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Today, counting down to midnight is a time-honored feature at New Year’s Eve gatherings. It’s usually a happy occasion, with revelers excited for a fresh start in the new year. But this light-hearted tradition is thought to have originated during a dark period, during the Cold War. As the threat of atomic bombs was top of mind for many Americans, who expected nuclear war to break out at any time, the hope for peace and harmony in the new year was real. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The first NYE countdown can arguably be traced to the final seconds of 1957, when prominent radio correspondent Ben Grauer counted down the New Year’s Eve ball drop in New York City’s Times Square, according to Alexis McCrossen, a professor of history at Southern Methodist University. “’58 is on its way, 5-4-3-2-1,” Grauer said.

Germany’s film and TV industries will kick off 2025 with an overhaul to the country’s funding system for productions that, besides providing a local boost, is also good news for Hollywood. The German parliament on Friday, in its last session before being dissolved, pushed through a watered down version of the country’s long-gestating new film […]

After surging back from the pandemic with a 16% growth in 2023, France’s box office continued to grow in 2024 with €1.36 billion ($1.41 billion) grossed from 183.1 million admissions sold, a 0.5% year-on rise, according to Comscore and the National Film Board (CNC). While the increase may appear modest, it nevertheless solidifies France as […]

Stephen Fry has been knighted in the U. K.’s annual New Year Honors list, while Carey Mulligan and Sarah Lancashire have been named commanders of the British Empire. Each year, the reigning monarch — in this case King Charles III — names new members of the U. K.’s orders of chivalry, which includes knights, dames, commanders of […]

Indian film and television veteran Siddharth Roy Kapur points to increasingly polarized theatrical results and a period of strategic recalibration in streaming as key trends that shaped Indian entertainment in 2024, characterizing it as a “hiatus year” dominated by business-to-business developments rather than consumer-facing initiatives. “People are getting much more particular about which films they […]