Realscreen Mar/Apr 2022

MAR/APR 2022

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CONTENTS

MARCH + APRIL 2022 9 FIRST LOOK

The push for better accountability and authenticity in doc-making; Bruce David Klein on prepping premium content

16 STREAMING REPORT

Execs from emerging streaming services sound off on cutting through the clutter

20 FORMATS FOCUS

Format producers and distributors on the trends that will drive business for the near future

25 MIPTV PICKS 31 GLOBAL 100

Our picks to click for this year’s spring market

The cream of the crop in non-fiction and unscripted production, selected with industry input

42 THE FINAL CUT

How the team at Cream Productions achieved its first carbon-neutral year

MAR/APR 2022

Biologist and filmmaker Patrick Aryee hosts Evolve, one of our MIPTV Picks.

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003

On

the one hand, it seems inconceivable. Yet, on the other, it feels utterly predictable.

We have spent the better part of the past two years battling what has seemed to be an enemy outside of ourselves, in the form of a novel virus with origins that are still proving evasive to determine. Yet, as the tide of that tumult seems to be turning and some form of “normalcy” appears to beckon on the horizon, it is we homo sapiens who feel compelled to wrench defeat from the jaws of victory, and plunge ourselves back into the abyss of bloody conflict and nuclear dread.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a stark and horrific reminder of the damage we are more than willing to inflict upon ourselves as a species in the name of power. And even though many of us, when commenting on our collective slide from COVID-19 to Cold War 2.0, have been lamenting the loss of this supposed “normalcy” that was supposedly hovering in the distance, the sad truth is that in many parts of the world, “normal” is really nothing to celebrate, and it hasn’t been for a long time.

So what does all of this have to do with non-fiction and unscripted entertainment? Well, everything and nothing.

We are already seeing how many of the major players in the entertainment industry are reacting to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with scores of network groups, production companies, distributors and publishers (including Realscreen parent company Brunico Communications Ltd.) suspending their business dealings with Russia. Many international territories are dropping carriage of state-owned broadcaster RT and other Russian state media, and for those of us venturing to assorted industry conferences in the immediate future, odds are there will be no Russian delegates taking meetings.

But business will continue. Even though it may at times seem like the equivalent of fiddling while Rome burns, projects will be pitched, commissioned and acquired, and the entertainment engine will purr along regardless of any bumps in the road ahead. Perhaps that is how it should be. As we have seen over the last two years, entertainment can be the great leveler, and even if we can’t seem to get it together and eschew factionalism to unite and tackle a common foe that threatens all of humanity equally, well, at least millions of us can put those differences aside for the duration of the Masked Singer finale.

Ultimately, it will be interesting to see how the storytellers in this industry, and those who fund and air their stories, react to this situation as it unfolds.

As Howard Zinn once wrote, “What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.” The buzzword that was repeated among network executives when it came to content in the COVID era was “escapism.” And when the enemy was a faceless pathogen, a seemingly invisible threat, escaping its shadow even for an hour or two each night through entertainment was a godsend.

But when the enemy is ourselves, how far can we run?

EDITOR’S NOTE

TV in a dangerous time March + April 2022 Volume 25, Issue 3

Realscreen is published 4 times a year by Brunico Communications Ltd., 100- 366 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 1R9 Tel. 416-408-2300 Fax 416-408-0870 www.realscreen.com

SVP & Publisher Claire Macdonald cmacdonald@brunico.com Content Director & Editor-in-Chief Barry Walsh bwalsh@brunico.com Art Director Mark Lacoursiere mlacoursiere@brunico.com Associate Editor Andrew Tracy atracy@brunico.com News Editor Andrew Jeffrey ajeffrey@brunico.com Senior Staff Writer Justin Anderson janderson@brunico.com Contributors Patrick Cameron, Matthew Daley, Bruce David Klein, Angelica Siegel Conference Producer Jennifer Fitzgerald jfitzgerald@brunico.com Associate Publisher Joel Pinto jpinto@brunico.com Senior Account Manager Kristen Skinner kskinner@brunico.com Marketing & Publishing Coordinator Suhail Sawant ssawant@brunico.com

CORPORATE

President & CEO Russell Goldstein rgoldstein@brunico.com EVP, Canadian Media Brands & Editorial Director Mary Maddever mmaddever@brunico.com Director, Finance and Administration Michelle Plaskon mplaskon@brunico.com Creative Services & Distribution Manager Adriana Ortiz aortiz@brunico.com Manager, Customer Experience Christine McNalley cmcnalley@brunico.com All letters sent to Realscreen or its editors are assumed intended for publication. Realscreen invites editorial comment, but accepts no responsibility for its loss or destruction, howsoever arising, while in its office or in transit. All material to be returned must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher.

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Be well, Barry Walsh Content director & editor-in-chief Realscreen

005

A LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Escaping reality

UPCOMING ADVERTISING & SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

May/June 2022 Editorial features include: • The Reality Report • Archive/ Production Music Features • Doc Focus • Fresh Talent Focus Bonus distribution: • Realscreen Summit • BANFF World Media Festival • Sunny Side of the Doc (Digital) • Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) • Sheffield Doc Fest • Edinburgh International TV Festival (Digital) Booking deadline: May 2, 2022 Digital advertising: Daily newsletter and realscreen.com Contact Realscreen sales: For information on any of these opportunities, or if you’re interested in sponsorship or private meeting space at Realscreen Summit, e-mail us at sales@ realscreen.com or call 416-408-1376

W

hen I enrolled in journalism school in the mid-’80s (I know, I’m getting up there), my dream was to be an international war correspondent, reporting from the front lines of armed conflicts around the world. I wanted to be known for sharing truths about the injustices that millions of our fellow humans contend with every day of their lives. Having grown up in war-ravaged Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), I was acutely aware of the lack of international attention to and comprehension of the situation, and wanted to help change that.

However, as fate would have it, the most violent conflict I ever witnessed in my career as a journalist was an on-ice scuffle between a couple of junior hockey players, while I was enjoying a short-lived stint as a sports reporter at a community newspaper in Western Canada. (I was reassigned after a flood of letters to the editor asked for me to be removed, as I had taken it upon myself to pontificate on why fighting had no place in hockey.)

Today, as Ukraine is subjected to the atrocities of the Russian invasion, my former bravado about the pursuit of journalistic truth at any cost seems to have vanished. I simply cannot bring myself to watch the horrors unfolding on the news and social media, to witness the suffering and depravity of this war. And I also cannot dwell on the possibilities that might await if Putin is provoked.

This does not mean I am ignorant of or oblivious to the reality that is unfolding before us all; rather, I’m just choosing to cope with it in a different way than I might have in prior decades.

This controlled avoidance comes out of self-preservation, I think. After two long years of living in fear of catching a potentially deadly virus, and all of the associated vicissitudes and mind games that accompanied that, I think we’ve all earned the right to deal with other troubling world situations in the ways we think will best safeguard our personal mental health.

Thankfully, there is an abundance of programming available across genres and devices with which to temporarily escape from the brutal realities of life in so many parts of our planet. As an enormous and important part of that mix, unscripted and non-fiction content can both help us find those havens through entertaining or inspirational stories, and also — if we so choose — help us better understand the historic and contemporary horrors that are besetting our world.

‘Til next time, go well, Claire Macdonald SVP & Publisher Realscreen

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FIRST LOOK

THE

‘HOW’

AND THE

A controversial doc premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival has thrust a hot-button topic of discussion to the forefront for the doc-making industry: how to effectively and sensitively engage with and depict the communities you’re documenting.

‘WHO’

By Andrew Tracy

IN PURSUIT OF PREMIUM

By Bruce David Klein

14

009

FIRST LOOK

“T

hat title is like a signpost that this film is not for us,” says filmmaker Marjan Safinia, speaking to Realscreen about one of the more notable — and unfortunate — stories to come out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The title in question is Jihad Rehab, which premiered in the festival’s U.S. Documentary Competition. Directed by first-time feature director Meg Smaker, the doc goes inside the Mohammad Bin Naif Counseling and Care Center in Saudi Arabia — a sort of halfway house where former detainees from Guantanamo Bay are Safinia sent to be “deradicalized” — and focuses on several Yemeni men who, having spent more than a decade in U.S. custody, are now ostensibly seeking to “graduate” from the center and be reintegrated into society. In the problems. But as Safinia and other critics of the film noted in press surrounding the documentary, Smaker framed conversation with Realscreen, that title, with its synonymization her film as a challenge to both of the Islamic concept of “jihad” with U.S. government policy, which terrorism, casts into stark relief questions subjected detainees to years of about authorship and accountability that unlawful imprisonment in a facility are coming ever more to the fore in the that became notorious for practices non-fiction field — questions about who ...[It’s] more a series of torture and sexual abuse, and can tell certain stories, how they tell them, of microaggressions, more broadly to post-9/11 American and, indeed, what kind of stories can cultural attitudes that have labelled be told in the current landscape of film or a general people like her subjects as monsters. funding, development, and exhibition. dismissal — the However, shortly after Jihad Rehab’s “It’s not like Jihad Rehab is the only film idea that Western Sundance premiere, a contingent of [like this] that has elicited this kind of loosely affiliated filmmakers from reaction,” notes documentarian and film audiences are not Muslim and MENASA communities critic Farihah Zaman. Still, she says it typically interested — some of whom say they had serves as a powerful example “to expose in [other kinds of] previously raised concerns about the what, typically, is more a series of film with Smaker when their projects microaggressions, or a general dismissal stories about Muslim were in the same development labs — the idea that Western audiences people, because they — took to social media and, more are not typically interested in [other don’t feel dramatic recently, to select publications via an kinds of] stories about Muslim people, open letter, to strongly criticize it on because they don’t feel dramatic enough, or don’t a number of points. Chief among enough or interesting enough, or don’t fall into certain these were what they argued was the fall into certain categories.” categories.” film’s unquestioning, and implicitly “I’ve been working for a number of Islamophobic, framing of its subjects years now on a film about an Arab as “terrorists,” as seen via the use of novelist in exile in the U.S., and when “rap sheets” to introduce them; unanswered questions I’ve been talking with U.S. funders, there’s a moment when I about the degree to which the men willingly consented realize they are trying to figure out how my film fits into [the to participate in the film, given that they were ensconced template of] either a refugee story or a persecution story,” in an at the very least semi-carceral institution; and the says filmmaker Malika Zouhali-Worrall, who contends that potential risks to their lives and communities by way of Smaker’s film fits into a particular mold of filmmaking about their participation, whether or not it was coerced.

MENASA subjects that has been given inordinate prominence In comparison to these urgent, possibly life-or-death in North America, in which those subjects are painted as concerns, Jihad Rehab’s title may seem like the least of its simply victims or villains. “And it’s been fascinating to see them

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the feedback and judgment of the participants into their production practices; and recognize that Even people who are telling potential harm arising from their stories from within their own choices can be visited as much upon the viewers who are members of the experience can create harm communities depicted as upon those if they’re not considering the directly involved in the filming. way in which they’re engaging “Whenever there is a terror attack, Childress what immediately happens is that with that community.” there are memos that are sent from mosques and Islamic organizations try to comprehend cautioning visibly Muslim people, or those perceived to be Muslim, that this is a much to be careful,” says DAWG member Dr. Kameelah Rashad. In this more nuanced, interior, context, a film like Jihad Rehab — which, Rashad argues, appears psychological story — to presume the guilt of its subjects even as it strives to “humanize” which is usually a kind them — feeds into that charged climate of latent Islamophobia, and of story that is reserved perhaps even more potently because of its prestigious platform. for a very particular “A person can watch this kind of film and think, ‘Oh, this was at demographic.”

