This weekend, “the festival is bidding farewell to its longtime home and forging forward without its founder, Robert Redford, who died in September. Next year, it must find its footing in another mountain town, Boulder, Colo.” - San Francisco Chronicle
“Jack Murley alleged he was called homophobic names, including ‘fairy boy’, by other staff members and told to sound ‘less gay’ on air by a manager.” - BBC
“Each is a story about standing up to something that seems too big to confront: an authoritarian government, an abusive system, dehumanizing societal norms. Together, they show the power of nonfiction filmmaking, both amateur and professional, in those acts of resistance.” - The New York Times
Apparently, it was too hard to put parental controls on the old characters. So: “We’re pausing teen access to the current version while we focus on the new iteration. When that new iteration is available for teens, it will come with parental controls.” - The Verge (Archive Today)
“Even in a case where a star comes on first, … the casting director has to build an entire world around them — not just actors who fit each individual part but combine to form a harmonious vision, one that can be disrupted by a single off-key line.” - Slate (MSN)
“The Bethlehem-based organization, which includes PBS39, WLVR radio and the Lehigh Valley News website, will lose about half of its workforce, which had stood at 41. It also cut back on some PBS programming ‘to align expenses with sustainable funding.’” - The Morning Call (Allentown, PA) (MSN)
The overlooking of the Good Witch was truly Wicked. Then again, crowd pleaser Wicked: For Good got basically nothing overall, so maybe it’s time to reconsider that shunned Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film category …just sayin’. - Deadline
For anyone fantasizing about Hollywood as some liberal bulwark, though, the 2024 election brought that idea to an abrupt halt. The industry’s era of progressive sincerity, and much of its wariness toward conservative-coded content, has evaporated. - The New York Times
Under the agreement, the BBC will grow its number of YouTube channels to 50, which includes those operated by commercial arm, BBC Studios. New specialist channels will include BBC3’s Deepwatch (working title), featuring new and existing documentaries. Seven children’s channels will be launched (as well).” - Deadline
Director Ryan Coogler’s Mississippi Delta vampire epic has surpassed the 14-nomination record jointly held by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Paul Thomas’s black comedy action thriller One Battle After Another scored 13 nods. (includes complete list of nominations) - Variety
“The country’s premier showcase for independent film is also in a time of profound transition after decades of relative stability. The festival is … forging forward without its founder, Robert Redford, who died in September. Next year, it must find its footing in another mountain town, Boulder, Colorado.” - AP
Nielsen says streamers logged 55.1 billion minutes on streaming services on Christmas, breaking the previous high — set on Christmas in 2024 — by 3.9 billion minutes. That amounts to 54 percent of all TV use during the day, also an all-time high for streaming services. - The Hollywood Reporter
Because viewers give a “very different level of attention” to a movie at home versus in a theater, Netflix wants to push the action set pieces toward the front. He said there are behind-the-scenes discussions about reiterating “the plot three or four times in the dialogue” to account for people being on their phones. - Variety
“Netflix’s all-cash offer of $27.75 per share replaces its previous offer of $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in Netflix common stock per share. The sweetened offer comes as rival bidder Paramount continues pushing its own all-cash offer for all of Warner Discovery. The value of Netflix’s offer remains $72 billion.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
"When this deal closes, we will own a theatrical distribution engine that is phenomenal and produces billions of dollars of theatrical revenue that we don’t want to put at risk. We will run that business largely like it is today, with 45-day windows." - The New York Times
