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From Cruz to Blanchett: Venice Serves Up Film Festival Stars

US actress Julianne Moore will preside over the Venice film festival jury VALERIE MACON AFP
US actress Julianne Moore will preside over the Venice film festival jury VALERIE MACON AFP
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From Cruz to Blanchett: Venice Serves Up Film Festival Stars

US actress Julianne Moore will preside over the Venice film festival jury VALERIE MACON AFP
US actress Julianne Moore will preside over the Venice film festival jury VALERIE MACON AFP

The Venice Film Festival will welcome stars from Penelope Cruz to Cate Blanchett and host world premieres from directors Darren Aronofsky, Alejandro Inarritu and Luca Guadagnino, organizers said Tuesday.

A total of 23 movies are in competition for the Golden Lion, the top prize awarded to the best film on the final day of the "Mostra", the prestigious festival on the glitzy Venice Lido running from August 31 to September 10, AFP said.

Calling the 79th annual festival an "open window on the world", Artistic Director Alberto Barbera, during his online presentation, denounced the arrest of three filmmakers in Iran earlier this month which sparked condemnation across the international film community.

One of them, award-winning dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi, 62, will be competing this year at Venice with his film "Khers Nist" ("Bears Do Not Exist"), in which he also acts.

Panahi, who was ordered last week by a court to serve a six-year sentence for "propaganda against the system" originally handed down in 2010, won the Golden Lion in 2000 for "The Circle", a critique of women's treatment in Iran.

This year's red carpet should see no shortage of stars, with Julianne Moore presiding over the jury, and top talents Hugh Jackman, Timothee Chalamet, Don Cheadle and Colin Farrell all starring in films in competition.

Spain's Penelope Cruz -- who won Venice's best actress award last year for her work in "Parallel Mothers" -- returns in "Immensity", a family drama set in 1970s Rome by Italy's Emanuele Crialese.

Australian star Cate Blanchett is also expected to attend, for her work playing an orchestra conductor in "Tar", the third feature by US director Todd Field.

Fictionalized Marilyn Monroe

This year also marks the return of US director Aronofsky with "The Whale", a psychological drama in which Brendan Fraser plays an obese writer seeking to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Aronofsky is 2008's Golden Lion winner for "The Wrestler", about a down-and-out fighter that won raves for lead actor Mickey Rourke.

"The collapse of the American Dream," said Barbera, is the theme of the highly anticipated "Bones and All" by Italian director Guadagnino. Starring Timothee Chalamet, Mark Rylance and Chloe Sevigny, the film follows a young woman and drifter confronting their cannibalism on a cross-country road trip.

A "most personal" film in the main competition, said Barbera, is "Bardo: The False Chronicle of some Truths" by Mexico's Inarritu, in which a journalist suffers an existential crisis.

British actress Tilda Swinton appears in mystery-drama "The Eternal Daughter" by Joanna Hogg, while Farrell plays one of two longtime Irish friends in "The Banshees of Inisherin" by Martin McDonagh.

In the biopic genre is "Blonde", Andrew Dominik's fictionalized look at Marilyn Monroe adapted from the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, starring Ana de Armas and Adrien Brody.

Nan Goldin, the US photographer and activist, is the focus of Laura Poitras' "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed", about the opioid epidemic in the United States.

Noah Baumbach's "White Noise", based on the 1985 Don DeLillo novel and starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, will open the competition in Venice.

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Entertainment

Music World Mourns Ghana's Ebo Taylor, Founding Father of Highlife

Ebo Taylor, who kept performing into his 80s, was instrumental in introducing Ghanaian highlife to international listeners. Nipah Dennis / AFP
Ebo Taylor, who kept performing into his 80s, was instrumental in introducing Ghanaian highlife to international listeners. Nipah Dennis / AFP
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Music World Mourns Ghana's Ebo Taylor, Founding Father of Highlife

Ebo Taylor, who kept performing into his 80s, was instrumental in introducing Ghanaian highlife to international listeners. Nipah Dennis / AFP
Ebo Taylor, who kept performing into his 80s, was instrumental in introducing Ghanaian highlife to international listeners. Nipah Dennis / AFP

Tributes have been pouring in from across Ghana and the world since the death of Ghanaian highlife legend Ebo Taylor.

A guitarist, composer and bandleader who died on Saturday, Taylor's six-decade career played a key role in shaping modern popular music in West Africa, said AFP.

Often described as one of the founding fathers of contemporary highlife, Taylor died a day after the launch of a music festival bearing his name in the capital, Accra, and just a month after celebrating his 90th birthday.

Highlife, a genre blending traditional African rhythms with jazz and Caribbean influences, was recently added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

"The world has lost a giant. A colossus of African music," a statement shared on his official page said. "Your light will never fade."

The Los Angeles-based collective Jazz Is Dead called him a pioneer of highlife and Afrobeat, while Ghanaian dancehall star Stonebwoy and American producer Adrian Younge, who his worked with Jay Z and Kendrick Lamar, also paid tribute to his legacy.

Nigerian writer and poet Dami Ajayi described him as a "highlife maestro" and a "fantastic guitarist".

- 'Uncle Ebo' -

Taylor's influence extended far beyond Ghana, with elements of his music appearing in the soul, jazz, hip-hop and Afrobeat genres that dominate the African and global charts today.

Born Deroy Taylor in Cape Coast in 1936, he began performing in the 1950s, as highlife was establishing itself as the dominant sound in Ghana in the years following independence.

