Category: Entertainment

Zoom has since the days of the coronavirus pandemic been known for its expertise in video. Now the company wants to demonstrate its talent for putting on a show.

Starting this week, Zoom is launching a partnership with podcaster and independent journalist Nayeema Raza, creator of the program “Smart Girl Dumb Questions,” where she seeks out seeks out leaders in business, science, and culture to respond to seemingly disarming queries. Raza on Tuesday debuts a new interview series designed for social media in which she puts a spotlight on “solopreneurs,” or people who launch their own independent operations. She will also conduct a six-part series on her own program, set to debut in August, in which she explores how technology is reshaping work and leadership. In October, Raza will participate in Zoomtopia, Zoom’s annual user conference, and bring her content to the main stage of the event.

The alliance may just be a harbinger of some of the new ways so-called “creators” work with major marketers in an era when independent editors and reporters are increasing their allure in the marketplace of ideas. According to data from Pew Research, younger adults are “especially likely” to get news from influencers. Approximately 38% of those between the ages 18 to 29 regularly do so, a figure more than four times greater than 8% of those 65 or older who do the same.

With creators holding more sway among the consumer crowd most likely to be open to experimenting with the products and services they buy, “it is important for us to be a brand that people like Nayeema and other creators want to work with,” says Kimberly Storin, the chief marketing and communications officer of Zoom, during a recent interview. “We want to be a preferred partner.”

Raza broke into journalism with a background in documentary filmmaking, producing work that was featured at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. She launched “Smart Girl Dumb Questions” in February of last year, after logging stints as a senior staff editor with The New York Times’ opinion section, and as the on-air executive producer of “On With Kara Swisher.”

Such an alliance requires new ways of thinking, says Storin, to which some advertisers may not be accustomed. Raza’s efforts with Zoom won’t be authentic if she isn’t left alone to pursue programming as she sees fit.

“I need my audience to trust me,” says Raza, during an interview. “I need to do what I do with a lot of editorial integrity.”

Conversations about the future of work are a regular part of Raza’s program and having them with the backing of Zoom doesn’t represent anything jarring, she says. On “Smart Girl Dumb Questions,” Raza regularly examines “ how we live, how we work, how we lead, how we have family or partnership in a world that is really changing technologically and culturally.”

The only change people should notice in the way Raza handles her work with Zoom is none. “The editorial is shaped by me. I’m asking questions I would organically ask. I’m speaking to people that I would speak with and what the partnership with Zoom allows me to do is to expand the possibilities of my content,” she says.

If Zoom wants to be a place creators trust, says Storin, then it needs to be willing to cede ground to the creators with whom it works. Zoom has had to “get comfortable with having creators be our advocates and to share their stories. We like to write five-page-long briefs with guardrails and North Stars, and we have to really teach ourselves. We gave our influencers one-sentence briefs. And that was a big shift,” she says. “And we had to really let go of the control that a brand typically likes to have.”

Zoom isn’t backing away from traditional commercials, says Storin, but sees a need to shift to new tactics as digitally-savvy consumers discover services, products and brands in different ways. The “buying journey” is shifting, and becoming “driven by a discovery process that starts in ChatGPT or Claude,” she says, referring to popular new A.I. interfaces. “We have to focus on being found, being present, being believed and being preferred, which is a new level of marketing.”

Should the new partnership work well, other combinations of creators and marketers could become quite common.

FAST channel provider wedotv has struck its first distribution deal in India, bringing four channels to Samsung TV Plus and reaching millions of Samsung Smart TV users across the country.

The agreement adds wedotv Big Stories, wedotv Cars, wedotv Movies and wedotv Sports to the platform. wedotv Big Stories is produced in partnership with Big Media, while wedotv Cars is created with Motorvision. The lineup spans factual entertainment, automotive programming, film and sports content.

The deal extends wedotv’s push into Asia and follows the company’s broader international expansion since 2023. It also marks wedotv’s 13th territory for Samsung TV Plus channel launches, following recent rollouts in the Middle East and North Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

“The launch of our FAST channels on Samsung TV Plus in India marks an important step in wedotv’s international expansion and our continued investment in high-growth markets,” said Iza Piotrowska, senior VP of global business development, wedotv. “India represents a dynamic and rapidly evolving streaming market, and this partnership allows us to bring curated, globally relevant content to a highly engaged audience.”

