Twitch Auto-Enrols Streamers Into Amazon LLM Training - Twitch’s decision to automatically include creators in AI training programmes has sparked industry-wide concerns about consent, intellectual property and creator rights.
Facebook Relaunches Creator Studio With AI-Powered Insights - Meta’s new AI-driven Creator Studio aims to improve creator growth, engagement and monetisation through automated recommendations and analytics.
Warner Bros. Discovery Expands Aggressively on YouTube in Germany - WBD’s move into dedicated YouTube channels signals a major shift in how traditional broadcasters are approaching digital audiences.
Switzerland Selects Who Is Still Alive for the Oscar Race - Switzerland’s choice of a documentary centred on Palestinian refugees gives the international feature race both cultural and political significance.
Lilly Wachowski Says Hollywood Won’t Finance Her Trans-Cast Thriller - Wachowski’s comments highlight continuing industry debates around representation and financing for trans-led projects.
Netflix Reportedly Scraps David Fincher’s Squid Game: America - The reported cancellation suggests Netflix may be rethinking how it expands one of its most valuable global franchises.
YouTube-Netflix Rivalry Over Creator Content Intensifies - Growing competition between YouTube and Netflix reflects the increasing value of creator-led programming in the entertainment ecosystem.
Documentaries Face Growing Legal and Ethical Scrutiny Across the Nordics - A series of high-profile disputes underscores rising legal, ethical and consent challenges for documentary filmmakers.
New Nordic Films Announces 21 Co-Production Market Projects - The annual market provides an important snapshot of future European film production and international financing trends.
MrBeast’s WatchTime Studios Appoints Former Studio71 Co-CEO Adam Boorstin - The hire signals MrBeast’s ambition to build a scalable creator-led studio business beyond his own content brand.
Our readership includes senior executives from the world’s most influential entertainment companies, the people shaping what audiences watch next.
Among our subscribers are leaders from global streamers such as Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount, SkyShowtime and Viaplay; major broadcasters including NBCUniversal, ABC, Channel 4, ITV, France Télévisions, CBC, A+E Networks, Sky, SBS, RTL and ARTE; also production companies and studios such as Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. Discovery, BBC Studios, Fremantle, Banijay, Fifth Season, Gaumont, and Legendary Entertainment.
We’re also proud to count decision-makers from Screen Australia, SXSW, BAFTA, The Wit, IMAX, and Condé Nast among our readers, a community united by curiosity, influence, and insight across the global screen industry.
U.S. writer-director Tyler-Marie Evans premieres her debut feature Pretty Babies in competition at the Edinburgh Film Festival Friday. Raised in a cult-like Texas church, she waited tables in L.A. and spent her last $60 on a Cannes ticket, ready to sleep on a bench, pitching anyone in a suit. Ashley Benson, Madelaine Petsch and Killer Films’ Christine Vachon quickly boarded the glittery coming-of-age story about teen dreams and sex work. Read More
Lilly Wachowski says Hollywood won’t finance her next film, “The Hunted,” a roughly $10 million thriller stuck in late-stage production. The director of “Bound” and “Matrix” told KCRW’s “The Business” podcast that people respond well to the project but balk at backing it because of its wall-to-wall trans cast. She says she’ll have to get creative about finding new ways to put it in front of potential backers. Read More
“Top Chef” veteran Doneen Arquines oversaw the Carolinas-set Season 23, packing it with challenges rooted in local culture, history and cuisine, including a NASCAR-themed Quickfire. One of television’s most diverse and quietly educational series, the Bravo competition landed four Primetime Emmy nominations, among them outstanding reality competition program and best host for Kristen Kish. Arquines is part of a group of unscripted producers behind the year’s biggest shows. Read More
The first trailer for Sara Bareilles: Good Grief, Josh Alexander’s documentary, has premiered, capturing Bareilles as she records her seventh studio album, exploring themes of “loss, and transition, and change, and what we let go of.” The film traces her collaboration with friends and the personal inspiration behind the music, including a friend’s 2019 cancer diagnosis. Produced by Group Effort Films and Naked Edge Films, the doc opens in U.S. theatres on September 2, following its Tribeca premiere. Read More
