Global TV, Film & Media Industry News Roundup, Monday 16 June 2025
Streaming layoffs & budget cuts; Prime Video ad upgrades; art-house highlights from Arco to Bi Gan; Seol In-ah ghost comedy; Photographic Memory; Monte-Carlo TV & Buccaneers’ heiresses; EURODOC lab.
Today’s Highlights:
Hollywood studios downsize amid streaming shift: Paramount Global leads a wave of workforce cuts, with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) among them, as linear revenues decline and production costs rise.
UK creative leaders slam DCMS budget cuts: Industry figures, led by Culture Committee chair Caroline Dinenage MP, warn that a 2.8 per cent real-terms reduction in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s capital budget will hamstring arts investment.
Prime Video’s advanced ad-targeting tools: Amazon’s streaming arm is set to roll out contextual segments such as “Female Voices” and “Coviewing” to help marketers better tailor campaigns.
Annecy winner Arco explores friendship and climate collapse: Ugo Bienvenu’s French animated feature, produced partly by Natalie Portman, won the Cristal for its sci-fi meditation on environmental disaster and human connection.
Bi Gan’s dreamlike auteurism: The Chinese filmmaker’s visual poetry—from Kaili Blues (2015) to the hypnotic 3D single-take in Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018)—continues to captivate global audiences.
Seol In-ah in legal-fantasy drama Oh My Ghost Clients: The actress plays an office manager at a law practice serving supernatural clients, marking her return to TV after a decade of screen work.
A Photographic Memory unearths lost interviews: Rachel Seed’s documentary restores her late mother Sheila Turner-Seed’s 1979 tapes with leading photographers, blending personal memoir and art history.
Monte-Carlo TV Festival opens with a global focus: The 64th edition kicks off under the guidance of GM Laurent Puons, spotlighting European exposure, fan engagement, and B2B networking in the Business Content programme.
The Real Women Behind The Buccaneers: As Season Two Premieres and a London Exhibition Open, the Bold American Heiresses Who Married into British Aristocracy Are Finally Getting Their Due.
EURODOC & Screen Ireland Launch Documentary Workshop: This intensive five-day lab in Cork offers mentoring and co-production insights to Irish producers developing internationally minded non-fiction projects.
Plus: Insights, Executive Moves, Festivals & Markets, Opportunities & Jobs with Lime Pictures, ITV, UTA, Netflix, Screen Australia, BBC, BFI, Sky, Paramount, MUBI & Mediacorp in Sydney, Liverpool, Manchester, London, LA, NYC & Singapore.
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Producers: Fifth Season, Sony Pictures Television, Banijay, Fremantle, Endemol Shine, Gaumont, Pathé, Warner Bros Television Productions, Universal Pictures International Australasia, UFA Fiction, Vivendi, Entertainment One, BBC Studios, Warner Bros Discovery, Talpa Studios, Keshet, Tiger Aspect, Wild Bunch TV, Red Planet Pictures, Go Quest Media, Eureka Productions, The Ink Factory, Nordisk Film, Reel One Entertainment, Bunya Productions, Beach House Pictures, Beyond, The Global Agency, Esha Bargate Productions, blue Entertainment, Paper Plane Productions, Paprika Studios, Playmaker, Off the Fence, Goalpost Pictures, Spin Master, Stand By Me, Halcyon Studios, DPG Media, Envision, Rive Gauche, Blue Ant Media, Squareone, Great Southern Studios, Collective Media Group, New Dominion Pictures, RAW TV, Optomen, Magpie Pictures, KOJO, ShinAwiL, WildBrain, Nine Daughters, Amazon/MGM Studios, October Films, Legendary Entertainment, Bad Wolf, Mediapro, Bron.
Also: Aarhus Series Festival, The Wit, Norwegian Film Commission, New Zealand Film Commission, IMDA, MIA, Getty Images, Ottawa Film Office, Simkins, Harbottle & Lewis, Screen Brussels, Sheffield DocFest, FilmChain, Documentary Business, Zero Gravity Management, SXSW, MEA, DOC, Attraction Distribution, Kaplan Stahler Agency, Passion Distribution, Audible, Screen Queensland, Canada Media Fund, My Smash Media, Artists First, Grey Seal Media, Screenforce Finland.
