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The Red Sea International Film Festival on Wednesday unveiled the lineups for its New Vision and Series strands at the event’s fourth edition in December, featuring new Saudi voices, the Vatican, a new Zorro series with The Artist star Jean Dujardin, an English historian, a deep dive into Turkish telenovela series, and a lot of art. “This year marks the first time Saudi works have been selected in New Vision, underscoring the vibrant evolution of local and regional cinema, while the Series strand highlights exciting new voices from the small screen with four new international television shows,” organizers highlighted.

The 2024 edition of the Rsiff takes place Dec. 5-14 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia after a star-studded 2023 festival.

Four out of the five films in the Red Sea: New Vision strand are Saudi movies. “Saudi voices take center stage this year alongside a diverse selection of international films and series, highlighting...

Keshet International has set its slate for Mipcom, with highlights including thriller “Too Much Love,” docuseries “Sas: Catching the Criminals” and rom-com “Save the Date.”

“Too Much Love” (“L’homme qui aimait trop”) from Slovakian prodco Piknik Pictures is an eight-episode thriller with a twist based on Duo Productions’ Canadian format. It tells the story of a man whose two wives meet for the first time after he is hospitalized following a car accident. The show is set to premiere in Slovakia this September on free-to-air broadcaster TV Joj.

Factual series “Sas: Catching the Criminals” is a 10-part acquisition (format and tape) from Double Act about an ex-Sas leader who works alongside Britain’s enforcement agencies to deploy covert intelligence, surveillance and disruption tactics against offenders. It is expected to premiere on the BBC in the U.K. this fall.

“Save the Date,” which Variety exclusively unveiled on Wednesday,...

BAFTA has announced the winners of the BAFTA Television Craft Awards, presented at a ceremony held on Sunday night in London. The awards celebrate the creativity, skill, and craft of behind-the-scenes television talent and the best programs of 2023.

The following won two BAFTAs each:

Charlie Brooker and Bisha K Ali won the Writer Drama category and Stephan Pehrsson won for Photography & Lighting Fiction for Demon 79 (Black Mirror). Nikki Parsons, Ollie Bartlett and Richard Valentine won the Director: Multi-camera category, and Julio Himede, Tim Routledge, Kojo Samuel, Michael Sharp and Dan Shipton won Entertainment Craft Team for Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The Editing Team behind Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland won Editing: Factual and the documentary’s composer Simon Russell won Original Music: Factual. Atli Örvarsson won Original Music: Fiction and Gavin Bocquet and Amanda Bernstein won Production Design for their work on Silo. The Sound Team behind Slow Horses won Sound: Fiction,...

Exclusive: Warrior Women With Lupita Nyong’o, a documentary about a forgotten female army, is heading to Smithsonian Channel.

The Paramount Global-owned cable network will launch the doc, which was originally commissioned by Channel 4 in the UK, in the U.S. on Monday March 28. It will also air on its network in Latin America later this year.

It forms part of its Women’s History Month programming.

In the one-off film, the Black Panther star journeys across Benin, West Africa to uncover the ‘Agoji’ – or as Europeans labelled them, the ‘Amazons’ – who helped inspire the Dora Milaje of Marvel’s film.

These armies, of up to 4,000 women, fought African and European powers from the 17th to the 19th centuries in the Kingdom of Dahomey.

Warrior Women was produced SandStone Global Productions, which has produced Bettany Hughes-fronted docs including Egypt’s Greatest Treasures and The Nile: Egypt’s...

Black Panther and Us star Lupita Nyong’o is to search for a forgotten female army in a documentary for British broadcaster Channel 4.

The network has commissioned Warrior Women with Lupita Nyong’o (w/t), which will see the actress, who also appeared in 12 Years A Slave, journey across Benin, West Africa to uncover the ‘Agoji’ – or as Europeans labelled them, the ‘Amazons’.

These armies, of up to 4,000 women, fought African and European powers from the 17th to the 19th centuries in the Kingdom of Dahomey, not too dissimilar to Marvel’s Black Panther story.

The one-off doc is produced SandStone Global Productions, which has produced Bettany Hughes-fronted docs including Egypt’s Greatest Treasures and The Nile: Egypt’s Great River for Viacom’s Channel 5.