Sundance, so this must be true’ — it gives it a legitimacy that is Of course, given directly impactful, in a negative way.” that 2021 marked the It’s in ways such as this that representations on screen can tie directly 20th anniversary of the “War on Terror,” narratives about what that into lived reality, many of the interviewees contend. “I’ve been racially global campaign has wrought remain highly pertinent for Muslim profiled at French airports, at U.S. airports, interrogated at length. and MENASA communities. Even so, the critics of Jihad Rehab And it’s the same for every single person I know with an Arab name,” stress that their anger does not derive from a belief that those says Zouhali-Worrall. “These are ways in which [representation] literally stories are exclusively theirs to tell. “To be clear, you could not be affects our daily lives … So it’s not just about, ‘Are we getting [the Muslim and make a film of this nature [that] chance] to make films about our community.’ furthers the goal to ‘humanize the Other,’ and It’s about safety and harm for the people in that didn’t offend a whole raft of people,” offers the film and people who are of our origins.”

Safinia. “Nobody is saying that ‘only a Muslim should have made this film.’”

A person can “We don’t get into debates about ‘It’s not your watch [a film] story to tell,’ or ‘Only people from this experience can tell stories about this experience,’ because I and think, ‘Oh, don’t think that’s a value that we hold,” concurs this was at Sonya Childress, who spoke to Realscreen along Rashad Sundance, so this with her colleagues from the Documentary Accountability Working Group (DAWG). “We must be true.” understand that incredible nuance and insight can come from [a filmmaker] who is not telling a story from their personal experience. So we’re not stopping at the ‘who,’ we’re talking about the how. Because even people who are telling stories from within their own experience can create harm if they’re not considering the values, the lens, the way in which they’re engaging with that community.”

Inspired by ever more frequent debates about these issues, DAWG formed in 2020 with the object of providing filmmakers with greater clarity about participant consent and the harm that can result from “extractive filmmaking” — what Childress and Natalie Bullock Brown, writing in Documentary, define as “filmmakers who parachute in and out of peoples’ lives during a crisis in an effort to produce dramatic or impactful entertainment.” To that end, the group devised a set of “core values for ethical and accountable non-fiction filmmaking” that encourage filmmakers to consider their positionality in regards to the stories they want to tell; incorporate 012

MARCH / APRIL ‘22

FIRST LOOK

“[in this conversation],” says filmmaker Senain Kheshgi. “Who are the people who are curating and funding and making these decisions, and maybe not asking these questions [about accountability], instead of bringing in people who might be able to tell you, at an earlier stage, that something might be problematic — things they can flag because of their experiences?”

DAWG, for its part, is now seeking to promulgate the core values it prescribes for filmmakers within What we’re trying institutional spheres as well. Group members Molly to say is, check Murphy (Working Films) and Sherry Simpson yourself: check (ITVS) note that both of their organizations have instituted initiatives that seek to incorporate those what you do, check same principles of self-reflection and participant with others who collaboration into the stages of funding and might have more development. “This is taking the responsibility and For her part, Smaker countered criticisms the accountability upon ourselves: if we’re going experience in this during a virtual Q&A following Jihad Rehab’s to be funding [filmmakers] to go out there and do than you do.”

Sundance premiere, saying that the film never this work, what does it mean in terms of the impact stated that the subjects were guilty of any it will have on the communities where we’re finding crimes, and that the “rap sheet”-styled title cards were intended to these stories?” says Simpson. “I really think we need to be doing this work “simply list what the U.S. government detained them for.” Still, in the up front, not after the fact — not when a film gets to a festival.” wake of the online backlash Fork Films, one of Jihad Rehab’s backers, At the festival level as well, the interviewees stressed that relatively confirmed that it has withdrawn its involvement from the film; two simple measures, once made a normal part of institutional workflow, senior staffers at the Sundance Institute tendered their resignations can help to identify films with potentially problematic content. “I would over the festival’s decision to program it; and Sundance Institute CEO say start by Googling. Literally,” laughs Zouhali-Worrall. “Just have Joana Vicente and festival head Tabitha Jackson were ultimately a protocol where you research the filmmaker, research the subject moved to issue a lengthy statement in which they profess that they are matter, research the people in [the film] if you can just to see what’s “deeply sorry” that the screening of the film “[has] hurt members of our been done before, whether there’s existing press [on this subject] community” (referring to the fact that many of the protest organizers that has a different point of view.” And while greater diversity within and participants are Sundance alumni themselves). decision-making bodies is an essential part of incorporating those As this recent controversy demonstrates, the consequences of different points of view, “that’s not the only solution,” says Kheshgi. authorship — the how of it, not just the who — can reverberate “What we’re trying to say is, check yourself: check what you do, and across the entire infrastructure of the check with others who might have more non-fiction film industry. Looked at experience in this [subject] than you do in this light, guidelines for ethical and — it doesn’t matter what the topic is.” equitable filmmaking are, fundamentally, Zaman adds that, while there a question of best practices — and not have been suggestions floated only for the filmmakers themselves. “We that only people with knowledge also need to talk about gatekeepers of a community should be able to program films about that community, “filmmakers, critics and funders who are people of color or come from underserved communities don’t want that. You don’t want to be ghettoized This is taking the and only be allowed to talk about the responsibility and things that you specifically know and the accountability that come from your background.

“But if you are responsible for upon ourselves... legitimating those images from artists, We need to be then there has to be a basic level of accountability. And also, when mistakes doing this work are made, what is your process to up front, not after navigate that? And if the answer is the fact.”

Simpson nothing, no response, then that’s not good enough.”

Kheshgi

013

INPURSUIT OFPREMIUM

By Bruce David Klein

A 014

few years back, Realscreen invited me to participate in one of their year-end roundups — a Q&A focusing on industry trends. One of the prompts was something like, “What is the buzzword you don’t want to hear next year?”

My answer: premium. At that time, as the future landscape of unscripted content — let alone the medium of TV itself — was still wildly evolving, the word seemed like yet another trendy, amorphous catchphrase conjured up by us industry folk to help bring

descriptive order to the natural chaos of the marketplace.

But, as it turned out, “premium” had legs. These days, so-called premium content is a crucial part of the conversation, and for many producers who grew up in the cost-effective trenches of the basic cable industry — and for those just coming up — it’s an enticing opportunity. But there are some caveats.

Of course, the reason why premium is a magic word these days is not mysterious.

Over the last few years, as streaming took over the industry, the push to greenlight content that felt “elevated” and “important,” or content that made subscribers feel like they were getting their money’s worth, was greatly accelerated.

Yes, people watch people and stories and not production values, and yet, programs that feel more “meaningful”, “unique” and “essential” have

become more important than ever. Just think of the cultural buzz when projects such as Tiger King, The Last Dance and Finding Neverland dropped. It’s no surprise, then, that deeply developed (often costly) concepts, A-list star attachments, and loftier production values have migrated from the domain of pay cable and the wellfinanced streamers to the wish list of every buyer. While costeffective, repeatable series may always be in demand, these days they aren’t necessarily the best way to drive subscriptions and limit churn.

Since savvy producers are always bobbing and weaving in response to the marketplace, it makes sense that many producers who grew up in the world of basic cable are making a concerted effort to develop premium content. The allure is too great: more generous budgets, longer

feature doc Icahn: The Restless Billionaire, which premiered last month on HBO, took almost three years to develop — a lot of it spent convincing a notoriously tenacious billionaire to keep shooting with us. But in the end, taking the time to get a challenging subject to genuinely open up on camera was the production value. The cinematic shots, fancy graphics, and original score were all additive, but those bells and whistles would have been meaningless had we not had the time to build the trust with, and access to, our subject.

Here are a few other things we, and many of our producer friends, have discovered on the road to premium: You should work with new people. Many production companies have their trusty core team, which has served them well for many years producing cable fare. Premium is a different game, often

requiring different talents drawn from different talent pools.

You can never do enough research. You need to go deep and obsess over your subject to an insane degree. I always say that by the time you are editing you should know enough about your subject to be able to write a comprehensive 400-page book about it without referring to any notes.

Time is of the essence. Many producers have been trained over the years to be wonderfully efficient with time, specifically with super-tight schedules. It is just a fact that, sometimes, premium projects require the opposite: a slow simmer — enough time to allow the material to cook perfectly.

Enjoy going down the rabbit holes. It’s not just about making things look higher-end. It’s an approach to storytelling — a mentality — that celebrates going deeper, enjoying

the rabbit holes, and celebrating the surprises.

The good news is that when all the pieces come together — the deep research, the extraordinary access, the complex story, the beautiful production values — you can sit back, watch, and enjoy a project that has that unique, hand-crafted, “artisan” feel. And for the industry at large, there’s no doubt the pursuit of premium has inspired a range of quirky passion projects — and new voices — that will continue to fuel the evolution of what we used to call television.

FIRST LOOK

production schedules, greater perceived prestige. And yet, as many have found out, making the transition from a basic cable world to a premium world is not always seamless.

A few years back, we at Atlas Media found ourselves spending more and more of our time going back to our roots in premium feature documentaries.

Some of our feature docs started as passion projects, like Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, which premiered at the New York Film Festival and in theaters before it found a home on Netflix, and Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead, a true crime feature doc that traveled from film festivals and theaters to MSNBC. A key theme connecting our premium feature docs is that they were all allowed to percolate for a while before they were ready to even soft-pitch... no quick decks and sizzles here. Our

Bruce David Klein is the president & executive producer at New York-headquartered Atlas Media, as well as the writer/director of the HBO doc Icahn: The Restless Billionaire. John Smithson’s “Pointed Arrow” column will return in our May/June issue. =015

www.autentic-distribution.com

STREAMING REPORT

CUTTING THROUGH THE CLUTTER

By Andrew Jeffrey

In 2020, the number of subscriptions to online video streaming services surpassed one billion. An increasing number of these services are factual content-focused offerings. Here, execs from some of these emerging platforms discuss the current landscape, and non-fiction’s place in it.

As

the streaming business booms with increasingly more names entering the fray, the industry’s build-up reminds Documentary+ head of development Justin Lacob of the mid-2000s, when it seemed like conglomerates were launching cable networks almost weekly.

The difference today, Lacob says, is that modern technology makes the barrier to entry a lot lower.

“The quality [of the offering] and the speed can be a lot higher, because the access to technology allows us to turn these things on very quickly, [and to] do deals and get the content up quickly for consumers to watch,” Lacob says.

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It’s a very crowded marketplace, though.

Major names are still entering the field with new platforms, such as Paramount+, which launched in March 2021, and CNN+, which debuted this spring. Meanwhile, giants such as Netflix and Amazon still take up a large share of the market.

