For the past two Mays, Hollywood’s studio lots have remained quiet during the week they should be buzzing with the world’s top international acquisitions execs, excitedly chomping down on In-N-Out burgers and squeezing into grand theater halls at the annual LA Screenings.Normal service will be resumed next week, as in-person screenings return for the first time since 2019 following the (seeming) end of the worst of the Covid pandemic.
Execs are closing down their Zoom apps and instead eyeing up lunches in the sun and the programs that have most caught their eye during pilot season.
As one UK buyer says: “It’s not quite as fun chatting over a cheese sandwich at home than fine dining in Los Angeles.”But it’s hardly a secret that the LA Screenings aren’t exactly what they once were to the international TV community, with many shows taken off the table and warehoused for the studios’ global streaming services.
Meanwhile, the available network series are, according to one major European buyer, “out of fashion overseas,” as international co-productions become bigger, bolder and broadly better than ever.“The structure of the Screenings this year is a bit unclear,” says one sales chief from an LA-headquartered production and sales house speaking to Deadline two weeks before the events, which begin on Monday (May 23).
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