Kuwait: Last News

DEALSJess Glynne has signed to booking agency UTA for worldwide representation.Sony Music Middle East and Kuwait-based music company Ghmza have announced a new partnership to produce music and promote emerging Khaleeji pop artists across the Middle East. “We are incredibly excited to partner with the talented team at Ghmza”, says Mike Fairburn, General Manager at Sony Music Middle East.

UK residents with plans to head to Dubai are being urged to stay vigilant, following a fresh warning from the Foreign Office.

The Foreign Office has issued new travel warnings for 16 countries today following. In light of the recent drone attack on Israel by Iran, those planning to visit destinations including Morocco and the United Arab Emirates are strongly advised to check travel advice before making their journey.

The Foreign Office has issued a new urgent travel warning for 18 countries, including popular Mediterranean holiday destinations. The government's latest advisory cautions travellers about an increased risk of terrorist attacks in countries around the southern Mediterranean and the Middle East due to heightened tensions following recent events in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Middle East distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment is gearing up to release iconic Oscar-nominated Rio de Janeiro gangland drama City of God across the Gulf countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for the first time.

She may have first appeared on Love Island back in 2018, but Georgia Steel is heading into the villa for second time in a bid to turn heads and find love as part of Love Island All Stars. Georgia has previously been unlucky in love after a footballer-turned-catfisher swindled the 25 year old out of £32,000. Medi Abalimba, who at the peak of his career signed for Derby County for £1.2 million in 2009, met Georgia in April 2019 while at a London nightclub and the pair embarked on a six-week romance during which he lied to her about his true identity.

EXCLUSIVE: Saudi hit thriller Night Courier (Mandoob) has continued its record-breaking box office run at home in its second week on release, outpacing Aquaman and Dunki with just under three times the admissions of either picture.

Pan Middle East and North African film distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has promoted staffers Nicolas Torloting, Carine Chaiban and Elie Touma to partners. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region indie distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment is promoting company execs Nicolas Torloting, Carine Chaiban and Elie Touma to partners as it ramps up operations. The trio joined the company, headed by Gianluca Chakra, in early 2019 as part of an initial revamp.

Thousands of passengers will be heading to Manchester Airport today to jet off in search of some autumn sunshine. If you are flying then it’s important to check the status of your flight.

On July 2nd 2019 a call from a refugee camp in Greece was received by Greater Manchester Police. In broken English a man explained a woman was missing.

Barbie has become the highest-grossing film in Warner Bros. history in the US, overtaking Christopher Nolan’s 2008 film The Dark Knight.As reported by Variety, Barbie has crossed $537.5million at the domestic box office to take the record.

Barbie has been banned in multiple countries following its release.Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the fantasy comedy has become the second highest-grossing film of 2023 worldwide behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie, passing the $1billion mark earlier this month at the box office.The film’s success also crossed another milestone, becoming the highest-grossing live-action movie solely directed by a woman.Ahead of its release in July, Barbie was banned in Vietnam due to a scene featuring a map depicting China’s contested territorial claims in the South China Sea.As reported by Reuters, the scene shows “an offending image” of the “nine-dash line”, which is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims over large areas of the South China Sea, which is contested by Vietnam.A number of films have recently been banned in the country for the same reason, including Sony’s Uncharted and Dreamworks’ animated film Abominable.Kuwait subsequently banned Barbie after the film promoted “ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order”, according to Lafy Al-Subei’e, an under secretary of the Ministry for Press and Publication in the country (via the New York Times).Around the same time (August 9), Lebanon’s culture minister, Mohammad Mortada, made moves to ban Barbie, saying that the film was found to “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation”.

Ellise Shafer “Barbie” has been banned in Algeria in its third week of release, according to Reuters. In a statement to the news site, an unnamed “official source” said that the film “promotes homosexuality and other Western deviances” and “does not comply with Algeria’s religious and cultural beliefs.” The news was first reported by local site 24H Algerie on Monday, which wrote that the North African country’s Ministry of Culture and Arts had asked theaters showing the film to immediately remove it from their schedules.

