Director Bradley Cooper’s Maestro will close AFI Fest 2023. Maestro is a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein (portrayed by Cooper) and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (Carey Mulligan). A love letter to life and art, Maestro at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love. The film reunites Cooper with Oscar®-nominated cinematographer Matthew Libatique (AFI Class of 1992) and is co-written by Cooper and Oscar® winner Josh Singer (Spotlight). Producing alongside Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Cooper are Fred Berner, Amy Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger. Maestro will screen as the closing night red carpet premiere at AFI Fest on Sunday, October 29, 2023, at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
“Maestro displays Bradley Cooper’s symphony of talent with the power of a cymbal crash,” said Bob Gazzale, American Film Institute (AFI) president and CEO. “It is AFI’s honor to shine a light upon this extraordinary work of art on the festival’s Closing Night.”
As previously announced, the world premiere of Leave The World Behind, written and directed by Sam Esmail (AFI Class of 2004), will open AFI FEST on October 25. Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, the highly anticipated apocalyptic thriller stars Academy Award® winner Julia Roberts, Academy Award® winner Mahershala Ali, Academy Award® nominee Ethan Hawke, Myha’la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans and Kevin Bacon.
Supreme Court declines to hear appeal from singer R. Kelly, convicted of child sex crimes
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal Monday from the singer R. Kelly, who is now serving 20 years in prison after being convicted of child sex convictions in Chicago.
The Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in 2022 of three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
His lawyers argued that a shorter statute of limitations on child sex crime prosecutions should have applied to offenses dating back to the 1990s. Current law permits charges while an accuser is still alive.
The justices did not detail their reasoning in declining to hear the case, as is typical. And none publicly dissented. Lower courts previously rejected his arguments.
Federal prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser identified only as Jane testified that she was 14 when the video was taken.
Kelly has also appealed a separate 30-year sentence for federal racketeering and sex trafficking convictions in New York.
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