The 98th Academy Awards belonged to One Battle After Another, which won six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson. After years of nominations across titles such as Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread, Anderson finally secured his first Academy Award, turning Oscar night into a career landmark as much as a victory for a single film.

Accepting the screenplay award, Anderson described the film as a response to the world being left behind for younger generations. His words gave the evening one of its clearest political notes and aligned closely with a ceremony that repeatedly returned to questions of power, fear and public responsibility.

The other major force was Sinners

If One Battle After Another controlled the top of the ballot, Sinners remained the other defining title of the night. Ryan Coogler’s film won four Oscars: Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score for Ludwig Göransson and Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw.

Jordan’s win gave the ceremony one of its most emotional acceptance speeches, with the actor thanking Coogler for giving him “opportunity and space to be seen.” Their creative partnership, already central to recent American studio cinema, now has Oscar recognition at its highest level.

Michael B. Jordan poses backstage with the Oscar® for Actor in a Leading Role during the 98th Oscars® Credit/Provider Etienne Laurent / The Academy Copyright ©A.M.P.A.S.

Coogler’s screenplay victory also confirmed Sinners as more than a performance-driven success. The Academy rewarded it as a work of authorship, ambition and formal control.

A historic cinematography win

Among the most significant moments of the evening was Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s Oscar for Sinners. With that win, she became the first woman ever to take the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, a major breakthrough in one of the institution’s most historically resistant categories.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw accepts the Oscar® for Cinematography during the 98th Oscars® Credit/Provider Etienne Laurent / The Academy Copyright ©A.M.P.A.S.

It was the kind of result that gave the ceremony real weight beyond the expected headlines. In a year dominated by conversations about representation, authorship and structural change in the industry, this was one of the awards that genuinely shifted the record.

Acting prizes split the spotlight

The lead acting awards went to two very different performances. Jordan won Best Actor for Sinners, while Jessie Buckley took Best Actress for Hamnet for her portrayal of a mother living through devastating loss. Buckley used her speech to dedicate the award to “the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart,” connecting the role’s grief to a wider lineage of women and mothers.

Jessie Buckley poses backstage with the Oscar® for Actress in a Leading Role during the 98th Oscars® Credit/Provider Etienne Laurent / The Academy
Copyright ©A.M.P.A.S.

In supporting categories, Sean Penn won for One Battle After Another, though he did not attend the ceremony, prompting a joke from presenter Kieran Culkin. Amy Madigan, meanwhile, won Best Supporting Actress for Weapons, completing one of the most satisfying late-career stories of the night. Her return to the Oscar stage, four decades after her previous nomination, gave the evening one of its sharpest emotional reversals.

Warner Bros. leaves with the biggest smile

The bigger industrial narrative of the night was Warner Bros. With One Battle After Another, Sinners and Weapons, the studio emerged as the clear commercial and awards-season powerhouse of the ceremony. That success, however, arrived at a moment of instability for both the company and the wider business.

The contradiction was impossible to miss. A studio capable of backing some of the year’s most distinct films also sits inside an entertainment industry marked by consolidation, layoffs and strategic uncertainty. In that sense, the Oscars celebrated creative risk while quietly acknowledging an anxious corporate reality underneath it.

Politics never left the room

This was not an openly militant ceremony, but it was unmistakably political. References to authoritarianism, war and media control surfaced throughout the telecast, both in speeches and in the framing of several awards. Javier Bardem used the international feature presentation to say “No to war and free Palestine,” while the documentary prize for Mr. Nobody Against Putin brought a direct warning about complicity, repression and public silence.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Javier Bardem present the Oscar® for International Feature Film Credit/Provider Trae Patton / The Academy
Copyright ©A.M.P.A.S.

Security was also visibly heightened around the ceremony, adding another layer to an evening already shaped by global tension and domestic unease. Even when the show leaned into comedy, it never fully escaped the sense that cinema was being celebrated under pressure.

Conan O’Brien keeps the show moving

Hosting for the second consecutive year, Conan O’Brien opened with a pre-taped comic segment and then kept the telecast agile with a rhythm that moved between absurdity and seriousness. His monologue took aim at the nominated films, the streaming wars, and the state of culture before pivoting to a more sincere reflection on cinema as a global and collaborative form.

