DOWNLOAD festival has landed a Hollywood A-lister to perform at the rock and metal event next summer.
The 2026 line-up was announced this evening and features the surprising actor, as well as three American bands topping the bill.
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Keanu Reeves will play Download festival next summer as bassist for band DogstarCredit: GettyGuns N’ Roses will also hit the stage on the SaturdayCredit: Getty
Download will return to Leicestershire’s Donington Park from June 10 to 14, with The Matrix and John Wick star Keanu Reeves set to play.
The band Dogstar, for which he plays bass, are among a series of acts which have been officially unveiled.
Linkin Park will close the festival on the Sunday night, marking their first performance at the festival since frontwoman Emily Armstrong was brought in.
They previously headlined four times between 2004 and 2014 with their original line-up.
And it comes after Linkin Park played a sold out concert at Wembley Stadium in June.
Tickets are already on sale for the 23rd annual festival, which will also feature performances from Pendulum, Trivium, The All-American Rejects, Mastodon and Bush.
Other acts on the line-up include Feeder, Ash, Tom Morello, The Pretty Reckless and Those Damn Crows.
Limp Bizkit’s booking comes just a fortnight after it was revealed that bassist and founding member Sam Rivers had died aged 48.
They paid tribute to him last month when they described him as not “just our bass player” but “the soul in the sound.”
The band said: “From the first note we ever played together, Sam brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced.
“His talent was effortless, his presence unforgettable, his heart enormous.”
The full rundown of artists was revealed at a launch event at the Barbican in central London, where guests were entertained by fortune tellers and a string quartet.
The first inaugural Gaza International Festival for Women’s Cinema premiered the docudrama, ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ which recounts the final few hours of the Palestinian girl’s life.
“Smaller crowds, authentic traditions, and a truly breathtaking backdrop.”
Outside of this, visitors can explore the lake with hikes having incredible views of the towering Loser mountain.
Brown and white alpine-style houses as well as churches and waterfalls can be spotted along the way.
One of the other things to do in the village is head on a salt mine tour where you also get to see the former Nazi Stolen Art Repository, with deep tunnels and even slides in the mine.
If you are visiting during the winter season, there is the ski resort of Loser, which boasts around 29km of slopes with all levels of difficulty.
The village has a few restaurants to choose from including Schneiderwirt, which features an ornate wooden facade and serves comfort dishes.
The salt mine is a popular tourist attraction in the villageCredit: SchmidThe village holds an Oktoberfest type of festival each yearCredit: Alamy
As for where to stay, accommodation ranges from boutique alpine hotels to guesthouses and family-run inns, many within easy walking distance of the festival.
The easiest way to get to the village is by flying to Salzburg and then hopping on a train for just under two hours.
Flights to Salzburg cost as little as £30 return and from the UK takes an hour and 55 minutes.
After 15 years, four records and a buzz-making barrage of shows, tours and festivals, the moody, multifaceted music of north London’s Wolf Alice is huge in the U.K., thanks to uniquely seductive soundscapes, visceral live shows and a relentless hunger for experimentation that melds rock, shoegaze and alternative pop.
With their latest studio album, “The Clearing,” the members are primed for the next level of success in the U.S., and it comes via songs that reflect their growth as individuals and as a collective.
Consisting of lead singer Ellie Rowsell, guitarist Joff Oddie, bassist Theo Ellis and drummer Joel Amey, Wolf Alice provides both feminine and masculine perspectives on life that feel resonant and real, with sonic approaches that can go from raging one moment to restrained the next. They’ve honed their sound even as they’ve continued to experiment with it. The result is exciting for them and for fans, now more than ever.
“This tour has been incredible. It’s definitely been the busiest and had the biggest shows we’ve ever played in America,” Ellis tells The Times via Zoom, noting that the band’s upcoming Wiltern date in Los Angeles on Oct. 13 is almost sold out.
Wolf Alice’s connection to Los Angeles is especially significant at this phase of its career. “The Clearing” was recorded here with famed producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Miley Cyrus), who brought his pop sensibilities to the project, even as he encouraged the band to follow its own eclectic instincts, dipping into synthy, dancy elements and balladry with bite.
“We’ve had a different producer every album, so every experience has been quite different,” says drummer Amey, who joins our Zoom later. “He was just a very calm and positive force in the studio that made all of us feel very comfortable, to be able to be the best versions of ourselves … And it did come at a time where maybe even the four of us were second-guessing ourselves. We’d been in this headspace for a while about how we wanted to treat the sonics of the record. You can get stuck in that cycle … But he was so positive that he could help us get there, and he did.”
As Taylor Swift’s latest record brings scrutiny to the construction and thematics of pop music and its presentation, Wolf Alice’s seductive sway and wistful grit feels comparatively effortless, even if it’s just as accessible.
Buzz in the U.S. started after a killer set at Coachella 2016, but we caught Wolf Alice the following year at Dave Grohl’s Cal Jam in 2017. Its emotive alt-rock melodies and charisma more than held its own next to headliners including fellow-Brit Liam Gallagher and the Foo Fighters themselves (who the band has also toured with). The material, largely off its first and second albums, “My Love Is Cool” and “Visions of a Life,” respectively, offered a compelling blend of sharp riffage and dreamy textures, which reminded us of everyone from Smashing Pumpkins to Cocteau Twins at the time. Standout tracks we noted included the dissonant “Yuk Foo” and the sassy hit “Don’t Delete the Kisses.”
After another shimmering genre-blending release, 2021’s “Blue Weekend,” and now “The Clearing,” it’s almost a decade later, and the band is even harder to codify. The members are also bonafide touring and festival vets.
“In the U.K., festival culture is, like, a whole thing. The U.S. is kind of getting more like that too,” Amey says. “But European and U.K. festival culture is a rite of passage for a teenager … it’s ingrained. If you’re starting a band, you’re thinking about festivals at some point. So we love playing them. We played Glastonbury this year, and it just felt like a really wonderful way to say, ‘We’re back, here’s some new stuff,’ and also a celebration of the old stuff.”
Old or new, creative imagery has been a consistent component of Wolf Alice’s expression. Building upon the cinematic qualities of its music, its videos elevate not only its narratives but also its rock-star personas as well.
“This album explores themes of performance which I think is prevalent in the music videos and musically, in rock ’n’ roll which we also explore,” frontwoman Rowsell shares by email. “In the past Wolf Alice have shied away from performance videos so this marks a new vibe for us.”
“Bloom Baby Bloom,” which features an “All That Jazz”-style dance sequence (with choreography by L.A.’s Ryan Heffington, known for his magical movements on the Netflix cult fave “The OA” and in Sia’s “Chandelier”) brings out the drama and audacious expression of the song, especially Rowsell’s soaring vocals. It also highlights the band’s maturation and liberation as established artists at the height of their performing powers.
Similarly, “Just Two Girls,” a sweet ode to female friendship that’s a cool, ’70s soft-rock filler track on record, becomes more of a defiant anthem for feminine freedom on video.
“It’s a wonderful license of expression in which you can kind of do whatever you want,” reflects Ellis on the videos. “It’s absurdist in its nature and there are really interesting formats to explore. We’ve had some great experiences in America making them.”
The band has also had memorable moments on Amercian late-night TV, including “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” turning in wild appearances that reflect its name (inspired by a book about feral children raised by wolves).
And while good old-fashioned live performance has helped its popularity grow, the band acknowledges that the music industry is different — even from when it started 15 years ago, with streaming’s domination and platforms like TikTok exposing music to new audiences. For a band driven by its own interpersonal chemistry, interactions and influences, it’s not top of mind.
“We’re not concerned with how it’s going to be distributed to people fundamentally, as we’re creatively trying to satisfy ourselves,” Ellis says. “I don’t think the mechanics of [music discovery] are affecting what we’re making in the studio or the creative process. There’s so much for a band to create nowadays, and to worry about … from our perspective, the music is what comes first and then everything else is hopefully just kind of a fun way of presenting it to the world.”
Future Ruins, the hotly-anticipated Nov. 8 film-music festival from Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, has been canceled.
“Unfortunately Future Ruins will not move forward this year,” organizers said in a statement. “The reality is, due to a number of logistical challenges and complications, we feel we cannot provide the experience that’s defined what this event was always intended to be. Rather than compromise, we’re choosing to re-think and re-evaluate. Meanwhile, we are sorry for any inconvenience and appreciate all the interest and support.”
The Live Nation-produced event at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center was booked as a compendium of cutting-edge composers to showcase their film work in an unorthodox live setting. Headlined by the Nine Inch Nails bandmates, who have won Oscars for their film scores including “The Social Network” and “Soul,” the event was slated to host John Carpenter, Questlove, Danny Elfman, Mark Mothersbaugh and Hildur Guðnadóttir among many others.
The fest’s cancellation comes on the heels of Nine Inch Nails’ sold-out “Peel It Back” tour, which hit the Form last month and is scheduled to return to Southern California in March next year. The band will also play a club-heavy version of its live set as Nine Inch Noize (with collaborator Boys Noize) at Coachella next year.
Pilgrims were visiting the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church to mark the annual Virgin Mary festival.
Published On 1 Oct 20251 Oct 2025
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Makeshift scaffolding set up at a church in Ethiopia has collapsed, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens, state media reported.
The incident occurred at about 7:45am [4:45 GMT] on Wednesday in the town of Arerti, in the Amhara region, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the capital, Addis Ababa.
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A group of pilgrims were visiting the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church to mark the annual Virgin Mary festival when the scaffolding collapsed.
District police chief Ahmed Gebeyehu told state media Fana “the number of dead has reached 36 and could increase more,” according to the AFP news agency.
The number of people injured remains unclear, but some reports suggest they could be as many as 200.
Local official Atnafu Abate told the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) that some people remained under the rubble but did not provide details on rescue operations.
Some of the more seriously hurt were taken to hospitals in the capital, he added.
Worshippers stand inside the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church under construction that collapsed in Arerti, Amhara region of northern Ethiopia, on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 [Samuel Getachew/AP Photo]
Teshale Tilahun, the local administrator, described the incident as “a tragic loss for the community”.
