Berlinale Series Award Jury Trio Predict TV Awards Could Soon Rival Film At Major Festivals

Frank Doelger’s eco-thriller drama The Swarm has made a splash on German TV.

Spain has been named as the country of honor for the upcoming edition of the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film running May 16 to 24.

Reality TV gold. James Kennedy returned to the Vanderpump Rules set and gave a sneak peek of the clever scene title that was inspired by Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss’ affair.

What would you do if you could share life lessons with the younger you? Would you tell them to not stress over something minor? Maybe tell them to cherish the moments with their parents? This is what drives the plot of the upcoming family drama, “Tiny Beautiful Things.” Hulu’s upcoming “Tiny Beautiful Things” series is based on the book of the same name written by “Wild” author Cheryl Strayed.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Major Major, a full-service creative advertising agency, has officially opened its doors in Los Angeles. Staffed by veteran creatives and executives across filmed content and digital media, the company will specialize in areas like theatrical trailers, TV spots, branding, live-action production, social video, behind-the-scenes features, and more. The operation Is founded by Craig A Platt, Des Esposito and Chris Nesheim, along with senior execs like creative director Josh Beaumont and music EVP Toddrick Spalding.   The group has over 50 years of combined experience on major features (“Elvis,” “Dune,” “Logan,” and “Aquaman”), family animation (“Frozen,” “Coco,” “Zootopia,” “Mitchells vs The Machines”), art house dramas and popcorn faire. They most recently entered the streaming marketing sector with work on Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”

came out on top by winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. The ensemble featuring Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu beat out,, and . Curtis spoke first, accepting the award «on behalf of my crew of weirdos,» before Hsu, Quan and Yeoh all spoke in turn, paying tribute to co-star James Hong.«He's been acting since there were only 49 states, and he just turned 94,» Yeoh shared.

NAACP Image Awards did the thing! After its regular week-long, non-televised celebrations, the annual awards ceremony concluded with its main ceremony on Saturday night. Hosted by GRAMMY, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress and producer Queen Latifah, Saturday's ceremony included Janelle Monae, Taye Diggs, Kerry Washington, Jonathan Majors, Zendaya and more presenting awards to their peers, while also highlighting the accomplishments of political leaders and activists.Jennifer Hudson, Quinta Brunson, Keke Palmer and more scored wins during the pre-awards festivities, while Saturday's ceremony saw Angela Bassett, Viola Davis, Will Smith and more honored for their artistic contributions. This year's Activist of the Year Award was presented to Dr. Derrick Lee Foward, president of the Dayton Unit of the NAACP and a vice president of the Ohio NAACP, and the Youth Activist of the Year Award honored to Bradley Ross Jackson, the president of the youth council of the Bloomington-Normal NAACP in Bloomington, Indiana.

‘The Woman King’ & ‘Aftersun’ Dominate Girls On Film AwardsThe Woman King and Aftersun dominated the main awards at the second annual Girls On Film Awards. The Woman King picked up Best Ensemble, sponsored by Netflix, and Best Female Friendship On Screen. Woman King star Viola Davis was also awarded the Feminist Superhero award. Woman King lead Sheila Atim was there in person to accept the awards. Aftersun nabbed Best Feature Film Sponsored by EON Productions, while the film’s publicity team also won Best Publicity Campaign. Other big winners included Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder, which took home Best Cinematography and the Sinéad O’Connor pic Nothing Compares (Best Documentary). Nominees for the awards were chosen by a selection of critics and journalists. Girls On Film was launched by Deadline critic and broadcaster Anna Smith and producer Hedda Archbold with the aim of rewarding excellence in the field of feminism, inclusion, and diversity in cinema. Check out the full winners on the Girl On Film Twitter account.

We’re back for a third round of Adonis Creeds life with Creed III. Making his directorial debut, Michael B. Jordan executes his vision for the future of these films in the franchise which is something to appreciate as each of the movies has a different director who frames each Creed in their own style. In this new installment, Adonis faces a new challenge: the past. Alongside Jordan, the movie stars Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris and Phylicia Rashad.

Thania Garcia Harry Styles took home the major tour of the year award for the second year in a row at the 2023 Pollstar Awards, a peer-voted annual ceremony celebrating the achievements of the touring and live events industry. The evening honored executives, artists, festivals, venues and more, and included speeches that touched on hot topics from ticket scalpers to venue relief programs. Styles’ “Love on Tour” also took home the residency of the year award, with one of his team members joking that he couldn’t be there because he was on his seventh year of the lengthy “Love on Tour.” He and Everytown for Gun Safety were also honored with the brand partnership/live campaign of the year award.

