Entertainment
New competition to have short films on development goals
Mumbai, Jan 30 (IANS) Sony Pictures Television Networks, in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, has announced the opening of the Picture This Festival for the Planet, a short film competition for emerging filmmakers worldwide to showcase the positive future they see for the planet.
The judges panel includes “The Blacklist” star Megan Boone as well as N.P. Singh, Managing Director and CEO, Sony Pictures Networks India.
Starting from Tuesday, people from over 70 countries around the world are invited to submit videos between one and eight minutes in length inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of global goals agreed upon by all 193-member states of the United Nations to end poverty, protect the planet and promote prosperity for all, read a statement.
Eight regional winners will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the Picture This Festival for the Planet for a day of networking and training alongside industry leaders and social impact partners at the Sony Pictures Studio lot, followed by a screening of the regional winners’ films.
There will be three winners selected from India.
Andy Kaplan, President, Sony Pictures Television Networks, said: “At Sony, we are proud champions of the intersection between storytelling and innovation and are incredibly excited to spearhead Picture This. With the support of the United Nations Foundation and our other partners, we look forward to elevating and amplifying these important development goals through the voices of emerging creatives and acknowledge their good work in a meaningful way.”
In addition to Kaplan, Boone and Singh, the list of celebrity advocates and industry leaders who will judge film submissions include Elizabeth Cousens, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, United Nations Foundation; Marie Jacobson, Executive Vice President Programming and Production, Sony Pictures Television Networks; Tom Bernard and Michael Barker, Co-Presidents, Sony Pictures Classics; Glenn Gainor, President of Physical Production, Screen Gems; Debbie Levin, President and CEO, Environmental Media Association; and Damian Bradfield, President and Chief Marketing Officer, WeTransfer.
Singh said: “Much of India’s development agenda is embodied in the SDG. Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) is supporting the Picture This festival for the Planet because we believe that heightened social consciousness leads to positive social impact.
“Visual storytelling is a powerful tool to inspire social change. That is why we would like to invite students, professionals, academicians, environmentalists and filmmakers to submit their entries. Picture this, to picture a change.”
Cousens feels the fest is “an innovative new platform to connect global audiences to what is happening on the ground as people put the SDGs into action in their daily lives”.
“By celebrating individual stories of people around the world actively working to protect people and planet, Picture This will help inspire others to join the effort to realize these ambitious – and achievable – goals,” Cousens added.
It is not the first team-up between Sony and the United Nations. In 2016, they launched Angry Birds for a Happy Planet, a global youth outreach campaign that leveraged online and social media platforms to encourage action to protect the planet and fight climate change.
The last date for submissions for the Picture This Festival for the Planet is April 30.
–IANS
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International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
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The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
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Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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