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Good afternoon Insiders, welcome to another weekly dose of news in what has turned out to be a busy ol' May. Max Goldbart with you this week penning the newsletter. |
Trump card: "Tariff" is a word that has entered the daily lexicon over the past few weeks, but the industry was still blindsided when Donald Trump set out a plan (via Truth Social) to impose 100% tariffs on film imports Sunday. It's been quite the rollercoaster since and the sector is spooked. "It's insane," was the simple response leading our international reax piece, which is well worth a peruse
. What started as a ranty proposal made on social media that appeared to reflect Trump's hatred for California governor Gavin Newsom as much as his desire to return production to America, became a more codified plan when Deadline revealed Trump and his Hollywood compadre Jon Voight's proposal in full. This unveiled bombshells including the fact it does include TV, a 10%-20% federal tax credit that would be “stackable” on what states like California, Georgia and New York already provide, and a return to the old Fin-Syn rules (Nellie's fascinating explainer here
) that would take rights and power away from the streamers. Whether this gets implemented is another question entirely. Hopes it gets scotched will have improved with Trump unveiling a trade deal with the UK – one of the nations that most takes advantage of American production needs. This was paired with a horrendous impression of Sean Connery as the POTUS stressed 007 has "nothing to worry about."
However, the whole episode shows just how much fear one Trump Truth Social post can set off in a multi-billion dollar industry, and just how much the world remains reliant on Hollywood to keep the engine running. Keep checking back for more.
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Tarantino talking: After some late additions, including new titles from Eugene Jarecki, Lynne Ramsay, and Bi Gan, we finally have a complete lineup for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which begins on Tuesday. It’s an exciting crop of films and certainly the buzziest pre-festival atmosphere for some years. Alongside new titles, the festival also announced some big-ticket visitors this week, including Quentin Tarantino
, who will chair a discussion in Cannes on American filmmaker George Sherman with veteran critic and documentary filmmaker Elvis Mitchell. This as part of the Cannes Classics track, which looks set to be an exciting one this year. Shia LaBeouf will also return to Cannes, where Slauson Rec, a guerrilla doc about his controversial L.A.-based free acting school, will screen. Juliette Binoche heads this year’s Competition jury. She will be joined by Halle Berry, Payal Kapadia, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sangsoo, Carlos Reygadas, and Jeremy Strong — a unique mix of jurors for a hopefully unique festival. On the Cannes Market side, hot titles continue to roll in. Natalie Portman has signed on to star in
Photograph 51, the first feature from British filmmaker Tom Hooper since his widely-derided Cats. Michelle Rodriguez and Richard Gere will lead the plane thriller Left Seat from Ben Younger (Bleed for This), a new Donald Trump biopic is at the market with prolific Italian producer Andrea Iervolino, and the film remake of the buzzy play
Prima Facie
, which has Cynthia Erivo attached, is on sale with Embankment, CAA and UTA. Our team are getting ready to head out. Check back with us here for all Cannes coverage.
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Content pulled: Disaster has struck India and Pakistan this week with dozens killed in the disputed Kashmir region after deadly drone and missile attacks. As with the tariffs, this terrible conflict has slipped into the world of culture with the Indian government ordering all streamers and OTT services
operating in the country to pull Pakistani content, citing national security concerns. The ban includes a halt on web series, films, songs, podcasts and other digital media content from Pakistan. India, of course, has a rich cultural landscape and multiple streamers and OTT players operating in the country. It was with little surprise that Pakistan responded, blocking a collection of YouTube channels and websites linked to India. The Pakistan Authority said the move was made “in the light of the prevailing regional situation to safeguard national security and protect Pakistan’s digital ecosystem.” As Insider goes to press, the conflict is raging. There have been reports of explosions and blackouts overnight as both sides blame each other for the
escalating tensions, which ultimately hark back some eight decades to the 1947 partition of India. Our thoughts go out to those impacted.
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Legacy media?: I was in Bradford this week for the Creative Cities Convention (CCC), an annual British confab that moves to a different UK city each year to showcase the locale's strengths, while diving headfirst into the major topics of the day. While Trump's tariff plan threw a cat among the pigeons and led to fiery debate between execs at Paramount and All3Media, one issue that kept coming up was how the broadcasters embrace YouTube, which had a big presence on the ground as it turns 20. The event kicked off with a session with YouTube UK boss Alison Lomax
, who stressed that everyone of all ages is watching both longform and shortform content on the platform these days, and plenty of these YouTube viewers also enjoy a bit of British broadcasting. The term "legacy media" was then thrown around in reference to the public broadcasters and this led to frustrated mutterings from pubcaster execs, who didn't want to be placed in this bracket. Broadcasters and indies have been thinking harder about how they utilize YouTube and ITV factual boss Jo Clinton-Davis said
the networks need to "rise like a phoenix from the ashes" and place content where the audience is watching, whether that be linear networks or YouTube. And YouTube isn't the only big player trying to deepen ties with the film and TV biz, as evidenced by Nada's sit-down with TikTok UK boss Dominic Burns back in London. More on this debate to come. Elsewhere at CCC, it was intriguing hearing from A A Dhand, a Bradford local and creator of hit BBC drama Virdee (pictured), who talked a captivated audience
through his 15-year-journey from pharmacist to author to TV creator, while revealing a rather unlikely hero. All our Creative Cities coverage can be found here. |
Conclave done: Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new Pope, and he's American! Although he has spent much of his time in South America and is a naturalized Peruvian, Cardinal Robert Prevost becomes the first pontiff from the U.S. after a smoke-laden, days-long vote that had a dash of extra intrigue this time around due to the success of Oscar-winning movie Conclave
. The white smoke eventually rose and Prevost, who has taken the name Pope Leo XIV, emerged on the Vatican balcony with a smile and a wave yesterday afternoon. As with all previous contests, the vote remained top secret and little will be known in the wider world about the new leader. He is reported to have a similarly progressive attitude in areas like migration and climate change as his predecessor Pope Francis, which is perhaps unsurprising given that by the time of his death, 80% of cardinals had been appointed by Pope Francis himself. The selection was a major world event with news cameras trained on the Vatican and more than 50,000 in a packed St. Peter’s Square for Leo's emergence. “Peace be with you,” he proclaimed in his first public words as Holy Father.
“Help us and all who build bridges."
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