Images shared on the EBC’s official Facebook page showed tangled wooden poles, with crowds gathering amid the dense debris.
Other pictures appeared to show the outside of the church, where scaffolding had been precariously constructed.
Health and safety regulations are virtually non-existent in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, and construction accidents are common.
Post Malone, Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson will headline 2026’s Stagecoach country music festival, organizers announced Thursday, bringing together one of Nashville’s most successful converts with two of its most reliable hitmakers.
The three-day event, scheduled for April 24 to 26 at Indio’s Empire Polo Club, will also feature Brooks & Dunn, Ella Langley, Bailey Zimmerman, Wynonna Judd, Riley Green, Lyle Lovett, Little Big Town, Warren Zeiders, Nate Smith and Hudson Westbrook.
Among the non-country acts on the bill for the annual show, which takes place on the same grounds as Coachella the weekend after that festival, are the rappers Pitbull, Ludacris and BigXthaPlug and the rock bands Journey, Bush, Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind and Hootie & the Blowfish. Noah Cyrus and Teddy Swims will be there, as will the winner of an upcoming CBS singing competition show called “The Road.”
None of next year’s headliners is a stranger to Stagecoach, which premiered in 2007 and which in recent years has rivaled Coachella as a destination for marketers and influencers.
In 2024, Malone played a set of classic country covers at the fest that included guest appearances by Dwight Yoakam, Brad Paisley and Sara Evans; he also joined Morgan Wallen during the latter’s headlining performance to debut “I Had Some Help,” their smash duet from Malone’s first country album after his years working in hip-hop and pop. Wilson, who was named entertainer of the year at May’s ACM Awards, performed at Stagecoach in 2022 and 2023, while Johnson played in 2017 and 2022; both stars are nominated for entertainer of the year at November’s CMA Awards.
Other acts scheduled to perform at Stagecoach 2026 include Red Clay Strays, Sam Barber, Gavin Adcock, Wyatt Flores, Billy Bob Thornton, Charles Wesley Godwin, Chase Rice, Kameron Marlowe, Larkin Poe, S.G. Goodman and the Wallflowers.
Passes for the festival, which start at $549 and go up past $4,000 for various VIP packages, will go on sale Oct. 2. This past April’s show — with headliners Zach Bryan, Jelly Roll and Luke Combs — sold out in advance even as Coachella struggled to move tickets as briskly as it once did.
Goldenvoice, the L.A.-based promoter that puts on both festivals, said Monday that Coachella 2026 had sold out just days after tickets went on sale late last week. The lineup for Coachella, which the company announced months earlier than it typically does, is topped by Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G.
A grainy circle flashes on the top-right corner of the screen at the Eagle Theater. The single-screen repertory cinema, run by the nonprofit organization Vidiots, was showing a 35-millimeter print of Paul Thomas Anderson’s psychological drama “The Master.”
The faint warning is easily missed by most viewers, but it appears every 10 minutes, alerting the projectionist to change the reel.
The auditorium was sold out. Audience members clapped as the film title appeared onscreen. There was a buzz in the air even before the lights faded to black with the standby line filled with hopefuls trying to grab a last-minute ticket. The stakes were high for the person manning the reel exchange.
Guests wait to enter the Vidiots movie theater for a movie night in Los Angeles.
Michael Rousselet, a projectionist at the Eagle Rock theater, often drinks a lot of coffee to stay alert during late-night screenings.
“If we do a good job, no one knows we exist,” Rousselet quipped as he showed off the projection booth. “If we mess up, everyone knows we exist.”
The carefully curated communal experience offered by repertory theaters is enduring the hardships of the box office, even after the pandemic, which led to the demise of some well-known cinemas. The famed Cinerama Dome and adjoining former Arclight theater on Sunset Boulevard have still not reopened, despite popular demand.
A Monday screening of a 35-millimeter copy of the 2007 film “Michael Clayton” by American Cinematheque sold out. Independent cinema has captured a niche population that has helped it prevail in a time when box office revenue is tumbling down.
Guests enter the movie theater at Vidiots in Los Angeles.
The summer box office season, which stretches from early May through Labor Day, grossed $3.67 billion in the U.S. and Canada, down slightly from last year and significantly less than the pre-pandemic norm of $4 billion. Some new films with major stars struggle to get anyone to show up. “Americana,” starring Sydney Sweeney, one of Hollywood’s top young stars, earned $500,000 during its opening weekend last month.
The unique cinematic experiences crafted by the different repertory theaters play a pivotal role in revitalizing the film industry in Los Angeles, according to Maggie Mackay, executive director of Vidiots.
“I don’t think you can [raise the next generation of film lovers] through one platform,” Mackay said, sitting down in her auditorium. “I don’t think you can fall in love with an art form by clicking a few times and observing it by yourself.”
Patrons at the bar of the Vidiots’ cinema in Los Angeles.
A 2024 study by Art House Convergence showed that between 2019 and 2024, audiences became younger and more diverse. The number of wide releases have also made the independent industry healthier, according to Rich Daughtridge, president of Independent Cinema Alliance.
Independent theaters “are still down compared to 2019, but the momentum attraction is going up,” he said.
Netflix bought the Egyptian Theatre from American Cinematheque for an undisclosed amount in 2020. The influx of money helped the organization grow the brand and host more screenings — the total jump from 500 screenings to 1,600 with 350,000 patrons visiting their theaters, according to Grant Moninger, artistic director at American Cinematheque.
Part of the reason audiences are choosing smaller theaters over multiplexes is the care and attention staff members put into each showing. The viewing experience at these revival theaters always starts with a crew member reminding the audience to stay away from their phones — they want everyone to enjoy the tiny scratches, dust specks and vibrant colors of the print they are showing.
Patrons watch a movie at Vidiots movie theater in Los Angeles.
“I think people are desperately in search of community right now and of feeling closer to other people and sharing things and not feeling disconnected by technology,” Sean Fennessey, the host of the podcast “The Big Picture,” said after the “Michael Clayton” screening.
“We’re very lucky in Los Angeles that we have so many great spaces … that are encouraging people to come together and hang out and laugh and cry and feel chills,” he added.
Each location offers Hollywood cinephiles and casual viewers alike options to catch a variety of movies based on their niche. Independent cinema has had the least trouble recruiting an audience post-pandemic, according to Art House Convergence.
The Vista Theater and the New Beverly show personal copies from the private collection of Quentin Tarantino, who saved the theaters from extinction. Its recent run of “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” sold out and warranted the Vista announcing a new run of it.
American Cinematheque hosted a festival of films handpicked by different podcasters, which sold out screenings in the middle of the week.
Guests wait to enter the Vidiots movie theater in Los Angeles.
Vidiots hosted a discussion with American Cinema Editors member Leslie Jones after a screening of 2012’s “The Master,” a filmed she worked on. The showing sold out and most of its audience stayed late for a Q&A discussion with her.
Regardless of the inspiration these repertory theaters provide with, say, retrospectives of Akira Kurosawa, the model is not bulletproof to the punches theaters have taken. Organizations like Vidiots and American Cinematheque still rely on their nonprofit status.
These organizations count on donations and memberships. Access to directors, actors, prints and people in the industry also plays an important role in keeping afloat, according to Moninger.
“Our job is to get everybody in [the theater]. You can’t just say, ‘Hey, we’re a nonprofit,’” he said.
The uncertainty of the model does leave room for growth, according to Roger Durling, the executive director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Vidiots technical director Boris Ibanez sets up a section of the film in a projector in the projection booth of Vidiots movie theater.
The nonprofit organization recently purchased the Film Center, a five-screen multiplex, in the downtown Santa Barbara area. It is the second five-screen theater they have purchased, and it will also screen films during the festival every winter.
Throughout the year, when the theaters aren’t showing movies for the festival, the organization will maintain its existence through a repertory model.
“The nonprofit aspect allows you to concentrate more on the artistic side as opposed to thinking, ‘I just need to make money,’” Durling said.
But the thought is still on his mind.
“The more you concentrate on the artistic side of it, the money will take care of itself.”
LA QUINTA — Briana Ortega had been home for all of three minutes when she heard a fist pounding against her door.
She opened it to find a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy “claiming a black man with dreadlocks had jumped over her backyard fence” and was trying to break into her La Quinta home, according to court records.
Almost immediately, Ortega, 29, suspected Deputy Eric Piscatella was there for other reasons. The encounter last summer wasn’t the first time they’d met. It wasn’t even the first time he’d shown up at her home unannounced, according to an arrest affidavit and claims in a civil lawsuit.
“You look pretty without makeup … sorry I don’t mean to be rude or unprofessional,” Piscatella said, after spending a scant few seconds looking out a window for the purported suspect, according to a recording of the incident.
It was the fourth time in less than a year that Piscatella had either shown up at Ortega’s home or contacted her without a legitimate law enforcement purpose, according to the affidavit and lawsuit. Ortega shared text messages showing the deputy tried to flirt with her and ask her out on dates, but she rebuffed him at every turn.
A former Riverside County sheriff’s deputy is accused in a lawsuit of using law enforcement resources to pursue a woman he met at a public event.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
Last year, Riverside County prosecutors charged Piscatella, 30, with seven counts of illegally using law enforcement databases to look up information about Ortega.
But instead of resolving the situation, Ortega says, the way Piscatella’s case played out in criminal court has only prolonged her ordeal.
Ortega said she remains “terrified” of Piscatella and declined to testify against him. In July, a Riverside County judge downgraded all charges against Piscatella to misdemeanors. He pleaded guilty and received probation, avoiding jail time.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco kicks off his campaign to run for governor at Avila’s Historic 1929 center on Feb. 17 in Riverside.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
“I feel like with him getting the misdemeanor, nothing is ever going to change… If it takes me having to [file this lawsuit], I will, if it helps,” she said.
Piscatella declined to comment through his defense attorney.
A spokesperson for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said Piscatella resigned last October after roughly five years on the job. His ability to work as a police officer in California is suspended, accreditation records show, but without a felony conviction it could be restored.
