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.

Two new virtual reality experiences are debuting at Harry Potter New York. The two “sensory adventures,” made in partnership with Dreamscape and Wevr, offer two very different ways to step into the Wizarding World, weave through the skies of London in “Wizards Take Flight,” and get up-close and personal with a dragon in “Chaos at Hogwarts.”...

South America’s economic crisis, aggravated by the pandemic, has spawned an unorthodox crowd-funded Argentine film project, “La Uruguaya” (“The Woman from Uruguay”), which is set to start shooting in the Fall. Project leader-author Hernan Casciari has modeled the financing strategy on his own publishing house Editorial Orsai, which depends on readers to fund the publishing of its books and house magazine. In just two months, Casciari managed to enlist 2,000 people to invest in the dramedy. Each one of the investors, who contributed a minimum of $100 – one is said to have invested as much as $20,000 – receive an equity share in the film as well as an associate producer credit...

Chinese authorities in a number of counties nationwide plan to bar residents who have not been vaccinated from entering indoor entertainment venues, like cinemas, as part of its attempt to significantly ramp up its vaccination campaign. Policies restricting the movement and entry of unvaccinated people will been rolled out in various places around the country throughout the month of July. Venues will check entrants’ “health code,” which ensures a clean bill of health, as well as their vaccination record before allowing entry. Citizens with preconditions that preclude vaccination must present their IDs and medical documents to their local hospital to obtain a certificate of proof that their reason is legitimate, which will exempt them from the restrictions. ...

Director, writer and producer Roman Coppola is in Cannes to promote his blockchain-based filmmaking platform, Decentralized Pictures — an ambitious undertaking that the “French Dispatch” co-writer describes as “a very long-term endeavor.” While blockchain’s application in film financing has yielded mixed results over the years — many blockchain ventures that rocked up to Cannes years ago, for example, are now reportedly non-existent — Coppola says he’s taking Decentralized Pictures “very seriously” and that the platform has the backing of his production company with sister Sofia Coppola, American Zoetrope....

Shock rocker Iggy Pop has lent his voice to a new documentary on Ancient Egyptian child king Tutankhamun. “Tutankhamun: The Last Exhibition” simultaneously charts the history of the tomb’s discovery in 1922 and the preparation of the record-breaking touring Tutankhamun exhibition, which launched in Los Angeles in 2019. The doc was produced in Italy by acclaimed antiquities photographer Sandro Vannini’s Laboratoriorosso Srl in partnership with Franco di Sarro’s Nexo Digital. Vannini also appears in the doc and serves as a producer and director of photography....

“Postman” by Russian filmmaker Klim Tukaev has won the first prize at the sixth Nespresso Talents global short film competition.“Bagman,” by Jan Kellner, took the second prize, while “Speaking in Flowers,” by Nicolina Sterbet, took third. Both are from the Czech Republic. Nespresso has pledged to offset its carbon footprint and is honoring its pledge by offering each participating filmmaker the opportunity to support agroforestry projects by sponsoring the planting of five trees. These trees will contribute to a large-scale initiative in partnership with PUR Project, transitioning coffee smallholders into organic coffee production through agroforestry, bringing to life the company’s “Doing Is Everything” movement. A total of 4,965 trees will be planted in La Giorgia, Costa Rica. ...