Hollywood
Paramount responds to Warner Bros’ seven-day negotiation offer
$30 all-cash bid battles Netflix pact as board sets March vote
NEW YORK: The streaming wars have taken a corporate twist, with Paramount Skydance sharpening its pitch just as Warner Bros. Discovery doubles down on its planned tie-up with Netflix.
In a pointed statement, Paramount said WBD’s board has granted it a seven-day window to negotiate, but stopped short of formally declaring the $30-per-share all-cash offer a superior proposal. Such a determination would normally open the door to talks without a ticking clock.
Instead, the WBD board is pressing ahead with its special shareholder meeting on 20 March to seek approval for the Netflix merger. Proxy materials already sent to investors put the deal’s value in a range between $21.23 and $27.75 per share.
Paramount’s counter, by contrast, is simpler and sweeter. It offers $30 per share in cash, plus a quarterly ticking fee of $0.25 per share until the transaction closes, promising what it calls a faster and more certain route to completion.
While it described the board’s approach as unusual, Paramount said it is ready to engage in good-faith discussions during the short negotiating window. At the same time, it is not putting all its chips on the table. The company plans to continue its tender offer, campaign against the Netflix merger, and push ahead with plans to nominate its own slate of directors at WBD’s upcoming annual meeting.
For investors, it now reads like a three-act drama: a richer cash bid on one side, a strategic streaming partner on the other, and a board trying to keep both suitors in the wings, at least for a week.
Hollywood
Who is Geeta Gandbhir? The director behind two separate Oscar-nominated films in one historic year
The Emmy-winning filmmaker makes history with dual documentary nominations at this year’s Oscars.
LOS ANGELES: If Hollywood loves a breakout moment, this year it belongs to Geeta Gandbhir. Long respected within documentary circles, Gandbhir has suddenly become a mainstream name after scoring two Oscar nominations in the same season, one for a feature and one for a short. It is a rare feat. It is historic. And it has prompted one big question: who exactly is the filmmaker behind this double triumph?
Before stepping into the director’s chair, Gandbhir built her reputation as a razor-sharp editor. That technical grounding shaped her storytelling style, which is precise, unsentimental and emotionally direct. Her early career included working alongside Spike Lee, an apprenticeship that sharpened both her political lens and cinematic instincts.
Over the years, she accumulated multiple Emmy Awards and a Peabody, quietly becoming one of the most respected nonfiction voices in American television.
Her feature-length nominee, The Perfect Neighbor, released on Netflix, investigates the fatal shooting of Ajike Owens through stark police body-cam footage. The film strips away dramatic embellishment and instead relies on unfiltered visual evidence to confront viewers with uncomfortable truths.
At the same time, her short film The Devil Is Busy, streaming on HBO Max, offers an intimate, ground-level look inside an abortion clinic in Atlanta. Co-directed with Christalyn Hampton, it trades scale for immediacy and delivers impact in under an hour.
The contrast between the two projects, one investigative and expansive, the other intimate and observational, highlights Gandbhir’s range. Yet both share a common thread, which is a focus on lived reality rather than spectacle.
Documentary filmmaking is often seen as awards adjacent and respected but rarely spotlighted. Gandbhir’s dual nomination changes that narrative. It positions her not just as a contender, but as a defining nonfiction voice of her generation.
Whether she takes home one statuette or two, the achievement itself has already reshaped the Oscar conversation and cemented her place in film history.
