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EXCLUSIVE: Aria Studios , a new two-stage £1.6M ($2M) facility that boasts 20,000 sqft of filming space, has officially opened for business in Anglesey, North Wales . The facility, located near the popular Welsh region of Eryri, has been established by indie production company Rondo Media and Welsh broadcaster S4C’s commercial arm S4C Digital Media Limited, with the support of the Welsh Government through Creative Wales. The studio has two fully-soundproofed stages and is located amongst acres of unspoiled grounds in the Eryri region. Rondo Media is currently filming the drama series Rownd a Rownd for S4C for 27 weeks in stage 2 at Aria. The studio has said they expect further bookings from drama and film producers commissioned by S4C. However, the studio has said its principal target clients are high-end film and television productions from the UK and the US. Wales has long been the shooting location of productions like Doctor Who , and more recently, HBO’s … [Read more...] about Wales Hopes To Lure Next ‘Doctor Who’ And ‘Sex Education’ With New Film & TV Studio

Jafar Panahi ’s wife Tahereh Saeedi issued a fresh appeal for her imprisoned husband to be released as his period of captivity entered 200 days, in an Instagram post on Thursday. Her statement follows the news at the weekend that Panahi was possibly on the verge of being released on bail after his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht successfully challenged his detention in the Supreme Court last October. “Last week, the news came that Jafar will be released within the week. We were happy again and felt better. Today, a week has passed, and Jafar hasn’t come. Exactly 200 days have passed since Jafar was imprisoned. We are disappointed,” she wrote. Panahi was arrested in early July amid a crackdown on freedom of expression, after going to a prosecutor’s office in Tehran to enquire the about whereabouts of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad following their detention a few days previously. It was announced a few days later that the Iranian authorities had decided to … [Read more...] about Jafar Panahi’s Wife Issues Fresh Appeal For Imprisoned Iranian Director As Release Hopes Dashed

The Berlinale ’s European Film Market was the last major physical market to take place in 2020 as the world began shutting down because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The virus would force the event online in 2021 and 2022. The EFM’s traditional home of the Gropius Bau looked strangely empty last February, playing host to an exhibition by South African artist Zanele Muholi, as the event unfolded online alongside a scaled-down physical festival. Its vast atrium and halls are set to be packed with hundreds of stands and thousands of professionals once again this year for EFM’s 2023 edition, running February 16-22. Both the Gropius Bau and the market’s other key exhibition space of the Marriott Hotel are already fully booked. “The good news for us is that we are completely at the same level in terms of accreditations as we were at this time of the year in 2020. This means that we are forecast to reach the same amount of market participants,” EFM director Dennis Ruh . As … [Read more...] about Berlin’s EFM Boss Reveals Size Of U.S. & Asia Contingents, Talks Growing Importance Of TV

Stubborn and iconoclastic as always, Jean-Luc Godard has passed to another realm –and by his own choice–at age 91. Ever impudent and exasperating, forever pushing boundaries but remaining elusive, and an artist in every fiber of his being, Godard always did exactly what he wanted to do; for a few years many followed him ardently, and for lots of us in the 1960s he led the way into a vastly exciting and personal form of cinema. Thereafter he went entirely his own way, losing most of his audience but remaining at the forefront of exploring what cinema is, could be, and, sometimes, what it absolutely shouldn’t be. The official obituaries and tributes will certainly convey Godard’s importance and influence through the 1960s, the way he helped liberate cinema from its literary and orderly appearance to something far more energized, unexpected, jarring and often exhilarating. Although Godard consumed and brilliantly wrote about the existing cinema as a young critic, he … [Read more...] about Godard Is Gone: A Remembrance Of The Stubborn & Iconoclastic Film Director

French studio Pathé and film and TV financier and producer Logical Pictures have announced a three-year co-production and co-financing deal. The operation involving Logical Content Ventures, a new fund operated by Logical Pictures, will see Pathé open up the financing of its films to private investors for the first time in its history. Under the deal with Pathé, Logical Content Ventures will contribute to the financing of all films produced and acquired by Pathé between 2022 and 2024. The aim is to co-finance and co-produce more than 20 pictures together with the first projects being released as soon as Spring 2023. The first films included in the agreement are Dany Boon’s Life for Real (Pathé – 26DB Productions), Just Philippot’s environmental thriller Acid (Pathé – Bonne Pioche), starring Canet and Laetitia Dosch, and Kirill Serebrennikov’s English feature debut Limonov: the Ballad of Eddie (Pathé – Chapter 2 – Wildside – Fremantle) starring Ben Whishaw. … [Read more...] about Pathé & Logical Pictures Team On Slate Financing Deal As French Studio Targets Big Budget Local & European Tentpoles

