Kathmandu: The 19th edition of the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF) is scheduled to take place in the second week of December. The organizers informed at a press conference in Kathmandu on Sunday that the festival will take place from December 9 to 13



The festival will be held in the hall of the Film Development Board. More than 60 films from 28 different countries, including documentaries, fiction, short films and animations, will be available online and live at KIMFF.



This year's KIMFF theme is 'Climate Karma'. The keynote address of Sonam Wangchuck, an environmentalist from Ladakh, India and Rolex Award winner will be presented at the inauguration ceremony of KIMFF.



This year, KIMFF and the European Union will also hold a short film competition for Nepali filmmakers titled 'Green Growth-Green Recovery'.



The films that will be shown online at the festival will be available on the official website of KIMFF for the duration of the festival.



This year's KIMFF jury includes Swiss journalist and mountaineer Mario Casella, Swiss journalist and filmmaker Caroline Fink, and Nepali actor and director Anup Baral. The three-member jury will decide on 40 films selected for the international competition and the best documentary and fiction film in Nepali Panorama.



The first-place winner will get Rs 200,000, the second place winner will get Rs 150,000 and the third place winner will get Rs 100,000 cash prize. The best documentary in Nepali Panorama will get Rs 75,000 and the best film will get Rs 100,000. According to the organizers, the best mountain film will get one thousand US dollars.



There will also be a dialogue and discussion on the topic of 'Breaking Code Red-Dignity with Danger', the practice of menstruation in Nepal and 'Coping with Climate Action'.

19th edition of KIMFF to be held from Dec 9 to 13

Kathmandu: Mayor of Lalitpur Metropolitan City Chiribabu Maharjan reached in France to attend the conference of mayors has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to place the statue of the famous French poet somewhere in the Lalitpur Metropolitan City and to place the statue of Satya Mohan Joshi, a 102-year-old literary man in a city of France.



The metropolis has stated that the installation of statues and statues of personalities who have contributed in the field of literature and culture will help in increasing kinship and intimacy.



Mayor Maharjan is in France to attend a conference of mayors of various French cities as the chief guest. Mayor Maharjan will coordinate the establishment of brotherhood between more than 25 local levels in Nepal and various local levels in France.

Statue of Satya Mohan Joshi to be placed in France

HOUSTON (AP): Investigators Sunday worked to determine how eight people died in a crush of fans at a Houston music festival, as families mourned the dead and concertgoers recounted the horror and confusion of being trapped in the crowd.



Authorities planned to use videos, witness interviews and a review of concert procedures to figure out what went wrong Friday night during a performance by rapper Travis Scott. The tragedy unfolded when the crowd rushed the stage, squeezing people so tightly they couldn’t breathe.



Billy Nasser, 24, who had traveled from Indianapolis to attend the concert, said about 15 minutes into Scott’s set, things got “really crazy” and people began crushing one another. He said he “was picking people up and trying to drag them out.”



Nasser said he found a concertgoer on the ground.



“I picked him up. People were stepping on him. People were like stomping, and I picked his head up and I looked at his eyes, and his eyes were just white, rolled back to the back of his head,” he said.



Over the weekend, a makeshift memorial of flowers, votive candles, condolence notes and T-shirts took shape outside at NRG Park.



Michael Suarez, 26, visited the growing memorial after the concert.



”It’s very devastating. No one wants to see or hear people dying at a festival,” Suarez said. “We were here to have a good time — a great time — and it’s devastating to hear someone lost their lives.”



The dead, according to friends and family members, included a 14-year-old high school student; a 16-year-old girl who loved dancing; and a 21-year-old engineering student at the University of Dayton. The youngest was 14, the oldest 27.



Houston officials did not immediately release the victims’ names or the cause of death, but family and friends began to name their loved ones and tell their stories Sunday.



Thirteen people remained hospitalized Sunday. Their conditions were not disclosed. Over 300 people were treated at a field hospital at the concert.



