International Insider: Creator Economics At MIPCOM; Daniel Day-Lewis Charms LFF; Ceasefire Reaction

Welcome once again, Insiders. More big TV and film news this week from the likes of Cannes market MIPCOM and the London Film Festival. Jesse Whittock here with the rundown. Off we go. Sign up to the newsletter here.

Creator Economics At MIPCOM

MIP, MIP, hooray: International TV’s biggest industry event, MIPCOM Cannes, ran this week, bringing thousands of executives, creatives and talent together. Ten-thousand, six-hundred, in fact, according to MIPCOM organizer RX France. (Fair to say, with many companies taking reduced contingents to the market, several execs we spoke with struggled to buy that figure). The new kids in town were the hundreds from the creator economy and brand-funded worlds who made the trip to the south of France, with the likes of YouTube star Dhar Mann and After Party Studios making the biggest splashes and YouTube, home to most of them, visibly present around the Palais des Festivals as a major sponsor and presence. MIPCOM boss Lucy Smith called the 2025 edition “the biggest shift in a generation.” How traditional TV makers can work with a video economy that has grown without them was the big question, and we saw the likes of Banijay, Fremantle and BBC Studios strike deals with creators and YouTube as they attempt to answer. Banijay had a bit of mad one – along with striking major deals for Richard Gadd’s upcoming BBC drama Half Man, as we revealed on Wednesday, it also bought into Dutch creator group Werktitel and… launched a professional soccer team with a group of social media stars. More traditional TV stars were also at the market, as Deadline hosted an on-stage Q&A with Matthew Macfadyen, O-T Fagbenle and Sian Clifford for a Sunday screening of Peacock series The Miniature Wife, while Turkey’s Özge Özpirinçci and Sliah Bademci were actually whisked from Cannes to Venice by private jet for a premiere of Global Agency’s drama series A Mother’s Oath. Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride charmed an audience on Tuesday as they talked about the journey of their Walking Dead characters, Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier, over the past 15 years. Elsewhere, there was the usual late-night chatter about M&A and the future of entertainment, and we hosted a reception with the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday night. More insights on the market, including why despite all the noise the market remains centrally a trading space, can be found here.

Daniel’s Day At LFF

Turning back the clock on ‘My Left Foot’: The London Film Festival ends this Sunday, and the event has passed by with a familiar level of star power and glitz. The headline event this week was undoubtedly the return of Daniel Day-Lewis, who took part in a career Q&A session with veteran UK critic Mark Kermode. The three-time Oscar winner covered a lot of ground, including a particularly interesting aside about work on Jim Sheridan’s 1989 feature My Left Foot, in which Day-Lewis plays Irish writer and painter Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy and only had control of his left foot. Day-Lewis said he certainly would “not be able to make that film” today, and at the time, his performance as a person with cerebral palsy was “already questionable.” He had prepped for the role with the help of young disabled people from a clinic in Dublin. “They made it clear to me that they didn’t think I should be doing it,” Day-Lewis said of the people he met at the clinic. Elsewhere this week, the BFI and Chanel announced the recipients of their 2025 Filmmaker awards. The winners were Harry Lighton of Pillion fame, The Neurocultures Collective, along with artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood, who together created the hybrid feature The Stimming Pool, and writer-director Sandhya Suri, maker of Santosh. We had a brief sit-down with Suri at the event, where she discussed the continued censorship of Santosh in India, where the film is set. Read that here and check back with us on Sunday to see who takes the festival’s top prizes.

Ceasefire Reaction

“A very emotional day”: It’s been an emotional week in the Middle East after the Trump Administration brokered a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, with hostage release exchanges at the center of the plan. Addressing Israeli politicians at the Knesset, Trump said it was “the historic dawn of a new Middle East.” The film world was soon responding, as the world waits to see if the ceasefire holds. Jerusalem-born Black Swan actress Natalie Portman, speaking at the Lumière Festival in France, called it a “very emotional day” as 20 Israeli hostages were released over two years after they were taken on October 7, 2023. Israeli director Tom Shoval, whose longtime friend David Cunio was among the 20 living hostages, said he would change the ending of his recent doc A Letter to David to reflect the end of Cunio’s captivity during an emotional interview with Melanie. Our docs editor, Matt Carey, then heard from Brandon and Lance Kramer, who talked about their Berlin Film Festival prize-winning doc Holding Liat, which followed the American-Israeli couple Yehuda and Chaya Beinin, whose daughter, Liat Beinin Atzili, had been taken. The interview for our For The Love Of Docs screenings series is a powerful watch. We hope a lasting peace can be found between Israel and Palestine amid the many challenges ahead for the two sides.

Jimmy’s ‘SNL’ Advice

“This is the prize”: Besides whose bodily functions are making headlines in Celebrity Traitors, there isn’t a bigger story in British unscripted TV right now than what is happening with SNL UK. We’ve written plenty about it already, and as the Sky series draws nearer to announcing its cast and writers, anticipation builds. While interviewing Jimmy Fallon for the cover story in our MIPCOM print issue, Stewart had the smarts to ask the late-night host and SNL alum about how British comic talents should approach the show if they are hired. Fallon’s wise advice: “Don’t think about the next move, or if you are going to be a movie star from this,” he said. “Don’t treat it as a launching pad, treat it as the end game. This is the prize: Saturday Night Live UK.” The UK has a dreadful record in remaking American comedies, but cross all fingers, find a four-leaf clover, carry a rabbit’s foot or whatever else you do for luck, as everyone is hoping this one doesn’t crash and burn.

The Story Of ‘Shaka’

King and conqueror: In August, Deadline revealed that South Africa’s biggest-ever TV production, Shaka iLembe, had been renewed for a third and final season. The story sparked a huge response, and for our MIPCOM special magazine, we went deep into the show’s history and production process. Shaka iLembe follows King Shaka, the Zulu military and political leader who has become one of Africa’s most enduring historical figures. The only thing is, most of that history has been written by folk who came from other continents and MultiChoice’s series was an attempt to paint the real picture. I spoke with director Angus Gibson, producer Desiree Markgraaff and exec producer and star Nomzamo Mbatha about how it had all come together and what it has come to mean for Africans. The downside to the story is, despite its huge local success, no-one has bought it internationally. As Gibson told, us, “We need some courageous broadcasters.”

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: Sky is set to adapt Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle’s debut novel, Meantime, as a TV series.

🌶️ Another One: Warner Bros Discovery and CJ ENM will make K-dramas for the HBO Max services in 17 Asian markets.

🔥 A third: Anna Friel will star in a last-chance saloon medical interns drama series, The F Ward, for Stan, with CBS Studios and Roadshow Rough Diamond co-producing.

🫂 Fwends reunited: The Inbetweeners is returning, though no word yet if Will, Jay Simon and Neil will be back in TV series or film capacity.

🥊 Coulda seen a Contender: Check out the movie showcase on our newly launched Contenders London streaming site.

💨 Toot toot: An unexpected fart was the talk of the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors this week, as the UK reality show hit big overnight ratings this week.

🤝 Deal in place: Canal+ struck an agreement for a minority stake in famous French movie chain UGC, and announced plans for a secondary listing in Johannesburg.

🎥 Trailers: For the Will Sharpe-starring Sky limited series Amadeus and HBO Max’s Dangerous Liaisons retelling The Seduction.

International Insider was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Stewart Clarke. Zac Ntim contributed.