Among the dozen Emmy nominations this season for Bridgerton is one that helps to give a little geographic balance to the awards portfolio of director Julie Anne Robinson who’s been lauded over the years with BAFTA TV Award nods for such BBC fare as the miniseries Viva Blackpool and the telefilm Coming Down The Mountain . Now she’s made an awards mark on this side of the Atlantic with “Diamond of the Water,” the first episode of Bridgerton (Netflix) which has earned her an Emmy nod for... Read More 

TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival® has set its full Platform program and announced that Academy Award–nominated actor Riz Ahmed ( Sound of Metal ) will head the jury for the 2021 Platform Competition. The festival will also present a special TIFF Cinematheque retrospective of Abenaki artist, filmmaker, singer, writer, and activist Alanis Obomsawin, entitled Celebrating Alanis. Curated by Jason Ryle, this presentation of films spans Obomsawin’s vast accomplishments and is co-presented with... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- A year after depending on drive-in and virtual screenings, the New York Film Festival, one of the premier destinations of the fall festival circuit, will return to in-person premieres at Lincoln Center this September, with vaccination proof required for all attendees. Film at Lincoln Center, which presents the annual festival, announced the lineup to the 59th NYFF on Tuesday. This fall, festivals are taking varied approaches to the pandemic. The Venice Film Festival, which kicks off the circuit... Read More 

The recent promotion of two stalwarts in the McCann family--Simon Sikorski and Nathy Aviram--underscores how connectivity figures prominently in the art of Craft, the Interpublic division that delivers world-class, scalable production services across print, digital and video content. Sikorski was upped from CEO of McCann Worldgroup Canada to the newly created position of global chief operating officer for Craft Worldwide back in January. And in May, Aviram was promoted to chief production... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- On the penultimate day of the Tokyo Olympics, NBC Universal got the kind of picture that it pays for: Kevin Durant, draped in the American flag, exulting in the U.S. men's basketball team's gold medal victory over France. The team persevered after losing its first game in Tokyo and so did NBC, pressing on after an admittedly shaky start at a pandemic Olympics that began with more trepidation than anticipation. It was in many ways a transition Olympics for the media company, where the old ways... Read More 

LOS ANGELES -- AFI Fest 2021--which is set to take place November 10-14, 2021--will open with the world premiere of Netflix’s tick, tick...Boom! Directed by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award® winner Lin-Manuel Miranda in his feature directorial debut, the film is based on the autobiographical musical by “Rent” playwright Jonathan Larson and stars Academy Award® nominee and Tony Award® winner Andrew Garfield. The film is written by Tony Award® winner Steven Levenson, and produced by Academy Award® and Emmy®... Read More 

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES -- Filmmaker Aoife McArdle has joined SMUGGLER for worldwide commercial representation. McArdle is an award-winning writer and director whose unique visual style and dedication to craft have brought her acclaim across commercials, music videos, film, and TV. After her studies in literature and film, McArdle began her journey directing music videos, winning a UKMVA for her breakout “Open Eye Signal” for Jon Hopkins. She went on to collaborate with some of the world’s most prominent musical acts,... Read More 

CULVER CITY, Calif. -- Production company Superprime has added Rodrigo Valdes to its roster of filmmakers for commercial representation in the U.S. Mexican-born, L.A.-based director Valdes blends his unique vision and elevated craft to create genre-bending and immersive cinematic experiences. Valdes nurtured his passion for filmmaking at his father’s postproduction company, where he honed his talents by experimenting with color correction, VFX, and green screens. After dropping out of film school, Valdes and a few... Read More 

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES -- Bicoastal production studio m ss ng p eces has added director Nicolas Heller to its roster for worldwide representation in commercials and branded content on the special projects roster. Better known to his 684K Instagram followers as @newyorknico, Heller is an acclaimed documentarian and commercial director known for sharing authentic stories of the unique people and places in his hometown of New York. Heller recently collaborated with m ss ng p eces on a branded content project for Google and... Read More 

LOS ANGELES -- Filmmaker Coke Daniels has joined Bullitt, marking his inaugural representation in the branded content and advertising arena. The director--whose upcoming feature Karen starring Taryn Manning, Cory Hardrict, and Jasmine Burke is available on demand September 14--has written, produced, and directed nine films over the past two decades, including My Baby’s Daddy and Who Made The Potatoe Salad? . Daniels said it was an honor to come aboard the Bullitt roster. “To be represented by a company... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Feta cheese was scarce in some stores earlier this year. The culprit? TikTok, where videos that showed an easy-to-make baked feta pasta recipe went viral. TikTok, launched in the U.S. in 2018, has become a force in the shopping world, influencing people to buy things they've seen on the app, from cheese to leggings. Now TikTok wants to capitalize on that power. It hired Sandie Hawkins last year, whose job as general manager is to make money for the company in North America. She works with... Read More 

