CAIRO — Over 66,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday, a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to the White House for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on halting Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu has come under heavy international pressure to end the war. Key Western allies have joined a growing list of countries recognizing a Palestinian state over Israeli objections. The European Union is considering sanctions against Israel and there are growing moves for a sports and cultural boycott against Israel.
After dozens of delegates poured out of the hall, a defiant Netanyahu told fellow world leaders Friday at the U.N. General Assembly that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza as his military continued its offensive in Gaza City.
What You Need To Know
The death toll among Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war has topped 66,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the U.S. to meet with President Donald Trump amid growing pressure to stop the war
Netanyahu told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly that Israel “must finish the job” against Hamas
Trump has proposed a 21-point ceasefire plan, including the release of hostages and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces. The U.S. ambassador to Israel will visit Cairo to discuss the ceasefire
Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying Gaza City is experiencing famine
Trump has so far stood behind Israel. But the U.S. leader has shown signs of impatience lately, particularly after Israel’s bombing of Qatar earlier this month in what appears to have been a failed attempt to kill Hamas’ leadership. In Monday’s White House meeting, Trump is expected to share a new proposal for ending the war.
Forty-eight hostages are still held captive in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive. Ceasefire talks have been stalled since Israel’s widely condemned strike in Doha, Qatar. Ceasefire talks have been stalled since Israel’s widely condemned strike in Doha, Qatar.
Trump’s 21-point ceasefire plan
Trump has floated a 21-point proposal for an immediate ceasefire.
The proposal would include the release of all hostages within 48 hours and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave, according to three Arab officials briefed on the plan. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, said the proposal is not final and changes are highly likely.
Trump discussed the proposal with Arab leaders in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
A Hamas official said the group was briefed on the plan but has yet to receive an official offer from Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas has said it is ready to “study any proposals positively and responsibly.”
The official said the group had previously said it was willing to release all hostages in return for an end to the war and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the strip.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel will be in Cairo to push ceasefire
The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, will visit Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials to discuss the ceasefire as well as Egypt’s frayed ties with Israel, according to officials.
The U.S. Embassy in Israel said Huckabee will travel to Cairo as part of “regular diplomatic consultations” between regional partners, though the exact timing was not confirmed.
The relationship between Israel and Egypt — the first Arab country to establish ties with Israel — has unraveled in recent months over Israel’s attack targeting Hamas leadership in Doha and worries that Palestinians squeezed out of the Gaza Strip could flood into Egypt. Israel has also expressed concern over an Egyptian military buildup in the Sinai Peninsula, a violation of the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries.
Nonstop explosions reported in Gaza
Local hospitals in central Gaza said at least 10 people were killed when at least two strikes hit homes in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily report the death toll has climbed to 66,005, with a further 168,162 wounded since the war started. Among the dead were 79 who were brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, it said.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-run administration, does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half the dead. Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate by the U.N. and many independent experts.
Residents reported hearing sounds of explosions overnight across the city, likely coming from the demolition of buildings through the detonation of explosive-laden vehicles and robots. “They were nonstop,” Sayed Baker, a Palestinian who shelters close to a Shifa hospital, said of the explosions.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, but said it struck 140 Hamas military targets over the past 24 hours, including militants, observation equipment and infrastructure.
On Sunday, the military said it had struck a high-rise building in Gaza City after warning residents to evacuate. The strike leveled the 16-story Macca tower. No casualties were reported.
The Israeli military said the building housed “military infrastructure belonging to Hamas.” It is the latest in a series of demolitions in recent weeks as Israel expands its offensive.
Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying Gaza City is experiencing famine.
On Sunday, Israeli security forces also shot dead the alleged attacker in a car-ramming incident in which a man was seriously injured at a road junction near Nablus in the West Bank. The attack was praised by Hamas. Violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which alongside Gaza and east Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want for a future state. ___ Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
At this year’s Zurich Summit, filmmakers and industry executives warned that political polarization and attacks on free expression are reshaping the landscape for cinema, with artists facing new forms of pressure from governments, media, and online campaigns.
Nathanaël Karmitz, chairman of French distributor and exhibitor mk2, whose slate includes Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Brazil-set political drama The Secret Agent and Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner A Simple Accident, argued that the link between politics and cinema is long-standing but has entered a new phase. “Culture is under attack and cinema is under attack everywhere,” he said. “We have less and less press talking about movies, but now we have far-right Twitter accounts that attack systematically everything about movies and French movies. In terms of audience, it’s the major voice we hear on Twitter. Is this a problem? Yes, it is.”
Karmitz said mk2 had recently decided to confront such criticism directly rather than ignore it. “Audiences are fragmented, so you have to take a position, and you have to position yourself, your company, without fearing the consequence, because otherwise you’re nowhere,” he noted, pointing to recent attempts by right-wing politicians in France to dismantle France’s CNC film funding body and privatize public television. “This is a very fragile ecosystem. It’s under attack everywhere because these are the first steps to illiberal systems. But I’m an optimist. I believe in people, in companies, in artists to get themselves up and fight back.”
Kathleen Fournier, head of production at Charlotte Street Films and producer of Eugene Jarecki’s Julian Assange documentary The 6 Billion Dollar Man, described a narrowing space for political filmmaking in the streaming era. “As documentaries move to streaming platforms, many of the political and more nuanced and difficult or subjective documentaries did not make that leap,” she said. “What you now find on streaming platforms tends to be historical, [or] it’s true crime, or it’s very personal stories.”
That shift has left politically charged projects struggling to secure U.S. deals. Both The 6 Billion Dollar Man, which premiered at Cannes in May, and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza-set The Voice of Hind Rajab, which bowed in Venice, still lack U.S. distribution. Fournier acknowledged the challenge but argued that new opportunities are emerging outside the studio system. “There are some really agile, wonderful, smaller boutique theatrical distribution companies who really are just running with this,” she said. “The conglomerates can buy up the media landscape all they want, but humans crave stories, and there will always be those people who look to create alternative streaming platforms, boutique distribution. We like stories. We’ll find our way.”
The production of The 6 Billion Dollar Man, which examines the U.S. government’s prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Assange, was itself shaped by political pressure. Initially unafraid to include controversial material, such as former president Donald Trump’s past comments attacking Assange, the filmmakers debated whether to self-censor as political winds shifted toward a possible second Trump administration. “In the end, we decided we just have to tell the story as we intended, with as many facts and as much nuance and complexity around it that we felt an audience could handle,” Fournier said.
The risks extended beyond financing and distribution. Fournier said her team relocated the production to Berlin to avoid legal exposure in the U.K. and U.S. “We didn’t feel comfortable editing in the UK or in the US, because there are laws there and ways to seize footage, and journalists aren’t protected in the way they are in Germany,” she said. “We moved the entire production team and edit to Berlin, and that was really inspiring and very interesting, until the Gaza war happened and we started to see that even Germany, with all of its civic-mindedness, is fallible to ideology and to erosion.”
That fragility, Fournier suggested, underscores the wider uncertainty facing political filmmaking today: whether such projects can still find protection, distribution, and audiences in an increasingly polarized world. While some see new opportunities in alternative platforms and boutique distributors, others point to audiences themselves as the ultimate safeguard.
Artist International Group CEO David Unger pointed to audiences’ growing openness to global storytelling, citing the worldwide success of Korean series on Netflix. “That shows you that the audience will find good stories, and appreciate interesting characters and embrace artists that tell those stories, no matter where they’re from,” he said.
Film data researcher and consultant Stephen Follows urged the industry to remain vigilant. “The 1970s had much more diverse, interesting storytelling than the 1980s, and in the 1990s, things got dumber and simpler,” he said. “The film industry is fundamentally, as a business and as an ecosystem, risk-averse and scared and cowardly. [It] needs agitators, because if we don’t actively do things, the industry acts in horrible ways.”
UNITED NATIONS –– In a speech Friday broadcast to the Gaza Strip via loudspeakers and through the takeover of Palestinians’ cellphones, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country’s efforts to destroy Hamas and told world leaders that Israel was “not done yet.”
What You Need To Know
In a speech Friday broadcast to Gaza via loudspeakers and through the takeover of Palestinians’ cell phones, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country’s efforts to destroy Hamas and told world leaders that Israel was “not done yet”
As Netanyahu came to the podium to commence his remarks, dozens of delegates from multiple countries walked out, but others in the room applauded at the start of his speech and periodically throughout his address.
Netanyahu denounced calls for a Palestinian state, saying that his country would not let other nations “shove a terror state down our throats”
The Israeli leader also vociferously rejected allegations that his country was committing genocide in Gaza and weaponizing hunger, during his address to the United Nations General Assembly
“Thanks to the resolve of our people, the courage of our soldiers and the bold decisions we took, Israel rebounded from its darkest day to deliver one of the most stunning military comebacks in history,” Netanyahu said during his United Nations General Assembly address. “But we are not done yet. The final elements, the final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City.
“That is why Israel must finish the job,” he said.
As Netanyahu came to the podium to begin his remarks, dozens of delegates from multiple countries walked out. Others in the room applauded at the start of his speech and periodically throughout the address.
Netanyahu has faced growing international calls for an end to the war in Gaza, which began when Hamas-led militants killed roughly 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage. The Gaza Health Ministry recently estimated that 65,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 167,000 injured since October 2023.
During his address Friday, Netanyahu said that “special efforts” by Israeli intelligence had taken over the cellphones of Gazans to broadcast his remarks live. He called on remaining Hamas leaders to free the hostages and lay down their weapons or Israel would “hunt you down.”
Netanyahu said that Israel has brought back 207 hostages, and about 20 of the 48 remaining in Gaza are still believed to be alive.
He then read the names of the 20 hostages aloud, saying he wanted to speak directly to them by way of speakers pointing into the territory for his remarks, speaking first in Hebrew and then in English.
“We will not rest until we bring all of you home,” he said.
Shortly after Netanyahu concluded his remarks, President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that an agreement on Gaza may be “very close.”
“I think it’s a deal that will get the hostages back,” Trump said, without providing additional details. “It’s going to be a deal that will end the war. It’s going to be a dea l— it’s going to be peace.”
Allowing a Palestinian state would be ‘sheer madness,’ Netanyahu says
Netanyahu denounced calls for a Palestinian state, saying that his country would not let other nations “shove a terror state down our throats.”
“Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7 is like giving al-Qaida a state one mile from New York City after Sept. 11,” he said. “This is sheer madness, and we won’t do it.”
In the last few weeks, several countries –– including France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia –– joined some 150 others around the world in formally recognizing a Palestinian state. The U.N. General Assembly also voted overwhelmingly this month to pass a nonbinding resolution, supporting a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and urging Israel to commit to a Palestinian state.
The Israeli leader said Friday that these nations sent a message that “murdering Jews pays off.”
