Barcelona-based Filmarket Hub, in coordination with Amazon’s audio storytelling company Audible, has issued an open PitchToPro call for series projects. It’s the first time that Filmarket Hub, an online marketplace which curates film and TV series in development, is partnering with an audio-exclusive company and the first step into the growing spoken-word marketplace. According to
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Streaming heavyweights have big global aspirations, and they’re relying on a growing cadre of women to realize them. Female leaders abound at Netflix and Amazon Studios, where international programming initiatives are well underway, and they occupy top roles at Disney, Viacom and HBO Max as the businesses expand globally. In a sign of how important
Our world has changed tremendously since our last Intl. Women’s Impact Report a year ago: The COVID-19 pandemic shut down business around the globe, productions included, and accelerated the shift toward streamed entertainment. The women on this list span continents, based in countries from Kenya to South Korea. During the challenging past year, they have created
“WandaVision’s” first episodes introduced a few new things to the Marvel universe: Both an aggressive willingness to play with style, and the power of metaphor. The show nestled in close to Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) as she dreamed herself and her family into universes that looked a great deal like hit sitcoms of the past. This
Singer Miley Cyrus has signed with Columbia Records after seven years and four albums on RCA. A source close to the situation tells Variety that even though both Columbia and RCA are Sony-owned labels, there’s no animosity and the deal stems from Miley and her co-managers Adam Leber and Tish Cyrus’ long and positive relationship
Could this be Norway’s year at the Oscars? An unprecedented number of Norwegian productions and co-productions are on this year’s shortlists, exciting the domestic media, industry and audiences. “Recognition from the Oscars is a great inspiration for all of us who have an ambition to reach outside our own borders,” says Yngve Saether of Motlys,
Has the social and political upheaval of the past year brought about change in the film music community? Are composers of color now being considered more frequently for films that don’t focus on Black issues? The answer appears to be yes, and the beneficiaries are not only the composers but also viewers, who are hearing
Research may be the cornerstone of any historically accurate project, but it’s only when artisans know the rules that they can break them. The costume designers behind some of this year’s period films allowed their research to guide them in balancing context with storytelling. Oscar-winning costume designer Alexandra Byrne immersed herself in the1800s setting of
The artisan categories are often overlooked, especially when it comes to the overseen and the overdue Academy Awards. This year, there is a fresh crop of talent in each Oscar race, but several craftspeople who have worked on this year’s contenders should have received nominations long ago. Many of these artisans have made the Oscars
After the coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of popular dating reality show “Love Island” last summer, the show is confirmed to return to U.K. broadcaster ITV for this summer season. The last season of “Love Island” that aired was a winter version filmed in South Africa. ITV also revealed several scripted series that are in
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey has sold around the world for ViacomCBS Global Distribution. The two-hour special sparked a bidding war in the U.K., as revealed by Variety, with ITV emerging victorious. All eyes will undoubtedly be on Britain’s reception to the special, particularly as Markle suggested in a new
Ann Roth is on her way to making Oscar history as the oldest best costume design nominee after receiving a Costume Designers Guild Award nomination for her work on “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” The CDGA (Costume Designers Guild Awards) have announced their nominations for the 23rd CDGAs. Also recognized were Francine Jamison Tanchuck for “One
Sound people had a tough year. Like everyone else in the industry, they found less film work. Second, with COVID, audiences mostly watched movies on the small screen, not getting the full impact of sound, which could affect Oscar voting. (Adding insult to injury: When journalists write about the disadvantages of home viewing, they often
WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar addressed the media conglom’s controversial move to release Warner Bros.’s full 2021 movie slate on HBO Max day-and-date with theaters — saying that theatrical releases are still a key part of the studio’s strategy, but also acknowledging that the industry’s windowing strategy has likely permanently changed. “I think we’re still in
Square, the payments-processing company led by CEO Jack Dorsey, announced plans to buy a “significant” majority stake in Tidal, the music and entertainment streaming platform run by Jay-Z. Square said it expects to pay a $297 million, in a combination of cash and stock, for the Tidal stake, with existing artist shareholders the remaining stakeholders.
