‘2023 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation’ Review: ‘The Boy’ and His Ilk Mark a High-Water Year

Manchester United centre-back Raphael Varane has admitted that he expects to finish his playing career at one of three clubs.

SZA was joined by Lizzo and Phoebe Bridgers during the final show of her North American ‘SOS’ arena tour – check out fan-shot footage below.SZA’s ‘SOS’ tour kicked off last month and ended Thursday evening (March 23) with a show at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum.During the gig, Phoebe Bridgers joined SZA onstage to perform their collaborative track ‘Ghost In The Machine’. The pair had previously performed the song together at a show at Madison Square Garden earlier this month.Towards the end of the set, SZA was also joined by Lizzo to perform their remix of the latter’s ‘Special’.

A national food critic has heaped praise on a new Manchester restaurant that she’s described as ‘pointedly bonkers’.

Online shopping often feels like the dream option to avoid the weekend rush in your local supermarket as you battle the queues while doing your weekly big shop. But one of the biggest downfalls to doing to picking out your meals for the following week, and those additional treats, is that if they're not available, you can't choose what to get instead.

Lawrence Okolie fights in Manchester on Saturday night, with a defence of his WBO cruiserweight world title against New Zealand's David Light.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Doug and Kris Tompkins’ dream sounded like a fanciful one. Seduced by a region of ravishing South American wilderness in which they found particular sanctuary, and wishing to protect it from any insensitive or unseemly development, they landed on a solution both simple and absurd-sounding: Why not simply buy as much of it as possible? Backed by the fortune they’d collectively amassed from the clothing industry — Doug as the founder of Esprit and The North Face, Kris as the former CEO of Patagonia — the couple successfully parlayed business tycoon status into an unprecedented scale of eco-activism: As one talking head notes in “Wild Life,” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s soaring documentary tribute to the Tompkins’ romance and shared conservationist mission, they “could do anything, and chose to do anything.”

Jessica Kiang If for any reason you’ve recently been feeling complacent about global security, international relations and oh, you know, little things like the continued existence of the species, here to herald the end of all that comes Tonje Hessen Schei and Michael Rowley’s “Praying for Armageddon,” a glossy, persuasive and increasingly alarming documentary exposing the influence of the fundamentalist Christian lobby on US politics.  Loosely tracking the investigative sleuthing done by Lee Fang, a reporter at The Intercept, but also taking ample time with parachurch pastors, GOP politicians, Israeli and Palestinian observers and Mission: M25 — an evangelical biker gang who traverse the country on compact-car-sized motorcycles proselytizing and occasionally knighting one another with swords — Schei and co-director/cinematographer Rowley’s film can feel a little scattershot, as it lops off one of the Hydra heads of this malign movement, only for two or three more to sprout in its place.

Succession is coming to an end with its fourth and final season.Created by Jesse Armstrong, the HBO comedy-drama series follows the internal power struggle within the Roy family, the owners of media conglomerate WayStar Royco, amid mounting concerns around the health of patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox).At the end of the show’s third season, Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) tipped off Logan about the Roy siblings’ plan to prevent the company from merging with rival GoJo – creating a sharp dividing line between Logan and his children.Armstrong confirmed season four would be the show’s last in February. “You know, there’s a promise in the title of Succession,” he said.

Jessica Kiang The busy public hospital in the Parisian suburb of Clichy has one psychiatrist on staff. Every day, as doggedly tracked by the nervy handheld camera of Nicolas Peduzzi’s “On the Edge,” he deals with some of the most intractable afflictions the hospital ever sees. His patients, often referred to him after being treated for other ailments, can be mentally ill, traumatized, addicted, depressed, suicidal or any combination thereof. After Claire Simon’s wonderful “Our Body” and Nicolas Philibert’s Golden Bear winner “On the Adamant,” this CPH:DOX award winner is the third major doc in about as many weeks to be set deep in the belly of the French healthcare system, and while it is its own, remarkable achievement, it also merits the comparison. 

St Mirren Women midfielder Jennifer Caldwell believes a winning finale to crown their top-six finish this weekend will prove just how far the club have come.

If there's one time you can eat chocolate guilt free it's Easter and there's no shortage of treats on the supermarket shelves.

With pretty boutiques housed in a patchwork of historic buildings along its bustling High Street, Tarporley is a thriving village community in the heart of Cheshire. It has won countless "best kept village" awards over the years, has a Royal connection, and can now add the accolade of being named one of the Best Places to Live in the UK by The Sunday Times.

Christina Hall started her weekend on a somber note after revealing an unexpected death that has affected her family.The Flip of Flop star – who only recently enjoyed a reunion with her lookalike daughter – took to Instagram to share the upsetting news, revealing that one of her beloved pet chickens was attacked and killed by a "predator". Christina shared several photos of the bird, including one of him surrounded by her children, Taylor, 12, and Braydon, seven.WATCH: Christina Hall's son gives a tour of his new Tennessee homeDetailing her heartbreak, Christina penned: "We lost our sweet Hennifer / Bennifer to a predator who got into our pen. Josh was in Tennessee last weekend and found a pile of feathers.

