CHICAS PRODUCTIONS

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. But in the last three years its economy has collapsed. Hunger has gripped the nation for years. Now, it’s killing people and animals that are dying of starvation. The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it!!! Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are also dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year. Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country - 7% of the population.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The Caribbean Targets a New Kind of Tourist: Film, TV Productions...

Caribbean film commissions band together to push for wider regional production

At least nine film commissioners from key Caribbean nations, including Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago, are teaming up to create an association to represent this multilingual region.

Members of the new org reason that while they may compete with each other for foreign location shoots, a more unified entity would give them more political clout, and allow for improved communication among participants, says Dominican Republic film commissioner Ellis Perez, who will attend AFM.

Jamaican film commish Kim Marie Spence calls the Caribbean a region with good resources, and adds that the association will lead to co-production opportunities and training for filmmakers and creatives. "With the inclusion of commissioners from the French-speaking and Spanish-speaking Caribbean, it opens up new markets and potential funding sources," she says.

That kind of multilingual support will be a boon to the region, in which 10 major languages are spoken, led by English, Spanish, French, Creole and Dutch. Trinidad and Tobago film commissioner Carla Foderingham points out that "once outside a language-specific market, we don't hear about each other's films."

A healthy local film industry is key before the region can attract more foreign shoots, while film production across the Caribbean has grown — in some cases, quite dramatically.

In the Dominican Republic, local pic production, spurred by incentives, has exploded from an average of four to five a year just two years ago to the current annual average of 15 to 20.

"Both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have seen approximately a 60% jump in production," says Zumaya Cordero of distribution/exhibition shingle Caribbean Cinemas, who notes a greater exchange of films between the region's two bigger islands.

"Comedy travels best," she says, adding that local filmmakers need to make more films with universal themes and less local slang to facilitate better inter-island distribution opportunities.

The Dominican Republic offers 25% transferable tax credits on local spending for features, TV and musicvideos with a minimum spend of $500,000.

The opening of Pinewood Indomina studios' 60,500-sq.-ft. horizon water tank and initial three soundstages in the country are also a boon. The first pic to use the new offshoot of Pinewood U.K. is a $1.5 million local comedy, Archie Lopez's "Lotoman 003," the fi nal installment of a trilogy.

Pinewood Indomina VP Albert Martinez adds that the studio is investing in local training initiatives. The first installment of "Lotoman" in 2011 was the biggest box office hit in the Caribbean, luring 650,000 admissions in the Dominican Republic alone.

Puerto Rico, which offers a 40% transferable tax credit on payments to local companies and individuals, as well as a 20% production tax credit on all non-resident qualifi ed spending both above and below the line, is the furthest advanced in luring foreign productions to its shores. Big series such as NBC's pirate-themed skein "Crossbones" and features such as "Reclaim" (Paradox Entertainment/Arclight) are shooting in the territory.

But local projects aren't ignored.

Though producer-helmer Javier Colon Rios' comedy "I Am a Director" fell far below the $100,000 minimum spending requirement to qualify for credits, after the fi lm became a hit, the government offered distribution help, which allowed the pic to run for seven weeks. Madrid-based Kevin Williams of KWA handles international sales on the pic at AFM, where he will also be selling a new catalog of English-language black Caribbean movies. Other local projects that are tapping Puerto Rico's tax credits and local film funds include "Fragmentos de Amor," a co-production with Colombia.

The association also may be able to boost the exhibition and distribution sectors in the region. Currently, its 60-plus film festivals are the primary distribution outlets for Caribbean pics.

One of the nations taking advantage of the fest circuit is Cuba, which does not belong to the association. Despite scant aid from its government, Cuban filmmakers have managed to produce a number of acclaimed films, including Carlos Lechuga's "Melaza," winner of the best feature award at the recent Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.

Trinidad's Damian Marcano took home three major awards at the fest, including the audience prize, for his gritty urban drama "God Loves the Fighter." Marcano's pic debut, which features non-actors and slick cinematography, tapped Trinidad's grant funding for marketing coin. The oil-rich nation offers up to 50% in cash rebates to foreign and local productions.

"We may not have the resources here for big-budget films, but digital photography has raised the production values of our films, leveling the playing field," says Foderingham.

Moreover, as production in the region grows, crews become more reliable. And with the various governments chipping in to incetivize, it won't be long before foreign producers start hitting the beach as well, and not just for a vacation.