The Israeli prime minister’s address came a day after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave a virtual address to the U.N., during which he thanked countries for recognizing a Palestinian state. Abbas said that the Palestinian Authority, which oversees the West Bank, was prepared to take over governance of Gaza and that Hamas would have no future role in leading the territory.
The Palestinian leader also condemned the planned expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israel announced in August that it approved an expansion of settlements to divide the West Bank –– a move that Palestinians and rights groups say would divide much of the West Bank and destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state.
Later Thursday, Trump told reporters gathered at the Oval Office that he wouldn’t allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank. Possible annexation has been floated in Israel in response to U.S. allies moving to recognize a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu refutes accusations of genocide in Gaza
The Israeli leader vociferously rejected allegations Friday that his country was committing genocide in Gaza and weaponizing hunger.
A United Nations Human Rights Council report earlier this month contended that Israel was committing genocide, and the world’s leading authority on food crisis declared last month that famine was occurring in Gaza City –– both charges that Israel refutes.
Netanyahu called the allegations of genocide “antisemitic lies,” saying efforts by his country to encourage Gazans to leave the largest city in the territory disproved the charge.
“Would a country committing genocide plead with a civilian population it is supposedly targeting to get out of harm’s way?” he said. He also blamed Hamas for stealing food intended for Gazans.
Many Palestinians are unwilling to be uprooted, while others are too weak or can’t afford to leave, international aid groups say.
Netanyahu calls for ‘snapback’ sanctions on Iran
Netanyahu praised Trump for “his bold and decisive action” in bombing Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites earlier this year.
“President Trump and I promised to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and we delivered on that promise,” Netanyahu said, later adding, “We lifted a dark cloud that could have claimed millions and millions of lives.”
Netanyahu called Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium to be “eliminated” and for “snapback” sanctions to be reinstated over its failure to comply with conditions of the 2015 nuclear deal.
A 30-day deadline triggered by France, Germany and the United Kingdom is set to end Sunday. However, the U.N. Security Council is expected to vote Friday on whether to delay the reimposition of sanctions by six months.
UNITED NATIONS –– In a speech Friday broadcast to the Gaza Strip via loudspeakers and through the takeover of Palestinians’ cellphones, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country’s efforts to destroy Hamas and told world leaders that Israel was “not done yet.”
What You Need To Know
In a speech Friday broadcast to Gaza via loudspeakers and through the takeover of Palestinians’ cell phones, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country’s efforts to destroy Hamas and told world leaders that Israel was “not done yet”
As Netanyahu came to the podium to commence his remarks, dozens of delegates from multiple countries walked out, but others in the room applauded at the start of his speech and periodically throughout his address.
Netanyahu denounced calls for a Palestinian state, saying that his country would not let other nations “shove a terror state down our throats”
The Israeli leader also vociferously rejected allegations that his country was committing genocide in Gaza and weaponizing hunger, during his address to the United Nations General Assembly
“Thanks to the resolve of our people, the courage of our soldiers and the bold decisions we took, Israel rebounded from its darkest day to deliver one of the most stunning military comebacks in history,” Netanyahu said during his United Nations General Assembly address. “But we are not done yet. The final elements, the final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City.
“That is why Israel must finish the job,” he said.
As Netanyahu came to the podium to begin his remarks, dozens of delegates from multiple countries walked out. Others in the room applauded at the start of his speech and periodically throughout the address.
Netanyahu has faced growing international calls for an end to the war in Gaza, which began when Hamas-led militants killed roughly 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage. The Gaza Health Ministry recently estimated that 65,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 167,000 injured since October 2023.
During his address Friday, Netanyahu said that “special efforts” by Israeli intelligence had taken over the cellphones of Gazans to broadcast his remarks live. He called on remaining Hamas leaders to free the hostages and lay down their weapons or Israel would “hunt you down.”
Netanyahu said that Israel has brought back 207 hostages, and about 20 of the 48 remaining in Gaza are still believed to be alive.
He then read the names of the 20 hostages aloud, saying he wanted to speak directly to them by way of speakers pointing into the territory for his remarks, speaking first in Hebrew and then in English.
“We will not rest until we bring all of you home,” he said.
Shortly after Netanyahu concluded his remarks, President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that an agreement on Gaza may be “very close.”
“I think it’s a deal that will get the hostages back,” Trump said, without providing additional details. “It’s going to be a deal that will end the war. It’s going to be a dea l— it’s going to be peace.”
Allowing a Palestinian state would be ‘sheer madness,’ Netanyahu says
Netanyahu denounced calls for a Palestinian state, saying that his country would not let other nations “shove a terror state down our throats.”
“Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7 is like giving al-Qaida a state one mile from New York City after Sept. 11,” he said. “This is sheer madness, and we won’t do it.”
In the last few weeks, several countries –– including France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia –– joined some 150 others around the world in formally recognizing a Palestinian state. The U.N. General Assembly also voted overwhelmingly this month to pass a nonbinding resolution, supporting a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and urging Israel to commit to a Palestinian state.
The Israeli leader said Friday that these nations sent a message that “murdering Jews pays off.”
The Israeli prime minister’s address came a day after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave a virtual address to the U.N., during which he thanked countries for recognizing a Palestinian state. Abbas said that the Palestinian Authority, which oversees the West Bank, was prepared to take over governance of Gaza and that Hamas would have no future role in leading the territory.
The Palestinian leader also condemned the planned expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israel announced in August that it approved an expansion of settlements to divide the West Bank –– a move that Palestinians and rights groups say would divide much of the West Bank and destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state.
Later Thursday, Trump told reporters gathered at the Oval Office that he wouldn’t allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank. Possible annexation has been floated in Israel in response to U.S. allies moving to recognize a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu refutes accusations of genocide in Gaza
The Israeli leader vociferously rejected allegations Friday that his country was committing genocide in Gaza and weaponizing hunger.
A United Nations Human Rights Council report earlier this month contended that Israel was committing genocide, and the world’s leading authority on food crisis declared last month that famine was occurring in Gaza City –– both charges that Israel refutes.
Netanyahu called the allegations of genocide “antisemitic lies,” saying efforts by his country to encourage Gazans to leave the largest city in the territory disproved the charge.
“Would a country committing genocide plead with a civilian population it is supposedly targeting to get out of harm’s way?” he said. He also blamed Hamas for stealing food intended for Gazans.
Many Palestinians are unwilling to be uprooted, while others are too weak or can’t afford to leave, international aid groups say.
Netanyahu calls for ‘snapback’ sanctions on Iran
Netanyahu praised Trump for “his bold and decisive action” in bombing Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites earlier this year.
“President Trump and I promised to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and we delivered on that promise,” Netanyahu said, later adding, “We lifted a dark cloud that could have claimed millions and millions of lives.”
Netanyahu called Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium to be “eliminated” and for “snapback” sanctions to be reinstated over its failure to comply with conditions of the 2015 nuclear deal.
A 30-day deadline triggered by France, Germany and the United Kingdom is set to end Sunday. However, the U.N. Security Council is expected to vote Friday on whether to delay the reimposition of sanctions by six months.
James Vanderbilt is offering insight into how he shot the courtroom showdown in his latest film,Nuremberg.
The filmmaker, best known for writing David Fincher’s Zodiac, has come to San Sebastian Film Festival to present his two-and-a-half-hour World War II flick, following the cat-and-mouse game between Russell Crowe‘s Nazi chief Hermann Goring and Rami Malek‘s American psychologist Douglas Kelley as the U.S., U.K., France and Soviet Union prepared to put dozens of Hitler’s men on trial in 1945 and 1946.
At the movie’s press conference on Thursday, Vanderbilt (also writer on The Amazing Spider-Man and Independence Day: Resurgence) discussed filming the courtroom showdown in the feature’s final act between U.S. prosecutor Robert Jackson (Michael Shannon) and Crowe as the charming, cunning Goring, whom the allies were concerned could evade justice.
Vanderbilt explained that a producer had laid out the three-day shoot, spanning 20 pages of dialogue, for the verbal dual between the two actors. “I said, Michael Shannon and Russell Crowe won’t want to do that,” Vanderbilt began. “They’re going to want to do it in one day. And she said, ‘It’s 20 pages of dialogue. That’s a terrible idea.’ So I went to both of them and I said, ‘You know, we’re supposed to shoot this over three days. They’re both like, ‘No. We’re going to do this in one. What are you talking about?’”
The director had four cameras positioned across the room, though his job was made more difficult by staying faithful to historical accuracy. “Usually, you have the lawyers that will walk around, but the way that courtroom is set up, the prosecutor never moves. It’s just shot, shot, shot, shot, shot. We set up, and we were doing 25-minute takes with no cuts,” he continued, “and they were word-perfect every time because we took all the real transcripts.”
“After the first take, the entire courtroom of extras applauded Michael and Russell,” said Vanderbilt. “Just watching those two gentlemen put on a masterclass… I’ve never shot a 25-minute take in a movie in my life. I don’t think I ever will again.” He added: “That, I think, was one of the most amazing [experiences].”
Vanderbilt was also probed on the film’s eerie reflection of current-day politics, especially in his native U.S., where the threat of authoritarianism has never loomed so large. “I started working on [this] 13 years ago, and I thought it was just an incredible story… this idea of a psychiatric [doctor] in World War II who gets the opportunity to [examine] what the nature of evil is, I felt that it was such a fascinating thing to try and capture… It is relevant now, and I think unfortunately, it’ll be relevant in the future, but it’s just such an incredible story that takes place at such an incredible time.”
Naturally, Vanderbilt was asked about Crowe’s preparation for stepping into the role of Hitler’s right-hand man, and lauded the actor’s skill. “Russell Crowe — he is one of the biggest reasons this movie exists today,” said Vanderbilt, explaining how Crowe stayed with the film through the rocky seas of acquiring and losing funding over the years. “We talked a lot about it. He said to me, ‘Look, it’s not a great mental space to live in for me.’”
But Crowe “fully committed and invested in” Nuremberg, said the director, “and did an incredible amount of research. He traveled around Germany to the different places in [Goring’s] childhood. He really put himself in depth to it. And I’m just eternally grateful for the commitment he put into this film and the work he did because he’s Russell forever. He doesn’t necessarily need to do that anymore, but he was as hungry as an actor as I’ve ever seen anyone, and that was a true gift.”
Among other films, Vanderbilt also described enjoying seeing Malek’s “inquisitiveness and magnetism” that he “doesn’t always get to use in films.” He said: “He’s never the hero.” Shannon, he continued, “is an actor’s actor.”
Nuremberg‘s supporting cast includes Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Mark O’Brien, Colin Hanks, Richard E. Grant and Wrenn Schmidt. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and hits theaters Nov. 7.
