Good afternoon subscribers, Max Goldbart here taking you through the week the Oscar noms landed and global events led to protest from within the industry. Read on, and please do sign up here.
Oscar Noms Have International Flavor
Historic hauls: International titles felt dominant yesterday afternoon as the 98th Oscar nominations were announced, led by historic hauls from Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent. Sentimental Value clocked nine nominations, trailing only the record-breaking Sinners, One Battle After Another, Frankenstein, and Marty Supreme. In a sign of the Norwegian film’s popularity with the Academy, Trier landed a Best Director nomination, edging out three-time Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein. The record for most nominations for an international title is 13, currently held by Emilia Perez, although we all remember how that one turned out. Stellan Skarsgård landed a surprise Best Supporting Actor nomination, making him the first actor starring in a non-English-language film to be nominated in the category. Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning (Breaking Baz’s words on her are over here), and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas also received acting nominations. Wagner Moura became the first Brazilian actor to receive an Oscar nomination, for The Secret Agent. Through Lilleaas, Reinsve, Skarsgård and Moura, this year marks a new record of four Oscar-nominated performances not in the English language, while The Secret Agent also landed a Best Picture nomination alongside Sentimental Value (Parasite remains a beacon as the only non-English language film to win both International Feature Film and Best Picture). With The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value booming through awards season, the Cannes Film Festival can once again reaffirm its position as the premier launchpad for international titles.
Industry Protests Iran
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“Deep sense of moral responsibility”: The behavior of the firebrand American President over Greenland, the Chagos Islands and (insert latest target here) pushed Iran slightly down the global news agenda this week, but that doesn’t mean the protests now estimated to have left thousands and thousands of people dead have abated. From our corner of the world, Mel broke this agenda-setting story detailing how 800 movie professionals had issued a statement decrying the Iranian government’s killing of its people, with big names including Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard and Yorgos Lanthimos communicating “anger, grief and a deep sense of moral responsibility.” One of the many dead was filmmaker Javad Ganji, who died participating in protests and whose death the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association believes was incorrectly reported by the government. The body says the government manipulated the facts around the death. The Iranian film industry has long punched above its weight (Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident garnered two Oscar noms, including for Original Screenplay) and there is genuine anger from Hollywood and beyond over the state of things. Trump and Iran have since been exchanging threats, and the coming days could see escalation.
Microdrama‘s New Wave
A macro look at micro: The image above gives you a solid flavor of where we are in the microdrama landscape, but what’s intriguing is all of the work going on behind the scenes. This week, we brought you a vision of the new wave – the companies mostly in Europe that are forging the next generation of microdrama apps, platforms and content. We don’t need to tell you that the vertical video industry is set to generate billions of dollars a year for years to come, but we can give you a window into what these companies are up to. While in the U.S. the likes of Fox, Cineverse and Access Entertainment are getting involved in the nascent space, tech outfits like Ukraine’s Holywater are lighting things up in Europe. Holywater just raised a whopping $22M in a funding round and wants to create “Netflix for mobile phones.” Elsewhere, Israel’s AppReel is “extending the boundaries” of the vertical video genre and Germany’s Black Forest Studios has a show about “the life of an aristocratic German-American patchwork family in a castle.” Read on for far more insight.
The Essentials
🌶️ Hot One: Robert Eggers’ Werwulf has cast Bodhi Rae Breathnach, the Irish-English actress who made her feature debut in Hamnet.
🌶️ Another One: A reboot of British sci-fi classic Blake’s 7 is in the works with The Last of Us director Peter Hoar.
🌶️ A third: Prime Video’s Der Tiger has become the streamer’s most watched original German film of all time.
🎬 In Q4 results week, Netflix went slate mad, unveiling shows in Italy, Korea, Turkey, MENA, Poland and Mexico.
🗣️ The Interview: For the week’s must-read Deadline feature, Zac spoke to the son and grandchild of pioneering Black filmmaker William Greaves abut his unreleased opus.
🧑⚖️ In court: Prince Harry, Liz Hurley and Elton John attended their privacy case against the Daily Mail’s publisher. Harry said the tabloid made Meghan Markle’s life a “misery.”
🌎 Save the planet: A first-of-its-kind survey delving into what creatives and industry pros think about climate storytelling is now live.
🤝 Done deal: Berlin’s Drive Beta has joined forces with Rosebank Entertainment.
🏆 Awards latest: Away from the Oscars, Daniel Day-Lewis was securing a nom at the Irish Film & Television Awards.
🏕️ Fest latest: Berlinale unveiled a buzzy 2026 competition with Amy Adams-starrer At the Sea and Sandra Hüller’s Rose.
🍿 Box Office: The Lord of the Rings trilogy’s quarter century re-issue soared to $11M worldwide.
🎥 Trail: For Dust, Anke Blondé’s Belgian drama about a pair of tech visionaries.
International Insider was written by Max Goldbart. Zac Ntim contributed and Jesse Whittock edited.