Market Nostalgia, Mip London Scepticism, Premium Telenovelas and Event Non-Fiction: 10 Takeaways from MipTV and Canneseries

If there is one thing Scotland is known for, it is its history, which is as fascinating as it is bloody.

Nuremberg,” a historical thriller set in post-war Germany, will launch its sales through WME Independent at the Cannes Film Festival next month. The film stars Russell Crowe, Rami Malek and Michael Shannon. Richard E.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has boarded “The Ugly Stepsister,” the ambitious feature debut of Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt. The company will kick off sales at this year’s Cannes. Combining comedy and horror, the film is a daring and unexpected take on the world-famous tale, seen through the eyes of the Cinderella’s stepsister, Elvira.

Variety’s Entertainment Marketing Summit in Los Angeles, presented by Deloitte, brought together more than 600 marketing professionals, executives, creators and influencers for a daylong event that examined all aspects of marketing as a discipline at a time of massive transition in the entertainment business. Here are the highlights from the event, held April 24 at the Beverly Hilton.

EXCLUSIVE: Rotterdam competition title Small Hours of the Night from Daniel Hui (Demons, Snakeskin) and SXSW premiere Adrianne & The Castle by Shannon Walsh (The Gig is Up, Illusions of Control) have landed international reputation via non-fiction agency Indox. 

EXCLUSIVE: Sunrise Films and Vertigo Releasing have acquired North American and UK distribution rights on the Danish horror-thriller The Girl in the Trunk. The film will be released on digital download across both territories on May 28. 

In the late 1990s Joker writer-director Todd Phillips, then applying his trade as an underground documentary filmmaker shot a non-fiction project titled Frat House, which nabbed the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance before being promptly acquired by HBO Films. 

Sean Ono Lennon – the sons of Paul McCartney and John Lennon – have written a song together called ‘Primrose Hill’ – check it out below.The song is a tender acoustic number about spending time with a loved one at the popular London beauty spot, which appears on the single’s cover art.“I’ll always remember Primrose Hill,” James McCartney sings wistfully on the chorus, backed by a mellow guitar melody.“‘Primrose Hill’ is here!” shared James McCartney on social media alongside a picture with his co-writer. “Today I am so very excited to share my latest song co-written by my good friend @seanonolennon.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While MipTV is relocating to London with a revamped format, Canneseries Festival is sticking to its guns and will remain as a standalone event in the spring on the Croisette. Benoit Louvet, the managing director of Canneseries, told Variety in an exclusive interview that the festival will return in 2025 on April 22-27 with its major partners, the city of Cannes, the region PACA and the Vivendi-owned pay TV group Canal+.

Laura Anderson has left fans wondering what’s going on between her and Hollyoaks ’ Gary Lucy as she posted a cryptic quote to Instagram. Former Love Island contestant Laura, 34, and Gary, 42, had been dating on-and-off since first meeting on Celebs Go Dating and they welcomed a daughter, Bonnie, together in September 2023. However, the pair have since split again with Laura confirming she’s single.

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.com Ryan Gosling returned to “SNL” this week in a cold open with “Barbie” co-star Kate McKinnon, reviving one of their most famous sketches, “Close Encounter,” in which they recount being abducted by aliens and their vastly different experiences aboard the spaceship. The original sketch debuted eight years ago and featured Gosling and McKinnon, alongside Cecily Strong (it currently has 60 million views on YouTube). The actor also recreated this sketch on his second time hosting six years ago.

Over the years, Christine Lampard has become a familiar face on our TV screens. From joining the Loose Women panel to stepping in for Lorraine Kelly on ITV’s Lorraine, the TV presenter is a regular fixture on the small screen.

Damon Albarn recently joined Thundercat on stage and performed a handful of solo tracks and a Gorillaz song.The Gorillaz frontman appeared at the third night of Thundercat’s four-night residency at London’s KOKO venue on Friday April 5 as part of his UK tour.Albarn joined the bassist towards the end of his set. Together they performed ‘Oh Sheit It’s X’, ‘Funny Thing’, ‘Them Changes’ and Gorillaz ‘Cracker Island’, the lead track from the animated band’s album of the same name in which Thundercat was originally featured on.Has this crowd been euthanised like do they know thundercat and damon albarn are in front of them playing cracker island pic.twitter.com/bJMLD0aVwX— tara (@drknesstolight) April 5, 2024Damon and Thundercat playing Funny Thing tonight in London.

MIPTV is coming to an end – but the hard truth is that people did not travel here to Cannes in the numbers of yesteryear to say goodbye. Market organizers RX France said Tuesday that the final MIPTV has attracted 3,500 people including 1,100 buyers. For context, there were over 5,000 in town last year and the event regularly topped 10,000 delegates in the earlier 2000s. MIPCOM in October, by contrast, still hits those numbers and remains a focal point for the international TV industry.

Holly Jones The ambitious Begoña Montes is locked in a toxic marriage to a magnate in the thrilling telenovela period drama “Dreams of Freedom” (“Sueños de Libertad”), produced for Antena 3 by Banijay’s Diagonal TV alongside Atresmedia – who produced groundbreaking shows “Money Heist” and “Velvet.” “Our relationship with Diagonal is, and will continue to be, very good. We worked with them hand-in-hand on many productions, including ‘Amar es para siempre’, the predecessor of ‘Dreams of Freedom,’” Atresmedia fiction director, Montse García, told Variety.

Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, the dynamic duo of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, orchestrated a heartwarming reunion between a mother and daughter who hadn't seen each other in five years during the show's second to last episode. On Saturday night (6 April) the Geordie pair chose audience member Jane from Birkenhead to participate in their Spot The Difference segment.

The Prince and Princess of Wales' love story famously began at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.The couple met during their first year when they were both living at St Salvator's Halls of Residence and would later go on to live with one another. While the couple have now been married for almost 13 years and share three children, their first years together as students sound idyllic.

Addie Morfoot Contributor MipDoc keynote speaker Dawn Porter is coming to Cannes to discuss not only the challenging doc marketplace, but also how to work and prosper within it. In the last few years the doc industry has favored a handful of big-name filmmakers, like Porter, who are commissioned to make one-off films or docuseries. Over the last 12 months two of Porter’s docus were released: “Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court” which was financed and distributed by Showtime and “The Lady Bird Diaries,” which was financed and distributed by Hulu/ABC News.

Annika Pham One of the Nordic region’s biggest providers of premium series, Copenhagen-based REinvent International Sales, will make a splash at this week’s Canneseries festival and MipTV market. For the second consecutive year, the sales, financing and packaging banner has two titles in competition: the Danish drama thriller “Dark Horse”, due to world premiere in the main competition, and the short form Swedish dramedy entry “Painkiller”, which initially bowed at the Göteborg Film Festival. “Last year we had the Norwegian political drama “Power Play” which won best series, and the Swedish romantic dramedy “Out of Touch” in the short form section.

After Disney declared victory in its proxy battle with activist investor Nelson Peltz, CEO Bob Iger went on a theme-park offensive during the company’s annual shareholder meeting.