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Using the Western Australian (WA) film industry as a case study, this article revisits the framework proposed by Susan Dermody and Elizabeth Jacka in their anatomy of a film industry project. Acknowledging the power of Dermody and Jacka’s work, the article highlights a lack of detail surrounding the WA case. Drawing on the idea of an ‘imaginary’ industry as a key construct, it argues that a modified version of the framework is needed to account for the WA case, especially at the organizational level. The article proposes that the period 1969/70 to the present can be analysed in terms of three distinct eras and focuses on the first two (1969–1983; 1983–1993). It discusses the organization of film industry policy according to a logic of industry development, and a persistent tension between constructions of industry as production and culture. It gathers the extant scholarly resources for an anatomy of the WA industry (including works by Brian Shoesmith, Tom O’Regan, Tim Fetherstonhaugh, Vincent O’Donnell and others). Drawing on this writing, this article represents a belated contribution to the anatomy of a film industry project and a call to action in relation to the analysis of contemporary industry discourse in WA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of X‐reality (XR) technologies is reshaping the business landscape and redefining the film production process and the role of the audience in films. This study presents a bibliometric and content analysis of 131 academic articles to explore the development and research trends of XR in the film industry. We identify five core themes within the topic: (1) technical considerations, (2) narrative considerations, (3) presence, (4) audience responses and (5) ethical considerations. Based on the identified themes, we provide insights into the intellectual structure of this developing and interdisciplinary topic and propose the framework called the XR Film Innovation Circle (XR‐FIC). The study concludes by identifying the current research gaps and suggesting future directions, further emphasizing the rationales behind the suggested directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual production, a filmmaking technique that seamlessly merges virtual and real cinematography, has revolutionized the film and television industry. However, traditional virtual production requires the setup of green screens, which can be both costly and cumbersome. We have developed a green screen-free virtual production system that incorporates a 3D tracker for camera tracking, enabling the compositing of virtual and real-world images from a moving camera with varying perspectives. To address the core issue of video matting in virtual production, we introduce a novel Boundary-Selective Fusion (BSF) technique that combines the alpha mattes generated by deep learning-based and depth-based approaches, leveraging their complementary strengths. Experimental results demonstrate that this combined alpha matte is more accurate and robust than those produced by either method alone. Overall, the proposed BSF technique is competitive with state-of-the-art video matting methods, particularly in scenarios involving humans holding objects or other complex settings. The proposed system enables real-time previewing of composite footage during filmmaking, reducing the costs associated with green screen setups and simplifying the compositing process of virtual and real images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore the enduring barriers to gender equality in the Nordic film industry, with a focus on positions of power and structural biases. Despite considerable efforts over the past decades to highlight gender inequality – resulting in more women in creative positions in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland – a significant gap remains. Our analysis of 1,070 films produced and released theatrically between 2010 and 2020 in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden shows men dominating directing, writing, and producing roles in 75 per cent of the cases, with women slightly more present in producing. The study finds a negative correlation between the dominance of men in producing roles and the presence of women in directing and writing roles. Factors such as the size of the creative team and co-production had less impact on the proportion of women in key creative positions than expected, whereas a higher proportion of women in managerial roles is linked to an increased presence of women in positions of directing (Sweden) and writing (Finland). These results indicate that while some progress has been made, structural barriers still significantly hinder gender equality in the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists of culture have long noted that contrasting cultural frames can lead to status ambiguity and status multiplicity. We explore these phenomena in the domain of professional sports by first replicating and then extending and challenging recently published findings on selections for the National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star game. Relying on a large data set that includes more than 10,000 player--years, we show that accounting for better-justified performance measures reduces but does not nullify the effects of status cumulative advantage on All-Star selections. However, when replacing All-Star selections with a less ambiguous measure (selections to All-NBA teams), we no longer find evidence of decoupling between player performance and award nomination. From this we conclude that cumulative status advantage only affects selection when voters view factors other than statistical performance as legitimate, perhaps even desired, selection criteria. These findings have relevance for our understanding of status evaluations beyond professional sports, including in domains as diverse as the film industry, the performing arts, literature, politics, and the sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores strategic hybridization in Jeffrey Lau's four films, which reinterpret