INSIGHTS
Bi Gan: The Enigmatic Auteur of Visual Poetry
Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan, known for his reluctance to articulate the meaning behind his films, lets his visuals speak volumes. Since his debut Kaili Blues (2015), Bi has captivated global audiences with his dreamlike style and narrative ambiguity. His follow-up, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018), pushed boundaries further with a hypnotic hour-long 3D single take, a sequence as elusive and immersive as a dream itself. Read More
UK Creative Leaders Decry Culture Department Budget Cuts
Key UK creative industry figures are criticising the government's latest spending review, which includes a 2.8% real-terms cut to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s capital budget from 2025 to 2030. Although the budget remains fixed at £700m annually, inflation means that investment power is reduced. Caroline Dinenage, Conservative MP and culture committee chair, called the move “the wrong choice by the chancellor.” Read More
Prime Video to Expand Contextual Ad Targeting Tools
Prime Video is set to roll out a major upgrade to its contextual ad-targeting capabilities, expanding beyond basic genre categories to include segments like Female Voices, Top Trending, High Income Households, and Coviewing. According to a pitch deck reviewed by ADWEEK, the move aims to help marketers better tailor ads and unlock greater value from Prime Video’s extensive content library. A launch date has not been announced yet. Read More
Taylor John Smith Reflects on Career from ‘Hunger Games’ Extra to Leading Roles
Appearing at the Taormina Film Festival to introduce Warfare, Taylor John Smith reflected on his career journey. Smith, who starred in high-profile projects like Where the Crawdads Sing, laughed about his humble beginnings: “I was not even a glorified extra on The Hunger Games. I was in the bonus scenes.” Read More
The Real Women Behind The Buccaneers: Gilded Age Heiresses Who Took on the British Aristocracy
As The Buccaneers returns for season two and a new London exhibition honours their real-life counterparts, attention turns to the wealthy American women who married into British nobility. Though faced with scandal, cultural clashes, and power struggles, these women, like the fictional Duchess of Tintagel, Jinny, Mabel, and Honoria, were anything but passive. They inspired artists and authors with their bold defiance and lasting influence on transatlantic society. Read More
Seol In-ah Returns in Legal-Fantasy Drama Oh My Ghost Clients
Veteran actress Seol In-ah stars in Oh My Ghost Clients, a legal comedy with a supernatural twist. She plays the office manager of a struggling law practice that begins serving ghostly clients. Born Bang Ye-rin in Suwon, Seol trained as a K-pop idol in her teens—alongside stars like Kara’s Heo Young-ji—to launch her acting dreams, which she's now fulfilling a decade into her screen career. Read More
Documentary A Photographic Memory Unearths Lost Interviews and Legacy
In A Photographic Memory, Rachel Seed discovers tapes of her late mother, Sheila Turner-Seed, interviewing legendary 20th-century photographers. Originally recorded for the exhibition Images of Man before Turner-Seed’s untimely death in 1979, the tapes also capture Rachel as a baby. Decades later, these recordings become the heart of a gentle and wise documentary exploring legacy, memory, and the enduring voice of a mother. Read More
Morris Chestnut Reclaims an Iconic Role in Watson
Morris Chestnut, who stars in Craig Sweeny’s Watson, read Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories to prepare, but emphasises the importance of reclaiming iconic characters. Sweeny, who previously worked on Elementary, brings a bold vision to the new series. “It was ambitious,” says Chestnut. “We never steered away from anything. We jumped right in—even when things got political.” Read More
Jimmy Kimmel Team Launches Short-Form Comedy Series “The Rabbit Hole”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! has launched its first official short-form comedy series, The Rabbit Hole, due to time constraints on the main show. Executive producer Molly McNearney says the overflow of breaking news left little room for evergreen content. “Thank God for the internet,” she added. “They can live really well there.” Read More
Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker and Paul Giamatti
The star of the Black Mirror episode “Eulogy” joins the series creator for a freewheeling conversation about memory, grief, AI and how to fit an American into what was intended as a very English story.
Eric Goode’s Chimp Crazy Uncovers the Wild World of Exotic Primate Ownership
Following "Tiger King," director Eric Goode spent four and a half years filming "Chimp Crazy," an HBO docuseries that explores the controversial world of chimp ownership. The series follows Tonia Haddix, a nurse-turned-exotic animal broker, as she clashes with authorities and animal rights activists over her primates. Goode, alongside executive producer Jeremy McBride, details the high-wire filmmaking behind this jaw-dropping investigation.
Billy Bob Thornton & Kathy Bates | Actors on Actors
50 Years Later, Gunsmoke Rides Again as a Streaming Hit
The classic western drama Gunsmoke has surged in popularity on streaming platforms, ranking among Nielsen’s top 10 most-streamed acquired series in 2025. The show, starring James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon, has found new audiences on Peacock, Paramount+, and Pluto TV, benefiting from the global resurgence of westerns fueled by Yellowstone. Read More
Hollywood Studios Downsize Amid Streaming Shift and Economic Pressures
Hollywood’s 2025 downsizing trend continues, with Paramount Global reducing its domestic workforce by 3.5%. The move reflects declining linear TV revenues, rising streaming competition, and high production costs for content. Other studios, including Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, have also announced layoffs. As the industry adapts, companies are streamlining operations while prioritising long-term sustainability. Read More
Adam Scott & Kristen Bell | Actors on Actors
2025 Global Film Festival & Market Calendar Now Live
Screen International has published its regularly updated calendar, listing confirmed 2025 festival and market dates worldwide, including Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Annecy, TIFF, and new additions such as SXSW London and the Dubai edition of NewFest Pride. Running events include the Sydney Film Festival and Tribeca, while future listings cover a packed slate through December, featuring the Red Sea, AFI Fest, and Tokyo IFF. Read More
Building the Band | First Look | Netflix
Premiering July 9, Building the Band challenges singers to form their perfect bandmates—without ever seeing them. Hosted by AJ McLean (Backstreet Boys), with Nicole Scherzinger (Pussycat Dolls) as mentor and judges Kelly Rowland (Destiny’s Child) and the late Liam Payne (One Direction), the show prioritises chemistry, raw talent, and musical compatibility before looks and style come into play.
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