‘Daliland’ Toronto Review: Ben Kingsley Nails The Salvador Dali Impression But The TIFF Closer Just Isn’t That Artful

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks Int’l has snapped up worldwide rights to Portugal’s first stop motion animated feature “My Grandfather’s Demons,” the debut animated pic by Nuno Beato. According to FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud, it was able to outbid other contenders for the toon, which had its world premiere at Annecy. “One of the hardest tasks for my acquisition team, run by Santiago Migdal, is to find a true animation gem, not only aesthetically but narratively where the use of different animation techniques makes the story fly even higher,” said Rud. 

Strictly Come Dancing couple Janette Manrara and Aljaž Škorjanec are currently learning to live like a normal couple as they focus on their separate careers, after 8 years on the hit dance show. And in our exclusive shoot, the couple open up about the emotional shift in their relationship and reveal why the time apart has brought them closer than ever.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Paris-based sales and co-production banner Have A Good One (HAGO), has boarded two new series, “Sex (re) Education” (“Septième Ciel”) and “Caro Nostra,” in the run up to Mipcom, the Cannes TV market. “Sex (re) Education” is a 10-part half-hour comedy series directed by Alice Vial, who won the Cesar Award in 2018 with her short “The Winkles.” The series, penned by Clémence Azincourt, Clement Marchand and Vial, follows Jacques, an pensioner who has been placed by his daughter in a retirement home. When he thinks his life is over, he meets Rose and embarks on a passionate and lustful affair, wrecking havoc in the residence. The cast includes Irene Jacob, the well-known actor of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Rouge.” Ordered by French pay TV group OCS, the show recently won best series at La Rochelle Fiction Festival and is produced by Next Episode, Henri Debeurme’s UGC-backed company.

Intimate relationships will be a key theme for many signs of the zodiac today - while Leo arranges a get away with a partner to reignite the lost spark, Virgo will be surprised when a friendship blossoms into something more romantic. 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.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Banijay Group CEO Marco Bassetti may be making a smart marketing move by delivering a Mipcom keynote on Oct. 18, but the Italian executive insists that “PR, for us, comes after.” At the first major TV market for the “Survivor” distributor since its $2.2 billion acquisition of Endemol Shine Group in 2020, Bassetti has a clear message: Producers, including Banijay, need a more equitable business model against the streamers. “It’s the golden age of content, but I’m not sure it’s the golden age of revenue share for producers,” Bassetti tells Variety from Banijay Group’s Paris headquarters in late September. “We need to be careful if we want to continue creating value in the industry. We need to fight to allow producers to keep their model as it was before.”

Liza Foreman CANNES – REinvent International Sales has sold the refugee drama ‘Lost’ to AMC Networks for Spain and Portugal. The Scandi production-distribtion shingle is presenting the title to buyers at this week’s Mipcom TV market in Cannes. Created by Ulf Ryberg (“Headhunters,” “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”), the drama thriller tells the story of a truck driver smuggling a group of Syrian refugees into Sweden in his truck. An upsetting phone call from his soon to be ex-wife, leaves the refugees struggling for air, when his mind wanders off them.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The Temple of Dendur in the Egyptian art wing of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the most unique and visually arresting places in a city filled with them, containing the 2,000-year-old Temple itself along with other sculptures and pieces of art, a large reflecting pool and a giant, 25-foot-tall floor-to-ceiling window that extends the entire length of the hall and overlooks Central Park. It also may be the most unique and visually arresting music venue in the city. Over the years the room has hosted concerts by everyone from Interpol to the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, but it’s hard to think of a more fitting artist for such a setting than Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab, who won a Grammy earlier this year for her song “Mohabbat” from her latest album “Vulture Prince,” and was also nominated for Best New Artist.

Critically acclaimed actor Tom Hardy shocked the internet after he snuck into a martial arts competition and beat all of his opponents over the weekend.  The 45-year-old entered the 2022 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Open Championship using his less-known first name, Edward, according to The Guardian.The competition was hosted by the Ultimate Martial Arts Championships in Milton Keynes, approximately 90 minutes north of London.  Actor Tom Hardy attends "The Drop" premiere during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival at Princess of Wales Theatre on Sept. 5, 2014 in Toronto, Canada.

Lise Pedersen Oscar-winning animation film producer Nicolas Schmerkin (“Logorama,” 2010) has revealed his Paris-based outfit Autour de Minuit has signed a pre-development agreement with Franco-German TV channel Arte for its latest project, “Fucking Cat”, which is being pitched at this week’s Cartoon Forum in Toulouse. An adaptation of Belgian author Stéphane Lapuss’ “Putain de Chat” comic book series, “Fucking Cat” tells the story of Moustique, the talking cat, who, like all cats, hates humans and would like to get rid of his master but faces the dilemna of how to become master of the world without giving up his cat food. Both Lapuss and co-author Lionel Bonnal will assist in penning the adaptation. 