Amid the fierce competition, it can be difficult for newer SVOD and AVOD services to break through. But what’s worked for Documentary+ that can be applied to other platforms, Lacob says, is finding a niche and expanding out as needed.

QUALITY COUNTS Documentary+, a joint AVOD venture between non-fiction studio XTR and late entrepreneur Tony Hsieh, launched in 2021 with a focus on premium documentary films and series. The platform’s niche is docs with a strong directorial point of view.

Charlie Sextro, Documentary+’s editor-inchief, says not overwhelming the platform with content is key. Instead, his team ensures that there’s a high bar of quality to their selections, which will entice distributors who know their content will be surrounded by a carefully curated library of strong titles.

“In the AVOD space, we need to be something reliable and available to the audience, and consistent in that,” Sextro says.

MagellanTV, meanwhile, has differentiated itself from volume suppliers like Netflix by focusing on specific nonfiction genres such as science, history, wildlife and, more recently, true crime.

“There is such an ocean of content out there for the consumer that you have to find a way to communicate some unique quality about yourself,” MagellanTV co-founder

Greg Diefenbach says. “[There’s] making sure the identity of the product connects with what your particular audience is interested in.

Beyond that, there’s [the] pressure of, how do you get in front of that audience?”

ADAPTABILITY & ACCESSIBILITY The original conception of a platform’s identity can change too. Diefenbach says there’s a push and pull, as the product is driven by a team’s passion when it launches and is crafted to reflect their interests. But after launch, he says, platforms must be attuned to what the audience is looking for and adjust accordingly.

This can mean opening up to new areas. Sextro says that Documentary+ is currently working on late-night non-fiction content for its audience, after its team noticed how many viewers were watching the service in the middle of the night.

Apart from content, emerging streaming platforms also have to be very concerned with access and availability. MagellanTV and Documentary+ have both tried to reach a wide variety of platforms, including web and mobile apps, FAST channels, Roku, Samsung TV, Vizio and more.

Ecoflix is available on several of these platforms too, but this new service otherwise goes against the streaming grain in its mission.

The streamer, which was created in partnership with NGOs and focuses on environmental and wildlife titles, operates as a nonprofit, with part of the funds from its subscriptions put towards the ecological campaigns it supports.

David Casselman, who spearheaded the platform’s launch last year, says the nonprofit model is one that few other streaming platforms are likely to

pursue. But Ecoflix still faces a hurdle that is common to many other streamers: Casselman points out that most consumers will look to major platforms like Netflix or Disney+ first, followed by niche streamers from betterknown companies. So if you’re a specialty channel, he says, at best you’re likely fighting to be the fourth or fifth platform individual consumers will watch.

“If you’re going to rely on subscription dollars, that might be a bad notion. It’s just very difficult to expect people who have four other paid channel divisions ahead of you to find you in the morass that’s out there,” Casselman observes.

“So it’s somehow going to be necessary to distinguish yourself … by saying something that reaches their heart more than their wallet, because their wallet is the lagging indicator you’ve reached their heart.”

Jonathan Miller, director of the arthouse streaming service Ovid, agrees that competing against the major players in the streaming business can be difficult, even when you have a well-defined niche.

Ovid launched in 2019 as a collaborative project by six founding content partners to create a streaming market for independent and alternative films. While the platform received some initial buzz and media attention, Miller says that has dwindled over time, especially as more high-profile players have launched streaming sites.

The service has nevertheless grown, as Ovid now has 40 companies supplying it with content, allowing it to offer more variety and depth in its library. Also, the independent/ arthouse documentary space is an area that is currently without a lot of competition from other streamers, Miller notes. (While

Ovid does not offer exclusively non-fiction content, roughly 1,100 out of the 1,400 films on the service are documentaries).

Still, the challenges streamers face to even be profitable gives Miller doubt about how much room there is for more streaming platforms to launch.

“People will start [platforms] because people will want to do interesting projects, and they may have some money or content lying around,” he comments. “But the obstacles to being financially successful that we’ve learned about since we started trying to do this are pretty substantial.”

Still, challenge and opportunity can sometimes arrive hand-in-hand. Lacob says Documentary+’s availability on various platforms has helped accelerate its growth, with FAST channels becoming a major catalyst. He adds that he’s bullish about AVOD being the future for the streaming industry, as it doesn’t cost as much for viewers to access.

“People are also tired of paying for all these individual services, they’re tired of paying even for DirecTV and other cable outlets.

AVOD and FAST and this whole universe allows people to not sign up for anything, to watch for free and sit back,” Lacob says.

Looking ahead, MagellanTV’s Diefenbach predicts the streaming industry is mid-cycle, with a lot of opportunity for platforms still to emerge. He says a time will come when there’s more consolidation, but there is still room for the streaming ecosystem to expand.

In the meantime, he expects platforms will soon have to think more about engaging viewers and building community, which includes thinking differently about their product. That nimbleness is already necessary, Diefenbach says, and it’s a real

challenge for companies when it comes to keeping up with audience expectations around technology and availability.

“The technology is changing so quickly, and the expectations of the consumer about how well that technology [works], how easy it is to move across devices, [are so] high that companies like us, we have to move really fast and reinvent and reprogram and redesign at all times to keep up with that,” Diefenbach says. “It’s a huge challenge, and a huge investment.”

Diefenbach

Lacob

Miller

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JUNE 6-9, 2022 • LAGUNA CLIFFS MARRIOTT RESORT & SPA

The definitive global market and conference for the business of unscripted and non-fiction entertainment.

AGENDA IS NOW live OUR ADVISORY BOARD

Cori Abraham

SVP, Development, Documentary & Crime NBCUniversal Television & Streaming

Mioshi Hill President Sirens Media

Brie Miranda Bryant

Rachel Job

SVP, Non-Scripted Content All3Media International

Brian Speiser

International TV & Media Agent ICM Partners

David Collins

SVP, Original Programming Lifetime

Samuel Kissous President Pernel Media

Brian Tannenbaum Head of Alternative Originals Roku

Leslie Farrell

Co-Founder & Executive Producer Scout Productions

Partner & Executive Producer Lauren Grace Media

Jane Latman President HGTV

Ellen Windemuth CEO WaterBear Network

Kate Harrison President Cream Productions

Madison Merritt

EVP, Unscripted Content & Alternative Programming Jesse Collins Entertainment

CJ Yu

Head of Unscripted Development, Global Formats Amazon Studios

Nick Smith

EVP, Formats All3Media International

Andrew Zimmern

Principal/Executive Producer Intuitive Content

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FORMAT FOCUS

THE FORMATS FORECAST

By Barry Walsh

The unscripted formats business remains in fine health even with the production issues posed by the ongoing pandemic, as more buyers vie for cost-effective yet buzzworthy entertainment.

But challenges created by the “new normal” will lead to new ways of creating, producing and selling formats. Here, we’ve assembled a roundtable of experts in the field to give their takes on trends to watch for in the near future.

ABOVE (left to right): JULIAN CURTIS, ED LOUWERSE, Co-founders, Lineup Industries JENNIFER EBELL, SVP, EMEA Sales, Endeavor Content TIM GERHARTZ, President & Managing Director, Red Arrow Studios International PHIL GURIN, President/CEO, The Gurin Company; Co-chair, FRAPA ANA LANGENBERG, SVP, Format Sales & Production, NBCUniversal Formats LYNN LUGSDEN, SVP, Sales & Content Funding, Flame Distribution

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PG

We will continue to see all genres of unscripted content flourish across an ever-changing array of platforms. Formatted reality, entertainment and game will continue to grow, as many of the GEGs (Global Entertainment Giants) continue to increase their thirst for fresh content and IP ownership. We may find shows shrinking in duration as the attention span of consumers continues to shrink. And as every GEG competes for your eyeballs’ free time, live, immediate and perhaps even more interactive content will grow.

JC/EL

We’re seeing the further rise of family entertainment and co-viewing — another trend augmented by COVID lockdowns, but which we believe is here to stay. Game shows are a great example of this: lockdown saw sales of board games rise exponentially, and more recently we’ve seen the success of brain teasers such as Wordle, so television formats will continue to reflect this appetite for “brain food” on screen. In a similar way, travel and community or familybased formats which feature escapism are high on the agenda. While news and boundary-pushing dramas grab the headlines, audiences often want to switch off from that type of show and be entertained in a family-friendly or warm, more familiar way, so travel or aspirational talent shows will continue to be in demand.

JE

TG

TG

JE

I expect one of the biggest trends we’ll see is a growth in branded formats based on existing IP. In the right situation, having built-in funding and brand recognition can be a win-win for all parties, including broadcasters, producers and IP owners alike. Additionally, many global streamers are heavily investing in the nonscripted space; we’re seeing them increasingly looking for great formats that will resonate internationally and still bring a local feel for audiences.

I expect we’ll see an increasing demand for multi-platform formats that serve the needs of both traditional linear channels as well as VOD platforms. Commissioners used to seek out formats that would be ideal for the traditional linear slots, but now they are looking for shows that will simultaneously add value and draw viewers to their catch-up and VOD platforms.

As such, we’re seeing companies looking for properties that can become channel-defining and draw viewers across all their platforms. This means they are really seeking out those loud, edgy and surprising formats that have the potential to expand into different spin-offs, specials and new versions and can grow over many years, but still surprise viewers with every season.

AL

We’re seeing continued demand for local-language content: content that is created by local talent, both in front and behind the camera, with local sensibilities for local audiences. Broadcasters, networks and SVODs are hungry for IP that can be adapted in new ways to reflect their markets.

FORMATS FOCUS

What will be the biggest overall trend for the formats business for the year ahead, and maybe beyond?

Which sub-genres will flourish in the near future, and which will contract?

Over the next couple of years I expect reality content with a social purpose, that is also positive and lifeaffirming, will play a vital role in making many of the issues raised during the pandemic digestible for audiences. We’re seeing this in action already with ABC Australia commissioning Old People’s Home for Teenagers — the first spin-off to Old People’s Home for 4-Year-Olds — which tackles one of the key topics from the pandemic head on: the issue of elderly social isolation and how we care for this vulnerable group.

I think it’s more an issue of what genres will be able to cut through the noise in the formats space — for example, with big, shiny-floor formats there’s only so many that are able to break through, and this happens with less regularity, maybe every few years. As commissioners are less risk-averse, they are not necessarily investing in bold new ideas without an existing track record, but they still want those noisy water-cooler shows.

LL

There will always be a place for large entertainment formats; however, with productions such as The Masked Singer they’ve shown there’s a need for formats whereby the focus is purely on entertaining the audience, rather than trying to target their emotions and engulf them within the story of creating the next star. There will always be the constant staple of dating, food and makeover formats; however, the focus will be on how to make the stakes higher and how to intensify the jeopardy. Social experiments appear to have a more cyclical lifespan, and with the immense changes that are occurring in the world it’s inevitable that we’ll see formats that have been influenced by these changes, as they also have the capability of working to much cheaper budgets than the big entertainment shows.

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FORMATS FOCUS

How will new technological advances in production (AI, virtual audiences, virtual sets, etc.) impact the formats business in general, and your slate in particular, over the next couple of years?

