Joanna Szymanska and Fabian Massah dive deep into the heated debate surrounding streamer investment obligations in Europe. With tech giants like Netflix and Amazon pushing back against regulations in Germany and France, what does this mean for the local creative economy? Is it an unfair tax on success, or a necessary contribution from an "extraction business" to fuel cultural diversity?

At the same time, there is an engagement problem especially with 2nd and 3rd seasons. We discuss why they are still producing them. And that actually leads to the question: How do streamers measure the economic value of their production in investments in their balance sheets?

Later in the episode, Joanna sits down with Hugo Rosák, Head of Industry at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF). They discuss the festival's ongoing mission to spotlight Central and Eastern European talent, foster cross-border co-productions, and the new "Book to Screen" initiative. Plus, they explore how independent producers can build resilience in an ever-shifting market.

Links:

🔗  Streamers engagement problem (Lucas Shaw - Bloomberg)

🔗  KVIFF Industry Programme

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn.

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday.
Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).

This week, we're starting with some exciting news close to home: our own Jennifer is taking over as co-head of studies at the prestigious EAVE Producers Workshop. 👏

Plus: We dive deep into A24's controversial $75M deal with Google’s DeepMind and what it tells us about Big Tech’s tightening grip on indie film. We also dissect Amazon MGM’s sudden cancellation of Luca Guadagnino’s Sam Altman movie and its move to Neon.

We cover the growing battle over digital services taxes between Europe and the US, Comcast's strategic split of NBCUniversal, and wrap up with a look at the unprecedented scale of the FIFA World Cup and why live sports remain the ultimate draw for streamers.

Links:

🔗 Comcast’s Split (Variety)

🔗 Luca Guadagnino on the Amazon MGM deal on his film (The Wrap)

🔗 Jennifer’s new role at EAVE (Screen)

🔗 Trump’s Tariff threats (The Guardian)

🔗 FIFA World Cup Numbers (Nielsen)

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn.

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday.
Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).

In this episode of The Sideletters, Jennifer, Joanna and Fabian discuss

European Social Media: Is WSocial the new European alternative to X? We discuss the push for digital sovereignty and new platforms emerging in the EU.

A24 & Google's DeepMind: With Google investing $75 million in the indie darling A24, what does the future of AI-powered filmmaking tools look like? Are the tech giants coming for indie cinema?

Instagram vs. Netflix: Meta is bringing Instagram to your living room TV. Could this episodic format challenge the streaming giants for sofa viewing?

TF1 & Netflix Partnership: A landmark distribution deal in France. What happens when public broadcasters hand over their distribution to streamers, and how does it affect the ecosystem?

Film Revenue & Waterfalls: We break down the complex reality of backend deals, inspired by a viral analysis of box office receipts, and explore new equity models for risk-sharing among film crews and producers.

The Amazing Digital Circus: How an indie YouTube animated series from Glitch Productions dominated global box offices, proving that original creator-led IP can rival traditional studio blockbusters.

Links:

🔗 Mynette Louie breaking down (possible) Obsession waterfall

🔗 The Amazing Digital Circus

🔗 Netflix / TF1 Deal (Deadline)

🔗 Google Investing 75m USD in A24 (Variety)

🔗 W Social

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn.

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday.
Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).

We dive into the ever-shifting landscape of the European creative industries, starting with two major stories:

the sobering Europe 2031 report on AI and digital sovereignty (including the recent Anthropic model shutdown for European users),

and the $250M launch of Compound Creative Holdings by CAA and TPG.

Then stay tuned for a thought-provoking conversation on what we need to focus on: We sit down with media analyst and futurist Johanna Koljonen, author of the renowned Nostradamus Report.

We discuss its 2026 edition, "Challenging Projections," exploring how film, TV, streaming, and the creator economy have merged into one connected ecosystem. Johanna challenges the European "snobbery" dividing art from commerce, urging the industry to build meaningful direct connections with audiences, stop acting out of fear, and start tracking essential data to measure true cultural impact.

