Sony Pictures Television-Backed Independent Film Trust Launches Second U.S.-U.K. Co-Production Diversity Initiative (EXCLUSIVE)

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival is launching two initiatives to support directors, filmmakers and artists who have been arrested or imprisoned around the world during the past year. In tandem with the International Coalition Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR), a panel will be held on Sept. 3 at the Palazzo del Casinò press conference room titled: “Filmmakers Under Attack:Taking Stock, Taking Action.” Panelists will include fest chiefs Alberto Barbera (Venice);  Vanja Kalurdjercic (Rotterdam); Orwa Nyrabia (Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival); Turkish producer Nadir Öperli; European Film Academy president Mike Downey and an unspecified Iranian director. 

The woman suing Horatio Sanz for alleged sexual assault has added Jimmy Fallon to the suit. In a filing obtained by Deadline on Tuesday, the woman, who claims former Saturday Night Live star Sanz sexually assaulted her in 2002, added Fallon, Tracy Morgan, and SNL creator Lorne Michaels to the complaint as “enablers”. The original filing claimed Sanz assaulted the woman - who remains anonymous - when she was 17.

The upcoming British version of Jimmy Fallon’s show That’s My Jam will shoot entirely in LA after a successful pilot, Universal Television Alternative Studio chiefs confirmed today here at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

A Pennsylvania woman filed legal papers today in an attempt to add Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan and Lorne Michaels to a 2021 lawsuit in which she accuses then-Saturday Night Live castmember Horatio Sanz of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

The 2022 Nordic Council Film Prize Nominees Announced The five nominees for the prestigious Nordic Council Film Prize have been announced. The list of nominees includes Joachim Trier’s Oscar-nominated The Worst Person in the World, Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland, Teemu Nikki’s The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, Lamb by Valdimar Jóhannson, and Clara Sola, directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén. The Nordic Council Film Prize, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, is awarded to “an artistically significant, Nordic-produced full-length feature film with cinema distribution”. The award comes with a €41,000 cash prize shared equally between the winning film’s director, screenwriter and producer. The winner will be announced on November 1 at a ceremony in Helsinki, Finland. Last year’s winner was Flee directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen.

The Dnipro Kids charity chairman has successfully got the backing of his fellow Perth and Kinross councillors to mark Ukraine Independence Day.

EXCLUSIVE: Weird NJ is coming to the small screen. Sony Pictures Television has acquired the rights to Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman’s Weird NJ magazines and broader Weird U.S franchise for development as a live-action horror-comedy series. The project hails from Little Demon co-creator Kieran Valla and NJ native and filmmaker David Kaufmann and Vertigo Entertainment.

Christopher Vourlias Beta Film has added two new titles to its growing slate of titles from Central and Eastern Europe, acquiring international distribution rights to Serbian supernatural drama “Block 27” and the Czech crime series “Ultimatum,” the company announced on the eve of the Sarajevo Film Festival.Veronika Kovacova, Beta’s VP of international sales and acquisitions for Eastern Europe and Turkey, said the deals underscore the company’s continued commitment to the fast-growing region. “We are there for the creators, for the producers, to help them and to support what they want to produce,” she said.Directed by Momir Milosevic and Milica Tomovic, and produced by Belgrade-based Firefly Productions, “Block 27” is a science fiction-mystery that follows the disappearance of a teenager in Belgrade, and the search by his twin sister to find him—a journey that finds her traveling to another dimension.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAustralian streaming platform Stan has signed a renewed and expanded content supply deal with Sony Pictures Television.The company described the deal as: “a major new multi-year strategic content partnership with Sony Pictures Television, securing Stan a brand-new exclusive slate of first-run premium scripted drama. The expanded partnership will see the extension of hit Stan exclusives and will also bring an extensive catalogue of iconic Sony Pictures Television series and global blockbuster films to Stan.”The deal follows previous agreements with Hollywood suppliers Lionsgate, MGM, NBCU and Paramount for first run premium scripted series.

Aussie streamer Stan is tightening its ties with Sony Pictures Television.

For All Mankind showrunners Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi are staying in business with Sony Pictures Television. The Emmy-nominated writing-producing duo have signed a multi-year overall deal with the studio behind the series, where they have been based for the last two years.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMatt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi –the co-creators, showrunners and executive producers of “For All Mankind” — have extended their overall deal with Sony Pictures Television.The writing duo has been based at Sony for the past two years. Under the deal, they will continue to serve as showrunners on “For All Mankind” while also developing scripted dramas for all networks and platforms.“We’re thrilled to continue our relationship with the amazing team at Sony,” said Wolpert and Nedivi. “’For All Mankind’ has been a dream come true for us both and we can’t wait to keep pushing forward on Season Four of the show and other exciting new projects.”“For All Mankind” airs on Apple’s streaming service and was recently renewed for a fourth season.

Deadline on Monday launched the streaming site for its Contenders Television: The Nominees, our annual TV awards-season showcase that took place Saturday with 31 panels featuring the year’s buzziest Emmy-nominated scripted and unscripted series and documentaries.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentNew York and London-based TV and film investment fund APX Group has partnered with L.A.’s Decentralized Pictures (DCP) on a crypto currency scheme to help finance projects by up and coming directors.The initiative is being unveiled at Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival.APX, which was launched by Yona Wiesenthal, former CEO of the Israel Broadcast Authority and content chief at Israeli DBS platform YES and New York real estate entrepreneur Noam Baram, has become active recently in the universe of NFTs and crypto currency.The fund, which recently formed a U.K.-based division called Herd Productions with a starting budget of €100 million ($105 million), will collaborate with DCP — a non-profit headed by Leo Matchett and Mike Musante — to offer selected filmmakers awards totalling €5 million through DCP’s Web3 structure. Winning helmers and their projects will also be enabled by APX’s network of production facilities in Europe and the U.S.

After Bob Bakish yesterday said said Paramount+ was performing “above expectations” in the UK and Ireland, the streamer has stocked its cupboards with a series of exclusive scripted acquisitions for those countries’ subscribers.

Jimmy Fallon and Kevin Bacon are offering a new twist on a pop classic by reimagining Tears for Fears' «Head Over Heels» for a fictional  segment called «First Drafts of Rock.» In the spoof clip, Fallon and Bacon perform a so-called early version of the 1985 hit -- which was re-popularized in the 2001 film -- that really doubles down on the idea of . «Got a degree in meteorology to talk about the weather,» Fallon croons, with Bacon hopping on the chorus to harmonize. «For the weather you can call Tears for Fears, we'll check the radar if the skies will be clear.»Watch the full segment below and prepare to have the tune stuck in your head all day.Bacon stopped by to discuss his return to his horror roots in the LGBTQ+ horror film , coming to Peacock on Aug. 5.

Sony Pictures Classics co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard will be honored with the Zurich Film Festival’s Game Changer Award in recognition of their outstanding achievements within the film industry.

Naman Ramachandran Sony Pictures Classics co-founders Michael Barker and Tom Bernard will receive the Game Changer Award at the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), in recognition of their services to film culture.Along with Marcie Bloom, Barker and Bernard, who serve as co-presidents, founded Sony Pictures Classics as an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. To date, films produced by the studio have received 183 Academy Award nominations — 70 of which were films by women — and won 41 Oscars.

EXCLUSIVE: Kristen Konvitz has joined UTA as an Agent in the Independent Film Group division. She will work from the agency’s Los Angeles headquarters, reporting to Partners Jim Meenaghan and Rena Ronson, who serve as Co-Heads of the Independent Film Group.