the classic Journey to the West, and analyses Hong Kong-mainland film co-productions from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s. Adopting a media industries perspective, it examines how strategic hybridization navigates economic pressures and policy environments influencing production decisions, creative choices, and industrial imperatives. The study illustrates that strategic hybridization is not merely a consequence of co-production but a deliberate strategy reflecting the collaborative dynamics between Hong Kong and the mainland, contributing to an increasingly integrated and mainland-centric co-production model. By analyzing strategic decisions across industrial and production dimensions, the article underscores the impact of policy interventions, cross-cultural collaboration, and financial factors in shaping co-production models. The evolution of co-productions is further demonstrated through a detailed look at Lau's films, suggesting that strategic hybridization serves as a set of adaptive strategies fostering a symbiotic, albeit mainland-centric, relationship between the two film industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationalism, an ideological concept that people of shared national identity adopt, is one of the most explored genres of the Hindi film industry. The theme of nationalism which once demanded a sacred and elevated treatment from cinema-makers has faced a comparatively light-hearted, ordinary, and relatable approach in contemporary times. Rather than confining the notion of nationalism within the nation's territory, such new-age movies depict how exiles and immigrants redefine the notion of nationalism. Replacing the exaggerated, parochial, and exclusive depictions of hyper-nationalism in early Hindi war movies with what Benedict Anderson calls ‘long-distance nationalism’, contemporary movies have the potential to expand the idea of the nation beyond its borders. Two such movies that depict characters redefining the notion of nationalism through their acts of transnationalism are Meghna Gulzar's Raazi and Raja Krishna Menon’s Airlift. Both the films refrain from engaging in the classical discourse of nationalism to reveal how dispersed immigrants contribute to the spirit of Indian nationalism through their acts of political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critiques the ongoing dominance of the Hollywood monomyth in the film and television industry, at least in the UK if not more widely. It considers how this is impacting on the teaching of narrative and story in university film and media departments as they move towards stronger collaborations with industry. It argues for the importance of two-way dialogue to help equip students and their future employers for a world facing complex global challenges. Drawing on the author's extensive experience in teaching and practice-led research, it advocates for a creative problem-solving approach which decentres conflict-driven models of narrative development, such as the Hero's Journey, placing them alongside alternative models which engage with the relationship between conflict and harmony in a variety of different ways. Considering narrative structures such as Kishōtenketsu, indigenous storytelling methods and the author's own work with the Polyphonic Documentary project, the need for a genuinely inclusive and expansive approach is brought to the fore. A mixed economy is considered to be essential, with experimental and traditional approaches preparing students for current industry demands whilst also encouraging them to shape future storytelling landscapes. The argument is made that this is crucial to foster a nuanced understanding of narrative and story that can respond creatively and effectively to the demands of a rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Nigerian film industry (Nollywood) and the local responses of filmmakers to the precariousness engendered by the pandemic. This research adopts the critical media industry studies framework and relies on interviews with 30 Nollywood filmmakers who provided insights on the impact of the pandemic on labour in Nollywood. Theorizing the Covid-19 dynamics as reflective of the ambivalence of informality, this article submits that although informality was central to Nollywood's industrial structure and sustainability, the pandemic triggered unprecedented tensions associated with those informal practices and highlighted existing precarity which had been largely masked by constant availability of jobs. Accordingly, a significant legacy of the pandemic for the industry is the unprecedented gravitation of industry players towards more formalized industrial structures and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 1895 saw a multitude of crucial inventions worldwide, one of which was the cinema. Within a few years it had become the basis of a major entertainment industry, though documentary films occasionally seemed relevant to academic ethnography too. This article explores the interplay between the film industry, ethnography, and world events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, three-dimensional (3D) point clouds are widely used in the gaming and film industries. Inspired by the reverse process of polycube-based parametrical mapping, we present an automatic framework that can directly reconstruct a quadrilateral surface with part-based partitions from 3D point clouds and restore their intricate details while remaining resistant to noise. This innovative framework holds potential applications in various fields, including the enhancement of skeleton and rigging processes in computer animation. In our framework, we initially generate a one-dimensional medial skeleton from 3D point clouds. This skeleton guides us in determining the direction mutation and area mutation of 3D point clouds, aiding in the partitioning of the initial quadrilateral surface into meaningful parts. Following this, we evolve our initial quadrilateral surface by moving each vertex toward its normal direction, which is bounded by an unsigned distance field derived from