‘Anora’ wins top Hollywood producer and director prizes

‘Anora’ wins top Hollywood producer and director prizes
“Anora” was named the best film of the year by Hollywood’s directors and producers on Saturday, cementing its new status as the film to beat at the upcoming Oscars. (REUTERS)
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Updated 09 February 2025
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‘Anora’ wins top Hollywood producer and director prizes

‘Anora’ wins top Hollywood producer and director prizes
  • “Anora” was named the best film of the year by Hollywood’s directors and producers on Saturday, cementing its new status as the film to beat at the upcoming Oscars

LOS ANGELES: “Anora” was named the best film of the year by Hollywood’s directors and producers on Saturday, cementing its new status as the film to beat at the upcoming Oscars.
The black comedy from director Sean Baker, about an erotic dancer’s whirlwind romance gone wrong, picked up the prestigious Directors Guild of America and Producers Guild of America top awards, just a day after capturing the foremost US critics’ prize.
“My imposter syndrome is skyrocketing right now!” said Baker, a 53-year-old indie director, previously best known in arthouse circles for his empathetic portrayals of life in US subcultures, as he accepted his prize at a swanky Beverly Hills DGA gala.
Baker thanked his producers for being “able to pull off a $6 million film, shot on film, in New York City in 2023 — almost impossible.”
“Anora” won the Cannes film festival top prize Palme d’Or back in May, yet had more recently lagged behind other films including “Emilia Perez” in terms of Oscar nominations.
Besides Saturday’s coup, “Anora” also won best picture at the Critics Choice Awards on Friday, propelling it as a renewed favorite for the Academy Awards — which will take place on March 2.
Accepting his prize from Christoper Nolan, last year’s DGA winner, Baker joked that campaigning for Hollywood’s seemingly never-ending awards season had made him feel like he was “actually doing work” for “the first time.”
“I’ve been able to play — and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world, being able to do the thing I’ve wanted to do since I was five years old,” said Baker.
He also thanked his mother for supporting his career — but the director, whose films mainly center around sex work and pornography, admitted he was glad she had not seen his latest, somewhat graphic project.
Nineteen of the past 21 DGA winners have gone on to also win the Oscar for best director that same year, including the last two winners — “Oppenheimer” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
The DGA prize for best movie from a first-time filmmaker went to another Oscar best picture nominee, “Nickel Boys,” from RaMell Ross.
Ross, whose film about abuses at a 1960s Florida reform school for juvenile boys — shot as if from the eyes of its characters — said it was too “rare” to see the Black gaze represented in Hollywood cinema.
Meanwhile across town in Los Angeles Saturday, “Anora” also won the PGA top prize.


US music industry posts 100 million paid streaming users

US music industry posts 100 million paid streaming users
Updated 18 March 2025
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US music industry posts 100 million paid streaming users

US music industry posts 100 million paid streaming users
  • The US music industry passed 100 million paid streaming subscriptions for the first time in 2024
  • For the third year in a row, vinyl albums outsold compact discs, selling 44 million versus 33 million respectively

NEW YORK: The US music industry passed 100 million paid streaming subscriptions for the first time in 2024, according to the latest report from the Recording Industry Association of America released Tuesday.
The US industry’s total revenue last year increased three percent to $17.7 billion retail, the report said, up half a billion dollars from 2023.
Paid subscription services accounted for 79 percent of streaming revenues, and almost two-thirds of total revenues.
Yet streaming growth has slowed over the past five years — in 2024, it increased by less than four million subscriptions, compared to the jump from 2020 to 2021, when it spiked by almost nine million — a trend that has pushed music companies to seek growth elsewhere.
Universal, for example, has been touting a “Streaming 2.0” vision focusing on avenues like selling products to superfans.
Music revenues meanwhile fell two percent to $1.8 billion on ad-supported, on-demand services — examples include YouTube, Facebook and Spotify’s ad-supported version.
Indie darling vinyl posted its 18th straight year of growth, and accounts for nearly 75 percent of physical format revenues that total $2 billion, the RIAA said.
For the third year in a row, vinyl albums outsold compact discs, selling 44 million versus 33 million respectively.
Vinyl’s popularity has grown steadily in recent years, fueled by collectors and fans nostalgic for the warm crackle that emanates from Side A and Side B.
The annual report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents global record companies, is due on Wednesday.


