Paramount-Warner becomes Skydance, exhibitors pour billions back into cinemas, streamers and distributors redraw their relationships with AI and audiences, and markets search for new private capital. PLUS Singapore secures a major Golden Horse showing and launches an IMDA-TikTok microdrama programme.
1. A New Hollywood Takes Shape
Paramount Gets Court Green Light on Warner Bros. Deal, Names Mattel’s Kreiz Co-CEO Reuters reports that a US judge has approved the settlement allowing Paramount’s US$110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition to proceed. The agreement requires at least 30 films annually in US cinemas for five years and an additional US$300 million in annual domestic production spending, while Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz will join David Ellison as co-CEO.
David Ellison Renames Combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery as Skydance The merged corporation will take the Skydance name when the transaction becomes effective on 6 October, although Paramount and Warner Bros. remain as consumer-facing studio brands. Ellison is targeting roughly US$6 billion in savings from a company carrying close to US$80 billion in debt.
Warner Bros. Film Chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy Expected to Depart After Merger Paramount Pictures co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein are expected to oversee both film studios once the transaction closes. The move begins answering one of the merger’s largest creative questions: whether Warner and Paramount will remain genuinely distinct production operations under a common parent.
CNN Chief Mark Thompson Asked to Stay Following Paramount-Warner Merger David Ellison has asked Thompson to remain at CNN, while the antitrust settlement requires independent editorial oversight structures across CNN and CBS News. The provisions demonstrate how a merger primarily discussed through films and streaming is also remaking one of America’s largest news businesses.
2. The Theatrical Recovery Turns Into Investment
North American Exhibitors Invest $1.2bn in Cinema Upgrades Over Past Year Cinema United reports that exhibitors invested US$1.2 billion in renovations, premium formats, seating, projection, food-and-beverage operations and other improvements over the past year—and US$2.7 billion over two years. The spending follows a record unadjusted US$4.77 billion summer box office and suggests exhibitors are betting materially on theatrical rather than simply celebrating its recovery.
Spanish Oscar Entry ‘La Bola Negra’ Breaks Local Box-Office Records Oliver Laxe’s film opened to approximately €4.7 million, selling more than 600,000 tickets and setting records for an independent drama and its local distributor. Its success is particularly significant ahead of Netflix’s 47-day US theatrical window, linking festival prestige, national box office and the streamer’s changing exhibition strategy.
September UK-Ireland Box Office Rises 3% Year-on-Year September generated £73.3 million, while the year-to-date total reached £976.6 million—21% ahead of the equivalent period in 2025. The numbers provide another market-level indicator that this year’s theatrical growth extends beyond the extraordinary performances of Spider-Man and The Odyssey.
3. Streaming, AI and Distribution Mutate
Netflix Strikes Curated Content Deal With Spanish Arthouse Streamer Filmin Filmin will programme rotating ten-film collections for Netflix Spain under a one-year licensing deal, beginning with “October Mysteries”. It is an unusual acknowledgement by the world’s largest streamer that specialist human curation itself can carry commercial value.
Mubi CEO Says Company Will Use AI Everywhere Except the Films Efe Cakarel says Mubi will deploy artificial intelligence across engineering, finance, forecasting, operations and customer service while staying “as far away from AI as possible” in the creative work it distributes and produces. The position offers one possible industry distinction between AI as business infrastructure and AI as artistic authorship.
AGC Launches Digital Division to Turn Creator IP Into Film, TV and Microdramas AGC Digital will develop, finance and monetise projects originating with creators who already possess substantial online audiences, spanning features, series, children’s content and vertical formats. The strategy effectively treats social-media audiences as an alternative development and audience-testing pipeline for conventional entertainment.
Black Bear Launches Digital Networks Business, Hires Dan Cohen The rapidly expanding independent studio has brought in former Paramount executive Cohen to lead television distribution while simultaneously entering digital networks. Black Bear’s growth across financing, production, sales, theatrical distribution and now digital operations increasingly resembles the structure of a miniature vertically integrated studio.
Zygi Kamasa’s U.K. Film Distributor True Brit Entertainment Files for Administration Due to ‘Extremely Challenging Market Conditions The collapse of the young distributor provides a sobering counterpoint to this year’s theatrical optimism, particularly for British independent films still struggling to secure viable marketing and distribution economics despite stronger aggregate cinema attendance.