Thank you Variety

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YouTube hopes to build on its strength by offering a subscription music service,

As YouTube prepares to launch its subscription music service by the end of the year, the digital music giant is seeking to capitalize on music fans' desire to have access to their favorite songs everywhere they go.

The company's free online video site already is the most popular on-demand music service in the world and has surpassed radio as the leading way teens and young adults listen to songs.

The new service, designed to give paying subscribers commercial-free access to music videos on their portable devices — as well as the ability to store videos and playlists on these gadgets — underscores the importance of smartphones and tablets to YouTube's future.

"Mobile is becoming absolutely enormous for YouTube," said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. "The fact is that music has always been a medium that most people are going to want to carry with them and have available at all times. When … you add the visual component of the music video, you're simply sweetening a pot."

YouTube executives have said about 40% of its viewing already happens on mobile devices. Indeed, more than 50.5 million Americans watched videos each month on their cellphones in the second quarter of the year, according to measurement firm Nielsen.

Music videos are among the most sought-after content for YouTube's 1 billion global users, with a popular song like Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" or Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" attracting hundreds of millions of views.

This has made YouTube the dominant online music site, dwarfing its few competitors.

"YouTube is the No. 1 music search directory in the world. The vast majority of the most-viewed videos on YouTube are music," said Richard Greenfield, a BTIG media analyst. "It's a natural evolution to figure out a way to generate increased engagement around music."

YouTube's mobile application lets smartphone or tablet users watch an unlimited number of music videos on these devices, so long as they are connected to the Internet. In some cases, this free mobile access is limited to the official version of the music video. The proposed subscription service, which could launch as soon as December, would allow the user to store, or "cache," these videos or an entire playlist on their devices and watch without the need of a wireless connection.

"Caching is what's critical to mobile," said longtime label executive Ted Cohen, who runs a digital media consulting firm. "Music services are easier to use in St. Louis than they are in New York City because they still haven't wired the subways with Wi-Fi."

A spokesman for YouTube said the Google Inc. unit had no news to announce, but added, "We're always working on new and better ways for people to enjoy YouTube content across all screens, and on giving partners more opportunities to reach their fans."

YouTube's entry in the music subscription business will raise the competitive stakes for such players as Spotify.

"This is a big game-changer for Spotify," Cohen said.

Subscription services are a modest but fast-growing segment of the music business, which in the United States derives more than half of its income from digital sources.

Revenue from subscription services such as Rhapsody and paid versions of Spotify, streaming radio services like Pandora and non-subscription streaming through YouTube and Vevo accounted for about $1 billion in 2012, or about 15% of domestic music sales of $7.1 billion, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

The YouTube subscription service also would integrate with Google Play Music All Access, which for $10 a month affords subscribers unlimited access to its music catalog, the ability to create personalized radio stations and recommendations based on an individual's taste, according to people with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly.

David Bakula, senior vice president of analytics for Nielsen, said the service would leverage YouTube's strength in digital music.

"Obviously YouTube understands the importance of the music consumer to their site," Bakula said. "The volume that we see coming from music streams on YouTube, that kind of volume comes with great potential, great potential for monetization, great potential for serving their viewers."

A premium music service would provide a source of recurring revenue for the music companies, which also receive proceeds from advertising associated with music videos on the site.

Evidence of YouTube's growing clout in the music industry will be on display at the inaugural YouTube Music Awards, to be held Nov. 3 in New York. The show is scheduled to feature appearances by such major acts as Avicii, M.I.A., Eminem and Lady Gaga.

Thank you Los Angeles Time

Web piracy: Sites in Russia, China, Ukraine, Canada top MPAA list...

Websites registered in China, Russia, Ukraine and Canada continue to dominate the list of "most notorious" markets for distributing pirated movies and TV shows, an industry report shows.

The survey, compiled by the Motion Picture Assn. of America at the request of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, ranked websites and other technologies used to distribute illegal copies of movies and TV show based on how much web traffic they generated, among other indicators.

The MPAA list includes peer-to-peer networks, Bit Torrent portals, infringing download and streaming hubs, linking websites and newsgroups, as well as physical markets located in the Ukraine, Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Ireland, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Mexico and India.

