Latest news with #OliviaColman
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
NewFest 2025: LGBTQ+ projects we're most excited to watch
Courtesy of NewFest Heightened Scrutiny; Plainclothes; Dreams in Nightmares NewFest Pride is one of very few film festivals with a primary focus on celebrating queer content. Thankfully, the 2025 edition of the festival won't be any different. The 37-year-old film festival, based in New York City, is presenting its annual Pride selection starting on Thursday, May 29. This year, the organization is presenting films that could become sizable box office successes, as well as indie darlings that have received acclaim at other festival circuits. These projects include the Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey-led Sundance Award-winning drama, Plainclothes, an advance screening of HBO Max's And Just Like That... season 3, as well as Jimpa featuring Academy Award winner Olivia Colman. Since 1988, NewFest has proudly hosted global theatrical releases of seminal queer films such as Paris Is Burning, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, God's Own Country, Bottoms, and Problemista, to name a few. Here's a list of LGBTQ+ films we're most excited to watch at NewFest Pride 2025. Courtesy of NewFest John Lithgow and Aud Mason-Hyde in Jimpa. Olivia Colman and John Lithgow star in the festival's opening night film. Colman plays a filmmaker named Hannah, who takes her trans nonbinary teenage child (Aud Mason-Hyde) to visit their gay grandfather, affectionately nicknamed "Jimpa," played by Lithgow. Her child decides they want to stay with Jimpa for a year abroad, Hannah has to learn to let go and confront her past, as well as her idea of parenting. The film also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews. More information about this screening of can be found on . Courtesy of NewFest Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey in Plainclothes. Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey star in Plainclothes, a steamy drama about cruising in the 1990s inspired by real events. In the movie, Blyth plays an undercover police officer who lures gay men to fall into his trap and quite literally catches them with their pants down. Meanwhile, Tovey portrays a seductive queer cruiser who catches Blyth off-guard and makes him question his duties as a cop in contrast to his attraction to Tovey's character. Out reviewed the film at this year's Sundance, where it won the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast. More information about this screening of can be found on . Courtesy of NewFest Dezi Bing, Denée Benton, and Sasha Compère in Dreams in Nightmares. Starring Dezi Bing, Denée Benton, and Sasha Compère, Dreams in Nightmares has been making the rounds at film festivals, which included a world premiere at the 2024 BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia and a screening at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. Through NewFest, New York City audiences will now get the chance to see Shatara Michelle Ford's sophomore feature that follows three Black queer friends embarking on a road trip to find their missing friend. More information about this screening of can be found on . Courtesy of NewFest Elliot Page and Chase Strangio in Heightened Scrutiny. With the relentless assault on transgender rights in the U.S. in the last few years, this documentary is particularly timely. Heightened Scrutiny follows Chase Strangio, an ACLU attorney who became the first trans person to argue in front of the United States Supreme Court. In this case, Strangio works to overturn Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The film features commentary and expertise from activists like Laverne Cox and Elliot Page, as well as journalists like Lydia Polgreen and Gina Chua. More information about this screening of can be found on . Courtesy of NewFest Alan Cumming and Charlie Creed-Miles in Drive Back Home. Legendary actor Alan Cumming, who's now also a reality TV superstar as the host of The Traitors, stars in Drive Back Home. The film centers on a man (Charlie Creed-Miles) from a small town in New Jersey — set in the 1970s — who is tasked with bailing his brother (Cumming) out of jail after being caught having sex with a man in a park. The brothers then set out on a road trip that tests their bond as they make their way back home. More information about this screening of can be found on .