The San Sebastian International Film Festival 2025 runs Sept. 19-27.
The deal was negotiated by Isra Al Kassi of TAPE Collective and Margot Hervée of Paris-based sales agent Totem Films. The Animalia release in cinemas is set for Dec. 12.
The movie premiered at Sundance 2023, where it won a special jury prize for creative vision, before playing the film fest circuit.
Animalia follows Itto, played by Oumaima Barid in her debut role, “a young woman from a modest rural background who is slowly adapting to the privileged codes of her husband’s Moroccan family,” according to a plot description. “But when supernatural events plunge the country into a state of emergency, Itto is separated from her husband and new family. Alone, pregnant, and searching for a way back, she discovers her own emancipation.”
Said Al Kassi: “We have been inspired by the unique cinematic world Sofia has created in this bold sci-fi tale, which probes the consequences of humanity’s relationship to the environment, with poignant references to class inequalities and the erasure of indigenous cultures. It’s exciting to be part of this release as Sofia develops her next feature films, undoubtedly continuing her grand world-building and chilling storytelling.”
The film was written, directed and produced by Alaoui. It also stars Mehdi Dehbi and Fouad Oughaou. The cinematography is courtesy of Noé Bach, with editing by Héloïse Pelloquet and an original score by Amine Bouhafa.
Animalia is a Wrong Films, Srab Films, Dounia Production and Jiango Films production. Produced by Margaux Lorier, Toufik Ayadi, Christophe Barral, Dounia Benjelloun Mezian and Alaoui, it was co-produced by Arte France Cinéma, with the support of Canal+, Ciné+, ARTE France, Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée, le Centre Cinématographique Marocain, le Fonds Image de la Francophonie, Le Doha Film Institute, La Procirep et l’Angoa, Les Ateliers de l’Atlas, and Cinéventure Développement 7, and in association with Cinécap 5, SG Images 2020, Cinémage 16. Sales duties are being handled by Totem Films.
Australia has selected Gabrielle Brady’s Mongolian-language documentary The Wolves Always Come at Night as its submission for the best international feature category at the 2026 Academy Awards. Brady’s film will also run for consideration in the best documentary feature category.
Blending documentary and fiction, the film tells the story of Mongolian herders Davaasuren Dagvasuren and Otgonzaya Dashzeveg who make the difficult decision to leave their homelands after the arrival of a powerful and destructive sandstorm, a situation made worse by the climate crisis.
The Wolves Always Come premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival in the Platform Prize program, although there was drama at the festival after Davaasuren and Otgonzaya were denied visitor visas by the Canadian government. The film also screened in competition at the London Film Festival in 2024 and screened at Zurich Film Festival, IDFA, San Francisco International Film Festival, True/False and Sydney Film Festival.
The Wolves Always Come at Night is the world’s first co-production between Germany, Australia and Mongolia. Executive producers include Oscar-winner Dan Cogan, Deanne Weir, Stefanie Plattner, Alexander Wadouh, and Emma Hindley. The film received principal production investment from Screen Australia and significant private investment from Weir Anderson Films, alongside Storming Donkey Productions. The Wolves Always Come at Night was also financed with support from BBC Storyville, SWR Arte, and Madman Films. Cinephil is repping for worldwide sales.
Australia’s Oscar submissions are chosen by a committee of industry professionals selected by Screen Australia.
Despite English being the de facto national language of Australia, the country has been consistently submitting films into the best international feature film (formerly the best foreign language film) category at the Oscars since 1996. As of 2025, sixteen Australian films have been submitted including Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr’s Yolngu Matha and Gunwinggu language film Ten Canoes (2006); Warwick Thornton’s Warlpiri language film Samson and Delilah (2009) which was shortlisted; Kim Mordaunt’s Lao language film The Rocket (2013); and Bentley Dean and Martin Butler’s Nauvhal language film Tanna (2016), which was awarded an official nomination.
British producer Mike Goodridge spoke to the advantages of going global on Tuesday at a San Sebastian Film Festival event.
The Good Chaos founder appeared during a fireside event for the fest’s Creative Investors’ Conference, now in its second year, where across a two-day event, a myriad of the world’s top producers come to talk funding, failures and fears as execs try to keep up with a rapidly-changing industry.
The ex-Protagonist CEO, the focus of a recent The Hollywood Reporter profile ahead of Venice, has had a wild festival run this summer with Laszlo Nemes’ historical drama Orphan, Imran Perretta’s coming-of-age debut Ish,and Helen Walsh’s erotic sophomore feature On the Sea. He comes to the fest on Spain’s northern coast to talk business, but another of his heavyweights is set to screen: Edward Berger’s Ballad of a Small Playerwith Colin Farrell.
Speaking with Wendy Mitchell, San Sebastian’s U.K. and Nordic delegate and Investor’s Conference organizer, Goodridge took attendees through his hotly anticipated projects, including Finnish action thriller Sisu: Road to Revenge, and pondered over the support for the British film industry.
“I think it’s a blessing and a curse we share the same language as the U.S.,” he said about balancing Britain’s undeniable talent and IP with Hollywood money, adding: “Most of the film technicians in the U.K. are employed by American companies. Harry Potter is a British thing, but it’s not, it’s American. Same with James Bond. So our independent films have to advocate this path through the clutter of Americanism.”
“The U.K. has a great cinema legacy,” he continued. “It’s a great cinema country. And every year, there are some fantastic new films. I’d love to make some great, big British films. I’m planning to,” he said, adding that there is “good support” for indie films from the likes of the British Film Institute (BFI) and BBC Film.
When pressed to answer whether he agrees that the U.K. is not “traditionally a great co-producer” and that Goodridge is one of two or three producers in Britain working globally, he responded: “That’s my case really, is to look internationally. It’s almost been my interest to look at the world and the new voices and styles — of Hollywood, too, but I don’t think I would make films in the U.S. particularly well… I much prefer exploring the world, and I’m very comfortable doing that, and I plug in the U.K. financing whenever I can.”
Though the travel brings perks, the exec also admitted to facing an enormous amount of difficulty while trying to make Ballad in Macau, China, where the film is set. “Shanghai Surprise (1986), remember that? With Madonna. Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom (1984), Now You See Me 2 (2016),” Goodridge listed as films that have all been shot in Macau. “[But] it was one of the most challenging things I ever had to do, get that film made.”
He said: “It’s a very small city. It’s a city state, really. It’s a population of 600,000, so it’s very hard to kind of build up an indigenous industry. You go through Hong Kong, which is often not the easiest, because they don’t know much about Macau either… Edward would point at a piece of land that he wanted to shoot on, we couldn’t find out who owned the land. Nobody in government, nobody knew. [Laughs.] So we couldn’t get permission to shoot that.” Ballad is backdropped by the city’s infamous casinos, which also proved tasking. “Shooting the casinos was incredibly challenging,” Goodridge said, “because at any moment you’re shooting, there’s a loss of revenue to them.”
Goodridge went into more detail across the session about working with Sean Baker and why attracting a good cast will always start with the film’s director. He touched on his extensive ambitions to get into television producing and teased a little about an upcoming rom-com he’s working on called Paris-Hollywood, adapted from the novel by French film critic Cécile Mury. Paris-based Haut et Court and Good Chaos, two of the founding members of the Fremantle-backed indie production collective The Creatives, secured the film rights to Mury’s work in February.
The San Sebastian International Film Festival 2025 runs Sept. 19-27.
The late summer box office has delivered an unlikely juggernaut: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle. The anime epic has stormed past $555 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time and the top-earning anime feature ever released. In North America, where anime movies were once relegated to the margins, Infinity Castle has stunned with $104 million in two weekends — by far the biggest U.S. theatrical run ever for a Japanese title. Given anime fandom’s penchant for repeat viewings — and a planned China release still in the works — there’s no telling just how rich Infinity Castle’s worldwide haul might become.
Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) is based on a wildly popular manga by Japanese artist Koyoharu Gotouge. After the release of an initial TV series adaptation in 2019, the property quickly became one of Japan’s most beloved pop culture exports. The saga follows Tanjiro Kamado, a kind-hearted boy who must transform into a “demon slayer” after his family is slaughtered and his younger sister Nezuko is turned into a demon herself. With lavish animation from Tokyo studio Ufotable, and an emotionally resonant mix of family bonds, heroism and dark fantasy, the series grew even bigger with its first feature installment, Mugen Train, which grossed over $500 million worldwide — in 2020, at a time when the theatrical business was already heavily challenged by the pandemic.
For longtime followers of anime’s rise, the scale of Demon Slayer’s latest success with Infinity Castle is the culmination of trends that have been slowly building for decades. What was once niche otaku culture has become a mainstream global force, embraced by Gen Z and Gen Alpha but increasingly multigenerational, multiracial and borderless in its appeal. Sony, perhaps not surprisingly, recognized this potential sooner than most. Since acquiring anime specialty service Crunchyroll from AT&T in 2020 for $1.18 billion — and merging it with its earlier anime platform buy, Funimation — the Japanese conglomerate has steadily transformed anime from a promising vertical into a core strategic pillar. Today, Crunchyroll spans far more than a subscription platform: it’s also North America’s leading distributor of anime films, a global licensing and merchandising operation, an anime fandom events business and an emerging hub for music and games. At CES earlier this year, Sony executives described anime as one of the group’s central growth bets, with the sector forecast to become a $60 billion global industry by 2030.
That corporate realignment has been vindicated by Infinity Castle. Sony Pictures handled the release in the U.S. and most markets outside Japan, Aniplex co-produced in Tokyo with Ufotable and Crunchyroll activated its deep ties with fandom worldwide. The close collaboration across Sony’s far-flung units helped turn the Japanese animated feature into a global tentpole of Pixar scale — something that might have seemed unimaginable a decade ago, even for the genre’s most revered hitmaker, Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. In an internal memo circulated after Infinity Castle’s record-breaking opening, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Ravi Ahuja told staff: “The incredible results of this film show the growing global appeal of anime — it wasn’t just dedicated fans who came out to theaters, but a wide range of moviegoers. Contributing in no small part to the success is the strong partnership between Aniplex, Crunchyroll and Motion Picture Group, along with the cross-functional collaboration within our teams.”
For Rahul Purini, the architect of much of Crunchyroll’s expansion, Infinity Castle represents a professional milestone as well as a watershed for anime’s community of artisans. A veteran of Funimation since 2015, Purini helped oversee the Sony-led consolidation of anime streaming in North America before being elevated to president in 2022. His mandate has been to scale Crunchyroll into a global player while staying true to the authenticity of anime culture.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Purini in the wake of Infinity Castle’s record-smashing North American opening.
What has surprised you and not surprised you about Infinity Castle’s performance so far, particularly in North America?
