International Insider: Election Reaction; AFM Latest; Netflix Taxes In Spotlight
Hello Insiders. It’s been an historic week in the U.S and the implications of Trump’s election victory will be felt around the world in times to come. For now, Jesse Whittock here with the latest international film and TV news.
Trump’s Second Act
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He’s back: There wasn’t really anywhere else I could start this week, was there? By the time you read this, the seismic political earthquake that hit the U.S. on on election day will be sinking in as the reality going forwards. Donald Trump is back and from January, he will be President for the second time. Read this fantastic report from our politics ed, Ted Johnson, who deftly captured the fast-moving events and the context around the result. Hollywood, one of the bluest parts of American (this week in every sense), had hoped for Democrat Kamala Harris to win and succeed Joe Biden in the White House, and reaction from the town has been a mix of anger, fear and disappointment over recent days. The responses from the likes of Bette Midler, Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam McKay and Wendell Pierce highlight the range of feelings as people come to terms with a huge jolt to the right early next year. Just reading below the line on Deadline’s extensive ElectionLine coverage shows you how divided the American people are. Harris was criticized by Fox News’ Dana Perino for not immediately conceding (glass houses and stones come to mind), but she ultimately gave a speech telling Democrats “not to despair” and said her party would engage in a “peaceful transfer of power” in January when Joe Biden’s term comes to an end.
International implications: Western world leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron, the UK’s Keir Starmer and Spain’s Pedro Sánchez were among those to send congratulations, as they contemplate what a second Trump administration will mean. Others such as Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán, whose right-wing sensibilities more closely align with Trump, were also quick to welcome back with the old-new Commander-in-Chief. It’s very early days to start predicting how a second Trump presidency will impact the global film and TV markets, but potential restrictions on visas will worry overseas crews planning to shoot stateside and many others from diverse backgrounds working in the industry. With many U.S. production businesses more dependent on international partnerships than any time in the past the decade, the industry will be hoping Trump’s isolationist instincts don’t impact their plans. Read our very extensive coverage of the election here.
Bizarro: As is always the case with an election cycle like this, there were plenty of bizarre TV moments to go with the serious business of the appointment of a new president. In the UK, Channel 4 News assembled a group of commentators who wouldn’t have been out of place in the Big Brother house. A book-touting Boris Johnson was taken to task over his actions while British Prime Minister by presenter Emily Maitlis, who was also playfully reprimanded by her co-host Krishnan Guru-Murthy for swearing on air. Stormy Daniels was at one point sat next to next to Michael Cohen, the lawyer who organized Trump’s hush money payment to the former porn star and who served as the prosecutor’s star witness during the trial. Actor Brian Cox was beamed in as a floating head and clashed with Johnson, who defended Trump from the Succession star’s claims that the incoming President is a “monster.” It’s the kind of discourse we’ll have to get used to once again, as Trump’s divisive form of political engagement returns.
Market Traders
A24 at AFM: As we reported last week in this newsletter, the American Film Market kicked off on the same day as the election, and there was trepidation over how a close contest might hit the market in the swing state of Nevada. However, Trump’s decisive win quickly scattered industry watch parties. Word on the ground from delegates is that the event has struggled due to long lines at elevators and a lack of atmosphere in the casino setting. In terms of content, there has been a glut of genre fare and there are very few big-canvas projects. Among the blue-chip offerings is Timothée Chalamet-starring ping-pong film Marty Supreme. Andreas had this intriguing report on the project, which will be A24’s joint-biggest to date with a budget of around $70M. The Josh Safdie-directed flick is loosely based on 1950s table tennis star Marty Reisman. While some buyers have questioned the price tag for the subject, Andreas reports that the movie is framed more as a fast-paced adventure comedy in the vein of Catch Me If You Can than a traditional sports biopic. With Gwyneth Paltrow ending a five-year hiatus to star in the film and Chalamet’s generational pull behind it, the project also packs a starry punch.