That tonal balance helped the ceremony. O’Brien did not attempt to overpower the room. He gave it shape, let the winners define the emotional register and kept the broadcast from collapsing under the weight of its own self-importance.

A tribute to those the industry lost

The ceremony also paused for the traditional In Memoriam segment, opened by Billy Crystal with a tribute to director Rob Reiner. The montage honoured several major figures of cinema who died over the past year, including Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Catherine O’Hara. Barbra Streisand then appeared on stage to salute Redford, describing him as an “intellectual cowboy” before singing a passage of The Way We Were, turning the moment into one of the evening’s most emotional pauses amid an otherwise restless ceremony.

Barbra Streisand onstage during the 98th Oscars® Credit/Provider Trae Patton / The Academy
Copyright ©A.M.P.A.S.

Animation, documentaries and craft categories delivered some of the sharpest signals

Outside the headline races, several wins stood out for what they suggested about the year in cinema. KPop Demon Hunters won Best Animated Feature, while “Golden” took Best Original Song, becoming the first K-pop song to win the category. Maggie Kang’s acceptance speech framed the victory as a matter of visibility and belonging, making it one of the evening’s clearest statements on representation.

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein collected three craft Oscars for Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Production Design, confirming its strength in world-building and visual construction. F1 won Best Sound, Avatar: Fire and Ash took Visual Effects, and the live-action short category produced a rare tie between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva.

Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value won Best International Feature, while Mr. Nobody Against Putin took Documentary Feature. Both victories reinforced the ceremony’s larger pattern: films shaped by questions of memory, violence and social fracture found a particularly receptive Academy this year.

The full picture of the night

In the end, the 2026 Oscars did not tell a story of a total sweep. They told a story of concentration at the top, with One Battle After Another leading decisively, but also of a wider field in which Sinners, Frankenstein, Hamnet and KPop Demon Hunters each claimed a distinct place.

What the Academy rewarded most clearly was authorship with scale, political undertow and emotional sharpness. It was a night for overdue recognition, historic firsts and films that seemed alert to the instability around them. That made the final image of the ceremony less triumphant than revealing. Hollywood celebrated itself, yes, but it also looked unusually aware of the world outside the theatre.

Winners at a glance

Best Picture: One Battle After Another
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Best Actress: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Best Supporting Actor: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan, Weapons
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters
Best Animated Short: The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Best Casting: Cassandra Kulukundis, One Battle After Another
Best Costume Design: Kate Hawley, Frankenstein
Best Live-Action Short: The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Frankenstein
Best Original Song: “Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters
Best Original Score: Ludwig Göransson, Sinners
Best Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners
Best Documentary Feature: Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Best Documentary Short: All the Empty Rooms
Best Film Editing: Andy Jurgensen, One Battle After Another
Best International Feature: Sentimental Value
Best Production Design: Frankenstein
Best Sound: F1
Best Visual Effects: Avatar: Fire and Ash

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Following its success at the Sundance Festival and the Rome Film Festival, “It’s never over: Jeff Buckley” comes to Italian cinemas as a special event, only on March 16, 17 and 18, sixty years after his birth.

The film is directed by Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil, Janis: Little Girl Blue, West of Memphis) and co-produced by Brad Pitt.

The most personal film

“It’s difficult to imagine a time when I wasn’t attempting to make the Jeff Buckley doc. It’s been on my bucket list since I made my first film in 2006. And maybe, since I first heard Grace in 1994. It changed my life forever. It literally became the “tear that hangs inside my soul forever”.

With these words Amy Berg implicitly reveals why It’s never over: Jeff Buckley is her most personal film among the numerous documentaries and features she directed along her filmmaker career.

It has been a long road from 2007 to today — the year Amy Berg first met Mary Guibert, Jeff’s mother and custodian of the musician and songwriter’s archives. After exploring that sea of memories and listening to the audio of the last messages Jeff left on his mother’s voicemail, Amy Berg had no doubts: the documentary was the right path to restore Jeff Buckley and his musical, human and emotional legacy to the world.

Mary Guibert wanted a fiction film to tell the story of her son’s life, and for years Amy Berg tried to convince her to change her mind, until she finally said yes.

“I wanted Jeff to speak for himself” Berg has stated many times, and she stayed true to that goal with the documentary.

