Locarno Film Festival Winners: ‘Rule 34’ Takes Golden Leopard

EXCLUSIVE: Five days before filmmaker Sally El Hosaini (My Brother the Devil) was ready to declare “Action, background action” on the set of The Swimmers, the film fell apart due to the pandemic. “We just thought it was curtains for the film, which was heartbreaking,” the director recalled. “It just came to a halt, and there could be no promises of anything for anyone.”

The Story of Film: A New Generation opens at two dozen theaters this weekend — Laemmle Royal in LA, Museum of the Moving Image in NY, Music Box Theatre in Chicago and Brattle in Cambridge. It’s a mix of arthouses, cinematheques, museums and even a few multiplexes for Mark Cousins’ follow-up to his 15-hour, 2011 opus The Story Of Film: An Odyssey. (This one clocks a relatively brief three hours.)

There will no second season for Hulu comedy Maggie. The streaming service has canceled the series, starring Rebecca Rittenhouse, after one season, Deadline has confirmed.

violence on Thursday (September 8).The shocking attack took place in broad daylight in the middle of a street in San Carlos, in California's famous Silicon Valley, US.According to local media the two children, aged one and seven, were found on the scene saying they "want their mum" after she was decapitated during the horror incident.READ MORE: America is 'preparing for Putin to launch new invasion attack into NATO countries'A suspect, Jose Landaeta Solano, was arrested by California police after he returned to the location following the alleged attack.Solano and the unidentified woman had a romantic relationship prior to the incident, and according to authorities, there had been a history of complaints and domestic violence between the pair.According to NBC, Solano "has an extensive, violent criminal past and a history of mental illness," and the late mum-of-two was even granted a temporary restraining order against the suspect in April before she was killed.Police were informed of a domestic violence incident at around 11:50am, and shortly afterwards at 12:15, reports came in claiming the woman's head had been chopped off.Child Protective Services took the youngsters into custody. A dog and two cats were also taken from the home that the couple had reportedly shared.San Mateo County Sheriff's Office are investigating the incident and are on the hunt for the weapon used to take the woman's life, which they believe is a samurai sword.Lieutenant Eamonn Allen said: "Anytime someone loses their life, it's certainly a tragedy."As far as the shocking nature of it, I do know that the deputies that first arrived on scene were a little beset by the scene.

In a speech full of homophobic slurs, Brother Duncan Urbanek said women should stop wearing pants and called for their husbands to enforce that rule.Urbanek is a member of the homophobic hate group Stedfast Baptist Church, where pastors have called for the execution of gay people.His diatribe went viral on Twitter, receiving over 24,000 views on a video posted August 23.In the video, Urbanek said crossdressing was a sin even though it’s not as bad as being LGBTQ.“People want to get so riled up, yeah, f*gs are [an] abomination, God hates them,” Urbanek said. “Well, didn’t it just say if you’re a crossdresser, you’re an abomination too?”Urbanek’s speech took an odd turn as he explained what he would do if he were “caught” in a dress.“If I was caught wearing a dress and that was online, I would do everything in my power to get rid of that picture,” he said.

EastEnders legend Samantha Womack has suffered a devastating loss amid her ongoing breast cancer battle.The Ronnie Mitchell star, 49, announced she was fighting the disease earlier this year.And now she has admitted to fans that she has lost her beloved dog Lola on Friday (September 9).READ MORE: EastEnders' Samantha Womack reveals she has cancer as she pays tribute to late star The star took to Instagram to pay a heartfelt tribute to her beloved pooch, writing: “My heart is broken. My soulmate Lola. Cannot cope with losing you, not now.”Samantha accompanied the heartfelt caption with a series of adorable snaps of her holding the pup in her arms as the pair headed out on hikes and snuggled up at home.One adorable snap even showed Samantha cross-legged on the top of a minivan while Lola cuddled up in a blanket inside the vehicle, putting the world to rights.

NFL season between the Buffalo Bills and LA Rams, but he was seemingly confident as he used the occasion to reveal the gender of his sister's baby.The Bills thrashed the reigning Super Bowl Champions on Thursday night, as they won 31-10 at the SoFi Stadium in LA. The likes of Cooper Kupp, Stefon Diggs and Josh Allen stole the headlines, but McKenzie produced one of the most unique sporting moments ever as he revealed the gender of his sister's baby when celebrating his touchdown.Some fans picked up on the fact that McKenzie screamed "It's a boy" into the camera after scoring in the third quarter, and were left slightly confused.

prohibiting Medicaid from covering gender-affirming health care treatments, even if a patient’s primary medical provider declares that such care is medically necessary.The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include August Dekker, a 28-year-old transgender man and Medicaid recipient who receives hormone therapy to treat his gender dysphoria; and Brit Rothstein, a 20-year-old transgender man and Medicaid recipient who receives hormone therapy and is scheduled to obtain top surgery to treat his gender dysphoria — a procedure that Medicaid had pre-authorized.Other plaintiffs include a 12-year-old trans boy and 12-year old trans girl, both of whom are receiving puberty blockers at the recommendation of their doctors, which were covered by Medicaid until Florida adopted its new rule.The revised rule, which went into effect on Aug. 21, was approved by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees Florida’s Medicaid program.