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Two Indigenous filmmakers are smashing the caricatures and stereotypes of Native Americans, who since the earliest days of film and TV have often played supporting roles or been portrayed as bloodthirsty killers standing in the way of white, westward expansion. Sterlin Harjo, a Seminole and Muscogee filmmaker from Oklahoma, teamed up with Taika Waititi, a Maori director from New Zealand, on "Reservation Dogs," a new series debuting Monday (8/9) on FX on Hulu that features four rough-and-tumble... Read More 

Jennifer Hudson was fresh off her Oscar win for "Dreamgirls" when she was summoned to meet Aretha Franklin in 2007. The two singers had technically met before, when Hudson, freshly cut from American Idol, opened for Franklin at a show in Indiana. But this time was different: The Queen of Soul told Hudson that she wanted her to play her in a film. It wasn't a total surprise: Hudson had been briefed going in. And her admiration for Franklin was not a secret: Not only did she audition for Idol... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- We're accustomed to movies — usually adventures, like "Indiana Jones" — with lines that traverse the globe and pinball between global capitals, showing us where our characters are traveling. "The Lost Leonardo," a documentary about the rediscovery of a Leonardo da Vinci painting, begins with such a line. But its international stops, chronicling the painting's sales, are baffling leaps. New Orleans, 2005: $1,175. London and Geneva, 2013. $83 million, then $127 million. Saudi Arabia, 2017. $450... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oakland filmmaker Peter Nicks had already made two well-regarded documentaries capturing the flawed institutions of his city and their role in shaping local lives: 2012's "The Waiting Room," about a public hospital, and 2017's "The Force," about the Oakland Police Department during a wave of shootings and protests. To complete his Oakland trilogy, Nicks turned to Oakland High, a public school with a diverse student body of mostly Asian American, Black and Latino children. Nicks' interest wasn't... Read More 

NEW YORK -- Dentsu has hired Ed Zazzera as head of production for the company’s U.S. Creative Services line. The former production lead for BBH and DDB joins dentsu Creative from McCann Health. He brings decades of dedication to executional excellence and has won numerous awards, including honors at Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clio, AICP, AICP Next, and the Webbys. Zazzera will streamline, optimize, and continually elevate the creative output for dentsu’s creative companies, which include dentsuMB,... Read More 

BROOKLYN, NY -- Bicoastal Greenpoint Pictures has added Ewurakua Dawson-Amoah to its directorial roster. This marks her first career signing for commercial production representation in the U.S. Dawson-Amoah’s passion for film was born from the desire to translate her poetry to the screen. Her work is evocative, deeply moving, and subtly thought-provoking, drawing the viewer into the world she has created through a catalytic camera lens. At times observed, sometimes narrative, Dawson-Amoah’s work is expertly... Read More 

VENICE, Calif. -- Production company Tomorrow has signed director Andrew Donoho for commercial representation in the U.S. Breaking onto the scene in 2016 with his first MTV VMA-winning video, “Heathens” by Twenty One Pilots, Donoho has lent his diverse storytelling language to music videos for Khalid, the Strokes and 21 Savage as well as Janelle Monae’s groundbreaking visual album, “Dirty Computer.” With a passion for marrying digital and physical technique with expert visual effects, Donoho has garnered... Read More 

MIAMI -- Brenda Fell has been promoted to head of production at DAVID Miami. She now oversees all production work for global clients such as Burger King and Budweiser. She will continue to report to DAVID Miami’s managing director, Ricardo Honegger. Having served as executive producer for DAVID Miami for one year, Fell has proven her knack for creative storytelling. Her new post elevates the agency’s lineup of talented executive women, including head of account management Luiza Prata Carvalho and global... Read More 

TORONTO -- Academy Award–nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch has been named the recipient of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Tribute Actor Award. The 2021 TIFF Tribute Awards will take place during the 46th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. In addition to being an Oscar nominee for his performance in The Imitation Game , Cumberbatch won an Emmy Award for playing the role of Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock and a BAFTA for his role in Patrick Melrose . He will next be... Read More 

NOHO ARTS DISTRICT, Calif. -- The Television Academy has announced that entertainment industry trailblazer Debbie Allen will receive the 2021 Governors Award in recognition of her numerous contributions to the television medium through multiple creative forms and her philanthropic endeavors around the world. The entertainment icon was chosen by the Television Academy’s Board of Governors for her unprecedented achievements in television and her commitment to inspire and engage marginalized youth through dance, theater arts... Read More 

Norman Lear will receive the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) TV Honors Legend Award as part of its Special Achievement Honoree class during the 3rd annual affair. The virtual ceremony will take place on Saturday, August 21, at 4pm PT/7pm ET. Lear is a television pioneer who truly helped change the landscape with such classic series as Maude, All in the Family and One Day At A Time , as well as Good Times, The Jeffersons , and Sanford and Son . The latter three were Black cast... Read More 