The most important women in Jeff Buckley’s life

“His story really comes alive when you sit with the three main women in his life and hear their stories and feel their pain. The film starts and ends with them because you get to know him through his music and these defining relationships” writes Amy Berg in her director’s notes.

In this interview, the filmmaker explains why she felt that the best way to talk about Jeff Buckley  was not only through his music but also through the voice and the memories of the most important women in his life.

A universal story

Throughout his brief life, Jeff Buckley had to contend with the ghost of a father he met only once, yet who was also a music icon. Despite being aware of his own talent , which was neither derivative nor imitative of his father’s, Jeff Buckley was first a boy and then a man who had to fight hard to vanquish his inner demons and find his place in the world.

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Speaking with Fred Film Radio at the Cinema Made in Italy Festival in London, Valeria Golino reflected on the rare moment of presenting four films in the festival’s programme: “A Brief Affair”, “Fuori”, “Gioia” and “Elisa”. The acclaimed actress described the experience as both exciting and slightly overwhelming, but also deeply rewarding after decades in the industry. Now at a stage in her career where she can choose projects she truly believes in, Golino said she still feels a genuine love for her work and remains grateful to continue exploring new roles.

A changing industry for women

Golino also spoke about the evolving opportunities for women in cinema. She noted that twenty years ago, it would have been far less common for an actress over fifty to be working as frequently as she is today. Instead, she finds herself taking on complex, vibrant roles rather than being limited to stereotypical parts. For Golino, this shift reflects a positive change within the industry, allowing women to remain creatively active well beyond what was once considered their “prime”.

Seeking roles that challenge

When choosing projects, Golino explained that she is drawn to roles that challenge and even unsettle her. Rather than repeating familiar territory, she looks for characters that make her uncertain about whether she can fully embody them. That sense of risk, she said, keeps the work exciting and prevents her from becoming bored with herself as an actor.

Beyond good and evil

Across the films she presents at the festival, Golino recognised a shared fascination with moral ambiguity. As an artist, she said she is interested in exploring characters and situations that exist beyond simple judgments of right and wrong. While she considers herself politically conscious as a citizen, her approach to art allows for greater freedom—an opportunity to examine difficult or uncomfortable aspects of human behaviour without moralising.

The conversation also touched on “A Brief Affair”, directed by Ludovica Rampoldi, and “Fuori”, Mario Martone’s biographical film about writer Goliarda Sapienza. Golino revealed that she had known Sapienza personally as a young actor, later directing an adaptation of her novel “The Art of Joy” before ultimately portraying the writer on screen. The experience, she said, felt like completing a remarkable personal and artistic circle. Reflecting on her approach to playing real-life figures, Golino explained that she focuses less on imitation and more on capturing a person’s spirit-evoking gestures, memories and emotional traces that bring them back to life on screen.

With four fascinating and distinct films showcased at the festival, Golino once again proves why she is such an icon and trailblazer in the industry, whose career in front and behind the camera continues apace.

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At the Cinema Made in Italy festival at BFI Southbank, acclaimed Italian screenwriter Ludovica Rampoldi presented her feature directorial debut, “A Brief Affair”. Speaking to FRED Film Radio, Rampoldi discussed transforming a familiar story of love and betrayal into a psychological exploration of desire, identity and emotional growth.

From screenwriter to director

Known for her work on projects including “Gomorrah”, “The Traitor” and “The Bad Guy”, Rampoldi explained that the story for “A Brief Affair” had been with her for many years. Originally written in her twenties, she later revisited the script with a new perspective. “The questions of the story were still contemporary,” she said, “but the answers I had given felt moralistic. With time, your view becomes softer and kinder.”

Reimagining the psychological thriller

The film follows two couples whose lives become dangerously intertwined after a secret affair begins. What starts as a romance gradually evolves into a psychological thriller, drawing inspiration from classics such as “Fatal Attraction” while shifting the perspective toward the female character, often cast as the antagonist. Rampoldi also drew on theatrical influences, citing playwrights such as Edward Albee, Yasmina Reza and Harold Pinter, using intimate spaces to explore the complexity and ambiguity of human relationships.

A story of self-discovery

At its heart, the film becomes a journey of self-understanding for its protagonist, who enters the affair searching for answers about herself and her desires. “For me, what matters in the end is not whether the couples stay together or separate,” Rampoldi said. “What matters is that each character finds their own path and voice.”