Well, we knew this brand was huge, and that the IP was something fans loved and would turn out for in large numbers with their friends. We also had a sense of the quality of animation that Ufotable and our partners at Aniplex would produce. Basically, we knew the film was going to be a truly amazing show. If there was anything surprising, it was how many fans turned up that first weekend. We didn’t expect to hit $70 million within the first three days. Now we know there is going to be repeat viewing — the question is just how many times and how many people.
How big do you think the movie’s box office total will get?
We believe it will have longer legs than most. We’ve seen this in Southeast Asia, where we released it in the middle of August. We continue to see fans coming out even after about a month in cinemas. The box office total there is still growing. We’re not sharing any total projections, but we have high expectations.
What does this success tell you about how the audience for anime is changing? Were there any four-quadrant surprises in the results?
I’ve been saying for three or four years now that anime fandom is no longer niche — it’s mainstream and gigantic. What this movie did was show that to the world in a way where there’s a lot of historical context to compare against. At Crunchyroll, we’ve had data and research showing how big and broad anime has become, and we could show it in the context of other shows on our platform. But Infinity Castle’s success is the perfect way to demonstrate this to the broader entertainment world, because it’s happening at the box office, where there are 100 years’ worth of benchmarks. It’s now undeniable how big anime has become.
Another thing we’ve known about — which again showed up in the North American box office — is how wrong many of the myths about anime fandom are. Many people have always said, “Oh, this is a Japanese medium, so it must be heavily indexed toward an Asian audience.” We’ve known for a while that this isn’t the case. It’s a very diverse audience. It overindexes across all different ethnicities. Whether it’s Hispanic, African American, or South Asian, it overindexes. Again, this has been in our data for a long time, but this box office success has been the perfect opportunity for other parties to see it firsthand, via exit polling and more traditional metrics.
(L-R) Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Purini, Channing Tatum and Ravi Ahuja, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, attend the English premiere of ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle’ at TCL Chinese Theatres.
Getty
Another narrative that gets attached to anime’s growing success is that it’s especially popular among the young — Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Was that true for this film? And if so, what could others potentially learn from your success here? For example, what are some of your most efficient marketing channels for reaching that coveted young consumer?
In terms of your first question, it’s absolutely true. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are a huge part of this fandom. But that doesn’t mean they’re the only age groups. We saw a lot of parents coming to see Infinity Castle with their kids, and there were many fans in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. Anime fandom does over-index among the young, though.
We’ve been cultivating these relationships with young adults for a long time. So, it’s all of the things you would imagine — TikTok, Reddit AMAs, and Discord; hosting real-world events for young fans and influencers to attend; and engaging the celebrity anime fans that young people follow and listen to. It’s also about being very present on YouTube, Roblox, and Fortnite, and in the various other places where this young audience spends time and participates.
Regarding the theatrical release, did Crunchyroll bring any strategies to the table that were different from the traditional way Sony Pictures markets and distributes movies? How did the collaboration work?
One of the things we’re most excited about was how successful the cross-Sony collaboration was on this movie. This is something Sony is uniquely equipped to do, right? We have our partners at Sony’s Aniplex in Japan, who produced the movie, and Sony Pictures in the U.S., who released it. What I tell our anime partners in Japan all the time is that Sony Pictures has over 100 years of experience taking Hollywood stories global — and now the company can do that for Japanese anime too.
We really demonstrated that with this movie, because in every region where Infinity Castle has been released, we broke records. But at every step in the process, it was a true collaboration. We sat down with those distribution teams and they told us about their strengths — how they market, book theaters, and everything they’ve learned. Then we told them what we are uniquely good at — the connections we have with anime fans, our ability to use our own platform to reach this community, and the power of our live events and other channels. Then we all rolled up our sleeves and developed strategies so that one plus one would equal three.
It’s interesting to zoom out and consider this moment within Sony’s corporate history. In the years after Sony acquired Columbia Pictures in 1989, there were some infamous integration pains, as the culture of the Japanese electronics conglomerate struggled to come to grips with Hollywood’s ways. It almost feels like the Demon Slayer phenomenon perhaps marks the moment, all these decades later, when Sony has finally, truly become a culturally integrated U.S.-Japanese entertainment entity. Because Infinity Castle’s success feels like something only a true Hollywood-Japanese fusion could have pulled off.
Well, there have been great examples of other cross-Sony collaborations — something like The Last of Us, which brings together the best of Sony PlayStation with Sony Pictures Television, or Uncharted in the theatrical film world. But I get what you’re saying. Infinity Castle really brings the Japanese cultural aspect into the mix. So yes, I agree; it’s unique. We hope this provides a tailwind not just for Crunchyroll, but for the entire anime ecosystem.
So this is a phenomenal start for the first film in a trilogy. When are the next two films expected to be released? And is there any sense of urgency now about getting them out a bit sooner?
Well, we’ve announced that it will be a trilogy of movies, but our partners at Aniplex and Ufotable haven’t decided on dates yet. But look, there’s definitely urgency for all of us to bring more Demon Slayer to fans as soon as we can — because we know the urgency is there among the fanbase.
Is it likely that the blockbuster success of the first installment will mean that you go even bigger with the next two, in terms of budget and spectacle?
Well, we’re still in the midst of the first one’s release, so all I can say for now is that we’re working closely with our partners to make sure the next two movies are going to be just as amazing — if not better.
What do you anticipate the material benefits of this theatrical success will be for Crunchyroll’s streaming business, merchandising arm and the other facets of your platform?
We’ve always talked about wanting to be everything for someone — that anime fan — rather than something for everyone. This theatrical success creates a halo and momentum for the other parts of that flywheel, whether it’s merchandise, games, anime music, or the streaming service itself. For example, in August, we created a promotion that allowed people to watch an entire season of the Demon Slayer series outside of our subscription service. We’re continuing that offer now. So people who’ve heard about this movie, or went to check it out with friends, can now come and experience the full TV show too. Our goal is to make sure these new viewers have an amazing experience. Hopefully, we can then introduce them to a few more shows they’ll enjoy — and then there’s a whole universe of fandom waiting for them.
Is it possible that Crunchyroll will end up having the exclusive streaming rights to Infinity Castle?
We always love to give our members something unique, so we’d absolutely want to have that conversation with our partners. But it’s up to Ufotable, Aniplex, and the production committee to make the right decision in terms of what’s best for the brand and the IP.
In the streaming space, you’ve already seen plenty of competition from the big platforms — Netflix, Amazon and Disney. They’ve long been aware of the power of anime to build their global subscriber bases and they’ve been spending big accordingly. In the wake of Infinity Castle’s theatrical success, do you expect to see other U.S. studio players attempt to compete in this arena on big screens in North America? And what do you think their chances of success are?
For sure, there will be more people who want to serve this audience. It will be the same among the theatrically focused studios soon enough. We’ve always said that’s good because the audience is already big, and as it grows, we feel strongly that we’re well-positioned to take advantage of that expansion. We feel very good about our place and strength in the ecosystem.
So, Infinity Castle is the year’s biggest animated film of any kind at the North American box office so far. Next comes the awards strategy. Do you plan to campaign for best animated feature and other categories at the Oscars?
We think the movie is incredible — the animation, the story, the quality on all fronts. So yes, the fans absolutely deserve for the movie to be considered for awards. We’ll do our part to make sure it gets the right level of support to be considered in all of the categories it could be eligible for.
LONDON — The U.K., Australia and Canada formally recognized a Palestinian state on Sunday, prompting an angry response from Israel, which ruled out the prospect.
The coordinated initiative from the three Commonwealth nations and long-time allies reflects growing outrage at Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza and the steps taken by the Israeli government to thwart efforts to create a Palestinian state, including by the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
What You Need To Know
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the U.K. is formally recognizing a Palestinian state despite opposition from the U.S. and Israel
On Sunday, Starmer said the move is intended to promote lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Australia and Canada also recognized the Palestinian state on Sunday
Although largely symbolic, this decision is historic, as the U.K. played a role in the region’s past
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the three countries for proferring a “prize” to Hamas
“It will not happen,” he said. “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River”
More countries are expected to join the list recognizing a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly this week, including France, which like the U.K., is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has faced pressure to take a harder line on Israel within his own governing Labour Party over the deteriorating situation in Gaza, said the U.K.’s move is intended “to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis.” He insisted it wasn’t a reward for Hamas, which was behind the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which the militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others.
“Today, to revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution, I state clearly as prime minister of this great country that the United Kingdom formally recognizes the state of Palestine,” Starmer said in a video message. “We recognized the state of Israel more than 75 years ago as a homeland for the Jewish people. Today we join over 150 countries who recognize a Palestinian state also.”
The moves by the three countries prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say that the establishment of a Palestinian state “will not happen.”
The U.K. announcement was widely anticipated after Starmer said in July that the U.K. would recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza, allowed the United Nations to bring in aid and took other steps toward long-term peace.
More countries are expected to join the list recognizing a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly this week, including France, which like the U.K., is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
Palestinian and Israeli reactions
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the three countries for proferring a “prize” to Hamas.
“It will not happen,” he said. “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”
Netanyahu is set to give a speech to the General Assembly on Friday before heading to see U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House Monday week. Ahead of Sunday’s announcement, Trump said he disapproved of the U.K.’s anticipated move.
Hamas hailed the decision, calling it a “rightful outcome of our people’s struggle, steadfastness, and sacrifices on the path to liberation and return.” The Islamic militant group, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, called on the world to isolate Israel.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed that Sunday’s moves constitute an important and necessary step toward achieving a just peace in accordance with international law.
As well as arguing that recognition is immoral, critics argue that it’s an empty gesture given that the Palestinian people are divided into two territories — the West Bank and the Gaza strip— and no recognized international capital.
Historical overlay
The U.K. and France have a historic role in the politics of the Middle East over the past 100 years, having carved up the region following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
As part of that carve-up, the U.K. became the governing power of what was then Palestine. It was also author of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which backed the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people.”
However, the second part of the declaration has been largely neglected over the decades. It noted “that nothing shall be done, nothing which may prejudice the civil and religious rights” of the Palestinian people.
“It’s significant for France and the U.K. to recognize Palestine because of the legacy of these two countries’ involvement in the Middle East,” said Burcu Ozcelik, senior research fellow for Middle East Security at London-based Royal United Services Institute. “But without the United States coming on board with the idea of a Palestine, I think very little will change on the ground.”
Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian head of mission in the U.K., told the BBC that recognition would right a colonial-era wrong. “The issue today is ending the denial of our existence that started 108 years ago, in 1917,” he said. “And I think today, the British people should celebrate a day when history is being corrected, when wrongs are being righted, when recognition of the wrongs of the past are beginning to be corrected.”
Diplomatic shift
The U.K. has for decades supported an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, but insisted recognition must come as part of a peace plan to achieve a two-state solution.
