Month: October 2023

Imagine Documentaries, the non-fiction branch of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, is looking to boost a new generation of documentary talent. Speaking at a panel at Rome’s MIA Market, Imagine Documentaries president Sara Bernstein revealed that her company has signed a development deal with filmmakers Isabel Bethencourt and Parker Hill, whose teenagers-in-Texas portrait
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Alireza Khatami and Ali Asgari‘s “Terrestrial Verses,” the sole Iranian film which premiered in Cannes’ official selection, has been acquired by KimStim for North American distribution. The movie, represented in international markets by Films Boutique, will soon play at U.S. festivals, including Chicago, Mill Valley and AFI Fest. A satire of the Iranian regime, “Terrestrial Verses” follows
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Facing tight budgets and continued uncertainty in the entertainment sector, buyers at this year’s MipJunior are expected to largely stick to tried and true IP, but many still see opportunities for exciting original content. In addition to presenting the hottest new kids’ shows from around the globe, MipJunior, which runs Oct. 13-15, will examine the
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CANNES — Bowing at MipJunior both Season 3 of CG animated megahit “The Adventures of Paddington,” targeting free-to-air sales, as well as brand new toon titles such as “How To Squoosh” and “Scarlet Rose,” European powerhouse Studiocanal, owned by Vivendi’s Canal+ Group, is powering into the kids IP and premium series business, marking its most
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Iqbal H. Choudhury’s “The Wrestler” and Mori Tatsutya’s “September 1923” were announced joint winners of the New Currents competition at the Busan International Film Festival. “The Wrester” “was like a single round match, magically depicting an exciting narrative,” the jury said. “We support the bravery to face the history that had been forgotten,” the jury
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Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival has unveiled the program for its 27th edition, which will take place in the Czech city of Jihlava between Oct. 24-29. The festival will showcase 357 films in both competitive and non-competitive sections, with 115 world premieres, 22 international premieres and 17 European premieres. This year’s program touches on themes
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Not even five years have passed since Saudi Arabia first opened up for tourism in 2019 and, yet, the country’s entertainment industry seems to have evolved at an astronomical rate. With multimillion-dollar film and TV project development initiatives available to both local and international companies, high rates of content consumption and an overwhelmingly young population
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CANNES — Germany’s Story House Pictures, producer of the Beta Film/RTL mega-hit “Sisi,” sold to 120 territories, has optioned what looks like one of the biggest and most ambitious projects coming onto the market at this year’s Mipcom: “The Book of Longing,” a six-part English-language series with an international cast based on the international bestseller
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Microsoft‘s deal to buy Activision Blizzard got the green light Friday from regulators in the U.K. — clearing the way for the $68.7 billion blockbuster acquisition to close nearly two years after it was announced. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Friday, Oct. 13, announced the approval of the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard acquisition. The
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Creative Artists Agency chief executive officer Bryan Lourd shot back at eyebrow-raising comments by longtime rival agency CEO Ari Emanuel on Thursday, regarding recent litigation brought on to CAA by actor Julia Ormond. Emanuel, CEO of the parent company to WME, attended Bloomberg’s Screentime conference this week and called for Lourd and his longtime partner,
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The LGBTQIA+ arts and entertainment organization Outfest has announced the postponement of the Legacy Awards to 2024 and the suspension of programming, citing struggles amid the current “financial climate” of Hollywood. Outfest’s board of directors released a statement on the decision. “To ensure that Outfest endures and thrives for the next 40 years in its
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Forty-one years after “The Thing” first opened in theaters and terrified audiences, director John Carpenter is still being asked about its widely debated ending. Like Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” (Is Cobb awake or dreaming?) or Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” (Is Rick Deckard a human or a replicant?) Carpenter’s body horror classic ends on a massive existential
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The Flanaverse is back! Mike Flanagan, longtime horror creator and showrunner of “The Haunting of Hill House,” “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” “Midnight Mass” and “The Midnight Club,” has returned for spooky season with a new offering, “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This means it’s also time to reunite the members of his
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David Fincher is known for doing lots of takes while filming, but Michael Fassbender upped the ante while filming “The Killer” by apparently never blinking when the camera was on him. The film’s cinematography Erik Messerschmidt revealed the detail in the latest issue of Empire Magazine. Messerschmidt previously worked with Fincher on “Mindhunter” and “Mank,”
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The Academy Museum has canceled plans for a red carpet ahead of its annual fundraising gala “out of respect for the devastating conflict and loss of life” happening amid the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. The gala itself is still set to take place on Saturday evening, with no formal press coverage of arrivals beforehand. The announcement
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Stop reading if you’ve seen this movie before — a wooden mannequin with the face of Greta Thunberg greets a horde of kindergarteners emerging from a steampunk Trojan horse under a dome of gigantic smartphones bathing them in hot blue light. Alright, keep scrolling. That singular image is one of the many goofy but eerie
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“Song of the Summer” is not an official Grammy category, of course, but the soundtrack to America’s collective life during those halcyon warm-weather months is definitely a harbinger. And although that distinction has never previously gone to a country song, most independent observers agreed that 2023’s title belonged to Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night.” After becoming
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Guess how many times cinema legends Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg have gone head-to-head at the Oscars? With 37 nominations between them and five decades of indelible classics, such as the gangster epic “Casino” (1995) and the shark thriller “Jaws” (1975), you might assume at least half a dozen ceremonies have seen both auteurs prominently
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