American actor-director Maggie Gyllenhaal will preside over the main competition jury at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, organisers announced on April 23, 2026. The festival runs Sept. 2-12 on the Lido, with films in competition traditionally announced in July. Gyllenhaal, an Academy Award nominee for acting and the 2021 Venice Best Screenplay winner for her directorial debut The Lost Daughter, said she was “thrilled” to accept the invitation and vowed to bring “curiosity, admiration and excitement” rather than judgement. Festival director Alberto Barbera and the Biennale board appointed her on Barbera’s recommendation, praising her intellectual and courageous body of work, which includes her recent film The Bride! The international jury Gyllenhaal will lead will decide the Golden Lion for best film and other top awards at the festival. Organisers said the rest of the jury will be announced closer to the event.

Comedian and actor Russell Brand said on U.S. broadcaster Megyn Kelly’s podcast that he had consensual sex with a 16-year-old when he was 30, describing the encounter as “exploitative” and calling his past sexual conduct selfish. The 50-year-old made the comments while promoting a new book and amid ongoing criminal proceedings in the United Kingdom. Brand faces seven criminal charges — including three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault — brought by six women with alleged incidents dating from 1999 to 2009. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts. Detectives began an investigation after a 2023 joint inquiry by The Sunday Times and Channel 4, and Brand’s trial at Southwark Crown Court has been scheduled to start on Oct. 12, 2026, having been delayed from earlier dates. The admission has reignited scrutiny of his past behaviour, prompted media and platform responses and coincides with separate civil allegations and professional fallout, including the loss of representation and removal or demonetisation of some content on major platforms.

Darrell “The Gambler” Sheets, a longtime cast member of A&E’s reality series Storage Wars, was found dead at his Lake Havasu City, Arizona, home on April 22, 2026. He was 67. Lake Havasu City police said officers responding around 2 a.m. located a man who had suffered what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound; the body was identified as Sheets and transferred to the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s office. Sheets, who appeared across about 15 seasons and roughly 160 episodes of the show, retired in 2023 and ran an antiques shop, Havasu Show Me Your Junk. A&E issued a statement expressing sorrow and offered condolences to his family, which includes his son Brandon, who also appeared on the series. Several former co-stars paid tribute, and René Nezhoda has alleged Sheets had been subject to intense online harassment; police say they are aware of those claims and the death remains under investigation. Authorities have asked anyone with information to contact the Lake Havasu City Police Department.

Netflix on April 23 released Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a 10-episode animated spin-off set between seasons two and three of the hit series. All episodes arrived on the platform simultaneously. Developed by showrunner Eric Robles with the Duffer Brothers as executive producers, the series returns the core child characters to a snowy January 1985 Hawkins, Indiana, with a new voice cast and a more family-friendly, Saturday-morning cartoon aesthetic. Early reviews are mixed: critics and fans praise the polished animation, period design and a new character, Nikki (Odessa A’zion), but many fault the show for low stakes, repetitive plotting and thin storytelling that feel constrained by remaining canonical to the live-action timeline. Aggregate scores are positive but based on a limited sample; outlets including The Guardian and The Los Angeles Times offered warmer takes while The Hollywood Reporter, NME and others were more critical. Netflix and partners have already rolled out commercial tie-ins and merchandising; showrunner Robles has signalled possible future adventures or alternate-story directions depending on audience response.

Michael Tilson Thomas, the influential American conductor, composer and educator who led the San Francisco Symphony for 25 years, died on April 23, 2026, at his home in San Francisco. He was 81. His publicist said the cause was glioblastoma; Thomas had surgery for a brain tumor in 2021 and disclosed the disease’s return in February 2025, giving his final concert in April 2025. A prodigious musician and charismatic presence on the podium, he won 12 Grammy awards, received the National Medal of Arts and was a 2019 Kennedy Center honoree. Thomas cofounded the New World Symphony in 1987, served as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and held guest posts across the United States and Europe. He was also a composer (notably From the Diary of Anne Frank) and a champion of American repertoire and Mahler. His longtime partner and husband, Joshua Robison, died in February 2026; the two had been partners for nearly five decades.

The first official trailer for Coyote vs. Acme debuted on April 22, 2026, ahead of the film’s Aug. 28 theatrical release. The live-action/animation hybrid, directed by Dave Green and starring Will Forte, John Cena and Lana Condor, follows Wile E. Coyote as he sues the Acme corporation; the teaser features numerous Looney Tunes characters and pointed meta-jokes that reference the movie’s real-world history. Completed in 2023, the picture was controversially shelved by Warner Bros. in late 2023 as part of cost-cutting and a tax write-off strategy that sparked widespread industry and fan backlash. Ketchup Entertainment acquired global distribution rights in March 2025 for about $50 million after Warner Bros. reportedly rejected higher bids and sought roughly $75–80 million. The trailer leans into that backstory—portraying Acme as a Warner Bros. stand-in—and signals a full promotional push for what distributors call a family-friendly courtroom comedy rooted in Ian Frazier’s 1990 New Yorker piece.