Kartoon Studios Strikes First Deal With AI Dubbing Platform

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor In the last decade, the Maltese film industry has undergone radical development, with a strong focus on seeing the island country evolve from a service provider to Hollywood productions to telling their own stories on screen. Speaking with Variety ahead of the second edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival, Maltese filmmakers have highlighted the importance of fostering local talent, rerouting foreign investment into native productions and strengthening bonds with neighboring countries in the Middle East and North Africa. “Things have changed drastically in recent years,” said veteran filmmaker Mario Philip Azzopardi, whose 1971 “Il-Gaġġa” is widely presumed to be the first full-length feature filmed entirely in Maltese.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter After just two weekends of release, “Inside Out 2” is towering above the rest as the highest-grossing movie of the year. Disney and Pixar’s sequel has generated $355 million in North America and $724 million globally to date, overtaking the previous record holder of “Dune: Part II” ($282 million domestically and $711 million worldwide). At this rate, it’ll soon be the first movie of 2024 to cross $1 billion worldwide.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent TOLEDO, Spain — Launched in November, Banijay Branded Entertainment (BBE), has closed strategic partnerships aligned with software, insights and data company, Launchmetrics, and Banijay Iberia’s creative agency IMA, in order to enhance the expertise and appeal to clients of BBE’s 360° production, marketing and measurement services. Made at Spain’s Conecta Fiction, the announcement comes hours before Carlotta Rossi Spencer, head of branded entertainment business development, Banijay Entertainment, will talk on a panel at the forum, as producers and companies look for ever more engaging ways to promote their content and brands – and measure the results of their campaigns.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent TOLEDO, Spain — Delivering a masterclass on the first full day of Conecta Fiction in Spain’s Toledo, Javiera Balmaceda – Amazon Studios’ head of international originals, Latin America – underscored one of the perils of frequent air travel, in her case around South America: a voice reduced at times to a near gasp. All credit to her; she soldiered on, and her ideas came over loud and clear. Takeaways from her masterclass, one of the highlights of early Conecta Fiction.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent TOLEDO, Spain — Brazil’s Ventre Studio is readying a powerful slate of scripted series mining the rapidly growing Portugal-Brazil co-production axis, which Ventre itself has helped forge with “Godless John,” produced by Ventre Studio and Canal Brasil as well as Coral Europa and TVI in Portugal. First up in titles is dramedic mini-series “Coligay,” directed by Oscar-nominated Paulo Machline (“A Soccer Story”) and Rafael Gomes, helmer of LGBTQ romantic drama “45 Days Away From You.” Canal Brasil has boarded “Coligay” licensing Brazilian first window TV rights.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Extinction,” the Malaysian-produced animation that is playing at the Shanghai International Film Festival, has struck its first international rights sales deals. The film was recently picked up by All Rights Entertainment, the Paris, Hong Kong and Los Angeles-based sales agency. All Rights has subsequently licensed the title to Magic Film for the CIS region, to Dazzler Media for the U.K., to Red Cape Distribution for Israel and to Bir Film for Turkey.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed further deals for Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well,”following the North American deal with Strand Releasing and the first international sales previously announced by Variety.The film has been acquired by Nour Films in France, One From the Heart in Greece, Mezipatra in Czech Republic and Slovakia, HBO Europe in Eastern Europe, Beta Film in Bulgaria and Falcon in Indonesia, in addition to the already announced deals with Vedette in the Benelux, Karma in Spain, Trigon in Switzerland and Lev in Israel.Films Boutique is in negotiations with potential buyers in the U.K., Latin America, Germany and Japan.Additionally, New Voice Film Productions Ltd. secured distribution deals with Golden Scene for Hong Kong and Macau and Flash Forward Entertainment in Taiwan.“All Shall Be Well” is written and directed by Yeung and was produced by Yeung’s frequent collaborator Michael J.

Annika Pham Over June 10-14, Madrid is welcoming 300-plus industry delegates for the inaugural ECAM Forum, which is shaping up as the next go-to market for Spanish projects and co-productions, considering the stellar list of projects and attendees lined up. Hosting the event is not a private company nor the industry arm of an A-list festival, but a film and audiovisual school-Madrid’s prestigious ECAM.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent ANNECY, France — Banijay Kids & Family, behind hit “Totally Spies!” and “Mr Bean: The Animated Series,” has unveiled first deals on “Froggie,” crowned best TV pilot at early June’s Cartoons on the Bay Pulcinella Awards. In deals which suggest one way much Annecy-announced business will go, Spanish pubcaster RTVE and top French kids channel Gulli, have acquired rights to Spain and France respectively. Both are among the biggest and most established players in Western Europe’s children’s entertainment.

Prime Video Italy is taking a leap “not only at national level but at international level” with its originals strategy, its scripted boss has said.

With the European Championships due to start in Germany on Friday, UTA has netted the country’s biggest soccer agency.

George Clooney reportedly stepped up to defend his wife Amal Clooney after her organization was criticized by the White House.

Tatiana Siegel A prominent Hollywood marketing and branding guru has raised eyebrows by telling staffers that they should refrain from working with anyone who is “posting against Israel.” Ashlee Margolis, founder of the Beverly Hills firm The A List, wrote an email to her staff about a new mandate to hit “pause on working with any celebrity or influencer or tastemaker posting against Israel.” The company, which is a fixture on red carpets and is at the forefront of brand integration with celebrities, works with such companies as CAA, UTA, Lede Company and Wolf Kasteler Public Relations. In the email, Margolis stressed that there was a distinction between what she deemed acceptable and unacceptable social media posts about the country and its current military operations in Gaza.

Take a first peek at Sandokan, a new international adaptation of Emilio Salgari’s historic saga about the adventures of a titular pirate who, with his motley crew, fights against colonial powers in Southeast Asia. Scroll down for more.

Emiliano De Pablos Barcelona-based Grup Mediapro has promoted Marta Ezpeleta as the next head of international content factory The Mediapro Studio, where she currently serves as its international director. Ezpeleta will replace Laura Fernández Espeso, Variety‘s International Media Woman of the Year, upped to No. 2 at Grup Mediapro from January.

Marta Ezpeleta will be the next CEO of The Head and Paraíso producer The Mediapro Studio.

Cornerstone has closed worldwide distribution deals for Andrea Arnold’s latest feature film Bird, which debuted at last month’s Cannes Film Festival. 

EXCLUSIVE: XYZ Films has closed a raft of international deals on SXSW Midnighter thriller Kryptic, starring Chloe Pirrie (The Queen’s Gambit).

Marcelo Cajueiro RIO DE JANEIRO — Latin America’s largest creativity event, Rio2C, will gather over June 4-9 at the Cidade das Artes complex, in Rio de Janeiro, about 50,000 participants, up from 44,000 last year, including some 1,600 speakers and representatives of about 1,100 companies. Modelled after SXSW, the fifth in-person edition of Rio2C will feature over 500 panels designed to promote the convergence of film/TV, music, innovation, tech, games, publishing, science, fashion, sustainability and sports. Rio2C 2024, which has “The Age of Awareness” as the central theme, opens Tuesday, June 4 with five summits, followed by three days of conferences and the market.

Manchester United have reportedly been offered Joao Felix by Atletico Madrid as part of their bid to sign Mason Greenwood in the summer transfer window.