Hungarian woman who kept over 100 cats in squalor jailed for animal cruelty

Hungarian woman who kept over 100 cats in squalor jailed for animal cruelty
Updated 18 March 2025
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Hungarian woman who kept over 100 cats in squalor jailed for animal cruelty

Hungarian woman who kept over 100 cats in squalor jailed for animal cruelty
  • The woman in her sixties was found guilty of causing “prolonged suffering to a large number of animals” by neglecting them, the court said
  • The defendant failed to provide adequate food or water to the animals while keeping them locked up in her “faeces-contaminated flat“

BUDAPEST: A Hungarian woman who kept more than 100 malnourished cats and a dog in squalid conditions in her flat was sentenced to 10 months in prison for animal cruelty, a Budapest court said Tuesday.
The case sparked public outcry and is thought to be among the Central European country’s most serious animal abuse cases in recent years, local media reported.
The woman in her sixties was found guilty of causing “prolonged suffering to a large number of animals” by neglecting them, the court said in a statement.
The defendant — who did not show any remorse — failed to provide adequate food or water to the animals while keeping them locked up in her “faeces-contaminated flat.”
As a result of the neglect, the animals “suffered from external and internal parasitic diseases” and were deprived of “self-sufficiency,” it added.
The woman — who resisted arrest in 2019 and was taken into psychiatric care — has consistently denied neglecting the cats during the trial, and stressed she had helped a lot of animals in the past, independent news site Telex reported.
But some cats died in the flat and surviving animals had to be put down after being rescued due to suffering from a number of diseases, the article stated.
The case became public in Hungary after an animal welfare organization, Helping Angels — which assisted in rescuing the animals — shared photos on Facebook showing the flat’s filthy conditions.
Both the prosecution and the defense have appealed the ruling.


“Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored

“Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored
Updated 18 March 2025
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“Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored

“Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored
  • “Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored

STOCKHOLM: British rock band Queen, American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan were awarded the 2025 Polar Music Prize on Tuesday.
The Polar Prize hailed Queen for their “distinctive and instantly recognizable sound that no one else can emulate.”
“Queen were not exaggerating when they sang ‘We are the Champions’,” it said in a statement.
Queen have sold more than 300 million albums featuring songs such as “We Will Rock You,” “Another One Bites The Dust” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Founded in 1970, the band featured flamboyant frontman Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass player John Deacon. They played stadiums across the world — including a memorable performance at the Live Aid concert in 1985 — before Mercury’s death in 1991.
They relaunched in 2004 with a succession of new singers.
Queen share the prize with American jazz pianist Herbie Hanckock, a collaborator of Miles Davies among others as well as a solo star in his own right, and Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan.
Founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, publisher and manager of the Swedish band ABBA, previous winners include Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Sting, Elton John and Metallica.


Nine-year-old Thai tattooist makes his mark

Nine-year-old Thai tattooist makes his mark
Updated 17 March 2025
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Nine-year-old Thai tattooist makes his mark

Nine-year-old Thai tattooist makes his mark
  • Tattooing is a centuries-old tradition in Thailand
  • Knight was one of nearly 200 artists at the Thailand Tattoo Expo