Presenting “A Brief Affair” in London as part of Cinema Made in Italy was, Rampoldi said, a great honour. After years working as one of Italy’s most respected screenwriters, she now hopes this debut marks the beginning of a new chapter behind the camera.

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Damiano Michieletto spoke to Fred Film Radio at the Cinema Made in Italy festival in London about his feature debut “Primavera”, a historical drama inspired by Antonio Vivaldi’s work with the girls of a Venetian orphanage in the early 18th century. Based on Tiziano Scarpa’s novel “Stabat Mater”, the film follows Cecilia, a young violinist whose life is transformed when Vivaldi arrives as a teacher, sparking both a creative awakening and a deeper search for freedom.

Music as the heart of the story

Although the film explores Vivaldi’s origins, the opera director was keen to emphasise that “Primavera” is not a traditional biopic. Instead, the story unfolds through Cecilia’s perspective, exploring her struggle to imagine a future beyond the confines of the orphanage. For Michieletto, the themes of freedom, emancipation and self-discovery felt surprisingly modern, despite the 18th-century setting. Music plays a central role in that journey, functioning almost like a character in the film itself and reflecting the emotional connection between Cecilia and Vivaldi.

Recreating the world of the orphanage

Drawing on extensive historical research, Michieletto and his creative team aimed to capture the atmosphere of these Venetian institutions without turning the film into a strict historical reconstruction. Rather than filming in Venice, much of the film was shot in Rome, allowing the team to reinterpret the setting while staying faithful to the spirit of the place. The director was particularly interested in portraying the restrictive nature of life inside the orphanage, contrasted with the vibrant world outside — a world the girls can glimpse but rarely experience.

Two artists connected through music

At the heart of the film is the relationship between Cecilia and Vivaldi, played by Tecla Insolia and Michele Riondino. Michieletto described their connection not as a romantic one, but as the meeting of two lonely individuals brought together through music. Cecilia’s journey becomes one of discovering her own voice and identity, while Vivaldi’s presence helps unlock new possibilities in her life. The film also reflects on the enduring power of music itself, which Michieletto describes as something capable of creating empathy and emotional connection beyond words.

Bringing “Primavera” to London as part of the Cinema Made in Italy festival was particularly meaningful for Michieletto, who has long associated the city with creativity, theatre and music. With the film set to receive a UK release, he expressed both excitement and curiosity about how British audiences might respond to its story. Ultimately, he hopes viewers will leave with a renewed appreciation for Vivaldi’s music, as well as the film’s central message about freedom, courage and the possibility of finding one’s own “springtime”, even in the most difficult circumstances.

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Isabel Coixet spoke to Fred Film Radio at the Cinema Made in Italy festival in London about her latest film “Three Goodbyes”, an adaptation of stories by the late Italian writer Michela Murgia. Blending elements of humour, tenderness and melancholy, the film follows Marta and Antonio as their relationship reaches an unexpected turning point, becoming a meditation on love, mortality and what it truly means to be alive.

Adapting Michela Murgia’s world

The acclaimed Spanish filmmaker explained that “Three Goodbyes” draws from two stories in Murgia’s collection, which she combined into a single narrative centred on Marta and Antonio. Although the director never met Murgia, she immersed herself deeply in the writer’s world, speaking with friends, collaborators and family members to better understand her personality and perspective. For Coixet, the film also serves as a way of continuing Murgia’s presence, allowing new audiences to discover her writing through cinema.

Finding humanity in difficult moments

While the story deals with serious themes — including illness and the end of a relationship — Coixet was keen to maintain a tone that reflects the contradictions of real life. Even in the darkest situations, she noted, moments of humour and absurdity inevitably appear. That balance is embodied by the performances of Alba Rohrwacher and Elio Germano, two of Italy’s most acclaimed actors, whose chemistry helps make the characters’ shared history believable even in the brief moments we see them together on screen.

An intimate look at love and memory

Visually, Coixet opted for a more intimate style, shooting on 35mm and framing the film in a 4:3 format to avoid turning Rome into a postcard backdrop. Instead, the focus remains tightly on the characters and their emotional journey. Through small flashbacks and fragmented memories — sometimes evoking the texture of old home movies — the film captures how people remember past relationships and the lingering emotions that come with them.