The Sun
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Axed Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa reveals new job after BBC show exit
AXED Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has revealed a huge new job after his BBC show exit. We previously revealed that the former Sex Education star was given the boot by bosses after just two series. 5 Ncuti, 32, has left the long-running drama after 'woke' storylines have seen ratings plummet in recent years. The actor is off after just two series with no replacement likely for the Time Lord's regeneration on May 31. Now, the actor is quickly moving on as he has just announced his next project on social media. He will stay in the upcoming satirical black comedy film called The Roses. The star took to his Instagram stories as he displayed the poster of the Hollywood movie, alongside a simple rose and red heart emoji. It features a completely star-studded cast of Hollywood A-listers and Oscar winners. Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, and I, Tonya star Allison Janney all have leading roles in the new flick. While former Saturday Night Live favourites Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon will also have feature roles. The news comes after Ncuti backed out of announcing the UK's jury scores in last weekend's Eurovision Song Contest. He pulled out of his commitments just 48 hours before he was due to appear in front of 160million people. Doctor Who's wokest ever lead star Ncuti Gatwa axed after just two series with show set to be paused after ratings nosedive At the time, the corporation confirmed he would no longer be involved, citing 'unforeseen circumstances' and he was replaced by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. This was amid controversy among some at Israel's inclusion in the global singing competition and Ncuti stepped aside moments after Israel qualified for the grand final. A TV insider said: "If the final nail wasn't already in the coffin, it was well and truly hammered in after that. "Bosses were incredibly disappointed. Ncuti, as the Doctor, is one of the corporation's most high-profile faces. Who has starred in Doctor Who? Which actors have portrayed the famous Time Lord over the years? First Doctor: William Hartnell (1963 - 1966) Second Doctor: Patrick Troughton (1966 - 1969) Third Doctor: Jon Pertwee (1970 - 1974) Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker (1974 - 1981) Fifth Doctor: Peter Davidson (1982 - 1984) Sixth Doctor: Colin Baker (1984 - 1986) Seventh Doctor: Sylvester McCoy (1987 - 1989) Eighth Doctor: Paul McGann (1996) Ninth Doctor: Christopher Eccleston (2005) Tenth Doctor: David Tennant (2005 - 2010) 11th Doctor: Matt Smith (2010 - 2013) 12th Doctor: Peter Capaldi (2014 - 2017) 13th Doctor: Jodie Whittaker (2018 - 2022) 14th Doctor: David Tennant (2023) 15th Doctor: Ncuti Gatwa (2023 - present) "His withdrawal was incredibly embarrassing. It caps what has been a largely depressing tenure in the Tardis for Ncuti." Execs are likely to rest the 62-year-old show to consider who might revive its fortunes. 5
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Awkward clapping, no-sand beaches and Alexander Skarsgård's thigh-high boots: a trip to Cannes to see my film
I set out on my motorbike for Cannes on the morning of 16 May, a distance of about 450 miles, having booked a room in Montpellier so as to break the journey and take my own sweet time. It's not often that anyone's books are the basis of a 'queer biker movie' premiering at the only film festival everyone has heard of, let alone one of mine – I felt I owed it to myself to make an entrance in style. Harry Lighton's film Pillion is based on my novel Box Hill, published in 2020. When the option was acquired I didn't see how a consciously disorienting first-person narrative could work on the screen, but I was happy for him to try. At one point I was told, through my agent, that everyone was happy with the first two acts of Harry's draft, but the third needed work. After three years it was up to me to decide whether the project should go ahead. Conscientiously Yasmin McDonald, then at United Agents, itemised some drastic divergences. My 18-year-old narrator Colin was now 35 when he met the glamorous biker Ray, though still living with his parents, and Ray didn't die as he does in the book but simply disappeared from Colin's life. I flinched when I heard about these changes. Would the next phone call let me know that Olivia Colman had agreed to take on the demanding role of Ray? Nevertheless I said yes. I couldn't imagine pulling the plug on a project that someone had spent far more time adapting than I had spent writing it. I wouldn't have written Box Hill in my parents' lifetimes, since like many well-behaved gay men I wanted to emphasise the positive – no, Mum and Dad, I won't get sick, won't be persecuted in the press, won't be queer bashed or blackmailed. In their absence I could explore a darker landscape. In fact the book comes close to being a black joke. The tone skids all over the place, with hairpin bends between Alan Bennett's