When Tony Stark uses a Chinese smartphone, China's clout in Hollywood becomes crystal clear. In "Captain America: Civil War," the billionaire hero who builds his own hologram interfaces and super suits chooses to wield a transparent concept phone by Vivo, a brand sold only in China. It's just the latest example of how Hollywood is appealing to China in the midst of a major box office boom.

Finland’s official promotion body is taking a new approach with its YouTube channel by handing it over to ten young experts in the medium. They will produce their own videos with just two stipulations: they have to be in English and in Finland. ThisisFinland, which operates under the Foreign Ministry, thinks this could be the first time a country promotion body has allowed guests to run its YouTube channel.

The UAE's connectivity, world-class infrastructure and diverse locations have set it apart as a leading movie production destination, and the country is playing an increasingly important role as a key part of the production value chain. It offers a competitive advantage to production companies with unique and diverse locations.

You might not be able to snag Hamilton tickets, but you can catch the play’s Pulitzer Prize-winning creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, on last night’s episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight. The playwright joined comedian and host John Oliver to ask the US congress to do something about Puerto Rico’s crippling $70 billion debt crisis.

The two lead actors of popular Korean drama Descendants of the Sun were in Hong Kong on Tuesday for the series’ first overseas promotional activity. The drama will premiere in the city the next day on local channel Viu TV. The show is already available on Viu’s free K-drama streaming site Viu.com, where it is the most-watched show.

The artwork, called Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014, was created by Irish artist John Gerrard and illustrates the changing views of the solar arrays from day to night. The actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who has used his fame to publicize the perils of global warming, bought and donated the work to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

China has a new ally in its campaign to turn itself into a global cultural superpower: Matt Damon. And, behind him, a good chunk of Hollywood as well. Chinese leaders have long sought international cultural influence, aka "soft power," commensurate with the nation's economic might. 

For the second year in a row, #OscarsSoWhite has dragged America’s diversity problem back into the global spotlight. [...] Yet the recent report by USC’s Annenberg School found that not much has changed—only seven percent of films in the past year had casts that accurately reflected the nation’s actual demographics.