PG

In order to not look like a poorly dubbed film from 50 years ago, the technology will continue to improve. However, will the appetite for the fakery sustain, or is it just the next flashy object of the moment? And while I hope audiences will yearn for more authentic entertainment experiences, technology is moving so fast that it will sadly be harder to know what and who is/are real. Sigh.

AL

The impact of the pandemic, and the urgency of needing to be more sustainable, means production hubs will become increasingly more important. For example, creating glossy, shinyfloor sets for big entertainment shows and subsequently tearing them down isn’t necessarily environmentally friendly or cost-effective. We’re increasingly looking at ways of creating production hubs that can be used by international buyers for shows we sell around the world.

TG

Once a creator or producer develops a great show where technology and a strong editorial angle work together seamlessly, it will be a big hit. But as of yet, we haven’t seen this happen.

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What’s the biggest issue facing the formats industry now?

PG

The formats business is always flourishing and always in crisis.

Flourishing, because of the depth of demand and the appetite from viewers for both new and familiar; crisis, due to blatant thievery and a sense that some companies can simply get away with copying someone else’s hardearned creativity. As a global community, the best way to ensure success for all and to maintain the value of libraries and intellectual property is to respect the business, respect origination and ownership, and respect one another.

JC/EL

How formats fit into the content plans of the global SVODs is still unclear, but it’s an area that still has much potential. While there has been much discussion on the topic, and a few formats such as Queer Eye have been made for SVOD, it doesn’t feel like the formats industry has yet identified how to work with the streamers in any meaningful way.

LL

One issue, possibly intensified by the pandemic, is a tendency by some broadcasters to use the same producers, particularly for the bigger entertainment formats.

Whilst understandable as the budgets are high, and therefore the risk is higher, we are perhaps missing out on more creative and unique concepts.

The partnering of smaller producers, or producers moving into a new genre with more experienced producers, should be encouraged to give new ideas better opportunities.

AL

COVID-19 has impacted budgets around the world, and this has naturally had a knock-on effect on production and margins. Finding creative ways to maintain high production values while being sensitive to budget constraints is a continued challenge for producers.

See who’s coming to the mountains in June!

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MIPTV PICKS

MIPTV PICKS ‘22

At press time, buyers and distributors of screen content were preparing for returning to Cannes for the first inperson MIPTV conference since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. If this year’s submissions to our annual MIPTV Picks feature are anything to go by, business should be brisk.

Here, we’ve assembled a plethora of picks from a cross-section of non-fiction and unscripted genres, ranging from sumptuously shot natural history to thought-provoking current affairs and many points between, for your consideration as you cruise the Croisette.

BEST IN SHOW

BEST IN SHOW

BEST IN SHOW

RIOTSVILLE U.S.A. Sierra Pettengill’s fascinating and chilling archival documentary is built upon a foundation of found surrealism: 1960s government footage of U.S. Army crowd-control training in false-front towns, where soldiers dressed up as “hippies” and “outside agitators” play out urban-unrest scenarios inspired by the authorities’ skewed vision of upheavals like the Watts rebellion. From here, the film spirals outward to show how these officially sanctioned fantasies became violent reality in Miami during the 1968 Republican convention, as guns, tanks and tear gas were turned on African American protestors. Beyond its inescapable timeliness, Riotsville, U.S.A. brilliantly details the step-bystep process by which the delusions and wishes of those in power are made into a reality that the remaining 99% of humanity must unwillingly inhabit — but it also reminds us that there remains an actual world outside of that fabrication, one where resistance and possibility can, however precariously, endure. Andrew Tracy

Partners: Field of Vision in association with Canal & the Gallery, Arch + Bow Films, Trailer 9, XRM Media and LinLay Productions; distributed by Dogwoof Length: 91 minutes Premiered: Sundance 2022 Rights available: Worldwide excluding North America

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MIPTV PICKS

EVOLVE Nature has always had much to teach us, and even as we become a more technologically advanced species, that hasn’t changed. In this six-part series, biologist Patrick Aryee takes us on an action- and information-packed voyage that explores how humanity can solve many of the fundamental issues it faces by “mimicking” innovations found in nature. From healthcare to transportation and numerous other areas, and with the help of cutting-edge CGI, Aryee and assorted experts showcase what these naturally inspired innovations might look like in our world of the future. Barry Walsh

Partners: Beach House Pictures for CuriosityStream in association with Blue Ant Media; distributed by Abacus Media Rights Length: 6 x 60 Premiered: January 2022 Rights available: Contact Abacus Media Rights

ABRAHAM LINCOLN The History Channel’s “mega-doc” about the 18th president, adapted from historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Leadership: In Turbulent Times, follows the successful template of the broadcaster’s previous event series Washington and Grant: interviews with experts and commentators interspersed between handsomely mounted historical re-enactments. What is most welcome in this treatment of perhaps the most hagiographized U.S. president is how it places Lincoln’s evolving views on race and slavery front and center — to the extent of according his foil, the legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass, his own independent narrative strand within the series. By regarding Lincoln as very much a work-in-progress, the series crafts a credible portrait of him as a man both of and ahead of his time. AT

Partners: RadicalMedia for A+E Networks; distributed by A+E Networks Length: 3 x 150 minutes Premiered: February 2022 Rights available: All rights worldwide

CHERNOBYL: THE NEW EVIDENCE On April 26, 1986, a nuclear power plant near the town of Pripyat in northern Ukraine became a global focal point when one of its reactors exploded, unleashing unprecedented levels of radioactive fallout that is still impacting individuals and communities more than 35 years later. Over the course of two parts, this timely program brings to light revelations from hundreds of declassified KGB documents, and features interviews with rescue workers on the scene and other survivors of one of modern history’s more horrific events. BW

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Partners: Blink Films; distributed

by PBS International Length: 2 x 47 minutes Airing: TBD Rights available: All rights worldwide

MIPTV PICKS

HINDENBURG: THE COVER-UP The German dirigible Hindenburg was touted as the future of air travel, but its fiery crash in a New Jersey naval air station put the push for airships on ice. Remarkably, out of 97 passengers, 62 survived. But what was truly behind the crash that turned what was the largest aircraft ever flown at that time into a massive fireball? This project, featuring engrossing archival content, reveals new theories behind the event, pointing towards a possible transcontinental cover-up. BW

Partners: AMS Pictures; distributed by BossaNova Media Length: 2 x 60 minutes Airing: TBD Rights available: Worldwide

Getty Images, courtesy of BossaNova

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: THE SECRET HISTORY This four-parter uses cutting-edge technology to examine the secret pathways, communities and outposts that provided refuge to Freedom Seekers during the days of American slavery.

Narrated by actor-director Clark Johnson (Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire), the series also features interviews with the descendants of Freedom Seekers as well as archaeologists, historians and academics who highlight the ingenious methods that the Underground Railroad fugitives used to reach freedom. Justin Anderson

Partners: Attraction for Science Channel; distributed by Beyond Rights Length: 4 x 60 minutes Premiered: February 2022 Rights available: Worldwide excluding the U.S.

KALAHARI, LAND OF SECRET ALLIANCES With temperatures that range from 45 degrees Celsius in the peak of summer to minus 15 Celsius in winter, the Kalahari desert can be an extremely challenging environment. Yet it is also home to an incredibly diverse range of animal species, from the humble meerkat to the majestic elephant. This two-episode series, directed by Pierre Stine, showcases how the various living creatures within the Kalahari’s ecosystem collaborate, and sometimes clash, under the savanna’s sweltering sky. BW

Partners: Zed & Patrick Morris for France Télévisions, Love Nature, Servus TV & Ushuaïa TV; distributed by Zed Length/volume: 2 x 52 minutes; 90-minute & 52-minute versions available Premiered: November 2021 Rights available: All rights worldwide

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MIPTV PICKS

GREENHOUSE Designer and zero waste advocate Joost Bakker has made sustainable living a priority in both his personal life and his business ambitions, and the creation of the Future Food System — a two-bedroom residence made entirely of sustainable materials — is the latest step forward in that crusade. Packed with aquaponics, solar power, micro-farms, a charcoal tank and rooftop garden, the climate-friendly complex also, upon its completion last year, housed two celeb chefs, Matt Stone and Jo Barrett, who pledged to reside in the “greenhouse” for a few months to live and work in this modern urban farm, and create cool menus with the aid of vertical veggie gardens and mushroom walls. An inspiring look at a possible future, through the eyes of a visionary. BW

Partners: Goodthing Productions; distributed

by Off the Fence Length/volume: 1 x 60 minutes; 1 x 90 minutes Airing: TBD Rights available: Worldwide, excluding Australia and New Zealand

OCEAN’S GREATEST FEAST You’ve heard of the chicken run (thanks to the wonderful animated film of the same name), and perhaps you know of the salmon run… but are you familiar with the annual sardine run? Well, courtesy of this immersive deep dive into one of the wonders of the watery world, you — and your viewers — can catch a breathtaking glimpse of what is the biggest biomass migration on the planet, with billions of tiny fish converging on the South African coast for reasons that remain mysterious. BW

Partners: Produced by Earth Touch, a coproduction between Love Nature and The WNET Group (for PBS ‘Nature’); additional commissioning partners: Bonne Pioche Television (for France Télévisions) and SVT; distributed by Blue Ant International Length/volume: 1 x 50 minutes Airing: Love Nature, PBS ‘Nature,’ Sky Nature (UK, Italy, Germany), France Télévisions, SVT Rights available: All rights outside of coproduction territories

STACEY DOOLEY: STALKERS Stacey Dooley’s latest investigative doc embeds the British journalist in the anti-stalking unit of the Cheshire police force, where she gets a sobering look at just how many women have been and/or continue to be stalked by their ex-partners (or even complete strangers). Stalkers not only attests to the psychological and, sometimes, physical harm that stalking can have on its victims, but also attempts to shed light on the viewpoint of the perpetrators. AT

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Partners: ScreenDog Productions; distributed by Orange Smarty Length/volume: 1 x 60 minutes; 1 x 90 minutes Premiered: January 2022, BBC 1/BBC3 Rights available: Worldwide, excluding UK and Eire: all TV rights, on-demand rights, format rights and clip rights; worldwide: non-theatrical rights and DVD rights

From Top Gear to The Grand Tour, Richard Hammond has racked up significant mileage in the automotive factual arena, and his selfeffacing approach to presenting, combined with his sheer, unbridled passion for cars, makes him an audience favorite. In this series, viewers follow Hammond as he speeds forward in a new direction: establishing his own auto restoration outfit. From neglected hidden gems in need of a little TLC (and a paint job) to top-of-the-line rides, Hammond and his partners take on the challenges not only of tough restoration jobs, but also running a business.BW

Partners: Chimp Productions and Krempelwood; distributed by Cineflix Rights

MIPTV PICKS

RICHARD HAMMOND’S WORKSHOP

Length/volume: 6 x 60 minutes Premiered: October 2021, Discovery+ (UK, Eire) Rights available: All TV, VOD, nontheatric format and clip rights worldwide excl UK and Ireland

WILDLIFE RESCUE AUSTRALIA This “fly-on-the-wall” docuseries follows the vets and nurses at Australia’s Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital as they tend to wildlife in need of medical attention. Led by Dr. Bree Talbot, the team, going from case to case in its mobile vet truck, utilizes its specialist skills to help animals that often respond challengingly to veterinary interventions.