Ortega recalled her first run-in with Piscatella as innocent enough.
She was attending what she described as a “family fair,” with her two sons in Coachella in September 2023, enjoying amusement rides and carnival games when she said her oldest son ran up to a group of sheriff’s deputies who were giving out stickers. Piscatella was among them, according to Ortega, who said they had a polite but forgettable conversation.
They did not exchange contact information, but a few months later, in January of 2024, Ortega said, she got a text from an unknown number.
The texter claimed to be her “personal officer.” A fitness influencer with more than 100,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram, Ortega gets random flirtatious messages from men. So she shrugged it off.
That same month, Piscatella searched Ortega’s name and the city of La Quinta in both the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and other sheriff’s databases shortly before the texts were sent, according to court records. In Ortega’s civil suit, she alleged this was how Piscatella tracked her down.
One month later, Piscatella showed up at Ortega’s La Quinta home while she was at work, according to her lawsuit. Her mother answered the door, and was “alarmed” when the deputy questioned where her daughter was. Still, Ortega wasn’t bothered.
“I’m like, he’s a cop, he can’t be that crazy. He’s on the force for a reason … of course he knows where I live,” she said.
Echoing claims in her lawsuit, she added: “I’m not thinking he’s going to continue to look for me or stalk me. If I would have known, I would have complained.”
Ortega was so unfazed that she actually went to Piscatella for help a month later. Her younger sister had been the victim of an assault and was struggling to get attention from the Sheriff’s Department. So Ortega contacted the man who claimed to be her “personal officer.”
But when Ortega began describing the purported crime, Piscatella responded by asking her to send a “selfie” and insisting they should go to the gym together. Annoyed, Ortega eventually changed her number when instead of help, all she got was a picture of Piscatella wearing Sheriff’s Department clothes, according to text messages.
Court records show Piscatella continued to use law enforcement databases to keep tabs on Ortega in the months that followed. In May 2024, he searched her name and ran her license plate, according to court records. He did the same in July, right before showing up at Ortega’s house, claiming he saw the man with dreadlocks break in.
At that point, Piscatella’s interest in Ortega had turned into an “obsession,” according to her lawsuit. Since he arrived just minutes after she’d returned from a trip to San Diego, Ortega said it felt like Piscatella was “waiting for me.” She alleges in her lawsuit that the deputy “used law enforcement resources and databases … to stalk her.”
After letting him in, she surreptitiously recorded the deputy standing in her living room, talking to her children. In the lawsuit, Ortega said she was “confused, scared and uncomfortable,” especially after Piscatella asked for her new number, which she gave him out of “fear.”
Piscatella texted her a short time later, according to messages reviewed by The Times, describing her kids as “so cool.”
“I don’t feel comfortable with everything that just happened. Please do not contact me again,” Ortega wrote back.
Briana Ortega filed a lawsuit alleging that she has been living in fear of a former Riverside County sheriff’s deputy.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
She made a complaint to the Sheriff’s Department the same day. Court records show the department launched an internal investigation and quickly determined Piscatella had used law enforcement databases to look up information on Ortega several times, according to an affidavit seeking a warrant for his arrest.
The affidavit shows there was “no corresponding call for service” related to the day Piscatella showed up at Ortega’s home and claimed someone was breaking in.
Riverside County prosecutors filed seven felony charges against Piscatella.
Ortega said she refused to testify because, even though the Sheriff’s Department had presented a case against one of their own, she feared Piscatella or a fellow deputy might seek retribution against her.
At a July court hearing in Indio, Piscatella made an open plea to the court seeking to downgrade each charge to a misdemeanor and avoid jail time, according to a transcript of the proceeding.
Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Natasha Sorace pleaded with Superior Court Judge Helios J. Hernandez not to accept the lesser charges.
“The defendant was a police officer — a sheriff’s deputy, who used his position of power and the information he had access to as a result of that position to put someone in the community in significant fear for their safety,” Sorace said.
“He searched information — conducted a search about a particular individual and used that information to come up with an excuse to get into that woman’s house, where he proceeded to hit on her and make her feel uncomfortable in her own on home.”
But Hernandez rebuffed her attempts to argue the point further. In his view, “nothing actually happened.”
“He never, like, broke into the house or threatened her,” Hernandez said, according to a transcript of the hearing.
Hernandez sentenced Piscatella to probation and community service and ordered him to stay away from Ortega. Records show prosecutors have appealed the decision.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office would not say if Ortega’s refusal to testify affected their ability to bring other charges, including the stalking allegation she made in the civil suit.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s spokesperson declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The entire ordeal left Ortega feeling like law enforcement failed her at every level. She noted that Piscatella still knows where she lives.
While she previously did not hold a negative view of police, now she says she turns the other direction and grows anxious anytime she sees a Sheriff’s Department cruiser.
“It’s a betrayal of trust from law enforcement … who do you call when it’s the police who are the problem?” asked her attorney, Jamal Tooson. “When can you ever feel safe? You almost feel trapped, in your own house.”
It all started with a purchase of land in the 1960s. Then, from that small slice of Utah and the founding of the Sundance Institute in 1981 and, later, its expansion into the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford developed a vision that would reshape on-screen storytelling as we know it. Sundance opened doors for multiple generations of filmmakers who might not otherwise have gained entry to the movie business.
Redford, who died Tuesday at age 89, was already a hugely successful actor, producer and director, having just won an Oscar for his directorial debut “Ordinary People,” when he founded the Sundance Institute as a support system for independent filmmakers. His Utah property, named after his role in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” would become a haven for creativity in an idyllic setting.
Evincing a rugged, hands-on attitude marked by curiosity and enthusiasm about the work, Redford embodied a philosophy for Sundance that was clear from its earliest days.
“When I started the Institute, the major studios dominated the game, which I was a part of,” Redford said to The Times via email in 2021. “I wanted to focus on the word ‘independence’ and those sidelined by the majors — supporting those sidelined by the dominant voices. To give them a voice. The intent was not to cancel or go against the studios. It wasn’t about going against the mainstream. It was about providing another avenue and more opportunity.”
The first of the Sundance Lab programs, which continue today, also launched in 1981, bringing emerging filmmakers together in the mountains to develop projects with the support of more established advisers.
The Institute would take over a small film festival in Utah, the U.S. Film Festival, for its 1985 edition and eventually rename it the Sundance Film Festival, a showcase that would go on to introduce directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Nia DaCosta, Taika Waititi, Gregg Araki, Damien Chazelle and countless others while refashioning independent filmmaking into a viable career path.
Before directing “Black Panther” and “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler went through the Sundance Lab at the beginning of his career and saw his debut feature “Fruitvale Station” premiere at Sundance in 2013 where it won both the grand jury and audience awards.
“Mr. Redford was a shining example of how to leverage success into community building, discovery, and empowerment,” Coogler said in a statement to The Times on Tuesday. “I’ll be forever grateful for what he did when he empowered and supported Michelle Satter in developing the Sundance Labs. In these trying times it hurts to lose an elder like Mr. Redford — someone who through their words, their actions and their commitment left their industry in a better place than they found it.”
Chloé Zhao’s debut feature “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” premiered at the festival in 2015 after she took the project through the labs. With her later effort “Nomadland,” Zhao would go on to become the second woman — and still the only woman of color — to win the Academy Award for directing.
“Sundance changed my life,” Zhao said in a statement on Tuesday. “I didn’t know anyone in the industry or how to get my first film made. Being accepted into the Sundance Labs was like entering a lush and nurturing garden holding my tiny fragile seedling and watching it take root and grow. It was there I found my voice, became a part of a community I still treasure deeply today.”
Satter, Sundance Institute‘s founding senior director of artist programs, was involved since the organization’s earliest days. Even from relatively humble origins, Satter could already feel there was something powerful and unique happening under Redford’s guidance.
“He made us all feel like we were part of the conversation, part of building Sundance, right from the beginning,” Satter said of Redford in a 2021 interview. “He was really interested in others’ point of view, all perspectives. At the same time, he had a real clarity of vision and what he wanted this to be.”
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For many years Redford was indeed the face of the film festival, making frequent appearances and regularly speaking at the opening press conference. Starting in 2019 he reduced his public role at the festival, in tandem with the moment he stepped back from acting.
The festival has gone through many different eras over the years, with festival directors handing off leadership from Geoffrey Gilmore to John Cooper to Tabitha Jackson and current fest director Eugene Hernandez.
The festival has also weathered changes in the industry, as streaming platforms have upended distribution models. Steven Soderbergh’s 1989 drama “sex, lies and videotape” is often cited as a key title in the industry’s discovery of the Utah event as a must-attend spot on their calendars, a place where buyers could acquire movies for distribution and scout new talent.
“Before Sundance, there wasn’t really a marketplace for new voices and independent film in the way that we know it today,” said Kent Sanderson, chief executive of Bleecker Street, which has premiered multiple films at the festival over the years. “The way Sundance supports filmmakers by giving their early works a real platform is key to the health of our business.”
Over time, Sundance became a place not only to acquire films but also to launch them, with distributors bringing films to put in front of the high number of media and industry attendees. Investors come to scope out films and filmmakers look to raise money.
“It all started with Redford having this vision of wanting to create an environment where alternative approaches to filmmaking could be supported and thrive,” said Joe Pichirallo, an arts professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and one of the original executives at Searchlight Pictures. “And he succeeded and it’s continuing. Even though the business is going through various changes, Sundance’s significance as a mecca for independent film is still pretty high.”
At the 2006 festival, “Little Miss Sunshine,” directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, sold to Searchlight for what was then a record-setting $10.5 million. In 2021, Apple TV+ purchased Siân Heder’s “CODA” for a record-breaking $25 million. The film would go on to be the first to have premiered at Sundance to win the Oscar for best picture.
Yet the festival, the labs and the institute have remained a constant through it all, continuing to incubate fresh talent to launch to the industry.
“Redford put together basically a factory of how to do independent films,” said Tom Bernard, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics. Over the years the company has distributed many titles that premiered at Sundance, including “Call Me by Your Name” and “Whiplash.”
