Hollywood
Ten short films for first Iris Prize in Cardiff in October
NEW DELHI: Ten short films will compete at the inaugural Iris Prize British short film festival being held in October.
Organised by Iris Prize and supported by The Michael Bishop Foundation, the winner of the Iris Prize Best British Short will be announced on 12 October during the festival in Cardiff.
The winner will receive a post-production package to help with the making of their next film, comprising sound mixing, sound track lay and dub plus layback. The package is worth ?14,000 and is sponsored by Pinewood Studios Group.
“British films have always been well received at the Iris Prize Film Festival and we are delighted to be screening 10 of the best British LGBT shorts this year. I’m delighted that Pinewood Studios has agreed to sponsor this important prize, they represent everything which makes the British Film Industry the envy of the world,” said Festival chairman Andrew Pierce.
The films will be judged by a five strong independent jury chaired by Judith Noble who is a senior lecturer in Film Production at the Arts University Bournemouth. The full jury is Judith Noble – Senior Lecturer in Film Production at the Arts University Bournemouth; Andrew Leitch – Lead officer on LGBT equalities within Creative Scotland; Lowri Haf Cooke – Arts critic and blogger; Robert Gershinson – Director and photographer, Co-founder of Queer As Film; and Victoria Ashfield – Cross discipline composer.
The 10 film competing for the 2014 Iris Prize Best British Short are:
• Brace – dir: Sophy Holland, Alicya Eyo
• Butterfly – dir: Stuart McLaughlin
• Holly Thursday (The Last Supper) – dir: Antony Hickling
• Middle Man – dir: Charlie Francis
• Playing The Game – dir: Jeremy Timings
• Remission – dir: Christopher Brown
• Siren – dir: Louise Marie Cooke
• Vis a Vis – dir: Dan Connolly
• Wannabe – dir: Marco Calabrese
• We are Fine – dir: Simon Savory
The 2014 Iris Prize Festival will present six main awards:
1. The Iris Prize – Cardiff’s International gay and lesbian short film prize supported by The Michael Bishop Foundation is valued at ?25,000 and remains the only short film prize in the world which allows the winner to make a new film.
2. Iris Prize Best British Short sponsored by Pinewood Studios Group and valued at ?14,000 will be presented for the first time in 2014.
3. Iris Prize Best Feature Award valued at ?1,000 is sponsored by Martin Brigs and presented to the best new feature screened at the festival.
4. Best Actor in a Feature
5. Best Actress in a Feature
6. Iris Prize Youth Jury Award sponsored by Cardiff University and presented to one of the short films as selected by a jury of 10 between the ages of 14 and 17.
Hollywood
Remembering Chuck Norris: the man, the myth, the legend at 86
From martial arts legend to internet folklore, fans honour his final level up
KAUAI: The world lost a legend on 19 March 2026, when Chuck Norris died aged 86. For a man long treated as immortal in internet folklore, the news felt almost unreal. Yet in true Norris fashion, the farewell has been less about mourning and more about myth-making.
Just days before his passing, on his 86th birthday, Norris shared a video from Kauaʻi, Hawaii, showing him sparring under the sun. His caption was characteristically wry: “I don’t age. I level up.” It now reads like a final wink to fans who had spent years elevating him to near-superhuman status.
His death followed a sudden medical emergency while on holiday. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, who described him not just as a global symbol of strength, but as a devoted husband, father and grandfather.
Online, grief quickly gave way to tribute in the language Norris helped popularise. Social media filled with one last wave of “Chuck Norris Facts”, the tongue-in-cheek myths that turned him into a digital demigod. The jokes wrote themselves, as always. Death did not take Norris, it finally dared to meet him.
Behind the humour, however, lies a formidable real-world legacy.
Long before the memes, Norris was Carlos Ray Norris, a decorated martial artist. After serving in the US Air Force, he rose to become a six-time world professional middleweight karate champion. His on-screen duel with Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon remains one of cinema’s most iconic fight sequences.
Through the 1980s, he became the face of action cinema with films such as Missing in Action and The Delta Force, embodying a stoic, no-nonsense hero. In the 1990s, he reached living rooms worldwide as Cordell Walker in Walker, Texas Ranger, blending Western grit with martial arts flair.
Off-screen, his work carried equal weight. His foundation, Kickstart Kids, continues to teach martial arts to at-risk youth, focusing on discipline and self-worth. He also founded Chun Kuk Do, a martial arts system that trained thousands.
What made Norris unique was not just his strength, but his willingness to laugh at it. When the internet transformed him into an exaggerated symbol of invincibility, he embraced the joke. In doing so, he bridged generations, from cinema-goers to meme-makers.
His passing marks more than the loss of an action star. It signals the fading of a rare cultural crossover, where genuine athletic prowess met Hollywood heroism and early internet humour.
For many, remembering Chuck Norris means recalling a time when heroes were simple, punches were decisive and the internet still felt like a playground of shared jokes.
And if the myths are to be believed, this is not quite the end. It is simply Chuck Norris moving on to his next level.