Family-friendly vet programming can perform well with its combination of cute animals and high stakes, and this entry should prove to be no exception. BW

Partners: Produced and distributed by EQ Media; commissioned for Channel 10 Australia Length/volume: 10 x 60 minutes Airing: Summer 2022 Rights available: Worldwide, excluding Australia and certain European territories

ALL UP IN MY GRILL Culinary programming can be instructional, it can entertain, and depending upon the kitchen prowess of the presenter, it can make you want to drop what you’re doing and eat whatever it is they’re making. This series, featuring Top Chef alum Dale Talde, hits all three targets via the host’s enthusiastic exploration of innovative and enticing grillable dishes. From tacos to veggies and traditional barbecue to brunch, this series shows that there’s much fun to be had when firing up the grill. BW

Partners: Produced by Tastemade; distributed

by Fred Media Length/volume: 8 x 30 minutes Premiered: June 2021 Rights available: Australia & New Zealand, Canada, MENA and Asia (China, Korea, Japan)

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Contact Joel Pinto 416.408.0863 • jpinto@brunico.com

MIPTVLISTINGS

APT Worldwide 55 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02110, USA APTWW.org Contact: Judy Barlow, VP International Sales Judy_Barlow@APTonline.org

Sex, Lies and the Priesthood (1x60) – Biography, History, Current Affairs SEX, LIES, AND THE PRIESTHOOD explores the journey of Richard Sipe, who was an expert witness for the prosecution in hundreds of clergy sex abuse cases. A former monk and Catholic priest, Sipe was trained as a psychotherapist to deal with the mental health problems of the clergy.

Over the years he worked with the records of over 6,000 patients and recognized a pattern of behavior within the Church that eventually led him to leave the clergy.

Upon leaving, Richard helped lift what he refers to as “the mask,” revealing the truth behind celibacy and its connection to the sexual abuse of minors. Sipe has appeared in dozens of documentaries about priest sex abuse and celibacy, and has been widely interviewed by news outlets and the media. He was the person The Boston Globe investigative reporters called on as they worked to expose the abuse, as dramatized in the Academy Award winning film SPOTLIGHT. Hitler’s Mein Kampf: Prelude to the Holocaust (1x60) - History While in prison in 1923, Adolf Hitler composed his manifesto Mein Kampf. In it, he revealed his desire to lead Germany to greater heights through a utopian vision of an Aryan nation free of Jews and encompassing greater territory through colonialism. When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 and then Führer in 1934, his vision evolved into a nightmare with the onset of WWII and the Shoah/Holocaust. HITLER’S MEIN KAMPF: PRELUDE TO THE HOLOCAUST explores whether Hitler’s hateful racial beliefs set down in his manifesto laid the groundwork for the genocidal actions of the Third Reich. The film also explores the question of how something like this could have happened, and reveals the ways in which National Socialism could rise again today.

Welcome to My Farm (8x30) - Lifestyle Join Lisa Steele, a chicken keeper, master gardener, and author on her rustic farm in the Maine woods. In each episode, Lisa cooks and DIYs from the coop and garden to the kitchen and visits nearby places to gather fresh, seasonal ingredients for delicious recipes. Dubbed “Queen of the Coop” by the media, Lisa has been sharing advice on raising chickens, ducks, and geese for more than a decade. She inspires everyone from farming newcomers to those longing for a rural lifestyle and offers firsthand knowledge for raising chickens, growing gardens, and cooking with local ingredients. Her passion for country life is evident whether she’s making homemade coop cleaning spray, planting seeds in egg cartons, baking bread, picking rhubarb, or sprinkling fresh herbs in her chicken nesting boxes.

ZDF Studios GmbH Erich-Dombrowski-Str.1 55127 Mainz / Germany phone: +49-6131-9911611 email: unscripted@zdf-studios.com website: www.zdf-studios.com

Africa from Above ZDF Studios Unscripted | Wildlife + Nature 10 x 50’ / UHD This iconic series is a celebration of Africa’s most spectacular locations and its abundant natural history. We journey to aweinspiring natural wonders and dive into the lives of the wildest species alongside some of humanity’s most extraordinarily beautiful tribes untouched by the modern world.

Going Circular ZDF Studios Unscripted | Science + Knowledge 1 x 90‘ Going Circular unlocks the secrets to an innovative concept called circularity – an economic system based on the idea that nothing should go to waste. It’s a deceptively simple idea – and one that is at the heart of nature and the natural world, but it is far from the way most of us live our lives in the twenty-first century.

The Lost Pirate Kingdom ZDF Studios Unscripted | History + Biographies 6 x 50‘ Pirates are the stuff of myth and legend. Swashbuckling outlaws who bring murder and mayhem to the high seas. But these rogues are not a Hollywood invention.

They are all too real…

THE GLOBAL 100

GLOBAL THE

100

A

fter what was a year to remember in 2020, whether we wanted to or not, 2021 might have offered more of the same in some areas as an evolving pandemic, complete with new variants, continued to wreak havoc upon the world. Still, glimmers of hope also poked their way through the clouds.

The lessons learned by production companies around the world during the tumult of 2020, incorporating everything from shifting vital aspects of the process to remote work to sharing intel on how to develop effective protocols, helped the industry weather further disruption. Indeed, when nominating companies for the Global 100 this year, one of the key considerations cited by network and streaming executives about their production partners was the ability to collaborate and brainstorm through the challenges still being wrought by the uncertainty of COVID-19.

As with every year, this 16th edition of our Global 100 features an array of veteran production companies that continue to set the bar of excellence through a combination of creativity and practical production (and partnership) smarts. You’ll also see some new names making the cut for the first time, including emerging prodcos that might be beginning multi-year runs within this list.

Illustration: Matthew Daley

As always, the list has been compiled with the input of broadcast and streaming executives, agents, distributors, production peers and other stakeholders in the industry. Such input is invaluable, and as more global buyers enter the ecosystem and bring more companies from around the world into their orbit, the number of companies vying for a place in this list will exponentially increase. Who knows, perhaps by the close of the decade we will have a Global 200, if not sooner.

Barry Walsh Content director and editor-in-chief Realscreen

031

CANADA

THE GLOBAL 100

RTR MEDIA

Headquarters: Toronto, ON www.rtrmedia.com Number of hours produced in 2021: 60+ Staff: 15 core, 75 freelance Recent projects: Home Town (HGTV); Home Town Takeover (HGTV); Ben’s Workshop (Discovery+); Home Town Kickstart (HGTV); Help! I Wrecked My House (HGTV) Upcoming titles: Farmhouse Fabulous (HGTV); Revealed (HGTV) Toronto-based RTR Media is a female-owned and- operated independent prodco specializing in the home and lifestyle space, having conducted 380 home renovations for TV. Led by partners CEO Toni Miceli and COO Jenna Keane along with founding partner and executive chair Kit Redmond, the company tripled the number of content hours produced and doubled their total number of series in 2021.

RTR delivers a lot of content to the Discovery family of networks, highlighted by the juggernaut HGTV franchise and ratings leader Home Town (pictured), as well as Home Town Takeover, Home Town Kickstart and Discovery+’s Ben’s Workshop.

A peer that nominated the prodco for this year’s Global 100 cited RTR’s “commitment to gender equity in the industry,” spearheaded by its “phenomenal, allfemale executive team.” RTR also drives an internal initiative called Green Light Giving, a charitable project dedicated to giving back with each project that gets a greenlight.

For its part, the company says it is poised to apply the company’s signature “human approach” to genres outside of home and lifestyle in 2022. Justin Anderson

Alibi Entertainment Toronto, ON | www.alibientertainment.ca Sarah Off the Grid; Carnival Eats

Buck Productions Toronto, ON | www.buckproductions.com Fresh Water; Yo! MTV Maps

Cineflix Productions Toronto, ON | www.cineflix.com Rock Solid Builds; American Pickers; Mayday

Cream Productions Toronto, ON | www.creamproductions.com The Story of Late Night; All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs

eOne (a Hasbro company) Toronto, ON | www.entertainmentone.com Growing Up Hip Hop; Project Bakeover

Frantic Films

YAP FILMS

Headquarters: Toronto, ON www.yapfilms.com Number of hours produced in 2021: 11.5 Staff: 217 (core/freelance) Recent projects: How It Feels to Be Free (PBS/CBC); The Machine That Feels (CBC/Arte); Black Liberators (History Channel) Upcoming projects: Battle of the Alphas season two (Blue Ant/ Love Nature); two feature-length documentaries Founded in 2002 by Elliott Halpern and the late Pauline Duffy​​, Toronto-based Yap Films has built a solid reputation for crafting factual and documentary series and specials across a wide range of subject matter for an equally diverse array of broadcasters and platforms.

Highlights for 2021 included How It Feels to Be Free, produced for PBS’s ‘American Masters’ strand. Directed by Yoruba Richen, and executive produced

by Halpern, Alicia Keys, Lacey Delgado Schwartz, Mehret Mandefro, Elizabeth Trojian and Michael Kantor for ‘American Masters,’ the film took a loving look at the cultural contributions of six trailblazing Black performers — Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll, Nina Simone, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier — and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for outstanding documentary, as well as an Emmy, representing ‘American Masters’ for outstanding documentary or non-fiction series. Yap’s Unabomber: In His Own Words four-parter for Reelz was picked up by Netflix for international streaming, and was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards in 2021.

In nominating Yap Films for the Global 100, production and distribution partners described Yap’s approach to crafting content as “close and collaborative.” Barry Walsh

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Toronto; Winnipeg, MB | www.franticfilms.com Backyard Builds; Still Standing

Great Pacific Media (a Thunderbird Entertainment Group company) Vancouver, BC | www.greatpacifictv.com Highway Thru Hell; Heavy Rescue: 401

Insight Productions (a Boat Rocker company) Toronto, ON | www.insighttv.com Big Brother Canada; Top Chef Canada

marblemedia Toronto, ON | www.marblemedia.com Blown Away; Race Against the Tide

Media Headquarters Toronto, ON | www.mediahqs.net Salvage Kings; The Brigade

Primitive Entertainment Toronto, ON | www.primitive.net Writing the Land; Borealis

Proper Television (a Boat Rocker company) Toronto, ON | www.propertelevision.com Mary Makes It Easy; The Great Canadian Baking Show; Motel Makeover

Scott Brothers Entertainment Toronto, ON | www.sbentertainment.com Celebrity IOU; Property Brothers: Forever Home

1895 Films Calabasas, CA | www.1895films.com Diana: In Her Own Words; The Real Right Stuff

44 Blue Productions

(a Red Arrow Studios company)

Burbank, CA | www.44blue.com Life After Death with Tyler Henry; Keep Sweet

495 Productions Burbank, CA | www.495productions.com Jersey Shore: Family Vacation; Joe Millionaire

Ample Entertainment Culver City, CA | www.ampleent.com The Lost Gold of World War II; The Lost Women of NXIVM

A. Smith & Co. (a Tinopolis Group company) Toluca Lake, CA | www.asmithco.com American Ninja Warrior; Mental Samurai

B17 Entertainment (an Industrial Media company) Los Angeles, CA | www.b17entertainment.com