“He adapted as the landscape changed,” Bernard added of the longevity of Sundance’s influence. “And as you watched the evolution to where it is today, it’s an amazing journey and an amazing feat that he did for the world of independent film. It wouldn’t be the same without him.”
Through it all, Redford balanced his roles between his own career making and starring in movies and leading Sundance. Filmmaker Allison Anders, whose 1992 film “Gas Food Lodging” was among the earliest breakout titles from the Sundance Film Festival, remembered Redford on Instagram.
“You could easily have just been the best looking guy to walk into any room and stopped there and lived off of that your whole life,” Anders wrote. “You wanted to help writers and filmmakers like me who were shut out to create characters not seen before, and you did. You could have just been handsome. But you nurtured us.”
The upcoming 2026 Sundance Film Festival in January will be the last one in its longtime home of Park City, Utah. The festival had previously announced that a tribute to Redford and his vision of the festival would be a part of that final bow, which will now carry an added emotional resonance.
Starting in 2027, the Sundance Film Festival will unspool in in Boulder, Colo. Regardless of where the event takes place, the legacy of what Robert Redford first conceived will remain.
As Redford himself said in 2021 about the founding of the Institute, “I believed in the concept and because it was just that, a concept, I expected and hoped that it would evolve over time. And happily, it has.”
Sept. 16 (UPI) — Officials at U.S.-based website LimeWire have acquired the Fyre Festival brand after emerging as the winning bidder for the fraud-plagued music festival.
LimeWire officials said the purchase enables the digital music provider and the Fyre Festival to combine their brand identities and attract millions of new users.
“Fyre became a symbol of hype gone wrong, but it also made history,” said LimeWire Chief Executive Officer Julian Zehetmayr in a news release.
“We’re not bringing the festival back,” he said. “We’re bringing the brand and the meme back to life.”
The purchase will enable LimeWire and Fyre to start a new chapter that is “grounded in technology, transparency and a sense of humor,” according to the news release.
LimeWire was an early pioneer of online file sharing, which a federal judge ended in October 2010 by ordering it to stop illegally sharing files in a lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America.
LimeWire’s new owners resurrected the brand in 2022 and seek to do the same with Fyre Festival.
“LimeWire’s acquisition is not about repeating past mistakes,” the news release said. “It’s about saving one of the Internet’s most infamous cultural memes from extinction and turning it into something new.”
The Fyre Festival was a subsidiary of Fyre Media, whose owner was charged and convicted of wire fraud in 2018 for lying to at least two investors.
The Fyre Festival formerly sponsored a live music event and booked musical artists at venues across the nation.
Filmmaker Taika Waititi and his wife, singer-songwriter Rita Ora, last week announced they are producing a stage musical about the failure and eventual cancellation of the 2017 Fyre Music Festival.
Surprise! The 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival lineup is out and it’s topped by pop stars.
Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G will headline the twin weekends of the festival, which return to the Empire Polo Club in Indio April 10-12 and 17-19, 2026.
Other notable acts include elder statesmen such as Iggy Pop, David Byrne and Devo, rock acts including the Strokes and Turnstile, pop star Addison Rae, Laufey, EDM superstar Kaskade, rapper Young Thug and dozens of others.
The bottom of the festival poster also announces something called “The Bunker Debut of Radiohead Kid A Mnesia.” The British rock band Radiohead recently announced European tour dates.
Also at the bottom of the poster, which has become a place for the festival to announce special engagements, is the world premiere of Anyma’s “Æden.” Anyma, the project of producer and artist Matteo Miller, was the first electronic act to headline Sphere in Las Vegas.
At the top of the poster for Friday, listed between the XX and Disclosure is an act called Nine Inch Noize. German producer Boys Noize joined Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails’ on the band’s recent tour and also labeled a live collaboration as Nine Inch Noize System on Instagram.
Since its inception in 1999, Coachella has included a diverse range of musical styles, but also less-than-expected acts, such as the colorful monsters of the show Yo Gabba Gabba! and the L.A. Phil earlier this year. For 2026, another beloved L.A. institution is on the bill: Bob Baker Marionettes, of the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, are listed on the poster for Friday.
Coachella has given a spotlight to some of the world’s biggest K-pop and J-pop acts in recent years and in 2026 acts including Bigbang, Fujii Kaze, and Taemin.
The 2026 edition is also a makeup show of sorts for FKA Twigs, who had to cancel her 2025 North American tour, including stops at Coachella, due to visa issues. Promoter Goldenvoice has traditionally released the festival’s lineup in January, three months or so before the event.
Tickets start at $649 for a three-day pass for Weekend 1 and $549 for Weekend 2. (If you buy a 4-pack of tickets you can save $10 per pass.) VIP passes for Weekend 1 start at $1,299 and are $1,199 for Weekend 2.
New for 2026 is a group camping option, which allows people who want to camp together to arrive at different times. There’s a 10-spot minimum and a 20-spot maximum. Each camping spot is $160.
Passes go on sale to the general public at 11 a.m. Pacific on Friday, Sept. 19 at www.coachella.com.
Don’t expect country music stars Zach Bryan and Gavin Adcock to share a bill anytime soon. The two, who have been sparring verbally for weeks, got into a face-to-face altercation at a music festival in Oklahoma on Saturday.
The confrontation happened at the Born & Raised Festival in Pryor, Okla., just before Adcock stepped on stage to perform.
A video, shared by Adcock on Instagram, shows Adcock and Bryan staring each other down and yelling through a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
“Hey, you want to fight like a man?” Bryan says in the video clip, calling for someone to open the gate separating the two men. Other clips show Bryan climbing over the barbed-wire top of the fence and Adcock standing back as security personnel come between them.
Text superimposed on Adcock’s Instagram video alleged that Bryan made “death threats” during the spat, along with the comment: “Eat a snickers bro.” He added another insult while signing someone’s cowboy hat later that day.
Adcock, who has 725,000 Instagram followers, released an album called “Own Worst Enemy” in August. He sparked controversy in June when he criticized Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album on stage, brandishing a bottle while saying “that s— ain’t country music, and it ain’t never been country music and it ain’t never gonna be country music.” (Earlier this year, Beyoncé won Grammys for album of the year and country album for “Cowboy Carter.”)
Bryan, 29, who was in the Navy before reaching fame as country/American singer and songwriter, has 4.9 million Instagram followers. Bryan released his last album, “Zach Bryan,” in 2023. A New York Times profile labeled him “music’s most reluctant new star.”
Adcock and Bryan’s beef dates to July, when Adcock slammed Bryan for being thin-skinned and not doing a meet-and-greet appearance with fans after a show. Later, Adcock added more harsh words in an interview on Rolling Stone’s “Nashville Now.”
“I think Zach Bryan puts on a big mask in his day-to-day life and sometimes he can’t help but rip it off and show his true colors,” Adcock said. “I don’t know if Zach Bryan’s really that great of a person.”
Representatives for Adcock and Bryan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Journalist Seymour Hersh in 1975, as seen in the documentary “Cover-Up.”
(The New York Times)
When real-life political anxieties (or worse) infuse the atmosphere of a film festival, it’s hard to pretend that celebrating art is ever enough. “Cover-Up” was, for me, the antidote: a furious, hard-nosed profile of legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the man who broke the My Lai massacre in 1969, then went on to an impressive run of stories that included revelations about Watergate, the CIA and Abu Ghraib. Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour”), co-directing with Mark Obenhaus, mainly tries to stay out of the way of Hersh’s ferocious forward momentum, capturing the writer’s method with a minimum of wasted words. “I’ve got every right to be here, buddy,” Hersh bats back to a displeased listener and you thrill to an era when breaking the news wasn’t chilled by caution. — Joshua Rothkopf
Controversy erupted over Wednesday’s announcement by Flanders Festival Ghent that it had canceled an upcoming concert by the Munich Philharmonic featuring Lahav Shani, an Israeli conductor who serves as the music director of the Israel Philharmonic.
In an online statement, festival organizers acknowledged that the canceled performance, scheduled for Sept. 18, was expected to be “one of the artistic highlights of the festival,” and that Shani “has spoken out in favour of peace and reconciliation several times in the past,” but that the decision had nonetheless been made because “we are unable to provide sufficient clarity about his attitude to the genocidal regime in Tel Aviv.”
“In line with the call from the Minister of Culture, the city council of Ghent and the cultural sector in Ghent, we have chosen to refrain from collaboration with partners who have not distanced themselves unequivocally from that regime,” the statement continued, adding that priority was being given to “the serenity of our festival,” and in order to “safeguard the concert experience for our visitors and musicians. ”
Backlash was intense and immediate, with many critics taking to social media to condemn the decision as antisemitic.
“This is not a protest. It is discrimination,” the European Jewish Congresswrote on X. “Targeting artists because of their nationality is unacceptable and undermines the very foundations of European cultural and democratic values. They only fuel hatred, with concrete consequences on European streets.”
By Thursday morning, an online petition in support of Shani organized by Iranian American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani had garnered more than 5,500 signatures, including those of well-known classical musicians such as conductor and pianist Joshua Weilerstein, British classical pianist Danny Driver and cellist Kyril Zlotnikov.
“The Ghent Festival has chosen to punish an artist on the basis of his nationality alone,” reads the petition, which calls for an immediate reversal of the cancellation. “What is more insidious is the implication that any artist, Israeli or otherwise, will only be accepted if they express unequivocally the ‘correct’ opinions.”
“This decision will do nothing to save a single Palestinian life, bring a hostage home, or to make any improvement to the unbearable civilian suffering currently taking place in this conflict,” the petition continues. “It will, however, resonate loudly with those who equate an artist’s nationality with an excuse to exclude them from the cultural sphere.”
Martin Kotthaus, the German ambassador to Belgium, posted on X that he deeply regretted the move made by the Ghent Festival, adding, “The decision and the reasons given are incomprehensible. I welcome the fact that Belgian Foreign Minister Prévot and Flemish Prime Minister Diependaele have distanced themselves from the festival’s decision.” (Note: Matthias Diependaele is the current Minister-President of Flanders.)
