Documentary Workers Union Ratifies Groundbreaking Contract With International Documentary Association

EXCLUSIVE: An announcement today from the Points North Institute will provide a major career boost to a diverse group of documentary filmmakers. 

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Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Production has kicked off on “A Better Place,” which is produced by Komplizen Serien and Studiocanal Series in Germany. Komplizen Serien, headed by David Keitsch, is the TV arm of leading movie production company Komplizen Film, whose credits include “Spencer,” for which Kristen Stewart was Oscar-nominated, and “Toni Erdmann,” which was Oscar-nominated in the foreign language film category. “A Better Place” is the first German TV show to be produced by Studiocanal Series, the German TV arm of the French production powerhouse.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Kai Cenat, the Twitch and YouTube streamer, issued a statement Saturday through his group AMP (Any Means Possible) apologizing after a violent mob took over New York’s Union Square Park a day earlier when he urged fans to come to the park, where he said he was planning to give away free PlayStation 5s and gift cards. Thousands of people flocked to Union Square Park after Cenat’s social media posts went viral Friday, and the flash mob became violent and began attacking police and other people in the area with bottles, rocks, other debris and fireworks.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Messages have been pouring in to pay tribute to Jess Search, producer and co-founder of U.K.’s Doc Society, who died Monday from brain cancer at the age of 54. Search was a founding director of Doc Society, the mission of which is to “unleash the transformational power of documentary film to address the two critical and intertwined issues of climate change and democracies in crisis.” Before that, she was a commissioning editor at Channel 4 and a founder of Shooting People, the online filmmakers network.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Amazon Prime Video France has signed a multi-year deal with leading French independent distributor Metropolitan FilmExport to bring over 100 movies to local subscribers. Metropolitan FilmExport ranks as one of France’s top purveyors of U.S. franchise films, such as “Lord of the Rings,” “Hunger Games,” and “John Wick.” As such, this deal positions Prime Video in France as a home for premium content for wide audiences.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Be For Films has boarded “The Summer With Carmen,” Zacharias Mavroeidis’ colorful Greek comedy that’s set to world premiere at the Venice Days at the Lido. “The Summer With Carmen” takes place at Athens’ queer beach, where 30-something Demosthenes offers to help his friend and aspiring filmmaker Nikitas in drafting an idea for his feature debut, inspired by the events surrounding a dog named Carmen.

Rico Lewis is set to sign a new and improved contract following his breakthrough season with Man City. The 18-year-old will be rewarded with a new deal as a reflection of his meteoric rise over the last year.

A majority of some 5,000 freelance TV commercial production workers, organizing under the banner of the grassroots “Stand With Production” movement, have signed authorization cards certifying that they wish to unionize with IATSE. According to IATSE, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) has agreed to voluntarily recognize them as a group for the purposes of collective bargaining.

Follow OK! on Threads here: https://www.threads.net/@ok_mag Holly Willoughby is reportedly set to sign a new lucrative contract with ITV chat show This Morning after speculation arose over whether the presenter had secretly quit. Every year, the programme's regular presenters head off for their summer break, but it is normally always announced, and the stars even say goodbye to viewers for the holidays. Yet Holly, 42, chose not to announce her summer break to fans earlier this month, instead opting for a low-key exit, and she was also missing from the ITV summer party, leading many viewers to believe she wouldn't be coming back.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French film guilds representing authors, directors and producers have released a joint letter pledging their “full solidarity” with the SAG-AFTRA and WGA double strike. “This battle that’s shaping tomorrow’s industry crosses borders. It’s also ours,” reads the letter, which was signed by the ARP (authors, directors, producers) and SRF (society of French directors), the governing body of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. The letter says the double strike “signals a turning point where the questions of sharing of wealth and integration of new models and AI are central.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Executives at Paramount-owned, Tel Aviv-based Ananey Studios were stunned when they realized that they couldn’t find a single transgender actor to audition for “The Malevolent Bride,” a series they produced with A+E Studios. Within a year, this sudden awareness pushed Ananey’s creative director Elad Sonego (pictured) and Paramount to set up Israel’s first transgender acting school in partnership with Nissan Nativ Acting Studio and Jason Danino Holt, a director and playwright. Since launching in 2022, the school has graduated six actors, including Malki who plays the leading role in “The Malevolent Bride” which was ordered by Kan 11, the public broadcaster. Set in present-day Jerusalem, the series unfolds in a Hasidic community that’s haunted by vengeful spirit and examines the complexities of traditional gender roles in orthodox communities.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent In March, several months before SAG-AFTRA actors went on the warpath in Hollywood, Italy’s dubbing industry workers staged a protracted strike demanding higher wages, less frenzied work conditions and protection against artificial intelligence. The Italian dubbing industry workers – many of whom are voice actors – returned to work after three weeks as local unions entered a phase of negotiations that seemed promising enough, even though their issues are not yet resolved. Cut to the present day. Italian unions representing the country’s film and TV industry workers are at “a very critical, almost historic juncture” in a broader labor dispute with the country’s motion picture association ANICA and other industry trade orgs, according to Sabina Di Marco, leader of SLC CGIL, the biggest union at the bargaining table.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent In 2020, Mishaal Tamer became the first aspiring global pop star from Saudi Arabia to sign a major record deal in the U.S., where he released his debut EP, “Life’s a Ride,” via RCA Records. This summer, he’s touring Europe as the opening act for OneRepublic — a major milestone for an artist from his country. Tamer, whose father is Saudi and mother is Ecuadorian, started playing guitar when he was 9, at a time when religious police in his country were prone to smashing instruments and Western pop music was basically banned. But in 2017 and 2018, just as Tamer began posting his songs online, Saudi Arabia lifted its bans on movies and musical events, prompting a cultural sea change.

Lights, camera, solidarity.

UK actors union Equity is to rally in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA later this week in London and Manchester.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival will pay tribute to late Italian icon Gina Lollobrigida, who died in January, with a pre-opening event featuring a double bill of freshly restored works in which she stars. The Lido’s annual pre-opening event on Aug. 29 will feature a 27-minute short by Orson Welles titled “Portrait of Gina.” In 1968, Welles interviewed Lollobrigida in her villa on the Appian Way as the pilot for an ABC TV series — a U.S. version of “Around the World With Orson Welles”– that ABC rejected. Welles’ portrait of the diva remained in the vaults until 1986, when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival one year after Orson Welles’ death. This piece has been defined by Welles as a “personal essay” on Lollobrigida. Interestingly, when Lollobrigida saw “Portrait of Gina” in Venice in 1986, she reportedly tried to have it banned. The short’s restoration was done by the Munich Film Museum and Italy’s Cinecittà.

After AMPTP called their AI proposal to SAG-AFTRA yesterday “groundbreaking”, the actors’ union National Executive Director and chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, still begs to differ.

Reese Witherspoon was uncomfortable with 'Fear' sex scene with Mark Wahlberg. Hollywood’s A-list, including Matt Damon, Margot Robbie, Jeremy Renner, react to actor’s union strike. Dolph Lundgren, 65, seemingly marries 25-year-old fiancée.

Well, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav already put his foot in his mouth responding to the WGA writers’ strike, so now it’s Bob Iger‘s turn.