the 3D point clouds. Our framework ultimately generates a high-quality quadrilateral surface that recovers fine details of 3D point clouds with part-based partitions that reflect meaningful partitions of the original object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic had unprecedented implications for cultural sectors. With film festivals, music concerts and other cultural events being postponed or even cancelled, there was an urgency to respond to changing circumstances. Cultural events increasingly relied on hybrid or online formats to remain accessible for audiences. Because such formats caused controversy about programming and release strategies, they were easily conceived of as having a disruptive impact on cultural sectors. This paper puts such assumptions about disruption into question. It focuses on the film festival sector, which is increasingly invested in strategies of online accessibility and audience reach. The research is specifically based on the hybrid festival format. Drawing on case studies of hybrid film festivals such as London, Ghent and Rotterdam, it argues that their strategies and operations should be understood from the perspective of cultural change rather than disruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Netflix's recycling content strategies in the era of streaming cinema. It starts from the assumption that because of the different institutional logic at work in the land of SVODs, the affordances that recycled content brings may not be as effective (and necessary) as it has been in Hollywood. Using a database-centered approach, we analyze 658 Netflix Original films. Between 2015 and 2022, Netflix released 440 non-recycled Originals, showcasing a commitment to offering a high quantity of niche films. The dataset equally shows that the percentage of recycled films (33%) follow a linear upward pattern, highlighting the persistence of conservative content strategies. More specifically, (re-)adaptations constituted the biggest chunk of recycled content (68%), as these allow the streamer to quickly fill its catalog with recyclable IP. Netflix's inclination toward sequels (16%), spin-offs (6%), and prequels (2%) aligns with its sequelization strategy, while also leveraging its own IP. Remakes (8%) play a less significant role, likely due to the relatively young age of Netflix's content library. The article concludes that Netflix may, in fact, be less of a disruptive force to the film industry in terms of the diversity of its content creation, prompting further recycling of existing properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Doxa Comunicación is the property of Fundacion Universitaria San Pablo - CEU and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Doxa Comunicación is the property of Fundacion Universitaria San Pablo - CEU and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates the relationship between star power, artistic excellence, and the commercial success of Chinese movies from 2009 to 2018 based on a two‐path structural model. Artistic excellence was measured based on industry recognition; more specifically, the winners of seven major movie awards in the greater China region, which reflect the critical and popular evaluations of reviewers and consumers. The commercial success was measured by box office performance and the level of buzz among the audience. While the paths of artistic excellence and commercial movie success are essentially separable, as well as conceptually and empirically distinct, movie star power may influence both. Our findings indicate that star power had negative signal effects on critical and popular evaluation as well as industry recognition, but positive marketing effects on critical and popular buzz as well as box office performance. Indeed, star power has indirect positive effects that can outweigh its negative effects. Thus, star power is the key to success in these two seemingly unrelated paths in China. Moreover, these findings have several implications for international investors, producers, actors, and directors who are participating in the Chinese motion picture industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Celebrity endorsements are a time-tested tactic, but marketers have added a twist: endorsements featuring not actors as themselves but as the characters they play in film or television. In two experiments, the authors investigate these "character endorsements." Study 1 establishes that a construct that is new to endorsement research, certainty of meaning, helps to advance understanding of how character endorsements operate. Study 2 shows that character endorsers buffer a paired brand against scandal. The authors conclude by discussing theoretical and managerial issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online review platforms often present reviews from both critics and general users. In this research, the authors propose a measure called "topic consistency" to capture the degree of overlap between critic and user review content. High topic consistency suggests greater information recall due to repeated presentation of the same topics, which may increase the memorability of movie attributes and therefore positively affect movie demand. The authors measure the topic consistency between critic and user reviews using topic models and further study the financial consequences of this measure using data for movies released in the United States. Topic consistency is positively associated with subsequent box office revenue, suggesting a positive relationship between topic consistency and movie demand. Furthermore, the effect of topic consistency on demand is the greatest for movies with mediocre review ratings and when the review ratings from critics are close to those from users. Using lab experiments, the authors provide evidence of the causal link between topic consistency and consumers' willingness to watch a movie, and support for the potential mediation through the information recall of reviews. Movie producers and advertisers should consider highlighting or inducing a central theme for critics and users