movies
AFCI Film Commissions, Stage 32 Workforce Training Amid Crew Shortages
As global film and television production spreads across more regions than ever, the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) and Stage 32 are teaming up to launch a new education partnership aimed at solving one of the industry’s key bottlenecks: a shortage of trained below-the-line crew in emerging and competitive markets.
The partnership will officially be unveiled during AFCI’s Power of Place Global Film Commission Network Summit, taking place May 15–16 at the Marché du Film in Cannes, which will address global production opportunities and challenges.
“With more regions investing in tax incentives to attract production, pressure is mounting on local talent pipelines to support that growth,” the partners said. “Across markets, productions continue to face the same challenge: a shortage of trained crew in key below-the-line roles, including production accounting, production management, assistant directing, line producing, location management, post-production, and coordination.”
Highlighted AFCI executive director Claire Brooks: “The ability to support projects on the ground is becoming a key differentiator between markets. Strengthening local crew capacity allows jurisdictions to more fully realize the benefits of their incentive programs and support productions with greater consistency and confidence.”
AFCI and Stage 32 are now looking to address this challenge to enable a “more sustainable and competitive” production landscape.
By equipping film commissions with the tools to develop talent locally, the partnership is designed to strengthen “not only individual jurisdictions, but the global production ecosystem as a whole.”
The goal is straightforward: train local crews to a level where productions can hire locally, qualify for incentives, and keep budgets intact.
Stage 32 trainings and certifications are taught by working professionals, including Mike Fantasia, (Top Gun: Maverick), Miranda Carnessale (Barbie), producer Brad Carpenter (The Diplomat) and Paramount Studios’ Shalonda Ware, among others.
Stage 32 has already worked with more than 50 film commissions and organizations worldwide, including programs in Saudi Arabia, Croatia, South Africa, Uganda, and Poland, focused on “building local crews that can support incoming productions” and do so at an international standard.
“Partnering with them allows us to bring that level of education directly to our members and help close the gaps that are holding regions back,” said Brooks.
The partnership will also include a new training course for film commissioners, entitled “Film Commission Leadership: Building World-Class Production Ecosystems,” which will be taught by Marjorie Galas, senior director, membership & programming at AFCI and select entertainment industry and public policy guests.
“AFCI represents the backbone of global production infrastructure,” said Amanda Toney, Stage 32 managing director. “They’re the ones on the ground making production possible in every region. What they’ve built is an incredible global network, and our role is to support that by helping their members strengthen both their crews and their operations. When film commissions are set up to succeed, the entire ecosystem benefits – from studios all the way to local crews.”
The program will roll out globally beginning in June, with training, certification access, and ongoing education initiatives available to AFCI’s members.
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Legendary documentary filmmaker Sam Pollard will lead the Official Competition jury at this year’s London Film Festival.
Pollard will be joined by Argentine filmmaker and writer Mariano Llinás (The Life of Jorge Luis Borges) and Julie La Bassiere, Chief Strategy Officer at DDA Global. The ten films in Competition at LFF this year are:
• 7 Miles Out — Carol Morley
• Act 3 — Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor
• Glaxo — Benjamín Naishtat
• Imperium — Sergei Loznitsa
• Ketticè — Giovanni Tortorici
• Look Back — Hirokazu Koreeda
• My Notes on Mars — Lili Horvát
• The Difficult Bride — Rubaiyat Hossain
• The Idiot(s) — Małgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert
• Woman Unknown — May el-Toukhy
The First Feature Competition (Sutherland Award) jury will be led by British Egyptian actor and producer Amir El-Masry. El-Masry won a Scottish BAFTA for his performance in Limbo and was named a 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough Brit. His recent screen work includes the Naseem Hamed biopic Giant and 100 Nights of Hero.
Sandhya Suri will lead the Documentary Competition jury. Suri’s Hindi-language narrative fiction debut, Santosh, premiered at Cannes in 2024, won the BIFA for Best Screenplay, was nominated for an Outstanding British Debut BAFTA, and was shortlisted for the Oscars. Suri, who originally made her debut with the 2005 documentary I For India, is now working with BBC Film on a JG Ballard adaptation. T
The Short Film Competition jury is led by producer, writer and Erebus Pictures co-founder Helen Simmons. Her producing credits include the BAFTA-nominated Hoard, the 2025 LFF Closing Gala film 100 Nights of Hero, and Berlinale Crystal Bear winner Last Swim. She also co-wrote and co-directed the Méliès Award-winning short Measure.
