The organizers of the Canadian Screen Awards, the country’s Oscars and Emmys, are to end nomination eligibility for foreign talent, including American actors, starting with the 2026 edition.
“In order to best celebrate and honor Canadians working on Canadian productions, individuals must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada to be eligible for a Canadian Screen Award,” the Academy said as tightened eligibility and voting rule changes unveiled Wednesday come amid rising U.S.-Canada diplomatic and trade tensions.
Making CSAs eligibility exclusively available to homegrown talent or those with residency follows a rise in Canadian nationalism countrywide after U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff and annexation threats. Honoring the best in Canadian film and TV in past years occasionally had CSA trophies going to Americans and other foreign talent as productions with Hollywood actors, or U.S. streamers investing in Canadian projects, aim to drive increased international sales.
During the 2025 CSAs, Cate Blanchett won for best lead performance in a comedy for her role in Guy Maddin’s Rumours, and The Apprentice, a Canada-Ireland-Denmark co-production and a Donald Trump origin drama, earned the best film prize. Also, the best performance in a lead role trophy went to Sebastian Stan for his portrayal of Trump while the best supporting actor win was awarded to Jeremy Strong for his performance as Roy Cohn.
As Canadian talent and content increasingly figures on the world stage, other Canadian Academy rule changes include introducing four new “Spotlight” categories to honor Canadian directors, writers, performers and producers who work on international TV series made and broadcast in Canada.
And while Trump’s threat ahead of Cannes to impose a 100 percent tariff on films made outside of the U.S., including Canada, has faded with no concrete policy action, the turbulence of the U.S. president’s global trade war is still felt by a Canadian entertainment industry dependent for jobs and investment on Hollywood production hubs in Toronto and Vancouver.
The CSAs will also launch a Creator of the Year prize to honor a Canadian digital creator whose original work has found significant online reach on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch and other digital and social media platforms. ACTRA, the country’s actors union, welcomed the rule changes to make eligibility exclusively available to Canadian citizens or permanent residents north of the border.
“At a time when Canada’s cultural sovereignty is under pressure, the Canadian Screen Awards are uniquely positioned to celebrate Canadian excellence, with Canadian performers rightfully at the center. This decision is a vital investment in Canada’s cultural future,” the actors union said in a statement.
But Allan Ungar, the Canadian director of London Calling, an action comedy starring Josh Duhamel and Jeremy Ray Taylor and premiering this weekend in theaters, argued the rule changes, while supporting the Academy’s mandate to promote local talent, threatens to limit the sale and promotional reach of homegrown movies in international markets.
“It’s a little disappointing, especially as we’re making Canadian films by Canadians, and often we have to feature American actors to get them financed and sold worldwide,” Ungar told The Hollywood Reporter.
Josh Duhamel‘s son had a lot of questions upon learning that he was going to be a big brother. In an interview with Parade, the 50-year-old actor, who’s expecting a child with his wife, Audra Mari, reveals how his 10-year-old son, Axl, reacted to the baby on the way.
“He’s like, ‘Wait, now, am I going to be — You’re still going to love me, though, too, right?’ I was like, ‘Of course I’m going to still going to love you,’” Duhamel recalls. “And he’s like, ‘I’m still going to be your firstborn son, though, right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, you’re still the firstborn son!’”
Duhamel goes on to praise his son, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Fergie, as a “really sweet kid.”
“He loves babies!” Duhamel says. “I was the same way at his age. I just have always loved babies. There’s something about them. And he’s really good with younger kids. So I think he’s going to be a great older brother.”
Duhamel and Mari announced her pregnancy earlier this month. Shortly thereafter, Duhamel told ET Canada that Axl is “really excited” about being a big brother. He even told ET that the 10-year-old already has a name picked out for his new sibling.
“Gary,” Duhamel revealed with a laugh. “Him and Audra have this thing where they like to say the word ‘Gary.’ It’s weird.”
While Axl likely won’t get his way on that front, Duhamel said he’s come up with a compromise. “We’ll get a dog, we’ll name the dog Gary,” he said.
At the end of the day, the “Buddy Games” host said, “We’re very lucky and all we can hope for is a healthy baby.”
Friendships are challenged and rivalries are sparked when six groups of friends compete for the top prize on the new competition reality show, “Buddy Games.” Host, creator and executive producer Josh Duhamel shares what it takes to become the “Buddy Games” champion ahead of the Sept. 14 premiere on CBS.
