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This year’s honorees included Miles Teller (Artist of Distinction), Jessica Lange (Icon Award), Taraji P. Henson (Artist of Distinction), KJ Apa (Spotlight Award), Mckenna Grace (Spotlight Award), Jack O’Connell (Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award), Sosie Bacon (Breakout Award) and Sarah Finn (Casting Visionary Award).

Additionally, Variety presented its 10 Actors to Watch: Jaafar Jackson (“Michael”), Inde Navarrette (“Obsession”), Ray Nicholson (“The Mosquito Bowl”), Esmé Creed-Miles (“Sense and Sensibility”), Mariana Di Girólamo (“Wild Horse Nine”), Rosalind Eleazar (“Misty Green”), Guitarricadelafuente (“La Bola Negra”),Summer H. Howell (“Carrie”), Ruth Madeley (“Being Heumann”) and Joseph Zada (“The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping”).

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Universal Studios Hollywood will celebrate the holidays with returning festivities, including “Grinchmas™,” “Illumination’s Merry Minions” and “Christmas in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™.” The park also will add seasonal touches to the Mushroom Kingdom at SUPER NINTENDO WORLD™.

Holidays at Universal Studios Hollywood are included with theme park admission and run daily from Saturday, Nov. 21, 2026, through Sunday, Jan. 3, 2027.

Grinchmas

Universal Plaza will become a “Grinchmas” Who-bilation, featuring a 65-foot tree decorated with hundreds of colorful ornaments and thousands of LED lights. The tree lighting ceremony, which includes a snowfall flurry, will take place several times each evening.

Guests can meet the Grinch™, his dog Max and a group of Who-ville Whos. Live entertainment includes Cindy-Lou Who reading “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and The Fah-Who 4 A’s performing holiday songs.

Visitors can buy sweet treats and park-exclusive “Grinchmas” merchandise. They also can stop by the Who-ville post office to send the Grinch a postcard listing three good deeds and decorate a paper “Grinchmas” ornament.

Illumination’s Merry Minions

“Illumination’s Merry Minions” will make its debut at Illumination’s Minion Land, which will be decorated for the season. Guests can meet the Minions in holiday attire, buy seasonal snacks at Minion Cafe and shop a new Merry Minions merchandise collection.

Christmas in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Hogsmeade village will be decorated with lights, garlands and wreaths, and snow will cover the rooftops. The Frog Choir will perform seasonal songs several times a day.

Guests can shop for merchandise and keepsakes and order hot Butterbeer™, a seasonal favorite, in addition to the cold and frozen versions. In the evening, “The Magic of Christmas at Hogwarts™ Castle” will light up the castle in a holiday display set to music from the Harry Potter film series.

SUPER NINTENDO WORLD

Holiday decorations will adorn the land. At the entrance to the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Luigi snowmen will stand beside a holiday tree topped with a Super Star. Holiday merchandise will be sold throughout the park, including at the 1-UP Factory™ shop inside the land.

Universal CityWalk Hollywood

Universal CityWalk Hollywood will feature a 40-foot Christmas tree lit by more than 200,000 LED lights. The Universal Studios Store will offer a new holiday collection that includes apparel, accessories, collectibles, home décor and ornaments tied to popular franchises and seasonal attractions.

On select evenings, the 5 Towers stage will host live music, DJ sets and interactive street performers. Admission to Universal CityWalk is free.

More information is available at www.UniversalStudiosHollywood.com. Universal Studios Hollywood is on Facebook, and updates are posted on Instagram and X.

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The Newport Beach Film Festival will honor Academy Award-nominated actor Taraji P. Henson, Jack O’Connell, Mckenna Grace, Sosie Bacon and casting director Sarah Finn at a brunch Oct. 18, organizers announced.

The event will be held at Balboa Bay Resort alongside Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch. It will be filmed for broadcast and aired on PBS SoCal in January, during the key awards voting window.

The 27th annual festival runs Oct. 15-22 and will feature more than 100 feature films from around the world.

Brunch honorees

• Henson, nominated for an Oscar for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” will receive the Artist of Distinction Award. She is known for “Hustle & Flow,” “Hidden Figures” and the TV series “Empire,” for which she won a Golden Globe. She made her Broadway debut this year in August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”

• O’Connell, a BAFTA Rising Star Award winner, will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award. He stars as Larry Lamb opposite Guy Pearce in Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” about the rise of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. He also appeared in “Sinners” and “28 Years Later.”

• Grace, the youngest-ever Emmy nominee in the guest actress category for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” will receive the Spotlight Award. She plays Maysilee Donner in “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” which opens in theaters Nov. 20.

• Bacon will receive the Breakout Award. She is known for “Smile,” “13 Reasons Why” and “Mare of Easttown,” and she co-stars in and helped produce the comedy thriller “Family Movie” with her parents, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, and her brother, Travis Bacon.

• Finn will receive the Casting Visionary Award. She has cast more than 150 features, including much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Black Panther.” She most recently reunited with director Martin McDonagh on “Wild Horse Nine,” which opens in November.