City officials said they were in the early stages of investigating what caused the pandemonium at the sold-out Astroworld festival, an event founded by Scott. About 50,000 people were there.



Authorities said that among other things, they will look at how the area around the stage was designed.



Julio Patino, of Naperville, Illinois, who was in London on business when he got a middle-of-the-night call informing him his 21-year-old son Franco was dead, said he had a lot of questions about what happened.



“These concerts should be controlled,” Patino said. “If they don’t know how to do that, they should have canceled the concert right then, when they noticed there was an overcrowd.” He added: “They should not wait until they see people laying down on the floor, lifeless.”



Steven Adelman, vice president of the industry group Event Safety Alliance, which was formed after the collapse of a stage at the Indiana State Fair in 2011 killed seven people, helped write industry guidelines widely used today.



He said investigators will examine the design of the safety barriers and whether they correctly directed crowds or contributed to the crush of spectators. He said, too, that authorities will look at whether something incited the crowd besides Scott taking the stage.



Adelman said another question is whether there was enough security there, noting there is a nationwide shortage of people willing to take low-wage, part-time security gigs.



“Security obviously was unable to stop people. Optically, that’s really bad-looking,” he said. “But as for what it tells us, it’s too early to say.”



Contemporary Services Corp., headquartered in Los Angeles, was responsible for security staff at the festival, according to county records in Texas. Representatives for the company — which advertises online as being “recognized worldwide as the pioneer, expert and only employee owned company in the crowd management field” — did not immediately respond to emails and phone messages seeking comment.



Houston police and fire department officials said their investigation will include reviewing video taken by concert promoter Live Nation, as well as dozens of clips from people at the show.



Officials also planned to review the event’s security plan and various permits issued to organizers to see whether they were properly followed. In addition, investigators planned to speak with Live Nation representatives, Scott and concertgoers.



Izabella Ramirez of Texas City was celebrating her 21st birthday and said that once Scott came on stage, no one could move.



“Everybody was squishing in, and people were trying to move themselves to the front. You couldn’t even lift up your arms,” Ramirez said.



Ramirez said a security guard pulled her over the barricade, while her date, Jason Rodriguez, lifted her up.



“Everyone was yelling for different things. They were either yelling for Travis or they were yelling for help,” Rodriguez said.



On video posted to social media, Scott could be seen stopping the concert at one point and asking for aid for someone in the audience: “Security, somebody help real quick.”



There is a long history of similar catastrophes at concerts, sporting events and even religious events. In 1979, 11 people were killed as thousands of fans tried to get into Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum to see a concert by The Who. Other past crowd catastrophes include the deaths of 97 people at a soccer match in Hillsborough Stadium in 1989 in Sheffield, England, and numerous disasters connected with the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.



Experts who have studied deaths caused by crowd surges say they are often a result of too many people packed into too small a space.



Also Sunday, at least two of the first of many expected lawsuits were filed on behalf of a man injured in the crush of people in state court in Houston. Attorneys for Manuel Souza sued Scott, Live Nation and others, saying they were responsible. Another lawsuit was filed on behalf of Noah Gutierrez by Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer who has represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people killed by police.



In a tweet posted Saturday, Scott said he was “absolutely devastated by what took place.” He pledged to work “together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need.”

Mourning starts as Houston officials probe concert deaths

(BBC): Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has he was "surprised and humbled" to be awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature.



The Swedish Academy praised Gurnah for his "uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism".



The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.14m / £840,000).



Gurnah, 73, is the author of 10 novels, including Paradise and Desertion.



He said how grateful he was to the academy, adding: "It's just great - its just a big prize, and such a huge list of wonderful writers - I am still taking it in.



"It was such a complete surprise that I really had to wait until I heard it announced before I could believe it."



'Dedication to truth' Paradise, published in 1994, told the story of a boy growing up in Tanzania in the early 20th Century and was nominated for the Booker Prize, marking his breakthrough as a novelist.



