MipJunior Opens as Global Kids TV Commissions Plunge, and the Industry Looks Ever More to IPs, Technology

Savina Petkova There is an ample tradition of historical dramas set in Interwar Poland, but there’s rarely one made by a woman director. Anna Jadowska wants to fill in this gap with her new project, “Tethys Ocean,” which will be presented at Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora Crossroads Co-production Forum next week. The story unfolds in 1938, as seven-year-old Wiktoria is being sent from a village near Kraków to become a servant at the mansion of a wealthy family where her older cousin also works.

K.J. Yossman Trinity Creative Partnership have snapped up U.K. sales rights for historical war film “Love, Courage and the Battle for Bushy Run,” which is launching at AFM.

Carole Horst The American Film Market kicks off Oct. 31 and runs through Nov. 5 in its new headquarters at the Le Meridien Delfina in Santa Monica.

Angus Finney Industry players treading the floors of Le Meridien Delfina, the American Film Market’s new venue, will be besieged by aggressive funding offers and fliers tubthumping diverse landscapes and state-of-the-art facilities from all around the world — marketing tools promoting incentives and driving the heated battle for productions across the globe. The incentive wars have been raging for decades, with several U.S. states and leading producing nations — such as Canada, the U.K., France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Germany — battling over a $177 billion worldwide production pot being spent on film, scripted TV and docs in 2019 alone, according to consultants OlsbergSPI. Given the inherent link between total production spend and automatic funding systems as a crude percentage, that indicates that some $20 billion-$30 billion of tax credits, production rebates and other automatic mechanisms are underpinning worldwide production. But just as the industry at large is reeling from strike actions, the impact of streamers and talk of a “great spend re-correction,” all is not well in the land of automatic funding incentives.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Funny Birds,” an heartwarming comedy-drama starring Andrea Riseborough, Catherine Deneuve and Morgan Saylor, has sold in key territories in the run up to the AFM. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, the movie is directed by Marco La Via and Hanna Ladoul.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Bhutan’s official Oscar entry “The Monk And The Gun,” Pawo Choyning Dorji‘s follow-up to “Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom,” has been bought by a raft of well-established international theatrical distributors. Following its festival premieres at Telluride, Toronto, Rome and Busan, “The Monk and the Gun” has been sold by Films Boutique to Pyramide Distribution (France), September Films (Benelux), Rialto Distribution (Australia), Future Films (Scandinavia), A Contracorriente (Spain), Lev Films (Israel), Aurora Films (Poland), Trigon (Switzerland), Alambique Films (Portugal) and Impact Films (India and Indian Subcontinent). Earlier this week, the crowdpleaser was also acquired by Roadside Attraction for the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based genre special WTFilms has boarded Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s horror thriller ‘The Soul Eater’ ahead of the AFM.

Paris Fury was spotted wearing a stunning blue jacket with all of her children’s names embroidered into the sleeve, as she got glam-ready for Tyson Fury’s big boxing match at the weekend.The mum of seven, who took her kids pumpkin picking earlier in the week, shared a few snaps on Instagram while at the nail shop and revealed she had to make the “hardest decision”. Paris first shared a picture of a huge display wall of nail polish, along with the caption: “Nail shop.The hardest decision must be made here”.

Marta Balaga DR Sales has been racking up sales for Danish drama series “Prisoner.” Starring Sofie Gråbøl, David Dencik, Youssef Wayne Hvidtfeldt and Charlotte Fich, it has been picked up by BBC (UK and Ireland), Canal+ Group’s channel Polar+ (France), MHz Networks (U.S.), SBS (Australia), NPO (Netherlands) and BeTV (French-speaking Belgium). Revolving around four desperate prison guards, forced to deal with everything from rampant drug trade to their personal problems and imminent closure of the prison, the show was created by Kim Fupz Aakeson.

The B-52s will perform at the White House State Dinner on Wednesday for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Haydon.

There were two major new entries this weekend at the international box office, one local (Tamil thriller Leo: Bloody Sweet) and one from Hollywood. Starting with the latter, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon from Apple, Paramount and Imperative Entertainment, had a big opening with $21M in 63 offshore markets and No. 1s in 24 of those, including France, Germany, Australia, Spain, Netherlands and Switzerland. The global bow, factoring in its strong domestic opening, was $44M; great for a period movie with a long running time and at a moment when talent could not promote it due to the actors strike.

K.J. Yossman Over 10,000 individuals — many of them prominent figures from British culture — have signed a letter condemning the atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7 and demanding the immediate release of the more than 200 civilians still being held hostage.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While at the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon, German film master Wim Wenders said he shares Martin Scorsese’s deep concern over Hollywood’s obsession with sequels, and worries about AI in line with U.S. actors who are still on strike.

A man from Wythenshawe has completed the massive achievement of cycling just under 1200 miles across 11 countries in just over two weeks.

Lise Pedersen With typical modesty and humor, Wim Wenders opened his masterclass at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon by answering the question: ‘Do you feel like a survivor in the history of cinema?’ with a ‘Yes, in a funny kind of way, I do sometimes feel like a dinosaur.” Expanding on his answer, the 78-year old director, who is being awarded the festival’s Lumière Award lifetime achievement prize later today, said he had been lucky enough to experience great changes in cinema throughout his lifetime and that he felt more like he had experienced rather than survived cinema –“vécu plutôt que survécu,” as he said in his fluent French. Looking back on his 1984 cult movie “Paris, Texas,” for which he won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, the German director explained it had been the culmination of one of his greatest lessons in life.

Super exciting news has been revealed for fans of Drag Race!

Amazon is entering The 1% Club.

Marta Balaga Pole-vaulting champion Armand “Mondo” Duplantis might be on his way to another record, as Red Bull Studios continues selling “Born to Fly,” a documentary feature about his life. So far, the film has been picked up by Germany (Sky), France (Canal+), Switzerland (3+ and RTS), Norway (NRK), Finland (MTV3), Spain (Movistar Plus+), Belgium (VRT) and Estonia (ERR). “We are delighted to partner with broadcast partners throughout the world to showcase this incredible athlete and his sport to global audiences,” said Sebastian Burkhardt, head of partnerships and commercial strategy at Red Bull Studios.

Aaron Nemane was always encouraged to play with personality coming through the ranks at Manchester City and it's his personality which has helped him shape a promising career that perhaps could hit further heights.

Christine and the Queens has cancelled all remaining tour dates for 2023, on the advice of the singer’s doctor. News of the cancellation arrived earlier today (October 16) via Christine and the Queens’ official Instagram account.