International Insider: The Year Ahead; Kim Mi-soo Remembered; Netflix Ratings Bonanza; Turness To BBC News

Showcase” event.“Showcase,” an annual variety comedy show spotlighting up-and-coming performers, has served as a launching pad for the careers of numerous stars, such as Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”), Tiffany Haddish (“Girls Trip”), Ego Nwodim (“Saturday Night Live”), Nico Santos (“Superstore”), Drew Tarver (“The Other Two”) and Nicole Byer (“Nailed It!”). Formerly a live theatrical production attended by executives, casting directors and talent agents across the entertainment industry, this year’s Showcase will be a pre-filmed hour of sketch comedy shot on location in Los Angeles.

Berlin Film Festival organizers on Wednesday said they have further updated their Covid regulations ahead of the fest, which kicks off February 10.

Chinese New Year will take place on Tuesday, February 1. This day will start the traditional festivities that last for about two weeks, where family meals, gifts, gatherings and, above all, many fireworks take over.

Kim Gordon has announced details of a new US, UK and European tour in support of her 2019 album, ‘No Home Record’.The UK and European portion of the dates, which kick off in March, will mark the iconic musician’s first international solo headline tour.Gordon will first take the record across the US, beginning at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, MA, before venturing on to six further cities for her own shows. She will also perform at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN and Treefort Festival in Boise, ID.

Overwatch Lunar New Year 2022 event is now live, and with it a selection of new cosmetics, weekly challenges, and event brawls are on offer.To mark the Chinese New Year (February 1) and the start of the Year of the Tiger, Overwatch is back with another Lunar New Year event, available to play now until February 15. Strangely, the event is only adding two new legendary skins, Seolbim Mercy and Nezha Tracer.

The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival has confirmed its various juries, including who will be joining M. Night Shyamalan to award the International Competition prizes.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios has scored a raft of sales on all seasons of smash hit series “Sherlock,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Amazon Prime Video will take non-exclusive SVOD global rights to all four series of the series and the special, “The Abominable Bride,” excluding the U.S., Australia, and greater China. In China, the series will be available exclusively on Tencent Video, while Japanese broadcaster Mystery Channel has acquired the exclusive pay TV license for its AXN Mystery channel.

Turnstile have announced the postponement of their imminent European tour behind their 2021 album ‘GLOW ON’.After a short UK tour next week – which is still going ahead – the band were set to head to the continent for shows in Germany, Belgium, Denmark and beyond.Taking to Twitter to announce the rescheduled dates, and confirm that the UK tour will begin as planned in Nottingham this weekend (January 29), Turnstile said: “We’re so excited to see you in the UK this week.“Update: The following shows in Germany, France, Netherlands, and Belgium have been rescheduled to the summer.”See the remaining UK dates and rescheduled EU shows below. Support on all shows comes from Chubby and the Gang.JANUARY29 – Nottingham, Rock CityFEBRUARY1 – London, Roundhouse3 – London, Kentish Town Forum5 – Leeds, RefectoryJUNE18 – Hamburg, Gruenspan20 – Paris, Elysee Montmartre22 – Hasselt, ModJULY5 – Berlin, Astra Kulturhaus6 – Haarlem, Patronaat18 – Cologne, PalladiumWe’re so excited to see you in the UK this week ❤️*Update: The following shows in Germany, France, Netherlands, and Belgium have been rescheduled to the summer.

Christopher Vourlias Alexandre Perrier and François-Pierre Clavel’s Bordeaux-based production outfit Kidam, which produced last year’s Cannes Critics’ Week prize winner “Zero F***s Given,” has boarded “Life Ahead,” director Olivier Meys’ story of friendship between two young asylum-seekers, which heads to the Rotterdam Film Festival’s CineMart co-production market this week.“Life Ahead” tells the story of Jahia, a 16-year-old Eritrean girl who lives in an asylum center in Belgium, where her dim prospects for the future cast a shadow over her life. Then she meets the feisty and spirited Nèta, a young Moldavian girl, who drags Jahia along with her crazy energy.But when Nèta’s family is forced to leave the country, the young girl falls into a deep sleep – a victim of the malady known as “resignation syndrome.” Jahia swears to do everything in her power to wake her up and not allow her friend to succumb to despair.

