New Projects - Festivals & Awards - RIP CD Jay Binder - Broadway Mask Mandate Extension
By Abigail Hardin, April 19, 2022
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Happy Tuesday, UTD!
Last week, Annie and I had a great time talking about and answering your questions on Booking Theatre Work Post-Pandemic. With auditions moving full force, now is the time to take bold action. Do your research, create your hit list of plays/roles, find out what plays are most produced, and get ahead of the casting notice.
Stay tuned for info on our upcoming workshops. In the meantime, Up-To-Date Actor users can find one of our previously recorded workshops, Booking Film, TV, and Pilot Work. Once logged in, use the main navigation in the upper left corner to navigate to prior Workshops and Tutorials under our new Resources section!
Festivals & Awards
The 2022 Cannes Film Festival announced the lineup for this year's in-person event last week, welcoming dozens of exciting new works from across the world to the ceremony's historic slate in May. The 75th chapter of the coveted French cinema showing will kick off in just under a month and will feature highly-anticipated titles like Baz Luhrmann's Elvis biopic ELVIS and the Tom Cruise-led TOP GUN: MAVERICK. Early reports of the Festival's selections pointed to a drop in female-directed films, with only three of the 18 titles announced for the Competition portion being led by women behind the camera. Other areas of the event still have yet to unveil their participants, but overall numbers across all categories seem to point to a dip in female representation for the year.
A hybrid online and in-person event is set to take place for the 35th Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles beginning May 5th, preceded by a star-studded event on April 29th that will honor humanitarian David Wiener with the IF Humanitarian Award, and Henry Winkler with the IFF Career Achievement Award. "Henry Winkler is an exceptional artist that has used his talents both in front of and behind the camera to entertain audiences around the world," IFF founder and executive director Meir Fenigstein said. "His life and body of work is a benchmark that others aspire to for a career."
Looking to stay up to date on all the latest TV awards news throughout 2022? With so much content available for viewing across streaming and linear, Deadline recently dropped its new platform for interviews and industry panels on this year's most anticipated shows. Contenders Television will pull together a host of major studios and Hollywood A-listers to discuss the timelines of their upcoming projects, and any award season buzz down the line. Start working on those watch lists now! 📃
The Peabody Awards announced their nominees last week, highlighting exceptional stories across TV, new media, documentaries, and podcasts/radio. The 82nd ceremony will feature some of the most talked-about content of the last few months, including RESERVATION DOGS, COLIN IN BLACK & WHITE, ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, and more. PBS took the lead with 13 nominations, with HBO landing eight, and Hulu and Netflix each at five apiece.
The 47th annual Gracie Awards crowned its winners last weekend, recognizing the exceptional on-screen work of women in TV, radio, cable, and other media. Shows like FX's POSE and MAID received accolades for their work, along with familiar faces like Melissa McCarthy and Elle Fanning scooping up individual awards. See the full list here! ðŸ†
Developments from Ukraine: TV Industry Seeking Support, Cannes Holding Ukraine Day
Media companies in Ukraine are reaching out to studios and networks across the globe to help sustain the country's TV landscape, launching a $20 million fund that will support the expansion of Ukrainian content early in production, in order to distribute the shows to a larger network once filming is complete. Ukrainian media exec Kateryna Vyshnevska hopes to gain the financial support of groups like BBC, Disney, and Netflix, describing it as a "win-win situation" that would both provide a lifeline to Ukrainian content creators, while showcasing their exceptional content around the world.
Cannes Film Festival is also set to host a Ukraine Day on May 21st to offer its support to filmmakers in the country, waiving all fees for the Ukraine pavilion and setting up tentative plans to bring 35 filmmakers and industry works from the country into the festival next month. Several programs in the festival will be focused on giving a voice to Ukrainian filmmakers, including the Goes to Cannes showcase for new works and the Producers Network program for networking among festival participants.