PHOTOS: Billion-dollar movie club

"The rogue overseas marketplaces highlighted in the filing undermine the people who work hard to create the movies and TV shows audiences love, and jeopardize the billions of dollars they contribute to the U.S. economy," Chris Dodd, chairman of the MPAA said in a statement. "The MPAA commends the USTR's commitment to protect and enforce intellectual property rights abroad and, in so doing, protect U.S. jobs."

Among the top sites identified in the survey were: Extratorrent.com in the Ukraine, which had 16.1 million unique visitors in August, including features highlighting "the most pirate movies" and "first cams," which are camcordings of movies showing in theaters; and Russia-based Rutracker.org, a BitTorrent portal launched in 2010 that is one of the world's most visited sites, with 11.7 million unique visitors in August.

Also on the list were two sites from Canada: Kickass.to, which changed names after U.S. authorities seized its previous domain; and Torrentz.eu, one of the most popular BitTorrent websites on the Internet, which had 45.5 million visitors in August.

China also two websites on the list: Xunlei.com, which features a high speed file sharing system that distributes unauthorized copies of movies and TV shows; and QVOD, or Kuaibo.com, widely used by Chinese rogues linking sites.

"The criminals who profit from the most notorious markets through the world threaten the very heart of our industry and in doing so threaten the livelihoods of the people who give it life," wrote the MPAA's Michael O'Leary, the report's author. "These markets are an immediate threat to legitimate commerce, impairing legitimate markets' viability and curbing U.S. competitiveness."

Thank you Los Angeles Times

Crowdfunding Sites Face Stricter Controls in U.K....

LONDON — Tighter rules governing crowd-funding platforms have been drafted in the U.K., which could hit indie pic financing.

U.K. financial regulator the Financial Conduct Authority has proposed a new regulatory regime for the platforms, which it intends to introduce in April.

It is proposed that a company operating a loan-based crowdfunding platform will need to be authorized to do so by the FCA, and so will incur extra expense and become subject to a significant number of new rules.

The changes will also hit platforms that use the investment model. The promotion of unlisted shares or debt securities will be tightly controlled. They will only be able to be offered to clients who: are certified sophisticated investors or high net worth investors; who confirm that they will receive regulated investment advice or investment management services from an FCA-authorized person; and who certify that they will not invest more than 10% of their net investible portfolio in unlisted shares or unlisted debt securities.

The new rules will also require operators of platforms to assess the suitability of investors who have not been provided with advice.

Law firm Harbottle & Lewis said Monday that if the draft rules are implemented, the need for loan-based crowdfunding platforms to be authorized by the FCA "will unavoidably increase the barriers to the market-place for operators and may mean that a number of the existing operators are not able to bear the increased costs of regulatory compliance. The changes will, however, mean that the `crowd' is better protected from platforms that fail."

The firm added: "The proposed rules that apply to investment-based platforms increase the regulatory burden on operators who will now be required to carry out more careful checks on those that invest through their platform. From the crowd's perspective, these rules will have the effect of making the process of investing more cumbersome and will restrict access to some."

The proposed rule changes will not impact platforms that follow the donation or reward model of crowdfunding, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. In these the crowd gives money to a company whose project or activities it wants to support, often in exchange for a reward, service or product.

Thank you Variety

4 DAYS At SMPTE And Showeast, Immersive Sound Standards Debate Continues

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers aims to "harmonize" two proposals: one based on Dolby Atmos and one on DTS' MDA.
The search is on for an unbiased chair to lead a new committee that is being formed by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, aimed at bringing some standards to object-based (also referred to as immersive) sound in cinema.

