“It’s hard not to wonder – as a viewer – why the Taliban’s top brass agreed to let Nash’at shoot a fly-on-the-wall documentary of the early days of the regime. … Mansour comments coldly about Nash’at: ‘If his intentions are bad, he will die soon.'” - The Observer (UK)
Apologies to this excellent post on the site formerly known as Twitter. Point is, a lot of great movies are set in Paris, so if you’re not a sportsfan (or your sport isn’t on), here’s how to keep your eyes on the City of Light. - The Guardian (UK)
Unless the strike lasts longer than 60 days, “actors and other union members who are already under contract and working on games in development are permitted to continue work during the strike without any sort of union discipline.” - Fast Company
The historic studios hosted The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula’s Bride. And then, "Ridley Scott built and shot the miniatures for his Academy Award winning sci-fi thriller, Alien, at the studios in 1978.” - BBC
Not great: “Short of regulation or relevant union agreements, it has come down to film-makers – directors, producers, writers, visual effects and VFX artists and more – to figure out how to use it, where to draw the line.” (They’re not great line-drawers.) - The Guardian (UK)
As viewers, we’re being flattened by a fire hose of programming — and the experience of watching TV feels like a ritual of submission, passively accepting a slush of shows served up by a streaming service’s algorithm. - The New York Times
"Hollywood’s video game performers voted to go on strike Thursday after negotiations with industry giants that began nearly two years ago came to a halt over artificial intelligence protections. Leaders of the (union) have billed the issues behind the labor dispute — and AI in particular — as an existential crisis for performers." - AP
The popularity of memes means they have become an important vehicle for political communication. In my research, I have identified four roles of memes: political mindbombs, fast-food media, everyday slang and a soothing device. - The Conversation
The film, which follows the first film’s heroine as she hits puberty, has just overtaken Barbie in terms of global ticket sales, as well as becoming the fastest animated film to make $1bn (in 19 days) and is now the 13th biggest film of all time. - The Guardian
These movies, made outside the the big studio systems, usually in languages other than Hindi, forgo Bollywood's song-dance-melodrama formula in favor of stories about ordinary people's lives. Since the pandemic, theaters avoid these films in favor of crowd-pleasers, while Modi's government has intimidated streaming services away from them. - The Washington Post (MSN)
Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are all cutting back to reduce their streaming losses. Amazon has the resources to compete with Netflix, but is still figuring out the best path to streaming sustainability. Even Apple, which has seemingly unlimited resources, is growing a little more cost-conscious. - Bloomberg
The annual tax, currently £169.50 ($219) and mandatory for any household with a television or using BBC's iPlayer online, is the national broadcaster's primary source of funding. Younger people in particular seem willing to do without the BBC's content, worsening the network's financial woes. - The Guardian
After 40 years, the festival seems to be acknowledging that it has outgrown its hometown. Last week organizers announced six finalist candidates for the new host city, and Nate Jones rates them. - Vulture (MSN)
"The BBC will lay off 500 more staff by March 2026 as its annual report paints a worrying financial picture including a near-doubling of its deficit to almost £500M ($646M). BBC headcount has fallen by 2,000 – or 10% – over the past five years." - Deadline