Canal+ Warns French VAT Increase Could Cost It €200m a Year Canal+ says a proposed doubling of television VAT from 10% to 20% could force price increases, job losses and reductions in investment. That matters well beyond television: Canal+ is one of France’s largest private film financiers and has committed €980 million to French and European cinema between 2028 and 2032.
Award-winning Gaza doc ‘NAZA’ lands UK-Ireland deal The film will first receive commercial theatrical distribution before becoming freely accessible through The Guardian. The staged rollout continues experimenting with the idea that theatrical and free online circulation need not be competing endpoints.
Why international sales agents are embracing Dutch films The national showcase brings sales companies, distributors and festival programmers into direct contact with Dutch projects at various production stages. Such curated national export initiatives are increasingly operating as intermediary markets between local film ecosystems and the international circuit.
4. Financing and Markets: Follow the New Money
What did this year’s Screen Summit reveal about the UK indie film industry? Screen’s annual summit placed financing at the centre of the British independent sector’s problems, with speakers arguing for greater private investment alongside government support. Proposed P&A tax relief is especially noteworthy: production incentives can help films get made without solving how those films reach audiences.
Zurich Summit Asks Whether Pre-Sales, AI and Traditional Risk Models Still Work Producers, financiers, sales agents and distributors used the industry summit to debate AI, the health of pre-sales, social-media marketing and awards strategy. The breadth of the discussion reflects an independent sector in which almost every stage—from financing through audience acquisition—is simultaneously being reconsidered.
Rome’s MIA Launches European Investment Hub The October market is creating a dedicated structure to connect private investors and financial institutions with producers, alongside 104 selected projects from 43 countries. It is another indication that European screen financing is actively looking beyond conventional public funds, broadcasters and pre-sales.
Red Sea Fund Announces 30 New Recipients The Saudi-backed fund selected production and post-production projects from Arab and African filmmakers after receiving a record number of submissions. Supported titles include projects already circulating through Cannes, Toronto and other international development ecosystems, demonstrating how multiple public and festival funds increasingly stack across a film’s life cycle.
Producers Group The Creatives Brings in Minority Investor with Formalised Alliance The collective of European production companies has formalised its alliance through outside investment, continuing a broader trend towards independent producers pooling scale and resources without simply selling themselves outright to major studios.
European Work in Progress Awards More Than €100,000 in Support FilmFest Hamburg’s platform awarded finishing, sound, subtitling and post-production support across its selected projects. Unlike cash-only funding schemes, its prize structure shows how work-in-progress markets can solve specific technical bottlenecks separating unfinished films from international festival and sales circulation.
BFI London Film Festival Selects Eight Works in Progress for Industry Showcase Eight UK projects will be presented directly to distributors, buyers, sales agents and programmers during LFF. The programme increasingly gives the festival an industrial role before films are completed rather than simply after they enter exhibition.
Iberseries & Platino Industria Attendance Grows as Buyers Slowly Return The Madrid industry event attracted 1,504 participating companies, up 15%, and 211 international buyers, up 11%. Producers nevertheless report a more cautious acquisition environment than during the streaming boom, with US buyers only gradually returning to the market.
Iberseries Executives Say Latin American Films Need Better European Curation and Financing Routes Industry figures argue that Europe still lacks sufficiently curated platforms for Latin American work, while private funds are increasingly entering projects as equity investors rather than merely gap financiers. Feature films also remain significantly easier to structure as international co-productions than series.
5. Asia: The Autumn Circuit Moves East
‘Arrested Memory’ and Shu Qi’s ‘Girl’ Lead Golden Horse Nominations Sabu’s Arrested Memory leads with 11 nominations, followed by Shu Qi’s Girl with ten and Double Happiness and We Are Born Good with nine each. The awards received 587 submissions this year, reinforcing Golden Horse’s continuing position as one of the most significant institutions connecting Chinese-language and regional independent cinema.
Tokyo Film Festival Expands to 204 Films for 2026 Edition Tokyo grows from 183 films last year to 204, with seven world premieres among its 15-film competition and eight among the ten-title Asian Future programme. Southeast Asian titles from Indonesia and the Philippines feature alongside films from India, Korea and elsewhere across the region.
Tokyo to Honour Mipo O and Mohammad Rasoulof With Kurosawa Akira Award The award recognises filmmakers considered capable of shaping cinema’s future, giving the Japanese director and Iranian filmmaker prominent positions within Tokyo’s expanding autumn festival profile.
