Author: SD

France’s CNC is creating a support service for filmmakers and industry professionals, including festivals, facing attempts to restrict their freedom of expression.  CNC president Gaetan Bruel said the move had been motivated by the circumstances that had led director Nadav Lapid to withdraw from the FID Marseille festival in the South of France earlier this month.  The festival had faced pressure to implement a cultural boycott of Israeli artists and films because of the actions of the Israeli government in Palestine.   In a statement, Bruel described the Fid Marseille situation as constituting “an obstacle to creative freedom and the freedom of expression…this…

Frank Berry’s The Lost Children Of Tuam, the dark Christmas comedy You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead and Ukrainian documentary Brace For The Oblivion are among 18 features that will make their world premiere at Ireland’s Galway Film Fleadh 2026. The Lost Children Of Tuam sees Monica Dolan play real-life history enthusiast Catherine Corless. While researching the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, for a local historical society, she makes a devastating discovery. Element Pictures produces alongside Jules Daly and Liam Neeson, with mk2 handling sales. Dallan Shovlin’s directorial debut You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead stars Ardal O’Hanlon, Michelle Fairley and Simone Kirby, with…

A24 has entered into a research and development partnership with Google that will also see the tech giant invest a reported $75m in the studio behind the $300m global smash Backrooms. While A24 did not comment on the development nor the investment amount, sources said the partnership gives the studio access to Google DeepMind’s research, infrastructure and global reach. It is understood A24 will play an active role in what DeepMind builds and retains full creative control of its own growth. The collaboration will evolve over time and will be “research-led and filmmaker-informed” as the partners explore how technology can help…

Pixar/Disney’s Toy Story 5 scored an estimated $160m number one North American box office debut in the biggest opening weekend of 2026 so far, the highest unadjusted bow in the 31-year franchise, and the second-highest animated opening weekend of all time behind Incredibles 2. Opening in 4,425 sites, the latest instalment in Pixar’s $3.6bn-plus global franchise (including the 2022 pandemic-era Lightyear spin-off) produced the highest opening weekend since Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie in April 2025, the fifth-highest debut by a PG-rated film (the first in the franchise due to carry the rating due to thematic elements), and the highest…

The documentary Jail Time Records is drawing heat after winning three Tribeca Festival awards for its immersive account of a recording studio inside Cameroon’s overcrowded Central Prison of Douala New Bell. Dione Roach, an Italian visual artist who has lived in Cameroon for close to a decade, and Steve Happi, a former inmate from the prison, established Jail Time Records in 2018 – the first of its kind inside an African prison. Over the course of several years they shot the film, profiling budding inmate performers Empereur, Transporteur, and Stone. The co-directors partnered with Taika Waititi, who brought on Ben Affleck,…

Amazon MGM Studios has dropped Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s feature starring Andrew Garfield as the controversial co-founder and CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman. In a statement an Amazon spokesperson said, “We have the utmost respect and admiration for Luca Guadagnino as an award-winning filmmaker – not to mention a longstanding relationship that we hope to continue. We believe that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home.”   According to reports Mike Hopkins, the head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios,…

In this week’s episode of The Screen Podcast, Aardman co-founder Peter Lord discusses 50 years of the historic UK animation company.  Listen below or click on the image above to watch. To download or subscribe to future episodes, search for ‘The Screen Podcast’, which is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud and YouTube. Ahead of the Annecy film festival, senior international reporter Ben Dalton speaks to Lord about co-founding the Bristol-based company with David Sproxton over 50 years ago and their decision to become an employee-owned business in 2018. “The conventional thing for Dave and me to do, as we…

The UK Cinema Association (UKCA) and PRS (Performing Right Society) For Music, the UK organisation that collects royalties for songwriters, composers and music publishers, will face each other in London’s High Court of Justice next week. They will settle a long-running dispute over the tariffs UK cinemas are required to pay PRS for playing music in their venues. UKCA first made a referral to the Copyright Tribunal – a division of the High Court – in 2024 over changes to the PRS’ tariff the UKCA argues will have a disproportionately negative impact on smaller cinema operators. In the UK, cinemas must pay PRS…

Netflix is partnering with Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) for the international theatrical distribution of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew next year. SPE will release the film in cinemas worldwide on February 12, 2027, before it lands on Netflix on April 2, giving it a seven-week theatrical window. SPE will report the international box office figures. Previews of the film will begin on February 10 in Imax. Netflix confirmed it will handle the wide North American release, in major chains as well as regional and independent venues. It is the latest extension of the Netflix-Sony partnership, with the companies already collaborating…

Fox Corp is to acquire connected TV player Roku. Fox is pay $160 per share for Roku with a combination of cash and shares, valuing Roku at $22bn. On closing Fox shareholders will own about 73% of the merged business, with Roku shareholders taking the other 27%. The deal will combine Fox’s sports, news and entertainment content and its leading AVOD service Tubi with Roku, which has more than 100 million streaming households worldwide and also runs rival AVOD service The Roku Channel.  Roku was one of the first companies to bring streaming platforms such as Netflix and YouTube to television through connected…