FROM talks by award-winning actors, directors and producers to the premiere of new feature films, interactive-film-inspired events and special screenings of classic films, the Belfast Film Festival celebrates its 20th year with a packed programme of more than 100 events for film lovers.

NOT many celebrities would take the time to fix a journalist's hair at the start of an interview.

HE'S known to younger cinema-goers for playing the Incredible Hulk in films including Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Ragnarok, but Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo's latest role sees him breaking down barriers of a different kind.

Kirk Douglas WHEN Kirk Douglas finally shuffled off to the great actor's Winnebago in the sky last week at the ripe old age of 103 most of the talk about his finest on-screen moments covered predictably familiar ground.

WITH banshees looking forward to lots of overtime in the next few weeks, it was inspired if unintentionally timely that the last show at the Lyric Theatre before it voluntarily closed in the face of the Coronavirus outbreak was Wonders of the Wake, Kevin Toolis's elegy in song and poetry to the lost art of keening.

REST is not a word that appears in Tom Ogden's vocabulary.

Today Sister Ghost, Heart Shaped – Strange Victory Records, Belfast, 6pm John Blek – The American, Belfast Blanck Mass, Hilary Woods – Ulster Sports Club, Belfast Vokxen & Amy McCullough, Reevah – Accidental Theatre, Belfast Or:la, Cameron Fowlie – The Palm House, Belfast Gary Quinn, Jenn Bostic, Jeff Cohen – CS Lewis Room, Ramada, Belfast, 8.

MORE acts have been added to the line-up of Irish DJ Annie Mac's AMP Lost & Found music festival in Malta.

BOOK OF THE WEEK Apeirogon by Colum McCann is published in hardback by Bloomsbury, priced £18.

WILLIAM Drennan was born in the manse of First Presbyterian Church in Rosemary Street, Belfast, in 1754.

TYRONE Lindo – aka Big Narstie – has gone from selling drugs after school at age 13, to forging a career as a grime artist and TV personality with a talent for comedy, collaborating with Ed Sheeran, Craig David and Robbie Williams among others.

BOOK OF THE WEEK A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry is published in hardback by Faber & Faber, priced £18.

'YER the onions in me burger, yer the sugar in me tea, so horse it into ya Cynthia fer yer the girl fer me.

WHAT is the sound of 50 women keening? Well if you come to the Wonders of the Wake show at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast this weekend you'll find out.

THE Arts Council of Northern Ireland, in partnership with British Council Northern Ireland, the Lyric Theatre and Teamwork Arts, the producers of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival in India, have unveiled plans for JLF Belfast 2020, an international celebration of arts, culture, books and discourse.

ANYBODY wanting to understand the genesis of the civil unrest in Northern Ireland that has come to be known as 'the Troubles' should have had a seat in the MAC's main auditorium on Saturday afternoon.

Friendship and Community is the theme of Culturlann Mac Adam Ó Fiaich’s first Irish language short story competition.

TÁ MÉ sa teach le 12 lá anuas agus, iontas na n-iontas, níl mé imithe as mo chrann cumhachta go fóill - agus deirim “go fóill” mar ní...

GREETINGS TO  the self-isolating captive audience of the Buffer’s Guide to Irish. El Bluffo was thinking about steiréitíopaí - stereotypes this week after reading abou...

NÍ THARLAÍONN SÉ go minic ach in amanna agus fonn orm a bheith fealsúnach, measaim go bhfuil mo shaol iontach beag, iontach cúng. Smaoiním go minic ar sti&ua...