Asian Academy Creative Awards Announces 335 National Winners Across 18 Territories The awards span 39 categories across film, television, streaming and digital production. Feature winners range from China’s The Shadow’s Edge and India’s Bison Kaalamaadan to Indonesia’s Levitating, Malaysia’s Forbidden Night and Singapore’s The Violinist.
‘Final Payment’ and ‘Congo Boy’ Take Top Prizes at Pingyao Pingyao International Film Festival also recognised filmmakers including Xu Zao for Light Pillar and Filipino director Rafael Manuel for Filipiñana. The festival remains particularly valuable as an intersection between emerging Chinese cinema and international independent filmmaking.
Korean Romance ‘My Killer Crush’ Heads to Busan Market With Barunson E&A Barunson will introduce the Kim Jae-won and Chung Su-bin project to international buyers at Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market ahead of its planned 2027 release, using ACFM as an early sales launch rather than waiting for a completed-film festival premiere.
Bangkok Film Festival Closes Despite Flooding, With Singapore’s ‘Ah Girl’ Among Major Winners The revived festival screened more than 150 films across 15 days. Elephants in the Fog won the Grand Prix, while Ang Geck Geck’s Ah Girl took both New Voices and Best ASEAN Film and 9 Temples to Heaven received a special mention.
‘The Assassin(s)’ Leads South Korean Chuseok Box Office Hur Jin-ho’s historical action film recorded more than 1.1 million admissions over the three-day holiday weekend and around 41% of theatrical revenue. Its strong domestic run arrives just weeks before the film opens SGIFF.
China Box-Office Leader ‘Traces of Justice’ Lands UK-Ireland Release Trinity CineAsia acquired UK, Ireland and Malta rights after the Chinese thriller took roughly 40% of ticket sales on the first day of the National Day holiday. Its international rollout continues the recent growth of commercial Chinese films being exported theatrically on the strength of domestic box-office performance.
Myanmar Film Collective Returns With ‘What Happened To My Country, What Happened To Me’ The underground collective behind Myanmar Diaries is developing a follow-up documentary using black humour alongside clandestine filmmaking. Its continued production under military rule demonstrates an entirely different kind of regional film infrastructure: anonymous, decentralised and designed around survival.
6. In Singapore
Five Singapore Films Receive Golden Horse Nominations Singapore has an unusually strong presence across this year’s Golden Horse Awards. Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers receives seven nominations—including Best Narrative Feature, director and Yeo Yann Yann for leading actress—while The Violinist and Ah Girl receive three each, and shorts Fruit (Buah) and She Said are both nominated.
IMDA and TikTok Launch Singapore Microdrama Programme Twenty accredited local media companies will participate in the first run, developing series of roughly 50–100 episodes lasting one to three minutes each over six to nine months. Separate live-action and AI-enabled animation tracks will cover production, cliffhanger and paywall structures, monetisation and distribution through TikTok’s ecosystem—making this one of Singapore’s clearest institutional bets on vertical storytelling yet.
Singapore Title Magic Atlas Selected for Tokyo International Film Festival Competition Sun Xun’s Singapore film is among the 15 titles competing at Tokyo, placing another Singapore production inside a major international festival competition only weeks after the unusually strong showing of local films at Toronto.
Singapore Leads Asian Academy Creative Awards Company Tally as The Violinist Wins National Feature Category Mediacorp collected 23 national wins, the highest company tally announced this year, while The Violinist was named Singapore’s national winner for Best Feature Film. The regional gala will take place at Capitol Theatre on 3 December.
Jonathan Choo’s ‘Pace’ Opens in Singapore Cinemas on 8 October The local Mandarin drama marks Choo’s feature directorial debut and stars Desmond Tan as a rehabilitated former drug offender alongside Zaki Hussain and Simonboy. Its opening gives October another Singapore theatrical release immediately alongside The Sandbox.
Singapore’s Ah Girl Wins Best ASEAN Film and New Voices at Bangkok Ang Geck Geck’s debut continues an unusually extensive international run following Rotterdam and Toronto, taking two prizes at the revived Bangkok International Film Festival. Singapore co-production 9 Temples to Heaven also received a special mention, while Nelson Yeo’s The House on the Moon closed the festival.