Bangkok: Wielding a cumbersome tattoo gun with his small hands swamped in surgical gloves, nine-year-old Napat Mitmakorn expertly inks the pattern of a fanged serpent on a man’s upper thigh.
“I want to be a tattoo artist and open my own tattoo palour,” he told AFP in his booth at a Bangkok tattoo expo, where fascinated attendees paused to film his work. “I like art so I like to tattoo.”
Tattooing is a centuries-old tradition in Thailand, where tattoo parlours are omnipresent and offer designs ranging from the ancient and spiritual to the modern and profane.
Napat’s father Nattawut Sangtong said he introduced his son — who goes by the nickname “Knight” — to the craft of tattooing to swerve the pitfalls of contemporary childhood.
“I just wanted to keep him away from his phone because he was addicted to gaming and had a short attention span,” said the 38-year-old, also an amateur tattooist, who works at a block printing factory.
The father-son duo together learned from TikTok tutorials and practiced on paper before graduating to artificial leather simulating human skin, and then the real thing.
Knight said he swiftly picked up the skills because art is his favorite school subject. Recognizing his son’s talent, Nattawut now coaches him in two-hour sessions three days a week.
“It’s not just tattooing, it’s like meditation,” Nattawut said.
The pair run a TikTok channel together — “The Tattoo Artist with Milk Teeth” — where they livestream Knight’s sessions and sometimes draw hundreds of thousands of viewers with a single clip.
His Saturday session at the Thailand Tattoo Expo was his public debut, as he tattooed his uncle for a second time — marking him with an eight-inch (20 centimeter) mythical Naga serpent.
Unfazed by the techno music blaring from massive speakers, Knight predicts the creature from Hindu and Thai folklore will take 12 hours to complete.
For now, his father insists he only works on family and friends — opening up to public clients would require more rigorous hygiene training.
But Naruebet Chonlatachaisit, Knight’s uncle, is relaxed as the tattoo takes shape on his left leg. “I trust him, and I think he’ll only improve,” he says.
Knight was one of nearly 200 artists at the Thailand Tattoo Expo — but drew outsized attention among the crowds of thousands of visitors this weekend.
Office worker Napat Muangsawang stopped by the boy’s booth to admire his meticulous artistry.
“It’s quite amazing. Tattooing isn’t easy,” he said. “It’s not like drawing on a paper where you can just erase it.”


California man wins $50m in lawsuit over burns from Starbucks tea

California man wins $50m in lawsuit over burns from Starbucks tea
Updated 15 March 2025
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California man wins $50m in lawsuit over burns from Starbucks tea

California man wins $50m in lawsuit over burns from Starbucks tea
  • He has suffered permanent and life-changing disfigurement, according to his attorneys
  • Garcia’s negligence lawsuit blamed his injuries on Starbucks, saying that an employee didn’t wedge the scalding-hot tea firmly enough into a takeout tray

LOS ANGELES: A delivery driver has won $50 million in a lawsuit after being seriously burned when a Starbucks drink spilled in his lap at a California drive-through, court records show.
A Los Angeles County jury found Friday for Michael Garcia, who underwent skin grafts and other procedures on his genitals after a venti-sized tea drink spilled instants after he collected it on Feb. 8, 2020. He has suffered permanent and life-changing disfigurement, according to his attorneys.
Garcia’s negligence lawsuit blamed his injuries on Starbucks, saying that an employee didn’t wedge the scalding-hot tea firmly enough into a takeout tray.
“This jury verdict is a critical step in holding Starbucks accountable for flagrant disregard for customer safety and failure to accept responsibility,” one of Garcia’s attorneys, Nick Rowley, said in a statement.
Starbucks said it sympathized with Garcia but planned to appeal.
“We disagree with the jury’s decision that we were at fault for this incident and believe the damages awarded to be excessive,” the Seattle-based coffee giant said in a statement to media outlets, adding that it was “committed to the highest safety standards” in handling hot drinks.
US eateries have faced lawsuits before over customer burns.
In one famous 1990s case, a New Mexico jury awarded a woman nearly $3 million in damages for burns she suffered while trying to pry the lid off a cup of coffee at a McDonald’s drive-through. A judge later reduced the award, and the case ultimately was settled for an undisclosed sum under $600,000.
Juries have sided with restaurants at times, as in another 1990s case involving a child who tipped a cup of McDonald’s coffee onto himself in Iowa.