Good afternoon, Insiders, Max Goldbart here penning the newsletter as we peer gravely across the pond to what many would term a free speech crisis. Read on or sign up here (preferably both).
Jimmy Kimmel Off Air But World Switches On
“Anything but one of them”: Jimmy Kimmel may have been taken off air, but around the world we are watching. In what feels one of the most serious challenges to the sacred nature of American free speech in the Donald Trump era (and that’s saying something), Kimmel has been indefinitely stood down from his ABC show after a monologue in which he said Trump’s followers were trying to position the man who killed conservative commentator Charlie Kirk as “anything but one of them.” The monologue was loaded with nuance. ABC owner Disney’s swift decision to take Kimmel off air, less so. With the cancelation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and high-profile Trump lawsuits settled with Disney and Paramount over the past year, it did feel as though something like this was coming. On each occasion, the Federal Communications Commission – run by a Trump appointee whose job it is to rubberstamp major media M&A deals – has been involved, which some consider overreach. American network television, which has long been seen as among the most committed to free expression in the western world, sometimes to its detriment, could be set for a serious reshaping if monologues like Kimmel’s no longer pass muster. We have reported on protests outside Disney HQ and internal dissent within Disney. Here in the UK, where TV impartiality rules are far more stringent, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has once again been criticizing the right-leaning GB News for allowing Trump’s pal Nigel Farage to host current affairs shows. “We will act to empower audiences further, so that not only do they see high-quality content, but they can distinguish between news and polemic,” she told the RTS Cambridge Convention. Back across the Atlantic, the very nature of such polemic appears under threat. Incidentally, Trump spent this week in the UK, where he was met with protests, a Jeffrey Epstein projection on Windsor Castle and the “longest uninterruped reel of untruths ever broadcast on television.” But he did get to hobnob with his old pal King Charles III. Want to read around the Kimmel saga a bit more? You could do worse than check out Peter White and Dom Patten’s fascinating run-down of how things played out.
Palme D’Or Winner Questions International Oscar Process
Panahi pulls no punches: International Oscar submissions have been flooding in and we’ve been keeping you across them, while Palme d’Or winner Jafar Panahi has raised questions about the very nature of the process to select the award for best movie not in the English language. This week alone, Iranian filmmaker Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident has been selected as France’s pick (its French route into the Oscars comes via Paris-based co-producer Les Films Pelléas), while Poland entered Agnieszka Holland’s Franz, last year’s winner Brazil went with Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Secret Agent and Spain opted for Oliver Laxe’s Sirât. All eyes were also on Israel, which picked Ophir Award winner The Sea about a Palestinian boy living in the West Bank. Given the current climate, the Ophirs were a somber affair, made worse by Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar saying he will pull its funding for platforming a “disgraceful” film that portrays Israeli soldiers in a negative light. Free speech issues rearing their head once again there. At Busan in Korea, Panahi, a critic of the Iranian regime whose films are mostly banned in Iran, called on the Oscars to separate Best International Film submissions from the control of government-sanctioned selection committees around the world. Were this enacted, it would represent a real shift, and we will keenly follow the fallout from Panahi’s remarks (Mel’s analysis is well worth a read). Panahi was speaking at a revamped Busan Film Festival. Our Asia contributing editor Liz Shackleton sat down with the fest’s new director Jung Hanseok about his attempts to revamp Busan in its 30th year in a nation that punches well above its weight in the movie sphere. All the international Oscar picks can be found here.
Einbinder & Cooper At The Emmys
Listen up, hacks: Making headlines at Sunday night’s Emmys were Hacks star Hannah Einbinder and Adolescence breakout Owen Cooper. Once again on the subject of free speech and protest, Einbinder pulled off the most headline-grabbing speech of the night when she directly addressed the war in Gaza and its fallout in America. “I feel like it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the State of Israel,” said Einbinder, before demanding, “Free Palestine” and saying “F**k ICE.” Her remarks gained a great deal of traction (Ricky Gervais didn’t seem happy) as Einbinder went home with an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy, one of a number of winners from HBO’s Hacks. However, the night really belonged to 15-year-old Brit Cooper and his merry band of Adolescence superstars. Accepting an award that many wait much of their life for, Cooper roared: “Who cares if you get embarrassed? Anything can be possible.” It was a beautiful moment, one of a number of big wins for Netflix’s second most-watched English-language show of all time. Other big winners on the night included The Pitt, The Studio and Severance. Our L.A. team were out in force and full coverage can be found here.