to discuss, as the more the review content of critics and users overlaps, the higher a movie's revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hollywood motion picture industry has been the epitome of our understanding and explanation of the rise and fall of the studio system. However, this study spotlights the Japanese studio system, which was solidly maintained until the late 1960s. Carefully tracing the process through which the major studios outsourced the production sector, this study examines state regulation against monopoly as a crucial factor explaining the reorganisation of the Japanese film industry after studio restructuring. Because anti-monopoly policies such as the Paramount Decree did not exist in Japan, the studios moved toward maintaining affiliate theatres despite reorganisation in the 1960s and 1970s. As a result, independent producers who did not possess their own distribution networks branched into three major categories: theatrical, low budget adult films; social films meant for independent exhibition, and blockbusters supported by external finance. The shifts in the production sector paradoxically highlight the decisive influence of distribution in the film industry. In essence, this study endeavors to present an alternative analytical approach, using Japan as a case study, for comprehending the rise and fall of the studio system and its restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coming attraction film trailer has successfully maintained its prominent role within film promotion for over a hundred years. This article explores the shifting historical status of the trailer within the film industry and how industry trade press reported on its development and widespread adoption. Across this period these publications worked to delineate the discursive borders within which trailer debate occurred: from attacks on the trailer's usefulness to related claims of accuracy and fidelity. Exploring the creation of this discourse challenges the idea that the increasingly negative tone around the film trailer in the twenty first century is a uniquely modern phenomenon. The article argues that these initial industry strategies need to be understood in relation to key cultural and industrial concerns around commerce and artistry, critical cultural gatekeeping, and broader interests in forecasting. By focusing on a largely overlooked element of the classical Hollywood system, we demonstrate how trailers existed in a disputed space within that system: a crucial promotional tool but also a creatively potent film text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shin Films is known as the largest film studio ever operated in South Korea. Shin Films was a symbolic landmark of South Korean cinema's so-called "Golden Age." Shin Sang-ok, the founder and de facto owner of Shin Films, aspired to build a Hollywood-style film studio and catch up with the current filming technologies of the West. Under his direction, Shin Films produced 238 films between 1952 and 1975. The studio even expanded its market to Southeast Asia, where it actively co-produced and exported many of its films. Shin Films, however, was liquidated by decree of the Park Chung Hee government in 1975 due to the regime's ever-changing film regulations. However, instead of focusing on the state's oppressive intervention in the film industry, this article argues that multiple factors contributed to the rise and demise of the studio. Shin Films was not just a victim of the autocratic government. Rather, the studio engaged with the Park regime while negotiating with the authorities. And Shin Films was the most successful beneficiary of the authoritarian state's film policy. This study demonstrates that the fall of Shin Films was more attributed to the studio leaders' mismanagement, a lack of talent pool, fluctuating market conditions, and regional film studios' collaboration and competition. Using archival materials, in-person interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, and available film scripts, this article examines the studio's business structure, management system, human factors, dominant genres, distribution and exhibition subsidiaries, and imports and exports business, which together constitute Shin Film's mode of production, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the types of on-demand broadcasting, Over-The-Top video streaming services ('OTT platforms') refer to media service providers that provide content and applications, including communication services, over the Internet. The freedom of OTT platforms to choose which films to broadcast can have negative implications for the social and cultural aspects of the film industry and the society: First, OTT platforms often refuse to broadcast films that may cause political discontent in the countries where they operate. Second, as films can be popular tools of propaganda, OTT platforms ultimately contribute to certain views more than others through their film selection. Third, the fact that some content is denied to be broadcasted indicates that certain content creators lack sufficient access to the market through OTT platforms. As a result, reconsideration of OTT platforms' freedom to curate their film catalogues is essential to support the development of the film industry and preserve the integrity of associated societies. This article proposes that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be used as a method of self-regulation to create an inherent limitation on the editorial freedom of the OTT platforms leading to a fairer film selection process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the integration of local dialects and global cinematic trends in Malayalam cinema. Topics include the role of cinema in daily life, the significance of language in film, and the impact of language attitudes on audience perception. It reports that Malayalam films use dialects to construct regional identities and evoke emotions, it mentions how language choices reveal social hierarchies, and it highlights the cinema to challenge existing language attitudes in Kerala.

