Vincenzo Bugno, the former longtime director of the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (WCF), will be feted with the inaugural Arab Cinema Gamechanger Award on the fringes of the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Bugno was head of the WCF for 21 years prior to stepping down at the end of 2025. Under his direction, the fund evolved into a cornerstone of international co-production and circulation for films from Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

Notable Arab world recipients under this tenure included Hala Lotfy’s Coming Forth By Day, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, Ayten Amin’s Souad, Suhaib Gasmelbari’s Talking About Trees and Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away.

The prize, overseen by the Arab Cinema Center (ACC), will be bestowed on Bugno at the awards ceremony for its 10th Critics’ Awards for Arab Films in Cannes on May 16.

In a release announcing the honor, the ACC said Bugno had built a career “defined by a rare combination of cultural sensitivity, curatorial rigor, and an unwavering commitment to reshaping the global cinematic landscape”.

The center continued that Bugno had played an influential behind-the-scenes role in championing independent voices from regions historically marginalized within the global film industry, and notably the Arab World.

“Central to Bugno’s philosophy is a rejection of Eurocentric frameworks and reductive narratives. His curatorial approach has consistently emphasized authenticity over conformity, guided by his long-held belief that ‘the more local, the more international’, it said.

It noted that Bugno also played a key role in shaping the Middle East focus of Open Doors at the Locarno Film Festival in 2007, an initiative that helped introduce emerging filmmakers from the region to European industry networks for the first time.

Bugno remains actively involved in other key industry initiatives. He serves as a curator for the TorinoFilmLab Feature Lab and is engaged in festival work in Bolzano/Bozen, while maintaining strong ties to major cultural hubs such as Berlin and Venice.

“Receiving this award brings me immense joy. It is deeply heartening to know that colleagues in the Arab World have viewed my work so positively over the years, particularly our efforts to amplify the voices of new filmmakers and champion innovative storytelling,” said Bugno.

“This achievement is not mine alone; it would never have been possible, whether through the WCF or other initiatives, without the passion and dedication of the incredible team and colleagues I’ve had the privilege of working with for years”.

EXCLUSIVE: Controversial AI platform Twinnin, which “bridges the gap between artificial intelligence and humans,” is targeting at least $3M via its first seed funding round, leading to a $25M post-money valuation.

The film and TV industry app, which is backed by Google and Nvidia and aims to “protect and monetise human identity in the age of artificial intelligence,” clones an actors face, creating a likeness that can then be sold on to studios or brands for use in shows, movies or ads. Actors can sign up for $14.99 per year to post their digital likeness on the app and receive callouts. Studios or brands can subscribe to a number of different tiers, with the most expensive costing $1,200 per month.

As it fires the starting gun on its debut funding round, Twinnin said it has already been promised inbound funding of $3M and now has 2,000 signed-up twins. It has spent the past few weeks holding stakeholder events and meetings, some with those on the more skeptical end of the AI spectrum.

The $3M has been pledged as part of a seed funding round that has interest from an unnamed “prospective lead investor” and “angels including notable JP Morgan C Suite,” according to Twinnin. The outfit said it is “letting the wider market respond before committing to a lead.” Twinnin pegged its post-money valuation at $25M. While the AI likeness market is nascent, it compared itself in size and scope to ElevenLabs, the synthetic-voice infrastructure company that raised seed at $12M post-money in 2022. “ElevenLabs proved the trajectory,” said Twinnin founder Katrien Grobler. “What it didn’t prove is that voice was the only category. Face is bigger. And it is open.”

The funding will be spent on tech, team and scale. Twinnin anticipates a subsequent Series A funding round in 12-14 months if it hits revenue and KPI targets.

Since launch, Twinnin said its number of subscribers has doubled weekly. The app has proven controversial, as we revealed last month. Prior to launch, one agency was criticized for promoting Twinnin to the parents of those under the age of 18. The UK’s Agents of Young Performers Association subsequently told us it “raises serious ethical questions around the consent of a minor.”

Twinnin, which is owned by tech firm AI Kat, has since launch held events and had meetings with the likes of actors union Equity and casting platform Spotlight. “Equity is happy to speak with AI companies who seek to work with performers in an ethical way which centres consent, transparency and fair pay. However, Equity does not endorse any particular platform,” an Equity spokeswoman recently told us after the union’s meeting with Twinnin.

Upon today’s funding round, Grobler said her “vision is that by 2030, not all humans in AI content are synthetic, which is where things are heading today, but that 50% are real original humans, licensed digital twins from Twinnin.”

EXCLUSIVE: After hitting top spot in 17 territories last month, a second season of Prime Video India’s gambling crime drama Matka King was odds-on, and the Amazon streamer has now played its hand.

The Vijay Varma-starring series has been commissioned for Season 2 after the first run became the service’s most-watched new Indian scripted show of the past two years.

Set against the fast-changing backdrop of 1960s Bombay (now Mumbai), the series follows Varma as humble cotton trader Brij Bhatti, who transforms into an illegal gambling kingpin after starting a ‘Matka’ game that takes the city by storm and democratizes a terrain previously reserved for the rich and elite. As the game grows, Brij begins to change his morals as power, money and ambition take a hold.

No word on the second run’s plot, but Prime Video said in a statement: “The game of Matka is far from over, and neither is Brij Bhatti’s reign. Matka King Season 2 is where the real stake begins.”

Season 1 trended in the Prime Video Top 10 across 37 countries and ranked first in 17 countries within its opening week. The show launched globally on April 17.

Matka King is created and written by Abhay Koranne and Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, the latter of whom also directs. Season 1 was produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, Popatrao Manjule, Gargi Kulkarni, Ashwini Sidwani and Ashish Aryan under the banners of Roy Kapur Films, Aatpat, and SMR Entertainment.

The eight-episode series was led by Varma, who starred alongside Kritika Kamra, Sai Tamhankar, Siddharth Jadhav, Bhupendra Jadawat, and Gulshan Grover. The ensemble cast also included Bharat Jadhav, Girish Kulkarni, Jamie Lever, Kishor Kadam, Cyrus Sahukar, Arpita Sethiya, Sambhaji Tangade, Ishtiyak Khan, Sanjivv Jotangia, and Simran Ashwini.

Prime Video’s Indian service has become a huge driver for Amazon, with senior execs often citing the country as one of the biggest drivers of new subscribers. While Prime Video doesn’t reveal its subscriber numbers, estimates put paying customers at more than 20 million paying customers, making it a significant rival to Indian market leader JioHotstar. Earlier this year, Prime Video unveiled a 69-title originals slate, where Matka King was first revealed.

Yesterday, we were first with the news Prime Video had set a May 22 global release date for Indian courtroom thriller System.

The news comes on the same morning it was announced Prime Video is merging with its Amazon streaming sibling Amazon MX Player in India to form a huge new player on the market.