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New Projects - Pilot Season Update - CA Production Resumes - Film Festivals - TONY Awards

By Sean Gregory, February 02, 2021

Happy Groundhog Day, UTD!

What, you don't celebrate Groundhog Day every February 2nd? Growing up only a little over 2 hours from Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney (yes I promise these are all real places), I was always tuned to the news every February 2nd to see what our fair furry friend had predicted for the remainder of winter. And while he has officially condemned us to six more weeks of winter, I personally adore snow, and waking up to a fresh foot+ of it blanketing the streets outside my window here in NYC the past two days has made my inner boy from central PA *very* happy ❄️

Fortunately or unfortunately, the industry doesn't take any snow days around here, and there's plenty to discuss ☃️ So let's get to it!

Film Festival Flings

Winter in the film industry always means one thing: Award season is starting to heat up. 🔥 Sundance announced earlier in January that they would officially be pursuing a hybrid in-person/online model, a first in festival history. Check out a full rundown of all the top picks for Sundance from IndieWire, along with dozens of other projects to watch during the event!

One of the biggest shifts in the film festival landscape in recent years has been watching streamer-produced titles slowly overrun the top-10 distributor purchases, prying away the long-held spaces from established studios in the US. Sundance 2021 is expected to be no exception, as a year of audiences mostly relegated to living room viewing has tipped the scales towards many top-budget films heading straight to VOD. And while this ultimately means more content for us, many traditional distributors are quickly retooling how they approach festival season in order to stay relevant in the digital age. As some studios are choosing to embrace our new virtual age, diving full throttle into partnerships like A24 with Apple and Neon with Hulu, others are relying on tried-and-true partnerships to keep bringing movies to audiences both in theatres and online.

Away from the snow-capped mountains in Utah, other film festivals around the world are steeling themselves for another out of the ordinary awards season, making the best of a year plagued by production delays and cancellations. After much speculation from critics, studios, and distributors across the industry, the Cannes Film Festival has finally opted to postpone their original May dates in favor of an early July timeline, as COVID numbers continue to climb and a recent study confirmed that nearly 40% of France's residents planned to receive the vaccination. Back in the U.S., Bentonville Film Festival, known for its specific emphasis on diversity in storytelling, has opened submissions ahead of its 7th annual event, slated to be held August 3rd through the 8th in Arkansas.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has released its 2021 Media Awards nominees, recognizing "fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues" across all media platforms. Streamers continued to lead the pack across film and TV, with Netflix picking up 26 nominations, mostly for their TV selections over the past year. Traditional networks continue to lag far between their digital counterparts, as only ABC and NBC made the list with two nods apiece. Broadway film adaptations THE PROM, THE BOYS IN THE BAND and MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM also earned nominations for this year's awards ceremony, slated to be presented virtually this April.

While the advent of streaming deals has reduced the amount of gate-keeping power that film festivals like Sundance and Cannes hold with regard to what movies receive the highest viewership each year, many festivals have pledged to do their part to make their events more inclusive and reflective of the world today. Sundance 2021 will host 27 of its 72 feature-length films from either a director of color or focusing on a story about folks of color, accounting for about 38% of the field. 35% of the films in the festival's main four categories were helmed by directors of color, marking the second biggest group of BIPOC-led projects behind the 2020 high-water mark of 44%.

Many studios around the world are still well behind the mark when it comes to establishing true diversity in their programming, prompting creatives like Marcus Ryder to put these companies to task and examine how their actions are - or are not - speaking louder than their words. "What does 'authentic' portrayal of under-represented look like and how can we judge it?" Ryder wrote in a Variety op-ed late last week, pointing to a recent checklist created by the British East Asians in Theater and on Screen (BEATS) to foster better representation onscreen, specifically for the BBC. Necessitated by recent findings from a Creative Diversity Network study that employment numbers for Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people were down both in front of and behind the camera from the year before in the UK. BEATS hopes to reinvigorate the conversation around what British studios should be doing to embrace true diverse storytelling. "What BEATS' criteria demonstrates is that authenticity is not about specific cultural signifiers but about how you approach your characters. The BBC would do well to heed this when it finally publishes its guidelines as to what 'diverse stories and portrayal on-screen' really means."

Comedian Suni Reyes is calling on the powers that be in Hollywood and on Broadway to open up more space for authenticity in creating stories for the Latino community, rather than just "checking the box." "This is a problem we have in Hollywood," Reyes said. "They think they got a Puerto Rican, so we don't need any more Puerto Ricans. Hollywood doesn't go 'We have the white person, so there's no more [need for] white people.'” The BILLIONS actress shared her struggles with navigating the onslaught of negative news during COVID over the last year, saying it was these often equal parts depressing and infuriating headlines that made her start creating her own content. “When I do these characters I always try to punch up," she said. "Elevate the voices of the people who are not usually being heard or given the importance they should be given."

