LOS ANGELES Director Daniel Minahan’s On Swift Horses–which premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and is now set for theatrical release on April 25 by Sony Pictures Classics–is thematically part love triangle and heartfelt romance, part film noir, and part the pursuit of the American Dream. However, these genres and their tropes go places that Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) After a yearlong search, the Sundance Film Festival announced Thursday that its new home will be Boulder, Colorado, keeping Sundance in the mountains but moving it out of Park City, the Utah ski town that had for decades provided the premier independent film gathering its picturesque snowy backdrop. Organizers said that after 40 years in Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) By the time a film arrives on movie screens, its makers often strive to find ways to articulate how relevant it is, how it speaks to now. But that’s not so easy when your movie is about a handful of people off the coast of Wales brought together by old songs. Yet one of many Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) The studio head has historically been seen as a fearsome and all-powerful figure, capable of ending a career with the snap of a finger or changing lives with an impulsive greenlight. In “The Studio,” though, Seth Rogen’s studio chief is more Selina Meyer (“Veep”) than Louis B. Mayer. As much as Rogen’s Matt Remick, head Read More 

HEBRON, West Bank (AP) Israeli authorities released an Oscar-winning Palestinian director who was detained by the army after being attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, who his wife said beat him in front of his home while filming the assault. Hamdan Ballal and the other directors of “No Other Land,” which looks at the struggles of Read More 

PARIS (AP) Paris’ public prosecutor on Thursday requested that French actor Gérard Depardieu be found guilty and given a 18-month suspended prison sentence on the last day of a trial over accusations that he sexually assaulted two women who were working on a film with him. The actor, 76, is accused of having groped a 54-year-old set Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) Fans of Studio Ghibli, the famed Japanese animation studio behind “Spirited Away” and other beloved movies, were delighted this week when a new version of ChatGPT let them transform popular internet memes or personal photos into the distinct style of Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki. But the trend also highlighted ethical concerns about artificial intelligence tools Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) The co-founders of a company that makes lip products for darker skin tones no longer hope to get their line into Target. A brother and sister who make jigsaw puzzles celebrating Black subjects wonder if they need to offer “neutral” images like landscapes to keep growing. Pound Cake and Puzzles of Color are among the Read More 

LOS ANGELES Nick Ciffone has been promoted to executive creative director at TBWA\Media Arts Lab (MAL), Apple’s bespoke global creative agency. Based in Los Angeles, Ciffone will report directly to global chief creative officer Brent Anderson. Ciffone’s eight-year journey at MAL has been defined by creative storytelling. As group creative director, he led the Emmy-winning 2024 holiday Read More 

CULVER CITY, Calif. Sophie and Walker Cole, known as THE COLES, have joined PRETTYBIRD’s roster for U.S. and U.K. commercial and music video representation. Having grown up working on film sets, the award-winning brother-sister directing duo joined forces in 2016 and quickly made a name for themselves in the advertising space. At PRETTYBIRD, the production company helmed by Read More 

NEW YORK Jim Curtis has been appointed as chief creative officer Of LePub New York City. Effective May 27, Curtis will be responsible for stewarding all creative output for the newly launched U.S. hub of Publicis Groupe’s LePub, the global boutique network. Based in New York City, Curtis will report into Bruno Bertelli, global CEO of LePub Read More 

LOS ANGELES Production company Institute has added Spanish director Erik Morales to its roster for U.S. commercial representation. Known for his visually striking and emotionally resonant work, reflecting a rare balance of technical innovation and heartfelt authenticity, Morales has collaborated with global advertising clients including Nike, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Coca-Cola, Diesel, IKEA, Seagram’s Zara and Sony. His Read More 

LONDON Pulse has added directing duo Fa & Fon to its global roster for commercials and music videos. Identical twin sisters based in London, they are known for the fusion of futurism and pop culture in hyperreal, immersive worlds that blur the lines between reality and imagination. Rooted in their Asian heritage, Fa & Fon’s multidisciplinary Read More 

LONDON The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has named Brazil as the inaugural recipient of the Creative Country of the Year. The annual accolade recognizes a country’s exceptional and enduring commitment to creativity that drives progress and growth. As part of this recognition, the 2025 Festival–set for June 16-20–will feature Brazilian creative showcases, celebratory events, Read More 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Authorities have released body camera footage from outside the home of Gene Hackman, where the actor and wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in late February. The redacted footage shows deputies talking with the two workers who called authorities to report seeing someone lying on the floor inside the home. With no signs of forced Read More 

