World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
The New York Times and A24 both bid for Letterboxd, the Academy Museum opens its Halloween-season Horror Show exhibition today, a belated farewell to Israeli filmmaker Jacob Goldwasser, and happy birthday to Linda Hamilton.
Morning all — a proper industry story leading today, the kind that could genuinely change who owns one of film culture’s favourite corners of the internet. Here’s what happened in the world of movies during the last 24 hours.
The New York Times and A24 go head-to-head for Letterboxd: Acquisition talks for Letterboxd have heated up considerably, with Deadline confirming that both The New York Times and A24 have now put in second-round bids for the film-focused social media platform. Dealmakers are reportedly calling the site “a phenomenon” and pointing to it as a genuine driver of this year’s box office revival, given how much word-of-mouth now flows through its reviews and lists rather than traditional critics (like me!). Letterboxd was founded in Auckland, New Zealand, by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow in 2011 and didn’t employ any full-time staff until 2020! Although taken over by the Canadian investment company Tiny in 2023, Buchanan and von Randow continue to lead the company as chief executive officer (CEO) and chief technology officer (CTO), respectively, so I dare say they are crying all the way to the bank over the current bidding war for their garage-made baby. Whichever way this goes, it’s a fascinating vote of confidence in film-community culture from two very different kinds of buyer — a media institution on one side, a studio on the other.
The Academy Museum opens its doors to horror, just in time for Halloween: Also today, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures unveils its new immersive exhibition, The Horror Show, running through to 25th July next year. It’s a proper deep dive into the genre’s cultural staying power, timed nicely to open right as spooky season gets underway — alongside a companion Zombies! exhibition for anyone after an even more specific fix.
A belated farewell to Jacob Goldwasser: It’s also worth flagging the death of Israeli screenwriter and film director Jacob Goldwasser, a respected figure in Israeli cinema who died on Thursday aged 76. He was known for his work on Shoelaces, She’s Got It and Max And Morris.
Happy birthday to Linda Hamilton: Rounding things off, happy birthday today to Terminator icon Linda Hamilton, who (it’s difficult to believe) turns 70.
That’s all for today.
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