"Abdulrazak Gurnah's dedication to truth and his aversion to simplification are striking," the Nobel Committee for Literature said in a statement.



"His novels recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world."



"[His] characters find themselves in a hiatus between cultures and continents, between a life that was and a life emerging; it is an insecure state that can never be resolved."



He was Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, Canterbury, until his recent retirement.



Gurnah is the first black African author to have won the award since Wole Soyinka in 1986.



He said his award would mean ssues such as the refugee crisis and colonialism, which he has experienced, will be "discussed".



"These are things that are with us every day. People are dying, people are being hurt around the world - we must deal with these issues in the most kind way," he said.



'Much more violent' "I came to England when these words, such as asylum-seeker, were not quite the same - more people are struggling and running from terror states.



"The world is much more violent than it was in the 1960s, so there is now greater pressure on the countries that are safe, they inevitably draw more people."



In an interview in 2016, when asked if he would call himself an "author of postcolonial and/or world literature", Gurnah replied: "I would not use any of those words. I wouldn't call myself a something writer of any kind.



"In fact, I am not sure that I would call myself anything apart from my name. I guess, if somebody challenges me, that would be another way of saying, 'Are you a… one of these…?' I would probably say 'no'. Precisely, I don't want that part of me having a reductive name."



The Nobel Prizes, which have been awarded since 1901, recognise achievement in literature, science, peace and latterly economics.



Past winners have included novelists such as Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Toni Morrison, poets such as Pablo Neruda, Joseph Brodsky and Rabindranath Tagore, and playwrights including Harold Pinter and Eugene O'Neill.



Former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill won for his memoirs, Bertrand Russell for his philosophy and Bob Dylan for his lyrics.



Last year's award was won by American poet Louise Gluck.

Nobel Literature Prize 2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah named winner

Manang (Rashtriya Samachar Samiti): A Bollywood film will be shot in the Himalayan district of Manang, which has been closed due to floods and landslides for the last few months.



The film 'Uchai', which is being made under the banner of Bollywood's famous Rajshree Productions, is being shot in Manang.



Producer-director Suraj Badajatya's team has come to Manang from two Altitude Air helicopters to observe the filming site. The team of producers and directors stayed in Manang for two days and observed various places for the movie.



The team has observed various places around Ngisyang village municipality of Upper Manang. After two days of observation, the team returned to Kathmandu on Wednesday and went for an on-site observation at the Everest Base Camp for filming, said Suraj Acharya of Three Wheelers Films.



According to him, Manang is a very suitable place for the movie. The film will be shot in Manang for about 10 days, said Binod Gurung, a tourism entrepreneur from Manang. The film will be shot in the Manang district and other places in Nepal.



The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Danny Denzongpa, Sarika, Bowman Irani, Parineeti Chopra in the lead roles. Even two weeks ago, the team had visited Jomsom, Kagbeni, Lukla, Namche Bazaar and Langtang area.



According to Gurung, the filming of the movie is expected to help the tourism business in the region, which has been hit hard by Corona, and increase the attraction of Indian tourists in Manang after the release of the movie. According to him, after the screening of this Bollywood film, not only Manang but the whole of Nepal will be promoted and Nepal will be introduced to the world.

Bollywood team in Manang to shoot a movie

BBC: UK cinema box office takings in the month since all Covid restrictions were lifted in England were half of their pre-pandemic level.



Box office tracker Comscore said £65.7m was spent on seeing films like Black Widow and Fast &amp; Furious 9 in the four weeks after "freedom day" on 19 July.



The figure for the corresponding weeks in 2019 was £129m.



Cinemas said they were "very pleased" with the figures and "pretty confident" they will get back to previous levels.



It's a similar picture in the US, where takings for the last four weekends have been 51% of the equivalent 2019 figures.



Many major movies that were delayed by Covid in 2020 have finally been released in cinemas this summer, but have not enticed the numbers they would have previously expected.



