As Hollywood celebrates the film industry at this weekend’s Academy Awards, not far away from where finishing touches are being put to the red carpet, communities are still coming to terms with the impact of the wildfires which ravaged areas of Los Angeles earlier this year. 

Prop master Adam Jette – and his wife and son – lost their home in Altadena.

“Even coming back into the neighbourhood is really, really hard,” he tells Sky News.

“You’re coming back to what it is, which is a disaster site, the whole neighbourhood is gone.”

He says he and others in the same position have no choice but to keep going.

“We all have to keep working in order to support ourselves, in order to have our health insurance, in order to be able to move forward and rebuild.

“And yet the only thing you want to do is just, you know, sit there in misery.”

In Hollywood, few productions have had to be paused because less is being shot here these days, the fires adding to the existential crisis the city was already facing.

Wes Bailey’s company SirReel has been renting out film and TV production equipment in Los Angeles since the 1990s – but in recent years work in the city of dreams has dried up.

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First COVID-19, then strikes and now, after a race for scale to commission content for streaming platforms, the industry is facing a production contraction and Bailey says it needs help.

“The fires were, I think, the catalyst to really get people to say ‘we’ve got an emergency here’,” he says.

“You go into the UK and you get a 40% return on your money.

“I think the way that California delivers that incentive has been sloppy, it’s been inconsistent.”

For glossy reality show Selling Sunset, set around high-end real estate in LA, production has now resumed after pausing when the fires broke out.

One of the show’s stars, Jason Oppenheim, says he’s had “many, many” emotional calls from clients.

“I’m 30% therapist right now, 20% attorney, 20% contractor and 30% real estate agent,” he tells Sky News.

He says Los Angeles has issues that need resolving if it wants to continue to attract investment.

“We obviously have a crime problem, we have a homelessness problem, we’ve obviously taxed to the point where we discourage development, and we obviously have seen significant loss of wealthy people leaving the state.

“If you really want to have a healthy, functioning society that’s egalitarian and creates opportunity for everyone, you’re going to need a lot of wealthy people in that city paying taxes, so you cannot force them away and that’s just a fact.”

Yet despite the frustration, he’s optimistic for the future of the Palisades – another area devastated by the fires.

“I would bet anything that the Palisades will be one of the most desirable areas on the planet to live in five years,” he says.

“The houses will be stunning, fireproof, beautiful architecture.”

But that seems a long way off now, and in the meantime for those left with nothing the little they can salvage becomes special.

For Adam Jette that’s even an iron saucepan.

“To be able to pull anything out of this wreckage and have it, it’s so meaningful,” he says.

“It didn’t take our pets and it didn’t take our family, it just took stuff, but even just some of that surviving it really, it means something.”

Buried in the ashes following the wildfires is a lesson in what matters to those who keep this industry going – and it’s not red carpets or golden statuettes.

Tonight’s Brit Awards are shaping up to be a big night for female British artists, including Charli XCX and Dua Lipa.

The ceremony, which is taking place at London’s O2 Arena, will see artists who are currently dominating the charts come together to celebrate the best in popular music.

Leading nominations with five nods is Charli XCX, whose sixth album Brat was a viral hit last year.

Dua Lipa closely follows with four nominations – along with 2024 rising star winners The Last Dinner Party, and 2023 Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective.

Here is everything you can expect from the biggest night in British music.

What will happen?

Comedian Jack Whitehall is returning to host this year’s ceremony.

It will be his first time at the helm in four years, but fifth in total, after taking on the role for four consecutive years from 2018 to 2021.

There are 16 categories for awards this year, including the big one – album of the year.

In the running for this is Charli XCX – BRAT, The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World, Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism, Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching and The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy.

Other awards up for grabs include: Artist of the year, group of the year, best new artist, song of the year, international artist of the year, international group of the year, international song of the year, alternative rock act, hip-hop/grime/rap act, dance act, pop act and R&B act.

Last year’s ceremony saw singer-songwriter Raye dominating, with a record number of six wins including a clean sweep of the big three; best artist, best song and best album.

This year, the trophy that winners will pick up on the night has been designed by artist Gabriel Moses.

Who is nominated?

Before the awards have even begun, Charli XCX has been announced as the winner of this year’s songwriter of the year award.

Also recognised is her longtime collaborator AG Cook, winning Brits producer of the year, reflecting the combined impact he and Charli XCX have had on music over the last 12 months.

The singer – whose real name is Charlotte Aitchison – could still pick up another five awards tonight including: pop act, dance act, song of the year, artist of the year and album of the year.

Behind Charli XCX, this year also sees The Beatles pick up a nomination for the song Now And Then.

The song, which was finished by Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr with the help of audio restoration and released in November, is the band’s first nomination since 1977.

The Cure are also back with three nominations – following the release of their 14th album, Songs Of A Lost World, in 2024.

International artists such as Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Benson Boone, Chappell Roan and Kendrick Lamar have also all got nods, as well as homegrown talent such as Central Cee, Fred again.., Sam Fender and former Little Mix star JADE.

