Exclusive
Exciting Addition to the Crew: Stephanie Allain joins Cast & Crew’s Board of Directors
Cast & Crew is thrilled to announce the newest Board of Directors member, Stephanie Allain. With an expansive history in the entertainment industry, Allain has worked to advocate People of Color and women in the entertainment alongside running her very own film and television production company, Homegrown Pictures. Cast and Crew’s Chairman, Mason Slaine shared his excitement in welcoming Allain to the Board: "Her extensive entertainment industry experience, paired with her enviable record of supporting important cultural and social causes, match perfectly with Cast & Crew's values and dedication to our customers." Allain has previously sat on many notable boards and has received numerous awards for her work in the industry. We are delighted with this announcement and look forward to working with such a successful woman. Click on the link below to learn more about Stephanie Allain.
Film
Ground Control to Major Film: Russian Crew Returned from Filming First Movie in Space
The first feature-length movie to be shot is space just wrapped production and the Russian crew has confirmed that they have made a safe trip home. Russian actress Yulia Peresild and producer-director Klim Shipenko were joined by experienced cosmonaut on their trip from Earth to the international space station on October 5. At the space station, they filmed “Challenge,” which will focus on surgeon sent to the ISS to save a stationed cosmonaut, for a total of 12 days, all under commercial agreement between the Russian space agency and media entities. They returned to earth, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, on October 17 at 12:35 am ET. Following them home was Russian astronaut Oleg Novitsky, who has been stationed in space for the past 6 months. The crew has since been transported to a recovery area and from there they will return to their training base to continue work on the film. This news comes more than a year after NASA’s confirmation that Doug Lieman, Tom Cruise, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX were planning to team up to create a narrative film in space aboard the ISS. This seems to be in preliminary stages of liftoff, as plans for the crew to depart have not yet been shared.
Festivals
The Show Must Go On! Bentonville Film Festival Plans to Go Hybrid in 2022
Founded in 2015 by actress Geena Davis, the Bentonville Film Festival was created with the aim to showcase and share the voices of female, non-binary, LGBTQIA, and BIPOC, and people with disabilities within the entertainment industry. This year, the festival will take place both in person and virtually, the live event in Arkansas will span from June 22 to June 26, and the digital portion will take place until July 3. Last year, the hybrid festival had 150,00 online attendees, and more than 10,000 people appeared in person. This year, the festival intends to have record breaking diversity amongst its program. Wendy Guerrero, President of the Bentonville Film Festival and Foundation, said “We’re thrilled to return next June and continue working to impact the local creative community in Arkansas, all the way to the Hollywood filmmaking pipeline.” Additionally, the Bentonville Film Festival also plans to create a new mentorship program to encourage diverse filmmaking. The mentorship consists of a $20,000 grant, as well as an opportunity to work with festival sponsor, M&M, on a project that intends to champion inclusion while addressing key barriers of underrepresented storytellers.
Industry
Where Streaming is Still Learning: Netflix’s Response to Trans Employee Walkout
On Wednesday, October 20, organizers staged a walkout at Netflix’s Hollywood office in support of transgender employees after the streaming service received backlash over transphobic comments in Dave Chappelle’s latest stand-up special, The Closer. In the morning of the planned protest, Netflix released the statement, “We respect the decision of any employee who chooses to walk out, and recognize we have much more work to do both withing Netflix and in our content.” The statement is also followed by a negative response to internal communication by co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos, who says that he “screwed up – and I don’t just mean mechanically.” In his statement, Sarandos also expresses his regret in not recognizing employees hurt before rationalizing the reactions to the stand-up special. The walkout was also endorsed by a list of some of Netflix’s own creators and influencers. Additionally, the rally had to move locations to accommodate the overwhelming support they had received, in order to uphold values of safety and accessibility.
Industry
Good News Los Angeles, Hollywood is Back and Booming!
Greater Los Angeles is witnessing the “third strongest quarter in twenty-six years, with a total of 10,127 shoot days.” Although not all production categories are increasing at the same pace, as reported by FilmLA, one of the fastest growing categories between Q2 and Q3 is feature film production with an increase of 33.5% between the quarters. A major takeaway from this report is that local production continues to increase proving that demand for the industry continues amid our exit from the pandemic. Although data proves to be a positive insight into the industry, “both the feature film and other categories, however, fell short of their pre-COVID average, highlighting the still-uneven nature of the industry’s local recovery.” Overall, the good news lays in the fact that total production has rose 141.2% in comparison to last year.
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