However, the government has become increasingly worried that such a solution is becoming all but impossible – and not only because of the razing of Gaza and displacement of most of its population during nearly two years of conflict, which has seen more than 65,000 people killed in Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Last week, independent experts commissioned by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a charge that Israel rejected as “distorted and false.”
Also vexing the U.K. is Israel’s government has been aggressively expanding settlements in the West Bank, land Palestinians want for their future state. Much of the world regards Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, which is ostensibly run by the Palestinian Authority, as illegal.
“This move has symbolic and historic weight, makes clear the U.K.’s concerns about the survival of a two-state solution, and is intended to keep that goal relevant and alive,” said Olivia O’Sullivan, Director of the U.K. in the World Programme at the London-based think tank, Chatham House.
CAIRO — Israeli strikes in Gaza City and at a refugee camp killed more than 40 people, including 19 women and children, health officials said on Sunday, as several European countries and leading U.S. allies moved to recognize a Palestinian state.
What You Need To Know
Israeli strikes in Gaza City and at a refugee camp killed more than 40 people, including 19 women and children
In Lebanon, the Health Ministry said Sunday that an Israeli drone strike in the southern city of Bint Jbeil killed five people, among them three childrens
Palestinians streamed out of Gaza City, though many are unwilling to be uprooted again, too weak to leave or unable to afford the cost of moving
Aid groups warn that forced evacuations in Gaza will worsen the humanitarian crisis
Meanwhile, several Western countries are preparing to recognize Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday
Health officials at Shifa Hospital, where most of the bodies were brought, said the dead included 14 people killed in a strike late Saturday which hit a residential block in the southern side of the city. Health staff said a nurse who worked at the hospital was among the dead, along with his wife and three children.
Another strike that targeted a group of people in front of a clinic in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least eight Palestinians, according to the Al-Awda Hospital. The dead include four children and two women, the hospital said. Another 22 people were wounded, it said.
Israel did not comment on the strikes.
Drone strike in Lebanon
In Lebanon, the Health Ministry said Sunday that an Israeli drone strike in the southern city of Bint Jbeil killed five people, among them three children, and two others were wounded. No further details were given.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.
Since Hezbollah and Israel’s monthslong war ended in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November, Israel has struck southern Lebanon almost daily in what they say are attacks to target the Lebanese militant group.
The Lebanese government has said that these strikes violate the ceasefire and hampers their efforts to gradually disarm the group.
Netanyahu says Palestinian state ‘will not happen’
On Sunday, Australia, Canada and the U.K. announced formal recognition of Palestinian statehood. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the move is intended “to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the announcement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the establishment of a Palestinian state “will not happen.” In an angry statement after the coordinated initiative from the Commonwealth nations was announced, he accused the foreign leaders of giving a “prize” to Hamas.
“It will not happen,” he said. “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”
Other prominent Western countries are preparing to recognize Palestinian statehood at the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. Netanyahu said he would announce Israel’s response after a trip next week to the U.S., where he is to meet President Donald Trump at the White House.
Anti-war protests in Israel
The latest Israeli operation, which began this week, further escalates a conflict that has roiled the Middle East and likely pushes any ceasefire further out of reach. The Israeli military, which has told Palestinians to leave, hasn’t given a timeline for the offensive, but there were indications it could take months. Israel says the operation is meant to pressure Hamas into freeing hostages and surrendering.
Ahead of the U.N. assembly, peace activists in Israel have hailed the planned recognition of a Palestinian state. On Sunday, a group of more than 60 Jewish and Arab organizations representing about 1,000 activists, including some veteran organizations promoting peace and coexistence, known as It’s Time Coalition, called for an end to the war, the release of the hostages and the recognition of a Palestinian state.
“We refuse to live forever by the sword. The UN decision offers a historic opportunity to move from a death trap to life, from an endless messianic war to a future of security and freedom for both peoples,” said the coalition in a video statement.
On Saturday night, tens of thousands of people in Israel protested, calling for an end to the war and a hostage deal.
Yet a ceasefire remains elusive. Israeli bombardment over the past 23 months has killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza, destroyed vast areas of the strip, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying Gaza City is experiencing famine.
Dire humanitarian crisis
In a statement Sunday, the military stated it killed Majed Abu Selmiya, who it said was a sniper for Hamas’ military wing and was preparing to carry out more attacks in the Gaza City area, without providing evidence.
Majed was the brother of the director of Shifa hospital, Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, who called the allegations a lie and said Israel was trying to justify the killing of civilians. Dr. Selmiya told The Associated Press that his brother, 57, suffered from hypertension, diabetes and had vision problems.
As the attacks continue, Israel has ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering in Gaza City to move south to what it calls a humanitarian zone and opened another corridor south of the city for two days this week to allow more people to evacuate.
Palestinians were streaming out of Gaza City by car and on foot, though many are unwilling to be uprooted again, too weak to leave or unable to afford the cost of moving.
Along the coastal Wadi Gaza route, those too exhausted to continue stopped to catch their breath and give their children a much-needed break from the difficult journey.
Aid groups have warned that forcing thousands of people to evacuate will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis. They are appealing for a ceasefire so aid can reach those who need it.
Pope Leo XIV denounces Palestinians’ ‘forced exile’
Pope Leo XIV blasted what he called the “forced exile” of Palestinians from their homes in Gaza, saying there was no future for the “martyred” Gaza Strip based on violence and vendetta.
During his Sunday noon blessing, Leo issued another appeal for peace and expressed appreciation for the work of Catholic organizations active in helping Palestinians, which had representatives present in St. Peter’s Square.
Families of hostages still held by Hamas have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of condemning their loved ones to death by continuing to fight rather than negotiating an end to the war.
Israel in talks with Syria
Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting that Israel’s victories in Lebanon against Hezbollah “have opened a window for the possibility of peace with our neighbors to the north.”
“We are holding talks with the Syrians — there is some progress, but still a vision for the future,” he said.
Israel has occupied parts of southwest Syria since the overthrow of then-Syrian President Bashar Assad in December. Relations with the new Syrian government have been tense, with Israel carrying out airstrikes over the summer in what it says were steps to protect Syria’s Druze community.
Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa said in an interview on Syrian state television on Sept. 12 that negotiations with Israel for a security deal are still ongoing. He hopes that Israeli troops will return to where they were before the fall of Assad’s government under a disengagement agreement in 1974.
“Israel considered the fall of the regime as Syria’s withdrawal from the 1974 agreement, even though Syria showed its commitment from the very beginning,” said al-Sharaa.
The Danish-Norwegian filmmaker, an Academy Award nominee for his 2021 romantic dramedy The Worst Person in the World, is also known for Reprise (2006), Oslo, August 31st (2011) and Louder Than Bombs (2015). His most recent project, winner of Cannes’ Grand Prix this year Sentimental Value, is screening here at the 73rd San Sebastian Film Festival.
The film follows Trier’s frequent collaborator Renate Reinsve as Nora who, along with her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), are faced to confront their strained relationship with their father, a fading director named Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgard). Elle Fanning also stars in the movie as a U.S. actress, Rachel Kemp, hoping to be in Borg’s next feature.
Trier spoke — and Reinsve, in attendance, watched on — at the discussion in San Sebastian where he fielded a myriad of questions about his journey to film stardom and working predominantly in Europe. The director explained how he set the precedent to have final cut on all his films when, in the wake of the success of Reprise, he was tasked with finding a U.S. studio to work with.
“I need final cut, I’ve had it since film one,” he began. “To me, it’s a moral implication of taking responsibility for what the actors give a director — if they show their emotions, their bodies, whatever — we created a movie [and] I carry the responsibility of what they bring to the final product. No one that sits in some studio capacity and invests money should decide that, in my opinion. That’s not how art is made… [I have] a moral responsibility towards the cinematographer, maybe being away from his or her family for months on end to work on the vision that me, as a director, and all the others in the team created. To have an external power of financial interest come fuck around with that material diminishes the trust between us and the group.”
“I’m not going to shame people,” he added, “because it’s damn hard to make a film and many, many, many films are made every year where the director didn’t have final cut, and they’re wonderful films.”
Trier admitted that demanding final cut made it “tough” to get a film financed and while some U.S. producers showed immense support, Reprise was made out of Oslo, Norway and in collaboration with France. “I’ve worked in the European financing system my whole career and I’m super happy about it,” he added.
The financing system for cinema in Europe, while it has given Trier “a platform to express myself very freely,” he also believes it is constantly under political threat. “Right-wing political movements are always trying to diminish the idea of soft money support for the arts across most countries in Europe… We need support. And most art has always been supported by someone with an intention of not just making money, but supporting expression and artistic endeavors.”
Skarsgard and Fanning in ‘Sentimental Value’.
Courtesy of Neon
At the same time, Trier said the need to have total creative control over his films is something that producers should be in support of. “If you [look at] film history, a lot of the films that commercially worked have also been made by directors that are deeply involved in the script process, deeply involved in the editing and has had a sense of control — the achievements of personal expression is at the core of some of the most successful films, financially.”
Trier continued that his championing of his actors should be mirrored by financiers’ attitudes towards filmmakers. “My approach to shielding, protecting, loving, nourishing [actors] is how producers and financiers should work with directors. Don’t employ directors unless you really want to support them and love them and help them, and [same with] writers and editors… I want Renate to do well, I want her to do something wonderful and I’m proud of Renate as a director. I think financiers should feel like that with directors and the creative team.”
Across the session, Trier covered an extensive range of topics, from grieving the late David Lynch and the intersection of film and love (“tenderness is the new punk!”), to believing in the power of the “European auteur” and the cinematic universes they build. When discussing Sentimental Value, Trier, father to two young children, admitted his own fear of failure as a parent played a huge role in writing Skarsgard’s part.
“I said going in, ‘I’m really scared of failing as a father.’ And it’s very symbolic to make this film for me, because I don’t want to be Gustav,” he said. “In Norway, we have had a lot of progression [for] female directors over the last 15, 20 years, and that has been great for us male directors too, because we have gotten a focus on [a] good set culture, where the macho energy is lessened and it’s not just all tough guys.”
This has allowed filmmakers in Norway to have “private conversations” about balancing being an artist with having children, he added. “Actually, the feminist discourse around cinema has helped men also allow ourselves bigger freedom of figuring out how we make movies [as parents].”
The San Sebastian International Film Festival 2025 runs Sept. 19-27.
Joachim Lafosse’s San Sebastian-bound feature Six Days in Spring is admittedly a deeply personal project.
French actress Eye Haïdara (The Nannies, C’est la vie!) leads the Belgian director’s new film. She stars as Sana, a mother struggling to provide her 10-year-old twins (Teodor and Leonis Pinero Müller in their film debuts) with a spring vacation. When their plans collapse, she secretly takes them to a luxury villa on the French Riviera owned by her former in-laws. Over six days, joy and anxiety collide as the family hides in plain sight in what can be described as a biographical piece of filmmaking for Lafosse.
