The President (Georgia, France, UK, Germany)–directed by Mohsen Mahkmalbaf–won the Best Film Gold Hugo at the 50th Chicago International Film Festival. During the awards ceremony last Friday (Oct. 17), other top winners included Underdog (Sweden) which took a Gold Hugo in the New Directors Competition for director Ronnie Sandahl, and director Nicolas Echevarria’s Echo of the Mountain (Mexico), a Gold Hugo winner in the Docufest competition.
Michael Keaton received the Founder’s Award for his electrifying performance in Birdman. Jorge Perez Solano’s La Tirisia won the Festival’s first Roger Ebert Award.
The awards ceremony was hosted by Chicago Sun-Times columnist and Fox News Chicago entertainment reporter and film critic Bill Zwecker. For a full list of winners, click here.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More