Funding Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

The British Film Institute today launched Screen Culture 2033, a 10-year vision for the UK’s screen industries alongside a three-year funding plan, the first strategic budget set by chief executive Ben Roberts.

Naman Ramachandran The British Film Institute (BFI), the U.K.’s lead organization for film and the moving image, has set out a new, wide-ranging 10-year strategy along with a funding plan that covers the period’s first three years. The Screen Culture 2033 strategy, which will see the BFI through to its centenary in 2033, has six major ambitions. As part of this, the BFI aims to transform its relationship with U.K. audiences and become known as an open house for the discovery of screen storytelling; advocate for the full breadth of screen culture, including video games and interactive work; and create a cutting-edge screen archive of the future. In addition, the BFI aims to be digital-first in delivering cultural programming through streamer BFI+; champion screen culture in school curricula, and build a skilled and sustainable workforce that reflects the U.K. population; and support the sector in delivering national lottery funding, policy work and evidence.

Algerian filmmakers have stepped up a campaign calling for their government to unlock promised state funds for cinema, warning that Algeria’s film industry is on its last legs following a near-year-long funding freeze.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Listen up: Podimo, the Denmark-based subscription service for podcasts and audiobooks, said it secured €58.6 million (about $58.4 million) in funding, as it seeks to grow its market footprint and content lineup. The funding was led by previous investors 83North, Highland Europe and Saban Ventures, with continued participation from Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker, Heartcore and Headline. The latest round brings Podimo’s total raised to date to about €162 million ($161.5 million), the company said. Podimo did not disclose valuation but said the new capital represented an “up round,” meaning its valuation increased. Founded in 2019, Podimo said it has doubled its headcount in the past two years and currently has about 225 employees. The company plans to step up hiring with the new funding.

Naman Ramachandran Sri Lanka’s Vimukthi Jayasundara and Guatemala’s César Díaz, winners of the Cannes Golden Camera for “The Forsaken Land” (2005) and “Nuestras madres” (2019) respectively, are among the recipients of the Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of the International Film Festival Rotterdam‘s (IFFR) HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme for 2022. Out of 25 applications, six projects by filmmakers from Argentina, Egypt, Guatemala, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Yemen have been awarded a contribution of €60,000 ($60,854) each through their European co-producers in Austria, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Jayasundara is supported for “Turtle’s Gaze on Spying Stars” (France/Sri Lanka, House on Fire), set on a mysterious resort where the protagonist must quarantine and reckon with his past on his return to Sri Lanka, while Díaz gets it for “Fidelidad” (Guatemala/Belgium, Lemming Film Belgium), a love triangle set on Lake Atitlán in Guatemala.

Small schools across the region will be able to get funding to allow their teachers and leaders to access development programmes for free.

A funding application for an ambitious playpark project will be considered by Castle Douglas common good fund councillors next Thursday.

Dalbeattie Food Bank has been handed a funding boost.

A union chief has hit out at the Scottish Government for slashing local authorities funding for 12 years as bin workers across the country hit the picket line to strike.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAuckland, New Zealand-based financier Hillfarrance Venture Capital is backing a team of former Weta Digital staff in their new VFX venture Wellington-based Floating Rock Studios. Founded in 2020 by Laurent Herveic, Lukas Niklaus, Stephanie Parker and Garrick Rawlingson, Floating Rock Studios bills itself as a high-end animation and VFX provider for movies, commercials and video game cinematics.

Council workers in West Dunbartonshire are considering a better pay rise offer from the Scottish Government - with West Dunbartonshire Council saying they ‘desperately’ need funding from the Scottish Government to manage the proposed improved offer.

Covid relief funds of around £3m are to be handed to hundreds of firms with high levels of unpaid business rates and to 38 other companies who failed to apply to the scheme. Bolton Council said 'take up has been low' for the Covid-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF), a business rates relief fund of £5,697,827 which the authority received from central government earlier this year.

The leader of Falkirk Council 's Labour group has written to Scotland's deputy first minister to share her despair at the "chronic lack of funding" that will, she says, inevitably mean more cuts that will devastate services.

Andrew Wallenstein President and Chief Media AnalystThe upstart sports brand Overtime announced a Series D round of funding to the tune of $100 million, with Liberty Media Corp. joining its long roster of investors.In an interview for the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Dan Porter, CEO and founder of Overtime, pledged to grow the company’s existing leagues in basketball and football.

France’s lower and upper houses of parliament “definitively adopted” a cost-of-living crisis budget package late Thursday containing legislation scrapping the country’s 89-year-old TV license.

Town hall chiefs are bidding for £40 million of government cash to ‘level up’ parts of Oldham which could see a business centre created to support green tech start-ups.

Jonathan Cohen The red-hot music rights space has a major new entrant in Litmus Music, which is being launched by veteran music executives Hank Forsyth (pictured at left) and Dan McCarroll (right) with $500 million of funding in partnership with Carlyle Global Credit, Variety can reveal. Litmus will acquire and manage music rights in both recorded music and publishing, with an eye on diverse genres and vintages.

