NATPE Launches Virtual Market

Guy Ritchie has teamed with Creative Access, the Brit organization offering support for people from under-represented backgrounds to get into the creative industries, to launch a new diversity initiative providing paid film internships. Called Set Access, the initiative — which will be initially open to young Black candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds — aims to eventually establish a talent pool of at least 250 interns from under-represented groups over a five-year period.

Public media station WETA Washington, D.C. and the National Alliance on Mental Illness are teaming to host a one-hour virtual town hall to launch Well Beings, a public media campaign to address the health needs of Americans with a focus on the Youth Mental Health Project.

Ringo Starr couldn't celebrate his birthday with his usual party at the Capitol Records building in Hollywood, the former Beatle brought the fun online on Tuesday (July 7) to celebrate the big 8-0 safely and socially distanced.Proceeds raised during the show benefited four organizations, including Black Lives Matter Global Network, the David Lynch Foundation, MusiCares and WaterAid.On the Black Lives Matter movement, Starr took some time to note how influential black music was to creating the

Get Layd has been the No. 1 album on Apple Music Nigeria since its release in May.“I have always used Apple Music, seeing my favorite artists on playlist covers and features but here I am looking pretty as Apple Music’s first Africa Rising artist,” said Lay in a statement.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorEXCLUSIVE: Pablo Larrain’s Princess Diana movie Spencer, which is set to star Kristen Stewart as the former royal, was a hot seller for FilmNation out of the Cannes virtual market.The New York-based firm all but sold out on the project, closing deals for the UK, France, Italy and Benelux (STX Entertainment), Germany and Switzerland (DCM), Australia/NZ (Roadshow), Latin America, Spain and Portugal (Sun), South Korea (Green Narae) and Japan (Tohokushina).Buyers

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterThe latest project from acclaimed independent filmmaker Justin Chon, “Blue Bayou,” has been acquired by Focus Features, Variety can report exclusively.The studio brokered a worldwide deal for the film’s distribution rights out of the Cannes 2020 virtual market, which was financed by MARCO and Entertainment One.

Cannes has declared its first and, if things go as planned, last virtual film market a success. Just more than 10,000 film professionals took part in the five-day event, which wrapped up June 28, according to official figures released Thursday.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentCannes’s virtual Marché du Film, which wrapped on June 26, attracted more than 10,002 participants over the course of five days. The U.S.

Australian actor Margot Robbie, over the years, has steadily grown from strength to strength with each film. The actress, who began her career in 2007, was widely noticed for her role in The Wolf Of Wall Street as Naomi Belfort, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.

The global film industry is betting that eventually there'll be a box office rebound. Studios and streamers, international distributors and global sales agents were doing business at the Virtual Cannes Market, the two parallel online film markets held June 22 to 28 in lieu of the canceled physical festival, as if the future were bright.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorHello, and welcome to International Insider, Jake Kanter here. Well done on making it to Friday, here are the six things we want you to know about the global film and TV business this week.

A lot of things have happened in recent months that we couldn’t have predicted at the beginning of the year. Whether the COVID-19 pandemic itself should be included on that list is debatable.

As the Virtual Cannes Market heads into its final days, the majors have begun to flex their monetary muscle, with MGM closing a deal for remaining international territories on Endeavor Content's hotly-anticipated Bill & Ted sequel and several studios vying for the Will Smith/Antoine Fuqua escaped slave actioner Emancipation, which is expected to close a high eight-figure worldwide deal before Virtual Cannes wraps up.

Michael Gudinski has a new label.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentBeta Cinema has closed numerous deals on its Cannes virtual market slate, spearheaded by all-rights deals on Berlin competition entries “Berlin Alexanderplatz” to Le Pacte for France and “My Little Sister” to Weltkino for Germany, as well as “The Auschwitz Report” to Signature Entertainment in the U.K./Ireland.As well as the French deal, Burhan Qurbani’s new adaptation of Alfred Döblin’s “Berlin Alexanderplatz” was picked up by distributors in

Dino-Ray Ramos Associate Editor/ReporterEXCLUSIVE: Two-time Oscar nominee Ross Katz (In the Bedroom, Lost in Translation) has launched Los Angeles-based Sui Generis Pictures, which will initially focus on feature films but eventually expand into short- and long-form documentaries, unscripted, narrative and limited series.“The company will engage in both long-term and fast-track development, as well as diving into projects that are nearly ready to shoot,” said Katz, who previously was at SK

Martin Dale ContributorOne of Latin America’s biggest genre propositions, the Latido Films-sold “Virus 32,” from Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernandez (“You Shall Not Sleep”), was unveiled Tuesday on the A Demain Cannes market platform.The $1 million pic is a 50-50 Argentina-Uruguay co-production between Aeroplano, run by Sebastian Aloi, and Mother Superior Films, run by Hernandez and Ignacio García Cucucovich.In addition to subsidy support from Argentina and Uruguay, the horror-thriller has

Carole Horst The Cannes Marché du Film, along with a sales initiative led by Hollywood agencies, is hosting the first major virtual market since the start of pandemic, starting on June 23. Distributors and sales agents are looking forward to it: the turn-up for the online Cannes Marché du Film is significant with more than 7,000 accredited participants as of mid-June.“As nobody can leave their house, a virtual market is the next best thing.

Chris Pine is set to star in a brand new thriller movie, called Violence Of Action.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterFull credit to organizers of the Cannes virtual Marche (June 22-26), who by and large pulled off with relative smoothness day one of what will be a technically challenging and largely unprecedented event.There were a few hitches here and there, however, which caused scattered moments of frustration and, in one particularly bizarre incident, some hilarity among delegates.Earlier today, Neon aces Tom Quinn and Elissa Federoff logged on for an insightful