Lionsgate and Studiocanal have expanded their relationship with a long-term output agreement for Australia and New Zealand. Studiocanal will henceforth distribute films from Lionsgate’s Summit Entertainment label in the markets. Among titles included are John Wick: Chapter Two, The Shack, Robin Hood, Granite Mountain and Kin. Studiocanal currently distributes Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment film titles in Germany, and Lionsgate handles Studiocanal’s film library in North America.
The BBC has today announced its appointments to the new Board which replaces the BBC Trust. The five non-executive directors are Simon Burke, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Ian Hargreaves, Tom Ilube and Nicholas Serota. The BBC executives joining Director-General Tony Hall are Anne Bulford, who is responsible for the BBC’s finance and operations; Ken MacQuarrie, charged with Nations and Regions; and Tim Davie, CEO of BBC Worldwide. David Clementi, Chairman of the BBC, said, “The Board will push the BBC to offer the highest quality, hold its executives to account on delivery, while protecting its independence to ensure license fee payers get the very best programs and services.”
French film industry body l’ARP has added its voice to the chorus of U.S. guilds, organizations and artists enraged by President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts that would eliminate the Corporation for Public broadcasting and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. In an emailed statement, l’ARP said, “This decision will have dramatic effects… Such weakening of the American cultural landscape will make the day of big media groups, to the advantage of their commercial purposes and powerful algorithms. Muffling diversity that way could dangerously contribute to the current general tendency to withdrawal… We love and consider American culture and cinema as endless resources for inspiration and escape. We would like to express our solidarity with American filmmakers and artists who have recently mobilized against this decision. Culture is not something that can be reduced to a precarious budgetary adjustment: it opens a door to different worlds and carries the values of freedom, tolerance and humanity which are so dear to us… We hope that the general anxiety about recent political trends in America will be endorsed by candidates for the French presidential election, since they remained silent about this issue during the public TV debate on March 20th. On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which laid the foundation for diversity that we defend today, it is also essential that European leaders support the fundamental role of culture in Europe.”
