The same negotiation is happening in three different cities with different stakes. In Berlin, filmmakers are working the festival-market circuit to figure out which stories get competition slots and which ones hustle for buyers on the EFM floor. In Milano Cortina, an athlete discovers that the Olympic platform will let you compete but not speak.
And in Mumbai, a legacy studio is treating 50-year-old characters like platform-agnostic infrastructure, betting that IP can outlive any single distribution channel.
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The connective tissue is platform power. Whether you are premiering a three-hour family saga, decorating an Olympic helmet, or licensing a 1975 action hero for microdramas, you are navigating terms set by whoever owns the stage. Sometimes that negotiation is explicit. Sometimes it is silent. Always there.
What Berlinale Is Buying, Selling, and Avoiding
Alain Gomis is back in Berlin competition nine years after winning the Silver Bear for “Félicité.” His new film, “DAO,” is a three-hour family saga set between France and West Africa, described as his most personal work. Read the full interview at Variety.
Berlin has historically championed African and diasporic cinema, and Gomis getting a competition slot signals the festival still sees that work as central. Three-hour runtimes are a risk in any market. Festivals remain one of the few places where that risk gets rewarded with attention.
One floor down at the European Film Market, the calculus changes entirely. Black Mandala Films and Red Owl Films brought eight genre titles to EFM, spanning Lovecraftian horror, queer mockumentary, and Ecuadorian fantasy. See the full slate at Variety.
This is the independent producer playbook for 2026: use the market to bypass algorithmic discovery and get in front of buyers who still program with human judgment. Latin American genre independents are treating Berlin as distribution infrastructure, not a prestige stop.
Then there is the talent circulation pattern. Úrsula Corberó, who became a global name through Netflix’s “Money Heist,” is set to star in Spanish horror director Jaume Balagueró’s next feature, “There’s Someone in the Garden.” The project, produced by Kowalski Films, was pitched at the Spanish Producers Showcase during EFM. Full details at Variety.
The career logic is clear: Netflix-minted stars are circling back to European independent production, where budgets are smaller but creative control sits closer to the talent. Corberó is not the first to make this move. She will not be the last.
The quietest signal at Berlin came from Michelle Yeoh, who deflected a question about U.S. politics during a press conference by saying it is “best not to talk about something I don’t know about.” Read her full response at Variety.
The moment passed quickly, but it revealed how A-list talent is calculating risk at international events. Yeoh chose silence. Not everyone gets that option.
The Olympics as Censorship Engine and Ad Marketplace
Vladyslav Heraskevych, a Ukrainian skeleton racer, was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics over a helmet design that honored victims of Russia’s invasion. He appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, arguing the ban violated his freedom of expression.
CAS dismissed the appeal, upholding the ruling that the helmet constituted a political statement prohibited under Olympic Charter Rule 50. Read the full CAS decision at Variety.
Meanwhile, the same Olympic platform is selling adjacent screen time at premium rates. Adweek is tracking the commercials running during Milano Cortina coverage, cataloging which brands are spending millions to own those minutes between events. See the ad tracker at Adweek.
The juxtaposition is stark: the Olympics restrict one kind of messaging while eagerly monetizing another. The platform sets the terms, and participants negotiate within them or leave.
Sippy Films Treats ‘Sholay’ Like Marvel Treats the Avengers
Sippy Films is rolling out legacy IP from “Sholay” and “Shaan” across animation, microdramas, gaming, and merchandising. The strategy is backed by investor Kuberans Tech Ventures, with custodian Shehzad Sippy and Kuberans director Jeet Wagh leading the multi-format expansion. Read the full strategy breakdown at Variety.
“Sholay,” released in 1975, remains one of the highest-grossing Indian films ever made. The characters are recognizable across generations, which makes them viable for franchise extension.
Sippy Films is treating those characters as infrastructure, testing whether decades-old IP can generate revenue across formats that did not exist when the original film premiered. Content strategists, licensing professionals, and producers working in non-U.S. markets should pay attention: the franchise-extension playbook has gone global with regional specificity.
What This Means
Festivals still offer prestige and discovery, but independent producers are using them as market infrastructure. The Olympics enforce strict content rules while selling the surrounding airtime. Legacy studios are treating characters as multi-format franchises, betting that IP can outlive any single distribution channel.
For media professionals, the practical question is straightforward: who owns the platform you are working on, what do they allow, and what do they monetize? Whether you are pitching a film, licensing a character, or planning a campaign, those constraints shape what is possible.
The platforms are bigger than the storytellers right now. That will not always be the case.
If your company is hiring for roles that navigate these dynamics, post a job on Mediabistro and reach the professionals who understand how to work within them.
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