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Platform game Astro Bot led the winners of the 2025 BAFTA Games Awards, which were handed out in London on Tuesday evening, earning five honors, including for best game of the year. The psychological horror game Still Wakes the Deep received three gaming BAFTAs, including two performance honors.

Action-adventure Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II had led the pack with 11 nominations, ahead of Astro Bot and Still Wakes the Deep with six each, with the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Lego Horizon Adventures, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth also earning nods. All contenders for the honors were released between Nov. 25, 2023, and Nov. 15, 2024.

During Tuesday evening’s ceremony in London, Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh took to the stage to hand the BAFTA for a performer in a leading role in a game to Alec Newman for his role as Cameron McLeary in Still Wakes the Deep.

Japanese composer Yoko Shimomura received...

An actor who has appeared in Prometheus, Dark Crystal and Bleachers has warned against signing AI avatar contracts after his face was used to peddle a misleading Venezuela propaganda campaign.

Dan Dewhirst released a statement via UK actors union Equity about his experience in order to warn others.

Dewhirst said he signed a contract in 2021 with tech company Synthesia to become one of the first actors whose likeness would be made into an AI avatar. He auditioned for the avatar part and got it but became suspicious about the wide-ranging clauses in the contract, so he contacted his agent and Equity. Concerns were echoed and Dewhirst said he and his lawyers tried to get the contract changed yet failed, but he was showed the booking confirmation which included stipulations that the avatar can’t be used for illegal or unsavoury purposes, he said.

However, two years later he was sent...

The British sister union of SAG-AFTRA is standing in “total solidarity” with its U.S. counterparts after a strike was called against major video game studios.

SAG-AFTRA had been in talks over a new contract agreement for close to two years. It would cover voice and performance capture workers on titles from Disney Character Voices, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros. Games, Insomniac Games and more. But an impasse over artificial intelligence concerns has resulted in industrial action. “We’re not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse AI to the detriment of our members. Enough is enough,” stated SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. “When these companies get serious about offering an agreement our members can live — and work — with, we will be here, ready to negotiate.”

Now, Equity, the U.K’s performing arts and entertainment trade union, has weighed in. Made up of 50,000 actors, singers, dancers,...

Harvey Weinstein used NDAs against women he had attacked.

UK performing arts and entertainment trade union Equity has published guidance to combat what it describes as “unnecessary, bullying and over-reaching” non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

NDAs are a legal tool, often used by film companies to protect copyright and prevent leaks about forthcoming projects.

However, they have become an increasing cause of concern in recent years as a way of silencing victims of assault or bullying. Disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein was found to have used them against women he had attacked.

Many actors and agents have become concerned that NDAs are being...

Harvey Weinstein used NDAs against women he had attacked.

Equity has published guidance to combat what the UK performing arts and entertainment trade union describes as “unnecessary, bullying and over-reaching” non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

NDAs are a legal tool, often used by film companies to protect copyright and prevent leaks about forthcoming projects.

However, they have become an increasing cause of concern in recent years as a way of silencing victims of assault or bullying. Disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein was found to have used them against women he had attacked.

Many actors and agents have become concerned that NDAs are being...

U.K. performers’ union Equity is fighting back against the increasing use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in the entertainment industry.

NDAs are intended to prevent a participant or prospective participant on a project from leaking details but there is growing concern in the industry about the extent to which they are used. Actors including Gal Gadot, Zendaya and Sophia Di Martino have said they had no idea what project they were even auditioning for when they went up for their roles in “Wonder Woman,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Loki” respectively due to the secrecy around them.

NDAs have also been used in more sinister circumstances to gag victims of harassment and abuse from speaking out about their experiences. Most famously Harvey Weinstein frequently resorted to NDAs to cover up his behavior.

Now, Equity has launched guidance to combat what they term as the “growing use of unnecessary, bullying and over-reaching NDAs across the audio-visual industry.

Exclusive: The UK government is “monitoring what further action is needed” to help commercial insurers return to market and provide commercially viable rates when the £500M ($680M) Film & TV Production Restart Scheme ends on April 30.

A spokesman for the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms) department told Deadline the government is keeping a close eye on how the situation plays out and Deadline understands an industry working group has been set up to support the Scheme’s closure, which will regularly review post-April progress.

The UK government is prepared to intervene if insurers fail to return at commercially viable rates, Deadline understands, while support will be provided during the transition period for the weeks after the Scheme ends.

Following the first lockdown when insurers first started refusing to insure shows for Covid cover, the Scheme was introduced in summer 2020 and has been widely recognized as helping get the...

In the U.K., where the government reduced pandemic masking and social distancing requirements last month, there has been a spike in production shutdowns due to Covid-19 and growing calls for mandatory vaccinations on set.

