ACORN TV
Programming from several countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Ireland, New Zealand, and UK. AMC Networks chief Josh Sapan told The Hollywood Reporter that Acorn TV has "among the lowest churn" among major services owing to its focus as well as viewers' "dedication and affinity" for its content.

"Minions: The Rise of Gru" set to make its debut at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The animated movie from Illumination and Universal Pictures will kick off the event with a screening on June 13, 2022, in the Grande Salle de Bonlieu. "Rise of Gru" will hit Australian theaters a few days later on June 16, prior to rolling out stateside in time for the Fourth of July holiday weekend a couple of weeks after that. The practice of premiering "Minions" and "Despicable Me" movies at Annecy's annual animation festival dates back all the way to the first "Despicable Me" in 2010. "The Minions franchise is inextricably linked to Annecy," said Marcel Jean, the festival's artistic director...

Former President Barack Obama is going to narrate "Our Great National Parks," a new Netflix docuseries celebrating the power of our planet's greatest national parks and wild space. The series spans five continents in its five episodes, traveling from Monterey Bay, California, to Kenya's Tsavo National Park and Indonesia's Gunung Leuser National Park, to name a few of its many stops. As the former president says in the trailer, these sites are "a haven for endangered species and a hotbed for scientific research." Their significance is undeniable and yet they are under constant threat by manmade disasters and impulses, made all the worse by how human action has quickened global climate crisis. "Our Great National Parks" is an examination of what could be lost in the long-run and in that way also serves as a call to action...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has become something of a global superstar in recent weeks following Russia's invasion of the country. Yet, in a life before he managed to become a leader beloved not just by his people, but admired the world over, he was actually an actor in movies and TV shows. Now, Netflix has brought back one of his most noteworthy works, "Servant of the People," to its subscribers in the U.S. by popular demand. "Servant of the People" ended up being the thing that actually launched Zelenskyy's political career, ultimately putting him in the position he's in now. Swedish television group Eccho Rights has been licensing the show around the world in light of recent demand, Channel 4 in the U.K. and other major carriers picking it up as well. In addition to the show's three seasons, a film based on the series titled "Servant of the People: The Movie" was also released in 2016. Eccho, it is worth mentioning, is donating $50,000 to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, with the money going to help those who have been impacted by the war...

TikTok has become the official partner of the Cannes Film Festival, in an alliance likely to burnish the brands of both organizations. Cannes is looking to tap into TikTok’s billion-strong user base by supplying exclusive backstage content as well as talent interviews and, yes, red carpet glamour. For TikTok, Cannes provides a reputation boost as the platform looks to position itself as a content creator. Commenting on the partnership, Frémaux said the TikTok deal was part of efforts to diversify the festival and would allow Cannes to share the magic of the event with a “wider, much more global and just as much [of a] cinephile audience than ever before.”...

A pair of films by esteemed Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych will be getting theatrical screenings in Japan later this month as part of a benefit effort launched by Tokyo film industry insiders to support Ukraine. Yoshi Yatabe, the former programing director of the Tokyo International Film Festival, initiated the project shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yatabe says he has counted Vasyanovych as a personal friend ever since the director traveled to Japan for a screening of Atlantis at the 2019 Tokyo International Film Festival, where it won the special jury prize. In the days since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Yatabe has been recruiting industry friends to help him stage the benefit screenings...

2021 global Box Office are down 50 percent from pre-pandemic times MPA reports. While movie ticket sales in 2021 certainly improved over 2020 — when cinemas were shut for much of the year — global box office revenue was still down a hefty 50 percent from pre-pandemic times as the movie business struggled to emerge from the COVID-19 era and grapple with a new landscape dominated by streaming. According to the Motion Picture Association’s annual THEME report, combined ticket sales worldwide reached $21.3 billion in 2021, an 81 percent jump over 2020 ($11.8 billion). However, they were 50 percent behind 2019’s $42.3 billion....

IMAX announced that it has begun developing its next generation of film cameras, with plans to release the first of four new cameras in late 2023. The company is working with Panavision, Kodak, and FotoKem on the project to integrate camera maintenance, film stock manufacturing, and post-production services. The company will be collaborating with some of Hollywood’s top visual artists on the camera designs. Major directors including Christopher Nolan and Jordan Peele will weigh in on the new film cameras, as will top cinematographers including Hoyte van Hoytema (“Tenet”), Linus Sandgren (“No Time To Die”), Rachel Morrison (“Black Panther”), Bradford Young (“Arrival”), and Dan Mindel (“Star Trek”)...

The National Association of Theatre Owners on Wednesday announced the formation of The Cinema Foundation. The new donor-supported, charitable nonprofit is dedicated to developing future diverse workforces within the exhibition industry, and growing moviegoing communities through research, education and philanthropy. The Cinema Foundation is supported by [NATO] and an array of new partners, including technology companies, food and beverage leaders, members of the creative community and other individuals and companies dedicated to the future of cinema...