Algerian authorities have pulled runaway box office hit Barbie from local cinemas over its “damaging morals”.

Naman Ramachandran Kudos Knight, the creative partnership between scripted producer Kudos and “Peaky Blinders” and “SAS Rogue Heroes” creator Steven Knight, has appointed “Sex Education” producer Rem Conway as development producer to spearhead their plans to grow a scripted production hub in the U.K.’s West Midlands region. This new role is designed to support the Kudos Knight management team in developing a drama slate to be produced in Birmingham. Identifying and nurturing emerging local voices and proven writers from the area, Conway will work closely with the Kudos creative team with a particular focus on championing under-represented and previously unheard voices.

‘Top Boy’: Final Season Trailer Drops

Talk to Me has found itself embroiled in a wave of unexpected controversy after being banned in Kuwait. The movie is no longer allowed in the Middle Eastern country due to its inclusion of a transgender actor. The ban, enforced by Kuwaiti authorities, is ostensibly aimed at safeguarding “public ethics and social traditions,” according to a statement from the state news agency.Zoe Terakes, who identifies as non-binary and trans-masculine, takes on a pivotal role in the spine-tingling A24 production as the enigmatic character Hayley.

Barbie movie has been banned in Kuwait and now faces calls for a ban in Lebanon amid complaints in the Arab nations about the film’s social values.Kuwait’s state news agency said that the nation acted to protect the country’s “public ethics”, while Lebanon’s culture minister accused the film of “promoting homosexuality”.The film is however still being shown in other conservative parts of the region, including Saudi Arabia.Barbie, which is directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has grossed more than $1bn (£784m) worldwide within weeks of its release.Lafi al-Subaiei, the head of Kuwait’s board of film classification, said that the board usually asks for movie scenes to be cut if they are deemed to flout the country’s culture. But when a film promotes behaviour the state considers unacceptable, it is banned outright.The film “promulgate[s] ideas and beliefs that are alien to Kuwaiti society and public order”, a spokesman for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information said (via BBC News).On Wednesday, the Lebanese Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada asked the interior ministry to “take all necessary measures to ban” Barbie.He said the film “promotes homosexuality and transsexuality… supports rejecting a father’s guardianship, undermines and ridicules the role of the mother, and questions the necessity of marriage and having a family”.Meanwhile, in the US, comedian and actor Marc Maron recently hit out at the film’s conservative critics, describing them as “insecure babies”.“The fact that certain men took offence to the point where they, you know, tried to build a grift around it in terms of their narrative as right wing [expletive] is so embarrassing for them.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lebanon, once thought of as among the most liberal parts of the Middle East, is poised to ban global hit movie “Barbie.” More conservative Kuwait said Wednesday that it had gone ahead with a ban due to its promotion of homosexuality. Lebanon’s culture minister Mohammad Mortada said on Wednesday that the Warner Bros. film was found to “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation” and “contradicts values of faith and morality” by diminishing the importance of the family unit.

topped $1 billion in global ticket sales, some countries still aren’t on board.The bubblegum pink flick won’t see a premiere in Kuwait to protect “public ethics and social traditions,” Reuters reported.Lafi Al-Subaie, chairman of the film censorship committee in Kuwait, has accused “Barbie” of “carrying ideas that encourage unacceptable behavior and distort society’s values,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, which cited local media reports. And in Lebanon, per Reuters, the film has been accused of “promoting homosexuality.”Minister Mohammad Mortada, who is supported by the powerful political party and militant group Hezbollah, said the movie was found to “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation” and “contradicts values of faith and morality,” as it lessens the “importance of the family unit.”Because of Mortada’s statements, Lebanon’s interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi, has asked the General Security’s censorship committee to review the film and give its recommendation, according to Reuters.The Post reached out to Warner Bros.

Deadline has confirmed that Warner Bros’ billion-dollar grossing Barbie won’t be getting a release in Kuwait, and it’s skating on thin ice in Lebanon.