territory and Jean Genet's that require the reader to cling on for dear life or be flung out of the book. Is this meant to be comedy or tragedy, is it subtle or gross, somehow sincere or a put-on? I was also reacting against the lyrical tendency in gay fiction, as if these lives (and these sex acts) needed to be justified by aesthetic flourishes. You know the sort of thing: '… his armpits smelled like truffles, the white summer truffles that the old women lay out early in the morning, before the dew has gone, on the stone benches of the market in Piacenza'. So I excluded sensuality even in the upside down form of eroticised pain. My biker subculture is a consciously ridiculous confection, and weirdly innocent compared with the S&M practices that led to arrests and prosecutions in the Met Police's Operation Spanner in the late 80s (despite the fact that no one involved had needed medical treatment). The sex in the book is purely transactional, establishing the pack ranking. That's the great thing about subcultures – you can travesty them with very little fear of contradiction, though usually out of hysteria or malice rather than the mischief that was my motive. My real target was shallow mainstream tolerance. Fifty years ago a straight readership would take it for granted that gay people were weak, corrupt and perverse. Nowadays the same readership, for fear of seeming homophobic, will condone behaviour that would instantly be condemned if the participants weren't gay. How about a level playing field? Gay people can be perfectly horrid. I set out to write scenes that would test a phoney tolerance to breaking point. When I read in this paper that Box Hill was considered by one or two of the 2020 Booker judges 'unsuitable for recommending to friends and family', I thought the verdict was fair enough, despite the slightly chintzy phrasing. You can't write a confrontational book and then expect everyone to like it, even if I didn't mean the book to be an entirely heartless exercise. I wanted Colin to be likable, not right away but over the long haul, and I've been pleased when readers found more emotion in the book than I thought I had put there. Instability of tone can't really be transferred to film, where there's no easy equivalent to the first person. I wouldn't have wanted to write the screenplay myself, since I don't think in images. This sounds as if it should be an immediate disqualification in a film critic, but I don't think it's so. It just means that I see better with other people's eyes than my own. Harry Melling doesn't correspond to the rather bleak way Colin describes himself in the book, but that didn't bother me – I was only troubled by the change in the family dynamic. An 18-year-old living at home is plausibly virginal, a 35-year-old with no sexual experience is a misfit. It made sense that the film should be set in the present day rather than the late 70s, since period films are so expensive, so the book takes place before Aids and the film 'after' – the inverted commas indicating that this chronological marker is dependent on your country of residence and access to healthcare. Harry and I had very little contact while the film was becoming more real. I had no input and wanted none. If you've given up a child for adoption it's bad manners to hang around the school gates – even worse manners if you sold the child in question. The success or failure of the film doesn't affect me directly, though obviously it's nicer to be associated with something good than something bad. He treated me to a meal in a gastropub at the end of last year, the only time we met before Cannes. Later he emailed me a question about a sentence in the book he didn't quite get, where Colin says 'If I'd seen any pornography at all in my life I might have realised that what was happening could only happen to the people in pornography'. I did my best to be helpful when I replied: 'Ray is very practised at embodying a sexual fantasy, but he enters Colin's life entirely without context, as the realisation of something that hasn't been formulated. Any good?' Harry seemed satisfied. He even offered me and my partner Keith a day's work as biker extras, but I turned him down. Keith and I look like what we are, a retired art teacher and a redundant creative writing professor, and I didn't want to turn a transgressive spectacle into Last of the Summer Harleys. So when I arrived in Cannes last week I had neither seen Pillion nor read the script. The last time I had been there was in 1987, when I covered the festival for the newborn Independent. Newspapers had money then, and I was put up in a hotel in Juan-les-Pins with a marble swimming pool, though there was never enough time between screenings for me to dunk myself in it. The dress code for gala screenings (black tie, long dress) has stood more or less firm against informality, though a dark trouser suit or little black dress is also permitted. To counter excessive display there is a ban on voluminous trains that block gangways or obstruct seating. A common sight on the streets in the early evenings is a man in a tuxedo and shades