Shani — a Tel Aviv-born conductor, pianist and double bassist —took over as music director of the Israel Philharmonic beginning with the 2020-21 season after Zubin Mehta stepped down. Earlier this year, his contract was extended until 2032. In 2023, it was announced that Shani would take over as chief conductor of the Munich Orchestra for the 2026-27 season, and he is expected to continue in both roles.
Shani is also serving as the chief conductor of Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra until the end of its 2025-26 season. Rob Streevelaar, general and artistic director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, issued a statement saying that the orchestra is closely following the situation in Ghent.
“Our Chief Conductor Lahav Shani has previously spoken out in the press in favor of peace and humanity,” the statement reads. “He has emphasized that he does not represent a political position, but wishes to contribute to unity and hope through art. He does this by way of various initiatives, including his involvement with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, founded by Palestinian scholar Edward Said and Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.”
Flanders Festival Ghent is a three-week-long international music festival that attracts more than 50,000 visitors annually and features more than 180 concerts and 1,500 musicians. There are now calls for other participants to boycott the festival in protest.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, writing these words with peace on my mind. Here’s this week’s arts news.
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Steven Skybell as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.”
(Jeremy Daniel I)
Fiddler on the Roof This concert version of the much-heralded National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s production translates the beloved musical into Yiddish. Under the direction of Joel Grey, Steven Skybell reprises his much-acclaimed performance as Tevye. The show will include English supertitles for those who don’t understand Yiddish or already know the show by heart. – Charles McNulty 8 p.m. Saturday; 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday. The Soraya, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org
Courtney M. Leonard, “Breach #2,” 2016, mixed media, part of LACMA’s “Grounded” exhibition.
Grounded Featuring 40 works, spanning the 1970s to today, by 35 artists based in the Americas and around the Pacific, the exhibition continues LACMA’s ongoing emphasis on contemporary rather than historical art. The diverse work, primarily sculpture and installation, is billed as investigating “ecology, sovereignty, memory and home.” – Christopher Knight Sunday through June 21. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, BCAM Level 2, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org
Neil Young performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Monday.
(Amy Harris / Invision / AP)
Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts The veteran rocker will wrap his latest world tour — ostensibly booked behind June’s “Talkin to the Trees” album — with a sure-to-be-shaggy gig at the Hollywood Bowl. The Chrome Hearts include Spooner Oldham on organ, Micah Nelson on guitar, Corey McCormick on bass and Anthony LoGerfo on drums. — Mikael Wood 7:30 p.m. Monday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
A scene from the “Autos, Mota y Rocanrol,” which opens the Hola Mexico Film Festival on Friday.
(HMFF)
🎞️ 🇲🇽 Hola Mexico Film Festival The celebration of cinema from our neighbors to the south features México Ahora, a curated section of the best recent releases; Nocturno, a selection of horror films; Documental, a nonfiction films section; the animated films of Hola Niños; and Nuevas Voces, a focus on emerging directors and their first works. The festival begins with an opening-night screening of director J.M Cravioto’s “Autos, Mota y Rocanrol.” 7 p.m. Friday. The Montalban Theatre, 615 Vine St, Hollywood. Festival continues through Sept. 20 at Regal Cinemas LA Live, Cinépolis Pico Rivera and Milagro Cinemas Norwalk, with closing night at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. holamexicoff.com
“Bosch Bird No. 3, 2014,” by Roberto Benavidez. Newspaper, paperboard, glue, party streamers, wire. 24 x 9 x 18 inches.
(Paul Salveson; courtesy of the artist and Perrotin)
“Hatching,” by Danielle Orchard, 2025. Oil on canvas, 90 x 56 inches.
(Paul Salveson ; courtesy of the artist and Perrotin. )
🪅 🎨 Roberto Benavidez/Danielle Orchard The Pico Boulevard gallery Perrotin opens its fall season with two new exhibitions. Inspired by 15th century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, El Sereno sculptor Benavidez turns piñata-making into detailed figurative art with “Bosch Beasts.” Orchard finds parallels between motherhood and painting in her rich, evocative series “Firstborn.” 5-7:30 p.m. Friday opening for both shows; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Oct. 18. Perrotin, 5036 W. Pico Blvd. perrotin.com
🎶 Made in Memphis The performance collective MUSE/IQUE hosts a free, three-day open house paying tribute to “Stax Records, Soul and The Black Artists Who Started a Sound Revolution.” Rachael Worby leads an ensemble that features LaVance Colley, DC6 Singers Collective, Chris Pierce and Sy Smith, founder of the nu-soul movement 7:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Caltech, Beckman Auditorium, 332 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena. muse-ique.com
SATURDAY 🎨 Bisa Butler The New Jersey artist responds to how it feels to be an African American woman living in 2025 with quilted portraits on jet-black cotton or black velvet. 6-8 p.m. Saturday, opening reception; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Nov. 1. Jeffrey Deitch, 7000 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. deitch.com
🎭 🎶 Huzzah! Two sisters battle to save their father’s Renaissance fair from financial ruin in the world premiere of a musical comedy by Olivier Award winners and Tony Award nominees Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, directed by Annie Tippe. 8 p.m. Saturday through Oct. 19. Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego. theoldglobe.org
La Santa Cecilia band members, Pepe Carlos, from left, Marisoul, Alex Bendana and Miguel “Oso” Ramirez.
(Berenice Bautista / Associated Press)
🎸 🎶 La Santa Cecilia The Grammy-winning quartet fronted by Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernandez crosses borders and genres with passionate songs of love, identity and social justice, fusing Latin American traditions and global rhythms. 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, and 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14. The Luckman, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles. luckmanarts.org
“Day Moon Shore/Through and Before the Immediate Trees” by Annie Lapin, 2025. Acrylic on Linen 68 x 94 in 172.7 x 238.8 cm
(Courtesy of the artist and Nazari an / Curcio.)
🎨 Annie Lapin The L.A.-based artist blends representation and abstraction to reimagine the Southern California landscape in “Fragile Familiar,” a solo exhibition of new paintings. 6-8 p.m. Saturday, opening reception; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Oct. 25. Nazarian / Curcio, 616 N. La Brea Ave. nazariancurcio.com
🎼 A Musical Genesis The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director Jaime Martín, is joined by cellist Nicolas Altstaedt for a program featuring Haydn‘s “La poule,” Schumann’s “Cello Concerto” and Beethoven‘s “Symphony No. 5.” 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Zipper Hall, 200 South Grand Ave., downtown L.A.; 4 p.m. Sunday, The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. laco.org
Virginia Errázuriz, “Untitled, from the series Cancelados,” circa 1979; mixed media; part of “Transgresoras” exhibition at California Museum of Photography on Riverside.
🎨 Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s In the U.S., the emergence in the 1950s of the first lively American market for new art led to some artists developing strategies for getting around the limitations of galleries and commerce. In Latin America, meanwhile, artists often faced censorship. Mail art that could circulate through the post office was simultaneously invented in both places to serve those situations, as this intergenerational survey plans to explore. (Christopher Knight) Noon-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, through Sept. 24; noon-5 p.m. Thursday and Friday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 25-Feb. 15. California Museum of Photography, 3824 Main St., Riverside. ucrarts.ucr.edu
SUNDAY 🎞️ Jaws: The Exhibition This deep dive into Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster, starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, takes guests through the movie scene by scene via original objects, behind-the-scenes revelations and interactive moments. The film itself screens in 4K at 6:30 p.m. Sunday in the museum’s David Geffen Theater. 10 a.m. Sunday-Monday, Tuesday-Saturday, through July 26. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
Kim Eung Hwa & Korean Dance Company at the Ford
💃 Kim Eung Hwa & Korean Dance Company Bring the whole family to a gorgeous outdoor amphitheater to enjoy a colorful performance by this 45-year-old traditional dance company. The show commemorates the Korean fall festival Hangawi, which celebrates the harvest season. Traditional drums, as well as fan-and-flower-crown dances, will be performed to lively Korean folk music. (Jessica Gelt) 11:30 a.m. Sunday. The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E. theford.com
🎸 🇲🇽 Zona Libre: A Musical Celebration of Latino L.A. Skirball Cultural Center, Grand Performances and Zócalo Public Square present a day of musical performances by Renee Goust, Vivir Quintana and La Verdad, plus dance workshops, panel conversations, food and museum exhibitions. 3-9:30 p.m. Sunday. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. skirball.org
WEDNESDAY 🎼 🎹 Thomas Kotcheff The pianist is joined by musician Bryan Curt Kostors and video artist Allison Tanenhaus as they perform works from Kotcheff’s new album, “Between Systems,” as well as interpretations of music by Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Cher, Céline Dion and Beyoncé. 8 p.m. 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd. pianospheres.org
🎨 Hélio Oiticica The first major L.A. exhibition in Los Angeles of the artist (1937-1980) includes gouaches, suspended sculptures and a rare oil painting that trace the formative years of Oiticica’s career 6-8 p.m. Wednesday opening; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Nov. 1. Lisson Gallery, 1037 N. Sycamore Ave. lissongallery.com
THURSDAY
Nine Inch Nails vocalist Trent Reznor performing in 2008.
(Stephen Brashear / Associated Press)
🎸 🎶 Nine Inch Nails The band has a new album of sorts out Sept. 19 in “Tron: Ares,” the latest film score from Trent Reznor and his partner Atticus Ross. The group’s “Peel It Back” tour hits the Forum for two nights; the band looks to be playing in the round for some experimental passages before firing on all cylinders with its new (and old) drummer Josh Freese, who they swapped in from Foo Fighters just days before the tour started. (August Brown) 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Sept. 19. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com
Culture news and the SoCal scene
“Sealstone with a Battle Scene (The Pylos Combat Agate),” Minoan, 1630 – 1440 BCE; banded agate, gold and bronze.
