International Insider: London Book Fair; A Conundrum For Cannes; Tim Davie’s Swansong

It’s Friday, 1 p.m. UK local time (or 6 a.m. for those early risers on the West Coast), which means it’s time to stop what you’re doing and get down with our International Insider. Jesse Whittock shepherding you through the week’s biggest and best in film and TV. Sign up to the newsletter here.

London Book Fair Takeaways

Fair dos: The London Book Fair followed the recent TV Screenings to the UK’s capital this week, bringing scores of U.S. agents, international scouts and editors to the Kensington Olympia, a venue more akin to a giant aircraft hangar than a trade event. We published this scene setter, which posed the question of whether the ‘Heated Rivalry effect’ could refresh the books-to-screen market, as producers, streamers and networks search for the next generation of content. I ventured to the Olympia on Tuesday to catch up with the literary industry’s boldest and brightest, and was in the room as Alice Oseman updated on launch plans for Netflix’s Heartstopper final film Heartstopper Forever. Though the book biz runs in parallel to the screen world, existential fears are the same: money, creativity and, most pertinently, AI. Commendably, the literary industry isn’t taking the creep of artificial intelligence lying down. The trade floor was awash with ’empty’ books that were part of a protest being run by former Silicon Valley hotshot Ed Newton-Rex, who managed to get 10,000 authors to put their name behind the stunt. I can’t recall similarly direct action from the film and TV world, so no excuses now. There was more intrigue at the annual UTA, Curtis Brown And C&W at the Bo Tree Hotel’s swish Lavo, where new Channel 4 boss Priya Dogra was spotted chewing the fat with UTA top brass, including CEO Jonny Geller. With C4’s high-profile A Woman of Substance remake, based on Barbara Taylor Bradford’s 1979 novel, launching a day after the Tuesday party, it all felt very serendipitous in Bookland. The LBF moves to east London’s ExCel center next year.

A Conundrum For Cannes

‘System’ down?: Bad news for the festival set. Two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund’s buzzy new pic The Entertainment System is Down won’t be at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Andreas revealed this week. The darkly satirical film stars Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl, and Keanu Reeves and is set on a long-haul flight where the entertainment system fails and passengers are forced to face the horror of being bored. I couldn’t cope. However, sounds like Östlund has a mass of material to edit and is dead set on debuting the pix in Cannes… just probably in 2027. The news led Deadline to pose the question of whether happenstance means Cannes might struggle to add headline-grabbing movies this year, with several other blockbusters unlikely to screen there. We found there’s more nuance to the situation than simply that studios are staying away from the Croisette. Given last year’s selection spawned Sentimental Value, Sirat, Arco and The Secret Agentit would be bold to suggest there aren’t future award-winners winging their way to the Côte d’Azur. The Cannes entertainment system rolls on.

Davie’s Swansong

Timorrowland: “Energy” and “resilience” are the two qualities Tim Davie’s successor at the BBC is going to need, the outgoing Director General at the UK pubcaster said yesterday. You can say that again, Tim. Davie’s tenure comes to a close at the end of the month, ahead of the important Charter Renewal talks that will decide the broadcaster’s future. Davie has taken plenty of punches over the years – in the past 12 months alone he’s faced backlash over a Gaza documentary, the Bob Vylan Glastonbury crisis, Donald Trump going legal and the recent scandal that broke at the BAFTA Film Awards. He also gave his verdict on what the BBC needs going forwards, suggesting the embattled broadcaster needs to “develop a little bit of a swagger” and “expend political capital” in the upcoming negotiations with the British government. There would also need to be “decisive action” to address the estimated 14% of the British public using BBC services but not paying for them. Simple enough, eh? “At the end of the day this isn’t for the faint hearted,” said Davie. Good luck to whoever lands the role.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: George Michael: The Faith Toura restored and remastered feature based on a long-lost film, is being lined up for a worldwide big-screen release this year.

🌶️ Another One: The BBC is returning to the subject of Elon Musk, with a sequel documentary four years after 72 Films first profiled the tech billionaire.

🔥 A third: David Ellison’s sister, Megan Ellison, is retooling her Annapurna production business with a new international TV division led by Ed Rubin.

🎙️ Interview: Breaking Baz met Jessica Reynolds, the star of Channel 4’s A Woman of Substance remake.

🫱🏻‍🫲🏽 Staying faithful: The Traitors will be a fixture on the BBC until at least 2030, as the British broadcaster has signed a three-year deal for the Claudia Winkleman-hosted shows – celeb specials and all.

🙇🏻‍♂️ Sorry: The Toronto Film Critics Association has said it “unanimously” supports freedom of speech and apologized to filmmaker and actor Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers after the organization edited comments she made about Palestine in a speech.

🏢 Trade talks: Liz Shackleton assessed how geopolitics and tech disruption is impacting the Hong Kong Filmart trade fest, and talked to Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum Industry director Jacob Wong.

🎒 Their own ‘Maxton Hall’: Prime Video Australia wants its YA moment to match the private-school soap, originals chief Sarah Christie told me.

📉 Earnings: Fremantle saw its revenues fall 9.4%, with parent RTL Group attributing the drop to challenges in UK and U.S. entertainment. The Got Talent producer has also conducted an extensive review into its film and TV content spend.

International Insider was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Max Goldbart.