Another week down, Insiders. Jesse Whittock is with you again to guide you through the biggest and most important TV and film news.

cruise in cannes

Workers rights and 'The Final Reckoning': Cannes 2025 opened this week in almost identical fashion to last year’s edition: With a tepidly reviewed French movie and staff protests. Amélie Bonnin’s Leave One Day was the movie this year, and Cannes staffers represented by the unofficial union Sous Les Écrans La Dèche were present at the opening night gala with placards and posters. The staffers were once again protesting to raise awareness about what they have described as their unfair working conditions . They’re hoping to finally be included in France’s unique scheme for seasonal cultural workers, which grants benefits like unemployment pay. Last-minute talks between Cannes and the French government broke down, so we’re expecting more protests this week. Stay tuned. On the film side, Tom Cruise did his Tom Cruise thing and rolled through the Croisette with The Final Reckoning, the last entry in his decades-long Mission: Impossible franchise. The film received a mixed response from critics. We did a breakdown of the film’s general critical mood here , and you can read how long its standing ovation was below. Deadline’s Damon Wise said the film “holds up as a stand-alone feature” despite being the eighth edition in a decades-long franchise. You can read his full review here. The buzziest movie to screen so far is the German entry Sound of Falling by Mascha Schilinski. Interestingly, it wasn't so well received in the room at Cannes and there was no long ovation, but the critics are giving it raves. Damon said the film was a "masterclass in ethereal, unnerving brilliance." Meanwhile on the selling side, the Marche has yet to start moving. No big deals have been announced yet, but there’s some real heat on sale. Big ticket projects include Photograph 51 , the first feature from British filmmaker Tom Hooper since his widely derided Cats. The film will star Natalie Portman. There’s also a new Donald Trump biopic is at the market with prolific Italian producer Andrea Iervolino. You can follow our market coverage  here to see all the packages on offer and find the latest on dealmaking as the news starts to roll in, and don't forget to check out our film festivals home page, which includes news, features, galleries, more on Cruise and Mission Impossible and Antonia Blyth's interview with Scarlett Johansson, an interview about her directorial debut Eleanor the Great that took the coveted front cover spot in our Cannes Disruptors print magazine.

standing to attention

Clapping out: There's perhaps no single quirk of international film festivals that divides the industry and the public more than the cult of timing the standing ovation. Over the years, the length of time palms smash together at the end of screenings has become a fixture in the trades, with quarrels over how they're measured and what it all even means for sales and caché. Nancy, who has watched the standing ovation time trial go from a fad to a staple of Cannes and Venice, was on hand this week to explain how – and why – it all works. She pegs the moment when the clap-o-meter became the talk of biz to the 2016 screening of Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge in Venice, when the reaction to her coverage "signaled there was a desire for this type of coverage." For those just coming to the concept now, it's worth knowing that the (unofficial) record is roundly considered to be for Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 fantasy drama Pan’s Labyrinth, which saw the suited-and-booted audience on their feet for a mind-boggling 22 minutes. So far this week, Cruise's Mission: Impossible pic got a seven-and-a-half-minute round of applause, while Baz reported Dominik Moll's competition title Dossier 137 got a slightly longer, enthusiastic eight minutes. That screening is also notable for Cannes banning actor Théo Navarro-Mussy from the red carpet after he was accused of sexual assault by three women. A court dismissed the claims in April, but the plaintiffs are planning to lodge an appeal as civil parties.

fragile china

Brow-beaten box office: Though the U.S. and China have agreed to suspend their tariffs on each other for 90 days, there's no getting away from the fact that Donald Trump's ultra-aggressive approach to global trade has Asia spooked. The Asian box office, already hit by the pandemic and the Hollywood strikes, has been slow, and selling U.S. films into China is no longer the bright spot for American sellers it once was. As Liz Shackleton reports, Western sellers aren't even including China in their sales projections, and that was even before the China Film Administration announced it would "moderately reduce" the number of U.S. imports in response to Trump's tariffs. John Wick: Chapter 4 is the biggest grossing indie pic of 2025 so far with $6.2M, and that's a fraction of what would have been taken pre-pandemic. It all adds up to a rather worrying picture as international counterparts from North America, Asia and Europe look for routes forward this week at the Cannes Film Festival. However, there was a major green shoot for the situation this morning as Cruise's Mission: Impossible - The Last Reckoning passed censorship tests and will be released in China in two weeks. Liz's feature covers what happens next for the box office in China and other major parts of Asia. Well worth your time.

