Film Festivals & Awards - Tyler Perry Expansion - Streaming Trends - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

By Sean Gregory, June 22, 2021

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Happy Summer, UTD! 😎

With the solstice in the rearview and the dog days of summer officially here to stay, I hope everyone has been getting out and about and enjoying some of what our long-awaited-kind-of-COVID-reopening-summer has to offer. The industry has been blasting off in so many new and exciting ways, and we're just trying to keep up with the hype and waiting to see what's next!

We have two workshops coming up with our friends at Actors Connection, including one tomorrow night! Sign up now!

Festivals, Awards & Movie Theatres

The Tribeca Film Festival has provided an interesting litmus test on the status of film festivals in a post-COVID world, right down to the name. Pivoting as simply the Tribeca Festival this year, organizers have signaled a move to a more all-inclusive experience with talkbacks and guest panels, VR experiences, podcasts and more, though a general air of ambiguity seemed to encapsulate the festival's offerings, hinting at what may be on the horizon for more events to come in 2021.

Telluride Film Festival held its annual gathering in LA last week to get folks excited for its Labor Day event, generally considered (along with Toronto and Venice) to be the start to Oscar season and alluding to what movies may be the ones to watch in the months ahead. Much of festival season remains up in the air for execs across the country, with some studios unsure of the added value of in-person festivals in the digital age, but many remain hopeful that the evergreen allure of the movies will supplant any call to opt for at-home viewing instead 🤞

With summer festival season in full swing, are you already getting excited for the next year of award shows? Check out IndieWire's current list of the who what and when of award shows for 2021-2022 🏆

It's no secret that movie theaters have had a tough past 16 months, and while the box office is slowly finding its momentum again, audience numbers are still struggling to find their way back to pre-pandemic levels. Sequels and prequels have been the name of the game in 2021, with top earners like CRUELLA, A QUIET PLACE: PART II, and F9 becoming the most sought after titles of the summer. Theaters are hedging their bets that viewers' loyalty to established franchise names will keep filling seats in the next few months. And as more and more viewing houses are finding themselves in dire straights, particularly on the West Coast, owners and investors are keeping hopes high for a robust summer at the movies 🍿

Theaters aren't the only places feeling the COVID reopening pinch. Submissions to the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards were remarkably down across all categories: 133 drama submissions (down from 197 in 2020) and 68 comedy submissions (down from 111). Interestingly (though probably not too surprising), the TV movie category saw a significant increase, up to 41 from last year's 28. Because the Academy uses a sliding scale to determine how many nominees will make up each field, many believe the pools will shrink across the board this year to reflect the dearth in submissions.

Industry Intel

Tyler Perry isn't wasting any time in expanding his Atlanta empire with the purchase of an additional 130 acres of land, 37 acres of which sit adjacent to his current sprawling film & TV production hub. Perry is said to be slotting the new land for both production expansion, as well as a nightlife hub with restaurants, theaters, and retail shops. "Today is a good day," Perry said. "I'm grateful for the opportunity this gives Tyler Perry Studios to extend our footprint in Atlanta and create more opportunities for the people of Southwest Atlanta."

Are you tired of us talking about Oklahoma's tax incentives yet? Well, they're something to keep an eye on, because the next film you audition for may just be shooting there 🎥 The state's refreshed credit system offers productions up to a 38% rebate on spending in the state while filming - surpassing even Georgia's 30% upper bound. The latest high-profile project shot in the Sooner State is Martin Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, set to release sometime in late 2021 or early 2022, the newest project in an encouraging increase in Indigenous stories being told in Hollywood.