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That won't be an easy task as it seems most everyone has an opinion on this issue—which is being discussed this week both at the annual SMPTE conference in Hollywood, Calif. and the theater owners confab Showeast in Hollywood, Fla. But the European Broadcasting Union's Hans Hoffmann—who is the SMPTE board of directors' standards vp—told The Hollywood Reporter that he does have some candidates in mind and hopes to have a chair in place and a first meeting of the committee before the end of the year.
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The formation of the committee is a response to the immersive new sound systems that have been introduced to exhibitors—which is effectively a two-technology race between Dolby's Atmos and Barco's Auro 11.1, both of which represent a significant investment by their manufacturers.
The issue is that each system requires a separate mix and separate deliverable (the digital equivalent of a film print). So there's been a call for some standards as there are enough stakeholders hesitating to invest in either system until they know that their investment is protected.
SMPTE held a meeting for its various standards efforts in Munich last September, during which two object-based sound proposals were put forth: One is based on the Dolby Atmos system; and the other is DTS' Multi-Dimensional Audio (MDA), which is the option supported by Barco.
"We are creating a new working group to identify where there's harmonization between the proposals, with the aim of interoperability without constraining the innovation of manufacturers if possible," Hoffmann told THR. "We respect that there are different approaches, but when it comes to interoperability between sound systems, we should try to achieve harmonization that doesn't create a burden for users. That's the aim."
RELATED: Disney Exec Howard Lukk Details 'Hybrid 3D' Test Shoot
DTS vp Ton Kalker noted that one difference between the proposals is that the MDA content format is both open and royality-free. According to a Barco exec, MDA supporters include the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), QSC Audio Products and USL.
Dolby senior vp and Oscar winner Ioan Allen told THR that Dolby is open to standards to minimize stress on the industry, but warned that "you need to maintain some secret sauce, otherwise why would a company bother to invest in R&D."
Supporters of Dolby's proposal include Avid, Christie and digital cinema company GDC.
Hoffmann noted that while SMPTE's effort is aimed at cinema, it could have some impact on broadcast production and distribution.
DTS is separately recommending MDA as a standard in the broadcast chain, to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.

Thank you Variety

Theater Owners ‘Might Kill Movies...

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos launched a blistering attack on theater owners for stifling innovation, warning in a speech Saturday that they "might kill movies."

What's more, the exec called on the owners to allow big movies to open via Netflix day and date with their release in theaters, in his keynote (see full video here, and above) at the Film Independent Forum in Los Angeles.

Addressing the ill-fated premium VOD model, Sarandos said theater owners were the problem.

"Theater owners stifle this kind of innovation at every turn," he said. "The reason why we may enter this space and try to release some big movies ourselves this way, is because I'm concerned that as theater owners try to strangle innovation and distribution, not only are they going to kill theaters–they might kill movies."

Sarandos was alluding to exhibitors' resistance in previous years to any digital release of movies that would impinge on their own windows, as when Universal nearly changed the traditional distribution strategy for the 2011 movie "Tower Heist," only to back down after considerable pressure. Studios have since largely disavowed premium VOD, though smaller independent films have been released day-and-date with increasing frequency in recent years.

But he stopped short of criticizing the studios. "I don't blame the studios for what they're doing and I don't fault them, because the studios are always trying to innovate," he said.

Sarandos turned to statistics from this summer's box office, pointing out that though more movies with a budget of more than $75 million were released this summer than any summer before, theaters saw only a six percent lift in attendance.

Just days after indicating on Netflix's third-quarter earnings call his interest in getting into the movie Sarandos went a step further today when he suggested releasing "big movies" on Netflix the same day they appear in theaters.

"Why not premiere movies on Netflix the same day they're opening in theaters? And not little movies. There's a lot of people and a lot of ways to do that. But why not big movies?"

"Why not follow with the consumer's desire to watch things when they want, instead of spending tens of millions of dollars to advertise to people who may not live near a theater, and then make them wait for four or five months before they can even see it?" he added. "They're probably going to forget."

This comes after Monday's third quarter earning's call, where Sarandos, seeing the success of original series like "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black," said Netflix expects to double its original programming spending in 2014 and include original movies. Though he couldn't quantify how much original series helped boost business, he said "it definitely helped." Netflix currently has more than 31.1 million customers.

Sarandos also hinted plans at a third season of "House of Cards," which is currently in its last week of shooting season two

Thank you Variety

Event Films Are Cannibalizing Each Other...

Too many tentpoles, not enough training for storytellers, minion maestro tells VFX Summit
Paramount Dates ¡®Terminator¡¯ for Fourth of July Weekend 2015Illumination Entertainment CEO Chris Meledandri said Saturday that the feature film business has entered an unprecedented period of volatility and that it is losing ¡ª or has already lost ¡ª the next generation of potential moviegoers.

