Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Isabelle Huppert and Sundance, Oscars by the numbers, and Netflix’s Beef.
Let’s go!
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Isabelle Huppert is one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Her work breathes a vivid specificity into the darkest corners of human nature, as shown in The Piano Teacher (2001), Amour (2012) and Elle (2016).
In our interview, Huppert detailed her latest film, Luz, which premiered yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival. The film explores how a parent and child bridge their emotional gap through virtual worlds.
Huppert, as she told me, is most interested in playing unique situations and states with directors. One of the wildest in Luz is when Huppert runs full force into the frigid sea to show her emotionally shy stepdaughter how to live.
Huppert, whose eyes would supercharge with light whenever she was engaged, explained:
“There was a sense of excitement, of pleasure. The moment where the two of us really connect in an ultimate way. Of course, being in the sea without clothes at this time of the year, it creates a very special connection. It's not like having a nice cup of tea in the coffee shop.”
And its these types of scenes that make Luz so magnificent, Huppert chipping away at her daughter, who shields herself from the world be retreating to VR.
Huppert expanded on this, sharing the challenge of working with the actress who played her stepdaughter, who doesn’t speak her native language of French:
“It's something very strange to act and to perform with someone who speaks in a different language. So you have to relate to something else, to the rhythm, to the expressions you capture, you get something from the person which is not expressed directly by words, but by something else. It's very strange, but it's very interesting.”
By the end of Luz we understand something profound: the best virtual reality is the one we create in real life. Finding our own private realms and overlaying our emotional shape and resonance to it. That’s where true connection can be found.
For More:
Our interview with Isabelle Huppert. She doesn’t miss a beat.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Oscars Nominations by the Numbers, from snubs to 18 noms.
Rob Eggers is set to direct Labyrinth 2.
Village Roadshow Entertainment’s CEO, Steve Mosko, has left the company.
Lionsgate and Starz have extended their theatrical output deal even as they prepare for an anticipated corporate split.
After 12 years, David Haddad the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment president, is stepping down.
Based on her own original idea, the party girl pop star Charli XCX is teaming up with A24 to produce and star in The Moment.
Netflix has added several cast additions to the second season of its award-winning anthology series Beef.
Mark Wahlberg's production company, Unrealistic Ideas, is EPing a four-part docuseries titled Spy High.
By Design, starring Juliette Lewis, which premiered at Sundance, is a wicked satire.
Ahead of its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, Mad World has acquired the international rights to The Settlement.
Shout! Studios acquired North American rights to Into The Wonderwoods.
DJ Ahmet, a coming-of-age film set in a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, is premiering at Sundance.
Veteran producer and mogul Peter Chernin’s The North Road Company makes its first acquisition in Latin America.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Oscars Nominations by the Numbers:
0 nominations: Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Angelina Jolie, Challengers
1 nom: Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez) first ever acting nomination for a trans woman
1 nom: Brazil’s first acting nom for Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here). It has been 26 years since her mother’s historical nomination for Central Station
1 nom: Demi Moore makes “career comeback” with first-ever Oscar nomination after surprising Golden Globes win for The Substance
1 nom: Isabella Rossellini (Conclave)
1x1 Roy Bros battle: Kiernan Culkin (A Real Pain) x Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice)
2 career noms: Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown). The youngest actor to have been double nominated since James Dean
2 in a row: Colman Domingo gets a rare 2nd nom in the same category two years in a row for Sing Sing
4 noms: Nosferatu (Best Cinematography, HMU, Costume Design, Prod Design)
7 noms: Neon
13 noms: Emilia Pérez
14 noms: A24
18 noms: Netflix
Hosted by Conan O’Brien, the Oscars will air on March 2nd.
What's Eggers going to do with that Oscars momentum? Eggers, fresh from the success of Nosferatu, will direct Werwulf for Focus Features set in 13th-century England with a release date of December 25, 2026. But what comes after that one?
It looks like Eggers is maybe planning to branch out from psycho-sexual horror to the well… psychedelic but still kinda sexual world of David Bowie's opus Labyrinth. Though it's still in early development, Tri-Star Pictures is making way for Eggers to direct a sequel. The original Labyrinth was a creation from the mind of Jim Henson, whose mastery of puppets created a twisted fairytale of a girl trying to find her brother and a scenery-chewing performance from the late great David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King.
Be it Werwulf or Labyrinth, Eggers created an amazing, vibrant, but melancholy world in Nosferatu. It will be very exciting to see him continue honing his unique blend of scary and sexy and satiating.
Allegedly due to financial discrepancies, Village Roadshow Entertainment’s CEO Steve Mosko, a veteran film and TV exec, has left the company. Originally making a name for himself over at Sony, Mosko has producer credits on films like Joker (2019) and The Matrix Resurrections (2021) and has been struggling to revive Village Roadshow after over a year of serious cash flow issues and a myriad of missed payments to the WGA.
This is just another departure in a growing list of major switch-ups in Hollywood involving both small-scale employees and major high-profile producers and executives leaving their long-term roles. Mosko has not yet made a comment regarding his exit but is potentially looking at creating his own production company to launch.
Tidbit:
An Amicable Separation: Lionsgate and Starz have extended their theatrical output deal even as they prepare for an anticipated corporate split. The renewed agreement brings Lionsgate films to Starz sooner and closer to their theatrical release. Starz will still be exclusive to first, second, and third pay-TV windows on a per-project basis. Lionsgate promises nearly 20 theatrical releases annually with 2025 bringing some of their bigger IP's like Now You See Me 3, and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. A fair agreement will keep both companies fed while they await approval of the split via a shareholder vote.