RTS Cambs and YouTube
“Tigger Tim” takes charge: Jake has been in Cambridge this week for an RTS Convention that was stocked full of British and American executives (RedBird IMI’s Jeff Zucker, FX’s John Landgraf and Roku’s Anthony Wood were all in town) debating the big issues of the day. BBC head honcho Tim Davie, aka “Tigger Tim,” chaired proceedings and stayed true to his nickname by being replete with optimism, refusing to be thrown off course by existential self-flagellation, Jake writes in his RTS Diary. The diary takes in all the tittle tattle, including rumors around a Paramount bid for ITV, a re-up of The Crown EP Andy Harries’ Sony contract and a heroic Channel 4 comms chief swooping in to save the day after hacks were locked out of the traditional King’s College banquet. As is becoming more common at big industry confabs these days, chatter around YouTube dominated proceedings, as executives debated how best to leverage the platform and, in the case of CoComelon owner Kevin Mayer, lamented the randomness of its algorithm. In one of the newsier moments of the fest, UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said ministers are prepared to legislate if YouTube declines to properly promote public service content. This would represent a serious bit of state intervention in one of the world’s biggest online platforms, and it’s hard to see how it could be enforced. Our just-published analysis can be found here.
Seriesly Berlin: A Different Spin
Steamboat Arc: Into its sophomore year, Germany’s quirkiest TV festival, Seriesly Berlin, remained committed to tackling the big issues in different ways. Stewart and Jesse were in the German capital and reported on a fest finding its groove. In a calendar that probably contains too many TV events, offering something different is essential for a new player, and Seriesly’s Fotografiska venue certainly does that. On the ground, a mix of Israeli and Palestinian speakers addressed how human narratives can still make their way through despite the tragedy of the current crisis in Gaza, in an emotional but hopeful session. We’ll have a video next week. Meanwhile, creatives refused to hold back from thinking big. Director Igor Simić, for example, kicked things off with a keynote entitled “Are We Content With ‘Content’” during which he revealed he is working on an animated hybrid that blends Steamboat Willie with Carl Theodor Dreyer’s landmark 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc, as both are now out of copyright. Consider me converted. There was also time to hear from those behind Berlin ER, How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), Maxton Hall and Drops of God. Seriesly does things a bit differently, and it feels as though it is here to stay. All coverage here.
The Essentials
🌶️ Hot One: Natasha Lyonne and Matt Berry are creating and starring in retro comedy adventure Force & Majeure for Sky.
🌶️ Another One: Léa Seydoux has been cast in Marie Kreutzer’s upcoming drama Gentle Monster.
🌶️ A third: Lion Forge Entertainment has closed a multi-season distribution deal with Australia’s ABC to bring the buzzy Iyanu animation to Australia.
🖊️ Agents: Curtis Brown’s Meryl Hoffman has exited to go solo, bringing plenty of hot British talent with her.
🤝 Done Deal: Saudi Arabia’s state investment fund took a majority stake in MBC Group.
🚪 Exiting: Hasbro entertainment prez Olivier Dumont, who had been with the toy giant since 2010.
🔐 Locked out: A BBC News journalist explained to Jake why he was banned from the corporation’s premises after calling out its Gaza coverage.
📊 Numbers: Revenues from micro-dramas are set to exceed box office in China this year, per Sara’s report.
🏕️ Festival latest: Focus turns to Basque cinema and the San Sebastián International Film Festival, which starts today. Zac will bring all the news next week.
📜 Making history: Channel 4, which bought a production company outright for the first time since launching in the 1980s.
🍿 Box office: Nancy explained why Materialists was the perfect match for a summer audiences around the world.
🖼️ First look: At Hope, Na Hong-Jin’s sci-fi thrller starring Hwang Jung-min, Michael Fassbender and Taylor Russell.