It was ordered by Channel 4’s Commissioning Editor, Specialist Factual Shaminder Nahal.

Nahal said, “Lupita Nyong’o’s investigation into the...

Baroness Oona King to chair event at BAFTA, speakers include Danny Cohen, Ben Roberts, Bettany Hughes, Lenny Henry, Pat Younge, Damian Jones.

Screen International and sister publication Broadcast, in collaboration with Creative Skillset and FilmLondon, are to host a one-day forum aimed at improving diversity in the UK film and TV industries.

Diversify, a free one-day event at BAFTA on November 13, chaired by C4 diversity executive and BFI board member Baroness Oona King, will bring together leading film and TV industry professionals, policymakers, on-screen talent and pressure groups to tackle a range of topics including on screen portrayal, women in film and TV, the extent to which the industries are a closed shop and the loss of black talent to the Us (in a panel co-hosted with the Royal Television Society).

In addition, there will be panels addressing practical ways to improve diversity both in front of and behind the camera and an ask the experts session...

Baroness Oona King to chair event at BAFTA, speakers include Danny Cohen, Ben Roberts, Bettany Hughes, Lenny Henry, Pat Younge, Damian Jones.

Screen International and sister publication Broadcast, in collaboration with Creative Skillset and FilmLondon, are to host a one-day forum aimed at improving diversity in the UK film and TV industries.

Diversify, a free one-day event at BAFTA on November 13, chaired by C4 diversity executive and BFI board member Baroness Oona King, will bring together leading film and TV industry professionals, policymakers, on-screen talent and pressure groups to tackle a range of topics including on screen portrayal, women in film and TV, the extent to which the industries are a closed shop and the loss of black talent to the Us (in a panel co-hosted with the Royal Television Society).

In addition, there will be panels addressing practical ways to improve diversity both in front of and behind the camera and an ask the experts session...

PBS's Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World is a sightseeing tour and a “Buddhism for Dummies” overview of a religion that is extremely hard to pin down. The filmmakers get beautiful views of some of Buddhism's most important monuments and places of worship, and host/historian Bettany Hughes gets to sit down with a variety of modern-day practitioners, monks, and other historians to discuss Buddhism's history and what it is today.

I studied Buddhism throughout high school and college, and I was glad I had that background knowledge going into Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World. If I had gone in not knowing anything about Buddhism, I probably would have walked away very confused by the seemingly conflicting ideas and practices. One scene in particular that could have used more explanation or scrutiny was the eager parents bringing their children for a blessing. For being a faith that has tried...

A debut novel that reinterprets Homer's Iliad is the latest in an array of works to be inspired by the classics

When Madeline Miller won the Orange prize for fiction last week for her debut novel The Song of Achilles, it seemed only natural to wonder how the mythical Greek hero of her book might celebrate. "I think he'd do it in a very epic way," she says, laughing. "And luckily one of the lovely sponsors [of the prize] gave me a very large bottle of champagne."

Miller's book, written in her spare time while she taught Latin in Us secondary schools, is based on Homer's Iliad and vividly reimagines the story of Patroclus, the brother-in-arms of Achilles. Although Miller's inspiration was ancient, her themes are undoubtedly modern: The Song of Achilles charts the deep and loving relationship between these two, same-sex characters in a time of war and brutality.

"I...

DVD Playhouse – May 2012

By Allen Gardner

Shame (20th Century Fox) Director Steve McQueen’s harrowing portrait of a Manhattan sex addict (Michael Fassbender, in the year’s most riveting performance) whose psyche goes into overload when his equally-troubled sister (Carey Mulligan) visits unexpectedly. Exquisitely-made on every level, save for the screenplay, which makes its point after about thirty minutes. While it tries hard to be a modern-day Last Tango in Paris, this fatal flaw makes it fall somewhat short. The much- ballyhooed sex scenes and frontal nudity are the least-interesting things about the film, incidentally, which is still a must-see for discriminating adults who seek out challenging material. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.