The 2026 London Film Festival runs from October 7 to October 18.
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Surprise! M. Night Shyamalan‘s hotly anticipated next feature Remain had an impromptu premiere at the 2026 Beyond Fest and the early reaction to the supernatural thriller has already hit social media.
Remain screened at the genre festival ahead of a planned retrospective screening of Shyamalan’s 1998 classic The Sixth Sense. The filmmaker personally introduced Remain at Beyond and to say festivalgoers were surprised is an understatement as his new feature is not slated to be released in theaters by Warner Bros. until Feb. 5, 2027. Although, Remain‘s original release date was Oct. 23, 2026 it was moved to be closer to Valentine’s Day.
Clearly Shyamalan and Warners are feeling bullish about the prospects of Remain, and the early screening and hype building backs up comments he made at Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfront presentation to advertisers in New York earlier this year, when he confessed that Remain was “my highest-testing movie of my career.” The positive reaction to Remain‘s first trailer also suggests Shyamalan is on to something.
Remain is a romantic supernatural thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Phoebe Dynevor and Julie Hagerty, and tells the story of an architect recovering from depression who moves to Cape Cod and encounters a mysterious woman.
Shyamalan co-created the project with bestselling The Notebook and Dear John author Nicholas Sparks and Remain first appeared as a bestselling novel from the pair in 2025.
Remain is Shyamalan’s second consecutive film for Warners after 2024’s Trap which made $84 million at the box office off a $30 million budget and became something of a memeable pop culture phenomenon.
See the early reaction to Remain below.
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Sam Pollard and Amir El-Masry are among those tapped to head up the BFI London Film Festival competition juries this year.
Pollard will preside over the event’s official competition jury, which will select the winner of the best film award. His decades-spanning career includes Peabody and Emmy Awards, an Academy Award nomination and the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement Award. Pollard’s recent directing credits include Tutu, which won the Peace Film Prize at this year’s Berlinale, as well as I Was Born This Way (2025), The League (2023), South to Black Power (2023), Citizen Ashe (2021) and MLK/FBI (2020).
Pollard is joined by Argentine filmmaker and writer Mariano Llinás (The Life of Jorge Luis Borges, The Flower) and Julie La Bassiere, chief strategy officer at DDA Global. “When I was asked to be the jury president for the London Film Festival, I was very surprised,” said the filmmaker on Wednesday. “I have been a jury member at other festivals but to be asked by the London Film Festival leaves me over the moon and very excited to weigh in on the films we will be asked to screen.”
The first feature competition (Sutherland Award) jury will be headed up by British-Egyptian actor and producer Amir El-Masry. El-Masry won a Scottish BAFTA for his performance in Limbo and named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2020. His recent screen work includes the Naseem Hamed biopic Giant and Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights of Hero. The star is joined by Filipino independent film producer and former schoolteacher Alemberg Ang (Moonglow) and Rosa Bosch, an international film sales, distribution, and awards strategy executive and AMPAS member.
Leading the jury selecting the winner of the Grierson Award for the documentary competition is British-Indian writer Sandhya Suri, whose narrative fiction debut Santosh was shortlisted for the Oscars and won the BIFA for best screenplay. Suri originally made her debut with the 2005 documentary I For India (which played at the Sundance Film Festival) and is now working with BBC Film on a J.G. Ballard adaptation. She is joined by Kate Fitzpatrick, senior programmer at Melbourne International Film Festival, and Andee Ryder, a BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning film producer.
The short film competition jury is led by producer, writer and Erebus Pictures co-founder Helen Simmons. Her producing credits include the BAFTA-nominated Hoard, the 2025 LFF closer 100 Nights of Hero and Berlinale Crystal Bear winner Last Swim. She also co-wrote and co-directed the Méliès Award-winning short Measure.
Simmons is joined by New York Times Critics’ Pick and Sky Arts breakthrough award nominee Leo Reich, a comedian and creator of forthcoming Channel 4 and A24 series It Gets Worse. Joining them is script editor, story consultant and executive producer Jack Casey (Wren Boys, White Girl), who is also a story consultant on Black Church Bay, which screens at this year’s LFF.
“We are delighted to share our 2026 competition titles with audiences and our esteemed jury members,” said BFI London Film Festival Kristy Matheson. “Our competition films bring together an extraordinary range of stories and filmmaking voices, and our juries bring distinct perspectives to the films. My thanks to each of them for their generous participation in the festival this year.”
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