(Jeff Vanderpool)
Times art critic Christopher Knight weighs in with a review of a “captivating” exhibition, “The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece,” at the Getty Villa — the first at the museum since January’s ferocious Palisades fire. The most fascinating object on view is a 1.3-inch-long, almond-shaped, gold-tipped agate, carved with an exquisitely detailed battle scene that is almost undetectable to the human eye. The piece is on display outside of Europe for the first time, and is part of a trove of treasures found with the entombed Griffin Warrior — also on display.
Times theater critic Charles McNulty also headed for the Getty Villafor its annual outdoor theater show. This year’s performance of “Oedipus the King, Mama!” comes courtesy of Troubadour Theater Company and turns the Villa’s grounds “into a Freudian carnival of psychosexual madness,” writes McNulty. The show pairs Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” with Elvis, the king of rock ’n’ roll, to hilarious effect.
McNulty also caught A Noise Within’s production of Richard Bean’s farce “One Man, Two Guvnors,” which is based on “The Servant of Two Masters,” Carlo Goldoni’s mid-18th-century comedy. The classic commedia dell’arte antics follow a hungry busker who clandestinely works for two bosses in 1960s Brighton. “Bean’s play is impressively worked out, mathematically and verbally. The wit is crisp and the comic routines are evergreen, all the more so for the sharpness of the playing,” McNulty writes of the show.
Manuel Oliver is photographed at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
I sat down with Manuel and Patricia Oliver at the Kirk Douglas Theatre to talk about Manuel’s upcoming performance of his one-man-show, “Guac,”which explores the life and death of their son, Joaquin, who was killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting. Our conversation included plenty of discussion about the Olivers’ quest to effect gun reform in the wake of their unimaginable loss. Creative forms of activism — including theater — are at the heart of those efforts.
I also went to opening night of “Hamilton” on the big screen at the El Capitan Theatre on Friday. I wrote an essay about how the live recording of the stage musical might be the most political film of the year. Here’s why.
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Mirage, Palm Springs, United States. Architect: Doug Aitken, 2017
(Raimund Koch / View via Alamy)
On Thursday, Dwell released its list of “The 25 most important homes of the past 25 years,” and three California structures made the list: A-Z West by Andrea Zittel near Joshua Tree; artist Doug Aitken’s Mirage, which was featured in 2017’s inaugural Desert X exhibition; and the house Axel Vervoordt built for Kim Kardashian in Hidden Hills. Zittel’s creations were featured on Dwell’s cover in its December 2002 issue and is a series of futuristic-looking “escape pods” that open up to the great outdoors and contain little more than a bed and a few hooks for belongings. Aitken made his mark when he covered a ranch-style house in mirrors that effectively camouflaged the house in its arid surroundings. “The mirrors made for iconic selfies, and onlookers clogged up the once-quiet streets, in an attempt not just to see the installation but to take a picture of themselves reflected in this viral ‘house,’” the entry on “Mirage” reads. Kardashian’s house is referred to as “The ship that launched a thousand beiges.” “Vervoordt, along with Claudio Silvestrin, Vincent Van Duysen, and Family New York, stripped back the details of a generic mansion to create a very strange blend of suburbia and austere European luxury that — for better or worse — set the standard for boring high-end home design in the Instagram age,” Dwell wrote.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced that it has been gifted Francis Bacon’s 1969 triptych, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” from the estate of philanthropist Elaine Wynn, who died in April and served as a co-chair of LACMA’s board of trustees. It is the first work by Bacon in LACMA’s collection, and will be included in the inaugural installation of the museum’s new David Geffen Galleries. Wynn paid $142 million for the piece at auction.
In the wake of philanthropist Wallis Annenberg’s death, the Wallis Annenberg Legacy Foundationhas announced a $10-million gift that will be split evenly between four initiatives of great importance to Annenberg: Santa Monica’s Annenberg Community Beach House; student internships at USC’s Wallis Annenberg Hall; free and low-cost performances for underserved audiences at Beverly Hills’ Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts; and the Wildlife Crossing Fund in Agoura Hills.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
Features columnist Todd Martens says that the most exciting immersive show in L.A. is a funeral. Read all about the show, “The Cortège,” which also features the substantial talents of twins Emily and Elizabeth Hinkler.
Movie fans come to Toronto to get an early peek at the year’s awards heavyweights. I didn’t see a knockout punch, but I saw some strong contenders — and in a couple cases, I just got bludgeoned.
Directors Benny Safdie (“Uncut Gems”) and David Michôd (“Animal Kingdom”) faced off with competing docudramas about the sufferings of two professional brawlers whose careers peaked in the ’90s — i.e., new “Raging Bulls” for today’s nostalgists. “The Smashing Machine” is a solo effort from the younger Safdie brother after making a string of energetic cult hits with his sibling, Josh. It stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as MMA fighter Mark Kerr, who could beat almost anyone inside the octagon but struggled to conquer his own demons at home with his then-wife, Dawn (Emily Blunt).
Based on the names and talent involved, I was expecting anything other than what I got: a conventional biopic. Its one bit of flair is a commitment to looking as though it was filmed on VHS. But projected in Imax, it just looked dreary (as did Johnson’s hairpiece). I’ll go another round with it in a more apropos ring.
Michôd’s “Christy” shares several of the same touchstones — the bloodrush of victory, a bruising domestic life, a distracting wig — but gender-flipped. Sydney Sweeney throws a convincing jab as Christy Martin, the first female boxer to make the cover of “Sports Illustrated.” A lesbian from a conservative West Virginia family, she was pressured to hide her sexuality by wearing pastel pink in the ring and marrying her much older, emotionally abusive male coach, Jim Martin (Ben Foster). The script only has a few ideas under its belt, but they’re effective, particularly our dawning recognition that while Christy thinks she’s fighting to prove her worth, she’s really fighting for the patriarchy.
Sweeney is good, even when the leaden dialogue does her a disservice. It’s her first substantial, serious part since 2023’s underseen “Reality” and she seizes the opportunity to be talked about as something other than the internet’s most polarizing ingenue. (Social media is forever singling out one young actress to be damned now and redeemed later, sigh.) As for Foster, who first snagged my attention as the pathetic loon in “Alpha Dog,” he knows how to play a hiss-worthy heel. You spend “Christy” aching to see him get socked in the face. If you need him to take more punishment, he’s just as vile in another TIFF title, “Motor City.”
Tessa Thompson in the movie “Hedda.”
(Prime Video)
At this year’s festival, ladies in corsets did more damage than gals in padded gloves. My favorite mean girl — perhaps even my favorite film of the festival — was Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda,” a devilish and dynamic adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” in which the lead character (played by a fantastic Tessa Thompson) starts firing off her daddy’s old pistols as soon as the opening credits. DaCosta, who also adapted the play into a script, restages the action so that the chaos all takes place during a giant, drunken bacchanal at a rented mansion Hedda can’t afford. Thompson’s scheming newlywed manipulates the other characters with the confidence of a queen who controls all the pieces on the board, but every so often she simply has to flip the table over. The spirit is faithful; the subtext is fresh.
“Mārama,” a striking feature debut by Taratoa Stappard, bills itself as a Māori gothic and the combination works. In 1859 England, a white-passing woman from New Zealand named Mary (Ariāna Osborne) has sailed halfway around the world seeking information about her parents. The globe-trotting lord Sir Cole (Toby Stephens) strong-arms her into becoming his niece’s governess, calling the Māori a “magnificent people” while amusing his guests with parlor room reenactments of whale-hunting expeditions done with massive puppets. “Mārama” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s a good ride with first-rate cinematography and production design and a story with one or two more surprises than we expect.
Similarly, “Honey Bunch,” co-directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, is another manor-bound thriller that toys with familiar tropes. An amnesiac bride (Grace Glowicki, a go-for-broke oddball who always gets my attention) arrives at an isolated and secretive trauma center where everyone seems to be screwing with her memories, including her shady husband (Ben Petrie). Straightaway, we have our suspicions about how this is going to go. The first half of the film doesn’t deviate from the formula — it’s a little dull — but the second half is a superb right hook.
Guillermo del Toro’s grisly, occasionally great “Frankenstein,” shot in Toronto and the U.K., hews more faithfully to Mary Shelley’s novel than the 1931 Boris Karloff classic, scrapping the mob of pitchfork-wielding villagers and salvaging the wraparound story of an ambitious explorer marooned in the the Arctic ice. But it’s still very much Del Toro’s own monster. One of his smartest adjustments is retooling the romantic heroine, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), from the ideal childhood sweetheart to a science-loving pacifist with limited patience for egomaniacs like Oscar Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein. Costume designer Kate Hawley makes Goth look like an exotic beetle with antenna-ish plumes sticking out of her hair.
Jacob Elordi as the Creature in the movie “Frankenstein.”
(Ken Woroner / Netflix)
Jacob Elordi’s creature amps up the pathos a tad too much for my taste, but there’s no denying how much he’s invested in the role, or how well Del Toro’s critiques about narcissistic inventors suit the present day. Still, Del Toro knows there’s a time and place to boast: At the film’s Toronto premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre, he playfully accused his local below-the-line crew of being too humble and made them stand up for applause. “Stop being so Canadian,” he teased.
Del Toro told the audience that when he first saw Karloff’s creation as a boy, he thought to himself, “That’s my messiah, that’s the guy I’m going to follow like Jesus.” But the prize for the most idol-worshipping film in the festival belongs to Baz Luhrmann’s “EPiC,” which stands for “Elvis Presley in Concert.” Constructed from hours of previously unseen live footage from Presley’s stint in Las Vegas, its rapturous showing felt like attending the church of Elvis.
Luhrmann insists that “EPiC” is neither a concert film nor a documentary. I don’t see the issue with calling it either, but it’s also fair to consider it a companion piece to Luhrmann’s 2022 “Elvis.” It certainly shows that Austin Butler’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of the King wasn’t one rhinestone over the top. Here, the real Presley is charismatic as hell, and looks great beaded in sanctified sweat. Whenever he throws a damp scarf into the audience, the women go so crazy you’d think it was the Shroud of Turin.
