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The National
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
The Scottish filmmakers heading to Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival has returned for its 78th edition, taking place in France between May 13 and 24. This year's competition features a film by a Scottish filmmaker – Lynne Ramsay's DIE, MY LOVE, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, will compete for the Palme d'Or, with its world premiere taking place on Saturday. READ MORE: 'Fabulous' free outdoor cinema event set to return to Scotland – all the details With the film and TV landscape in Scotland becoming increasingly volatile, such as with the recent axing of long-running BBC soap River City, filmmakers are heading to Cannes to showcase the best of what Scotland has to offer. 'Scotland is going for the world stage' Filmmaker Ashley Catherine Dick, director of film production and distribution project Cinora, has only really visited Cannes as a "starry-eyed film enthusiast". But this year, she said she is coming to it "with the approach of Scotland's position within the screen industry worldwide". "For the last year I've been running my own project and I've been finding out more about the Scottish screen industry in an effort to help people within it understand it and explore how it can grow," she told The National. Dick (above) is taking two projects to Cannes. The first is a documentary called Thrawn, which explores Scottish identity and the Scots language. "It's about that torn apart feeling of pride and embarrassment at the same time, and coming to terms with what it means to be a Scot nowadays," she said. Her other project is a fiction film based loosely on UFO activity in Falkirk in the 1990s. While it has some backing from the BBC, Dick hopes to get more interest at Cannes so that it can become a bigger production. Dick said that Scotland had "broken through" in recent years, such as with Charlotte Wells's Aftersun, starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio. READ MORE: 'Time to pass baton': Family-run Scottish cinema bought by UK chain after 30 years She also pointed towards Ramsey's film in competition, as she said: "There's something significant about her being in the competition. It's a sign that a Scottish person is amongst the best filmmakers in the world right now." She continued: "Now it feels like we're in a moment where Scotland is taking this turn and trying to go for the world stage, and showcase talent and business to come to Scotland and work with us. "For a long time we've had productions come but not really work with people in Scotland. They come, they film here, they go home." Dick said it was incredibly important for Scotland to be represented at Cannes, adding that the industry needed to go in "another direction" in order to survive. "Since the pandemic, we've realised that the model that we have has never really been sustainable," she said. "Now that we've faced so many hardships back to back, all of that instability that's been building up for years has finally come to a point where it's difficult to move forward unless we pivot and go in another direction. "Over the last couple of years within the UK, thousands of people have been leaving TV and film because they can't afford to work in it anymore. The industry is made up of 80% of freelancers. It's come to a point where it's just completely unsustainable. "If we can turn in a new direction, then maybe we can forge a new future where we don't jeopardise people's careers and lives." 'We can show Scotland isn't just a film location' Fraser Coull is a writer, director and producer also heading to Cannes. He is taking his short film, Faithful, a fairytale film based on the Scottish folklore tale of the Cù-sìth, the harbinger of death. "We managed to crowdfund it and shoot it all last year, it's getting some nice reviews and we want to turn it into a feature film," Coull (below) told The National. (Image: Supplied) (Image: Supplied) He continued: "Cannes is obviously the best of the best, literally everybody from all over the world who wants to make film and loves film and is passionate about film will be there. "I think it's super important that Scotland has a voice in that. It's important for us to get our Scottish stories, our culture and our fairytales out on a more global scale. We need to be celebrating that." Coull described the current film and TV landscape in Scotland as "absolutely dire". "It's all well and good that we've got the likes of Christopher Nolan coming here to film the Odyssey, we had Batgirl, the Flash, Indiana Jones, the Avengers," he said. READ MORE: 'Ludicrous': Scottish director says Donald Trump's film tariffs will 'kill' deals "It's great that they're all coming here and they're getting the benefits of the tax breaks and they're getting to shoot at our lovely locations, but why are we not telling our stories? "Why are we not telling our films and using our Scottish-based crew and our Scottish-based talent and actors?" However, Coull said that he was going into Cannes with optimism and that there was work going on to make the industry more sustainable in Scotland. He said: "It's very easy to shake your stick and say boo to the establishment, but I want to be positive. "There are things that are happening, but more needs to be done, and I absolutely believe that if we all just work together then there has to be a way. "Hopefully by going to Cannes, we can show people the value of Scotland and everyone who lives and work there. We can show them that it's not just a film location, it's a rich, cultured country with history and stories going way, way back."