Samsung TV Plus counts more than 100 million monthly active users worldwide and comes pre-installed on Samsung Smart TVs and select devices without requiring a subscription. The service carries more than 4,300 ad-supported linear channels across 30 countries.

“India is an important growth market for Samsung TV Plus, and we’re committed to building a compelling TV viewing experience by partnering with leading content providers,” said Kunal Mehta, general manager, head of business development, Samsung TV Plus India. “Adding wedotv’s portfolio broadens the range of premium international channels available on the service and reinforces our strategy of delivering high-quality, free streaming content to Samsung TV users across the country.”

Wedotv is the advertising-supported streaming arm of Video Solutions AG, a Swiss media company, and operates channels available via its own website and apps as well as on partner platforms including LG Channels, VIDAA/Hisense, Zattoo and Freeview, among others. The company’s channels currently reach viewers across the U.K., Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America.

Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap, whose latest directorial feature “Bandar” marks his return behind the camera, is at this year’s Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) as jury president while also leading a masterclass titled “Unfiltered Realism.” But rather than having all the answers, the veteran filmmaker is hoping to discover something new.

“As jury president, what I’m really looking for is a new cinematic language,” Kashyap tells Variety. “I’m interested in seeing how younger filmmakers tell stories in ways my generation couldn’t.”

Kashyap believes today’s filmmakers are entering an entirely different creative landscape. AI tools, social media and an overwhelming abundance of information have transformed not only how films are made but also how audiences receive them.

Looking back on more than two decades of filmmaking, Kashyap pushed back on a common assumption. “Staying real isn’t a choice,” he added. “Whether I’m directing, producing or acting, you have to stay real. Only then can you fully play out reality and truly engage your audience.”

He acknowledges that earlier in his career, limited budgets and available technology naturally pushed his films toward grounded storytelling. But he argues that authenticity has never been about visual style.

Rather than seeing authenticity as a branding strategy, Kashyap believes local stories resonate globally precisely because they remain deeply rooted in their own cultures.

Across Asia, Kashyap sees filmmakers share many of the same challenges despite working in different industries. “South Korea, Japan, China and India all have mature film industries,” he says. “But we’re all facing the same problem – audiences have shorter attention spans, and streaming platforms have created endless choices.”

Those concerns echo comments Kashyap made earlier this year about the pressures facing contemporary cinema, particularly independent filmmaking in an increasingly fragmented viewing environment.

Rather than offering a blueprint for filmmaking, Kashyap hopes the masterclass will become a conversation – one where he’s as eager to learn as he is to share his own experiences.

“I have many questions myself as well,” he says. “I’m hoping to find some answers, have meaningful conversations during the festival and maybe discover another clue about the future of cinema.”

Currently priming “Number 10,” one of the most awaited of British TV series, “Sherlock” creator and “Doctor Who” showrunner Steven Moffat will attend Serielizados-Barcelona Series Festival as its headline international guest. He will be joined producer Sue Vertue, producer of “Mr. Bean,” “Sherlock” and “Number 10” and CEO of Hartswood Films, the U.K.’s longest-established scripted producer, also behind ITVX and ITV1 hit “Douglas Is Cancelled.” Hartswood Films was majority acquired by ITV Studios in 2024. 

Serielizados has yet to reveal what Moffat and Vertue will talk about. If a Series Mania masterclass is anything to go on, their session in Barcelona will most certainly be funny. 

“Real life is funny – drama is a lie,” Moffat said at Serielizados in Lille. “You can’t be too funny, too sexy or too pretty. Always go for funny. Humor is truth on speed, that’s what it is. It’s insight with velocity.”

British humor is one of the things the British can be very good at, and one of its television industry’s main export values.

Serielizados is ever more aligned with the Catalan TV industry while still attracting the Spanish premieres of some of the most talked-about international series of the year – 2025’s festival was won, for example, by Norway’s “A Better Man” and Canada’s “Empathy” – the conference strand at Serielizados industry arm, Serielizados Pro, generated a high-quality debate energized top executives from Nordic broadcasters SVT, DR and YLE, plus also reps from BBC Studios, Arte France, Germany’s Beta Film and Paris-based Slot Machine. 