Luhrmann continues to be outraged that Col. Tom Parker constricted Presley’s artistic growth by parking him in the city of buffet tables rather than letting him tour the world. Presley only did one week of international concerts during his entire career: five shows in Canada, two of them just a 10-minute drive from my theater. You can hear Presley’s resentment toward the better-traveled (and at the time, better-respected) artists stealing his spot on the charts. “It’s so dry in here, I feel like I’ve got Bob Dylan in my mouth,” he jokes. Later, he slings a guitar around his neck to strum “Little Sister,” and then speeds up the tempo and starts belting the Beatles’ “Get Back,” a subtle dig that the boys from Britain weren’t always that original.
A scene from the movie “A Useful Ghost.”
(TIFF)
Speaking of, I can’t wrap up my final dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival without mentioning the most creative Oscar contender I saw all week: “A Useful Ghost,” which won the Grand Prix of Critics’ Week at Cannes and will be Thailand’s entry for an Academy Award. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s arch hybrid of horror, comedy, romance and political thriller starts when a self-described “academic ladyboy” (Wisarut Homhuan) discovers that his new vacuum cleaner is possessed. From there, the movie defies prediction at every turn.
I ducked into “A Useful Ghost” on a whim, wondering how it would pair with TIFF’s world premiere of “Dust Bunny,” a nice and nasty Roald Dahl-esque adventure in which a little girl hires Mads Mikkelsen to battle a man-eating monster under her bed. I came out of the theater abuzz with energy. Even though some of this season’s noisiest awards hopefuls are rooted in classic genres, there are still directors making movies that feel entirely new — and still audiences delighted to cheer for a big swing.
TORONTO — Kicking off Thursday night, the Toronto International Film Festival marks its 50th edition this year, bringing together a heady combination of art, business and celebrity.
The festival has become a reliable launching pad for films in North America, particularly those looking to enter the Oscar race. Though TIFF’s status as an awards-season kingmaker has found fiercer competition in recent years from adjacent events in Telluride and Venice, it unquestionably still matters, remaining an essential spot on the annual calendar of any movie year.
“I think TIFF is a really adaptable festival,” said Robyn Citizen, the festival’s director of programming, over Zoom this week. “We can’t always tell where the industry’s going, but we do want to be able to still serve our audiences and our industry the best we possibly can.”
Here are just a handful of reasons why TIFF has maintained such a significant role for so long.
It’s the ultimate one-stop shop
There will be more than 200 features screening at this year’s festival. Among those having their world premieres are Aziz Ansari’s wealth-inequality comedy “Good Fortune,” Nia DaCosta’s updated Ibsen adaptation “Hedda,” Derek Cianfrance’s true-crime caper “Roofman,” Hikari’s family drama “Rental Family,” Nic Pizzollatto’s Las Vegas-set “Easy’s Waltz,” David Michôd’s Sydney Sweeney-starring boxing drama “Christy” and Rian Johnson’s latest Benoit Blanc adventure “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.” The festival will open with Colin Hanks’ documentary “John Candy: I Like Me,” also having its first screening ever.
Tessa Thompson stars in director Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda,” an adaptation of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.” The movie will have its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
(Prime Video)
TIFF remains valuable for more than just its world premieres, though. Among those titles playing at Toronto after having just bowed last week at Venice or Telluride (or even both) are Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare-inspired “Hamnet,” Mona Fastvold’s historical musical “The Testament of Ann Lee” and Edward Berger’s gambling drama “Ballad of a Small Player.”
Movies that played even earlier in the year at festivals such as Sundance, Berlin or Cannes are also featured in the lineup: Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Rebecca Zlotowski’s “A Private Life,” Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or-winning “It Was Just an Accident” and Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague” will all be at TIFF.
It is exactly that combination of the best from different festivals and different parts of the calendar that makes TIFF unique. The event was originally known as the “Festival of Festivals,” meaning that it has always been a part of its mission to present a curated selection of the year’s best films. For better or worse, TIFF is often trying to be something for everyone.
“It’s important to us to curate with an attention to films that we know our audience may want to see, but that also includes films that we think our audience needs to see,” said Citizen. “We want to be that bridge between the filmmakers, the industry and the audience.”
Journalists covering the event can catch up with films from earlier in the year, get a jump on awards-season titles just beginning to find their way to audiences and even see projects that may not be released until a year or more later.
Add to that spirit of efficiency the fact that for increasingly budget-conscious U.S. media outlets, sending reporters to Toronto can often be a more cost-effective choice than pricier destinations such as Cannes, Telluride or Venice.
These are the festival world’s friendliest audiences
Toronto-born writer-director Chandler Levack will be world-premiering her “Mile End Kicks,” which stars Barbie Ferreira in a story based on Levack’s own experiences as a young music journalist. Levack said she is excited to see how a moment when Ferreira’s character flips off Toronto’s landmark CN Tower plays to a local audience.
Levack has experienced TIFF from multiple perspectives, first as a film student waiting in line for last-minute tickets, then as a journalist hustling for interviews, then working for the festival as a writer and now as a returning filmmaker.
Barbie Ferreira in Chandler Levack’s “Mile End Kicks.”
(TIFF)
“I think it still sets the tone for the cultural conversation in cinema,” said Levack. “The ways that I’ve seen movies at TIFF with those audiences — the way those films hit me and affected me — they’ve been really the most profound cinematic experiences of my life.”
TIFF is often referred to as an audience festival, meaning that the audiences there are particularly receptive, giving warmly enthusiastic responses. The area of the festival’s downtown core around King Street where some of the key venues are located can often be jam-packed with fans trying to catch an autograph, a selfie or even just a glimpse of some of their favorite stars. The most significant prize given by the festival is its People’s Choice audience award, which has often been a strong bellwather for its winner’s chances at the Oscars.
The distributor Sony Pictures Classics has eight movies playing in this year’s edition alone, including “Blue Moon,” Haifaa Al Mansour’s “Unidentified” and Scarlett Johansson’s “Eleanor the Great.” Over the years the company has brought more than 400 titles to TIFF.
“The audience is one of the most sophisticated in the world, for my money,” said Tom Bernard, who along with Michael Barker is co-founder and co-president of Sony Pictures Classics. “They get every nuance of every tick in a film, be it a comedy, a drama, a gasp that happens where they gasp with it. When you go see a movie in Toronto, you have to be careful because the reaction is so enthusiastic that many times you say, ‘Well, wow, that movie would be great.’ But it might be a little more difficult than the way that it plays in that town.”
The road to the Oscars often goes through Toronto
Though none of them had their world premieres at the festival, last year’s winners “Anora,” The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Conclave,” “Flow,” “I’m Still Here,” “The Substance” and “No Other Land” all played there. The Oscar nominated film “Sing Sing” had its world premiere at the 2023 edition of TIFF.
“Wake Up Dead Man” is the third film in director Rian Johnson’s series of mysteries starring Daniel Craig; all three premiered at TIFF. This marks the fifth time producer Ram Berman and Johnson have premiered one of their films at the festival. Both previous “Knives Out” mysteries earned Oscar nominations for Johnson for original screenplay.
Josh O’Connor, left, and Daniel Craig in the movie “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”
(Netflix)
Their company, T-Street Productions, also produced “American Fiction,” which premiered at the fest in 2023 and won the coveted People’s Choice audience award (other recent winners include “The Fabelmans,” “Belfast,” “Nomadland” and “Jojo Rabbit”), beginning a wave that took the film all the way to five Academy Award nominations, including best picture and winning the Oscar for adapted screenplay.
Though the new “Knives Out” film has been finished for a few months, Bergman said the plan was always to premiere again in Toronto, even playing in the same theater on the same day at the same time as the previous two films.
“I like going to Toronto and premiering there because the audience is always great,” said Bergman. “And really that’s who we make the movies for. We are not in the game, we’re not strategizing awards or anything, we just want people to have fun. We’ve always had a great time playing the movies in Toronto, so we should continue playing the movies in Toronto. It’s really that simple.”
Provocative documentaries often stir the pot
Nonfiction has always been a big part of Toronto’s identity going back to its very beginnings, which saw the likes of “Harlan County, USA.” and “Roger & Me” playing the festival.
Oscar-winner Laura Poitras returns to Toronto with “Cover-Up,” a portrait of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that she co-directed with Mark Obenhaus. “Free Solo” directors Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin also return with “Love+War,” a look at the life of photojournalist Lynsey Addario.
This year, Ben Proudfoot’s “The Eyes of Ghana,” a portrait of African cinematographer Chris Hesse, will have its world premiere. Proudfoot previously won two Oscars for the documentary shorts “The Queen of Basketball” and “The Last Repair Shop.” (the latter a film that LA Times Studios co-distributed).
Cameraman Chris Hess in Ben Proudfoot’s documentary “The Eyes of Ghana.”
(TIFF)
“Canceled: The Paula Deen Story,” a look at the rise and fall of the food-world star, will have its world premiere, as will “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” Baz Luhrmann’s documentary.
Documentaries that touch on hot button issues can raise problems for the festival as well. Last year Anastasia Trofimova’s film “Russians at War,” for which the filmmaker embedded herself with Russian soldiers to depict the war in Ukraine, sparked public outcry, threats of protest and safety concerns that caused the festival to ultimately show it after the main TIFF event had officially ended.
This year the festival initially invited the documentary “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” about a hostage rescue mission undertaken by a retired Israel Defense Forces officer following the Hamas attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The festival then withdrew the film, directed by Toronto filmmaker (and former TIFF board member) Barry Avrich, from the lineup and following public uproar subsequently rescheduled it for a single public showing.
“This is the world we live in,” said Thom Powers, lead programmer of TIFF docs, about the way in which impassioned controversy erupts over films people have not even seen yet — the result of overly politicized environments and the short fuses of the social media era. “We can see this at many festivals.”
A proven half-century track record
For the first four years that Sony Classics’ Bernard brought films to Toronto, he would play then-festival chief Wayne Clarkson in tennis, with the loser paying for talent’s travel expenses. (Bernard won most of the time.)
He also recalled the time that he was able to have the training staff of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs come right to the hotel room of Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar to reset his back.