Scottish Sun
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
Shocking moment topless Championship ace in vicious ‘street brawl' after ‘pub row' spills into street
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) HULL City's captain and his teammate and ex-pro boxer brothers have been involved in a daylight street brawl outside a pub. Footage appears to show the Championship club's topless skipper Lewie Coyle, 29, being led away from a spat by his brother Rocco, 18, in Hull city centre yesterday evening. 5 Footage shows what appears to be Hull City captain Lewie Coyle involved in a spat Credit: Supplied 5 The professional footballer was filmed being led by his brother Rocco away from the incident Credit: Supplied 5 A man was spotted with blood caked on his face following the scuffle Credit: Supplied 5 Brothers Lewie Coyle (left) and Rocco both play for Hull City Credit: X/@HullCityStats The Championship team leader also supposedly was with his ex-pro boxer brother at the scene outside the Empress pub at around 8pm. A source, who recorded the incident while travelling home on a bus, said traffic had to come to a halt as the scrap had spilt on to the road. The brawl was spotted just off Alfred Gelder Street and the footage shows at least a dozen people involved. The Hull resident, who asked not to be named, said: "It all happened yesterday at around 8pm in town in Hull in the city centre. Read more LIV AND LET DIE The exact moment Trent Alexander-Arnold told Slot he was leaving Liverpool "I was just on my way home when I saw lots of people fighting. "At the time I wasn't aware it was Lewie Coyle - I saw him being pushed by his brother." The witness said the bus came to a stop as Rocco Coyle guided his brother across the road by putting both hands on his chest. Lewie walked backwards away from the scene to the other side of the road as two women walked with them. "The bus stopped because it was starting in the middle of the street," the source added. "They were fighting right in the middle of the road so the bus was blocked. Bradford clash SUSPENDED with club seconds from promotion as fans storm pitch BEFORE full-time "This bus and the other side of the road were both blocked." The source said he didn't know why the pair were fighting but that there were "lots of people" involved. Once the camera pans back over to where the brawl happened a man can be seen with blood on his face surrounded by other men. The bloody bust-up reportedly happened after bank holiday drinks at the nearby boozer. Hull City have acknowledged the video and said they are looking into the matter. The club released a statement today saying: "Hull City is aware of a video currently circulating on social media and has launched an investigation into the matter. "The club will refrain from making further comment until the investigation has been concluded." BBC Humberside Sport shared the statement with the caption: "We've received this statement from Hull City after a video emerged on social media last night which appears to show club captain, Lewie Coyle and brother Rocco, who also plays for the club, involved in an incident in Hull city centre." The Sun has reached out to Hull City and Humberside Police for comment. Who is Lewie Coyle? Lewie Coyle, 29, is a professional footballer who plays as a right-back and currently captains Hull City in the English Championship. Born in Kingston upon Hull on October 15, 1995, Coyle began his career at Leeds United before gaining first-team experience during loan spells at Fleetwood Town. His younger brother, Rocco Coyle, 18, is following in his footsteps as a promising midfielder in Hull City's academy, having recently signed his first professional contract.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Shadow of Trump and DEI at the Oscars
IT WAS SEVEN YEARS AGO, during the first Trump administration, that Frances McDormand won an Oscar for Best Actress. She asked every woman nominated for any award that night to stand, pointedly noted that 'we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed,' and urged Hollywood's powerbrokers to follow up. 'I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: inclusion rider,' she said. Then she bent down, picked up her statuette, and walked off the stage. As searches for the phrase surged online, McDormand explained what she meant backstage in an Oscar-night elaboration. She had recently learned, she said, that in negotiating a contract with a studio, an actor could 'ask for, and/or demand, at least 50 percent diversity in not only the casting, but also the crew.' That was an oversimplification, but the word was out. 'Inclusion rider' went viral and, at least in Hollywood, triggered a reckoning on the underrepresentation of women and minority groups in the film industry. The #MeToo movement had erupted a few months earlier and journalists were exposing new stories of sexual harassment and assault every week. Harvey Weinstein was arrested a couple of months after McDormand's speech. Diversity, equity, and inclusion were seen as ideals to live by, welcome and overdue. A few short years later, instead of DEI, we've got DIE: discrimination, inequity, and exclusion. MAGA uses 'DEI hire' as a slur. For them and their leader, Donald Trump, DEI is a reason for failures, an excuse for firings, a rationale for making sure white men get what they think they are owed. Because it's their world and the rest of us just live here. Darren Beattie, named by this month by Trump to run public diplomacy at the State Department after years of racist and sexist commentary and getting fired by the Trump White House in 2018 for appearing with white supremacists, put it this way on X a month before Election Day 2024: 'Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.' Share BACK IN 2018, I was one of the many women thrilled by McDormand's speech. I wrote about my life as a 'child feminist' and struggle to get into journalism when the field had few women and even fewer reporting on politics. At the same time, I worried about my two white sons, trying to make it in tough, traditionally male arenas that were finally aiming for more diversity. 