Links:

🔗 The 2026 Nostradamus Report

🔗 Europe 2031

🔗 Variety on CAA, TPG 250m EUR fund

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn.

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday. Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).

The Backrooms / Obsession debate gets sharper. And one of Europe's most experienced distributors asks the question nobody can answer: is all this hype a wave, or just a drop?

Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine, Joanna Szymanska and Fabian Massah cut through the noise, and sit down with Torsten Frehse, CEO of Neue Visionen and founder of European Work in Progress.

In this episode of The Sideletters:

💥 Backrooms vs. Obsession: Disruption or Just a Great Story? Backrooms is now at $200M, Obsession at $175M, and climbing. While Backrooms opened huge, then dropped, Obsession has stronger ratings and week-on-week audience growth through word of mouth. Is that really a shift in the business model, as some argue?

💸 Who Gets Paid When a $750K Film Makes $150M? The art director on Obsession claims she was paid $300/day, around $7,000 total. The film has grossed over $150 million. We break it down: how do back-end deals actually work in Germany and France. What does Germany's transparency law require producers to disclose? And could a film cooperative model, where every crew member becomes a co-owner, be a real alternative? Plus: a new Polish industry salary report reveals that crew members earn decent wages, but 50% are still unhappy.

🎬 Guest Interview: Torsten Frehse, CEO Neue Visionen & founder of European Work in Progress One of Germany's most successful independent distributors and the founder of European Work in Progress (EWIP) joins Fabian to talk about the market's 9th edition, now anchored in Hamburg as part of the Filmfest Hamburg Industry Days. Around 25 European features in post-production are pitched each year to leading sales agents, distributors, and festival curators, with awards worth €100,000. The 2025 cohort produced the Cannes Certain Regard Jury Prize winner Elephants In The Fog, plus another film selected in Cannes, and a further title showing this month at Tribeca.

Links:

🔗 European Work In Progress - Call for Projects

🔗 The Wrap on Obsession’s Art Director speaking out

🔗 Article on Crew Salaries Report (in Polish language)

🔗 ⁠Crew Salaries Report (PDF) (in Polish language)

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn.

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday. Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).

German film had its biggest awards night, and it got complicated. Two young YouTube creators just shattered US box office records. And Netflix is quietly trying to rewrite European media law. All in one week. In this episode of The Sideletters, Joanna Szymanska and Fabian Massah unpack what's really moving the creative industries in Europe right now:

🏆 The Lola Awards & the Wenders Controversy Sound of Falling swept Germany's most prestigious film awards. But the night's most talked-about moment came when honorary Lola recipient Wim Wenders addressed a very uncomfortable question on stage: actress Nastassia Kinski has been asking him for years to cut a scene from his 1974 film Wrong Move, a scene in which she appeared as a 13-year-old. Wenders asked the audience: Would cutting it set a precedent? Fabian and Joanna dig into the bigger question: How should the creative industry handle the ethics of its own heritage?

Note: This topic includes a brief description of a disturbing scene involving a minor. The hosts flag this at the top of the episode.

📱 YouTube Creators Are Winning Hollywood. What Does Europe Do? Kane Parsons (aka Kane Pixels) just opened Backrooms, released by A24, to $81M domestically in its first weekend. The biggest-ever debut for a non-sequel, non-IP horror film. The original "IP"? A single creepy photo on 4chan. Meanwhile, 26-year-old TikTok creator Cory Baker's Obsession, shot for $750K, has grossed over $100M. A new talent pipeline is reshaping Hollywood, one built on audience trust, not development deals. Does Europe have an equivalent? And if not, why not?

⚖️ Streamers vs. Europe: The Direct Investment Battle Gets Serious Germany just tabled an 8% streaming reinvestment obligation. Belgium took Netflix to its Constitutional Court, and the AVMS directive revision is open for consultation right now. This is the moment for European professionals to have a say.

