International Broadcasters Unite for Global Doc Initiative at Sunny Side of the Doc

Naman Ramachandran The world Premiere of local filmmaker Tearepa Kahi’s action-drama “Muru” will open the Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin chapters of the New Zealand International Film Festival, while American filmmaker Sara Dosa’s Sundance-winning documentary “Fire of Love” will open all the other festival locations, which include Gore, Hamilton, Hawke’s Bay, Masterton, Matakana, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Tauranga and Timaru. Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning “Triangle of Sadness” will close the festival in all centers.Other Cannes titles joining the lineup include Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” Queer Palm winner “Joyland,” from Saim Sadiq and “Sick of Myself,” by Kristoffer Borgli. Award winners from this year’s Berlin International Film Festival include Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” by Carla Simón and Natalia López Gallardo’s Silver Bear jury winning “Robe of Gems.” Other local films include Fergus Grady and Noel Smyth’s “Gloriavale,” Tom Levesque’s “Shut Eye” and New Zealand-U.S.

The Voice Australia winner Alfie Arcuri has revealed he was left with shattered spinal discs and has had a months-long injury battle that saw him undergo multiple surgeries. The Australian singer won the fifth season of The Voice in 2016 and travelled to Europe to perform in Sochi’s ‘New Wave’ festival in Russia last year. Upon realising he was unable to return back to Sydney during the height of the pandemic, with the second wave of Covid coming down back home, he moved into a loft in Italy. Arcuri fell down a flight of stairs and shattered his spinal discs while he was in Italy and spent three months with severe sciatica before being able to return to Australia to undergo surgery. “I fell for two metres and landed on my feet.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterTiny yellow creatures are taking over the international box office.“Minions: The Rise of Gru” ignited to $93.7 million from 61 overseas markets and notched one of the biggest pandemic-era opening weekends for an animated film in many of those territories.Those returns take the fifth installment in Universal and Illumination’s popular “Despicable Me” franchise past $200 million at the global box office. In North America, “The Rise of Gru” debuted to $108 million over the weekend and looks to reach $127.9 million through Independence Day on Monday.Outside of the U.S. and Canada, “Minions: The Rise of Gru” enjoyed the strongest showing in the United Kingdom and Ireland with $12.9 million, followed by Mexico with $12.4 million and Germany with $4.8 million.

Naman Ramachandran BritBox International, the British content specialist streamer operated by U.K. broadcasters BBC and ITV, has big growth plans. While unveiling their new slate at an event in London on Wednesday, BritBox CEO Reemah Sakaan and CCO Diederick Santer revealed that the streamer’s spend on programming, via commissions, co-productions and acquisitions, has trebled and that the marketing budget has doubled.

Naman Ramachandran International collaborations, new voices and renewal were the overarching themes of the 33rd edition of documentary market Sunny Side of the Doc, which concluded on Thursday.Industry professionals heard from major international players including PBS, NHK, France Televisions, Docu Box Nairobi, Sodec, Arte, RTBF, RAI, Telefilm Canada and Canal+ Group, among many others, who provided an insight into the current state of the industry, on-going projects and potential growth strategies for the future.“There is a very strong willingness to co-produce internationally. There are more and more projects that couldn’t happen because of COVID and now that they are ready, it’s really promising in terms of editorial offer,” Caroline Behar, director of international co-productions and acquisitions at France Televisions, told Variety.

Gallery: 'I remember he took the foil off of this bottle and put it on my ring finger. . . ' The lovers who fell for Amber Heard (BANG Showbiz)Joe - whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage - first met John while they were both behind bars in Fort Worth, Texas, in February 2021 - explained that while prison life is "tough", he believes that he and John were "in love" at one point and he intends to keep in touch with him in the future.

Naman Ramachandran Parsifal Reparato’s “She” dominated the awards at the 33rd Sunny Side of the Doc market with three wins.Several other projects won two awards each, including Gustavo Ribeiro’s “The Factory’s Basement,” Joanne Popinska’s “Jacob’s Journey” and Rama Ayasraa’s “Harvest Moon.”The four-day event ran June 20 – 23 June in La Rochelle, France. Running alongside, the sixth edition of PiXii Festival took over eight cultural and heritage sites in the city, and provided opportunities for exchange between industry professionals concerning how virtual reality can be applied to the documentary genre.“We are delighted that we were able to bring together international industry leaders this year to celebrate and champion the genre, which in recent years has experienced both a greater audience demand and increased difficulties in terms of financing and production,” said Mathieu Bejot, director of strategy and development at Sunny Side of the Doc.

Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 has crossed the $400M threshold at the global box office, including $190.6M from domestic and $209.5M internationally through Tuesday. It is currently the No. 8 film worldwide in 2022 and is likely to jump up a few notches as it still has Japan and Hong Kong to release. At Paramount’s CineEurope presentation today, a threequel was touted.

Naman Ramachandran Halfway through leading documentary market Sunny Side of the Doc, Mathieu Bejot, director of strategy and development, is tired but happy. The market’s aim of resuming in-person meetings after two online editions is working well, and the panels and networking events are operating at capacity.“We thought the priority should really be given to meetings, because we know people have missed seeing each other for two years. So, although there’s a very dense agenda, panels, etc.

Naman Ramachandran Global streamers immensely helped the growth of documentaries and allowed the genre to take risks, panelists at a discussion at the ongoing Sunny Side of the Doc market said on Tuesday.“We should really be thankful to the platforms for bringing so much attention to our genre – it was completely under represented,” said Patrick Hoerl, MD of German producer and distributor Autentic. “The platforms no doubt showed us the potential of documentaries and also the diversity that’s possible within that genre.

Seth Meyers tested positive for COVID-19. He was immediately sent home, and a week’s worth of shows were canceled.“I had no symptoms, so I was fine,” Meyers recounts. “But the whole family had it.

Matt Dillon To Receive Locarno Award

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorThe original “Squid Game” trailer took the green light all the way to a spot on YouTube’s top 10 ads leaderboard for the last 12 months.Coming in at No. 5 on the YouTube global ad ranking, Netflix’s “Squid Game” Season 1 trailer, released Sept. 1, 2021, has nearly 50 million views to date.

Naman Ramachandran The ongoing situation in Ukraine, international co-productions and an examination of post-COVID audience tastes are on the agenda at the 33rd Sunny Side of the Doc.The international marketplace for documentary and narrative experiences held annually at La Rochelle, France, is back as an in-person event this year following two pandemic-caused online editions. With Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine showing no signs of abating, Lejla Dedic, producer-selector at Al Jazeera Balkans and Philippe Muller, commissioning editor at Arte will discuss how they support Ukrainian films in a panel discussion.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefDreamchaser, the Hugh Marks- and Carl Fennessy-headed venture which has ambitions to become a significant studio, has unveiled its first creative partnership agreements. It has attached a trio of leading producers in the factual and entertainment zones to multi-year development and production deals.Marks is the former head of Nine Entertainment, the TV group that swallowed Fairfax Media and took full ownership of local streamer Stan.

Paramount Global veteran Syrinthia Studer has joined the company’s Content Licensing division as Executive Vice President, International Productions.

reported as a docuseries last year, is produced by Clooney and Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Pictures and David C. Glasser of 101 Studios. The documentary will debut on HBO and be available to stream on HBO Max, though no premiere date has been announced.