Refresh for latest…: With an amazing $1.69B worldwide cume through Sunday, Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home has become the No. 6 film ever globally, passing Jurassic World ($1.67B) and The Lion King ($1.662B) to get there. This includes a running $970.1M from the international box office, which should portend an eventual $1B overseas gross — and without a China bump. Domestic is at $721M+.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic“Free Chol Soo Lee” charts the complicated history of a wrongful-conviction victim who became a figurehead for both Asian-American and prisoners’-rights activists in the 1970s and beyond. Julie Ha and Eugene Yi’s film benefits from ample archival material, as well as latter-day input from surviving interviewees. Even so, it’s a tale ultimately more sad than inspiring, because Lee’s case embodies the odds stacked against even an exoneree adjusting successfully to civilian life after debilitating years in “the system.” With its focus on a fairly recent if little-remembered U.S.

Meikincine has dropped the trailer for “Sublime,” a film by Argentinian Mariano Biasin, which will world premiere at next month’s Berlinale, playing in Generation 2022.The trailer comes as “Sublime” has sealed its first major territory sales deal, selling to Salzgeber for Germany and Austria.  Produced by Juan Pablo Miller at Tarea Fina, the film follows Manuel, 16, as he prepares for his band’s upcoming show while navigating a challenging love triangle.“Sublime” deals with friendship and love, and how they intermingle during a time when emotions and hormones run high.

Afternoon subscribers, Max Goldbart here. It’s been a busy week but International Insider has you covered. Read on for in-depth analysis of the biggest international headlines of the week.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefApple has tapped mainland Chinese director Zhang Meng for “The Comeback,” a heartwarming film that is releasing in time for the Lunar New Year holidays. It was shot entirely using the latest iPhone devices.The company’s Chinese New Year movie tradition is now into its fifth edition.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editorNetflix has released a teaser for “Vikings: Valhalla,” a spinoff series of the original “Vikings” saga set to premiere Feb. 25 on the streaming platform.“Vikings: Valhalla” takes place over a thousand years ago in the early 11th century, chronicling the adventures of famous Vikings in history — notably explorer Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett), his sister Freydis Eriksdotter (Frida Gustavsson) and Nordic prince Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter). In the series, tensions between Vikings and English royals violently climax and an epic journey across oceans (and bloody battlefields) begins.“Vikings: Valhalla” takes place more than 100 years after the end of the “Vikings” series, which started close to the year 793 and explored several decades after.

Refresh for latest…: In its fifth weekend, Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home swung past the $900M mark at the international box office to weave a $926.3M running cume after a $33.4M session in 63 markets. The worldwide total through Sunday is an Electro-fying $1.625B.

Good afternoon. Christmas feels like a lifetime ago (just asks Boris Johnson) and 2022 is certainly in full swing. Here’s your weekly dose of the biggest news and deep-dives of the week. Read on.

After the announcement that the Sundance Film Festival would be turning into an all-virtual event due to the spread of COVID, all eyes went to Berlin to see if the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival would follow suit. But perhaps as a surprise to some, the event is moving ahead as an in-person gathering kicking off in February.

Young Scots are being asked to speak out about how fake news and online misinformation has affected them by a senior SNP MP.

As we get rolling into the new year, optimism and caution are part of the outlook for 2022 at the international box office. The issue of China also remains top of mind as the territory — which maintained its status as the top global market in 2021 — has been even more ornery to navigate than usual, notably not approving a single movie with a Marvel character last year, from Disney’s Black Widow straight through to Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.