Continuing uncertainty in the US, where the Delta variant has recently led to rising cases, has disrupted release schedules again.



In recent weeks, Clifford the Big Red Dog, the Venom sequel and Hotel Transylvania 4 have either been pushed back or moved to streaming.



There has been speculation that the next James Bond outing No Time To Die - which is due out in late September in the UK after being delayed three times - could be postponed yet again. However, on Wednesday The Hollywood Reporter suggested that's unlikely to happen.



"The conditions remain challenging, there's no doubt about that," said Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association.



"It's clear that there is still some reluctance among certain audience segments to return, and that's particularly true among older audiences," Mr Clapp said. "There's a continuing need to offer reassurance and to ensure that there's the right film content for those older audiences.



"But broadly I think people [in the industry] are very pleased with the response of the public to the reopening of cinemas. The film slate is strengthening. We're now seeing a major title released, if not quite every weekend, then every other weekend."



The UK industry lost £2bn during the pandemic and no-one expected things to bounce back immediately, Mr Clapp said. "Everyone knew that we would need to have to work hard over the initial weeks and months. Everyone's broadly where they expected to be."

Cinema box office takings at 50 pc of pre-pandemic levels

AP: Steven Yeun, Nathan Lane, Issa Rae, Robert Pattinson, Janet Jackson, Leslie Odom Jr. and Laverne Cox are among the artists being invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.



The organization that puts on the Oscars said Thursday that 395 film industry professionals, 46% of whom are women and 39% from an underrepresented group, have been invited to join the 2021 class. If they accept, which most do, they will have voting privileges at next year’s Oscars.



New invitees from this year’s Oscar nominees include Maria Bakalova (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”), Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) and Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”), as well winners like “Minari’s” Youn Yuh-jung, “Mank” cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, singer-songwriter H.E.R. and “Promising Young Woman” writer Emerald Fennell.



Fennell was also invited to the director’s branch alongside fellow 2021 nominee Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”). Those invited in multiple branches must decide which they want to join.



A recent Oscar nomination doesn’t guarantee an invite, but it is a starting point for selecting artists and executives, like Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek, who have made significant contributions to film.



Other acting invitees include Carrie Coon (“The Nest”), Kingsley Ben-Adir (“One Night in Miami…”), Henry Golding (“Crazy Rich Asians), Clea DuVall (“Zodiac”), Hugh Bonneville (“Paddington 2”), Stephen Root (“Office Space”), Eiza González (“Baby Driver”) and Jonathan Majors (“Da 5 Bloods”).



Among the directors invited are Lizzie Borden (“Born in Flames”), George C. Wolfe (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Janizca Bravo (“Zola”), Shaka King (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Nia DaCosta (“Candyman”), Cathy Yan (“Birds of Prey”), Craig Brewer (“Hustle &amp; Flow”) and Jonathan Glazer (“Under the Skin”).



Diversity and inclusion continue to be a main priority for the film academy and, in addition to the relatively large numbers of women and underrepresented groups invited, it’s also a very international class. Over half of the invitees are from countries other than the United States.



The number of invitees also dropped steeply this year in an effort to, “steady future growth.” In the past few years the organization had invited classes of around 800 new members or more annually to help quickly diversify its ranks following the #OscarsSoWhite criticisms. With this new class, the Academy said its total membership is now 33% women and 19% underrepresented groups.



The Academy has said it remains committed to broadening its own lens over the next few years.

Oscars invite Steven Yeun, Issa Rae, others to join Academy

LOS ANGELES (AP): Britney Spears’ powerful plea to a judge to end the conservatorship that has controlled her life since 2008 brought sympathy and outrage from fans, famous supporters and even casual observers who say she deserves independence.



Yet lawyers who deal in such matters say the speech itself may not have helped her in the legal process, which will be long and arduous.