A group of Hollywood A-listers are coming together to create a new film school in LA, set to open in the fall of 2022. Don Cheadle, Mindy Kaling, George Clooney, Kerry Washington, Eva Longoria, and more have set plans to open The Roybal School of Film and Television Production, which will focus on training and education for up-and-coming film students from underserved communities. "Our aim is to better reflect the diversity of our country," Clooney said. The program will start with offering classes to ninth and tenth grade students, and eventually expand to 11th & 12th grade over the next two years, with internship opportunities available for real-world experience in the industry.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association continues to muddy the waters of its already much-maligned public image after two members resigned last week, calling the organization "a toxic place for working journalists." The HFPA responded with a statement thanking those that have stuck with the group and are helping with its turnaround, calling it "a crucial time for [the] organization" and reaffirming its commitment "to collaborate with [its] members and outside groups to make this change a reality."

Even those at the top of the food chain had their good and bad days during COVID. Execs from HBO Max, NBCUniversal, OWN, Showtime, and more spoke about how they navigated taking meetings from home offices and organizing their professional and personal dealings over the last 15 months during an ATX panel last week, with many saying they relied heavily on mentors and mental health days to keep spirits high. "What's made this year so hard was everything was out of our control," one exec said, underscoring a general sentiment of many choosing to focus only on what was within their reach, and releasing the rest to fall where it may. A lesson for us all!

In the wake of Brexit, EU officials are trying to diversify the "disproportionate" amount of UK content being broadcast on TV and streaming services. Mega-series like Netflix's THE CROWN headline the nearly $700 million that the UK film and TV industry receives from European viewers each year, and British producers are remaining hopeful that number will remain high despite an upcoming revision of viewership quotes for each country.

Streaming Highs & Lows

New figures from Nielsen's monthly viewership measurement are indicating that viewership for linear offerings - cable and broadcast - are still outpacing numbers for streaming in homes around the country. Streaming now accounts for 26% of all viewership, while cable + broadcast sits at 64%. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was quick to egg on the ever-growing streaming wars, tweeting that "Stream team needs to up its game" and calling on WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar that he wants to see HBO Max's numbers on the Nielsen boards along with Netflix. Game set.... match? ♟

Remember Quibi? Man, that feels like a lifetime ago. Back in the early days of quarantine when we were only supposed to be inside for a few weeks and no one had toilet paper... Weird times. With the days of Quibi behind us, some are still using its viewership as a metric for success. Deadline definitely was aggressive with this headline: "Roku Originals Draw More Viewing In 2 Weeks Than Quibi Did In Its Lifetime"

Disney+ is learning and listening after the debut of its new series LOKI, which played to millions of viewers on Wednesday, June 9th, and cemented its place as the streamer's most-watched premiere. As it goes in streaming land, all bets were off after that - the company has officially moved all of its Friday new episode drops to Wednesday, hedging its bets that viewers are really interested in a mid-week pick-me-up. Maybe it's a Loki brilliant idea after all... (Marvel puns are marvelous, sorry).

Save Our Stages Delay, COVID Reopening Continues

Despite its passage nearly half a year ago, the Save Our Stages act has yet to fully distribute its funds to the small businesses that are in dire need of the money to reopen and stay open as COVID restrictions continue to lift. Senators Amy Klobuchar and John Cornyn have sent an appeal letter to the Small Business Administration's keeper of the keys Isabella Guzman, asking for a detailed explanation of where exactly the funds are at and how soon they can expect to be distributed. "Further delays are unacceptable and would have irreversible consequences for these industries," the pair wrote in the letter last week.

One such venue in need of immediate relief is the LAByrinth Theater Company, a nearly 30-year off-Broadway mainstay that will play host to a star-studded virtual fundraiser tonight at 8 PM EST. Featuring dozens of performances from acts like Alan Cumming, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Chita Rivera and more, the company is hoping to surpass its $75,000 fundraising goal to cover the losses incurred from the pandemic. Check out the link and tune in!

The rest of the New York theatre scene is waking back up, and many have begun offering ticket sales and reservations once again for the months ahead. Check out this round-up of COVID refund policies for each Broadway house this year 🎟

Actors' Equity and the Broadway League have found common ground on COVID protocols for national tours, creating a reference guide to govern how producers will fill out their productions. All company members will be required to be fully vaccinated, and audience members will be required to wear masks and sit at least six feet from the stage and orchestra.