Throughout July and early August, dozens of productions — including “Bridgerton,” “House of the Dragon” and Steven Spielberg’s “The Masters of the Air” — have shut down, albeit briefly, due to positive cases or key cast and crew having to self-isolate after coming into contact with a positive case.

John Barclay, assistant general secretary (recorded media) of U.K.’s Equity union, acknowledged there has been a flurry of suspended film and TV productions recently due to Covid, but he pointed out that most suspensions were short thanks to industry protocols, including U.K. broadcasters’ guidance, the British Film Commission’s film and TV production code of practice and the Advertising Producers Association’s Covid-19 shooting guidelines.

U.K. broadcasters BBC, ITV and Sky, in association with actors’ union Equity, are drafting enhanced guidance around Covid-19 testing and new standards for close contact among actors, Variety has learned.

Equity has confirmed it is working with the broadcasters to update guidelines around increased coronavirus testing and “arrangements for limited interaction within close contact cohorts.” This would allow the resumption of production where close contact is unavoidable.

Variety understands the enhanced guidelines would be part of and complementary to the main British Film Council and British Film Institute-led high-end film and TV production guidelines, released on May 31, as well as the broadcasters’ TV Production Guidance, released on May 18. They come as Equity’s Recorded Media division continues to receive a number of risk assessments for projects scheduled to resume production shortly.

A BBC spokesperson confirmed that the public broadcaster is consulting with Equity and other unions “to ensure we...

As the U.K.’s film and TV industry looks to restart, a crucial 10-day consultation period is underway on production guidelines that are now circulating across the industry. (Excerpts of the guidelines are published below.)

More than six weeks on from the March 23 lockdown, industry figures such as John McVay, head of producers’ trade body Pact, warns that restarting business “is not like switching a factory back on.”

“A lot of people are saying, ‘You should just do what Denmark or other countries did,’ (but) every country is different. Just because Denmark does it one way, it doesn’t mean it will work here,” McVay tells Variety.

The route to get cameras rolling again has required a complex network of British Film Institute-led working groups on high-end film and TV production, exhibition and distribution, broadcasting and independent film — all of whom have spent more than a month compiling best...

U.K. actors union Equity has agreed a financial support deal with producers and broadcasters for on-screen artists working in continuing dramas such as “EastEnders” and “Coronation Street” following a complete shutdown of production due to coronavirus.

The deal also includes popular soaps such as “Holby,” “Casualty,” “Doctors,” “River City,” “Pobol y Cwm,” “Emmerdale” and “Hollyoaks.”

Equity said it has agreed monthly payments for cast that either meet or come very close to government schemes for employed and self-employed workers, which mean they are likely to receive around 80% of their regular monthly pay or profits up to £2,500 a month.

The union explained that it had “pushed very hard for more, but felt these were the best that could be achieved in light of the difficult economic climate.”

The union describes intense, complex negotiations to secure a deal. “This unprecedented situation is one to which the terms of the collective agreements with the broadcasters and Pact,...

Equity, the British trade union for actors, has negotiated pay for regular cast members on UK television soaps during the coronavirus production shutdown.

Actors on BBC continuing dramas EastEnders, Holby City, Casualty, Doctors, River City and Pobol y Cwm; ITV’s Coronation Street and Emmerdale; and Channel 4’s Hollyoaks will receive monthly payments during the filming hiatus.

More from DeadlineCoronavirus: UK Union Equity Pledges £1M To Support Members In Need, Mark Rylance Leads Contributions & Calls For More HelpCoronavirus: ITV Suspends Production Of Soaps 'Coronation Street' & 'Emmerdale''EastEnders': Coronavirus Postpones Filming On BBC's Flagship Soap; Weekly Air Dates Reduced

The payments will “either meet or come very close to the benchmark” set by government support schemes, which for employed workers pays 80% of wages up to a maximum of £2,500 a month. “We pushed very hard for more, but felt these were the best that could be achieved in light of the difficult economic climate,...

Lana Turner movies: Scandal and more scandal Lana Turner is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" star today, Saturday, August 10, 2013. I’m a little — or rather, a lot — late in the game posting this article, but there are still three Lana Turner movies left. You can see Turner get herself embroiled in scandal right now, in Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life (1959), both the director and the star’s biggest box-office hit. More scandal follows in Mark Robson’s Peyton Place (1957), the movie that earned Lana Turner her one and only Academy Award nomination. And wrapping things up is George Sidney’s lively The Three Musketeers (1948), with Turner as the ruthless, heartless, remorseless — but quite elegant — Lady de Winter. Based on Fannie Hurst’s novel and a remake of John M. Stahl’s 1934 melodrama about mother love, class disparities, racism, and good cooking, Imitation of Life was shown on...