French senators approved controversial government legislation abolishing the country’s 89-year-old TV license fee in the early hours of Tuesday morning after a two-hour late-night debate.

Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis services in West Dunbartonshire have welcomed a funding pledge which allows them to develop their support for women and children.

“Dissatisfied audiences and declining viewing share” could damage the legitimacy of the BBC funding debate, according to an influential UK House of Lords report, which urged the corporation to “seize the opportunity to generate momentum for change.”

The Featured Artists Coalition’s petition calling on UK collecting society PRS to reconsider its decision to cut the funding it provides the PRS Foundation has now past a 1000 signatures, with artists like Sam Fender, Anna Calvi and Wolf Alice’s Joff Oddie backing the FAC’s campaign.PRS confirmed at its AGM in May that the funding it provides to the talent development charity it set up in 2000 will be cut from the current £2.5 million a year to £1 million a year from 2024. That’s because the specific income stream the funding comes from – basically interest earned on investments and royalties awaiting distribution – has been in decline in recent years.However, many artist and songwriter groups have called on the society to top up its annual donation to the Foundation from other funds.

A dad has decided to pull funding from his daughter's wedding after she refused to invite his wife to the big day - because she only wants 'real family' there.

The Falkirk Council area is to receive £6 million as its share of cash to replace funding from the European Union over the next three years.

Addie Morfoot ContributorClose to a decade after American Zoetrope announced that the company had acquired the screen rights to Alysia Abbott’s “Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father,” the film adaptation has finally been made with the help of Safe Space Pictures Foundation.The newly-launched funding entity was founded by producer Nicole Shipley (“Trial of the Chicago 7,” “A Private War”) to champion women and underrepresented voices in the entertainment industry by providing support to issue-driven documentary and narrative projects via equity, debt, and grant funding. Safe Space is currently working on ten nonfiction and narrative projects at various stages in production.

Kelsey Parker has praised Ed Sheeran as an "unbelievable person" after the singer helped fund her late husband Tom's private medical treatment during his battle against brain cancer.

Milena Zajović The Croatian film and TV sector is expected to get a financial boost of more than 5 million HRK ($697,200) from international streaming platforms through the Croatian Electronic Media Act, which came into effect in October 2021, the Croatian Audiovisual Center (HAVC) has told Film New Europe.Netflix is expected to participate with 3 million HRK and other contributors will include HBO Max, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.According to the new law, streamers will have to invest 2% of their revenues generated in Croatia in local production or acquisition. Network operators will invest 10% of the revenue generated by their own services.

Just three Perth and Kinross play parks have so far benefited from Scottish Government funding aimed at improving all of Scotland’s play areas.

The sun was shining in Paisley for Woodside Cemetery & Crematorium’s event on Tuesday, May 31 in association with their charity partner, Alzheimer’s Scotland. The event aimed to educate and raise awareness of this illness and to provide help and support for local families who may be affected by Dementia. The day also included a tour of Woodside’s beautiful memorial gardens and culminated with a ‘Tea and Blether’ session back at the newly renovated Martyr’s Chapel.

EXCLUSIVE: While Ben Affleck just started Monday directing the untitled drama about maverick sneaker salesman Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon)’s dogged pursuit to get Michael Jordan to lace up in Nike shoes, Affleck and Damon are getting traction on their own groundbreaking endeavor.

John Oliver delivered an impassioned plea on tonight’s Last Week Tonight in opposition of the inevitable rise of support for increased police presence on school campuses.

$44 billion merger would entitle shareholders to receive $54.20 for each share of Twitter’s common stock owned. This amount is approximately 38% of the closing price of its stock as of April 1, the last full trading day before Musk disclosed his 9% stake in the company.Twitter’s board of directors have recommended a vote for the merger agreement with Musk.

BBC bosses have for the first time indicated they may be open to a change in the corporation’s funding model after 2027.

Lockerbie’s Hallmuir Ukrainian Chapel has been awarded a grant of more than £50,000 by South of Scotland Enterprise.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSubsidiaries of Live Nation, the world’s largest live-entertainment company, received some $19 million in “Save Our Stages” funding from the Small Business Administration, even though the act was intended to benefit small venues and not multinational corporations, according to an extensive report published by the Washington Post.While Live Nation does not wholly own those businesses, sources told the Post that the company urged Democrats and Republicans in Congress to let it be directly eligible for the $15 billion emergency relief program, even though it is a publicly traded company that hardly qualifies as an independent venue. Ultimately, the law was written to exclude public companies, as well as firms they own or control, however, subsidiaries “in which Live Nation has a substantial, though not majority, ownership stake” received nearly $19 million, according to the Post’s review of Securities and Exchange Commission filings, state corporate documents and SBA data, as well as interviews with executives at companies that received grants.

Naman Ramachandran The Uncertain Kingdom Fund, which disburses development coin to U.K. film projects, is opening submissions for its second round from May 23-June 20.The fund was set up to support projects that interrogate British culture, asking questions of identity, the current journey and the future.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has outlined his commitment to oppose conversion therapy by warning that organisations supporting such practices could be stripped of funding from the city.