Sabrina Carpenter will become the first international artist to receive the global success award after breaking records in the UK charts.

The pop star held the top spot on the Official UK Charts for a combined 21 weeks in 2024, the first artist to do so in 71 years.

Her mega-hits Taste, Please Please Please and Espresso held the top three spots simultaneously, making her the first female artist to do so.

Already named as this year’s rising star is British singer-songwriter Myles Smith, whose single Stargazing became one of the UK’s biggest hits of 2024.

You can read the full list of nominations ahead of tonight, right here.

Who is performing?

Taking to the stage at this year’s ceremony is a mix of UK and US artists including Sam Fender, JADE, Teddy Swims and Myles Smith.

Off the back of winning the award for global success, Sabrina Carpenter, will also treat audiences to a performance.

It comes after Carpenter’s slapstick comedy mashup performance at the Grammy’s was dubbed “iconic” by fans.

It is the first year American artists Shaboozey, known for A Bar Song (Tipsy) and Teddy Swims, known for Lose Control, will also perform at the awards.

“I’m beyond grateful and humbled to not only be nominated for a Brit Award but to take the stage,” Shaboozey said.

“This past year has been huge for me with my records getting love from all over the world and now I can celebrate with my friends and fans in London.”

Meanwhile, JADE, whose real name is Jade Thirlwall, said she “manifested” performing at the Brits every day since the release of her debut solo single Angel Of My Dreams last year.

The singer already has three Brit Awards to her name, winning best British single for Shout Out To My Ex, video of the year for Woman Like Me and best British group with Little Mix, but is nominated this year as a solo artist in the song of the year and pop act categories.

Also performing on the night are Lola Young – who is nominated for best pop act – and The Last Dinner Party, who won the Brits rising star award last year.

How to watch

Live coverage of the Brits will start on ITV and ITVX from 8.15pm tonight.

You can also follow along with all the latest from the red carpet and ceremony on Sky News and our dedicated live blog.

For those outside the UK, the show is available to watch internationally on the Brits YouTube channel.

An emotional 911 call by a maintenance worker who discovered the bodies of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa has been released.

The unnamed worker appears to cry and repeat “damn” as he says he can see Arakawa’s body “not moving” from outside a window of the couple’s New Mexico home.

He urged the 911 call handler to “send someone up here real quick” as he said the house the couple were in was locked.

Hackman, 95, Arakawa, 65, and one of their pet dogs were found dead on Wednesday after police carried out a welfare check. Two healthy dogs were also on the property.

The actor’s body was discovered in a mudroom while Arakawa was found in a bathroom next to a heater. They had been dead for some time, detectives from Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a search warrant.

There were scattered pills and an open prescription bottle on a countertop near Arakawa.

The couple’s deaths are “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation”, the warrant said.

There was no indication they had been shot and they had no other wounds, police said. The warrant added that the door to the property was found ajar and there were no signs of forced entry.

Preliminary findings from a medical investigation have found the couple suffered “no external trauma”.

Official results of post-mortem examinations and toxicology reports are pending, and the manner and cause of death have not yet been determined, according to the sheriff’s office.

Hackman’s daughter had earlier suggested the couple may have been killed by carbon monoxide – but the cause of death remains unclear.

The local utility company tested gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were found and did not find any sign of problems, the police warrant said.

Tributes poured in for Hackman, who won an Oscar for his lead role in The French Connection, a 1971 action movie by William Friedkin, and another for best supporting actor in Clint Eastwood’s 1992 western, Unforgiven.

He was also known for playing Lex Luthor in the Superman films of the late 1970s and 1980s.

Roles in the Francis Ford Coppola mystery thriller The Conversation and in the historical drama Mississippi Burning, where he starred as an FBI agent alongside Willem Dafoe, helped cement his career as one of Hollywood’s greats.

Among those paying tribute was the Prince of Wales, who said he was “so sad to hear the news”.

“Hackman was a true genius of film who brought each and every character to life with power, authenticity and star quality,” he said in a post on X.

The Shawshank Redemption actor Morgan Freeman said “bringing the French film Garde a Vue (Under Suspicion) to life with the incredibly gifted Gene Hackman” was “one of the personal highlights of my career”.

The thriller, released in 2000, saw Hackman play wealthy tax lawyer Henry Hearst who is questioned by Freeman’s character, Captain Victor Beneze, about the murder of a young girl.

American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola hailed Hackman as a “great actor” who was “inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity”.

Coppola wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated 1974 mystery thriller The Conversation, which starred Hackman as a surveillance expert who has a crisis of conscience when he suspects the couple he is spying on will be murdered.

Bill Murray, who starred with Hackman in the 2001 film The Tenenbaums, called him a “tough nut” and a “really good” actor.

Singer Sting said the world had “lost a legend” while actor and director Clint Eastwood said Hackman would be “deeply missed”.

Dirty Harry actor Eastwood starred opposite Hackman in 1997 political action thriller Absolute Power, where he played master jewel thief Luther Whitney.

Hackman married Arakawa, a classical pianist, in 1991. He had three children, Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, with his late ex-wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017.