The brunch will also recognize the previously announced Variety 10 Actors to Watch: Esmé Creed-Miles, Mariana Di Girólamo, Rosalind Eleazar, Guitarricadelafuente, Summer H. Howell, Jaafar Jackson, Ruth Madeley, Inde Navarrette, Ray Nicholson and Joseph Zada.

Additional honors

Other honorees will be recognized at separate events during the festival:

• Saturday, Oct. 17: KJ Apa, best known as Archie on “Riverdale,” will receive the Spotlight Award at a screening of “Jimmy,” in which he plays James Stewart. The film opens in theaters Nov. 6.

• Monday, Oct. 19: Justin Hartley, star and executive producer of CBS’ “Tracker” and a former star of NBC’s “This Is Us,” will receive the Artist of Distinction Award at a special Sunset Series event.

• Monday, Oct. 19: Director and writer Jonás Cuarón, a co-writer of “Gravity” and director of “Desierto,” will receive the Artist of Distinction Award at a screening of “Campeón Gabacho.”

• Tuesday, Oct. 20: Gemma Chan will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award at a screening of “Josephine.” The film, in which she stars opposite Channing Tatum, won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Opening and closing nights

The festival will open with “Frampton,” a documentary about rock guitarist Peter Frampton, followed by a live question-and-answer session with Frampton and director Rob Arthur. The film traces his rise in the 1970s and his career comeback. It also covers his diagnosis with Inclusion Body Myositis, a disease that threatens his ability to play guitar.

“Unleashed Spirits: The Rise of the Hollywood Vampires” will close the festival with its West Coast premiere at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at the Lido Theater. Director Daniel E. Catullo III, executive producer Paul Geary and members of the band are scheduled to attend. The documentary follows the supergroup, which grew out of a secret 1970s drinking club led by Alice Cooper. Its members include Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen.

Previously announced highlights include the closing night film “Behemoth!” and centerpiece films “A Talent for Murder,” “Ink,” “Josephine,” “La Bola Negra,” “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” “Paper Tiger” and “Wild Horse Nine.”

The festival draws more than 50,000 attendees to Orange County and bills itself as the largest international cinema event in coastal Southern California. It also hosts nightly parties and events with more than 60 culinary partners.

For the full schedule and tickets, visit newportbeachfilmfest.com.

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The attraction, called Thrill Glider, combines elements of flying coasters, motorbike-style vehicles and suspended coaster technology into what the park is branding a “Thrillglider.” It was designed exclusively for Magic Mountain by Dutch manufacturer Vekoma.

Riders will board vehicles the park calls “hovercycles,” lying in a prone, face-forward position suspended beneath the track. The ride’s terrain-following layout includes 20 track elements packed into roughly 80 seconds, according to the park.

Six Flags said the coaster will launch riders multiple times to speeds of up to 50 mph, include 12 moments of airtime and feature five inversions — a wing-over, zero-g roll, overbanked stall turn, barrel roll and upward barrel roll — over a course covering nearly 3.5 acres.

Upon its debut, the park says Thrill Glider will hold several records for its category, including world’s first multi-launch Thrillglider, world’s longest at 3,380 feet, world’s fastest at 50 mph, world’s tallest at 107 feet and most inversions with five.

The ride will carry a science-fiction theme centered on a fictional company called QuantumPulse Propulsion Systems, led by a character described as inventor Rebecca Silva. According to the park, the queue will lead guests through a themed building called “The Futurist Pavilion,” featuring displays about a fictional energy source called PSR B417 before riders board the coaster.

“Thrill Glider is more than a new attraction. It is the latest milestone in Six Flags Magic Mountain’s renaissance and a reflection of the park’s enduring role as an industry innovator,” said Brian Oerding, the park’s president, in a statement.

The coaster will have a minimum height requirement of 48 inches, making it accessible to a broader range of riders than some of the park’s other attractions, Six Flags said.

Thrill Glider is being built on the site of the former Golden Bear Theatre, between the Full Throttle and Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom coasters and near the park’s Looney Tunes Land area. Construction is underway, though the park has not announced a specific opening date beyond 2027.

Six Flags is currently selling 2027 season passes that include admission to the park for the remainder of 2026, along with access to other West Coast parks under the Six Flags brand, including Knott’s Berry Farm.

More information is available at sixflags.com/magicmountain.

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It’s Sept. 1, which means that, arguably, it’s time for Halloween season! Though some theme parks have already started celebrating the Halloween season, I wanted to break down some of the cornerstone and flagship Halloween-themed experiences in Southern California.

Knott’s Scary Farm & Knott’s Spooky Farm — Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, California

The original theme park haunt returns with new haunts and entertainment on select nights from Sept. 17 through Oct. 31. With 10 houses (mazes), stage shows and roaming scare actors, it will surely continue to delight and fright guests.

Tickets are on sale now on the Knott’s Scary Farm website as well as information on the more family-friendly “Spooky Farm”.