¡°Everybody¡¯s familar with the broad issues, wheether it¡¯s the continued contraction of the DVD marketplace, the disappointment in the domestic sustainability of audience interest in 3D. Things are coming at us from all sides,¡± Meledandri told the Visual Effects Society Summit in Hollywood. ¡°The thing I worry about the most is the competition for young eyeballs. We¡¯ve got so many other competing forms of media and entertainment and content.¡±

Meledandri cited his own experience with his sons, who are 14 and 23. ¡°I observe in them is a very different relationship to the cinema than I¡¯ve ever seen in previous generations. Simply put: They don¡¯t have to go to the movies. I worry about a generation growing up without that habitual commitment to the movie theater.¡±

One major issue facing the industry, he said, is the number of ¡°event¡± films being released. ¡°If you look at what¡¯s happening with animation right now, it¡¯s quite similar to what¡¯s happening with live action event films, which is the industry releases too many of them and there¡¯s not enough room for them. They¡¯re unquestionably going to cannibalize each other and we¡¯re starting to see that. As our films continue to aspire to be films that speak to all audiences, we¡¯re also competing against the live action event films.¡±

¡°Now more than ever as an industry we have to be diligent about doing things that will strengthen and further us rather than contributing to some of the problems we face.¡±
Meledandri, spoke in a keynote conversation at the W Hotel. Though Illumination¡¯s ¡°Despicable Me 2¡å is set to surpass $900 million at the box office, he said that he¡¯s never seen another period when it was so hard to project the future of the business. ¡°The only thing that¡¯s certain is we¡¯re in a period of uncertainty.¡± He said quality storytelling ¡°is our only safety net,¡± but noted that there is little formal training for storytellers within the feature business.

¡°Television is a writer-driven business,¡± he said. ¡°You have writers training other writers, having their work challenged by other writers. It¡¯s a natural evolutionary process, where the film business is a very solitary business for writers.¡± It took him 20 years, he said, including much trial and error and failures including ¡°Titan A.E.,¡± to feel confident about his own storytelling skills.
Meledandri ended by telling the gathering this era demands entrepreneurship. ¡°Even in this volatile period, or maybe because of this volatile period, I find it¡¯s a very exhilarating period, because we can¡¯t look backwards to chart our path forward. It doesn¡¯t work. And there¡¯s something very liberating about that.¡±

Thank you Variety

CinemaScore in Retreat as Studios Turn to PostTrak...

The upstart polling service from RenTrak and Screen Engine threatens a three-decade monopoly on grading Hollywood movies.

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This story first appeared in the Oct. 25 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
When the gritty drama Prisoners received a B+ CinemaScore on its opening night in September, the grade didn't make sense to Warner Bros. So the studio went back to the research firm, which for three decades has surveyed Friday moviegoers, and asked for a recount. By Sunday morning (and in time for media calls), Warner Bros. was reporting an A- CinemaScore.

The unprecedented redo irked rival studios and came at a critical juncture for CinemaScore, whose influential letter grades of moviegoer sentiment have been criticized for relying on outdated polling techniques and too limited a sample. Insiders say CinemaScore even apologized when box-office smash Gravity received an A-, saying it should have polled only 3D showings instead of a 2D-3D mix (Gravity is playing like an A+ movie).

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At the same time, box-office tracking service Rentrak and partner Screen Engine have been testing PostTrak, a real-time, in-theater polling service that begins at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon and runs through a film's second weekend. As Hollywood scrambles to assess moviegoers' shifting habits, PostTrak presents perhaps the biggest challenge ever to CinemaScore, which has been the industry standard for assessing a film's "playability," or whether word of mouth will help or hurt it. For instance, an A+ CinemaScore signaled that The Blind Side and The Help were headed for long and profitable runs. F scores are rare -- Brad Pitt's violent crime drama Killing Them Softly joined the club last year -- and, in fact, anything in the C range (sorry, Runner Runner) is considered failing (except for horror films).

Ed Mintz founded CinemaScore in 1979 and today runs the company with his son, Harold, out of their suburban Las Vegas home. Every Friday, they dispatch pollsters to about five theaters around the country. By 11 p.m., studio clients who pay between $30,000 and $50,000 for annual subscriptions receive a report listing the grade, along with a demographic breakdown by age and the main reason each moviegoer turned out.

PostTrak, by contrast, polls 20 theaters in diverse markets across the country. Rather than a grade, the service provides more detailed demo information, including an audience's ethnic breakdown. It also probes a film's marketing campaign and whether trailers, TV ads or social media helped lure someone to the theater. (Rentrak won't reveal the cost of a subscription.) Screen Engine's Kevin Goetz, who ran test screenings for years for the studios, is the architect of PostTrak.