itv's future in focus

Shareholder fury: Max and Jake have been sniffing out what could happen to ITV, the UK broadcaster/producer whose future has been the subject of international gossip for quite some time now. In their report , they spoke to several high-end sources about how a deal might shape up, with the ITV share price refusing to significantly budge from around the 80p ($1.07) a share mark. All3Media owner RedBird IMI and Banijay have both been linked to a deal for the lucrative ITV Studios production business, with little appetite shown so far for the ad-reliant networks operation. The issue feels like it’s coming to a head, with ITV CEO Carolyn McCall and Chairman Andrew Cosslett both fending off questions about the share price at a fiery AGM this week with Max reporting that they were “grilled, almost heckled,” by an angry shareholder demanding to know when his investment would improve. Given the tough environment for TV networks and increasingly difficult global production market, there’s no knowing which way this one is going right now. ITV's German commercial counterpart, ProSiebenSat.1 Media, is also going through some prickly ownership issues right now, and we had an update on that situation this week, which you can read here.

rule 'britannia'

'Where there's a hit, there's a false writ': A long running plagiarism case came to an end this week, as a UK judge threw out a £6.5M ($8.7M) High Court lawsuit against British producer Vertigo Films over its Roman Empire drama series Britannia for Sky, written by Jez Butterworth and Tom Butterworth. Benjamin Crushcov, a writer and teacher, alleged Sky had misappropriated his idea and original script for Britannia, and then conspired to cover up the drama’s true origins, with Vertigo boss and Britannia exec producer James Richardson and writer Karen Hyland named as defendants. Crushcov's alleged that Britannia has "striking similarities” to his own work, a historical drama project titled Tribus . However, High Court judge Paul Matthews said he saw no “compelling reason” for a trial because he did not agree the scripts were plagiarized. “Not only are the stories that are told in the claimant’s script and the Butterworths’ scripts completely different, but the descriptions of the similarities are so general that they could apply to a great many things which do not resemble each other in any significant way," said the judge. "And that is without even considering the possibility of coincidence." Ouch. Richardson told Deadline that he rued all the time, money and effort spent defending against the claims, and added: "'Where there’s a hit, there’s a writ' is a truism. Where there’s a hit, there’s a  false writ, is perhaps even truer.” Full story here.

the essentials

🌶️ Hot One: The Celebrity Traitors UK cast finally got its official unveiling, with the likes of Ted Lasso's Nick Mohammed, Stephen Fry and Line of Duty's Mark Bonnar among the Machiavellian gang.

🌶️ Another One: Titane star Agathe Roussell and Blade Runner 2049 actress Sallie Harmsen have joined Apple TV+ heist series 12 12 12.

🔥 A Third: The creatives behind Scandi streaming hits Snabba Cash and Paradis City are behind legal thriller series Burden of Justice.

❤️ YA romcom corner: My Fault: London's Dani Girdwood and Charlotte Fassler will return to direct the UK young adult film's sequel, Your Fault: London.

🗣️ Interview: Pathé boss Ardavan Safaee told Mel the famous French film house is considering a return to the UK.

✨ Disruptor: The Uninvited producer Rosie Fell, founder of Rosebud Pictures, talked to Diana about the challenges of indie filmmaking.

📈 Earnings: RTL, ProSiebenSat.1, Banijay and ITV were among those posting numbers.

🏆 Awards: Mr Bates and Mr Loverman were among the big winners at Sunday's BAFTA TV Awards.

🤝 Hired #1: Former Sky exec Julia Stewart and Warner Bros Discovery France exec Cristina Batlle joined Studio TF1, Mel revealed.

🤝 Hired #2: Former Shark Week chief Howard Swartz joined the UK's Pioneer Productions as CEO.

🚪 Exiting: Ben Kelly from his role as Director of Unscripted Series at Netflix UK and Ireland, I revealed this morning.

🌏 Globie: Indonesian animation hit Jumbo is the latest in our Global Breakouts hotseat.

⛺ Fest: Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Pahn will head up the Locarno Film Festival jury.

✒️ Signed: Series Mania Audience Award winner Florence Longpré at Curate.

Zac Ntim contributed this week's International Insider. It was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Jake Kanter.