Allow me to introduce myself: Among buzz titles announced for the market were James Gray’s next movie, Paper Tiger, which will star Oscar nominee Adam Driver, Emmy and Tony winner Jeremy Strong and Oscar winner Anne Hathaway. Milla Jovovich and Betty Gabriel have been set to star in Twilight of the Dead, the next feature from The Call and The Machinist director Brad Anderson. The George A. Romero estate is teaming up with L.A.-based financier-producer Roundtable on the “seventh and final installment” of the seminal Living Dead franchise. Chris Rock is set to direct feature Misty Green in which he will also star. Finally, almost 25 years after Russell Crowe waged war on the Roman Empire in Gladiator, the actor is once again set to stir the warrior within for The Last Druid. Scoops from Andreas, Jill, Anthony, Zac and Mel can be found here amongst our full AFM coverage.
Taxing Times
Investigation: Netflix offices in France and the Netherlands were raided this week as part of a coordinated investigation into the streaming service’s tax and employment affairs. According to local media reports, Netflixis being investigated for alleged tax fraud and concealed employment. Scary sounding divisions such as the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office and Central Office for the Fight Against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses were mobilized in Paris, while in Amsterdam, where Netflix has its Europe HQ precisely to take advantage of favorable tax rules, Dutch authorities were searching for evidence, according to a French judicial source cited by several sites. Clear information is hard to come by, but the situation in France relates to a 2022 tax audit that appeared to find that Netflix’s declarations between 2019 and 2020 did not match the profits that would have been expected from the seven million local subscribers it had at the time. This suggests it has operated ‘tax optimization’ techniques that allowed it pay just $1.06M into the government’s coffers in 2019-2020. After appearing to abandon the practices, local turnover grew from $51.3M in 2020 to $1.3B in 2022. The practice has long been a problem in France, with McDonalds’ agreeing to pay $1.36B to local authorities to avoid prosecution for tax fraud between 2009 and 2020. After initially staying quiet, Netflix now since responded, with a spokesperson telling Mel the streamer is “cooperating with the authorities in France” and claiming to “comply with the tax laws and regulations in all the countries in which we operate.”
Other ‘Things’: In other Netflix news, more details of Stranger Things‘s final season were announced. Happily for fans, Season 5 will drop in 2025, not 2026 as some were speculating. Episode titles include “The Crawl”, “The Turnbow Trap” and “The Rightside Up”. Principle cast members such as Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard and David Harbour will be joined by new names Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly and Alex Breaux, and we know there will be a time jump, from March 1986 to fall 1987. News of the launch and the eps were unveiled, inevitably, on November 6 — dubbed Stranger Things Day, to coincide with the date Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) goes missing in Season 1.
Veterans’ Day
Familiar with ‘Emilia’: Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox are the names behind the company that turned the unlikeliest Oscar contender of the year into an international success story. The pair, who are co-founders of The Veterans, arrived at the Cannes Film Festival with Emilia Pérez, the genre-bending Jacques Audiard musical about a Mexican cartel leader who transitions from male to female. Not exactly the easiest presale on the slate, you might think, but the Veterans made history. After a world premiere got an 11-minute standing ovation, buyers jumped into action and a $10M funding shortfall quickly turned into $16M-worth of sales. Maraval and Fox told their story to Diana this week, revealing Cannes had delivered more than $100M in sales across their slate, which included the likes of Jason Statham punchathon Mutiny and Walter Salles’ directorial comeback I’m Still Here. Add those deals to international sales on Luca Guadagnino’s Venice competition title Queer and Johnny Depp-directed Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness and you’ve got one of the hottest distribution outfits on the market right now. Read on to find out how they did it, and what is next for The Veterans.