Starzplay has announced its first Arabic-language original series, created in collaboration with Emirati content powerhouse Image Nation Abu Dhabi . The international streaming service of Starz has a big following in the Middle East and North Africa where its regional offering Starzplay Arabia is available in 19 territories. The new show, called Kaboos , features five standalone episodes and is billed as a modern-day retelling of Arab folklore. It explores urban legends in Saudi Arabia , Kuwait, Egypt and the UAE, across a variety of genres from classic horror stories to noir psychological thrillers. Some of MENA’s hottest rising young directors are attached to the show, including the UAE’s Majid Al Ansari ( Zinzana , Paranormal ) and Hana Kazim ( Makr ) as well as Iraq-born, Abu Dhabi-based Yasir Al Yasiri ( 122 ), Egypt’s Ahmed Khaled ( 30 March ) and Bahraini, U.S.-based director and producer Hala Matar ( Streetcar ). The horror anthology … [Read more...] about Starzplay & Image Nation Abu Dhabi Unveil Streamer’s First Arabic Original Series ‘Kaboos’

Streamers such as Netflix, Prime Video and Paramount+ are “perplexed” by government threats to the UK’s Public Service Broadcasters (PSB), according to Sherwood scribe James Graham . Graham, one of Britain’s foremost TV and theater writers, flagged the example of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who broke through the theater system to create the BBC ’s Fleabag before being snapped up by Amazon in a ‘Golden Handcuffs’ deal. He was reflecting on the BBC’s funding struggles due to the government’s freezing of the licence fee for two years, along with threats to Channel 4’s position as a public broadcaster, although this was recently reversed. “We’ve got the best of both worlds [in the UK],” said Graham, in conversation with Banijay UK Chair Patrick Holland at today’s Freeview Outside the Box 2023 event. “Streamers benefit from PSB development. The likes of Amazon would be utterly perplexed by the threat to that pipeline.” Graham said his hit BBC One drama Sherwood set … [Read more...] about ‘Sherwood’ Writer James Graham: Streamers Are “Perplexed” By UK Government Threat To BBC & Channel 4

French gender equality and diversity group Le Collectif 50/50 has hit out at the lack of female representation at the upcoming César awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars. The protest comes after not a single woman made it into the Best Director category in nominations announced Wednesday. The awards ceremony is February 24 in Paris. Just one feature by a female director — Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s controversy-hit Forever Young — was nominated for Best Film. This outcome raised surprise in some quarters as there was a raft of strong features by female directors on release in France this year including Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories , Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children , Léa Mysius’ The Five Devils and 2023 French Oscar submission Saint Omer by Alice Diop. “Le Collectif 50/50 deplores the total absence of women in the Best Director category and their lack of representation in the Best Film category,” the body wrote in a statement … [Read more...] about French Gender Equality Group Launches #CesarSoMale Campaign After Female Directors Shut Out Of Awards

EXCLUSIVE : The Gotham Film & Media Institute has unveiled the winners of its fourth annual Focus Features & JetBlue Student Short Film Showcase. The five filmmakers chosen are Saleem Gondal ( Post Term , Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema), Yingtong Li ( The Silent Whistle , Emerson College), Taylor Mannsman ( Obscura , University of Texas at Austin), Shannon M. Sutherland ( They Flew Like Blackbirds , Florida State University) and Cheryl Wong ( Stigma, Style , NYU). The Gotham’s Short Film Showcase aims to discover and empower a diverse group of emerging filmmakers, and to foster multi-platform distribution of their work. Winners of this year’s showcase, supported by returning partners JetBlue and Focus Features, as well as new partner Soho House, had their works selected by a jury of filmmakers, curators and critics, with shorts from 23 graduate schools having been submitted. Each was recognized during the 2022 Gotham Awards Ceremony on November 28, received … [Read more...] about The Gotham Names Winners Of 4th Annual Focus Features & JetBlue Student Short Film Showcase

UPDATED with final winners: The Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul , Bo Burnham’s Emmy-winning musical comedy special Inside , Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad and Raoul Peck’s Exterminate All the Brutes are among the final list of winners of 2022 Peabody Awards . The Peabodys, in their 82nd year, honor the year’s most powerful content across the fields of entertainment, documentary, news, podcast/radio, arts, children’s and youth, and public service programming. The organization based at the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia wrapped up a a weeklong rollout of all 30 winners Thursday. This year’s awards were presented by the likes of Melissa McCarthy, Morgan Freeman, John Legend, Kevin Bacon, H.E.R., Ethan Hawke, Jon Stewart, Hasan Minhaj, Riz Ahmed, LeVar Burton, Jenny Slate, Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Scott. Newsman Dan Rather and Fresh Air ‘s Terry Gross have already won this year’s Career Achievement Award and … [Read more...] about Peabody Awards: The Complete List Of 2022 Winners