🖥️ EU Tech Sovereignty Package. What to Watch. The European Commission is about to publish its cloud and AI development act, with a goal of tripling EU data center capacity within five to seven years. We're gonna follow this.

Links:

🔗 WSJ on “Backrooms” and “Obsession”

🔗 THR on “Backrooms” and “Obsession”

🔗 about “Crocodile“ (2026)

🔗 Süddeutsche Zeitung about Wim Wenders/Nastassja Kinski controversy (in German language)

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn. 

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday. Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).

The dust has settled on the Croisette, and Episode 17 of The Sideletters delivers a wrap-up of Cannes 2026. Joanna and Fabian discuss the major winners, including a historic Golden Palm, a landmark award for African cinema, an outstanding deal, before diving into an insightful interview that Jennifer had with Guillaume Esmiol, Executive Director of the Marché du Film. Discover how the world's largest film market continues bridging the gap between traditional markets, the creator economy, investors and the integration of AI in our industry.

Plus:

Why the Enhanced Games did not turn out to be the media phenomenon it wanted to be.

And even the Vatican wants to say something about AI.

Links:

🔗 Cannes Winners 2026

🔗 Enhanced Games

🔗 Pope Leo’s Magnifica Humanitas

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn.

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday. Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).

While the Cannes Film Festival 2026 buzzes on the Croisette, Joanna Szymańska and Fabian Massah analyze the industry from an observer's distance. This episode tackles the major political and structural shifts that impact European production. From the much-discussed AgoraEU mega-program to Canal+ leadership's shock announcement of blacklisting industry professionals, we dive deep into why cultural sovereignty, a new report from EAVE on producers‘ mental health are now at a critical breaking point and into Netflix's recent "Global Economic Cultural Engine" report and the massive expansion of their ad-supported tier. Is Netflix saving the industry or merely recreating "old TV"?

Links:

🔗 Screen quotes Henna Virkkunen

🔗 The Guardian on Canal+ vs 600 industry professionals

🔗 EAVE Report on Producers Mental Health

🔗 WSJ on Streamers taking over Ad Market

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn.

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday. Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).

Join us as Thibaut Bracq, Head of La Fabrique, a game-changing program at Cannes that supports emerging filmmakers and producers from around the globe, reveals the secrets to launching your first feature film at the world's biggest film market.

In this episode, Thibaut shares, what industry professionals look for in emerging projects, how La Fabrique selects 10 projects from 150+ applications, why bold cinema attracts major players, and pitching & networking strategies that actually work at Cannes.

Plus, more about the future of the industry:

Joanna caught statements from Lodz Film School students who will be in Cannes for the first time. Pretty insightful. Thanks to Ola Nowakowska, Marta Witkowska and Julia Pietrasik.

And our support of the open letter “Cinema needs Europe. Europe need Cinema.” - signed by more than 5,000 professionals including Juliette Binoche, Sandra Hüller, Joachim Trier - calling on the EU to continue dedicated support of the movie sector within the MEDIA frameworks.

Links:

🔗 Sign the Open Letter: Cinema needs Europe. Europe Needs Cinema.

🔗 La Fabrique Cinéma

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn.

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday. Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).

On the eve of Cannes 2026, The Sideletters go behind the scenes with Alexandra Zakharchenko, head of industry programs at the Marché du Film, the beating heart of the global film business.

In this special episode, Alexandra reveals how the Marché connects thousands of producers, distributors, investors, and creators annually, explains the innovative Investor Circle program that bridges public and private financing, highlights emerging regions (sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan), and discusses what independent cinema actually needs to thrive in 2026 and beyond…and at the end, we found a unique German language expression that describes it very well 🙂

Links:

🔗 Marché du Film Industry Programs

👉 Connect with The Sideletters community on LinkedIn.

The Sideletters is a weekly European B2B conversation on film, tech & future business. New episodes every Wednesday.

Hosted by Jennifer Sabbah-Immagine (Paris), Joanna Szymanska (Warsaw) and Fabian Massah (Berlin/Hamburg).