Ukraine Latest: Russia’s Roskino Banned From Series Mania & Millennium Media Exec Yariv Lerner Reaches Out To Ukrainian Film Professionals

Marta Balaga Returning barely six months after its 2021 edition, which wrapped in September, French TV festival Series Mania welcomed Jury President Julia Sinkevych,who arrived in Lille from war-torn Ukraine.“I didn’t know if I would be lucky enough to be here tonight,” said Sinkevych to a standing ovation, with Laurence Herszberg, Series Mania general director, observing that culture cannot be insensitive to what is happening.“The whole world is now admiring our resistance, the resistance of the Ukrainian people. But there is another battlefield, which is culture, and I want us to be noticed, recognized and admired on the cultural battlefield, too,” added Sinkevych.“This [conflict] has been going on for a long time and there have been many episodes in this TV series.

Good afternoon Insiders and it’s Max Goldbart here with your weekly dose of the biggest headlines across the film and TV world.

Kremlin-backed TV news channel Russia Today has had its broadcasting licence revoked by British authorities this morning. The move, which is another step towards isolating Russia culturally, comes as airstrikes were reported in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv.

Naman Ramachandran U.K media regulator Ofcom on Friday revoked the Russian-backed RT channel’s licence to broadcast in the country with immediate effect.“We have done so on the basis that we do not consider RT’s licensee, ANO TV Novosti, fit and proper to hold a UK broadcast licence,” Ofcom said in a statement. The decision arrives during 29 ongoing investigations by Ofcom into the due impartiality of RT’s news and current affairs coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Tim Dams It may only be six months since 2021’s pandemic-delayed edition of Series Mania took place, but the annual Lille, France-based drama festival returns once again but this time in its traditional slot of March 18-25.It’s been “challenging” for the Series Mania team to pull together 2022’s program so soon after last year’s event, says general director Laurence Herszberg.However, it hasn’t been hard to attract projects to the festival. In a reflection of both Series Mania’s growing stature and the buoyant state of the scripted TV market, the event had 331 submissions from 46 different countries to the competition program.

Marta Balaga Ukrainian producer Julia Sinkevych, named main jury president at French TV festival Series Mania, is still hoping to come to Lille this week despite the ongoing war.“Last night, there was bombing not far from Lviv, so you never know. [Producer] Dariusz Jabłoński and the Polish Film Academy are helping out Ukrainian filmmakers and they will pick me up when I am in Poland,” she tells Variety during a conversation interrupted by a siren.“Usually, it means you have to hide.

Hopes of a peace deal have moved forward after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky conceded for the first time that Ukraine could never join Nato.

Marta Balaga Dutch Features has acquired international rights to Finnish streaming service Elisa Viihde’s crime series “Evilside,” a six-hour Archipelago thriller set in the Oulu region of northern Finland.Filming took place from Dec. 2021 through Feb.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K. Premier League soccer tournament has suspended its agreement with its Russian broadcast partner and will donate £1 million ($1.3 million) to support the people of Ukraine.

A resident of under-siege Kyiv downed a Russian drone with a jar of cucumbers from her balcony, it has been claimed.

Good afternoon Insider team. Max Goldbart back in the saddle for your weekly dose of news as the Russia/Ukraine invasion continues to have huge ramifications for the film and TV world and vice versa.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Venice Biennale, which is the multidisciplinary arts organization behind the Venice Film Festival, has announced that in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the fest plans to bar Russian delegations but not independent Russian filmmakers and their works.The Biennale “intends to express its full support to all the Ukrainian people and their artists,” the org said in a statement on Wednesday, announcing that it’s making every effort to ensure that, despite the war, Ukraine will be able to participate at the upcoming Biennale Art exhibition which kicks off in April with a national pavilion. As previously announced, Russia proactively pulled out of the art Biennale.

Naman Ramachandran Ukrainian film producer and co-founder of the Ukrainian Film Academy Julia Sinkevych (“Heat Singers”) has been selected as jury president for this year’s Series Mania Festival and its international competition. “She has always been committed to supporting Ukrainian artists and the culture of her country from Kyiv, where she lives,” the festival said in a statement.

The Co-Founder of the Ukrainian Film Academy has been named Jury President for this year’s Series Mania.

The Cannes Film Festival has taken a position on the war in Ukraine, and will bar Russian delegations at its 75th edition this May. "As the world has been hit by a heavy crisis in which a part of Europe finds itself in a state of war, the Festival de Cannes wishes to extend all its support to the people of Ukraine and all those who are in its territory," reads a statement released on Tuesday.

Prince William and Kate Middleton issued a statement via their verified Twitter account over the weekend, writing, «In October 2020 we had the privilege to meet President Zelenskyy and the First Lady to learn of their hope and optimism for Ukraine’s future.

Tyson Fury has praised his bitter rivals Oleksandr Usyk and the Klitschko brothers, as well as Vasily Lomachenko, for taking up arms and joining Ukrainian forces in the fight against Russian patrols.

Roku is removing RT, Russia’s state-controlled television network, from its channel stores in Europe, according to a Roku spokesperson.