Arsenal supporters are convinced they have the ‘new’ Bukayo Saka in their ranks after Amario Cozier-Duberry scored a wonder-goal at under-21s level.The 17-year-old Gunners attacker scored the opening goal in the side’s 4-1 win over Blackburn Rovers on September 3 - leaving spectators stunned at the ability on show. Picking the ball up with his back to goal, the youngster managed to turn inside and breeze past his first man. Bearing down on goal, he cut outside, evading the tackle of a Rovers player, before slotting the home into the bottom corner from just outside the box.READ MORE: The Queen’s minute’s silence marred by booing during Arsenal’s game with ZurichAnd the goal has Arsenal fans gushing at the prospect of what the player could become in the future.One wrote: “This guy deserves a chance in our first team.

Wayne Lineker has sparked a backlash for organising a bizarre tribute to the Queen at his Ibiza club.The whole world stopped on Thursday (September 8) when news broke that Queen Elizabeth passed away at Balmoral Castle aged 96 after 70 years on the throne.Heartfelt tributes to the beloved monarch from have flooded in from around the world, with world leaders praising her sense of duty and decades of service to the crown.READ MORE: Wayne Lineker praised over 'special' gesture for bikini-clad deaf women at Ibiza clubYou can leave your tributes to Queen Elizabeth II here.However, it appears Wayne Lineker has decided to honour the Queen in a rather unusual way that involves a troop of bikini-clad women marching around his Ibiza club, which was filled with blaring music and partygoers.Gary Lineker's brother took to Instagram on Friday with a video showing him and a pal on stage surrounded by a cohort of women dressed somewhat like Beefeaters.Beefeaters are the renowned guards of the Tower of London who can be seen guarding Buckingham Palace with their iconic black bearskin hats.But despite Wayne's mate noting that the girls were dressed as Beefeaters, they didn't exactly conform to the traditional attire of the Queen's guards.We're pretty confident the Beefeaters we know and love don't flash the flesh in tiny black bikinis, slashed red swimsuits and black tights.In the clip, Wayne's mate asked the crowd: "Are you all having a great day? We're all having an amazing day today, but myself and Wayne and our other business partners are all British businessman and we could not let this day go by without speaking about yesterday's events in the UK."He continued: "I think the majority of this crowd in here are from the UK if I'm

EXCLUSIVE: Kim Harrison, executive producer and co-showrunner of The Crossover, has signed an overall deal with 20th Television, the studio behind the upcoming basketball drama series for Disney+.

UPDATED w/TIFF Statement: Sparta, the German-Romanian drama from Austrian director Ulrich Seidl that is in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the Toronto Film Festival, has been pulled from the festival lineup.

Sorry House of the Dragon fans: Patrick Dempsey will not cameo as a long-lost Targaryen on HBO.

“I think though we can mourn the Queen and not the empire,” said Sunny Hostin on The View today.

Ellen Pompeo on Friday made her first public comments about her reduced on-screen presence on Grey’s Anatomy next season. As Deadline exclusively reported last month, Pompeo will appear in only eight episodes of ABC’s top scripted series for the upcoming 19th season. She is using the time to star in and executive produce an eight-episode Untitled Orphan limited series for Hulu.

EXCLUSIVE: Granderson Des Rochers is growing its upper ranks again.

. Kate Middleton, who is also now the (a title passed down from the new ), was seen driving around during her time of mourning. Much like the rest of the royal family, the new princess was wearing all-black with large, circle sunglasses—probably in an attempt to give her a bit of privacy from the British press during the family's difficult time. The duchess, who did not see the former Queen before her death in Scotland, and instead stayed home with the children she shares with Prince William.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. To be clear, this isn’t the first time that the has verbally hinted that she’s not straight (if it wasn’t already extremely obvious from her ). In 2017, the Rocky Horror Picture Show star previously told LGBTQ+ publication that her sexuality was “open.” And in 2021, she shared in an episode of the podcast that she didn’t care about the gender of any prospective partners, only that they were vaccinated against COVID-19. What makes Sarandon’s Wednesday Tonight Show appearance different is that it marks the first time she has publicly used the word “bi” to describe herself.

Guy Lodge Film Critic“Rule 34,” a challenging and sexually explicit film from Brazilian director Julia Murat, has emerged as the surprise winner of the Golden Leopard award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival — an edition where typically audacious and formally ambitious work dominated the program.

Latest DealsA score or more of new deals announced since Sunday in exclusivity to Variety:*Germany’s Pluto Film has been in negotiations with several theatrical distributors on Locarno Piazza Grande title “Semret,” ahead of its world premiere on Aug. 10.

Tatiana Leite at Bubbles Project has unveiled a fulsome production slate which suggests a beginning of tentative film production renaissance in Brazil, driven by renewed state subsidy lines and the promise of regime change at October’s general elections.According to Leite, one of Brazil’s most energetic international co-producers, Bubbles has currently three feature films in post-production and seven in development. The titles in post are:*Horror film “A Herança” (“Birthright”), the feature debut of João Cândido Zacharias, in which Bubble teams as a majority producer with Sony Pictures International Production and Kromaki Filmes.