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Paris-based Kinology will handle international sales for “Ogresse,” a musical directed by Grammy-winner Cecile McLorin Salvant and acclaimed animator Lia Bertels.

Spearheaded by Miyu Productions and adapted from a stage show that Salvant has toured since 2019, the animated fable mixes digital 2D and stop-motion alongside a wealth of musical styles ranging from ballads to jazz waltzes to baroque lamentos, setting to song the plight of a misunderstood outsider living alone in the woods and the heartache of young knight sent to fatally win her heart.

After claiming two prizes out of the Annecy Animation Festival’s Mifa pitch session last year, the international co-production has emerged as an industry buzz title, winning support from the likes of Claude Barras, who will co-produce and provide stop-motion assistance through his Lausanne-based Helium Films banner.

Other production partners include Belgium’s Umedia, Luxemburg’s Melusine Productions (“The Swallows of Kabul”) and American music,...

Frances Sternhagen, the character actor best known for her Emmy-nominated turn as Esther Clavin on Cheers, has died. Sternhagen was 93 at the time of her death. Sternhagen's passing was announced on Instagram by her son, actor John Carlin, who revealed she died peacefully at home of natural causes. Born in Washington DC on January 13, 1930, Sternhagen made her Broadway debut in 1955, in The Skin of Our Teeth.

Frances Sternhagen, best known for her roles in Cheers and Sex and the City, dies at age 93. The actress portrayed characters Esther and Bunny in these popular series. John Carlin reports Sternhagen's passing on Instagram.

Actress Frances Sternhagen passes away at the age of 93. Sternhagen was best known for her roles in Sex and the City and Cheers. The actress played characters Esther and Bunny, respectively, in these popular series.

John Carlin reports on Instagram that Sternhagen has died at the age of 93. According to Carlin, Sternhagen passed away “peacefully at her home” on Monday, November 27. In his post, Carlin shared pictures of Sternhagen throughout her life.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by John Carlin (@wassadamo)

With his post, Carlin shared a heartfelt message to the woman he knew as “Frannie. Mom. Frances Sternhagen.” He shared that Sternhagen was “beloved” and a “remarkable gift of an artist.

Tony-winning actress Frances Sternhagen, best known to TV audiences as Cliff Clavin’s mother on Cheers and Dr. Carter’s grandmother on ER, died Monday. She was 93.

Sternhagen’s death was confirmed Wednesday by her son, actor John Carlin, on Instagram.

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“[Frances] died peacefully at her home, a month and a half shy of her 94th birthday,” Carlin wrote. “She was beloved by many. I’m very lucky I was able to call her my mom,...

Frances Sternhagen, the Tony-winning actress known for playing Esther Clavin on the beloved sitcom Cheers has died at the age of 93. News of her death was announced by her son, actor John Carlin, on Instagram. Dying of natural causes, Carlin’s statement to his followers reads: “Frannie. Mom. Frances Sternhagen. On Monday night, Nov 27, she died peacefully at her home, a month and a half shy of her 94th birthday. I will post more soon, but for now I just want to give thanks for the remarkable gift of an artist and human being that was Frances Sternhagen.” “She was beloved by many,” he continued. “I’m very lucky I was able to call her my mom, my friend, my song and dance partner. We were together last week, and we spoke Monday afternoon, said how much we loved and missed one another. I was about to board a plane...

After a year in which Ireland’s major cinematic talking points have come in the form of Martin McDonagh’s sumptuous all-star tragicomedy The Banshees of Inisherin and local-language art house smash The Quiet Girl, it was perhaps time for something a touch sillier to take center stage.

Apocalypse Clown — an insane comedy in which a troupe of washed-up and failed clowns chaotically traverse Ireland after the world is plunged into anarchy following a blackout — has won the top prize at the 35th annual Galway Film Fleadh on the west coast of the country. The film, the directorial scripted debut of George Kane and written by Kane alongside Demian Fox, Shane O’Brien and James Walmsley, was named best Irish film Sunday night at an awards ceremony that took place before the festival’s closing film, the Cyndi Lauper doc Let the Canary Sing.

Apocalypse Clown had its world premiere in...

The 35th Galway Film Fleadh ended Sunday evening with the Competition jury handing the festival’s top prizes of Best Irish Film to Apocalypse Clown, directed by George Kane, and the Generation Jury Award to Scrapper by Charlotte Regan.

Written by Demian Fox, George Kane, Shane O’Brien, and James Walmsley and produced by Morgan Bushe and James Dean, Apocalypse Clown follows a troupe of failed clowns as they embark on a chaotic road trip of self-discovery after a mysterious solar event plunges the world into anarchy. Scrapper, which stars Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness), follows Georgie, a dreamy 12-year-old girl who lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Suddenly, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality.

Also among the winners on the night was Lie of The Land, directed by John Carlin. Written by Tara Hegarty and produced by Chris Patterson and Margaret McGoldrick,...

Three-time Grammy winner Cécile McLorin Salvant will team with French studio Miyu Productions and Belgian animator Lia Bertels on “Ogresse,” a wry and irreverent fairytale inspired by a narrative performance piece the musician has toured since 2019.

Described as a murder ballad set to a jazz tempo, the animated musical will hit tragicomic notes as it follows a forest-dwelling ogress, ostracized because of her physical difference and pursued by a young hunter determined to claim her heart in either love or combat. Salvant and Bertels — one a lauded vocalist and one a festival acclaimed auteur – will co-direct, marking their joint feature debut adapting the show for the big screen.

“‘Ogresse’ is a love story inspired by my own experiences,” says Cécile McLorin Salvant. “It explores self-love and beauty ideals with a brave, complex, sometimes cruel and always endearing heroine. It will be an eclectic, dense, rich, and genderless film that will...

Twenty years ago, the AIDS-awareness nonprofit Red Hot unveiled Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti, a tribute record that recruited over three dozen artists in celebration of the Nigerian musician. Now, after two decades, the record has been made available on streaming for the first time.

Red Hot + Riot: A Tribute to Fela Kuti received an update for the streaming era on its newly released deluxe reissue, which features two hours of previously unreleased alternate versions and additional covers previously trimmed down to accommodate the format of a physical CD.

There may be a presidential election afoot in the U.S, but Washington also has some other pressing issues on its mind. In the latest instance of a member of Congress stressing urgency to review Chinese investment in American media companies, John Culberson (R-tx) has written to Assistant Attorney General John Carlin and specifically asked him to take seriously the moves of Dalian Wanda Group in the industry. In a letter dated today and obtained by Deadline (read it here)…...

The Dalian Wanda Group’s Hollywood acquisitions are under more scrutiny from U.S. politicians. In a letter Thursday, Rep. John Culberson, a Texas Republican, asked the Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin to re-examine a registration act that would address “foreign lobbying and propaganda efforts in the United States, especially by countries like China and Russia.” The Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara) has not been reviewed since 1990, according to Culberson, and should be deployed so the U.S. does not “allow Chinese state-controlled companies a significant degree of control over the financing and content of American media.