“When Britney spoke, I mean, the world listened. This was amazing,” family law attorney Peter Walzer said. “Now, whether the judge will buy it, whether the judge will let her out of her conservatorship, my bet is no.”



Spears’ passionate, at times emotional address Wednesday to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny was the first time in 13 years she has spoken in open court on the conservatorship, which she called “abusive” and “stupid.” The conservatorship was put in place as Spears, hounded by paparazzi and media scrutiny while a new mother, underwent a very public mental health crisis in 2008.



Spears revisited the speech in an Instagram post Thursday, apologizing “for pretending like I’ve been ok the past two years.



“I did it because of my pride and I was embarrassed to share what happened to me,” she said, later adding, “Believe it or not pretending that I’m ok has actually helped.”



In court, Spears said she is forced to keep using an intrauterine device for birth control and take other medications, is prevented her from getting married or having another child, and is not allowed let her have her own money. She condemned her father and the others who control it.



The speech was compelling for the same reasons it may be problematic to the court. She spoke very quickly, often profanely, and could seem out of control as she rattled off injustices and the emotional turmoil they have brought her.



“It just seems to me that her presentation to her court didn’t do herself any favors,” said David Glass, a family law attorney with a doctorate in psychology. “The words came out like bullets. She shifted rapidly between thoughts and ideas. She also admitted to being depressed and crying all the time. I’m not her psychologist, but these are things that potentially point to being in the middle of mental illness.”



Penny did not tip her hand or offer much reaction to the dramatic presentation, other than to say Spears’ speech was “courageous.” It’s unclear how much the judge has heard before, either during Spears’ previous addresses to the court in closed sessions or in the numerous sealed documents filed in the case.



“The court didn’t say ‘I don’t agree with you,’ or ‘I’m concerned for you’ or ‘I’m disappointed these issues were not brought before me previously,’” Glass said.



There is evidence that Penny considers Spears’ opinions in her decisions.



She recently appointed estate-management firm the Bessemer Trust as co-conservator of Spears’ finances, though kept her father James Spears as its co-conservator against her wishes. And Penny has been keeping court hearings like Wednesday’s increasingly public and leaving more documents unsealed since Spears pushed for greater transparency in the case last year.



Short of ending the conservatorship, Penny may alter it to make it more palatable to Spears, and could order an immediate investigation into some of the allegations.



“I’m alarmed if I’m the judge,” said Sarah Wentz, an attorney who specializes in estates and conservatorships. “I’m going to find out ASAP if there are things we need reviewed or corrected, for the court to see if there are not human rights violations.”



There is plenty of room for Penny to make changes that don’t end the conservatorship entirely.



“What they can do is try to put together a plan that meets her goals and wishes in every way possible, so she only has a few things that she needs to check in on,” Wentz said. “It doesn’t have to be an all-in kind of thing.”



Spears’ court-appointed attorney, Samuel Ingham III, said that despite his client’s pleas to Penny to end the conservatorship, she has yet to even ask him to file a petition to do so. He said before the presentation Wednesday that he made no attempt to “control, or filter, or edit” his client’s words.



That most likely meant that while he felt compelled to pass along Spears’ request to speak, it doesn’t necessarily mean he agreed with her approach.



“This is why lawyers don’t like their clients speaking a lot,” family law attorney Chris Melcher said. “We know what to say and how to say it. Sometimes what the client says can really come back and bite them and end up proving the other side’s case.”



Melcher said a different approach could have proven more effective.



“I think she would be best served by a calm demeanor, acknowledgement of her past problems, and acceptance of the court’s previous decisions,” he said.



That was the approach taken by Ingham in recent filings for Spears that attempted to get her father removed and assert more control. Those documents acknowledged that the conservatorship had done a lot of good in its early days while forcefully arguing for change and saying she reserved the right to end it eventually.



One thing that will certainly not happen is the conservatorship being terminated, as Spears requested, without any further evaluation of her.



