MasterClass Lays Off 120 Staffers, About 20% of Its Headcount

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentChristine Vachon, the legendary U.S. indie film producer behind “Far from Heaven,” “Boys Don’t Cry” and HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce,” will deliver a masterclass at Locarno Pro, the expansive industry program of the Locarno Film Festival.Further masterclasses will be given by Katriel Schory, an architect of the modern build in Israel cinema as executive director of the Israeli Film Fund for 20 years; and by Lucius Barre, the renowned international film publicist who has represented early crossover films by Pedro Almódovar, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Atom Egoyan, Johnnie To and Tom Tykwer.Neon Distribution will be the subject of a panel presentation on original-language film distribution in the U.S.

Unity has laid off approximately 200 workers as they “realign some of [their] resources.”Unity is one of the most used game engines in the industry. While Epic Games and its Unreal Engine tend to cater to larger developers, Unity targets the indie market.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorIn another blow to the creator economy, Substack, a company that provides services for writers to offer paid newsletters, laid off 13 employees, about 14% of its headcount.CEO Chris Best told staffers of the layoffs in a memo, which he posted on Twitter. “Today’s the saddest day we’ve had at Substack,” he wrote.In the memo, Best said, “Our goal is to make Substack robust even in the toughest market conditions, and to set the company up for long-term success without relying on raising money — or, at least, doing so only on our time and our terms.”Some of Substack’s most popular newsletters are penned by Heather Cox Richardson, Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Noah Smith, Glenn Greenwald, Joseph Pompliano and Emily Oster.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNiantic, the augmented-reality games company behind “Pokémon Go,” is letting go about 8% of its workforce and has scrapped several game titles it had in development, including “Transformers: Heavy Metal.”The company is laying off 85-90 employees, Niantic CEO John Hanke said in a memo to staff Wednesday, which was first reported by Bloomberg. Niantic needs to “further streamline our operations in order to best position the company to weather any economic storms that may lie ahead,” Hanke wrote.In a statement, a Niantic spokesperson said, “We recently decided to stop production on some projects and reduce our workforce by about 8% to focus on our key priorities.

pic.twitter.com/0ycGtrIBh6Substack is by far seen as the biggest player in the newsletter space, generating revenue by taking a cut of writers’ subscription fees. The platform boasts some 12 million readers a month and reached one million paid subscriptions last year. It was seen as the dominant newsletter platform during the pandemic, luring everyone from freelance creators to legacy New York Times journalists.The platform is home to high-profile writers including Andrew Sullivan, Bari Weiss, Matthew Yglesias, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi and Roxane Gay.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentThousands of staffers and freelancers working for France’s public broadcasting groups, spanning France Televisions, France 24, Arte and Radio France, went on strike on Tuesday in Paris to protest against the government’s proposed bill to eliminate a TV license fee that finances nearly 85% of their annual budgets.It’s considered to be French broadcasters’ biggest strike in the last 30 years, according to a source at France Televisions. Flagship programs such as morning news show “Telematin” didn’t air a new episode on Tuesday for the first time in three decades, along with “Complement d’Enquête” and a flurry of others.The demonstration was held in front of the National Assembly, where the proposed bill to phase out the TV license fee will be presented before the council of ministers on July 6.

over why some former Trump 2020 campaign staffers didn’t know there was a documentary crew filming them throughout the 2020 election, right through to Jan. 6.

Following Tuesday’s hearing from the Jan. 6 select committee, “The View” host Sunny Hostin put her criminal prosecution experience to work. And to her ears, there are at least three criminal charges that Donald Trump should face.During the show’s Hot Topics discussion, the panel of women noted that with every new reveal from the committee hearings, they are more disgusted, and often more disheartened.

bad faith attempts to paint the thing as somehow analogous to the Jan. 6 riot. But taking his mockery of those critics further, Colbert also ran down a list of horrific crimes he joked have been committed by puppets over the years.

Naman Ramachandran The inaugural London Action Festival (July 28-31) will open with a screening of “Die Hard,” with director John McTiernan and other guests in attendance at a Q&A. McTiernan’s “Predator” will also screen at the festival.

All families could face a £120 fine for taking their children on holiday during school time, with new rules potentially being introduced to crackdown on kids missing lessons. Local councils current decide whether to issue a fine to parents or not, which means that while some have to pay the £120 fee, others manage to avoid the charges.

She infuriated fans by turning up an hour late, but Katie Price couldn't have looked happier as she cradled a small dog during her Makeup Masterclass in Birmingham.The former glamour model, 44, appeared to be having a great time as she had some blusher and bronzer applied to her face by a make-up artist. In the snap taken at the event, Katie's dog, Buddy, appeared to be having an enjoyable time too - wearing a bright coloured shirt and seemed nice and relaxed while Katie cuddled him during the masterclass.The star looked casual for the class, held at the Iron House in Hockley, wearing a black top and joggers as she cradled her dog on her lap. Her newly dyed hair was sleek and straight, pushed to the side to keep the hair out of her face.

Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday banned around 121 Australians, including out gay ABC journalist Patricia Karvelas, from entering the country “indefinitely” over what it termed a “Russophobic agenda”. The list included prominent Australian journalists, mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, ABC chairperson Ita Buttrose and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.The foreing ministry’s statement said that “entry to the Russian Federation for these persons is closed on an indefinite basis in response to the growing sanctions of the Australian government, which apply to an increasing number of Russian citizens – both officials and their families, as well as representatives of the business community and the media.”I’m not sanctioned in Australia so I can bring you @RNBreakfast https://t.co/QT0ZaqAWEd #auspol pic.twitter.com/pYOAxFwRbF— Patricia Karvelas (@PatsKarvelas) June 16, 2022The RN Breakfast host said she woke up to the news of being added to Russia’s ‘stop-list’ early in the morning.  “Waking to news of being sanctioned by Russia at 3:30am was a hallucination reality dreamscape I didn’t imagine for my Friday,” Karvelas posted on . Karvelas also posted a video from the ABC studio.

Despite looming court cases, Katie Price has continued to hold her make-up masterclasses. But yesterday, she left some super fans out in the sizzling sun as she arrived an hour and 20 minutes after class was supposed to start. Fans lined up ready to see their role model at Iron House in Birmingham at 4:30 as instructed, only to be left disappointed as there was no sign of Katie, reports Birmingham Live.