FILM PRESERVATION
India’s Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), which enjoys the support of cinema greats Martin Scorsese and Amitabh Bachchan, is conducting the third edition of the Biennial Audio-Visual Archival Summer School in partnership with the International Federation of Film Archives. The global film preservation training workshop is coming to India for the first time and will be held at the India International Centre in Delhi Oct. 10–19.
FHF founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur said that the final selection of some 50 participants, from 13 African countries, Asia, Europe, Australia, South and North America reaffirms the organization’s goal to “create a worldwide network of film archivists who can work together to save their film heritage around the globe.”
Scorsese said: “The World Cinema Project is committed to locating, preserving and distributing films from all over the world. A program like BAVASS benefits this mission enormously by educating future film preservationists who can share their knowledge and join an international community of people dedicated to saving the world’s film heritage.”
Bachchan added: “Having faced innumerable challenges, beginning with the dearth of archivists, lack of training programs, infrastructure and funding, we believe these training programs are of great value to those undertaking the difficult task to save film patrimonies around the world as it is only through sharing knowledge, experience and resources that we will build a community of film archivists across the globe to work together to save our world film heritage.”
FESTIVAL JURIES
Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante will head the official competition jury of the 67th BFI London Film Festival (Oct. 4-15) and jurors include program director of the 2023 Edinburgh International Film Festival, Kate Taylor and novelist Niven Govinden. The First Feature Competition (Sutherland Award) jury will be headed up by British directorRaine Allen-Millerand jurors include festival director of International Film Festival Rotterdam Vanja Kaludjercic and musician, composer, filmmaker and photographer Barry Adamson. Rubika Shahwill lead the jury selecting the winner of the Grierson Award for best documentary and joining her are documentary filmmaker Jeanie Finlay and Paul Tonta, general Manager theatrical acquisitions and film festivals at Madman Entertainment. Writer-directorCharlotte Regan will lead the jury selecting the best short film and joining her are BFI Film Academy programmer Francesca Tomlinson and Rina Yang, director of photography.
FEMALE LED
Rachel Millar has been confirmed as head of entertainment at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation after holding the position in an interim capacity since last month. As part of her new role, she will be responsible for overseeing programs such as“Hard Quiz,”“The Weekly with Charlie Pickering” and“Gruen” and the Fresh Blood comedy initiative. She has previous production experience with credits including“Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell,”“Rove,”“Andrew Denton’s Interview,” “Spicks and Specks,”“Kath and Kim”and“Aunty Donna.”
Millar continues an all-female screen leadership team at the ABC. Reporting to Jennifer Collins, her colleagues include head of scripted Rachel Okine, head of factual Susie Jones, head of children’s and family Libbie Doherty and head of arts, music and events Kath Earle.
DEVELOPMENT LAB
The Asian Film Awards Academy, the non-profit organization behind the annual Asian Film Awards, is to launch a program that offers a platform for aspiring Asian filmmakers to develop their craft and bring their stories to life. Called the International Film Camp, it will be partly funded by Create Hong Kong and the Film Development Fund. Details are to be unveiled late next week.
ASIAN GAMES
Hong Kong-based TV distributor O4 Media has picked up exclusive rights within Asia to handle award-winning TV game show ‘Note for Note’ aka “Noot vir Noot’ that plays on South Africa’s SABC. This acquisition further solidifies the fruitful collaboration between O4 Media and ‘Small World International,’ which has already resulted in successful partnerships on previous ventures. “The show’s combination of music, competition, and emotional depth has resonated with viewers worldwide, and we are confident that it will continue to captivate audiences in the Asian market,” said O4’s Gary Pudney.
APPOINTMENTS
Fremantle has appointed Sascha Schwingel as CEO of UFA, one of the leading producers of TV and streaming in the German-speaking market, based in Berlin and reporting to group COO and CEO continental Europe Andrea Scrosati. Schwingel, was deputy chief content officer of RTL Deutschland and prior to this role, he was CEO of the RTL Group-owned TV channel VOX Television. At UFA, hewill have oversight and strategic direction of all aspects of the business, including production output of its four main divisions UFA Fiction, UFA Serial Drama, UFA Show and Factual and UFA documentary, as well as key corporate functions. Schwingel succeeds Nico Hofmann, who now becomes chair of the company.
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Mark Neil, currently CFO at A+E Networks EMEA, has been appointed CFO of SkyShowtime, reporting into CEO Monty Sarhanand will join in January 2024. Neil’s hire follows CFO Francesca Pierce’s appointment as SkyShowtime’s first chief administration officer. She will continue to report to Sarhan and will begin the new role in January once Neil formally joins as CFO.
