And the 2024 Braddies go to … Peter Bradshaw’s film picks of the year

Now the Guardian’s Top 50 countdowns, as voted for by the whole film team, have announced their No 1s, here are our chief critic’s personal choices, in no particular order The 50 best films of 2024 in the UK The 50 best movies of 2024 in the US More on the best culture of 2024The time has come once more for me to present my “Braddies”, a strictly personal awards list for films getting a UK release in the calendar year just gone – quite distinct from the Guardian’s collegiate best-of-year critics’ poll.It’s been 12 months in which the big-worry issue refuses to go away, two little letters that until recently, didn’t mean anything much at all and now reduce us to a quiver of anxiety: AI. The conclusion of the writers’ strike was supposed to have provided for the primacy of creative humanity, and for keeping AI in its place as a tool. But studios are keen to find efficient and profitable ways to exploit their intellectual property and Lionsgate has actually signed a deal with artificial intelligence firm Runway to engage with their back catalogue. An uneasy thought

‘Still so relatable’: how teenage discovery of the Brontës fostered career in literature

Lucy Powrie was 15 years old when she first read Anne Brontë’s 1847 novel Agnes Grey and instantly, intensely, fell in love. “There was just this moment of, I suppose, feeling like I’d come home. I’d found something that was just better than anything I had ever found in my life.”Already a wildly enthusiastic reader, she had been blogging about books since the age of 12, and hosting a book review channel on YouTube since she was 13. Discovering Anne Brontë, followed immediately by her older sisters Emily and Charlotte, opened the door to a new world: “They were everything that I didn’t realise was out there

‘All the kids were spewing innuendo’: actors and comedians remember their first nativity plays

Whether it’s a slightly inappropriate comedy spin on the story or a surprise casting as the Angel Gabriel, Nick Mohammed, Pearl Mackie, Omid Djalili and more look back on their infant brushes with stardomLines rehearsed and carols belted out in preparation. Shepherds, angels and kings queueing up, stage left, for their grand entrance. Mums and dads sitting patiently in the audience for the show of the season, hoping their child nails their appearance as sheep #4, or at the very least doesn’t misbehave in front of the whole auditorium.Ah, the nativity, the beloved bible story that offers kids their first shot at performing and gives teachers the chance to flex their scriptwriting muscles. It has the potential to be a logistical nightmare, but might also be the early making of future acting greats

Rob Brydon: ‘Ruth Jones is the closest thing I have to a sister’

The Gavin & Stacey actor on the last ever Christmas special, ​first working with his co-star Ruth Jones​ aged 14, and why he puts family before his careerRob Brydon was born in Baglan, south Wales, in 1965. His father was a car salesman and his mother a teacher. He attended the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama but left aged 20 to work for BBC Radio Wales. Jobs followed on regional TV, shopping channels and advert voiceovers, before his break at 35 with his one-man sitcom, Marion and Geoff, and Human Remains, a series with Julia Davis; both were produced by Steve Coogan’s production company, Baby Cow. Today, he mixes primetime gameshow presenting with acting, and reprises his role as Uncle Bryn on Christmas Day in BBC One’s Gavin & Stacey: The Finale

Film: Wendy Ide’s 10 best of 2024

From Jonathan Glazer’s unforgettable view of Auschwitz to Sean Baker’s profane Cinderella story, daring directors proved there’s substance in style1. The Zone of Interest Released in the UK in February It might seem odd to award the number one slot in the best films of 2024 list to a picture I first saw in May 2023, but Jonathan Glazer’s piercing portrait of the family of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss has lost none of its devastating potency, formal daring and weighty significance with distance. A masterpiece.2. La Chimera May A tale of grief and graverobbing, set in 1980s Tuscany and starring a sublime, wounded Josh O’Connor as the leader of a disreputable band of renegade archaeologists, director and co-writer Alice Rohrwacher’s beguiling caper has an untamed pagan spirit and a story infused with earth magic

Letters from Lord Byron, Elizabeth I and Benjamin Franklin among collection discovered in British stately home

Baron Edmond de Rothschild was one of Europe’s richest and best connected men. But his lifelong hobby – hunting the autographs of the famous – was more akin to that of an idolising youngster.Nine decades after his death, more than 220 letters he collected over 60 years have just been discovered at Waddesdon Manor, the former Rothschild home, now owned by the National Trust.The list includes Queen Elizabeth I, Nelson, Byron, Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Peter Paul Rubens and Madame de Pompadour, plus a few signed documents, including a music manuscript by Mozart and an invoice of his rival, Salieri. “This is a really fascinating discovery,” said Pom Harrington, managing director of the rare books and manuscripts company Peter Harrington