Cinema AI and Creativity: When the puppet becomes the puppeteer Rather than hulking great terminators with dodgy accents stomping through shopping malls and walls, perhaps our species is doomed to die not in a blaze of bullets but at the stroke of a digital brush - or pen.
Featured Lady Gaga: When does art bend to expectation? Lady Gaga once showed up at an awards ceremony in an outfit made entirely of raw meat. People either howled with laughter or recoiled in horror, but nobody forgot it. That moment is lodged in the public memory as an example of her capacity to surprise. She has always known
Beyond the gold: What the 2025 Oscars say about Hollywood’s future. The 2025 Academy Awards, like so many before them, were an extravagant showcase of film industry excellence, a pageant of talent, recognition, and carefully rehearsed gratitude. Yet, beneath the spectacle, the Oscars remain a cultural barometer, measuring not just who is being celebrated but how the film industry defines success
Featured Gene Hackman: Hollywood’s most unforgettable everyman Gene Hackman, the quintessential actor’s actor, has passed away at the age of 95. He and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found deceased in their Santa Fe home, alongside their beloved dog. The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office has initiated an investigation, though no immediate signs of foul
The resonance of reality: How soundscaping helps us feel what we see In the arts, sound is often treated as a background player—an accessory to the main event. But at its best, soundscaping is not just an addition to what we see; it’s the thing that makes us feel what we see. Without it, a performance can be technically impressive
The paradox of originality: How great actors inspire through authenticity It’s one of life’s little ironies that the more someone insists they are original, the more they seem exactly like everyone else who’s trying to be original. In acting, as in most of the arts, the pursuit of originality can lead to performances so desperate to be
Cinema Featured Nosferatu 2024 misses its own jugular vein They say there are some monsters you just can’t keep in the crypt, and if any fiend falls into that category, it’s old Nosferatu himself. This latest version—directed (and penned) by Robert Eggers, who previously gave us that eerie slow-burn The Witch—arrived trailing a not-inconsiderable amount
News Mind the spotlight: The ever-shifting stage of new UK theatre How Political Correctness and Multimedia Experiments Are Reshaping Britain’s Dramatic Landscape. Imagine it. You're sitting in a draughty little theatre foyer with a coffee that tastes suspiciously like burnt socks. You're here, apparently, to witness the next big thing in British theatre—some would say
News ACE grants on shaky ground: Can the UK’s independent creatives survive the funding squeeze? There’s a hush moving through the creative community at the moment—not the good kind, where an audience holds its breath during a gripping scene, but a more anxious silence that fills a space where funding used to be. Speak to almost any small, independent artist, writer, or director
Directors Featured A personal reflection on the late David Lynch David Lynch once said that creativity is like fishing—you cast your line and wait for ideas to surface. He didn’t specify what constituted a good catch, only that it was always worth casting the line. When I read that, my attitude toward writing and creating changed forever. I