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Fergie recently reacted to the news that her ex-husband, actor Josh Duhamel, is expecting a baby with his current wife, model Audra Duhamel.
On Monday, Josh and Audra Duhamel posted a photo in a joint Instagram post of the model holding ultrasound photos with a caption that read: “Baby Duhamel coming soon.”
Fergie, who shares 10-year-old son Axl with Josh Duhamel, responded to the news with a sweet note in the comments section of the Instagram post.
“I am truly happy for you guys,” she wrote. “Axl can’t wait to be a big brother.”
Fergie and Josh Duhamel first announced their separation in 2017 after eight years of marriage.
“We are and will always be united in our support of each other and our family,” the former couple said in a statement at the time. Their divorce was finalized in 2019, per E! News.
Josh and Audra Duhamel got married in September 2022. The model celebrated their first wedding anniversary on Instagram Tuesday, writing, “Happy First Anniversary sweet man. Oh how I prayed for you..”
Josh Duhamel and Fergie photographed together on Nov. 7, 2015, in Beverly Hills, California.
Jason LaVeris via Getty Images
The “London Bridge” singer and “Shotgun Wedding” actor have talked about their co-parenting relationship on several occasions over the years.
During a 2017 appearance on daytime show “The Talk,” Fergie said that she and her ex were “making it happen” with co-parenting.
In 2018, Josh Duhamel told E! News that Fergie is a “great mother.”
“He’s happy, that’s the main thing,” he said, referring to Axl.
Fergie has shown support for Josh and Audra Duhamel’s relationship before.
In January 2022, the former Black Eyed Peas singer celebrated their engagement after the actor made the announcement on Instagram.
“Congrats!!!” Fergie wrote with heart-emojis in the comments section of the post.
Duhamel shares a 10-year-old son, Axl, with ex-wife Fergie.
Congratulations are in order for Josh Duhamel and his wife, Audra Mari, who are expecting their first child together.
The couple announced the happy news in a joint post to social media on Monday — one day after their first wedding anniversary — sharing a photo of their ultrasound alongside a white lily. “Baby Duhamel coming soon,” the post reads.
Duhamel and Mari — a former Miss World America — tied the knot in North Dakota on Sept. 10, 2022, after about four years of dating.
The “Shotgun Wedding” star — who is next set to host the CBS reality competition show “Buddy Games” — also shares a 10-year-old son, Axl, with his ex-wife, Fergie.
ET spoke with Duhamel and Mari at their first red carpet as a married couple, when they celebrated the premiere of his film, “Bandit”, back in September 2022.
“I’m lucky. I’m very, very lucky,” the actor gushed. While he wouldn’t go into too many details about their big day, Duhamel did say that his favourite moment from the intimate affair was seeing her in her gorgeous wedding gown.
In the spirit of “action-adventure rom-coms” that have lately come back into favor, Shotgun Wedding continues the tradition of this niche with the “twist” of a destination wedding serving as the catalyst for the so-called adventure. As it turns out, the groom, Tom (Josh Duhamel), is the one truly responsible for bringing everyone to the Philippines (Mahal Island Resort, to be specific) to celebrate this glorious day, including his bride, Darcy (Jennifer Lopez, who, let’s be honest, really doesn’t look like a Darcy). Slightly less enthusiastic about this large gathering and the associated fanfare, she does her best to navigate through the rehearsal dinner’s murky waters, filled with her divorced parents’ contentious relationship and the well-meaning overbearingness of Tom’s mother, Carol (Jennifer Coolidge, mildly less annoying than usual in this role).
For the first several minutes of this rehearsal dinner, Darcy is forced to face the jackals (mainly her own mother, Renata [Sônia Braga]) alone, for Tom is off trying to add to the overall “perfectness” of the wedding by decorating a small boat he’s secreted away by the dock for himself and Darcy after the ceremony. It is within these first three minutes that the viewer is drilled with the notion that pirates are potentially lurking at every corner, and that all security personnel must “beware.” This is how Tom ends up being attacked by the security guard on duty that night as he explains about the boat (after falling into the water), “I wanna be romantic, but not too corny.” The guard replies, “There’s a really fine line between the two.” Shotgun Wedding does its best to toe it, and, for the most part, actually succeeds. Even with the lingering taint of knowing that Armie Hammer was slated to play the part of Tom—after Ryan Reynolds, who still co-produced the project, dropped out. And, talking of men who have co-starred with Sandra Bullock, it is the latter actress who has truly been the impetus for bringing back the action-adventure rom-com via The Lost City in early 2022—and yes, that movie slaps far harder than Shotgun Wedding could ever hope to, but “for a J. Lo movie” (to use a backhanded compliment), it’s leaps and bounds above fare like Second Act and Marry Me. Which, sure, might not be saying much—but it does mean something when referring to the usual stink bombs of Lopez’s ever-burgeoning filmography.