Focusing on one representative case study – the Danish film literacy initiative School Cinema (Med skolen i biografen) – this article investigates how film education can make European arthouse cinema more sustainable in both cultural and industrial terms. The analysis has shown that one successful model builds on a collaboration between the cultural sectors and the market players where the former ones propose the content and reach out to the target audience, while the latter ones provide the infrastructure and technology. School Cinema gathers both stakeholder groups in Denmark. The cultural sector is represented by the Danish Film Institute, municipal education departments, schools and regional centers for education. The market players in this constellation are Danish distributors and exhibitors which provide rights to the films and secure the screening venues. According to the School Cinema's concept, students see films in cinemas and discuss their themes, dramaturgy and visual language afterwards in class within multiple school subjects. Yet, this program does not only have educational and cultural goals. As this article demonstrates, building on the exclusive distribution data and one expert interview, School Cinema also contributes to the European audience-building project in an industrial sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entertainment products such as movies are risky investments but contribute to societal welfare through their cultural and economic value. Therefore, movie production receives financial support from both private investors and public institutions, in the form of subsidies. Noting the ongoing debate about the actual impact of such funding, in research and practice, this study reviews a large sample of 1984 movies (co-) produced in Germany and released to cinemas over a 10-year period. The findings demonstrate the positive impact of public funding on movie success: indirectly by attracting private funding, and directly by increasing local and global box office revenues. However, public funding does not directly improve movie quality, which contradicts one of the aims of public funding. The analyses reveal different correlations and interaction effects with regard to financing and quality signals generated by the cast, directors, and producers of movies. Public funding emerges not only as relevant for the economic success of movies but also as a factor that supports their cultural contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organized by the German pharmacist and businessman Karl August Lingner, the International Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden took place between May and October 1911. The Exhibition included 13 scientific pavilions built by different countries. The Brazilian pavilion, the sole representative of the Americas, was reportedly quite successful. It introduced European audiences to achievements in unprecedented campaigns to combat yellow fever and Chagas disease. Likewise, the Brazilian pavilion displayed the work of research institutions created between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that gradually reduced the human and social underdevelopment inherited from a colonial past. Each day in the Brazilian pavilion, four scientific films were screened in a packed theater. Yellow Fever (1911), Chagas in Lassance (1909–10), Vacinogenic Institute of São Paulo (1910), and Butantan Institute (1910) synthesized the complexity of a country as large as a continent, a country with enough social inequality to cause perplexity. However, the films screened in the Brazilian pavilion evoked the promise of science overcoming misery. This article aims to explore the boundaries between scientific cinema and popular science, documentary, and sf in two of the Brazilian films screened at the Exhibition in Dresden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-world images often encompass embedded texts that adhere to disparate disciplines like business, education, and amusement, to name a few. Such images are graphically rich in terms of font attributes, color distribution, foreground-background similarity, and component organization. This aggravates the difficulty of recognizing texts from these images. Such characteristics are very prominent in the case of movie posters. One of the first pieces of information on movie posters is the title. Automatic recognition of movie titles from images can aid in efficient indexing as well as information conveyance. However, it is accompanied by other texts like the names of actors, producers, taglines, dates, etc. Though the organization of components is somewhat similar across different film industries like Tollywood (West Bengal), Bollywood (Mumbai), and Hollywood (Los Angeles), the graffiti patterns differ in multifarious instances. To address the problem of movie title understanding, we propose a dataset named MOvie POsters-Hollywood Bollywood Tollywood (MOPO-HBT) that encompasses movie posters from the aforementioned industries. The entire dataset is publicly available (http://ieee-dataport.org/11564) for research purposes. The baseline results of title identification and recognition were obtained with a CNN-based (Convolutional Neural Network) approach, wherein the titles were extracted using the M-EAST (Modified-Efficient and Accurate Scene Text) detector model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the 'making of martyrs' at the intersection of media (especially cinema), propaganda, and body politics in Iran. Martyrs are not only highly contested bodies, but also surrounded by diverse media techniques which compete for the right to re-make these bodies and organize the visual economy of witnessing. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the cultural industry called Cinema of Sacred Defence sought to monopolize the right to make martyrs after the 1979 Revolution, pursuing a strategy of ascribing different qualities of witnessing to different media. Along films such as Ebrahim Hatamikia's Damascus Time (2018) and Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian's Standing in the Dust (2016), the article examines the new ciné-martyrographies of the Sacred Defence and demonstrates how the Islamic Republic's visual propaganda machinery uses old and new digital media as 'messages' – in terms of boundary building as well as the ability to generate genuine Islamic witnessing. In contrast, counter-martyrographies – such as Shahram Mokri's Fish and Cat (2013) and Careless Crime (2020)— are explored that challenge the state's iconology of the martyr and its monopoly on (blood) testimony by depicting media techniques of witnessing that remember those who have no right to be remembered as martyrs by the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on a broad range of under-explored historical sources to document the career trajectories of the women who worked in the Italian film industry between 1930 and 1944. Challenging established histories that normalise male dominance in Italian cinema during and after Mussolini's regime, the article sheds light on women's overlooked contribution to Italy's sound film industry and explores the multilayered, shifting dimension of their precarious and gendered labour. Engaging with key questions raised by historians of Italian Fascism and by feminist research in film and media history, the article delineates intersectional barriers to film employment faced by women in the years of the dictatorship and points to their historical legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the life and fame of Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier of WWII, exploring how his combat trauma and war hero status intersected with his transition to film stardom. It also discusses the cultural construction of combat trauma during and after WWII, highlighting the evolution of terms like "combat fatigue" and their impact on perceptions of psychological trauma among soldiers.