Presenting “Three Goodbyes” in London as part of Cinema Made in Italy offers Coixet the chance to see how the film resonates with international audiences. While she believes the story is one of the most universal she has made, she is curious to see how British viewers respond. Ultimately, she hopes audiences leave the cinema with a renewed awareness of life’s fragility — and the reminder that, as she puts it, life is short and the only thing we truly have is the present moment.

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At the 16th Cinema Made in Italy festival at BFI Southbank, director Francesco Sossai spoke to Fred Film Radio about his gently melancholic road movie “The Last One for the Road”. The film follows two middle-aged misfits drifting across the Veneto countryside who unexpectedly pick up a shy architecture student, turning their wandering journey into a reflection on friendship, storytelling and contemporary Italy.

A Story Rooted in Real Life

Sossai explained that the emotional core of the film comes from his own experiences in northern Italy after the 2008 financial crisis, when many people in his region found themselves outside the traditional industrial workforce. He recalls spending time with men who drifted from town to town, drinking and talking late into the night, yet who carried a deep “inner map” of the Veneto landscape. While the events in the film are fictionalised, that feeling of wandering friendship and quiet displacement became the starting point for the film’s trio of lovable outsiders.

Film, Ritual and Tradition

The film’s warm, grainy texture comes from Sossai’s decision to shoot on film rather than digital. For him, this wasn’t simply about nostalgia but about the ritual of cinema. Working with celluloid creates a shared discipline between the director, cinematographer and crew and connects the film to a cinematic tradition while still engaging with the present.

Filippo Scotti and the Generational Dynamic

When Filippo Scotti joins the story as Giulio, an introverted architecture student drawn into the orbit of the two older drifters, the film opens up into an intergenerational encounter. Sossai says Scotti’s greatest strength as an actor is his ability to listen, something that helped create a natural chemistry with co-stars Sergio Romano and Pierpaolo Capovilla. Looking back, the director described the film as a kind of “Polaroid” of the time they spent together making it.

Ultimately, for Sossai, “The Last One for the Road” echoes the spirit of classic Italian comedy — speaking about serious themes in a light way. While Sossai admits he isn’t particularly optimistic about the world today, he believes cinema can still create moments of connection. The film invites audiences to stay present and listen to the stories unfolding around them — and bringing it to BFI Southbank, a place he describes as one of cinema’s “temples,” was a dream. As he joked, it probably also helps that the film tends to connect especially well with audiences who appreciate a drink.

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Laura Samani spoke to Fred Film Radio at the Cinema Made in Italy festival in London about her latest feature “A Year of School”. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, the coming-of-age story follows Fred, a Swedish teenager who arrives in Trieste and becomes the only girl in a class of boys during their final year of school. With its playful tone and moments of comedy, the film invites audiences to reconnect with teenage memories while exploring the complicated mix of desire, friendship and belonging that shapes that age.

A lighter film about youth

After the intense process of making her debut “Small Body”, Samani said she felt the need for a lighter story. It had been emotionally demanding to write, develop and bring to audiences, so working on a coming-of-age film with young actors allowed her to shift the energy. The story also has a personal connection: Samani attended the same school in Trieste where the novel is set and first read it while sitting “at the very same desks” as the characters.

Desire and the language barrier

At its heart, “A Year of School” is a film about desire — and about how differently it can be expressed depending on gender. Fred wants two things at once: she falls in love with one of the boys but also wants to belong to their group as an equal. According to Samani, the tension between those desires drives the story, because unlike the boys, she cannot freely have both. Language reinforces this dynamic: the characters switch between Italian and English, reflecting the idea that men and women sometimes feel as though they “don’t speak the same language”. For Samani, language also becomes a subtle tool of power, as Fred gradually adapts to the group’s language and behaviour.

Shifting the gaze

The film also plays with perspective. At the beginning, viewers are placed within the boys’ point of view, almost sharing their gaze as they observe Fred. As the story unfolds, that perspective gradually shifts toward her. Samani explained that she was also interested in exploring masculine fragility, suggesting that while society has focused on empowering women in recent years, young men are sometimes left without clear emotional references. By the end of the film, she hopes audiences will understand everyone’s motivations — even if Fred ultimately emerges as the one who sees the situation most clearly.

