Amazon Studios Joins In Shunning Of HFPA Until It Revamps Diversity And Inclusion

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterIn perhaps the biggest news from Amazon this week, the studio has acquired a new documentary about the life and times of Val Kilmer.(We kid; the top story is its pending acquisition of MGM.) But “Val,” a chronicle of the method actor behind “The Doors” and “Top Gun,” also ranks as a buzzy purchase as Amazon makes moves to compete in the streaming wars.Amazon Studios will release the documentary later this year in the U.S. and Latin America.

Amazon Studios has acquired US and Latin American rights to the documentary Val from A24. Amazon will release the docu later this year; A24 controls all remaining global rights.

Antonio Ferme editorThe program for the fifth Women in Animation World Virtual Summit has been announced in conjunction with the hybrid version of this year’s Annecy International Animation Festival.Produced by the South African animation studio Triggerfish, the event will be available exclusively to WIA members from June 14-19.

The besieged Hollywood Foreign Press Association has release its updated Code of Professional and Ethical Conduct, in the wake of backlash against the Golden Globes group’s admitted lack of diversity.

Antonio Ferme editorActor-producer Daniel Dae Kim urged those of Asian and Pacific Islander descent to work hard at “allyship” with other underrepresented communities in order to focus on the roots of systemic racism. Kim spoke on May 20 at a half-day virtual seminar hosted by Amazon Studios to examine API representation in film and media as part of Asian American Pacific Islander heritage month.The rising tide of anti-Asian hate crimes underscores the urgency to act.

Even with the most recent watershed moments of Minari, Sound of Metal and Crazy Rich Asians, finding a place in Hollywood remains a challenge for Asian American and Pacific Islander creatives and talent.

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EXCLUSIVE: Sigourney Weaver is to lead an adaptation of Holly Ringland’s book The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart for Amazon.

EXCLUSIVE: PBS has acquired U.S. domestic broadcast and digital rights to Icon: Music Through The Lens, a six-episode original series from FilmRise in partnership with Universal Music Group’s Mercury Studios.

Manori Ravindran International EditorYouTube executive and former Fremantle boss Cécile Frot-Coutaz has been named CEO of Sky Studios, the heavy-hitting production and development arm for Sky.Frot-Coutaz takes the reins from current chief executive Gary Davey, who launched Sky Studios in 2019.

Super Bowl champ Russell Wilson and Grammy-winning singer Ciara are bringing their talents to Amazon Studios.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorAmazon has teamed with the Producers Guild of America to host a virtual conference to examine the state of AAPI representation in media and entertainment.The May 20 event, which will be open to the public free of charge, will feature panels, interviews and a musical performances to showcase the array of Asian and Pacific Islander ethnicities and cultures.The focus of Amazon Studios Voices: API Representation in Film and Media will be on how Hollywood can take

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorThe coalition of publicity firms that has put pressure on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to change its ways has applauded NBC’s decision to scrap the 2022 Golden Globe Awards telecast out of concern about the lack of diversity among its members.The publicist’ group issued a letter in March that vowed to boycott the HFPA if the organization did not implement major reforms.

boycott the organization, which has no black members and a history of snubbing the work of Black creators in awards seasons. Time’s Up demanded an overhaul of the HFPA which then lead the group to hire USC professor Shaun Harper to examine its “systemic” issues.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaCinemark has reached new agreements with the five major studios that could help formalize a shorter theatrical window. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it comes as COVID-19 has reshaped the amount of time that films show exclusively on the big screen before making their home entertainment debuts.

Google Stadia staff members have reportedly left the company to join Haven Studios.The six staff members who have made the switch from Stadia to Haven, a Montreal-based studio co-founded by former Stadia Game Studios VP Jade Raymond in March, include several high-profile personnel, according to a ResetEra post.The most notable is Sebastien Puel, the former General Manager at Stadia, who is reportedly also a co-founder at Haven.

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterAmid a spate of anti-Asian hate crimes this past year, the story of Vincent Chin — the 27-year-old Chinese American brutally beaten and killed in 1982 by two former autoworkers, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, who blamed him for the economic downturn in Detroit — has become the focus of renewed interest for the entertainment industry.