Even Coolidge, meant to be some sort of “foolproof” assurance of spun comedy gold now that she’s had her “comeback,” does little to contribute to the expected “laughs” written into Mark Hammer’s (whose previous writing credit is Two Night Stand and who has no known relation to Armie) script. But the clearly intended “laugh-out-loud” moments are more cringe than comedy—namely, when the wedding guests all join in an a capella rendition of Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be” (the song that just won’t die) or, you know, a certain wedding guest is obliterated, guts and all, into the rotor blade of a helicopter. Ha ha…ha.
Thus, in truth, this action-adventure rom-com has more of the former category than the latter, even if J. Lo stripping down to her skivvies and engaging in some foreplay involving reaching for a high shelf is meant to add to some of the “romance” genre. Followed by Coolidge as Carol interrupting the scene with her “comedic timing” as she asks Darcy if her body is the result of genetics or pilates. Anyone could tell her it’s: being a celebrity who uses their time and money correctly. Apparently, being a lawyer can help with fitness, too. This being among the few “background details” we get about Darcy, in addition to Tom being a former baseball player for the junior leagues before being dropped by the team.
Indeed, for so few known details about the characters’ lives beyond this wedding, it’s a wonder the viewer can get that invested at all. The lack of connection to the characters is spurred by a general blasé tone toward carnage. And sure, within the universe of this story, that might technically pass, but because of the overall “canned” nature of the characters, it adds to a certain cartoonishness, e.g. when murder (as Tom calls it) is written off quickly as “self-defense.” Which isn’t a false assessment, and yet, for such “fragile” and “moral” people, it seems only too easy for both Tom and Darcy to move on from the horror of killing not just four pirates, but also Darcy’s ex, Sean (Lenny Kravitz, an inexplicable casting choice that one supposes was meant to be “comedic”—along with Cheech Martin as Lopez’s movie daddy).
While Kravitz’s appearance might “dazzle” some, the real breakout star of the movie, to be sure, is J. Lo’s ever-evolving wedding dress, which is constantly being altered to suit the dynamic needs of a day spent both on the run from and battling pirates. Like Loretta Sage’s (Bullock) fuchsia sequined getup (a “onesie,” as Loretta calls it) in The Lost City, the dress becomes one of the most (read: the only) iconic things about the movie. Not, to Lopez’s dismay, her attempt at “tapping into my inner Lucille Ball-type comedy,” as she phrased it on The Today Show. But even “Lucille Ball comedy,” for as zany and wacky as it was, still had some more grounding in reality than Shotgun Wedding cares to. Complete with an ending that opts to ignore any sense of PTSD the guests might (and should) be suffering from, including the bride herself, betrayed so egregiously by someone she once let inside of her on the regular.
But “realism” and “making sense” have never been the marks of a J. Lo rom-com—so adding the genre of action-adventure into the mix makes such theoretical hallmarks of storytelling even less feasible. This being emphasized by The Bangles’ “Walk Like An Egyptian” chosen as the karaoke song everyone sings along to as the credits roll. For fuck’s sake, at least choose something more relevant, like Sex Pistols’ “Friggin’ in the Riggin,” Gorillaz’s “Glitter Freeze” or Caroline Polachek’s “Welcome to My Island.” Hell, even Nina Simone’s “Pirate Jenny.” Alas, these songs are too “appropriate” for a movie that becomes increasingly over the top in an eye rolling (as opposed to comedic) way as it wears on. For, if one is going to be over the top, the payoff should be the laugh-a-minute result of The Lost City.
Following a theatrical run late last year, Jennifer Lopez’s latest movie is heading to Prime Video later this month.
In the new rom-com “Shotgun Wedding”, JLo stars opposite Josh Duhamel in a tale of matrimony gone amuck in a tropical paradise that turns out to be anything but.
