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.

Bigger, better, fewer. That is the refrain inside Netflix that feature film executives, led by division chief Scott Stuber, are grappling to operate under as the digital streaming giant changes course and confronts new realities, such as lagging subscriber growth (it lost 200,000 subs in its latest quarter) and rising competition (Disney’s bundle of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ now has 205 million subs combined, just behind Netflix’s 221 million global subs). Expect to a see a more subtle change — instead of making two movies for $10 million, as an example, the company will make one for $20 million. “The goal will be to make the best version of something instead of cheapening out for the sake of quantity,” says one insider. And the streamer remains in the acquisitions game, as evidenced by the recent $50 million-plus deal for the Emily Blunt thriller Pain Hustlers. (courtesy Boris Kit)...

An estimated 500 guests from Hollywood’s cinematography community filed the DGA theater on Tuesday evening for the debut of leading motion picture camera maker ARRI’a Alexa 35, a 4K Super 35 successor to its popular Alexa Mini camera — and it has already attracted some leading cinematographers. This week three-time Oscar winning DP Robert Richardson (The Aviator) begins lensing the Ben Affleck-directed drama about former Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro with one of the first of the new cameras, ARRI representatives tell The Hollywood Reporter. Additionally, they said three-time Oscar winning DP Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki (The Revenant) and six-time Academy Award nominee Bruno Delbonnel (The Tragedy of Macbeth) are using the Alexa 35 to shoot Alfonso Cuaron’s Apple TV+ series Disclaimer.The Alexa 35 introduces ARRI’s first new sensor in 12 years: a 4.6K sensor with 17 stops of dynamic range (more than the current Alexa) and what the company says are improvements to low light performance and richer colors. The camera officially becomes available in July, with a list price of $77, 940...

As the Venice Film Festival prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary, researchers have reconstructed how Stanley Kubrick’s first film, now known as “Fear and Desire,” came to screen on the Lido in 1952. The screening of the film, initially titled “Shape of Fear,” took place at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido on Aug. 18, 1952, in a section called Festival of the Scientific Film and Art Documentary. Basically, Kubrick’s debut was invited for a special screening after not making the cut for competition due to “the length and character of the film,” as an exchange of letters between the 23-year-old Kubrick and then Venice chief Antonio Petrucci attests. The whole story has been reconstructed for the first time in the letters and documents preserved in the archives of the fest’s parent organization, the Venice Biennale, ahead of an international conference celebrating the 90th anniversary of the world’s oldest film festival, which will be held in Venice on July 9....

Russian cinemas have responded to international sanctions over the war in Ukraine by going pirate. After Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed a brutal assault on Ukraine on Feb. 24 — a war officially dubbed a “special military operation” — hundreds of major western corporations, including the Hollywood majors, withdrew from the Russian market. More than three months into the war, reports are surfacing about illicit screenings of Hollywood movies at Russian cinemas, with initial reports naming “The Batman,” “Red Notice,” Disney animation “Turning Red” and Michael Bay crime actioner “Ambulance.” According to the Russian edition of Esquire, “The Batman” has been screened at Moscow’s WIP theater, as well as at Greenwich Cinema in the Urlas city of Yekaterinburg and at regional theaters in the Far East of Russia...

Los Angeles-based Positron is planning a major expansion, installing its VR motion chairs in dedicated virtual reality event spaces in ten major cities. Positron’s first install will be in a New York VR theatre by the end of the year. Most of the theatres will be in North America, but Positron is eyeing possible locations in London and Paris. Most of the locations will be warehouses or retail spaces that will be repurposed for immersive experiences, and will also feature VR projection rooms where high-resolution content is projected onto the walls and ceiling to create an immersive environment. The Positron chairs will complement the immersive projection experience. Positron’s flagship Voyager pod chairs come with motion control haptics, customisable LED cabin lighting, and even scent, for what is billed as a fully immersive cinematic virtual reality experience...