Tom Hardy, 45, shocked Milton Keynes residents when he rocked up to compete in a martial arts tournament this weekend.The Dark Knight Rises actor further amazed fans when he won the competition. Tom created quite a buzz when he took part in the Ultimate Martial Arts Championship (UMAC) Brazilian jiu-jitsu Open 2022, at Buckinghamshire town's Oakgrove School.The Mad Max star, who is an accomplished blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu, took home a gold medal after showing off his impressive moves.The actor dressed in a blue jiu-jitsu gi, which at points when opened revealed the many tattoos covering his chest.The star eventually beat his final opponent, securing his victory in the competition by an arm bar submission.A spokesperson for the UMAC told the MK Citizen: "Tom was a really nice guy. “Everyone recognised him but he was very humble and was happy to take time out for people to take photographs with him."It was a real pleasure to have him compete at our event,” the spokesperson added.According to the Daily Mail, Tom secretly arranged to participate in the tournament with the event organisers weeks beforehand.The paper reports event sponsor Sean Rosborough saying: “We found out he was coming probably a couple of weeks before.“He was brilliant. A lot of people were asking for photos, and coming up to him, and he had no problem with that at all. “The mums were all over him.

Instagram account, which boasts 304,000 followers, television presenter Matt Baker posted a video of himself painting what he referred to as “big art” as a way to say “thank you” to the late monarch.The timelapse then showed the 44-year-old as he painted a Coldstream Guard in uniform and a bearskin cap.The soldier depicted in the painting had their head slightly bowed out of respect for the late monarch.Captioning the video, Matt added: “Rest In Peace. #thankyou #thequeen #art #painting #timelapseart.”The impressive dedication to the Queen immediately gained traction from Matt’s celebrity friends and within two hours of being posted, gained more than 16,000 likes.Presenter Julia Bradbury commented: “Beautiful, Baker Boy.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic There’s a genre I like so much I can never get enough of it — I call it the Biopic About Someone You Wouldn’t Make a Biopic About. The form came into existence, in a certain way, with “Sid and Nancy,” but it was all but patented by the screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who planted it on the map, in 1994, with “Ed Wood” (still the “Citizen Kane” of the genre), then went on to script “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” “Man on the Moon” (about Andy Kaufman), “Big Eyes” (about the painter Walter Keane and his wife, Margaret, who turned out to be the painter behind the throne), and “Dolemite Is My Name” (about the fluky hustler-comedian Ray Moore). There have been films in the genre from other quarters, like Paul Schrader’s superb “Auto Focus” (about the TV star Bob Crane and his video-fetish sex life), going right up through the recent Toronto Film Festival sensation “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”

EXCLUSIVE: This morning in Toronto, writer-director Allen Hughes and FX unveil the first of a five-part docuseries Dear Mama. This is an epic exploration of the life of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur and his late mom, Afeni Shakur, the former Black Panthers member. It is Hughes’ first trip back to TIFF since he and brother Albert came to unveil their Johnny Depp pic From Hell, only to see that title become all too apt when, on their media day 21 years ago, everything got canceled when two hijacked planes crashed into and took down the Twin Towers. At the behest of the estate of the Shakur family, Hughes, who aside from films like The Book of Eli directed the acclaimed docuseries The Defiant Ones on Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, spent years diving deep into the mythology of Tupac to answer why his art endures so long after he was shot dead at age 25. Much as he would have preferred to avoid it, Hughes had to confront his own provocative history with Tupac. After the Hughes Brothers hired Tupac for a supporting role in Menace II Society, they fired Shakur over disagreements about the part he wanted to play. Later, the hip-hop artist and his pals crossed paths with Hughes and his co-director Albert, and beat them badly enough that it led to a criminal conviction on Shakur for assault and battery., Here, Hughes discusses all, including the spiritual connection between Tupac and Marvin Gaye, whose life Allen Hughes takes on next in a narrative film for Warner Bros and Motown Records.

In terms of costly Hollywood divorces, it looks as though Scooter Braun has got off lightly.Despite being worth a staggering $400M, thanks to a prenup, he will only be shelling out a fraction of his fortune to his ex-wife Yael, according to TMZ.Scooter will pay Yael $20 million and $60,000 a month for child support. The latest: In terms of costly Hollywood divorces, it looks as though Scooter Braun has got off lightly.

