Jemima Khan: Last News

Todd Gilchrist editor There are very few movie genres in which Emma Thompson hasn’t left her mark, but she’s established a special pedigree in romantic comedies: from “The Tall Guy” to “Sense and Sensibility” to “Love Actually” to “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” she’s explored love in more ways on screen than most people get to experience in real life. In the romantic entanglements of writer-producer Jemima Khan’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?,” Thompson’s more of a well-meaning instigator than an active participant, playing a divorcee named Cath who clumsily tries to make a match for her serially-single filmmaker daughter Zoe, played by Lily James. Zoe, meanwhile, is more interested in documenting the arranged (or “assisted,” they rebrand it) marriage agreed to by her childhood friend Kazim (Shazad Latif), not realizing the complicated feelings that his impending nuptials are igniting in her about relationships past, present and future.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Early on in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?,” enterprising London-based filmmaker Zoe (Lily James) pitches a proposed documentary about Muslim arranged marriages to a pair of white male commissioners. They’re bored and disengaged until they realize how the topic can be dressed up in the tropes and lingo of Western romantic comedy to appeal to a general British audience: One suggests interview inserts in the style of “When Harry Met Sally,” the other name-drops “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” as a reference point. When Zoe suggests titling the doc “Love Contractually,” the deal is done. Sharper than anything else in Shekhar Kapur’s pleasant, easygoing comedy, the scene neatly satirizes how nuanced cross-cultural material can be blandly packaged and whitewashed for the mainstream — a point that would land harder if “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” didn’t proceed to do much the same thing. At a push, you could credit the film — a first feature screenwriting credit for producer and former journalist Jemima Khan — with some meta self-awareness as it tackles a thorny, divisive cultural institution in the sweetest, sunniest terms possible, down to its own recurring “When Harry Met Sally”-style inserts. But to what end, exactly? As strenuously as the film professes to give arranged marriages a fair shake, its whole cornball narrative is rigged against the very concept: “Love Contractually” may be the pitch, but “Love Actually” is the preferred outcome.

Jemima Khan's new project is, amazingly, one which has been ten years in the making. It's her debut romantic comedy What's Love Got to Do with It? which thoughtfully explores the subject of arranged marriages and what different cultures can teach each other.Mother-of-two Jemima sits down with HELLO! to explain why it was "nerve-wracking" showing the movie to her sons, as well as her own views on arranged marriages and why she included a special nod to Princess Diana in the film.Jemima, the daughter of the late billionaire businessman Sir James Goldsmith, wrote and produced the movie, which stars Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabana Azmi and Emma Thompson. It shares a beautiful and uplifting insight into the conventions followed by some of today's generation of British Asians with regard to arranged marriages.

Iraqi filmmaker Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji picked up the Golden Yusr for Best Feature Film at the Red Sea Film Festival with his debut feature Hanging Gardens.

Olive Stone voiced support for Saudi Arabia at the opening on Thursday of the second edition of country’s Red Sea International Film Festival, which he is attending as president of the international jury.

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled a star-studded In-Conversations program as the second edition gets underway in the port city of Jeddah today.

Netflix faces a number of courtly challenges in the next couple of months, as it prepares to debut both the fifth season of The Crown, and a documentary starring the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. 

K.J. Yossman Jemima Khan (“What’s Love Got to Do With It?”) and Jaime Ray Newman (“Dopesick”) have boarded Seemab Gul’s Oscar-qualifying short film “Sandstorm” as executive producers. A coming of age story, centering around a Pakistani schoolgirl called Zara, “Sandstorm” navigates the “tricky terrain of internet dating in a conservative Muslim society,” according to the logline as well as questions “the objectification of the female body and its relationship to honor in Pakistani culture.” In the short, Zara sends her virtual boyfriend a “sensual dance video” which he then uses to blackmail her. “Caught between his manipulative behaviour and the desire to experience love on her own terms, Zara searches for the strength to reject the confines of a patriarchal society,” reads the synopsis.

Manori Ravindran International Editor With a week to go before kicking off the London Film Festival, the British Film Institute gathered the U.K.’s titans of cinema to toast the return of moviegoing and celebrate the next generation of filmmakers. The BFI’s Luminous gala took place at the swanky Londoner hotel in Leicester Square on Thursday evening (Sept. 29), where Variety had exclusive access. The event, which also featured the BFI and Chanel’s inaugural Filmmaker Awards, used to be a biannual bash, but was the first of its kind since the pandemic. The starry dinner convened around 400 guests, including actors Daisy Ridley, Ncuti Gatwa, Morfydd Clark, Rebel Wilson, Lily James, Malachi Kirby, Dame Joan Collins and Eddie Redmayne; directors Edgar Wright, Gurinder Chadha, Steve McQueen and Terry Gilliam; and producers including Working Title co-founder Eric Fellner, screenwriter Jemima Khan, and former BBC drama commissioner-turned-A24 international boss Piers Wenger.

HBO Documentary Films is in production on a follow-up episode to the critically acclaimed, four-part docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed. Directed by Amy Berg, the episode will feature exclusive access to Syed leading up to and following his release from prison earlier this week, after 23 years behind bars. The new episode will debut in 2023.

Mick Jagger's ex Luciana Gimenez looked radiant as she took the former couple's son Lucas to watch The Rolling Stones perform in Hyde Park on Saturday. The former model, 52, appeared in good spirits as she shared a heartwarming snap of herself and Lucas, 23, as they enjoyed the concert. Luciana took to Instagram and shared a series of snaps from the gig along with a clip of Mick, 78, showing off his dance moves on stage.

Jemima Goldsmith has remembered her late niece Iris, one year on from her tragic death. Taking to her Instagram Stories on Thursday, the 46-year-old shared a series of throwback photos and videos to honour the sad occasion.READ: Ben Goldsmith posts moving tribute to late daughter Iris"One year.