Being John Malkovich (Criterion) Spike Jonze’s madcap film of Charlie Kaufman’s script, regarding a socially-disenfranchised puppeteer (John Cusack) who finds a portal into the mind of actor...

The story of Elizabeth Taylor's jewellery was disgustingly decadent, absurd – and thrilling

I speak to you as one who has every biography of Elizabeth Taylor ever published neatly arrayed on her bookshelves and thoroughly read. They are in my Hollywood film section, which also comprises juicy, glittering hardbacks full of juicy, glittering facts – or, far more likely, factoids and outright, fabulous lies – about the lives of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, James Dean, Montgomery Clift and all the glorious rest of them, and the even-more-fabulously-ridiculous autobiographies of gossip-column queens Hedda Hopper and Sheilah Graham. Louella Parsons' is literally in the post.

So (apart from the fact that I will go to my grave regretting that I did not manage to buy one of the six-volume catalogues that accompanied the sale at Christie's last year) I'm afraid I couldn't have been happier last night, luxuriating in Elizabeth Taylor: The...

Sky One’s new comedy drama Mount Pleasant started last night with them gloating a star-studded cast and a show written by Sarah Hooper off of Shameless. The shows lead role of Lisa is played by Sally Lindsay who was reportedly really happy and excited by the new show and Sky One website even claims she ‘raves’ about it. From what I’ve gathered it’s meant to be a sort of British Desperate Housewives style look at suburban life and all the “nonsense” that comes with it. I can definitely say that if felt desperate and there were some housewives in it.

The first episode begins with Lisa being dropped off in town by her husband of ten years Dan (Daniel Ryan) and a tiny piece of dialogue that reads, Dan, “have a nice afternoon”, then Lisa, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do”, and then in unison they both say,...

Todd Haynes' Mildred Pierce looks really sumptuous – if only there was something actually happening

My local video rental place didn't have a copy of Michael Curtiz's 1945 film Mildred Pierce for which Joan Crawford won an Oscar; and I spent an unsuccessful evening trying to download it (legally, illegally, who knows, surely it's so ancient it doesn't matter?) from the internet. I have seen it but clearly I don't remember it well enough to make any meaningful comparison between it and Todd Haynes's new five-part HBO mini-series version of Mildred Pierce (Sky Atlantic, Saturday). I can picture Crawford, in all the pomp and glory of 1940s Hollywood melodrama, Acting with a capital A.

Kate Winslet's new Mildred is subtler and more nuanced. It's a beautiful performance, of a woman in dowdy dresses struggling to maintain her social status in the depression of the the 1930s. When we first meet her,...

Getty Orange Prize winner Tea Obreht with her novel, “The Tiger’s Wife”

Tea Obreht was named the winner of Britain’s Orange Prize this week for her debut novel, “The Tiger’s Wife,” beating Emma Donoghue, Nicole Krauss, and three other women also on the shortlist. Obreht’s novel, set in the embattled Balkans, combines fantasy with realism . At 25 years old, Obreht is the youngest winner of the Orange Prize, which celebrates and promotes fiction written by women.

In announcing the winner,...

The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Fred Weekend Shopping Guide - your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…

(Please support Fred by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)

Warners has been dipping into their vaults for many high definition releases of their classic films, and the films starring Humphrey Bogart have been getting particularly nice attention, starting with their beautiful restoration of Casablanca and now continuing with a one-two punch of both The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 Srp each), both getting restorations as nicely...

A New British movie is to tell the story of the ancient cataclysm that's believed to be the basis for the Atlantis legend.

The BBC has announced the TV film, to be called Atlantis and directed by Primeval's Tony Mitchell, will "tell the dramatic story of the greatest natural disaster to shake the ancient world, a disaster that triggered the downfall of a civilisation and spawned a legend."

The film will be made using the same techniques as Zack Snyder's Spartan war epic 300 and will be accompanied by a documentary looking at the historical evidence.

Around 1620 BC a gigantic volcano in the Aegean Sea stirred from its 19,000-year slumber.

The eruption tore apart the island of Thera, producing massive tsunamis that flooded the nearby island of Crete, the centre of Europe's first great civilisation - the Minoans.

This apocalyptic event, many experts now believe, provided the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis.