Cate Blanchett hosted a screening and moderated a conversation for “Acting”, film by Sophie Fiennes. Cate will co-host the Serpertine Summer Party in June 2025.

Cate was interviewed by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ahead of the release of Tanz Der Titanen (RUMOURS) in Germany on 15 May, and Expresso where RUMOURS will screen at IndieLisboa on 8 May.

BLACK BAG will be available to stream on Peacock in the US. The film will be released in cinemas in Italy on 30 April.

In addition to Psarokokalo International Short Film Festival, BOZO OVER ROSES, is also part of the lineup at Milwaukee Film Festival and Seattle International Film Festival, tickets now on sale for both festivals.

Sophie Fiennes’ immersive film offers privileged access to the experience of making theatre with pioneering practitioners, Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod of Cheek By Jowl.

In a derelict Gothic mansion on the outskirts of London, we join eight actors – four Macbeths and four Lady Macbeths – for 11 days with Cheek By Jowl. Working in pairs, they investigate key scenes and soliloquies from Shakespeare’s Scottish tragedy.

But this film is not about the play. It’s about being offered a different position from which to view acting and theatre – of seeing text newly animated in ways more subtle, surprising, revelatory and various than even the most dedicated theatregoers might have considered possible. Within the labyrinthine remains of the building, we watch with increasing fascination as actors and spaces combine to give Shakespeare’s words seemingly infinite new lives.

Oscar-winning Australian actor, producer and humanitarian Cate Blanchett has been named the cohost of this year’s Serpentine summer party, slated for June 24.

The “Blue Jasmine” star will be the sole artist cohost in the party’s 25-year history. Last year, the midsummer bash was cohosted by Venus Williams, South Korean music artist Peggy Gou and British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

This year’s fundraising party will bring together Serpentine supporters alongside leading figures from art, culture, fashion, architecture, business and technology to marvel at the new Serpentine Pavilion — an elongated capsule-like form with a central court that aligns with Serpentine South’s bell tower — called “A Capsule in Time” designed by Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum.

“Supporting our cultural institutions and their power to illuminate the world at large and our place within it is of paramount importance,” said Blanchett, who became a house ambassador for Louis Vuitton in 2022.

“I’m honored to co-chair the Serpentine party and its summer festivities where so many creative forms —architecture, performance, music, science and digital narratives — intersect. To come together around a pavilion created by Tabassum, whose socially driven work particularly in her home country of Bangladesh to meet the challenges faced by Rohingya refugees, is an inspirational opportunity,” added Blanchett.

“We are looking forward to an unforgettable evening, where the elegance of a classic British garden party will meet the energy of a salon attended by global luminaries,” said Bettina Korek (Serpentine CEO) and Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Artistic Director).

They continued: “We are thrilled that Cate Blanchett will co-host this year’s Summer party, and deeply grateful for the opportunity to celebrate our community and artistic programme with a true creative icon.”

Rumours and Bozo Over Roses

Part of the interview with Expresso

“O que estamos a fazer ao mundo não é nada divertido, mas é possível satirizarmos todo esse comportamento endémico. Um filme como Rumours pode colocar as pessoas a falar do apocalipse. O silêncio é a maneira mais veloz de chegarmos à garganta funda do nosso fim. Pensar que isso é o problema dos outros é chegar mais perto do apocalipse. É preciso não ficarmos inativos e inertes. O cinema ainda me agrada porque pode ser uma forma de estarmos ligados ao mundo e podermos imaginar novas formas narrativas. Já disse muitas vezes: este filme é tão tragédia ou comédia como qualquer episódio de Scooby-Doo — nunca vi o atual estado das coisas recriado com este tipo de linguagem de sátira, entre o filme de zombies e uma telenovela mexicana=, revela a atriz, imune às críticas desfavoráveis e aos abandonos de sala que o filme provocou em Cannes numa intriga que imagina um encontro dos líderes mundiais interrompido por um apocalipse zombie…”

Seja como for, rejeite-se ou não todo este tom surrealista, a sua chanceler é um presente para qualquer atriz e ela agarra-o saborosamente: “A personagem estava descrita de forma muito bonita no argumento. Todos os atores perceberam que era muito mais à base do que fazíamos e menos do que dizíamos, mas só a entendi quando comecei a contracenar com os meus colegas. Na verdade, em termos de liderança feminina, não tinha muitos exemplos para me inspirar, mesmo quando existem alguns clichês sobre aquilo que significa poder feminino na política.

Por exemplo, diz-se que as mulheres têm de estar vestidas como uma cor de bloqueio que não cause alienação e que o cabelo tem de estar de uma certa maneira. Depois, os gestos que se esperam. A voz, na vida pública, também muda! Há que não ir para um tom muito alto no final de cada frase. Tem tudo a ver com uma construção de artificialidade e nós, cidadãos do mundo, é que somos culpados de criar estes líderes assim.”

Proof of Concept Film

On Tuesday, writer, director and self-described “transsexual menace” Nate Gualtieri (Gotham Knights) posted on Instagram to release the poster for his latest project Queerbait, which boasts Cate Blanchett as an executive producer. “QUEERBAIT … coming soon,” he captioned the image.

Queerbait is a new feature film from writer and director Nate Gualtieri. Gualtieri worked on the project through his participation in the Proof of Concept Accelerator program, a partnership between Netflix; the production company Dirty Films, co-founded by Cate Blanchett; and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. According to the program’s website, Proof of Concept supports “the next generation of filmmakers whose stories promote the perspectives of women, trans, and nonbinary people.”

The movie’s logline, per the Proof of Concept site, describes the film as a story about a college student who is “taken under the wing of an accomplished professor only to realize his mentorship comes with an ulterior sexual motive.” In the erotic thriller, the student, Ezra, must choose between his academic future and his dignity. While participating in the NewFilmmakers Los Angeles InFocus LGBTQ+ Cinema program in 2023, Gualtieri provided more context. “I’m directing another piece called Queerbait and that is about chasers and the trans community,” he said at the time. “Chasers are people that are fetishizing trans people.”

You can read more info on the short here.