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Toronto Film Festival Unveils a Starry Lineup — and Hopes the Strike Ends by September 

Kate Winslet. (AP)
Kate Winslet. (AP)
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Toronto Film Festival Unveils a Starry Lineup — and Hopes the Strike Ends by September 

Kate Winslet. (AP)
Kate Winslet. (AP)

The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled a starry lineup to its 48th edition on Monday, even if remains unclear if stars will be there to walk red carpets due to the ongoing actors and writers strikes.

Among the films making their world premieres at TIFF this year are Craig Gillespie's GameStop drama "Dumb Money," with Paul Dano and Pete Davidson; Ellen Kuras' "Lee," starring Kate Winslet at war photographer Lee Miller and Tony Goldwyn's "Ezra," with Robert De Niro and Rose Byrne.

Also headed to Toronto are Michael Keaton's "Knox Goes Away," starring Al Pacino and James Marsden; Kristen Scott Thomas' "North Star," featuring Scarlett Johansson and Sienna Miller; David Yates' Netflix drama "Pain Hustlers," starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans; and Maggie Betts' "The Burial," with Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones.

Those films, and many more including directorial debuts by Anna Kendrick ("Woman of the Hour") and Chris Pine ("Poolman"), will make up some of the gala premieres at TIFF, the largest film festival in North America.

The festival is a key platform for Hollywood to debut its fall fare and awards hopefuls. But like the Venice Film Festival, which begins about a week before TIFF launches on Sept. 7, Toronto organizers are anxiously following the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.

While those strikes continue, actors and writers are prohibited by their unions from promoting their films. TIFF will go forward, regardless, but an ongoing strike would sap the festival of A-listers and surely lessen the usual cacophony of buzz emanating from Toronto.

The strike has already led to one of Venice's top titles — Luca Guadagnino's "Challengers," starring Zendaya — pulling out as the festival's opening night selection and postponing its release to April.

Other major titles coming to TIFF include Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers," starring Paul Giamatti as a boarding school professor; Richard Linklater’s "Hit Man," an action comedy starring Glen Powell and Adria Arjona; Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s "Nyad," starring Annette Bening as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad; Mahalia Belo's "The We End Start From," starring Jodie Comer as a mother fleeing a flooded London; and Ethan Hawke's "Wildcat," featuring his daughter, Maya Hawke, as author Flannery O'Connor.

TIFF previously announced that Taika Waititi’s soccer comedy " Next Goal Wins " will open this year's festival, which runs through Sept. 17.

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Entertainment

Argentine Film and Theater Great Luis Brandoni Dies at 86

Actor Luis Brandoni attends a photocall for the film "Mi Obra Maestra" (My Masterpiece) presented out of competition on August 30, 2018 during the 75th Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido. (AFP)
Actor Luis Brandoni attends a photocall for the film "Mi Obra Maestra" (My Masterpiece) presented out of competition on August 30, 2018 during the 75th Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido. (AFP)
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Argentine Film and Theater Great Luis Brandoni Dies at 86

Actor Luis Brandoni attends a photocall for the film "Mi Obra Maestra" (My Masterpiece) presented out of competition on August 30, 2018 during the 75th Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido. (AFP)
Actor Luis Brandoni attends a photocall for the film "Mi Obra Maestra" (My Masterpiece) presented out of competition on August 30, 2018 during the 75th Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido. (AFP)

Argentine cinema, theater and television legend Luis Brandoni has died at the age of 86, his friend and producer Carlos Rottemberg announced Monday on X.

"Luis Brandoni has died. In 'Beto' we are losing the last leading actor of an unforgettable generation, a driving force for national theater," Rottemberg wrote, calling it a "very sad day for our culture."

Brandoni's body will be taken to the Buenos Aires legislature to lie in state on Monday afternoon.

He was admitted to hospital on April 11 after a fall at home that caused a brain-bleed.

He starred in dozens of films over the course of a prolific career, including "Waiting for the Hearse" (1985) and "The Weasel's Tale" (2019).

He also lit up the stage with hugely successful plays such as "Conversations with My Mother" and "Parque Lezama."

A familiar face for decades on Argentine television, Brandoni starred alongside Robert de Niro in the 2023 Disney+ miniseries "Nada." In the series, he played a curmudgeonly Buenos Aires food critic whose life falls apart after his housekeeper dies, while De Niro played his friend.

Brandoni was active from a young age in the center-left Radical Civic Union (UCR), one of Argentina's oldest political parties.

During Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship, when the party was banned, he briefly went into exile in Mexico.

He served two terms as an MP with the UCR in the 1990s and also served as cultural advisor to former UCR president Raul Alfonsin.

Entertainment

Hollywood, Silicon Valley Turn out for the 'Oscars of Science'

Edward Norton arrives at the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP)
Edward Norton arrives at the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP)
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Hollywood, Silicon Valley Turn out for the 'Oscars of Science'

Edward Norton arrives at the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP)
Edward Norton arrives at the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP)

Big names from the worlds of film, technology, music and sports gathered on Saturday in Santa Monica, California for the Breakthrough Prizes, popularly known as the "Oscars of Science."