PHOTOS: CinemaScore Flunkees: Brad Pitt's 'Killing Them Softly' and 7 Other Movies That Earned an F With Audiences

"That information is invaluable," says Paul Dergarabedian, who recently joined Rentrak as a box-office analyst. "A studio can be much more informed in terms of what kinds of movies they release and their marketing strategy. Just having a score and an age doesn't tell you much."
Mintz says he isn't worried. "We are a studio company. I know PostTrak exists, but that's it," he tells THR. "I can't compare it to CinemaScore."

Rentrak and Screen Engine are coy about which studios have signed on, but one known client is The Weinstein Co. Insiders say 20th Century Fox, Universal and Sony aren't far behind, if they haven't subscribed already. And sources say Universal quietly dropped CinemaScore last year.
One distribution exec complains that CinemaScore is outdated. "The methodology hasn't changed in years and the sampling is too small. They are sort of yesterday's news," he says. "PostTrak is far superior and a much more thorough product."

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But longtime Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman disagrees: "It gives you good direction on how your movie is playing, and to whom. For years, we've been doing our own research, and it is very close to CinemaScore results." Chris Aronson, distribution head of 20th Century Fox, says CinemaScore remains a valuable poll, but adds that PostTrak is "looking great. The market size is four times bigger, and it gives a very thorough snapshot."
Most studios could end up using both services, but Rentrak's Steve Buck cautions, "Without this, a studio is flying blind."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Female Arab Directors Are Breaking Out of Region...

Film funds and fests help women put their dreams onscreen

Saudi Arabia, a country that still forbids its women citizens to drive, has submitted its first-ever feature film for Academy Award consideration: "Wadjda," a critically acclaimed triumph from female Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour.

Pic, which follows a 10-year-old girl in Riyadh who dreams of owning a bicycle, is not just Saudi Arabia's first stab at Oscar. It is the first full-length film ever made in the desert kingdom, which has no movie theaters and no production infrastructure to speak of. The movie's success, says Al-Mansour, is a sign that Saudi Arabia's mores are shifting.

"Saudi is such a closed place, and a lot of people don't know much about it. And now it's opening a bit," she says.

The upward trajectory of female filmmakers in this region has been startling, with Middle Eastern women trouncing gender stereotypes and making films despite hurdles including minimal funding, poor education and heaps of homegrown skepticism. Several femme-helmed pics have become film festival darlings, and Al-Mansour's Oscar hopeful follows those of Israel's Rama Burstein and the Palestinian territories' Annemarie Jacir, both of whom had their films selected to represent their countries at the 85th Academy Awards; Lebanon's Nadine Labaki, whose "Where Do We Go Now?" was tapped for Lebanon the year before; and Afghanistan's Sonia Nassery Cole, who helmed "The Black Tulip," her nation's submission for the 83rd Academy Awards.

And if you follow the money, success is undeniable: From the Sanad grant of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which offers half a million dollars' worth of support to helmers from the Arab world, to the deep pockets of the Doha Film Institute, which has followed the lead of Qatar's Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned to bolster the women directors of their region, femme helmers have more resources, and more friends in high places, than ever before.

Labaki, one of Variety's 10 Directors to Watch in 2008 and Lebanon's most successful film director, says when you grow up in the Middle East and want to make movies, you are going to struggle regardless of gender.

"Lebanon is such a small country, with no film industry, that's been at war for a very long time," she says. "We grow up feeling that nothing great will ever happen to us because we are almost nonexistent compared to the other countries of the world."

Labaki's childhood, which coincided with the 15-year Lebanese Civil War, was marked by intermittent power outages and routinely canceled school days. She coped by hoarding videos and refusing to move from the TV whenever there was electricity.

Her first film, "Caramel," in which she also starred, premiered at Cannes and was a commercial success, grossing $14 million worldwide.

The experience, she says, has inspired other young Lebanese to follow suit. "I became an emblem for the country and the young people who dream of making films," she says. "It showed that other success stories could happen."

Motivation is on the rise among Middle Eastern women, says Labaki, because they have realized that not only can they make films, but they can make a difference in the process.

"Films coming from women in the Middle East are not just stories," she says. "It's also their cry for help."

And for Al-Mansour, female filmmakers are also building connections in a region that is known to many only by its borders. Among the women directors she admires, she says, is Burstein — an ultra-Orthodox Jew from Israel, a country with which Saudi Arabia has no diplomatic relations.