'Was 'reverse discrimination' about to become personal for me?' I wondered. I am now, as I was then, skeptical of that concept and supportive of affirmative action—casting a wide net to help redress the discrimination, inequity, and exclusion of the past. It is real, unlike the aggrieved performance art of privileged people like Trump. It has for centuries limited the potential of women, LGBTQ people, disabled people, and people of all colors to be all they can be, as the Army would say, and contribute all they can to America. It surprised me to learn this month that in September 2020, McDormand said she regretted tacking 'inclusion rider' onto the end of what the Hollywood Reporter called her 'inadvertently industry-shaping' speech. 'I wish I'd never fucking said it now. . . . I was not educated enough, I didn't have enough information about it,' she told the publication. The University of Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has done 'very, very important' work on inclusion in the workplace, McDormand said. But she added that 'it is complicated, and it has to be almost customized for every single event.' Reality is complicated. Sign up for a free or paid subscription and receive our clarifying independent journalism right in your inbox. The Annenberg inclusion rider template of the time was indeed complicated, and some nuances (like the words 'whenever possible' repeated twice in the document and no mention of any particular percentage, despite McDormand's 50 percent reference) were lost on Oscar night. A more recent version of the rider encourages companies to set 'flexible goals' and diversify their workforces over time. What's inarguable is that McDormand sparked new awareness—both about the talent pools excluded from the industry and, in practical terms, what diversity brings to the table in terms of perspective, audience, and profits. As UCLA wrote last year in a headline announcing the school's Hollywood Diversity Report on 2023 films (which included Barbie): 'Diversity in demand: People of color, women—in audience and on the big screen—hold keys to industry survival.' Even so, the fight against an 'epidemic of invisibility' for women, particularly those who aren't white, has yet to be won. A major Annenberg report on the 1,700 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2023 shows some progress for some groups in some categories, but parity and proportionality are still elusive. IN THE FIVE WEEKS since Trump issued a pair of edicts against DEI in federal programs and contracts, the ripple effects have been felt across the country. Government agencies, universities, and many private-sector companies have been scrambling to end projects, scrap language, and fire or reassign people associated with DEI. In one of several lawsuits prompted by the two Trump orders, a federal judge in Maryland blocked them nationwide last Friday. The administration has made clear, the judge wrote, that 'the government wishes to punish and, apparently, attempt to extinguish' viewpoints and speech supportive of DEI, and that is likely unconstitutional. At their moral core, Trump's DEI bans are a denial of the systemic racism and other discrimination that America in its better-angel periods has tried to remedy. While they present obstacles, whatever the legal outcome, they won't succeed. Join now Diversity is inevitable in today's America, and a proven resource as well. It's a value rooted in both pluralism and profit, woven into our entertainment, food, and business cultures. Official DEI programs and employees may disappear, but hiring practices and lived experience, from Costco to the Super Bowl halftime show, will not. We are certain to hear about this at the Oscars. The only questions are how many times, and whether anyone will surpass the speech 87-year-old Jane Fonda gave last week in accepting the Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild. The guild, Fonda said, is different from other unions: 'We don't manufacture anything tangible. What we create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls.' That was her bridge to the current moment. 'Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke,' she said, and added a money quote that MAGA opponents should repeat on a loop right through 2028: 'Woke just means you give a damn about other people.' Fonda also summoned film history to impress upon Americans that we are living in our own 'documentary moment,' a moment that someday could inspire a documentary about heroes who rose to meet a challenge. 'This is a good time for a little Norma Rae or Karen Silkwood or Tom Joad,' she said. The word 'Trump' never came from her lips, and I don't expect to hear it from winners at the Academy Awards. But the Oscars pageant will be a celebratory (and no doubt over-long) reminder that our country contains multitudes. That's our strength and our brand, and eventually Trump and his twisted fraternity will realize that trying to stamp it out is futile. Take a moment to share this article with someone hosting an Oscars watch party. Share