UNITED STATES

Craftopia; History of Swear Words

CAMPFIRE STUDIOS (A WHEELHOUSE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY) Headquarters: Culver City, CA www.campfire.us Number of hours produced in 2021: approx. 50 hours Staff: approx. 120 Recent projects: The Way Down (HBO Max); David Fincher’s Voir (Netflix); Scream: The True Story (Discovery+); WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (Hulu); Hysterical (FX) Upcoming projects: The Way Down, part 2 (HBO Max); Rudy (feature doc on Rudy Giuliani) Founded in 2014 by CEO Ross Dinerstein, who has produced or exec-produced more than 40 series and films during the past 18 years, Culver City-based Campfire had its biggest year in 2021. It premiered three docs at SXSW in March of last year (Hysterical; WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn and The Lost Sons, produced with Raw for CNN) and delivered what turned out to be HBO Max’s most-watched docuseries launch to date, The Way Down (pictured). That project, exploring the alleged cult-like practices of a Tennessee-based church and its charismatic leader, was helmed by acclaimed doc-maker Marina Zenovich and will spawn a sequel, also set for HBO Max. In 2019, Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse Group bought a majority stake in the company, giving it the extra boost needed to advance its positioning as a premium prodco in the scripted and non-fiction genres. 2022 has kicked off promisingly for the company, with two high-profile docs — the Sundancepremiering TikTok, Boom and Netflix’s soccer series Neymar: The Perfect Chaos — making waves. BW

Big Fish Entertainment (an MGM TV company) New York, NY | www.bigfishusa.com America’s Top Dog; Martha Knows Best; Live Rescue

Blackfin (an eOne company) New York, NY | www.blackfin.tv Tiny Creatures; Jerusalem: City of Faith and Fury

Blue Ant Studios USA (a Blue Ant Media company) New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA www.blueantmedia.com/production/blue-ant-studios Canada’s Drag Race (with Saloon Media); Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell

Boardwalk Pictures Santa Monica, CA | www.boardwalkpics.com Cheer; Chef’s Table; We Need to Talk About Cosby

Bunim/Murray Productions (a Banijay company) Glendale, CA | www.bunim-murray.com The Challenge; The Real World Homecoming: New York

Citizen Jones Los Angeles, CA | www.citizenjones.com How to Become a Tyrant; Insecure: The End

Content Group (an AEG company) Encino, CA | www.contentgroup.com The Shaq Life; American Cartel

Critical Content (an SK Global company) Los Angeles, CA | www.criticalcontent.com Celebrity Game Face; Get Organized with the Home Edit

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THE GLOBAL 100

ITV Entertainment (an ITV America company) Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY www.itv-entertainment.com Love Island; Queer Eye (with Scout Productions)

Jigsaw Productions (an Imagine Entertainment company) New York, NY | www.jigsawprods.com Totally Under Control; The Crime of the Century

Jupiter Entertainment (a Sky Studios company) Knoxville, TN | www.jupiterent.com Snapped; In Pursuit with John Walsh

Kinetic Content

FIRELIGHT FILMS

Headquarters: Harlem, NY www.firelightmedia.tv Number of hours produced in 2021: 6.5 Staff: 9 Recent projects: Attica (Showtime); Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre (History Channel); Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy (Netflix) Upcoming titles: Creating the New World: The Transatlantic Slave Trade (PBS); Sun Ra and the Rise of Afrofuturism; After Jackie (History Channel) Founded in 1998 by non-fiction filmmaker Stanley Nelson, Firelight Films has amassed numerous Peabody, Primetime Emmy, Sundance and IDA awards throughout the past few decades for its comprehensive body of work by and about communities of color. Many of those accolades have come via Nelson’s long-standing relationship with PBS, the home to such Firelight docs as The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and Freedom Riders.

In 2021, Firelight further expanded its scope with a wide range of buyers showcasing its content: History aired Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre (produced with Blackfin), while Netflix kicked off the year with Nelson’s incisive look at the 1980s drug epidemic, Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy.

In September, Nelson’s hard-hitting documentary on the deadliest prison riot in American history, Attican (pictured), opened the Toronto International Film Festival, and was subsequently nominated for a best documentary Oscar. Nelson’s gifts as a director have been well documented — with Variety’s Owen Gleiberman pointing to his “flair for making history far more interesting than the mythologies it’s cutting through” — and an increasing array of networks and platforms are taking note. BW 034

MARCH / APRIL ‘22

(a Red Arrow Studios company) Los Angeles, CA | www.kineticcontent.com Love Is Blind; Married at First Sight

Dorsey Pictures (a Red Arrow Studios company) Littleton, CO | www.dorseypictures.tv

Left/Right (a Red Arrow Studios company)

Maine Cabin Masters; Accident, Suicide or Murder

New York, NY | www.leftright.tv The Circus; The New York Times Presents

Endemol Shine North America (a Banijay company) North Hollywood, CA | www.endemolshine.us MasterChef; Lego Masters

Florentine Films Walpole, NH | www.florentinefilms.com Muhammad Ali; Hemingway

Fly On the Wall Entertainment North Hollywood, CA | www.flyotw.com.

Big Brother; Crime Scene Kitchen

Fremantle North America Burbank, CA | www.fremantle.com America’s Got Talent; American Idol (with 19 Entertainment)

Glass Entertainment Group Philadelphia, PA | www.glassentertainmentgroup.com Lincoln: Divided We Stand; My Life on MTV

High Noon Entertainment (an ITV America company) Sherman Oaks, CA; Denver, CO www.highnoontv.com Farnhouse Fixer; Good Bones

Imagine Documentaries (an Imagine Entertainment company) New York, NY www.imagine-entertainment.com/documentary/ Rebuilding Paradise; Julia

Intellectual Property Corporation (an Industrial Media company) Los Angeles, CA | www.theipcorp.com Selena + Chef; Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer

Intuitive Content Minneapolis, MN | www.intuitivecontent.com What’s Eating America; How to Survive a Murder; Crash Test World

Leftfield Pictures (an ITV America company) New York, NY | www.leftfieldpictures.com Pawn Stars; Alone

Lion TV USA (an All3Media company) New York, NY | www.liontvusa.com Murder Under the Friday Night Lights; Jason Biggs’ Cash At Your Door

Lucky 8 New York, NY | www.lucky8.tv The Food that Built America; Jane Goodall: The Hope

Magical Elves (a Tinopolis company) Los Angeles, CA | www.magicalelves.com Top Chef; Nailed It! Magilla Entertainment New York, NY | www.magilla.tv Moonshiners; Lakefront Bargain Hunt

MGM TV Beverly Hills, CA | www.mgm.com The Voice (U.S.); Shark Tank; Survivor

Muck Media Los Angeles, CA | www.muck.tv Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller; Mucho Mucho Amor

Original Productions (a Fremantle company) Burbank, CA | www.originalprods.com Deadliest Catch; Storage Wars

Pilgrim Media Group (a Lionsgate company) North Hollywood, CA | www.pilgrimstudios.com High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America; Wicked Tuna

HOT SNAKES MEDIA

Headquarters: Greenwich, CT www.hotsnakesmedia.com Number of hours produced in 2021: 50 Staff: 50 Recent projects: Pig Royalty (Discovery+); My True Crime Story (VH1); Deaf U (Netflix); Return to Amish (TLC); Jaws of Alaska (Discovery); Mystery of the Black Demon Shark (Discovery) Upcoming titles: Mysterious Creatures with Forrest Galante (Animal Planet); Pig Royalty season two (Discovery+); My True Crime Story season two (VH1); Breaking Amish season 11, Return to Amish (TLC) Connecticut-based Hot Snakes Media had a strong year in 2021, led by the success of the breakout Netflix series Deaf U (pictured), the buzzedabout pig competition series Pig Royalty for Discovery+, a pair of highly rated ‘Shark Week’ specials (Jaws of Alaska and Mystery of the Black Demon Shark) and the continuing success of the Breaking Amish franchise.

Co-founded by husband-and-wife team Eric and Shannon Evangelista in 2011, Hot Snakes Media has produced thousands of hours of programming, including the two highest-rated first seasons of any series in the history of both Discovery and TLC. Since the company’s inception, it has produced successful shows across genres including paranormal, true crime, doc series, unscripted and wildlife/adventure programming.

2021 also saw Eric Evangelista co-founding a new production company, Phantasticus Films, with wildlife expert Forrest Galante (of Mysterious Creatures with Forrest Galante, which premiered in the fall on Animal Planet and also streams on Discovery+). The new prodco, a division of Hot Snakes, aims to create wildlife and adventure programming with a purpose. Phantasticus also actively finances conservation work in exchange for filming rights and the ability to bring exposure to causes.

The company will see several premieres and renewals in 2022, and anticipates new talent signings for both Hot Snakes and Phantasticus.

The Breaking Amish franchise will enter its 11th season this year, while the popular VH1 series My True Crime Story returns for a second season and more ‘Shark Week’ programming is in the pipeline. Evangelista and team also have a number of other major projects in development and production, including two new series for Discovery+. JA

PAINLESS PRODUCTIONS

Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA www.painless.tv Number of hours produced in 2021: 66 Staff: 200+ Recent projects: The Dead Files, The Holzer Files (Travel); Reasonable Doubt (ID); Evil Things (TLC); Out There with Jack Randall (Nat Geo, Disney+) Upcoming titles: Fright Club season two (pictured), Dead Files 200th episode (Travel); Reasonable Doubt S5 (ID) In a business where anything that can happen usually does, consistency is a much-valued attribute in a partner. And according to the many nominations that came in for Los Angeles-based Painless Productions from network execs and production peers, it’s a quality that the company has in abundance.

Founded 25 years ago by Jim Casey, Painless has carved out its reputation for hands-on reliability across multiple genres, with recent series such as The Dead Files for Travel and Reasonable Doubt for ID illustrating the prodco’s proficiency with true-crime and paranormal content in particular. But the company also demonstrates the ability to switch gears when needed and work across a range of subjects, from sharks (Most Wanted Sharks for Nat Geo) to sex (My Crazy Sex for LMN).

Those who put Painless forward for the Global 100 frequently cited the company’s creativity when in crunch time, as well as its trustworthiness and adaptability.

One exec noted that throughout their partnership with Painless, “Jim and co. have been reliable, smart producers who know how to take a note and run with it.” And as one producer peer put it: “[For] any company to be on season 15/16 of anything is incredible — to be making shows that stand out and are still best in class is a testament to something incredibly special.”

“You’d expect me to say that working with Jim Casey and his talented team at Painless is… painless,” offered one senior-ranking network exec. “Truth is, it’s a joy.” BW 035

RADICAL MEDIA

Headquarters: New York, NY www.radicalmedia.com Number of hours produced in 2021: 45.5 Staff: 100+; “vast community” of freelancers Recent projects: Summer of Soul (...Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Hulu); Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (Netflix); The Me You Can’t See (Apple TV+) Upcoming projects: Jerry Garcia documentary; Sitting Bull; Theodore Roosevelt (History Channel) Running the gamut from acclaimed docs to cool limited series, New York’s RadicalMedia is no stranger to the Global 100. Even by its own standards, however, 2021 was a heck of a year.