Set in 2007, the film captures a moment just before social media reshaped teenage life and when Europe still seemed full of promise with the expansion of the Schengen Area. Bringing “A Year of School” to London as part of Cinema Made in Italy also offers Samani a chance to see how the story resonates beyond Italy. While she believes the struggles of adolescence are universal, she suggested that audiences here might approach the film differently, noting that in Italy people can sometimes be more “provincial” or tied to tradition. She is therefore curious to see whether British audiences might respond with a slightly more open-minded perspective to the film’s exploration of youth, desire and identity.

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The 79th Festival de Cannes will celebrate one of the most influential figures in modern entertainment. Barbra Streisand will receive the Honorary Palme d’Or during the festival’s Awards Ceremony at the Palais des Festivals on Saturday, May 23, 2026.

Actress, director, producer, songwriter, and one of the most recognisable voices in music history, Barbra Streisand represents a rare synthesis of Hollywood cinema, Broadway tradition, and the international music industry. The tribute acknowledges a career spanning more than six decades and shaping popular culture across multiple artistic fields.

“It is with a sense of pride and deep humility that I’m honoured to join the company of past Honorary Palme d’Or recipients whose work has long inspired me,” Barbra Streisand said. “In these challenging times, movies have the ability to open our hearts and minds to stories that reflect our shared humanity, and to perspectives that remind us of both our fragility and our resilience. Cinema transcends borders and politics, and affirms the power of imagination to shape a more compassionate world.”

A Career of Unmatched Cultural Impact

Numbers alone only partially describe the scope of Streisand’s career. On the big screen, she has appeared in 19 films and directed three features, earning two Academy Awards. In 1977, she became the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Evergreen,” written for A Star Is Born. Her career also includes 11 Golden Globe Awards, among them the historic Best Director win in 1984.

In music, her achievements are equally extraordinary. Barbra Streisand has released 37 studio albums and 13 soundtracks, earning 10 Grammy Awards and becoming the only artist to reach the number one position in album sales across six consecutive decades. For many years, she also held the record as the female artist with the most number-one albums.

Despite these remarkable statistics, her influence on global popular culture remains the most significant element of her legacy.

A Pioneer Behind the Camera

Barbra Streisand’s impact also reshaped opportunities for women filmmakers in Hollywood. Her directorial debut, Yentl, premiered in 1983 after a two-decade development process.

Inspired by a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, discovered in 1963, Streisand acquired the rights and spent years working to bring the project to the screen. When the film finally entered production, she served simultaneously as director, producer, co-writer and lead actress.

The film marked a historic milestone as one of the first major Hollywood productions directed by a woman with a substantial studio budget. The story of a young woman who disguises herself as a man to pursue religious education became a powerful narrative about emancipation and identity.

Barbra Streisand later directed The Prince of Tides, which received seven Academy Award nominations, and The Mirror Has Two Faces, a reinterpretation of André Cayatte’s Le Miroir à deux faces.

From Broadway Breakthrough to Hollywood Icon

Streisand initially dreamed of becoming an actress. Singing emerged as a practical path that quickly revealed her exceptional talent. Her rise was rapid and decisive.

She began performing in cabarets at eighteen, reached Broadway success at twenty, released her first album at twenty-one and achieved worldwide fame on screen at twenty-six with William Wyler’s Funny Girl. The performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress and launched one of the most recognisable screen careers of the late twentieth century.

Her versatility allowed her to move across genres with ease. Musicals such as Hello, Dolly! and A Star Is Born showcased her vocal power. Comedies including The Owl and the Pussycat, For Pete’s Sake and later Meet the Fockers revealed her sharp comic timing. In dramatic roles like Nuts and the romantic classic The Way We Were, starring with Robert Redford, she delivered performances marked by emotional intensity and sincerity.

Festival President Iris Knobloch described the tribute as recognition for “an artist who made her mark through the power of her art and her uncompromising pursuit of freedom.” Festival director Thierry Frémaux also emphasised her unique artistic profile, calling Barbra Streisand “a global star who initiates projects that reflect who she is and shares them with the whole world.”

Artistic Legacy and Social Commitment

Alongside her artistic achievements, Barbra Streisand has been deeply engaged in philanthropic and social initiatives. The Streisand Foundation, created in 1986, supports projects related to gender equality, minority rights, environmental protection, medical research and arts education for disadvantaged children.