Are you an NYC theatre artist struggling to make your rent due to COVID? The Places Please Project has announced an initiative to provide rent relief to NYC-based theatre workers that have been out of work for over a year, with the goal of distributing $500,000 to qualified artists by April 2022. The group is still accepting donations and will start assessing applications in the next few months.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Nominations for the 2021 Dorian TV Awards have officially been announced, bringing together dozens of LGBTQ+ entertainment journalists from across the globe to vote on this year's television offerings. Helmed by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, the Dorian Award-nominated were headlined by FX' POSE with six nods, which has been receiving increasing buzz from GLAAD and other LGBTQ+ organizations to be recognized in the upcoming Emmy season for its groundbreaking portrayal of trans characters on screen. For the first time since 2012, the Dorian Awards will present all gender-neutral categories for its performance categories, and bump up the nominee fields to 10 each.

Amazon Studios is continuing its VOICES series with an upcoming virtual show set to celebrate Pride Month. VOICES: PRIDE, in partnership with GLAAD and Pride Media, will offer online roundtable discussions with members of the LGBTQ+ community in the industry, as well as performances from Drag Race Stars Kandy Muse, Lala Ri, and Manila Luzon. "[W]e want to continue driving the conversation forward around the immediate steps Hollywood can take to improve representation and positively impact the media landscape," the studio's head of DEI Latasha Gillespie said.

Anthony Roth Costanzo has been named New York Philharmonic's artist-in-residence for the 2021-2022 season. Costanzo plans to explore identity through voice in his show AUTHENTIC SELVES, endeavoring to "explore what stories [his] voice can tell, and what truths it can reflect." Congrats Anthony!

A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW's Robin Thede didn't hold back in her indictment of Hollywood box-checking at an ATX Festival panel last week. "Don't tell me that there is no room for white men in this industry," Thede remarked, encapsulating much of the frustration that showrunners are encountering as more and more projects featuring stories from historically underserved communities are waiting on (overwhelmingly white) Tinseltown decision-makers to give them the green light. Thede continued:

We're saying our stories have the same amount of value and we're literally telling the industry that you have to begin to value our stories, even if they're not your own. And you have to get out of the way and let us make them. Let us tell those stories and let us make those stories so that the audience can begin to see themselves reflected in film and TV, and so that they can see a clear path if they do want to get in this industry.

And the theatre industry is no exception. The latest study of on-and-off-stage representation from the Asian American Performers Action Coalition found that 93.8% of Broadway directors in the 2018-2019 season were white, with Off-Broadway coming in at 78,7% white. Perhaps most startling: Of the five Broadway shows with BIPOC playwrights that season, all five retained a white director. To the surprise of no one, the industry still has a staggeringly long way to go in order to actually make good on the countless "We see you, we hear you" posts from last summer's social media blitz, promising true representation across the industry. Time to step up, Hollywood and Broadway!

The release of the IN THE HEIGHTS film has been met with its fair share of controversy for its surprising lack of Afro-Latino community members in its cast. Lin-Manuel Miranda has since issued an apology for omitting a completely inclusive cast - "In trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short. I'm truly sorry" - though Broadway star Rita Morena took to the Colbert Show to defend Miranda, before issuing an apology herself for ignoring the calls for real representation in the film.

Lena Waithe debuted an exciting slate of short films sponsored by her Rising Voices initiative at the Tribeca Festival last week, showcasing 10 projects that were supported by a $1 million investment from a partnership with Indeed. "We could easily spend a million dollars on a TV ad, but we thought, instead of doing that, what if we took that million and invested it in BIPOC filmmakers to tell a story from their own perspective about what the meaning of a job was," Indeed CEO Chris Hyams said.

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Do you know any theatre-lovers between the ages of 6 and 11 in NYC? BroadwayWorld is looking for personality-filled kids with an interest in seeing Broadway shows (for free!) that will be able to give their feedback on performances once shows open. Do you think I can pass for an 11-year-old.... guess I'll need to shave first 👶

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