BNNVARA’s new family competition “Wolven: een spel van list en bedrog” (Wolves: a game of cunning and deceit) gathers 13 players in a remote forest, each chosen for a specialism ranging from criminal defence lawyer and digital detective to hypnotist, mentalist and body-language expert. Ten are secretly Citizens, three are Wolves, and no one knows who’s who. The series premieres Saturday, Aug. 29 at 8:30 p.m. on NPO 1, streaming weekly afterwards on NPO Start and Disney+. Read More
British filmmakers Ollie Gardner and Jake Harvey premiere their feature debut, “The State of Us,” in competition at the Edinburgh Film Festival on Friday, reframing manhood through the closeness of male friendship. Gardner told The Hollywood Reporter that masculinity now seems inseparable from toxicity, particularly given what boys absorb from the manosphere online. After works like “Adolescence” diagnosed the problem, he says, their film asks what comes next. Read More
Documentaries are increasingly judged in courtrooms as much as festivals, with editorial choices contested long after premiere. Recent Nordic flashpoints include the Sara Omar documentary dispute, TV 2’s “The Black Swan,” and DR’s “The Oligarch and the Art Dealer,” which raised questions about balance and ethics. “Sabaya,” praised for chronicling Yazidi women’s rescue from ISIS, later drew consent concerns. Dole’s suit over “Bananas!” was withdrawn in 2009 after backlash. Read More
Get 20% off a group subscription
Kieron J. Walsh’s Skintown, adapted from Ciarán McMenamin’s novel, premieres in competition at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this Sunday. Set during the 1994 IRA ceasefire, the film follows Vinny (Jack Rowan) and Jonty (Chris Walley) as they party, hustle and plot an escape from small‑town Northern Ireland. Co‑starring Jamie‑Lee O’Donnell and Hope Ikpoku Jnr, the “propulsive, poignant period piece” features a standout ’90s soundtrack, with Visit Films handling sales. Read More
Five Nordic cinematographers describe an industry under strain, with Norway’s film jobs down 40% in 2023 and 62% of workers reporting financial hardship from irregular employment. Swedish DoP Linda Wassberg says rates haven’t moved in two decades while projects shorten: more hours for less. Icelandic DoP Árni Filippusson calls time the greatest casualty, responding with earlier collaboration and stripped-back natural lighting that serves a scene’s emotional truth. Read More
German broadcasters have long treated YouTube as a frenemy, valuable for reach among viewers who’ve abandoned linear TV, but a rival for attention and ad money, with opaque algorithms. Most still post only clips. That’s shifting: RTLzwei now uploads full documentary episodes, and Warner Bros. Discovery has launched five curated channels since January 2025 under DMAX and TLC, several of which are also carried on Joyn and Waipu.TV. Read More
Rafiki Fariala’s “Congo Boy” follows Robert, a 17-year-old Congolese refugee in Bangui who raises his four younger siblings after their parents are jailed while chasing a music career, a story inspired by the director’s own life. The landmark DRC–Central African Republic co-production premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, where star Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset won Best Actor. It screened on Tuesday, Aug. 11, at Locarno’s Piazza Grande. Read More
Switzerland has chosen Nicolas Wadimoff’s “Who Is Still Alive” as its international feature Oscar submission for 2027. The experimental documentary has nine Palestinian refugees who fled Gaza reenact their escapes on a bare stage marked with chalk outlines, echoing Lars von Trier’s “Dogville.” It premiered at Venice Days last year. Watermelon Pictures acquired U.S. rights for a rollout later this year, with First Hand Films handling international sales. Read More
Anthony King earned his third Emmy nomination for outstanding writing in a comedy series on Prime Video’s “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat.” The season extends the 2023 prank format, dropping one unwitting participant, this time Anthony Norman, into an entirely simulated world for a season-long ruse. Writing around him, King says, means working with what amounts to a wild animal on set who doesn’t know he’s on television. Read More
Andrew Patterson’s second feature, “The Rivals of Amziah King,” opens Friday from Black Bear and confirms him as one of America’s most vital filmmakers. Matthew McConaughey plays a rural Southern beekeeper and band member who reconnects with the young woman he once adopted, played by newcomer Angelina LookingGlass, drawing her into the honey business. The intimate story gradually darkens into heist-and-revenge territory, sprawling with novelistic ambition. Read More