She also founded the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the Cedars Sinai Heart Institute, an initiative dedicated to advancing research and awareness of cardiovascular disease in women.

The Festival de Cannes will therefore welcome a figure whose career bridges cinema, music and social engagement. The tribute also marks the first time the legendary performer of Funny Girl will officially appear at the festival on the Croisette.

The 79th Festival de Cannes will take place from May 12 to May 23, 2026.
The Official Selection press conference announcing the programme will be held on April 9, 2026, at 11:00 AM (Paris time).

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La Biennale di Venezia has opened the call for the 14th edition of Final Cut in Venice, the industry program supporting films in post-production originating in Africa and several Middle Eastern countries. The initiative will take place between 6 and 8 September 2026 within the Venice Production Bridge of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, scheduled at the Lido di Venezia between 2 and 12 September 2026.

The Venice Production Bridge, co-financed by the European Commission’s MEDIA Fund, represents one of the main industry platforms dedicated to film development and international collaboration during the festival.

Supporting films nearing completion

Launched in 2013, Final Cut in Venice provides concrete support for films approaching completion across Africa, as well as in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen.

During the three-day program, filmmakers will present the selected films-in-progress to producers, distributors, buyers, and festival programmers with industry accreditation. The festival reserves the screenings for professionals and invited participants.

On 8 September, individual meetings between the creative teams and international professionals will take place, creating opportunities for partnerships in co-production, sales, and distribution.

Awards and supporters

The program concludes with several awards supporting the post-production phase of the selected films.

The Festival Director will appoint a jury to award the La Biennale di Venezia Prize, worth €10,000, to the best film in post-production. Partner institutions and companies will support the assignment of additional awards.

These prizes may include services such as colour correction, sound mixing, digital effects, DCP mastering and subtitling.

Supporters of the initiative include M74srl, Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut Français, El Gouna Film Festival, Festival International du Film d’Amiens, Festival International de Films de Fribourg, Laser Film, MAD Solutions, Mnemonica, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Oticons, Rai Cinema, Studio A Fabrica, Sub-Ti Ltd, Sub-Ti Access Srl and Titra Film. The program also receives additional support from the Red Sea International Film Festival for the fifth consecutive year.

How to apply

Producers interested in participating must complete the online entry form available on the official website of La Biennale di Venezia and submit the required materials by 9 June 2026.

Over the years, Final Cut in Venice has established itself as a key platform supporting filmmakers from regions with limited access to international financing and distribution networks.

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At the 44th Bergamo Film Meeting, producer and president of the Kiarostami Foundation, Ahmad Kiarostami is presenting the Homage the festival is dedicating to his father, director Abbas Kiarostami.

On the tenth anniversary of his passing, the 44th BFM has built a retrospective of twelve films including  10 on Ten (2004), 24 Frames (2017), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), Certified Copy (2010) and Ten (2002).

Abbas Kiarostami’s legacy

Abbas Kiarostami (Tehran, 1940 – Paris, 2016) was one of the most important directors, screenwriters and visual artists of contemporary cinema, a central figure of Iran’s second “nouvelle vague” and a leading author of international auteur cinema.

He was also a poet, photographer and visual artist, with his work exhibited in major international museums such as the MoMA in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the National Museum of Cinema in Turin and, posthumously, the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

To talk about his cinema and his legacy, on Wednesday 11 March, his son and producer Ahmad, is holding a seminar about his work.

Quoting the 44th Bergamo Film Meeting’s words: Abbas Kiarostami will be remembered above all as a seminal figure in international cinema, a master at transforming simplicity into profundity and turning film into a space for poetic, ethical and universal meditation.

Ahmad Kiarostami’s work as producer

Ahmad Kiarostami, who hasn’t lived in his country, Iran for almost 25 years, is not only preserving his father’s work and legacy with the foundation but he’s also working as a producer.

In 2014, Ahmad launched the Docunight project, screening Iranian documentaries in 25 cities across America and Canada. He also produced documentaries such as Coup 53 by Taghi Amirani (2019), about the coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.

In the last part of the interview, Ahmad Kiarostami talks about his country Iran, his hopes for the future. He also reflects on the role cinema has in raising awareness, open people’s eyes to try and avoid this polarization the world is getting divided into.

The post Ahmad Kiarostami, interview with the producer and President of the Kiarostami Foundation. appeared first on Fred Film Radio.