It’s Saturday and one star sign will be proud of a career success, while another enjoys a change of scenery. There are 12 zodiac signs - Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces - and the horoscopes for each can give you the lowdown on what your future holds, be it in work, your love life, your friends and family or more. These daily forecasts have been compiled by astrologer Russell Grant, who has been reading star signs for over 50 years.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have “no option” but to attend King Charles’ Coronation in May, according to a royal expert. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s high profile media work relies on them being royals so to snub such a historic occasion would damage their chances of landing lucrative contracts in the future, commentator Richard Fitzwilliams exclusively told OK!. Harry, 38, was reported to have secured a £16 million, four-book deal with Penguin Random House - the publisher of his explosive memoir Spare.

Variety asked editors Peter Debruge, Clayton Davis, Tim Gray, and Jenelle Riley, to answer four questions about this past year in film and discuss its standout moments. The questions are: 1. How would you rate 2022’s films against previous years? 2. What was the most important issue this year for the industry?  3. What film inspired you the most this year?

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic While Peter Farrelly was off winning Oscars for “Green Book,” younger brother Bobby has been largely absent from feature directing. It’s been nearly a decade since the siblings shared credit — the last time being 2014’s “Dumb and Dumber To.” Now, rather than competing with Peter at the respectability game, Bobby sticks to what he knows with “Champions,” in which Woody Harrelson plays a minor-league basketball coach court-ordered to assist a Special Olympics team for 90 days — just long enough to take the team from bumbling incompetents to national finalists. There are zero surprises in “Champions,” unless you count the not-inconsiderable shock that such a movie exists at all. A remake of 2018 Spanish box office sensation “Campeones,” this awkward (if presumably well-intentioned) comedy might have felt enlightened 25 years ago — back when “Forrest Gump” was an Oscar favorite — but today makes for a patronizing portrayal of people with intellectual disabilities. That’s still better than no portrayal at all, I suppose, and there’s some satisfaction to be had in watching Harrelson’s character overcome his prejudices — reflected by using the “boo-boo word” that starts with “R” — and grow to see these amateur athletes for more than their limitations. But did the film (little more than a “Role Models” redux) have to paint its players as such extreme incompetents from the outset?

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Of the 10 films up for best picture, no fewer than six run 199 minutes or more. On one extreme, James Cameron’s punishing “Avatar” sequel is long enough to require bathroom breaks. At the other, Daniels’ ADHD-styled “Everything Everywhere All at Once” proves equally exhausting, dedicating every hyperkinetic second to stimulating easily distracted audiences. It’s enough to make folks grateful for the lower-profile but still engaging live-action shorts category, where nominees are bound by a strict 40-minute time limit. This year’s crop — the so-so “2023 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action” program — clocks in at under two hours. Available in theaters and on myriad streaming platforms, the international assembly may be a hit-and-miss affair, but never outstays its welcome.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Presented largely from the point of view of two children, Mexican director Lila Avilés’ intimate, emotionally rich Berlin competition entry “Tótem” immerses audiences in a boisterous family gathering, where a handful of adult siblings have gathered to celebrate the birthday of their brother, a painter named Tonatiuh (Mateo Garcia). “Tona” is barely seen for most of the movie, confined to a back room where he refuses visitors. Naturally, this confuses 7-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes), who spends the day wandering the house alone, building a pillow fort in the living room or collecting snails in the garden. “Sometimes I feel like my dad doesn’t love me when he says he doesn’t want to see me,” Sol confides to her father’s trusted nurse, Cruz (Teresita Sánchez, the lone carryover from Avilés’ exceptional 2018 debut, “The Chambermaid”). Your heart can’t help but break a little in that moment, for by this time, Avilés has already provided enough clues for us to sketch out the rough situation in our heads.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic “Luther: The Fallen Sun” starts by punishing its protagonist — scruffy, cross-the-line Detective Chief Inspector John Luther (Idris Elba) — for all his past sins after the franchise’s latest villain, played by Andy Serkis, releases details of Luther’s rule-bending tactics to the media. On the phone with some kind of Estonian henchman, Serkis’ Robey implies that it will be tricky to dig up the dirt on Luther because “he doesn’t have much of an online presence,” but the next thing we know, Luther’s being tossed into a high-security prison. Guess they got their hands on the past five seasons of the BBC Television series. Or maybe the last episode was enough — although we won’t retroactively give it away here, for those who haven’t dedicated the past dozen years to following Luther’s exploits. Suffice to say, this was the role that got people speculating that Elba might make a suitable replacement when Daniel Craig decided to retire his license to kill. Like Craig’s 21st-century 007, Luther was a darker, more tortured kind of action hero, torn between a constipated psychology and his locomotive drive to capture and punish wrongdoers.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Tapping into the Japanese national zeitgeist once again with “Suzume,” writer-director Makoto Shinkai surpasses his peers in making films for and about teenagers. Now 50 years old, the anime master christened his latest blockbuster after its heroine, Suzume Iwato (voiced by Nanoka Hara), a 17-year-old orphan on the southwestern island of Kyushu swept up in a cross-country trip to prevent a series of natural disasters. That such a responsibility should fall to someone so young is typical of his oeuvre (see “Weathering With You”), but also an apt way of illustrating the lingering trauma and vulnerability that adolescents feel in many parts of Japan. Funnier and more streamlined than Shinkai’s earlier hypercharged toon epics, “Suzume” is a massive hit in its home country, where it has earned more than $100 million since opening last November — his third film to pass that milestone. The film made its international premiere at the Berlinale, one of two animated features in official competition (the other being Chinese director Liu Jian’s “Art College 1994”). Theatrical releases are scheduled to follow in most countries on or around April 13.