Amazon Studios to Host Virtual Conference on AAPI Representation in Media

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Bondit Media Capital, which became an important funder for independent film and television during Covid, is partnering with Vancouver-based Arcana Studio to launch Bondit Canada Capital.

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.

Ofir Marciano was caught up in air drama after her flight was stopped from landing in Tel Aviv due to rocket attacks. Eight months pregnant Shelly Regev was flying back to her native Israel with her little boy, leaving Ofir in Edinburgh.

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.

Antonio Ferme editorAccording to “Crazy Rich Asians” and “In the Heights” filmmaker Jon M.

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

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticIf you go to see just one movie this year, Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead” might be the ticket — not because it’s the best movie you’ll see in 2021 (or maybe even this week), but because it’s a stylishly grandiose, muscular but conventional popcorn pageant that’s got something for just about everyone. It’s a zombie movie.

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.

Add Amazon Studios to the growing list of organizations that have stated they will not work with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association until it significantly revamps its diversity and inclusion initiatives.

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.

The Casting Society of America will host two virtual town halls this month as part of its Asian American Pacific Islander Initiative. Celebrating Asia Pacific American Heritage Month, CSA says the town halls and roundtable discussions – on May 10 and 17 – “are designed to affect concrete change in how creatives, in this historically underrepresented community, have been perceived, what they have achieved, and how we all can create systemic change to move the needle of progress forward.”