Live Nation reports 2023 biggest year ever for concert turnout and ticket sales – while two grassroots music venues close per week

Denmark head coach Kasper Hjulmand has hinted that Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund will feature in Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final against Liverpool at Old Trafford.

Vietnamese distributor and producer Mockingbird Pictures is making its debut as an international sales agent at Filmart with a slate of local horror, comedies and action films, headed by record-breaking horror hit Crimson Snout (Quy Cau).

Manchester City players arrived at Anfield on one side of the stadium while Liverpool fans waited for them on the opposite side after a route change.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ahead of its U.S. premiere at SXSW, “The Queen of My Dreams” has been sold to a flurry of international markets, including in the U.K. and Ireland to Peccadillo Pictures.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief EST N8, the film and TV sales venture formed by U.S.-based EST and Thailand’s N8 company, has hired Chatsuree ‘Chat’ Sripamorn for an Asian sales roles. Reporting to Tenten Wei, she will represent the company at next week’s FilMart. Sripamorn has previously worked at three of the top Thai entertainment companies Mono Next, GMM Studios and Rose Studio over a span of ten years.

Former Sweden international Henrik Larsson has opened up on his short stay at Manchester United in 2007.

FRIDAY UPDATE: Dune: Part Two added 42 international box office markets on Thursday, taking the offshore cume on the Denis Villeneuve-directed sequel to $20.8M in a total 55. This includes two full-days of play and previews in those markets.

Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has been banned from football for four years after doping.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent A rare flagship indie producer left on the French market, Bruno Nahon‘s Paris-based company Unité is preparing to conquer international audiences with “Rematch,” a period psychological thriller chronicling the historical battle between world chess champion Garry Kasparov (Christian Cooke, “That Dirty Black Bag”), and IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997. The sprawling show, directed by Yan England (“The Red Band Society”) and co-created with Nahon and André Gulluni (“Sam”), was commissioned by Arte in France and has already been sold by Federation Studios to major outlets around the world, including HBO Europe for Spain, Portugal, the Nordics, Iceland, Baltics, Central Europe, Greece and the Netherlands.

Holly Jones Keshet International has commissioned the six-part docuseries “Hitler’s Treasure Hunters” from production outfit Perpetual Entertainment(“Troppo”). KI’s second straight-to-series factual order for international distribution, which figures into a new Greenlight: Factual & Formats commissioning initiative, the show centers Heinrich Himmler’s Das Ahnenerbe, a branch of the Nazi SS that sought religious relics and high-value international artefacts – such as the Holy Grail and Thor’s Hammer – in order to gain solid footing in the war and advance Aryan supremacy.

Naman Ramachandran The Asian Film Awards Academy has revealed several events around the annual Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. Veteran filmmakers, jury president of this year’s awards, Japan’s Kurosawa Kiyoshi and Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan, will share their filmmaking experiences and artistic concepts in a joint masterclass. Thai star Metawin Opas-Iamkajorn (“2gether” series and film) known as Win, will be honored with the AFA Rising Star Award and the event will host the world premiere of his new film “Under Parallel Skies.” There will also be six themed panel discussions featuring actors Wan Fang (Taiwan), Rachel Leung and Yoyo Tse (both Hong Kong), Tergel Bold-Erdene (Mongolia), Awat Ratanapintha (Thailand) and Shirata Mihaya (Japan).

Jaden Thompson “You can’t see them, but they see everything.” Warner Bros. has released the trailer for the upcoming horror film “The Watchers,” written and directed by Ishana Shyamalan, the daughter of horror veteran M. Night Shyamalan, in her directorial debut.

Marta Balaga Enough with the winter gloom: Feel-good shows are about to take over TV market London Screenings, as distributors echo Russell Crowe’s Maximus iconic words: “Are you not entertained?” “Most platforms are looking for entertaining shows. Escapism is a big thing,” says Fremantle International CEO Jens Richter. “You want to take the audience somewhere else and make sure they forget about their reality for a minute.

Dahomey,” a highlight of this year’s Berlinale competition and directed by Cannes prizewinner Mati Diop (“Atlantics”), for North America, Latin America, U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey and India. The feature film is represented in international markets by Films du Losange, which negotiated the deal with Mubi. “Dahomey” marks the sophomore outing of Diop, a French-Senegalese talent who is considered one of the leading figures in international arthouse cinema and of a new wave in African and diasporic cinema.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Live Nation had another record year in 2023 as multiple superstar acts toured the world and live entertainment returned in earnest after the pandemic shut it down for nearly all of 2020 and 2021. The world’s largest live-entertainment company saw revenue of $22.7 billion, up 36% from 2022, pointing to record attendance, ticket sales and sponsorships. Adjusted operating income was $1.86 billion, up 32% year-over-year.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Polish public broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) has added feature film “Shattered Games” to its international sales slate alongside rom-com film “The Love Buzz” and historical series “The Bay of Spies.” “Shattered Games” explores Poland’s rich history and influence in the game of chess. The Polish national chess squad, known as the “Golden Team” in Poland, won the world chess championship in Hamburg in 1930, and was renamed by the German press as the “Bombenmannschaft” or “Bomber Crew.” “The matches the team played are still to this day described in chess textbooks as examples of masterful moves and games,” TVP said in a statement.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario’s directorial debut “Gloria!” has scored a slew international sales ahead of its world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival competition. RAI Cinema International Distribution has sealed deals to nine territories on Vicario’s vibrant musical comedy set in a late 18th century Venetian female orphanage where a young rebel named Teresa leads a group of performers to challenge classical canons and invent a precursor to pop music.

K.J. Yossman Keshet International has acquired worldwide distribution rights for hostage drama “Conflict.” Produced by Backmann & Hoderhoff and XZY Films, “Conflict” is a six-part political thriller about an enemy force trying to incite a global conflict with a surprise attack. The series was created and produced by Andrei Alén and Aku Louhimies (“Rebellion”).

Marta Balaga No surprises there: Sex and crime still work when it comes to attracting viewers. But even when playing with familiar tropes, it’s crucial to add complexity to stories and characters, Fremantle’s Jamie Lynn argued on a roof table at the Berlinale Series Market. “Easy is not always best.

Manchester United legend Roy Keane has been linked with a return to Sunderland, having hit out at 'idiots' he fell out with at the club in the past.