NBCUniversal's Global Talent Development & Inclusion team has opened applications for this year's Universal Writers Program. The one year paid program is geared toward giving up-and-coming screenwriters the chance to develop two feature scripts under the mentorship of execs from DreamWorks, Focus Features, and Universal Pictures, focusing specifically on the company's goals of supporting and empowering diverse storytelling that reflects its audience. Applications are due February 21st!

The team at NBCUniversal has also partnered with the Ruderman Family Foundation to make their casting process more accessible to actors with disabilities. Along with CBS and the BBC, NBC Universal has signed a pledge, developed by the foundation, to recognize and actively include people with disabilities both in front of and behind the camera. "By having such an influential entity like NBCUniversal take this bold stand, we hope to continue to see others join us in striving to create more opportunities for people with disabilities in entertainment," Ruderman Family Foundation President Jay Ruderman said in a statement.

2021 Tony Awards Will Coincide with Broadway's Reopening

Voting will soon open for the 74th annual Tony Awards, though the actual date of the event continues to be left to question. The Broadway League confirmed late last week that the awards would happen "in coordination with the reopening of Broadway," though it's anyone's guess when that could end up being. The approximately 784 voters will cast their ballots from March 1st to the 15th of this year, considering shows that opened between April 2019 and February 2020.

COVID Updates

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has penned a letter to President Biden informing him that union members are ready to help in building COVID vaccination sites across the country: "Stagehands are masters at improvising to get the job done for the client. We're ready if this time the client is The American People."

Actors' Equity was quick to join IATSE's call to the front lines: "Our collective industry depends upon promptness, attention to detail, adaptability, creative problem solving, taking initiative, and being self-starters. That's why so many stage managers and actors, the vast majority of whom have been unemployed since March 2020, have trained as census workers, poll workers, COVID compliance officers, and more. We are a ready workforce."

As COVID numbers seemingly begin to decline around the US (and here's to hoping they continue that trend), production companies are doing their best to balance restarting projects while keeping the cast and crews safe. SAG-AFTRA, the Producers Guild, and the Joint Policy Committee agreed to lift the stoppage on commercial and independent film production in Southern California yesterday, marking a bright spot in an otherwise incredibly grim stretch of weeks and months for the area. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health released updated guidelines for production in tandem with the decision by the unions, reinforcing the requirements for daily screenings, PCR testing, mask mandates, and more.

Though the importance of these enhanced testing procedures cannot be understated, some productions are having issues ponying up to the increased price tag of film in the time of COVID. TNG Dx, a testing company originally geared toward assisted living facilities, is hoping to break the mold with their $60-70 COVID test, railroading the market average cost of about $150 per test. Citing a recent client they worked with, TNG's CEO Josh Brammer shared: "It was a six-week shoot. They had 23 crew members getting tested at least three times a week for about $150 per test. It was about 12% of the production budget. We came up with an offer of less than half of that," In the end, though, these added production costs are minuscule when faced with the sobering possibility of a COVID outbreak on set. "If a whole group of people become sick, that is [also] very expensive," one COVID compliance officer noted.

SLAVE PLAY playwright Jeremy O. Harris is calling on the Biden administration to pursue a New Deal-era type of relief plan for the entertainment community, at a time when countries like Germany are offering millions in aid to their artists struggling with COVID-led unemployment: "Americans will want to flock to cinemas, live concerts, plays and musicals and more as soon as the pandemic is over. But if we want there to be a lively arts scene to return to, we must act now."

Exploring International Waters

Like Abi mentioned in our first instagram UTD Weekly News Roundup last Friday (new year, new #content 🤓), anyone interested in leaving behind the snowy US for warmer tides should turn their focus to the Caribbean island of Nevis, a newcomer to the film stage and hopeful hotspot for many a production in the future. "Nevis is uniquely placed to develop a world class film industry," Mark Brantley, Premier of Navis said in an interview. "In a world now beset with the COVID-19 pandemic, Nevis continues to be one of the safest places in the world with very few cases, no community spread, and to date no COVID-related deaths. We certainly look forward to the development of a robust film industry and welcome film producers to consider our island for their next film venture." Book my ticket, I'll be there tomorrow! 🏖

Amazon Prime Video is doing their part to reinvigorate the hard-hit production industry in Mexico, as projects begin to take shape in the aftermath of the initial blow from COVID. The tech giant is already in talks to bring nearly 20 productions to the country over the next three to five years, relying on a mix of sports, politics, food, game shows, and other content to lead the charge. Bezos and Co have also pledged over $2.65 million in COVID direct relief during the first half of 2021 to support reestablishing production in Latin American countries in which Amazon operates.

International films have become a growing category of interest for the Academy in recent years, particularly in the wake of Bong Joon-Ho's juggernaut PARASITE sweeping the stage in 2020, compelling them to place a greater emphasis on making these films accessible both to voters and the general public. With the Oscar shortlist for Best International Feature Film set to be released next Tuesday, IndieWire has compiled their picks for the best of the best from outside the US in the past year 🌎

Pilots and Streaming and Movie Theaters, Oh My!