The awards, co-founded by philanthropists and tech entrepreneurs, recognize the research achievements of leading scientists around the world in three broad categories: Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics.

"These are some of the most heroic and inspiring people we get in the world," actor Edward Norton told AFP.

According to the "American History X" star, it was important to turn out and "to highlight what this kind of work contributes to all of us."

"The United States has the most anti-science administration in US history," the actor said. "It's always important, but if it was ever especially important, the moment is now."

In the last year, the Trump administration has slashed funding for science, halting projects and devastating workforces.

Rock climber Alex Honnold agreed with Norton, adding that he hoped the fluctuations "of the political climate... are short-term compared to the long-term effort required to make these kind of gains in human knowledge."

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the collaboration between his company's artificial intelligence technology and some of the award-winning scientists "is moving things faster and faster, and letting them discover new things and bring them to the world faster than they could before."

"Change this fast is really disorienting. So there will be a lot of big questions that we'll have to sort through as a society," Altman told AFP.

The Breakthrough Foundation was started by Google co-founder Sergey Brin; Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan; science patrons Julia and Yuri Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe.

Six prizes worth $3 million each were presented at the 12th edition of the awards.

French mathematician Frank Merle was honored for his work on nonlinear equations describing the behavior of waves, fluids and other systems.

Merle told AFP the funding is "essential" for science.

"Science is one of the foundations of our civilization," he said.

Hollywood A-listers Ben Affleck, Lily Collins, Robert Downey Jr., Gigi Hadid, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Gal Gadot, Naomi Watts and her husband, Billy Crudup, also attended the event, alongside public figures like Bill Gates and Paris Hilton.

Entertainment

From Armin Van Buuren to Mochakk, Electronic Music Dominates Coachella

A festivalgoer looks on during day two of weekend two at the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, USA, 18 April 2026. (EPA)
A festivalgoer looks on during day two of weekend two at the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, USA, 18 April 2026. (EPA)
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From Armin Van Buuren to Mochakk, Electronic Music Dominates Coachella

A festivalgoer looks on during day two of weekend two at the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, USA, 18 April 2026. (EPA)
A festivalgoer looks on during day two of weekend two at the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, USA, 18 April 2026. (EPA)

From established stalwarts like Fatboy Slim to rising artists like Australia's Ninajirachi, this year's edition of the annual Coachella music festival dedicated nearly half of its lineup to electronic musicians.

The traditionally rock-centric festival in Indio, California -- headlined this year by singers Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G -- reflects the surge in popularity of electronic music in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"It's testament to the rise of electronic music, generally," Swedish DJ Adam Beyer told AFP.

"Much of it is so much more accessible. Also, there is a lot of electronic collaboration and influence in pop so it feels much more visible across the board now," he added.

Among the highlights of the festival's second weekend was the premiere of electronic musician Anyma's "ÆDEN" show on the festival's main stage, after the set was canceled the previous weekend due to high winds.

"I mean man, I love it, it's like... a rave after another, you know?" festival attendee John Good said as he left the Nine Inch Noize show, a joint act by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails and German producer Boys Noize.

The second day of the festival featured a set by Beyer with trance legend Armin van Buuren, who popularized the subgenre for a global audience.

"The term is now so broad," van Buuren told AFP, referring to electronic music.

"It's no longer just 'house music,' but even tracks by Sabrina Carpenter have some sort of electronic drums in them. I guess electronic music has spread through and had an impact on all genres of music," he said.

Beyer and van Buuren agreed that the delineation between electronic and traditional genres has faded in recent years along with listening habits.

"This younger generation doesn't really approach music through strict genre labels anymore. It's more about mood, energy and context," van Buuren noted.

The 49-year-old Dutch DJ argued the festival setting was optimized for electronic acts.

"Festivals and large-scale shows have become more immersive and experience-driven, and electronic music is built exactly for this kind of setting," he said. "It's physical, emotional and repetitive in a way that works on this larger scale."

- 'Unpredictable' -

At the Sahara tent, Coachella's stage dedicated to electronic music, the lineup featured a variety of DJs from a range of subgenres.

Among them was Brazilian DJ Mochakk, who called his Coachella debut his "biggest gig to date."

The 26-year-old's influences include Brazilian genres like MPB and Tropicalia, as well as artists like Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque.

"Music always goes in cycles," he told AFP.

"With electronic music I think it's this mix of old and new that people connect with.

"Also how open it is, you can blend so many genres in one set, keep switching energy, keep it unpredictable," he added.

"That keeps it exciting, and I think that's probably why it's been growing so much everywhere."

- Techno-flamenco -

Another electronic music act at Coachella this year was the duo MESTIZA, consisting of Spanish artists Pitty Bernad and Belah, who brought their cultural influences -- including flamenco dancers -- to the stage.

"Electric music has something very special, and that's why it's understood all over the world," Belah said.

The genre, she added, "has no borders."

"For a long time it was hard to find places where we could go to listen to electronic music," said Pitty, adding that "it has evolved in a dramatic way."

"Giving rise, for example, to this Coachella lineup," she said.