“After my parents divorced, my mother had money problems,” he confesses to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the world premiere of Six Days in Spring in competition at the Spanish film fest on Sept. 20. He’s no stranger to the festival circuit with 2012’s Our Children making a splash in Cannes and 2006’s Private Property with Isabelle Huppert debuting in Venice. It’s his sixth film to screen at San Sebastian, and perhaps his most intimate one yet.
“She had to be working a lot, to make ends meet, but she wanted us to have a vacation,” he continues about his mother’s influence on the new movie, a France-Luxembourg-Belgium co-production. With his mother and brother, Lafosse went to his grandparents’ house, but the three of them were forced to use candles for light and avoid running hot water, lest his father found out.
Six Days in Spring
Publicity
“My grandparents, they were wealthy, they had money, and suddenly my mother… she was not related to them, and [so] she didn’t have money,” Lafosse says. “A few months earlier, we were at the beautiful house and we had the right to be there. In that moment, my brother and I understood the logic of social class.” The crux of this film, he adds, is an analysis of “at what moment you stop belonging to a family.”
It almost became a cathartic outlet for the director, who was hoping for a chance to illustrate the emotional violence of divorce on screen. “If you are separated as a couple, you are still parents [and] you still have to raise those kids together and for those children to go on holidays.”
Haïdara’s tender, considered performance anchors Lafosse’s film. He considers why she was so right for the role of Sana. “I’m not a sociologist. I’m a filmmaker,” he responds. “And for me, a filmmaker is somebody who writes the characters. I know [Sana’s] story — she was living with her husband before they separated, and I was looking for an actress who was moving, who could [show us] some kind of resistance.”
On taking his personal story and setting it within a Black family, Lafosse admits there’s something political there — and the issue is not confined to his native Belgium or France. “We have to consider each story on an individual basis… but cinema is always political.” He continues: “The success, for me, is not to show what’s happened with the Black people in this area. But my [hope] is that audience and critics, they see exactly what’s happened. They recognize the situation — that more and more people are having to hide. It’s not only [happening in] the U.S.”
Lafosse hopes his new film will prompt audiences to draw their own conclusions here on Spain’s northern coast. He lauds San Sebastian’s directorial team, including fest boss José Luis Rebordinos, who spoke to THR about the fest’s eclectic lineup earlier in the week. “They feel passion, real passion for cinema,” continues Lafosse. “Here, you have the possibility to see the best movie of the year.”
Six Days in Spring premieres in competition at the 2025 San Sebastian International Film Festival, running Sept. 19-27. Watch the trailer here.
CAIRO — Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people overnight in Gaza City, health officials said, as Israel ramps up its offensive there and urges Palestinians to leave.
What You Need To Know
Israeli strikes have killed at least 14 people overnight in Gaza City, according to health officials
Israel is ramping up its offensive and urging Palestinians to leave
The conflict has intensified, with Western countries considering recognizing Palestinian statehood at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly
The Israeli military aims to destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure, but no timeline for the offensive has been given
The strikes come as Western countries are increasingly questioning the intensifying war in Gaza, with some moving to recognize Palestinian statehood at the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly next week. In a statement Friday, Portugal’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said it will recognize a Palestinian state on Sunday. The Iberian country had previously announced its plans to do so but has now set an official date.
Portugal is among other Western nations, including the U.K., France, Canada, Australia, Malta, Belgium and Luxembourg, expected to recognize Palestinian statehood in the coming days.
The latest Israeli operation, which started this week, further escalates a conflict that has roiled the Middle East and likely pushes any ceasefire further out of reach. The Israeli military, which says it wants to “destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure,” hasn’t given a timeline for the offensive, but there were indications it could take months.
Israeli bombardment over the past 23 months has killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza, destroyed vast areas of the strip, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying Gaza City is experiencing famine.
Hospital director’s relatives among the dead
Dr. Rami Mhanna, the managing director of Shifa Hospital, where some of the bodies were brought, said the dead included six people from the same family after a strike hit their home early Saturday morning. They were relatives of the hospital’s director, Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, he said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said five other people were killed in another strike close to Shawa Square.
Israel’s military said it couldn’t comment on the specific strikes without more information, but that it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” and “takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”
In recent days, Israel has been urging hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering in Gaza City to move south to what it calls a humanitarian zone and opened another corridor south of Gaza City for two days this week to allow more people to evacuate.
Palestinians have streamed out of the city by car and on foot. But many in the famine-stricken city are unwilling to be uprooted again, too weak to leave or unable to afford the cost of moving.
Aid groups have warned that forcing thousands of people to evacuate will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis. They are appealing for a ceasefire so aid can reach those who need it.
Families of hostages speak out
Families of hostages still held by Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday of condemning their loved ones to death by continuing to fight rather than negotiate an end to the war.
“The blood of our loved ones is, for him, nothing more than a political tool to cling to power,” they said in a statement read outside Netanyahu’s residence. “As long as there is war, Netanyahu has a government.”
Forty-eight hostages remain in Gaza, with fewer than half believed to still be alive. Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Meanwhile, an Israeli-American held hostage in Gaza for 584 days before being released in May said he will return to Israeli military service next month. Edan Alexander, 21, was kidnapped by Hamas from a base near the Gaza border and was the last living Israeli hostage freed from captivity.
“We cannot forget them,” he said Friday. “We cannot stop until they are all home.”
UNICEF trucks robbed
On Friday, UNICEF said lifesaving therapeutic food meant for thousands of children in Gaza was stolen from four of its trucks. The statement said armed people approached the trucks outside their compound in Gaza City and held the drivers at gunpoint while the food was taken.
“They were intended to treat malnourished children in Gaza City where famine is declared … it was a life-saving shipment amid the severe restrictions on aid delivery to Gaza City,” said Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for UNICEF.
In a statement Friday, Israel’s army blamed Hamas for stealing the food.
Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid and using it to fund its military activities, without providing evidence. The U.N. says there are mechanisms in place that prevent any significant diversion of aid.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says the death count in Gaza has surpassed 65,100 since the attack by Hamas that triggered the war. The ministry, part of a Hamas government, does not say how many of the dead were civilians or militants. Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate by the U.N. and many independent experts.
LONDON — A cyberattack targeting check-in and boarding systems disrupted air traffic and caused delays at several of Europe’s major airports on Saturday.
What You Need To Know
A cyberattack targeting check-in and boarding systems has disrupted air traffic at several major European airports
On Friday night, the attack hit a service provider affecting airports like Brussels and Berlin’s Brandenburg
Brussels Airport said the incident has forced manual check-ins, causing significant delays
Airports were advising travelers to check their flight status and apologize for the inconvenience
While the impact on travelers appeared to be limited, experts said the intrusion exposed vulnerabilities in security systems.
The disruptions to electronic systems initially reported at Brussels, Berlin’s Brandenburg and London’s Heathrow airports meant that only manual check-in and boarding was possible. Many other European airports said their operations were unaffected.
“There was a cyberattack on Friday night 19 September against the service provider for the check-in and boarding systems affecting several European airports including Brussels Airport,” said Brussels Airport in a statement, initially reporting a “large impact” on flight schedules.
Airports said the issue centered around a provider of check-in and boarding systems — not airlines or the airports themselves.
Collins Aerospace, whose systems help passengers check themselves in, print boarding passes and bag tags and dispatch their luggage from a kiosk, cited a “cyber-related disruption” to its MUSE (Multi-User System Environment) software at “select airports.”
‘A very clever cyberattack’
It was not immediately clear who might be behind the cyberattack, but experts said it could turn out to be hackers, criminal organizations, or state actors.
Travel analyst Paul Charles said he was “surprised and shocked” by the attack that has affected one of the world’s top aviation and defense companies.
He said “it’s deeply worrying that a company of that stature who normally have such resilient systems in place have been affected.”
“This is a very clever cyberattack indeed because it’s affected a number of airlines and airports at the same time — not just one airport or one airline, but they’ve got into the core system that enables airlines to effectively check in many of their passengers at different desks at different airports around Europe,” he told Sky News.
As the day wore on, the fallout appeared to be contained.
Brussels Airport spokesperson Ihsane Chioua Lekhli told broadcaster VTM that by mid-morning, nine flights had been canceled, four were redirected to another airport and 15 faced delays of an hour or more. She said it wasn’t immediately clear how long the disruptions might last.
Axel Schmidt, head of communications at the Brandenburg airport, said that by late morning, “we don’t have any flights canceled due to this specific reason, but that could change.” The Berlin airport said operators had cut off connections to affected systems.
Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, said the disruption has been “minimal” with no flight cancellations directly linked to the problems afflicting Collins. A spokesperson would not provide details as to how many flights have been delayed as a result of the cyberattack.
The airports advised travelers to check their flight status and apologized for any inconvenience.
Frustration at the counters
Some passengers voiced annoyance at the lack of staff. With many, if not most, checking in individually, airlines have reduced the number of people operating at the traditional check-in counters.
Maria Casey, who was on her way to a two-week backpacking holiday in Thailand with Etihad Airways, said she had to spend three hours at baggage check-in at Heathrow’s Terminal 4.
“They had to write our baggage tabs by hand,” she said. “Only two desks were staffed, which is why we were cheesed off.”
Collins, an aviation and defense technology company that is a subsidiary of RTX Corp., formerly Raytheon Technologies, said it was “actively working to resolve the issue and restore full functionality to our customers as quickly as possible.”
“The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations,” it said in a statement.
Airline industry is vulnerable through the use of third-party platforms
Still, experts said the attack pointed to vulnerabilities — ones that hackers are increasingly trying to exploit.
Charlotte Wilson, head of enterprise at cybersecurity firm Check Point, said the aviation industry has become an “increasingly attractive target” for cybercriminals because of its heavy reliance on shared digital systems.
“These attacks often strike through the supply chain, exploiting third-party platforms that are used by multiple airlines and airports at once,” she said. “When one vendor is compromised, the ripple effect can be immediate and far-reaching, causing widespread disruption across borders.”
Experts said it was too early to tell who might be behind the attack, and were trying to read some clues.
“It looks almost more like vandalism than extortion, based on the information we have,” said James Davenport, a professor of information technology at the University of Bath in England. “I think significant new details would have to emerge to change this view.”
PARK RIDGE, Ill. — It was 3:30 a.m. when 10 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers gathered in a parking lot in the Chicago suburbs for a briefing about a suspect they were hoping to arrest. They went over a description of the person, made sure their radios were on the same channel and discussed where the closest hospital was in case something went wrong.