The article delves into the history of Chinese film remakes, tracing their evolution from the early twentieth century to the present day, emphasizing the intertextual nature of filmmaking practices across national boundaries in East Asia. It also discusses the influence of Hollywood on Chinese cinema, particularly in terms of narrative structures, character types, and visual storytelling techniques, highlighting the complex dynamics of cultural exchange and adaptation in the film industry.

The article delves into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema consumption patterns in Romania, exploring how restrictions and health concerns have influenced consumer behavior towards cinema services and streaming platforms. It also discusses the rise of streaming services as substitutes for traditional cinema viewing, examining factors such as increased internet connectivity, changes in household broadband availability, and shifts in consumer preferences towards home streaming.

The article explores the adaptation of William Shakespeare's works in Indian cinema, tracing the evolution of this phenomenon from colonial times to the postcolonial era. It also discusses the impact of Indian regional theater on the translation, adaptation, and performance of Shakespeare's plays, highlighting their influence on the emerging field of Indian cinema.

This paper addresses the need for local cultural policies targeting cinema exhibition. Portugal evidences extreme dependency upon the central government, including for local movie screening, thus expressing the Portuguese high territorial asymmetry. Our research discusses the importance of noncommercial exhibition for countering this situation, as it is implemented by local agents (not only film societies) with a wider cultural intervention. When reflecting on the European countries policies for cinema and acknowledging the big socioeconomic and historical differences between Portugal and the Nordic countries, the regional-local initiatives of the latter emerged as an important issue for decentralization, especially the Norwegian scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender equality measures are now common in the policies of European film industries and can be an important tool for rendering visible gender inequalities. Recent research, however, indicates that top-down institutional gender mainstreaming might mean better conditions for some women in certain aspects, but structural inequalities tend to remain, including lack of an intersectional approach. In this article, these issues are addressed by analysing gender equality policies currently implemented in the Swedish and Spanish film industries. Following Carole Lee Bacchi's argument that the way in which a problem is represented must be analysed backwards, by looking at the solutions suggested, we unpack what inequalities gender equality measures render visible and, in so doing, highlight the aspects that remain invisible. We also discuss how such problem representation plays out for women in the film industries of both countries and consider the counter-practices women deploy to cope with continuing gender inequality in the film industries of Spain and Sweden. Our main argument is that Swedish and Spanish gender equality policies, despite having increased the presence of women film workers, still fail to render visible the structural basis of inequalities cemented by androcentric film governance structures and a male norm around which the film industry has been built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the success of Star Wars in the 1970s, Hollywood's obsession with blockbusters and their sequels (prequels) has been evident. The exploitations of successful intellectual properties (IP) have, in many instances, served the studios well, with many going on to reap hundreds of millions at the box-office. However, in recent times, such strategies have gone to new levels, to the extent that studios' annual portfolio of movies is now virtually dominated by IP-related projects hence the endless list of sequels, prequels and so on. The implication of such phenomenon is that the key resource to success in the industry no longer resides with human capital (i.e. movie stars) but instead the IPs. One should expect fewer standout original standalone movies should this practice continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over-the-top platforms are increasingly being accepted by the younger generation. This study examines the different modes of watching films that have emerged due to the proliferation of over-the-top platforms, smartphones, and 5G technologies during the pandemic period in China. Using survey data, we examine the perception and behavior of 592 respondents. The top five factors in increasing over-the-top platforms to watch movies include easy access, various genres, no time to visit a cinema, pandemic, and new films. Findings also show that users tend to use smartphones to access over-the-top platforms. Bilibili, Tencent Video, and iQIYI are China's most popular over-the-top platforms among viewers. Increasing cinema ticket prices, pandemics, lack of quality content, and film stories are significant challenges for the cinema industry in the near future. These results suggest that the film industry should maintain the quality of the movies, especially those released on the cinema screen. These findings also designate significant substitution between the over-the-top platform and cinema and recommend that competition authorities widen market definitions. The cinema environment and IMAX/3D appear to have little incentive to degrade over-the-top platforms, despite over-the-top's films contributing to declining box office revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]