Adam Meeks’ first feature, “Union County,” reaches theatres Friday, Aug. 14, after premiering in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition. The Ohio-set drama blends fiction with the texture of vérité documentary in a tribute to recovery. Will Poulter delivers a heartfelt turn as Cody Parsons, a young man working through opioid recovery in a stark rural setting, while Noah Centineo plays his foster brother Jack, teetering toward relapse during a court-mandated program. Read More
Spotify has tapped Twitch as a new live home for Ringer Wise Guys, marking The Ringer’s first video podcast on Amazon’s platform and a strategic move to counter YouTube’s growing dominance in podcasting. After years of dormancy, The Ringer’s Twitch channel relaunched Monday with the sports‑gambling show hosted by Cousin Sal, Anthony Dabbundo, Raheem Palmer, Joe House and Tate Frazier. Spotify says the partnership meets fans where they are, leveraging Twitch’s young, interactive audience to expand reach beyond Google’s ecosystem. Read More
Moby and producer Lindsay Hicks detail how Little Walnut Productions, founded in 2020 to champion creative activism, has expanded from documentaries to broader issue‑driven storytelling. The company is backing upcoming projects, including Häxan, Tecie, and Tribeca titles Full Circle and Selah, while also co‑financing the Sundance premiere of The Incomer. Moby says they invest only their own money, support films at any stage, and believe filmmakers should be involved in marketing and distribution rather than “handing a film over like a Victorian parent.” Read More
Twitch has begun auto‑enrolling all streamers into having their content scraped to train Amazon’s LLMs, requiring creators to opt out manually. CPO Mike Minton admitted the choice was deliberate, prompting widespread backlash. Streamers raised concerns about consent, prior scraping, and AI overreach, while Twitch’s Mary Kish acknowledged the community’s resistance. Read More
Meta has fully rolled out its AI‑powered Creator Studio, a standalone app that offers creators tailored insights, trend analysis, and engagement data to sharpen their posting strategies. Early testers reported major gains, with one creator adding 4,000 followers from a single AI‑recommended format and another more than doubling earnings. The relaunch arrives as Meta tries to counter scepticism about its AI push, positioning Creator Studio as evidence that smarter tools can meaningfully improve creators’ performance. Read More
Director Will Gluck says that the world of One Night Only, where premarital sex is legal for just one sanctioned night a year, was intentionally left unexplained, arguing that over‑explaining the rule would weaken the film’s playful, heightened premise. He discusses crafting the unusual setting for stars Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, and teases that a potential prequel could finally explore the origins of the film’s mysterious societal mandate.
On The Screen Podcast, host Wendy Mitchell and reviews editor Nikki Baughan unpack what the summer’s YouTuber‑driven hits Backrooms and Obsession signal for horror’s future, noting the genre’s disappointing wider season and hopes pinned on Toronto and Venice. Baughan highlights YouTube’s gender imbalance, noting that only seven of the 50 most‑subscribed channels are run by women, and examines the algorithmic biases limiting female horror creators, while assessing whether UK and Irish filmmakers are finding their own breakout moment.
Will YouTube revive funding for creator‑led originals amid its escalating rivalry with Netflix, whose recent deals with Mythical and Nick DiGiovanni are intentionally non‑exclusive? YouTube’s subscription pact with Peacock is likely driven by an Olympics strategy, not by competition with Netflix. Also, YouTube’s global head of creators, Kim Larson and sports creator Kayla Nicole discuss the realities of building a sustainable creator career, with Nicole bluntly advising newcomers not to start.
The media giant quietly preparing a major international acquisition strategy, and the executives leading the charge
Why one top streamer is rethinking its franchise playbook after a series of costly bets
The little-known executive reshuffle that could have major implications for the global television market
Which production sectors are attracting the smartest investment money right now, according to industry insiders
The surprising company emerging as one of the biggest winners in the creator economy boom
Why several major studio projects have been shelved, and what it signals about development priorities heading into 2027
The festival strategy shift that distributors say could reshape international sales markets
Plus: exclusive executive intelligence, development analysis, dealmaking insights, and the stories happening behind the headlines.
Upgrade your subscription for detailed coverage, insider analysis, and all stories from today’s global screen industry briefing.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.