What You Need To Know
An immigration enforcement operation in the Chicago area is troubling immigrants and activists because of what they say are increasingly aggressive tactics
But top official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement denies that officers are using excessive force
The operation began Sept. 8 and has led to the arrests of nearly 550 people
The aim is to enforce President Trump’s immigration policies in a city known for strong laws against local cooperation with federal immigration efforts
“Let’s plan on not being there,” said one of the officers, before they climbed into their vehicles and headed out.
Across the city and surrounding suburbs, other teams were fanning out in support of ” Operation Midway Blitz.” It has unleashed President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda on a city and state that has had some of the strongest laws preventing local officials from cooperating with immigration enforcement.
ICE launched the operation on Sept. 8, drawing concern from activists and immigrant communities fearful of the large-scale arrests or aggressive tactics used in other cities targeted by the Republican president. They say there has been a noticeable uptick in immigration enforcement agents, although a military deployment to Chicago has yet to materialize.
The Associated Press went on a ride-along with ICE in a Chicago suburb — much of the recent focus — to see how that operation is unfolding.
A predawn wait, then two arrests
A voice came over the radio: “He got into the car. I’m not sure if that’s the target.”
Someone matching the description of the man that ICE was searching for walked out of the house, got into a car and drove away from the tree-lined street. Unsure whether this was their target, the officers followed. A few minutes later, with the car approaching the freeway, the voice over the radio said: “He’s got the physical description. We just can’t see the face good.”
“Do it,” said Marcos Charles, the acting head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Agents in multiple vehicles soon overtook the car and boxed it in. After talking to the man, they realized he was not the person being sought for but that he was in the United States illegally, so they took him into custody.
Eventually, a little after dawn broke on the one- and two-story brick houses, the man they were looking for came out of the house and got into a car. ICE officers closed in. The man got out of the car and was arrested. ICE said both men were in the country illegally and had criminal records.
Charles called it a “successful operation.”
“There was no safety issues on the part of our officers, nor the individuals that we arrested. And it went smoothly,” he said.
‘ICE does not belong here’
Activists and critics of ICE say that’s increasingly not the norm in immigration operations.
They point to videos showing ICE agents smashing windows to apprehend suspects, a chaotic showdown outside a popular Italian restaurant in San Diego, and arrests like that of a Tufts University student in March by masked agents outside her apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, as neighbors watched.
Charles said ICE is using an “appropriate” amount of force and that agents are responding to suspects who increasingly are not following commands.
There has been “an uptick in people that are not compliant,” he said, blaming inflammatory rhetoric from activists who, he said, are encouraging people to resist.
Alderman Andre Vasquez, who chairs the Chicago City Council’s committee on immigrant and refugee rights, strenuously objected to that description, faulting ICE for any escalation.
“We’re not here to cause chaos. The president is,” Vasquez. He accused immigration enforcement agents of trying to provoke activists into overreacting in order to justify calling in a greater use of force such as National Guard troops. “ICE does not belong here.”
Shooting death of immigrant by ICE officer heightens tensions
Chicago was already on edge when a shooting Sept. 12 heightened tensions even more.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said an ICE officer fatally shot Silverio Villegas González, a Mexican immigrant who tried to evade arrest in a Chicago suburb by driving his car at officers and dragging one of them. The department said the officer felt his life was threatened and had opened fire, killing the man.
Charles said he could not comment because there is an open investigation. But he said he met with the officer in the hospital, saw his injuries and felt that the force used was appropriate.
The officer was not wearing a body camera, Charles said.
Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Ill., has demanded “a full, factual accounting” of the shooting. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the death and said Mexico is demanding a thorough investigation.
“These tactics have led to the loss of life of one of our community members,” said Democratic state Rep. Norma Hernandez.
In another use of force incident under “Midway Blitz” that has drawn criticism, a U.S. citizen was detained by immigration agents alongside his father and hit by a stun gun three times Tuesday in suburban Des Plaines, the man’s lawyer said.
Local advocates have also condemned ICE agents for wearing masks, failing to identify themselves, and not using body cameras — actions that starkly contrast with Chicago Police Department policy.
‘It was time to hit Chicago’
Charles said there is no timeline for the ICE-led operation in the Chicago area to end. As of Thursday, immigration enforcement officials have arrested nearly 550 people. Charles said 50% to 60% of those are targeted arrests, meaning they are people whom immigration enforcers are specifically trying to find.
He pushed back on criticism that ICE randomly targets people, saying agents weren’t “going out to Home Depot parking lots” to make indiscriminate arrests.
Charles said ICE has brought in more than 200 officers from around the country for the operation.
He said that for too long, cities such as Chicago that limited cooperation with ICE had allowed immigrants, especially those with criminal records, to remain in the country illegally. It was time to act, he said.
“What I am trying to show is that, despite the changes of the times, the essential value of ‘going to the cinema’ never changes,” says the Korean director.
To pull off an uncomfortable dark comedy like Bad Apples, director Jonatan Etzler had one actress in mind — and luckily for him, Saoirse Ronan was game.
“We sent it to her and within a week, she responded,” the Swedish director tells The Hollywood Reporter about recruiting the Irish Oscar nominee for his English-language debut. “She was so keen on doing it because it’s not her usual character to play. She’s been playing a lot of good-hearted people. I think she was very keen on playing an unsympathetic character.”
Ronan’s unsympathetic Maria is a struggling teacher in Etzler’s first English-language feature, set to open San Sebastian Film Festival’s New Director’s strand on Friday, Sept. 19. Adapted by Jess O’Kane and based on Rasmus Andersson’s debut novel De Oönskade, Bad Apples relocates the story from Sweden to south England in this examination of how we treat society’s most vulnerable.
Burnt out and fed up with her untameable class of 10-year-olds, Maria tussles with an increasingly naughty student, Danny (played wonderfully by young newcomer Eddie Waller), and makes a rash decision to keep him captive in her basement. Nia Brown stars as Pauline, a deceptively sweet classmate of Danny’s, and Game of Thrones breakout Jacob Anderson as fellow teacher Sam.
“What it does is it poses a lot of questions and asks us to think about how we are complicit in the suffering of others,” says Swedish director Etzler, known for One More Time (2023), Swimmer (2020) and Get Ready With Me (2018). “I think it asks us about all these moral compromises that we do every day in order to to live.”
At the same time, Etzler makes sure to note, it’s also a lighthearted look at a mess of a school teacher. “It would be such a depressing film if it weren’t funny and if it didn’t have so much lightness and entertainment in how it tackles these issues,” says the filmmaker. He’s just premiered Bad Apples to a North American audience in Toronto and now comes to San Sebastian hoping to see a similarly positive response from the Europeans.
Ahead of San Sebastian, Etzler unpacks the making of Bad Apples: On recruiting Ronan, why Sweden and Britain share a sense of dark humor, and the appeal of making movies in English: “There’s such a bigger variety, and there’s lots more possibilities in what you can do.”
Let’s start with why you wanted to adapt Rasmus’ book as your English-language debut.
I was really struck when I read Rasmus’ book, particularly with the moral dilemma that’s at the center of the story: How do we deal with people who can’t fit into society? I had been a teacher, and I knew how tough it was and how vulnerable you are in front of a group of children. They can be quite good at finding your soft spots. So I felt personally connected to it, but I also felt like it was such a good premise for a film. I thought the U.K. was a good place to set it, because I think the U.K. school system is quite similar to Sweden — it has the same dysfunctions.
(L-R) Oskar Pimlott, Jonatan Etzler, and Jacob Anderson attend the TIFF premiere ‘Bad Apples’ on Sept. 7, 2025.
Dominik Magdziak/Getty Images
My agent found a producer who wanted to do the film, and he knew (screenwriter) Jess (O’Kane). I thought she was great. She did a great job adapting it to the U.K. setting. She’s had experience working as a teacher as well. The U.K. has a great tradition of dark comedies. I think there are lots of similarities in the mentality as well, between the Swedes and the Brits.
What kind of similarities?
We have a lot of the same humor. We appreciate dark humor a lot more; we appreciate when a film can make you a bit uncomfortable.
Did you always picture Saoirse for the role of Maria?
Saoirse was my top choice. We sent it to her and within a week, she responded, which was great. She really wanted to meet, and she was so keen on doing it because it’s not her usual character to play — she’s been playing a lot of good-hearted people. I think she was very keen on playing an unsympathetic character.
I talked to her about it, and I said, “Yeah, but your character in Lady Birdwas a bit unsympathetic at times.” And she said, “Yeah, in Lady Bird, she jumped out of the car. She didn’t lock up a child in her basement.” I think she was happy to do this part.
And, of course, I had watched all the great films that she’s done, so I’ve been a big fan of hers. She’s one of the greatest actors of her generation. [She’s] really funny. She has this great comedic quality and she has a sense of finding the weird behavioral mannerisms that [she] could make fun of. She made Maria feel both normal and also a bit weird.
Are we meant to have a completely unsympathetic opinion of Maria? There were times I felt some sympathy creeping in…
No, I don’t think it’s black and white at all. I think what she does is obviously unsympathetic when she locks up Danny in the basement, but I think that’s also one of the reasons I wanted Saoirse because I think the audience would sympathize with her and follow her on the journey a lot longer than with anybody else, because she is very sympathetic as a person.
And I must say I was so impressed with the acting on display from the kids — it must be tough to film with children.
It was reaally positive experience. It was really hard finding the children. There are lots of great child actors in the U.K., but it’s was to hard to someone, for Danny, who has this anger right underneath his skin. Without that quality, the film wouldn’t work. But I think they were so great and they immediately turned very professional as well. They learned all the tricks of the trade. I found it very fun. Working with child actors, it’s usually about trying to make it feel like a game and to let them be free and improvise.
I think it’s a great commentary on how we neglect our children. It’s interesting to see Danny and Pauline as both sides of the same coin, where they both feel unloved by the respective adults in their lives.
I agree with you that Danny and Pauline are really quite similar as characters, but I also think Maria is unloved by the ones she wants to be loved by. They’re a trio of people who can’t fit in, which I think [is what] the film is about, really: How do we deal with people who can’t fit into society?
It poses a lot of questions and it asks us to think about how we are complicit in the suffering of others. I think it asks us about all these moral compromises that we make every day in order to live. To me, that’s quite relevant to today. That’s how fascism takes hold, because we learn to live with these everyday compromises.
It’s interesting how everything always comes back to politics — there is also something to be said for the underfunding of British schools and the lack of help for vulnerable children. Did you shoot on location in the U.K.?
Yeah. The shoot was 32 days. We shot it in Bristol and the surrounding areas, and we also went there to do research. Me and Saoirse visited the school before the shoot. And we had teacher consultants and things like that. We had one studio build, which is the basement. It’s made by Jacqueline Abrahams who’s an amazing production designer. She has such a funny, quirky sense of detail. If you watch the film again, you can find small signs and stuff everywhere in the film. That was great fun, and also I really enjoyed shooting in the U.K. People are so professional.