A petition to terminate the conservatorship, which Ingham said he may file soon, would be only the beginning of a process that places the burden on Spears to show her competence.



“It’s up to Britney or another interested person to convince the court that it needs to end,” Melcher said. “This is not a voluntary process where she can just walk out the door.”

Britney Spears’ public support may not mean much in court

LONDON (AP): Thousands of heavy metal fans were camping, singing — and even moshing — on Saturday at Britain’s first full music festival since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.



The three-day Download Festival, taking place at Donington Park in central England, is one of a series of test events to see whether mass gatherings can resume without triggering outbreaks of COVID-19.



About 10,000 fans, a tenth of the festival’s pre-pandemic attendance, secured tickets to watch more than 40 U.K.-based bands including Frank Carter &amp; The Rattlesnakes, Enter Shikari and Bullet for My Valentine.



Attendees all took COVID-19 tests before the event, and don’t have to wear masks or follow social distancing rules during the festival.



Promoter Andy Copping said there was a “real sense of euphoria” at the event, which runs through Sunday, despite the wet weather lashing much of the U.K. after several weeks of warm sunshine.



“It wouldn’t be Download unless there was a bit of rain,” he said.



Concertgoer Alexander Milas said rain and mud would not mar the event.



“In a way it makes it better,” he said. “It is amazing how that brings people together. The sheer misery and joy of being around a lot of like-minded, really wonderful people. I feel like it is perfect because it’s like ‘Weather be damned, we are going to have a great time.’”



Britain has recorded almost128,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe. The government has delayed the lifting of remaining social and economic restrictions for four weeks from the planned June 21 date amid a rise in cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant first identified in India.



Health officials are aiming to give everyone 18 and over in the U.K. a first dose of vaccine by July 19, and to have everyone over 50 fully vaccinated with both doses.



All mass events in Britain were canceled in March 2020 when the country entered the first of three lockdowns. Crowds are starting to return to performances and sporting events as part of the pilot program, with capacity limits being increased despite a nationwide surge in infections.



A Euro 2020 soccer semi-final and the tournament final at Wembley Stadium in July will be played in front of 40,000 fans, about half capacity. The government plans to allow full-capacity crowds of 15,000 to watch the women’s and men’s Wimbledon tennis finals on July 10 and 11.

Metal fans mosh at 1st UK live music festival since pandemic

Kathmandu: The second edition of the Mount Everest Fan Runway, which holds the record for the world's highest altitude fashion show, is scheduled to take place in August / September.



In the first edition of the program held in December, 2019, the title of world record was obtained from the Guinness Book of World Records.



India's leading communications maker Indimol Sign India has teamed up with Nepal's K Films and ME Two Films to host the second edition of the show.



According to the organizers, the event will be held at an altitude of 5,8000 meters in the Everest region, where the atmosphere will contain only about 50 percent oxygen and the temperature will be minus 30 degrees Celsius.

Second edition of 'Highest Altitude Fashion Show' announced

Kathmandu: Mexican woman Andrea Meza has won the Miss Universe 2020 crown. Former Miss Universe Zozobini Tunzi has crowned her. The beauty, who has a degree in software engineering, won the title in a competition held in Florida, USA.



Brazil's Julia Gama is the first runner-up while Peru's Janick Maceta is the second runner-up. Anshika Sharma of Nepal also participated in this competition. However, she could not make it to the top 21.

Andrea Meza wins the title 'Miss Universe 2020'

Kathmandu: Legendary singer and musician Prem Dhwaj Pradhan has passed away. He died at Kathmandu Neuro and General Hospital in Sundhara on Thursday.



He was admitted to the hospital a few days ago due to chest problems.



Pradhan - 84 - was also known as 'Golden Voice' in Nepali music.



Dozens of songs including Yo Nepali Shir Uchali, Para Laijau Phoolharu, Ghumti maa naau hai, Goreto tyo gaonko, are some of his popular songs.

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