Netflix users in Russia have taken the streamer to court for suspending service in the country last month following the invasion of Ukraine. The company also announced it would pause all projects being produced in Russia, as well as turning down the country's demands to run propaganda on the platform. The plaintiffs in the class-action case are seeking around $730,000 USD for the loss of service in the country.
Theatre Updates: Mask Mandate Extended, Jay Binder Passing, BIPOC Director Database Expanding
The current mask mandates across Broadway have officially been extended through May 31st, but the League announced that many houses will no longer check vaccination statuses beginning May 1st. Theatre owners are urging all guests planning their spring and summer visits to check out the show and/or ticketing websites for specific requirements on each production before heading to the theater ðŸŽ
The theatre industry lost a titan in the casting community last week with the passing of Jay Binder at the age of 71. The namesake for Binder Casting and responsible for casting nearly 100 Broadway productions during his 40+ years in the industry, Jay was a mainstay in the New York theatre scene and known by many for his inclusive spirit and love of theatre. He will be sorely missed by all who knew and loved him and his impact on our industry 💙
Applications are now open for the 2022 Prince Fellowship program through Columbia University School of the Arts. Two winners will be selected to receive grants for $10,000 and $20,000 to develop a new stage production, along with mentorship and networking opportunities through the school. Applications close May 31st!
In the year since its inception on April 15th, 2021, the BIPOC Director Database has expanded from 221 contacts to 415, cataloging names of directors from underrepresented communities across the country and at all stages of their careers, from recent grads to Broadway alumni. While the increase in names is an encouraging sign for representation in the director's chair, the closure of developmental programs like the Humana Festival and the Lincoln Center Directors Lab still highlights a shrinking number of opportunities for up-and-coming diverse voices to showcase their work. Here's to hoping the full reopening of the theatre industry this year will once again expand opportunities for the voices in our community that need to be heard
Industry Intel
Participants for the 2022 Global Media Makers LA Residency were announced last week, highlighting some of the best and brightest upcoming talent in the film industry today. Sponsored by Film Independent and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the fellowship will provide 30 filmmakers from 11 different countries the chance to network with industry professionals, receive mentorship opportunities, develop their projects, and more. "Now more than ever, building a global community of artists is imperative to creating enriching opportunities for understanding diverse life experiences, and how transformative sharing those stories through 'moving' images can be for the world at large," Senior Director of Education & International Initiatives MarÃa Raquel Bozzi said.
AMC has officially seven of Bow Tie Cinema's movie theaters in upstate New York, Connecticut, and Annapolis, MD, totaling an additional 66 screens for the theater giant along the East Coast. Bow Tie is the oldest movie theater group in the US, having originally opened in 1900 and operating in states across the country. Company officials announced that the historic movie house is set to make a move further into the luxury cinema industry, while still continuing to operate standard viewing houses in NY, CT, VA, and more.
The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture has created a new partnership with Netflix to support the work of five female Arab filmmakers through a $250,000 grant, provided by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity. Projects from Morocco, Lebanon, and Tunisia are currently shortlisted to receive the grant, spanning both fiction and non-fiction endeavors. "The Arab world has a long-standing history of women in entertainment, and we’ve had incredible successes and firsts from the region that we’re all very proud of," Netflix Content Acquisitions Director in Turkey and MENA Nuha el Tayeb said. "But in order to give more people a chance to see their lives reflected on screen, we need more women behind and in front of the camera."
Amazon-owned streamer IMDbTV rebranded last week to Amazon Freevee, which is... an interesting name choice, but kinda fun to say at least? The network has already announced a handful of original content coming up in the next few years, including BOSCH spinoff BOSCH: LEGACY and design series HOLLYWOOD HOUSELIFT WITH JEFF LEWIS. The move is the latest in a trend of premium streamers offering a free VOD option, much like the Paramount-owned Pluto TV and Peacock's Peacock Free. Because we definitely don't have enough streaming options these days 🤷â€â™€ï¸
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