Finland has been named the world's happiest country for the fifth year running, in an annual U.N.-sponsored index that ranked Afghanistan as the unhappiest, closely followed by Lebanon.

The latest list was completed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Sci-fi epic "Dune" won five prizes and brooding Western "The Power of the Dog" was named best picture as the British Academy Film Awards returned Sunday with a live, black-tie ceremony after a pandemic-curtailed event in 2021.

New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion was named best director for "The Power of the Dog," becoming only the third woman to win the prize in the awards' seven-decade history.

For better and worse, "Turning Red" is like no Pixar film before it.

The film, directed by Domee Shi, who made the lovely Oscar-winning short "Bao," is the first Pixar movie directly solely by a woman. Its leadership team, including producers and art departments, is entirely female. And its protagonist, 13-year-old Meilin Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), is a Chinese-Canadian eighth-grader in the throes of puberty.

Warner Bros. is halting the release of "The Batman" in Russia, just days before it was to open in theaters there, as Hollywood moved to cease distribution plans in the country following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Warner Bros., the Walt Disney Co. and Sony Pictures said Monday that they would "pause" the release of their films in Russia. Each studio has significant upcoming releases that had been set to debut internationally in the coming weeks. "The Batman," one of the year's more anticipated films, launches Friday in North America and many overseas territories, including Russia.

Valery Gergiev has been fired as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic because of his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and for not rejecting the invasion of Ukraine, the German city's mayor said Tuesday.

Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter announced the decision after Gergiev didn't respond to Reiter's demand that the 68-year-old Russian conductor change course.

The husband of a cinematographer shot and killed on the set of the film "Rust" says it's "absurd" that Alec Baldwin believes he's not to blame for the shooting and he was "so angry" when Baldwin didn't accept responsibility.

The remarks made in excerpts from an interview with the "Today" show are the first public words from Matt Hutchins on the Oct. 21 death of his wife Halyna Hutchins.

To say Naomi Watts is the only star in "The Desperate Hour" is a little misleading. She's pretty much the only person in the film, that's true. But you could make the case that she has a co-star in her iPhone.

Watts spends most of "The Desperate Hour" furiously typing, listening, consulting, pleading or otherwise glued to her smartphone as it takes on an outsized importance. Alone and lost in the woods, it's her only lifeline to the world.

A graphic novel by Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is being released for the first time in the United States, nearly 40 years after it was published in Japan.

Miyazaki's "Shuna's Journey," a 1983 release which contains elements later built upon in his films "Princess Mononoke" and "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind," will be published Nov. 1 by the Macmillan imprint First Second. Alex Dudok de Wit is translating the book into English.

The Duchess of Cambridge met Wednesday with Denmark's popular monarch, Queen Margrethe, and her daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Mary, in Copenhagen as part of a two-day visit to learn more about how Denmark has led efforts in early childhood development.

Kate slid down a slide at the Lego Foundation PlayLab and hung out with young children in the woods at a forest kindergarten as part of the trip with her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, the first time she has taken the work of her institution to the international stage.

LGBTQ representation on scripted TV series has grown along with the footprint of streaming services, according to an annual study by the advocacy group GLAAD.

"TV is leading entertainment in telling LGBTQ stories," Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, said in the "Where We Are on TV" report on the 2021-22 season that was released.