Updated every Friday 12:00 PM
March 22 - March 31

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Apple landed 13 BAFTA Television Award nominations across four programs, including “Slow Horses,” “Silo,” “Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas” and “The Enfield Poltergeist.” Apple’s acclaimed, hit espionage drama lands top category nominations for Best Drama Series and Best Supporting Actor Jack Lowden, while original holiday special “Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas” lands a Best Entertainment nomination and “The Enfield Poltergeist” scores a nod for Best Specialist Factual program...

The Kansas City Chiefs weren’t the only big winners of the NFL‘s Wild Card Weekend (and, ultimately, its entire season). With the first-ever streaming-exclusive NFL playoff game, Peacock added 3 million new signups. (Earlier data had the number at 2.8 million over three days.) With Peacock’s free-trial option blacked out for the Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins, all of those were paid subscribers. They didn’t dine and dash. New research from Antenna finds that an impressive 71 percent (2.13 million) of those new Peacock users were still around by the end of February, nearly seven weeks after the game. Peacock ended 2023 with 31 million subscribers. The service lost $825 million over the final quarter of ’23, and there is still no timeline on Peacock turning a profit...

More than 40 years ago, film critic Roger Ebert claimed that "Each film is only as good as its villain." He might not have been the very first person to make this observation, but in any event, Ebert certainly knew what he was talking about when it came to film, and his statement here is a difficult one to dispute. Both before Ebert said this, and in the years since, plenty of films have become iconic largely because of their villains. The lead antagonist gives the protagonist/heroes something to fight against, and will often be the primary source of a story's conflict. Conflict is always interesting, and so oftentimes, the better - or more compelling - the villain, the more emotional engagement a viewer will feel. This makes a great villain something that's always worth celebrating...

At the current pace, it will take women filmmakers in Europe more than 50 years to reach gender parity with men, a new study has found. French think tank Lab Femmes de Cinéma looked at the progress made on gender parity initiatives across Europe in the six years from 2017 — when reports of sexual assault allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein triggered the global #MeToo movement — to 2023. The study found that out of the 36 European countries researched, 16 had implemented measures aimed at combating abuse inside the film industry and 13 have begun to use funding applications as a tool to promote gender parity and diversity. But the goal of full 50/50 male/female parity is still a long way off. Women directors still account for just 23 percent of European filmmakers, the study found and, at the current rate of progress, Europe won’t achieve gender parity until 2080...

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has updated its classification guidelines, informed by its largest-ever public consultation, meaning its age ratings will change according to changing public opinion, including on the on-screen depiction of violence, sex and drug use. Surveys found that people were “calling for a more cautious approach to classifying sex scenes at the border of 12A/12 and 15” ratings. “Participants were concerned by the level of sexual detail, nudity and the duration of the sex scenes rated 12A/12 under the 2019 guidelines,” the BBFC said. “Similar content is now more likely to be rated 15. However, the research also indicates that audiences are happy for classification to be more lenient towards some sex references at the 15/18 borderline, especially in comic contexts.” The latest research found some new areas of worry. “Parents are concerned about the normalization of bad language, especially terms with sexual or misogynistic connotations,” the BBFC highlighted. “For example, terms such as ‘son of a bitch,’ ‘bitch,’ ‘dick.’ The worry is that young viewers may hear and repeat such language.” Its conclusion: “Language such as this may now require a higher age rating.”...

Apollo Global Management, a major private-equity firm, has submitted an $11 billion bid to acquire Paramount Pictures and the Paramount TV studios group, according to a published report. Last month, Paramount Global announced it was laying off about 800 employees worldwide, an estimated 3% of its headcount. “These adjustments will help enable us to build on our momentum and execute our strategic vision for the year ahead – and I firmly believe we have much to be excited about,” Bakish wrote in a Feb. 13 memo to staffers. The company said it expects to take a $1 billion charge for the layoffs and content write-offs in the first quarter of 2024...

“The American Cinematheque is kicking off a robust new Los Angeles nonfiction film festival dubbed This Is Not a Fiction, running from April 10-18. The festival opens with docuseries “Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story,” with Jon Bon Jovi in-person at the Aero Theatre for the L.A. premiere screening.Screenings will take place at all three American Cinematheque venues, the Aero, the Egyptian and the Los Feliz 3, including 42 films and 11 short films with more than 20 filmmakers and subjects attending for Q&As. The program will showcase a broad swath of non-fiction filmmaking, from classics to television programs and experimental works...