The Talk Of Tokyo
Japan to the world: The Tokyo International Film Festival wrapped its 37th edition on November 6 with a palpable sense that the festival — along with the Japanese industry — has made a concerted shift to embrace a more international outlook. The festival has introduced events such as the TIFF Lounge, which featured international guests and was devised with Cannes Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda, under Ando Hiroyasu’s leadership. Hiroyasu took the reins as the festival’s chairman in 2019 after spending more than 35 years as a diplomat in various top posts across Italy, the Philippines, the U.S. and UK. The festival saw a significant increase in international guests, with 2,561 present this year compared to last year’s 2,000, and festival leaders were also often seen on the ground at both public and closed-door industry events interacting with international guests. A similar embrace of the international market also colored the industry-focused TIFFCOM. Japan’s Toho, TBS, Fuji TV and other major studios are increasingly making bold reaches for U.S. and international markets. For example, during a TIFFCOM panel, TBS Television President Masamine Ryuho unveiled an ambitious expansion strategy, involving investment of $1B (￥160B), opening new offices in Los Angeles and Seoul and the acquisition of New York-based formats licensing group Bellon Entertainment. The firm is also building a strategy to enter new markets in Southeast Asia, India, Europe and the Middle East through engaging in M&A, cooperative content investment and business alliances. Given the success of Japanese content on streamers around the world, now seems the perfect time to export the country’s film and TV around the world. Ever popular, anime asserted itself as the hottest property on offer for the international market, with industry insiders during TIFFCOM commenting that the floor hosting the anime companies at TIFFCOM’s Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center was the busiest throughout the three days.
Italianime: Talk around Italian cinema also dominated the festival and market following the signing of a Japan–Italy film co-production agreement, which officially came into effect on August 9. Italy is only the third country that Japan has a formal co-production agreement with, compared to Italy’s 37 partners. There was a retrospective on Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, a showcase of Italian director Nanni Moretti’s films, with Chiara Mastroianni, daughter of the Italian actor, also serving as a jury member for the festival’s awards. A reception was held at the Italian Embassy to Japan to celebrate the signing of the agreement, with five Italian projects also specially selected to take part in the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market. TIFFCOM additionally featured a panel sharing further details related to the co-production agreement, with Cinecitta’s Roberto Stabile present alongside Italy’s Ambassador to Japan, Gianluigi Benedetti. Overall, TIFF saw 61,576 admissions across 208 films screened. This is a dip from last year’s attendance of more than 74,800 — although this can be partially attributed to 11 more films screened in the 2023 edition. With the festival’s official events and talks, attendance saw a boost, with 96,866 admissions compared to 2023’s 73,081.
The Essentials
??? Hot One: Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich and singer Charli XCX are among those joining Romain Gavras’ English-language debut Sacrifice.
??? Very Hot: Colin Teague will direct Esaaf, a Saudi Arabian comedy from Ibrahim Al Hajjaj, Talal Anazi and Peter Smith.
??? You like your spice!: Indonesian horror and local box office hit Dominion of Darkness sold to 53 countries, per Sara.
?? “In a pickle”: Stewart was on the ground at TellyCast’s Digital Content Forum in London, where television makers were told to wake up digital-first content.
?? Breaking Baz: Danielle Deadwyler told our man about The Piano Lesson and teased a West End debut.
?? Globie: Max caught up with the French-Hungarian team proving there’s space on the board for more than one chess TV drama through Rematch.
??????? New job #1: For Tom Lieber at Amazon MGM Studios, who takes on UK scripted series, absorbing the duties of the exiting Rola Bauer.
?? New job #2: For Briony Gowlett, who replaces Amanda Harris at the top of YMU’s global literary division, I revealed.
??????? New president: No, not Trump again. Luca Guadagnino is replacing Thomas Vinterberg as jury chief at the Marrakesh International Film Festival.
? Boycott: Several senior Muslim industry figures gave the Griersons a swerve over the organization’s treatment of Asia Kapadia. Jake with the scoop. Grierson winners can be found here.
?? Snappy: The EPs of Sky/Peacock drama The Day of the Jackal told Max about updating the Frederick Forsyth novel for modern audiences.
?? Disruptor: Norwegian director Joachim R?nning talks Young Woman and the Sea and Tron: Ares in Diana’s latest.
?? Don’t forget the suncream: Clelia Mountford is leaving Merman, the Bad Sisters producer she founded with Sharon Horgan, to launch Sunburnt Penguin.
?? Box Office: Red One gets a head start on the holiday season with an international launch of up to $30M.
Teaser: For The Propagandist, the IDFA-bound doc on Dutch Nazi filmmaker Jan Teunissen.
Sara Merican and Andreas Wiseman contributed to this week’s International Insider. It was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Stewart Clarke.
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