riding a scooter. There was no dress code for the 11am screening of Pillion, though I tried to look halfway spiffy, a decision justified by the fact that a seat with my name on it was waiting for me. The festival's pre-screening ident is an animation of red steps without risers – floating stairs – that start underwater and rise into the sky accompanied by 'Aquarium' from Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals. It's greeted by audiences as an event in its own right. I knew Pillion would be have to be more conventionally structured than Box Hill, so as to make Colin rapidly likable rather than merely inescapable as a literary narrator can be. I hadn't anticipated a touch of the Mike Leighs (no bad thing), with some comedy of embarrassment but also some outright laughs. There is likely to be the occasional gasp, too. A Lighton line such as 'buy yourself a butt plug – you're very tight', delivered not as an insult but as part of a shopping list, is a pillion miles away from the compromised territory of Gimme Gimme Gimme or Vicious. And it's not just that Alexander Skarsgård's performance is committed. His subsequent lack of interest in distancing himself from the part he plays seems to me unprecedented. The material of the book has been re-ordered without being denatured, one significant shift being in the relationship between Colin's parents. In the book their hermetic devotion, obsessively mirroring each other, was meant as a sly contrast to the men's arrangement, obviously asymmetrical but not necessarily out of balance. In Pillion it's clear that Colin's mother Peggy (Lesley Sharp) has always worn the trousers, while Douglas Hodge gives his father a warmth and softness that suggests he likes being told what to do almost as much as his son does. Elements retained from the book are richer – the shaving of Colin's head has elements of ritual humiliation, but it's also a rite of passage. Not only does it introduce a mildly feral element into Harry Melling's normally beseeching features (best puppy-dog eyes and puppy-dog ears in the business), but it makes him part of the group, with bikers affectionately scratching his scalp-stubble. He isn't owned, he just belongs. I do wonder, though, if Harry realised how preposterous my biker subculture was when he elaborated it in his screenplay. If anything in the film was giggle-adjacent it would be the scene of a dejeuner sur l'herbe that features role-playing sex, with a flesh buffet laid out on picnic tables next to the potato salad. I've heard that the festival organisers try to homogenise the reception of films by herding audience members to the front of the circle, even if people have been steadily leaving before the end of the showing, so that the VIPs in the stalls, looking up, see only steadfast applause. The accolade at the end of Pillion seemed entirely genuine, and lasted several minutes, with the inevitable awkwardness of seeming dutiful in the manner of party conferences, while the people being acclaimed clap their own hands and look around them so as not to look smug. Melling wore an embroidered suit, as if to show by this very un-Colin outfit what a distance he had to travel to play the character. Skarsgård did exactly the opposite, wearing leather that was not part of his costume in the film. At the Pillion party at a private beach that evening he wore another get-up with fetishistic under- or overtones, including thigh boots that to a stern fashion eye might seem to throw his silhouette off-balance without the compensating upper-body swagger of a cloak. (It's worth mentioning that there is no sand under your feet at a party at a 'private beach', and no access to the sea.) He was extremely good-natured about being pestered, by me among others, and was unswerving in his allegiance to the film. At future festivals there's no doubt that he will test the limits of dress decorum, though which of the forbidden categories he'll be leaning towards, nudity or a voluminous train, is an open question at this point. Walking home from the party I made the beginner's mistake of choosing the side of the road nearer the sea, though the various pavilions block any actual view of it. It was a mistake because you can only cross the Boulevard de la Croisette back into the town at widely separated points, and when in due course you're stopped by police or security personnel you have to go all the way back and around. Altogether my movements have been less than smoothly managed. My motorbike's clutch cable snapped before I'd covered more than 40 miles of the journey to Cannes. It was a blessing, really. The bike would have earned me a fine for breaking emission standards in Montpellier, and my biker persona is close to 100% pose in any case. If you're relieved to be stuck behind a truck going at 50mph why are you riding a motorcycle in the first place? I travelled by train the next day. It took close to 12 hours, with a rail replacement bus service between Béziers and Marseille thrown in just to make a Brit feel more at home. Pillion premiered at the Cannes film festival and will be released later this year.