For anyone who may not have been glued to Twitter last week (gotta get through this winter somehow 🤷‍♂️), AMC Entertainment and GameStop were part of an insane stock run-up led by thousands of day traders and Redditors who decided to take on Wall Street, and, frankly, kinda won. The theater company's stock enjoyed almost a 300% increase in the frenzy, on the heels of confirming that they had secured enough funding to position themselves to make it out of the pandemic. Before this David and Goliath back and forth overran the narrative, veteran industry analyst Eric Wold predicted that it would take the movie theater industry about two years to recover from the losses brought on by COVID, pointing to an eventual upturn in audience numbers in 2023. "[W]e remain optimistic that moviegoers will return to theaters when permitted to catch the best film slate in years," Wold wrote.

Pilot season has been slated to change for some time now, and with COVID pushing the gas pedal toward the future much faster than most studios would have liked, some are hoping to preserve the best of the past model while planning for the future. CBS relied heavily on straight-to-series orders in 2020, bypassing the traditional review of pilots before greenlighting the best of the best, and network execs feel that more may be on the way. "If you'd have said when this all started that we'd be out of the office for ten months and still be able to pull off something resembling a normal season, I'd have said you were nuts," CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl said. "But we charged ahead in virtual staff meetings, table reads, notes sessions, run-throughs, and tape nights."

One of the freshest newcomers to the streaming wars, Peacock, is already carving out a place of its own amidst the well-established heavyweights by racking up a hefty 33 million sign-ups since launching in July. The new home of THE OFFICE brightened up an otherwise quiet Q4 report from NBCUniversal, which saw revenues for theme parks, filmed productions, and theatrical revenue all fall in the last three months of 2020.

"I may be petite, but I'm big"

Lauded star of the stage and screen Rita Moreno has never been one to shy away from an audience or a challenge. The 89-year-old EGOT winner's life is chronicled in the upcoming Sundance documentary RITA MORENO: JUST A GIRL WHO DECIDED TO GO FOR IT from the American Masters studio. The pic will dissect the multi-faceted Moreno's journey through 20th century Hollywood, recounting her struggles with rampant misogyny, sexism, and racism from some of the most powerful players in the industry at the time. Highlighting her Puerto Rican heritage and the space she has created for the many creators that have come after her, the documentary stands as a testament to her life and work as an actress, activist, survivor, and role model to the masses.

Quick Bites

The tides could soon turn in the seemingly never-ending dispute between the WGA and WME, sparking hope that the powerhouse agency may soon be able to represent writers once again. "The tenor of the conversation is positive, and we are working diligently with the WGA to move this forward as quickly as possible," WME parent company president Mark Shapiro said.

ICM Partners has promoted 14 agents across all their divisions, gearing up for what is sure to be a busy 2021: "We have so many home grown success stories at ICM Partners, and we are confident that among this new group of agents, many will follow in those successful footsteps."

Chasten Buttigieg will join Audra McDonald, Tina Fey, Jennifer Hudson, and more at this year's virtual Education Theatre Foundation gala. The event will honor Broadway director and producer Kenny Leon with its Craig Zadan Theatre for Life Award, and The Shubert Organization with the annual Standing Ovation Award.

Broadway theater owner Jujamcyn Theaters is switching up its ticketing partnerships, leaving behind its old contract with Ticketmaster in favor of a new agreement with SeatGeek. The platform will allow theatergoers to order concessions, upgrade their seats and read more about the show all through the SeatGeek ticketing software.

Are you a Pasek and Paul lover? A new attempt at a Guinness World Record may have your name on it 🎶 The #BwayWorldRecord Challenge is seeking at least 5,000 virtual participants to snag the title of "largest online video album of people singing the same song" with a rendition of "From Now On" from THE GREATEST SHOWMAN. Donations to the Actors Fund COVID-19 Relief Fund will also be encouraged in tandem with the event.

Move over, RATATOUILLE THE MUSICAL, there's a new TikTok trend in town: BRIDGERTON: THE MUSICAL has taken over the social media airwaves, all thanks to co-creators Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. "It's a nice little balance, because you'll have the musical theater geeks who are like, 'Oh this is dope,' and then also the mainstream audience who's like, 'Oh, I've never liked musicals before, but for some reason I like this.'"

Still a lover of paper books in this digital age? Los Angelenos sure seem to be. Bird-box book libraries have become a cult favorite around some Southern California neighborhoods in the last year, leading one Deadline writer to rifle through this step back in time-style of entertainment in 2021.

What to Watch & Read

VIDEO: U.S. Postal Service Commemorates August Wilson With Stamp; Virtual Event to Feature Phylicia Rashad & More

Casting Advice from Comedy Casting Associate Alexa Pereira

The Best Comedy Movies on Hulu Right Now

That's all we got for today, folks! I'm off to roll around in the blizzard, pretend it's 2005 and act like all I have to worry about is snow in my boots and which episode of Hey Arnold is on next 😊

Stay warm, UTD!