An international film festival in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary kicked off Friday amid controversy following a protest by Ukraine over the screening of a Russian film alongside Ukrainian-made movies.
Prior to the start of the 56th edition of the festival, several leading Ukrainian filmmakers along with Ukraine's ambassador to Prague protested the scheduled screening of "Captain Volkonogov Escaped."
Ukrainian Ambassador Yevhen Perebyinis said in an open letter that it would be "inhuman" to screen Ukrainian films alongside a Russian movie made with support from Russia's Culture Ministry at a time when Russian troops had "committed atrocities" during their invasion of his country.
Organizers said they consider the Russian movie – whose world premiere was at last year's Venice Film Festival – as being indirectly critical of the current Russian leadership.
Four Ukrainian films and eight other nearly-completed movies produced or co-produced by Ukraine will also be screened at the festival.
After being cancelled in 2020 and delayed in 2021 due to the pandemic, this year's festival will culminate in a ceremony to honor Australian Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush for his contribution to world cinema.
Rush won an Academy Award for actor in a leading role in "Shine" in 1997. Beside that movie, the festival will also screen his movies "The King's Speech" and "Quills."
Organizers will also honor U.S. Oscar-winning actor and producer Benicio Del Toro and Czech actor Bolek Polivka.
The festival runs through July 9. The grand jury will consider 12 movies for the top prize, the Crystal Globe.
Sean “Diddy” Combs seeks bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence
Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a new request for bail on Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed to prepare for a May trial from outside jail.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous requests for bail have been rejected by two judges since his September arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He has been awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
In their new court filing, lawyers for Combs say they are proposing a "far more robust" bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they proposed before.
They also cite new evidence that they say "makes clear that the government's case is thin." That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government's claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced "freak off," a sexually driven event described in the indictment against Combs.
They wrote that the encounter was instead "a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship" between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
The lawyers argued that the jail conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional... Read More