Prime Video
“In Shotgun Wedding, Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) gather their lovable-but-very-opinionated families for the ultimate destination wedding, just as the couple begin to get cold feet,” reads the official synopsis.
“And if that wasn’t enough of a threat to the celebration, suddenly everyone’s lives are in danger when the entire party is taken hostage,” the synopsis continues. “’Til Death Do Us Part’ takes on a whole new meaning in this hilarious, adrenaline-fuelled adventure as Darcy and Tom must save their loved ones — if they don’t kill each other first.”
In addition to Lopez and Duhamel, the cast also includes Lenny Kravitz, Jennifer Coolidge, Sonia Braga, Cheech Marin, Steve Coulter, D’Arcy Carden, Callie Hernandez and Desmond Borges.
Bizarrely, after a biophage mutant, limbs falling off it as easily as scooping into a pudding, puts its hands into my mouth and rips my jaw from my face for the fifth time, it comes to me: Oh, this is a transportation game.
The Callisto Protocol takes place on a moon run by tentacled enemies with loose limbs, but Dead Space game designer Glen Schofield’s so-called spiritual successor would rather lead you by the hand through its squishy, wet, visually impressive labyrinth than let you revel in killing those enemies. Killing is never really the point, getting to the next location so that you can escape is. It’s more Death Stranding than Dead Space.
As cargo ship pilot Jacob—who I thought really looked like soap opera star Josh Duhamel before realizing it was soap opera star Josh Duhamel replicated in sweaty, heroic detail—you need all the help you can get in order to escape the Black Iron Prison on Jupiter’s moon, Callisto. You don’t know why you were thrown into one of its inhospitable cells to begin with, why something called a CORE device has been jammed into your neck, syncing to your thoughts and health, why there are monsters everywhere, or if you should trust inmates Elias (Zeke Alton) or Dani (Karen Fukuhara), the latter of whom crashed your ship and got you into this shit.
Screenshot: Striking Distance Studios / Kotaku
But when they tell you to meet them at the tram, or take an intimidatingly tall ladder underground, or activate this or that control panel, you listen, and you start running. What else are you going to do? You’re trapped, there’s blood everywhere, do you have a better idea?
No, not really. You do what Elias and Dani tell you, their voices crackling through your DualSense controller (or your CORE device) while the prison creaks and falls apart. The sound design is impressively meticulous—Black Iron is filled with an ambient whine, pieces of metal crashing and clanging, while your zombified enemies, or biophages, take on the low notes, the scuttling, screaming, and gurgling all around you.
I don’t think Callisto is a particularly scary horror game—watching Jacob’s neck get twisted around and cracked like a knuckle is entertaining the first time, then an inconvenience once I realize this death scene repeats and is unskippable—but its multilayered audio keeps me at a giddy low-level anxiety. Like waiting for a text, or looking at the sun and realizing you can’t see, for a moment, after you look away.
More hit or miss but still often admirable is the getting there, which the game is most interested in—fighting a biophage is a temporary distraction. Your plan to escape Black Iron sends you flying down sewer drains, trudging through a snowstorm, and through dim hallways glossed in organic matter, fleshy pods, sinuous tendrils, and slime. It sends you everywhere, in front of gorgeous lunar vistas and lit-up desktop screens and hurtling through space. Pristine white walls. Sticky floors. Air vents smeared with blood and loaves of glistening pink flesh. It makes you want to see more. And on the PS5, Callisto is able to deliver every high-shine, nitty-gritty detail with zero issues. Or, close to zero—sometimes my gun would mysteriously vanish before reappearing.
The CallistoProtocol also plays with the pace of this journey, often forcing Jacob to crawl quietly through tight cave walls or around blind biophages or thud his large, spacesuited body into a heavy sprint. Confronting so many different textures at so many different speeds feels great with haptic feedback—even grabbing an ammunition box or in-game currency, Callisto Credits, triggers a satisfying, unique thwack. Callisto is like tangible cinema in this way, slow and steady, which might require readjusting some expectations if you were hoping for on-your-toes horror.
But as varied and masterful as the getting there often looks and physically feels, I eventually tire of hearing my companions tell me I’m getting close only to fall through a collapsed walkway, or finally reach Callisto’s cold surface just to be immediately instructed back inside by the Herculean zombies. At these points, the game feels aimless, and I have no sense of the progress I’ve made. My frustration only heightens when I’m stuck in a room full of unrelenting zombies.
