On Monday, the twelve US state Attorneys General who sued to block the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger settled with Paramount. The Ellison family will take over Warner Bros. Discovery. On behalf of filmmakers, we are disappointed and angry that this has been allowed to happen. It is a bad deal for independent documentary film and journalism, and for a democracy that depends on both.
The settlement is not a win. The consolidation stands, and Paramount’s commitments are weaker than they appear. The board meant to protect editorial independence at CNN and CBS will be appointed by the merged company’s own board. The rest are promises about conduct rather than changes to the structure of the company, and they expire after five years.
HBO, such an important home for ambitious documentaries, passes into the same ownership as Paramount. Until now, the two were separate buyers: a filmmaker arriving at a festival with a finished documentary could take it to either. Now there is one place fewer, and the terms are set by whoever remains. The merger also brings with it the CNN and CBS News archives that so many documentary makers have a right to access. What that access costs, and who is allowed to access it, now rests in fewer hands.
We were early to this as a community. IDA opposed the deal publicly in October 2025 and convened the campaign’s first events that December. Documentary and independent film organizations — including the Future Film Coalition, Archival Producers Alliance, Documentary Film Council, Art House Convergence — were at the heart of the campaign throughout, and so were many individual filmmakers who gave their time to it month after month. It mattered that we were joined, from early 2026, by better-resourced organizations from other fields — notably Democracy Defenders Fund, Free Press, Freedom of the Press Foundation, American Economic Liberties Project, Open Markets Institute, and Committee for the First Amendment — working on press freedom, democratic rights, and competition policy.
We have learned a lot: that advocacy of this kind needs to work across sectors and across borders, and what has to be brought together — resources, expertise, and relationships — to fight for the needs and interests of documentary makers. We do this work in the name of our members and of the documentary community more broadly. It is done with you and for you.
Many months ago, in the middle of the campaign, someone shared a line from the journalist Ravish Kumar—
“Not all battles are fought for victory. Some are fought simply to tell the world that someone was there on the battlefield.”
Thank you to everyone who was there. Next time, for victory.