News Briefs

NBCUniversal announced Friday it will build a state-of-the-art television and film studio in a warehouse district just north of downtown Albuquerque as it seeks to expand its footprint in one of the fastest growing film production hubs in the country.

The media giant said it has entered a 10-year venture with a developer to reshape an empty warehouse into a studio with two sound stages, offices and a mill. The studio will be used to produce shows for broadcast and cable channels.

"NBCUniversal has enjoyed a longstanding and productive relationship with New Mexico and Albuquerque and we are grateful for the opportunity to expand our presence in this community through our venture," said Dawn Olmstead, president of Universal Content Productions and Wilshire Studios, and Pearlena Igbokwe, president of Universal Television said in a statement.

The pair thanked Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Mayor Tim Keller for helping NBCUniversal with the project.

City and state officials are offering more than $10 million in incentives but promise the economic impact will top $1 billion over the next decade.

NBCUniversal will have more than 330 full-time jobs at its New Mexico hub, state officials said. The total number of jobs, direct and indirect, should exceed 800, according to an economic analysis by the state.

"We are growing New Mexico's film industry, diversifying our economy and creating exciting jobs — this is a home run deal," Gov. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said. "I'm incredibly thrilled to welcome our state's new partner, NBCUniversal."

NBCUniversal will be joining Netflix, which solidified its footing in New Mexico last year.

In recent months the state has experienced a big jump in film productions. It is set to more than double its annual spending cap on film incentives. The USA Network series "Briarpatch," starring Rosario Dawson, is set to film in Albuquerque.

The Spanish Oscar-winning writer and director Pedro Almodóvar will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Film Festival.

The decision from the board of the Biennale di Venezia, follows a proposal by the festival's director, Alberto Barbera.

Almodovar, whose film credits include 1999's All About My Mother and 2002's Talk to Her , said Friday he has good memories of Venice, where he made his international debut in 1983: "This Lion is going to become my pet, along with the two cats I live with."

Barbera praised Almodóvar as "the greatest and most influential Spanish director since Buñuel" and "a filmmaker who has offered us the most multifaceted, controversial, and provocative portraits of post-Franco Spain."

The 76th Venice Film Festival runs Aug. 28 to Sept. 7.

In a night of commanding words from some of the most accomplished women in entertainment at the annual Women in Film Gala Wednesday night in Beverly Hills, from the likes of Issa Rae, Viola Davis and producer Cathy Schulman, Amy Poehler put her own unconventional spin on the "empowerment speech."

Poehler, who was accepting the final honor of the evening, the Entrepreneur in Entertainment Award, simply read off a list of names: "A League of Their Own," Patti Smith, "Fleabag," ''The Virgin Suicides," Judge Judy, U.S. Women's Soccer, "American Psycho," ''Russian Doll," Dolly Parton. She continued listing off female creators and female-created shows and films for two and a half minutes.

"Thank you, thank you," Poehler said. "More, more, more."

It was simple, brief, and got the point across to the ballroom full of women working in the industry. She followed a riotously funny speech from "Insecure" creator Rae, who decided to take inspiration from her hip-hop idols and buck the social convention of women being humble. She said she was just going to say the opposite of, "What I would normally say."

"You future hoes need to bow down," Rae said as the inaugural recipient of the Emerging Entrepreneur Award. "Entrepreneur means I did that s--- by myself."

Producer Cathy Schulman, and former Women in Film board president, who was being recognized for her advocacy in entertainment, took a vastly different approach with a vulnerable and open story about the personal and financial trials she's had to endure while trying to "make it."

Although she won an Oscar for producing the film "Crash," she said she never made a dollar from the film, which earned almost $100 million at the box office, and even went into credit card debt trying to make sure the production had what was needed. She's produced 30-something films and raised a daughter too, but she said she has from pre-school through graduation only picked her up from school four times.

"I've paid a deep price for my advocacy," Schulman said.

She said there's still, "A long way to go" and she hopes, for one, that the words "diversity" and "inclusion" are decoupled.

"Diversity is a counting mechanism," she said. "Inclusion is not something you can count, advertise or market. Inclusion is what happens when diverse people are actually present in equal numbers in decision making positions."

Davis, who is working with Schulman on a project called "The Woman King," which she described as "'Braveheart' only with all black women and no Scottish brogues," said that, "In a world that has a bad habit of erasing us girls...we need champions like Cathy."

Women in Film, the advocacy organization putting on the event with the help of sponsor Max Mara, announced a new initiative at the event called Entrepreneurial Pathways which is intended to help knock down the roadblocks to capital for female filmmakers and creators.

Kirsten Schaffer, the executive director of Women in Film, said that women currently get only 16% of the overhead deals and 23% of the overall deals in television. Their goal is to, "Strategize ways to advance parity."

The organization raised over $50,000 for program over the course of the event.

New Jersey called "Action!" on a new film tax credit program Tuesday, approving its first awards totaling $6.2 million for four projects, including a film starring Chazz Palminteri.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement that the Economic Development Authority approved the awards Tuesday. The approvals are the first since July when Murphy signed the law that succeeded a 2015 film tax credit program that his predecessor, Republican Chris Christie, let expire.

"Our diverse population and geography have long kept us on the short lists of studios and location scouts," Murphy said in a statement. "The addition of this tax credit as well as our continued defense of progressive values put New Jersey on the cusp of becoming one of the premier locations in the nation."

The four projects include "Besa," featuring Palminteri; a tragic romance called "The Atlantic City Story," starring Jessica Hecht; a thriller called "Emergence," set in Kearny, New Jersey, and "Gimme Liberty," a prequel to the 2014 film "Gimme Shelter" that tells the story of Kathy DiFiore, a New Jersey woman who founded an organization to help homeless women and pregnant teens.

"Gimme Liberty" got $3.2 million in awards; "Emergence" won $2.4 million; "Besa" is getting about $470,000; and "The Atlantic City Story" was awarded $77,000.

Under the law, films and TV shows can qualify for an award that's equal to 30% of qualified expenses. Eligibility hinges on one of two criteria: at least 60% of the total budget must be spent through qualified New Jersey vendors, or the project must have more than $1 million in qualified expenses in the state.

Legislative estimates say the tax credit program could cost up to $425 million over five years with an uncertain economic benefit to the state, whose budget is perennially strapped.

But Murphy has dismissed such criticism, saying that the projects will mean million in jobs and goods and services in the state.

Tuesday's announcement comes as Murphy is feuding with powerful political powerbroker George Norcross over the state's expiring business tax credits. Norcross and companies linked to him are suing Murphy over a task force the first-term governor appointed to investigate how business tax incentives were doled out.

The task force has made an unspecified criminal referral. Norcross has denied any wrongdoing and criticized Murphy's task force as overtly political.

Christie, who left office in 2018, let the previous tax credit program expire in 2015 and vetoed legislative attempts to renew it.

He famously criticized the MTV series "Jersey Shore," opposing $420,000 in credits for the show and saying it perpetuated misconceptions about the state.