LOS ANGELES -- Eve Honthaner has been appointed president of the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI). She comes to AFCI with decades of experience in film/TV production, film commission management, teaching, writing and advocacy. Her tenure officially begins on August 16. Honthaner replaces Kevin “KJ” Jennings, who has led AFCI through the COVID-19 pandemic remotely from New Zealand. Jennings also served as AFCI board chair from 2016-2019 and was executive manager of Film Otago Southland (... Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- PBS has fallen short on some aspects of diversity and is taking steps toward comprehensive change to be overseen by a new executive hired for the task, CEO and president Paula Kerger said. While the measures took into account allegations that PBS favors white male filmmaker Ken Burns ("The Civil War," "Baseball") and slights viewers of color, Kerger said, they emerged from a deeper reappraisal prompted by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. "I think these are... Read More 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Facebook said Tuesday that it has removed hundreds of accounts linked to a mysterious advertising agency operating out of Russia that sought to pay social media influencers to smear COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca. A network of 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts was traced back to Fazze, an advertising and marketing firm working in Russia on behalf of an unknown client. The network used fake accounts to spread misleading claims that disparaged the safety of the... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- In what was otherwise a rough two weeks in Tokyo for NBC, television viewers responded — at least slightly — to the U.S. Olympic team's strong performance in the second half of the Games. NBC's primetime broadcast viewership for the second week was down 46% compared to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics of 2016, the Nielsen company said. In the first week, NBC was down 52% compared to Rio. Last Tuesday, the 14.3 million people who watched the Games on NBC was actually up from the 14 million that had... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Moviegoing, once expected to be closer to semi-normal levels by now, continues to be battered by the pandemic, the delta variant of the coronavirus and in-home streaming. The latest casualty: James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad," a critically acclaimed, carnage-ridden would-be smash that disappointed with $26.5 million in estimated ticket sales. The Warner Bros. film, which was released simultaneously on HBO Max, could claim one pandemic record: the top R-rated opening. But "The Suicide Squad,"... Read More 

Digital technology brand Leia Inc unveiled its newest product with a cinematic brand film directed by Ulf Johansson via production company Smith & Jones with visual effects from MPC. The “Breakthrough” spot shows an elaborate wall and ceiling-busting game of tag while providing an exclusive look at the Lume Pad, 3D Lightfield Tablet from Leia. The adventure twists fantasy with reality, featuring protagonists breaking through walls and running on water, all to Bruno Coulais’ Oscar-nominated... Read More 

On the recent (7/30) World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, Médaille Trust launched this short film titled Marked for Life . The piece highlights the issue of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in the U.K., showing how it continues to leave a permanent mark on individuals and our society. The short introduces us to a survivor. It explains how she was trafficked and exploited, before being branded with a tattoo by her trafficker. This can be a common practice amongst traffickers,... Read More 

The centerpiece of the new lululemon activewear “FEEL” campaign from Droga5 NY is this two-minute film, “Being well is a journey,” directed by Daniel Wolfe via production house Love Song. The anthem film--set to excerpts from Oscar Wilde’s “The Selfish Giant”--follows one person’s journey through a cycle of punishing, unsustainable and closed-off behaviors, before opening up--emotionally and physically--to a new world of sustainable practice, community, and joy. The soundtrack was composed by... Read More 

Dogs are popular as road companions among truck drivers. And while dogs certainly make the drivers happier, a new Volvo Trucks campaign for the U.S. argues it also works the other way around. The Swedish truck manufacturer decided to highlight that their Turbo Compound technology saves fuel and money while offering great driving pleasure--ultimately making both drivers and dogs happy. The campaign is developed in co-operation with creative collective Forsman & Bodenfors in Sweden. In the... Read More 

Creative and production studio Stept has partnered with The North Face for this “Have You Ever” campaign. Created to celebrate the moments in life that adventure was made for, “Have You Ever” aims to inspire explorers everywhere to go out and discover these moments for themselves. Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest serving National Park Ranger in the United States, and a woman who knows a little bit about adventure, narrates the brand anthem to help launch the campaign. Her words act as an ode not... Read More 

Director Jordan Bahat crafts a wondrous vision for Allison Ponthier’s latest single, the title track off the 25-year-old singer-songwriter’s debut extended play record “Faking My Own Death.” “Allison has created her own cinematic universe, filled with characters who have been living inside of her head,” said Bahat, who is repped by production company Golden. “And now, along with production designer Liam Moore, we’ve developed the tools to go out and realize them.” The idea for “Faking My Own... Read More 

Inspired by the upcoming Amazon Prime film Cinderella , Mercedes-Benz recently collaborated with agency Merkley + Partners, director Rachel McDonald of Biscuit Filmworks, and a primarily female cast and crew, to create a television commercial which aims to encourage women to rewrite the roles they were told to have in the world. Placing innovation at the forefront, Mercedes-Benz is showcasing the amazing talent behind Cinderella who are breaking the mold and leaving their mark. The commercial... Read More 

Chevrolet has teamed with Guy Fieri, award-winning chef, restaurateur and television culinary star, to create the ultimate ballpark snack--the Apple Pie Hot Dog. The Apple Pie Hot Dog, which brings together two quintessentially American foods in a single and crave-worthy snack, is inspired by a notable Chevrolet television advertisement from 1975. The ad’s jingle asserted “baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet go together in the good old U.S.A.” Chevy enlisted Fieri to lead the... Read More 

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