WASHINGTON (AP) On a night when half a dozen people made jokes about this being the last-ever Mark Twain Prize, Conan O’Brien made sure the ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ended on a high note. O’Brien accepted the award for lifetime achievement in comedy Sunday night while acknowledging the backstage turmoil Read More 

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) The horror of the Joplin tornado is the subject of a new documentary film, released nearly 14 years after the twister struck Missouri with cataclysmic force, ripping into a hospital, destroying neighborhoods and killing around 160. “You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing,” Kerry Sachetta, then the Read More 

LOS ANGELES ArtClass has brought director, writer, actor, comedian, producer, podcaster, and New York Times bestselling author Paul Scheer aboard its roster of directorial talent. “Paul is exactly the kind of talent we love to work with,” said Kirsten Arongino, ArtClass’ managing director. “As a writer and director, he blends sharp comedy with a distinct visual style Read More 

LOS ANGELES Director Clare Chong has joined Contagious for exclusive U.S. commercial representation. This is the first U.S. spot roost for Chong, whose social-forward work for Amazon, Intel, LEGO, Libresse, and more has been lighting up the market in her home country of Singapore. “Clare takes a cinematic approach, even when she shoots UGC-style,” Contagious executive producer Read More 

LOS ANGELES “So what’s your take?” That’s the question Kareem Rahma famously poses to a curated collection of subway riders in his hit Instagram series Subway Takes. In his viral TikTok series Keep the Meter Running, Rahma hails New York City cabs and asks drivers to take him to their favorite pitstops. The comedy creator is now Read More 

LAS VEGAS R&R Partners has elevated Michon Martin from president to CEO, succeeding Billy Vassiliadis who shifts into the role of chairman at the Las Vegas agency which marks 50 years in business with a track record that includes iconic campaigns such as “What Happens in Vegas…Stays in Vegas” for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. Read More 

LOS ANGELES Golden LA has added dayday–a multidisciplinary creative whose work navigates the intersection of film, design, creative direction, and photography–to its roster for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. With a distinctive approach that blends minimalism, stillness, and striking imagery, day has directed projects which have earned recognition from the Cannes Lions, AICP Awards and Read More 

NEW YORK Bicoastal production house Curfew has added three directors to its roster, signing Quinn Meyers, Paul Sam Johnston, and Kaius Potter for U.S. representation in commercials and branded content. This is the first U.S. representation for all three filmmakers. Johnston is repped in Canada by Denim, and Potter in Australia by Entropico. A multi-hyphenate creator, Meyers Read More 

NEW YORK Creative studio Imagine This, celebrating its one-year anniversary, continues to build its roster with the signing of four directors. Additionally 13 artificial intelligence artists have come aboard its AI arm, Made by Humans. Joining the Imagine This traditional live-action director lineup are: –Hot Icarus, the filmmaking duo consisting of Wij Travers and Giles Rozier, who Read More 

NEW YORK The Camp Kuleshov trailer competition for emerging creative artists in postproduction–a.k.a. Camp K–has unveiled the winners of its Grand Prizes in the categories of Editing, Graphics, Sound Design and Music Score. Named for the famed Russian film theorist Lev Kuleshov, the Lev Awards were chosen from among the first place winners in the Camp K Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) It’s never a bad time for a film like “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” but at the moment it feels like a much-needed balm. Modest in scope and made with the lightest of touch, not unlike the lovely folk songs that populate its soundtrack, it’s also deceptively powerful: A gentle ode to moving on, in Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) Jason Statham is cosplaying a construction laborer when “A Working Man” begins. He’s making sure the rebar is spaced correctly and the concrete is correctly mixed. But we all know where his real strengths are: Beating up people, ferociously. Soon enough — faster than this one-time springboard diving champion used to hit the water — Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) The Walt Disney Co.’s live-action, controversy-bedeviled “Snow White” opened in theaters with a sleepy $43 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. With a budget above $250 million, “Snow White” had set out with higher ambitions, particularly since it returns Disney to its very origins. The 1937 original “Snow White and the Seven Read More 

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