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Google DeepMind, Kling AI & Alibaba Join Busan’s InnoAsia Program

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Major tech companies including Google DeepMind, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kling AI and Alibaba Group have signed up to participate in the InnoAsia program of this year’s Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM). 

The official market of Busan International Film Festival, ACFM says it is expanding its scope around the vision of “an innovative ecosystem in which cinema and technology co-evolve.” InnoAsia aims to connect storytelling with emerging technologies, including AI and the rapidly growing microdrama ecosystem. 

As part of this, ACFM is partnering with global marketing and advertising agency Innocean to co-host the ‘Cinema by Brand 2026’ competition, with the Producers Guild of Korea (PGK) responsible for the selection process and production supervision. 

Cinema by Brand is described as “an innovative investment and production support platform that connects client brands with film creators from worldwide to develop and produce new film content.”

This year, the competition is seeking 20-minute short film projects featuring Hanwha Group’s ‘Space Solar Power’. The first-round selections will be announced in early September, followed by final pitching in late September, with final selections announced during ACFM.  

Each selected project will receive production funding, and the selected projects will then be produced and presented to audiences in Korea and worldwide. A session during the market will also explore the significance and potential of branded content in the content business.

Meanwhile, in addition to Google, Kling AI and Alibaba, other AI-driven tech companies attending InnoAsia will include BytePlus, Netflix’s VFX studio Eyeline Studios, MegazoneCloud, OPIM Digital, the Korean Film Archive’s VFX asset trading platform i.AM, and InShorts. 

AI-driven content production companies joining the program include France-based AI/XR content studio Atlas V, Korea’s Mateo AI Studio, MBC C&I, Climax Studio, For Entertainment, K-Dragon and MooAm. 

Microdrama platforms Mango TV, FlickReels and Vigloo have also confirmed their participation. 

Kling AI will co-host ‘New Cinematic Possibilities: Reimagining Filmmaking with Kling AI’ and ‘Kling AI Networking Reception: From Production Needs Across Asia to Industry Partnerships’ with ACFM. 

AWS and MegazoneCloud will launch the ‘AWS Awards’, linked to startup pitching. Winning companies will be selected following a PoC process and receive AWS cloud vouchers. 

InnoAsia will also continue its partnerships with international markets, including Berlin film festival’s European Film Market (EFM). Lux AI, an EFM-participating startup developing an intelligent lighting solution for virtual production, and Tanja Meissner, Director Berlinale Pro and EFM, are set to visit Busan. 

Through collaboration with TAICCA School under the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, imCore, a startup developing an AI solution to improve VFX production efficiency, will also participate.  

ACFM and InnoAsia 2026 are taking place October 10-13 at the BEXO exhibition centre, during Busan International Film Festival, which is running October 6-15. 

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Ted Hodgkinson To Join Hay Festival As Creative Director

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Ted Hodgkinson, the Southbank Centre’s longtime director of literature and spoken word, is leaving the London institution to join Hay Festival in the newly created role of creative director. 

Hodgkinson will officially join the Hay Festival team in the autumn. In the new role, Hodgkinson will be responsible for leading the event’s artistic and creative strategy and public programming. 

He joins Hay’s executive team, led by Chief Executive Julie Finch. The wider executive team also includes International Director and co-Deputy CEO, Cristina Fuentes La Roche; Executive Producer and co-Deputy CEO, Adrian Lambert; Director of Communications and External Affairs, Christopher Bone; Finance Director Amanda Cartwright; Production Director Georgie Cooke; and Commercial Director Penny Compton. 

“We’re delighted to welcome Ted Hodgkinson to Hay Festival Global as our new Creative Director,” Finch said in a statement. “Ted joins us at a pivotal moment, as we build towards our 40th anniversary in 2027 and respond to growing demand for Hay Festival platforms in the UK and around the world.” 

Discussing his new role, Hodgkinson said he aims to build on the event’s “exceptionally strong foundations while being bold and ambitious in reimagining the programme for audiences in Hay-on-Wye and around the world, fired by the belief that its brightest years are still ahead.”

Across his decades-long tenure at the Southbank, Hodgkinson programmed more than 3,000 events, including the now-buzzy London Literature Festival, and expanded the Southbank’s cultural relevance with ambitious programming that mixed the institution’s classical literature programming with contemporary flourishes, like the partnership with Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He also serves as a trustee of English PEN, New Writing North and The Arts Foundation.

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ReelShort Strikes Microdrama Deal With Indonesian Streamer Vidio

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ReelShort has struck a deal with Indonesian streaming platform Vidio to bring hundreds of microdramas to local audiences, as well as co-produce new short dramas with Indonesian production houses. 

ReelShort catalogue titles will be available on Vidio starting on September 1 through the dedicated Short Drama tab, launched by Vidio last year, for subscribers on the TV Extra, Platinum, Platinum Extra, and Ultimate packages. 

