Latest news with #Bafta
BBC News
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Bafta Young Game Designers: Meet the children up for a gaming award
Bafta have unveiled the talented finalists who have been selected for this year's Young Game Designers (YGD) event is in its 15th year and 52 young people - aged between 12 and 18 - have been chosen by top industry experts to take competition celebrates and encourages young people to create, develop and present their ideas for winners ceremony will be live-streamed on Bafta's YouTube channel, on Wednesday 18 June. How does the Young Game Designers award work? The awards are split into two categories - the Game Concept Award, for a written idea for a new game, and the Game Making Award, for a game made using computer are two awards available for each category, for young people aged 10 to 14 and another for those aged between 15 to winners are chosen by a jury of industry professionals who are looking for well thought-out game ideas and impressive use of coding. In the 10-14 Game Concept Category, 12-year-old Arabelle is among the game, titled Reef Revival, involves players helping a character - called Spongy - rediscover his home after a terrible needs to collect valuable items on the way to revive the coral that surrounds him. Arabelle says that she was inspired by the environment, and that she wanted to make the game "fun and exciting, while teaching the importance of protecting marine life". Meanwhile in the 10-14 Game Making Category, Daniel's space themed adventure is one of the shortlisted game called 'Planet Drop' is all about creating the ultimate drop planets to merge them into ever bigger celestial bodies, trying to create a supermassive planets combine to form new planets, and players need to make their drops in the right places to ensure they don't block winning games will be displayed at the Power Up exhibition at the Science Museum in London, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester and at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford in June.
South Wales Guardian
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- South Wales Guardian
Lady Gaga will guest star in the Netflix TV series Wednesday
The Poker Face singer, 39, will feature in season two, part two, of the hit show about Wednesday Addams of The Addams Family, to play Rosaline Rotwood, a teacher at Nevermore Academy. The announcement was made at Netflix'sTudum 2025 event, followed by the release of a six-minute trailer for season two. A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) The series follows Ortega, who plays the morbid character Wednesday, as she navigates life at the mysterious private school which 'nurtures outcasts, freaks and monsters'. Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, is known for her hit albums The Fame and Born This Way, and for her film credits, including starring alongside Bradley Cooper in the romantic musical A Star Is Born, which took the 2019 Bafta for Original Music and 2018 Oscar for Original Song. In 2021 the singer starred as Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott's House Of Gucci, and most recently played Lee Quinzel alongside Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie A Deux. The season two cast also includes Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who will reprise her role as Morticia Addams, and Billie Piper, who joins the series to play Isadora Capri, the new head of music at Nevermore. The series propelled Ortega into the spotlight, landing her an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination, and has been listed by the streaming giant as its most popular show, ahead of Stranger Things and Adolescence. The American actress, 22, has also appeared in the Netflix series You and Disney Channel show Stuck In The Middle, and since Wednesday was first released has also been in the 2024 Beetlejuice sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and 2025 dark fantasy film Death Of A Unicorn. Created by cartoonist Charles Addams, the macabre family have inspired a 1960s' TV show, and 1990s' films starring Anjelica Huston and Christina Ricci, who also appears in Wednesday as a teacher. Wednesday season two, part one, is released on August 6, and part two is scheduled to air on September 3.
Rhyl Journal
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Rhyl Journal
Lady Gaga will guest star in the Netflix TV series Wednesday
The Poker Face singer, 39, will feature in season two, part two, of the hit show about Wednesday Addams of The Addams Family, to play Rosaline Rotwood, a teacher at Nevermore Academy. The announcement was made at Netflix'sTudum 2025 event, followed by the release of a six-minute trailer for season two. A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) The series follows Ortega, who plays the morbid character Wednesday, as she navigates life at the mysterious private school which 'nurtures outcasts, freaks and monsters'. Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, is known for her hit albums The Fame and Born This Way, and for her film credits, including starring alongside Bradley Cooper in the romantic musical A Star Is Born, which took the 2019 Bafta for Original Music and 2018 Oscar for Original Song. In 2021 the singer starred as Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott's House Of Gucci, and most recently played Lee Quinzel alongside Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie A Deux. The season two cast also includes Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who will reprise her role as Morticia Addams, and Billie Piper, who joins the series to play Isadora Capri, the new head of music at Nevermore. The series propelled Ortega into the spotlight, landing her an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination, and has been listed by the streaming giant as its most popular show, ahead of Stranger Things and Adolescence. The American actress, 22, has also appeared in the Netflix series You and Disney Channel show Stuck In The Middle, and since Wednesday was first released has also been in the 2024 Beetlejuice sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and 2025 dark fantasy film Death Of A Unicorn. Created by cartoonist Charles Addams, the macabre family have inspired a 1960s' TV show, and 1990s' films starring Anjelica Huston and Christina Ricci, who also appears in Wednesday as a teacher. Wednesday season two, part one, is released on August 6, and part two is scheduled to air on September 3.