Known for intricate guitar lines and rich horn arrangements, he played with leading bands including the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band.

In the early 1960s, he travelled to London to study music, where he worked alongside other African musicians, including Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti.

The exchange of ideas between the two would later be seen as formative to the development of Afrobeat, a political cocktail blending highlife with funk, jazz and soul.

Back in Ghana, Taylor became one of the country's most sought-after arrangers and producers, working with stars such as Pat Thomas and CK Mann while leading his own bands.

His compositions -- including "Love & Death", "Heaven", "Odofo Nyi Akyiri Biara" and "Appia Kwa Bridge" -- gained renewed international attention decades later as DJs, collectors and record labels reissued his music. His grooves were sampled by hip-hop and R&B artists and helped introduce new global audiences to Ghanaian highlife.

Taylor continued touring into his 70s and 80s, performing across Europe and the United States as part of a late-career renaissance that cemented his status as a cult figure among younger musicians.

Many fans affectionately referred to him as "Uncle Ebo", reflecting both his longevity and mentorship of younger artists.

For many, he remained a symbol of highlife's golden era and of a generation that carried Ghanaian music onto the world stage.

Entertainment

'Send Help' Repeats as N.America Box Office Champ

Canadian actor Rachel McAdams and US actor Dylan O'Brien pose upon arrival on the red carpet for the UK premiere of the film 'Send Help' in central London on January 29, 2026. (Photo by CARLOS JASSO / AFP)
Canadian actor Rachel McAdams and US actor Dylan O'Brien pose upon arrival on the red carpet for the UK premiere of the film 'Send Help' in central London on January 29, 2026. (Photo by CARLOS JASSO / AFP)
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'Send Help' Repeats as N.America Box Office Champ

Canadian actor Rachel McAdams and US actor Dylan O'Brien pose upon arrival on the red carpet for the UK premiere of the film 'Send Help' in central London on January 29, 2026. (Photo by CARLOS JASSO / AFP)
Canadian actor Rachel McAdams and US actor Dylan O'Brien pose upon arrival on the red carpet for the UK premiere of the film 'Send Help' in central London on January 29, 2026. (Photo by CARLOS JASSO / AFP)

Horror flick "Send Help" showed staying power, leading the North American box office for a second straight week with $10 million in ticket sales, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The 20th Century flick stars Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien as a woman and her boss trying to survive on a deserted island after their plane crashes.
It marks a return to the genre for director Sam Raimi, who first made his name in the 1980s with the "Evil Dead" films.

Debuting in second place at $7.2 million was rom-com "Solo Mio" starring comedian Kevin James as a groom left at the altar in Italy, Exhibitor Relations reported.

"This is an excellent opening for a romantic comedy made on a micro-budget of $4 million," said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research, noting that critics and audiences have embraced the Angel Studios film.

Post-apocalyptic Sci-fi thriller "Iron Lung" -- a video game adaptation written, directed and financed by YouTube star Mark Fischbach, known by his pseudonym Markiplier -- finished in third place at $6.7 million, AFP reported.

"Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience," a concert film for the K-pop boy band Stray Kids filmed at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, opened in fourth place at $5.6 million.

And in fifth place at $4.5 million was Luc Besson's English-language adaptation of "Dracula," which was released in select countries outside the United States last year.

Gross called it a "weak opening for a horror remake," noting the film's total production cost of $50 million and its modest $30 million take abroad so far.

Rounding out the top 10 are:
"Zootopia 2" ($4 million)
"The Strangers: Chapter 3" ($3.5 million)
"Avatar: Fire and Ash" ($3.5 million)
"Shelter" ($2.4 million)
"Melania" ($2.38 million)

Entertainment

Rapper Lil Jon Confirms Death of His Son, Nathan Smith

Lil Jon performs at Gronk Beach music festival during Super Bowl week on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023, at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP)
Lil Jon performs at Gronk Beach music festival during Super Bowl week on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023, at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP)
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Rapper Lil Jon Confirms Death of His Son, Nathan Smith

Lil Jon performs at Gronk Beach music festival during Super Bowl week on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023, at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP)
Lil Jon performs at Gronk Beach music festival during Super Bowl week on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023, at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP)

American rapper Lil Jon said on Friday that his son, Nathan Smith, has died, the record producer confirmed in a joint statement with Smith’s mother.

"I am extremely heartbroken for the tragic loss of our son, Nathan Smith. His mother (Nicole Smith) and I are devastated,” the statement said.

Lil Jon described his son as ‌an “amazingly talented ‌young man” who was ‌a ⁠music producer, artist, ‌engineer, and a New York University graduate.

“Thank you for all of the prayers and support in trying to locate him over the last several days. Thank you to the entire Milton police department involved,” the “Snap ⁠Yo Fingers” rapper added.

A missing persons report was ‌filed on Tuesday for Smith ‍in Milton, Georgia, authorities ‍said in a post on the ‍Milton government website.

Police officials added that a broader search for Smith, also known by the stage name DJ Young Slade, led divers from the Cherokee County Fire Department to recover a body from a pond near ⁠his home on Friday.

"The individual is believed to be Nathan Smith, pending official confirmation by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office,” the post continued.

While no foul play is suspected, the Milton Police Department Criminal Investigations Division will be investigating the events surrounding Smith’s death.

Lil Jon is a Grammy-winning rapper known for a string ‌of chart-topping hits and collaborations, including “Get Low,” “Turn Down for What” and “Shots.”