What happened in pop culture news this past week? Generally the emphasis was on movie awards season stuff, as you’ll find out below. But first…

Lifestyle

If you thought the previous news recap period was busy for Comic Con Cape Town 2026 guest announcements, this past week blew that out of the water – largely because it included the pop culture celebration’s biggest international guest drawcard (to date).

Appearing from Thursday 30 April to Saturday 2 May, is Harry Potter star Evanna Lynch, better known as Luna Lovegood. In addition to acting, Irish Lynch is a writer and activist, championing animal rights and mental health awareness.

Also announced for CCCT this past week: Eisner Award-winning comic book professional Heather Antos. Along with working as an editor for all the big publishers, and co-host of YouTube channel Screencrush, Antos co-created fan-favourite character Gwenpool. Antos will be appearing on all four days of the con.

International cosplayer Jaremi Carey will also be around from 30 April to 3 May, bringing their immense cosplay competition experience to the event. Jaremi has a number of transformative cosplay collaborations with Pokémon, HBO’s The Nevers, and The Last of Us under their belt, and has hosted reality TV contest CosSLAY, which was picked up by Twitch.

Film

Still keeping things local, cinema chain Ster Kinekor has a special Oscar Buzz deal kicking in this coming weekend. From Friday, 6 March, you can watch six of this year’s Academy Award Best Picture nominees on the big screen for R99. These movies are F1, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, Sinners, Bugonia and Hamnet. As an added bonus, your ticket includes a small popcorn and small Coke with the screening.

From 13 March, four of these Oscar front-runners also return in IMAX for a limited run: F1, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another and Sinners. Again, tickets are locked at R99.

On matters of Oscar watching, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners won the highest accolade at the 32nd annual Actor Awards (previously known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards), for Best Ensemble. Michael B. Jordan also won Best Actor, while Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley won Best Actress. Supporting Actor accolades meanwhile went to Sean Penn (One Battle After Another) and Amy Madigan (Weapons).

The 79th BAFTA Film Awards had a bit of a different outcome, with Sinners taking home three awards (Best Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Best Score), while One Battle After Another dominated. Paul Thomas Anderson’s idiosyncratic action film won for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn).

We actually missed covering the results of the 53rd Annie Awards, the animation industry’s most prestigious accolades. Winners were announced on Saturday, 21 February, and in terms of movies, KPop Demon Hunters continued to dominate – though we’re reluctant to rule out Zootopia 2 come Oscar night, especially since it was the BAFTA pick. Frances Arco won Best Independent Feature, while Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects and Pixar’s Win or Lose were the hot small screen properties.

If you need a reminder, the 98th Academy Awards are coming up in Los Angeles on Sunday, 15 March. That’s the very early hours of Monday, 16 March in South Africa. For the record, the ceremony has moved earlier for 2026. It now kicks off at 7:00pm ET / 4:00pm PT / midnight GMT. That’s 2:00am in South Africa.

Moving away from Oscar stuff, Paramount Skydance’s persistence, and investor scrounging, has paid off.

When pushed to match what Warner Bros. Discovery labelled a “superior” last-ditch offer from Paramount (their sixth attempt, at least, to buy WBD), Netflix declined to match the bid, pulling out of the purchase process, which up until now had been locked in their favour. The streamer released their own statement, citing “this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”

Back in early December, Netflix’s buyout of WBD had looked like a done deal, with Warners vocally favouring them multiple times in recommendations to shareholders… despite Paramount’s escalating hostile bids. In walking away from the deal, Netflix pockets a $2.8 billion breakup fee, paid by Paramount. Should the Paramount-WBD merger not be approved by regulators (and the takeover could take up to 15 months to clear), Warner Bros. will receive a $7 billion regulatory termination fee, also paid by Paramount as part of their offer.

Finally, here’s an upcoming movie to end this section on a more upbeat note. Coming to cinemas on 29 May, courtesy of A24, is horror film Backrooms.

The movie sees director Kane Parsons (AKA Kane Pixels) revisit his hit YouTube video series, itself based on the internet urban legend of the Backrooms, an eerie extra-dimensional expanse. The Backrooms film counts Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve and Mark Duplass in its cast, and reportedly centres on a therapist who must navigate the endless liminal spaces to help a patient.

Series

Prime Video dropped a first look at their upcoming live-action God of War series… and reaction wasn’t quite what they intended. Fans of the epic mythological action game weren’t wowed by Ryan Hurst as Kratos and Callum Vinson as Kratos’s son Atreus, responding with memes and dismissing the characters’ looks as cheap cosplay.

Also now filming is Season 3 of Wednesday, and streamer Netflix marked the occasion with a short clip that doubled as a cast announcement. While fans knew that Eva Green was joining the cast of the kooky supernatural thriller as Wednesday Addams’s unhinged aunt Ophelia, the below trailer contains one particularly big surprise: long-time Tim Burton collaborator Winona Ryder will appear in Season 3 as mysterious new character called Tabitha.

Finally, it doesn’t really seem necessary as we’ve already had an ultra-faithful BBC miniseries and Keira Knightley movie adaptation, but Netflix is once more tackling Jane Austen’s beloved 19th Century romance Pride and Prejudice.

Out sometime in the second half of this year, the new Pride and Prejudice stars Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy, while writer Dolly Alderton is on screenwriting duties to freshen things up but remain true to the spirited source material. Evidently the trailer below is simply timeous marketing to capitalise on the Wuthering Heights hype.