The initial offering will include more than 200 titles across popular genres including romance, billionaire romance, fantasy and family drama, with a wide selection of titles available with Indonesian dubbing and subtitles. 

In addition, a “sizable” slate of short drama series co-produced with Indonesian production houses will be made available across both platforms. In a statement, Vidio said the collaboration “creates opportunities for Indonesian creative talent to gain production expertise and knowledge from ReelShort’s global short-drama experience”. 

The partnership, brokered by AR Global Media Network, is ReelShort’s first in Indonesia and is part of a wider expansion across Southeast Asia that has also included strategic partnerships with AIS in Thailand and Globe in the Philippines. 

According to recent data from Media Partners Asia (MPA), ReelShort currently leads the short-form drama market with an estimated 29% global market revenue share. In Q2 2026, Vidio reached 5.8 million paid subscribers across Southeast Asia, ranking third regionally.

MPA data also shows that Indonesia has emerged as Asia-Pacific’s largest market for short-form drama consumption, accounting for 39% of the region’s total audience. 

Sutanto Hartono, CEO of Vidio, said: “Vidio continues to evolve alongside the changing ways Indonesians consume entertainment. As audiences increasingly look for content that fits seamlessly into their daily lives, we want to ensure they can find every type of entertainment they love on a single platform, from live sports, local originals, global entertainment to now, the rapidly growing format of short dramas. 

“Our partnership with ReelShort not only responds to this emerging audience demand but also strengthens Vidio’s position as Indonesia’s most comprehensive entertainment platform, offering more choice, greater convenience, and an even richer viewing experience for our subscribers.”  

Joey Jia, Founder and CEO of Crazy Maple Studio, owner of ReelShort, said: “Our partnership with Vidio marks a significant milestone in ReelShort’s Southeast Asia growth strategy and reflects a fundamental shift in how audiences are consuming entertainment. 

Indonesia is one of the region’s most dynamic entertainment markets. We see tremendous potential not only to expand access to our global catalogue, but also to create original stories for Indonesian audiences. Through our planned local productions with Vidio and Indonesian production partners, we look forward to combining ReelShort’s global experience in developing high-performing short-drama IP with local creative talent to build stories and franchises that resonate locally while reaching audiences across the region and beyond.” 

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Marlo Miazga Debuts M Media With “Deeply Personal” Doc For CBC

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EXCLUSIVE: Canadian producer and showrunner Marlo Miazga is launching a production company with a “deeply personal” documentary for CBC about her death of her teenage son.

M Media will operate out of Toronto, as a IP-focused media business making scripted and unscripted content, with former Sphere Media boss Miazga at the helm.

Miazga’s debut commission, Ground Control, is a feature documentary that has been in development alongside a memoir she is writing for Random House Canada titled Ground Control: Losing My Child to Suicide. The book, co-written with journalist Katrina Onstad, details her tragic story of losing Miazga’s 14-year-old son, Mars, to suicide in 2020 and the aftermath.

Canadian pubcaster CBC has now greenlit production. This will begin in October with delivery aligned for spring next year following the official launch of the book on January 26, 2027. Production finance is in place with Telefilm Canada’s Theatrical Documentary Program, the Canada Media Fund’s POV program and the Roger Documentary Fund all contributing.

Directing the film is Chase Joynt (No Ordinary Man), with Greg Beer and Onstad the writers. Miazga will be joined as an executive producer by Catalyst founder Julie Bristow, who is a long-time colleague and an advocate for mental health, with Ryan Dias also an exec.

Ground Control will have a theatrical run in Canada, which is being handled by Eyesteel Films. Worldwide rights are being shopped.

Miazga is one of Canada’s premiere producers, and was most recently President and exec producer at Sphere Media’s Unscripted and Kids & Family arms. At Sphere, she oversaw docs such as Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness and the Hare Krishnas, an adaptation of Anne Allan’s book Dancing with Diana: A Memoir and a doc series based on Sophie Grégoire Trudeau’s memoir-cum-manifesto Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other.

Return to entrepreneurial roots

The launch of M returns Miazga to her entrepreneurial roots, having co-founder her first company, NewroadMedia, in 2011 with CBC exec Ann Marie Redmond.

She went on to work with Bristow, another former CBC exec, at Bristow Global Media (BGM), where she developed, created and produced several shows. BGM was ultimately sold to Kew Media, and later became part of Sphere (then Datsit Sphere) when Kew went into administration over six years ago.

She left Sphere in July last year, at which point she began work on her new venture.

“As M Media officially launches, the greenlight for Ground Control marks a deeply personal and professional turning point,” said Miazga. “After this period of reflection and planning, I’ve built the foundations of a company rooted in resilience, creativity, and ethical storytelling.

“We know how to make great shows, that has been proven countless times. The secret now is how to make them whilst experimenting, learning, adapting and remaining open, curious and kind. I’m now ready to tell the most important story of my life and to bring other stories that matter to audiences worldwide.’”

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