This film premiered in Toronto, but it’s also heading to San Sebastian to open the New Directors’ strand. Have you been before?
I’ve never been to the San Sebastian Film Festival, so I’m really looking forward to it. I heard it’s really, really nice and [that] it’s a great city with great people and great food as well. I’m also very happy we got invited there. What I’m curious about is seeing how the European audience responds to it, now that I’ve seen a sample of the North American response.
What are you working on next?
I have a few projects in development. There’s one, I can’t tell you a lot, but it’s a surveillance thriller set in the modern digital age.
Another English-language film? Are you planning to keep making English-language films for the foreseeable future?
Yeah, I think I’m going to make more English-language films. I’m also going to make films in Sweden. Sweden is great and we’ve done lots of great films, but it’s also a very small country, so it’s quite hard to do something that’s a bit out of the box, a bit daring. And I’ve loved making films in the English language. There’s such a bigger variety, and there’s lots more possibilities in what you can do.
San Sebastian Film Festival 2025 runs Sept. 19-27.
The Viennale, or Vienna International Film Festival in Austria, has just unveiled its 2025 trailer. And, as has become tradition, it is directed by a well-known filmmaker. The trailer for the latest edition of the fest, running Oct. 16-28, comes courtesy of British director Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir, The Eternal Daughter).
Entitled Awakening, the short from Hogg, who attended the Viennale in 2022 to present The Eternal Daughter, is designed to get your heart pumping, providing a wake-up call like only cinema can. Sounds timely in an age where many of us may be tempted to stay in bed and bury our faces in the pillow? You bet!
“When are we going to wake up and open our eyes to what’s happening in the world?” Hogg says about her teaser.
“We are impressed by this small film by a great author, which shows how cinema has an inexhaustible power of renewal,” highlights Viennale director Eva Sangiorgi. “Joanna Hogg tries something new, putting herself on the line with a profoundly personal and political gesture.”
But see for yourself! Check out Hogg’s Viennale trailer here before diving into select teasers from big-name directors from the fest’s past.
With Awakening, Hogg joins a lineup of big-name filmmakers who have directed Viennale trailers over the years. They include the likes of David Lynch, Jean-Luc Godard, Radu Jude, Leos Carax, Abel Ferrara, and Claire Denis, and Shirin Neshat, whose teaser starred none other than Natalie Portman.
Big eyes. A voice asking a question about rocks?. A rubber duck. A scream. A hammer. And that’s not all!
Lynch, Hollywood’s legendary master of cinematic dreams and illusions, made a typically bizarre short Viennale trailer for the 2011 edition, which is considered one of the can’t-miss teasers of its long history. View Lynch’s trailer here.
Jean-Luc Godard, Une Catastrophe (2008)
French and Swiss filmmaker Godard made a reputation for himself by experimenting with narratives, as well as audio and visuals.
The fact that his Viennale trailer includes tanks and fighter jets as well as love, among other things, may not surprise you, but the emotion it leaves behind may.
Leos Carax, My Last Minute (2006)
Smoking kills! But what if you stop smoking?
French auteur Carax’s trailer for the 2006 edition of the Viennale was likely one of the more shocking ones for audiences. Watch with care!
Short, but not sweet? That could be one way to describe one of the trailers made for the 60th edition of the Viennale in 2022, entitled Le Soldat, or The Soldier.
It came courtesy of the French writer and director. “Denis juxtaposes a scene from Godard’s Algerian war film Le Petit Soldat with a miniature from her hypnotic work Beau Travail, wherein she directly quoted Godard’s scene in 1999,” the Viennale explained about the trailer. “Michel Subor starred in both films.” See the result here.
Sergei Loznitsa, Independence Day (2022)
Ukrainian director Loznitsa created another one of the 2022 Viennale trailers, under the title Independence Day.
His is longer than Denis’ but seemingly touches on a related issue.
We’re still in 2022, but this time in the cinematic world of Japanese director Hamaguchi, who in that year won the best international feature film Oscar for Drive My Car.
His Viennale trailer is poetic and meditative. The visuals may captivate you, but don’t miss out on the sound – and the voice.
Alice Rohrwacher, Ad Una Mela (2020)
It was Italian filmmaker Rohrwacher’s time to put together a trailer for the Viennale in 2020, and she brought a different feel to it.
Get ready for an apple and some shadow theater!
Lucrecia Martel, AI (2019)
Artificial intelligence is a constant source of debate in Hollywood these days. The filmmaker from Argentina was well ahead of her time when she dubbed her 2019 Viennale trailer AI.
The result is very different and “stars” a pixelated face and the question: What is it you’re trying to do with your life?
Lav Diaz, The Boy Who Chose the Earth (2018)
Filipino slow cinema master Diaz went short, especially for his standards, in 2018 when he unveiled his Viennale trailer.
Held in black and white, it features a boy, a letter from his father, and the forces of nature. But watch for yourself!
Abel Ferrara, Hans, (2017)
Hans Hurch was the director of the Viennale for many years. In 2017, he traveled to Rome to meet Ferrara and discuss a possible festival trailer with him. After Hurch’s sudden death, the U.S. director decided to make the trailer a tribute to Hurch.
It features not only Hurch’s face, but also twilight, children screaming in the distance, as well as a picture of the young Bob Dylan and an image of filmmaker John Ford with his eye patch.
Shirin Neshat, Illusions & Mirrors (2013)
You might get Maya Deren vibes now. After all, Iranian-born, U.S.-based artist and filmmaker Neshat paid tribute to black-and-white silent films by surrealist directors with her 2013 Viennale trailer that stars none other than Natalie Portman.
It features a deserted beach and a woman following a mysterious figure into an empty house. But what is real and what is illusion? Watch the trailer below to see what you believe.
Chris Marker, Kino (2012 – 50th anniversary of the Viennale)
Before his death that year, the legendary French filmmaker Marker created a Viennale trailer that addressed the search for the “perfect spectator,” citing the likes of Orson Welles and Jean-Luc Godard.
But in a surprise twist… well, you have to watch and see for yourself to find out why the trailer ends with the words: “That’s all, Bin!”
Or doesn’t it? “You need an open mind to discover things,” the director said about his Viennale trailer. So, feel free to use your imagination!
Agnès Varda, Viennale Walzer (2004)
Last but not least, Belgian-born French filmmaker Varda referenced the most Viennese of all dances, the waltz, or “Walzer,” in the title of her Viennale trailer.
It brings the sounds, the colors, and the spins – but also much, much more. Salt, for example. If you’re confused, you’d best watch what Varda brought to the Viennale trailer dance.
Baby boomers aren’t just flocking down to sunshine states like Florida to kickstart their retirement careers anymore—they’re booking a one-way ticket overseas for a better quality of life.
While the United States lacks a formal retirement visa, many other countries offer dedicated programs for retirees to have more affordable living and a new laid-back lifestyle, which is why it’s no surprise the U.S. didn’t make the cut in the Global Citizen Solutions’ 2025 retirement report.
For expats ready for cobblestone views and sipping coffee on a sunny terrace, the new report ranks 44 passive income and retirement visa programs. It also evaluated 20 key indicators grouped into six main categories: visa procedures, citizenship and mobility, economic factors, tax benefits, quality of life, and safety and social integration. Each country received a score out of 100.
Many of the top-ranked countries were in Europe and South America. Portugal ranked as the best, followed by Mauritius and Spain.
“The countries dominating our rankings understand that successful retirement migration isn’t just about letting people in, it’s about helping them thrive,” Patricia Casaburi, CEO of Global Citizen Solutions, tells Fortune.
Portugal, Mauritius, and Spain top the list, she said, because they truly support new residents with tools to build a life. “They offer language programs, streamlined healthcare registration, and clear pathways from temporary residence to citizenship,” Casaburi explained. “Countries that treat retirees as temporary visitors rather than future citizens consistently underperform.”
The 10 best countries to retire abroad in 2025
Portugal
Mauritius
Spain
Uruguay
Austria
Italy
Slovenia
Malta
Latvia
Chile
Portugal
Coming in at number one was Portugal, where dual citizenship is allowed. The European country offers citizens a D7 Visa, a type of residency visa designed for people who have a stable passive income—making it a popular option for retirees.
What matters most to new international citizens is feeling secure and being able to build a real life in their new country, and Portugal excels at letting boomers build a new life without losing their roots.
“[Portugal] has institutional frameworks suggesting it will remain stable for the next 20-30 years of your retirement. Before making the move, research the country’s healthcare system rankings, political stability indices, and infrastructure investments. Visit during different seasons and talk to expat communities who’ve been there for 5+ years,” Casaburi added.
A single applicant needs about €870 per month in stable passive income. The processing time takes around 12 months. After the initial residency permit is granted and you’ve lived there for at least 5 years, you can apply to be a permanent citizen. Portugal also taxes its citizens on the income they make inside and outside of the country.
Mauritius
Next at number two was the eastern African country, Mauritius. Retirees can obtain a residence permit by demonstrating a minimum monthly income of $1,500, with processing times typically around three months.
The permit allows the main applicant to include their spouse or legal partner, as well as dependent children, making it a family-friendly option. Retirees benefit from a territorial tax system, meaning foreign-sourced income is not taxed, and there are no wealth or inheritance taxes. After six years of residency, retirees become eligible to apply for citizenship, and dual citizenship is permitted.
Spain
Number three was Spain. The Spanish non-lucrative visa (NLV) is designed for non-EU citizens who wish to live in Spain without engaging in any work. To qualify, applicants should have a stable income of at least €2,400 per month.
Processing for a visa typically takes around three months. Once approved, residents are subject to Spain’s worldwide tax system and potential inheritance tax. The NLV provides a pathway to Spanish citizenship after 10 years of legal residence, or just 2 years for citizens of select Latin American and other historically connected countries. Dual citizenship is allowed, depending on the laws of the applicant’s country of origin.
Uruguay
Coming in at number four was the South American country Uruguay, where residents need an income requirement of $2,000 of stable passive income a month. Processing time takes about one month. The main applicant can include spouse or legal partner, minor children and dependent adult children, there are no imposed taxes on foreign-sourced income, and no wealth and inheritance tax. Dual citizenship is allowed and the path to citizenship takes about 5 years.
Austria
Ending the top five was Austria. The country offers an independent residence permit as a pathway for people who can prove they have an income to support themselves while abroad. Processing time takes about 4 months and the main applicant could include a spouse, legal partner and minor children. For tax benefits, they have a worldwide tax system—meaning the country taxes its citizens on all their income, regardless of where it was earned—and no inheritance tax. The path to citizenship is 10 years, with dual citizenship allowed.
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