Evening Standard
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
Lady Gaga will guest star in the Netflix TV series Wednesday
Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, is known for her hit albums The Fame and Born This Way, and for her film credits, including starring alongside Bradley Cooper in the romantic musical A Star Is Born, which took the 2019 Bafta for Original Music and 2018 Oscar for Original Song.
Metro
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
The 18-year journey of new movie dubbed 'one of the greatest British films ever'
Today marks the release of one of the most quietly anticipated British films of 2025, one 18 years in the making which has been heaped with praise by critics. Rom-com extraordinaire Richard Curtis has proclaimed The Ballad of Wallis Island 'one of the 10 greatest British movies of all time' and it's currently sitting pretty at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. The brainchild of actor-writers Tim Key and Tom Basden, alongside director James Griffiths, this feature-length film has been painstakingly cultivated from a 2007 short that was nominated for a Bafta. Expanding the story of eccentric lottery winner Charles (Key), who invites alt-folk singer Herb McGwyer (Basden) to play a gig on his remote island, by adding three-time Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan as Herb's musical and romantic ex, Nell Mortimer, has given the film an attention-grabbing Hollywood shine. But it hasn't in any way dimmed the comedic genius of Key and Basden's writing, as they negotiate the central trio's evolving relationship. Charles is thrilled to have McGwyer-Mortimer together again, while Nell, who finds Charles's wittering endearing, is trepidatious – and Herb, who knew nothing of his ex's invitation (and also finds Charles very annoying), is livid. It's the perfect set-up for a juicy drama, as well as providing an impressive barrage of one-liners and puns – mainly from Key's Charles, who just can't help himself, in a winning performance. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 'You just commit to these characters, however bizarre and observed they feel at the time. And Tim's really good at finding the truth in those moments; even though he's playing an eccentric character, you still have to believe that he's a real person,' director Griffiths tells me of the film's impressive ability to expertly shape characters. We're speaking at Sands International Film Festival, held in St Andrews, at the end of April. The Ballad of Wallis Island screened as the opening film to a raucous reception; I don't remember the last time I had such a joyous experience at the cinema. Despite the impressive rhythm and patter of the gags, Griffiths says that there wasn't much improvisation on set – rather Key and Basden started 'with a very clear observation of people'. They have been a writing and performing partnership, on and off, for years on radio and the stage, as well as enjoying individual success – Key is recognisable as Alan Partridge's Sidekick Simon, while Basden has been in Ricky Gervais's After Life and is the co-creator of Plebs. Griffiths first met Key and Basden in the noughties while they were performing their slapdash double-act sketch show Freeze!, later collaborating with them on their short, The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island. They've been in it for the long haul together since then, guiding Wallis Island carefully through to its feature-length destiny. For Griffiths, who is fittingly wearing a McGwyer-Mortimer tour T-shirt for our chat, he's clear on what he needs to bring to the table as the unofficial third member of the duo: capturing Key and Basden's dynamic. 'My job is to make sure that I've got the camera in a place that allows them to do that and not interfere with that process. So often I'm cross-shooting, or I'm putting both of them in the frame, just so we can capture the natural rhythm that they have, the natural music.' As he points out: 'A lot of it is these very small interferences with what the other person is saying, so that's a delicate kind of musical balance to get right so it doesn't feel annoying or jarring but just keeps the pace moving along.' This, in a nutshell, is what The Ballad of Wallis Island manages to do so supremely well, and the group's longstanding friendship likely has a lot to do with that – Griffiths also notes that his role is to 'set them up for success'. 'I'm really passionate about seeing my friends shine – I love them, and I know I wanted to capture their magic,' he adds. 'But also there's a discipline to that, and they're very good at staying in their lanes, and hopefully I am in mine, and we all respect each other on set.' I'm really passionate about seeing my friends shine I quiz Griffiths on how on earth they were able to exercise restraint in their approach to the film's near-relentless humour to find that balance. The director agrees that they could have 'gone forever' trying new puns (you may perhaps wish they did). 