World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
Netflix’s earnings & film chief void, Sentimental Value sweeps the Nordic Council, A24 goes global, Judi Dench on Cats & Artificial Eye turns 50.
Morning, all. Yesterday I told you Dan Lin was out at Netflix; last night the streamer reported its results, and there’s news from the Nordic Council as well, as promised.
Netflix’s results and a vacancy: Netflix beat Wall Street’s profit forecast for the third quarter, with revenue of $12.87 billion, up 11.8%, net income of $3.66 billion and earnings of 87 cents a share against the 82 cents expected. However, revenue growth was the slowest in three years, and shares fell more than 6% after hours as it forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $13.44 billion, slightly below expectations, and cut its 2026 advertising revenue target to about $2.7 billion from $3 billion. The costs of the 1,000 layoffs will also take a bite out of its profits, trimming its operating margin (the share of its revenue left as profit after running costs) by about 1.2 percentage points in the fourth quarter, to a forecast 26%, which is still up on 24.5% a year ago. Deadline reports that Dan Lin’s successor as film chief won’t be named until new chief content officer Peter Rice arrives, so Netflix’s film division is currently without a boss, in what is one of the strangest moments for the company in years.
Sentimental Value sweeps the Nordic Council: As I promised yesterday, the winner of the 2026 Nordic Council Film Prize was announced. It will be no surprise to ANYONE that it is Norway’s Sentimental Value, and the prize goes to director and co-writer Joachim Trier, co-writer Eskil Vogt and producers Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar. The jury called it an instant classic of Nordic cinema, and for the first time ever, every Nordic Council prize this year has gone to Norway. Trier and Vogt previously won the prize for Louder Than Bombs in 2016, and the DKK 300,000 ($47,000) prize will be shared between the winners at a ceremony in Helsinki on 27 October. It follows the film’s Oscar win for international feature in March, so it’s been quite a year for it.
A24 goes global: Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has bought rights in a host of international markets to two of A24’s awards season films, the Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim documentary You Can See Everything and Primetime, after a competitive bidding situation. It follows the documentary’s historic $15.6 million opening in North America over the weekend, and A24 also released the first teaser trailer for Slayground, the new film from Rebel Ridge and Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier.
Judi Dench on Cats: In an interview article in The Guardian, Dame Judi Dench has looked back on Tom Hooper’s universally panned 2019 film version of Cats, in which she played Old Deuteronomy, and says she can hardly bear to think about it. I’m sure she’s not alone. A good read, advertising her forthcoming memoir, “Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?” which sounds like a ‘must read’.
Artificial Eye turns 50: The BFI has announced a celebrating 50 years of Artificial Eye, the pioneering UK distributor of world cinema, with a season at BFI Southbank from 1 to 30 December. Artificial Eye and Curzon: A Celebration features 14 titles from the label’s library, co-curated by former Artificial Eye general manager Robert Beeson and the BFI’s Jason Wood. They include Robert Bresson’s L’Argent (introduced by Beeson on 1 December), Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog, Claire Denis’s Beau Travail, the Dardenne brothers’ Rosetta, Léos Carax’s Holy Motors, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida, Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty and Colm Bairéad’s The Quiet Girl. Founded by Andi and Pamela Engel in 1976, the label released its first film, Theo Angelopoulos’s The Travelling Players, and went on to distribute more than 350 theatrical releases in its first 30 years. Tickets go on sale to Patrons on 2 November, Members on 3 November and to the general public on 5 November.
Birthdays: On a sad note, Carrie Fisher, the original Princess Leia, would have been 70 today. Also celebrating are the cinematographer Darius Khondji (71), whose credits include Se7en and Uncut Gems, and Ken Watanabe (67), star of The Last Samurai and Inception.
That’s all for today.
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