But mainly there are memories of movies, times the festival’s specific magic cast its spell.
“I remember sitting in the theater watching ‘Il Postino’ and the guy who’s selling it is sitting next to me,” said Bernard of the 1994 film that would go on to be nominated for five Oscars, winning one. “And as the movie continues, the guy’s smile is getting bigger and bigger and bigger because he knows he’s going to be able to jack the price up way beyond anything I could pay.
“On the other hand, I remember being at the end of the festival and sitting in ‘Orlando’ and nobody was there but me,” he said of Sally Potter’s 1992 film that was a breakthrough for performer Tilda Swinton. “And I sent it back to the office, everybody saw it and it’s one of those all-time movies just because we were hanging around.”
For Levack, the festival has already provided a launching pad. After her first feature “I Like Movies,” premiered at the festival in 2022, it eventually made its way to the attention of Adam Sandler. Levack is currently finishing “Roommates” for Sandler’s Happy Madison production company.
“TIFF was unbelievably instrumental in making our film not only exist but matter,” said Levack of the response to her debut. “We really broke out and became sort of a viral unexpected hit at that festival and that really made my entire career from that point exist.”
Even as Toronto has weathered the changing fortunes of the film business and grappled with competition from other festivals, there is still something unique that happens when some of the year’s most anticipated new films meet these audiences.
“People say, ‘We’re going to put it in Toronto and then we’re getting into the Oscar game,’” said Bernard. “But it’s the audience [that decides]. You don’t fool anybody in Toronto.”
Jesse Plemons is never one to chew scenery. Even when handed a role that edges on madness, he doesn’t go big. Instead, he goes deep, building tension quietly from the inside out. And in Yorgos Lanthimos’ uncategorizable, darkly comic sci-fi thriller, Plemons — reuniting with the director after playing three characters in last year’s “Kinds of Kindness” — delivers one of his most riveting performances yet. As Teddy, a rumpled, reclusive beekeeper convinced that a pharma CEO (Emma Stone) is an alien from the planet Andromeda, Plemons channels paranoia, grief and righteousness into something both absurd and unnervingly sincere. The “I do my own research” archetype could easily veer into “SNL” sketch territory but he plays it heartbreakingly straight, creating a chillingly familiar portrait of a man lost in an algorithmic maze of internet rabbit holes and desperate for clarity in a world that no longer makes sense. Teddy enlists his younger cousin Don (Aidan Delbis, an autistic first-time actor in a mesmerizing turn) to help him abduct Stone’s steely executive, drawing him into the mission in a misguided effort to protect him. Even as things spiral into chaos, Plemons (a 2022 supporting actor Oscar nominee for Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog”) roots the performance in a warped but recognizably human emotional logic. The result captures the anxious, conspiratorial spirit of 2025 with eerie precision, proving once again that Plemons doesn’t need to raise his voice to deliver a performance that speaks volumes. — Josh Rottenberg
In recent years, film festivals haven’t felt all that festive. Audiences have dwindled, streaming has upended viewing habits and the pandemic and Hollywood strikes have rattled the industry, leaving even the most glamorous events to fight for their place on the cultural calendar.
Then there’s Telluride. For more than a half-century, the tiny mountain gathering has thrived as a kind of anti-festival: no red carpets, no prizes, no tuxedos, just movies. Perched 8,750 feet up in a box canyon in the Colorado Rockies, it’s reachable only by twisting roads or a white-knuckle drop into one of the nation’s highest airports. Festival passes are pricey and limited in number, which makes Telluride feel at once intimate and exclusive. With its mix of industry insiders and devoted film lovers, that isolation and tight-knit atmosphere have become part of Telluride’s mystique, and the promise of early Oscar buzz keeps filmmakers, stars and cinephiles making the pilgrimage. Since 2009, only five best picture winners have skipped Telluride on their way to the top prize.
“It’s so hard to get to Telluride — you don’t end up here by accident,” festival director Julie Huntsinger says by phone. “We’ve always felt it’s incumbent on us to show either brand-new things or extraordinary things that make your time worth it. You know how cats will bring you a mouse? I always feel like I’m bringing you a mouse or a bird, and I just hope you’ll like it.”
Rolling out over Labor Day weekend, the 52nd Telluride Film Festival will supply a slate of fresh offerings, including a handful of world premieres. Scott Cooper’s “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” drops Jeremy Allen White into the boots of the Boss, tracing the creation of his stark 1982 album, “Nebraska.” Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” unites Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in a haunting portrait of grief. Edward Berger’s “Ballad of a Small Player” finds Colin Farrell wandering Macau as a gambler chasing luck and redemption. And Daniel Roher’s “Tuner” gives Dustin Hoffman a rare return to the screen in a crime thriller about a piano tuner who discovers his ear is just as effective on safes as on Steinways.
Also in the mix are a number of films coming from Cannes and Venice: Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind” and Richard Linklater with a double bill, “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague,” proof that Telluride remains a haven for auteurs.
At last year’s Telluride, politics dominated the conversation on- and off-screen. Hot-button issues, from abortion access to climate change to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ran through the program, while guests such as Hillary Clinton, James Carville and special prosecutor Jack Smith joined the usual roster of actors and filmmakers. Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice,” a searing portrait of Donald Trump’s early years, was one of the buzziest titles.
This year the lineup is broader, though politics still runs through it. Ivy Meeropol’s “Ask E. Jean” follows writer E. Jean Carroll through her legal battles with Trump, while Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent” uses a 1970s-set thriller to revisit Brazil’s military dictatorship, with Wagner Moura (“Narcos”) as a professor on the run. “This year is pretty political too,” Huntsinger insists. “There are a couple of films that, if you’re paying attention, have important things to say. I just hope everybody feels a little braver after a lot of the things we show.”
German-born director Edward Berger, who brought his papal thriller “Conclave” to last year’s edition, returns with a strikingly different film in “Ballad of a Small Player.”
“I would defy anyone to stack up his films and say they’re by the same filmmaker,” Huntsinger says. “This is a beautiful, very dreamlike, nonlinear exercise in spirituality and introspection. ‘Conclave’ felt disciplined — not that this film is undisciplined but it exists on a totally different plane.”
Zhao, who won the directing Oscar for 2020’s “Nomadland,” has adapted “Hamnet” from Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed novel about the death of Shakespeare’s only son in what Huntsinger describes as one of the festival’s most emotionally powerful selections.
“Chloé is a person of immense depth,” Huntsinger says. “She has such a deep feel for human beings. This is a sad, mournful but beautiful meditation on loss. People should be prepared to cathartically cry. There isn’t a false note in it.”
Another festival favorite, Lanthimos makes his third trip to Telluride with “Bugonia,” a darkly comic sci-fi satire that reunites him with Emma Stone following their earlier collaborations on “The Favourite” and “Poor Things.” A remake of the 2003 Korean cult film “Save the Green Planet!,” it follows a conspiracy-minded beekeeper (Jesse Plemons) who kidnaps a powerful pharma executive (Stone) he believes is an alien bent on destroying Earth.
“Be prepared to get your a— kicked,” Huntsinger says. “Emma is outstanding, and we should never take her for granted, but Jesse Plemons steals the show. He next-levels it in this one.”
Baumbach also marks his return to Telluride with the dramedy “Jay Kelly,” which centers on an actor (George Clooney) and his longtime manager (Adam Sandler) as they journey across Europe, looking back on the choices and relationships that have shaped their lives. Huntsinger likens the film to a cinematic negroni: “It’s substantial but also fun, with an almost summery feel. It’s about where you’re headed after a certain stage in life, told without heavy-handedness.”
The filmmaker and screenwriter, who previously brought “Margot at the Wedding,” “Frances Ha” and “Marriage Story” to the festival, will be honored this year with a Silver Medallion. He shares the award with Iranian director Jafar Panahi, whose drama “It Was Just an Accident” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Ethan Hawke, represented in the lineup with Linklater’s “Blue Moon” and his own documentary about country singer Merle Haggard, “Highway 99: A Double Album.”
Few films in the lineup will be more closely watched than Cooper’s Springsteen biopic, with Emmy-winning “The Bear” star White channeling the Boss during the making of one of his most uncompromising albums. “Jeremy delivers in the same way that Timothée Chalamet did in [the Bob Dylan biopic] ‘A Complete Unknown,’ where you just think, Jesus, what can’t this kid do?” Huntsinger says. “Scott’s a great filmmaker, and the movie delivers on its promise.”
The music thread continues with Morgan Neville’s documentary “Man on the Run,” drawn from never-before-seen home movies Paul McCartney shot in the early 1970s, not long after the Beatles’ split. The footage shows McCartney retreating to Scotland with his family and offers what Huntsinger describes as a revelatory glimpse at a less-mythologized moment. “You also understand there wasn’t a villain in the Beatles breakup,” Huntsinger says. “It’s an expansion on history that’s really needed.”
Elsewhere in the documentary lineup, Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras returns with “Cover-Up” (co-directed by Mark Obenhaus), an exploration of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh’s career that builds on her politically charged films like “Citizenfour” and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.”
For all its flannel-and-jeans ethos, Telluride isn’t immune to the economics of 2025. Lodging and travel costs have soared, amplifying concerns that the showcase has become a festival largely for the well-off. Huntsinger concedes the expense but points out pass prices haven’t budged in more than 15 years as she works to keep it accessible.
“I was concerned for a while because our audience was aging, but we’ve really worked on making sure that younger people and people on fixed incomes can come,” she says. “I can see the difference — it’s not just people of means. And I promise you, I’ll keep fighting for that. I hope the lodging people will realize they got a little out of hand and start lowering prices too.”
For all the turbulence and doomsaying that has rattled Hollywood in recent years, Telluride has managed to hold fast to its identity.
“The devotion people have to this weekend makes me think there’s hope,” Huntsinger says. “They’re not coming here for anything but film-loving. To hear people say, ‘I would not miss this for the world’ makes me really proud and hopeful. After everything we’ve all been through, I think we still have reason to keep doing this crazy little picnic.”
