International Insider: BBC Analysis Special; Disney News Dump; Netflix’s Most-Watched; Berlin Jitters

Hello, and welcome to the final International Insider of 2020. Jake Kanter and Tom Grater with you in the saddle to look back on another week of offerings from the film and TV biz. International Insider will return in New Year, but until then, we hope your holidays are happy and healthy.

The Berlin Film Festival on Thursday unveiled major changes to its 71st edition, which will see it split into two stages, with the first stage shifting online because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. "Berlinale 2021 Will Be a Festival in Two Stages: Industry Online Offer in March/Public Event in June," organizers said in the headline of a statement.

What was reported earlier this week has come true—the 2021 Berlin Film Festival is going virtual in March with a (planned) in-person “celebration” in June. This hybrid strategy is something that differentiates it from the upcoming Sundance Film Festival and this year’s TIFF and Venice festivals.

coronavirus pandemic and split into two parts later in 2021, organizers said Friday.The “Berlinale” had been scheduled for February in the German capital but cannot go ahead due to the likelihood that coronavirus restrictions on large gatherings will continue, organizers said.To give the film industry a venue to market their products in the first quarter, however, a virtual Berlinale will be held online in March.

The Berlin Film Festival is rethinking its offering in 2021 due to the pandemic.

Berlin Film Festival has confirmed it is canceling its physical event in February. Instead, from March 1-5, Berlin’s official selection will be presented to the film industry, and the European Film Market will run in a virtual format, with a physical edition of the festival for the public planned for June, as revealed exclusively by Variety on Wednesday.The festival was scheduled to run as a physical event from Feb.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentFor his debut edition earlier this year, Berlin Film Festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian was, in hindsight, quite fortunate. The 70th edition of the Berlinale and the European Film Market took place without a hitch Feb.

Hello International Insiders, hope you’re getting into the Christmas spirit. Tom Grater here delivering a sack full of attention-grabbing headlines from this week of film and TV news.

EXCLUSIVE: Hannah Levien (The Magicians, Siren), Leland Orser (I Am The Night, Berlin Station) and Patrick Fischler (The Right Stuff, Defending Jacob) are set for recurring roles opposite Rosa Salazar on Brand New Cherry Flavor, Netflix’s upcoming horror-thriller revenge series.

The Berlin Film Festival is expected to announce this week that it will be pushing back the dates of its 71st edition, originally set for Feb. 11-21, 2021, and will run as an online-only event.

At one point, the 71st Berlin Film Festival was planning on being held as planned. An in person festival, held in February, was always a long shot, but hope sprung eternal.

With 2020 basically canceling much of the film festival season, or at least forcing many to go digital, the hope was that 2021 would be different. Well, COVID-19 doesn’t care about what the film industry wishes would happen.

Berlin Film Festival, one of the world’s leading gathering points for the international film industry, is set to radically alter its 71st edition, Variety has learned exclusively.The festival was originally scheduled to run as a physical event from Feb. 11-21, but rising COVID-19 infections in Germany have forced a rethink.

YouTube, with rap making up the vast majority of entries.Future‘s ‘Life Is Good’, featuring Drake, was the most-viewed music video of the year in the UK.

South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk has died at the age of 59 from complications arising from Covid-19 while in Latvia, according to local sources.

Netflix has revealed its most popular non-English language films and TV series in the U.S., with the list containing an interesting mix of titles from Europe, Asia and South America, plus a few surprises.

Rumours have been swirling in Europe this week that the Berlin Film Festival will be postponed amid continuing high coronavirus numbers in Germany and across the continent.