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It’s Academy Awards weekend, that time of year when the film industry obsesses over who will win what, and why.

But there’s more going on than just the Oscars. The Independent has compiled a guide to the best cultural activities and events taking place over the next few days, for our weekly Arts Agenda. Critics and editors recommend a diverse range of options from the worlds of art, literature, film, music, stage and TV.

Arts editor Jessie Thompson heralds an exciting new project from feminist publisher Virago, and discusses the divisive Bake Off musical currently storming the West End. Features editor Adam White has good things to say about the new Scream film, which features Wednesday star Jenna Ortega. Chief art critic Mark Hudson urges everyone to go and check out the Cézanne exhibition while there’s still a chance, and features writer Annabel Nugent walks us through...

When poet Cleo Wade and Oscar- and Emmy-nominated writer-producer-director Simon Kinberg (The Martian, X-Men: First Class, The 355, Invasion) got engaged in 2019, the evening was enveloped in art.

A few days before Kinberg proposed — at a get-together at their home — their friend, civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson, sent a photo of the couple to artist Brandon Breaux. The artist in turn created a multi­colored drawing based on the photo showing the couple in outline. On the night of the engagement, Mckesson also gave postcard-size prints of the work to guests. “They wrote little things on the back and drew on [them]. It was so sweet,” recalls Wade. “It was a cool way of having art be alive.”

The night was a snapshot of the way the pair approach art collecting, with a focus on works that express freedom and joyfulness. “We both really respond to something that looks really free,” says Wade,...

The Institute of Contemporary Arts (Ica) has become the first major arts, theater and cinema venue to close its doors in the U.K. as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ica said today that it would close all its exhibition spaces, as well as its cinema, theater, bookstore and canteen to visitors and staff until further notice.

Most U.K. cinemas and theaters remain open for business, saying they are following advice from the government, which has not yet ruled that they should close. By contrast, many European countries have ordered theaters and cinemas to shut in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.

Announcing the closure, Stefan Kalmár, director of the Ica, hit out at the U.K. government for not taking action sooner to ban large gatherings: “Today I decided, together with the senior management-team and Wolfgang Tillmans, chair of the Ica, that it...

“Endless” opens with a techno sample from German artist Wolfgang Tillmans, singing in accented robotic tones: “With this Apple appliance/You can capture live video/Still motion pictures/Shot at high frequency/Blurring/Blurring the line.”

Calling Frank Ocean’s visual album a music video doesn’t do it justice. It might be opus to creativity, or digital music sculpture, but more than anything it’s an ode to a kind of handmade art that that can only exist on a device.

Read More: Watch ‘Possibilia,’ The Moving Interactive Film From ‘Swiss Army Man’ Directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

Blurring lines is exactly what Ocean succeeds in doing — wresting that phrase from Robin Thicke’s creepy hands is just a bonus. The album can only be streamed with an Apple Music subscription (the free trial lasts three months) while the film plays. The captivating black-and-white images aren’t exactly...

Various artists: NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star The New Museum Through May 26, 2013

and

Julian Schnabel 1978–1981

Oko

Through March 30, 2012

One must turn to the past to move forward.-- Akan proverb

We are sitting around a banquette at Nell’s, well sorted, and I am overwhelmed with a vague sadness all of a sudden -- the conversations around the table, a sonic penumbra: who has new tits (girls with names like Coriander and Chloe), who is in rehab (“she has a nasal addiction”), who fucked whom with what (don’t ask), and possibly, for the first time in recent memory, I no longer care what I am wearing (Comme des Garçons leather jacket over a vintage Led Zeppelin t-shirt, imitation of Imitation of Christ store-torn jeans, Prada driving shoes, with no socks, as my awesome new ankle tattoo -- neo-tribal -- is still too fresh and...

Our critics' picks of this week's openings, plus your last chance to see and what to book now

• Which cultural events are in your diary this week? Tell us in the comments below

Opening this weekTheatre

Enquirer

The Guardian's Deborah Orr is one of a team conducting the interviews with journalists for this timely site-specific verbatim piece about the media. Andrew O'Hagan co-edits a project directed and edited by Vicky Featherstone and John Tiffany. The Hub, Glasgow (0141-429 0022), 19 April to 13 May.

A History of Everything

The controversial Ghent-based company Ontroerend Goed returns to the UK with a show that offers a history of everything, from now back to the Big Bang. No small undertaking from a company that has delighted and challenged spectators with previous shows including the outrageous Audience. Drum, Plymouth (01752 267222), until 28 April.

Film

The Cabin in the Woods (dir. Drew Goddard)

A bunch of great-looking teens take a...

Our critics' picks of this week's openings, plus your last chance to see and what to book now

• Which cultural events are in your diary this week? Tell us in the comments below

Opening this weekTheatre

In a Garden

The Ustinov's ambitious season of modern American plays continues with the British premiere of Howard Korder's play about an American architect summoned to a Middle Eastern country to fulfil an impossible commission. Richard Beecham directs a tale of dangerous misunderstandings. Ustinov, Bath (01225 448844), Wednesday until 5 May.

Film

Into the Abyss (dir. Werner Herzog)

Werner Herzog probes the dark heart of humanity with his death-row interviews. Why do people kill?

Dance

The Royal Ballet: Mixed Bill

The Royal at their adventurous best, with new works by Liam Scarlett and Wayne McGregor, plus a revival of Wheeldon's classy, intelligent Polophonia. Royal Opera House, London WC2 (020-7304 4000), Thursday until 23 April.

The Eifman Ballet: Anna Karenina (Tue-Weds) Onegin (Fri)

Big,...

Why is the video director for Cheryl Cole and Klaxons filming people dancing when drunk?

If you were making a reality show called The Only Way is Shoreditch, you would want to have aimed your camera at an innocuous white booth in Hoxton Square last month. Surrounded by the standard gaggle of east London hipsters, the luminous box, an interactive art installation by Saam Farahmand, became a scenester magnet over the course of two days.

A former Goldsmiths fine art graduate, Farahmand, at 32, is considered one of the most talented music video directors of his generation. According to Creative Review, with his "experimental approach and technical brilliance, you always know you're going to get something special".

So how do his videos come about? "Normally, you pitch to a [record] label and they choose the best one. I just work directly with artists now – but don't put that! It sounds arrogant." Farahmand...

With the Venice Film Festival having just concluded and Toronto now underway, the award season's wheels begin to roll with big name players, both indie and arthouse, making a showing, with Steven Soderbergh and Jennifer Aniston keeping things light at the multiplex.

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"35 Shots of Rum"

While Claire Denis' latest film, "White Material," is in the midst of a prestigious festival run that will take in Venice, Toronto and soon London, fans of the French filmmaker's work can enjoy this delicate domestic portrayal of tenderness and devotion from last year that begins a small theatrical run here in New York. Set in a nondescript Parisian neighborhood, Denis' film casually unfolds the dynamic of unspoken trust and mutual support played out between a stoic widower Lionel (Alex Descas), his daughter Joséphine (Mati Diop), and the...