In-person attendance soared last year 80% to 16,000, while Serielizados’ online version, hosted by upscale SVOD service Filmin, hit 194,000 viewers.

‘In Vitro,’ ‘Episòdic’

In 2026, running Oct. 19-28, Serielizados will open with “In Vitro,” backed by Catalan public broadcaster 3Cat and HBO Max and set to debut this fall. 

Created by Marc Crehuet and Alejandra Guimerà, and directed by Creheut (“Pop Ràpid,” “The One-Eyed King,” !Mirror, Mirror”), it turns on Blanca, 37, a biologist, new to a fertility clinic where she confronts the needs and risks of her clients and her own as well. Beta Film picked up international distribution rights for“In Vitro” ahead of Series Mania.  

Serielizados closes with an experiement, the first season of “Episòdic: El principi d’Arquimedes,” a six-part anthology series, each episode lasting 15 minutes, made by 38 audiovisual students from universities, film schools and educational institutions. 

The series is directed by Ainhoa Lastra (“La nit del foc,” at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra,  and Andrea Morales (Paraules d’amor) and Carlos R. Haro (“Cinc minuts més, si us plau”). The series is written by Daniel Durán Pous – a producer on “Unicorni” with two shorts to his credit, “Hipolit” and “L’ultim tren” – adapting the “The Arquimedes Principle,” from playwright Josep María Miró. An alleged child-abuse drama which cleverly plays with audiences own sense of prejudice, the work is hailed in its native Catalonia as a modern Catalan classic.

‘Segunda Temporada,’ ‘Nissaga de poder,’ ‘Literaturium de séries‘

Serielizados will also showcase “Segunda Temporada,” the latest Filmin Original from Spain’s upscale SVOD streaming service, turning on Paula, a once bestselling generational voice who, after writers’ block, is reduced to ghosting the bio of a washed up trap music legend, just out of prison, and maybe or maybe not feeling redemption. Created by Miguel Angel Blanca, behind breakout Filmin hit “Autodefensa,” “Segunda Temporada” will contend in Serielizados national competition.

The TV festival will also showcase the 30th anniversary of 3Cat daily soap “Nissaga de poder,” a milestone in its drive for ambitious originals, and “Literaturium de séries,” an exclusive live edition of the comedy podcast reviewing the supposed but fictional best TV series of the year.

Mind The Gap 

Serielizados also announced Tuesday the second edition of Mind the Gap, its project pitching showcase which will take place Oct. 21, forming part of Serielizados PRO. Expanded to 11 selected titles, with its call for submissions now open and extended through Aug. 17, eight will be chosen from an open call and three tapped from winners at Germany’s Seriencamp Co-Production Pitch and Spain’s ECAM Forum and Iberseries & Platino Industria – an indication of how European events are working together to get projects in front of its top commissioners, production executives and sales agents who make up Mind the Gap’s jury. 

Participants can also expect press coverage. Winners at Mind the Gap’s inaugural edition last year were led by best series laureate “Fortune Cookie,” a low-fi sci-fi drama thriller set in Madrid’s Usera Chinatown, created by Adrián Saba (“The Erection of Toribio Bardelli”) and produced by Kubik Films, Newen Studios Spanish banner headed by brothers Fernando, Jorge and Alberto Sánchez-Cabezudo.   

“A comedy about two Gen Z misfits dodging eviction, chasing dreams, flipping the finger to adulthood and to the glittering city [Barcelona] that’s leaving them behind,” said producer Anna M. Bofarull, “Precarity Fair,” created by Eli Cruz and Mika Cilindro and produced by KaBoGa, won Mind the Gap’s Konga Music Award.

In a further move, Serielizados has released its poster with a slogan, “An Eye for It,” which, it says, “emphasizes the role of its programming team in filtering and curating the ever-growing number of television series, helping audiences discover the most exciting and distinctive titles in an increasingly crowded landscape.”

Serielizados has indeed often shown impecable taste in its lineup selection and top prizes, a jury recognising Sweden’s “Pressure Point” in 2024, for instance, as best international series. Plaudits in 2025 in the national competition went to “The Anatomy of a Moment” and “Jakarta.”