Halloween Horror Nights — Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal City, California

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood puts guests into a world of horror and thrills from the big screen on select nights from Sept. 3 through Nov. 1.

Every year, Universal Studios creates experiences and haunted houses themed around some of the most popular — and infamous — horror icons and franchises. Don’t forget about the famous Terror Tram, which takes guests who dare to ride onto the movie sets of the backlot, where they are put in the middle of the chaos as monsters, killers and creatures are let loose.

Tickets are available on Universal Studios Hollywood’s website, where guests can also explore the event’s other offerings.

Six Flags Fright Fest — Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, California

Six Flags Fright Fest transforms the park after dark into a nightmare filled with haunted mazes, terrifying scare zones, roaming monsters and thrill rides in the dark. From elaborate haunted attractions to unexpected scares around every corner, Fright Fest brings a whole new level of fear to Six Flags each Halloween season.

Between the coasters and monsters, no one can escape the thrills.

Visit the Six Flags Magic Mountain website to purchase tickets for select dates from Sept. 11 through Nov. 1.

Queen Mary Dark Harbor — Long Beach, California

Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor transforms the legendary Queen Mary into a terrifying Halloween experience filled with haunted mazes, sinister characters, immersive scare zones, live entertainment and eerie encounters inspired by the ship’s haunted history.

If the stories and experiences reported by visitors to the ship don’t scare you, the ghouls, monsters and lost souls just might.

The second wave of presale tickets is available on the Dark Harbor website for select dates from Sept. 18 through Nov. 1.

Howl-O-Scream — SeaWorld San Diego, San Diego, California

This year brings an exciting first for the event with its first IP-based haunted house, inspired by the iconic horror franchise “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”

Now in its sixth season, the event continues to establish itself as a premier Halloween experience in Southern California. Tickets are available for select nights from Sept. 11 through Oct. 31 on SeaWorld San Diego’s website.

These are just a handful of the largest haunt events taking place during the Halloween season. There are also a number of more family-centered “spooky” experiences for younger guests, which we will be highlighting soon.

MUSE will be visiting and experiencing many of these events in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more Halloween coverage.

Universal Studios Hollywood will open its first outdoor, high-speed roller coaster Sept. 16, marking what park officials call an unprecedented addition to the theme park’s decades-long history of attractions.

“Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift” is billed as the fastest coaster in the Universal Destinations & Experiences portfolio. The ride draws on Universal Pictures’ Fast & Furious franchise, an 11-film series worth $7 billion that celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The franchise’s next installment, “Fast Forever,” is scheduled for release in March 2028.

The coaster is on the Upper Lot of Universal Studios Hollywood, housed within a red brick garage-like structure. Two stationary replica cars serve as photo props outside the entrance, and guests pass through an archway into the queue.

A segment of the ride’s track passes through a transparent, encased section of the queue — a feature the park says is a technological first — allowing waiting guests to watch trains in motion before boarding.

The ride features a dual-launching, split-track system that alternates trains from the dispatch point. Riders travel over and under the park’s multilevel Starway escalator through four launches, an inverted dive loop, a twisted pretzel loop and an inverted stall, among other elements. The coaster reaches speeds up to 72 mph and forces up to 3.6 Gs along 4,100 feet of track built with sound-reduction technology. Ride vehicles rotate 360 degrees independently throughout the course.

Riders are secured with lap-bar harnesses in one of four vehicles modeled after cars from the film franchise: a Dodge Charger, Mazda RX-7, Nissan Skyline GT-R and Toyota Supra. Each vehicle has an independent audio system with engine sounds specific to that car, and because vehicles rotate independently, the experience varies by seat.

The arrival platform features a large-scale mural by artist Tristan Eaton depicting the street-racing finale from the original 2001 film “The Fast and the Furious.” A second Eaton mural appears in the queue, paying tribute to the franchise as a whole.

Universal Creative designers incorporated the site’s hillside terrain into the coaster’s structure, using the natural landscape as a structural base. The design offers views of the San Fernando Valley, the Universal Studios backlot and the park below.

The queue also includes recreated props from the film series: a car cannon from “Fast & Furious 6,” a roll cage and winch from “Fast Five,” a vault truck also from “Fast Five,” a motorcycle from “F9,” a NOS engine display, a ramp car from “Fast & Furious 6,” a “rolling bomb” from “Fast X” and a rollover stunt rig. Some displays include QR codes linking to behind-the-scenes content through the park’s Backlot Club fan platform, which requires an account login.

Because of the ride’s mechanics, guests must store all belongings, including phones, in complimentary lockers before passing through metal detection to reach the boarding platform.

The coaster joins the park’s existing lineup of attractions, including Super Nintendo World and its Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge ride, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Jurassic World — The Ride, The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, The Simpsons Ride, Transformers: The Ride-3D, Revenge of the Mummy and the Studio Tour.

More information is available at UniversalStudiosHollywood.com.

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