Vin Diesel announced Fast X: Part 2 will finish filming in LA, returning to its roots and supporting the city’s wildfire-hit economy.
He stated:
“Los Angeles is where Fast and Furious started filming 25 years ago… and now Fast will finally return home”
Thanks Vin, Family.
Renewals:
Fox’s The 1% Club (Season 2)
Cancellations:
HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones (ends with Season 4)
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Based on her own original idea, the party girl pop star Charli XCX is teaming up with A24 to produce and star in The Moment, which is currently keeping its plot details under wraps.
In addition to earning nine Grammy nominations for her summer “Brat” album that became a cultural phenomenon in 2024, the British singer also has several film-related projects in the works. She is set to star in the ensemble cast of Mysterious Skin, writer-director Gregg Araki’s provocative thriller I Want Your Sex, currently in post-production.
She has also signed on to The Gallerist from director Cathy Yan (dir. Birds of Prey), which has a monster cast and crazy concept but is not expected till 2026.
The Moment is the first project that will come from the unapologetic singer’s new production company, Studio365.
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Tidbits:
Netflix has added several cast additions to the second season of its award-winning anthology series Beef.
New Cast Members:
Seoyeon Jang (Butterfly)
William Fichtner (Crash)
Mikaela Hoover (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)
K-Pop rapper BM is making his directorial debut
The second installment from A24 will center on a young couple (Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton) who witness an alarming fight between their boss (Oscar Isaac) and his wife (Carey Mulligan), triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner (Youn Yuh-Jung).
The official release date for the new eight episodes of Beef has not yet been confirmed.
Mark Wahlberg's production company, Unrealistic Ideas, is executive producing a four-part docuseries titled Spy High. The series investigates the case of 15-year-old Blake Robbins, who sued his public school for allegedly spying on him during a drug accusation. Spy High will premiere at SXSW in March and stream on Prime Video in April.
FESTIVALS
I’m on the ground at Sundance. Here were a few Day 1 highlights:
Connected with A24’s Sing Sing star Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin, who recounted stories of his first Zoom meeting with Oscar-nominated Colman Domingo and their instant chemistry.
He spoke about his meteoric rise to recognition. And Nic Cage telling him how special of a film Sing Sing is.
Clarence became Oscar-nominated while in mid-air for co-writing Sing Sing.
Reconnected with Ben Mullinkosson (dir: Sundance 2025’s Serious People).
I watched By Design, starring Juliette Lewis. Here’s the logline:
A woman swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair.
I loved it, as the film is about what happens when we reduce each other to objects. There are some great lines that, in context, have wildly powerful emotional resonances:
“I’m underneath you.”
“Chairs can’t stand up for themselves.”
“We can never own people like we do objects”
The level of satire is operatic, and the audience was laughing non-stop.
Ahead of its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, Mad World has acquired the international rights to The Settlement from Egyptian director Mohamed Rashad. A story of two brothers, the thriller quickly takes a turn into full blown murder mystery as Rashad’s narrative feature film debut. Previously, he directed the 2016 doc, Little Eagles, which explored his own family’s history in Egypt in the 1970s. Mad World is an offshoot of pan-Arab indie studio Mad Solutions (Diaries from Lebanon, 2023).
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Colors Within looks like a promising anime film from director Naoko Yamada. It follows a girl who can see people's true colors as she joins a band and navigates a friendship and personal tragedy with her new bandmates. It's out in theaters today.
Check out the beautiful trailer here
Shout! Studios acquired North American rights to Into The Wonderwoods, an animated film by Vincent Paronnaud and Alexis Ducord, based on Paronnaud's comic. It premiered at Cannes and Annecy festivals, garnering positive reviews.
Shout! Studios has some cool projects, including its previous 2024 slate:
Shout! Studios plans a broad release for Into The Wonderwoods across theatrical, digital, and home entertainment platforms.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A feature debut that took over five years to make DJ Ahmet, a coming-of-age film set in a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia revolving around both love and music, is making its world premiere as part of Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Writer-director Georgi M. Unkovski came up with the idea during the screening run of his 2020 short film Sticker, which also premiered at Sundance. Check out the exclusive trailer for DJ Ahmet here.
Bollywood actor Boman Irani’s first directorial venture, The Mehta Boys has been given an official Prime Video streaming debut date after a successful festival run last year.
The family drama, which nabbed Best Feature Film at the 2024 Chicago South Asian Film Festival, explores the volatile dynamics between a father and son forced to spend 48 hours together.
The Hindi-language film (trailer) comes from Oscar-winning writer Alexander Dinelaris (wri. Birdman) and stars Irani himself in a performance that has garnered much critical acclaim in addition to his impressive directorial talent.
The Mehta Boys will be available across 240+ territories on Prime Video beginning on Feb. 7th.
After a little less than a year with Warner Bros. Discovery, Jose Maria Caro has just taken over Max in Spain’s scripted originals. The promotion comes after the streamer completed its European rollout back in June 2024, looking to “strengthen local language offering in Spain”.
Veteran producer and mogul Peter Chernin’s The North Road Company makes its first acquisition in Latin America with Perro Azul, a major Mexican production company. Perro Azul has produced Netflix’s (in Mexico and Latin America) most-watched show, Who Killed Sara? (¿Quién mató a Sara?)
Chernin is behind films like the female ensemble best picture nominated Hidden Figures (2016) and the docudrama Ford v Ferrari (2019).
This news of this deal comes shortly after North Road purchased Karga Seven Pictures (Midnight at the Pera Palace), Turkey’s leading film and TV producer.
ON THIS DAY
1940. The Grapes of Wrath, directed by John Ford and based on John Steinbeck's novel of the same name, starring Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell, is released.
That’s all for the week. See you Monday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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