Geena Davis attended the 74th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, which was held at the Microsoft Theater on Monday.The 66-year-old performer made quite the impression at the star-studded event, during which she wore a seriously eye-catching outfit.The actress was also joined by one of her three children whom she shares with former partner Reza Jarrahy. Kian William Jarrahy, 18,  looked sharp in a black three-piece suit with buttoned up white shirt with no tie and with a white kerchief in his breast pocket. Showing up: Geena Davis attended the 74th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, which was held at the Microsoft Theater on MondayDavis wore a gorgeous bright yellow dress that showed off her arms to the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony.The Beetlejuice actress added an element of shine to her look for the evening with a set of sparkling earrings.

Jennie Punter Tucked in a corner of the Catskills, Casa Susanna was a modest private resort where cross-dressing heterosexual men and transgender women gathered on summer weekends through the 1950s and ‘60s to live as their true selves, dressed in the ladies’ fashion of the day and engaging in bourgeois social activities such as taking snapshots.   Over the past 15 years, a handful of articles, academic research, and photography exhibitions (and let’s not forget the 2014 Tony-nominated play by Harvey Fierstein) have gradually opened the door to this secret subculture of Cold War America. Now “Casa Susanna,” a new documentary by French filmmaker Sébastien Lifshitz (“Wild Side,” “Little Girl”), flings it open.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic No director has done more to deconstruct the myth of the suburban American family than Steven Spielberg. Dissertations have been written and documentaries made on the subject. And now, at the spry young age of 75, Spielberg himself weighs in on where his preoccupations come from in “The Fabelmans,” a personal account of his upbringing that feels like listening to two and a half hours’ worth of well-polished cocktail-party anecdotes, only better, since he’s gone to the trouble of staging them all for our benefit. Spielberg’s a born storyteller, and these are arguably his most precious stories. From the first movie he saw (“The Greatest Show on Earth”) to memories of meeting filmmaker John Ford on the Paramount lot, this endearing, broadly appealing account of how Spielberg was smitten by the medium — and why the prodigy nearly abandoned picture-making before his career even started — holds the keys to so much of the master’s filmography. More similar to Woody Allen’s autobiographical “Radio Days” than it is to European art films such as “The 400 Blows” and “Amistad” (the more highbrow models other directors typically point to when re-creating their childhoods), “The Fabelmans” invites audiences into the home and headspace of the world’s most beloved living director, an oddly sanitized zone where even the trauma — which includes anti-Semitism, financial disadvantage and divorce — seems to go better with fresh-buttered popcorn.

There is definitely a trend of late for film directors to take a look in thinly disguised cinematic memoirs of their early influences that shaped the artist and person they have become. Kenneth Branagh with Belfast and Paolo Sorrentino with The Hand Of God did it last year. Of course there is Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, others over the years. Sam Mendes, while not drawing a portrait of his younger self revisits the movie palaces of his youth in another 2022 offering, Empire Of Light, which premiered last weekend at Telluride and will also hit the Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF is also where the man I recently described as the GOAT, Steven Spielberg, has chosen to debut his own story where the names have been changed but the story is  clearly his. The Fabelmans basically chronicling his early Jewish family life and infatuation with making movies  had its World Premiere Saturday night, the first of Spielberg’s directed movies ever to premiere at a film festival. This one seems entirely appropriate, and it has been gestating in the director’s head ever since he and his co-writer Tony Kushner started kicking it around during the making of Lincoln over a decade ago. He says he finally made it primarily as a way to bring his late parents Leah and Arnold (to whom the film is dedicated) somehow back to his life. Movies can do that, and no one knows it better than Steven Spielberg.

READ MORE: Britain's most epic sheds from garden 'temple' to old school backyard boozerWhen looking for a shed of his own, the 'Head Sheddie' created readersheds.co.uk for inspiration and before he knew it ‘Shed of the Year’ was born - and later supported by paint brand Cuprinol. Andrew told the Daily Star: “The first winner of Shed of the Year was a Roman Temple - I thought I would not get surprised again after that - but each year the sheddies surprise me."This year has been no different for surprising sheds as we learned earlier this year when checking out the front runners - which included a makeshift traditional country pub and a "miraculous and life-saving" temple.Kelly Haworth from Bury, Greater Manchester, was last week announced as Cuprinol's overall winner for her impressive potting shed which set her back just £200 on upcycling materials.The pub/entertainment category saw a host of watering holes worthy of paying customers, especially given some of their names such as Pablo Discobar and The Booby Trap.