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‘Tis the season for taking stock of the year, so join us as we list some of the big winners (and a few losers) in the film and television business outside of America.
The Deadline international team has pooled its thoughts using a pretty loose methodology to define success. We’ve seasoned the pot with breakout hit creators, award-winners, and the power players behind seismic business deals.
In most cases, it’s pretty clear who’s won in 2024, but some of our picks may have you arching an eyebrow. Please comment or @ us with your views and alternatives. Without further ado — and in no particular order — here are 2024’s big winners in international film and TV.
Jessica Gunning
Baby Reindeer was the series that got the world talking. Charting the darkly comic story of creator Richard Gadd’s experience with a stalker, the unexpected hit was streamed nearly 90M times on Netflix and cleaned up at the Emmys. It also sparked a conversation about the blurred lines between art and reality, as well as duty of care to the creators and subjects of true-crime dramas. At the eye of the storm was Jessica Gunning, the British actress who put in a flawless performance as Martha, the woman who became unhealthily obsessed with Gadd’s Donnie. Her unsettling command of the character — who was equal parts sweet, vulnerable, mendacious, and menacing — was one of the highlights of the series. She won an Emmy and will likely figure in BAFTA contention next year. Gunning shot to the stars in 2024.
Thierry Frémaux
Thierry Frémaux dubbed the 2024 Academy Awards the “Cannes Oscars” after the French Riviera festival provided a platform for Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. Since then, a record number of Cannes movies have scooped Golden Globe nominations, including Emilia Perez and The Substance. The Institut Lumière director managed to stave off strikes, concerns about female filmmaker representation, and France’s MeToo reckoning at this year’s festival, which glowed with high-wattage Hollywood talent. It was the biggest film event of the year — and all without Netflix.
Nigel Farage
Donald Trump’s favorite British lawmaker has gone from being the perennial political outsider to the man who could reshape the UK’s two-party duopoly — all while juggling a TV news job. Nigel Farage was elected to Parliament at the eighth time of trying in July. Soon after, he declared £1.2M ($1.5M) in earnings from his GB News hosting gig, putting him among the highest-paid news presenters in the UK. Then Farage’s Mar-a-Lago mate swept to victory in America (Farage will surely be first line for a Trump interview when the president comes to town) and now, with Reform surging in the polls, Elon Musk has sworn fealty to his cause. Like him or loath him, Farage was a big winner in 2024.
Anna Sawai
Anna Sawai was the breakout star in the breakout hit of 2024: Shōgun. In captivating FX viewers, she became the first woman of Asian descent to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Not bad for someone who was initially rejected for the role of Mariko. Sawai now has a Golden Globe nomination to add to her collection and the actress can also be seen starring in Season 2 of Apple TV+‘s Pachinko.
Marc Pos
It’s taken a decade to create the killer format, but 2024 was the year The Traitors conquered the world. The Dutch reality series started life in the brain of Marc Pos in 2014 after he read the story of a mutiny on board a 17th-century ship. The wink murder show has now been remade in more than 25 territories, not least the U.S. where it has been renewed for three more seasons by Peacock and took home an Emmy for Reality Competition Series. Accepting the prize, host Alan Cumming said: “I also want to thank Holland… they obviously have something in the water, so let’s find it, let’s drink it and all of America’s problems will be solved.” Pos can point to the fountain.
Francesca Gardiner
Francesca Gardiner was handed the keys to Hogwarts after being named as the showrunner of HBO’s hotly-anticipated Harry Potter series. The British writer has worked on Succession and Killing Eve, but reimagining J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world arguably makes her one of the most influential showrunners in the business. She will likely shape the careers of thousands of people for a decade, as well as catapult young actors to global stardom. Gardiner is expected to be faithful to the novels and has spoken in the past about her dislike of sanitizing horror, suggesting that darker themes in Potter could be embraced. She will be hoping to cast a spell on a whole new generation of Harry Potter fans.
Ceylan Yildirim
You may not have heard of Ceylan Yildirim, but your Gen Z daughter will likely be familiar with her work. The writer and producer serves as showrunner on Maxton Hall, which became Amazon Prime Video’s most-watched international show of all time after premiering in May. Based on the books of Mona Kasten, the German-language series is set in a British boarding school and follows the lives of an absurdly well-heeled group of students. Maxton Hall was swiftly renewed for a second season, with obsessive fans making the pilgrimage to the Hanover castle that doubles as the private school. With Season 3 all but confirmed, it’s top grades for Yildirim and her production partner Markus Brunnemann.
Mukesh and Nita Ambani
Mukesh and Nita Ambani were crowned the king and queen of content in India after pulling off an $8.5B deal with Disney to merge their streaming platforms and 100 TV channels. Ambani’s Reliance will own just over 63% of the merged entity (named JioStar after securing regulatory clearance), with Nita serving as chair. It was a complex deal, involving the likes of former Disney India boss Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, and it got done in the context of a similar $10B merger between Sony and Zee Entertainment collapsing. Disney CEO Bob Iger said the deal would “create long-term value” in the world’s most populous market, but the company has had to surrender control to the Ambanis to achieve its aims.
Joe Brumm
No Brumm notes for this man in 2024. Bluey has been beloved family viewing since 2018, but the Australian animation went stratospheric this year. Step forward creator Joe Brumm, who not only penned his final episode of the television series — the record-breaking Disney+ triumph The Sign — but also inked a deal with the Mouse House and BBC Studios to make a movie. As most parents will tell you, his family of blue heeler dogs brings as much joy to grownups as it does kids.
Anne Mensah
Anne Mensah is the unassuming executive behind the Brits’ conquest of Netflix in 2024. The UK content chief has shepherded a string of British bangers to the screen, starting with Harlan Coben adaptation Fool Me Once in January, which topped Netflix’s semiannual ratings data dump with 100M streams. Mensah followed this with Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd’s Emmy-gilded stalker survivor series, and top-ten ranked The Gentlemen and One Day. In recent weeks, spy thriller Black Doves has been popping on both sides of the Atlantic. One hit on this scale would be impressive, but five in the space of a year has probably cemented Mensah’s status as one of the most influential executives outside of America. Bigger jobs await — if modest Mensah wants them.
Loser: Rupert Murdoch
Yes, Rupert Murdoch lost an epic courtroom battle with his kids over his media empire (during which actual Succession plot lines were discussed), but the Fox News mogul also suffered a rare defeat in TV news. Murdoch called time on UK network TalkTV in March, effectively surrendering to GB News in the scrap to establish a genuine alternative to BBC News and Sky News. He went big, signing Piers Morgan and building lavish studios at News UK’s London headquarters, but TalkTV’s audience never matched GB News and the channel suffered the ignominy of broadcasting the most-complained about moment of the year. So often the winner, Murdoch’s 2024 was far from vintage.
Loser: BBC Men
This was the year that male stars at the BBC faced a reckoning — and careers were destroyed in the process. BBC News anchor Huw Edwards endured the most dramatic fall from grace, going from the man trusted to inform the British nation about momentous events, to pleading guilty to accessing child abuse images and receiving a suspended prison sentence. The allegations against others concerned workplace misconduct. Jermaine Jenas was fired for sending inappropriate messages to junior female colleagues, Graziano Di Prima was booted off Strictly Come Dancing after admitting kicking his 2023 dance partner, and Greg Wallace is suspended pending an investigation into lewd comments made to women while hosting MasterChef. A recipe that left a bitter taste for the UK’s national broadcaster.
Andreas Wiseman contributed to this story
