Running times: when to go for a pee during classic movies

The app RunPee buzzes in your pocket when a boring bit is coming up in a film, so you can go to the toilet without missing anything. So what’s the safest time to nip out in Casablanca or The Godfather?

Netflix and Amazon on edge as Disney plans own streaming service

Studio will pull all titles from rivals and try to corner market in family-friendly fare from 2019

The Emoji Movie review – the end of human civilisation as we know it

Smartphones take centre-stage is this hideously dumbed-down offering

The Emoji Movie review – zestless, pointless boilerplate animation

While the Angry Birds movie balanced dumbed-down world with a smart script, this personification of smartphone symbols is just ‘meh’

George Clooney, Jennifer Lawrence and Matt Damon jostle for Oscar advantage in Venice line-up

Damon stars in two of the Lido’s big films, Downsizing and Suburbicon, while Lawrence steps into horror movie territory with Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!

Ed Sheeran fever helps drive rise of more than 10% in UK music sales

Singer’s Divide album is bestselling entertainment product this year, shifting more than Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Ready Player One: first trailer for Steven Spielberg’s virtual reality game thriller

The BFG director debuted the footage from his new film at a Comic Con event, showcasing elaborate VR and special effects

City of Ghosts director Matthew Heineman: ‘Imagine seeing people crucified – every day’

Their families have been killed, they live in hiding, but a brave group of Syrians continue to defy Islamic State by reporting its atrocities to the world. The director of a new documentary explains how he told their shocking stories

Big in Albania … countries that gave film flops a second life

The superheroes saved by Mexico, the video-game spinoff that became China’s 12th biggest movie ever, and the British comedian worshipped by a secretive communist nation. We remember the films somebody else loved

Dressmaking next, Daniel – really? Stick to the Day-Lewis job

There are rumours that he could turn his hand to fashion design … But he might end up with a little black dress that looks like a tent designed by Picasso

Refugee hackathons and 3D printing: apps for the world’s displaced people

Smartphones have change how people flee danger but tech is also enabling people to respond to the biggest humanitarian crisis since the second world war

OtherLife review – virtual reality goes bad in ambitious Australian sci-fi thriller

Ben C Lucas’s innovative rumination on the pitfalls of technology has Hollywood appeal and features a darkly charismatic performance from Jessica De Gouw

Carne y Arena review – dazzling virtual reality exhibit offers a fresh look at the refugee crisis

Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s latest project is a fully immersive account of the horrors faced at the US/Mexico border

The great digital-age swindle… and the man fighting back

He was tour manager for the Band, producer of Mean Streets… so why, at nearly 70, is Jonathan Taplin taking on Facebook and co?

Message to Pirates of the Caribbean hackers – piracy no longer pays

Hackers hoped Disney would pay up when they threatened to leak Dead Men Tell No Tales online – but have they scuppered the wrong vessel?