Thank you Variety

MGM Signs Up for Producers Guild Certification...

MGM has come on board the Producers Guild of America's film credits certification process — giving the guild another victory in its longstanding campaign to curb excessive credits.

The announcement comes three months after Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros. signed on to the voluntary PGA process and a year and a half after the Weinstein Co. agreed to use of the Producers Mark — a lower-case "p.g.a." after a certified producer's name — on its Prohibition-era drama "Lawless" when it screened at Cannes.

Fox, Sony and Universal signed off on agreements a year ago, with the condition that they could drop out of the program if a fourth studio did not come on board within two years.

There are more than 60 films with the mark, including "Furious 6," "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," "Silver Linings Playbook," "The Lone Ranger," "Rise of Guardians," "The Croods," "The Purge," "Monsters University," "White House Down" and the upcoming "Saving Mr. Banks" and "47 Ronin."

"One of the Producers Guild's primary goals is to ensure that producers are recognized for their work – MGM's adoption of the Producers Mark is another gratifying achievement for the Guild," said PGA co-presidents Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch. "All major studios have adopted the p.g.a. certification process and by continuing to secure agreements with distribution companies and independent producers across the industry, the Producers Mark is steadily becoming the standard."

The PGA is touting the Producers Mark as certifying authenticity, not membership. "A producer need not be a member of the PGA to be eligible for certification, only to have performed a majority of the producing duties on a given film," it noted.

The PGA, which has 5,700 members, unveiled the Producers Mark concept in October 2010 with 144 notable producers endorsing the idea in order to protect the integrity of the role of producer. To receive it, a producer's work must be vetted and certified through the PGA's arbitration process; the mark is only given to producers who request it.

The PGA's Code of Credits spells out the qualifications for those eligible to receive the "produced by" credit for features and executive producer credit for TV. The code attaches specific weights to producer functions — 35% for development, 20% for pre-production, 20% for production and 25% for post-production and marketing — and includes job descriptions, guidelines and rules intended to help resolve credit disputes and protect the integrity of the "produced by" credit in features and exec producer credit in TV.

The PGA code requires that a person must have had substantial involvement adding up to a majority of those functions to qualify for the PGA credit. Leaders of the guild have emphasized that the PGA's mark does not govern who can receive a "produced by" credit on a pic with studios and distributors remain free to assign that credit to whomever they wish.

Reining in the volume of producer credits has been the PGA's signature issue since the 1998 Oscar ceremony, where five producers were credited for best-picture winner "Shakespeare in Love." The org held its first credit arbitration in 2001, promulgated a Code of Credits in 2004, and gained traction in 2005 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced that the PGA's credit determination process would be the one it uses as a guideline on best picture nominations.

Thank you Variety

Study Suggests Studios Aren’t Offering Enough Online Legal Options to Counter Mo

Adding to a growing body of competing data on who bears the blame for rampant online infringement, two George Mason U scholars unveiled a website that claims that few of the most pirated movies are even available online legally.

Shorter windows would help counter piracy, the authors say, though theater owners are unlikely to agree with changing windows substantially in the near future.

The site — piracydata.org — shows that of the top 10 most pirated movies in the past week, none are available for streaming, three were available for digital rental and six were available for digital purchase. The authors of the study, Jerry Brito and Eli Dourado from GMU's Mercatus Center and developer Matt Sherman, relied on data from TorrentFreak and Can I Stream It. The top pirated movie, "Pacific Rim," was available only for digital purchase, their study showed.

The study showed that over the past three weeks, 53% of the most pirated movies have been available legally in some digital form. In the same period, only 25% have been available for rental or streaming, and 0% have been available on a legal streaming service.

Brito said that he decided to do the study after the MPAA unveiled a study several weeks ago showing that search engines like Google lead users to infringing movies and TV shows. At a congressional hearing, Cary Sherman, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Assn. of America, urged more voluntary agreements between search engines and the content industry to try to curb piracy.

Brito wrote in a blog post that "while there is no way to draw causality between the fact that these movies are not available legally and that they are the most pirated, it does highlight that while the MPAA is asking Google to take voluntary action to change search results, it may well be within the movie studio's power to change those results by taking voluntary action themselves. That is, they could make more movies available online and sooner, perhaps by collapsing the theatrical release window."

