Hollywood
Fabulous Independent Film Festival to celebrate LGBT community
New Delhi: A total of 15 features and short films celebrating the diversity in the LGBT community will be screened at the fourth annual Fabulous Independent Film Festival next month to be held at the Burns Court Cinemas in Sarasota, Florida in the United States.
The annual festival will be held from 22 August to 24 Augusta nd includes eight features and seven non-features.
The festival is being held in association with the Harvey Milk Festival, a nonprofit organization and is being organized by Broken Rules Productions.
Sarasota Film Society, Watermark Media, Janice & John Shelton, Embracing Our Differences, Planned Parenthood, The Jewish Federation of Sarasota, RCMoore Construction, Theodore A. Gollnick, PA, Throb, Ken Shelin, Chapter 1 Wellness, Wolfe on Demand are among the Fabulous IFF sponsors making this festival a reality. M.A.D.E., Throb and Caragiulo’s are the hosting sponsors.
The Way He Looks presented by Watermark Media will be the opening film. A warm and funny film about teenage love and friendship, it tells the story of a blind boy named Leo, his best pal Giovana and a new kid in school whom they both develop a crush on.
In the dry comedy, Appropriate Behavior by writer, director Desiree Akhavan, is a semi-closeted bisexual Persian American trying to live up to her family’s ideals and traditions while going through a breakup and navigating Brooklyn’s dating scene with both men and women while trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life.
Born To Fly illustrates what happens when one crosses postmodern dance with Evel Knievel. It is about New York choreographer Elizabeth Streb, a Mac Arthur “genius” grant recipient whose Extreme Action Company draws on both sources to craft a unique style of high-flying, high-impact, dare-all contemporary dance.
Boy Meets Girl is a sexy, funny and provocative coming of age comedy about three persons in their twenties living in Kentucky: Robby, Francesca and Ricky, a gorgeous transgender woman. This romantic comedy vividly captures the giddy excitement, sexual heat, and inherent heartache of “non-traditional” love in a small town.
The Circle seamlessly combines a narrative with a documentary love story. The film is the astounding true tale of Switzerland’s 1940s–1960s magazine of that name—and the network of friends and lovers that formed around it, becoming one of the world’s first homophile societies, a 2014 Teddy Award winner.
Cupcakes is the latest by award winning Eytan Fox which is a campy, comic confection telling the tale of six friends who unexpectedly find themselves representing Israel in a Eurovision-style international song contest.
Queerituality is Tom Murray’s film about a boy wonder that left too soon four years ago. Gaylon Emerzian from Chicago is actively completing the editing. This last film was a labour of love for Tom who throughout his films had always been spiritually inquiring. It will be an honour to present his last film as a world premiere and to conclude his beautiful cinematographic journey which he started years ago.
To Be Takei celebrates the Star Trek legend, the marriage-equality advocate, the spokesperson for Japanese Americans imprisoned in internment camps during World War II and the Facebook phenomenon.
Each film on Saturday and Sunday will be preceded by a short film: Barrio Boy, Dinner At 40, First Clue, A Last Farewell, One Night Stand, Secrets & Toys and Who Do You Think You Are?
Hollywood
Paramount Skydance secures financing for Warner Bros Discovery deal
Debt syndication and new loans push $111 billion merger closer to close
WASHINGTON: Paramount Skydance has taken a major step towards its planned acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, securing fresh financing and completing the syndication of its bridge loan facility.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company confirmed that the bridge facility has now been distributed among a group of 18 banks, reducing total commitments to $49 billion from an earlier $54 billion. The move spreads risk across lenders and signals growing confidence in one of the year’s largest media deals.
Alongside this, the company has finalised permanent financing arrangements, including $5 billion in senior term loans and a $5 billion revolving credit facility. A previously planned $3.5 billion credit line has been dropped as part of the restructuring.
The loans are secured against key assets, including Paramount Global, Skydance Media and Warner Bros post-merger, underlining the scale and complexity of the transaction.
The financing push follows a competitive bidding process earlier this year, which saw interest from players such as Netflix before Paramount Skydance emerged as the frontrunner. The deal, valued at $111 billion, is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.
Adding to the momentum, the company has also secured significant equity backing, including investments from Middle Eastern funds, with support from billionaire Larry Ellison, who has guaranteed the equity portion of the transaction.
Commenting on the development, Paramount Skydance chief strategy officer Andy Gordon said, “Our successful debt syndication and new debt facilities represent another important milestone towards the completion of our acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.”
Once completed, the combined entity is expected to carry net debt of just under $80 billion, reflecting the sheer scale of the merger.
As Hollywood continues to consolidate in the streaming era, this deal could reshape the competitive landscape, with Paramount Skydance betting big on scale, content and financial muscle to take on global rivals.
