Visit Films Unveils Multiple Deals at Hong Kong FilMart (EXCLUSIVE)
Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson's Sundance and Rome drama 'Ghostlight' has secured deals with Nikkatsu (Japan), New Cinema (Israel), Cinobo (Greece, Cyprus), Eye Film (Benelux), Fabula Films (Turkey) and Sister Distribution (Switzerland). IFC previously acquired U.S. rights to the drama, which follows a grieving construction worker who joins a local production of 'Romeo and Juliet.'
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Simon Jaquemet's sci-fi thriller 'Electric Child,' which played at the Locarno and Sitges festivals, has been acquired by New People Film for CIS territories. The film follows a father's extreme measures to help his newborn son by repurposing high-level AI technology from his workplace.
Tribeca comedy 'Adult Best Friends' from filmmaker Delaney Buffett has landed a worldwide airlines deal with Anuvu. The film, which centers on a woman taking her co-dependent best friend on a weekend trip to break marriage news, was released in the U.S. by Gravitas Ventures.
Sundance and Cannes drama 'Good One,' directed by India Donaldson, has secured distribution with Madfer Films (Spain) and Fabula Films (Turkey). The coming-of-age story about a 17-year-old navigating a backpacking trip with her father and his oldest friend was released in the U.S. by Metrograph Pictures.
SXSW music documentary 'Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound,' from director Antony Crook, has been picked up by Shemaroo Contentino Media for worldwide airline distribution. The film chronicles the influential Scottish post-rock band's 25-year journey.
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CNET
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I Prefer the Merlin Bird ID App Over Meditation Apps for Staying in the Present Moment
I've downloaded countless meditation apps and tried all the breathing exercises to stay present. Yet, the app I wasn't expecting to help me with mindfulness is the one I've had the most success with. It's an app for identifying birds. I was just as surprised as you are. Merlin Bird ID was launched in 2014 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to help people identify the birds around them. Thanks to eBird, the world's largest database of bird sounds and photos based on 800 million global sightings, the app allows you to record a bird, answer a series of questions or upload a photo to name your winged friend. You can also use the app to explore the different birds in your area, no matter where you are in the world, even if you're offline. The app's homepage, with three avenues for identification. Anna Gragert/CNET One of my favorite features of Merlin Bird ID is that you can use it to keep track of your bird sightings and, like an IRL Pokemon GO, you can "collect 'em all." The first time I used the app, I sat out on my balcony, clicked the green "Sound" button and watched as the app identified the birds chirping and singing in all directions. You can see the different sound frequencies as they appear on a real-time spectrogram, a visual representation of the audio world. The next time I checked the clock, I was shocked to see that an hour had passed. Then, I dug out my binoculars and let even more time fly. What a spectrogram on the app looks like. Anna Gragert/CNET As any Merlin Bird IDer knows, there is no thrill quite like pressing the "This is my bird" button for the first time, and it never gets old. From there, you can record your location. The app, in turn, will save your report to improve its performance. Before long, I had different bird sounds memorized. In the morning, I would wake to the sound of a California Towhee's alarm-like and frankly, yes, annoying cheeping from a tree outside my window right as the sun started to rise. On walks around my neighborhood, I'd auditorially part the sound of cars and distant construction to hear the melody of House Finches mixed with staccato chirps of Lesser Goldfinches and the droning coos from a pair of Mourning Doves religiously stationed on electrical wires. It was the song that had been the soundtrack of my world, but I hadn't noticed until now. By sight, I'd recognize Red-Whiskered Bulbuls with their black crests and fire engine cheeks, a blush color waiting to be replicated in powder form. Black Phoebes made themselves known with their fluffy soot-black heads, statue stillness and ivory bellies. At the hummingbird feeder on my balcony, there is a never-ending line of customers with iridescent throats in sunset colors: Anna's Hummingbirds (my favorite, as you might guess), Allen's and even the uncommon Rufous, who spend all day fighting over sugar water when not watching the feeder from their magnolia tree perches. A customer at our feeder. I think they're an Allen's Hummingbird. Anna Gragert/CNET What's most thrilling is when the Merlin Bird app hears a bird that you can't see, making it feel as though it's your mission to treasure hunt your way to it. This is often a lesson in patience, as it may take you several tries to find the songbird you seek. Recently, while sitting in a new-to-me park, the app told