Yet the MPAA challenged some of the figures as well as the premise, pointing out the availability of movies like "This Is the End" on Vudu, Google Play, Sony Entertainment Network, iTunes and Amazon. The Piracydata.org figure was corrected, but it also lists "Pacific Rim" for digital purchase but not rental or streaming. Yet it is available on YouTube movies which, depending on how you look at it, is a streaming service as well as a digital rental and purchase service.

"More than half of the films they cite are in fact available to stream or download, including films they claim are not," said an MPAA spokeswoman. "And if a film is not available for stream or purchase at a given moment, it still does not justify stealing it from the creators and makers who worked hard to make it."

The MPAA offers its own tool to find legal movie options online, wheretowatch.org, but it is not a search tool for titles, but simply a listing of online providers like iTunes, Vudu and Amazon.

The movie "Elysium" is not going to be made available on iTunes until late November, according to the site, and on Blu-ray and Ultraviolet in December. But it was available for illegal streaming shortly after its August release, yet studios risk the ire of theater owners if they offer legal downloads of movies during their runs at the multiplex.

Britto acknowledged first-day glitches on his site in a lengthy blog post, and noted that data is being updated as movies become available.

"One thing is for certain: the dataset that we are proposing to build is important," he wrote. "We have provoked quite a reaction from people on both sides of this issue. We acknowledge that it has been a bumpy launch for our site, but we are committed to getting it right."

The site, glitches or not, is another instance of the back-and-forth between the content and tech policy communities in Washington over who is responsible for online infringement. A few weeks ago, the MPAA unveiled a study showing that search engines like Google play a major role in introducing audiences to pirated content via their search results. Yet Google and the trade group the Internet Assn. have for some time said that the greater availability of legal online alternatives will alleviate problems with piracy. That seems to be the premise behind the Piracydata.org site. Google provides support to the Mercatus Center.

The MPAA has promoted the availability of more movie and TV content online, but it also suggests that that alone won't solve the problems with piracy. The org noted that "The Walking Dead" was pirated 500,000 times within 16 hours despite the fact that it was available to stream for free over the next 27 days on AMC's website and distributed in 125 countries around the world after it aired.

"Our industry is working hard to bring content to audiences when they want it, where they want it, but content theft is a complex problem that requires comprehensive voluntary solutions from all stakeholders involved," the MPAA spokeswoman said.

Thank you Variety

Comcast and Twitter create new feature to watch TV...

Comcast Corp. has struck a partnership with Twitter to try to capitalize on the huge volume of social media conversations that occur about TV shows.

Twitter has turned out to be a digital water cooler with thousands of people around the country simultaneously engaging in real-time conversations on Twitter about favorite television shows or sporting events as they unfold.

Media companies, including Comcast, have been scurrying to find ways to channel these conversations that occur on the so-called "second screen" into more viewers for their television programming.

ON LOCATION: Where the cameras roll

The partnership between the two companies, announced Wednesday, will allow Comcast cable Xfinity customers to access NBC TV shows, including "The Voice," "Blacklist," "Chicago Fire," movies and sporting events, including "Sunday Night Football," directly from a Twitter message.

The company has developed a new feature, which it calls "See It," that is designed to funnel its Comcast customers who use Twitter to the show with a click of a button.

"Comcast is taking a leap forward in social TV by enabling Twitter users to more easily find and view the shows they want to watch and discover new shows," Brian Roberts, chief executive of Comcast, said in a prepared statement. "Twitter complements the live viewing experience and is an ideal partner for Comcast and NBCUniversal."

The new feature is expected to roll out in November for shows that run on NBCUniversal networks. The company's wanted to have the new feature running before NBC's broadcast of the Winter Olympics in February.

Here is how it will work: The See It button will enable a menu of options, including allowing viewers to tune into the television live, set their DVR to record the show or queue it up through the Comcast On Demand feature on their set-top box. They will also have the ability to tune in to a show online or on their mobile device.

The Philadelphia-based cable giant said the relationship with Twitter also includes advertising opportunities for its wholly owned media company, NBCUniversal. It plans to embed sponsored video clips into tweets to promote its TV shows.

"Twitter is where television viewers come to talk about what they're watching on TV when they're watching it," Dick Costolo, chief executive of Twitter said. "With See It, they'll be able to tune in directly from a tweet. It's a great example of Comcast's leadership in bringing TV to new platforms."

Thank you Los Angeles Times