‘Happening’ Producers Win Cesar-Hosted Toscan du Plantier Award

RuPaul’s Drag Race is continuing to expand!

Naman Ramachandran Ukrainian film producer and co-founder of the Ukrainian Film Academy Julia Sinkevych (“Heat Singers”) has been selected as jury president for this year’s Series Mania Festival and its international competition. “She has always been committed to supporting Ukrainian artists and the culture of her country from Kyiv, where she lives,” the festival said in a statement.

Oscar and Emmy winner Barry Levinson has been tapped to direct David E. Kelley’s The Missing, Peacock’s eight-episode series based on Israeli crime writer Dror A. Mishani’s international bestselling novel The Missing File. Levinson will direct multiple episodes, including the first, and executive produce the series from Kelley, Keshet Studios and Universal Television

UK TV trade body Pact has called on its 700-strong member base to suspend all co-operation and trade with Russia.

Clayton Davis Will Smith and Jessica Chastain walked away with leading actor and actress statuettes for their performances in “King Richard” and “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” at the SAG Awards. Their success has catapulted the two to the forefront of their respective Oscar races, which could create a first in Academy Awards history.

The predominantly deaf cast of Apple TV+’s CODA made history on Sunday as it became the first to win one of SAG’s coveted ensemble prizes.

CODA‘s Troy Kotsur made history at Sunday’s SAG Awards, becoming the first deaf actor in the history of the award show to claim an individual prize. He prevailed in the category of Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, besting the likes of Ben Affleck (Amazon Studios’ The Tender Bar), Bradley Cooper (MGM/UAR’s Licorice Pizza), Jared Leto (MGM/UAR’s House of Gucci) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Netflix’s The Power of the Dog).

Jarvis Cocker‘s JARV IS… have composed the score for new BBC comedy drama This Is Going To Hurt – listen to its self-titled theme tune below.The new show, which premiered earlier this month, stars Ben Whishaw as a junior doctor in the NHS.Its soundtrack includes indie classics, from The Maccabees, Radiohead, Florence + The Machine and more, as well as original music by Cocker and his band.Listen to JARV IS…’s ‘This Is Going To Hurt’ as the first track on a new BBC Radio 1 playlist here. Cocker’s full score for the show is set to be released later this year via Rough Trade.Elsewhere, Jarvis Cocker is set to release new memoir Good Pop, Bad Pop later this year.Set to arrive on May 26 through Vintage Publishing, Cocker describes the book as an “inventory”.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFrance’s equivalent to the Oscars, the Cesar Awards, are taking place this evening in Paris. Among the nominees, and in attendance, are “Annette” star Adam Driver and Cate Blanchett, who will receive the Honorary Cesar Award.The in-person ceremony is being hosted at the Olympia theater in Paris under tight COVID restrictions, as all guests have to wear a mask, be vaccinated and present a test dating from less than 24 hours.Driver is up for best actor for his performance as a tormented comedian opposite Marion Cotillard in Leos Carax’s drama musical “Annette.” Only two other American actors have been previously nominated at the Cesar Awards — Kristen Stewart for Olivier Assayas’ “Clouds of Sils Maria” and Adrien Brody for Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning “The Pianist.” Both actors won, in 2015 and 2003, respectively.

Who were the most successful recording artists on a global basis in 2021? BTS of course. You all knew that already, obviously. But now we have confirmation from the good people at the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry who have done some maths.The trade body has handed the K-pop group its Global Recording Artist Of The Year Award which is, in case you wondered, awarded based on “an artist’s or group’s worldwide performance across digital and physical music formats during the year, from streams to vinyl, and covers their entire body of work”.IFPI actually does the maths to work out a top ten of the most successful recording artists each year, with whoever is in the number one spot getting the Global Recording Artist Of The Year Award.

EXCLUSIVE: French American actor Saïd Taghmaoui (Wonder Woman, The Forgiven) has signed with Buchwald for representation.

Tunisian-French film producer Tarak Ben Ammar has finalized a deal to purchase Studios de Paris, the production facility outside the French capital which recently housed the Netflix series Emily In Paris and Netflix’s Murder Mystery 2, Deadline can confirm.

Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz meet up with soccer star Neymar for a special screening of their new movie, The Batman, in Paris, France on Monday (February 21).

Manori Ravindran International EditorEntertainment One has hired Left Bank executive producer Sharon Hughff to serve as creative director of scripted television out of the U.K.In her new role, she will oversee the scripted team and pipeline from the U.K., while spearheading efforts to expand the slate into buyers in the U.K. as well as Europe and Asia.

Ben Croll Fueled in no small part by international streamers looking to entrench their market share, production days skyrocketed across the European continent in 2021. But if the last year marked a gold rush for both service providers and content hungry viewers, independent producers have been feeling the squeeze.“It’s not a golden age when it comes to IP retention,” said Katharina Hiersemenzel, senior VP public policy of German mini-major Constantin Film.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentStephane Celerier, a veteran French film executive whose former banner Mars Films co-produced “La Famille Belier,” is joining forces with PGS Entertainment to create a new production company.Celerier is launching Gemma Pictures with Philippe and Guillaume Souter, the founders of PGS Entertainment, a thriving family-owned business specialized in financing and licensing worldwide youth entertainment.The new Paris-based company will look to produce French and English-language films, TV series and TV movies and is already developing a slate of 10 projects with well-known French and international talent. A resourceful and deep-pocketed company, PGS Entertainment will fully finance the development of Gemma Pictures’ roster over the next three years and will handle the back office, while giving Celerier the full reins of the company.

La Vie En Rose and Netflix’s The Spy producer Alain Goldman has signed an overall deal with Banijay for TV shows and feature films.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBanijay has partnered with Alain Goldman, the French producer of “La Vie en rose” to produce premium scripted series and feature films through his two production entities, Pitchipoï Productions and Montmartre Films.Goldman, whose production company was previously named Legende Films, will work alongside Banijay France. The French producer had been working with nearly every French film studios, notably Gaumont, and has also been collaborating with streamers such as Netflix with “The Spy,” starring Sacha Baron Cohen, and Amazon Prime with Caroline Vigneaux’s “Flashback” and Mélanie Laurent’s “The Mad Women’s Ball.” Besides “La Vie en Rose,” which earned Marion Cotillard an Oscar, Goldman has also produced “An Officer and a Spy” (2019), “The Connection” (2014) and “The Crimson Rivers” (2000).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Call My Agent!” producer Mother Production and Charles Gillibert’s CG Cinéma (“Annette”) are joining forces to create TV production label Les Saisons. The outfit will kick off with the series adaptation of Leïla Slimani’s critically acclaimed novel “Le Pays des autres.”Slimani’s novel, which was published in more than 30 countries and sold 670,000 units in France, is part of a trilogy charting the tumultuous love story between a young French woman and a Moroccan soldier.

Komplizen Film, the German indie run by Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade and Jonas Dornbach, has joined The Creatives, an alliance of independent production companies that has a three-year partnership for developing and funding series with Fremantle.