me a Mountain Chickadee was nearby and I spent the next 45 minutes trying to spot it with my binoculars. It ended up on a branch directly above my head, and when I got up to leave, it flew down right by my face as if in on the joke that it was there the whole time. I've yet to find the Red-Winged Blackbird who always seems to be just out of reach, no matter where I am in my city, but I console myself with the seemingly all-knowing flock of Common Ravens (also unjustly called an "unkindness") evermore on my street and the surprising number of noises they can produce. Birds I haven't spotted ... yet. Anna Gragert/CNET I also often listen back to the comforting hoo-hoos of a Great Horned Owl singing a 9:30 p.m. lullaby right before the start of spring. I like time-travelling to these moments, though I have come across some retrospectively hilarious conversations I unintentionally recorded in between birdsong. With that being said, Merlin Bird ID does save your audio recordings but only on your device in the app. To share the recordings with eBird, you have to manually export and upload them. I now seek out unexplored wooded spaces to meet new feathered friends, an excuse for forest bathing, which has led me to see the shade of blue unique to a Ruddy Duck's bill. After a rainstorm, I've come across a group of Acorn Woodpeckers with impressive red mohawks excitedly pecking wet, softened wood while calling to each other. Like a conversation between punk besties over dinner. My area is known for its large flocks of Amazon parrots (and their persistent screeches), whom I've now had the pleasure of seeing up close as they use their light yellow bills to climb trees and collect their berries. And once, just once, I caught the backside of a Yellow Warbler in a nearby watershed park. The Acorn Woodpecker Anna Gragert/CNET Because of this app, I've spent more time listening to the world around me and less time in my own head, bobbing between the past and future. I've found myself surrounded by and in conversation with nature more than ever before. It may be the closest thing we have to magic here on Earth. Now, perhaps that is the key to grounding yourself: Getting your butt on the ground and taking the time to listen to those who are singing around you.
Yahoo
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Nets forward Michael Porter Jr.'s admission that women are his ‘vice' sparks jokes
The post Nets forward Michael Porter Jr.'s admission that women are his 'vice' sparks jokes appeared first on ClutchPoints. Earlier this offseason, the Brooklyn Nets brought in Michael Porter Jr. in a trade that sent Cam Thomas to the Denver Nuggets. Porter Jr. figures to have a green light for a rebuilding Nets team that is projected to be among the league's worst next season. In Porter Jr., the Nets are getting not only an elite shooter but also an interesting character off the court. Recently, Porter Jr. took to his Curious Mike podcast to discuss some of his and his family's personal struggles as they deal with success. 'Everybody has different vices. Everybody has different things that they struggle with. That can go with people who struggle from alcohol, people that struggle with drugs. You know, for example, my brother struggled with gambling. My vice has always come in the form of women. And when I'm far from God, and I'm not in my word, I'm not praying, I'm not prioritizing Him, like that seems to be the place that the devil gets me, is in the space of women,' said Porter Jr. Fans on X, formerly Twitter, predictably had jokes about Porter Jr.'s admission (via NBACentral). 'We have have a new funniest NBA player cause what do he be saying bro,' wrote one fan. 'At what point did he decide this was something that needed to be said to a large audience?' wondered another. 'Yeah, not sure what to do with this information,' added another fan. An interesting personality Michael Porter Jr. has made headlines for some of his off the court statements over the years, including warning parents against sending their children to public schools, among others. He's also had some interesting guests from a wide variety of professions on his podcast, and with these latest remarks, he's adding to his deep library of unorthodox and surprisingly candid admissions that fans on social media were quick to run with. On the court, Nets fans will be hoping for a bounce back year from Porter Jr. after he struggled at times with the Nuggets in 2024-25. Brooklyn's schedule is set to be released later this month. Related: Nets rumors: Cam Thomas' $30 million ask getting no interest around NBA Related: Exclusive: Danny Wolf's 'bread and butter' to headline rookie focus with Nets
NBC News
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Vampires, romance and billionaires: The bite-size Chinese shows gaining U.S. fans