Nothing a little concealer can’t help.Screenshot: Striking Distance Studios / Kotaku
The zombies might be the least enjoyable part of Callisto’s journey, which is not ideal, considering they’re Jacob’s motivation for getting out, and presumably your motivation to be curious and find out where they came from. As I learn by dying so, so, so many times—so many times, that around halfway through the game, I turn on the easiest setting, which still inexplicably lets some enemies kill you in two lazy hits—the zombies are coming from everywhere.
I love Dark Souls, the famous benchmark for difficult games, but unlike a FromSoftware boss fight, you can’t “learn” how to progress past Callisto Protocol’s vitriolic biophage hordes because they seem to spawn randomly and out of nowhere. “Are they invisible now?!” I scream at my PS5, either before or after I screamed, “I hate this fucking game!!!”
Biophages will pop out suddenly from rattling vents or from an otherwise empty room. They will look like they’re frozen, encased in ice, and then suddenly be very alive, warm, and murderous. They come in many different shapes: standard decaying, decaying with armor on, decaying and projectile vomiting, wriggling at you with with snowball-sized, erupting pustules on their backs, coming at you looking like evil mutant axolotl and then turning invisible (?!).
You are given an arsenal to deal with them, primarily a sizzling stun baton for close combat, a hand cannon pistol and brain-blasting riot gun, and a gravity restraint projector (GRP) sleeve that bends gravity to hold enemies captive in the air until you throw them into a spiked wall, or spinning fan blade, or off a ledge.
In the game’s early stages, only the baton and its characteristic whack feel like they’re actually doing anything useful—enemies soak up your shrimpy default bullets like you’re flicking marbles into a funeral pyre, which also makes it impossible to efficiently manage hordes. But as you progress, you can find the blueprints for additional weapons like an assault rifle and skunk gun, and use Callisto Credits to buy upgrades from Reforge locations throughout the game which, much to my amusement, doesn’t let you buy more than one thing at a time. Before every boss fight, I’d spend five minutes individually buying ten ammo boxes.
Callisto wastes your time in small, unnecessary ways like that. Audio logs you collect from corpses throughout the game should help you unravel the story’s secrets, but they don’t play automatically—you have to enter your menu manually, select them, and stay in the menu. If you exit, they’ll stop playing.
But the most irritating waste of time that made me consider, at my lowest moments, throwing my PS5 controller into the sludgy depths of the Gowanus Canal, is Callisto’s sometimes faulty dodge mechanic.
When you confront any enemy, you are expected to dodge their attacks by holding your left stick in the opposite direction of their swing, or down if you’re blocking it. The game tells you that there is no timing window, just get it done, but I dodge so many times and get yet another long, unskippable death animation—Jacob’s skull getting stamped on and turned into an ocean spray of blood, Jacob’s eyes getting gouged by fat zombie thumbs, Jacob’s nose turning concave from all the fat zombie hits to the face—to know that can’t be true.
Callisto’s two-headed bosses are the worst at fumbling your dodge mechanic. So much as thinking about hitting them with your stun baton instead of staying far away and shooting them will lead to an immediate skewer through the chest. Make sure you spend five minutes collecting bullets or health top-ups from the Reforge, too. Found resources are limited, and manually saving the game starts you from your last checkpoint, so if you start a fight with low health and an unloaded gun, consider your fate sealed.
But for all these momentary irritations, I finish the game on a high. “There’s always a price to pay,” a villain repeats throughout The Callisto Protocol, reminding Jacob that making fallible, flabby humans great necessitates sacrifice. And in pursuit of video game greatness, I loved what I saw, so much so that I was willing to pay the price in faulty dodge mechanics. But as far as actual price goes, I don’t think anyone should buy a $60 game, full stop, but especially not one that currently seems to be running abysmally on PC and won’t get PlayStation’s New Game Plus until a free update lands on February 7, 2023. But.
I consider The Callisto Protocol one of the most ambitious games I played this year, maybe even the most next to Elden Ring (though I think Elden Ring is in a league of its own—I don’t know if anything will be able to approach its depth and sophistication for a long time). Its thoughtful attention to environment, sound, and touch is what, I think, next-gen gaming should be like: an experiment with the senses and with story. The game has its issues, too, which can’t be ignored. But at least it feels human.
