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China is positioning itself as a leader of cultural influence, and it learned its lessons from Hollywood, according to Erich Schwartzel in his book “Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy". Schwartzel writes about a meeting in 2008 of Chinese executives and Hollywood leaders in Los Angeles.

This week, Natalie Portman will be seen starring opposite Chris Hemsworth as superhero Mighty Thor in Marvel Comics Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) directed by Taika Waititi. In previous movies of the franchise, Portman played Jane Foster in Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013).

Guadalajara International Film Festival Winner Night time. The silhouette of a woman prostrated on the sand at the ocean’s surf.

John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley will forever be known as the film that beat Citizen Kane at the 14th Academy Awards on February 26, 1942. Perhaps it was the relentless campaign against Kane by William Randolph Hearst and his newspaper empire, but the film considered the greatest of all time only came away with one win that night – Original Screenplay for Welles and Herman Mankiewicz.

It wasn’t all that long ago in the history of Hollywood that the LGBTQ community represented in front of the camera had to adhere to the strict Hays Code, which remained in place for three decades (1934 to 1968). It was a self-imposed industry guideline set up to prevent any explicit depictions of homosexuality in film.

Summer always reminds us of the memorable time when we visited the set of Mamma Mia!, the romantic comedy film directed by Phyllida Lloyd and written by Catherine Johnson, based on the latter’s book from the 1999 musical of the same name. We can still vividly recall that summer in June of 2008 when the cast, led by Meryl Streep, talked to us.

After making a name for himself in his native France - particularly with his collaborations with action director Luc Besson, including Le Femme Nikita (1991) and Léon: The Professional (1994) - actor Jean Reno then crossed the Atlantic to become a sought-after character actor in big budget Hollywood films including Mission: Impossible (1996),  Ronin (1998), The Pink Panther (2006), The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Da Five Bloods (2020). The 73-year-old national treasure shows no signs of slowing down, he tells press at the recent Monte Carlo TV Festival, where he admits almost with embarrassment, that he has three TV shows about to launch.

A new movie is number 1 this week at the box office in France: Lightyear landed, grossing $3,158,778 for the first week. The movie is about the true story of the legendary Space Ranger who has since inspired the famous toy.

Based on the best-selling novel by Jack Carr, the Amazon series The Terminal List – released in 240 countries on July 1 - follows James Reece (Chris Pratt), a Navy SEAL who was the sole survivor of an ambush on his regiment during an important covert mission. When he returns home, he begins to question his own memories of the event and finds new evidence that suggests a mystery organization is working against him.

For more than 30 years, HFPA grantee Women Make Movies has produced and financed films by female directors that tackle the difficult subject of reproductive rights. Watching some of these through the lens of what happened on June 24, when the US Supreme Court overturned the almost 50-year-old Roe vs.