Backing comes after Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor were threatened with having their citizenship revoked and accused of treason

Film industry heavyweights across the globe have expressed solidarity with Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, the Oscar-winning Israeli directors of documentary NAZA, who have been threatened with having their citizenship revoked by Israel’s culture minister, who accused them of “treason against the state”.

NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, is named for an acronym euphemistically used by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza. It includes interviews with 24 Israeli military or intelligence soldiers and officers who outlined the AI-powered targeting systems used to bombard Gaza, resulting in the mass killing of Palestinian civilians.

The biggest May to September of all time was recorded in US cinemas, with the UK enjoying a 56% rise in audiences, outstripped by an 88% lift in the Middle East and Africa

As well as celebrating their wedding, the actors Tom Holland and Zendaya have something else to toast: their two summer blockbusters – The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day – have officially made box office history.

The films were credited as the driving force behind the US’s biggest summer season of all time, taking $4.761bn (£3.51bn) from 1 May-7 September, beating 2013’s $4.756bn.

Aardman’s hero is back in The Beast of Mossy Bottom – a terrifying tale of frankenfood, pitchfork-wielding villagers and a monster with suspiciously stiff orange hair. Our writer meets its makers and moulds her very own Shaun

The Aztec West industrial estate in Bristol was opened by Margaret Thatcher in December 1989. One hundred and sixty acres of breeze block and mirrored glass, it is home to about 7,000 employees and 100 companies, including EDF, EE, HSBC, Co-op Legal and Spandex. It has its own gym, spa, church and morgue. Step inside Unit 1410, though, and bucolic England is magically restored. A farm complete with sheep. Rolling fields in autumn colours. A small parish town boasting post office, war memorial, chippy. It looks lush. But before you hit up Rightmove, I should say: Mossingham is only two feet tall. And plasticine.

It’s January 2026 and Aardman animations are about halfway through production on Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. The 300-odd staff in this shed are full speed ahead – which means each of the 30 animators is rattling out almost two seconds of footage a day.

The Wild Horse Nine actor had been due to appear on stage in The Music Critic in Tel Aviv – but pulled out over PR firm’s ‘unacceptable and untenable’ attribution of statement

John Malkovich has cancelled a planned trip to Israel next year to appear on stage after a PR firm hired by the show attributed quotes to the actor that the company had written.

Malkovich, who is a leading Oscar contender for his role in Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, was due to appear in The Music Critic, a theatrical-musical satire composed by the Jewish violinist Aleksey Igudesman, in Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium on 13 April.

Old favourites Shaun the Sheep, Dune, Jane Austen and Godzilla join Charles de Gaulle, the Peasants’ Revolt and queer identity in Spain

• See all of our unmissable autumn arts recommendations here
• Big tech goes to Hollywood: is Silicon Valley ready for a silver-screen reckoning?

All release dates are UK and subject to change

Willem Dafoe is typically grizzled and poetic for this study of a near-retirement postal worker who, it turns out, was a beatnik rhymester of cachet – but no lasting renown – back in the day, and who has now been rediscovered by a new generation of literary hipsters. Director Kent Jones, adapting a novella by Arthur “La Ronde” Schnitzler, was the longtime head of the New York film festival; he might be in for a spot of late fame himself. AP
• 4 September

In a letter to the local mayor, the actor added that ‘whatever happens, they remain fully part of this community’ and will ‘contribute to its rebuilding’

George and Amal Clooney have been forced to evacuate their home in south-eastern France as a wildfire burned nearby, his agent confirmed to Associated Press on Thursday.

The Clooneys bought their hilltop estate, Domaine du Canadel, in Brignoles in the Var in 2021 and it has since become their primary residence. Last December, the French government awarded the whole family – including the couple’s nine-year-old twins – French citizenship.

The novelist suggested Wilson should have been ‘a wee bit more thoughtful and respectful’ towards a film-maker who may have helped boost her book sales

• Mary Beard on The Odyssey and how empires fall – Stateside with Kai and Carter

The off-screen drama surrounding Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster version of the Odyssey stepped up a gear overnight, as the novelist Joyce Carol Oates sought to defend the film-maker from an attack by classicist Emily Wilson.