Summer of Soul, the directorial debut from Roots drummer and music aficionado Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, came out of the gate strong with its Sundance premiere, taking the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the fest. The ebullient doc (pictured), which unearths footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, is still racking up honors at press time, with the most recent being its win at the Independent Spirit Awards, and an Oscar nomination for best documentary also in the mix.

RadicalMedia will reteam with Thompson’s Two One Five Entertainment for The League, a doc on baseball’s Negro League.

Elsewhere, the company’s partnership with director Joe Berlinger and his Third Eye Motion Picture Company struck gold with the Crime Scene franchise for Netflix. Beginning with Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, response to the project was so strong (45 million households watching in its first 28 days on the streamer) that a second series, Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, closed out the year, and three additional seasons have been commissioned.

RadicalMedia has also continued to broaden its work with A+E’s History, with the acclaimed event series Abraham Lincoln following on from the success of its earlier presidential programming for the net, Grant. BW

SCOUT PRODUCTIONS

Headquarters: Burbank, CA www.scoutproductionsinc.com Number of hours produced in 2021: 45 Staff: 22 core; 10 freelancers Recent projects: Queer Eye (Netflix); Legendary, Equal (HBO Max) Upcoming projects: currently untitled Barney the Dinosaur doc (Peacock); The Quest (Disney+) Not every prodco can claim the honor of having its biggest unscripted series immortalized via a Lego set. But thanks to the Queer Eye Fab 5 Loft Set, Scout Productions can add that to its list of achievements.

Of course, the huge success of the Queer Eye reboot (produced with ITV Entertainment) on Netflix across what is now six seasons is a big story for Scout, but 2021 saw success in other areas for the Emmy- and Academy Award-winning prodco as well. HBO Max has been a particularly supportive buyer, with ballroom competition series Legendary having a strong second season and being renewed for a third, and design competition series The Hype also scoring a third-season renewal.

Scout’s doc division will see more action in 2022, with a three-part docuseries on kids TV icon Barney the Dinosaur due for Peacock, and a limited-series collaboration with Vanity Fair based on the magazine’s coverage of the Hillsong Church scandal. All signs point to more growth for, in the words of a network exec, “a very creative team, always delivering high quality and inclusive content.” BW

Propagate Content

Talos Films

Los Angeles, CA | www.propagatecontent.com Go Big Show (with Matador Content); Untold

New York, NY | www.talosfilms.com Rebuilding Hope: The Children of 9/11; Clipped!

Red Marble Media

Thinkfactory Media

New York, NY | www.redmarblemedia.com Evil Lives Here; Signs of a Psychopath

(an ITV America company) Los Angeles, CA | www.thinkfactorymedia.com Marriage Boot Camp; Carole Baskin: Cage Fight

Renegade83 (an eOne company) Sherman Oaks, CA | www.renegade33.com Naked and Afraid of Love; My Feet are Killing Me

Sharp Entertainment (an Industrial Media company) New York, NY | www.sharpentertainment.com 90 Day Fiancé; Love After Lockup

Sirens Media (an ITV America company) Los Angeles, CA | www.sirensmedia.com Real Housewives of New Jersey; Nikita Unfiltered; The Wedding Coach

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MARCH / APRIL ‘22

Truly Original Productions (a Banijay company) New York, NY | www.trulyoriginal.com Real Housewives of Atlanta; Shahs of Sunset

Vox Media Studios (a Vox Media company) Los Angeles, CA | studios.voxmedia.com Eater’s Guide to the World; Explained

World of Wonder Productions Los Angeles, CA | www.worldofwonder.net RuPaul’s Drag Race; Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes

UNITED KINGDOM

Headquarters: London, England; Los Angeles, CA www.lightboxent.com Number of hours produced in 2021: 20 Staff: 25 (permanent), 50-100 (freelance) Recent projects: Curse of the Chippendales (Discovery+, Amazon); Tina (HBO); Sophie: A Murder in West Cork (Netflix); Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali (Netflix); Supervillain (Showtime); Hip Hop Uncovered (FX); Torn (National Geographic) Upcoming titles: The Princess (HBO); Return to the Moon (National Geographic)

BLINK FILMS

(A TIN ROOF MEDIA COMPANY) Headquarters: London, England; Chepstow, Wales www.blinkfilmsuk.com Number of hours produced in 2021: 40 Staff: 60+ (permanent and freelance) Recent projects: Saved by a Stranger (BBC2); Extraordinary Twins (ITV); The Diana Interview: The Truth About the Scandal (Channel 4); Ken and Barbie Killers: The Lost Murder Tapes (Discovery+) Upcoming projects: Best of British by the Sea, The Pile-Up (Channel 4) Founded by Dan Chambers and Justine Kershaw in 2007, Blink Films has established a reputation for intelligent, innovative content across myriad non-fiction subgenres in the last 15 years. Whether it’s investigating the mystery of how ancient Egyptians were able to preserve their pharaohs for millennia through mummifying a modern-day taxi driver in 2012’s BAFTA-winning Mummifying Alan, or attempting to reunite ordinary people who, through the course of fate, endured extraordinary circumstances together in the BBC’s Saved by a Stranger, Blink’s unfailingly creative approach to development and production has won them commissions with scores of major UK and U.S. broadcasters, as well as with global streamers.

In 2020, Blink garnered buzz for its Channel 4 doc Diana: The Truth Behind the Interview, which brought to light revelations around the bombshell interview with Princess Diana for BBC’s ‘Panorama’ in 1995.

That information, and the reaction to it, led to the Dyson Inquiry into the affair. In 2021, the prodco followed the story up with The Diana Interview: The Truth About the Scandal.

Last year also proved to be a year of firsts for Blink Films, with its first BBC commission (Saved by a Stranger), its first commission for Science Channel in the U.S. (Strangest Things), and its first commission for Discovery+ (Ken and Barbie Killers: The Lost Murder Tapes, pictured). BW

THE GLOBAL 100

LIGHTBOX

Based out of Los Angeles and London, Lightbox, founded by Oscarwinning producer Simon Chinn (Man on Wire, Searching for Sugar Man, Whitney) and his cousin, Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn (LA 92, American High, Whitney), saw a successful 2021, with greater turnover and an expanded customer base despite the difficult circumstances facing the industry.

In 2021, Lightbox delivered series and feature documentaries for Showtime, HBO/HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon, FX, and Sky, and had premieres at Telluride, Sundance and the London Film Festival.

Capitalizing on the success of its music-based doc projects such as the Tina Turner doc Tina (pictured) and Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine, Lightbox struck a partnership deal with Warner Music Entertainment to jointly develop projects for film and television. The company also bolstered its leadership team with the appointment of Alexis Gomez Garcia as VP of development and the promotion of Suzanne Lavery to head of factual.

Other big projects for Lightbox include Curse of the Chippendales for Discovery+ and Amazon Prime, as well as Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali and Sophie: A Murder in West Cork for Netflix. Also look for The Princess, a feature documentary on the life of Princess Diana that will see a theatrical release in 2022 ahead of a premiere on HBO and HBO Max in the U.S. and Sky Documentaries in the UK. JA

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THE GLOBAL 100

NUTOPIA

Headquarters: London, England; Washington DC Number of hours produced in 2021: 32.5 Staff: 44 (permanent), 122 (freelance) Recent projects: Welcome to Earth (Disney+); Vendetta: Truth, Lies and the Mafia (Netflix); Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer (PBS + BBC) Upcoming titles: Limitless with Chris Hemsworth (Disney+) Nutopia, founded by former BBC/Discovery/ Wall to Wall head exec Jane Root in 2008, has consistently earned a spot in our Global 100 over the years via its growing stable of “megadocs” — projects that tackle big topics with epic cinematography, dramatic storytelling and A-list talent. That approach was on display once again in 2021, most notably with Welcome to Earth (pictured) for Disney+/Nat Geo, which reunited the Nutopia team with acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky and actor Will Smith (who both worked with the prodco for Nat Geo’s One Strange Rock).

The project saw Smith, who always seems to be up for an adventure, explore our planet in all of its magnificent, and occasionally dangerous, majesty.

But the company’s penchant for engrossing stories also carried into the true-crime genre with the six-part Netflix series Vendetta: Truth, Lies and the Mafia, which chronicles the tale of a small Italian TV station that dared to defy the Mob. Respected presenters David Olusoga and Steven Johnson explored the history of public health and medical advances in Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer, and the prodco even helped us tap into our inner happy places via the wellness and meditation series A World of Calm for HBO Max, in partnership with the popular app. BW

72 Films

October Films

London, England | www.72films.com Crime and Punishment; 9/11: One Day in America

London, England | www.octoberfilms.co.uk Diana; Secrets, Lies and Private Eyes

Arrow Media

Plimsoll Productions

London, England www.arrowintmedia.com/arrow-media See No Evil; Mind of a Monster

Bandicoot (an Argonon Group company) Glasgow, Scotland | www.bandicoot.tv The Masked Singer (UK); Peckham’s Finest

Dragonfly (a Banijay company) London, England | www.dragonfly.tv Ambulance; Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power

Fulwell 73 London, England | www.fulwell73.com All or Nothing: Juventus; Among the Stars

The Garden (an ITV Company) London, England | www.thegarden.tv The Lakes with Simon Reeve; 24 Hours in A&E

Icon Films Bristol, England | www.iconfilms.co.uk Mysteries of the Deep with Jeremy Wade; Unknown Amazon with Pedro Andrade

KEO Films London, England | www.keofilms.com Pandemic 2020; Lucy the Human Chimp

Love Productions (a Sky company) London, England | www.loveproductions.co.uk The Great British Bake Off; Bake Off: The Professionals Monkey (a Universal International Studios company) London, England | www.monkeykingdom.com Dating No Filter; Don’t Hate the Playaz

Bristol, England | www.plimsollproductions.com Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker; Tiny World

Pulse Films (a Vice Media company) London, England | www.pulsefilms.com Dead Asleep; Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator

Raw TV (an All3Media company) London, England | www.raw.co.uk Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy; Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport Silverback Films (an All3Media company) Bristol, England | www.silverbackfilms.tv A Perfect Planet Studio Lambert (an All3Media company) London, England | www.studiolambert.com The Circle; Race Across the World; Undercover Big Boss

Talkback (a Fremantle company) London, England | www.talkbackproductions.tv Too Hot to Handle; Harry’s Heroes: The Full English Twofour Broadcast (an ITV company) London, England | www.twofour.co.uk Bling with Gok Wan; Watercolour Challenge Windfall Films (an Argonon Group company) London, England | www.windfallfilms.com Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard; Jabbed! Inside Britain’s Vaccine Triumph

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WALL TO WALL (A WBITVP COMPANY) Headquarters: London/Bristol, England Number of hours produced in 2021: 59 Staff: 41 (permanent) Recent projects: Long Lost Family (ITV); Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC); Glow Up (BBC3) Upcoming titles: Warrior Island (w/t), Glow Up season 4 (BBC)

REST OF THE WORLD

A frequent presence on the Global 100 list, London- and Bristolbased Wall to Wall has been a fixture in the unscripted space for decades, with a catalog that includes such ongoing hits as Who Do You Think You Are? (pictured) and Long Lost Family.