South Wales Guardian
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Guardian
Gemma Chan says UK aid cuts cannot be borne by ‘most vulnerable children'
Chan, 42, who is also a Unicef ambassador, delivered the open letter on Monday, calling on the UK government to ensure that 25% of the aid budget is spent on 'life-saving and life-changing work for children'. The letter comes after the UK government announced it would cut foreign aid from 0.5% gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% from 2027, in order to increase defence spending. Signatories included Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman, pop star Robbie Williams, 15 development organisations and more than 40,000 members of the UK public. Speaking to PA news agency, Chan said: 'We're definitely living in a really challenging time and difficult decisions are having to be made, but I feel that these decisions shouldn't be borne by the most vulnerable children in the world. 'Things like vaccinations, access to health care, they're a human right. No matter where a child lives, they deserve access to that. 'Today is really about just making sure that we're speaking up at this really difficult time for people that don't have anyone advocating for them.' The actress recently travelled to Malawi with Unicef UK and saw the ways UK funding has helped develop solutions to overcome healthcare and climate change challenges. A post shared by Gemma Chan (@gemmachan) This includes using solar panels to help improve health in rural communities by extending the shelf life of vaccines by keeping them refrigerated, and using drones to help speed up test results and to deliver health supplies. This is supported by the African Drone and Data Academy, which trains young people to use satellite technology to map flooding damage and better predict weather patterns to improve agriculture, health and emergency responses. Chan added: 'I'm really inspired by the young people that I meet in the course of doing my work with Unicef and trips like this trip to Malawi. 'I think it's really important not to lose hope, and it's really important to support the people that are really doing tireless, not necessarily very glamorous work, but working every day to make sure that children everywhere are given a good chance that (they are) growing up healthy and to be able to pursue their hopes and their dreams.' Speaking about the open letter, Chan emphasised that aid for children should be 'prioritised'. She said: '(The letter is) calling on the government to make sure that, in spite of the recent decisions and the cuts to international aid, that aid for children is prioritised and to make sure that 25% of the budget is spent on these vital programmes for children in areas such as health, nutrition, education, sanitation and just to make sure that the world's most vulnerable children aren't bearing the brunt of these really difficult decisions.' Homeland actor David Harewood also signed the letter alongside British-Somali Olympic boxer Ramla Ali, who fled Somalia with her family as a child and went on to compete for the world title. The open letter says: 'We know that by almost every measure, 2024 was one of the worst years on record for children in conflict. 'Cutting critical aid again, this time even more drastically, will put their lives at risk and undo decades of progress. 'The UK's commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on aid demonstrated our leadership and our compassion. The decision to cut it to 0.3% will make it impossible for this government to achieve its aspirations of tackling extreme poverty, addressing the climate crisis and building long-term global security.'
Leader Live
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Gemma Chan says UK aid cuts cannot be borne by ‘most vulnerable children'
Chan, 42, who is also a Unicef ambassador, delivered the open letter on Monday, calling on the UK government to ensure that 25% of the aid budget is spent on 'life-saving and life-changing work for children'. The letter comes after the UK government announced it would cut foreign aid from 0.5% gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% from 2027, in order to increase defence spending. Signatories included Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman, pop star Robbie Williams, 15 development organisations and more than 40,000 members of the UK public. Speaking to PA news agency, Chan said: 'We're definitely living in a really challenging time and difficult decisions are having to be made, but I feel that these decisions shouldn't be borne by the most vulnerable children in the world. 'Things like vaccinations, access to health care, they're a human right. No matter where a child lives, they deserve access to that. 'Today is really about just making sure that we're speaking up at this really difficult time for people that don't have anyone advocating for them.' The actress recently travelled to Malawi with Unicef UK and saw the ways UK funding has helped develop solutions to overcome healthcare and climate change challenges. A post shared by Gemma Chan (@gemmachan) This includes using solar panels to help improve health in rural communities by extending the shelf life of vaccines by keeping them refrigerated, and using drones to help speed up test results and to deliver health supplies. This is supported by the African Drone and Data Academy, which trains young people to use satellite technology to map flooding damage and better predict weather patterns to improve agriculture, health and emergency responses. Chan added: 'I'm really inspired by the young people that I meet in the course of doing my work with Unicef and trips like this trip to Malawi. 'I think it's really important not to lose hope, and it's really important to support the people that are really doing tireless, not necessarily very glamorous work, but working every day to make sure that children everywhere are given a good chance that (they are) growing up healthy and to be able to pursue their hopes and their dreams.' Speaking about the open letter, Chan emphasised that aid for children should be 'prioritised'. She said: '(The letter is) calling on the government to make sure that, in spite of the recent decisions and the cuts to international aid, that aid for children is prioritised and to make sure that 25% of the budget is spent on these vital programmes for children in areas such as health, nutrition, education, sanitation and just to make sure that the world's most vulnerable children aren't bearing the brunt of these really difficult decisions.' Homeland actor David Harewood also signed the letter alongside British-Somali Olympic boxer Ramla Ali, who fled Somalia with her family as a child and went on to compete for the world title. The open letter says: 'We know that by almost every measure, 2024 was one of the worst years on record for children in conflict. 'Cutting critical aid again, this time even more drastically, will put their lives at risk and undo decades of progress. 'The UK's commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on aid demonstrated our leadership and our compassion. The decision to cut it to 0.3% will make it impossible for this government to achieve its aspirations of tackling extreme poverty, addressing the climate crisis and building long-term global security.'