Writing on X, Oates took issue with the style as well as the rhetoric of Wilson’s essay published earlier this week in the London Review of Books, in which the academic, who published a landmark translation of Homer’s epic poem in 2017, wrote that Nolan’s film lacked “psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth” and had “nothing convincing to say”.

‘Few films will leave a lasting imprint on audiences this year quite like Elsinore,’ LFF director says of movie about Chariots of Fire actor

Elsinore, one of the most hotly anticipated dramas of the year, has been announced as the opening night film at this year’s London film festival. The drama, which stars Andrew Scott as actor Ian Charleson, will have its European premiere at the Southbank Centre – yards from the National Theatre, in which many of its scenes are set.

Directed by Simon Stone and written by Stephen Beresford (who reunites with Scott 12 years after Pride), the film depicts the final months in the life of the highly acclaimed actor, who reprised the role of Hamlet while terminally ill, aged 40.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s doofus voice-of-yoof has been making fresh mischief with new film Who Iz I? But who will he catch out this time? And what does his fictional hometown make of his return?

The Wimbledon lawn tennis championships are not generally a hotbed of crime. Yet this year, unprecedented infringements ocurred. Eleven players were fined a total of £34,000 for “audible obscenities” and “racquet abuse”. Meanwhile, a spectator at the men’s singles final called a heckler a “bumbaclat” before inviting them to fight, badgered Prince William to repay a drugs debt of £1,400 allegedly owed to him by Prince Harry from his days at Eton, and attempted to sell illegal substances to those seated near him – and beyond. “If u iz at dis borin wimbledore final lookin 2 get grand slammed,” he posted on Instagram, touting for business, “I iz here wif de hookup.”

The culprit was Ali G, real name Alistair Leslie Graham, AKA the malapropism-dropping home counties wide boy played by Sacha Baron Cohen, kitted out for the occasion in trademark skullcap and gold chain, plus custom Wimbledon jacket, traditional crossed rackets replaced with cannabis leaves. Security released him without penalty, but the reprimand was captured on scores of smartphones – including one held by Cohen himself.

Christopher Nolan’s star-studded take on Homer’s Odyssey has received rave reviews from critics and is one of the most hotly anticipated films of the year. The three-hour Imax blockbuster has an estimated budget of $250m and a star-studded cast including Matt Damon, Zendaya and Tom Holland. But will it live up to expectations? Annie Kelly speaks to film editor Catherine Shoard

Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation has been met with almost universal acclaim – from mostly male film critics. Might women find the journey less comfortable?

Long ago, almost as long ago as Homer composed The Odyssey, I was a film critic on the Sunday Telegraph. People sometimes ask me how sexist the scene was then, back in the bronze age mid-noughties, when male critics outnumbered female by about eight to one. Well, there wasn’t any sexism. It was actually totally fine and everyone was really nice.

They were nice in Soho, anyway. Farther afield, less so. Particularly certain readers, when it came to certain films, made by certain directors. Quentin Tarantino, obviously. Ken Loach, weirdly. And Christopher Nolan. Question their genius and prepare for epic correction by a legion of self-appointed bouncers.

Christopher Nolan’s epic was given five stars by the Guardian, Independent and Telegraph, while the New York Times called it a ‘monumental adaptation’

Christopher Nolan’s $250m Imax blockbuster version of Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey looks set to be among the director’s best-received of his career, and could be a frontrunner for next year’s best picture Oscar.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw was among the vast majority of critics who awarded it five stars, calling it a film “with thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair. There are some broad-brush moments in the dialogue, yes, but even these are applied with a muscular flourish.”