HONG KONG — As U.S. television series produce longer and fewer episodes, a new genre from China is gaining American fans by going in the opposite direction. Known as minidramas, micro dramas or vertical dramas, they are soap operas condensed into a minute or two per episode. Each show, reminiscent of a telenovela, is split into dozens of chapters, each about two minutes long and with all the soapy elements: cheesy romance, over-the-top drama and abundant cliff-hangers. 'The revenge ones, oh, my God, they're so good,' California-based retail business owner Jacarius Murphy told NBC News in a video interview. Murphy is a fan of the minidramas, known as duanju in Chinese, which focus heavily on romance, revenge and fantasy. The stories tend to involve wealthy characters such as a chief executive who's secretly a vampire or a billionaire living a double life — characters often played by American actors. 'People want this fast dopamine hit, and they can snack on it while they're waiting,' said Anina Net, an American actress based in Los Angeles who has worked on minidramas for the past four years. The genre originated in China, where production companies have tapped into the popularity of short-form, vertical-produced, TikTok-style video content. About half of China's 1.4 billion people consume dramas in this style, according to a report released in March by the state-owned China Netcasting Services Association. The industry made $6.9 billion in revenue last year, more than China's total box office sales. The shows are 'still quite limited in genre, mostly romance-focused, with sweet, domineering CEO tropes and modern settings,' said Kaidi Dai, a Shanghai-based minidrama producer. Now, having figured out the Chinese market, the same companies are expanding into the U.S., where minidramas are finding success just a few years after the failure of Quibi, a short-lived, short-form mobile streaming service. The shows are available on platforms such as ReelShort, DramaBox and GoodShort, which offers free episodes and in-app purchases as well as subscriptions. Minidramas cost far less to make than standard TV shows and can make millions of dollars in revenue through a combination of user purchases and advertising. But adapting them to the U.S. market takes some tweaking, said Chinese filmmaker Gao Feng, also known as Frank Tian, who has a minidrama production company based in New York. Rather than remaking Chinese shows, his company hired longtime U.S. residents to craft stories that would appeal to American audiences. 'I believe that scripts determine 65-70% of a project's success,' he said in an interview. 'Apart from werewolves, CEO romances and hidden identities, we should explore new genres.' While many short dramas have been based on successful Chinese stories, 'if a platform cannot innovate continuously, it will face significant challenges,' he added. Among the most popular shows is 'The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband,' which tells the story of a woman whose husband is better off financially than he appears. All 60 episodes can be viewed in less than 70 minutes on ReelShort, the California-based, Chinese-backed minidrama platform that released it in 2023. 'Hilariously bad, oddly addictive,' reads one IMDb review of the show, which had more than 485 million views on ReelShort as of Friday. The Chinese-backed short-video app has vied with TikTok as the most popular product in the entertainment section of Apple's U.S. app store. 'The short videos on TikTok have laid a solid foundation for the popularity of short dramas,' Yan Min, who helped organize an industry conference in China last year, said in an interview. Min said ReelShort and other companies were advertising on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok to attract new users, catering to the 'evolving viewing habits of younger generations, who have grown up with platforms like TikTok and are accustomed to short, engaging content.' U.S. entertainment companies have taken notice of the trend. Netflix said in May that it was testing a vertical feed made up of clips from its shows and movies, while Disney said last month that it was investing in DramaBox through its accelerator program. Though minidramas seeking U.S. audiences are increasingly using actors with American backgrounds, they often shoot in scenic Chinese locations like the coastal city of Qingdao, with its Western-style villas and architecture, for greater authenticity. 'We seek actors and screenwriters who grew up in the U.S. and naturally embody an American style. Then we incorporate some Chinese elements,' said Ann An, a Beijing-based freelance producer for several minidramas made for foreign audiences. Turnarounds are incredibly fast in the industry as producers strive to keep costs low. An said a show can finish filming in 10 days, with a budget of under $70,000. The biggest key to the success of minidramas, though, is the cliff-hangers, which push viewers to keep paying for the next episode. 'The scriptwriters know exactly where to place these cliff-hangers, and they execute them very well,' said Apple Yang, a minidrama director based in London. That helps explain the appeal of minidramas even if their overall quality is sometimes 'underwhelming,' said Ying Zhu, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University's Academy of Film. 'Make the dialogue real and less mechanic. Make it funny when possible and biting when needed,' Zhu said. 'One minute can pack in a lot of info if done well.'
