Our new section – NO BLINKS – is where we’re logging what’s bubbling, breaking, or just bugging us, from brewing deals and background drama to strategic moves with the potential to (or not) reshape the industry. 

The embrace of artificial intelligence by the BiFan film festival in South Korea is no longer new, as its conference and AI film competition this month amply demonstrated. But the event might serve as a lesson – or warning – to those who would rather bury their heads in the sand.

Among other tags, Indonesian filmmaker and businessman Angga Dwimas Sasongko has been called a “visionary” and a “disruptor”. And that was long before Visinema Pictures, the company he founded and leads as CEO, backed Jumbo –  Indonesia’s highest‑grossing film ever.  

Hong Kong-based regional production house, AR Asia Productions, has upsized its vertical video rollout, delivering micro-drama titles at scale in Indonesia with streaming platform Vidio and in Thailand with True Corp’s TrueVision Now, as well as sealing distribution deals for four of its 10 verti

Animation has become the top choice for family entertainment in China, with elevated status now being given to English-language animation as a learning tool, according to a new study released by streaming platform BiliBili. 

Malaysian platform Astro has taken a step further into the ‘creator economy’, investing in “culture-first digital marketing venture” KULT and, using a different approach to content and platform assets, eyeing a bigger share of the space that exists beyond Astro’s current reach.