Film Festivals Fall Flat

Plus: NYC Mayor drama and Emmys upsets

Banner Image: Georg Szalai / THR

Happy Tuesday! As we reflect on a buzzy time of year for film and television, September toils on. But first…

📡 ON OUR RADAR

• Freshly-minted Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol shared a letter to employees with a clear message focused on “getting back to Starbucks.” Drawing on key tenants of any positive internal culture, Niccol outlines a refocus on barista training, store experience, and storytelling.

• Drama continues to unfold in the Adams Administration amidst ongoing investigations. NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban resigned on Thursday. This weekend, the mayor’s chief legal adviser, Lisa Zornberg, also resigned suddenly; further heightening interest and doubts about the Mayor’s political future.

• Alibaba’s President, Kuo Zhang, recently emphasized making global sourcing easier for American mom-and-pop shops while adapting to current market challenges, aiming to tap into the growing interest in international trade among smaller U.S. enterprises.

💡 ON OUR MINDS: Film Festivals Fall Flat

• It’s festival season, but the deals aren’t happening at the pace of past years.

• At the Toronto Film Festival, despite projects with major names like Sydney Sweeney, Ben Stiller, and Amy Adams attached, sales still fell short. Experts say the film industry has not yet recalibrated its production to match the market’s decreased demand.

• Similarly, the Sundance Film Festival saw an uncharacteristically low number of deals secured. The slowdown occurs while the festival looks for a new home starting in 2027– with Boulder, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City/Park City as finalists.

• Venice Film Festival saw more high-profile deals than others (especially following last year’s strike), but journalists found the lack of press access to stars attending the event to be frustrating, revealing more tension within the industry.

• Long thought to be epicenters of media and culture, a slow film festival season indicates a change in the media landscape, leaving questions about what we’ll see on the silver screen in the coming months.

🥊 QUICK HITS

In case you missed these reads:

• The Pac-12 is looking to rebuild, poaching several schools from the Mountain West conference.

• New data last week shows OnlyFans creators are raking it in.

• The Traitors won big at last night’s Emmys, ending RuPaul’s Drag Race’s years-long dominance and signaling a new era of reality TV is upon us.