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New films from Wissam Charaf, whose sophomore feature “Dirty Difficult Dangerous” premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, and San Sebastian prize winner Imanol Rayo (“Two Brothers”) are among the 14 projects selected for this year’s Crossroads Co-Production Forum at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

The event, which takes places onsite and online from Nov. 7 – 11, presents a slate of films in development from Southeast Europe, the Middle East, the Black Sea and the wider Mediterranean region to an audience of co-producers, distributors, festival programmers and sales agents.

The selection features works from 13 countries, including nine directors making their feature debuts, representing a range of styles, genres and dramatic themes, from a coming-of-age story about two strangers brought together in pursuit of a lost backpack (“Lost Years”) to the tale of a disconsolate lover determined to make his ailing partner happy at any cost (“Love Thy Neighbor”), and a pulled-from-the-headlines crime...

Miley Cyrus was one of the first celebrities to adapt to the new Covid-19 world order. Not long after stay-at-home rules were implemented, the singer-actor launched “Bright Minded,” a talk show on Instagram Live with a guest list that has included Elton John, Demi Lovato, Kerry Washington and Selena Gomez. “I loved how there was really no pressure. It was like, if the show went over, if the show had some tech problems, it was just about doing it for the love of it,” she says on Tuesday’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket.”

Asked if she’s developing “Bright Minded” as a television talk show, Cyrus teases, “We’ll see.”

Before the pandemic, the former “Hannah Montana” star dipped back into acting with a starring role in an episode of the Netflix anthology series “Black Mirror.” She plays Ashley O, a seemingly happy pop...

Above: Italian personality poster for Hedy Lamarr. Art by Sergio Gargiulo.Once promoted as “Hollywood’s No. 1 Glamour Girl,” Hedy Lamar (1914-2000) was much more than a pretty face, as the new documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story gloriously attests. Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Austria, Lamarr was catapulted to fame as the star of the scandalous 1933 Czech import Ecstasy, in which she appeared nude (and ecstatic). In America she became one of the biggest stars of the 1940s, often called the most beautiful woman in Hollywood, a designation she thought of as a curse. But she was also blessed with a curious and inventive mind. As an amateur inventor she pioneered what is known as “frequency hopping” during World War II to prevent the Nazis jamming Allied torpedoes, a technology which has become the basis of Bluetooth and Wi-fi. With that in mind, it might seem perverse to...

Frankfort, Ky. — U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is gearing up for a tough re-election fight next year in Kentucky.

He wants to prevent one, too.

McConnell is trying to head off a Gop primary challenge by cozying up to the tea party. He's also trying to scare off potential Democratic contenders – actress Ashley Judd is one – by providing a glimpse of his no-holds-barred political tactics.

The strategy seems to be working, so far. No serious Republican opponent has emerged. Democrats haven't fielded a candidate yet, though Judd, a Kentucky native who lives in Tennessee, is considering a run. She would have to re-establish a residence in Kentucky before she could challenge McConnell.

The lack of an opponent hasn't kept McConnell from sounding an alarm over his potential vulnerability. It's a tactic rooted in reality and intended to help raise money.

"We know that President Obama's allies in...

To tie in with the essential Complete Vincente Minnelli series running all this month at Bam, I started looking at Minnelli posters with the hope of finding something interesting. Surely the most stylish of Hollywood auteurs would have bounteous posters to match his visual élan and dazzling color palette. However, with the exception of the iconic Gigi poster, an oddity like The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, or the two striking 1970 designs for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, most of his posters are fairly conventional illustrations on the order of The Pirate.

One poster that caught my eye though was this alternative poster for Designing Woman (1957) (the better known version is this). A photographed 3-dimensional montage made out of cut up paper, cloth and other objects, the collage is the work of Romanian emigré Jacques Kapralik (1906-1960). A talented caricaturist who drew cartoons for newspapers in Bucharest while still a teenager,...

With Shadow Chaser, Alexey Pehov once again delivers the goods. His sequel to Shadow Prowler is a fantasy novel full of action, adventure, swords and sorcery, and the peerless thievery of the hero of The Chronicles of Siala series, Shadow Harold. This time, though he likes to work alone, the only way he can fulfill his promised Commission to the king and bring back the Rainbow Horn is to rely on the help of the small retinue of warriors (the Wild Hearts) and magic users that the king has assigned him. To accomplish his goal, he must use the Crimson Key and journey to the underground palaces and labyrinths of Hrad Spein, where ogres, orcs, elves, and men have buried their fallen warriors. Easier said than done, when the Key has been wrested from his control by men working for the Nameless One, who is stirring after centuries of relative peace,...