'But you have to call it at some point – and that's hard because I'm enjoying myself like they are. But there's a thing with comedy, and I think we're all quite allergic to it, when you can feel actors over-indulging that style of improvisation, and it kind of loses track and story.' Griffiths admits that he still finds it really hard not to laugh while on set watching Key and Basden as the characters of Charles and Herb, after so many years. And Maestro star Mulligan was the same, although it helped that her character Nell warms to Charles immediately. 'The laughter in the scene is real,' Griffiths says of the Suffragette actress's reactions. '[Tim] genuinely tickles her, so that was a constant thing, having to kind of stay in character but also allow herself to laugh when genuinely the character would.' Mulligan's casting was 'crucial' for the film's success Griffiths insists, with him, Basden and Key agreed on the direction to take. 'We've obviously got a lot of friends in that comedy world who we talked about playing that role, but we were all keen to introduce a voice that wouldn't necessarily play the same instrument as those two. And all of our comedian friends, you feel like a lot of them would assimilate to that rhythm, and then that becomes, I think, too much.' In Mulligan, they found someone who could come in 'with their own very strong point of view', which for Griffiths 'grounded' the film. She also became a producer on The Ballad of Wallis Island and had the handy addition of her Mumford & Sons frontman husband Marcus, who helped with the harmonies Nell would perform during the film. Griffiths shares that the couple were big fans of Key's Late Night Poetry Programme on BBC Radio 4, so much so that Mulligan had previously asked Key to do something for her charity, War Child. He had said no – 'he doesn't do that stuff' – but it meant they had an in when they wrote their list of actors who could play Nell, and Mulligan 'was absolutely number one'. 'And [Tim] said, 'Oh, I know Carey.' We're like, 'Yeah, bulls**t, of course you know her.' And he wrote her the most important email he could have written, and she said yes immediately. It was a lovely moment when Marcus and he met and they swapped and signed each other's albums.' While many have described The Ballad of Wallis Island as a rom-com, Griffiths is hesitant to lump it in that category, the same as he and Key and Basden didn't want it to be a spoof either. 'I wanted the film to be a kind of fairy tale, to have a kind of magical realism – the setting of the island, and the sense of it being slightly timeless or placeless was intentional. Tonally, I wanted it to feel slightly other. I wanted it to be funny – obviously – entertaining, musical, and have a lot of heart.' Griffiths isn't a credited writer on the film, but he still considers the story a 'very personal' one – 'that grief of a relationship lost and trying to get back to it but never realising you can't get back to something'. The Ballad of Wallis Island has been steadily building hype since it premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January, which led to its inclusion at Sands, hosted by St Andrews' film studies department and lead sponsor AGBO, Marvel filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo's studio. For Griffiths, his film is an ideal example of Sands' concept and mirrors the advice he would give to aspiring filmmakers. 'Stick with your peers that you grow up with, find those creative relationships that you really love, that you gut will tell you that you have an alignment with, and just cling to them – like Tom, Tim and I. 'Because however long that journey is, that's the thing you'll keep returning to. Don't think about making the next Hollywood movie, think about making something with your friends and building your voice and your peer group into a bunch of really fun, good filmmakers.' Considering the rapturous response The Ballad of Wallis Island has received so far, it seems sensible to take Griffiths' advice. With such a fairy tale end – finally – for this long-gestating film, I have to ask if he, Key and Basden have anything else in the works? More Trending 'I think we've all been slightly surprised by it. I had a feeling that we'd need to get Tom and Tim working, because they take their time, so I was trying to get ahead of it a bit,' he reveals. 'But there's conversations being had about the next thing, and there's a few projects that we're talking about. But it's mostly starting with characters. What dynamic do we want to create? '[We'll] make sure that we give it as much time and love as this one – not 18 years, but a few!' he laughs. 'So we're not in a hurry, but we do want to ride the wave a little bit, and while audiences are enjoying it see if we can give them something else.' The Ballad of Wallis Island is in cinemas from today. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: 11 years on, I'm still mourning comedy legend Rik Mayall MORE: New BBC drama smashes records despite viewers 'switching off' after 5 minutes MORE: Don't expect another Lindsay Lohan rom-com on Netflix this Christmas