After a strong finish to 2020 with Becoming You, one of the first factual commissions for Apple TV+, Wall to Wall continued to surge through 2021 with new seasons of its above-mentioned standbys as well as a range of new offerings, including the nature series Growing Up Animal for Disney+, the inventive science/science-fiction hybrid Killers of the Cosmos for Discovery+, and the lifestyle/culinary showcase Nadiya’s Fast Flavours and social-issue doc David Baddiel: Social Media, Anger and Us, both for BBC Two. Kicking off 2022 with the three-part true-crime series The Nilsen Files for BBC Two and the standalone Channel 4 doc Boobs (a cultural history of breast fetishization/sexualization), Wall to Wall is keeping its momentum going with such upcoming projects as series four of the make-up artist competition Glow Up and the new adventure/fitness-challenge format Warrior Island (w/t), both for BBC Three. Andrew Tracy

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BEACH HOUSE PICTURES

(A BLUE ANT MEDIA COMPANY) Headquarters: Singapore www.beachhousepictures.com Number of hours produced in 2021: 70+ Staff: 100-200 Recent projects: The Raincoat Killer (Netflix); Evolve (Curiosity Stream); MasterChef Singapore (MediaCorp Asia); Best Dog Asia (Netflix, Discovery+) Upcoming: Bake Off Japan (Amazon Prime Japan); Otter Dynasty (Animal Planet, Love Nature; pictured) Headquartered in Singapore and operating in the U.S., Japan and China, Beach House specializes in factual, unscripted and scripted programming for global streamers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, as well as Chinese platforms including Tencent, Bilibili and CCTV9 and cable networks including Discovery, National Geographic and Smithsonian Channel. Successful series from BHP include Ed Stafford: First Man Out, Wild City with David Attenborough, MasterChef Singapore, China from Above and more.

Founded by Donovan Chan and Jocelyn Little, the company’s creative director and managing director respectively, BHP is included in the Realscreen Global 100 for the sixth consecutive year. Its recent successes include the Netflix true-crime docuseries The Raincoat Killer, about the hunt for a serial murderer in South Korea in the early 2000s, and the six-part Evolve for CuriosityStream, a series about biomimicry that combines science, wildlife, technology and adventure.

The company’s other divisions include Beach House Entertainment, which produces formats and general entertainment programs like Record Rides for National Geographic and Cesar’s Recruit: Asia starring Cesar Milan, and Beach House Academy, which offers outreach programs and skills training to both aspiring and established producers across Asia. JA MARCH / APRIL ‘22

Autentic Production Munich, Germany | www.autentic.com Inside the Mind of a Con Artist (with Topkapi Nonfiction); Europe’s Forgotten Dictators

CJ ENM Seoul, South Korea | www.cjenm.com I Can See Your Voice; Love at First Song

Eureka Productions Sydney, Australia; Los Angeles, CA www.eurekagroup.tv Name That Tune; Holey Moley; Dating Around

Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion Cologne, Germany | www.gebrueder-beetz.de Viral Dreams; The Hunt for Gaddafi’s Billions (with Brook Lapping Productions)

Off the Fence (a ZDF Enterprises company) Amsterdam, Netherlands | www.offthefence.com The Year that Rocked the World; Born to Be Wild

Pernel Media Paris, France | www.pernelmedia.com Attila the Hun; Legends of the Pharaohs

THE GLOBAL 100

NORTHERN PICTURES

(A BLUE ANT MEDIA COMPANY) Headquarters: Sydney, Australia Number of hours produced in 2021: 30 Staff: 22; 500+ freelancers across the 2021 slate Recent projects: Love on the Spectrum (ABC Australia, Netflix); See What You Made Me Do, Strong Female Lead (SBS) Upcoming titles: Love on the Spectrum US (Netflix); Southern Ocean Live, Meet the Penguins (ABC) Founded in 2010, Northern Pictures has built a sterling reputation for quality content across myriad genres, and its efforts in 2021 continued to build on that strong foundation.

SBS documentary Strong Female Lead explored issues of sexism, power and misogyny through the lens of Julia Gillard’s stint as prime minister of Australia. Archival footage provided the framework for this examination of the vitriol and disrespect that marked Gillard’s time in office as the first and, to date, only female PM in Australian history.

Meanwhile, Northern’s After the Wildfires, charting Australia’s recovery from recent spates of horrific wildfires, was named Best Conservation Film at the 2021 Jackson Hole Awards and Best Environmental Film at the Newport Beach Film Fest. And Love on the Spectrum (pictured), a docuseries following young adults on the autism spectrum as they navigate romance, continues to attract audiences at home and abroad, with a new season of the American adaptation on the way for Netflix. BW

HONORABLE MENTIONS Amos Pictures

EQ Media

Omnifilm Entertainment

True Vision TV

London, England www.amospictures.co.uk Four Hours at the Capitol

Sydney, AUS | www.eqmedia.group Shane; What’s the Catch

Vancouver, BC | www.omnifilm.com Jade Fever

London, England | www.truevisiontv.com The Missing Children; The Man Putin Couldn’t Kill

Everywoman Studios

Part2 Pictures

Washington DC www.everywomanstudios.com LFG

Brooklyn, NY | www.part2pictures.com This is Life with Lisa Ling

Avalon London, England | www.avalonu.com Taskmaster

BBC Studios

Evolution Media

London, England | www.bbcstudios.com Surgeon’s Cut; The Year Earth Changed

(an MGM TV company) Burbank, CA | www.evolutionusa.com Vanderpump Rules; Botched

Blackfella Films Sydney, Australia www.blackfellafilms.com.au Addicted Australia

GRB Studios

Bodega Pictures

Jeff Jenkins Productions

Los Angeles, CA www.bodegapictures.com Kendra Sells Hollywood; Girl Meets Farm

(a 3BMG company) Los Angeles, CA www.jeffjenkinsproductions.com Bling Empire; Coming Out Colton

Stephen David Entertainment (a Banijay company) New York, NY www.stephendavidentertainment.com The Titans that Built America

Sherman Oaks, CA | www.grbtv.com Intervention

Label1 London, England | www.label1.tv Hospital

Minnow Films London, England www.minnowfilms.co.uk Katie Price: Harvey and Me

Peacock Alley Entertainment Toronto, ON | www.peacockalleytv.com Catching a Serial Killer: Bruce McArthur

Profiles Television El Segundo, CA www.profiles-televisions.com The Amazing Race

Shine TV (a Banijay company) London, England | www.shine.tv Hunted; MasterChef Terra Mater Factual Studios Vienna, Austria | www.terramater.at The Arctic: Our Last Great Wilderness

Trilogy Films

Warner Horizon Unscripted Television Los Angeles, CA | www.warnerbros.com The Bachelor; The Bachelorette

Zed Paris, France | www.zed.fr Zanskar: A Winter of Happiness

Zero Point Zero Production New York, NY | www.zeropointzero.com United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell (with Main Event Media); Rotten

Zig Zag Productions London, England | www.zigzag.uk.com Raise Your Game with Gareth Southgate

Zone 3 Montreal, PQ | www.zone3.ca Family Feud Canada

(an Industrial Media company) San Francisco, CA www.trilogy-films.com Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer

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THE FINAL CUT

GREENSCR Cameron

Siegel

A

mid an ever-changing and evolving industry, we at Cream Productions are proud to be at the forefront of sustainable production within an industry that, by and large, has struggled to address its responsibility toward climate change.

Admittedly, with productions running on tight schedules and budgets, it’s hard to imagine how to even begin to tackle such a complex issue and manage to make effective, meaningful change.

In 2021, we began the work. By implementing a few obvious reduction and diversion practices, we also spent the year learning a lot about what it really means to be carbon neutral. What began with a small group of production staff who cared about going green progressed into Cream achieving its first carbon-neutral year in 2021, with momentum and a vision to do even more in 2022.

To encourage change, we’ve assembled our biggest takeaways from our first carbonneutral year. Here’s what we learned:

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MARCH / APRIL ‘22

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The solutions to divert waste are simple to implement and inexpensive. We started with the obvious, and will continue to identify new ideas as we go. By hiring Toronto-based waste management company Rethink Resource we were able to divert more than 80% of our trash from landfills by using compost and recycle bins. We noticed this most often with papertowel waste being diverted.

Eco-conscious catering and craft service company Blazing Kitchen also joined our effort by switching to compostable packaging. Virtually everything is now sent to composting facilities. Blazing Kitchen also redirects all unused, left-over packaged food to people in need throughout Toronto.

Increasingly, production companies are answering the call to be more environmentally conscious in their business practices.

Here, two execs from Toronto-based Cream Productions — Patrick Cameron, SVP of operations, and Angelica Siegel, sustainability strategy manager — walk us through their efforts thus far.

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Waste reduction solutions are also simple and inexpensive. The reusable water bottles and coffee mugs that we provide both in the office and on set not only make for cool gifts, but also eliminate single-use waste. Our company has also incorporated Meatless Mondays (on Wednesdays!) as a simple yet effective way to become more ecoconscious. It’s been proven that a plant-based diet can significantly curtail water consumption and reduce our carbon footprint. This year, we will measure the exact reductions — some sources say that approximately 133 gallons of water are saved and eight pounds in carbon emissions are decreased with each meatless plate. In 2022, we’re looking at other potential easy-to-implement reductions, including reusable masks.

CREENING We garnered broad support and cooperation across the company with buy-in from people who already work long, hard days. ”

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It was easy to measure and report our carbon footprint, which was the starting point for most of our learning. Through Ontario Green Screen, an industry group supporting the transition to more sustainable film production, we were introduced to the Albert Carbon Calculator [first introduced in the UK in 2011, and updated in 2021 with a global version]. This showed us all the possibilities of what we can measure, much of which we already had been closely tracking. It’s become second nature for the production team to implement simple and effective ways to obtain and measure the information (e.g., counting the number and type of vehicles we drive to set to inform our daily fuel emissions).

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It was not difficult to find the money to offset our carbon footprint once we determined what our footprint was. Whenever possible, we reduced our outputs, and for those activities we couldn’t change, we purchased the appropriate value in carbon offsets. It was less expensive than we thought, and thanks to a team proficient in finding money within our tight budgets, we actually purchased more than we projected for, allowing us to cover overlooked activities.

We purchased our offsets from Coastal First Nations, an Indigenous-led carbonoffset program that protects the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia and invests in First Nations communities, which are world-leading stewards of ecosystem management.

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We garnered broad support and cooperation across the company with buy-in from people who already work long, hard days. What started in the production department has quickly expanded to the entire company. We engage our team by looking for solutions that don’t require more work or time from our crew. We often start with our vendors and suppliers to determine where we can make changes that are both effective and convenient.

It’s also important to note that, through these efforts, the relationships and ongoing learning have been more rewarding than we imagined. It was a busy first year, but we realize we are only at the beginning. We now have a better understanding of our company’s footprint, which gives us insight into how we can better reduce our carbon outputs and waste rather than just offset them.

This year, we plan to explore electric vehicles and generators, perform more in-depth cost – benefit analyses to discover how going green can save us money, and continue doing our part to fuel the momentum toward a more sustainable global film and TV industry.

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