Film

U.S. director Spike Lee has been named president of the jury for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, organizers said on Jan. 14.

The 62-year-old filmmaker, who succeeds Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, will head the panel that will award the 73rd Palme d'Or prize.

The first guests arrived to Mokra Gora yesterday - celebrated Italian director Paolo Virzi, French director of photography Michel Amathieu, Chinese-Canadian film director Johnny Ma, a French-Russian-Kazakhstani chess grandmaster Vladislav Tkachiev and director Karim Aïnouz.

War epic "1917" shocked the Golden Globes on Jan. 5 by claiming the top prize for best drama film, while Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" won comedy honors, boosting their prospects for next month's Oscars.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) awarded the Quentin Tarantino with Best Direction.

Here's the full list of winners.

AACTA International Award for Best Film

THE IRISHMAN
JOKER
THE KING
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
PARASITE (winner)

AACTA International Award for Best Direction

Hollywood's biggest stars gather on Jan. 5 for the glitzy Golden Globes, the first major awards show of a packed season that looks set to mark Netflix's coming-of-age in Tinseltown.
The celebrity-filled gala in Beverly Hills is billed as the most raucous event in the showbiz calendar, where success helps create buzz ahead of next month's Oscars.

Rome-based Turkish director Ferzan Özpetek's latest film "La Dea Fortuna" (The Fortune Goddess) was promoted at a press screening.

A special screening was held at the Quattro Fontane cinemas in the Italian capital Rome for the 13th feature film in Özpetek's career, which is a romantic drama.

A car chase by police ended on Monday morning when a jeep crashed into a pastry shop in central Thessaloniki, northern Greece, causing extensive damage.
The incident occurred shortly before 5 a.m. when the jeep driver refused to comply when police signaled for him to pull over.

Italy's Salento University honored famed Turkish director Ferzan Özpetek on Nov. 15.

Having renamed himself after Milan Bandic, the scandal-prone Mayor of Zagreb, film director Dario Jurican - as he once was -is ironically offering voters 'corruption for everyone'.

The Greek Film Archive's Lais open-air cinema is hosting a tribute to movies shot in famous urban settings, showing 13 films shot in 11 cities. The program begins at 8.30 p.m. on Thursday with Wim Wenders' 1995 "Lisbon Story." Subsequent screenings will take place at 8.30 and 10.30 p.m.