Although COVID-19 has damaged the entertainment industry across the board, it’s clear that streamers are making a swifter, healthier recovery than their linear counterparts. According to Ampere Analysis’ Guy Bisson, the streamers’ scripted commissioning activity in 2020 was quicker to return to 2019 levels. However, perhaps more significantly, the streamers have strongly increased their development
Emily Atef, whose latest film “3 Days in Quiberon” competed at the Berlinale in 2018, is getting ready to shoot “More Than Ever,” a melodrama headlined by Vicky Krieps (“Phantom Thread”) and Gaspard Ulliel (“It’s Only the End of the World”). Jesper Christensen (“Before the Frost”) and Liv Ullmann will also star. The Match Factory
For all that didn’t happen this year—the concerts, the sporting events, the bar crawls, and the birthday parties—one thing remained constant: the fashion. It started with perfectly cinched sweatpants for baking bread and evolved into cheetah-printed chiffon inspired by Tiger King. We tuned into Zoom meetings wearing chic tops and very un-chic bottoms. (But hey,
St. Vincent has announced that her sixth album, “Daddy’s Home,” will be released on May 14. As is usually the case with the tradition-bucking singer-songwriter-guitarist, the new albums comes with a new look, this one a short blonde wig and cocktail dress and a disheveled vibe. “’Daddy’s Home’ collects stories of being down and out
Cher and Anderson: Laurie Lynn Stark; Campbell and Cardi B with Offset: Tomás Herold; Hadid: Pierre Suu/Getty Images Rihanna was in Japan a few years back, and she happened to be in the market for a designer meat cleaver. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Jahleel Weaver, the deputy creative director of Fenty and the star’s
LevelK has closed a flurry of major pre-sales on “Checkered Ninja 2,” the sequel to the 2018 blockbuster animated feature that broke a 35-year record at the Danish B.O. for a local film with 950,000 admissions. Directed by Anders Matthesen (“Terkel In Trouble”) and Thorbjørn Christoffersen (“Ronal the Barbarian”), the film also traveled to more
“The Fam” (“La Mif”), Swiss filmmaker Fred Baillif’s bruising, raw portrait of the residents and staff of a Geneva, Switzerland, teen girl care home, has won the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus Grand Prix “Like a rushing, energetic, pulsing heartbeat, this film pushes its characters and viewers in brutal honesty through different stories and incidents. Carried by
Leading Korean entertainment conglomerate CJ ENM is to break the theatrical window in the world’s fourth largest movie market with a simultaneous cinema and streaming release for “Seobok,” one of the year’s hottest Korean movies. The group said that it will distribute the sci-fi actioner in theaters on April 15 and also make it available
Brian Robbins walked into a meeting where executives were deciding whether kids-media giant Nickelodeon should pick up “SpongeBob SquarePants” for a twelfth cycle, and asked what he thought was a simple question: With so many characters populating the underwater city of Bikini Bottom, how come the network had never created any spin-offs? “It really is
Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s Gaza-set drama “The Oblivion Theory” has won the top prize at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. Presented by Paris-based Incognito Films and Berlin’s One Two Films, the film is based on José Eduardo Agualusa’s novel “A General Theory of Oblivion,” although the book’s story has been moved from Angola to Palestine during
Near the beginning of “Little Girl,” the camera sits quietly in on a ballet class for second-grade girls. Among them is seven-year-old Sasha Kovac, in a dark T-shirt and tights that contrast starkly with the other girls’ papery white dresses. She moves gracefully but warily, her eyes more on her fellow dancers’ movements than her
Berlin-based Rise Pictures and Simonsays Pictures in Stuttgart are partnering on a new dark supernatural comedy series about a secretive, multinational corporation established by the Grim Reaper in an effort to more efficiently collect the souls of the dearly departed. “Grim Inc.” revolves around the mysterious enterprise founded by Death some 70 years ago. At
“Attenborough’s Life in Colour” producer Humble Bee Films has hired long-time Icon Films executive Stephen McQuillan as its creative director. McQuillan will oversee the growth of Humble Bee Films’ factual arm, developing science, history and specialist factual programming, while also building on the company’s slate of blue-chip factual productions, which includes BBC One, Netflix and
Play video content Exclusive TMZ.com Kimora Lee Simmons is pissed about getting pulled over and ticketed in Bev Hills — but thanks to a slightly impatient fan, she still managed to bat .500 on the day. We got Kimora Wednesday afternoon as a BHPD officer was writing her up. She told us the cop wasn’t
In 1992, MTV premiered a documentary series about seven young adults they’d cast to share a loft in New York City and who, as the intro promised, would “have their lives taped to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.” They wouldn’t compete in games for control of the