Congrats to MY OCTOPUS TEACHER‘s extended family for winning the Best Documentary Feature award at last night’s Oscars. I write “family” because it took a deeply committed and close-knit group of friends and colleagues to bring Craig Foster‘s unexpected subject from chilly False Bay to Netflix, and then to Hollywood’s #1 stage: How It …
The Disney+ streaming service roared past the 100 million subscriber mark. That’s according to yesterday’s investors’ call. Disney+ is the home of the National Geographic “yellow border” brand and programming from Nat Geo Channel and Nat Geo Wild. Veteran programming executive Dan Salerno follows our recent exploration of the launch of discovery+ by reviewing Nat …
Quoll Farm is a classic natural history film about a very cute and little-known Australian marsupial, the Eastern Quoll. It has a gentle conservation message, and like several recent films, notably My Octopus Teacher, there’s a story of human redemption as part of the wildlife package. I was totally charmed by the antics of the …
Room 2806: The Accusation is a 4-parter from France’s CAPA Productions that follows the sexual assault case in New York involving French presidential candidate and IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. On May 14 2011, Nafissatou Diallo, a hotel maid reported that DSK had forced her to perform oral sex in his suite in the Sofitel Hotel …
BIG vs SMALL tells the inspirational story of Joana Andrade, the first Portuguese woman to surf the giant, bone-crushing waves of Nazaré. Finnish director and producer Minna Dufton’s debut feature documentary was released in late 2020, and so far has enjoyed premieres at nine top global festivals including DOC NYC and PÖFF. BIG vs SMALL …
The Academy announced the eligible candidates for Oscar consideration in the Documentary Feature category for 2021. APOCALYPSE ’45 is one of the candidates. Don’t miss our detailed Case Study of how producer / director Erik Nelson developed and completed his gripping archive-based project for Discovery. Case Study APOCALYPSE ’45: Discovery’s powerful WW2 documentary in virtual …
Discovery Inc. President and CEO David Zaslav announced the discovery+ streaming service on Wednesday. Here are: The key facts. Takeaways from veteran programming exec Dan Salerno and myself. And another veteran network exec added valuable feedback. Mission “With discovery+, we are seizing the global opportunity to be the world’s definitive product for unscripted storytelling.” David …
How are the channels responding to the rise of Netflix and the streamers? They’re launching their own streamers like NBC and Peacock, providing their brand and content, like Nat Geo to Disney +, or maybe just getting caught in the headlights. Dan Salerno is deeply specialized in documentary and unscripted programming, and together we pull …