pulled off the impossible - but only because he is How To Train Your Dragon&#39;s biggest fan. He has peered into the minds of fans and delicately extracted their vision to recreate the same river of emotions that coursed through them 15 years ago.&nbsp;In conclusion, your dreams of that nap will, regrettably - albeit fittingly in a film featuring fire-breathing dragons - go up in smoke. Save the nap for when you are forced to go and endure Smurfs.

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Is Superman the 'illegal alien' immigrant superhero we never knew we needed?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2555310/is-superman-the-illegal-alien-immigrant-superhero-we-never-knew-we-needed</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2555310/is-superman-the-illegal-alien-immigrant-superhero-we-never-knew-we-needed#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 25 06:37:57 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Entertainment Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Director James Gunn says his film is about the lost US value of human kindness]]>
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				<![CDATA[In the highly anticipated new Superman, which stars David Corenswet in the title role, the Man of Steel first appears lying bloodied and bruised in an Arctic wasteland, reports DW.

&quot;We do have a battered Superman in the beginning. That is our country,&quot; director James Gunn said at a press event following the release of the film&#39;s first trailer. This Superman symbolises an America that&#39;s in a beat-up state yet still stands for goodness, Gunn explained.

Superman has often been considered the archetypal US superhero, embodying ideals of truth and justice, as well as the American dream.



However, in the new film, Gunn decided to focus on &quot;universal morality&quot; instead of American exceptionalism. Instead of being a national hero, Superman aims to protect and save the weak around the world. &quot;Even if it gets him into trouble,&quot; noted the director.

&quot;Yes, it&#39;s about politics,&quot; Gunn told British daily The Times, before adding that it&#39;s also &quot;about human kindness.&quot;

&quot;Obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about of kindness,&quot; he said. &quot;But screw them.&quot;

Those comments had right-wing commentators worrying that Gunn, who also directed Guardians of the Galaxy, had turned the iconic superhero into a &#39;woke&#39; figure. They are calling for a boycott of the film, which hits theatres on July 11.

Similarly, Fox News anchor Kellyanne Conway said on the talk show The Five: &quot;We don&#39;t go to the movie theatre to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us. I wonder if it will be successful.&quot;

Marvel vs DC in an age of culture wars

Blockbuster superhero films typically avoid openly showcasing anything that would brand them as conservative or liberal. But one popular theory among superhero fans is that the film universes of the two largest North American comics publishers, DC and Marvel Comics, are polarised along the ideological fault lines that define an era of culture war.



The DC universe, which includes Superman and Batman, has been described as more conservative-authoritarian, with its superheroes portrayed as the ultimate protectors of order. As extensions of the law, they act above the people and without accountability.

&quot;There&#39;s no sense of any democratic participation in the Batman world,&quot; points out film critic AO Scott in the 2025 podcast X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story.

Meanwhile, the same podcast exposes the film critic&#39;s theory that heroes &quot;from the Marvel Universe films &mdash; Iron Man, Captain America, Ant Man, the Avengers &mdash; are a team of do-gooders: These films represent an Obama-Biden view of the world.&quot;

James Gunn, outspoken Trump critic

As the writer and director the Guardians of the Galaxy films, James Gunn used to belong to team Marvel. He also made enemies in the MAGA camp as an outspoken Donald Trump critic.



Back in 2017, he shared his views in various tweets: &quot;In my years on social networking, I have never spoken out politically,&quot; Gunn tweeted. &quot;But we&#39;re in a national crisis with an incompetent President forging a full-blown attack on facts and journalism in the style of Hitler and Putin.&quot;

The alt-right news site Daily Caller then dug up offensive tweets Gunn had posted nearly a decade earlier. Social media users called on Disney, which owns Marvel, to drop the filmmaker.

Gunn was removed from the third Guardians of the Galaxy film but was later reinstated after a public apology and talks with Disney studio heads.

But he moved on to the other comics&#39; camp, becoming the co-chairman of DC Studios in 2022. Gunn is the head creator of the DC Universe that was rebooted in 2024 with a slate of new films including Superman.

An &#39;undocumented alien&#39;

Nevertheless, Superman&#39;s origin story was not written by Gunn to provoke &quot;anti-woke&quot; movie-goers, but rather by second-generation Jewish immigrants, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created a superhero that defended the weak in reaction to the rise of Hitler and antisemitism in Europe.



Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1, published in 1938.

Born Kal-El on the planet of Krypton, Baby Superman&#39;s biological parents manage to send him off to Earth before they die in the destruction of their planet. The family who takes on the orphan then fraudulently claims him as their biological son, Clark Kent, to cover up the fact that the child is literally an undocumented alien, a term that is otherwise seen as degrading for migrants.

This aspect of the superhero&#39;s biography was reiterated in 2018 when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees published the book, &quot;Superman was a refugee too.&quot;

A year earlier, Superman protected a group of undocumented immigrants from an armed white supremacist in issue #987 of Action Comics &mdash; which came out shortly after Trump had announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy would be ending. The program allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the US as children to live and work without fear of deportation.

The government use of the term &quot;alien,&quot; which had been banned under the Biden administration, was reinstated at the beginning of 2025. The current Trump administration is also ramping up its crackdown on immigration &mdash; raising alarm over state of US democracy and dividing people in the country.

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.]]>
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