As a rule, film directors are rarely seen on the Graham Norton Show. The toocheses that grace his scarlet sofa are strictly A-list, front-of-camera types with Quentin Tarantino being one of the few auteurs to ever make the guest-list. Until last week.

George Clooney has signed a long list of celebrities — including Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Jean Dujardin — to star in his new film about heroic art scholars who retrieved stolen artefacts in the Second World War, entitled The Monuments Men.

Two Israeli documentaries and a number of Jewish entertainers are among the nominees for the 85th-annual Academy Awards.

Steven Spielberg was nominated for Best Director for the eighth time for Lincoln, his biographical portrait of US President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was nominated for 12 Oscars overall.

Steven Spielberg’s US civil war drama Lincoln has dominated the nominations for this month's Bafta awards.

It was announced today that the film has received the most Bafta nominations, 10, including best film and best actor for Daniel Day Lewis.

So, finally, the first fruit of the long-awaited Israel-British film co-production treaty has reached the UK. Zaytoun, a kind of improbable step-bromance-cum-road movie, between a shot-down Israeli air force pilot and a Palestinian child refugee, was one of the opening gala films at this year's UKJFF and received a rapturous audience reception.