NAACP Image Awards has officially kicked off its week-long, non-televised celebrations ahead of its annual ceremony this weekend! Jennifer Hudson, Quinta Brunson, Keke Palmer and more have scored wins during the pre-awards festivities, which precede the main ceremony airing Feb. 25 on BET.Hosted by GRAMMY, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress and producer Queen Latifah, Saturday's ceremony will include Janelle Monae, Taye Diggs, Kerry Washington, Jonathan Majors, Zendaya and more presenting awards to their peers, while also highlighting the accomplishments of political leaders and activists.This year's Activist of the Year Award will be presented to Dr. Derrick Lee Foward, president of the Dayton Unit of the NAACP and a vice president of the Ohio NAACP, and the Youth Activist of the Year Award will be presented to Bradley Ross Jackson, the president of the youth council of the Bloomington-Normal NAACP in Bloomington, Indiana.

The restructures, layoffs, cancelations and a maybe-strike currently impacting the U.S. TV industry rippled through the halls of the Berlinale Series Market this week as senior execs forecasted an international future.

Berlinale Series and one of Disney+’s early big plays in Southern Europe, U.K.-Italian mafia series “The Good Mothers” walked off on Wednesday night with the Berlin Festival’s inaugural Berlinale Series Award.  A large virtue of the series is to come in at the mafia from a novel angle: a real story of women who dare to defy the Italian mob.  The title forms part of the first European slate by new Disney+ international streaming service Star. It tells how bosses at the the Calabrian mob were targeted by a female prosecutor – thanks to the collaboration of three women inside the ‘Ndrangheta organized crime clan. 

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed actor Vijay Varma is one of the leads in “Dahaad” (“Roar”), the first Indian series to compete in the Berlinale Series Competition. Produced by Excel Entertainment and Tiger Baby and directed by Reema Kagti (Amazon Prime Video series “Made in Heaven”) and Ruchika Oberoi (Venice winner “Island City”), the other leads are Sonakshi Sinha, Gulshan Devaiah and Sohum Shah. “‘Dahaad’ is about the investigation of a series of crimes conducted by a small town, rookie police officer at a small police station in Rajasthan [western India] – there are these disappearing girls and somehow the young police officer finds a certain similarity between these these disappearances,” Varma told Variety. “It’s a slow burn, investigative drama and it’s also very atmospheric and moody and noir-ish.”

The Good Mothers, Disney+’s hard-hitting mafia drama series, has won the first ever Berlinale Series Award.

Christopher Vourlias The crime noir genre gets a distinctly South African twist in the new series “Donkerbos,” which premiered its first episodes this week as part of the Berlinale Series Market Selects lineup at the European Film Market. The show begins when the bodies of six children are found in the forests of a provincial backwater town, and a local detective (Erica Wessels) is called in to investigate the shocking crimes. But as the series unfolds, she’s forced to wrestle with her dark past, her family and a distrustful community to catch the killer before another child is taken. Written and directed by Nico Scheepers, “Donkerbos” is produced by Nagvlug Films and sold globally by MultiChoice, which bowed the show last year on its SVOD platform Showmax.

The White Lotus is almost certainly checking into an Asian hotel for its third season — and it’s been revealed Netflix’s Dahmer star Evan Peters nearly starred in the second run.

Christopher Vourlias Firefly Productions is prepping a new high-end drama that the Belgrade-based outfit is billing as Serbia’s first ever superhero series. “Generation Tesla” is based on the famed Serbian American inventor Nikola Tesla, best known for his pioneering work on electricity. In the series Tesla creates an electric frequency at the time of his death that opens a portal to a new dimension, where many of his unfinished projects and ideas are hidden. As the keeper of a vast trove of secrets and knowledge, Tesla must confront the greatest enemy ever known to man, who is looking to steal the secret of this mysterious frequency to rule the world. To fight him, Tesla assembles a team of superheroes, whom he contacts through a video game-obsessed teenager, in order to save the planet.

Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler director Felicity Morris has said the documentary market is going to contract and warned filmmakers against “chasing the next viral story that everyone is talking about.”