With a standout role in The Odyssey, the Twilight idol turned leading man for arthouse auteurs has become one of the most charismatic and unpredictable actors of his generation

Today, former teen idols can no longer disown those projects, no matter how tacky, that turned them into stars. In an age in which even harrowing dramas are promoted by social media reels of actors competitively guzzling chicken wings or cuddling puppies, any mention of a cheesy breakout role must be gamely embraced, before thanks are again offered to the fans, and for the opportunity.

What A-listers angling for awards do not do, however, is actively raise such skeletons. Leonardo DiCaprio did not secure his Oscar for The Revenant through allusions to his late-80s sitcom Growing Pains. Likewise, Joaquin Phoenix rarely brings up SpaceCamp, and Jacob Elordi keeps pretty tight-lipped on The Kissing Booth 3.

Report says new film has finished filming – although title and release date not yet confirmed

Twenty-four years after Staines’s foremost political interlocutor was last seen on the big screen in Ali G Indahouse, Ali G is set to return to cinemas.

As reported by The InSneider, a new movie has wrapped production, with filming locations including Oxfordshire, where Baron Cohen was spotted in character last summer, and in the US. A title and release date have not been confirmed and representatives for the star declined to comment.

Following the film’s premiere, critics are already calling the historical epic a best picture Oscar contender. Here’s what they had to say

The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s three-hour version of Homer’s epic poem, world premiered in London on Monday night, and critics who saw the film there and at early screenings in the US have been sharing their takes on one of the year’s most hotly anticipated films.

“Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is a colossal origin-myth story of postwar disillusion and a loss of innocence witnessed by the dead,” wrote the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, ahead of the reviews embargo lifting next Wednesday and next Friday’s worldwide release.

Their movie about marital bed death is this summer’s buzziest, funniest film. Its director and her co-star talk self-loathing, psychosexuality and unexpected eruptions

Earlier this week, Edward Norton took a night flight from New York to London and felt so dreadful the next day he decided to get a massage. “I hadn’t had one in such a long time,” he says, “and I almost started crying. You’re like: ‘Oh! Ah!’”

He has heard similar sounds from cinemas screening his new movie, The Invite, which is about the devastating impact of marriage on your sex life. “People are almost tearful. They’re like: ‘I haven’t had a good, adult laugh that made me feel seen in a long time.’”

The French animator, director and voice of those lurid yellow assistants to the despicable answers your questions

Could we please have a Minions/Backrooms mashup movie? TaffRaffia
I don’t know if it would work because it would be yellow against yellow. All you’d see would be eyes and even they would be hard to see. It would just be voices coming out of yellow.

Will there be a gritty “old man Minion” type story to round the franchise off? BatteredRingpiece
Minions don’t age. I sometimes draw them like that for fun, but it just looks weird.

AI company ElevenLabs unveils its officially licensed replica of the iconic actor’s voice in a retelling of Homer’s epic poem, while director who previously recorded the star recalls real-life experience

Next month, Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster version of The Odyssey is set to storm cinemas around the globe. Auguries suggest the almost three-hour drama will repeat the success of Nolan’s previous film both at the box office (Oppenheimer took nearly a billion dollars) and the Academy Awards (it won seven Oscars).

But before that, a new audiobook version of Homer’s tale has been released starring one of Nolan’s most frequent collaborators: Michael Caine, with whom he has worked on eight films, including the Dark Knight trilogy.

The web giant announced that Artificial, a biopic about the controversial tech executive, ‘will be better served if it were released by a different studio’

Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s controversial Sam Altman biopic, which is poised for an awards run next year, has been dropped by its distributor, Amazon.

In a statement first reported by Puck, Amazon said that it believes “that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the film-making team to find the film a new home”.

The actor told Esquire magazine the couple have ‘a relationship that will stand the test of time’ and his family ‘were all there’ for the wedding

Tom Holland, the British actor best known for playing Spider-Man, has offered confirmation that he and co-star Zendaya have already got married.

The wedding of the couple, who have been together for some years and got engaged in December 2024, has been the subject of intense speculation, further fuelled by a red carpet remark by Zendaya’s stylist, Law Roach, in March 2026, that the ceremony had already taken place.